Every morning, after Oliver has kept me up all night, I emerge from the bedroom to greet the day like this:
Facing another day by myself with a toddler and newborn is scary! Especially after not sleeping!
Chase has wonderful benefits, including 16 weeks of maternity leave, which is wonderful but being at home with these kids alone all day is HARD!!! It takes a lot for me to not reach for a glass (or FIVE!) of wine every night. I applaud all you stay at homers out there, it is so much harder than going to an office every day.
Despite it all, I am really cherishing this time with my babies.
Anyway, it has been over a month since Oliver was born and in case anyone is interested, here are the details…I was scheduled for an induction for 1am on March 29th (at 39 weeks) because I was so uncomfortable and my body was already showing signs of labor so my doctor gave the green light. When I got to the hospital I was already having regular contractions so the little mister would have come that day or the next, regardless of the induction. Once I was started on pitocin, it would only take 5 hours for Oliver to arrive! Here are a couple pictures from the day…
Here is the last picture of me pregnant:
Woof! Before giving birth, the nurses asked me “how big does he feel to you?” I responded that I felt like he was slightly bigger than Penny (but I was far more uncomfortable this time around so I should have known better!). Well, he was a whopping 8lb, 12 oz (Penny was born at 41 weeks and was 7lb, 1 oz)!
Going from 1 kid to 2 has been pretty crazy, hence the delay in writing this post. I will be home with the kids until mid-July and the 3 hardest things are 1) figuring out what to feed Penny all day, everyday; 2) figure out how to get these kids out of the house; and 3) listening to one or both of them cry all day!!!! AHHH!
There are a variety of activities we’ve been doing to keep momma’s sanity and, in addition to taking advantage of the free neighborhood events (Barnes & Noble story hour, Whole foods dance/music class) we’ve been doing the following:
Sensory bins
Park time, lots & lots of park time
Arts & craps
Story time
Long walks
And snuggling this guy
I am very grateful that this kid was not born in January!
Until next time 🙂
SweetHanrahan 
A very nice update, thank you!
haha…Rachel you are too funny! First of all congratulations on adding Oliver to the family! Second of all, I totally agree that it feels like living in a nut house with two little kids. When others remark as to why I send Asha to full time day care even though I don’t work…I try not to give them a stink eye; clearly they know nothing about how it truly goes with young kids. I finally have it down where I can entertain both kids on the weekend without losing my marbles. Watch…I probably just jinxed myself!
Hang in there. I don’t think it gets easy, I just think we get better at excepting the chaos. Crazy will become the normal and then you’ll be ready for the third in no time! = )