Anastasia

Born on April 4, 2016 at 1:47 after a 45-hour labour with 52 cm and 3943g. She came to the world 5 days after her due date.

A few days before her arrival, her dad finally started dealing with the name and we agreed on Anna.
The day my water broke we took a walk in a nearby graveyard (Teodor's idea) to induce the labour, the dad said he didn't like the name and started to choose another one from the gravestones. Somehow we settled on Lydia, but I didn't like it when we came home. So he said Anastasia. And I said OK.

The blanket for her is still not finished, but I didn't dump the project, yet :) It's moving forward, very slowly, but it is :)

She is like a dream child...ok, things might change because those 14 adaptation days are over today...you know, it would be great to know what I know now with the first child. Not to feed according to a schedule, it's ok to hold your baby most of the day if she wants it, if you let the baby poop before sleep (above the sink, can't find the suitable potty for elimination communication), she sleeps longer, etc...Maybe Teodor would be different, too... So far she sleeps most of the day or hangs on the breast. Almost no screaming. The breast is a bit sensitive topic for Teodor, but can't do much about it..

Teodor is getting less scared of her, not much more fond of her, though. It's tough for all of us. They wake each other up at night now. I might end up sleeping in the living room with her...or we will have to take the house-hunting more seriously. I screwed up Teodor falling asleep on his own. I spent my evenings making them both sleep, not at the same time, obviously. 

Verbalizing Teodor's feelings (this is great about toddlers, you totally see their emotions in their face, have never seen such anger in Teodor's before) is helping with aggressiveness against her. I'm trying to be positive, to give him the message that having a sister is a great thing. But sometimes it's so hard...

Teodor has become a usual toddler (again) and I'm having problems to deal with him and being totally calm and understanding. The fact she is sleeping most of his awake time is helping a lot. Can't imagine how it will be when she's awake more. Well, if she is happy and not in my arms, that's a perfect situation for him, he doesn't like her crying or in my arms. 

Their first picture together taken today. 

Mornings and evenings are the most challenging. Teodor usually wakes up whining, probably because it is usually her waking him up, he is hungry, she is hungry...and they both need their food NOW. Wrap is my saviour in the mornings. For real. She is not super happy in it because her constant peeing is waking her up, but still, she is sleeping and occasionally wakes up screaming but I'm able to rock her back to sleep.
Today, Teodor finished his breakfast just in a perfect time to catch a bus to the post office, so I just put a babywearing hoodie and jacket on and we were ready to go. Babywearing clothing is such a handy thing! You don't have to wake up the baby :) This trip made me realize I won't be going anywhere with both of them unless it's necessary or only when it gets warmer.

I still haven't figured out the evenings. I'm just going with the fact I won't have free evenings for a year or something. If I think I have at least another 30 years ahead of me, it's ok :) TV shows can wait..

She is two weeks old today and she started watching the bee in her pink Tripp Trapp. (don't have a picture of that because I was feeding Teodor, so just a cute picture of her and half of the bee)

And a selfie from the hospital to finish this post :)

Screen time

With upcoming spring and no pregnancy tiredness there is no point in letting him watch youtube, especially as he didn't like anything particular there, he mostly wanted me to click on random videos and then he got upset because he didn't like what he was seeing. I was surprised his dad didn't play him any videos while my hospital stay, so he actually started it and I'm going with it. Now it is even possible to have my laptop on without him doing "sh-sh-sh" - his way of saying he wanted to watch youtube. (I have my laptop so rarely on now, even don't use my phone very often any more...having two young kids is time consuming)

As the weather is so much nicer and I feel much better, I decided it was time to start our morning walks again - Teodor is obviously a bit bored at home, he has some dark ideas what to do to his sister, so it's much much safer to go out. Not to mention she sleeps well in a moving stroller and usually adds one more hour parked in our hallway. 

We left at 8:18 and came back around 10.

I actually started to make a list in my head what kind of activities we can do in spring/summer outside. Haven't come up with much, but if he likes his First Bike (and is not too short for it), I think we're safe because we'll be able to go for long walks. Not only he and Charlie (and me) will get nicely tired, but I'll get my body back and A. will be well-rested = happy baby. 

Weaning, part 2

It was 5:30 and I faced almost a Sophia's choice - get up with him or give him the breast and get at least one more hour of sleep. Of course I went with the lazy choice...it gave me one hour of sleep more, it was worth it.

Teodor is struggling with the arrival of his baby sister and it just feels right to give him the milk, especially if he sees her hanging on my breast a lot. So he gets milk if he is very uncalm before sleep or at night or early in the morning, he doesn't get to hang on it, I keep it only to a few sips as it was just before giving birth, luckily, he is fine with it.

Parental success

With the second child my view on what's a parental success has radically changed. Before I felt quite successful with Teodor because he was ahead with both gross and fine motor skills...Now I feel successful when I managed to make them nap/sleep at the same time and if it takes under one hour. I really don't care about Anastasia's motor development (maybe for now?), everything comes when the time is right...

I feel so good about managing making them sleep before 9pm today without too much of drama...

When you don't want them to grow up but can't wait till they get more independent

I didn't have this feeling with Teodor, I just couldn't wait for him to be older and more fun, but now, as I am pretty sure I am done with reproducing myself, I feel a bit sentimental about our baby girl and toddler boy growing up.

When I see them next to each other, I realize how fast they grow up...when Teodor came after Anastasia's birth, I was just "wow, he's so big", my baby boy is just sooo biiig. And then he turned 2. I was not moved when he turned one, but second birthday (probably also because of the postpartum hormones) were a bit emotional for me (not actual birthday, but the day when he celebrated it). He definitely turned into much more fun and he's a full not-using-actual-words human being :)

Anastasia, in contrast, is actually no fun. She either sleeps, nurses or screams. There's nothing else in between. But still, when I'm looking at her sleeping, I'm thinking I don't want her to grow up...and then she starts screaming and then Teodor starts screaming and I'm just wishing they were both older and could play together.

Not to mention that those two years with Teodor passed in no time, so this time I'm trying to enjoy our squish as much as I can, I'm done with all pieces of advice, I'm all about being here for her. When I'm going through my March 2016 forum, I'm thinking a lot of people should just do the same, they worry too much and it's not worth it...these first months pass so fast that it feels pointless to worry about everything instead of enjoying the moment.

Weaning

He got his last sip of breastmilk on his second birthday. Then we decided it's the best time to wean him - I never wanted tandem breastfeeding - The last weeks of pregnancy were going in that direction, anyway, and it kinda seemed natural to stop after giving birth, in addition he was able to function well without my milk while being with his father.

So the plan is/was not to offer him the milk...if he asked for it, he would probably get it...but so far it's working. But it is really difficult for me not to offer...when he can't fall asleep (because the arrival of his sister definitely did damage his zen balance), I am tempted to soothe him with the breast...the falling asleep is becoming a bit a problem, but we have Tula Toddler now and I'm actually able to babywear him, so making him sleep is not a big issue, it just requires me being more active in the process. Another temptation to give him milk is when he doesn't eat or drink properly. Of course, I am dying to know what he would answer if I asked him if he wanted to nurse...

SmartMax Start Plus

I've been dreaming about buying him a magnetic building kit for several months, but couldn't decide which one and if he is big/old/mature enough for it. My first wish was for Magformers but seeing in the shop and at the friend's home, I realized it really requires fine motor skills, which might Teodor not have and it would irritate him...
People on MK started suggesting SmartMax...and today we had to go downtown, so I decided to finally give it a try. I'm desperate to make him busy...even though I was quite aware it might not be a success.

First of all, the box could be 3x smaller, it reminded me Brio packaging. The pieces are big enough for toddler hands, so it is really 1+, but otherwise can't imagine a one-year old playing constructively with the kit. For some reason the compartments are quite small and it's not possible to fit all the pieces inside. A serious disaster for our order-loving son. 

There is a booklet with what you can build, I really enjoy that one. I don't have a very good spatial imagination, so it was nicely challenging for me. But we don't have enough pieces :(

Teodor didn't fall for the kit. I mean it was ok, but he's more into building towers and making them fall (Lego is great for this) rather than for building anything spatial...

I don't regret the money I spent on it...a few more months and he might fall in love with the kit. I'm actually thinking about buying some extensions for myself just in order to stimulate my own brain :)