Atomic Tonic

Matilda called all her friends today to spread the word.

She's going to have a little sister to boss around.

Matilda had pudding for breakfast along with some red sprinkles and cold medicine.

Since then, she's eaten two candy bracelets, one bowl of ice cream, half a coconut fruit popsicle and three Pedialytes. She's not barfing, but she likes the Pedialyte enough to drink it and today that's all that matters.

She's two and her eyes are running more than her nose. We've watched one of her new birthday DVDs, Matilda, three times. She's spent 98% of the day affixed to one of us. The other 2% of the day she's spent running around the house in search of things to photograph with her new Fisher Price camera.

Papa! Good morning!

(I had an OB appointment today. 37 weeks, 5 days. Still 3 cm and 80% effaced. Gave a nurse practitioner in training a thrill by letting her feel the baby's head. Looks like Matilda and her sister will not be sharing a birthday, but I'd be willing to say I won't make it to 38 weeks, 5 days. Just a guess.)

We're home. We're all fine. Matilda loves her sister to the point of jumping, literally, for joy.

Linnea Beatrix Rose. 6 pounds, 13 ounces. 19.5 inches long. Born 12:14am, February 7th.

The birth story, it's a good one. Stick around.

We gave both our kids two middle names. Matilda's are Emelia Rose. We were originally going to give Linnea "Beatrix Violet" but we started talking this morning, an hour before we left the hospital, about how the names don't flow. Started joking about using Rose instead. And then we stopped joking. Why not? If they ever get married or for any reason change their last names, they'll still have the Rose to connect them.

Matilda Emelia Rose and Linnea Beatrix Rose.

Nursing Round Two is just. Blowing my mind. It's working. Linnea is a week old tomorrow and today she produced actual tears. She's got tears to spare. I'm so relieved that my body is working and thus, so is hers. 'Course, I'm also feeling guilty because it wasn't this easy with Matilda. It was really, really hard with Matilda. She screamed for four months because, at least in part, she was hungry. I spent a lot of time near tears myself trying to figure out if what we were doing was normal or if we were beyond the insanity that is the normal newborn nursing schedule and into something being wrong. She nursed constantly. She hardly ever popped herself off looking content. The day I took this:

I really wanted to believe that it was working. I don't think it was, not enough. I'd break down and give Niclas a bottle to give her when it was either that or cry myself. But if you give them bottles, your supply goes down and if your supply goes down, good luck to you. So I gritted my teeth and stuck it out most of the time and tried so hard for her to be breastfed. After month four, she wasn't exclusively but I nursed her till she was a year and a half old. I didn't give up. I did give in.

This time I made sure we had a can of formula in the house before Linnea was born. There was no way I was going to starve another kid. No way I was going to grit my teeth through all that screaming.

I'm happy to report I don't think we'll be needing the formula.

There's nothing you can do about it

I'm trying to teach Matilda to respond to "How old are you?" with "Relentless" rather than two. Because the child is two and two is relentless. She's finally picked up "No," although she's mostly polite about it. Ask her if she wants some chicken and she responds with "No tank you." Orange? "No tank you." Milk? "No tank you." Yogurt? "No tank you." And on and on until the world ends. That is two. Two goes straight to the end of the world.

Two is also obsessed with her little sister. She wants to see her feet and hold her hands and kiss her head, "puss" she says, and help change her diapers and take her little hats off. She wants to sleep next to her, forehead to forehead. She wants to make sure she holds her between the diaper changes that upset Linnea and the nursing that calms her down. But ask her if she loves her sister and she says "No."

Relentless.

Would have been nice if I'd taken and posted these yesterday but life with a toddler and a newborn means doing one thing not baby-related a day is a good day.

Yesterday was a good day, true. I even managed to make Marta's Chocolate Slices again with Matilda's help and Linnea nursing. Which should tell you just how easy these cookies are to make. Or what an easy baby Linnea is. Or what a good baker Matilda is.

I should look back in my archives to see what Matilda was like at one week old. I should but I lack disipline and I'm fairly confident that my memory is correct. I'm fairly certain that at one week, Matilda was already putting her lungs to the test. And our patience. She screamed in the living room and the dining room. She screamed in our bedroom and hers. She screamed in the car. She screamed in the Snap-n-Go. She screamed. Even her pediatrician called her high maintenance. She kept us tap-dancing for months. I'm not surprised we tried for a second seeing as we went into number one knowing there would be a number two.

But.

Girlfriend was rough.

Linnea is easy like a Sunday morning. True, she's only a week old and the hight of crank doesn't hit until week six so she's got some time to redeem herself. But right now, she nurses. She poops, forcibly. She waves her hands in the air around her face. She checks out her surroundings -- she seems especially interested in her room -- and she sleeps. She sleeps through a lot. She sleeps through our showers and breakfasts and the sound of the coffee grinder. She sleeps through laundry and sewing projects.

She sleeps through the phone ringing and Matilda jumping. She sleeps through the majority of the sisterly kisses and the tantrums. And she sleeps through pancakes.

I can really only count on her to wake up when Matilda falls asleep.

Two years ago we though feeding Matilda her first foods was fun (and messy)

but two years ago we didn't have a two-year-old to help.

What would you do if you saw 30+ kids in these jammies all at the same time? Just a question. No reason.

...

We gave Linnea seltzer the other day. Kids. They're so much fun.

...

My constant hunger coupled with The Nursing Hunger has driven me to new lows of food obsession. Stopped eating sugar and flour two weeks ago because I was up to my eyeballs in cookies before I'd even had a cup of coffee. Replaced them with raw nuts and fruit. Been eating like a garbage disposal. Frankly horrified at my fat/nut intake but must remain satisfied else I'll be right back to hoovering cookies and the Nutella in the baking drawer.

Working out a new breakfast regime. Making my own almond milk and cocoa Lara Bars. Trolling Raw Food sites in search of interesting ways to eat more vegetables and thinking that the raw chocolate chip cookie dough is maybe not the best thing to try next.