A few minutes old...

We are all doing wonderfully. To say that the Kiddo has embraced her new role as Big Sister would be putting it mildly. She refers to Tiny as her baby, wants to kiss, hug, pat and hold him all the time. He’s already earning his keep as a preschooler incentive. “Put your toys away and you can hold the baby.” “Eat all of your squash and you can hold the baby.” It’s unreal how well this has been working.

Somewhat less awesome has been my introduction to the term cluster feeding. Here I was thinking that nursing every two to three hours around the clock was going to be hard to get used to again. This kid likes to do that plus go for a bonus round of constant nursing, usually between the hours of 1 and 4 in the morning. We scored major progress last night when he shifted it to 10 – 12:30 and then he just woke up normally the rest of the night. It felt like Christmas and my birthday at the same time. I’d forgotten that new mom math, where an hour of uninterrupted sleep feels like eight.

Though he’s a power eater, he’s pretty mellow and non-fussy, just enjoys being snuggly and looking around. I have lots of thoughts and rants I want to post about weird ped visits, annoying hospital policies, and general hormone-influenced new-mom weepy stuff. But I’m leaving that for later. Right now, we are all focused on adjusting to our new status as a family of four. I can’t thank my real-life family, parents, and husband and friends who have been so amazingly supportive. I am so lucky to have all of you.

This time it was a ride on the Missionary Ridge Local, a six-mile round trip on a vintage passenger car pulled by a steam locomotive. We also got to disembark (de-train?), tour the museum’s workshop, and watch them turn the 610 around on the turntable.

You can see more photos here and a video of the engine turning around here.

Boom: v. – 1. To throw an object forcefully to the ground in order to produce a loud sound; also requesting others to do the same. (Example: “Boom blocks on the floor, Mommy.”) 2. To throw an object or objects forcefully to the ground while manually adding a verbal ‘boom’ if resulting noise does not meet acceptable decibel level. (Example from this morning: “I boom Daddy’s socks. Boom!”)