Adjusting at Home

These first two weeks have flown by- it's hard to find time to sit down and blog! Being home has been quite an adjustment and so I've just been trying to get used to taking care of two kids at home and managing both when we're out running errands too. It's been great to have my mom here to help though for these first two weeks, it's really helped ease the transition. For some reason I thought things might still be easy in the beginning since babies sleep so much, but they also need to eat and be held a lot too! And then I feel I need to compensate all my time that I'm away with Jacob by giving him lots of attention when Blake doesn't need me for the moment. But things are getting better and I'm getting more used to it.
The first several days were a little rough. I wasn't getting much sleep at night, not only because Blake would wake up at least every 2 hours to eat, but Luke was also up sick coughing all night the first week too. Jacob had also already been sick and then Luke got sick the night I had Blake. A week later Luke was still feeling awful and coughing like crazy so we finally took Luke to the doctor and found out he had bronchitis and a sinus infection. So Luke wasn't able to really help with the kids and even though my mom was here to help, I had been feeling like I still had 3 boys to take care of. So the beginning was a bit exhausting and having a baby feels overwhelming enough. I found myself often wondering how I'm ever going to manage it all on my own once my mom leaves, but now that everyone has been feeling better lately it's made things a little bit easier.

Jacob was going through the adjustment as well and it was obvious at first that he still wanted his attention. He hasn't necessarily been acting out but every time we hold Blake he wants to be held too sort of thing- as you can see...
But he's still very sweet with Blake and is always very gentle. He likes to hold his hands and name all his body parts. When Blake cries Jacob will jump up and say "I'll get it" and will try to beat us to him. Jacob always likes to follow me around with him whenever I go to feed Blake or change his diaper, or give him a bath- he likes to be in on the action and comment on everything I'm doing with Blake. And I love how Jacob always whispers and calls him "cute baby" or will just say "aww", but it's cute to hear him say Blake's name too. 'Blake' was actually the only baby name that Jacob would say before he was born and officially named too. Jacob has been big into "doctors" since all my visits, so here he is playing Doctor with Blake and checking his heartbeat, haha.
Giving his brother hugs, so sweet. Jacob's been a great big brother so far.

Blake 4 days old

Here is Blake after his first bath at home. Check out his crazy hurricane cow-lick in the front!
Doing some posing on the blanket his Grandma Cheri crocheted for him. Blake is 5 days old here.


Luke's parents were also able to fly in that first Friday to come see the baby and stayed until Saturday evening. We had a good time mostly just visiting around the house, but also went out to lunch and did a few other little errands. They also went with Luke on Saturday and took Jacob to go see the movie Cars 2 at the theater. It was Jacob's first time at a movie, and he did ok but lost interest by the end and ended up hanging out more at the arcade. Apparently it wasn't nearly as interesting for young kids like the first movie. So we were probably more bummed by this than Jacob since he's soo into Cars, but it seems he still had a fun time.
Here's Grandpa John and Grandma Brenda with Jacob and Blake

our first attempt at a family picture

and a picture of us with my mom

Besides running a few basic errands to the grocery store, library, and Target, we didn't do too much with my mom outside of the house. But towards the end of the second week, we took Jacob to the park one day- and even though he has a sour face in the picture he had a great time and loved hanging out with Grandma. And then on one of the last days that my mom was here, we took the boys to the pool. Blake was great and slept the whole time (I do love that about young babies) and Jacob had a blast swimming around in the pool. It felt good to get out for a bit and finally do something a little more fun!

On Saturday we went down to the outlets to shop for a bit, and then stopped by the Denver Temple to show my mom on the way home- and attempted another family picture...

A random close up of Blake one day shy of 2 weeks old, just blowing bubbles- or spitting up. This kid spits up soo much!

my sweet boys ready for church- Blake's first day

All of us ready for church on Blake's first day- July 3. These are my two favorite family pictures so far :)
And one last picture of Grandma Cheri with her 2 grandsons. My mom had to leave early on July 4 but we were so grateful to have her help for these first 2 weeks. I'm going to miss having dinner made for us every night, the dishes always done and the house kept tidy, the extra arms to help with the boys, and of course her company too. Jacob misses having her around too. Now I'm kind of on my own again so I'm hoping I can start to get more sleep soon and get in a routine so that I can handle these two! As much as I worry though, I'm doing pretty well, and so far so good!