First Days Home

Boy, does it feel good to be home! Oddly enough, our first night home is already a blur. The only thing that really stands out is that at one point while I was feeding Garrett, Jonathan told me, "Baby Garrett all done! Put away!" and Jonathan didn't go to sleep like normal either. Well, "normal" before Garrett came along involved Mom rocking him to sleep -- something I knew would have to change, but didn't try to hard to modify before his sibling arrived, since I figured he'd probably regress then anyway. While I was at Saint Marys with Garrett, however, Chris would just put him in his crib and he'd go to sleep on his own. Amazing!

With me being home again, however, he cried and called for me when Chris tried to put him down. So, my first night back, Chris ended up rocking him to sleep and putting him to bed. Last night, however, Jonathan fussed a little when Chris started rocking with him, but calmed down and Chris was able to put him down while he was still awake. So it looks like we'll be able to stick with the new routine they established for his bedtime.

Yesterday actually went better than I thought it would. Chris is working again now, so I had both boys to myself all day. Jean gracefully offered to help if I needed a hand, but things were going pretty smoothly when she called to check in in the morning. I woke up at 7:20 to both boys making noise. Jonathan was saying, "Baby brother! Baby Garrett!" I'd be surprised if he could hear Garrett, who was sleeping in a bassinet not far from our bed, but maybe he did.

So I picked up Garrett, headed downstairs and told Jonathan I'd be right in to get him after I changed Garrett's diaper. With Garrett freshened up, I set him in his crib (he'll eventually sleep in the same room as Jonathan, so we have his crib set up there now), took Jonathan to change his diaper, and then figured Jonathan could wait for breakfast while I fed Garrett.

That seemed to work all right yesterday, but this morning when I tried the same steps, Jonathan was insistent that he wanted "oran-juice" while Garrett ate. He wasn't happy about having to wait, and when I was ready to get his orange juice and breakfast, he fought sitting in his high chair. I thought Garrett could give me a few minutes to get Jonathan set before I burped him, but was wrong and he threw up.

While I was dealing with that, Wabasha Clinic called to move my follow-up appointment with Dr. Schwend from tomorrow to this morning at 9:30. I didn't want to wait until next week to get my stitches out (I hadn't thought about the possibility of stitches healing over until recently, and I think mine had started to -- d'oh), so I decided to scramble to get ready. Jean was a lifesaver and picked up Jonathan, but I still had trouble getting ready and out the door. I had to give Garrett his medicine, with one involving cutting three-quarters of a pill, crushing it and sucking it up into a syringe with water, which is more time-consuming than I'd like. (There's a liquid version of the medicine, but it's over 13 percent alcohol, so it's not ideal for babies.)

Jonathan wasn't appreciating the little attention he was getting in the mean time. "Mommy, come here! Baby Garrett all done now!" I think he was happy to go with Jean, where he'd get some undivided attention.

So this morning was pretty crazy. I feel a little cheated that we're not getting the week of family time we had planned on with Chris at home while we figure out our new routine, but that plan didn't include the Saint Marys experience, and I should probably just be thankful that Chris was able to take an additional week off while we dealt with that.

Jean will watch Jonathan tomorrow morning, too, so I can take Garrett in for his first appointment in Lake City. (I'm not sure what they'll do, other than take Garrett's weight and measure his head circumference.) And then the weekend will be here and Chris will be home to help dole out attention.

Hopefully the rest of this afternoon will go better as well, since I won't be rushing to get out the door. I feel bad telling Jonathan to wait all the time. Well, I guess it's not so much the telling him to wait as the fact that my tone starts to get pretty impatient -- especially when he's trying to push and pull at my legs while I'm changing Garrett's diaper and dealing with the noise from two unhappy little guys.

I don't want to be that frazzled, flustered mom, especially when I've been away for so long. I won't mind being the mom with unbrushed hair who's still in her pajamas at 2 p.m. and has a sink full of dishes waiting to be done, so long as that mom has a relatively peaceful house with boys who know they are loved.