Our sweet baby boy turned one month old on September 17th! Where has the time gone? Andrew changed so much in his first four weeks at home. He put on two and a half pounds. He's spending more time awake during the day and more time asleep at night. Breastfeeding is going well. Andrew eats every two hours during the day and every two to three over night. He's recently started going as long as four to five hours overnight in between wakings. It's pretty sporadic but such a gift when it happens!
In the rare moments when he is content and alert, he has also started to make cooing sounds and has recently begun focusing on our eyes and faces when he looks at us. He easily follows an object that is moved in front of his eyes and he will hold onto an object placed into his hand for a couple of seconds. His eyes are still a beautiful bright blue and his hair is still thick and blonde. It also still curls when it's wet. Phil and I still cannot get over our blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby! Whereas Philip looks exactly like Phil and I put together, Andrew looks like neither of us as far as we can tell! We think he picked up a lot of his traits from different family members. Somehow he struck it big in the recessive gene pool!
Andrew is definitely not the "easy" baby I had so hoped for! I thought Philip was a high needs baby. Well, I still do. It's just now I realize that my beloved second son is an even higher needs baby than my first was! He's also very colicky, crying for several hours per day, mostly in the late afternoon and evening, which I think kicked in around the two week mark. It's hard to remember as the days begin to blur together when your baby is crying all the time. Philip had colic from six weeks of age to three months. I am praying we get lucky and the colic subsides sooner rather than later as it's definitely taking its toll on all of us.
Andrew is also very much a mommy's boy at this point in time and I am the only one who can console him while he's crying. Daddy does his best but Andrew only wants me. Needless to say I am one exhausted mama! I am so looking forward to the end of these long, cranky days to the light at end end of the tunnel where our happy, smiley, good-natured baby awaits us, althought it does pain me to say so. I loved the newborn days with Philip and it makes me sad that I can only enjoy my baby so much right now.
But colic aside Andrew is still such a joy. It's amazing the way your heart swells with love for your second child. All of my fears of not loving Andrew as much as I love Philip went out the window the moment I saw him. I can see now how with each child your heart grows to accomodate the love you have for that baby. There is no need to share as there is equal and adequate love for both children. I never realized there was an Andrew-shaped hole in my heart just waiting to be filled until he finally joined our family. Now I can't imagine our lives without him in it!
Life as a family of four feels so great. I feel as though now we are more of a complete family than we were before (though I won't say for certain at this time that our family is complete--it is complete for the time being!). And Philip is such a wonderful big brother. Andrew has not been the easy-going, well-mannered baby I had hoped for and the transition from one to two has definitely been a big one for Phil and myself. Believe me when I say Andrew cries constantly (well except when he's eating or sleeping), but Philip takes it all in stride, even asking to "Hold baby" whenever Andrew begins to wail. He's sweet and gentle with him and I hope he always loves him as he does now. It is such a joy to see my two boys together and I hope they grow up to be the best of friends.
