Leif's stages of sleep

In the interest of full disclosure, yesterday when I was telling you how proud I am that my milk has put so much weight onto Leif, I should have told the whole truth: that he's taking in at least half of those calories (probably more) overnight. He nurses about every two hours overnight, but much less during the day. Ugh. Maybe I should drink more whiskey before bed...

Here are Leif's stages of sleep.

I am tired, so very tired. If only my eyes would close:

My eyelids are getting very, very heavy:

I can't keep them open much longer:

Resistance is futile:

And the ultimate - arms up, knocked out, sound asleep:

Gaining, gaining, gaining

We had another brief check-in with the BVC (Barnavårdscentral, the equivalent of the pediatrician's office) to measure Leif and make sure everything's okay. It is. Remember last time I said that he's supposed to gain 150 grams per week? Well, he's gained 470 grams since last week, so he's up to 4.380 kilograms (that's 9 pounds, 10.5 ounces). And he's grown from 51 centimeters to 54.3 centimeters long since birth (21.37 inches). I take great pride in how well he's growing on my milk!

Focus

I've been trying to do more focus-intensive activities with Augie lately, inspired by different Montessori blogs I read. The ability to focus for very long is not one of his stronger points, so I've been trying to find activities that will challenge him just enough to keep him interested but not so much that they discourage him. Some of my ideas are failures (he just won't play along, he either leaves the table or upends the basket or bowl of goods that I've gathered), but some lead to engaged, sustained attention from him.

The idea of this game was for Augie to scoop the beans out of the bowl and into the sections of the egg carton. He worked on that for about three minutes and then was done. But he found the little coffee maker in the cupboard, and then spent about twenty minutes shuffling the beans from the filter to the carafe to the water compartment. It was neat to see how he interacted with the machine and found different ways to use the beans, the spoon, and all the coffee machine parts. 

James letting Leif get a little taste:

Little feet

Some days are easier than others. Some days are harder. And it seems like whenever we have an easy day, it's followed by a hard day. Today was hard. Augie woke up in a bad mood very early (4am), and James went to bed with him while I finished a nursing session with Leif, and then I swapped in to be with Augie. It's clear that Augie misses me a bit, especially at night, so we try for me to go in with him whenever he's calling (he's been waking more now that we have a newborn in the house). I calmed Augie down (by nursing him) and we all went back to sleep, and then at 7-something James swapped in to be with Augie so I could nurse Leif again, and then we all slept until 9am. So that's not a bad wake-up time, but that's a lot of bed-swapping and baby-feeding.

On top of the exhaustion I'm feeling a little out of it, with some pain and bleeding (I've been in touch with the hospital), so I've essentially been out of commission with helping take care of Augie. James has been working very hard and visiting lots of parks the last two days.

BUT. Despite the fatigue and the pain and the constant gnawing at my breasts by these two suckling babes, we are so happy. Being around a newborn, smelling him, holding his helpless little body in my arms, is wonderful, awe-inspiring, and so, so fulfilling. And Augie gets funnier and cheekier every day, and more loving, and we're all bathed in his kisses and hugs and silly games (especially Leif!). We know how lucky we are, and how amazing these two little creatures are, and we remind ourselves and each other all the time.

I'd love to get photos like this (or the toddler equivalent) of Augie, but that one never sits still. Never. Sits. Still.

Napping with my babies

Just one picture for you today. I had been napping with Leif when Augie woke up from his nap and James brought him to bed with us:

His name

I don't have any pictures for you today, but I do have an announcement: we named the baby! Ready?

Leif William Macrae Watson

Leif is pronounced "leaf" in English, "lafe" (rhymes with "safe") in Swedish, and several other ways in several other languages. We like both the "leaf" and "lafe" pronunciations, though we've mostly been using "leaf". When we get angry with him, we use the Icelandic version: Leifur. We've never gotten angry with him.

And FYI, August has recovered. By the time he woke up the morning after he was sent home from dagis he was much better, but we kept him home with us for another day. He went back to school today (which he did NOT appreciate). He's not eating much and he's sleeping a lot, but he's otherwise running around like normal and being his goofy self, so hopefully he'll sleep well this weekend and get completely over whatever bug got him.

Sick day

This afternoon, we had a home visit with a nurse from the pediatrician's office. Isn't that great? - here in Sweden, your first appointment with your pediatrician's office is held in your home, so you don't have to haul the little one out into the wild while you're still healing and getting used to each other. The nurse brought a sling and hand-held scale with her, and she wrapped Dai-Dai in the sling and lifted him up mid-air. They want babies to gain about 150 grams per week; Baby Boy has gained 280 since he was weighed last week, so we're doing just fine. (The nurse had questioned whether I thought I was making enough milk to feed both boys - ha!). He's up to 3,910 grams or so now. Next week we'll go into the office (about four blocks away) for him to be weighed and measured; we won't see the actual pediatrician, unless there's a problem, until the second or third month. Nurses do the basic exams and vaccines here.

Sadly, shortly before the nurse came around, dagis called to say that Augie had a fever and we should come pick him up. Apparently there's something going around the school. When he came home he seemed just fine to us, but when he woke up from his nap he was hot. He was still running and goofing around like normal, so we packed up and took the boys for a walk around Långholmen. When we got outside we realized that we'd totally misjudged the weather and it was much warmer than we'd thought. Both boys were totally overdressed.

This picture makes him look deceptively large; you can't quite tell that his arms and legs are still pulled in close to his body and the arms and legs of the bear suit are empty!

We knew Augie wasn't feeling well when we got to the beach and unclipped him from the stroller: he didn't want to get out. That's the first time ever that he hasn't wanted to run around and play.

This is what happened when we got home. He was still in a good mood, talking and smiling, but he was lying on the floor:

And then while Baba was making dinner - look how red his cheeks are!:

The upside to all of this is that we got to spend some quiet time snuggling with Augie; normally he's never still, and even reading books together can be an athletic event. But today he just lay in bed with me while I read books to him, and let us massage his back and stroke his hair. Oh, my sick baby. Here's hoping the fever breaks tonight and he wakes tomorrow feeling at least a little bit better.

Getting in the groove

All's well over here. We're settling into a comfortable groove and everyone is getting used to each other. Two nights ago we had a really rough night, with Augie wetting through his diaper around 4am and then coming into our bed and crying until I nursed him (I don't nurse him overnight anymore), which woke up Dai-Dai, and then Augie wouldn't go back to sleep...the next day was tough. But last night was much better, with Dai-Dai nursing only a couple times overnight, and Augie woke around 4 o'clock again but I took him back to his room and we slept together until 6:30 (6:30! - that feels like such a luxury these days), then enjoyed a leisurely morning together of breakfast and books while Baba slept with Dai-Dai. Preschool preparation and drop-off were much more difficult today than they have been in quite a while, though - we think it's because Augie spent so much time alone with me this morning, which he doesn't get a lot of lately, and that made it harder for him to go away in the morning.

We gave Dai-Dai (official name coming soon!) his first washing today - they don't wash at the hospital, and we've been waiting for his cord stump to fall off. Here are some pictures of him all squeaky clean at one week old (+ one day).

Autumn in Stockholm

I blinked, and autumn is here. No, that's not quite right: I birthed a baby and then cocooned for a week, and when I emerged, autumn had arrived. We went on our first family walk this afternoon, to the top of Långholmen, and admired the leaf-littered trails and colorful trees. Ah Mah left today, so now it's just the four of us. It was so helpful having her here, and I know that Augie loved getting to know her; he's been calling for her all afternoon! I imagine he will for the next few days, even though we explained that she was leaving and she said goodbye. It was great for us, too, to see the relationship building between them and to see him get attached to someone other than us. It was also great to have our tummies filled with delicious food every day! Thank you for visiting us Ah Mah!

We're having so much fun with Augie these days, who's an absolute delight and a real funnyman. I'm hoping to write more about him in the next few days, as I haven't done a proper update in ages. We're reveling in the little boy (person!) he's becoming just as we're reveling in getting to know the little guy who came to us last week (name coming soon!). As exhausted as we are, we also know how blessed we are to have these two little souls with us.

My three boys

Getting acquainted

Some photos of us all getting acquainted with the new arrival.

The grand arrival

After just over 24 hours of prelabor signs and warnings, I went into labor on the afternoon of Monday, September 29. At 11:03pm, Baby Boy Watson came to us. He weighed 8lbs 7oz and measured 20 inches long. He remains nameless and stateless. August has taken well to his Dai Dai (little brother), showering him with kisses, hats and diapers. More pictures and more about the birth to come.