A week later

We have had a whole week of Jake now. It has been an adventure getting accustomed to the little guy. I realized that God was so kind and merciful when He designed newborns to sleep 22 hours of the day. I think I might not have appreciated that the first time around when I just wanted to sit around and stare into baby Noah's eyes all day. But now that baby Noah isn't an only child anymore, I have a lot more to keep me busy! So now I am thankful for the sleepiness of newborns. I have had good quality time with Noah, all while Jake sleeps, so that has definitely helped the adjustment for Noah and for me. He's still my first baby, after all.

(what we do while Jake is sleeping)

It is really funny how different having Baby #2 is. The delivery was like night and day. I was thrilled that the rumored "shortened push time for subsequent births" applied to me. When it came time to push Jake out of there, I got all geared up for another long pushing session. I put my hair back in bobby pins and prayed like crazy I could endure. But after what seemed like thirty seconds later (like Kyle already mentioned, it was actually six minutes), Jake was out and laying on top of me. No oxygen masks required or weird heartburn or panic that they'd have to cut me up and pull him out. It was so fast and nice.

Although I think because of the fast delivery, I lost serious sympathy points for the recovery period. Oh well, sympathy is overrated.

One thing that didn't change with baby #2 was the nerves associated with having a baby. I did not think it was any less scary this time. Even though I had done it once before, that gave me no guarantee that I could do it again! And a relatively smooth labor and delivery does not gurantee a repeat. The worst part of the delivery was before I got the epidural (I had to wait because the anesthesiologist was in surgery), not because it was unbearable pain at that point, but I heard a lady down the hall screaming like she was dying, and I knew that I would be doing the same thing if I didn't get all numbed up before push time. But that blessed man came with his blessed medicine and I was saved from the same fate of the screaming lady down the hall.

(Monitoring my contractions)

The bonding was a little different too. I think because I didn't spend the 9 months of pregnancy obsessing over the little fetus, I needed to do more of the bonding after Jake's arrival. But we do love him and more every day, so we're definitely going to keep him. And hopefully he can hack it in Noah's world! The first and second times that Noah met Jake was very sweet. Noah patted him and kissed him on the head, without us even telling him to.

But since we have gotten home from the hospital, Noah has found other things to do with the baby! He is a little on the rough side, but he isn't malicious about it, so we let it go and intervene when necessary.

Jake is such a sweet little baby. He seems to have an easy temperament and he is very loveable! We are happy to have him around and excited to get to know him better.