4 weeks old and job rejection

Wow, time is flying by. Ho'ea is now 4 weeks old. I haven't yet posted a picture, so here is a couple we took when he was just 10 days old. (he is much more chunkier now.)

Here is one of the two brothers also taken around the same time.

(yes, we have to cut Kaua's hair, but that boy will not let anyone go near his hair with a sissors!)

Things have been tough with two little ones at home. Sleep is a luxury, well at least, free time is. The boys are both very needy, and I find that I'm always having to tend to one or the other. Thank God for family or I'd be going insane. Though I think sometimes, I'm on the brink of it.

Ho'ea is a "grunter." He is pretty gassy and seems to have difficulty burping and passing gas. He doesn't really cry, just grunts when he is uncomfortable, which is often. He'll burp after a feeding, then we put him down, then 10 minutes later, will need to be picked back up to burp again. This will cause him to then want to eat again, so we do the whole cycle all over. Sometimes we cant get him to burp and he'll spit up. It's exhausting! I'm glad my husbad had 1 month of paternity leave because he's been a huge help.

Ho'ea also eats a lot!! He'll nurse frequently during the day, but thankfully only 2x late at night. (12am and 4am usually). So, he is much more chunkier than Kaua was, especially in the cheeks, which has earned him the nicknames of "bombucha", "fatso", and "chunky monkey". He weighed 9 lbs 2 oz. at his 2 week exam. I'm sure he'll weigh a lot more at his 2 month exam. I remember being sad that Kaua didn't have those cute baby fat rolls that are common with infants. But Ho'ea will definitely have those. He's already starting to get "cankles."

Speaking of paternity leave, DH goes back to work on Sunday. How am I going to cope the nights alone? I swear, if its not one kid crying, its the next. I'm definitely in for a challenge and will need to master the art of moving around while i'm breast feeding. And I'll probably have to kiss good bye any sleep that I thought I may be having.

Kaua is definitely in his terrible two stage (although he wont be 2 for another 3 months). He has mastered the art of throwing huge tantrums, and it's very tough to get him out of them. He will scream and wail and cry with the best of 'em and is very difficult to dissuade once he decides he is going to throw one. I feel bad for our neighbors. They must think we are horrible parents the way Kaua will throw fits each night. On a positive note, he did go pee in the potty for the first time this past week, but we haven't been able to duplicate that again. Kaua is reluctant to want to sit on the potty, and when we do get him on, he rarely does go. But on one occassion, we got him to sit long enough (with the allure of Elmo utube videos on the itouch), he went pee! It was a momentous occassion, but one that we haven't seen again. I guess in time it will come.

As for my maternity leave. I didn't really have one. Since I'm working part time, I only get paid when I work. In my line of work, I have tons of deadlines, so I agreed to do a project due during my "supposed 1 month leave" to help pay some bills, and because it was a project I had already started and was thinking I was near completion. Of course, when I go to turn it in, my boss adds on more work to it, and of course, I have to do it. Then he brazenly asks me if I have time to do another one, and again, it's for a case that I've also been working on, so I reluctantly agree. These projects have been huge and have had me pretty much working my full (parttime) schedule of 20 hours per week anyways. Now that its September (well tomorrow it will be) I was planning to return to my full (parttime) schedule anyways, so I pretty much didn't have much of a leave. It works out though because I only work 2 full days a week at the office and can work from home for any other time I want to, so technically, going "back" to work doesn't really mean much time away from the kids.

Speaking of work, while I was in the hospital giving birth, I got a call for an interview for a county position that I had been eyeing since I moved here. I interviewed and did really well. I almost thought the job was mine the way things were going. The down fall was that it was for a full time position and the fact that I just had a baby wasn't helping things. However, I just got the call today and was told that while I was of the top two candidates for the position, I got beat out by someone who had slightly more experience and enthusiasm for a portion of the job responsibilities (which I was honest about during the interview and explained that that wasn't my forte or my preference). I was told that had I had more interest in that particular job responsibility, the job would have been mine. (oh well, I'm glad I was honest, because I would hate for them to think I loved doing that task, when I sooo do not). I was also told that they want to keep my resume on file and that if another position opens up, they want to offer it to me because they want me on their team. I was also told some other nice things, which helped to soften the blow of being pretty much rejected. I'm not sure if another position will open up, but I'm hoping. My family says this is for the best because having to work full time (while the boost in pay and benefits would have been awesome) would have been very trying for me at this time in my life. Plus I would have struggled with the work schedule. But I admit, I'm seriously bummed about not getting the job, even though i do agree that the timing wasn't right.

On that note, I better go tend to the little one. the big one is napping, which allows me to type away (a luxury that I'm rarely afforded nowadays), but I can hear the little one giving DH some grief (in the form of grunting). It's probably time to go feed the chipmunk, again. (hey a new nick name!)