Mommy of a new born, take 2.

Well being a mommy of a new born again, it's challenging. Rewarding as well, but also challenging, especially since I've now got a tornado of a toddler as well.

Even though it's only been 20 months since Kaua was a new born, I'm finding that I'm relearning some things. Such as the art of latching, breast feeding, burping, dealing with infant gas issues, sleepless nights, etc.

I also find myself comparing my experiences with Ho'ea and Kaua. Kaua was a much easier eater. With Ho'ea, he takes approximately 10 tries to get a good latch. That boy just does not want to open his mouth wide enough! Ho'ea also takes quite a while to burp, and sometimes does not burp, which then leads to spit ups or fussiness from the gas buildup. However, this time around, since I am a more experienced mom, I've got the feeding schedule down better, and am able to get Ho'ea to nurse from both breasts during 1 feeding (usually). This leads to a more satisfied tummy and hence, a longer sleep. With Kaua, and Ho'ea's first night home, I would let them nurse till satisfied on one breast only, which led to them falling a sleep, and not getting a fully tummy. Of course, they would be up in the next hour to nurse ("snack") again. I finally learned to limit the time of nursing on each breast and put a burp and diaper change in between each breast, to ensure he is not too full and up for the 2nd breast.

How Kaua is taking being an older brother? Well, he appears to really like his "baby." He always asks for him and wants to see him. He is, however, much, much, much more clingy to my DH. I think it's from a combination of DH being home more (he's taking 1 month of paternity leave) and me being less available for Kaua. While I'm enjoying the much needed break of having my "opihi" stuck to me always, it does make me nostolgic for those times when I was all that Kaua wanted. I do enjoy seeing the two buddies get along though. In fact, as I type this, the two are sitting outside in our garage, on beach chairs, waiting for the garbage truck to come by and take our garbage. Kaua is very facinated with the garbage truck and garbage cans. He calls the cans "wu tang" (or so it sounds like it).

To me, the most difficult part of this whole experience is Kaua. He is so active and inquisitive. He is ALWAYS getting into everything and doing things he is NOT supposed to be doing (going into the cupboards, taking things out he isn't supposed to, playing with electrical sockets or at least trying to, banging pots and pans around, trying to play with the baby - very roughly, etc.). Of course, these are all parts of his learning experience, but I swear, that boy does the opposite of what we ask him to, and he thinks it's funny, even though we've never given him reason to think so. Of course, Kaua will always be our first son, and we love him, but he definitely adds quite the challenge to raising children.

Ho'ea is growing, growing, growing. He has already outgrown the newborn diapers (those diapers wont hold in anything and we were constantly having to change his clothes and his blankets with each diaper wetting). He has also outgrown all of the newborn clothes (luckily we didn't have very much) and is wearing 0-3 month old clothes. He is now a little over 1 week old.

He is very much alert and active when up, but he also sleeps well too. He's got very long eyelashes and dark brown eyes, just like his brother. His black hair looks straight for now, but that was how Kaua's hair was in the beginning, but now his hair is curly. I will post a picture soon. We're planning to do our own baby photos sometime this weekend.