Since coming home from the hospital, we’ve been lucky enough to have family here helping us. My mom drove up from Georgia the night before we were released so she was here to welcome us home from the hospital. 3 weeks later, Greg’s parents flew in from Arizona. My mom actually left the day morning after they got in, so there’d be no lapse in help. Greg’s parents were here for 2 weeks, leaving this morning around 9:30. While they were here, we realized that we wouldn’t mind having help for a week or two after they left and since Greg has Friday off, we figured it’d be silly for her to be here the day Greg’s parents left since I’d only be alone for a day, so she’s driving up on Sunday.
So, today was my first day being home with the babies by myself since they were born. Greg’s parents did run to the grocery store while Greg was at work one day, so I was left alone with the boys for less than an hour once. And Sunday they went out for lunch and a little shopping, leaving Greg and I alone with the boys for the first time ever for about 4 hours. Greg has a little time saved up, so he offered to take today off if I wanted him to, but since he was already taking tomorrow off to give us a 3 day weekend together, I didn’t think it was necessary to take today off too. Before he left, he said that he would come home whenever I wanted, just to call him and he’d leave right then if I needed him.
So, here’s how my first day went. Greg’s parents left at 9:30, while I was feeding Evan. Both the boys had been put in Huggies this morning, which apparently don’t fit as well as the Pampers that we’ve been using do because both boys leaked, so after changing both of their clothes, and then another outfit change for Evan because he spit up all over the new outfit while I was throwing their leaked on outfits in the dirty clothes. I fed both boys (not at the same time) and after burping and holding them, they fell asleep. I used the hour to eat a slice of pizza for breakfast, do some laundry, clean up the kitchen, pick up downstairs, mail some more announcements, put away bottles, and call Greg. Then both boys woke up. Carter wanted to be held while I was feeding Evan, so I put our boppy to use, using it to prop Evan up and feed him with Carter in my lap. Then, it was time to feed Carter using the boppy and Evan in my lap. Evan then went to sleep and Carter was wide awake. I took some pictures of the boys and then started to get really sleepy, so I laid down on the couch with Carter on my chest hoping he’d get sleepy too. Thankfully it worked, and we had a nice little nap that lasted less than an hour. It was perfect and I felt so refreshed afterwards. I then made some more bottles (we make several up, so we have them in the fridge ready to go when the boys are ready to eat). The boys had been getting closer and closer to eating at the same time throughout the day. Evan was due at 3:00 and I knew Carter was going to be hungry shortly after that. Carter did not want to be put down and Evan was starting to stir. I was so eager for Greg to come home and start our 3 day weekend, so I caved and called him and asked him to go ahead and come home at 3:00. I was sitting on the couch holding both boys waiting for Greg to come home so I could feed Evan without juggling both of them and as soon as Greg opened the front door, Carter started crying with gas pains. He and Evan ended up getting them and having them for an hour or so before we tried something called Gripe Water that the pediatrician recommended yesterday. Almost immediately the boys stopped crying and seemed completely fine. After the boys calmed down, we watched Survivor, ate some dinner, did the dishes, and got the boys ready for bed. Greg ended up going to bed about 7:30, and I stayed up with the boys. It’s 1:00am now and the boys are still doing good. I think my first day by myself with the boys went great and our first night together with the boys went great after we tried the Gripe Water. I’m feeling so confident now that we can actually handle this. I know we’ll have good days and bad days, but it just feels good that we did it today and it wasn’t bad. I think having the next 3 days alone to figure out what works when it’s just the two of us here is great, and then to have my mom out for a week after that so we still have some backup while we work out any kinks in our routine is going to be so helpful, mentally, I really needed her to come up for one more week. I just wasn’t ready or prepared to do it on my own yet, but now I’m feeling really good and ready to do it alone starting in a little over a week.
We’ve been so lucky to have so much help, I don’t know what we would have done without everybody. I’m so thankful for everybody and every second that they were here. The way I look at it is I can dwell on how helpful they were and be sad/scared about not having them here after next week or I can be thankful but look for the positive points about having it just be the four of us after next week. Personally, I’d rather not focus on the negative parts of not having any family here, I’d rather be excited about starting our life as our own family and getting into our own routine. I hope nobody thinks that we’re not grateful for everything because we are and we know we couldn’t have done it without everybody, but we’re also excited about what’s to come. I think I’ve learned a lot over the past month and I think Greg’s a great father and husband and I have faith that we’re going to be okay after my mom leaves next week.
Here's some picture I took from today.
I think the boys like the boppies.
I tried to get a picture of each of the boys smiling.
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