So, the family of four, made it to church today...

So, I can't remember how long after Olivia was born that we made it to church (am sure it is documented somewhere if I went and looked ;-) - but I want to say it was just a week after her birth.  This time, it was a little more of a 'challenge' in front of us...  But today, at almost three weeks old, we were able to get to church, just as the first reading was in process ;-)  And, I am being honest when I say it wasn't the fault of Lincoln, Ben or myself, but our little Olivia who really takes her time and argues with absolutely everything... and insists on doing everything herself.  Love this child dearly, but sometimes when we explain what "being late" is going to mean, it just has no affect on her.. And if we push our luck in pushing her directly, we run the risk of total meltdown/misbehavior - and it isn't worth that possibility, so we accept the fact that though we are all awake at 7am, we can't get to church by 9am.  On a positive note, though we sat in an entirely new spot, with no family around, Olivia was really well behaved during mass.  She also did a great job of putting her money in the basket without having to be the 'last man standing' out there was a first! So, in hind sight, perhaps shaving that first 10 or so minutes off isn't the worst idea?

Lincoln, fortunately, slept during mass - he made not a peep.  Let's hope we can time the sleeping thing that well in the future!  He woke up first thing at HyVee, but fortunately I have my handy 'nursing cover' and it worked okay to nurse him at our table... then he was awake for Grandma Janie and not fussing or anything, which was good cause mostly he sleeps when Grandmas come over!  Then we got groceries, and I held him the entire time for that, but he had eyes open and didn't let a peep either, when we came home he went to sleep for a longer nap.  Again, hopefully we can repeat this behavior going forward!

Today was the first day, I think in his entire three week life, that we went closer to 3.5 hours without nursing!  He had a few long naps and twice that resulted in over three hours without nursing.  Additionally, in the last day or so, Lincoln's turned over a new leaf with nursing and seems to only require approximately 20-25 minutes of nursing.  Considering he was closer to 50 last week, this is music to my ears!  And came at the right time, as I have just started pumping so that we can introduce a bottle, and we can relieve some of the pressure of feeding time requirements...

Lincoln takes a pacifier decently (Olivia never really did - she took her thumb and her thumb only on her accord!) and seems like he is also looking to find his thumb.  Most of the time, he has his thumb tucked into his hand itself, and so there is no way he could establish thumb sucking. 

Last week he started to get some of the baby rash - it makes dad and I so sad, cause his beautiful skin has little blotches on it now :(  We know it isn't permanent, but we don't remember Olivia's being as bad, so we are hoping it goes away soon.

Here's a funny anecdote from Olivia - we played some womb heartbeat sounds in our room to try to help him sleep better in the bassinet (didn't seem to work); when Olivia came in the next morning she said "why are we listening to mommy's tummy"? Amazing how much she can connect!

My goals for this week (perhaps sharing them on the blog will hold me accountable to them?):

• Get Lincoln to start sleeping in his bassinet overnight (if he starts sleeping longer in between feedings, I really think this will help!) - at least a few intervals of our night would be good!
• Take pumpkin photos of Lincoln in a pumpkin
• Regular pumping time so we can start to have some supply on hand...
• Spend a couple hours downstairs to make a dent in the mess that became of the basement (while prego, everything just got put downstairs - to be dealt with when I could deal with it - not such a great idea for the last 4 or more months ;-)

A little glimpse of what being a little brother looks like most days: