25 January 2008

update on the four of us


thanks for all of your comments and e-mails and phone calls. we are recovering very well. gwyneth pretty much sleeps most of the time and so do i. maggie is enjoying time with her grandma and likes to hug and kiss her baby. it has been an adjustment for her. she has had a few meltdowns and i would appreciate your prayers for her and for me. steve is being his usual wonderful self! although he could use your prayers as he prepares for his march 9 ordination. that's no small task with 3 women in the house! i'll try to post more pics soon.
love you all.
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2 comments:

Ellen said...

Very sweet picture of Gwyneth! We're praying for you.

Stephanie said...

Our oldest had some major meltdowns when our second was born. It took him a couple months to adjust to the huge change of not being an only child anymore. A couple things I learned from those days and did differently the next time a new baby came:

1. Kept the older child's routine as normal as possible, and tried to be the one to change diapers, put him to bed, etc. as much or as soon as possible. Since you had a c-section, I know you can't do so much, but whatever you do that is "normal" for her will make a big difference!

2.Made a huge effort to smile at the older one a lot and act like everything was great and normal and he was still very special to me. When I was feeding the baby and couldn't get up I would reach out and rub his back and hug him and talk to him.

I learned those things from experience and from reading an article somewhere. The article said that gaining a sibling is to an only child as sleep-deprivation is to an adult--you don't know how hard it is until you've experienced it. :) The article also said that you will feel like you are already giving the older child too much attention, but they need that extra bit of love to get through. If all that doesn't help you any, just know that you are not alone and I've been there, done that!