Getting Used to Two

The past month or so has been very busy for the Boulton family as we have been trying to get used to life with two children. Olivia has adjusted wonderfully. She has had some periods of jealousy, but she never gets agressive or mean towards the baby, and we are learning together how to share our time with each other. She really does love her little sister, which is so wonderful to see. And just recently, Ellie is really starting to like her, too. Ellie will now smile and coo at Olivia, whereas before, she would just get a terrified look in her face whenever she would see Olivia coming :)

We have had a lot of fun in the past month, as well. Rachelle, Olivia, and Ellie went to California for a couple of weeks to spend time with Rachelle's parents. It was nice to be in a new place, especially after how stressful our RSV episode had been. For me, it was nice to just get away from our house, get in a new environment, and essentially just start over. It was hard being away from Jeremy for so long, but it was a good break for him, as well, as he could focus on work - which had been fairly demanding lately - and he could sleep through the night (super jealous)!! We were also able to do a lot of fun things in California. We went to the San Francisco Zoo, the Children's Discovery Museum, the Farmer's Market, and so much more.

For the most part, Ellie is a good baby. She is pretty happy to be in her bouncer or swing, and really just loves to be talked to. She can't seem to smile without opening her mouth so big into a huge grin, and she loves to coo and talk back. Our big struggle with Ellie, however, is sleeping. Like Olivia, night time is a nightmare. Her pediatrician seems to think that it is colic. He said that he rarely ever diagnoses colic in babies anymore, since now most babies' difficulties can be explained by other diagnoses. However, he said that Ellie seems to be by-the-book colicky. The good news is that colic generally improves around 3-months. The bad news is Ellie is 3-months and we haven't seen an improvement yet.

My maternity leave is officially up, and starting on Monday, I will be returning to work full time. Ellie will be going to daycare with Olivia, and I'm not too worried about her. We love our daycare, and I think Ellie will do well there. I think I'm more worried about myself. It is going to be very difficult getting two kids to daycare, working and 10-hour day, getting two kids home from daycare, feeding everyone dinner, bathing two kids, and then, if I'm lucky, squeezing in a couple hours of sleep. I'm also very concerned about our financial situation. As it is, we live paycheck to paycheck, and we are going to somehow have to find out how to come up with an extra $500 a month for daycare for Ellie. I've just got to have faith that things will work out, because I can't seem to make the numbers work out no matter how hard I try.

I don't want to leave this post as a downer, so here some more pictures from the past few weeks: