in the newborn hole....

Don't let those cute little feet fool you... life at the Dunning home has been turned upside down! We love our Sarah (Rowan does too, or so we hope) and love being parents to 2 darling little kids, but it's a lot of work!

Here are some reasons why I haven't been blogging, eating, sleeping, or cleaning:

1. Pumping is ridiculous, I hate to be a quitter, but when I pump out 1/2 an ounce at a time and it takes me an entire day of pumping to fill one bottle, I think it's time to stop.
2. Post-partum blues... seriously, this whole baby recovery phase is not meant to be easy!
3. Post-partum nausea (huh?!?) I've been nauseous, just like my first trimester as confusing as that is and food makes me ill. Hence, the low milk supply.
4. Sarah doesn't like food either and has started a major newborn revolt during some of her feedings (not all of them, but it doesn't seem to matter whether she's drinking formula or breastmilk... although I have noticed she revolts at the same time every day? Early evening feeding, early morning feeding...)
5. Severe lack of sleep. Mark has taken some of the night feedings and I've been able to catch up a little this past weekend which was heavenly... I don't remember being this tired with Rowan during the day (maybe because I was napping with him) but with Sarah, I'm just exhausted no matter how much or little sleep I seem to get!
6. Our ward just split literally in half (ours being the NEW half) and Mark got called into the Bishopric as the Secretary... let's just say a gazillion phone calls, and several midnight or crack of dawn meetings later... his life just got slam dunked... this new Bishopric has to organize the whole new ward!
7. I'm still working hard every day with staffing, invoicing, payrolling, coordinating etc. etc. for our little business due to our newest office manager getting the boot 2 weeks after I had Sarah... let's just say she (office mgr) did more harm than good... ugh.

Despite all my complaining, I am head over heels for this little girl. I could stare at her, kiss her little cheeks, and stroke her soft little head all day long! (Rowan would hate that...) She is my angel, and the sweetest little thing. I love having a little girl and dream of all the fun things Moms and Daughters will get to do together in a lifetime. I've created my future best friend.

Now, as for Rowan - he's completely uninterested in her. He doesn't try and knock her out of the swing or off the couch or crowd her out of my arms. He acts as though she doesn't even exist! Yesterday, Mark put her in Rowan's lap (carefully secured in Mark's hands of course) and we kept saying, "Kiss Sissy, Give Sissy a Kiss" and he just carefully squirmed out from underneath her and said to the TV, "Wiggles?" So, we can be grateful he's not a scary jealous toddler who would inflict harm to our newest family member... I just hope he'll acknowledge her one day? Maybe when she smiles at him or he realizes he can make her laugh!
He is fascinated with her binky though... He doesn't try and suck on it himself, but will try and put it in her mouth for her... And, the other day, we had them in the double stroller and went out to dinner. We were in the elevator with some crazy teenage boys at Kaleidoscope and Rowan was staring up at them listening and watching... Then I saw him put his little protective hand inside Sarah's carseat and rest it on her. It was the sweetest thing... It seemed as though he was protecting her, just making sure she was ok and also letting those boys know not to mess with her! Let's hope he keeps that act up when she starts dating so Mark can sleep better at night!

So, as for the summer is concerned - I start teaching piano again tomorrow, we leave for Idaho on the 19th, Sarah is going to be blessed in Idaho on July 6th and it's going to be a huge family gathering (SO excited! Sid, do you think you can come??), Mark's birthday is on the 23rd, and we only have 2 more weeks with Nanna... (we are SO sad to see her go home, she has been our angel and Rowan's best friend). So, it's trips to the petting zoo, water park, and any other fun outings to cram in before Nanna goes back to England and we leave for Idaho...

Thank you for not giving up on me and my lack of posting anything these past few blurry weeks. We are getting life back to normal (or what normal will NOW be with 2 little kiddies to care for).