My first three months of motherhood with Charlie were hard. It was lonely, exhausting, isolating and long. On top of me not being confident in myself as a mom, Charlie had acid reflux and breastfeeding was a hard journey for us. I had expectations of baby #2 going in a similar direction but in all honesty, Jack is a dream baby. However, I think that my confidence as a mother has a huge part to play in my positivity with my experience with baby #2.
Jack is such a sweet, content and happy baby. He has the kindest little eyes, the most expressive eyebrows and a mushy little body. He has super long toes (we think he is going to be taller than his big brother, sorry Charlie!), Dave’s chin and my dad’s eyes. He was born with lots of dark hair which is funny because Charlie was bald until 18 months. He is just this little angel and I feel so blessed that I get to be his mama. Charlie is such a good big brother! He is always saying “mama, I help!” and gives Jack kisses and rubs his belly. We did have a couple weeks of jealousy where Charlie wanted to be held more (especially while I was nursing) but otherwise we are adjusting well.
Dave has been the most amazing dad and really stepped in to help with the boys (as always). It was so nice to have some extended time together over the holidays. I think we are both just genuinely enjoying the newborn phase way more this time around. We know how fast it goes so I think we are savoring it! It feels so nice to be comfortable in our role as parents.
As most of you know, Jack was born 5 days after his due date. I was induced which was actually a way more pleasant process than I expected (pleasant is a nice word, is child birth ever pleasant?). I went to the hospital at 8am and Jack was born at 4:56 pm. He was 8.1 lbs (a full 1.5 lbs bigger than his big brother!) I probably won’t share my entire birth story because it was sort of text book. It felt so strange to wake up, drop Charlie off at my parents and say “see you later today with a new baby brother!”
Right now Jack is exclusively breastfed. Our journey with breastfeeding has been really amazing. Jack latched within 5 minutes of being born. I had always heard about those magical babies that came out knowing what to do and Jack just did! The nurses said that babies who are born after their due date just kind of get it. I guess it is true! I think having done it before is also extremely helpful. I swear babies feed off of their mother’s body language and I feel much more comfortable in my roll.
Now that Jack is 6 weeks old, I’m thinking about getting him on a more regimented schedule. For the most part he actually is on a schedule but our days are a little all over the place (thanks to big brother). He usually takes 3 2-3 hour naps a day and we are in bed by 9:30 for his last feeding then straight to bed. Jack has been giving me some 4-5 hour stretches at night which I appreciate and usually only wakes once during the night. I had Charlie on a strict nap schedule and I honestly don’t see that happening as well with Jack. My plan is to do some form of a Babywise schedule – Eat, Activity, Sleep every 3 hours (and waking up to feed every 3 hours). It just feels like that may be a little harder given we are sometimes out and about with Charlie. I also relied heavily on this awake time schedule with Charlie and I have since sent it to all of my mom friends. It helped get us on a schedule and made Charlie an amazing sleeper. Honestly, if I caught Charlie 5 minutes before his allowed “awake” time and put him in his crib awake, before he was fussy, he would happily fall asleep on his own. I think the trick is catching them before they are overly tired and this chart helps with that. I’ll share more about Jack’s schedule around 3 months.
I’ll be sharing a full roundup of our favorite baby products tomorrow including explanations on why we love what we’re using. Stay tuned!
If you have any specific questions (maybe something you’ve seen on social media?), I’d be happy to answer them in comments! Thank you for all of the support for our growing family. We love you guys!
Jack’s onesie is here and his blanket is here.