Plummer Post: October 2011

Wow Grant was two months old on October 15 and I have not posted anything in a very long time. I am going to do the cliff notes version of the past two months, here it goes: Yikes! All joking aside it has been a wild two months. The first month of Grants little life is a bit of a blur, but thankfully John was able to take four weeks off work to be with us so the transition for Noah was easier as he got to spend lots of time with daddy while mommy was taking care of baby Grant.

Breastfeeding proved to be too much for me again, I take my hat off to all the wonderful nursing mothers, but after torturing myself and two babies I have determined that my body just isn't able to nurse. Thankfully, we have Enfamil and John loves to feed babies, lucky for him his wife can't breastfeed so it's a win win, we can split the night feedings, I can get some sleep and Grant is getting lots of great daddy bonding time.

One of Grant's many little nicknames is Zen Baby because he is so laid back. I truly believe that you have your personality from birth after witnessing both of my little guys. Noah was wide eyed, alert and curious from the second he was born in fact it was one of the things we constantly heard about him from almost every doctor and nurse that saw him in the hospital. As a three year old he is just as wide eyed, crazy and curious about anything and everything. Grant from birth has been very laid back, sweet and patient. He has his moments of crying and he does not sleep for long periods at night, but overall he is an amazing baby. When he wants to eat or be changed or has had enough of whatever he is doing he typically just makes his little noises which we call yaa yaaing to let us know, hey I need some attention here. He typically gives me about 5 to 10 minutes before he really melts down which is an amazing help.

His other nickname that John gave him before he was born and the name that Noah has adopted for him is the Grant-a- lope or the Grant -a-lopeis (as Noah says it). That nickname came about because Noah's nickname when he was very little was Noah Bird (because he really looked like a baby bird for a while) and then Noah Bear when he got a bit more meat on his bones. We were joking around and decided Grant needed an animal nickname so we came up with Grant a lope (like antelope). So now we have the bear and the antelope.

Noah has been an amazing big brother. Our biggest problem is that he loves him a little bit too much at times wanting to give him hugs and kisses and pick him up. He has a hard time understanding how hard is too hard. We had a little demonstration with eggs about how Baby Grant is fragile like an egg and how we cant be too rough or we will "break" (hurt) him. He seemed receptive to the whole idea, but later I found him with the carton of eggs trying to figure out just how rough you could be before you broke the eggs. That is my curious Noah always pushing the envelope. So most of my days lately include asking Noah to be kind and gentle with his baby and making sure that Grant is safe from Noah's "love". Some days its easier than others, but every day it gets better. I have to remember that this is a really adjustment for Noah, we are adding a family member and that has real growing and learning pains. Overall, it has been very positive and Noah has been very good about sharing us and his life with his new brother.

I think when I look back one of the things that will always stay with me from these first months will be Grant's health problems. I am going to post about that in part two because this is getting kind of long. I have to say that it feels like Grant has always been part of our family and finally having him with us is amazing. I think that my boys have made me such a better person. While Noah has made me less structured and more easy going due to the force of his will and activity level, I find Grant making me a more relaxed person due to his sweet and very mellow personality. Everyone that holds him seems to remark to me how mellow he is and how he just makes you feel relaxed. John and I joke and call it the Grant Comma, but I know I am better person because of my wonderful boys.