Life as I know it right now.

I am really enjoying having a newborn in the house again....  maybe because she is a great baby who just feeds and sleeps at the moment, maybe because she seems to be a really happy little baby or maybe just because she is the cutest little thing to look at (so when I'm sitting up with her at 3am and she is WIDE awake and all I want to do is go back to bed, it doesn't matter that we are up, because I am just so in love with her.)

Don't get me wrong though... settling into life with a newborn isn't easy, especially when you have a very active 14 month old, who we've nicknamed the Tropical Cyclone.  Mackenna's trail of destruction starts at 7am when she wakes up and doesn't stop until she goes to bed.  Todd and I have just about tripped over toys, kitchen things, DVD's and Books countless numbers of times that she has decided to leave in the most random of places! She also likes to try on our shoes at the moment, so we often find them strewn across the hallway too!!  Bless her, we are trying to teach her how to put things back where she found them and she seems to be learning the concept well!  Otherwise it takes me half an hour to clean everything up after she has gone to bed.....  again, I don't mind....  it's all part of being a toddler!!  It helps that she is another one of the cutest things that I have ever seen.....  you should see the bored strut she does around the house when she has explored everything and doesn't know what to do next!!

But anyway... life with a newborn....  behind all the cuteness and love I have for my family at the moment, my body is really hurting!  No more than 3 or 4 hours sleep at a time takes its toll (and I don't really sleep through the day unless I'm really, really tired!!) and I was warned in hospital not to pick Mackenna up too much to allow my tummy muscles to heal, but how can I not?  She doesn't understand Mummy has a sore tummy and I don't want her to think that I don't want to pick her up and give her cuddles.  I also can't expect Todd be there every time she gets out of bed, or needs to get in and out of the bath, or into her highchair etc. etc.  I'm also adjusting to life as a breastfeeding Mum again and I can tell you now, you very quickly forget how much it hurts to get your boobs adjusted to that!!  Thankfully my body seems to have a bit of an idea of what it is doing and it is all seems to be settling down pretty quickly, but the week or two in between really is an uncomfortable time!! 

We are also finding that at the moment, they both seem to be waking up and wanting attention or feeding at the same time.  I'm trying to learn to cope with both on my own where I can and not rely on Todd too much, because before I know it, he will be back at work, but it does get really difficult.  Mackenna doesn't like being restrained (unless it's for food or Yo Gabba Gabba) and I like to be able to get up and tend to her at a moments notice, if she gets into something she shouldn't, or goes somewhere I can't see her, or falls over and hurts herself, or whatever the reason, so feeding Piper while Mackenna is on the loose is tricky!!  Piper is kind of putting herself into a loose routine, bless her, so once we get that sorted out I can hopefully mould it to fit around Mackenna's.  Thank God for Todd and that he is able to be at home for so long to help me adjust...  I don't know what I would be doing without him at the moment!! 

But I wouldn't change any of it for the world.  Mackenna makes me laugh sometimes 50 times a day just by being her, Piper is just so precious and tiny that all I want to do is protect her from the big bad world and Todd is always there for me with a big hug and a helping hand when the hormones go crazy or I am feeling like it's all getting on top of me.  What more could anyone ask for?  xx