Zane, Emerson, and Smith: First Week With 3

Well, we survived our first week with 3 little kids. Am I really a mom of 3? It's finally sinking in that it's actually true.

This week has been tiring of course, but has really gone as well as it could have. Smith is the ultimate sleeper!! We never really experienced this with our other two and I have to say, I like having a sleeping baby. As long as he's wrapped tightly, he can pretty much fall asleep anywhere and anytime. So, at night, he still wakes up every 2 1/2 - 3 hours to eat, but then fortunately goes right back to sleep (almost all the time). I still have nightmares of spending hours awake at night with Zack just trying every trick to get Zane and Emerson back to sleep. Eventually, after 7 weeks, Zane turned out to be an amazing sleeper. Emerson, not so much. I realize this may not last, but I'm trying to feel thankful for now. Smith is also a good eater. He does want to eat often, so it's been a little tricky trying to sit and feed him and also manage all the other millions of needs of Z and E. They've been pretty patient, but they do want to kiss, hug, cuddle Smith and me while I'm feeding him which is hard too. It gets a little crowded!

Zane is super loving toward his brother. He wants to hold him all the time, caress his soft cheeks and hair, laughs at everything he does and gives him a million kisses a day. He shows love that way. Emerson, on the other hand, shows love by sharing her toys with Smith and by "helping" me get him when he cries and singing to him when he's sad. They both also always want to hold his hands in the car. When she holds him, she gets super stiff and stares straight ahead and after about 1 minute she says, "All done" and gives him back. So cute.

Zack has been absolutely amazing. I don't know how he's even getting through the days. When he gets woken up at night, it usually takes him a while to get back to sleep so he's up for a lot of the nights too. Then, on top of that, he's been cooking us dinners, helping around the house, playing with the kids, running errands, taking the kids to their activities, and still managing to keep up with his running schedule. He went back to work yesterday so I've been on my own. We are both exhausted but I think doing much better with the shock of everything than when we transitioned from one baby to two. But let's face it, Emerson was not exactly the easiest baby. ;)

Here are the pictures from our first week...

This picture is right when we got home from the hospital. My mom was holding Smith and Emmy just wanted to keep giving him toys to hold so my mom had a huge handful. Zane just wanted to stare at every part of him.

Zane can not get enough of Smith's rooting for food. He thinks it's hysterical when he opens his mouth and tries to "eat" whatever is next to his face. So Zane spent a lot of the first days putting his fingers and face up to Smith's mouth and cracking up when he tried to "bite" them. Emmy's gotten better about not poking him right in the face and eyes.

Our sweet Zane LOVES his brother!

This girl loves to be cozy and watch TV.

Here's our sweet guy snoozing...

Then, a rare wide awake moment!

Asleep again - I love how he's in an enormous outfit and laying so stiff. I guess he was too tired to move to get more comfortable and I just left him right there to sleep. :) Oh, and Zane picked out his Halloween socks. Nice.

Emmy was hanging out with her little brother - she was trying out his car seat. She feels and looks like a huge giant compared to baby Smith.

Emmy gave Smith Elmo to hold and got super excited everytime it looked like he was holding it.

Hanging with Dad.

Hiccups

This was our first car ride as a family. They all barely fit in the backseat. We did pretty good. We ran errands as a family of 5 two different days and I took the all 3 kids by myself to our rec center play place. I know that seems like no big deal, but trust me, it was a big accomplishment.

Smith slept the entire time on every car ride, except for a tiny bit of time when he was hungry and cried. Emerson plugged her ears the whole time he cried. Drama queen!

A couple days ago, we got out in the afternoon on a perfect fall day to rake our leaves. Well, Zack did all the work. Zane and Emerson tried to help too.