Life update: having a three month old and a three year old.

I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun in my life! Being a girl mom is by far the best. Thinking back to when I wanted kids, I wanted four boys. For one, two pregnancies are more than enough for me. Secondly, who knew girls would be so much fun?! I figured a little life update would be fun considering we officially have a three month old and a three year old (crazy that time is already going by so fast). Since I get asked all the time about how transitioning from one to two babies was I figured I’d share a little bit of that too.

LAKEN

First off, Laken is three! We decided to keep her home this year and have her start preschool next year. We thought long and hard about doing this year or next and we both agreed we want her to be one of the older ones in her class. Her birthday is September 1st so we do miss the cut-off date by just a little bit. I know I’m going to love having her home a little longer because these years have flown by.

This girl has zero fear. So far every year right before her birthday she has hurt herself in some type of way. Before her first birthday she had stitches, before her second we took her to the hospital in fear of a concussion from falling down the stairs, and this year she ended up with her arm in a sling! She will flip and dive off anything. She is in love with gymnastics and truly any physical sport. She’s shown interest in soccer and dance so I think those might me our next things to try out.

It’s no secret how sassy Laken is and I love it. She puts her hands on her hips when she really wants to get her point across, does an incredible Okay Mom complete with an eye roll and a sigh. She evens tattles on Kyler when he won’t let her do something. I can say that is currently my favorite thing of hers that she does. If I’m in another room she’ll come up to me and say Mom..Daddy isn’t listening to me. Then she’ll drag me to wherever Kyler is and I have to ask why he isn’t listening haha.

Laken is potty trained!!! We have been fully potty trained for about three weeks and it’s been amazing. We still do pull ups at night just in case but she’s even waking herself up in the middle of the night to use the potty. During the day she goes all by herself and doesn’t like me asking or helping. She’ll close the door for privacy and ask me to leave her alone. We had one really long trip that I made her wear a pull up on and she was so embarrassed when she went in her pull up. I’m so proud of her because this has been a major struggle.

Laken is tall. Like crazy tall. I can’t go anywhere without someone mentioning her height. She’s about two heads taller than all the kids in her gymnastics class and the same height as most 5 year olds. For the most part she can communicate fine with others but still has some troubles pronouncing words. When we go to the park and 4-6 year olds are there they don’t understand why she’s so tall and can’t talk completely. That’s been one of our biggest struggles by far. Laken doesn’t understand what the other kids say and I know they don’t mean it in a negative way, but when they say, “Why is she so tall and can’t talk?! I can talk so why can’t she?!” it tugs on my momma strings a little too much. She loves making friends and always wants to be included with everything. I see a lot of Kyler in her while I’m more of a homebody/like to be alone kinda person.

We are very in tune with our emotions. It’s been really important for Kyler and I to teach Laken each emotion and why she might be feeling a certain way. It has helped us be able to communicate better and instead of whining she’ll say what she’s feeling and that’s been really nice. I think in the long run that will help her to understand her self better too.

CHLOE

Oh my sweet little 3 month old. I want to cry at her already being three months old. She is by far the most smiley baby and a total mommas girl. She will grip onto me like her life depends on it the second her eyes open to the time they close. She’s uneasy with other people holding her if she sees their face, particularly men. I think it’s funny but Kyler does not haha.

She isn’t much of a crier unless she’s super super tired but she sure squaks a lot haha. She also gets hangry. Like full on head shaking, eyebrows arched, mouth open, grunting hungry and she will NOT let you forget that she is. We still are currently nursing (officially 3 months strong and officially longer than what we were doing with Laken) and homegirl eats between 5-6oz every 3ish hours.

For being only three months Chloe is pretty dang strong. She rolled over from belly to back right at one month and then about two weeks ago she rolled over from back to belly. She loves tummy time and being able to interact with us on her level. Today I set up her little play table and sat her in it. She was pressing the buttons and pushing the levers down and was so focused on all these new things! In her swing she realized there’s a little mobile and has figured out how to hit the little animals on it. She finds those super funny.

We haven’t heard much of a laugh from her but I can tell it’s coming from the big smiles and squeaks she gives. We’re also doing really good with naps and sleeping through the night! We put her down for the night around 8pm and I’ll dream feed her right before I go to bed which usually keeps her nice and asleep until 3:30am. She usually wakes up around 6:30am on days I work and on my off days she’ll sleep until 8:00am. It’s almost as if she knows I’m going somewhere haha. We officially transferred Chloe into her room and in her crib for all naps and at night!!

I’m very interested to see what she will be like as she develops more and grows up. As of now, she’s very chill and easy going. She’s easy to please and it truly is just so happy. She knows what she wants and wants it asap haha.

GOING FROM ONE BABY TO TWO

I can honestly say that I never had any worries about going from one to two babies. I think the most I worried about was finding that perfect balance for myself with things. I’m still learning and don’t think I will ever fully find a true balance but I’m okay with that. I can also honestly say that it seemed easier going from one to two. I don’t know if it was that I knew what to expect with everything or that I was so much more confident in my own decision making that made this easier. What I do know is that having Laken being who she is has helped a lot.

Laken is very independent, confident, forgiving and very understanding. I did everything I could to prep her for having a baby sister. We talked about baby sister constantly and I made sure that whatever I did she also helped with to feel more included. I got her a baby wrap just like mine. I let her put Chloe’s things away in her room so she could talk about it when we used it in the future. I let her help paint the nursery walls to feel more part of this and it’s been so much fun.

I was slightly worried about going to the hospital and Laken walking in and suddenly seeing this baby. She ended up having to come to the hospital with us because that’s just how it happened and she asked a lot about the baby then. I made sure that Chloe got her a big sister gift so she knew that this new baby was nice and loved her. Laken hopped right up on the bed to see Chloe and wanted to hold her as soon as she could. She was in love.

That first day home Laken wanted to hold Chloe every second she could. She loves having a baby sister. The hardest part was on the second or third night. Chloe was still sleeping in our room and Laken was sleeping in hers. She noticed that I was holding Chloe a lot at night and cried when we told her to go to her bed. Laken’s exact words were “I want to be a baby and stay with mommy and daddy.” That broke us and we let her sleep with us a few nights. We had to explain to her why the baby was with us so much at night and why we couldn’t always put her down right away (especially those first few weeks of getting a feeding/nap schedule down) and she was super understanding!

Laken has been the biggest help. If Chloe is napping in her crib and Laken and I are downstairs and we hear her cry Laken will run to her saying, “Don’t worry baby sister! Laken is coming!!”. If I have to do something that requires both hands and have to put Chloe down, Laken will right away say, “Don’t worry mom! I watch baby sister!”. She asks questions and constantly asks if Chloe can play with her. I have a feeling they’re going to be good buddies once they get a little older.

I would consider myself a pretty chill and easy going person with things and can honestly say I have less stress with two. I know that sounds crazy, but I have so much more patience and a better understanding of these little humans than I ever did. I think it’s also my mindset because I truly don’t mind the public tantrums or the fits. They’re little. They don’t understand why they’re sad or mad. They’re trying to figure life out just a much as we are.

I remember being told over and over when I said I was having my second that I would be so busy and it would be so hard and I refused to let myself believe it. Yes, there have been some hard days to where I’m frustrated to no end, but nobody tells you about the good days. Everyone is so fixated on how much work having two is that they don’t talk about how much fun having two is. I won’t lie and say grocery trips are easy or that meal time is a breeze because it’s not. It’s a challenge for sure but I kinda refused to have that mindset that it would be hard. Out of ten good days one is bound to be bad. Sometimes I have 3 bad days in a row but that just means I’ll that many good days coming! Right now we’re doing all we can to soak up each and every little thing they do.

xx-Kendra