Liam officially crossed the 3 week mark on Friday last week.
In another few days he will be one month old!
We're celebrating his one month and Annika's 3rd birthday together on the 20th July. Nothing complicated, just a small party for a few friends and family at the function room downstairs.
It's been challenging, doing the newborn thing again after having a full night's sleep for the past 2 years or so.
But I think knowing that this will probably be our last makes it easier. Bittersweet, really.
Liam is the smallest of the 3 ( even though I put on the most weight of the 3!!) I really wonder what determines the size of the baby!
Fortunately he eats fairly well, and hasn't really been too difficult. ( Maybe it's too early to tell! ) For most of the day he seems quite content to nurse and then sleep. I started a bottle a day really early this time--within the first week. Not making the same mistake again! Both Madison and Annika were bottle refusers.
For the past 3 weeks he spends most of the day sleeping and when he's up he's a tad grouchy. I started taking him out initially, but after the scare where I thought he was febrile I'm more careful now. I still find it difficult spending the entire day at home so I caved in after a few days and started going out again.
He's physically getting stronger now, and his jaundice seems to be settling.
Starting this week I've also noticed he's more alert, and is able to stay awake for longer periods once in the morning and once more later in the evening. He's still really grouchy at 6-7 pm and is slightly difficult to settle for bed. Quite similar to Madison!
Today I had a revelation. I feel rather bad towards Annika. I'm really afraid she'll get the middle child syndrome. One of the things I realized is that with Madison and Liam I got/get to spend alot of one-on-one time with the baby. Madison because she was an only and first child then, and Liam because the older 2 are at school and at their cousin's place during the day. With Annika I had to divide my time between her and Madison. With Liam, the older 2 already have each other for company so it's a little easier to spend solo time with him.
Unfortunately it's not something I can undo, but I hope that she will get a different type of benefit from having many siblings/cousins to play with. I will try and pay more attention and show her more love ( and patience ). Must remember! She's actually quite a sensitive and thoughtful little girl.
Parenting is really a challenging task. I don't think it gets easier with time, just different. The biggest difficulty is really having enough time to do everything and spend enough time with each child.
I really wish someone could tell me exactly what to do and that what we're doing now will actually make a difference in their lives!
