#tagteamparenting

[parentingroundabout]

Tag-Team Parenting

[happilyforeverhoover]

Parenting Two <3

I’ve been meaning to get on here and write about one of the first nights we spent here at the rent house as a family of 4. It’s just a night that I never want to forget. <3  

I came home from the hospital on Thursday. Thursday night was uneventful because we were all exhausted-Calvin included although we did all end up in the same room/bed eventually. 

Friday night Calvin came to our room earlier but again-relatively uneventful. Hudson went through a bit of an extended sleepy newborn phase (thankfully he’s out of it now) so we were actually getting a decent amount of sleep aside from 1-2 interruptions to feed/change. 

Saturday night, however, Hudson had started to drop the sleepiness and started to wake more frequently to eat. We went to bed later than we had the last few nights and so once we settled in to sleep-it was time for Hudson to eat again. I fed him and eventually went to bed. An hour or so later Calvin woke up, so I nudged Jake to go get him/settle him, and continued to sleep. Just as Jake came back to bed Hudson woke up so I sat up to feed him. Jake stayed up to help change him in between nursing sessions/sides. During that time Calvin started to make noise so I went into Calvin’s room and patted him back to sleep. Once I got back to our bedroom, Jake went back to sleep. I finished feeding and burping the baby and then I laid down. Just as I laid down, Calvin started crying again. I nudged Jake and he asked if he could bring Calvin into our room. I agreed so he went to get him and bring him back. Once they got back and Calvin got in and settled between us, Hudson woke back up so I started to feed him. Calvin sat up and began to talk/stir/watch. Once I got done with one side Jake took the baby to change him. We have been using the flashlight on my phone for minimum light to see/make sure Hudson was latching right and Calvin was fascinated by the shadows on the ceiling. In playing with/exploring the shadows he ended up bouncing/leaning too far back and close to the edge and flipped himself off the mattress head first onto the hard wood floor. He started crying (obviously) so I scooped him up and started loving on him. Hudson started crying because he was cold from getting changed and hungry and needing to finish eating and Jake and I made direct eye contact across the bedroom and just started laughing. We’d been tag teaming these two kids for over an hour at this point, our first time “in the trenches” so to speak, both of us desperately searching for sleep, yet here they were, both screaming with little to no progress towards sleep in our near future. We were exhausted it was 4am, and both of our boys were screaming. 

And in that moment, I was just so... in love. In love with my husband for taking on the journey of having two kids with me, in love with my boys who were both hysterical at 4am, in love with my life because here I was living the life I’d always dreamed of, prayed for, wanted with every inch of my being, yet had never seen coming-particularly having two boys. And yet it was exhausting, and messy, and just absolutely real and comical. 

Anyway. This may sound overwhelming to some. This might be *too* real for others who have been in the two kid/parent world longer than I and the novelty/honeymoon phase has worn off and is now nothing more than added exhaustion. But that night-I made it a priority to soak in every detail, and I’ve been meaning to record it here because it was a moment that I wanted to document to have forever in case a day comes when it is overwhelming, and I’m under no delusion that that day won’t come, but I can look back and see where I’m grateful and thankful for these blessings that have been bestowed upon me and my life and to remind myself how lucky I am to have a life that so many others long for but for one reason or another can’t seem to have.