Two Months Later: Lincoln

When Lincoln turned two months old I was reminded of this post that I wrote about Felicity. I thought it’d be sweet to write a side by side comparison of the two to see how different the two kids are and what the overall experience two months postpartum has been each time.

Most days we’re up and at em by 8 or 9am. Brandon has been getting up with Felicity at her usual 6am while Lincoln and I sleep in since we’re both still up and snacking one or two times a night. We’ve gotten out a ton this summer. It feels necessary with a 7 year old. Lincoln has adapted well and mostly gets toted around in the carrier.

We all still miss Bingley around here and I’m heartbroken that Lincoln never got to meet him.

My latest late night Amazon purchase was this bath sponge. We had one for Lici and since Lincoln screamed the entire time in his little tub I thought he’d prefer this cozy sponge to go with it. He DOES NOT like the bath, even with the sponge unfortunately. After hearing from my brother in law that he took their baby in the shower with him early on, and our lactation consultant recommended co-bathing, I decided maybe Lincoln would prefer that. So that’s what we do and he loves it! He is a velcro baby. The fact that he doesn’t want to be plopped down in a cold tub shouldn’t surprise me.

Lincoln also loves to be outside, he thrives in the heat. He is cooing a ton and let’s you know when he’s not happy. He is very paci dependent, we’re honoring what got him through in the NICU. He wakes up about once a night to eat. One 6 hour stretch until about 1 or 2:30am depending on when he went to bed, and then a 4 hour stretch of sleep. Sometimes I can put him right back to bed but more often than not he’ll decide he wants to be awake for an hour or so for some one on one time 2:30-4am. I’m trying to embrace it. I’ll pull a laundry basket in his room to fold clothes while he coos and watches me from the mamaroo, or organize his closet and drawers. I keep it dark in his room but allow him to be up. Before, I was up and down for 1-2 hours popping his pacifier back in his mouth and that just seemed worse. I was laying down and trying to dose off but also on paci patrol as I called it.

We’ve been to church a few times now and Lincoln loves being swayed and listening to mama’s voice during worship while in the carrier. Usually the sermon lines up with feeding time so we head to the nursing moms room which is a great place to meet other mamas and babies! We love our new church community.

Lincoln has a lip and tongue tie that he is getting released next week, he’ll also possibly have his cheeks done depending on what the dentist says. This has caused lots of issues for our little man. He’s been seeing a chiro and infant bodyworker regularly to keep the tension in his face, neck and jaw relaxed due to the tightness of his ties. Miraculously and thanks to our lactation consultant, he is able to breastfeed. There are some minor breastfeeding challenges we’re facing with the ties that I hope get corrected with the release but overall he loves to nurse and is gaining weight and growing! Our lactation consultant will join us at his release to ensure that he is able to latch after and continue breastfeeding, and to teach us stretches to ensure the ties do not reattach. B’s parents are visiting for extra hands on deck in case we have one fussy baby when we get home. Praying his recovery goes smoothly and that I can manage my emotions while he has this work done.

The jump from zero kids to 1 kid was much tougher than the jump from 1 to 2 kids. I have a great support system and I’m more comfortable in my motherhood now. We had loads of family visits this summer and Brandon was on paternity leave for an amazing 9 weeks. We took a little family vacation during that time and I feel the amount of time he had off was so significant for my mental health, my physical healing and our family bonding. Being the handyman that Brandon is I know that he hoped to get more maintenance things done around the house but I’m not disappointed at all. Our little family is thriving. That’s largely due to Brandon’s availability and willingness to care for each one of us in our wide range of needs as we have adjusted to our new roles as a big sister, a newborn boy and a mama of two.