Dear Julien … Letters to my second son.

Time really is just flying by. It’s hard to believe that little ticker up at the top of the page that’s marked off a full two weeks since Julien arrived. He’s doing very well, filling out nicely and really starting to fit into all of his 0-3 sized clothes. What little bit of jaundice he had is a thing of the past, the yellow tinge has even left the whites of his eyes and he’s all pink all over. His hairline is filling in too, with fine blonde hairs, so his hairstyle somewhat resembles mine at about the same age.

He’s starting to stretch his feedings out a little bit more, and is still nursing about the same amount of time – at least 15-20 minutes per feeding and up to an hour for each one. He sleeps for about 2-3 hours after a shorter feeding and up to 5 hours after a longer one, though we haven’t had a repeat of the 6 hour sleep that I got during our hospital stay. That’s fine though, considering the size of his little tummy! I think he poops as much as he does because he eats so much. Poor kid’s bum is all raw from all the poopy he puts out on a daily basis.

Tomorrow we’ve got our 2 week checkup close to first thing in the morning and we’ll find out just how much weight Mr. Jules has gained and all that fun stuff. We’ll have one more appointment in September before I go back to work and then not again until November.

At some point today, the last little thread that was keeping Julien’s cord attached, let go and he is now cord-stump free and officially has a visible belly button. Looks like an innie, just like his big brother!

Julien has had his first two visits to the park this week. Up to Tilden for a picnic and for Vic to go ride the steam trains with friend Gavin and Grandma and Grandpa on Thursday and to Larkey park today, again for a picnic and to let his big brother play on the climbing structures and swings. It’s absolutely gorgeous out today – perfect weather as far as I’m concerned, though most would probably consider it to be too cold. It’s about 70 degrees, with a good wind blowing, clear skies and sunny. I’m loving it and Julien seems pretty happy with it too, because it’s not too hot and sticky to stay curled up in the sling all day long.

I should probably be up napping, given that the temperature in the bedroom is bearable for the first time in ages, but Vic is asleep on the couch – he’s been running a slight fever since last night and I don’t want to leave him alone. So here I am just chilling out in my chair, with Julien snuggled up against my chest, enjoying some quality Mama-Baby time and finally uploading all of Jules’ pictures to date on Ofoto.

Tomorrow, Julien will be a full week old. The time has just flown by of course, as it’s wont to do with young children. He’s sleeping well, eating well and consequently pooping and peeing well, so physically everything is just peachy keen for our little Jujubean.

He’s currently going through three cycles of quiet alertness per day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening just before bed time. It’s really nice that he wakes up and is alert so much – gives us lots of time to enjoy playing with him, making faces and saying goofy things.

Julien has taken to the sling really well, just as well as his brother did. He seems very comfy in there and often it’s a great way to help calm him down when he’s got fussies going on. Last night I took him out for a walk in it, Sabs and Vic came along too and it was lovely to just walk around in the cool of the evening as a family, Julien in the sling, Vic holding my hand and then being carried by Dad.

Three to four hours, seems to be Julien’s cycle, roughly, though he will at times sleep longer, like he did in his first 48 hours. He has two long sleeping periods during the day that I can take advantage of to get in a nap myself, though so far, I haven’t actually much felt like I need it. I do tend to sack out a little around 5pm just before Vic gets home, during the tail end of Julien’s last nap cycle of the day.

Nighttime is pretty easy so far – I bring Julien up with me to get Vic down and we all curl up together. When they’re both asleep, I get back up, get ready for bed, take care of some little things sometimes, like an extra drink for Vic and then conk out myself, usually before 10:30pm. Julien wakes up again between twelve-thirty and 1am, nurses, goes back to sleep until 3-something, goes back to sleep until 6am and then sleeps again until 9:30 or 10am. He has his morning alertness phase then, and we hang out on the bed until he conks out again at which point I get up for the day with him.

Sabs has been getting Vic out the door for school between 9 and 9:30 and we have breakfast, watch a movie and do little bits of housework until Julien wakes up to be fed again around 1 or 2pm. I’ve been pumping during or after that feed, while Julien sleeps in his bassinet. If he wakes up and fusses and can’t calm himself down, I pop him in the sling and proceed through the afternoon. He wakes up again between 4 and 6pm for a feed and usually has another phase of being alert and into everything before conking out once more until bed time.

Basically, so far so good, and if he sticks to this cycle or something close to it, I should be able to work around it for going back to work pretty easily. I’ll just get up after his 6am feed, get ready for work and go and Sabs can give him a bottle when he wakes up for the day at 9ish. The open issue there, which I’m not thinking too hard about yet, because I’m trying to enjoy the downtime with my little guy, is childcare for the afternoons before I get home.