The Transition, Sort Of

After Louisa was born, the most common question people asked was, How's she sleeping? After Cora's birth, it was, How's Lou doing? Is she jealous? Now with Peter, it's a most often about the transition from two to three kids. Most people say something like, I've heard that the transition from one to two is harder than two to three. What do you think?

Fortunately, I don't have an answer yet. I say fortunately because for the 5 weeks and 2 days since Peter was born, I haven't been alone (i.e. without another adult) for more than 2 hours. We had a Belle Mere, a Papa and an Oma for the first 3 weeks and then Nate's been home since Marcia left. I will say that despite the extra help, the girls have shown their fair share of frustration/jealousy, but it's nothing that can't be remedied by some 1-on-1 attention or extra sleep.

Cora insists that saying "hi" to Peter includes touching him

She also really wants to give him blankets, toys and stuffed animals all the time

I'll also say that those two hours when I was alone with all three kids, I had a panic moment when I noticed the disaster that was my living room at the same moment that Peter was crying and Cora was crawling all over me while I tried to read bedtime stories. But I quickly lowered my expectations (i.e. a clean house is not necessary) and remembered that babies will cry. So far, Peter has proved that he can really wail, but thankfully it's not nothing-will-make-him-stop crying.

I'm happy to postpone my answer to I've heard that the transition from one to two is harder than two to three. What do you think? Of course we're experiencing that transition as a couple right now, but I fear my answer will be much different once I'm on my own. The way I've dealt with that fear is just to ignore it and appreciate the help while he's not working. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, right?

So in the honeymoon phase of this transition to three, we've been trying to take advantage of some of what California has to offer. The highlight of the past two weeks was definitely our visit to Ano Nuevo State Park. On Wednesday morning I told Nate I might want to go to the beach instead of going on a hike, so he found a beach hike to view the elephant seals. Very cool day trip! The most impressive fact I learned during our guided hike: baby elephant seals, called weaners, are 75 pounds at birth, only nurse for one month, but gain 200 pounds in that time. The mother's milk is 50% fat, compared to human milk, which is 4.5% fat. I thought Peter's 1 pound in 1 week weight gain was impressive!

Lou hiked an impressive 4-miles...Only held for photo opts or for a better view

Going down is much easier than going up: a convo we had a few times during the hike

The dark structure out on the point was a lighthouse keeper's house, now entirely occupied by seals

Peter did a great job of sleeping the entire 3 hour hike

A male elephant seal and some "weaners" or pups

Nate and his pups. I'd call them weaners, but Peter is still nursing exculsively

Monkey see, monkey do

Family shot!

What the beach looks like at prime mating season, December-January-February