Older photos from when Lucy had colic and I was too tired to do things like blog.

So in case you never noticed from my endless complaining on Facebook, Lucy had the worst colic ever.  I mean, it was shortlived--by 6 weeks we were through the worst of it, but while it lasted it was insane.  For the first 6 weeks of her life Lucy refused to sleep without being held.  And the person doing the holding had to be sitting in an upright position.  This was so uncool.  It was, in fact, the most uncool thing a baby has every done to me.  Luckily she had very chubby cheeks and legs, which worked in her favor to counterbalance this disturbing personality trait, and she also just loved being held.  You've never seen a baby who liked to cuddle so much--if you could just hold Lucy 24 hours a day, she would be *mostly* fine (there still would have been about 6 hours of grunting and crying in there). 

The funny thing about Lucy was that she was kind of intense in both directions.  She cried about 8,000 times than Maddie did (Maddie was a pretty easy baby), but she smiled (really) for the first time when she was 3 weeks old.  Maddie was always a big sleeper--she slept for most of the day until she was at least 6 months old, and even after that, she still slept a ton.  Lucy just didn't really feel like the whole thing was very necessary.  She was quite happy to stay awake and cry, thank you very much. 

Anyways, right about 6 weeks she just gradually started sleeping.  We went from having to sleep in shifts on the couch downstairs (we realized after about 3 weeks that it didn't make any sense to have the bassinett and rocker in our bedroom, because that kept both of us awake) to being able to sleep in our bed with Lucy in her crib down the hall.  It's still rough going with Lucy at night, but it's nothing like that first month and a half, and she's really easygoing during the day.  So the point of all of this rambling is a) to get it all down on record so I have something to make Lucy feel guilty about someday.  I have a friend whose mother still talks about her infant colic in a very accusatory tone, 33 years later, and b) to explain why I have so few pictures of the kids during the first 2 months.  It was also hard adjusting from 1 kid to 2.  And that is the biggest understatement EVER!  Maddie was so accepting of Lucy after the first for weeks, and really was just confused by her at first.  But by the time Lucy was a week old Maddie was hugging and kissing her and calling her sister--right after she finished trying to poke her finger through her fontanel...whatever, it was a learning process.  We still had a tough time learning to juggle the two of them.  So ANYWAYS, here are a bunch of photos that I finally uploaded today.  Enjoy, and thank you for listening to me complain about colic as though I were the only person in the world to give birth to a cranky child (and also as though it was a fascinating read).

Here is Lucy the one of the only times she ever lasted 5 minutes in the swing without crying.  She later explained to me that she felt the swing was nothing more than a sophisticated baby torture device.  She's so tiny, and she always looked so serious.  Look at those cheeks!

Lucy was born just before Maddie started learning about "sharing" and "wait your turn".  So she used to like to "share" things with Lucy.  This was generally a very uncomfortable process for our Lucy, but she was a good sport.

Lucy enjoying a few balls and a mixing bowl during one particularly uncomfortable sharing session.

Lucy was not happy about this.  Not happy at all.

Did you know that Kodak EasyShare has a "facial touch-up" option?  I'll be employing it on all of my face shots.  If you don't look too closely, you can't really see the thinly-veiled hysteria and panic lurking just behind my eyes.  Amazing!   I'm going to say this was about week 2, when we were really starting to understand that Lucy would not in fact "have to sleep eventually."

Just keeping an eye on things in the living room. 

I LOVE this picture.  Maddie was just like, "Yeah, whatever, she's crying like always, let's take some face shots!"  See how Lucy's fists are bunched up by her face?  That was one of her signature moves when she was feeling especially dissatisfied with things.

LOOK at them.  Our children are ridiculously cute.

Luke and his sidekick, Baby Dr. Evil (Look at those hands--she's clearly scheming her plan to avoid sleep.).  I think she was about 4 weeks here.  Poor Luke was so tired--back at work already for 2 weeks, and never with more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep--usually 3. 

This was during Christie's visit, right before we took the whole fam to dinner at La Loma.  This was not a successful venture if I recall.  It's all a little hazy.  I was very, very tired:)

Lucy at about 7 weeks in my favorite baby towel ever.  Mark and Jen Belanger sent it to us and we use it all the time because, as you can see, it is clearly very flattering to little Lucy.  She was about 7 weeks old here, the colic was gradually getting better, and she was for sure sleeping more.  Thanks mark and Jen for all the great gifts you sent--we used them all, it was pretty clear you had 2 little girls too and knew just what we would need:)

Maddie went through a stage where she always had to lay with Lucy when was Lucy was on her play mat.  Like most of their really early interactions, this generally did not end well for Lucy, but she always thought it was funny when Maddie would plop down next to her.  I have truly never seen Maddie intentionally hurt Lucy.  She just makes no effort to control her constantly flailing limbs, and Lucy's reflexes are not yet lightning-quick.  She assures me that they will be soon, and that "when her day comes" Maddie will have some explaining to do.

 

The colic is over, only to be replaced by constant sibling tension over decisions between "Yo Gabba Gabba" and Dora.  On this particular morning they both agreed that some distance was a good idea.

So that's it for today!  I have some hilarious videos we took over the weekend that I was going to post today, but I have a date with Don Draper.  And I am just not the kind of woman who keeps Don Draper waiting.