"We Only Make One Model"

There are some families where each of the children looks fairly unique - different hair color, face shape, etc.  And then there are those families where the kids might as well be clones of each other.  You see one of the siblings who you've never even met before, and you immediately say, "he has to be a Jones/Williams/whatever last name."  Our family is turning out to be an example of the latter.  As soon as I saw Linus' little upturned button nose on his ultrasound picture, I knew he would look just like his big siblings.

I've been amazed how much he looks like Sly, especially.  I keep looking back at Sly's old baby photos to compare.  A few times, I've shown a photo to Tom to have him guess which son it is (he's got most of them correct!).

Here's a silly little graphic.  I feel soooo tech-savvy now that Tom showed me I could use Powerpoint to do things like this ;-)

I feel guilty about it, but that photo of Linus in the bottom right is literally the only picture of him I've taken in two weeks (with the exception of our bad family Easter photo, where he's just a little blurry bit of skin peeking out of a car seat).  I guess that's how it goes with third children.  I still love you, little man!

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I think I'm doing better dealing with all the kids now.  I was feeling really overwhelmed and hormonal for the first three weeks.  I had a new house where I couldn't find anything I needed, two "big kids" running crazy, and a baby who needed to nurse every time the big kids were finally distracted by a quiet activity.  I could barely keep up with the everyday stuff like laundry or feeding the kids breakfast before 10:30, let alone unpacking or running errands.  I cried a fair number of times, and yelled at the kids much more than I should have.

Two things have really been a lifesaver for me, though.  My mom's group set up a Mealtrain for me.  We've been getting three homecooked (by other people!) meals brought to us each week.  Usually, the portions are generous enough to stretch it into at least one more dinner and a lunch or two during the week.  Also, my mother-in-law gave us a few months of a diaper service.  Once a week, a clean new load of cloth diapers get dropped off on the porch, and I send off the bag of dirties.  No washing diapers!

I'm finally starting to find my rhythm, though.   We're mostly unpacked now, and starting to move into the "project" phase with the house.  So while the house doesn't look as pretty or put-together as I envision it being in the future, at least I know where everything is, and I'm not stepping around boxes anymore.  I've re-established as much of a schedule as I can with a newborn, and I've even taken all three kids out my myself a number of times (yesterday, we made it to three stores in a row!).  It takes longer, and it's a pain strapping and unstrapping all the carseat buckles and stopping to nurse everywhere we go, but it's doable. (My mom gave me the highly-praised ERGO Baby Carrier as a gift when Linus was born, but I still haven't figured out how to nurse in it).

I find myself going back to read this article again and again.  It's one of the most memorable - and re-assuring - posts I've ever read: The Tunnel of Parenthood.  I'm totally there right now.  I just need to keep pushing through!