Keeping Up with the Kramers

We've made it two months with two kids! We'd heard it could be done and well, we survived. But not without a little help.



Shawn went back to work when Avery was nearly four weeks old. The first day home alone with the two kiddos went great. Avery slept most of the time so I was able to focus a lot of attention on Sam. Throughout the first several days, several friends stopped by to visit and brought a snack or dinner. What a generous gift from our amazing network of friends!  I thought, maybe this won't be so stressful after all. But then Avery started to be much more needy - fussing and wanting to be held most of the morning. So that meant that Sam had to fend for himself. In other words, he spent a lot of time with his iPad. We're not against technology, but all morning is too much screen time in our opinion.

So we started discussing enrolling him in a two-year-old program at a local Christian preschool. A friend also has her son enrolled at the school and had assured us that it was very low-tech. She likened it to preschool circa 1985! We just had to visit this "blast from the past" school! We were warmly greeted by the director and escorted to each of the four classrooms. It's a very small school, less than 50 kids, so all of the teachers know all of the students. The classrooms are cozy and well equipped with pretend play toys, rugs with letters and numbers, books and artwork. The two-year-olds have the majority of the time for free play, but also participate in circle time, art, music and outdoor play. They also go to the library for story time on Mondays and attend Chapel on Wednesdays. And they even work on potty training with the kids (thank goodness)! The staff is all very friendly, each has their teaching certificate and is required to have continuing education each year. All in all, we felt like this would be a very nurturing environment for Sam. He now attends three days a week for three hours each day. He loves it! And so do we. His teacher said that he was very talkative and the preschool director said that he fit right in with the other kids, acting as though he'd been in preschool forever. The only time he cries is when I come to pick him up!

Sam was even invited to sing in church the Sunday following his first week. He hadn't had as much practice as the other kids, but that didn't stop him from hamming it up on stage. Like father, like son!



Having a very busy two-year-old means that Avery gets out a lot and has from the start. Our first stop after leaving the hospital was at Scoops ice cream parlor, where we celebrated Sam's new job of being Big Brother! Later that week, we ventured back to Downtown Winter Garden with Aunt Kath. The weather was lovely and after a walk around, we decided to eat lunch at Harry and Larry's BBQ.

Big Brother Sam eating "choc-wit" ice cream with Mommy and Mimi

"I'll have the ribs please"

Avery had her first home bath just one day shy of being one week old. The next day, we took her to Real Life Photography for her newborn photo shoot. The photographer, Sandy, was such a pro. Sam was...well, Sam. He made himself right at home and was checking everything out. He doesn't really like having his picture taken right now. He would rather be behind the camera pressing the button. But Sandy got some great shots of Avery and even captured a precious moment of Sam kissing Avery. We love how the shots turned out! You can see them all here.

First Bath

Soothing Avery after her bath

Behind the scenes of Avery's newborn shoot

Curious Sam

Avery seems incredibly strong for such a tiny baby. She surprised us by holding her head up at just four days old! And she's growing like a weed, weighing in at 10 lbs 1 oz at just 6 weeks. She remains in the 50% percentile for both length and weight.

First well visit with Dr. Susan Ryan

4 Days Old

Given that there is a lot more action in the house than when Sam was a newborn, Avery has lots of wakeful periods. She has big, gray blue eyes right now. She loves to be held and frequently demands it. So we wear her in the Ergobaby carrier, allowing us to snuggle and get things done at the same time. She often falls asleep quickly in the carrier and we can transfer her to her Rock n' Play where she does most of her sleeping right now. We also have a Snuggle Nest that is sort of like a tray with a small mattress in it that goes between our pillows in our bed for safe bed sharing. She sleeps part of the night in the Snuggle Nest when daddy is on duty.  Shawn loves being close to her, to be able to hear her breathing and provide a soothing touch when she needs it.

Getting Avery to sleep was quite difficult for us at first. She would cry for hours at night seemingly in pain. She had a lot of gas that just couldn't seem to be cured with gas drops, which we had used successfully with Sam. So we switched her to a Dr. Brown's bottle, which is suppose to reduce gas and colic, for the nighttime milk that Shawn feeds her. And after some research, we started her on an L. Reuteri probiotic that has been known to reduce crying in colicky babies by 95%, and eventually began giving her Zantac for reflux. She has since seemed much more comfortable at night and settles more quickly back to sleep after her night feedings. She still grunts a lot in her sleep, but we're hoping that will stop as she gets older... or moves to her own room where we can't hear it! We've also introduced a bedtime routine now... change clothes and diaper, swaddle, say goodnights to friends and family, storybook and prayer. Then we listen to Celine Dion's Miracle album of lullabies until she drifts off to sleep.

Sam loves his baby sister and continues to be very sweet and gentle with her. He still doesn't use her name often, instead preferring to simply call her "baby sister." I suppose that's a good step forward from wanting to call her "Bunny"! I showed Sam some of his baby photos the other day and when asked who the baby was, he said "It's baby sister." When I said, "No, that's baby Sam," he said, "No, it's baby sister." So he clearly thinks that they look a lot alike as babies. What do you think?

Newborn Avery

Newborn Sam