Sunshine & Oxygen

It seems, if you have more than one child, you have an "easy" child that just kind of fits into the existing rhythm and flow of your life, and a "trying" or "difficult" child that is completely counter to everything in your world. Neither is better than the other, its just that one is easier while the other makes you question your sanity.

We had our "easy" child first. L was the kind of baby that made you wonder why people claimed having kids was hard. The pediatrician actually had to tell us to wake her up every 4-5 hours to make sure she was eating at night. We set an alarm to wake up and feed our sleeping infant, we were THOSE people. By 5 months our little rock star was sleeping 14 hours a night. On weekends we had breakfast in bed and lounged around until 11am or so when she woke up, happy. We concluded, obviously, we were simply gifted and amazing parents. Logically, we added a second child a mere 20 months after L.

L was not impressed with the new edition to the family. That look remained on her face until M was about 9 months old and, can still be seen on a fairly regular basis.

If L was our easy baby, M definitely balanced out our baby karma. She was happy and delightful, but she refused to sleep or eat with any sort of consistency. She preferred to be held, at all times and with both hands, and she had horrible re-flux so she always smelled vaguely of sour milk. (To be fair, the smell might have been mostly in my head). I'm guessing all of these went together in a nice little cause and effect package, but we never got far enough into it to figure it out. She was not especially comforted by food or nursing, she wanted her people; if you ever wanted to just sit an snuggle a baby, M was your kid. She still is, her happiness comes from being in very very close proximity to the people she loves the most, and from terrorizing her sister. 

As she grew, she didn't gain a lot of weight. The pediatrician would double check her weight, ask what exactly she was eating, how often etc. I remember at one point, feeling rather beaten and exasperated, I proclaimed she was surviving off "Sunshine and Oxygen." He chuckled, probably because he didn't realize I was being fairly serious.

Side note:  some guy in India swears he lived of nothing other than water and sunshine for 11 years. Its on the internet, it must be true; apparently NASA studied him in 2003? Maybe M was a Sun Gazer or Sun Eater in a former life?

M, soaking in her daily dose of Sunshine and Oxygen, while simultaneously irritating her older sister. She's a multitask-er.