[imported from livejournal and backdated]
It just occurred to me I don't know what a tribulation is.
Dictionary says:
trib·u·la·tion (trby-lshn) Pronunciation Key
n.
Great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering: Their tribulation has finally passed. See Synonyms at trial.
An experience that tests one's endurance, patience, or faith. See Synonyms at burden1.
Now I know. It's been an interesting couple of weeks, but nothing really major or difficult, just tiring.
Not
long after Ruan was born, Tao went through a weird phase. He retreated
into his room, climbed into his bed and tucked himself in. Josh went
in with him thinking he was tired and offering a bedtime story. Tao
pushed him away, asked that the light be switched off ("dight off") and
didn't want Josh around. Josh turned the light off, listened to Tao
scream, walked back in to comfort him and was again told to get out.
Josh came up to me telling me what a brave boy Tao was. We talked it
over for a little while and then Josh decided that he should probably go
talk to Tao about being a big brother. I asked if he wanted me to talk
to him or be there or if it should just be a boy thing, and Josh said
he would talk to him.
I snuggled with Ruan for a bit, then once
she was well asleep went to see how the guys were doing. I stood in the
doorway when it sounded like Josh had finished his chat, poor Tao was
lying in his bed sobbing quietly. Josh said he suspected that Tao
thought that now we had the new baby he was getting shafted into his own
room. I told Tao that we both loved him very much and we were very
proud of him, and that I knew it was a lot for a little boy to process,
but the new baby didn't mean that we loved him any less, and that if he
wanted he could sleep in his own room but he was more than welcome to
continue sleeping in our bed (or in his cot attached to our bed, he's
getting kinda large, but same principle :P)
I went in then and
gave him a cuddle and a kiss. We talked a bit more, and Tao suddenly
realised we were all in his room, Ruan was out on the futon by herself,
and it was a cold night and she was only wearing a singlet and a nappy.
He quickly ran to her drawer (the middle one), ripped it open, grabbed a
one piece suit out and raced out to the futon as fast as he could. We
followed him out there and he was holding the suit out to Ruan and
looking at us with a very concerned expression on his face.
Josh
was touched, and praised Tao on thinking about his baby sister even with
all the emotional upheaval he himself was going through.
The
next couple of nights we spent getting very little sleep as Ruan pretty
much slept through the night (she woke twice, once at 2-3am and again at
5-7am for long feeds) and Tao kept waking up every hour for a feed. I
humoured him for the first couple of nights as we figured he was having
attachment issues, plus we discovered he had some more molars coming up
and thus was off his food. This made a lot of runny pooey nappies for
Josh which he wasn't overly thrilled with.
Tao's molars seem a
lot better lately. Think h still might have attachment issues though
which is why he might still be at me so much. He does eat on occasion
but seems to prefer the boob to food. I've had to enforce a "no nah-nu
til if you've had some food" rule, he has massive tantrums about it
sometimes but I don't give him boob til he's had something to eat, and
usually once he starts eating he will usually take in a decent amount.
Then if he remembers he gets his nah-nu afterwards.
I will
usually tandem feed them if Tao is extremely restless or cranky,
otherwise he has to wait his turn. I have explained and keep explaining
that Ruan is a little baby and has no teeth and thus needs the nah-nu
because she can't eat, whereas he is a big boy with teeth and he can eat
food so he can have a snack while waiting for his turn, but she would
just keep getting hungrier while waiting. Tandem feeding is hard on my
shoulders and arms (having to try to find a balance) but worthwhile
watching Tao cuddling Ruan while both of them are feeding.
Tao's
been a bit of a brat lately, but I'm not surprised, there's been a
massive upheaval in his life and I think his brattiness is partially due
to brain development, partially attention seeky. That would be my
fault, I have been babymooning for a bit and not paying as much
attention to him as I should have. Poor little guy. I knew my other
projects would lag. I'm finally dragging myself out of babymoon mode
now and am well on the way to recovery thanks much to my mum being up
here for the last couple of weeks and helping with cooking and cleaning
and holding Ruan while I was doing things with Tao. So I'm going to try
to get myself back in order, top of the list being spending less time
on the computer so I can spend more time with Tao. A really useful
thing with having two of them which I hope continues is that both of
them sleep for ages when there is someone else close by (as I found out
when I crashed out with Tao a few times, and then with both of them
after Ruan was born) so putting them in the same place (either on the
bed or the futon) when they're both asleep at the same time seems to
help them sleep more soundly for longer. This will hopefully give me a
decent chunk of time in which to get comic stuff done. The only thing
I've managed to do so far are a few edits to the script and start
splitting it up into separate eps as the 350+ page document takes ages
to load and save. And nobody really cares about that, everyone wants
the finished product out asap so I better get my arse in gear :)
Awww
Tao just moved closer to Ruan and cuddled up with her coz she was
fussing ^_^ Unfortunately he also woke up asking for nah-nu and was most
upset when Josh whisked him off to the bathroom to get his very wet
nappy changed.
I need to make some new userpic things as well. I
seem to have 6 now. What the hell am I going to do with 6 bloody
userpics and why the hell would I want more? Nyeh, people are weird. I
should probably get the journal name changed at some point, assuming I
can be bothered forking out the money to do it.