It’s true what “they” say about taking fewer photos of the second child but it’s not because we are any less infatuated with Eloise than we were with Belén. It’s just that the man on man coverage makes it so the parent not watching the baby is watching the toddler rather than trying to find the best lighting to illuminate the baby’s face for a photograph.

When I noticed we have taken fewer photos of Eloise early last week, I promptly removed the camera from it’s case and left it on the dining room table so any time Eloise did anything cute or the lighting was hitting her just perfectly, I could easily grab the camera and snap a few photos.

In the course of about two and a half minutes, I was able to capture the following faces of Miss Eloise.

So that’s the bad. The three good takeaways from this weekend are:

1) I had my stitches removed on Friday which also removed all of the uncomfortable itchiness I was experiencing. Apparently the stitches the pinch hitter doc used to sew me up after labor were quite wirey and probably would not have dissolved for a long time which causes me to wonder WHY AND THE HELL THEY WERE USED but whatever, it’s over.

2) We have still been able to spend a lot of time with Chrissy and Andy’s family which has been a lot of fun.

3) Any uncomfortableness around discussing boobs with any member of Andy’s family is now gone and it has been fully exonerated from the list of awkward conversation topics. Then again, with his family I am not sure that there are many things left on that list.

Belén continues to be a very good big sister to Eloise.  Knock on wood, she has not acted jealous yet.  Her biggest beef has been the fact that the fuzzy green blanket was “Mine” to which I tried to explain all of the smaller blankets were now for Eloise.  That didn’t go over well probably [...]

I always wonder what the heck people do on maternity leave. Even now I wonder this because I myself cannot even account for my time. Andy and Belén get home at the end of the day and after I have given and received ample hugs and kisses from my first born, Andy inevitably asks me how my day went. My response is pretty typically, “It was good. We (insert a couple of the following activities: slept in, went for a walk, ate breakfast, ate lunch, barfed, had a blow out, took a bath [Eloise], took a shower [Mommy], took a nap, walked to the coffee shop, did tummy time, wrote a blog, watched a show on television, unsuccessfully attempted to keep myself hydrated, did dishes, did laundry, cleaned up, unloaded the dishwasher, edited some photos, read blogs, made dinner, made dessert), but honestly I cannot account for my time and I really don’t know where the day went.” Andy usually says something like, “Oh ya. You spent a lot of time feeding her too.” and then we carry on with our evening.

Could I seriously resist though? They are so gorgeous!

Take responsibility for the energy you bring into any space.

Each of us project our energy to others and it is very important to be aware of the energy we bring to a room. I try very hard not to bring negative energy to a situation and I also try not to burden others with problems, but one thing Oprah helped me realize was that I can do more than just being positive most of the time. There are times when I can be more helpful and less skeptical as well as more proactive to make a situation better for everyone.

People only want to be validated. “I see you, I hear you, What you say matters.”

I do an excellent job of validating my children and a handful of other people in my life. Oprah’s point is that EVERYONE needs validation. While this seems so obvious, in the haste of day-to-day life, often I conveniently neglect to remember this fact. I hope to change this and make a conscious effort to validate every person I come into contact with. Rather than purposely looking away from a stranger at the grocery store, I hope to look them in the eyes and maybe even say Hi. What a powerful, wonderful feeling it would be to follow through on this promise.

5. PUMP WHEN YOUR MILK COMES IN UNTIL BABY’S THREE WEEK GROWTH SPURT

This final tip is something I figured out on my own this past month. It is not something I have discussed with my doctor or with a lactation consultant so take this as Alecia’s breastfeeding tip and not something that other people would necessarily recommend. It is probably most applicable to working mom’s who generate a lot of milk when their milk first comes in.

When my milk came in, I for one had ginormous knockers which my husband quickly named stripper boobs. They were SO HUGE and SO FULL OF MILK, it was often very uncomfortable. The same thing happened with I had Belén and I just lived through it and decided not to pump any of the milk out in fear that I would be training my boobs they needed to make THAT much milk and perpetuating the problem.

This time around, knowing somewhere down the line, Eloise would go through a growth spurt that would cause my boobs to not be producing enough milk for her needs, I decided to try and start putting some milk away early. I didn’t want to pump too much and trick my boobs into thinking they were feeding twins so I decided to pump up to 4-6 ounces in the morning after a full night of milk production and and night to try and get my boobs more comfortable before bed. Both times I would feed Eloise and then pump some of the excess milk out. On only one day, I allowed myself a noon pumping as well for comfort.

There are some seriously cool innovations utilizing smart phones, iPads and social media these days. In this past week, I have learned of two noteworthy applications worth sharing.

One, PInterest, allows you to “pin” websites and collect images from all over the vast internet posting them on boards. Here is a link to a few things I have pinned. I LOVE this idea because I am constantly sending links to myself via email to save recipes, project ideas or news articles I want to read when I have more time, but PInterest allows me to save them all in one place. It also has a social media aspect to it where you can follow your friend’s pins and repin them if you so desire. This shows some of the boards from people I “follow” and gives you an idea of how pinned items are collected onto boards.

Me: I cannot believe I am still healing three weeks later! I still have full blown stitches DOWN THERE. Shouldn’t they have dissolved by now?

Andy: I don’t know, I am not a crotch expert.