Welcome to the world, little Justis!

It was exactly a week ago that I gave birth to our second little one, Justis Juho Lee, on July 21, 2012 at 1:00 p.m., Credit Valley Hospital, with the help of a team of midwives and my wonderful husband. He was born 7 lbs 2 oz, a good pound and a half heavier than his older sister.

And wow, what a week it has been since. The theme word for the week would most definitely have to be gratitude. Gratitude for the relatively easy labour and delivery (relative in the sense that labour is never easy), gratitude for the health of Justis, gratitude for the love and support we have gotten from our friends and family (thank you for the visits and the gifts!), gratitude for Chloe’s instant love for her brother (one week has passed and she hasn’t shown any signs of jealousy yet!), gratitude for power naps and moments of silence to myself, gratitude for a speedy recovery, gratitude for our parents who have provided help in any way they can, gratitude for my husband who has been my best cheerleader, and gratitude for the confidence of being a mother the second time around…

Not that it’s all been a walk in the park (my brain felt fried on night 2 and 3 with a total lack of sleep between the wee hours of 1:00 and 6:00 am, baby attached to me the whole time... thankfully the cluster feeding ended by night 4 and on *cross my fingers*), but so much of what I thought might be really hard has proved not to be so. I.e. I thought Chloe would have a really hard time transitioning and that we’d have to very wisely divide our attention between them, pretending to not really care for Justis, but as it turns out, Chloe actually wants me to feed Justis and hold him when he’s crying and is so excited to wake up to see her brother each morning. Or, I was worried that one kid would wake up the other kid during his/her nap and that I’d never get a solid block of time to myself, but so far Chloe’s naps have gone unscathed…

…Well, at least for this week. Who knows what the next few days or weeks or months hold, but right now, I want to focus on the goodness of this past week. And I want to intentionally direct all of this gratitude to our God, who I know has been by my side through every moment. Even if this week sucked, I know I would have so much reason to thank Him, but all the more so because it has been full of unexpected treats. Like my neighbour offering to babysit Chloe for an hour while I nap, or being able to go for an aromatherapy massage today (heavenly!). Thank you, Lord!

And welcome to the world, little Justis!