My new chapter--how will it read?

My new life as a mother of two has already begun, but the reality of this has not yet hit me.  You see, I've spent the past three and a half weeks since Jamie's been born with daily support from either my parents or Paul's parents.  My mother spent most of the first week after Jamie was born in Irvine and Paul's parents came during the second week.  Then, I spent three days in LA at my parents' house this week.  So, I haven't yet fully come to terms with what it means to be a new mother to two children. 

Now, this is not to discount Paul in any way--Paul is an amazing father who carries much more weight in parental responsibilities than the average father/husband.  But, the undeniable fact is that in most cases, more of the burden will fall on the mother when it comes to a newborn.  Especially if you're a breastfeeding mother.  No matter how helpful your husband is, he can't help you breastfeed.  There's no sense in him waking up every 3-4 hours in the middle of the night to give you moral support. And since the majority of a newborn's day is either eating or sleeping, there's very little the father can do in the first few months other than help burp or clean or simply carry the baby. 

This is why Paul inevitably spends more time helping me take care of Taylor.  He is the one who gets her ready in the morning and drops her off at daycare.  He gives her a bath at night and puts her to sleep.  Paul has made a real effort to be able to help me in this way for the past few weeks which is why I have been able to manage--and when he wasn't able to help, our parents were there for additional support. 

But now, as we start resuming a "normal" lifestyle, I have to come to grips with the fact that there will be more evenings where Paul can't come home in time help and I won't have any "back-up".  Working in San Diego means a 70 mile one way commute for Paul.  He travels quite regularly and there will be nights when he can't come home at a decent hour.  Which will leave me with putting down both girls.  How will I do this?  I know I can manage it, just wondering how much yoga or wine I need to keep myself sane in the process. 

Photos from the past week:

Tay seems like such a "big girl" now that we have a baby to compare her to.  She's even able to tread water in the pool on her own now--with the help of floaties, of course!

 

She loved our sleepover days at Hami/Hapi's house.  Check out how big Chloe has gotten:

 

A glimpse of the attitude we've been getting from Tay as of late...can't figure out if it's because of the new attention on Jamie or simply just the "terrible twos"--probably a combination of both:

 

 

But with the tantrums also comes a much more animated, fun, and spunky lil TayTay:

 

And then, of course, there's my lil Jams.  So far, she is an angel.  Eating well, pooping well, and the most important, sleeping well:

 

 

 So lucky to have these two: