Please join me in congratulating Betsy of Fluffy Windover's Diary on her new son.

She even found the time to write about it in this week's Toddler Thursday:

We had a wonderful surprise last Friday when our son, John, was born five weeks early. Even though he is technically preterm, he weighed 6 lbs 1 oz and is doing just fine at home with us!

As for Edwin, he has handled the new addition rather well (so far, that is). He was a little confused about staying at Grandma and Grandpa's without us, and was pretty upset when he visited us in the hospital and realized we weren't all going home together. But he has really embraced Baby Brother and has been very sweet and protective of him. My husband is home this week and next, and they have been spending lots of time doing fun things together, so that has really helped.

There are some issues for sure-- he is definitely put out by the fact that I am now busy feeding the baby all the time. He's also jealous that the baby sleeps in our room (which is where he would prefer to sleep). He's been giving me a bit of the cold shoulder, which I was expecting. But with my husband here it has been easy to hand off the baby so that I can play with Edwin or snuggle him for a while. One of the biggest challenges, I think, is the disruption in his routine. Toddlers thrive on structure and routines, and when they get thrown off it can be upsetting. We've tried to stick to his normal routine, but it's really hard when I am tied down and my husband is constantly doing laundry and handing me things that I have dropped while feeding John!

But it's also been great to see Edwin give his brother kisses goodnight, or say, "It's OK, Baby Brother!" when he cries, or remind me not to wake the baby. I know there will be big adjustments ahead for our toddler, but the first few days have definitely been better than we expected. Of course, he's probably saving up all his challenging behavior for when my husband returns to work.