"Parenting: living life three hours at a time."
That has been our theme song for the last two weeks. It seems like everything we do revolves around when Caleb ate last and when he's going to need to eat again. The little bugger spends most of the day sleeping but like clockwork he's up at the 3 hour mark ready for a bottle. We've been sharing feeding/changing duty during the night so with a little planning and timing it right we've been getting a solid 6 hours of sleep with a few zombie moments during the middle of the night. Not bad!
I wasn't real sure what it would be like when this kid showed up. I think subconsciously I segmented my emotion/anxiety into parts: the drive to the hospital, the birth, and THEN what to do when we had to take him home. The drive there was fine (except I got yelled at for every bump I hit thanks City of Mound for the shit roads!), the birthing process was actually very cool, and the drive home was good. Then we walked into our house that used to be our sanctuary and BAM! Oh you want to sleep in today? Sorry you got this kid! Oh you want to go binge watch Netflix episodes? Sorry gotta feed this baby. Want to go on a quick bike ride together? Nope! Little Human here! It's all about the baby now.
What have we been doing the last few weeks?1. We spend countless hours a day listening to music, drinking coffee, and playing cribbage while Caleb sits around taking it all in. Mornings have been our favorite since he's normally awake and the coffee is the hottest.
2. We had to get the stink off us so we took a few hours and went to Target to get some supplies and then over to our friends Matt and Katie to see their new baby Izzy. Matt and I smoked small cigars and sipped on bourbon to cement our bond as new daddies while the girls were inside talking about leaking boobs and peeing when they sneeze (I'm just assuming..). It was great!
3. A lot of diaper changing and bottle washing and swaddling and picture taking. By the way- the books don't tell you how many of the same picture you're going to take those first few weeks. We both have about 1,000 pictures of him sitting in his little rocker either sleeping or half sleeping.
I took two weeks off work so have now been back a full week. There were a few moments where I contemplated quitting my job and becoming a stay at home Dad but then I got really stir crazy sitting at home. Maybe not the job for me. I did do some fun arts and crafts while on Paternity leave though. I built a DIY video rail (see video below), brewed some beer, and started fermenting hot peppers to make my own hot sauce. Amazing what you can accomplish in a few weeks and an endless supply of coffee! It was also a great coincidence for Betsy that new seasons of House of Cards and Fuller House came out the same weekend Caleb was born. And March Madness!
What else...? Betsy is an awesome Mommy! Did I mention that already?? She has been a champ over these last few weeks and has been loving every minute of it. I fall more in love with her every time I see her sitting in the rocking chair reading our son a book, or how excited she is to give him a bath and pick out his outfits. She's had a smile on her face for the last month straight (although it's hard to see in the pitch black at 3am) and she's so nervous about being a good mom that she doesn't realize how good she already is. It's amazing how powerful and cool and scary this whole 'starting a family' thing is but I would rather do it with no one else!
I'm late for an appointment with Dr. Poopy Diaper, MD. Until next time...
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