Adventures in Parenting

On my workdays, I pump in the morning and take the milk home at lunch. Today I had to stop by another office on my way to my car. Not wanting to carry bags of breastmilk into the office, I put them in my pocket, where they stayed for my drive home. When I approached my house, I felt something wet on my hip. The bag of milk had spilled, and I had breastmilk all over my jacket and skirt. I had to tell Xander that I left his afternoon snack in my pocket.

I did not change my skirt or my jacket. In my defense, my shirt covered the stain on my skirt. Also, who has time for laundry? This does not top the time I discovered baby poop on my pants while I was on the way to our director’s office for a meeting.

In other news, Xander has altered his nighttime schedule a bit. It used to look like this:

9-10pm: last meal and sleep

11pm: Mommy goes to sleep

4am: BABY HUNGRY!

5am: effortlessly falls back asleep

7am: BABY HUNGRY!

7:30am: effortlessly falls back asleep. Mommy either conks out for another 30 minutes or gets up.

8-8:30am: wakes up in his pack n’ play, coos, smiles.

When he hit four months, he decided that this was too easy (and I learned about the four month sleep regression). Now it looks like this:

9-10pm: last meal and sleep

11pm: Mommy goes to sleep

1-2am: BABY HUNGRY!

2-3am: tosses awhile, and either falls back asleep or wakes up and demands a top off

4-5am: BABY HUNGRY!

4:30-5:30am: perhaps Mommy can put him down. Perhaps he will demand more food, and Mommy, exhausted, will let him finish his night in the big bed.

6:30-7am: BABY HUNGRY!

7:30am: Mommy, determined to have him wake up in his pack n’ play, puts him down.

8-8:30am: wakes up and smiles, apparently well rested.

I have learned that babies do not ever want first time parents to get too confident in their parenting skills. Then they might walk around and brag to other parents that their babies sleep through the night, leaving these other parents to tell themselves that the “good” parents will have children who grow up to be ignorant bums. I suppose I have had my comeuppance.

Speaking of sleep, the baby sleeps well in his crib now. I suppose I should say that he sleeps well in his crib as long as we manage to lower him into it very gently, keep the dog from coming into his room with her clackity nails, keep the cat from scratching his bedroom door, close the door soundlessly, avoid tripping on anything or sneezing on the way out, and the doorbell doesn’t ring. 


On a final note, I got a stern talking to about messing with Xander's schedule on weekends.  The man who used to rock the baby in his carseat with one foot while playing Xbox has disappeared and been replaced by super dad.  I will be adhering to the schedule from now on.

Looking coy.  That teething ring was never seen again.

practicing his sitting

ready for an outing

in his new jumparoo