I think to say Wednesday was an interesting day for me would be a slight understatement. My wife had made plans to catch up with some friends that she hasn’t seen in a while and rather than putting the little man in the car seat for a two hour drive each way, it was set to be a daddy / son day. The first one that I have had all by myself since he has been born. Now it isn’t like I haven’t had him by myself at all, it was more the whole day aspect that I was slightly apprehensive about.
As far as days with a young baby go, it was relatively smooth, there were just moments that were a challenge, mostly because I am not used to them. During the day Supermum tends to look after him, she better knows his routine and needs. When he was crying and I felt like I had done everything, that was when I started to stress a little. I had made sure he was well fed, nappy was changed, lots of cuddles were taking place, calming music was on, but he still wasn’t a happy Chappy at times and I didn’t know what to do next. Sometimes all it needs is a mother’s touch, but that wasn’t going to come for another couple of hours yet, so we had to figure things out ourselves. After a while of bouncing around and lots of cuddles and getting him into his sleeping bag, he finally calmed down, but no matter what I did, he wouldn’t sleep. He had been up for a while now, I could tell he was tired and getting grouchy, but again, no luck. We tried rocking, walking around the house in the pram (it was raining outside), the bouncer, his next to me, cuddling in bed, him on my chest – once more I was out of ideas, so just went back to cuddling on the sofa. Not long later, Esther got home, no more than 10 minutes of cuddling and he was snoozing very contentedly! Like I said, sometimes it just needs a mother’s touch.
She goes off to get ready for her friend’s baby shower and I have a bit of time to compose myself now. Little girlie is back from nursery, chasing Mummy around upstairs and soon I am on my own again, with both of them needing my attention, as well as bath time and bedtime. Bath time was a breeze thankfully, he sat in his baby bath very happily, whilst after a messy day at nursery our little girl needed a good wash. I managed to navigate the cleaning and drying without much of an issue, however, I think I might have let my guard down a little!
Onto bedtime. At this point, it was getting to the time when he was due his bottle, so naturally, a hungry baby cries. I couldn’t have asked for a better behaved, tired little girl at this point, who was so unbelievably understanding. She got herself into bed and tucked in and daddy had to go and find her bunbun. Rather than standing in her room, bobbing up and down and disturbing her more with an upset baby, I asked her if it was ok for me to take him downstairs, she just turned to me and said, “daddy I need a huggy.” she gave us both a big cuddle and kiss and that was it, she went to sleep by herself and I didn’t hear a peep from her for the rest of the night. A part of me was a little taken aback at how grown up she acted in this moment though, so it was slightly bittersweet. I got him fed and happy again and mummy was soon home for cuddles again after having a great evening.
This was a challenging day that gave me a new found appreciation for all that goes into the day of a stay at home mum, looking after two young children. I am not one of those that thinks that they sit there, watching TV all day cuddling a baby and not doing anything else. I understand that so much more goes into it than this, but I didn’t quite appreciate how much. I still wonder now how my amazing wife manages to do so much in the day whilst looking after the children.
To any mums out there who might be reading this, keep up the good work.
To any dads out there, thank them for everything that they do, help as much as you can and don’t assume that all they do all day is watch Netflix and drink coffee.