Less than two years ago I wrote about my first couple weeks home alone, during the week when my wife was back at work, with two kids. I planned, somewhere along the way, to make this one 'three weeks into home with three' as a play off that previous post. But the first few weeks were in December leading up to Christmas and my wife had several shortened weeks in addition with everything else. In the end this got pushed past Christmas into the new year, and it's six weeks instead of three. But that's for the best, as I have a better idea of what I'm into now.
Some aspects are going quite well. At this point I know how to care for small children and also know my kids well enough to keep them entertained during the day. Lately my wife and I have been jokingly referring to the baby, at all of four months, as our easiest child. Now don't get me wrong, she's an infant that needs a lot from me/us. Within every two-three hour period during the day she needs a fresh diaper and a bottle, and usually also a nap. Some days she's simply crabby for whatever reason (overtired? gassy? not enough milk? feeling sick?). If I mistime her hunger it's 10 minutes of screaming while I get a bottle warm and she's completely inconsolable. But if I time her well, and I'm getting pretty good at it, she's a total joy, smily as can be and constantly making her happy noises (they're like throaty baby roars), which are completely hilarious. She's cool to be along for the ride at home or out and about. She loves laying on the floor, as long as you don't leave her alone in a room, where she's loves to watch everything going on around her (i.e. her brothers), usually from her tummy after she's flipped over. I do get annoyed with what's an apparent need to roll over at times, as she'll get stuck there and gets really mad, especially when this prevents her from falling asleep for her nap. Babies, smh.
We continue to be ridiculously lucky when it comes to sleep schedules. Like our first kid, the baby was a phenomenal sleeper overnight from the start, and these days she does a solid eight hour stretch and goes back down after the early morning feeding. Kid #2 struggled at night for the first year or so but is great now and will sleep in until 8am if I don't need to get him up earlier. #1 is becoming more like me every day and would rather do anything than sleep, and stays up way too late playing in his room with wooden trains, puzzles, aquatic animal figures... It's becoming a problem but I'll say this, when he finally goes down he's the deepest sleeper I've met. In short we fully expect all three of our kids to sleep well every night and they nearly always do. I really don't know how parents with bad sleepers function.
Other parts of my 'job' at the moment are very much works in progress. Timing the other parts of the day around the baby's schedule can be a challenge. Most weekdays I bring #1 to preschool by 8am and pick him up sometime in the 4pm hour. The morning drop-off can be chaotic as I wrangle the two boys and the baby out the door. Of course it's all a breeze the days when I actually get myself out of bed so the solution there is straightforward. Pickup is always harder, where I'm guessing on whether I need to give a bottle before or after making the trip. Then when I'm there I'm carrying the carseat and herding the distractible two-year old down the school halls, as opposed to drop-off where they take from the front door.
The best time to run errands is right away in the morning. The baby can go longer stretches without a bottle before noon and is usually still sleepy. Most days when we need a Target or grocery run I do that right after preschool drop-off. If I want to go to Costco we'll get there soon after the 10am open. I learned pretty quickly that if I try to go more than one place in the middle of the day the baby gets hungry more quickly than I'm ready for, and that's a situation I want to avoid.
A side effect of all this is an entirely random shower schedule. I'm a creature of habit and for the whole of my adult life, until recently anyway, I didn't feel like I could do anything without a shower in the morning. I wasn't usually productive, with projects around the house, or my QA job when I worked remotely, whatever, until I'd showered. That's a luxury I don't have anymore and, even if it's a little unsettling, I'm accepting that reality. Again, I guess, I could get up earlier, but that's a bridge too far at the moment. So now I get a shower sometimes late morning, when the baby is napping, or sometimes in the afternoon, when both are napping, and sometimes I get to the end of the day and realize I never did it at all. All part of the a more chaotic life.
Before wrapping up I need to add (another) comment about the dog. Yet further down the line of succession I'm really struggling to give him the attention he needs. I don't even walk him most days anymore and that's become something my wife takes care of at night. Sorry dude. We'll get back to that when 1) it's not winter with horrible conditions on the walking paths and 2) the baby's a little older. This is a good reminder to utilize a doggy day camp again.
Lastly, I'm glad I read that old post before writing this one. A lot of things are the same, even with how much our life has changed. Kid #1 is in many ways still as how I described him then, demanding in general but especially of my time when he's around. I love him to death but am glad he goes to preschool, and is enjoying it (a lot!), 4 days a week and gets a lot of time with kids his age and energy level. He'll be starting kindergarten in the fall and that's a little hard to comprehend. #2 is similar too. If we wait too long to feed him, hoo boy, there's some anger from a small child. And #3 is a lot like #2 was in other ways. She adapted to a schedule very well and has seemingly thrived lately. I, on the other hand, continue to get into trouble if I lose track of time, trying to be otherwise productive, and allow too long of naps during the day. My wife does not find it ideal for the four month old to be up til ten when she wants to be in bed herself. It's also hard to watch movies when she's doing her roars.
Well, this is my life right now. I go day by day and deal with a lot of fussing, crying and whining. As a result I get frustrated with the littles with regularity, but I also enjoy myself trying to sort through it all and have no doubts about the value I'm adding to my family. Every day is an adventure.
Until next time. Thanks for reading.
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