Loo.me

Well, Hunter came into the world three weeks ago.  A few people have asked how it’s going.  Here are some initial thoughts:

There are some new experiences. Here’s one. Never in my life have ever not been able to go to sleep when i’m tired.  If i’m really tired at the end of a day and something comes up, i’ve always (if I’m really tired) been abel to push that item off till  the morning or do some small action to appease it enough where i can still go to bed.  Even in college, i’d take short power naps when i got really tired in the middle of the night. I’ve never been forced to stay awake, ever.  Until now. Not being able to go to sleep because a baby is just crying its face off is a new experience and it’s quite painful.

I’m surprised how much i can quiet the screaming by just picking him up and bouncing.  It’s like magic and it feels great.

As the dad, I’m not that useful. Hunter wants to eat and sleep. When he wakes, he wants to eat right away. There’s not much i can do there.  I’m not really that useful. The burden of childrearing right now is so much heavier on the mom and other than moving to bottle-feeding as fast as possible, there’s not much the dad can do. That is a surprise.

I’m really happy I don’t own a dog.  I have no idea how i could take care of something else.  On that note, our cats seem to know exactly when Hunter has fallen asleep and use that exact moment as their cue to start a meow storm.  It’s just maddening.

Since i’m not that helpful on the food front, I try to change all the diapers and do all the swaddling. The amount of poop is really quite small and painless.  Hunter’s stomach can only hold 4 oz. so it’s not bad at all.  Also smell-free.  So there’s that.  My dad has a technique when shopping for clothes for other people.  He walks into a store and just makes a beeline to a salesperson and then freely admits that he knows nothing and needs their help.  I’ve seen him do this dozens of times and, strangely, it usually results in some pretty good presents. This is the exact technique I used in the hospital to learn how to change diapers and swaddle. I went right into the nursery and gathered the nurses around and asked them to teach me everything they know.  Well, apparently neither swaddling nor diaper changing is that hard.  That said, i’m still a master at it.

We’re now in a routine of not knowing what our routine is.  Sometimes he sleeps 5 hours at a time, sometimes only 45 minutes. We never know which makes planning tough.  It also means I have no idea if the day ahead is going to be a great one for Diane or a disaster.  I’m starting to understand the ups and downs of the chart i wrote about a few weeks ago.

When he’s wide awake, his arms start flailing and i swear he’s flashing gangster signs.  He’s got cute little hands and they are so tense.  it’s pretty cute.  Check it out:

That’s where we are now.  I’m sure in two weeks we’ll be in a different spot.  Just like i wrote a few weeks ago, it’s really frickin’ fun and I’m totally enjoying the little guy.