Day 4 -- The Sweetest Little Thing

Day 4:

I have the cutest daughter on the planet. I just have to say that.

Okay. Woke up this morning with Edgar and gave him the kind of morning I would've loved... Fruity Pebbles for breakfast, snuggled up and watched some "cringer movie", and put away CDs/straightened up the house a bit.

After a lazy morning, Jen and I swapped-- I took Sabrina and she gave Edgar some "mommy time". Sabrina is the complete antithesis of Edgar at this age. She's quiet. She's content. She eats, sleeps, and poops like a champ (which is really all you can ask at 4 days old, right?) Always happy unless there's something directly bothering her, and then once you fix the problem, happy again. So unlike her brother who could grace us with 2 and a half hours straight screaming, followed by a 15 minute attempt at feeding, a 30 minute nap, and then back to the screaming.

Sabrina just snuggles down, takes little cat naps, opens her eyes and explores her world, and generally is an angel sent from heaven. I mean, I could stare for hours at this face:

I could stare for hours, except for any time I stop moving for more than 10 seconds, I immediately fall asleep. So much so that any time Jen and I swap, and I take Sabrina, I'm immediately asleep. I guess that's okay. She fends for herself fairly well.

In fact, this evening, after Edgar went to sleep, Sabrina was napping on our bed, and Jen and I played two whole levels of Super Mario Wii in the other room. It was amazing. I don't know what our lives would've been like if we'd've had the kids in the other order, but they'd be pretty terrible right about now. I'm glad I'm not up with a baby all night and dealing with a toddler.

Now, for the badness. Edgar's routine involves a nap every day where he goes down for a nap, and Jen turns off the ringer on the phone and tries to be as quiet as possible. Edgar generally wakes up half an hour later, and spends another hour or two snuggling in bed with his mom. This was the story, at least, before the new baby came.

Today, I went to the bathroom (hey-- I had to go!), and flushed (hey- you wouldn't leave that lying around!), and voila! One awake Edgar after 15 minutes of nap. Took him in to Jen's bed, but she was busy with Sabrina, so no more nap for Edgar.  I was pretty cheezed.

Now here's my take on it (you can bet that there are two sides to this story, and that's okay-- you don't have to take my side)  :

This is a situation that we can't sustain. Edgar is too parent-dependent during his naptime (and morning time, but that's a different matter). While this was an okay situation for Edgar when he was home every day with his mom, this is no longer an okay situation. I'm more than a little bit peeved at my wife for creating this situation (and having 9 months' warning to fix it an not doing so).  I can see the motivation for keeping him so: it's the closeness and connection of being a mommy. However, the refusal to address a looming problem is pure selfishness, because now it's MY problem. So... Naps will change. Dad will definitely be the bad guy as I work on breaking him of the habit of snuggling with a warm mother.

This has got me thinking: My job is sort of like being a stay-at-home-mother of one. Sort of like, but not really. I understand the difference-- we've currently got two parents at home not working. That's a luxury by any stretch, but I think that raising kids builds upon itself, and it's all about establishing proper routines and boundaries. I'm not saying I'm perfect, I make mistakes, but I'm mature enough to know when to acknowledge a problem and fix it.

However, this is my statement of (acknowledged) hubris: To all the stay-at-home moms out there: I'm not saying you have an easy job, but despite my obvious lack of mammary glands, and my mediocre cooking skills, I think I could do your job, and do it pretty well. So there.

I took Edgar to the ski store today to either get the bindings re-done on my skis or buy new skis. The store seemed pretty confident they could re-do the bindings so yay! no $500 ski purchase on the horizon. It was snowing, but not sticking, and Edgar enjoyed that. He was pretty much on one low-level tantrum all day. Maybe the tantruming and the fights stirred up my ire about other things. Who knows. Am I oversharing on this blog? Probably. Oh well.