Flying Solo

On the tail end of my first weekend alone with a child, I am compelled to provide a synopsis of the weekend's events. For those who don't know, Summer spent the weekend in San Francisco with her parents for her brother's wedding. I stayed behind with mini-me and Buddy to man the home front. The following is an unedited peak at how the weekend has gone thus far (mama ain't coming home until 11:45ish, weather permitting). Friday started off innocently enough. I picked Kaitlin up from daycare and she was in a great mood. The teachers at her school had a staff Christmas party from 1-3pm when the babies were supposed to be sleeping, so some parents filled in. Upon reading her report card, I noted Kaitlin had only slept for 40 minutes on the day (typically this is more in the 2-3 hrs range). I was not immediately concerned and actually thought this could work out in my favor in the form of an early bed time...I was sorely mistaken.

When we got home, I hastily changed out of work clothes and began prepping a bottle. Kaitlin's report card indicated she'd only had 5 oz b/w 10 and 6pm, so all signs again pointed to an easy bottle feeding experience...again, very, very sorely mistaken. Immediately she began to scream and flail around, so I went to the tried and true method of squirting milk into her mouth by pushing on the bottom of the bottle liner and aiming at the inside of her cheek. This is a messy, yet effective maneuver in times when she is refusing the bottle, however this time she kept continued to dance on the panic button. So, in an effort to more closely simulate the breast-feeding experience and hopefully calm her down, I grabbed the Boppy pillow and headed for the couch. For those unfamiliar with the Boppy pillow, it goes around your waist and the baby then lies on it side-ways, facing you. I had Kaitin on there for maybe 5 seconds when the bottle liner fell out and milk went everywhere. She immediately starts screaming and I was frantically trying to assess where exactly the full contents of the bottle had gone. I need to interject here (mostly for Britt Brown's entertainment) that I've never wanted the man-teat set up that Robert Dinero has in "Meet the Fockers" so bad in my entire life (if you don't know what I'm talking about, see the "manary gland" write-up in the "Characters" section, mid-way down here). So, I put Kaitlin in the swing and went into full clean up mode. Luckily, most of the milk was on the Boppy and my shorts, so the couch was relatively spared. Rather than read between the lines here, I just smiled at my "good fortune". It wasn't until I went back over to the swing to pick up Kaitlin that I noticed only one side of her head was wet. Surely this is just because she's hot natured, like her dad, and was sweating due to all of the crying, right...INCORRECT! My oversight was that in order for the milk to soak the Boppy, it had to first go all over KAITLIN'S HEAD AND FACE.

After a quick smell-check to confirm, I hastily readied a bath. This is another first, as I typically am in an assistant role to Summer for bath-time (e.g. I hold the towels and catch the wet baby at the end). Now was no time to panic b/c I had a very sleepy, hungry, dirty and pissed off baby. Thankfully, the bath went well, as did the post-bath procedures and change of clothes (she typically hates this). After a quick clean-up, she went down for a nap and we tried the bottle again at 8:30pm and she actually latched on and took a few ounces. Amanda came over and spent the night and was a big help. I was actually able to make some dinner and get a shower. The feeding got incrementally better after the disastrous start. Since saturday morning, she's been latching on and taking a minimum of 3 ounces each time, which is great. I've been texting Summer the update after every feeding, just to keep her in the loop. Nanny and Pa Pa came over yesterday and took some pictures of Kaitlin in her "Elf in Training" onesie in front of her first Christmas tree (look for these to get added to the website later). We also took her for a walk around the block at night, so she could see the Christmas lights. She got very excited each time we came up on a house with lights and started kicking and smiling.

All in all, this has been a great experience for me. My confidence level in terms of how to handle Kaitlin's day-to-day schedule/needs has increased tremendously. This would have only been possible by going at it alone for a few days, as Summer was not there to lean on (which is what I'd been doing the last few months). I definitely would recommend the a weekend alone for all first time dad's.