Monday, February 14, 2011

Abby is My Hero/Laughter (I'm a Dad Mondays)

Eli is a sweet, self soothing, happy sleeping little baby during the day. At night, Eli does not sleep unless he is being held. We don't know why this is but it makes life tough. Abby has definitely taken the brunt of this. Day 1 and 2 I could help and take a few shifts at night, but day 3 and 4 Abby took the entire night so that I could be rested for two very important days at work. The sleep deprivation really wore on Abby. The trouble is, even if take a few night shifts for her, she still has to get up every 3 hours for a certain motherly duty that I cannot perform. We have started to find a system that works, but we are really hoping Eli will just start sleeping better at night. I know someone mentioned that we try to keep him awake during the day so he will sleep better at night, but that is not an option yet. She shouldn't even be born for another two weeks. He is still a newborn. For at least two more months he will need to sleep almost all day. Anyway, to sum up: Eli doesn't sleep so good at night and Abby is my hero.

Something else I want to mention: feeding Eli is boring. It is something we have to do every 3 hours. When Abby feeds him, it can take up to 40 minutes to feed. When I feed him (with a bottle of breast-milk or formula) it take 15-20. When we finish, we have to hold him upright on our chest for 20 minutes because he struggles a little with spitting up. So, a lot of our day (more Abby's than mine) is taken up by feeding. And it is boring. I get tired of flipping channels on TV (and really, what is on at 3 am?). I can't really be on the Internet and I have not yet mastered reading while feeding/burping. So, I have turned to TV series on DVD. Two Christmases ago I got a bunch of animated series that I grew up on: Superman, Justice League, Batman & Batman Beyond. I watched the 4th season of Justice League and recently started the 4th season of Batman. It passes the time, and season 4 has Tim Drake as Robin, Nightwing (with a pony tail) and Batgirl.

One more thing I want to mention: Eli makes me laugh all the time. Or rather, I laugh all the time when I am with Eli, many times at myself. Often this happens when I am changing his clothes or his diaper. Eli fusses when you change him (he doesn't like the cold wet wipes and we are too cheap to buy a wet wipe warmer) and the only thing that soothes him is his pacifier so you need at least one hand on that thing at all times or he cries. Changing his diaper (and reducing his hernias, changing his clothes, etc) require two hands. So it is always this back and forth of, put in the pacifier/wipe the bottom/put in the pacifier/change the diaper/put in the pacifier, reduce the hernia/put in the pacifier...I need 3 hands! If I had 3 hands, it would be easy. Anyway, all that to say, I am not great at changing his diaper and clothes and this makes me laugh. I make a bunch of juvenile potty jokes. When he has a monster poop, I laugh at the amount and smell. When I change his onesie, I laugh at his frustration with how long it takes me and how tough it is for me to get it over his head in a swift manner.

Recently this little situation happened: I went and picked Eli up at diaper changing/feeding time. He was wet all over his back and chest. I think to myself: "Eli have you been sweating? Were you too hot? This can't be pee, it is way up your back and chest. Too high for that." I hold him for a minute and realize he is really wet and smells a little, so I go to change him. MONSTER POOP! It was huge and liquid-y. As I go to change this, Eli pees. All over his chest, up onto his face. This is awful. Poor baby has pee on his face. But I laugh. I laugh so hard! I sent Abby (and my whole family): 'If you ever find yourself asking: "Eli, are you wet because you are sweating or did you pee on yourself?", feel free to assume: peed on yourself.'

Monster Poop

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