I heard it said once, that "The longer you wait in line, the more likely you are in the wrong line." Or something like that. I have always thought that to be true.
I'm adding a line that is similar. "The more good days you have with a baby, the better the chance that the next day will be a day from hell."
I took a few days to settle in, and get the moral of the story, before I wrote it. Last week, on Monday, Alaina and I had a good time. We cruised around the country, hung out at Lackawanna State Park, it was a good time.
Tuesday, not so much.
We woke up at around normal time. Then we spent most of the day crying and yelling at Daddy. (That's right, not only was Alaina yelling at Daddy, and Daddy was yelling at Daddy, but even Christa was yelling at Daddy.) Days like this come around. The first thing you MUST remember, is you are a team. This slipped my mind. For example, when Christa sent a text at lunch time asking how the day was going, and my response was something along the lines of "Alaina hates me... Life sucks... It's about as bad as when they cancelled Scrubs." To which she responded something like "Why? What's wrong?" I should have answered detailing about how I was having a hard time getting the baby to burp, and she probably has a belly ache... but instead I answered with something like, "I have no friggen idea. The baby has turned evil! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!"
You need to remember that parenting is a team effort. Did my ranting via text message to my wife help the situation? Nope. It made her day probably just about as bad as mine was. I'm sure she felt as helpless as I was feeling, only for her, she was 30 mins from home.
You need to stick together. Now, I can't imagine what this job must be like for a single parent. I really can't. I used to think "parents" in general were the only heros... But you single parents really must be miracle workers.
Those of us who aren't single parents, need to remember that we aren't in this alone. Plus, you probably have some family you can lean on during the bad days. After all, what is family for, if not for abusing during your time of need?
Yesterday, I was asked how many times throughout the night Alaina wakes up. They were shocked when I answered "None." They were amazed when I talked about how she will go to sleep around 10, and not usually wake up until 6 or 7.
I wish I didn't say it.
1am, almost on the dot... I awake to the "shrieking eels." Maybe she was having flash backs to last Tuesday, maybe she was upset about how Daddy didn't get an Ipad for Fathers Day... I have no idea. But the cry that burst out, slapped me with visions of the dog gnawing on her arm, or something. Nope. Nothing.
She was only awake for a few minutes, just long enough to wake Daddy up totally, from what seemed like a fantastic sleep. 5 minutes of rocking the cradle, and back to sleep. If only it was that easy for me to fall back to sleep.
Then came 6am. Just as it seemed like I was getting back to sleep, Alaina decides its breakfast time.
I know, I know. I can hear you from here. "Even after your 1am wake up call, you were still able to get 5 hours of sleep! I haven't had 5 hours of sleep since I was 8 months pregnant!" I know, I get it. But let's face it... We are spoiled! Alaina is almost 4 months old, and the three of us sleep through the night.
Almost sounds like the lottery, doesn't it?
Mommy and Daddy went to the Taste of Pennsylvania (or something like that) wine festival at Splitrock, on Saturday. Why am I telling you? To gloat really.
My point with us going to the wine festival, is this... We CAN and DO still do things. Things we like to do. Were we able to pass out, under the pines, only to wake up Sunday morning, wondering where we parked the car? Not really. But we still had a great time.
Last week... we went to a movie. Yep. We still do things.
(It should have been dinner and a movie... buuuuuuut... let's not point fingers at the baby. That's all I have to say.)
Having a baby doesn't mean your life is over. You can still do things you like to do. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of planning, or a babysitter. Most of the things you like to do, can be done with a baby. Like riding a motorcycle. Baby Bjorns fit nicely under your leather jacket, if you don't zip it up all the way. Ohhhhhh I'm only kidding. DON'T DO THAT. (I thought about putting a doll in the Bjorn and riding around the block... I wonder how that would go.)
No comments:
Post a Comment