Day 11 – June Mommies
I told myself, “Today will be a good day of napping. I will be organized. It will be smooth.”
Trouble is, nobody passed that message along to Cole.
Agenda: almost clear. Meet the “June Mommies” (friends of Mama Monkey who all had children in June) at 1:00, or whenever naps make it convenient. This day should be a piece of pie.
Started off with the usual “nap in the car” thing. Only 45 mins I think. Not a big deal, though. I don’t ‘love’ the car nap, but it’s a nap. I’ll take it where I can get it. He wakes up in a bit of a cranky-pants mood, but not too bad. Let’s keep him busy, which will keep me sane– let’s pack some things up and head over to Nana and Grandpa S’s place. Good idea, but it took a bit more time organizing than I’d like, which meant we reached a point where he wanted some milk. OK, put milk on to get warm, take him for a change of diaper.
But wait… this isn’t working according to plan.
He has become Mr. Cranky-Pants asking for his “mem” (usually, “milk”). On the change table, doing nothing but trying to roll around, causing unsafe conditions and the need to never have one hand off his body while he’s on that table. I let go for a split second and he thought he was going to roll himself off. Luckily I’m quick and knew it was a potential danger (and therefore was extra vigilant). So, a real fight getting the diaper changed.
Then after only 3 oz. or so of milk, he decided he didn’t want any more. Was it the wrong temperature? I dunno… he usually likes it rather warm, which it was. Too warm? Doubtful. Just being fussy? I think that’s the ticket. Don’t want any more? OK, let’s get rolling, then. By the time we have some lunch and a visit, it’ll be nap time. That would put me a bit late for meeting the June Mommies, but they’ll certainly understand.
First part of the visit with Nana and Grandpa went fine. The usual cute playing and being held. Lunch was fine (Red Pear, biscuit). Bit of walking to settle him before nap. Put the milk on to warm it (in anticipation). Sure enough, he starts asking for it, which makes it perfect timing for the nap… bit of milk, bit of rocking, sleep, right? Not a chance. I’m used to him fighting sleep, but this time he refused the milk, too. Without milk to settle him at least a little, it was a battle. Nana and Grandpa were quite willing to fight that battle while I played on their Wii, but after over an hour with no luck, he was getting crazy. Knowing that the only ’solution’ was the car nap, we headed out.
The Mommies
Sure enough, he fell asleep almost right away. Problem is, the drive isn’t nearly long enough. I debated just letting him sleep it out in the car, but after yesterday’s success at taking him out of the car while he’s still asleep, I rolled the dice. And lost. As I rang the doorbell to Julie’s house, he was approaching wakefulness. Eyes opening, finding the world interesting….calm, but awake.
The June Mommies were great. Super-understanding, very warm and friendly, and of course we can all relate and compare our experiences with our children since they’re all similar in age. Made for a very easy visit in terms of the adult company and the other children. But then there was Cole. After about 10 minutes of angelic silence and just looking like the calm cutie-pants he usually is, he started to ask for his “mem” again. And once again, he refused the bottle. I think the bottle had been written off for the day… he doesn’t always “love” it, but this was the first day he had flat out given up on it.
After trying to calm him back into napping or eating for a while (and failing), he had some exersaucer time. When that wore out, a mother-to-be (any day now!) kindly took him while I prepared to leave. This calmed him down greatly, so I stuck around for a while longer. I also wanted to scam more cookies. I like cookies. I think Cole got pissed off when I was eating cookies without him, silently glaring at me as if to say, “Oh, YOU get cookies and I have to drink out of that bottle? Thanks a LOT, dad.” Maybe if he knew the joys of “milk and cookies” (emphasis on the milk) he may have relented. 
Eventually, though, he returned to the unhappy state and we took our leave.
When I don’t journal every day, I forget things… I don’t even remember if we picked mommy up at work or not. I think we did, with him sleeping. Thus ended the day shift with only 3oz. of milk consumed. I didn’t focus on it, but there was a LOT of crying to go with this, which is stressful as well as heartbreaking. Poor little guy must’ve been starving by the time he finally got some food “on tap”, though I’m told many babies will just go throughout the whole day waiting for mommy. Only, my understanding is that they don’t fuss quite as much about it.
Day 12 – Disorganizasho’
I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t get stuff together quickly enough.
Today the plan was: playtime, morning nap, lunch, dog park, run errands, go home.
Playtime was fine. We spent a good chunk of it in bed practicing crawling, as well as reading a book. He wasn’t too into the exersaucer, but enjoyed more mat time. I wanted to save the jolly jumper for later.
Morning nap was a little bit miserable. He took the bottle this time, ate a good amount (like, 7oz or more), and was obviously crazy-tired with half-opened red eyes. But he wouldn’t go under (that’s a familiar story by now, eh?). Bouncing, walking, etc… nothing. He started asking for “mem” again, but this time I took it to mean that he wanted the nice warmth and comfort of his mommy… not really “feeding” him per se, but just letting him settle into his nap. I can’t do that. The best I can do is hold him close, sing soothing songs or make soft sounds. When he’s cranky, though, he just arches his back and squirms around. Which is what he was doing today. It got to the point that he was complaining with both voice and body…crying, twisting…but with his eyes closed. He just couldn’t keep them open anymore. I took this as a cue, and held him in a comfortable position but more firmly than normal… not intentionally restricting him in a punitive way, but just making it such that he had a harder time pivoting into a less sleep-friendly position.
This seemed to work, though I hope I don’t have to repeat it often (who wants to struggle with a squirming overtired baby?). The protesting died down bit by bit and he fell asleep in my arms. Put him down, and used the important “trick” of letting him shift to side-sleeping position when his body wanted to do so. Rubbed his back a bit, and he was out. For 1.5 hours! Hooray! I napped, too.
Lunch was fine. We enjoyed some chicken together, and he enjoyed some more pear, crackers, and biscuits. Dogs are getting pretty good at not bothering him quite as much while he eats. After lunch and a bit of settling down, I gave him some “mem”, which he accepted, drank about 2 oz. of, and then calmly set aside (not the same as yesterday’s rejections).
Then daddy’s disorganization let things get a bit crappy again. I had the right ‘plan’ — I had already repacked and restocked his diaper bag earlier (yay, organized me…), so all I needed to do was dress Cole, put him in the jolly jumper, load up the dogs, diaper bag and stroller in one trip to the car, and then grab Cole for the second. 10 minutes, tops!
But no.
Dogs and stroller, no problem. But then when I came back in I realized that it had been a while without a diaper change. So the boots that I had already dressed him in (to his annoyance) had to be removed again. In fact, the whole changing process annoyed him, and he squirmed a bunch. He took off his hat again, too. Now he’s asking for milk, and is getting annoyed at me.
Downstairs. Hat. Mitts. Boots already on. Dogs, bag and Stroller outside… we’re good! Out the door, lock the door, down the walkway. Oh crap, no blanket and worse yet no snowsuit (a necessity for the dog park, obviously).
“Mem!”
OK… I COULD put him in his carseat… couldn’t I?…..
Nope. One-arm open the door again, grab his stuff in one hand. But wait, I remember that I don’t have a hat or mitts either. Try to grab those and tuck them under an arm.
“MEMMM!! And quit tilting me sideways while you’re picking stuff up off the floor, it’s annoying!!! MEMMM!!!”
Out the door, lock.
One-arm baby hold starting to slip. Re-adjust. Drop a mitt.
Into the car seat. Get the mitt. Get the bottle. Cold milk. Semi-rejects, but drinks about 1.5 oz, enough to placate himself.
Drive the 2mins to the dog park. Unload stroller, bundle baby up (squirming), baby into stroller (complaining), get the dogs ready. Wait. No leashes? Seriously? We ALWAYS keep flat leashes in the car… what happened? No matter, I have at least one flat leash (for Balu the dawdler) in my pocket. Or do I? Search pockets twice, three times. Nope (it was in pants pocket the whole time, by the way, which I didn’t think to check). OK. Wait for traffic to clear, and then herd the dogs to the park. Balu dawdles, car is coming. Baby inside park, stroller brake on, back a few metres for Balu… finally we’re all in.
Dog poop 1, 2, and 3 all fairly consecutively and by both dogs. Running around trying to pick up poop while Cole starts getting annoyed at the lack of forward motion.
The rest of the walk went great. Cole didn’t nap (which I was hoping he WOULD), but he was calm and enjoyed the ride. Dogs stayed nearby and were friendly. Getting them back to the car was also hassle-free.
And actually, that’s how most of the rest of the day went… relatively hassle-free. I had other errands to run, and he fell asleep in the car. He was a bit finicky when we got home again, asking for “mem” as in his mom (not as in Milk) enough that I called her to see when she’d be arriving, which also served to guage whether to give him more milk or not (better to not, whenever possible). He was starting to get pretty annoyed by the time Mama arrived, but it was pretty easy anyhow just knowing that there was a finite countdown for reinforcement.
But the take-away I got from it was… learn to spend less than an hour getting ready for your outings! An hour? WTH, Greg… get with it….
