I finally have a manageable routine:
Wake up around 7:00 AM to Chloe making cute baby noises.
Pick her up, take her upstairs and change her.
Bring her downstairs for Laura to feed her.
Go to work.
Wait eight hours to go home.
Go home.
Eat dinner.
Do various things.
Go to bed.
That’s my typical weekday. But once in awhile, life throws you a wicked curveball that you don’t expect. My curveball came in the form of a dead car battery after my eight hour wait to go home. Luckily, my mother-in-law and I work for the same organization, and since she has AAA, I went back into the building to cry ask for help.
She called AAA for me and they said it would be at least an hour before someone would even call me. (What was I to expect for Friday at 5:00 PM?) So since the weather was decent, I took a walk around the 26 acre campus.
When I reached the back of the campus, I saw a AAA flatbed in the distance, trying to find Leon the Neon. I turned my walk into a brisk Mt. Lebanon mom power walk to make sure these guys didn’t miss me.
“Who are you here for?” I asked. The guy in the passenger seat was a total “dude” and gave me the right name.
“The car’s behind that building,” I said, pointing ahead.
“Get on the truck and we’ll go.” he said.
“Like, stand on the runner here?”
“Yeah, just hang on.”
So I stood on the side of the AAA truck as it went up the road to service my auto. I felt like a firefighter!
We got to my car, popped the hood and tried to start it.
“I think it’s the battery,” I told them.
“I think it’s the starter,” said the driver. “You wouldn’t have any interior lights if it was the battery.” So I let it go, trusting his expertise.
The driver was clearly training the passenger. “Where’s the starter?” he asked the trainee. The trainee pointed in one direction and the driver pointed in another. “Hmmm,” I thought.
So they went over to their truck and brought over something that looked like a cross between a crowbar and an elevator cable. They jammed it between some things under the hood, applied some force and told me to start it. No success.
They ended up towing my car to the garage down the street, but the garage folks couldn’t even look at it until Monday. We placed my keys into an envelope for the garage’s drop box. All of my information was written on the envelope and the guys wrote ‘starter?’ in the comments section.
Two days later, the garage folks call to tell me I just needed a new battery. And so I had them install the friggin’ battery.
So what’s the moral of this story? Tell the AAA guys to jump your battery so you can take your car to Advance Auto Parts and save $30 on unnecessary labor costs.
Annoying And Aggravating
At least I got to hang off the side of a flatbed. That was fun.
Chloe is seven weeks old today. These were seven long weeks that went by very quickly (if that makes any sense).
She’s now starting to smile and make girlish cooing noises that make our hearts melt. I find myself saying cute but obvious things to her like “You got a nose!” and “Who’s a baby?” hoping she’ll let out something close to a girlish laugh. She’s tons of fun, even when we’re just watching her sleep, which can be up to 6 straight hours. Goodbye, twitching eyes!
One thing I’m noticing is her developing addiction to her pacifier (or “binkers” as I like to call it). She seems to need it in her mouth all the time, and the second it drops from her lips, she bursts into screams which shoot through our eardrums. Of course, the only solution is to shove it back in her face. Binkers is going to be a hard habit to break someday.
I changed a diaper this morning that smelled like old milk and bacon. It was interesting.
Anyway, I haven’t posted any “life with baby” updates for while since I’ve been searching for that balance between full time employee and dad. I think it’s actually going pretty well (thanks to my wife who is kind enough to take all nighttime feedings and changings during the weekdays).
But then again, there are days when I’m a dumb zombie, unable to hold a conversation, remember a conversation and recall the name of the person I’m talking to. It’s kind of like living through a dream; I’ll transition from one place to another without any recollection how or why I arrived there.
And on those zombie days, I usually develop a headache that either makes my head feel like it weighs 20 pounds, or produces a sharp pain in the very middle of my head; not just my forehead, mind you, but my three dimensional skull. Sometimes I think it’s my brain about to explode.
But these “days of death” are few and far between. In fact, Chloe actually slept through the night a few days ago (from 11:30 PM until 6:00 AM). This of course, was a fluke since she woke up twice the very next night.
I’m hungry, so I’m not going to wrap things up in a nice little package here.
And, unlike most zombies, I’m not craving brains for breakfast. I’m going for Wheaties.
Today was my first day back to work with over eight hours away from Chloe. It was the longest we’ve been apart since her birthday a week and a half ago. Needless to say, it was a nice little break. Too bad I wasn’t sleeping.
And before you think I’m heartless, I’ll admit that part of me really missed her. I missed the way she sometimes tries to suckle my knuckles… the strange noises she makes from her pack ‘n play… and even the baby scent she gives off (which is a combination of ointment, diapers and laundry detergent). Sometimes this smell is so overwhelming, it gags me.
The day sure went fast though. In just a few hours, I’ll attempt to get three or four hours of sleep before the cries of hunger wake me. I’ll also make sure to shut my eyes extra tight as I try to avoid the intense glow of the most powerful night light ever created. (Thanks again for installing it on my bedside, Laura.)
Goodnight!
A few people have asked me this question. Here’s the answer: Life was getting a little boring and predictable. I mean, how often can Laura and I go to a restaurant, not get dessert, come home before 9:00 PM, watch Cake Boss in the living room and the Weather Channel while in bed before it starts losing its luster? And since no one ever wanted to hang out with us, we figured hey, why not create people to hang out with us. Makes sense, right?
My wife and I had a baby because we love each other and felt it was only natural to turn our love (an intangible feeling) into something physical and very real. And that’s beyond awesome.
Having a baby is one of life’s greatest experiences… but you can read that in just about any parenting magazine or birthing brochure in the country. I’ve only experienced the first week, and I know there’s much more on the way. But as for now, all I can say is that it’s life changing. Instead of “us,” there’s now “all of us.”
It’s been nearly a week since Chloe came into our lives. Juat a week ago, I was sipping over a pint and a half of stout in the dining room, reading through a beer magazine while Laura sat in the living room watching Ghostbusters. This was the scene just before her water broke at 11:30 PM.
This week has been a whirlwind of excitement, worry, bliss, frustration and tears... and sometimes all at once. We have what is called the “baby blues”.
Here’s what St. Clair Hospital says about the baby blues:
Up to 80 percent of new mothers cry easily or feel stressed following the birth of a baby. When this happens within the first two weeks of pregnancy, it is called the “baby blues”. These feelings may be associated with changes in sleep patterns and/or appetite. They are considered a normal part of early motherhood and should go away as quickly as they came within a few days.
Tempers sometimes escalated this week. Earlier today, Laura questioned me on my whereabouts.
“Where were you for the last ten minutes?”
“Watching some videos online.”
“That’s great. Why don’t you do something a little more adult?”
“Like what? Do some taxes in my spare moments?"
This was obviously the wrong answer, but we worked it out!
Achieving a new balance is more than just a slogan for a shoe company. It’s a goal we are striving for right now. And I think after a few weeks, we should have a good idea on how best to live our new life as a family (or so I’m told).
The last few nights and days have run together. My wife and I sleep in four hour intervals and wake up to feed our daughter and change her diaper. It feels as if all we ever do is feed, change and console her.
Last night was no exception. Although we were able to sleep uninterrupted from 9:30 PM until 2:00 AM, we woke to the sound of our crying newborn. After changing and feeding her, she was still quite fussy and so we decided to take a short car ride to Rite Aid to get some gas drops at 4:00 AM.
After fighting with a grasshopper that somehow snuck behind Chloe’s butt in her car seat, we were off. It was a quick ride (since there was no one on the road) and so Laura stayed in the car with Chloe as I stumbled into Rite Aid.
The cashier, Elizabeth, asked me if I needed help, and I mumbled something about the gas drops. She took me to the diarrhea and gas aisle and showed me some product while describing all of its ingredients. “Yeah, that’s fine,” I said, but she insisted that we take a look at the children’s section. There, we found products that were “organic” or containing “gerelsdhl” or whatever she said.
“You know what gerelsdhl is, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Your grandma probably used that. But I’m not a doctor. You may want to call the hospital she was born in. They always have a pediatrician on call. On second thought, this also has ginger in it. Let’s go ask Tara what she thinks.”
I followed Elizabeth to the back where Tara was either unpacking boxes, doing yoga, or trying on outfits (vision was quite fuzzy) and she said something I don’t remember at all.
So I followed Elizabeth back to the front of the store and purchased the gas drops. She told me to let her know how things go.
This post isn’t a knock at Rite Aid. In fact, I thought the service was awesome. But when it’s four in the morning and I look like crap, just give me what I need and let me go.
Laura and I are changing our routine today. Rather than waking Chloe up every three hours to eat, we’re letting her sleep until she’s ready. And she’ll let us know when she’s ready. We’ve already had a few hours to ourselves and were able to do a few things we need to around the house (including writing this post).
