Mom Left Us!

Adventure: First Time Without Mom

Many people have asked, "Are you scared to babysit Rose when your wife goes to work?" My answer is always "of course not." But what I really want to say is, "Why would you even ask me that?", "would you ask me that if I was a woman?", "I'm not 'babysitting' my daughter, I'm parenting. I'm her Dad!". Now, this could easily turn into a rant about how sexist society is towards Dad's, or how we are always seen as being the lesser parent, but I'll cut it here. Instead, I'm going to share with you Rose's and I's first adventure without Mom. Last week The Misses had her first day (well, night rather) back at work. Let me explain that The Misses is a night ICU Nurse. If you have any experience with working nights, then you understand that you need to sleep during the day in order to work a 12 hour shift through the night. That meant it was daddy daughter time all day and night. To me, it wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, I was more worried about when my wife would pump in order to keep her supply going. Side note: our breast feeding and formula combo is going fantastically by the way. The Misses even has a stockpile going in the freezer for the days that she works/sleeps. I will admit, however, that I was nervous about a few things; not having my partner to lean on, would I hear her cry in the middle of the night, and having to get ready for work the next day while taking care of her by myself. Nerves aside, I was never worried about my ability to take care of my daughter. Just nervous about the logistics. So, the morning started like a typical non-working day starts for me. Ferb wakes me up around 5:30 because he's hungry. So I feed both dogs, let them outside, and wash up. At this point Rose is still asleep, so I work on touching up some photos I took the day before. About half an hour later, she starts crying so I go and get her before she wakes up The Misses. I pick her up and walk toward her changing table, but before I got there she fell back asleep. At this point I didn't want to put her back down since the day and night before she was very fussy and wasn't sleeping much. I end up holding her for a little over an hour so she could rest. This must have been just what she needed because the rest of the day went smoothly. We ate, played, had tummy time, read a few books, napped, and before we new it, The Misses was awake and getting ready for work. Soon it was time to say bye to The Misses and it was just Rose and I. All in all, the night was smooth. I woke up right away when she cried. There was just something about knowing I was the only one there that allowed me wake up with ease. After feeding her, I was able to get her back to sleep without issue. Then morning rolls around and Rose decides to get up ten minutes before my alarm. This set the scene for a pretty comical morning. From going back and forth from the bottle warmer to the sink, to having to share my throne room with someone for the first time, all while having to try to hold a pacifier for her, it was definitely a sight to see. It was also the first time I had a pair of little eyes watch and stare at me while I hurried to get ready. Her being awake before I got ready had made us 15 minutes late. Her smile and tiny giggles while I tied my tie, made every minute pure joy. Although the morning may not have gone as smoothly as I hoped, thats life. And thats what being a parent is all about. I love being a Dad. Seeing her smile and laugh makes it all worth it. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect way to end our first solo adventure.

#theinvolveddad #daddydaughtertime #mom #nurse #nightshift #dadlife #mommasgottawork #backtowork