Daddy/Daughter Day VI: The Day Daddy Blew It All

I guess I should have known that I'd blow it sooner or later.

Months of Laura's tireless efforts to get our baby 'on a schedule' blown in one day.

The day started with a bad decision, followed by some poor math, extenuating circumstances, and general unpreparedness. By the end of the day, I'm surprised our girl wasn't beating her chest and howling at the moon.

Emma was in a great mood when I got her up on Monday. She didn't seem immediately hungry like she usually does, so I decided to eat breakfast before I fed her, rather than after feeding her. There was mistake number one. By the time I finished my Marshmallow Mateys, she was starting to drift off to sleep. Now I've not only delayed her first feeding, but somehow managed to move her morning nap time up several hours. I went ahead and fed her, then put her down for a nap. "Crisis averted," I thought. In truth, it was "Crisis just beginning."

Rather than a nice 2 or 2 1/2 hour nap, Emma woke up after just an hour. Now I had to entertain her for a few hours prior to her next feeding, followed by a few hour after her feeding. Could I possibly entertain her that long? The answer was an irrefutable NO. I sure couldn't. We read quite a few books together, but after that she started getting pretty upset with me. In past weeks I have run errands during the day which has entertained Emma as she takes in the new surroundings. However, Monday I was stuck at the house while a repairman worked (future blog entry.) I anxiously glanced at the clock, trying to make time go faster using a Jedi mind trick or at least that "Baby Step" method from What About Bob. Finally I figured that it was close enough to four hours to give her her next bottle. Mistake number two: I don't know how to add. Four hours from her first feeding -- 8:40 AM -- would have been 12:40 PM. But since math is hard for me (including simple addition, apparently), I tried to feed Emma at around 11:30. She only drank a little over a fourth of a bottle. I couldn't figure out what this baby's problem was! Now she's off schedule on naps and on feedings.

We played on the floor for an hour or so and then I went in the other room to make some lunch. When I came back, Emma was nodding off again. Great! I'll get her a nice long afternoon nap to make up for her short morning nap. I picked her up and put her in her swing and she just stared at me. Nope, not gonna sleep. She was content at least; long enough for me to finish my lunch. We played for a little while longer then I went to the computer to check me e-mail and came back to find her dozing again under her little gym. Perfect -- now she's going to get that nap she needs. A few minutes later the telephone rang. It was my father-in-law. He was in the process of replacing the cooling fan in my car and needed me to run to Salt Lake and pick up a part. It was about 3 o'clock and I needed to get back by 4:30, so I broke the cardinal rule and woke a sleeping baby. I took her to the auto parts store with me. She was good for the whole trip.

When I got back at about 4 PM it was time for her to eat again. I figured she wouldn't take a full bottle since she had eaten more recently than 4 hours, so I made her half a bottle instead. Mistake number 3. She downed that half of the bottle and freaked out when there wasn't any more. I ran into the kitchen and made another 4 ounces as fast as I could and came back out to find her starting to doze off already. Poor kid. Underfed and sleep deprived. She wasn't interested in the extra 4 ounces anymore.

At about 4:30, Lauralee came home and I sheepishly admitted that I'd screwed everything up. She was a good sport about it. We went up to the Van Bibber's that night to have dinner and finish fixing my car. When Lauralee tried to give her a whole bottle, Emma only drank a portion of it. And she could barely keep her eyes open by the time we left.

Emma's last feeding of the night (administered by Laura) was close to a full feeding, and Laura got her to sleep at roughly her bed time. I'm pretty sure that today, with Laura in charge, will be a normal day with regular feedings and naps. Thank heavens for mothers who fix all the screwups that we dads create.

Quinn

No monkey pictures today; here's a picture of a waterskiing squirrel, though: