The Author Doing Some Dirty Work | Courtesy B. Maschal Private Collection
An amazing quality that we have in our 20s and 30s (at least until mid-30s) is the ability to get minimal sleep and function at a very high level regardless. This is something that I did not fully appreciate until I was no longer capable of pulling off. For the past several years, I have not been shy about turning in at 8:30 or 9 PM, especially during the winter months when it has already been dark for 5 hours anyway. When I was forced to abandon this routine a little over two weeks ago, I was reminded with the rudeness akin to taking a whack from a 2×4 across the face that I’m no longer in my 30s. Further, I felt like I had aged an additional decade in the space of 3-4 days. I’m happy to report that as I sit here writing this, I no longer feel nearly as zombie-like.
Our little guy is also a good sleeper, so far. I’ll knock on wood that continues to be the case. Regardless of how good he is at sleeping, he still needs to be changed and fed every few hours. The feeding situation has developed enough at this point that it is no longer a two person job each time. This allows B and I to alternate during the night, so that we can get some larger blocks of sleep time, respectively. What’s even better is that if AI ends up making my current job obsolete at some point, I’ll be able to hock my skills on Task Rabbit as amateur lactation consultant/feed position engineer.
Switching gears completely– bebe Breinholt was able to meet his big sister via facetime. It was quite adorable. We had been talking to his sister about his arrival during our hangouts with her since B first started to show. While my daughter is non-verbal, she does understand several ASL signs. We would point to B’s belly and do the sign for “baby,” she would sign it back to us or give us the sign for “ok.” When the two finally met on facetime, I was so happy to see that she was fully embracing the new role of big sister, by repeatedly blowing him kisses and offering to share her toys with him. It was definitely a proud dad moment. I cannot wait for the day they meet in person.
Making another hard left turn– I never in a million years thought that I would ever be writing about breastfeeding or diaper changing. But here we are. The stuff that the little guy leaves behind in his diaper looks a lot like grainy mustard. We know the mustard delivery man in on his way when bebe twists up his face and starts to grunt a little bit. B thinks this joke is awful and that she may no longer be able to consume ‘actual’ mustard as a result. I personally think that it is hilarious. Poop is so disgusting. But it’s a fact that babies make a lot of it and that caregivers, for better or worse, have to deal with it. If we can’t laugh about it, what are we even doing here? Onward and upward.