Mister Independence (Sort Of)

Eamon will now sleep! Without being held! It's a miracle! Since Aaron had to go back to work this week, he and I have been working on this diligently for the past few days because it is suddenly impossible for someone to hold our child 24 hours a day like we did the first two weeks. Eamon, for his part, thought this was a terrible idea at first, but is starting (slowly) to adjust. Right now, he has been asleep in his swing for an hour, allowing Mommy to do things like take out the trash, post new pics on Facebook, do some laundry, and update this blog (it's amazing how much you can get done when you know you only have a limited amount of time).

Having Aaron go back to work has been somewhat challenging. He got to stay home for 3 weeks, which I know is more than most men get, and it was truly a blessing. I can honestly say that Eamon prefers neither Mommy nor Daddy, but is happy to spend time with either of us. I think that pumping breast milk and having Aaron feed it to Eamon in bottles from the hours of 7PM-1AM (so that I can get some sleep) has really helped with this bonding, making Eamon neither a Momma's nor a Daddy's boy, but simpy a kid who really likes both his parents (right now at least; we'll see what happens when he's 15).

BUT, yesterday was our first day by ourselves, and I think that it went rather well. Eamon slept from 5AM-9AM, letting me get some sleep (of course, he's WIDE AWAKE every morning from 1AM-5AM, so that's not very good). We got up, I fed him, pumped a little, and then packed everything up to go to my parents (this was significant, since it was the first time I had gone anywhere with just me and the baby, and no Aaron to remind me how the carseat works). We got there and unloaded everything, and then my mom and I went out shopping so that I could get a pair of pants that fits and doesn't have an elastic waistband (all my old clothes are still too small, but my maternity clothes are getting too big, so I'm left basically with my flannel pajama pants to wear). Grandpa (my father) babysat, which caused me a little nervousness, because what if my usually good-natured child (except for 1AM-5AM, when he is a screaming, unhappy mess) suddenly decided to behave like a little demon?

My fears were for naught, however, because Eamon was wonderful for his grandpa. He slept for awhile in my parents' Pack n' Play, woke up at exactly the right time to eat the bottle that I left with Grandpa, got his diaper changed, and promptly fell right back asleep. By that time, we were back from our shopping excursion (I admit--I was a little anxious and so shopped rather quickly and scarfed down my lunch at Red Robin and then sat there and stared at my mother until she decided she was finished too so that we could go).

When we got back home, Eamon ate and then took another 2 hour nap, allowing me to clean out the fridge, take out the trash (it had really piled up in the last 3 weeks), do some laundry, vacuum the upstairs, and scrub my bathtub. I felt tremendously triumphant, and tried not to think about all the household chores that were still left to be done. I read somewhere that after having a baby, you should make "I Did" lists rather than "To Do" lists so that you feel better about yourself, and I'm really trying to take that philosophy to heart.

Then Aaron came home, and he gave Eamon his bath while I made dinner, I scarfed down the tacos (I guess this is how you take off the maternity weight--don't have time to eat), and then went to bed leaving Daddy and Eamon to their nighttime bonding. All in all, it was a good day.

And for those of you who haven't met or are missing our little one, here's a video of him not really doing anything except being exceptionally cute and trying to eat my finger at one point.