I am a lucky, lucky Mommy. By all means, the Moose is an easy baby. He started sleeping through the night at less than a month old. He loves routine and we were able to create a rough schedule where I always knew when he was hungry, when he was sleepy, even when he would poop! His only issues have been daytime naps. He was a champ until he was 3 months, then he decided he didn’t want them anymore. But since it didn’t affect his sparkling personality, I never let it bother me.
So you would think, ahhh, bliss, happy baby, happy parents? Hmmm, well, the strange thing is, with a baby this easy, we don’t get to practice patience and frustration management because it hardly comes up. During the rare moments when he is inconsolable, I can feel my frustration meter running up quick. And I always know the two main causes – teething and belly. The Moose will only respond to so many teething tablets, so much ibruprofren, so much gripe water.
Take last week. Hubby came home late (its hell week at work for him – he was in at 4:30AM, home by after 10PM). So I took over the nightly Moose duties – food, bath, story, bedtime. Surprisingly, Moose went down easy. Normally, Hubby does the bath, I do story and last milky snack, then I hand the Moose back over and hubby finishes him off.
We are cuddling watching the women’s finals for beach volleyball – GO USA!!! We snuggle down to sleep (no McLovin tonite, my man was too tired!!) And… the screaming started. I go to the Moose’s room, remove the pacifier that was stuck under his neck, he knocks back out. I go back for cuddles. 10 minutes later, more screaming. This went on for about an hour.
Finally, hubby gets up, thinking maybe the Moose just missed Daddy. He settles him down, but the Moose pops back up the second his head hits the crib. So, the Moose gets brought back to our bed, where he will normally knock out, happy to snuggle between mom and dad. Nope, screams again. Poor tired hubby. He grunts in frustration, “I’m sleeping downstairs” and stomps on down.
So I take over Moose duty. Rub his belly. Move his legs around. Curl him up like a roly poly. It helps, but he won’t lay down to sleep. I can feel the frustration starting to boil. Then the mommy guilt immediately sets in. Why am I complaining? This is not the norm so why I am reacting this way?
The same thing happened again last night. Except this time I hit the wall and Hubby took Moose to the guest room so I could get some sleep.
Luckily, Hubby and I seem to alternate when we reach our boiling points. One always takes over when the other has hit the wall. Times like this make me have all kinds of respect for single moms. I don’t know what I would do without my Hubby, my PIC, the best Moose daddy ever. Love you babes..
Moose's Lodge 