16 Weeks 6 Days old

   I almost ended the day without being an ass.  Then I dropped my daughter.  Well… not really dropped per se, but we were practicing sitting and she fell over.  And bonked her chin right on mom’s hard shin bone. 

   Immediately after there was a 2 second pause followed by a great deal of screaming/crying.  It didn’t help that it was right before feeding time.

   I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.  I think I even mentioned it here months ago along with a link to a video of dads hurting their kids. 

   I guess as far as bonks go, this one wasn’t that bad.  Still no emergency room visit yet… (*knock knock*) and she’s almost 4 months old.  That’s a streak I’d like to keep until.. oh, her 30^th birthday or so.

   I’m sure it will happen again.  And I will mention it here when it does for all the world to see.  Does writing about it make me as much of an ass as the act of inadvertently causing pain and discomfort?  Or does letting the dog lick her make me more of an ass?

8 Weeks 4 Days Old

I can try not to be an ass when it comes to breastfeeding/bottle feeding. But it won’t matter.  Somehow, some way I will end up being an ass because if the baby is breastfed, it will inevitably need to take breast milk from the bottle and that’s where things go awry.

  This is a hard transition.  About two weeks before my wife started going back to work I tried giving Von Bebe a bottle on a couple different occasions.  By the way, this works best if the wife or milk-giver is out of the house.  The baby knows when the real thing is near by and let’s face it, if you can get your steak on a plate with a knife and fork knowing they are in the kitchen, why would you blend it into a paste and squeeze it out of a bottle?

    So there’s that struggle. Then there’s the struggle of watching your wife break down because someone else is nourishing her child.  This is something which up until now only she could do so I think I can see how this could be so traumatic.  I still wasn’t prepared for the tears, however.

   Then there’s the breast pump…  My wife said that if Darth Vader and Audrey II (from Little Shop of Horrors) were to fall in love and have a baby, it would look something like this.

The Darth Vader reference comes from the sound it makes.  It is eerily mechanical.  Fortunately for me, we are at a point where she only pumps at work.  But saying that is just one more way to point out my being an ass.

   And can someone please tell me just how you are supposed to subtly point out leaky boobs to your wife without sounding snarky or sarcastic?  Every time I try, I can tell that I’ve misspoken by the expression on her face.  But then I imagine peeing my pants and can’t think of a way for someone to tell me without feeling devastatingly embarrassed.  So maybe there’s just no way around this one.

   But it’s all absolutely worth it for this.

Week 31 Day 3

   The closer the birth of our baby, the more we are realizing the impending responsibility of raising another human being to be a productive member of society.  Fortunately, everyone who does this is an ass at one time or another.  Here is a great article from a PHD mother talking about not being perfect.  (Thanks for the link, hon) And hey, if a DOCTOR makes all kinds of mistakes, how can I NOT make mistakes!  So it will be alright… right?

   This is great for taking some of the pressure off us.  But it still doesn’t change the fact that one day we will be 2 and the next there will be 3 of us.