Taking Turns in Taking Care of the Baby

Our little one turned one month old yesterday. And as many parents know, the first months are the toughest because of the demands of the baby and of course, the adjustment period. And it had been especially tough that we also have a four-year-old who is already in Kinder School and who also has her own requirements and we all sleep in the same room. So when the baby cries hard, the older one wakes up and gets grouchy.

I am a work at home mom so that means I have to do my jobs in between breastfeeding, pumping for breast milk, bathing, changing nappies, bottle feeding, and also answering the queries of the older sister or preparing her for school. I do have a helper but she takes Dindin to school so most of the time, I am left alone her with the baby.

Hubby has to work during the day until 7pm but we are just thankful that he works at my in-laws’ store so he can come up and help me whenever he is free. But this is not always as he is also busy. And lately, he had been very tired because of many sticker installations, as our business is into making decals. But despite that, he tries to make sure that whenever he is available, he helps me in taking care of Shane and also Dindin. And since he is here at night, he handles Shane most of the time so that I could get some sleep, even if it is just an hour or two in between feedings.

This early, we already noticed that Shane is quite different from Dindin. For one, she wakes up several times at night in order to feed. Dindin did not wake up to feed at night–she would sleep from evening till the morning straight. But the little one needs to feed every 2-3 hours. Most of the time I would latch her but if I ran out of breast milk, Papa will prepare the bottle, feed her, and then lull her to sleep. Sometimes, while latching, Papa waits for us to finish so that he can get the baby and get her to sleep soundly so that I can immediately go back to bed. I think Papa only gets a total of about 3 broken hours of sleep at night.

A funny yet tiring thing also is that Shane poops at night. Mostly midnight. So we both have to get up, tun on the lights, and clean her up. Hubby is not queasy with a soiled diaper, but it seems it needs two people to clean Shane up otherwise, there would be poop everywhere. So hubby wakes me up in order to do it and the two of us would do the cleaning double time.

Hubby is helping me so much because we are trying to increase my breast milk supply and he knows that rest is needed so that my milk supply will increase. Sometimes, when he is too busy at work, he is apologetic that he couldn’t be here to help me. And of course, I know that he does that because he loves me and the kiddos very much.

I know there are many fathers like hubby out there and we wives should really be thankful at these husbands who are willing to sacrifice their “rest time” in order to help us with the young children. That is because I also know of others who wouldn’t do it because they feel that they are working during the day and therefore are exempted from doing daddy duties at night. While this set up works for other couples, it would not work for me, so I am just thankful that hubby is willing to help. Otherwise, I would really be one crazy momma!

So Babe, thank you. Thank you very much. I am fully aware of the many sacrifices that you are doing to take care of us and to make things easier for me. Thank you for helping me out as much as you can, for being my confidante, my shoulder to cry on, and the voice that God uses in order to bring reason to my sometimes clouded judgments. I love you very much and I know that our children do, too. Mwah!