Learning as we go...

Natalie has been sleeping really well for the past 4 nights: Tuesday she slept 5 hours; Wednesday 5.5 hours; Thursday 7 hours; Friday night 6 hours. Since Bobby works during the week, I get up with Natalie during the weekdays. but on the weekends (when Bobby hears her or I give him a little nudge) Bobby helps out. So, this morning she woke up a little after 6am and I got up with her to change her and feed her. Once she was fed and changed, she was a sleepy girl and went back to bed. She didn't wake up again until close to 10:30a, so I told Bobby it was his turn. Instead of Bobby warming up her bottle or changing her, he decides that after he picks her up out of the cradle, she just needs to lay on Daddy's chest and go back to sleep. I was just laying awake in bed just waiting to see what Bobby was going to do because I knew she was hungry and probably needed changed. So, after probably only a minute or two of laying down, Bobby decides that she probably is hungry and needs changed (after asking me). By this time, Natalie is ticked off...holding her breath until her face turns beat red and just screaming! Bobby was warming up a bottle, but in the meantime was attempting to change her (I'm still in bed at this point, just waiting to see what will happen). Next thing I know she is a little quieter, but I get called by Bobby to come help him. I get out of bed (which I needed to anyway) and come into the nursery where Bobby had gotten her bottle and is now trying to feed her and change her diaper (impossible unless you have 2 extra hands)! He asks me to hold the bottle while he finishes changing her because when he was trying to change her a little bit ago (when she was royally ticked) she was just squirting out poop constantly because she was so mad and was just pushing it out! Bobby couldn't change her because every time he tried there was more of a mess to clean up. Now, this has only happened once before and it was when Bobby was changing her that time as well!  So, maybe now Bobby will try to change and feed her before laying back down with her :)

We are learning as we go! Bobby is definitely an amazing dad like I knew he would be, but some things you just learn with experience :)

I definitely need a drink after today! Bobby was doing yardwork, and I needed to run some errands so I took Natalie with me this afternoon. She was fed and changed before we left, but that didn't matter.  I made it to Sam's Club and Kohls with Natalie sleeping away and happy as can be. Although Kohls in itself was an adventure because everyone and their mother were there, plus they had NO shopping carts available. Therefore, I had to carry Natalie around in her carseat while I tried to carry a mixing bowl, 4 coffee mugs in a box, a dishtowel, and an outfit for her. I managed, but it wasn't easy!  I really only needed to go to the grocery store as my last errand after we left Kohls. but decided I would just shortly browse around TJMaxx since it was in the same shopping center. This is where things get hairy.

Natalie starting crying, not horrible, but enough that I couldn't calm her down while she was in her carseat on top of the shopping cart (I just couldn't lug that thing around another store!) So, I took her out of her carseat while I finished browsing and she was fine while I was holding her. Before I exited the store, I placed her back into her carseat. When we got out to the car, I changed her, and she was definitely messy. She has been a pooping machine all day today! As I was finishing up wiping her up, she had to sneeze and lo and behold, poop came squirting out straight at me! It was up my arm, a little got on the seat of the car, but luckily none was on my shirt! I could not believe it, but at least this time she was calm as she did this lovely spectacle! So, standing in the parking lot, I cleaned myself up and her again. She was still fussy and quite mad (red faced and screaming in the car), so I thought about completely skipping grocery shopping for the time being, but she appeared quiet and content once we were almost to the grocery store. Poor baby even scratched herself (time to trim the nails) she was so mad as we left the TJMaxx parking lot! I felt bad and knew Bobby was going to say something to me about cutting her nails when I got home, which he did.

Wanting to get everything accomplished I had in mind for the day, I decided to go for it, and in we went to the grocery store. Halfway through my grocery list, she started in on the inconsolable crying again that I could do nothing about but take her out of the carseat and hold her. I probably looked pretty silly holding a baby in one arm, grabbing groceries with the other, and pulling the cart behind me when I wasn't grabbing things off the shelf. Luckily I didn't have a ton more groceries to get, but it was challenging nonetheless! I never really paid attention much to people with babies at the store, but I can honestly say I had never seen any mom or dad doing what I did in Kroger today! Oh well. It kept her calm for the rest of the trip and by the time we got back into the car and headed home, she fell asleep once again and was fine. I think she was much happier when we arrived home and was fed and changed (AGAIN)!

I don't think I will try to squeeze in as many errands in one timeframe when I have Natalie all by myself! I will only attempt that if I have an extra person to shop with or just do shorter errands and spread them out during the day, or week for that matter! I'm just learning as we go...