If you missed Part I of this two-part blog you can read that here. For those of you already caught up we’ll start at the beginning: My son and I just looked out the door, staring blankly for a moment. Neither of us could believe she was gone… but she was. If memory serves I looked at my son who was still staring out of the front door before looking over at the clock. The clock itself told a somewhat terrifying story: We’d both be without mom for the next twelve hours or so. That’s a long time.
Now, it’s not as if I haven’t spent a length of time with my son. We’ve spent a couple of cherished hours together from time to time… but Mom is always there. She’s always ready to comfort and feed (those two words are often synonymous) our son when he becomes scared, fussy, or downright upset. While I’m able to take him for a stroll in the middle of the night to let my wife sleep or to change a diaper, my wife is the ever-present reality in his life.
Let me tell you a couple of things I learned during my day with my son. Frozen breast milk takes longer to thaw than you think. Frozen breast milk is quicker to heat up than you think. Your productivity shoots through the roof when a baby is sleeping (especially when you are the only one to care for them when they wake). Baby sleeping patterns cannot be accurately predicted. My son teaches me about being curious. My wife is overworked. At the end of the day we were both happy to see Mom. She, I think, was happy to see us too. Despite the difficulties of taking care of my son without the benefit of his wonderful mother we had a great time together and I learned a lot about being a Dad.