Dave's "Mr. Mom" Night

arden & sutton new years day
Originally uploaded by M Drenzek

So let me preface this entry with the statement that, my husband tells this story a lot better in person, with more comic relief and a lot more let's call it..."embellishment"

Monday night my yoga teacher was offering a special New Year's Eve practice, that I wanted to go to and so did my friend Ellen. As some of you know, Ellen is the mother of Sutton, who is about 3 months younger then Arden. Dave offered to babysit both of them while we went to practice. Brave man. Ellen and I were both a bit shocked but didn't want to frighten him away from doing this so gave it a shot. With some brief instructions from Ellen, we left for a relaxing inspiring practice leaving Dave to fend for himself with the ladies.

He said the first hour went rather smoothly. Both babies entertained themselves on the activity mat, Sutton on her back staring up at all the toys, and Arden sitting up staring at Sutton the whole time. Then he said it went downhill when Arden decided that she wanted to eat Sutton. She tried to grab Sutton on both sides of her head and take a lick, much to Sutton's dismay. Sutton started crying, Arden got scared and started crying and Dave had to tried to calm them both down at the same time.

Dave admittedly now realizes that he should have taken some of that "downtime" to prepare for feedings, because after calming them both down he realized that Arden's evening feeding/bathing/bedtime routine was going to conflict with Sutton needing to be fed and put down. He heated up Arden's solid meal which he made too hot, had to cool with breast milk, which made it too runny, then he had to thicken it back up with rice cereal. He said by the time he was finished with preparing it he had about 4 times as much as she usually eats and a fussy, bored Arden sitting in her high chair. Sutton was content for bit while he got Arden stripped down (if you've seen early pictures, you know why she eats in just a diaper) but as soon as he started feeding Arden, Sutton was not happy with being in either the jumper or the exersaucer, so he picked her up and sat her in his lap while feeding Arden in her high chair. This is where I wish we had video. He said both babies were perfectly content this way. Sutton watching Arden eat, and Arden gobbling down more food then he'd ever seen, maybe thinking that Sutton was going to eat it so she had to get to it first! And Dave trying to juggle both of them!

So then Dave realized that it was impossible to give Arden her nightly bath with Sutton's approaching feeding and bedtime. So he put her in her crib in just her diaper to come back and bottle feed and put down. He figured at least in her crib she couldn't fall or roll anywhere while he was putting Sutton down. Arden didn't really like this idea, wondering why she was being put to bed naked and hungry and started to cry. But Dave decided Arden, being his baby, could cry a bit while he tended to Sutton. He changed Sutton and wrapped her in her special swaddle as instructed by Ellen and then popped the bottle in. He said it seemed like she took a long time to eat but that was probably because Arden was still crying in the room next door. As soon as he saw the first glimmer of sleepiness in Sutton's eyes, he tried to switch out the bottle for the pacifier "Raiders of the Lost Ark" style. And just as he was putting Sutton to sleep on the bed, the cat snuck in the room to take a poo in her litter box. Great. So he waits for the cat to come out, cleans the box and shuts the door. One down, one to go.

Meanwhile Arden has been fussing this whole time, and she practically cried herself to sleep. But she's naked and still hasn't been fed, so he gets her up puts her in her pajamas and feeds her until she's asleep.

So he thinks he's golden. Two babies asleep, Ellen and I not home yet. He was planning on putting on the facade that it was a piece of cake, when Sutton starts talking to herself in her room. Not full blown awake yet, but getting there. This of course happens about 2 minutes before Ellen and I call to say we're coming home. We get home, Sutton is wide awake in Dave's arms, and Dave is drinking a beer. She stayed up with us for a bit longer then Ellen fed her again and put her to sleep.

Bottom line- both babies and Dave survived, but Dave was obviously worn out. He did however offer that he would do it again if need be so he's either sadistic or a bit crazy, you decide.

The rest of New Year's Eve was a real rager. Dave, Ellen and I stayed up complaining that New Year's wasn't at 9 pm, flipping channels and then watching the ball/acorn drop and were in bed about 20 minutes later. We drank a total of 3 beers between the 3 of us. 2 of which were Dave's. We're getting old.