With Lindsey going back to work¹ starting this week, we decided to help the transition by having me take the week off. Starting next week a combination of my mom most days and my father-in-law on wednesdays will take over, but I have enough vacation time that if I don’t use some of it I will stop accruing new time. So here I am, playing stay at home dad for a week.

Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five

Not the night we were looking for

Once again, Kaitlyn gives - and Kaitlyn takes away. Last night Lindsey and I went back and forth taking turns to put her down, but she wouldn’t STAY down until midnight. Then, she stayed asleep until about 5:45 this morning! But then she wouldn’t go back down again and Lindsey had to nurse her in bed. I may not have really been clear what nursing Kaitlyn in bed entails. For me - its almost as good as just sleeping. For Kaitlyn its pretty sweet as well - an all you can eat buffet in a warm soft bed. But for Lindsey - well, I don’t think I could sleep if someone was nursing on me… so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Lindsey can’t either. To add insult to injury, when Kaitlyn tires of one side, we do a little dance where Lindsey and I swap sides of the bed so that Kaitlyn is always between us. For me this again is only a little speed bump to sleep, but for Lindsey its one more hurdle to even going to sleep in the first place.

A short morning

Since Lindsey had to go to work early today she tried to nurse Kaitlyn in bed till Kaitlyn fell asleep. Sometimes Lindsey is then able to slip away from Kaitlyn and she’ll lay there on our bed sleeping. Unfortunately that didn’t work out, but Kaitlyn was pretty content to just lay there next to me babbling away while I was half asleep. At about 9 she seemed to be tired of hanging out while I was half asleep so I got up, changed her and brought her downstairs. She played with her toys while I watched some TV, and then she went down for a nap. She slept for about an hour and a half, and woke up just as Lindsey got home!

That technically wraps up my time as a stay at home dad. Ironically some of the worst time I had was this afternoon. After Lindsey got home she fed Kaitlyn and we had lunch, and then I suggested she go upstairs and take a nap. I was pretty sure that Kaitlyn would go back down for another nap. The short answer is that I was right. The longer answer is that it took an hour, a lot of crying - and she cried some too - before she went down for a 30 minute nap. It certainly can’t compare with the hell that Kaitlyn has unleased on Lindsey multiple days in a row, but it was definitely a little taster.

What’s next

This was a short post since it was a short day. I think that I’ll write a recap post tomorrow looking back on the week as a whole. Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive this week. I’ve appreciated the positive thoughts, comments, and prayers.