Mr. Mom

My time off with Lily is more than half gone. It's hard to believe, it's definitely flying by. It's been great so far and I'm really looking forward to the next two weeks before heading back to work.

During the week of overlap where both Nicole and I were off, we started trying to give Lily a bottle to get her ready to be alone with daddy. It was evident from the first try that it was not going to be as simple as sticking the bottle in her mouth and her sucking it dry. She showed zero interest in the bottle, and when she put up with it being in her mouth she didn't suck and didn't swallow the drops. So the first day Nicole went back to work, Lily managed to get about 3 oz. out of bottles, and probably half of that dribbled down her chin. To compare, she probably gets about 6 oz. every time she gets it directly from her mama. Over the next few days we tried different bottles, different nipples, different temperatures of milk, and anything else we could think of. Nothing seemed to work very well. But we just kept at it and I kept telling myself she was getting a little better every day. Not sure whether it was true or not, but eventually she started getting it. She settled on a particular type of nipple that she could latch onto and finally started to get some milk out and get it down. By the middle of this week she seemed to have it down and could eat as much as she felt like without having to sit there for 45 minutes. Now she can down about 6 oz. in 15 minutes. Much better for both of us.

Now that the drama is done, on to the fun we've been having. We've gone on lots of walks, gone shopping, had an afternoon in the park, and even went to book babies. I expected more story reading at book babies, but it was mostly singing songs and dancing around. Regardless, Lily loved it. She was all smiles checking out all the other kids, most of whom were crawling around. She even did something new, sitting up all by herself for a couple of minutes. At first I was propping her up a bit but noticed she seemed to be balancing pretty well and let her go for it. Another development over the past few days is that when she's on her tummy she sticks her butt in the air and pulls her legs in under her. Then she gets frustrated when she doesn't move. She's doing a lot more pushups too, extending her arms and getting her chest up in the air. So it's just a matter of time before she starts scooting around. On the one hand, it will be very exciting to see her figuring out how to move herself around. On the other, it means we have to baby proof and keep everything clean, or at least cleaner than it seems now.


The weather's been cool and a bit rainy this past week, keeping us inside more than we'd like, but hopefully next week we'll be able to get out more and hang out in the park. Lily loves watching kids at the park, and dogs too. Sometimes she'll even giggle while watching a dog play fetch, it's pretty cute. I guess she's an animal lover already.

Overall, I'm definitely enjoying being with Lily full time, it will be hard to go back to work when that time comes. And it's given me even more appreciation for what Nicole has done for the past four months, it takes a lot of patience and adaptability to keep Lily and yourself happy. Hopefully the next two weeks will be full of new things, good weather, and Lily's smiles.