Demon Baby

Sometimes Hen takes on an alter ego Stef and I refer to only as Demon Baby, and we say it only in whispers in hopes that saying his name will keep his spirit at bay. In previous posts I have mentioned how I am sleeping well but every now and then this alternate being takes over our almost 5 month old son's body and makes our life suck big time.

The last two full days and nights were a good example. It usually starts with a day where he is crabby and refuses to eat well, or stay calm for more than a few minutes. Following that, that evening putting him to bed is nearly impossible, he wakes up every three hours, and regardless of lack of sleep is up ready to take on the world at 5 am. The next day mirrors the first but with less sleeping and that night usually culminates with him going down for the count around 7. This process usually resets his system for a week but you just never know when Demon Baby will rear his cute but super annoying head.

One of the respites we used to have for our wacky but semi predictable infant cycle was putting him in his car seat and either going shopping or running errands while he crashed. Well that doesn't work any more which a major bummer. Stef and I were getting bagels this morning and were waiting out a crabby fest reminiscing over his former ways when all of a sudden he became quiet. We smiled thinking he went to sleep and we could proceed with our Saturday morning routine in peace. I cautiously snuck over to see and I snatched this picture thinking would be in baby sleepy land....Demon Baby wasn't going anywhere....

Getting Enough Sleep???

Yes Actually! so thanks for reminding me why I don't like you in the first place. Admittedly I have a hot fiery side that can go off like a rocket if someone says the wrong thing ( I work very hard to hide this from the ones I love). However, since college I think I've matured enough to take in an antagonist's words, chew them up, swallow them, and digest them to a dark place therefore quickly getting over my urge to go postal on co-workers. This works well in refined society as I wouldn't do well in jail. I do understand as I am one of the first in my office ( of largely under 30 folks ) with a kid at home, and the people who used to talk to me about wild friday nights, my hobbies, and weekend plans, now have the sad lack of creativity to ask me about anything other than how I am sleeping. Honestly I don't care what you ask me if I think you actually care about the quality of my sleep but sometimes I spot a sadistic glint in someone's eyes where I know they secretly wish and expect me to breakdown in tears and tell them how aweful it is. Well A) its not bad like everyone tells you it will be ( at least in our case with Henry after week 6) and B) I have a glint in my eye that makes me want to karate chop your sugary latte into your too tight pastel dress shirt.

Look, I get it. You don't have kids. I also get how sad it is that you can't seem to look at me like the same guy I was 6 months ago....newsflash, I am still the same guy just with differerent priorities. How about next time you ask to see pictures of the little tyke, or just ask me about weekend plans because Steph and I do a ton of fun stuff on the weekends. Stuff I wish I would have done before and after Hen came along a big luxury is he does usually get us awake before 8am so instead of sleeping till 1pm we now get out and enjoy daylight on the weekends. Something I rarely did before. I do wish he would let us get till 9am once ot twice though....

Ask me how I am sleeping again and see what happens!

( Advice : It is easy to rage but I can speak from expereince, a great stress release is martial arts. Not just for Dads but Moms too. I used to play rugby but for the time being I am scared about getting maimed and leaving Steph with a fatherless boy. If you can't play a contact sport there is no better way to let loose than organized and relatively safe fighting. Why not learn some self defense, get a workout, and learn some self confidence if you are lacking in that arena? I just know there will be a day when I will have to teach Hen how to protect himself like my dad did with me and I am really looking forward to getting back into it soon, maybe this coming fall. I would even love to turn it into a father son activity as long as he doesen't try to go Luke Skywalker on me and try to take me down when I ground him for texting too much or something )