One Step Ahead (of you) Friday, April 20, 2007

This week has been my first ‘normal’ week at home with Leila, ie. Mark at work and no one staying to help out. Although it hasn’t been completely normal. Leila and I have been home on our own for 3 days and Rhonda (who’s on holidays) has visited on the days that Finn has been home.

It’s been a good week – no major dramas – but I’m learning some valuable lessons. The first is that, if you’re trying to establish a routine you need to follow said routine, not phaff around with it unnecessarily. Unnecessary phaffing leads to a baby being awake when she should be asleep and wanting to be fed at odd times. And that is likely to do your head in.

The second lesson is just how much of a time sucker a baby is – even when you stick to the routine. I’ve got very little done this week, other than baby management. My major achievement each day has been getting a couple of loads of washing done and hung out. Even with that, Leila has spent a couple of days in disposable nappies because I’d run out of clean cloth ones.

Mark always told me that it’s difficult to get stuff done around the house when you’re looking after a baby and I’d always believed him. But now I actually understand just what he meant. He also tells me that when I was working and he was home with Finn I would at times look at him like I wondered what he’d been doing all day. I don’t recall doing that, but I’m very sorry I did.

The third lesson is that 3 year olds can be very demanding when home with their mum and baby sister. Of course, Finn being Finn, it’s nowhere near as bad as it could be, but it’s still a bit distracting and annoying.

And now I think I should put the wee bub to bed and take the 3 year old outside before I have to get ‘cwoss’ with again for playing with things he’s not supposed to.