Please don't feel any pity for me, I mean yes I'm missing the boy, however I am also now able to sleep through the night, catch up with friends (if I can remember what they look like) and live in a house that does not look like it's been invaded by an nursery school! Parenting for the next 6 weeks however will not be disappearing off the agenda completely. I have a teenager who needs attending to and who deserves some quality time and attention too. I won't write so much about those aspects of parenting yet because unlike the baby, the teenager can read and hold me accountable to what I might say on here. ;)
So prior to international travel, caring for the baby has become a fairly constant routine, unfortunately this has included some sleep 'regression' or put more bluntly, the worst sleeping period of my life!
Baby is waking up every 2-4 hours almost each night, and whilst my body is becoming accustomed to this, the result is that by 2pm on some days my cognitive powers disappear and it feels as though I become about as productive and useful as a chocolate tea pot! This has occurred at least once whilst I was driving for work, and I came close to getting my head down in the car for 30 minutes. (I didn't do that, but I did pull over and open all the windows). Whatever the reason (and believe me we have exhausted every potential cause from moon cycles to food cycles), the fact is that continuous broken sleep is a serious killer.
Other than depriving me and his mum, of any working cognitive skills post lunch, our little man has well and truly mastered the art of not just crawling, but crawling into spaces and places that you just don't want to a baby to go. I mean if there was a 100 meter squared room filled with fluffy teddy bears, colourful balls and just one potential dangerous item like a glass , I know with 100% certainty that the very moment you turned your back, the baby would have found the glass, smashed it and be trying to eat it faster than a sword swallowing magician!
Our little boy will crawl to any set of wires he sees, through any barricade we set up, if he thinks there is even the smallest chance he will fit through or underneath the chairs and tables. Yes it's initially cute until you realize you haven't quite baby-proofed the house to that degree yet. This will be my job for the next couple of weeks. Secure the house and move anything of potential danger to out of harms way. And when I say 'potential danger' I mean anything that will fit in his mouth and he can swallow... ANY-THING AT ALL!
Interestingly the TV remote control seems to hold particular interest for the baby, despite it making no sound and not lighting up. The baby also puts almost anything in his mouth and has developed a habit of crawling to any escaped individual sock, and stuffing it in his mouth. I'm starting to think I need to be more mindful of what may be on the TV when he's around as I think this sock-in-mouth behaviour could unhealthy, that or start washing our socks in marmite! lol.
Of course if you have a slightly sadistic streak you could enjoy sharing the sometimes burdening aspects of parenting with 200 people you have never met before, however that's not really my style.
Fortunately, having seen other people already work the baby seat belt attachment many years ago, I didn't look too foolish when I was trying to strap my little boy on to my own belt, but I must warn you it's not the easiest task in the world! As it turned out the little one was quite easy during the flight, taking a bottle on take off / landing and having a snack during a short 1 hour flight. To be honest anywhere there are people to play with he's usually quite happy. There were some further dramas with cancelled flights and an unplanned overnight hotel, but eventually mum and baby made it to their destination and did so without any problems. I on the other hand, managed to get home and wash my passport... doh!
Being at the airport and being delayed by almost 24 hours for a trip that was already going to take about 30 hours was tough enough, but having the baby along definitely caused some extra headaches - did we have enough nappies? Was there enough clothes if they got dirty? Where was he going to sleep that night? Being a big believer in the human spirit and people's wish to be kind I decided to test this theory out a little... Whilst my wife was stuck towards the back of a queue of 200 angry people who were not helping the line move any faster by complaining to the poor check-in staff about the cancelled flight, I took my son in his trolley and went to the front of the 'Priority passengers lane' this is where I learned of the flight's cancellation and what offers were being made to passengers. Having a baby meant almost everyone in the queue wanted to say hello and told me what was going on. This allowed me to go the check-in, be really nice to the staff (who were just getting lots of angry faces) and ask if we could go the front of the queue. The staff took one look at my son and said "of course you can come in the priority lane". Thank you human spirit!
THE OCCUPATION BIT
So - to recap by Occupations: Crawling / walking, or shall we just say the occupation of movement oneself from place A to place B has given my little one no amount of pleasure, however the implications of independent movement has caused great worry and concerns to us parents. Having to reclassify what everyday items could be potentially dangerous and reorganize the home environment to be both stimulating (encouraging standing) and safe (hiding everything away) has impacted upon the whole family. Reminders are constant about not leaving random daily objects within baby's reach.
Sleep disturbance has reached new heights, and the impact on daily function, especially cognitively heavy tasks has been marked and significant. Having a limited cognitive capacity has meant greater consideration of where to focus cognitive energy is becoming more and more important. It's really a strange phenomenom for me.
Babies can be veichles / tools of great joy and engagement, especially in times of stress or strife. People (and I mean strangers) really do seem to lower any potential barrier down when you have a baby in your arms. I'm surprised no one has considered this and that the United Nations and world leaders aren't all given a baby to hold when trying to thrash out tough nuclear deals or climate change issues. I think their might be a lot more agreement if folks had small bundle of smiles in their arms.
Regards from NZ....
Dan
