Much Better This Time Around

I've felt no greater sense of accomplishment in my life than that I felt last night. It was my second night of taking care of the boys on my own while Rose was teaching. They were fussy, but this time I had a plan. I operated ad libitum, too, but having a plan for when the freak outs occurred made all the difference.

This time, when Petar melted down after his mid-evening meal, I let him cry while I finished feeding Oscar. On Tuesday, nothing I did seemed to keep Petar from crying. So while it was difficult to listen to, I just let him wail for a bit. And after about 10 minutes, he just stopped. He started again a bit later, but by then Oscar had just a couple sips of his food left, so I sat him in the swing chair and went to grab Petar for a ride in the Ergo carrier. This always seems to calm the boys down and it worked for Petar this time, too.

I let Oscar get some upright time, and he seemed calm. After awhile, I swaddled him and put him in his crib. All was well for a time, but then Oscar got ornery. This is where I had to ad lib. I decided I could somehow wear two Ergos (we have two) and carry both boys at the same time. It took some finagling, but I got both on and both in. But the straps of the Ergo on top seemed to be putting more pressure than I liked on Petar's back. So I took them both off and tried another route: both babies in one Ergo.

I should probably shave...

I'm not so sure if this was the best idea, but after a couple tries - and just trying seemed to amuse the boys to the point where they both stopped crying - I was able to get them both in there in a seemingly comfortable and secure position. And it worked, too; they stopped crying, Petar fell asleep and Oscar was awake but happy.

This experience was a 180 degree turn from Tuesday. That is not to say it was easy by any stretch of the imagination. It was just much better. On Tuesday I felt there was no way I could do this on a full time basis. After last night, I feel like maybe there's a small chance I can.

Now I'm actually looking forward to next Tuesday.

They seemed happy in there.