Daddy's View: Scheduling

After three weeks of living with the newest addition to our family, I’ve learned several things as we adapt to her and vice versa. When a new born takes up residence in your household, you can throw conventional scheduling out the door. Black Berries? Forget about it. Franklin Planners? Don’t bother. White board calendars? Waste of time.

The reality of the situation is that she waits for no one. She is the ruler of our domain and, to be honest, my wife and I really don’t mind. Don't get me wrong, routines are nice and need to be part of a baby’s life, but the reality is our baby isn't even a month old. She sleeps, she poops, she cries, and she makes weird faces when she’s awake. She’s awesome!

Don’t worry about my wife and I. We’re doing fine. We’re getting (some) sleep. Mom’s been busy during the day while dad’s at work. Little by little we’re getting the hang of this thing. We can’t overstate the help we've received from grandmas and grandpas either. They’ve been a tremendour helpful in our transition.

I give much of the credit to my wife, though as she's got this schedule thing down. In the first few days of Madie's life, she had her nights and days mixed up. This was painstaking. Now, days have become days and nights are used for sleeping (and eating). Here’s a typical evening schedule for us now:

9:00 p.m. Pre-bed diaper change and breast milk feeding.
9:30 p.m. Lights out and go to bed.
(Personally, I never thought I’d be able to fall asleep so early. Well, have a baby and you’ll find out.)
12:00 a.m. Baby cries. Wake-up groggily. Mom changes diapers. Dad warms bottle and feeds. Mom burps while dad pees.
12:25 a.m. Back to bed.
3:30 a.m. Baby cries. Mom changes diaper. Dad warms-up bottle. Mom feeds and burps. Dad goes back to sleep.
(Having a baby is like have an alarm clock with a 3-hour snooze button.)
3:55 a.m. Mom goes back to bed.
6:00 a.m. Dad’s alarm goes off and it’s time to get ready for work.

It’s beginning to be like clockwork.