Dear Dad, Love Dominic (A letter for Father’s Day)
Dear Dad, This is the 2nd Father’s Day you’ve had since I was born, and I’m not even a year old yet. Mum says that America and Australia have different Father’s Days, so there are two Father’s Days every year and only one Mother’s Day. Then she says “Figures” in the same tone she says “Of course he did” when you tell her that Zulu’s fetched another dirty diaper from the trash and ripped it apart on our front step. Just between you and me, I don’t understand why she feels hard done by. You made her a lovely card last month for Mothers Day with pictures of me on it...
Read MoreSweet sleep and ice cream machines: What do you need to create?
It’s almost 4:30 in the morning. I’ve been up since 3:15 when I first heard a little someone who sleeps right beside me in a mosquito-netted travel cot tossing his head from side to side and smacking his lips. Then I heard questing chirps and fingernails clawing at nylon (I’m pretty sure he lives in hope that if he just scrabbles around frantically enough he’s going to find a boob in bed with him one of these days, either that or he’ll manage to dig his way to one). After a couple of minutes of this I got up and gave him what he wanted. He went right back to sleep afterwards –...
Read More24 things that have surprised me about motherhood: I never thought I would…
Everyone says motherhood is full of surprises. They’re right. Here are 24 of mine. I never thought I would… Leak milk at the sight of a puppy. Wipe up baby spew with clothing that I am wearing. Consider 6 a.m. on a Sunday almost a sleep-in. Refer to my spouse as “daddy” more frequently than I call him by name. Still have my child sleeping right beside my bed 5 months after his birth. Still want my child to sleep right beside my bed 5 months after his birth. Catch poo with my bare hands. Find myself physically incapable of letting the baby cry for longer than 57 seconds without...
Read MoreTough Love Take Two
Six weeks ago I tried to let Dominic “cry it out” for the first time. I was so tired that day that I decided to lie down next to him and see if he could calm down if I petted his belly instead of actually holding him. The experiment was not what exactly what you might call a success. It lasted a grand total of 4 minutes and netted me 29 more minutes of hysterical howling after I gave in and picked him up. I didn’t think I’d be trying controlled crying again anytime soon. That was last month. This is this month. Until this month Dominic had been a relatively easy baby. I mean, I...
Read MoreTough Love Take 1
I tried something new with Dominic on Friday – a little bit of tough love. Here is how that went: Dominic wakes up from his afternoon nap after only thirty minutes of sleep. I decide that he is still tired and that he needs to go back sleep. He doesn’t look like he stands a hope of doing that in his crib so I pick him up (can’t you already see how tough this love was?), bring him into the bedroom, lay him on the bed so that he can see me sitting at the desk, and tell him (nicely) to go back to sleep. Dominic starts to yirp (this particular sound most closely resembles the offspring of a...
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