Fatherhood

What a glorious afternoon ... It was a simple day, a Saturday, with nothing to do. Just me ... my son, and my wife. And, we did nothing ... OK, maybe a bit of television and a few diaper changes. Showers and a bath, but nothing more than that. Then, we got to the late afternoon and Patrick kind of went ballistic ... crying, no screaming ... We tried several things and I finally carried him to our bedroom where I started to bounce him ... the tears faded ... and bounce him, some more ... and he simply whimpered ... and bounced him, some more. Eventually, he fell asleep and, minus a quick shift to the center of the bed, he slept soundly for several hours. ... what a glorious afternoon.

Patrick woke crying in his crib. Since Jen is on a quarter break, she got up and tried to get him back to sleep. Unfortunately, this was turning out to be one of those nights where something is wrong ... and we have no clue what. She brought him to bed with us ... which usually works. Not tonight. I rolled over to the cries of my son. I suggested medication; Jen agreed and went to get them. That is when Patrick got livid. Something was wrong ... and now, it was worse; Mama was gone. As he leaned her direction ... arms out, I carried him down the stairs looking for Mama. When we reached the kitchen, Jen and I swapped Patrick for the medication ... I think Jen got the better deal. We quickly got the medication into him ... Patrick then leaned forward for his step-stool ... yes, I know ... kind of unusual. Once on the step stool, he was reaching for the fridge. I placed the magnetic teddy bear near him. Patrick gave me an odd look and pushed it toward the bottom of the...

Yesterday was a long work day ... I would have said a long day at work, but I was there, headed home, then had to return in the evening to work with the evening shift. I got home early in the afternoon and basically did nothing. I tried to nap ... to no avail. When Jen got home with Patrick, I basically had time to eat dinner, then head out the door again. The truly painful part was Patrick and Jen standing on the front porch ... with Patrick screaming, reaching for me as I drove off. I heard his screams until I well out of sight. According to Jen, as soon as he realized I was not coming back right away, he stopped yelling ... turned around and started playing with the doorbell and the screen door. His discomfort lasted significantly less than mine did ... I was ready to head home for hours. What focus!

Jennifer and I woke about twenty minutes ago to Patrick crying ... nothing unusual. I asked her to get him since I have to start getting ready for work in about three hours (yes, I have to work on a Saturday). Where things became unusual was the loud, sustained crash, and Patrick's cries rising to a hefty scream. Being the concerned parent that I am ... with visions of his changing table collapsed on top of him, I rushed to their aid. "What was that?" I cried. Jennifer, weakly replied, "I fell down the stairs." With Patrick screaming at the top of his lungs, I think I actually asked her to repeat what she said. I found my wife sitting, with her legs out and my son in her arms, at the bottom of the stairs. Asking if she and Patrick were OK was mixed into confused questioning about what happened. Somehow, her feet went out from under her (we suspect a couple of the leaves that Patrick likes to play with were on the steps). While my real concern was i...

Tonight was the second night of our "indoor tears" issue. Last night, not long after I got home, Patrick started to cry ... these were tears of pain, rubbing his eyes pretty hard. Since it was a Papa night (all he wanted was me), I propped him over my shoulder and started bouncing him. He settled in, as if sleep was all he wanted. Mind you, he was still crying and rubbing the eyes. Then, he rolled horizontal, letting my hold him in my arms ... still rubbing eyes and crying. This went on for about thirty minutes. I tried having Jen take him, but we had the same symptoms, but now he wanted me again. I settled in for a long night and started walking him around the house. The pain was pretty obvious so we got medication into him ... Another thirty minutes went by when I walked near the back door when he jumped up and stopped crying ... a switch got thrown. We even had a smile. Jen came down since he had stopped crying so abruptly and I started walking toward her. About ...

I got home last night to find a neighbor on the phone, rather irate. This would not have been a concern normally, if he had not been doing it right outside our garage ... where I was cutting down boxes at the time. Later on, he knocked on the door to let us know that the telephone pole behind our house had fallen and there were power lines on the ground. I followed him out and could clearly see the pole leaning on one of our trees ... and, yes there was smoke. About ten minutes later, after I told Jen what was going on, the transformer blew ... and the power went out. Thankfully, we had just finished cooking dinner. I had Jen pack up what she could and head to my parents. A hungry son was packed into the car and left. Not long after, the fire department showed up ... fire and all. They checked things out and taped off our back yard ... thankfully, not the whole house. About an hour later, the power company showed up ... I should say, one small truck and a single technician wh...

Tonight, we had an incident ... and, by that I mean blood and screaming incident. Patrick was helping me as usual. I was installing a grounded outlet for the computer and he wanted a screwdriver (yes, the one I had in my hand, not the one off the shelf). I did convince him to take another one and he was so excited he had to show his mother. Then, it happened ... the end of peace in the household; at least for a few hours. The screwdriver fell ... and as most do for someone that small, it fell tip down and hit the big toe on his left foot. He dropped next, screaming. We got water and a wet dish towel which was quickly replaced with paper towels and ice. And, while the screaming persisted (with a visibly upset Mama and Papa), the blood did slow from a small river to a dot that reappeared every few minutes. Mama got the stickiest bandaid she could find and we got it on him ... and as far as I know it's still on. So much for peace in the house tonight ...

At the doctor's office, Jen found out that the uncomfortable feeling was contractions. Patrick was not quite ready to join us, but we were getting close. Jen woke me at about one in the morning to tell me that her contractions had changed. I asked how far apart they were and was told about forty minutes. What I didn't realize at the time was that she had not cleared the data out on her iPad from the previous day's contractions. She woke me again about five in the morning to let me know that the contractions were about ten minutes apart and it was time to head to the hospital. Excited and a bit fearful, I got everything together and we got on the road. Once we arrived at the hospital, we made our way to the delivery ward. Once in a temporary delivery room, the doctor arrived and we found out Jen was much further along than we expected. The nurse was surprised Jen even managed to walk into the hospital. They quickly moved Jen into a regular delivery room where thing...

Patrick's first day of daycare showed me how truly terrifying being a parent can be. Jennifer and I made arrangements at work so we could both be there as he was dropped off. We walked him in and handed him over, along with several months worth of clothing and food. He was in tears (yes, afraid of being abandoned at several months old), his mother was in tears (afraid he would hate her ... logically knowing he cried because he loved her), and I was fighting to keep the tears at bay (being the good, strong husband ... man, was that painful). We got as far as the car before Jen's waterworks started up again. I held her ... for what seemed like hours, letting her take strength from me. All the time, I was hiding the weak feeling in my knees. Eventually, we got to work. Then, the phone call ... it was Jen, picking him up. Another phone call ... they survived the five minute car ride home (first time without me). Another call ... he was happy and feeding. Finally, my wor...

We all had a rough night last night.  Apparently, when Patrick has teeth coming in, his rear end gets sore ... I don't know why, but once Jen and I made the correlation, my parents told me that's the way it was with me ... way, way, way back. He's got another tooth coming in ... and, both ends are in pain (getting better now ... rough last night). Trying to get him to sleep was challenging to say the least. I had to pat his lower back firmly while bouncing hard enough to make my calves sore in mere moments ... I wasn't given the option of just bouncing him with my arms (he could tell the difference).  Anything else resulted in screaming. As I finally got him to sleep, I was able to stop the patting and bouncing and sat down to let him get into a deeper sleep.  After about an hour, I put him into the crib ... Then, as Jen and I finally laid down, his little head popped up over the edge of the crib and another scream of pain was let out.  Again, I picked him ...

... in the Car When I was little (much closer to Patrick's age and size ... and yes, I realize that was quite  a while ago) my parent would to put me in the car and drive around to get me to sleep.  It was apparently effective enough for them to mention it to us when we brought Patrick home. This trick works ... Patrick falls into such a deep peaceful sleep, I really hate to turn the engine off some days. ... in the House There are times when I wonder if the car wouldn't be a better option.  We get him to sleep on our shoulder ... then make any attempt to place him in the crib and he is instantly awake.  We get him to sleep between us ... and again, any attempt to lift him to carry him to the crib and he's awake. This is not "sleepy eyes, smiling at me" awake ... this is I'm irritated and I need as many people to know as I can manage.  For an amazingly pleasant child, he can crank out the decibels when he wants to. We've tried letting him...