The Salvateenies: Daddy's first week alone

It is Friday night and the babies are all still intact. Joe has made it through his first week of solo parenting relatively unscathed. And now the babies' eyes follow HIM around the room...oh, fickle allegiances of the newly born. What am I? Chopped Liver? (as if they'd even get that reference...maybe I should rephrase..."What am I? Powdered formula?")

Monday went pretty well. I rushed home in time for the 5:00 feeding and was filled in on the day. Joe had handled the morning feeding, then Tom and Carla came by and each took a baby for the 1:00. Uncle Kelly was also on hand if there'd been any problems. Then came Tuesday. Daniel woke up before I even left the house and I had to hug and coo and bounce him back to sleep, which made my day that much harder. And it meant Joe was awake, on the alert for someone to make a sound. Max awoke at 7:30, but played happily in his crib until 8:30, or as much as you can play when swaddled. Then came news that Tom had a "please take the day off and let your body rest" type headache and Daddy was on his own for lunchtime. Add to this the fact that I had an after-school meeting and would be getting home JUST at Salvateenie dinner time, and Tuesday amounted to a challenging day on the homefront.

But babies rallied for Wednesday. Everybody was asleep when I left. Nobody called with concerns during the day, and everyone seemed pretty happy when I got back. This is when Max pulled his trick on Joe. He (Max) cried and cried until Joe picked him up. Unable to console him, Joe figured he should check his diaper. Max calmed down the instant his butt hit the changing table - we've found the problem, right? WRONG! His diaper was completely dry, but Max had found what he wanted...a nice warm spot to lie down, where Daddy has to stay within arm's length! I came home to find Max grinning goofily on the changing table with Joe hovering beside him, and the other babies napping in their little chairs.

Thursday was the really big day. The morning schedule unfolded as it had the past few days - whoever woke up first got to eat right away. Then babies were fed as they awoke - but this time Daniel and Caroline both wanted to get up together! And Joe successfully propped up a baby with bottle! YAY! After the 1pm feeding...it was time for a play date! A woman from our multiples group (who always says we're her inspiration on really bad days with her twin girls ... I guess she thinks of us and says to herself, "it's not that bad...they could be triplets") had offered to have anyone from our "Play Group" (babies born between July and December of last year) over to her house to get together. I had encouraged Joe to go because 1) she's a nice lady, 2) it would be good to get out with the babies, and 3) she lives in our neighborhood! During the prep to leave, I got a wonderful phone call. Joe, very calmly, informed me that putting on the little seat belts in the car seats was not quite as easy as he'd thought it would be. Oops...guess I should've let him do that a couple of times... They weren't that confounding, though, because Joe and Tom made it out to the lady's house, got a great parking space, and carried armsful of car seats in. And it's a good thing they did - nobody else's babies made it! (No judgment, of course...it's super hard to get yourself out of the house with one baby, I'm told. With multiple babies it's, well, exponentially hard.) In fact, one other woman did come, though without her babies this time. And it turns out SHE'S the one we just bought a crib from so that we'll have three relatively matching ones for the new nursery. Small world.

Giddy from a successful outing on Thursday, the Salvateenies braved the Bay Bridge to visit their grandparents in Livermore on Friday. Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa have heat, because it was under 40 degrees most of the day!

Daddy had some time to take pictures during his week: