DOUBLE DADDY DUTY

As most of you know, I now have a daughter. That's two kids. I took a month off of work, hoping that would help ease the family into normality. Today's my last day of "vacation" and I can't believe the difference between a 3-person family and a 4-person family.

When we had Sam almost three years ago, I stayed home for a month also. I distinctly remember thinking what a great month it was and how I'd love to be a stay-at-home Dad if I could. I woke up at 2 in the morning very often and napped in the middle of the day just as often. Time became nebulous. This time I'm still getting up in the middle of the night, but now we have to keep some sort of normal time schedule because of Sam. We can no longer sleep until noon or take a family nap at 5 in the afternoon. If I get no sleep at night, I can't simply nap all day anymore.

In general, Kat parents Allie and I take care of Sam. Mostly this is due to the facts that Allie is breastfeeding and Sam is a real handful. Kat is still recovering from the surgery and I can't breastfeed, so we're sort of bound by fate to play zone defense.

This is the most exhausted I think I've ever been. Considering everything, Sam is being wonderful. I find myself snapping at him out of sheer exhaustion, but he doesn't hold a grudge and he seems to like Allie. Once she sleeps through the night, things will be immensely easier.