June 01, 2004

Our First Day Alone

Today was Elizabeth's first official day back at work (she'd gone in a few times over the last two weeks to get back into things). Which means it was the first day that I had Dorothy all by myself for a really long period of time. We survived, but I didn't do it all alone.

Elizabeth woke me around 5am to take Dorothy for a while, so that Eliz could get more sleep before work. (Dorothy "normally" gets up around 4am and is fussy until 7 or 8am.) Elizabeth took the 8am train into Boston, and I curled up with Dorothy on the couch. In retrospect, I should have put her in the sling and tried to get her to sleep in the crib, or somewhere I would have felt more secure. As it was, she slept for 45 minutes, and I lay next to her, maybe sleeping for a minute or two at a time before waking, worried that she might roll or wake or something.

Dorothy did let me get some of my own work done, although not a ton. We did play some games (like making faces at each other), and I fed her a couple of bottles. But every time she seemed to be dozing off and I put her in the crib in the hopes of getting a bit of shut-eye myself, her eyes would pop right back open.

We did play some more of her newest "game" -- sitting up! I'll lay her down on the boppy pillow, then let her grab my fingers with her fists. I'll grab her fists back, then pull her up to a sitting position. She's still pretty wobbly, but with me holding her arms out for support, she can mostly hold her head up and look around. She obviously loves sitting up, because when I lay her back down, she'll quickly start leaning her head forward and pulling her legs up, trying to get back into sitting position. :-)

Anyway, I was getting pretty zonked by mid-afternoon. Luckily, my parents were able to come by around 3pm and relieve me. I got a 45-minute nap, and (finally) took a shower. Boy, did that all feel so good! I went and got a bit more work done, and then my parents headed out after Elizabeth got home. Elizabeth certainly missed her little sweetie-pie after having been gone all day!

We all survived the day. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll see if I can manage to survive an entire day by myself with Dorothy without going crazy or comatose. This week, though, I won't have to worry. She's got two days in daycare, and the other day I'll be taking her to a party mid-afternoon, which will "break up" the day enough, I think. Next week, though, we'll see how we all do!

Posted by Tom Nugent at June 1, 2004 08:26 PM
Comments

Tom--You forgot to mention that Elizabeth's first day back at work was also her birthday! What a birthday present: to spend the whole day away from Dorothy!! :-(

Posted by: Grandma Caroline at June 1, 2004 08:43 PM

I haven't even read this, but I am declaring first dibs on book and movie rights!

Posted by: Tom at June 2, 2004 06:26 PM
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