Two on my own

I have been pretty lucky so far this maternity leave in that Kerm is still at home with me.  I'm taking 12 weeks this time and he's lucky enough to be able to take 5 with me.  Most people I know only have their husbands at home for one, maybe two weeks with them, so I realize how unusual this is that I have yet to embark on the journey of solo parenting.  However, when Kerm does return to work, I also know that I have it quite a bit different from most people.  Rather than just being at home during the day with the kids, I will have day and night duty for 4 days straight.  Kerm works overnights and obviously has to then sleep during the day - so I will have the night shift alone while he's at work - and the day shift solo as well, while he's sleeping.

I'm really not too worried about handling overnight by myself.  After all, with nursing, I have to get up anyways.  The day shift doesn't bother me either because I just figure we won't expect to get anything accomplished.  If I'm able to get both kids bathed, dressed and out the door, great.  If not, oh well, we can always play at home.

What does worry me is the bedtime part.  Kerm leaves for work at 6:30pm and Allie goes down for bed around 7.  That leaves me to do the whole bedtime routine solo, while managing two kids.  Thus far, this time period has proven to be Jake's cluster feeding time.  So, I'm envisioning trying to wrangle on kid into pajamas, brushing teeth, bathroom time and reading stories, all while trying to keep the other kid fed and calm.  Could be quite scary!

Tonight, I had my first glimpse into how this job would really play out.  Kerm had to run a couple errands and needed to be out of the house by 7 in order to make things work well.  Before he left, he helped get Allie into her pajamas and brushed her teeth, leaving me only to manage story time and the actual aspect of putting her to bed.  Then, we both took a deep breath - Kerm left the house and I set down to try this solo parenting act.  Guess what?  It worked great.  I'm kind of patting my own back here (mostly because Kerm's not home yet to pat it for me) and realizing that I was kind of a super mom tonight!

Immediately after Kerm left, I had Allie pick out some stories to read.  I brought the bouncer into her room and set Jake in it.  He was snoozing and I thought to myself, "Wow, this is going to be really easy.  One kid is going to sleep, while I read stories to the other."  My fantasy world only lasted about 2 minutes.  As soon as I lay down next to Allie, Jake woke up and started fussing.  I tried bouncing the bouncer with my foot in hopes he would settle back down and go to sleep.  Ha!  So, I did what every rational parent would do.  I pulled Jake into bed alongside Allie, yanked up my shirt, latched him on, and read stories to Allie with my free hand.  By the time we were onto the third story, Jake was asleep next to me and Allie's eyes were getting heavy.  When she requested a fourth story, I didn't even flinch and kept right on reading.

After we finished up stories, I gave her kisses and hugs, fetched her a glass of water and made my way downstairs.  Ten minutes later, I had a sound asleep kid upstairs and a sound asleep kid downstairs and I was able to make my way to the couch to relax!  Now, if only every bedtime night could go this smooth, I would be set!