Perhaps it's just the blogbligation* but this is a good time for a quick journal post. Edie is 6 1/2 weeks old and Sarah and I have fallen into a routine of sorts, especially on the weekdays. I'm teaching the summer session, a class that begins at 4pm downtown. Including office hours and prep time I usually leave home around 1, and get home before 7pm. The short version of the day is 5 hours, a longer version is sometimes 6 or 7 hours. That makes me, for this summer anyway, a morning and weekend Daddy. It leaves Sarah and Edie together for a bulk of the awake time for the week.
Sarah is breastfeeding, so she gets up to feed Edie in the night. Lucky for us, Edie really only wakes once in the night, around 2 or 3am. Then she'll sleep until 5 or 6 and want to eat again. My job is to sleep through the night, and then take over at 5 or 6 for Sarah to go back to bed. Sarah naps during the day when possible, and I don't take day naps like I used to. So I guess the sleep part equals out between the two of us.
The part I don't like so much is when I have to go to work. I would say that teaching is fun, except that it's not always, especially during the summer. And this summer I'd much rather be walking through the park and hanging out on the Lake Michigan beach with Edie (see above photo, taken by Sarah in my absence). As a result, Sarah gets into afternoon and early evening routines with her and when I get home I feel a bit extraneous. So I come up with some leftovers** for Sarah and I to eat for dinner, or sometimes she already cooked something while I was gone. Then I do the dishes, we all watch some PBS, one of us gets Edie ready for bed and soon after Edie's asleep we go to bed. Those are the weekdays.
Nearly every weekend for the last month and a half were occupied with some Edie related visit or event: Parents, Grandparents, our baby shower - always something. In fact, I think this is the first weekend we've had with no plans. I love this weekend. I spent all day with Edie and Sarah yesterday (and Friday too). Our daughter is so wonderful that I can hardly remember when Sarah and I were without her. It's crazy how little else matters anymore. Oh, I'll still write a dissertation, and I'm not changing my life trajectory or anything. But it all is slightly less critical than it felt before.
*that's my word for blogging obligation - the pressure to update an outdated blog
** On Cooking.
I've known men to sometimes say "I love to cook!" in this liberating sort of "No really I do housework" way. You know, the Sunday Dad BBQ that everyone praises him over while Mom cooks the other 13 mundane meals of the week with little gratitude. I remember while growing up my Dad made sure that we kids thanked Mom for cooking dinner every single meal - or otherwise complimenting her on the food. He did cook occasionally, I think once or twice a week, but I don't recall ever praising or thanking him for it. So either our family was liberated to this end or we were schmucks for only thanking Mom.
I don't love to cook, but we do have to eat. So it's not a matter of loving or not loving it. I have to cook, as does Sarah. Unfortunately my cooking repertoire could use some work. Often this means we eat leftovers, rice and beans, or pasta on my nights. And truthfully those leftovers are often from nights that Sarah cooks, so it's fair to say that she does more of the cooking.
