Honeybun is completing her 7th week of kindergarten and I’m in my 5th week of my fall teaching schedule. I am now teaching three nights a week and Saturday mornings. The new schedule (in addition to Honeybun’s school and homework schedule) is difficult mostly because it affects how our family has to eat.
One night a week I don’t teach until 7:30 so there is plenty of time to have a normal night with the girls. I make dinner as usual, we eat when hubby is home from work and then I go. And starting this week the class won’t be until 8:00 so I’ll even be able to help get the girls ready for bed before I go.
Another night Honeybun has her ballet class just before I teach so hubby picks up all the kids at the dance studio between classes and then is responsible for feeding them. One week Honeybun’s school did a fundraiser at a restaurant so we got take away from there. The next week hubby took the kids out (but forgot to get me something) and this past week hubby cooked and remembered to make me some too! I usually get home just in time to kiss the girls good night.
The third night is the trickiest, though. I have to be at the studio before hubby usually leaves work and I’m there until after the girls go to bed. I have an angel of a friend that has been watching the kids (along with her own two) for the time between when I leave and hubby gets home and luckily I’ll have family in town in a few weeks to take over that job. Usually on those nights I’ll make something in the crockpot for dinner.
The trickiest part of all of it though, is Doodle. The night I work late I feed him before I go and am back when he needs to eat again. The night hubby picks them up at the studio I feed Doodle right before they leave and again I’m home by the time he needs another feed but the 3rd night I’m gone long enough that he needs a bottle and that has been quite a trying process for hubby. Four months of boob only and Doodle has very little interest in anything else (other than my dinner maybe).
We did a “trial” run on the bottle before I left Doodle needing a feed for the first time and it was such a good thing we did! We ended up trying out 5 different bottles (including 1 sippy cup) before we found one he would even try to suck from. I made the mistake of not going with my first bottle choice (which is the one that ended up working!). I thought it would be easier to use the bottles that I pump into so tried the two nipples and one sippy top I have for those bottles first and he HATED all of them. Then I tried the bottles from the pump I used with Honeybun and he hated that too. He ended up tolerating the bottles that we used with Honeybun though he mostly wanted to chew on the bottle and didn’t really get that he was supposed to suck.
Not every night has resulted in a successful bottle feed and I’ve come home more than once to an overly stressed daddy and screaming baby. The nights he sucks everyone is happy but he still tries to chew sometimes which makes the feed extremely lengthy which overly frustrates both boys. Hopefully each day will get easier and worst case, family reinforcements will be here soon!
