Thanks for your patience, dear reader. It’s been too long, I know. Way too long.
Eagle-eyed readers might have guessed at the cause — we’ve had a baby. Not just any baby, no. This is Baby Number Two (“BNT” as it’s apparently referred to by knowing mothers).
It was a good birth — more on that in another post — and I’m delighted to say that both mother and baby are fine. We now have two boys: Archie and Freddie.
Baby Number Two is a bit of a challenge though.
You see, we’d just got into a pretty good routine with Archie. We could go out for lunch, I could take him out for the afternoon then do dinner at Zizzi, bring him back, bath, bed, job done. He loved it. I loved it. My wife really enjoyed the break. Things were going swimmingly. We knew how to do this parenting thing.
When you throw another baby into the mix, things get seriously complicated. First off, the baby needs feeding regularly. Every 3-4 hours at a minimum. That’s around-the-clock. And feeding isn’t a simple process, especially in the initial stages. The baby doesn’t have that much energy or ability to take in a lot of milk to begin with so that’s quite a bit of work. Trying to manage the requirements of the toddler simultaneously can be seriously challenging, especially when he’s getting frustrated that no one will play with him.
It’s a lot of work, especially when you’re working to a service level of sorts. My wife thinks it’s ridiculous that I apply business terminology to home life — I’m not that bad — but you know, we’re working to deliver a good experience for both children. That involves giving the requisite attention, stimulation and so on.
BNT would be easy if you simply left the other one to cry. My wife wouldn’t need any help from me or our family.
But that’s not the way we’re operating so it’s been quite full-on.
The baby’s almost 7 weeks now and things are a little bit more predictable. My wife and I are able to get a bit more sleep. The baby is sleeping longer. Archie has been through another bout of teething (shocking) and we’re out the other end.
Which is why I have time to write this text!
So thank you for your patience. Let’s get started once again.
