Home Alone ...

... with Quinn. Evelin and Celeste took off this morning to go for a ride on the Metro and then down to the park, leaving Quinn and I alone to figure each other out. We need to get comfortable with each other and she really needs to get happy with the occasional bottlefeeding because Evelin goes back to work in about 10 days, which means back to part-time stay-at-home daddying for me. But this time I'm outnumbered.

It'll be same situation as before (and that has continued through Evelin's maternity leave): Monday, Wednesday, Friday I work long days; Tuesday, Thursday I leave work at noon so Evelin can go in to her office until 6:00 p.m.

So this morning, Evelin and Celeste left as Quinn was starting to get hungry. After a lot of crying and false starts and a few attempts by Quinn to dodge the bottle and to latch on to my shirt instead, she managed to take about an ounce of milk before giving up and needing to hang out in the BabyBjörn. About 15 minutes later, she started fussing again, so I tried the bottle again, and she fell asleep taking the second ounce. (I have several 2-ounce bottles in the fridge for today so that I don't have to waste much milk if it turns out she's not going to take the bottle at any given time.)

She's been asleep (disjointedly) for about 45 minutes now, so she'll probably wake up hungry within the next half hour or so, so I'm just trying to clean up a little and enjoy the quiet ... I'm also trying not to think about what adding Celeste to the mix will mean. If Quinn's comfortable with a bottle (and she'll take it downstairs), then it shouldn't be too bad for Celeste — she can read or color or play by herself while Quinn is feeding. But if Quinn's screaming ... well, that has proved stressful for all three of us.

Looking back in the blog, the first two days alone with Celeste [ Day One | Day Two ] were pretty bad, but the third day went pretty well.

So if Quinn and I practice today, some tomorrow, and maybe some on the Fourth, then hopefully that first day as a PTSAHD will not lead to a hospital trip for anyone (although I'm pretty sure I will still be hitting the gin, scotch, and/or tequila as soon as the girls are in bed ...)

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