With a screaming baby at quarter of five in the morning, I thought I'd give Mrs. Rodius some quiet in which to sleep and take Thumper for a walk. A smirking jogger commented, "I remember those walks" as he passed us. When Thumper fell asleep within a minute or two, I was congratulating myself on my excellent baby management skills. But at exactly the halfway point around the big three-mile loop around our neighborhood, when going back would have been exactly the same as going on, he woke up. And commenced with the screaming again. And suddenly I realized I was sweating profusely in the humidity, despite what I originally thought was a pleasantly cool temperature.
So I spent fifteen minutes pushing him briskly along in the stroller, sure he'd wear himself out and fall asleep again. I felt painfully self-conscious when another jogger passed us, this one a woman. She was probably wondering where that baby's mother was. Then I started to believe that a sheriff's deputy would pull up alongside me at any moment and arrest me for kidnapping a baby, or arrest me for having a half-naked screaming baby out at a ridiculous hour, with no diapers or bottles or other baby equipment. So I picked him up, carrying him in the crook of one arm and pushing the empty stroller with the other. He stopped crying instantly, and I carried him over a mile that way. We were both soaked through with sweat when we got home, but he was alert and perfectly happy. Next time I think I'll take him for a drive.
4 comments:
I have done that walk. That. exact. walk. Okay, so in Rhode Island, and not in Texas, but 5am, jogging stroller, screaming baby, at the furthest point away from the house.
Good times.
yup. been there. done that.
welcome to parenthood, my friend. it's these little moments that folks don't tell you about ahead of time, mostly because there are SO MANY little moments just like these, that they all start to run together.
Ahhhhh, the walk. I remember it now... hard as i tried to forget, it's there, like a rock in my shoe.
You have to change the link, though, and the title.
It wasn't a "Bad" idea. It was a great idea. But it didn't have the outcome you expected.
Also, you are not a "Bad" Father. You are a great father with a son who is so little the only form of communication he has right now is to cry. That's all. If you were a bad father, you'd have left him under a bush when he started to cry. You picked him up and carried him and he stopped crying, even though you got really sweaty and uncomfortable. That makes you a great father.
You are a great DAD. If you weren't, you wouldn't be so uptight with your new son's trying to adjust to this strange new world of sensations. I can't count the hours I've spent fretting, walking, pacing, jiggling or driving around aimlessly. I promise you, it will get better/glorious as the three of you learn to be a family.
Post a Comment