Playing Hooky with Mr. Mom...

For a while, Jaxson was sleeping through the nights pretty well, but it seems now that Tara's working again, he has reverted to his old ways. For some reason, he wants to make his presence known each night around 2:30. (That's "am", by the way.)

Last night was no exception.

For Tara's new job, she has to get up pretty early, as she has to be in her office by 7am. Figure in a 30 minute commute, and let's just say she's "up with the roosters". Jaxson woke up around 2am and was being unusually fussy. Usually, a warm bottle puts him (and sometimes us) right back to sleep.

Last night was an exception.

After the bottle, he continued to fuss. He'd had a fever earlier in the day, so we suspected that he might be cutting teeth. We're told that four-month-olds sometimes do that. However, we noticed in the night that his breathing was really raspy, almost like he had a cold or something.

We had plenty of opportunity to monitor his health, as it seems he was awake all night long.

This morning, he was running a low grade fever, and we decided that Tara would go on to work, and I would stay home with The Boy. Three days of Day Care, and he's already playing hooky.


I've done my tours of duty with him before, but this was the first time that I stayed with him when he was feeling this poorly. Usually, when he starts to fuss, Tara's right there to scoop him up. Often, she'll say something like, "You're not the momma." and can calm him a matter of minutes, if not seconds, just by picking him up.

Today, however, Tara was no where to be found.

I looked around for her more than once.


I had to make a quick trip to the office this morning to drop off some stuff in my car, and so I loaded up Jaxson, and we made the drive to Waxahachie. He slept the whole way, which was very good.

When we got home, he started feeling badly. Despite my best efforts, there was nothing in my "Daddy Bag-o-Tricks" that seemed to work. Desparate, I gave him a little Tylenol. Once it took effect, he became more like himself.

The next time he got fussy, it was because he was hungry. If there's one thing that I know how to do, it's make bottles. After a warm bottle, he was ready for a nap. Though it was only 9:30, I was ready for one, too. Being Mr. Mom is hard work.

We slept for a while. Well, he did. I got a few phone calls which woke me, but thankfully, not Jaxson.

By the time Jaxson woke up, we were both hungry again. About this time, Uncle Travis came home. I sent him to get me some Sonic grub while I fed Jaxson again.

After we both ate, I was in a better mood, but Jaxson was still not himself. He continued to cry for long periods at time, seemingly for no reason at all. Frustrated, I tried "The Last Resort"--I let him watch the History Channel for a while.

It worked. There's something oddly hypnotic about those Mayans and their centuries old astrological calendar. He was mesmerized. I was, too.

For about 30 minutes, we watched this together, and we rejuvenated.


Finally, about 1:30pm, Tara came home. I gave her a full report of his day, and I think she was impressed by my parenting skills.

Right now, he's still being a little fussy. He hasn't had a fever since early this morning, and we're treating his cold with over-the-counter meds. We're hoping he'll wake up feeling a lot better in the morning.

However, if the last week is any indication, "in the morning" will probably be around 2am...

Until next time...

Norman

P.S. Here's is a picture from one of his happier moments today.