Day 2 - When I shout it out loud

So here we are, Day 2 of being a stay-at-home dad.  A part of me always thought that taking care of a baby during the day wouldn't be too bad of a gig.  That she would mostly just need to be changed, fed, and put to sleep.  You know, all of the normal stuff.  That's before the screaming set in...

It's kind of like that old bit from TV sitcoms where one person holds the baby and they're cooing and all that good stuff.  Then you pass it off to your buddy and the baby begins crying.  Back to the original person and baby is happy again.  The process is normally repeated a couple of times for comedic effect.  I think that you're probably following me now.  That's kind of been my life today.  

I woke Ellie up around nine to give her a bottle.  We made it through the bottle and then moved on to the burping.  All clear, doing well.  Now, it's time to snuggle, right?  WRONG!!!  Maybe you just need to be changed?  Ok, Daddy will change you.  Job done.  Snuggle?  Nope, scream.  Um, burp again?  Nope, scream.  At this point, I'm now scratching my chin working through my limited database of parental experience to figure out where to go next.  Eureka, I have it!  I'll bounce with her on the exercise ball.  Nope, scream.  

Ok, now for when it gets interesting.  I grab her little bouncy seat and almost instantly have a cooing, cute baby.  Everyone loves cooing, cute babies!  So, now that she's content, I hop off of the couch and sit down on the floor next to her and start patting her little hand.  Nope, scream.  Ok, ok.  I back away and hop back on the couch to a happy, cooing baby.  I understand Ellie; you can just stay in your bouncy seat until you get unhappy and then I'll put you in your swing to nap which is eventually accomplished.  

Noon rolls around and it's time to rouse the baby and let her eat again.  This time I've decided that I don't want to have to put her back in the swing because that's certainly a last resort.  I want to calm her on my own terms.  Needless to say, the process basically goes as before except for following time in the bouncy seat, I move her to her playmat.  She absolutely adores her time on the playmat until Daddy gets too close and then it's time to scream again.  After an hour and a half, Daddy finally blew the figurative final whistle on the game and returned Ellie to her swing where she now sleeps happily and I've made the decision to just let her sleep until she's ready to awake from her slumber.

Now I find myself trying to figure out several things...

1.       Does my baby hate me? - The answer seems to be 'Yes' or some form of 'Yes' in my head.

2.       How can I make the baby not hate me? - Still searching for an answer on that one.

3.       Is this a weird little phase? - I've decided on 'Likely' to 'Very Likely'

4.       Is it too late to invest in ear plugs? - 'No' and I actually already have them.

5.       Does it make me a bad dad if I choose to let her stay where she is happy? - That's the question that brings on struggling (Like the Jets during a certain halftime Joe Namath interview with Suzy Kolber).

Oh well, tomorrow's another day and Mommy will be home in about two hours!  Don't worry Ellie; I know that you're #MissingMommy and Daddy is most definitely not Mommy.  #DaddyWrite