Baby's Day In

Today was a work holiday for me, but not for Lori. And the rule is 'if you are home and not sick on your deathbed, then the baby stays home, too.' Daycare is the necessary evil that should be avoided at all costs, but I wish we could avoid the cost of daycare. Or at least be put on a "pay as you go" plan so that we're only charged for the days she's in daycare. Better yet, reimbursed for all the days we have to stay home with her because she's sick from something she caught at daycare. (Her pediatrician says that there is some good in the daycare colds, builds up her immunity sooner.)

Anyhow, Rachel and I had a very nice day. Because it was pretty much cry free. I decided that I would break up the day into blocks of time. It was originally because I wanted to play Sim City 4 that I got for Christmas and if I don't set a timer, I can waste entire days with that game. I tried to stay in bed but after Lori left for work, I could not get back to sleep. Despite the fact that Rachel had us up much of last night. (We've started solid foods and the organic peas apparently did not agree with her. It was a few days ago and she's still working through it. Thank me, I've spared you the details. Now I hate peas, but I did the pinky-dip taste test on these things and they did taste like peas, and sweeter than I had expected. She seemed to like eating them -- not as much as she enjoyed green beans -- but it's not a food we'll try giving her again for a few months.)

So I got up and started doing stuff around the house. When she got up, I fed her some formula and put her in her swing and let her watch Bear. Half an hour later, I put her in her high chair and gave her different toys. Then another half an hour passed and I moved her to a blanket on the floor with other toys (the kid's not going to need any new toys after Christmas until her birthday). And then another half hour in the bassinette and then she was fussy and we read that babies are usually ready for a nap two hours after they wake up, so it was into the crib where she only cried for a little bit. During all of this time, I was able to do chores near her and interact with her. Then she napped for two hours. Then she woke up, had some more to eat and we did the 30 minute blocks of time thing again and as we approached the end of the second hour, sure enough, she got fussy, so back into the crib she went and back to sleep without too much trouble.

So, maybe I'm on to something. Maybe by keeping track of the time and by keeping her occupied by changing the venue and toy selection before she had a chance to get bored allowed me to have a cry-free day.