Day 15 –

Lil’ man woke at 3:00 a.m. and mom handled the feeding. As expected he woke also for the 6:00 a.m. feeding. Again, mom took charge. Dad is relieved. Mom spent some time with our son, past the normal ‘back to sleep’ schedule and it was wonderful to see everyone back together again.

Today was car repair day. Our family car made a strange noise this morning and it had also been prompting us for scheduled maintenance. Although sitting with our lil’ man while waiting for services to be performed on the vehicle did not exactly sound like a winning idea, we headed out for repairs. Fortunately, the repair shop had a “children’s” room where we could sit quietly. I warned the service specialist that we had three hours before a meltdown would occur. It took exactly three hours. The first hour I fed lil’ man, the next hour I sang “Rock-a-bye baby” to him and the last hour he slept. At the three hour mark, he began to stir, the car was reported to be finished and we rushed out of there to the tune of ‘waaahhhhh’. We just made it, without upsetting anyone else who had the misfortune to spend their day waiting for repairs. Having had a couple of big days, back-to-back, (the airport, the service shop) I fed our son at noon and let him have some free time in the crib. He stirred, occasionally cried but in general, he enjoyed the safety of his bed. The 3:00 p.m. feeding happened as expected and I again decided it was best to let him have free time. He began to get upset by 5:00 p.m. and he gave me a look that said to me “please swaddle me up and put me to bed”; I obliged and he fell asleep immediately. He slept until mom got home at 7:00 p.m. We both played with lil’ man, after the feeding. Mom suggested trying out the Bumbo chair – a chair designed to help infants sit up. We did and he sat like a king in a recliner. We were both so very proud. As the feeding/sleeping schedule had been pushed back some, we decided to let him sleep. We caught up from her travels and discussed the meaning of life and what happens after death; she is upset about losing her grandfather. Having a scientist’s perspective, I could not offer her much comfort but she knew that when she married me saying I resemble the main character in the show ‘Doc Martin’ and also the main character ‘Sheldon’ in ‘The Big Bang Theory'. I guess she finds some comfort in my consistency at least. I suggested we try to celebrate the life he lived and not worry about the after part for now. We discussed a curious story about a boy who claims to be reincarnated and who had a story that was difficult to dispute. Death is still a great mystery but we have, as a society, come up with many routes to find some explanation of the next journey and possibly comfort in the passing of life. She finally lay down to sleep, exhausted from her travels and emotional ordeal.