About Last Night

So . . .last night was our first night with a babysitter.

This is how I felt about leaving cub.


I left Lauren (very sweet, wonderful babysitter) with pages of instructions. I was mercilessly teased (by my friend Liz) for my detailed notes, (You can find Liz's parenting tips in the comments section of this post.) but I wanted Lauren to be prepared.

Let's back up a little . . .

Yesterday afternoon wasn't a great one for little cub. He was tired, clingy and cranky. My theories as to why he was so cranky:

1. He could sense that I was a little uneasy;
2. His cold (the one he's had on and off for two months) was back with a vengeance,
   
3. He wasn't wearing his teething necklace (I forgot it at school); and/or
   
4. He was tired (the night before he was up for about 1.5 hours in the middle of the night).
   

Buttin thought #3 was hilarious.

He took many small naps in the afternoon and by 5:50 he was tired and ready for his bath, dinner and bed. I was putting him to bed when I heard Lauren walk through the door at 6:15. He was fast asleep when I left the two of them around 6:35.

I went to meet my friends Liz & Jonathan for a 7:00 Wall Street (cookie review to come shortly) and I was planning to be home by 10:00.

Here's what was supposed to happen: Cash was supposed to stay asleep. Lauren was supposed to watch TV (or read, eat pizza, sew, play with the cats, bake cookies - whatever she wanted to do).

The few nights before last, Cash had been waking up around 8:00 needing a little back patting (so I left that factoid in her instructions), but the night before he had slept from 6:30 - 3:30 straight, so my hope was that Lauren and Cash would never see each other.

Here's what did happen (as best I could piece together from Lauren):

• Cash woke up around 8:00 (not a huge surprise and I left Lauren with multiple things to try if this happened).
• Apparently, back patting was making him angry and hysterics were performed.
  
• Lauren picked Cash up to comfort him (as per the instruction manual) and he got better.
• She tried to put him back down again and AGAIN he would start to cry.
• Next she tried to feed him (sometimes if he's so tired at dinner time he doesn't eat as much as he should and wakes up and needs a snack - I provided a warm bottle in the event that this occurred). He wasn't eating.
  
• The he started farting.
  
• She thought he might have pooed, and I left instructions that if he had a blowout (although he never poos at night) to change his diaper (Liz found this particular instruction to be hilarious/obvious) and so she did.
  
• She danced around with him in the living room and then tried to put him back down in his bed, he cried.
• She walked outside with him to calm him back down and then tried to put him to bed, more crying.
  
• Next she tried to feed him again, no luck.
• At this point, I think she just figured it wasn't worth the back and forth and just walked around the living room with him and the two of them watched True Blood.
  
• When I walked through the door at 9:30, I was greeted by two pairs of eyes and a big smile from cub.
  

Lauren said that he had been very smiley and happy since about 9:00, but that there was some difficulty earlier in the evening. I felt so bad for Lauren and poor, tired Cash.

As soon as Lauren left, I gave Cash the magic boob and he was out within 5 minutes . . . for about an hour.

I was prepared for what was coming . . . when he's overtired he DOES NOT sleep well.

He was awake at 10:30, at 12:45, at 3:00 (I noticed he was soaking wet - I forgot to show Lauren how to use the cloth diapers and so she put it on backwards. His pjs were soaked with pee. I wonder what Liz's parenting manual would say about pee-soaked pjs?), at 5:15 and then he took a nap in my lap from 6:45 - 8:30.

I have no idea why cub wouldn't go back to sleep with Lauren. Maybe he wasn't feeling well, maybe he missed me or maybe it was because he hadn't been wearing his amber necklace all afternoon (that's my vote).

We will try a babysitter again (actually MorMor will be here on Thursday and Friday night) and I just hope Lauren is willing to try again.