Dad Weeknotes, volume 4

Posted on 04 February 2018

Slightly late, here are my notes from my fourth week of dadding. You may also want to see volumes 1, 2 and 3.

New recipes

I tried two new big-batch recipes, both of which Luke loved: lamb stew with root vegetables, and tuna pasta bake. The pasta bake did the whole family for three separate meals, and the lamb stew made 6 2-portion boxes for the fridge and freezer. I think both will become regular additions to the repertoire!

Nursery

I spent a lot of time at nursery this week! I took him in for an hour on Monday and Wednesday mornings, to get him more familiar with the staff, the routine, and the environment. Then Thursday was the big test: having had a bad time last Friday when we left him alone, we wanted to do everything to help him settle without his mum or dad there. We brought his pram to sleep in as something more familiar than the nursery mattresses, and we also brought his plushy duck comforter. And fortuitously, one of his NCT buddies started nursery that day too. The effort spent familiarizing him with the place seemed to pay off, and he managed 9.30am til 12 noon without too much drama. They both seem to have helped him settle in too.

However, he was a very hungry boy on Thursday afternoon – eating a bigger afternoon snack than usual, and also eating a big dinner. At nursery he had had a “large”-sized lunch; I wonder if that’s still not as big as what he’s used to at home?

I also learned my lesson from last week, and arranged to do something to keep myself busy rather than having nothing to do but worry about Luke. I went to meet an old friend for coffee and a catch up. She politely tolerated me showing her about 80 photos of Luke, for which I am most grateful. It was also comforting to know that our NCT friends were there for their own baby’s first day.

On Friday, we tried 9am til 2pm. I dropped him off, and again went somewhere nearby and kept busy. He again did well, but he was incredibly tired when we picked him up. He had had 2 naps at nursery, but he had a third nap that afternoon – something unheard of for him! Having him so tired made the rest of the afternoon much harder work, but I still think it’s a good sign that he’s using up all this energy at nursery.

Next week, I’m planning to take Luke in on the off days again (Monday to Wednesday) and hopefully he’ll stay a little bit longer on Thursday and Friday once more.

Other stuff

I’m struggling to find things to write about. The week has flown by, and although I tried to keep notes as it went, I just don’t feel like there’s much of note. There was plenty more routine housework: washing, washing up, that kind of thing. I took Luke to the Tuesday health visitor baby clinic to get some advice on some nappy rash. They also weighed him (he’s 11.10 kg, which is around the 90th centile). I found some time to do some filing, and noticed that our fixed-price gas & electric deal has expired, so it’s time to do some shopping around for that again. On Wednesday Sonia looked after Luke for the afternoon, and so of course I had a raging migraine all afternoon. We managed to do some sociable stuff. Sonia and I managed to go to our respective orchestra rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday, we hosted Sonia’s book club on Monday, I managed to buy some climbing shoes at get back on the wall for the first time since 2016.

I’m keeping busy, I suppose?