Parenting Solo

This past weekend was my first solo night with Hunter since he was born.  In close to a year neither myself nor Kristian had spent a night away from him since bringing him home. The main reasons for this are that to be honest, I'm not ready to spend a night away from him (especially since I still nurse him first thing in the morning) and I haven't really wanted Kristian to spend the night away either. The fact is I don't sleep well in general when he's not home, every little sound freaks me out and now with Hunter it's just harder to do everything on my own.

Well after telling him no over and over I finally gave in when he asked if he could go on a last minute hunting/camping trip with his buddy and his buddy's son. He planned to leave Friday morning and come back late Saturday night. I figured I've handled getting Hunter from daycare, giving him dinner and putting him to bed on my own many times as well as spending all day Saturdays with him alone while Kristian is off hunting so this shouldn't be too hard. Plus Hunter has been sleeping through the night for months. Easy Peasy.

But of course my child decides when daddy is away he is going to turn into devil child and drive his mother UP THE WALL. Basically he said "easy peasy my ass". He decided rather than sleeping through the night he was going to wake up THREE times (he hasn't done that in months) and then wake up for good at 6:30am. Normally I can nurse him back to sleep for at least another hour on weekend mornings.

He also normally takes great naps on the weekend; 1-2 hours in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. Again, he said "naps? what's a nap?" I desperately tried to put him down for a nap in the morning only to have him break into screaming fits. He finally took a nap around noon for a whole 30 minutes. Oh and did I mention he was being a total fuss monster the whole morning? Because he was.

After lunch I decided we both needed a break and took him to the happiest place on Earth. Target! He did great at Target. He loves to just sit and people watch so that was a blessing and I took advantage of a little (read $150) retail therapy. He finally fell asleep in the car on the way home and I carried him in his carseat inside where he continued to sleep for an hour. I actually got to sit down, eat and read a magazine. It was bliss. After his nap he was finally in better spirits and the rest of the night was fine but when Kristian came home I was not in the greatest mood and just exhausted. Not sure I will be letting him leave overnight again anytime soon.

Of course he slept great Saturday night, took his normal naps and was all around a pleasant kid again on Sunday. I guess he was just upset that daddy was gone. I know the feeling.