The challenges of reintegration ... with a baby...

When my husband left for deployment our sweet Little Dude was a 3.5 month old bump on a log.  He had started daycare but had spent the majority of his short life at home with mama during her maternity leave.  Daddy was great with Little Dude spending time holding and cuddling, giving bottles when mommy had milk pumped, and even changing (the occasional) diapers.  

When hubby came home from deployment our Little Dude was a 10 month old crawling machine.  His favorite pass-times were chasing puppies around the living room, screaming at the top of his lungs (Just to hear himself, not because anything was wrong/not crying) and dancing adorably anytime music was on.  

That's a big change!  Every day hubby was gone Little Dude learned something new, grew a little, and developed more into a miniature human.   Now he is eating solid food, toddling around (a little) and even says mama, dada, and hi/bye (though both really just sound like eye) when he waves.   

For hubby being gone for those 8 months in the middle didn't cause the immediate culture shock I expected upon his return (though I think COVID-19 may have caused a bit of a shock) but instead it is more of a daily struggle realizing the things that hubby doesn't know/hasn't had the chance to learn yet.

Question: What do I  feed him 

Answer: The same thing we are eating, or if we aren't eating then the same thing we would be eating otherwise at that time of day, just smaller amounts.

Question: When does he eat

Answer: Look at his daycare sheet??? Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, on snack between lunch and dinner, maybe some random cheerios thrown in there....

Question: Does he have a volume button?

Answer: Yes, but it only goes louder

Question: Are these clothes (in his dresser) the right size?

Answer: ...seriously??? You think I took the time to fold and put away clothes that don't fit...???

And so on.  My favorite so far though has to be the first night I missed bedtime (and only so far) for a meeting.   I got home about 15 minutes after hubby got Little Dude to sleep.  He had apparently had quite a night and they had gone pretty much immediately from high chair for dinner to jammies to bed; but then hubby couldn't get Little Dude to go to sleep, it was a battle, no surprise there though Little Dude had literally never gone to sleep without mommy in his life, even in the NICU I was in there most of the day if I myself wasn't eating or sleeping, so the baby was a bit out of sorts...Until the next morning when I went to pack Little Dudes lunchbox for daycare and realized that hubby forgot to give him his bedtime bottle.  Don't worry, this child drinks plenty of milk during the day and still wakes 2-3 times at night to nurse so his bedtime nursing session is 99% for comfort and my husband had fed him a big dinner so Little Dude was not hungry at all, but he did miss the comfort of his bedtime milk.  And who knows, he might have had to fight a battle anyway since it would have been a bottle instead of boob, but it will still make for a funny story 10 years from now.