Parenting boot camp - Day 1

I am on leave over the next few days to help take care of the baby.

It is like going through boot camp. At least, that was how Day 1 felt like.

I am now 100% (200% may be a better figure) appreciative of what my wife does to take care of the baby. Before today, I never had to take care of the baby's every needs. My wife was always there, I was just helping her.

Today (and for the rest of the week), it was (and will be) a reversal of roles. I am now the one in charge of taking care of the baby, while she helps out occasionally.

My back is still hurting from carrying the baby (he is huge, weighing 12kg even though he is less than 8 months old). I still can't discern his reason for crying (Hungry? Lonely? Sleepy? Diaper?) and my wife says I probably end up carrying him more than he needed to be. I had a hard time trying to get him to sleep because I don't know what he likes. I know he goes to sleep when you carry him, but learnt that the other alternative is to feed him the bottle. I still take half an hour to feed him his porridge (my wife usually takes half that time). Bathing him was the easy part since it is something that I have been doing. Keeping him company for hours at a time, however, is something really new (never had to do that before, since by the time I come back from work, it is dinner, bath, sleep). I didn't have time to do my own stuff since I had to keep an eye on him, play with him, make sure he doesn't tear the house down or play with the sockets, keep him from licking things like slippers, and the list just goes on.

I wonder how my wife does all these things, but I guess that is the wonder of mothers. She does all these, plus the housework, and still sneaks in time in between to update her blog, surf the net, watch TV, does sewing, and even go shopping and meet up with friends. Me? I am dead beat just trying to see to the baby's needs.

Day 1 is over, I hope I can survive the week...