First-time parents try doing everything for their baby—so they don’t miss any firsts. Just a head’s up, rolling and crawling is cute, diaper changes are overrated. Leaving Cristian with someone else was difficult, we started by taking—pardon the pun, baby steps.
We started small. First, each godparent watched him while we ran errands or went to Buy Buy Baby to stock up on supplies. Both times we knew the baby was fine because we left him with a Baby Whisperer.
In February we had a Valentine’s Dayish date night—we went out for dinner and a movie. We saw American Sniper—I know what you’re thinking, he’s a romantic. After seeing the movie we brought dinner home with us. Although Esther’s sister watched the baby, cutting the chord was difficult.
In late April my Dad was hospitalized, diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Managing his healthcare and Mom’s (she has her own health issues) while caring for a baby and juggling a freelance consulting gig is challenging, like juggling three balls, a kitten, and a chainsaw.
Cristian has an excellent babysitter who watched him when I visited Dad at the hospital or took mom to doctors’ appointments, but she wasn’t always available. Paying the babysitter got expensive fast, forcing us to expand the babysitting pool.
Esther and I are lucky–Cristian has a big personality—he loves performing for anyone who smiles at him. We’ve had many offers to watch him, most having no idea of what that entails–not from the baby—but from his parents.
Potential babysitters were screened, kind of like the way the CIA screens new employees. Fingerprints were checked, references verified and they must first handle a blowout, an overflowing diaper that spilled over up his back and down his legs, usually after Cristian ate a high-fiber meal. Prunes work really well for blowouts.
Dropping the baby off with friends produced new anxiety. Esther kept asking if we should scrub their apartment first with industrial cleaning products like we did at the hospital. I had to keep reassuring her, they both graduated from Ivy League Schools, and I’m pretty sure their building isn’t a meth lab.
As time passed, things got easier, still not easy but we are getting there. It reminds me of a piece of advice given to me by a friend years ago. When someone offers to help you, don’t be too proud to take it. It’s still good advice, but thinking back, this friend wasn’t a parent.
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