In May 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly the Atlantic solo, taking 33½ hours to fly from Roosevelt Field outside New York City to Le Bourget in Paris. He had with him on his trip sandwiches, water, a compass, and an awful lot of gasoline. He had to fly through sleet, ice, and fog, and saw the sun set twice on his trip, awake the entire time. He had no idea if or when he would see land again after he left Newfoundland behind.
I thought of Lindbergh this evening because, frankly, my situation isn't nearly so bad. Sarah left for Philadelphia this morning to present a paper at a conference and will return tomorrow evening, so I'm in charge of Nicholas the whole time (about 36 hours). We already had a babysitter for the afternoon so I could get some work done, and Grandma Kathleen is coming up tomorrow afternoon to help out with things. We have a pretty good stock of food, and Target and the grocery store are only ten minutes away.
The reason why the comparison is one I find useful is because for some reason I still get a little anxious about having complete charge of Nicholas for multiple days. Now, I'm with him for long stretches all the time—several days a week, as a matter of fact. But I still find certain things mysterious (perhaps because I'm a dad, who knows?). There are things that make sense for me not to know, like how Sarah operates the middle-of-the-night feedings. And each time Sarah has gone away, and the one time I took Nicholas on a trip by myself, I've fretted about the overnight period. Will I hear him wake up? Will I be able to put together a bottle fast enough that he goes right back to sleep? And the ever-terrifying: what do I do if ... I don't know what to do?!?!
And so it's helpful to me to have a reminder that I know what I'm doing (though ask me tomorrow how the 3am feeding went), and that Nicholas trusts me, which is perhaps the most important thing, and that he's not so mommy-centered that he can't make it two days without her (sorry, dear, but it's true). Plus, unlike Lindbergh, I have help, ample food (cookies!), and am charting familiar territory, both metaphorically and geographically. So having a compass might not even help that much. Unless it was a metaphorical one that sensed when Nicholas was about to wake up in the middle of the night and would automatically feed him. Now that would be a compass I could use (not to mention Sarah).
So glad to hear you are at least willing to try - I have friends who would immediately have shipped the little one to the grandparents. NO! Good for you!
ReplyDeleteSo, how did the feeding go? :o)
The feeding went fine, all in all. He woke up fully, because it just takes longer to put together a bottle than to nurse, and he was confused at first as to why there wasn't a better option. But he got it together and it all worked out fine.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was thinking that my post was a bit unclear, or that my thinking clarified later -- what really gets me is the overnight (the mystery! the darkness!). The day time is fun with him, and we both know how to do that. So once he starts sleeping through the night it'll be much easier to get rid of Sarah ... er, have her go away.