Six days alone with Tisoy

To be honest, I was not completely alone, my partner's dad was here in the early morning and at night, and he even prepared meals for me, so I got lucky and didn't have to heat the canned soups and stews I had bought in anticipation of not having any time to cook a fresh meal.

I enjoyed playtimes with TIsoy and discovered new skills in him. He is saying his first repeated sound, which is "ö" - he definitely is German :) He coos and laughs a lot when I play with him. He is trying to crawl but not getting anywhere and figured out how to move sideways when lying on his back.

Playtime

Still it was a challenge. The first day, everything went smoothly. Tisoy had a morning and afternoon nap of 2 hours each, and I took advantage of those 4 hours to get things done around the house and I even started a sewing project. I was in good spirits that those 6 days would be a breeze.

On days 2-6 Tisoy was not so cooperative though. He wanted to be carried all the time. He was happy and content in my arms but when I put him down, no matter how deeply asleep he was, within 20 minutes at most (more often after 10 minutes) he was crying to be picked up again. So doing anything other than carrying him around the house was a challenge, including taking a bath, feeding the cats or running a quick errand. 

On day 3 I ran out of load for my cellphone. All I had to do was go to the nearest shop and buy load, a matter of 10 minutes normally. That trip turned into a 2-hour endeavor. First, Tisoy was so cranky to begin with that I couldn't even think of going out, then he finally slept and I wanted to take advantage to clean the bathroom and postponed my trip, then he was cranky again and started screaming when I put him in the carrier. After two hours finally, I went to the shop, bought load and got back to the house. 

It took me 3 days to finish my sewing project that I had started on day 1, and it was only a small project that normally would have taken 2-3 hours.

On day 5 I baked a cake to surprise my partner when he got home. It took all day. 

The cake that took all day to bake to welcome Daddy back home

When I did another "quick" run to the shop to buy internet load on day 4 (quick means, another 2-hour attempt of getting out of the house), the salesgirl asked me why I don't have a yaya. Good question, that I'm asking myself now as well: Why don't I have a yaya? Why am I making my life harder than necessary? I want to get one next time I'm alone with Tisoy for more than one day.

Another aspect of why I'm so exhausted after these six days is the additional lack of sleep. Tisoy is exclusively breastfed, and he feeds every 3 hours for 1-1 1/2 hours including burping, diaper change, and entertainment program (which he sometimes wants in the middle of the night). I pump in the mornings and when daddy is home, he feeds him the expressed milk in a bottle at 11pm while I go to sleep early. This gives me around 5 hours of straight sleep before Tisoy wakes me for his 2am meal. Now I don't get that break and have no chance to catch up on sleep during the day.

I'm happy my partner is back. First thing I did was I slept half the afternoon. My partner failed in trying to wake me up as I had asked him to since we still wanted to go grocery shopping. I was totally passed out. And I am usually a light sleeper. 

My respect and admiration goes out to all those single moms who have to go through this every day without the prospect of having their partner come home after a few days. You are amazing!

On a different note: Happy birthday, Tisoy, you are two months old today!

Happy 2 months birthday, Tisoy!