Oh Baby. ....

With my work life at a very different place then it was when the first three were born, I'm sad to say that my involvement with Lorelei in infancy has been limited (by comparison).  In the middle of the nights I've let Gina take the load so I can still get out of bed at 4:30 and function till I get home at 6.  By the time I'm home now, she's already on her way down, and I tend to run point on showers and jammies for the big three while Gina gets to nursing and wrapping her up.  There is a small part of me that misses that.  I feel like somehow our bond won't be as tight because I'm not there as much as I was for the others.  And then last night happened.  I'm good now, I'm good.

Gina was invited out for a girls night with some of the other ladies in the community.  I could tell she really wanted needed to go and since Lorelei recently started taking an occasional bottle I figured "I got this."  By the time I got home, however, World War 3 had already broken out.  Rosaline had fallen asleep on the drive home from where ever they had been that afternoon.  She not only woke up on the wrong side of the car, she woke up on the wrong side of the galaxy.  It got so bad that I actually banished her from the dinner table and sent her to bed.  Of course by that time the baby had started to scream as well, but Gina had just nuresed her before she left so I didn't want to waste my one bottle that soon.  I tried every position of holding her, I paced the house for an hour, I tried the bouncy seat and the playmat; I even strapped her in her car seat and swung her till my arm felt like it was going to fall off.  All of this going on while simultaneously having to march upstairs every five minutes to confront Rosaline for what ever new trouble she was getting into.  OH!! And in the background I got to listen to the dialogue from Disney's new cinimatic treasure "The Descendants". ... for the second time.

Finally I had no options so I pulled out the bottle and she drained it in a horrifying split second.  Then she looked at me with her big blue eyes as if to ask for more and I had nothing.  And so she cried.  And then she screamed.  And then I cried.  And then Rosaline screamed.  And then the twins plugged their ears.  And we all cried.

Movie was done, baby was a little less upset, so I sent the twins up to brush their teeth (don't forget, Rosaline was banished to bed like 2 1/2 hours ago) when I hear Genevieve yell "Daddy, come look at my sink!".  I trudge upstairs to find toothpaste smeared all over the counter.  That little f........ 

Before I even got to the door I can hear her apologizing from with in.

By the time Gina got home the baby was fast asleep in my arms, big girls fast asleep upstairs, and I was well on my way.  And she wanted to know why I didn't respond to any of her texts.