A naptime protest

Craig has been home on paternity leave for the four weeks since Laurel's birth (and he was home for the two holiday weeks before that!), so Isaac has gotten used to taking his nap with his dad's assistance. Today, however, Craig went to the dentist at naptime, so right now I am the one sitting in Isaac's room waiting for him to fall asleep. Isaac was not happy about the change in routine, and this is part of what he had to say about it:

I don't want to be just set down for the nap -- I want someone to hold me and rock me.

Nothing like this has ever happened to me before!

You can't just go somewhere and not take me with you. I want to go to the dentist too. I want to be where there are two adults. There are a lot of adults at the dentist.

I'm a little bit sad.

We're nearing the end of our family bonding time, unfortunately. Craig has just one more week left of his paternity leave. Is it foolish that I'm finding myself feeling guilty that we haven't done something more with these seven weeks together? Sometimes I feel like we've wasted our time. I mean, I know I was hugely pregnant at first, and then I was busy having a baby, and then I needed some time to physically recover, and even now I try to take two naps a day. Plus we have a newborn and a little kid to take care of. All this is rather time-consuming! But still, think of having almost two months without having to go to work. Couldn't our family have really done something with that time? (Like what? Uh, I'm not sure.)

Instead we have frittered away this time by sitting around the house, organizing our closets, and napping. Craig and Isaac have played together for hours. Laurel and I have sat together for hours.

Craig also took five weeks off when Isaac was born, and he spent most of that time bonding with his new little boy. He remarked recently that this time, however, he really hasn't spent that much time with the new baby -- he has mostly concentrated on Isaac. They have never spent this much time together before, and they've had an intensely close experience, which might explain the problem I'm having getting him to nap now.

Maybe Craig and I should swap kids for the next week, so I get to spend more time alone with Isaac, and he gets to truly focus on Laurel.

- - - - -

Actually, the main problem with this nap was that after his initial brief protest Isaac fell asleep right away -- then woke up after just three minutes. But as he felt like he had been asleep for a long time, he decided he must already be done with the nap. And once you decide you're done, you're basically done.