My husband is the sh!t!

[MamaSueCongdon]

Hehehe... I figured since we're all adults, I could use one little swear in honor of my hubby.

This morning, when we woke up, our furniture was all in one place. Tonight, as we go to bed, the only furniture that's in it's original spot is our chair and television. Everything else - all three rooms worth of furniture - was rearranged today. We cleaned out both of our closets, sorted through all of Ethan's baby clothes, packed up lots of junk, and rearranged all of our furniture. Oh yeah... and Daniel did all the work (with a little help from Jay). I helped a little... I got to sort through the baby clothes -but I got so sentimental in the process that it took me a whole hour. Haha. I also drove to get a pizza for lunch.

But other than that - Daniel did it all. He's my hero!

Why did he do it, you ask? I will tell you.

We've had our adorable little Ethan sleeping in our bed for the last couple months, because Daddy's office and Ethan's crib are in the same room. Daniel had lots of projects to work on in order to pay the bills, and so Ethan had to sleep in our bed while Daniel worked late into the night. Now our little man is accustomed to sleeping all snuggled in next to Mommy, and Mommy is all accustomed to not having to wake up all the way in order to feed Ethan. Everyone is getting more sleep. Yay!

The bad news, though - is that it's sort of hard to snuggle in your marriage bed when you have a 30lb BabyMan in between you. Oh... and there's the kicking. He likes to kick my belly while he's sleeping. Come to think of it, he's enjoyed that particular activity since before he was born. Little stinker!

We narrowed our choices down to three options;

1.) Put Ethan in his room and let him cry himself to sleep without us.
2.) Resign ourselves to co-sleeping craziness and hope that Ethan decides to move out before we outgrow our bed
3.) Go back to our original arrangment of Mommy getting up 2-3+ times a night to feed Ethan in the living room, put him back in bed, and hope she catches a little sleep before he gets hungry again.

None of those sounded good to us. We totally miss having our bed to ourselves, but we both also know that our son's need for security, love, nourishment and care does not end just because we are tired. So - we brainstormed and decided to move Daniel's office into our bedroom area and put our bed in Ethan's room. We also arranged the crib so that it's right next to our bed (a nice cozy fit in our teeny little house). And - it just so happens that the crib mattress is at the exact level of our mattress, so with the removal of his side wall on the crib - we have an industrial sized co-sleeper for our industrial sized baby.

Booyah! Teamwork has triumphed and our new arrangement insures that;

1.) Babyman still has his much needed access to the all-night boobie bar
2.) Babyman will have a nice little transition into sleeping on his own for good - at his own pace!
3.) Mommy still gets to take care of Ethan at night without sacrificing crazy amounts of sleep
4.) The Congdon Marital Bed is reclaimed for Mommy and Daddy - woot!

So - all of that to say - three cheers for Daniel! It's such an amazing blessing to be married to a man who is willing to spend an entire day rearranging all of his furniture so that he can enjoy an honest snuggle with his wife without sacrificing her need for sleep, or his son's need for security and care.

Also - we had a couple of friends over for dinner tonight who got married around the same time we did and then moved away.  We spent a good 3-4 hours talking about childbirth (they don't have kiddos yet) and all the things I've been learning about the beauty of a woman's body in labor, and the ridiculous and often maddening way that our culture turns it into an intervention-filled fear-fest that endangers Mama and baby.  They were so interested, as both of them have Moms who had C-sections.  I was able to share all that I've learned about how our current medical system isn't structured to honor the birth process - and my husband was a champ!  He's becoming this amazingly articulate, vocal and enthusiastic out-of-hospital birth advocate.  It's so refreshing!  I'm really looking forward to our future HBAC.  Some distant and beautiful day.  For now - I'll just be excited to snuggle him and my Babyman.

[Diana_B.]

Dec. 8, 2008 at 2:37 AM

Good for you guys, two thumbs up!