Flying Solo

Today, from 9 AM until past midnight, I am Eddie's solitary caretaker. Martin's on a brief (by our standards) road trip to Seattle to pick his mother up from the airport for a visit. Similarly to our own flight over, she opted to fly into Sea-Tac because it's a direct route from London. We weren't about to subject poor Eddie to twelve hours in a car, so he and I stayed behind and I'm looking after him on my own. It's going pretty well, and I'm even managing to clean up the kitchen. I have found the one single thing that it is most difficult for me to do while looking after him, though - prepare meals. He has gone down for a few naps throughout the day (though he mightily protested the need for the third, and managed to stay up for nearly four hours before conking out) and I've been able to get things done during those breaks, but anything that requires guaranteed availability at a future time - such as, say, eating a freshly prepared meal - is a gamble. I find myself leaning heavily toward the no-preparation-needed variety of fare, so lunch was an apple, some cheese, a roma tomato, some water, and a handful of oatmeal raisin cookies. Not the most balanced, though a reasonably healthy selection when you take into account that oats are supposed to help with milk production. I am hoping that the 4 hour gap between naps means his current one will be longish, and he's been down for 46 minutes so far. I've popped a TV dinner in the oven and have my fingers crossed that it can cook, cool slightly and be eaten before he wakes up. Nine hours of single parentdom down, six to go. My hat is off to all of those full-time single parents of newborns out there. I am starting to get an inkling of how difficult it is, and that's without any additional kids who need my time, or any school work, or a job outside of the home.