Dd was born 4 weeks ago and is pretty much a model baby - she sleeps well, she feeds like a dream and is the easiest baby I've ever come across. However, she does like to be held a lot and I've found that the simplest way to accomplish this and to achieve some sort of normal family life is to wear her in a wrap like this. If I have her in the sling, I can do all the things I did before she was born - including look after her big brother, who is 2.
Dh - on the other hand - seems to panic when faced with both of our offspring, and has yet to take them both out alone. He will look after ds in the mornings at the weekend so I can have a sleep with dd, but this is on the condition that he gets to have a nap later. When I get downstairs, usually he is sat on his laptop while ds either trashes the living room in front of him, or parked in front of CBeebies - or sometimes a combination of both. By contrast, while he is upstairs sleeping with ds I have (somehow) managed to do the washing up, tidy the living room and sweep the kitchen and dining room - all while looking after dd. How have I accomplished this? By having her tucked up on my chest in the wrap! Yet dh refuses to even try it and won't give a valid reason why not.
It's doing my head in that while I just have to get on and cope with 2 children he has the option to fanny about and whinge about how much he hates his job and how much harder his daily grind is to mine. While I don't deny that he works very hard in a job he hates, I don't exactly have a picnic all day either. I work much harder now doing fulltime childcare (although admittedly ds is in nursery 2.5 days a week) than I did when I was in paid employment! I can't wait to get back to work when dd is 12 months - it'll mean I get a break 3 days a week!
So - AIBU? Has anyone got any tips for how I can get dh to at least try taking care of both our children?