Blind Baby Daddy Blog: Now There Are Three
Photo with Kennan and Tut both wearing button up shirts with roses on them and they are holding baby LouElla who is wrapped in a pink swaddled has a little rose attached to her hat.
Well, if two weren’t enough, now there are three. Yes, we just had our third child and Blind Baby Daddy is having to freshen up on his infant skills. As you can imagine, the war field of objects in the house is already bad with two boys under five but when you add in the baby crib, bassinette, breast milk pump and baby blankets then you have a recipe ffor disaster for blind baby daddy. Since the baby arrived, we have already had one casualty as Blind Baby Daddy stepped on mommy’s breast milk pump attachment and broke it while trying to maneuver over to the couch.
Baby LouElla Rose was born at 6:10pm on Wednesday March 9, 2022 and was 7lbs 10oz. The excitement at home began well before she came out of mommy’s tummy. All during the pregnancy, Tut was very interested in the baby and began saying that he also had a baby in his tummy named “Rosebud”. He even went as far to say he had to feed his Rosebud and that she was growing. Tut would talk to Rosebud in mommy’s tummy and used the stethoscope to check her heart. Kennan on the other hand, didn’t really have too much interest in Rosebud. While mommy was pregnant, I often served as referee to enforce the no “WWF jumping on mommy’s tummy move,” as well as breaking up brotherly fights. This can be difficult at times when you don’t see one of the boys pushing or hitting the other and then you are relying on either kid’s reports of the incident or your own assumption of the event. As a result, unfortunately, both kids get to go into the “penalty box”.
Getting ready for her arrival, the two boys helped chalk Rosebud on our driveway with two colored hearts, one on each side in the day prior to her coming home. Kennan is seen coloring in a rose that we drew stemming from the letter “U” in Rosebud.
As the days before “Rosebud’s” arrival came fewer and fewer the kids began to plan what they would do with Rosebud when she got home. Tut, being the caring and compassionate one said, “Rosebud is my little sister, and I will take care of her.” Kennan on the other hand said, “When Rosebud gets home, I’m going to feed her some milk and then put her in the grate.” As you can see, very different plans. I am sure Kennan was probably trying to say he would put her in the crib, but he said crate. Since we have our dog Gunther, he knows what a dog crate is and knows that it is outside in the garage so maybe he really did mean the crate.
Baby LouElla just arrived hoe and is still in her car seat. Kennan and Tut were there to greet mommy and meet the newest addition of our family. The two boys are on each side of the car seat and looking at the baby.
Mommy and baby LouElla came home on Friday March 11th and the kids instantly wanted to hold her. Their idea of gentle is much different than what is needed for a newborn, so we have had to teach them that they always need a pillow with them to support her head. After getting them, all set up to hold her, they typically last about 30 seconds before saying, “Now daddy you hold her.” Most of the time she is either sleeping, eating, or pooping and I have gotten good at the jobs that revolve around these activities with the other two. It helps to have a longer torso and arms to get her in the running back football carry when getting her to sleep or feeding. The difficulty for us blind folk is often finding her mouth. If her mouth is closed than it’s a ver small slit to see so sometimes I need to just feel with my finger to find her lips and then slide the bottle in. If not, then we get a “milk baby” face which they don’t really enjoy. The diaper changing experience for us blind folk can be an adventure but really, it’s an adventure for the entire sighted community as well. With the limited vision I have, I can still see the contrast between skin and BM so the only really difference for me is that I tend to be more right up in the action, and this means that there is greater potential to get hit by any foreign substances.
Kennan and Tut are sitting down next to each other and baby LouElla is lying across their lap all swaddled up in a blanket and asleep. Both of them are very excited to be holding their little sister and are smiling.
–As mentioned, every day is an adventure, and we are still figuring out how to adjust best to our new addition. We are so thankful to have Brittney’s mom “Gigi”, here to help during this time. We don’t know when she will be here until, but Kennan had some of these same questions the other night. Out of nowhere Kennan asked, “Is Gigi going back home?” This was followed by, “and she’s going to take the baby with her right?” Brittney’s response, “No Kennan, the baby is ours. She’s gouing to stay here.” Every day we have some of these classic conversations that just crack me up and remind us all to just step back and laugh!