The Trial Run (Adventures of King Sunshine) Pt. 1

King Sunshine

This past weekend Mr. decided to have our 8 month old nephew (King Sunshine) over to capture what it would be like to have a baby in our home, the trial run as Mr. called it.  Of course I was thrilled because King Sunshine is such a happy and pleasant baby.  Once he confirmed with King Sunshine's mother that he indeed would spend the weekend with us, almost instantaneously mounds of armature questions began to fill my brain.

What type of food does he eat? Do I boil his bottles?  Can he sleep in the bed with us? Will he be home sick and cry the whole weekend? Will he knock down my Christmas tree? Should I move my coffee table? We are supposed to have a snow storm...will we be snowed in with King Sunshine? Will we get any sleep this weekend?

Now I've been around quite a few babies growing up, however I've never had a direct hand in taking care of them.  So it led me to question myself in caring for this little being for the next two days. Well all of those questions became obsolete when he arrived at our home. Although it took me a few hours to warm up to him, once I did my innate nurturing abilities came forth and I was able to sense when he was hungry, needed a diaper change or just wanted some attention.  

Preparation....

Friday I had to venture to Target to pick up some formula for him. His mother told us that he needed Enfamil Lipil, OK... no problem... right? Only when I got to Target they had Enfamil Lipil (Colic), Enfamil Lipil (Premature), Enfamil Lipil (Nighttime), Enfamil Lipil (Upset Stomach) -Ummmmm can I just  get some milk for the baby please!!  Finally, after finding the formula with no subheading I headed toward  the toy section.  I found a cute bright red toy that emulated car and animal sounds and I figured it would keep his attention.   Now off to find a book .... I love Dr. Seuss and was immediately drawn to Green Eggs and Ham (my favorite) and The Cat and the Hat, but once I opened them I realized these books were too advanced for an eight month old.  So I continued to peruse the book section until I found ....



How Big is So Big...Soooo Big!  Read this book to him about 4 times while he looked at me with a questioning look as I exaggerated every word and motion.

 I found all of my goodies to make our home a little more baby friendly.  Once I go to the check out the sales associate said "That will be $65". Which prompted a blank stare from me... "For what" Formula $26, Nursery Water $5, baby food $6, toy $15, and book $10 +tax? Note to self "Breast Feed". After the shock of how much formula cost I made my purchase and headed home to await our little visitor.

The first night...
King Sunshine arrived at my house at about 8:30 Friday night and was asleep from the car ride.  However as soon as I picked him up to remove his outerwear those bright eyes opened up.  At first he was looking at us like ummmm..who are you but once he got comfortable there was no stopping him. I was so excited about the new toy I got him so I ripped it out the package (with Mr's help and him telling me to calm down), wiped it off and gave it to him. While he was busy banging on the toy we moved the ottomans and coffee table out of the Kings way so that he can roam freely. He explored our home, stared at the Christmas tree then eventually worked up enough nerve to crawl towards it. I gave him the Noooo sound and he looked at me, smiled and began crawling back to me. Our 1200 square foot apartment seemed to shrink by the minute with him there.


Over to the Tree he goes!!

By this time it's getting late and time for bed but someone looked wide awake!  I read to him, dimmed the lights and finally read the instructions on the formula can so that I can make his bottle.  Once we gave him his bottle he was fast asleep... or so we thought.  He literally woke up 15 minutes later and was wide awake almost as if he just had one of those power naps.  The Mr. and I looked at each other with an unspoken glance of "What did we get ourselves into"!  By now I'm really tired and the King just would not go to sleep, he was laughing and talking and soon crying.  We fed him, changed his diaper, read to him and played with him so.... Why are you crying??  The King quickly let us know that from Friday to Sunday this is his Kingdom and  he will be running things around here!!  At about 2 am I was taking an aspirin to relieve me of the headache I had from lack of sleep and crying baby syndrome.   Thankfully 30 minutes after that my headache dissipated and the King  was asleep.  Oh he looked so cute and peaceful ...sleeping!!!  He slept in the middle of Mr and I and neither one of us ever really went to sleep.  Any sound or movement and both of us were looking at the King, we would stare until his chest moved letting us know that he was breathing and then we would drift back into that light sleep. I lied completely still and never really moved for fear of  rolling on him and my arms kept getting pins and needles because of the way I was laying.  Shake it off were my thoughts because my comfort didn't exist this weekend.  All that mattered was the King, his comfort level and his well being.

This was a really cool toy! Made all kinds of sounds and really kept his attention for more than 15 minutes at a time

The next morning....

At about 8 am the King woke us up with a congested cough. I hated the way it sounded and so did Mr, so we called King Sunshine's mother to see what type of cold medicine she gives him and thankfully she had some packed in his bag. We gave him the medicine and 20 minutes later that nasty cough was gone. Now I'm looking at this baby and wondering what do we do next.  I took him into the living room while Mr slept.  Already the Mr and I were establishing a routine with him.  He would sleep during the day while I kept King Sunshine and I would sleep at night while he had the night shift with the King.

To be continued...

I've learned so much this weekend, more than any book or online research could ever teach me.  In an attempt to keep this post short I decided to split it into a 2 part post.  The second part I will share the rest of the weekend as well as my thoughts on babies and motherhood.  All I can say is that this was truly a trial run and I am so grateful that I experienced it.