Don’t mess with routine

Diary of a home bird

Edwin McGreal

Oh how we’ve paid for bonfire night.

There was a community bonfire near the beach in Dooega as part of a weekend festival, just a five-minute walk from the house.

It seemed like a shame not to bring Frankie to her first bonfire. Trouble was the bonfire was not being lit until 10pm, well past her bedtime, but we said we’d make an exception. Surely one late night for Frankie would not cause too many problems?

Frankie wasn’t the only baby down there, and there was great excitement among some locals, who were delighted to have two babies in the middle of it all. There’s an old cottage that has been restored by the community for such festivals, and two dads sitting by the old fire feeding their babies with the bottle had people fierce excited altogether.

In a small village like Dooega, which has suffered from falling population, newborn babies are treasured.

And both dads got kudos for feeding and being modern fathers. The optics were good anyway!

Before we knew it, it was 10pm and the bonfire was blazing, so out we went. Frankie was in her element, roaring with excitement at the sight of the bright flames rising into the June sky.

We had her well wrapped up with a hat, blankets, jacket and baby-grow and the heat off the bonfire and the excitement wore her out. She was asleep in the pram on the walk home and, with a quick change and late feed, she went back to sleep with ease that night.

We got a sleep-in on the Saturday too, until 9.30am. Happy out were we … but we didn’t realise what was coming down the tracks.

Turns out little Frankie liked waiting up late on Bonfire Night, and has started to make a habit of it. Whereas before, we would get her to sleep sometime between 7pm and 9pm – towards the latter if we were on the road that day – now Frankie quite likes the window between 9pm and 11pm for bedtime.

With that comes a later lie-in the next morning, and so her routine has changed before you know it. We’ve been working on getting her down earlier, but it is easier said than done. Last Wednesday we thought we got her down around 8pm but in a couple of minutes she was awake again, ready for the craic, laughing as if to say ‘I’m not finished yet’.

For the second night running it was close to 11pm when she finally gave up.

And we’re out of sync as a result too, our own routines out the window. The couple of hours at night after Frankie goes down are useful for getting other bits and bobs out of the way and even squeezing in a bit of relaxation in front of the TV. Not this week.

All because of a bonfire Frankie will never remember! Do not mess with routine.

In his fortnightly column, first-time-father Edwin McGreal  chart the ups and downs of the biggest wake-up call of his life: parenthood.