How to entertain and stimulate your 3 week old baby at 4:30 in the morning

So, you've dragged yourself out of bed 3:45am and spent the last 40 minutes gazing longingly at your pillow while feeding the baby. He's done now, you've changed his diaper and laid him down and put the blanket over him and kissed him good night and...and.. he's not alseep. Nope. He's bright eyed and bushy tailed and looking at you with a "Look, mom I'm finally awake after 3 weeks! Play with me!" expression.

This happened to me this morning, and instead of following my heart and saying to hell with it and turning off the light and crawling back into bed... I did the right thing and tried my best to stimulate and entertain little Rafe. Here is a list of things I came up with in my bid to help his little brain grow.


- narrating my next chess move in an ongoing game with my husband. This worked delighfully until I realised I couldn't make that master checkmate as "Wait, is that his King or his queen? If that's his queen I'm screwed- if thats his King, I win... Shit. Which one is the queen, baby? Any ideas?" At this point he gave me a look that clearly said "You are a moron. Put me back in my basket." (Hey, it's been MONTHS since weve played chess, BTW)

- next we had a lovely time accusing daddy of heinous crimes as he slept, and then laughing when he snored.

- discussing the pros and cons of putting makeup on daddy's face as he slept.

- chewing on all exposed parts of baby's body and proclaiming them good enough to eat.

- abusing said baby by laughing at him when he desperatley starts sucking on your bottom lip when you give him kisses.


After all this little Rafe rewards me by acting like he's fallen asleep only to let out a heart wrenching cry as soon as I've hit the pillow. Haha. Isn't he cute? After I've fed him again he will again drift off, this time giving me 15 minutes of sleep before crying again. At this point daddy get's up with him and I mentally apologise for accusing him of faking sleep just to get out of entertaining the baby earlier. Then I go back to sleep, comforted in the knowledge that now daddy will have to entertain him. *




**- No, daddy did not have to entertain him, not 5 minutes after being cradled in the crook of daddy's arm, he was fast asleep. I swear they both hate me.