My husband is a better stay-at-home mom than me

Tonight marks the end of 4 weeks of paternity leave for my husband. We switched roles and he became the stay-at-home parent for our little man. We were very blessed that his company provides paid time off for dads, especially when I had to go back to work.

I would like to think I'm pretty good with kids, especially babies, as that's kinda of what my job pays me to do everyday...feed babies. But I've decided there are just some things that a dad can do better. In case you've ever thought, man, he's better at this....or if you ever want to experiment with your new dad....these are my findings.

1. Cry it out. Think of what you will about cry it out, but we believe in it in the Lee household. Knox is always fed, dry, and warm when he goes down for what we call "taking a little break"...There's no reason to panic. At least you would think that. Knox loves to sleep, he sends me signs that he wants sleep, he sometimes begs to sleep. He has however decided that the first 60-90 seconds of nap time is meant for releasing all prior build-up stress from a hard day of eating, playing, and pooping. This consists of bloody murder screaming which is like nails on a chalkboard to me. My husband however can listen to this for hours (ok, maybe, like 20 minutes max) without flinching.

2. Cleaning. So when I was on maternity leave, cleaning really fell to the wayside... I wanted to clean, I wished I could clean, but my little tiny human had other ideas of what I should do with my time. John (*getting baby at 12 weeks old) did all the laundry, mopped with floors, and dusted the house on day one of being at home. He started strong and was completely exhausted, but he did it instantly putting my cleaning skills to shame.

3. Sleeping in the crib. Let me preface by saying, Knox has a nasty case of reflux and had a never ending cold that kept us from the transition to the crib initially. He adored the rock n' play and has a flat spot to prove it. He had no desire to make a change. I worried and avoided it for weeks. Cue John's paternity leave. I went back to work on Monday and by that afternoon I was receiving pictures of my sweet little boy sound asleep....IN HIS CRIB. Dang it, John. From that day forward, the kid takes all naps and bedtime in the crib, no questions asked.


4. Transition to 5 bottles. We love Babywise in the Lee house and Babywise said it was time to transition to 5 bottles. I had no idea how to do this and frankly was nervous because Knox didn't exactly wait his 3 hours for each bottle so I didn't know how taking one away would work. Again, in the matter of a day or two, John somehow stretched out his feedings into a workable schedule without sending Knox into a tailspin. (I have a feeling it had a lot to do with #1)

5. Resale shopping. John and I both love to shop. We knew having a baby would be dangerous, especially with baby Gap. A couple days into his paternity leave, I started getting texts like, "alright, Kid-to-Kid is a treasure trove of clothes" and "Just went to Buy and Buy and got onsies for $2!" We are now officially addicted to re-sale baby shops. A baby needs 10 different Ralph Lauren onsies, right?

All in all, although I want to be super mom and be the best at everything I do, my husband seems to be pretty good at this whole early parenting thing. It's an important lesson to learn. Teamwork is key to raising a tiny human. He's completely capable and sometimes way better than I am at taking care of our little man.

I'm extremely thankful for him, his willingness to care for Knox, and bonding time they were able to share in these 4 weeks.