Dad tip #21: Don't squander the "spare" time

The second and potentially more challenging way to look at this is through the eyes of an exhausted new parent. You and your wife may literally be awake for 20+ hours a day. Depending on how you do the math, that could be in the neighborhood of 10+ more wakeful hours a day between the two of you compared to your pre-baby days.
Granted, you'll be completely wiped out in those hours and many of them will be filled with baby stuff, but there will still be "spare" moments here and there (that aren't really long enough to sleep during) that you can use for ... well, stuff.
For example, in the first couple of weeks after we brought our son home, I managed to squeeze in a few extra chores in the early morning hours including things like tossing a load of laundry in the washer, emptying and filling the dishwasher, sterilizing bottles, tidying up the living room, emptying the diaper champ, scooping the cat litter, and other little random stuff like that. I think I also managed to make it in to work early on some of those days simply because I was up.

Oh, I should also admit that not all of the "spare" time early on was spent on chores. In some cases, when our son only wanted to sleep ON someone, I'd spend a decent amount of time playing Mass Effect
For the record, Guitar Hero III was NOT nearly as good a game in that scenario.
Labels: chores, Mass Effect, Xbox 360