Katie and Tom's "B & B" agreement

Tom Cruise, while in Rome on Monday for a Mission Impossible 3 press tour (which he’ll continue on Tuesday and Wednesday per Katie’s blessing), spoke of his and Katie Holmes’ tandem routine in caring for baby Suri, 6 days old. "We’ve got a whole system worked out – the B&B. Katie does the breastfeeding and I do the burping…And changing the diapers." Of course, he won’t be able to help much this week, but we assume he’ll continue splitting parenting duties when he arrives back in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Source: People

Thanks to CBB readers Ryan, Kim, Mary Beth, and Ariana.

Did you have a routine worked out with your partner as well? Or did one person carry the brunt of the baby tasks?

Comments

My husband and I shared the duties, although it was not close to 50/50! I would say I had 75% of it, but mostly that is because I was at home with her while he worked. He was very hands-on when he was home (diaper changes, walking her around the house when she was crying, etc.)

Glad to hear Katie is breastfeeding!

- rachel on April 24th, 2006

The article says he has Katie’s blessing, so I guess that’s all that matters, it just seems so soon for him to be leaving them. I know they can afford all the help they could ever need. I just think back to when my son was born. The first few weeks were such a special time for me, my husband and child. I would have been very upset if he had left for a few days.

- gargoylegurl on April 24th, 2006

How cute…I love it:-) He has always sounded like a stellar dad, so no reason to believe that it would change! My husband and I shared, but much like Rachel, it was more like 75/25:-) I breastfed, and that takes alot of the work involved with a newborn. He bathed, did diapers etc when needed. He did NOT do nighttimes though:-( My man would sleep through the second coming…hahaha! With number two he will have to pitch in a whole lot more since we will then have a three year old to take care of as well. Should be interesting:-)

- BP on April 24th, 2006

Glad to hear they have something that works for them!

As for my husband and i we shared it about 50/50 when our first 2 were born (18 months apart) my husband worked from 330pm to 230 am. I had them from 7 am till about 10 when he woke up. Then it was him while I slept a while till 3 when he left. I was by myself from 3 till 2 am,they went to bed at 7pm every night. Then he came home around 230am and woudl do middle of the night feeding. I was lucky that both of my first 2 would only wake once each night.

Then with my 3rd one 14 months later things were different. He still worked at the same place but when she was 10 days old I fell and broke my elbow and couldnt hold her or anything….And the pain meds knocked me out cold. For the next 6 weeks are so he stayed home taking care of her…he did EVERYTHING. even ALL of the night time feedings. She would wake about every 3 hours. Even after my arm was ok to hold her he still did every night time feeding for me so I could sleep. She is 2 and a half now and if she ever wakes in the middle of the night she wants her daddy. So he goes to her. I feel like i STILL owe him for helping me so much…LOL

- krewcat on April 24th, 2006

Krewcat- awww! Your husband sounds like such a devoted papa!

- landroverdisco on April 24th, 2006

well, with our first, I pretty much did everything, because I was a single mom.

with my second, I’d met and married dh, so it was totally different, but there was also an older child, so he took care of the older one and brought the baby up to me to nurse and be changed while I was on bedrest after coming home (dehydration and anemia)

when we had to put the baby on formula, he’d take the baby at night if he woke up, cause he was often up late anyway, working.

he also watched both kids when I worked part-time… after the ppd hit when I had to wean ds2 early due to no milk, I needed something to get me out of the house.

with our daughter, he’s been working and going to school full time… he did her first feeding when she came home, has done feedings when he can, plays with her, but no diapers… he has issues with girl diapers… which is odd, cause the first time he met my oldest, my oldest was 4mo old… and he just jumped right in with helping.

of course, he was a boy…. his dad had the same issues…

If I had been able to nurse her, he just wouldn’t have done those feedings.

- Kat_Momof3 on April 25th, 2006

Like Tom, my husband needed to return to work within a few days of each of our three children’s births. Some businesses just never sleep!
I was responsible for most of the baby duties, but my husband helped a lot. He used to be a night owl, so I’d wake up in the night to check on the baby and my husband would already be rocking him back to sleep.
Neither of us can really complain about the amount of duties we have with the kids, though. We are each the oldest of 5 and have the only children in the family. We literally have grandparents, aunts, and uncles waiting in the wings for a chance to babysit or help out. I always had a sister or sister-in-law or parent in the weeks and months following the babies births. I have the fondest memories of those times with the babies, my husband, and the whole family.

- spindoctor on April 25th, 2006

I’m a single parent, so I did all the work.

- Stacey on April 25th, 2006

we were lucky – when our first born came this january my husband got 6 weeks of paternity leave. so we split duties pretty much 50/50. we were both up at night, me to feed and him to change diapers. now that we are both back to work and kiddo sleeps through the night, we still do 50/50 – i do the morning routine and daddy does the nighttime routine. if one of us has an important meeting or something come up, we switch.

- erica on April 25th, 2006