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You know, ironically, I had originally scheduled the baby's due date as my quit time for WoW this run, or at least of scaling way way way back to "maybe I'll log in and screw around every now and then, but I'll definitely have to stop raiding."
It's actually been the reverse as of this week. Before, I only PUGged raids, because I couldn't justify scheduling a block of three-four hours weekly where I was going to be sat at my computer and ignore anything else that was happening. I was always going to respond to my wife, or to work calls, or I should be asleep, etc. Then the baby was born, and I suddenly find myself with a scheduled time from 9-1 every night where I am, in fact, sat quietly with zero other adults and no one to bother me, and I've actually joined a guild and signed up for a BT run a week in advance rather than logging on when I found time and hunting around for a PUG. Artie mostly sleeps on my lap during the raid, and if she fusses I just type "AFK rq baby aggro" and everyone understands. Now, I suppose one could criticize that I'm probably not giving her 100% attention if she happens to wake up during the five minute boss fight, but a) it's five minutes and b) it's not like I'm ignoring her, just comforting her with one hand while trying to work my rotation with the other. Strategic hot keys and macros make it possible, though it may also help that I'm super casual by the standards of the guild I'm in and am ok with accepting corresponding loot restrictions.
I still suspect that as she develops more and requires more active attention I will quit, but I'm almost at the point where I have achieved all my goals already, so it will line up perfectly.
That was my experience early on as well. I got a lot of gaming in between nursing and the baby sleeping the first ~2 months or so. Now at 4 months he's a lot harder to hold while sitting at a computer, and also a lot more fun to watch while he plays on the floor. Dad can still do it, but he's playing a strategy game, not anything realtime.
Baby will sleep earlier and longer at night as she gets older though, so you may still have 9-1 free if you're willing to be a bit sleep deprived.
Sure but when I have 9-1 free, I won't want to book it for running Sunwell. The unique factor here is that I am not free from 9-1, I'm on shift watching the baby, I can't go anywhere or do anything, but that isn't actually a very active activity, it's mostly just feeding her every two hours, changing 2-3 diapers, snuggling if she fusses, and making sure she doesn't die, before waking my wife up and passing her off until 6am. Under normal circumstances, my wife is mildly upset if I come to bed late. In these circumstances, I'm being kind to my wife if I stay up extra late, letting her get more sleep.
And anyway, while I'm questioning why everyone else is quitting TBC all of a sudden, I'm kind of feeling like I'm going to be less interested in TBC after I get an Illidan kill. I have Black Temple booked for Friday night with a group that cleared it in three hours last week after running a successful Hyjal with them on Saturday, and I mostly just want to kill Illidan once. He's the guy on the box, and I never got him in high school. That's beating the game for me. After I knock him out, I'm not sure I'll want to run it every week for the foreseeable future, though maybe I'll try to gear up enough to "mothball" my shaman until Sunwell drops in case I want to come back. Maybe I'll level an alt, or maybe I'll look for a single player RPG that offers a similar experience, or maybe I'll just quit video games again for another decade.
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