One year

A year ago tomorrow, So.ren and another blastocyst were transferred through my byzantine cervix. This timing has nice symmetry since my milk supply has suddenly essentially dried up, so it may be that he gets exactly one year of being housed/nourished by my body. On Sunday night, I pumped nearly 5 oz. Monday night, it was 2 oz. Last night, 1 oz. I have no idea why this is, but so be it. Maybe it's because I returned to work for real this week. Or maybe I ate something that dries up milk. Anyway, I am going to try to get one or two more nursing sessions out of him so I can be sentimental about my short-lived, complicated breastfeeding career.

Here's a photo of So.ren and his father. My husband is very musical, unlike me, and so So.ren gets concerts every evening and sometimes even during the daytime on weekends. I'm hoping he'll inherit the ability to carry a tune and play instruments and whatnot. Yes, whatnot!

Three months

Here's a photo from last week on So.ren's three-month birthday. We think he looks a little like ET sometimes - he raises up his wide head from his skinny little neck. And then he requests to phone home. And we're like, you dummy, you're already home!

So.ren hosted his first dinner party the other night. Some other babies (and their parents) came over. He was perfectly charming, which was great since keeping up appearances is essential - this is what I've learned from watching "Ma.d Men." Have you watched it? I love it. Very sly.

Escape from Babytraz

This is where I found our young lad this morning when I went in to get him. You'll note the sleep positioner and crib pad perpendicular to him and half the length of the crib away - that's where he was placed after his dream feed at 10pm last night. You'll also note the hyperbolically named 'miracl.e blanket' scrunched between his legs. As this is the second time this week I've found him out of his swaddle and his appointed sleeping place (though the last time was less dramatic), I think we can safely say adjustments are needed. I've put on the Breath.able Bump.ers to keep his limbs inside the crib, and I've ordered some sleepsacks for when the swaddle just doesn't cut it at all anymore. Our little man is mobile, though I'm not exactly sure how he got himself to where he ended up.

The baby nurse is gone, but we have the college students starting mid-week. I go back to work for real in a couple of weeks, so I'll be easing in between now and then. I'm still breastfeeding, if you can believe it, but work will put a crimp in this since I don't plan to pump there. I expect to be totally done in the next month. In mid-September, I'll be going to a family reunion sans husband and baby, so I suppose I'd better be done by then.

Back to the salt mines

I returned to the office for the first time on Friday, just for a couple of hours. I'm doing the same today. Things aren't in as much disarray as I had feared. Moreover, I am practicing Being Efficient, since I will only have childcare for 30 hours a week. I know, 30 hours is a pretty large number of hours, but I also need to squeeze in exercise, errand-running, personal upkeep, and world-saving during that time, and I'm sure there's lots of inefficiently used minutes involving sharing info with the nannies, etc.

So we hired two nannies/babysitters. One will be on duty three days a week from 8am-3pm, and the other will work 4-5 hours two days a week. They are both college students. Neurotically, I made them take an all-day CPR/infant first aid certification course on Saturday, then had them train with the baby nurse for much of the day yesterday. They did quite well, and I am pleased with our choices so far.

It has been lovely having the baby nurse back. She's here three more nights. I will wait a few more days before I report on any napping progress because I think we need more data points.