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2002-05-28

So....Things have been going well. We're all settling into routines. Because I sometimes have trouble remembering what my life was like during a particular period (for example, I now have no idea how I filled the days when I was on maternity leave), I've decided to document the current routine.

I leave for work at around 7:30. Prior to leaving, I do the following in roughly this order:

  • pump if I wake up before the baby does

  • nurse the baby (I bring him to our bed for this and often get to doze a little)

  • change and dress the baby and put him in his crib with the mobile spinning while I dress myself

  • get baby's things for the day ready: milk (it goes in a little vinyl cooler thingie with an ice pack) and a change of clothes

  • make my breakfast (which I'll then eat in the car) and lunch

  • kiss everyone goodbye (everyone human, that is--dogs get no morning kisses)

I try to look in the mirror before I leave but I don't always manage to. The other morning I was on my way out when B said, "You need to brush your hair before you go to work." God, he was right. (Once I leave, B hangs out for a while with the baby then drives him to day care.)

Then I drive to work (it's around 35 minutes). I pump three times during the workday. I have a little hands-free device that lets me do pretty much anything else as I pump--work, talk on the phone, read, eat. Sometimes pumping feels like a chore but sometimes I enjoy it. I think about the baby and feel good that I'm doing this for him. The amount of milk I produce during each session varies widely but I average about five ounces total (both sides). When I get an unusually large yield, I feel triumphant. (Anything I produce beyond what he takes at day care goes into the freezer. This is my emergency stash--if I were to get sick or if my supply were to drop for some other reason--and I'm a bit obsessed with it. I have 300 ounces in there at the moment. If I end up not needing it, I can donate it to a milk bank, where it would get passed along for use by premature infants.)

I leave work around 4:30 and get to the day care center around 20 minutes later. I pick up the baby and get home by 5:30. In the car with him, I chatter away about my day, whatever is on my mind. Who knows whether he's listening or tuning me out. He has this little stuffed bunny that lives in the car and he plays with her (I've decided it's a girl). Well, he holds her and puts her ears in his mouth; I guess you could consider that play.

Once home, I try to carry everything in--including the baby--in one trip. I generally hand the baby off to B for a few minutes while I get settled. Then I take the baby to the glider-rocker-ottoman thing and nurse him for a while, usually followed by a period of staring into each other's eyes and smiling and laughing with pleasure at the sheer presence of the other. It really is so much like the early days of a love affair.

Lately we've been taking walks at this point--me carrying the baby in the Baby Bjorn and B leading all three dogs on their leashes. By the time we return it's time for me to start the bedtime wind-down routine. Some nights a bath, some nights a book, always some nursing and good night kisses.

Then I go downstairs and start dinner, unless B has already done so in which case I help or finish up or empty the dishwasher or something. And we eat and maybe watch a little TV or I use the Bowflex or clean the kitchen and take a shower and by 10 or 10:30 we're in bed (the dogs join us there). We read for a little bit and then go to sleep and get up and it all begins again.

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