teamwork

I jinxed us by writing about Jake's sleep on the internets. Any progress we had been making seems to have gone out the window in the last few days, and I am spending a lot of time in the wee smalls sitting in his rocking chair, wretchedly reminding myself that he will eventually sleep through the night, even if that eventuality is several years away. Ugh.

However, the universe has been awesome, by which I mostly mean people I know. Kat gave us her glider, so I have a place to rock the baby in the middle of the night. Paul drove me out to Kat's to pick it up. Jenny took Jake overnight last Saturday so we could get some sleep. Folks have sent me sweet notes about my parenting abilities. And as a cherry on the top of it all, I found this website:

http://www.askmoxie.org/

Behold! A parenting website where people discuss their parenting experiences instead of screaming at everyone else about how they're doing it wrong! It's a miracle. Now if I could only figure out how the spambots are defeating my word verification for comments, all would be golden.

why yes, that IS a Cuisinart in my bathroom!

Jake is finally spending some of the night sleeping in his crib. We're usually able to get him to sleep between 7 and 7:30 without too much fuss. He doesn't stay asleep particularly well, but it means as much as two whole hours some nights when we can just hang out, usually watching tv because we're too wiped out to do anything else. Still! Adult time is awesome. Oh, hello, person I married. I vaguely remember you as someone other than "that guy I hand the baby to."

The complicating factor is the layout of our apartment, in which the baby's bedroom shares a wall with--you guessed it--the kitchen. Another wall with the dining room. And since his nighttime routine (bath, story, nurse, song) can take up to 45 minutes on a tough night, we usually have not eaten before getting him down. Hell, some nights spook doesn't even get a chance to get home before I'm in there, rocking and singing. The only outlet in the house that feels far enough away to run a noisy appliance is downstairs in the bathroom.

I left my coffee grinder there this morning.

inside out

Having a baby is, in my limited experience, like ripping your heart out and then sending it into the world where anything can happen to it. I meant to be blogging the last few months. In fact, I meant to be blogging every day. Babies nap, right? But the experience has so far been both so intense and so banal that I could not think of a way to express myself. And so I haven't.

it IS a fashion statement. it says "I give up!"

I was really, really happy about buying a pair of jeans that fit me. Wearing maternity clothes when you are no longer pregnant is just depressing. And oh! The novelty of pants with a zipper! So why, you might legitimately ask yourself, did I also buy a pair of sweatpants?

TO HORRIFY STACY LONDON.