My first week of work is over, and it went just fine. A bit hectic...Julian and I aren't used to having to be anywhere before 9:00am, and now I need to be at work at 8:00am, after having gotten J settled at daycare, which takes about half an hour.

The first day was really rough. I cried all morning and didn't think I would be able to go through with it. I tried to pump a bottle of milk for him, but could barely get a few drops out, I was so upset. I had to try to defrost some milk from the freezer. THEN I was looking for my purse and realized that I had left it at Dolce Spazio the night before, when we went to get gelato. Great, just great. I was just calming down in the car when my friend John called to see how I was doing and that set me off crying again. I arrived at the childcare center all snuffly and red-eyed, not the first mom to do so, I'm sure.

But it was fine. I talked with the caregivers a bit about his likes and dislikes, nursed my baby boy, and then left for work. He didn't cry, thank god! I was really worried about having to leave a crying baby. But he was playing happily with all the brand new toys, and entranced by all the new faces and goings-on.

Work flew by! I went to a meeting, caught up a little bit with my boss, went through emails, and pretty soon it was time for lunch. Drove over to see my baby boy with baited breath...he was hungry but not crying! He had even taken a nap, though it was kind of short. Apparently another baby had awakened from a nap and started crying, and that woke Julian up too. I nursed him and he was giving me the "I have to poop" look. Hmmm...I didn't have his potty and didn't know where the bathroom was, and I didn't feel like dealing with this the first day, so I told him to just go in his diaper, which he did...a little bit. I nursed him again before I left, and felt bad that I was leaving him without having taken him potty, another break in our routine. I'm sure he was confused.

When I came back to pick him up, he was hungry again, but not crying. He had taken a nap, and about an ounce from his bottle, but otherwise had refused it. His teeth have been bothering him. he has one bottom tooth all the way through and one *almost* through, which hurts, I'm sure. He hasn't been eating well lately. He latches on, but then pulls off, like the suction bothers him. Leela said that is common in teething babies, they don't eat well sometimes. So that could explain the bottle refusal as well.

All in all, the first day went well. Julian seemed happy, Leela and Madi said he was an easy baby and very cooperative, and I had a good day at work. I missed my boy, but it felt nice to be a paid professional in the grown-up world again. I enjoyed sitting at my desk working without constant interruption and without cocking an ear for a baby cry. It will be even better to get a paycheck again...I am down to my last dregs of savings. All those medical expenses! Even with good insurance, the combination of paying for a midwife/home birth AND a C-section with hospital stay turned out to be quite costly. I'm *still* getting bills.

The next day I worked from home. I was wondering how it would turn out, but it also went fine. Julian took a long nap in the morning, we went to playgroup at lunchtime, and then Grandma Ida came over to watch him in the afternoon when we got back. I spent most of my working time trying to get my laptop online and on the Yahoo! network, but did indeed get work done.

Thursday went smoothly...I got Julian to daycare by 8:00am, but then spent half an hour getting him fed and settled. When I came at lunch he had taken a good nap (yay!), but was still refusing his bottle. He didn't eat very well at lunch either...I wish that tooth would come through already!

He started to do his mini-poop, where he either farts or just poops a little to let me know he has to go. Arrgh, should I bring in his potty from home? What to do? I changed his diaper and then discovered that the restroom was right off the playroom, so I took him in with me. Leela gave me a weird look and said, "Laura, I can hold him while you go to the bathroom!", so I took a deep breath and explained that I was actually taking Julian, because he had to poop, and he doesn't like to go in his diaper. Leela looked confused, but Madi was cheering..."Yay Julian! What a good boy!"

I would think that it would be the other way around, because Leela is Indian, and it is still apparently still common in India to not use diapers and instead hold a baby over a basin or a bush outside at regular intervals. Disposable diapers are being used much more frequently though, so the practice is dying out as the landfills fill up with diapers...not a good thing in my opinion! So hot in India...those babies must have horrendous rashes.

Madi is from Iran. I don't know what they do there, but maybe they do EC? She was all for it, at any rate. Anyway, I held Julian over the toilet and he pooped right on cue, then his diaper was clean the rest of the day until I picked him up to go home. So I think I'll start taking him potty when I arrive and leave each time, that way we can keep up our routine.

Today was my day off. We went to Baby Boot Camp in the morning, my first real exercise all week! It felt good to get out and run a little. I need to get up early on Wednesdays and do my Boot Camp routine with Julian as well. Once a week on Friday is not going to cut it. After Boot Camp, we went to Willow St. Pizza for our weekly mama/baby lunch. Small group this time, only Hannah and Stephanie and me, and Stephanie had to leave to go to a music class with Gabriella. As the babies get older and more mobile, maybe the mamas will stop coming. Julian was OK, he fussed a little bit until I let him chew on a cloth diaper edge dipped in ice water. Tooth still bothering him, he nursed a little bit at the table, but not much. I was wearing him in his Moby Wrap, and he took a nap about halfway through lunch.

I honestly can't figure out why more mamas don't wear their babies in some sort of carrier. Both Stephanie and Hannah showed up with their babies in huge strollers, and they were so cumbersome. They had to find room to park the strollers around the table and up at the front of the restaurant. Then you take the baby out anyway, and the stroller just sits there taking up space. OK, you have some baby gear to carry as well, but what do you need that won't fit in a medium-sized diaper bag?

I don't know, I guess I am just Minimalist Mama. I pop Julian into his sling, grab a diaper bag/purse, and that's it. He stays content when he is next to me, and I have my hands free and don't have to push some giant unwieldy stroller around. I mean, I like strollers for certain occasions, like if we are going for a fairly long walk outside and I'm tired, but if we are shopping or doing anything besides just walking, it's much easier to wear him in a sling. I see moms pushing strollers loaded down with so much crap, they must weigh a zillion pounds. What IS all that baby stuff? You don't need fifty toys and seven different kinds of snacks, four changes of clothes and a queen-sized blanket. You just don't. I guess that's another advantage of the sling...Julian is perfectly happy to be up and looking at things and doesn't need a toy. I bring one toy now, for when we are sitting down somewhere and not moving, but otherwise he is quite content. Well, maybe this will all change next week. You never can tell.

We had to drive to Yahoo! today to drop off a check for my stock options, so on the way I sat in back with Julian and rubbed his gum where the new tooth was about to come in. He was loving that, and presto! The tooth cut right through! It was just *there* all of a sudden. I'm sure it still hurt, but hopefully will feel better by tomorrow now that it has come through his gum. Good, this means we should have a respite from teething for a few months, until the upper teeth start coming in.

Baby's awake, gotta go! This picture is hysterical, I have to post it. It has been making the rounds of my mama/baby mailing lists.