Hard Weekend

It was a tough weekend this weekend. Or at least really busy.

On Friday we went to visit the lactation consultant at the hospital. She told us that we're doing great and keep up the good work. Alex weighed 6 lbs and 13 oz on Friday when he was weighed. We also learned how to use a breast pump.

After that, we went to a store for nursing mothers where Dana found a couple of nice nursing bras. We also stocked up on diapers over at Babies R Us.

On Saturday we slept. All three of us caught a cold, starting with Daddy, then Mommy, and finally Baby. It's mostly just congestion and sneezing, but still a pain in the neck.

I finally had time on Saturday to move Alex's crib downstairs to our bedroom. We've had the crib the longest of almost all our baby stuff. Alex's Grandma and Grandpa Leite (Michael and Moira) bought it for us in late January when they came out to visit and help us make a massive quantum leap ahead on the house project. (By the way, Thanks M&M&M!) I even had it put together several weeks ago in anticipation of the little guy. But he came before the upstairs was ready, so I had to move it. It's too wide to fit through our little Victorian doors or down the stairs in one piece, so I took it apart to move it. Fortunately it is super easy to take it apart and put it back together, just a couple of screws and a couple of latches.

Although Alex is primarily co-sleeping with us in the bed, on his own little contoured pillow, we use the crib for naps, quick deposits, and any time we need a safe, secure place to set him down for more than 5-10 seconds, which it turns out is quite often. After a couple of months we will transition him to sleeping in the crib full time at night, once he's figured out that Mom and Dad aren't going anywhere.

Incidentally, another Michael and Moira gift that has gotten a lot of mileage is the changing table. In fact I'd venture to say that it has received the most use of anything so far, as Alex goes through at least 6 diapers a day, usually more. I won't post a picture of it just now, but it's lovely and matches the crib, and yes, it's even clean at the moment.

I made a lot of progress last night on cleaning the living room. I dusted the bookshelves and polished Dana's grandmother's good silver. I found a bunch of books that I forgot we had and naturally got sucked into one of them. I'm still reading it today, a fascinating history of the New York City subway system's network of electrical substations, with lots of really cool old photos. I guess I should know better than to clean forgotten bookshelves.

Today, Sunday, we slept again. But our good friends Sean and Christine came over for lunch at noon, so we didn't sleep for too long. We went out to lunch at Henry's Pub in Loveland, one of our favorite places. They stock Strongbow cider imported from England, which is extra tasty. Alex had the milk. Christine & Sean were a welcomed return to civil engagement with the outside world. I hope we did not come off as too starved for adult company, but it was a nice break. They're about our age and social status, with similar interests and views, and are even contemplating the baby idea themselves.

It occurs to me that we need to be nurturing and cultivating our grownup relationships well in the coming years, since we'll need all the company we can get, I'm sure. Also, folks we know who have just had, or are thinking about kids, are nice since they'd make automatic play dates, not to mention sympathetic ears. I remember very fondly my parents' closest friends, the Hammonds and the Densmores, each of whom had two kids roughly the same age as my sister and I. We would go on camping trips all summer together, the 12 of us (give or take 4-6), have birthdays, dinners, outings, etc., etc. I don't know if Sam and Maryo or Bob and Verva knew how significant these experiences would be growing up for us, or how reassuring it has been to have two "spare" sets of loving parents in my life, but I would very much like to replicate the environment for our new family. Campfires just aren't the same alone.

On Wednesday I will be returning to work. I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, but I sure wish I could spend more time with Alex. That being said, I work for a remarkably accommodating corporation, and have an even more amazing boss in terms of being fair and flexible. For that I am most grateful - it is as far from a Dilbert strip as an IT company can get

A week from Wednesday I leave for a business trip to China. I will spend 10 days in Beijing, primarily in meetings with our counterpart engineering team there, planning for future projects, reviewing past projects, and spending more time getting to know the talented men and women we work with on the other side of the world. I'm fortunate to have a three day window of sightseeing, when my colleague Chuck and I will be gallivanting across the Peoples Republic, or at least one tiny part of it. I just wish that I could bring Dana along, as is my habit on these far-flung business trips. Alex doesn't have his passport or full immunizations yet, though, so "the fam" will stay behind this one time. With any luck, our relationship with the team in Beijing will blossom even further and I'll have future opportunities to visit, and work on my abysmal Mandarin.