Thursday

Holy crap you guys.  Nicholas' day care flooded.  Remember how they were supposed to be in a brand new site by weeks before he even started?  Well, that is still in the works.  The site is ready.  And gorgeous.  It's the paperwork with the City (or maybe the State) that's gummed up.  Not for any violations, just bureaucratic red tape crap.
Bureaucraptic

A pipe burst in the old site and wiped out the whole area where they keep the babies.  So the two ladies in the baby room have moved the whole operation to the one lady's house.  You can imagine how I felt about that.
I know how to do social service home inspections and did a sweep of the downstairs and weighed the option (ie: my bank book) of skipping work (without pay) until everything is resolved and suffice to say, Nick is there now.

***

Sometimes I call him Nick in conversation.  It is weird to call a baby anything other than baby.  For me at least.  I guess I started calling Jacob by his name around four months or so. 
Singing a baby's name to the baby doesn't count as calling him by his name.  I don't think.  I don't know.

What do I know?
Nothing.

***

I went to the Sprint Store yesterday because my family blows through phone chargers like yesterday's news and they wanted $35 for a replacement charger.

Thirty five dollars.

I had planned on buying three or four so we have back-ups and at least one on each floor of the house.  Luckily just about everything that needs charged in the house uses the same size USB pluggy thingy so I thought that would make things simple.

Thirty five dollars!

I left the store and went to Five Below.  I know that's a local store, but I think they are catching on pretty quickly.  If you don't have a Five Below, you are missing out.  They have EVERYTHING you could need for electronics and life for five dollars.  Or less.  And the stuff works.
They have tons of crap in there, which is generally good.  It's like a middle class dollar store.

I have a Samsung Galaxy 2.  I haven't been happy with it for a few months.  So naturally I will do what all boneheads do, and buy the newest model when it comes out and I'm eligible for an upgrade.  I hear the 4 is due out in the next few weeks.  It seems that every phone I get craps out as soon as the newer model is available as if they stop doing fixes for the glitches.  As if that's supposed to bolster product faith for three-quarters of the people who might be the target audience for the newest thing.  I'm good to upgrade on the first of July.  We'll see what's available. I like that Samsung Note too.

***

Before I went back to work I looked at the internet for hours in an effort to find information about moms who go back to work and still nurse but don't pump.  Because as much as I would love to pump (not really, but for argument's sake) there is no way I can reliably and hygienically do so. I spend my days in public health and social work agencies on good days.  Meth clinics and halfway houses on a usual day. 

Anyone who wants to stop reading about milking is free to do so.  This text is in blue so it's easily skippable, but due to the lack of information I want to get it down so moms googling things like:
returning to work not pumping
nursing baby nights and weekends
can't pump at work
supplemental feeding
bottle feeding and nursing
can find at least one story online about the whole thing.

The first week was difficult, physically and emotionally.  I'm a milky person.  Way more milk than I actually need to feed one human child.  By the end of the day, I was ready to explode.  It hurt. But it wasn't horrifyingly leaky, no one saw anything, I didn't get any clogged ducts.  I wore a tight bra (those Genie bras you can get at the drug store 2 for $20).

As soon as we got home I nursed Nicholas.  He didn't always drain each side, but he ate enough to relieve the pressure. 
I am a "feed babies on demand" person, so he ate whenever he wanted from about 6pm until 7am.  We leave the house at 7:30.  I get showers most days since he's up at 5:30 so there was me-time in the morning.  
I'm also a co-sleeper person, so I lie topless next to him all night long and he feeds when he wants.  I sleep.  Win-win.

It took about two weeks for my body to stop making so much milk during the day.  I'm comfortably full by the end of the day.  I nurse him whenever we are together, including the day times on Saturdays and Sundays.  This helps boost production for the week.  I did notice a dip on Thursday and Friday up until this week.  Last night I had way more than needed.  Sometimes Nick doesn't eat all that much because daycare wears him out and I can pump a bottle or two but he doesn't really like my milk from a bottle. Jacob was the same way.  It's frustrating, and I have to rely on formula during the day.  Ask me how I feel about that.
(Bad at first, but just like I feel okay about your baby getting some formula, I'm now okay with mine getting some too. It's an adjustment.  A compromise.  A reality.)

All the pro-nursing websites warn in big red letters that if you dare go back to work and not pump your baby will suffer and your supply will lower to dangerous levels.  
Nicholas is not suffering. My supply lowered, but in a good way.  I fill up around 4:30 or 5p and empty out around 6 or 7a with that last feeding.  It's perfect.  When we are together, my supply is high. When we aren't, it's not. There's always milk in there, just in case.

I think the secret is to nurse often (on demand) when you are together, drink plenty of water around the clock, and just relax and let nature do what nature does.  It provides.

***

Power tools! Ten yard rushes and three point shots and home runs! Perfectly aged bourbons and juicy steaks and potatoes drenched in butter! Motorcycles! Car engines! Free internet porno sites! Grocery shopping girls in the freezer aisles wearing tank tops and very thin bras!