7. A Walk

Diana went to sleep, feeling guilty that she wasn't breast feeding him. I fed him a bottle. He drank most of it, and fell asleep. I put him in the carriage, and blogged the two previous blogs, and then he began to stir. I changed his diaper, and it was wet. I put him in the crib for a while, and for about 5 minutes he did not fuss. Then he did, and I set him up to feed. I like to feed with my legs as the holder. Me laying back, legs in a triangle, him facing me. So I fed him the rest of the bottle, and burped him. He looked kind of dozzy, so I waited.

Sometimes his chin trembles, sometimes when you pick him up. That started in the NICU, and the nurse said, "some babies do that." It breaks my heart. The chin trembling.

Then I got the idea of a walk. We always talk about walking him. We have a wonderful carriage that my in laws gave us at the shower. So I quickly swaddled him, laid him down, and went out.

When I got to the entrance of our co-op, I saw the sidewalk was wet. "Oh no," I worried. But it was a light drizzle, and the carriage has a hood. Soon I was breezing down the sidewalk. I slowed down so it want so bumpy for him. I checked on him and wondered if I check on him too much, the women I see with strollers don't seem to always be checking on the baby.

I crossed the street. I walked by a flower bush. I'm smelling the roses now. Then I thought, why not go shopping? We need stuff. What, am I a man of leisure? Got to get stuff. So I turned around, and walked to the grocery. I'll spare you the shopping list, but when I got in line, a woman behind me said, "this is an express lane." I held up my basket, clearly less than 10 items. "Oh," she said, not as contritely as I would have liked, but she did ask how old my boy was. I said, "six months...I mean six weeks, two days." I put my stuff on the belt. Then I patted my pants. No wallet of course. I grabbed a cart, put my stuff in, and went out. I was drizzling harder, and I worried I was a terrible father. My son out in the rain, I can't accomplish a task, and my poor wife hardly gets any sleep.

I got home and Diana was awake. She fed him a bottle, and now she's pumping milk. We've froze about 4 bottles with about 4 oz., she'll probably fill another one. Her sister bought her a good breast pump, for when she goes back to teaching. She's been playing with it, practicing. Now we're consciously banking for her 18.5 days of work before summer break.

He's sleeping in the crib with the cute blanket Ginny gave him. I hear the breast pump in the background.