avocado8

Travel Preparations

We leave for San Francisco tomorrow at 6:45am. Part of me is happy/excited, and the other part is anxious because I have so many little things to do before we go.

The big things have mostly been done: laundry, packing, taking Austen to the doctor to make sure the hacking cough and snarffle-y nose he got from me weren't serious (they aren't). I still have to take a shower, clear off the camera's memory card and charge its battery, throw various toiletries into the suitcase (we bought a Wheely Beast to use as a family suitcase so we'd have fewer things to carry), get the car seat out of the car, take the car into the shop, oil my shoes, find the card reader (or else the CD withe the camera software on it), and give the kid a bath. I think that's all...

Meanwhile, between nursing a sick baby round the clock (apparently sleeping through the night goes out the window when babies are sick), working, and trying to sort out our taxes, I haven't had time to blog about the daily doings. Here are the headlines:

Austen rolled over for the first time this weekend. He's also grabbing with more accuracy, propping himself up on his elbows when on his stomach, and raising himself from a reclining to a sitting position.

I can finally fit into my size M+ Bravado nursing bras again. This is something all the books I'd read (and the Bravado website) said would happen 4-6 weeks post-partum, but it took me 4 months. I'm not sure whether it's due to the fact that I'm making a final push to lose the remaining 12 pounds of pregnancy weight (6 down, 6 to go), or whether my breasts are becoming engorged much less often now, but it's probably some combination of the two.

Austen got weighed at the doctor this morning, and he was a little lighter than I thought he'd be: 18 lbs., 9 oz. That means he gained a little less than 2 lbs. in the past month, as compared to the 3+ he gained in each of the previous months. I'm glad the torrid pace of growth is finally slowing a bit.

The nursing station, which I'd planned to write about back in January but never did, has been dismantled. It was the perfect setup for the first few months: a comfy chair set next to a wheeled cart that held snacks, pens, paper, coussinets, water, Kleenex, and (of course) computers. I now have my old desk set up in the gallery (the small space at the top of the stairs, outside Austen's room), and I nurse Austen in whatever chair/couch/bed happens to be nearby when he's hungry. I don't even use the Boppy most of the time.

By the time of its dismantling, the cart had moved to the right side (of the person in the chair) and had gained a monitor stand and two more laptops, but in January, it looked like this: