Shift Change

AG: Well, now it's Mama's turn to bring home the bacon. My first day back at work started at 5:00 a.m., when Ezra woke up wanting "num nums." I nursed him and tried to get a couple more minutes of shuteye.... to no avail. Then I passed off a squirming, very awake baby to a nearly catatonic daddy and rushed around getting all my breast pump gear together. By 6:30 a.m. I had a couple of spare minutes to nurse the little guy again before I had to rush out the door. I got a little tear in my eye saying goodbye to him, especially when he flashed me a big grin in the dark bedroom.

At work, people were incredibly sweet - everyone wanted to know how Ezra's doing. I felt a little fuzzy-headed - kind of like deja vu - a flashback to my pre-baby life. I propped up a couple of pictures on my desk and made it till about 9:15 a.m. before calling Gabe. I heard a screaming baby in the background, but he reassured me all was well. I was a little worried, but I know Gabe hasn't met a baby tantrum he couldn't handle. So I settled in, got a bit of work done and managed to pump 13 ounces of "liquid gold" to take home to our sweet guy.

Luckily I commute with a guy who rushes out of work to walk his dog. Before Ezra was born, I often wasn't ready to leave when he was. But today I was tapping my foot for half an hour. 4:15 p.m. was a happy reunion! Ezra was sound asleep in the Weego, looking even more angelic than I remembered him. Okay, that sounds nauseatingly cheesy, I know. But it's the truth.

Oh, and we had a wonderful weekend with my aunt Nicky, who left her own cute daughters at home in Nyack, NY, to come here and meet Ezra. I even managed to take her to Second City - Gabe graciously stayed home to babysit. Here are a couple of pics of us on the 96th floor of the John Hancock tower. Now we'll hear from Gabe:

GS: Well, the day has arrived at last. Time to man up, marshal all your grit and fortitude, and dive into women's work. So to speak.

I was a touch nervous going into today, as we'd done a short dry run Sunday night. Ash and Aunt Nicky went off to a show and I stuck around with the kiddo. I'd thought we were past the days of maddening, inconsolable, ear-splitting, psychosis-inducing, hourslong screamfests. I was wrong. I was very proud of my patience all night, until the last hour, at which point I literally stopped thinking straight and began to think like a wild-eyed caged animal. We did make it through the evening with no permanent damage. I have no idea what was wrong with the little dude, but it was a bit traumatic for both of us.

Anyway, after that evening, I was skittish about my new daddy duties. I'm pleased to report that it wound up going splendidly. Ez took his bottles eagerly. We slept a lot, read, sang songs, and listened to public radio. It was like slacker yuppie summer camp. There were, however, a few things we did not manage to do today, such as: leave the house, eat lunch, shower. I have much to learn.

Although we sort of did a whole lot of nothing, it went by pretty quickly and it felt like we kept busy. Part of that may have had to do with the approximately 700 diapers we changed today. My god, it was like a Playdoh Fun Factory down there.

So all in all, a pretty auspcious start to our new arrangement. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

And I'll throw in a quick recap of our last week or so: Nicky joined us from New York for three days, and we enjoyed a wonderful and relaxing weekend. Nicky is a mother of two and is extremely adept at this baby business. It was fun and instructive to watch her with Ezra -- he turned to butter in her hands. We all went up in the Hancock Tower yesterday morning before Nicky flew back, and Ezra enjoyed a high-altitude feeding.

Also, Ash brought the kid in to work a couple of weeks ago, and passed him around once again. The picture here is our co-worker Heidi, who seemed quite smitten. She even barged into a meeting to show him to our CEO and General Manager -- the one and only Torey Malatia. He was also charmed. He later told me that all babies cry when they see him -- but Ezra grinned. Good lad. Learning to kiss up already.

So tomorrow's another day and another opportunity for disaster, I suppose ... but for now, there is reason for optimism.

Very much love,
Gabe, Ash and Ez