Adventures in Public

Like bears in spring we are making some early forays into the wide world with our little bundle of joy. Some of these are forced such as trips to Rachel's chiropractor for intensive adjustments to her sacrum. I guess little Solly left his mark on the way out and its caused a fair bit of pain to Rach getting around - not what she expected after slowly losing her mobility over the previous 9 months. Anyhow, on some occasions I am left looking after Solly - something I love to do - but have only so many tricks to get his attention off of looking for that next fix of mother's milk. Besides the instinctual fatherly bouncing, pointing out things that his young eyes surely cannot see from so far away, or inventing silly songs on the spot, I also learned that sometimes its not the milk, but the oral fixation that satisfies Sol.

I kinda like the perspective his little hand wrapped around my pinkie brings - although he is gaining weight at a rapid pace he is still under 9 lbs! A bag of flour still tips the scales!

Of course gaining weight is his primary job right now. I notice that he is pretty good at it too, feeding for 45 - 60 minutes at a time. Sometimes that can be not so convenient - and so we interrupt him. I find such nursing interruptions to be a double edged sword. If we would really rather delay just a little, Rach can give him 15 minutes and then lull him into a daze for another 20 or so, but then we gotta give him full service. Recently we had one of these while on our way to take a nice walk at the park. We had to stop for print cartridges on the way and while I was in Office Depot standing in line, Sol had to have his fix. So Rach gave him 15 minutes, while watching freeway onramp traffic, and then pop! off the boob and into the carseat cause it will be better for all of us if we do this in the shade of this tree pictured here instead. I give major credit to Rach for her quick uptake on learning the skills necessary to nurse in public - its like you have to be a crusader in some crowds!

Lastly, I want to give credit to little Solly for being such a trooper as we "relearn" how to be in public as parents. Rachel's dad Greg came to town and wanted to take us out to a meal with Sol. We picked a favorite pizza joint and went in with a wide awake 2 week old baby. I am sure the waiter was thinking "oh great, new parents who think life will be just like the old days..." and expected it all to end with a crying baby or a fumbling breastfeeding. Instead, Solly decided it would be fine if I used him as a napkin in my lap to catch the pepperoni and mushrooms I dropped. Well, that's only partly true, I made sure not to drop any on him, but he was pleased as punch to lay right there on my lap for almost 45 minutes. I have high hopes of doing this up until he is 3 or 4 - and maybe even on all you can eat Tuesdays!