Saturday, 3/2/02

2:30 a.m.: Alarm goes off. Wake up. Wake up Max. Change his diaper (Unsnap sleeper, remove old diaper, wipe his butt, put on new diaper, swab umbilical cord stub with alcohol-soaked Q-Tip, re-snap sleeper). Wake up Barbara. Make note of wet diaper on chart.

2:40: Hand Max off to Barbara. Make note of beginning time for breastfeeding. Crawl into bed. Catch some sleep.

3:05: Burp Max. Change his diaper.

3:10: Hand Max back to Barbara. Make note of "stool" (that would be #2) diaper and mark down beginning time for second breast on chart. Catch some sleep.

6:00: Alarm goes off. Wake up. Wake up Max. Change his diaper. Make note of wet and stool on chart. Hand Max off to Barbara for feeding. Catch some sleep.

6:20: Burp Max. Hand him back to Barbara for more feeding. Catch some sleep.

9:40: Alarm goes off. Wake up. Wake up Max. Change his diaper. Make note of wet and stool on chart. Hand Max off to Barbara for feeding. Catch some sleep.

10:15: Wake up. Change Max's diaper. Make note of stool on chart. Take a shower.

10:30: Eat quickly (instant breakfast drink, bagel, B and E vitamins).

10:40: Burp Max. Get him ready for short walk over to a friend's house for the organizational meeting of a babysitting co-op.

11:10: Arrive at house. Max is dead asleep from rocking motion of car seat (which I carried the four blocks--man, that thing is heavy!). Marvel at how much further along the six, seven and eight-month-old kids of the other parents are in their development. Enjoy two hours of reasonably adult talk about the rigors of childbirth (forceps=bad), parenting (kids cry; get over it) and having a life outside of raising a baby (good freakin' luck).

1:30 p.m.: Head home, walking through a pleasant New South drizzle. Pick up the mail on the way in the door (promo mailings for Similac, Enfamil, American Baby Magazine, Baby Gap, Babies R Us, USA Baby, Target's Lullaby Club and the new Capitol One Young Capitalist credit card--endorsed by the Bush Administration!).

1:45: Change Max's diaper. Make note of wet on chart.

1:50: Hand Max off to Barbara for feeding. Make proper notes on chart.

2:35: Eat lunch (black bean and cilantro lasagna and apple crisp made by our neighbor's mom, three Tagalong Girl Scout Cookies, diet Big K soda). Max watches from his Fisher-Price vibrating chair--which is not vibrating (our choice).

2:55: Do the dishes. Barbara takes charge of Max for a while.

3:20: Flip on the tube to see if State can manage to beat Wake at the Joel. State's undersized front line begins to foul out. Wake wins pulling away.

4:00: Change over to USA-Honduras men's soccer match. Plop Max on my knee and explain the importance of the return of Clint Mathis to the American side after ACL surgery at the end of last summer. He stares at me intently. I am so proud.

4:15: Max exhibits an appalling lack of interest in international soccer and demands to be fed instead. Barbara appeases our little Philistine. Clint Mathis heads in the first U.S. goal on a brilliant feed header from Brian McBride.

6:00: The U.S. wraps up a fun 4-0 romp. Mathis scores twice, as does Landon Donovan, whose goals show such style I wonder if he's really an American or actually the illegitimate son of Jurgen Klinsmann.

6:10: Change Max's diaper. Make note of wet on chart.

6:15: Hand Max off to Barbara for feeding purposes. Pick up Continental Drift (Russell Banks), which I started reading before Max arrived.

8:00: Begin cooking dinner (Costco-bought borselini, green beans and apple sauce cups--drinks: a Samuel Smith's for me, white wine for Barbara).

8:25: Barbara's mother calls just as I finish dinner.

8:40: Dinner is served. We rejoin The English Patient at the 35-minute mark (this is the second evening of what is to be a three-day mini series-style attempt to get through the film).

8:50: Max demands to be fed. Once again, Barbara appeases him. I offer to feed her as she feeds him, but Barbara says that she can't do three things at once, and she'd rather feed Max and watch the movie before eating herself.

9:15: Pause the movie to burp Max and change his diaper. Make note of wet and stool on chart. Hand him off to Barbara for further feeding. In the interim, Barbara has wolfed down her dinner.

9:20: Re-start the movie.

10:40: Abandon the movie at the 2-hour and eight-minute mark so as to get Max ready for bed.

11:00: Change his diaper and bathe his butt. Make note of wet and stool (and astonishingly foul stench due to the spinach in the borselini) on chart.

11:20: Hand him off to Barbara for final evening feeding. Turn on computer and enter journal notes for the day.

11:45: Make first attempt to put him down. Go back to writing in journal file.

11:50: Max screams his fool head off. Hand him back to Barbara for more feeding. Hope he quits screaming so we can both sleep.

12:30 a.m.: Put him down a second time. This one seems to take. Go back to writing.

12:55: Finish up and go to bed, full of anticipation for an uninterrupted two hours of sleep.

Jon Worley isn't getting much sleep these days, but he figures that should change in 18 years or so. Maybe.