Morgan & Erin Dahl

We have daycare!

We received a call yesterday telling us a daycare slot was available for Morgan starting on September 15.  Given how difficult it is to find daycare in the city, this was incredibly well-received news.  Further, when considering whether to accept this slot, Molly called one of our other leading contenders (this was among our favorite few to which we applied) and the one she got in touch with told her that from our position on the list the soonest we could possibly get in would be next June.  (One of our other favorites had previously told us that she would probably get in when Morgan was two).

Small Savers is a coop run out of the Office of Thrift Supervision. While not directly adjacent to either of our offices (it’s only drawback) it’s not particularly inconvenient, either.

They’re a bit different from other daycares to which we applied:

• They only let you apply to the specific month you’re interested in (e.g. we applied for Sept. 08) and you either get in that month or don’t
• They emphasize following infants’ schedules (e.g. feed on demand) rather than trying to get them on schedules
• They stress individual, natural development — no putting them in positions they couldn’t get in themselves, no bouncy chairs, etc…
• They have a 3:1 teacher to student ratio instead of the 4:1 allowed by D.C. law (and commonly used)
• They’re a coop, so require parental involvement.  We have to participate, as parents, at least 20 hours per year.  There’s also much more of a culture of participating in field trips, donating supplies, etc… than a typical corporate daycare.

Update — we’ve explained to a lot of people, though perhaps not all who might read this, the difficulty of securing day care in downtown D.C.  Demand ridiculously outstrips supply, so you generally jump on dozens of waiting lists that may include hundreds of people the instant you find out you’re pregnant.  We applied to 15-20 last Nov.-Jan., and feel very fortunate to have gotten in here.  As noted above, we’re probably years, not months, away from getting into our other leading choices.

New skill – hair pulling

Morgan is apparently learning new gripping techniques.  Now when she inadvertently gets her hand in my hair, she makes sure to hold on.  This isn’t a problem until she goes to pull her hand away, still holding on to my hair.  So she’s not so much pulling my hair (which implies some sort of intent) as she is holding on to it after it enters her grasp and not letting go.

She grows so fast

A week or two ago, now, Morgan passed her first real growth milestone as we moved from “N” diapers to “1″ (and confident she’d be the same size for a while, we got to order them in a multi-hundred pack, cutting costs in about half).  

Now, she’s growing out of outfits for the first time.  Picture below is the first outfit Molly bought for Morgan, in perhaps her last time wearing it.

Finally, we also got a baby scale so we can track her weight change more frequently than her monthly visits to the pediatrician.  Our timing was good, as the just broke through the 10lb barrier, about a 33% weight gain in the 6 weeks since birth.

Back at work

I’ve been heading  back to work in a part time capacity for about two weeks now.  This week I was in the office Monday and Thursday afternoons and all day Friday, while Morgan and Jim hung out at home.

I actually very much enjoy the opportunity to get back in the office and get some work done, interact with my colleagues, etc.  And Jim and Morgan, of course, get along famously and hardly miss me at all.

An unfortunate side effect of this is that Jim is able to expose Morgan to music that I would not.  Like Shiny Happy People by REM.  If this becomes her favorite song…ugh.

Another Crib Update

The crib and dresser have both been pulled off the warehouse floor for us and are waiting to be delivered.  Who knows, we may get this furniture yet!

Crib update

This updates assumes prior knowledge of: The Crib Saga

Today, the crib people assured us that we wouldn’t be receiving any pieces until late September.  The rope-a-dope game having reached its denouement, Molly questioned back how we could possibly be so naive as to believe at this point that we’re actually going to receive anything in September.  By the time they deliver to us this furniture, she suggested, Morgan is likely to have grown out of it.

The apologetic sales rep acknowledged that we’d been subject to one previous delay, which Molly corrected to three.  The sales rep knocked 15% off our items…… which are still scheduled for delivery Sept. 18.

Moral — When you find out you’re pregnant, the same day, in order: 1) rush out and order a crib, 2) apply to day cares, 3) tell your spouse (time permitting).

One month checkup

We have to get these percentiles up if we don’t want her to get stuck going to Smith.
9 lbs 9 oz (50th percentile)
22 in (60th percentile)
15.25″ head (80th percentile)

Seriously, though, her growth is great.  She went from 30th percentile on weight at her 1 week to 50th today.

• Baby acne is common and should go away within a couple months.
• She can focus on objects at a distance of 1-2 feet, but cannot recognize color.
• She doesn’t like shots any more than daddy does.
• She needs to spend more time sleeping on right side or run the risk of being a helmet baby.
• She needs more tummy time.

Relaxing

The first bottle: a different perspective

I was thrilled to see Morgan taking a bottle so easily and so quickly, as her ability to do such is an important component of our longer range plans regarding her care. However, I must admit it was a little heartbreaking. Again, she’s growing up so fast! To so quickly move from relying on me for everything to being able to do perfectly well without me (and not even appear to miss me in the process!) was a little sad.

Though I also must say, watching Jim feed her and bond with her in that way is pretty cool.

Molly’s first full day back at work

Molly went to work for a full day for the first time today, leaving Morgan and I home alone to take care of each other.

Though Morgan continues to happily take a bottle from me, it was still a pretty continuous day of trying to feed her. Given that I suspect today being the first is also the hardest (excluding, of course, illnesses or other traumas), it wasn’t bad at all.

I’m working about half time now, and given my ability to care for Morgan for a full day without her, Molly should be able to continue transitioning slowly back to work until she can get up to a similar (though obviously alternating) schedule.