Yeah, it's been a while, and this may well turn out to be the only post for September. I just don't have the time to write frequently. I've been sticking to the blog, where I can post without screwing around with formatting.

Regular posts will resume in October, when I'm back at work and can scrounge up half an hour to write each morning, I promise.

But I thought I should do at least one post this month. So this is what you get: A Day In The Life. Here's a rundown of my and Penny's day yesterday.

4:30am: I wake up to sounds of grunting on the monitor. I think, Please, just another half hour... I get up to look and see that she's still asleep, then go back to bed.

5:45am: Matt and I both wake up to sounds of grunting on the monitor. We wonder if we can make it to 6, but Penny yells, so we get up. I nurse while Matt fixes a bottle (nursing is never enough) and then goes back to bed.

6:15am: Penny is almost done with the bottle about the time Matt is done with his shower. He comes in to check on us, and I complain that I itch all over. Matt offers to watch her so I can take a decent shower. (Usually, I snatch a very fast shower while he's at work and hope to the gods that she doesn't get fussy while I'm shampooing.) I take him up on the offer. Ah, to be truly clean...

6:45am: Penny lays on a blanket on the bed while Matt and I both get dressed.

7:15am: Matt leaves for work. Penny immediately starts getting cranky. I fix her another bottle, and she sucks hungrily. After 1 1/2 ounces, she falls asleep. Whew!

7:45am: I put her in the bassinet to sleep while I have breakfast.

8:15am: She's awake again. I pick her up, and put in a DVD. (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) Fifteen minutes later, she's sleeping again.

10:30am: Time to wash the face, change the diaper, and change her into "day" clothes. All this gets her good and mad, so she nurses for a while, then takes 3oz of formula.

11:30am: She falls asleep in my arms.

noon: I put Penny in the bassinet so I can get some lunch.

12:15pm: Penny's awake, but not upset. She's looking around (it's a whole new world every time she turns her head) and sort of talking to herself in little grunts.

12:30pm: Okay, so she's hungry again. Ten or fifteen minutes of nursing, then she sits around to stare at things for fifteen minutes, then she's ready for a bottle and takes about 2oz of formula.

1:30pm: Diaper check. Then a little more from the bottle. Half an ounce, maybe?

1:45pm: We're heading out so Penny can visit her Grandma Luck (my mom) for a bit, while I do some shopping.

2:30pm: Penny is left with Grandma Luck. I pick up K.T. and we do some shopping. Most of it is stuff for Penny - diapers, wipes, formula, bottles... And one bottle of shampoo for me.

4:00pm: After we finish at Babies R Us, K.T. wants to go to the mall, so I call to check on Penny before deciding. Penny is taking a bottle and fine, so we go.

5:30pm: We should have skipped the mall. Traffic is so bad, it takes more than half an hour for me to drive the 5 miles from K.T.'s to my parents' house. When I finally get there, Penny is sleeping on Grandma's chest.

5:45pm: Penny nurses for a few minutes, but we both get impatient with the lack of a decent pillow to prop her on (oh, how quickly we are addicted to the boppy) and switch to a bottle, which she takes only reluctantly, since the meal has less to do with her hunger than with my desire to keep her full so she's less like to to fuss on the drive home. Eventually, she takes 2 ounces, and I change a very full diaper.

6:45pm: We leave for home. Despite some initial fussing, before I even get into the driver's seat, she sleeps in the car (thank all the gods) and barely twitches when I take her out of the carseat and turn her over to Matt.

8:00pm: Penny can't decide whether to sleep or eat. She takes two ounces over the course of half an hour, Matt and I taking turns holding and feeding her while the other eats our pizza dinner.

8:15pm: Matt takes Penny upstairs to check her diaper and change her into her sleeper. (The plan here, usually, is that if she wakes up, she usually wakes up hungry, and we can feed her; if she doesn't wake up, then she's out cold and we can put her to bed.) This time, she wakes up. Matt feeds her another ounce or so of formula. Eventually, she falls asleep.

9:00pm: She's still sleeping. Matt takes her upstairs and puts her in her crib, then he takes out the trash while I wash some bottles and put some grown-up dishes in the dishwasher.

9:30pm: Since it's been a while since she nursed, I pump. Just think about dairy farms for a while; you'll get the idea.

10:00pm: Time for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, my new favorite TV addiction. Penny is still sleeping, astonishingly.

11:00pm: Time for bed. Matt already went upstairs at 10:45. (Since he's working again and has to be up at 6, he's getting less rest than I am.)

1:30am: Penny wakes up, and Matt and I both awaken as well as the now-familiar sound of "getting cranky" carries over the monitor. Matt changes her diaper while I schlep downstairs for a bottle (we both forgot to bring one upstairs with us when we came to bed. Bad parents!) and fix her some formula. Matt goes back to bed, and Penny - the Sucking Vortex - schlucks down all four ounces in about twenty minutes. I try to put her to bed, but she's having none of it.

2:15pm: I give up letting her suck on my finger and fix her another two ounces of formula, of which she takes about half an ounce before she falls asleep. I try to put her to bed again, and she wakes up as I'm putting her down. This time I just leave her there, and by 2:45, she's talked herself asleep again. Whew.

5:45am: She cranks. Matt decides, since he has to be up in 15 minutes anyway, that he can feed her. Another day begins.

--Liz