Penny went to sleep around 9:45 last night, and Matt and I were not far behind her. She didn't wake up again - oh, merciful gods! - until almost 3. Five solid hours of sleep. And then, as if the blessing of half a night's sleep weren't enough, she took half her bottle and dozed off again, and stayed asleep when Matt put her in the crib.

Just as Matt was coming back into the bedroom, though, the power went out. Well... What now?

The answer to that: Go back to bed. "If it's not back on by morning," Matt promised, "I'll call."

We woke up a bit later not because the baby was fussing, but because the cat was doing his morning aren't-I-pathetic routine. Matt squinted at his watch. "Quarter to six." (Aren't I glad I had his watch fixed?)

Matt got up to feed the cat, and I took the flashlight into the nursery to check on Penny. She was wriggling a lot, but her eyes were still closed. I want to encourage her to sleep when it's dark, so I didn't wake her up just yet. I wandered around lighting candles (since the power was still out) and such.

Matt called the power company. "There's a recording. They know it's out, and they expect to have it back up by six-thirty."

At six, I picked Penny up and took her downstairs to nurse while Matt had a shower by candlelight. The lights came back on at 6:15. Thank goodness.

So, nearly seven hours of sleep - a banner night!

My first day back at work went fairly well. Everyone welcomed me back; I got through all the e-mail by lunchtime; I didn't break down in tears for want of my baby (though I did spend quite a bit of time looking at pictures) ; and I hadn't forgotten as much as I thought I might have.

Though I'm still a bit scatterbrained - I forgot my iPod and the cough drops that I specifically e-mailed myself a reminder not to forget. And my cough is more annoying today. But I do have some tea, so maybe that will help.

And Matt says that daycare was less annoying yesterday, too. When he went in for lunch, everyone was behaving competently, there were no kids hitting other kids, and there wasn't an accident report for him to sign. So we're feeling better about that.

And now... Back to the grind.

--Liz