7 months, day 10 -

It was a tough day. I'll tell you more about it in a minute, but let's get the pictures out of the way first.

This is what happens when you let Baba and baby go to the store alone together:

No surprise, we had to go back a second time:

Oh man, I love these two:

As I mentioned before, today was a tough one. Here's the short version of the story: two days ago, Augie bit my nipple and broke the skin. As he doesn't bottle feed and I don't pump, he's had to continue eating off the right side, which has gotten worse. This morning it seemed infected, so we went off on a westside walkathon to visit the pharmacy, an urgent care facility, and another pharmacy to get penicillin and the wise advice to stop feeding the baby on the injured side.

In the midst of it all, I was in pain (from both the bite/infection and the rapidly engorging breast), and Augie still needed to eat and to nap. The great news of the day is that we have now successfully bottle fed Augie! This means it is possible that one day in the near future I might be able to leave his side for more than two hours! It also means that I can give my right breast a break from his hungry maw....

Sadly, though, that means way more work for me. I can't pump the infected breast because of the pain from the hand pump, so I have to manually express into a bottle. I'd prefer you not try to picture that, but I will say that I have hand cramps and the beginnings of carpal tunnel after only one day of this.

I'm on penicillin for 7 days, and Augie's off the right breast at least until the wound is healed. 

On top of this, Augie was impossible to put down for a nap at home today. We've gone through so many napping phases, phases when it's easy to put him down and phases when it's hard, and we're in a hard phase. He didn't take a single nap at home (despite multiple attempts at each of three naptimes). If you've ever tried to get a baby to nap who refuses, you'll know it's soul-crushing. I am not exaggerating. It is one of the most disheartening, frustrating, maddening, spirit-deflating things I've ever done, and it often ends in tears for everyone involved.

At about 5 o'clock this afternoon I felt like this*: 

*Not actually a picture of me. 

The good news - the great news - is that James can now feed Augie (from a bottle, though Augie's tried the nipple), which means that he can now share in the quiet delight and utter joy that is nourishing our son, feeling his heft settle into the crook of our arm, hear his sighs and swallows and watch his little beak suck down the milk; feeling him rest and be nourished as he lies our lap.

Tomorrow we are off to Grinda, an island in the Stockholm archipelago, until Wednesday, so you may not hear from us until Thursday - our penultimate day in Sweden!