July 18, 2007

To Jack:
I have been wanting to create some sort of memory book for you that supercedes our many photo albums and baby books. While those harken back great memories, they gloss over the details that give life its texture. I think a blog might meet those needs and give you something to look at over time as well.

As I begin the Chronicles of JWK, you are officially 10 months and 3 days old. You have jumpstarted our lives in a way we would have never imagined. We live with far more joy and happiness than before your arrival. We exist on far less sleep as well, but that is a minor inconvenience compared with what you give to us. In order to have a true history built into the blog, at this point in time, Daddy owns his own criminal defense law firm in Belleville and Mommy works as a lobbyist in St. Louis for a large corporation. As a two-career family, we have somewhat harried lives, but we want you to have more opportunities than we did, so we are working with that goal in mind. During the day, your Nanna Jan takes care of you on Mondays and Susan takes care of you the rest of the week as our nanny. I have tremendous guilt and misgivings entrusting you to those other than me, but you are a very happy and healthy guy, so we are not screwing you up to badly. Mommy and Daddy rush home by 5:30 each day to begin what we view as our "real" lives with you! You are our most precious.

We have been working on getting you weaned off your 2:30 a.m. feeding. We did that last week and had great success. For 4 days, you slept through the night. Last night, however, you fell back on bad habits, holding the house hostage from 1:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. Daddy and I were despondent. Truly, sleep is the new sex. I finally understand why prisoners of war sign away their rights for the mere promise of uninterrupted sleep. I don't know why it is so hard to get babies to sleep through the night. Perhaps it is just part of their getting used to the world outside of the womb, which could be more jarring than we know? I don't know, but I am willing to fund research on it. Forget funding for the arts, funding for sleep studies! Nonetheless, you finally slept on my chest until our too early wake up call at 6 a.m. and it was blissful to be able to hold you for that length of time. Though tired, I treasure the time that I get to hold you, even if it is in the middle of the night.