Totally knocked out by some sort of stomach bug or food poisoning; couldn’t keep anything down and spent most of the day lying curled up on the sofa. Only in the late afternoon did I recover enough to drink small amounts of water. I can’t even remember the last time I had anything like this… must be years ago.

I’m glad it happened on a day when Eric was at home! I’m feeling much better now, and even ate some yoghurt for dinner.

Took Ingrid to meet my colleagues. They liked her chubby legs. The legs seem to be her most popular part.

Ordinary day at work; settling into a routine already. Having difficulty finding the time to eat enough between meals.

Watched 30 Rock during dinner (the Black Tie episode with Gerhardt Habsburg’s birthday party). Very funny.

Some people seem to get stuck in a certain era in fashion. Look carefully and you will see people who are still wearing 1970s clothes (or as close as they can get) or still have a 1980s hairdo – not because they think retro is cool but because they truly think that that is what things SHOULD look like.

Other people get left behind the technology train: they cannot and will not learn to operate a VCR, or refuse to use mobile phones.

I think I might be on the verge of missing the technology train. I don’t get the point of the things the younger generation is doing. I can see the point of blogs, of PSPs and wifi and digital cameras and wikis. But most of the Web 2.0 craze that has some people so excited just puzzles me. Tumblr? Twitter? Yahoo Pipes? MySpace? Who has time to fill these sites with all that junk, and who cares?

Am I growing old?

Ingrid’s first full day in the nursery; my first full day in the office. Navigating the Tube in a rush hour with Ingrid in the Patapum and her stuff in a backpack turned out to be quite doable.

It felt good to be working again, to do something productive and interesting.

It felt good to be digging around in code. I enjoyed myself.

It felt strangely familiar, as if I hadn’t been gone.

It felt bad to be so in such a rush. Not a minute to spare in the morning (from getting up to getting to work), 20 minutes to spare in the evening (between Ingrid’s meal and her bath).

It felt bad not to be able to spend more time with Ingrid. I feed her and then I have to leave her – no time to stay around and play or cuddle, because even as it is the two feeds take a good 40 minutes out of my working day.

It felt strange to not really know how she is doing during the day. At home I see and hear her all the time, so I always know how she is feeling. Tired? Grumpy? Bored? Active? Sociable? Now all I get is a quick summary… A distance between us that wasn’t there before.

Another bright and sunny day, another long walk in the afternoon. Lots of laundry-hanging and laundry-folding out in the sun, with Ingrid on my back. Ingrid tried broccoli and while she didn’t quite refuse it, she much preferred carrots.

Tomorrow is back-to-work day.

Get hair cut: check.
Unpack clothes: check.
Iron shirt: check.
Test baby carrier: check.
Pack bag (shoes, phone charger, mouse, snacks): check.

It’s a strange feeling, going back to work after such a long period of leave. It’s not at all like coming back from a holiday. It feels more like starting a new job. I have no pending projects, I have no idea what’s going on or what I will be doing. A clean slate.

I’ll be working part-time, three days a week in the office (Tue–Thu) and one day at home (Fri). Ingrid will be in a day nursery when I’m in the office, but on Fridays I’ll be working and taking care of her. In practice I expect I will get about half a day’s worth of work done with her at home (even if I save the most interruptible tasks for Friday) and do the rest either in the evening or during the weekend.

But even if sharing my day between Ingrid and work is inconvenient and leads to late evenings, I’d rather do it this way than have her in day care another day. I want her to spend more time with family than with “strangers” – I don’t want the strangers to become more familiar than family. That just feels wrong. In fact if I was forced to choose, I would rather stay at home than work full time at this point.

There is a nursery where I work, offering mainly backup care (in case your nanny is ill). But they also offer a place for mums returning to work, for the first month. So that’s where Ingrid will be for the next four weeks. The main advantage is that this way I can go on breastfeeding throughout the day for another month. And of course I can go down there to see her if I start to worry about her – but her first half-day last week went so well that I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.

After the first month she’ll transfer to a nursery close to home. We found three nurseries within reasonable distance and visited all three, and liked this one best. (Ingrid didn’t have an opinion because this happened months ago – there are sometimes long queues to these places.) The place looks bright and cheerful and relaxed, and I imagine that I would like to be there if I was a kid. The staff seemed to enjoy their jobs, and the kids seemed to like the staff.

Turned to the internet after yesterday’s fruitless shopping trip and bought trousers for myself and Ingrid. Had a nice walk out in the sun. Got a haircut.

The great nappy experiment is now well past its experimental stage and I’m using cloth nappies all the time now.

We have about 20 Tots Bots Bamboozles, 5 MotherEase AirFlow wraps, a few cotton terry boosters, and a roll of paper liners. I chose this setup based on expert advice from The Nappy Lady. It’s a lazy parent’s nappy solution, selected entirely for convenience and ease of use rather than price or environmentality.

The nappy is the part that absorbs water. The wrap goes on top of the nappy and provides a waterproof barrier between the nappy and the rest of the world. The liner (optional) goes inside the nappy and its task is to catch most of the poo, so the nappy itself stays cleaner. Finally, the boosters are like an extra nappy layer, making the whole package more absorbent, and we use it to get through the night without a middle-of-the-night nappy change.

This all works really well, I think. We no longer produce mountains of rubbish, and I find the nappies easy to use. Bamboozles are shaped and fasten with poppers, so there is no folding or pinning – they are as simple to put on as disposable nappies. And while they cost quite a lot of money, I will be able to use them on the next baby as well, or sell them – there’s a good second-hand market for cloth nappies.

Most of the things I was concerned about turned out to be no problem at all:

• No leaks! I was constantly struggling with poo leaks from disposable nappies, especially early in the morning. Fresh, dry nappies only leaked every now and again. But when the nappy was already holding a lot of water, poo just slid right along the inner surface and leaked out through the nearest opening – within minutes, if left alone. It got to the point where I rushed to pick Ingrid up as soon as I heard a poo, to save her clothes and the area around her. Terribly annoying. But with cloth nappies I only had one tiny leak, and it really was tiny.
• They really are easy to use. A nappy change now takes a bit longer than with disposables, because there are more parts, but not so much longer that it would get annoying.
• Poo-covered nappies. But liners are a great idea, and they work well.
• Storage. Dirty or wet nappies go in a lidded bucket lined with a mesh bag. When I have a day’s worth of nappies left, I lift the whole bag in the washer. The bin smells slightly when I open it, of course. But as long as it’s closed, there’s hardly any smell at all.

I am still a bit concerned about two things:

• Drying time. Bamboozles are very absorbent, more so than cotton terry, but the flip side is that it takes a long time for all that water to evaporate. When I hang them indoors, it takes around 36 hours for them to dry completely. Outside on the balcony, around 24 hours is enough. It’s all right as long as I wash them every other day and hang them out straight away – but if it’s raining or I don’t wash on time, we will run out of nappies. This may well become more of a problem when I’m back at work. I’ve ordered a few more, and we’re keeping a stash of disposables in reserve as well, just in case.
• Wetness. Cloth nappies cannot feel as dry as disposables, because the materials are different. I’ve noticed some redness of the skin, which didn’t use to happen. I’ve started changing a bit more often now, and if that doesn’t help I might switch to fleece liners instead of paper.

Things I hadn’t considered before:

• Cloth nappies are quite a bit bulkier than disposables. They add about one clothes size, but not proportionately. A body that fits well lengthwise and around the bum will generally hang a bit too loose around the upper body, and sleeves have to be rolled up twice or they will dangle past her fingertips. However I found Cut4Cloth which sells baby clothes adapted for cloth nappies.

And finally, I actually enjoy using the Bamboozles. I like the way they feel, and I think cloth nappies are even kind of cool. I’m glad I switched.