Oh, Gud!

Nope. I might be able to put a nail in the sill to limit the amount a window can open. But then there isn't all that much airflow.

In the city we have window gates for the littles. Would that look rediculous in the heartland? [link]

There was also the incident where he went to the refigerator, took out an egg, smashed against the roof of the refigerator, and then took off. Much less scary, but quite messy.

We might have to get a window gate. Although hopefully he'll out grow this stuff. Also, he can work every "childproof" device in the house, including the other gates.

So, I could use some advice from the buffistae...

I think everyone knows that I'm a) expecting a baby in 6 weeks and b) planning on taking the bar exam 6 weeks after that. Obviously, the baby arrival date could move up, but should not be any later than 7 weeks from now. At the least, the baby should be 5 weeks old by the time I take the exam. The exam is all day and you can't leave until the end.

I'm worried about breastfeeding/pumping during the exam. Right now, I've filed an accomodation request with the bar examiners. They decided I can use the pump but not breastfeed the baby during the exam. How likely is it that I won't be able to get the baby to take a bottle in 5 weeks?

I'm upset about the no-nursing thing - mainly because I've never done it before, I have a million other things to worry about, and I don't see what they won't let me (and if I can't get the baby to take a bottle, no bar exam for me.) Am I being unreasonable? Is it worth the hassle of trying to get them to allow me that possibility? Does this count as a genuine "special accomodation"?

They're screwed into the frame. Just keep him away from power tools.

Stephanie, Christopher gave Owen a bottle unbeknownst to me at 3 weeks. He did it so I could get more than two hours sleep at a stretch. We never had any issues with him switching back and forth from the bottle to the breast. But a lot of it depends on the individual baby. I've known babies that won't take a bottle and I've known babies that once they get the bottle, they won't go back to the breast.

I think by five weeks, you should know what kind of kid you have.

Are the bar people worried about you having the baby in the exam? Do you have a sitter lined up to keep the baby so you can duck out and nurse? I think if you have a baby that won't take a bottle, you might be able to press the issue.

Can children be embedded with special alarms that start to wail when they think about doing something dangerous? Maybe a light tranq as well. How very very scary.

Yes. I want this. Preemptively. Annabel hasn't done anything super scary yet, but just in case.

Yikes, Gud. That's just...yikes.

Stephanie, I think the official advice is that if you're planning to offer a bottle at all, it's good to start around 3 weeks--late enough to avoid nipple confusion but early enough that they won't be too stubborn to accept the bottle. So you're probably good. Consider renting a hospital pump and starting pumping as soon as your milk supply and your kid's nursing habits are well-established.

People who managed to successfully breastfeed will probably have further advice--I just know from pumping, since I did it ever few hours for the first two months.

(Is it bad that I'm currently feeling wary and reluctant to even try breastfeeding if we have another kid? Because I know that it's best and all that, but I also know it's possible to raise a healthy and intelligent child on formula, and my memories of breastfeeding are uniformly negative.)

Susan, it's not bad at all. I'm more than a little leery myself given the cracked and bleeding nipples. I want to try again, but I'm going into with a little more reality based experience and whole lot less guilt considering the healthy, formula-fed youngster beside me.