Week of September 7th
September 7, 2026
It is quite astounding what is possible to achieve when you aren’t in charge of your baby.
Family came to visit and graciously watched our baby for the majority of the day. At first I resisted, then I took a nap just to see what it was like, then by the third day was taking cafe jaunts for 30 minutes. I was on edge most of the time, mainly because I just hadn’t been away that frequently and nursing-schedule panic. But the baby is fine, everything was fine.
I think I’ve become carefree. Strong word. Maybe, a better rephrase is: realizing that not everything is as important as I once made it to be.
I had to get on my work laptop for #insurance reasons and I looked at Slack which was stupid, but then quickly became eye opening. Like, all of this is important and interesting, but my baby is just…more important and interesting.
Understanding his hunger cues > reading that there’s been a re-org.
Watching him smile but it’s really probably him trying to pass gas > getting a mandatory training notification (actually I think anyone can agree those suck).
I’m curious about the mental state other moms are in when they return from leave. Is it apathy, is it indifference.
I am very scared to order iced lattes because we are in a milk overpour epidemic. Now, I am acutely aware of how much milk goes in a latte and still, I am uncomfortable with watching the barista make a latte, watching in horror as if I’ve never seen this many ounces of milk poured into a plastic cup. Is this my breastfeeding subconscious.
Some (meaning me and the girls on TikTok) will agree that the shade of lattes has just become too variable. One day it’s caramel (correct), other days it’s a sugar cookie shade (very incorrect).
My proposed solution is: more cafes should just have lattes on tap where everything is even and everything is right.
Unrelated, but a novel anecdote: One day a cafe I visited was out of ice. The barista said “but it’ll totally still be cold because of the milk, you know.” And I was like “For sure.” And that is when I understood how critical ice is in an iced latte. If you don’t want to feel like you’re drinking a wet napkin, definitely make sure ice is available. The latte was good, but the sensation was way off. The visuals too. Just sort of looked like tanned milk.
I am obviously in my cow era.
