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Private Notes
The first day back from the hospital finds Paul and Jamie still figuring out how to care for their daughter and what to name her, until help arrives in the form of Jamie's mother.
Jamie kicks off a letter-writing spree by penning one to her infant daughter to be read on her 18th birthday. Ira and Joan join in on the fun, while Paul goes through draft after draft.
Jamie stumbles upon a strange cure to Mabel's crying fits, while Paul valiently tries to catch a few winks before an important meeting with a Belgian distributor.
The search for a preschool for the three-week old Mabel cannot begin soon enough, but has to compete for attention with the coupon fraud trial of Uncle Phil, and an odd caper involving Jamie and Ira.
Jamie resents being tagged with the dime-store psychological cliche that is postpartum depression, and almost wrecks the wedding plans of a stranger. Meanwhile, Paul directs a charity production of ""The Pirates of Penzance.""
The Buchmans find a baby-sitter they are comfortable with, but Paul and Jamie's first evening out by themselves begins with Paul not in his pants and ends on an even more unusual note.
Paul and Jamie grapple with the pressure of having sex for the first time since Mabel's birth, but their therapist seems not much help.
Paul and Jamie meet a new neighbor, Sarah, a divorced mother of three who manages to teach Jamie a more casual style of parenting. Also, Paul and Jamie conspire to set up Sarah on a blind date with Ira.
Paul and Jamie try to help each other get through the excruciating process of ""Ferberizing"" the baby--they must allow the child to cry herself to sleep without comforting her. The psychological and moral implications of this are discussed and debated at length.
Jamie is reluctant to stop breast-feeding exclusively, but she knows it's time for the baby to learn to feed from the bottle, while Paul is excited to be able to feed the baby for the first time. Meanwhile, Jamie's upset to learn that her mom is dating a much younger man, a dancer from ""Lord of the Dance.""
When Paul gives a speech at a college, he's shocked to discover that Jamie lost her virginity to the visiting professor. It's a comedy of errors as the professor believes Paul is angry and wants to do the professor harm. Meanwhile, Ira meets a woman who flirts with him only to get better burial plots.
It's the first plane flight with the baby and Paul and Jamie take separate planes--they're told it's not uncommon for new parents to do to avoid orphaning a baby in the event of a tragedy. Paul takes Mabel and winds up using her to lead a passenger revolt on the plane to demand less heat in the cabin. Meanwhile, Jamie's looking forward to a break from mothering, yet she ends up mothering everyone.
When Paul and Jamie feel that their current therapist, Sheila, isn't quite helping out, Paul and Jamie see another therapist, Sydney. They love Sydney enough to "break up" with Sheila--that is, until they find out that Sydney's hour of therapy is too expensive. Meanwhile, Paul grapples with how to get his father to stop suffocating Paul socially.
Jamie decides to go back to work, and everything says to go back to work. There's only one problem: she doesn't want to and tries to get herself fired. Meanwhile, Paul confronts the newspaper journalist who wrote an article filled with errors about ""Buchman.""
Jamie discovers that Paul was married before--if only to get an old Russian woman U.S. citizenship. Jamie's upset that she is, indeed, the second Mrs. Buchman. Meanwhile, Paul is an umpire for his father's senior-citizen baseball game, and a fight erupts between father and son over a call.
When Paul innocently flips a coin to make a decision, Paul's former producer overhears a conversation that puts Paul and Jamie in the limelight with the tabloid program ""Hard Copy."" Also, Ira finds that he's the prime suspect in a paternity case, and Paul's parents try their luck in Atlantic City.
Paul's birthday party turns into an event worthy of a detective mystery when Maggie and Hal suspect Buchman party guests of stealing a prestigious painting from their adjacent apartment. Meanwhile, Marvin gets into a growling match with Murray.
Paul, Jamie and Ira decide to make a baby video. However, Paul starring as the Sandman frightens kids and turns them off to the concept. Meanwhile, Paul's parents tell him he has a half-brother.
Paul convinces Jamie to quit her job. Joan is posing for ""The 20 Most Eligible Bachelorettes in New York"" for a magazine and Debbie is jealous. Paul, Jamie, Ira, Joan and Debbie go to Riff's, where a fire breaks out while Paul is in the bathroom. Ira saves Ursula's life while Jamie, Debbie and Joan run out, leaving Paul in the bathroom. Joan asks Debbie to marry her.
Paul tries to pick a Mother's Day present for Jamie, but Ira and Marvin have better ideas: a rocking chair and a message displayed on the Times Square video screen. Sylvia is jealous of Jamie's gifts and fakes injury to steal attention.
Paul's life flashes before his eyes when he takes a spill in the shower.
Paul and Jamie act as matchmakers for dogwalker Nat and babysitter Arley. Meanwhile, Ira tries giving up sex, and Paul makes a discovery about Jamie when they go to a sleep clinic.
Paul and Jamie search for a full-time nanny, and Paul finds one in the form of Nancy Bloom, a caterer he inadvertently got fired from the production of a documentary about ""The Making of Titanic.""
