Just random thoughts. Adventures in daily life, adventures in being pregnant, and soon adventures in first time mommyhood. Have you ever seen Adventures in Babysitting? The simple job of babysitting turns into a fiasco as events get out of hand and hilarity ensues, yet everything works out nicely in the end. Basically that is my life, simple things that most people can get through without incident turns into a story for me!
Monday, September 19, 2011
When does the crying stop?
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Cloth Diapers part 3
A day in the life
Friday, August 26, 2011
Gluten What
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Diaper Destroyer Extraordinaire
Friday, August 5, 2011
World Breastfeeding Week
Thursday, August 4, 2011
I'm Better Than You.
I love being a mom. Everything about it has come easy for me. My pregnancy was fantastic, I did not have any morning sickness, heartburn or sleep problems. I only gained 23 pounds. Nahnanana I’m better than you. My baby girl is amazing. She is perfect. She is the light of my life. She sleeps great, during naps and through the night. She breastfeeds like a champ and also had no problem taking a bottle of breast milk. Nahnanana She is better than you. I have had basically no issues at all with breastfeeding. I’ve been to meetings and read blogs about how difficult it is and how moms need support and help to be able to breast feed. Well, my baby latched on right after she was born like she had been doing it all her life. We were a match made in heaven. My nipples were sensitive for about a week, a bit of lanolin and some soothies took care of that. Now they are primed and ready for action. Nahnanana I’m better than you. It is a shame that some moms have such issues with breastfeeding or think it is not natural and that a support group is the only way they can get through it. It has come natural to me and I love it as does my angel baby. Being a mother has come natural to me in general. I have been doing what my instincts tell me to and what I feel is right for my family. I followed a link today to the Dr. Sears site about how to be a natural parent. I felt like I should have written the page on natural parenting because the advice on there has been what I decided on my own to do. It is a shame that some parents out there have no clue on how to follow their natural instincts and need a “method” to follow, whether it be natural parenting or ferberizing or take your new baby into the woods and not let anyone else near him as you live in a bubble. I do not feel the need to tell anyone else how to be a mom or judge them for their choices. I do however feel the need to say that I am better than you nahnanana.
Hormones
http://networkedblogs.com/lfeYU
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Cloth Diapers part 2!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Random Update
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Kidney Stones
Turns out what he thought was one kidney stone is actually now 3 fairly large kidney stones. He informs me that I will require a surgery to have a stent put in to help them pass so they don’t get stuck and cause an infection. Wonderful. Just what I need with a 2 month old baby at home that I am the only one here taking care of. I think the hardest part for me to accept is that I’m going to have to pump and then throw away my breast milk because of the anesthesia. That just feels wrong. Breast milk is like the nectar of the gods. It seems like sacrilege to even think about throwing it away. (and no I am not one of those crazy women who thinks breast feeding is the only way, use formula if you want. I am too cheap to pay for something that my body creates for free!)
Hubby has 3 days off when I’m having the surgery so that is great. But since I will have to have this stent in for however long it takes them to pass (looking at a month at least I think), and most people only “tolerate” the stent, my mom is coming to stay. I’m glad she is coming and I know she is secretly happy about this whole situation so that she can come visit her grandbaby. Well keep your fingers crossed for me that I am one of the ones who can “tolerate” the stent.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Working For Me or Against Me?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sleep Deprivation
Cloth Diapers (part 1)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Picasso Body
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Sleep
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
And all hell breaks loose
Suddenly our peaceful night was over and all hell broke loose. I'm sitting on the floor with Sadie on her changing mat and Chad is trying to get some rest. As soon as I take off the diaper my phone starts to ring, normally I could just ignore it but of course it will wake up Chad if I just let it go off. I run to grab it and silence it. Sadie, who is normally a quiet little baby, decides that this morning she will cry through her diaper change. I try to soothe her while quickly changing the diaper. As soon as I remove the diaper she squirts out a fountain of wet poo. It is projectile. It squirts right over her changing pad and onto the carpet and my foot. I can't avoid loudly gasping in shock and disgust. Well with all that in her no wonder she was crying. I clean everything up and get a new diaper. Sadie proceeds to pee on the clean diaper. By this point the dog is jumping up and down off the bed going between me and Chad, disrupting him I'm sure. Third diaper is the charm. We go into the bathroom to throw out the trash, leaving my phone on the floor in the bedroom. Of course now my alarm starts going off so I have to rush back to turn it off. All this in a matter of minutes. Finally things calm back down.
Sadie is on my lap as I write this. She was squirming around in her sleep, I'm guessing because of gas. Then all of a sudden she stops, a very peaceful look comes over her face, then boom, a huge wet sounding fart with what I assume would have been more projectile poo. Time for a diaper change, hopefully it will be uneventful.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Labor
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Master's Degree
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
In over my head
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Mountain View, AR
So we checked into our hotel (no B&B b/c they wouldn't take the dog, Jerks.) and went to tour the caverns. They were very cool and beautiful. We were 22 stories beneath the earth's crust. I was sure that was the place I would go into labor just b/c it was so inconvient. Did you know that there is a disease killing off bats all across the US? very sad.
Next we needed to find somewhere to eat dinner. We had seen a sign for a seafood restaurant on the river and thought that had sounded promising. We went to check it out. It was a restaurant/convinent store/ old motel from 1941/ mini golf/ tackle and bait store/ gas station all in one. I definitely think it was the gas station and bait store parts that sealed our decision to not eat there. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant in town. Making me wonder, what exactly possessed a Mexican family to settle in Mountain View, AR a very hillbilly, capital of Folk, town?
The next day we went for a hike through the Ozarks. It was really beautiful. We started off on a trail, but I'm pretty sure it stopped well before we did. Chad insisted that it was still there. I think that when you are in the woods you can pretty much "see" a trail anywhere you want if you are really looking. We hiked for over an hour through trees, weeds, stumps, leaves and along the river on this so called trail. I think it needed a good weedwacking.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Weight
Hubby informed me today that he has "finally lost weight". Finally? I didn't even know he was trying to lose weight. Has he been exercising? No. Has he been cutting calories? No. Has he been eating diet meals? No.
Does he still eat frozen pizza? Yes. Does he still eat ice cream? Yes. Does he eat chips everyday with his lunch? Yes.
So he is now back down to his ideal thin weight without even doing anything. I hate him.
I am now 38 weeks pregnant and have all the lovely baby weight that comes with that. I now only weigh 20 + pounds less than him. I hate him.
I want to sit on him, crushing him with my giant pregnant boobs, and force feed him cake and cookies and heavy cream and all the fried food I can find. I hate him.
We went to breakfast this morning. He ate a country fried steak with country gravy all over it, grits flooded in butter, biscuts with more gravy and I'm sure some other nasty fat food that would cause my heart to stop and add 5 lbs to my frame. I on the other hand, had yogurt and granola, some eggs and apples, and a muffin (ok the muffin is loaded with butter and sugar and not good for me) and I probably gained weight while he "finally" lost some. I hate him.
Luckily for him it is his birthday and so I just went on loving him.
Monday, April 4, 2011
74 is the magic number
decreases. We bought screens for the windows so we could keep them open. (We had to buy some b/c like everything else in this rental house the screens were neglected and full of huge holes.) Even with the windows open though the house gets stuffy. Being pregnant, I not only get hot but feel as if I’m overheated, my skin is on fire, my body suddenly feels twice as big, and I feel as if I’m dying of heat exhaustion.
off! I start feeling sticky, overheated, I want to shave my head and soak myself in ice water. Last night I wouldn’t even let Hubby use a blanket over his legs and feet while he was sitting on the couch b/c just looking at it made me hot.
Friday, April 1, 2011
House Hunting
We went looking at 5 houses the other day. A realtor took us around. She was very Southern, she talked incessantly about anything except real estate or the properties we were looking at.
We need to decide if we want to stay in the city limits or move out-a-ways to have more property. The problem with the houses in the city limit are that most of them are in new subdivisions. The houses are all cookie cutter cutouts of each other, they are built practically right on top of each
other, and there are no trees. The good part is that they are new, some are more affordable, and they come with privacy fenced in yards (which we need for the dog b/c she could easily clear a wire fence if she wanted). The problem with the houses out of the city limits are that they are out of the city limits. That means longer commutes to get anywhere and paying higher prices for utilities. The good things are that we could afford more property, our neighbors wouldn’t be right on top of our
house, and the views are lovely.
Our top choice is a house on 1.4 acres right next to the lake. It is built up on a hill and looks down over the lake. Absolutely beautiful. There were only 2 or 3 other houses on the hill and nowhere else to build right there so we wouldn’t have to worry about it turning into a subdivision. It is just outside the city limits and actually wouldn’t be a long commute for Hubby to get to work but it would still cost more in utilities. It is three bedrooms but we would end up using one of those as a computer/guest/den room, so it is a little smaller than I want. We would need to fence it in and the property is largely sloped down the hill so we wouldn’t have much of a traditional backyard. Oh and did I mention the neighbors owned a goat?
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Baby Kicks
With every flutter, kick, punch, wiggle, somersault, push, and reposition my love for my unborn baby grows.
Ok, that being said, yes I have referred to her as a parasite eating me from the inside out and as an alien. The parasite comment was in the first tri, when she was sucking down all my energy like a car from the 70’s guzzling gas. This feeling still applies now in the third tri, but now more that she is sucking on my brain and memory. If it is not baby related, I don’t want to focus. I am sure I am not the only pregnant girl who ever thought of her in-utero baby as an alien. When you are still and all of a sudden your belly starts moving of it’s own accord and you feel something trying to escape out of you straight through your stomach, it is hard not to equate it to an alien.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Home is....where?
We are thinking of buying a house.
When Hubby first mentioned this idea, I cried. It was back in January and I was still in my crying stage of pregnancy, everything made me cry at that point. It has taken me until now to consider accepting this idea. As soon as I brought the subject back up, he jumped on the idea and it feels like we are delving right in.
Mostly as an investment, partly because mortgages are cheaper than paying rent. We also hate this rental house that we are in and the agency we have to deal with. The people who own this house took no pride in their home, there are so many problems and issues that could have easily been prevented. We had to find somewhere to live quickly when we moved to AR. With a baby on the way and two pets, I really wanted a house and not an apartment. There were not many homes for rent. I looked at about 6 or 7 in our general price range. Most of them were built in about the 70’s (and still had the paneling to prove it), had tiny kitchens, and not much living space or natural light. The one we ended up in is bigger than we need but most of the others would have been smaller than we needed. Even knowing that I will have much more time to search the market for a better rental property, I am still not optimistic about what will be available for a family with two pets. We had to
pay a deposit for each of them with this place, and I was informed by two different rental agencies that most home owners would not accept cats. It also seems that the ones that do accept cats are prejudice against dogs, so we are screwed either way.
I am dreading the idea of having to pack everything up and move as well. At least if we bought a house I could rest assured that we would not have to move ourselves again. When we end up moving out of AR it will be because Hubby’s company has transferred him and they will have to pay for movers so I won’t have to worry about the stress of packing. We have never bought a house before or even really considered it. I’m not exactly thrilled about buying a house in AR but as we are here now I am just trying to deal with it.
Friday, March 25, 2011
I scream, You scream, We all scream for ice cream
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Grad School
I have been planning on continuing on to grad school since working on my bachelor’s. I had looked into schools in Florida but began a full time job in my field instead. I had gotten most of my requirements for application done then. I had 2 letters of recommendation and had my GRE’s done,
which are the most time consuming part of applying. Once I decided to apply to a school in AR all I needed was 1 more letter of recommendation, my transcripts, an essay, and to fill out their application, all easy enough.
I’ve kind of lucked out that there are schools right here in town. Of all the places we could have ended up, there are 3 schools here- 2 universities and 1 college. Again, I lucked out that the big university here offers a master’s and phd program in school psychology.
I have been accepted into the Graduate School at UCA, which means I have met all the general requirements. I have also been accepted through the first round for my specific program, which means I met the general requirements but still have to pass the interview process. The interview is at the end of next week, here’s to hoping I don’t go into labor too early. Of course if I was in labor and still went to the interview, that would just show how devoted I was and they would have to accept me right?
Of course now that I am on the road to being accepted, I am having second thoughts. I have planned from the beginning to only go part time. Baby will only be 4 months old so I know I am not going to be excited about leaving her. I do not want to put her in daycare so we are going to look into
finding a private sitter/nanny. Either choice of childcare will be expensive. Either choice is going to be hard on me leaving my baby in someone else’s care. Even going to school part time is going to be a lot to take on with a new baby in a new area. I know I will not feel like reading textbooks when I’m sleep deprived and my baby is crying. Nor will I feel like writing papers when I could be taking her out for a walk. And not to mention that I would much rather spend money on anything she may need than tuition. I will just need to keep focusing on the long term. By the time I graduate with my degree and get licensed, baby will be old enough to be in school. I will be ready to go to work and hopefully find a good job that will have a similar schedule to my school aged baby. Being a dual income household again will ease financial pressures and we will hopefully be able to provide anything our child will need or want. This all seems so far away though, I am worried about the here and now.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Perks of being Pregnant
There are a lot of symptoms that come along with being pregnant. Most of what is talked about is the morning sickness, swelling, weight gain etc. Well there are plenty of perks too.
To begin, lint brushing off a shirt over a hard pregnant belly is much easier than lint brushing over rolls and the lint hiding in the creases.
Everyone loves a pregnant woman. I get smiled at all the time, no matter what I’m doing or what I look like. I do believe that a pregnant woman could get away with whatever she wanted. I have a feeling I could go rob a bank, and everyone would be like “oh it’s ok, she’s pregnant”.
You get complimented no matter what you look like or what you’ve been up to. I now get told I look pretty just for wearing normal clothes. When people ask what you’ve been doing, you could answer “I’ve been napping all day and stuffing my face with pizza” or “Ran a 5k marathon, worked 80 hours a week, and have cured cancer” and either answer would elicit the same exact response “Oh! Good for you!” and it would be completely sincere.
I have been make-up free since 3/03. I probably didn't need foundation before this either but for whatever reason still felt the need to wear it. My skin tone has miraculously evened out. I do look like I have just had my cheeks pinched for 5 minutes by great grandma mildred, but there is no foundation in the world that will cover up my flamming red pregnancy cheeks.
I also believe that I have picked the perfect time of year to be pregnant. I was with child through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and am due the day before Easter. I was able to indulge in all the sweets associated with those holidays nearly guilt free. The two exceptions to this are New Year’s Eve and St. Patrick’s Day. It sucks to be pregnant on those holidays, which coincidently are my two favorite.
Grocery Shopping
Usually my food shopping trips are rather uneventful. And so was this trip. But, being pregnant and forgetful I ended up wondering around the store aimlessly and back tracking 3 times. I was highly distracted by the fact that there were girl scout cookies for sale out front. As I was leaving the store, already planning my purchase of thin mints, there was a lady in a scooter chair passing by the girl scouts. They asked if she wanted to purchase some cookies, but she was able to resist the temptation stating that she was trying to lose weight. Here is a woman who is too obese to walk on her own and she is able to pass up delicious, only available once a year, girl scout cookies. I on the other hand fell right into these little girls’ devious trap and bought two boxes of thin mints, knowing that I would not share any with my hubby. I have less will power than a large woman in a scooter chair.
Trying to have some lunch
more, can’t finish. Really? I can’t even finish a bagel for lunch? Not only was I unable to finish but it felt more like I had just spent 5 hours at an all you can eat buffet stuffing my face. This feeling lasted for about 2 hours. Baby needs to make up her mind on whether she is hungry or not. It is not fair to
tease mommy like that.
Arkansas
restaurants but hardly any healthy or quality restaurants, the few none fast food places are still southern and cook everything in bacon fat so being a pescatarian here has seriously limited even the sides I can eat. Just being health conscious about not eating vegetables cooked to death in bacon fat would limit what I would be able to eat here. Also there don’t seem to be any groups, clubs or organizations to join. I’m slowly trying to adapt.
The fact that I was 5 months pregnant when we moved into our place here has stopped me from looking for employment. I feel it would be unfair to an employer to make a commitment to a job, then take maternity leave and not be entirely sure if I was even planning on returning to work. Plus, there are no open positions in my field here. I looked into volunteering, but apparently no where wants a preggo to volunteer for them. I can usually find plenty to do to keep myself busy and don’t mind doing things alone, but it would be nice to have connections and friends here before I have a baby.
Coast Guard. She was expecting Hawaii or maybe Virginia for their next station. Somehow he got the shaft and was sent to Baltimore. My poor friend’s anxiety went through the roof over this yet she had to accept it. I can completely sympathize with her. First off I was upset that they weren’t going to Hawaii, I had wanted to visit. Second off I felt we were in the same boat, giving up our own job to move somewhere crappy for our husbands. It did make me think that things could be worse though. I am at least used to moving and we could have ended up in Texas, which would have been much worse.
Moving
I have moved countless times in my life. It started young with my parents moving often for my dad’s work. I guess it is something I got used to and doesn’t really bother me too much anymore. My last two moves have been rough though. My husband and I left England at the end of 2009. This was
very difficult for me as I loved living there and was pretty happy there. I had good friends, some of whom I met there and others who I knew before we ever moved there. To be able to rekindle friendships with my English friends who I hadn’t seen for a few years was an absolutely wonderful experience for me. The only thing that softened the blow of leaving the UK, was that we were heading to Florida where my dad lived. Florida is basically exactly how you would imagine it. There are palm trees everywhere, everything is built along the coast, and the sun is almost always shining. We lived in an unremarkable area of FL, but it was still FL. I was able to find a great job that I loved doing. I was making a few good friends. I saw my dad more often than I had in the past 6 or 7 years altogether. Life wasn’t so bad.
Unfortunately, my husband did not see things this way. He had originally planned on using his GI Bill to go to school. He did go for about 1 semester but was not thrilled with it and did not want to continue. At the same time though he was not able to find employment in the area. We were
staying at my dad’s house and I think he resented it a little bit. It made sense for us to stay there, especially since my dad and his wife did not live there through the summer months (May-October), but I still think it was hard for him to deal with being in someone else’s house and dealing with other
people when they were living there. Once he decided not to continue with school, he updated his resume, put it online and expanded his job search area outside of our city. It only took about 2 months for a recruiter to find him and set him up with an interview. Long story short, he was offered a job but not in FL. We discussed it and came to the decision to move to Arkansas for this job opportunity. Basically I sacrificed my job, family, and happiness for him to take this job and be happy working again. I have to admit, a very large part of my decision was based on the fact that I was pregnant with our first child. I loved my job but it was with a non-profit organization and would
barely support the two of us, let alone a new baby too. So that is how my second, really rough move ended with me in Arkansas.