The Best Vacation Ever

Uh Hi there! Yea, yea I am still alive. And all is well around these parts.

This week I started back at work. Well sort of. After being on Maternity leave since April 12th, it was actually kinda nice to be back in the office, sitting at a desk, and catching up with co-workers. I wasn't really doing much work work, more busy work as most people didn't know I was there and I was mostly there to get adminy things accomplished, like updating passwords, getting access back to systems, setting up my laptop which died while I was on leave and submitting for a 5 week vacation.

Yea, that's right, 5 weeks. I have taken the disability and bonding leaves supported by the lovely state of California which paid out some monies for part of that time and protected my job, but now I'm back but have 6 weeks of time off accrued so I'm going to take some of that to tack onto the end of my leave to extend this precious time with my growing up way too fast baby girl.

I had been accruing vacation time and saving it for just this reason for years. Each time I'd hit the ceiling of how much they let us accrue, I'd be reminded that I didn't have a baby yet. But finally, I got to sit down and sign into the HR system thingy and submit my request for a whole lot of time off. It felt weird. It felt wrong. I thought, I could come back earlier and save more of this time. I'm stingy with my vacation time because it always costs money to go on vacation, money I didn't really have, and I always wanted to be able to have this chunk of time to take when I had a baby. And here I am. with a baby. so day by day I asked for 8 hours off. It was pretty much awesome.

We might go away for some of it. We might not. We might take day trips. We might just stay home and stare in awe at our little miracle and repeatedly say, "did you see what she just did?" as she learns and explores the world around her.

I'm very grateful I have had this time with her. I don't know if going back to the corporate world later will be easier or harder than if I went back after the 8 week disability leave, but I don't really want to think about that right now because today, right now, will never come again and I'm loving just being in love with my baby.

When the Baby naps...

The baby is starting to wake up from a 2.5 hour nap. You'd think this means I got some crap done around the house, right?

Well I try to lay down with her for the afternoon nap because it seems to make her sleep longer. As in her usual 20-30 minute nap turns magically into 2+ hours. And these long nap days usually coincide with easy put to bed nights. Plus, I'm going back to work soon so these opportunities are limited so I gotta get'em while the gettin's good.

So great! You got in a nap too. Don't you feel better? Stop rubbing it in! - you might say.

But alas, I think I looked at my phone for the whole time. Twitter, Facebook, reading and re-reading blog posts and articles, BPA Free teething toy research, talking to lovey while he looks at BPA Free chewy things at the store.

However, even though I didn't sleep, I still feel a little refreshed. Wonder if my lovey made dinner? Maybe he got the tea stains out of the kitchen sink from his mother's recent visit. (I'll answer that now before I even leave the bedroom -- no and no)

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DATE NIGHT!

My Mother-in-Law is visiting for a week. She hasn't been here since the wee little baby was a month old. She stayed with us for 3 weeks back then and has been itching to come back out since before she left.

Tonight, kind of spur of the moment, we decided to go out on a date night while MIL watched the baby. LilMiss has started taking a long nap later in the evening (which I know everyone advices against but its what her little clock is doing, so we're going with it) so about half way through we got ready and headed out.

We went to one of those Brazilian steakhouses where they come around to the tables with meat on swords and they cut off pieces for you as you want it. There was a little salad bar/veggie buffet thing, you know to make it a round meal, but that's not why people go to these places. We were there for the meat, and for the most part the meat was GOOD!

Sure, we talked about parenty type stuff the whole time, a little family gossip, a little "wonder if I've pissed off my friends with unsolicited advice" talk, a little "are we on the same page?" talk, and a little "I really appreciate you" talk. It was great. The bulk of the talk was around co-sleeping and how to make that work and for how long. Questions like... how might a couple have more kids in that situation, if you know what I mean!

We got home to a fairly happy baby girl who took a bottle well, and had slept for another hour after we left (although woke up screaming which isn't normal for her), and was on the floor with Grammy playing on her tummy (did I mention she's rolling now, ALL THE TIME, like won't stay on her back for anything). Of course now she is fighting with all her might against daddy because she's sleepy but you know, she's a fighter! And me, I just pumped a ton because baby got a bottle and mama was uncomfortable.

Oh, I hear the daddy walking this way with a bounce in his step and going "shhhhh". She's asleep but refusing to be put down. See, she knows we left her and she's not letting us do that again! :-)
I guess I'm off to get ready for bed. I have a feeling someone will be sleeping with me all night and I'm totally ok with that.

Middle of the Night Bitterness

Been up for what feels like hours and I'm really tired and I have things in my head that want out, but my wrists are freakin' killing me. It's awesome.

Tonight I woke up with a bitterness I can feel in my back, in my gut, I think maybe even in my feet. I don't know where or who or why but it's there. I am deciding I'm just tired. Really really tired. And I should likely fight the urge to wake up my husband right now and say the words in my head because I think it would go over poorly. I am in such a general irritated state that I might feel the need to tell him the shower needs to be scrubbed right now at 3am or throw a fit about how he moves his feet in his sleep and its making a racket. Yea, maybe not the best move.

I have this feeling I need to take a few days off. I don't know what I'm taking them off from since I'm still on leave from the kind of work that pays US dollars, and I cannot take time off from my new mommy job, or my wifey job, or my moo job (breastfeeding/pumping), or my worry about money job or my clean the house job or my get ready for MIL's visit next week job... oh wait. YES I CAN! I can take some time off of some of those jobs. Or maybe I just need a day or an afternoon, or maybe an hour.

So much irritation needing out. Can't hold it in. Must let a little out...

I hate that my leave is more gone than left to live.
I want to travel and to spend time out of this rented house I do not feel at home in which costs more than I wish we were paying, and is a mess and full of crap, our crap which we moved here and it spilled all over the place.
I want to see family.
I want to see friends.
I want to also not see family and friends and to be with my husband and my daughter somewhere other than here, experiencing something new.
I want to not be worrying about the money it will cost to do such things.
I want daycare to be figured out.
I want to pick out a flippin' stroller so I can stop researching them and start taking walks while I still have the days free to do so.
I want to feel like I don't have to hold my tummy in anymore and it returns to a better than its pre-pregnancy state without me actually having to do anything.
I want to stop pumping all the time and yet have a freezer stash so big we need more freezers to hold it and I wouldn't cry if one of the freezers gave out.
I want to not worry about the one freezer giving out.
I want the go with the flow person I was a few months ago to come back because the worrier I was before I got pregnant has totally moved back in and I think I don't need that right now.
I want the weather to not be so hot we can't sleep and not so cold the heater is on daily, but this summer here in this place isn't working out like that.
I want my daughter to sleep.
I want to sleep without pain.
I just want to sleep.

My moo time is done now (not much in the bottle though likely due to the lack of sleep and irritation) so I'm going to go sleep now... maybe... if my daughter is sleeping without flailing about and my husband isn't making so much noise with his feet rubbing on the sheets or his snoring or his knee cracking....

Post! I want to Post already!

I get up just about every morning, sometimes when it's still dark out, and I slip away from LilMiss to go.... well honestly, pump so I can breath again and because I really want an excuse to buy a new freezer. Sometimes I sit in the dark with the kitties who miss their mama but mostly I come sit here, in front of the glowing Internets and read or write or edit/weed through the hundreds of photos I've taken the day before.

So you note up there that I said 'write'. Yes, I've been writing. Writing posts for this here blog. But wait, you haven't seen much posting going down. That's because no sane, organized writing flows from these fingers, and most never get finished before someone wakes up. Not that my posts were masterpieces before, but I read them and they are just blabbering nonsensical whining so they sit in my list of unpublished posts for another day.

I am finally one of the many. I am a mommy. I used to be a blogger. And while the world of blogging isn't as forefront to my day as it once was, I'd like to finally say I'm a freakin' Mommy Blogger! I don't' know why, I've just been wanting this for so many years and damn it, it's my time to talk about poop!

So here goes. I'm going to post this here morning's masterpiece and then go back to bed because my baby sleeps until 11am. It's how we roll.

Sleep, where for art thou?

I'd like to start this post by noting that I'm writing it from my phone because LilMiss decided to fall back to sleep after a very cute and giggly "good morning" and she's in my bed, and Eric went to run an errand so I can't leave the room now because what if she decides she is going to roll over right now? Sigh

To start, when I was pregnant, Eric decided we should co-sleep, what? Most the world's cultures do it! This wasn't my plan as it wasn't what I was familiar with, plus I knew I'd be the one going back to work so I was all about the crib...In her own room... ASAP.

Then we agreed to using a co-sleeper bassinet or a pack'n'play in our room for an unagreed to length of time. I just asked that we revisit the topic occasionally as time passes.
This is all while she's still cooking.

We get home from the hospital after a very brief stay there considering I had a C-Section and she's sleeping in the co-sleeper just fine. She's tiny(5lbs), and sleepy so we are waking her to feed her around the clock.

Fast forward to a few weeks later and suddenly she won't sleep unless she's being held. I blamed the MIL visiting and holding her ALL DAY, but then decided it's just a phase. I started laying down and nursing her to sleep and we'd move her once she was deeply asleep, but this would only work for the first 4 hours. After that she seemed to want to nurse every hour so I started keeping her with me in bed. And now...against what I had planned...we are co-sleeping in our bed all the time.
And naps? In arms. Can't be put down.
I kind of love it though but it's getting to be exhausting.

We're at 3 months today, and a month ago her Dr said we might want to consider some sleep training by 4 months and I didn't even tell him about how she won't sleep out of arms at all, just that we don't put her down until she's totally asleep. He's a fan of putting them down drousy.

We were just doing what worked so we could all get some sleep. She just sleeps so soundly and hard when she's with me versus moving and kicking and waking herself up when she's alone. Plus, now I find I miss her and our time if she does successfully sleep in the bassinet.

So what to do?

We haven't been consistant with bedtime routines because she is generally so sleepy she fights us and going to sleep unless I lay down so no point in saying we are going to do a bath and story if she's just tired and crying for the boob. She doesn't seem to go to sleep soundly until about 10pm and doesn't really wake up until 10am, but he'll she takes her longest nap late in the afternoon so is she really ready for bed then?
So I guess we need to start everything earlier?
That means when I go back to work, by the time I get home she will be already starting her bedtime routine? THAT F-ing blows!!

I've been reading some methods and have asked Eric to read some too because he needs to be all in on this and not me just telling him how it's going down because that never works out well for anyone.

Why can't she just tell me what to do?
What did you all do with your kids?

Ahh. Some giggle smiley baby is staring up at me. I must go chew on her now.


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Post about Posts

I have so many posts floating around in my head but so little time to type them out so here are a few topics I wish to touch on in upcoming posts (you'll note a new theme to my posts by the way...):

Breastfeeding and my obsession with milk production - Moo
Cloth Diapering - why am I doing this again?
Baby Journals - Did you do one?
Milk Production - pumping all the time, pumping all the time (sung to My Girl likes to Party all the time)
Precious time - Me or the Baby
Boobies - No baby, look at Mommy's eyes!
Milk Storage
Co-Sleeping
Which came first the cookies or the milk? Cookies for Milk Production
What do you really call them? - Nicknames
Boobies
Milk Stash
Why won't you sleep baby?
Making baby food
Missing Home
Going back to work
Daddy Daycare
#2?
Carpal Tunnel doesn't go away
Left handed Bejeweled, Right boobed feeding
Boobies - how often can we say 'Boobies' in this house in a day?
Thinking of buying a freezer to put in the garage for milk
BOOBIES!

Did I mention I'm obsessed with Milk Production?
I used to be obsessed with my eye brows.

Alone Time

Hi!
It's almost 1am and I'm awake and alone and I think I like it for the moment.

LilMiss is sleeping..sorta.. I think... I keep hearing little noises on the receiver who's transceiver is pointed at the co-sleeper thingy next to my bed while I'm on the other side of the house AT A COMPUTER (which has only happened a handful of times in the last 2.75 months, 90% of those times during this week). The monitor system doesn't work well in this house which must have lead in the walls or something because our wireless network also have VERY limited range, so the receiver is only about 30 feet from its mate and it still has interference, but I turn up the volume so I can still hear whats going on in there since I closed the door. Thankfully the house is small.

Eric is sleeping in the baby's room which is kinda funny if you think about it as she's in our room. There is a twin bed in there and he has to work in the field tomorrow so I told him to just sleep the whole night in there, but that he should expect to sleep less this weekend. :-) Usually if he has to work in the field, he sleeps the first half of the night (2-4 hours) in our room and then helps with her first feeding (changing her diaper while I pee, gets me water or anything I need, then hopefully puts her back to bed), and then if she doesn't appear to be going back to sleep right away then he'll move over to her room to get a few more solid hours. He's the pro at putting her back in the co-sleeper as she just won't do it for me 75% of the time, so I may regret my generosity.

Then why am I here you ask?
Yes I am tired, and yes this keyboard is causing twinges in my elbows and wrists, but I miss you guys! So I went through my reader and admiringly skimmed through your blogs and I might sorta be caught up a little. I even commented here and there but not many so I apologize if you didn't feel the love. I've rediscovered the feed reader on my iPhone, so I may remember I can read blogs while feeding her and stuff, but commenting may be more difficult. And here I was limiting myself to staring and refreshing Facebook and Twitter over and over again in an effort to remain connected to the outside world. Silly me.

I shall go fold a load of laundry now and then turn in. Wish me luck in not waking her up! Maybe tonight will be another 7 hourer. too bad I've already blown almost 4 hours. (inside voice - HOLY CRAP! I'M DUMB! Screw the laundry)

STOP IT!

Today the straps on the car seat were moved up a notch. Sigh.


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Swapping

I have two piles of baby clothes on a shelf in Lil'Miss' closet getting ready to be packed up for storage.

One is full of gifted or hand me downs which I have come to the conclusion that she will never wear as they are not at all her shape. She is a long slim baby, 37% for height and 1% for weight, and apparently a lot of clothes are made for short round babies. I finally pulled these clothes out of her dresser as I got tired of digging around them. She pretty much wears Carter's clothing everday as they seem to fit her perfectly, although her jammies are getting too short in the arms and legs but still loose in the middle.

Then, this week I have begun a pile of clothes that are already too small for my Lil'Miss. I had pulled out the preemie clothes that were way tiny a while ago, but now even the larger of the wee clothes don't fit lengthwise. Then yesterday I started swapping out some newborn clothes for 0-3 month clothes. Only one brand so far (Gerber). I do hope she'll get to wear all of the cute 0-3mo summer outfits but it's looking unlikely.

Part of me hurts doing this size swapping thing as it is happening so fast but the part of me that enjoys dressing her up is excited as the clothing possibilities open.

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Snuggly Mama

My Lil'Miss has taken to sleeping on Mama. Daytime naps, nighttime sleeping it doesn't matter as long as she's on the mama. While I love the cuddles and kissing her sweet head, I kinda wish I could put her down successfully at least occassionally. Like now for instance. I was raring to go scrub the office floor of cat litter and pee since the cats have found a new way to show thier jealousy by peeing on her activity mat I keep in there. But alas, I must sit on the couch all warm and snuggly.

While being a snuggly Mama is rewarding, it's also sweaty, tiring work. Hot baby=sweaty. And tiring because, well warning to anyone who hasn't cared for a newborn, they don't get the memo that "sleeping like a baby" means calm, still, quiet, deep sleep. At least not this baby, so I don't really get
much sleep myself. And crazily I'm not napping right now while everyone else is in this house is on this bright Sunday afternoon.
I'm just not sleepy but I'm sure i will be right as everyone is waking up. It's how it usually goes.

I know this is just a phase and I'll want to be able to return to this time down the road when her head looses that sweet baby smell or when she won't let me kiss her all over anymore so I'm not meaning to complain. Just sometimes a little time sans baby might be nice.

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Random thoughts which come up while trapped by a baby nap

How does one untangle from a sleeping baby without waking them up?

Why must farting wake up the baby? Her's not mine.

Why will she only sleep well when on or cuddled into me? Not totally complaining at this point in time because she's cute and cuddly but I foresee this might be a problem in the future... Like in 5 minutes when I just can't hold it anymore.

Man I'm glad I could reach my phone with my toes! Too bad my glass of water is out of reach...or maybe that's a good thing.

So much for running errands today. Dinner of frozen or canned food products might be ok. At least there are organic Strawberries from the farmers market trip yesterday. Or maybe I can whip up a cheese and salami sandwich. See, totally don't HAVE to go to the store.

Crap, there keeps being things I need to add to my Costco and Grocery lists but I never remember when I have a moment to jot them down.

Last weeks shots totally threw off our night=deep sleep routine. She was just too fussy. And then the 2 nights of fireworks killed 2 more nights. And today's long nap isn't going to help. At least I got in a few hours of a nap too which will dramatically help me cope with the current sleeping issues.

No kitty. Don't step on the baby. How do I explain to you why it's ok to step on me but not her?

I think she has eczema on her ear. The skin flakes off.

Ok. Five minutes up. Sorry baby. Mama's don't wear diapers.

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My new morning

I got up this morning to find Scout Ants in the kitchen. Of course I shall choose to blame the fact that no one did the dishes yesterday, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence. So I spent my precious baby free morning hour cleaning and scrubbing the kitchen (Eric usually cuddles/naps with the baby on mornings he doesn't work until she decides eating again would be more fun)
After the ants appeared gone I then scrubbed the floor, then the garbage can and then sure why not the stove/oven too.
Of course my wrists are killing me all the while but my need for clean was too great.

Now I have again nursed the baby and am pumping my foot on the baby bouncy seat to get this little one to sleep long enough for me to eat some breakfast hopefully before lunch time. I made oatmeal on my clean stove about 2 hours ago. Mmmm

Wish me luck on the eating. It's my toughest daily challenge (oh and Eric has totally already showered and is back taking ANOTHER nap and it's not even 11am yet as I sit hear in my bathrobe ...sheesh)


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Work distraction

Today I went to the East Bay for a doctor appointment and decided to drop in on my friend Jules for a brief visit and maybe lunch. Instead I bugged her all day long.... Babies make for a good distraction from work.







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Growth Spurt

We clearly just went through a growth spurt and I need not worry about my milk supply at the moment (which I obsess about). I weighed her early last week and she was 6lbs 12oz and today she is 8lbs 12oz.

We may actually get out of newborn clothes and into 0-3month clothes before she's 3 months old!


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Micro posting

Real quick on the updates....
Had a baby.
Its a girl.
She's tiny and perfect but growing and changing so fast.
Breastfeeding has taken over my life so thankfully I'm taking the max leave time we can afford.

I have found I miss the blogging world but I have zero time for reading or writing, and my todo list of things I actually HAVE to get done only grows (bills, pleasing the grandparents with photos, eating, etc) so my brother suggested I write micro posts from my phone when I can. So let's try it.

I dunno about it because I blog for the community and if I don't have time to put into it then maybe I just shouldn't try. But then again, maybe these micro posts will keep me a little connected until I figure out how to migrate my former life into my mommy life.

Who bets I'll give up within a week?


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What getting ready for baby means to me...

So I think I need to explain my situation a little bit.... and maybe vent a tad.

My house is trashed. We moved over a month and a half ago and there are boxes everywhere. I'm not exaggerating. They are everywhere. I trip over them all the time and they are stacked 2-4 high, and on every flat surface. And within the last week, more appeared full of hand-me-down baby stuff which I just pushed into the baby room to make go away for the time being. This house is not functional as is and we've just been making due.

We were not able to even start unpacking for weeks as we thought we had lead paint in the kitchen and bathrooms and well, everywhere so we had to fight with the landlord for a while until he agreed to get a lead risk assessment done. Turns out everything is at ok levels, but we had already lost that momentum of moving and had begun living with just the bare essentials found in the essential boxes and just walking around the others. Once you start living out of boxes, it's much easier to keep living out of boxes. It's kinda like vacation where you have your essentials with you and you just make due. Add to that the fact that I've been exhausted and worked 12-14 hour days since we moved in, and this is the first few days to do anything else in my life.

We eat out every night or get take out because the kitchen... not functional. Much to still unpack and to figure out what we need to get to make it more functional. Sure we can make toast and eat cereal and we've managed to make rice and oatmeal, and a salad or two, but actual cooking can't quite happen in there yet... again, too many boxes in the way, stuff on the counter which doesn't have a home, and in general the layout sucks to begin with.

Then there is the old/grime factor. We moved into a 50's foreclosure property which was purchased to be rented out. Our landlord did the minimum needed and that minimum is gross to most people's standards. We had THOUGHT he would have it cleaned before we moved in, but NO he didn't. Liz came over the day we moved in and scrubbed a lot and there was still so much more scrubbing to be done. I won't even go into the state of the yard because I have little problem letting that go before the baby comes, but the mold, and the stains, and the just general grossness.... that all needs to be taken care of.

Some things are beyond repair or elbow grease. Some things need more elbow grease than my wrists will allow. And some I'm going to scrub the hell out of no matter how much it hurts me because I cannot continue to live with mold and grossness. For example, tonight I purchased some fairly caustic cleaning products (which I probably shouldn't be using in my current state but oh well), some rubber gloves, and good ol' Mr Clean Magic Erasers. We generally use very "green" cleaning solutions like vinegar, H2O2, and Baking Soda, but this place is beyond those products. My toilets are now white. I am opting not to tell you their prior state, but I no longer gag when I take a bath where I am at an angle where I can see under the rim (not that the stains were only under the rim). Again... NOT EXAGGERATING!

To add to the fun, Eric and I are clutter leavers. Have a space, crap will fill it. We do not have a dishwasher, and we (Eric) do not have a habit or see the point of cleaning the dishes every night (or the counter, or the wipe out the microwave when something explodes, or hell closing a drawer after its been opened). We don't have good homes for the crap and some feel that an adequate home for crap is shoving it into a drawer, or box, or cabinet, so you just end up with crap drawers and cabinets and crap full of crap. Sure I can't change all of that now, but some of the crap needs to go and now is the only time I will have in the next year to deal with it. Sure this stuff is lower priority, but this week I needed to find some of MY crap which had been unpacked into the crap places full of crap because important papers got mixed in.

Sure, I am embarrassed that we will be having guests stay with us, so some of this motivation to get our own shit together prior to the baby's stuff has something to do with that. But mostly, once the baby is here, all of the boxes, the mold, the gross, the crap will not be taken care of. This house is not clean and not in a state to bring a baby into. And I won't even go into the fact that we are expecting guests and we still do not own a guest bed.... just one more thing on the list of things to figure out.

Baby's don't need a lot of stuff. Some diapers, some clothes, my boobs and a place to sleep. We have that. There is no point in going through the bags and bags of hand-me-down and new clothes now, because if I wash them, I have no place to put them yet so no point in washing. Another thing of the list.... baby's dresser or some sort of closet organizer (and hangers) or even plastic tubs.

Today I also needed to buy the things I need when I get home. Like sleep nursing bras, and ginormous maxi pads, boob cream and cotton pads to clean baby's sensitive bum and random goop because Eric will not be in any state to be trying to figure that stuff out on his own and I'm not going anywhere after a C-Section for a while. Also, needed to continue to deal with the property I just sold as the banks seem to like to continue to take auto-payments out for a mortgage which is no longer active and no.. they don't give the money back. And you know what tomorrow is? It's tax day... nuff said. Non-baby stuff needs to happen before this baby arrives. Period.

So in essence. Me taking care of all of the other stuff and not setting up the baby room (which the baby will not be even using for a few months and will essentially be a place to hold baby stuff and a guest room), really IS getting ready for baby.

Much To Do, and its only day two

Because I am on maternity leave I am supposed to be resting right?
Well if I didn't have a list so long of things to do, I would rest more! I know that all will be fine if nothing on that list is done RIGHT NOW, but you know how things are.... sometimes you just need certain things to be checked off.

Like right now, I really need to unpack all the crap we move here with. Yes, we moved 6 weeks ago but that was 6 weeks of working 14 hour days and being far too tired to touch anything when I got home. We've gotten used to living out of and with boxes, so its kind of easier to just keep walking around them, for now. I am not allowing myself to go through all of the generous gifts and hand-me-downs which are accumulating in that room there behind me which I try to avoid as it would be so much more fun to sit down in there and go through bags and boxes, not to mention also sitting down to write out some thank you notes.... OY I have much to do.

I don't even have an actual list going, which probably makes the brain list seem even longer. Perhaps that will be thing one on tomorrow's list.... to make a list.

Yesterday, day one of leave, I sat on the couch, all day with my iPhone in hand texting/IMing away with my girlfriends who I haven't gotten to talk to much since I've been so darn busy at work. I was also researching who knows what via the Internet on that thing for HOURS. Then we headed out to a "newborn care" class which blew chunks (which was one of the topics as well) but Eric seemed to enjoy it so someone got benefit out of it. We ran many errands and went out to eat dinner which I had a hard time swallowing the bill when I'm not making much money at the moment with the whole not working thing, but also recognized we will not have many more opportunities for such niceties soon.

Today, I had many goals which I think I got 4.5 things accomplished, even more if you include showering and getting dressed and feeding myself...ok I didn't feed myself very well and getting dressed counts when you just put clean PJ like clothes on post shower, right? But I did pull my laptop out and get it set up and got caught up on Grey's Anatomy thanks to Hulu.com while I sorted/filed/shredded many a paper in my "need to deal with" pile of papers which moved here with us. Of course I still have little piles of papers all over the desk looking for new homes, but they will wait for tomorrow. I'm sure I could have sorted far quicker if I was not staring at the monitor for hours but 6 weeks without TV and being home alone calls for some mindless entertainment. Oh crap, Eric is doing taxes tomorrow so I guess I must clean up the piles tonight... drat!

(Question: Do I really need to keep all of the Wedding Cards we received? That is one of said piles of papers)

Count down to Maternity Leave

Psst! I have 2 more full work days until my Maternity Leave starts. Then maybe I'll actually get unpacked, get Internet service at the house, and get my ergonomic desk set up at home so I can type there and then MAYBE I'll ACTUALLY POST SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PREGNANCY!

If I didn't mention this before, we moved over a month ago. Yea... we're crazy and moved at the end of the 7th month. And I'm too freakin' pooped to unpack so we live in a sea of boxes. And no, the baby's room is not set up, please don't bring it up. We do not have any furniture in there yet (well nothing that will stay in there) but we are picking up a crib this weekend (Thanks Liz!). The "baby's room" is full of a lot of things overflowing from other rooms and a wonderful ton of generous gifts and hand me downs from friends and family. (THANK YOU AWESOME FRIENDS AND FAMILY!)

Anyone got a twin/trundle bed we can use for a guest bed? apparently Moms and Moms-in-laws like to have beds when they stay over to help out.

So much to do, and so many naps fit in.

Poor Pregnant Sick Me

This is a post full of whining. Oh right, that's pretty normal for around these parts so I shouldn't have to preface it.

I'm sick. And I'm pregnant. you know that that means? LIMITED DRUGS! I love my cold medications, and all the ones I usually reach for are off limits during this journey I'm on. Sigh. I'm currently working on cold #3 of this pregnancy and #4 of the cold/flu season and actually #1 was in June so that's BEFORE the season even started and it was the worst of all.

Started out as a tickling cough, 2 days later insane sore throat and prolonged coughing fits, 2 days later add head congestion, and then .... the dreaded YELLOW MUCUS coming from everywhere I turned.

I am doing all the things I'm supposed to do:
Resting as much as the Mr. Mucus allows
Sinus Rinse
Lots of Hot/Warm fluids
Steamy deep breathing sessions in the shower/bath or over the stove
Salt water gargling
Eating well

Since Mr Mucus turned colors over the weekend I decided it was time to see the doctor. I'm not one to go to the doctor unless really warranted and this pregnancy warranted the trip. My OB was out today, so I saw another in the group who I've seen before so I knew he was REALLY sensitive to the emotions of Women's Health and would not fault me for coming in with a cold (he had helped me through my miscarriage).

He was pretty much awesome and convinced me that taking a Codeine cough syrup was the way to go. I picked up my prescription and a refill for my inhaler should the need arise during a coughing fit. Now, 2 doses later, I'm not convinced of its effectiveness. Still coughing. Have managed to give myself (or maybe the baby started it) sore ribs, and my back decided that coughing is a good trigger for spasming. The coughing has even been triggering fun puking... good thing I had kind of gotten used to that a few months ago.

I'm falling apart people!

Oh yea, and I'm supposed to be packing some everyday to be ready for the big move on Sunday. Yea right.

CRAP - I hear something. Eric's making sinusy noises. CRAP CRAP CRAP!