3/11/09
Is it worth it?
Okay, it's not THAT bad. After all, I do an excellent job at keeping things clean, but it's the folding and putting away that gets be better of me. Actually, just the putting away part, because I love to fold clothes, and I am very systematic about it. I have a particular way to fold each and every piece of laundry, but it sometimes doesn't get put away. So we'll have piles and stacks and baskets of clean clothes and the dressers will be empty.
I could just say that I like to look at clean, folded laundry and leave it at that, but there's really more to it than this. It takes more energy to walk around putting clothing away than to leave it, stacked 'neatly.' This usually results in a mad dash to clean up living room with its stacks and baskets and piles of fresh smelling lovely clothes before guests arrive, which is VERY exhausting. But if someone were to see all that, what would they think of me? It surely couldn't be good.
Because I want to be a stay at home mom (and am not one yet) I feel like I need to perform really excellently now. I need to campaign for clean laundry and champion for fresh scented babies and make sure dinner is excellent, so that Pappa Starbucks will want me here, want me to stick around the home and be proud of what I do.
Problem is, I also have school and a baby who never gets full and ..even I am too smart to keep listing things here because it is a never ending list.
What I am getting to is this:
We're trying to transition to cloth diapers. It was/ is my idea. I want it desperately, and I can't pin my finger on exactly why. I know it is way more cost effective and environmentally friendly, etc. But I don't know why I want it SO BADLY. I think part of it is the absolute cuteness of a cloth diaper bum on my teeny girl, and the other part is it makes me feel like I am achieving something.
However, with these endless piles of laundry, they keep getting lost. This is frustrating because we're short on space anyway and I don't have room for a storage unit just for diapers. We didn't buy that many (we have 6 of the really good ones, 2 of another, not so great brand) and basically there are always some in the wash.
Am I biting off more than I, we, as a family, can chew?
It seems like this might be my 'Achilles' heel.'
3/3/09
Am I dreaming?
Lately we have been considering different types of diapers for our trip to Europe in May. I can't imagine shopping for Diapers in London, Brussels, or Dublin, but Pappa Starbucks believes it would be the same as shopping here. We have tried out the Gdiapers this past week, and they've worked pretty well but they also cost a pretty penny. While we were at the store, however, we also picked up a tiny baby potty. She's not yet 7 months old, but I figured it couldn't hurt to go ahead and have it around. Wishful thinker that I am, I put her on it as soon as we got home. And you know what? She went. And again, and again, and again. We've only had two times since we brought it home that she soiled a diaper- once in the car, and once in her sleep.
I keep waiting for her to look me in the eye and say HAHA fooled ya!! Now I'm not potty training 'till I'm 7!
2/24/09
2/9/09
Sweetheart,
But I have sacrificed so much so far. And I do. not. want. to. leave. her.
Especially not at a daycare. It means, probably, sacrificing my breastfeeding. It means late hours working with students who don't get the help they need elsewhere. It means emotionally struggling to maintain my center of balance, and truly giving up on my relationship because I just resent him so.
He just told me I need to "take a beta blocker and deal with it."
I clearly need something way stronger than a beta blocker at this point.
2/6/09
Just let her cry
Case in point, we’ve been trying to acquire transfer credit for my physical education course which is required to graduate. I might as well be blunt here and say that I have not recovered from childbirth and, well, things tend to hurt a good bit. We thought the way to go would be to arrange for credit from my first college, where I took the course my first year, to transfer to this college. However, the director of the phys ed program has refused, every time we’ve turned in the forms. Even with all of the proper paperwork and justifications for the course equivalencies, she’s denied it. Mostly, this appears to be for one reason- she’s pregnant with her third child right now, and she’s about 3 weeks from delivery. And she said (to Pappa Starbucks) that she thought I should just go ahead and take the course so I could get my pre-pregnancy body back, as well as the fact that "It didn't take me that long to heal. I think your wife is fine."
Well, as much as I would like my pre-pregnancy body to come back, I would also like to NOT be walking around in constant pain. So I applied for a PE waiver from student health services, where I was required to meet with a particular physician, who didn’t plan on ever giving me the waiver, because:
HER:‘ I've been told you were coming in to see me for a PE waiver. I don't think you have a medical issue but just a time issue. I don't give out PE waivers to students without a real reason, and I can put you in an adaptive PE course.”
Mind you, she never asked a single question about my condition or did an exam. She noted that I was holding the baby and so I could “lift some light weights.”
I thought this would be a good thing, at first. Adaptive PE sounds like it could work. I can get a little exercise but not strain myself. I sent an email to the adaptive PE instructor asking her when the course met and what I needed to do, as well as asking if I could bring my daughter in a sling while I took the course so that when she needed to nurse, I could nurse (because it was supposed to be walking mostly, and since I wear her in a sling when I walk already, why not then?).
Now, I understand that this was me being an optimist. And I didn’t insist on bringing her, I merely asked whether it might be an option, because, well Cuppycake just will not take a bottle. So far we’ve done pretty well balancing my feeding her before going to class, and if she needs to nurse and I am in class my professors have been understanding and on several occasions have allowed me to go meet Pappa Starbucks and take care of her.
But she is anything but an early bird, and this class was at 8am, so I knew trying to get her to nurse before I went would not work. I know some of you are thinking I am lucky here, because for most kids, 8am is late, right? Well, she has never gone to bed at night before 10:30. Most nights, it’s closer to 12:00. And yes, I have tried a million different things but they haven’t worked.
Anyway, this professor evidently hates email, because she sent a reply saying I needed to CALL HER IMMEDIATELY. And I did, but wow. She told me that babies were not allowed in the class, and that if I thought I was going to come into her class and cause trouble I was wrong.
I signed up for the class anyway, and showed up that Monday for it. Pappa Starbucks and Cuppycake were in tow, and he had agreed to wait at the entrance to the building while I took the class, that way if she needed to nurse, I could leave and take care of that.
The professor told me that I needed to ask Pappa Starbucks to leave, because this was my class time and he had his class time and they needed to be separate.
I replied that:
Me: he wasn’t going to bother anyone. He was waiting by the building exit on a different floor than the actual gym.
Her: Excuse me? If you are going to have this kind of attitude, you can just forget about being in my class. I am not a Teaching assistant or a part time employee, I have been teaching this class for 20 years and it is MY BABY.
Me: He is-
Her: OK. PROBLEM. I don’t even think you need to be in this class, it’s for students with REAL health problems and I have already been told by the director that you are trying to cause trouble and that I don’t have to let you in if I don’t want to. Now you need to tell them to leave because there are no babies allowed in this building and breastfeeding is not allowed in here either. I had kids, too, you know. And I breastfed for 3 months. How old is she?
Me: five months old
Her: She needs to be on solids. She doesn’t even need to nurse if she’s that old. Now you can’t be in my class like this. I will fail you and you will not graduate in May. You need to tell him to leave.
Me: If she-
Her: She will be fine for an hour and a half. It’s not that long. She can cry for an hour and a half and be fine.
Me: That’s not your decision to make??!
Her: If you leave my class to nurse I will fail you. I have too many students to be making sure they're all safe and dealing with you, and you don't need this class.
I dropped it. And I got a medical waiver from a physician, so I won't be penalized. what's more is I also dropped a 5 hour course and another 3 hour course I was in. So now I'm only taking 2 classes, YAY!
12/13/08
An update and some fo-toes
Well finally the debacle that was this semester is over. Some of it was awful, but some truly wonderful things happened too. I began classes this year with a four week old babe. And since those of you who have babies know what that did to me, I will leave it at this: I was in serious pain, and I have never felt more depressed in my life than those days when I had to walk out the door and leave my 'Plink' (Cuppycake) behind, screaming because, well, sometimes that's what babies do when they are unhappy.
But by now, I have acclimated to scurrying off to class, though I still don't enjoy it, it doesn't make me want to find a window to leap from.
Exams are over. The holidays are arriving!
Oh yes, exams.
I screwed up a little bit of the fondness one of my professors had for me this year by missing his final exam. To my credit, he rescheduled it (against University policy anyway) without the approval of the Provost's office, and then did not announce the changes via email, or on our course website.
I got to make it up, and it didn't cost my GPA too much because I somehow made a B in the class, so it wasn't that big of a deal in the end. Another professor lost all of my assignments for the year, which was a bummer. We figured it out though.
And Pappa Starbucks and I have not found jobs yet, but we did apply for, research for, plan and interview for (and yes, we got selected!!) a really incredible scholarship that is sending us, all expenses paid, to Ireland in the Spring.
And we're entering our very. last. semester (HALLELUJAH!!) in January.
Today, we are frumping around and fighting as much as we want to, and maybe finally cleaning a little bit, or searching for a few rampant Christmas decorations. I'm making many of the presents this year for nieces, nephews, etc. and there behind me and inspiring me is this book I wanted so long, and two sweet baby dolls are getting their own diaper bags, cloth diapers, rattles, and finger puppets as well as teeny blankets. 'Dorable!
Should be fun, because around here, we usually define "fun" as plucking each other's eyebrows.
Woohoo!
12/4/08
Lullaby
The baby is loving every minute I let her listen to this. It's sweet, but I have no idea what they're saying....
To be honest,I really like it too. I'm studying for a grueling round of finals, and this song is very primally relaxing. Also, the geometry of the video is stunning.
11/6/08
Mamma Pie
There’s a darker side, one where I question myself constantly, and fear for her and myself whenever we are apart. I call home, and she is always crying: my happy, bouncy baby, is always screaming when I’m gone. I question her father’s ability to care for her most basic needs, because when she is crying for food, he is trying to put her to sleep. And it’s not just once or twice, I truly believe he just accepts it, and lets her cry.
Which breaks.my.heart.
I’m petrified that something will happen to me and she will have no mamma. I don’t have enough milk stored up for her to last one day on breast-milk because I threw it all out- when her thrush got diagnosed. Even the good stuff, the colostrum from early days (and nights).
I got an IUD at my 6 week check up,and I had to take this little survey to see how I was feeling emotionally, and my midwife kept telling me that if I felt ‘more hormonal’ then to let them know. How do I know if I am ‘more hormonal’ if I am blinded by my own hormonal visions? And I don’t even know how hormonal new moms are, but I do know that when she cries, it tears my heart into little shreds and fills me with panic. But when I am with her, she rarely fusses, much less full-out cries. So when I call, and she is crying, and I can’t reach out and comfort her, or we’re in the car and she gets fussy, I just feel completely miserable, and am truly anxious to be with her to comfort her. I feel like I am standing on a glass panel and it's continuously breaking from under me.
My motherly nature is so much stronger than my energy to be back at school, I really can't focus on doing well, and I am so disappointed that her pappa keeps pushing me to spend time away from her. He says it’s good for me, I just feel so desperately lonesome for my daughter.
Oh, I miss my cuppycake.
10/28/08
Money baby,money
For example, we both need to eat healthier and take better care of ourselves so that in the long term, we get sick less, and will miss less school or work, and so the baby stays healthier. This means eating better, keeping our home cleaner (getting rid of and collecting less stuff). There are things that we need still and we cannot afford (for example, I need a new post-baby wardrobe for winter), but also, there are things we buy that we do not need (i.e. more pacifiers for the baby).
We also have started eating many more meals at home, and packing food to eat when we leave. He has started drinking more coffee in our kitchen, and much less in his car and at the local *$.The baby needed some hats, and so I made them from old onesies she outgrew instead of dropping $10 for three at Target.
As students, we’re still learning how to manage our money at all, but as new parents, there are a million things we never considered we would need to watch. It’s easy to get caught up in consumerism as new parents: for example, we recently went on a spree of spending, despite the economy’s bad shape. However, it was on a micro level, and our tab only came to about $200. We got the top things we’d been wanting as new parents, and I don’t regret any of them- we thought, and thought about each purchase and resisted a long time. But now that we have them, they DO help us enjoy being new parents more than having that extra $200 sitting in the bank. The purchases?
A car mirror for traveling so Pappa could see the baby when I’m not in the car to soothe her , a Bumbo seat AND tray, even though she’s just 2 months old (we bought that in blue, too, just in case someday we have a boy..). Then there's the Peanut Shell sling for me, something I had wanted since before I had her, and I wish I had got sooner. This isn't a product recommendation, but I will tell you...it was WELL worth it.
The only thing I would have done differently, is, silly me- shopped for these items second hand (like, for example, maybe on Ebay, if I weren't a dim wit). Since they’re all lightweight, I could have probably got them at great prices and shipped cheaply. We did search for coupons online first though!
The other change we are in the process of making is reducing our dependence on plastic grocery bags. I’d like to say it’s all because I’m environmentally conscious, but I really just hate having all those plastic bags taking up space in my kitchen. Currently, we use them for doggy poo...which sucks when they are a bit holy.
The other bit of wisdom we have learned is to earn our credit card points. I never had credit cars before, but now I am learning to use those cards in my advantage. (HOWEVER, we make sure to never, ever, under any circumstance even so much as think about carrying a balance. It's scares me so much to think about getting into debt that I wont use the card if I know we can't go straight home and pay for the item). This means store cards and other kinds, as well as those points’ cards stores give you, which often come with being put on a coupon list as well. Most mailing lists I loathe, but free coupons are always nice if they’re for something I will use. And for the rest, I’ve started sending them to a sister in law, who in turn sends me her unused baby coupons. It’s a win-win for all, except the cat: no one seems to have one, and you’d be surprised how many cat coupons we get each week. Maybe we should start looking for a kitten : )
10/19/08
Baby generator
And I was also convinced she might not resemble me at all.
I searched high and low for a baby generator- where I could mesh two photos of Pappa Starbucks and myself and find out what she would look like.

I never found one while I was expecting.
And then I forgot about it, simply because, well,she’s beautiful?
And anyway,I can’t imagine feeling any other way than what I do about her!! However, VW (yes, the same people who gave us the jetta and the rabbit) just came out with one. It’s pretty fun, and very cute, and it reminded me of my earlier searches on Google, half frantic, typing “baby maker” or “baby generator” and plowing through the results. This one is fun, though, even if it is to promote a car. It’s called the RoutanBabymaker3000.
Try it. It’s fun, and it will make you grin. I like that it allows you to adjust how much of each parent it adds, and try different photos.
