Getting to know me

I saw another blogger doing this and I thought it would be a great idea for my readers that don’t know me or don’t know me well to get to see something like this so here goes.

1. Tell me something obvious about you. – I wear glasses
2. Tell me something about you that many don't know. – I am allergic to cats
3. What is your biggest fear? – Failure
4. Do you normally go the safe route or take the short cut? - Safe Route
5. Name one thing you want that you can't buy with money. - Brains
6. What is your most treasured possession? - My daughter
7. What is the one thing you hate most about yourself that you do often? - I’m critical… I keep my criticism to myself mostly but in my head I’m always thinking about the stupid choices people make.
10. What is your favorite lie to tell? - I don't lie
11. Name something you've done once that you can't wait to do again. -  kayaking
12. Are you the jealous type? - Of some things, its’ not always predictable either but for the most part I’m happy when good things happen to other people
13. What is the one person, place or thing you can't say no to? - Anyone asking me for help
14. What is the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?  - Taken care of me when I was sick
15. If you could do something crazy right now, what would it be? - Buy a new car
16. When was the last time you cried? - I cry all the time it’s like my fourth favorite thing to do.

17. When was the last time you felt so good that nothing else mattered? - I don’t think this has ever happened I am always worried about something.
18. Do you feel comfortable in public with no shirt on? - While I look great with no shirt on I wouldn’t want to be in public like that.
19. Name something embarrassing you did while being drunk.- I’m an awesome drunk I never do anything embarrassing

Push Present

So I’m reading on my mommy website and I see a post about a “push present” which is apparently a present for having a baby. This gift is supposed to be from the husband as a way to say thank you for caring and giving birth to our child. I’m not sure how often this actually happens or what most women get but the ladies on this site get great stuff they seemed to get cars, jewelry , and purses among other things but wow that’s good stuff.

 I’m thinking my husband must not be very grateful since not only did I not get a push present but I gave birth 2 days before mother’s day and I didn’t even get a mother’s day card from my husband .  To be fair I wasn’t supposed to have our daughter until 3 and half weeks later, but he could have found time to buy a card.

Some of the women on my mommy website I think are just bitter about life. This post about the “push present” was supposed to be fun and a bunch of women are calling these presents selfish. I keep asking myself how in the world a gift could be selfish but I just haven’t been able to figure it out. I think a lot of it is jealousy because their husbands didn’t get them anything. I have to admit I’m jealous but I still think it’s a very sweet gesture especially if it’s not demanded or strongly hinted at and it comes from his heart. I don’t think anything could be sweeter than a man saying thank you for making me a daddy.  

This is Halloween

One of the best things about a new baby is experiencing things you have always loved with your child. My daughter is only 6 months old but already it is super fun doing things with her and watching her reaction.  Every year Halloween is one of the holidays we enjoy most, we love all of the holidays; but Halloween is the one with the most fun and least amount of family obligation, it’s all ours and we love it. This year we planned to scale back our Halloween because let’s face it we are tired all the time. We normally do a huge grave yard scene in our front yard topped off with lots of fog bubbles it’s awesome. Setting it up and keeping it going throughout the night takes dedication and this year we decided we just didn’t have enough energy to do it, but we did go to our favorite pumpkin patch for pumpkins and  I we had so much fun dragging our daughter all around and having her look at everything. Our pumpkin patch is like a small carnival it has rides, games and many animals. We got Sophia a pumpkin but she was so tired she didn't pay much attention to it at first. When we brought her home we let her play with it, she loved it! She sat there holding on to it and smiling at it, she really wanted to put it in her mouth but it is too heavy for her to lift. I am looking forward to dressing her up and taking her to visit all the neighbors it’s going to be a great Halloween. I get the feeling its going to be a great holiday season.

God Hate

I read a lot of blogs and a lot of posts on a mommy website. One of the things I have noticed is that it’s wrong or racist or intolerant if you disagree with many issues these days but the one constant is that is fine to bash God and Christianity. Why is it that these are the only things you can hate? I see those coexist bumper stickers and it’s almost always these people who are bashing God. Why do Christians have to be tolerant of things they disagree with but no one has to respect our beliefs?  I don’t understand how tolerance does not extend to Christians. I recently heard that it’s my job to change the face of Christianity because it’s my religion then it’s the Muslims job to change the face of Islam because of what the terrorist do. Not all Italians are mobsters and we all accept that this isn’t the way the whole Italian population lives and acts. This is a ridiculous notion everyone knows and accepts that not all Muslims are like the terrorists, that why is it different for Christians? Why do so many people care what my religion is and what I believe it doesn’t affect you?  If you don’t want to be treated poorly don’t treat me this way and for all of you on these boards bashing God and Christianity maybe you should take a good long look at your hate and intolerance and see what your teaching your kids.

 So I posted this on my mommy website where I’m reading all the hate and boy you would have thought I called someone’s baby ugly. Man I got a lot of anger which is interesting because it is from women that tell themselves they are open minded, funny how that works. I’m open minded as long as you agree with me.

Modern Medicine

Growing up I was always taught that pain is weakness.  My family looks down upon anyone who is ill or has a chronic health problem, whether or not its self created.  It was never okay to be sick.  So I was never sick.  I learned to just act like I was well until I was either feeling better or until I was too sick to cover it up.  I didn’t realize this was not how most people acted until I was much older.  As a result I think two things really happened.  One I am a lot less sick than most other people I have ever met.  The second is that I feel like a failure when I’m sick.  I found out in high school that I have a thyroid problem which really didn’t sit well with my family.  They didn’t really seem to want to understand what the problem was or how to treat it.  The doctor gave me a prescription and after that it was never mentioned again.  As I got older I found that nothing had really changed and started to explore what was going on.  The summer I turned 26 I was planning to have my wisdom teeth out (not looking forward to it).  I went in and they did all the pre-testing before they put you under and the doctor told me no way he was getting anywhere near me.  My blood pressure was so high that he wanted to hospitalize me.  I convinced him not to and that I would see a doctor the next day.  I did and that is the day my life changed (for the better).  I found that my thyroid problem was in no way controlled and had led to very high blood pressure (it was at levels that can cause a stroke).  The doctor put me on medication that day and it was remarkable how quickly I felt better.  Looking at my daughter today I am so grateful that I finally had to confront my medical issues.  Most women with thyroid problems as bad as mine are unable to get pregnant.  In my mind my daughter is a miracle that almost wasn’t.  I still struggle to accept that medical problems happen and they are nothing to be ashamed of, but when I look at my daughter, I thank God for modern medicine.



Mama Product of the Day:

This blanket is fabulous!!  We bought it just after our daughter was born and she slept much better wrapped in it. We stopped swaddling when she was about 3 months old because we thought she had outgrown it, but have recently started up again. This blanket has made the transition from newborn to larger baby very nicely.  We are able to wrap her up securely and it is darn cute. It’s a light weight material that works great in any weather I put her in a onsie normally but if it’s too hot just a diaper, if it’s cold I add socks.

Tummy Sleeping

Last night was one of the worst nights we have had since we had our daughter. Sophia has mastered rolling over and has started practicing in her bed. She has never completely rolled over while in bed we keep her swaddled to help keep her asleep. Normally this just makes sure none of us gets any sleep. Well last night she started making noise and I went in to check on her and I didn’t feel her breath. I freaked out I ran and got my w and found that the reason I couldn’t feel her breath was because she was actually on her tummy.   This seemed to work out for about an hour and then she wanted to turn over, turns out she was stuck. This continued all night so none of us slept.  I can’t believe how much she wants to move around doesn’t she know she needs to sleep. Doesn’t she know that I need to sleep? I don’t think she knows or cares that my husband and I don’t sleep. I’m hoping she stops all this rolling around and waking up soon otherwise I’m going to either go crazy or hire a night nanny.

Priorities

There are those people in your life that you can always count on to eat your food and drink your beer but will never do the same for you. I think I find more than my share of these people. I can always count on a few things one that I (or my husband) will be considered 24 hour on call IT department. I can always assume that my life and or plans are not important; I should be able to drop everything at a moment’s notice to do whatever they want to do. I can always count on not getting listened to. I can always count on not getting a call about cancelled plans or about running late. I have to admit that if there is an inconsiderate person within a 50 mile radius, I suddenly feel the need to make friends with them or am related to them.  It’s not really that I mind helping out or even that I’m not really on top of anyone’s list (accept my husband). My real problem is the sense of entitlement that people have toward me. Why do I owe you my time, resources or knowledge?   Now that I have a daughter my priorities are very different. I am working on using the word no a lot more. It is not going well people do not seem to understand that I have other things to do than take care of their issues.

Angry Woman

Yesterday, I went to the Ob’s office to get my shot of depo. I had to take my daughter because my husband was at work normally she is really good but she was hungry and started (whimpering not loudly) while I was making my appointment for the next shot. I should say that my doctors office is very friendly  I always spend 5-10 minutes chatting before making my appointment so while this is going on I start to feed my daughter who is still fussy (but not loud).  An older women about 50ish walked up to the front counter and started yelling at the women at the desk and me from my daughter making too much noise for her. There was also a child in the waiting room crying but he hadn’t been crying for long. She was really mean and demanded that the women at the desk tell her when there would be no babies in the waiting room. They told her that they were an ob office and they couldn’t tell when they would have babies in I cannot repeat the things she said to them. Was appalled at how rude this woman was to these women who couldn’t really do anything. The doctor’s office was very nice to her surprisingly so I would have told her where she could take her attitude. They offered her the name of a doctor that didn’t have as many children in the practice. She decided to stay for her appointment but was rude the whole time.

Got Milk?

My daughter has had gas since we brought her home.  I always thought it was much worse than it should be but the doctor said nothing to worry about as long as she doesn’t have blood in her poo. Well to be honest I still thought something was wrong but figured it must not be to bad or she would have worse symptoms. So I did some research and found that she would have a mucusy poo if she was struggling with dairy. I’m going to be honest my books say look for a mucousy poo but what does that really look like? I don’t know so we have spent the last few weeks trying to figure that out and finally we are pretty sure we know and yes she is struggling with dairy and maybe soy. It will be much harder for me to give up soy so I’m just giving up dairy and the moment and hoping that will fix the problem.  How is it that dairy is in everything? It’s like vermin it just creeps up on you and gets into every nook and cranny. Did you know that there is dairy in top ramen? Also dairy in my canned tuna and in soy cheese which I thought would be dairy free, since my vegan cousin eats it but nope it contains milk protein which seems to defeat the purpose of being dairy free. I feel more and more for those who are casein free due to an allergy, they are sneaky with it. Thankfully I don’t think my daughter has an allergy just and intolerance that she should grow out of. But wow those with an allergy really have to be careful it’s milky out there.

Top 10 things I didn’t know were a problem

So this was going to be a top ten list but this was so crazy I didn’t think anything could even compete with it so it stands alone. 1. I had no idea this would ever be a problem. I had no idea sperm clogged up drains but then again it’s been causing women trouble for years.

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this picture. I just can't imagine this actually being a problem. how much masturbating do you have to do to have this type of problem? I went to college with a lot of horny guy's that did a a lot of crazy stuff and we never had problems like this at my dorms.

Whore for a day

I LOVE Halloween its one of my favorite holiday’s, I just love dressing up, the decorations and candy. This year I get to dress my daughter up, I’m super excited. We first start with a family theme then it’s all about the costume. We picked our family theme and  so we started looking for our costumes a few weeks ago.  As I looked through all the costumes I noticed that once you get out of baby costumes all the little girl costumes are pretty slutty. I know that we are fairly conservative but WOW I’m appalled by a lot of the costumes they have out for little girls.  I don’t think any baby as small as mine needs to be showing wearing something this sexy/suggestive EVER.  My daughter would have to have a shirt under and tights on to make a lot of the costumes I looked at in any way acceptable. I don’t think my daughter should be wearing anything suggestive until she is 22 and even then I wouldn’t like it, don’t get me wrong I don’t think that all people who wear suggestive clothing are whores, I do it myself. My problem is that we as a culture are dressing out little girls like much older women. I think it’s sad that we have to push our little girls into dressing this way, no wonder there are so many teen pregnancies. We are not teaching our kids to take the world on slowly, which is much better for our daughters and even our sons.

Sleeping with the fishes

5 years ago my husband and I decided to buy a house (condo) we scoured South Orange country in hopes of finding a place we could actually both live in and we could afford.  We had the help of a very interesting real estate agent.  In the end we bought a town house in Lake Forest.  Fast forward to today our home is worth WAY less then we paid for it L but we would really like to refinance to the lower interest rates of today.  Well since we owe more on our house than it worth and we refuse to stop paying our mortgage (sadly yes this was advice that we got).  We thought our dreams of a lower mortgage payment were over until we met Katrina Idstein who has been fabulous at helping try to find a program that will help us out.  If you are in a similar boat give her a call 562-833-3673. If anyone can help you she can.  One of the best things I can say about her is that she actually seems to want to help.  Most people we talked to didn’t even seem to want to do anything.  If you are looking for someone to discuss options with that actually seems to know what they’re doing Katrina is the one to call.

Sleep Sack

This weekend I realized that while my daughter doesn’t like to be swaddled she does want to be wrapped up in a very tight burrito like wrap.  To help this along, I decided that I would make her a sleep sack.  I thought to myself this won’t be too hard.  I quilt, how much different can it be.  And to my surprise everything seemed to go really well until the zipper.  Wow, I did not know how much trouble one little zipper would give me.  After about an hour I conquered the zipper and I was so proud of my accomplishment.  I stuck my daughter into her new sleep sac immediately.  She didn’t seem to mind it so I thought this will work out just as well as wrapping her up.  So bed time came and we got her all ready then I brought out her new sleep sack and put her in it again.  She didn’t seem to mind it much. I laid her in bed only to realize my mistake.  It was like a toy for her.  She would kick her feet to see the material move…. Not what I had planned at all.  I thought maybe it was just the novelty of her new sleep sack, nope twenty minutes later she was still kicking her feet only now she was crying too because she was sleepy and just couldn’t calm down enough to go to sleep.  Sleep sack was not the answer to my prayers L but I wrapped her up like a burrito and within a minute she was asleep.  So I wasted all that time and energy and an adorable sleep sack only to find that my daughter would have rather I just wrapped her up in the material.  I guess this experience is much like the Christmas day cardboard box problem.