I like babywearing.

For those that don't know it is the buzzword for carrying your baby in a sling, wrap or carrier. 

As with most things in my life, I do not take it all the way. Some will only wear their baby and never buy a stroller. Frankly, I can see why, some of the carriers out there can cost as much as a stroller. We have a stroller and we like it very much, thank you. Yes, it is mostly for carrying all our crap, but it is still useful.

I don't have A constantly attached, she enjoys her bouncy chair an floor mat...

I am happy with 2 ring slings, a moby wrap and an Ella Roo hip carrier. All were given to me, so I cannot speak to cost, but I'd totally suggest checking craigslist, or asking your local baby boutique if they have a lending library. My local one does babies-in-bloom. in Carlsbad. Do these things first, then if you LOVE a style, then go out and spend tons of money on the perfect fabric/print that you want. Or be like me, and just be happy with the ones you have.

I did fall for the free udder cover and seven slings deal. Honestly, the $10 in shipping you pay is about what the product is worth, eh, maybe a little more. I am sure they work just fine, but I gave away my sling because I love the adjustability of my ring sling. 

At 13lbs we are already nearing the end of the moby's life. There are other wraps out there that are not a stretchy fabric that will hold an older child, but I may stick with the slings. Papa wears her occasionally and the plain black sling works for him. We may buy something for her when she is bigger so she can ride on our backs, I'll be checking out the lending library first.

Nursing in public, my new normal...

I try to be somewhat discrete about it, but it doesn't always work out that way, and honestly I am more concerned that my child is getting fed than that some stranger may catch a glimpse of part of my boob.

Nursing covers are nice, but the all prints are SUPER bright, which some consider cute but make me feel like a huge red sign over my head saying HEY LOOK HERE I AM BREASTFEEDING IN PUBLIC. I have a nice cover that is white with a butterfly pattern all over it that my Dear Friend made for me, I prefer that one to the udder cover by far. 

In California I am not overly inclined to cover my child with a blanket, but I will use that or a muslin blanket or just feed her in her sling when I need to. 

Seriously, I need to do it often.. 

My kid apparently loves to eat in public. Actually, what happens is, she gets hungry, I feed her, she gets distracted because we are out in public so she stops before she is full. She falls asleep and wakes up hungry again. So no matter where we are she needs to eat. 

This last weekend, it was in the middle of a lake. 

I. kid. you. not. 

We were on a paddle boat and she decided she was starving, so I had to make it work around her HUGEMONGEOUS life jacket.

Disneyland, the Wild Animal Park, every restaurant we have ever been to, yep, she's nursed in all those places. 

I do feel slightly bad for our friends who spend time with us as they are always having to talk to me over my kid eating but I already pump while I am at work and she takes bottles during the day so the last thing I want to do is make her take more bottles when I am there to feed her.

I have been truly fortunate not to have any real issues with breasteeding, No mastitis, no thrush ( I believe, this is due to me letting the girls air dry after feeding her, and using cloth breast pads instead of disposable ones) no supply issues. I do have tea from my sister that I drank for day or two during one of A's growth spurts. 

http://www.earthmamaangelbaby.com/breastfeeding-support/milkmaid-tea.html

I plan to drink it for a week here soon so we can build up a bigger freezer supply. 

At about 6 weeks A would get super fussy after eating and get gassy, I tried eliminating dairy for 2 weeks and it did nothing. I really believe in most cases mama's diet doesn't really affect baby. There are, of course, exceptions, but usually when I hear a mamma talking about eliminating foods, it is right around a growth spurt time: 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months... Baby is going to be super fussy and unsatisfied after eating no matter what mamma eliminates.

Holy empty bank account batman!

I was going through the mail and looking at coupons today.
I saw coupons for formula, $2.50 off and $3.50 off.  So I thought I'd look into the cost of formula versus replacing my Medela Pump that retails for almost $300 (fortunately it does not need to be replaced, but just in case)
What I found was that over the course of a year buying the cheapest formula out there, (Parent's Choice from Walmart) you spend about $900 on formula alone, no baby cereal or starter foods in that cost. If you continue giving bottles a few times a day, naps and bed time, until 18 months, you spend $200 more.

What if you have a kid that needs specialized formula? Tack on another $600, holy cow!

I feel bad for the parents that have issues breastfeeding and need to completely use formula or even supplement.

Not judging, but if you choose not to breastfeed, I assume you are accepting that cost and I don't feel as bad for you.

The cheap-o in me will keep breastfeeding and pumping at work for as long as I can. thankyouverymuch.

I'll likely end up steaming and food processing my own baby food too, just because I looked up those cute little packs of pureed veggies and fruit and umm, also not cheap. I am hoarding coupons for those bad boys until A hits 6 months and we introduce her to mushy food.

Strange But True...

I truly am enjoying cloth diapering... The hubby doesn't seem to mind either. :)

We haven't started solids yet, and I hear it is a hard transition. I didn't buy a diaper sprayer when we started because money was a little tight me being on maternity leave and all. It has worked out just fine since currently everything can go straight into the wash. I suspect that soon we will be purchasing a sprayer and I have a good sized stash of both cloth and paper liners to help out with the solid food poo issues when they come.

So, about those diapers:

In the beginning we used Muttaquin baby http://www.muttaqinbaby.com/diapers.html and kissaluvs http://www.kissaluvs.com/ Newborn fitteds with Prorap and Imse Vimse covers, we got these from a friend whose daughter had grown out of them. These diapers truly were life savers, I am not sure I would have kept up cloth diapering if we hadn't had these.I love that they have a snap down so the umbilical cord stump does not get irritated, the Prorap cover also has a scoop in the front for that reason.

 In a Muttaqin Baby fitted, before the cover covered up the cuteness

I had some flats and some pre-folds (aka old fashioned) diapers but they are WAY too bulky on a newborn. I have since found out you can buy newborn sized pre-folds which would have been better. I also had gotten some small gDiapers and small Fuzzibunz pockets but neither of those fit until later.

We like Hybrid diaper systems. 

We do not use them exclusively, as that would be more expensive than disposables and we are primarily cloth diapering to save money. However, we like to have them for trips and outings.

We like gDiapers and love the flushable inserts but she grew out of the smalls so quickly and I couldn't bring myself to buy a whole new set up. We still use the gDiapers cloth inserts as doublers in her bigger fitted diapers, but we wanted another hybrid style diaper for trips so we bought GroVia http://gro-via.com/ since they are one size and there was a great sale on 3 covers and 2 packs of the disposable inserts. The inserts aren't flushable, which is a bummer and the covers have mesh inside them which does not allow for wiping them clean like our flip http://www.flipdiapers.com/ and econobum http://www.econobum.com/ covers. We have some Flip disposable inserts but they are too bulky still, but look like they'd be useful later.

For normal diapering we use both pocket diapers and fitted inserts with covers (or 2 in 1's). 

Pockets are fun and have great colors and prints, but I find myself getting cranky when I put a cute diaper on her and then she poops so I have to change it. Although, I like the fact that I can add more or less to the pocket diaper depending on it being night time or day time (opposed to AIOs or all-in-one diapers) We have Fuzzibunz http://www.fuzzibunz.com/, Charlie Banana http://www.charliebanana.com/, BumGenius http://www.bumgenius.com/ and Swaddlebees pockets. 

in her Fuzzibunz small at 6 weeks

The swaddlebees were given to us, and sadly, the company no longer makes pocket diapers. A shame too, they fit our LO perfectly. The Fuzzibunz and Charlie Banana are size small and seem like they will fit for a while. The Swaddlebees are size medium and also seem like they will fit a while longer. Along with the Swaddlebees, we were given hemp inserts. I am glad too, because hemp is more expensive and the cheap-o in me may not have ever bought them. So much absorbency in such a little package. I love them. Plus, I am finding the microfiber inserts are all smelling icky already and need to be stripped.... Oh Joy! (I'll talk about that when I post about washing). From my reading on mommy blogs and chat boards, BumGenius is the most popular brand followed by Fuzzibunz, I like them both equally, Bumgenius does offer a refresher kit for those that sew, it is new elastic and velcro tabs, the 2 things that go out on diapers after repeated washes. I was able to refresh a diaper from my sister that had been used for over a year in rotation for my nephew. That for me brings BumGenius to the front but I can't bring myself to ever pay full price for a diaper so unless they go on sale, I am not buying any more.

The one I got was a freebie from diapershops.com, they often have a coupon code for a free one sized diaper with a purchase of a certain amount. When I got the GroVia set on sale, my freebie was a white BumGenius, in addition to the one I got from my sister, we have 2. The Fuzzibunz and Charlie Banana were on sale with Zulily.com I got 3 smalls and a medium, now I wish I had gotten more.

The fitted diapers we have are several brands:

http://www.totsbots.com/products/range/bamboozle-stretch/

http://www.earthmomandbaby.com/shop/category/bumboo-cloth-diapers/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sugarplumbabydiapers

http://sosdiapers.wahmweb.com

We use them with Prowrap, Econobum, Flip, Imse Vimse and Bummis covers. My favorite is Flip, they are one size and come in great solid covers. I do love all the cute prints out there, but usually A is wearing a cute outfit already and a brightly patterned cover just clashes.

For emergencies (aka we've been lazy about laundry) we still have the flats and pre-folds to use with the covers that work just dandy but are a little more work.

We did buy some Kushies http://www.kushies.com/ AIOs that I like but she is still not quite fitting them in the leg even though they say from 10-22lbs and she is 13lbs. I REALLY want to like them, especially since they are a Canadian company. I got 2 new from Amazon.com and 12  used from craigslist for $40 so not a big deal if they don't ever fit right. I did have to strip them because the person who owned them before used a very fragrant detergent (possibly a dryer sheet which is a no-no) but they work just fine now aside from the legs being slightly loose. Papa likes the AIOs and the pockets (I stuff them) because there is only 1 thing to do when changing her.

When she migrates to large diapers I have some pockets already bought along with the one-size covers from Econobum, Flip and GroVia, we may just buy more one size fitted diapers and forego the AIO and pockets completely.

in her Snap EZ one size

Another brand I liked but are no longer making baby diapers is SnapEZ, we have 2 nb sized pockets, 2 one sized pockets and 2 pairs of training pants from them that I really like and haven't had any issues with so far. I also got mama cloth and some breast pads from them that are equally great.

OH - I forgot to mention I made a chart... Cause I am weird like that, I wanted to make sure there were no sizes missing... Google Doc Diaper Spreadsheet

I'll write more about washing, we are in a unique situation, an apartment with shared laundry facilities... it is fun let me tell ya.

ahh pumping,so much fun...

I am sitting in the bathroom at my office pumping.
THE BATHROOM!? you say, isn't that illegal?
Well no, not exactly. The law says not a bathroom stall, my HR has very nicely put a comfy chair in our bathroom that has a stall for the toilet. I am in the outer part with the sink and counter. I've been wandering around the office looking for a more suitable place, but cannot find one.  If my pump was quieter I'd ask to sit in one of the unused cubicles in the back away from everyone and put up a curtain... but the pump is relatively noisy and while not loud enough to be disruptive I don't think it is fair to make my young male coworker with no kids sit and listen to the pump going.
There has been talk of letting me sit in the owner's office (he is NEVER in the office) but there is no lock on the door, so we'd have to put up a sign. I am beginning to think that may be the best option. Currently I am using disinfecting wipes and wiping down the bathrom counter every time, it'd be nice to just put the pump together and go without wondering who has sneezed on or touched the counter before washing thier hands.

I shouldn't watch cooking shows...

Tonight it was Cupcake Wars... So at 10pm on a Saturday, what  I do? Make cupcakes...

Dalmatian Cupcakes -

Chocolate with a cream cheese and chocolate chip center...

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Chocolate with a hidden peanut butter cup inside

Blueberry Cheesecake

Give me a break on these it was almost midnight when it came time to ice them... I wanted to drizzle a blueberry compote over the icing but I got tired...

I also decided that I NEED piping bags and tips... You know for all that baking of fancy desserts I do a few time a year... Maybe I can find some at Goodwill...

We may have become snobs...

About what we put on our baby's bottom anyways...

Even when we are out I want to bring cloth diapers.  We went to Disneyland last week and I had some disposables just in case, but we had our GroVia hybrids as well, so we were covered. We went with some dear friends and switched out watching eachother's babies so we could go on rides with height requirements.  When we finished our ride our friends said miss A had poo'd so they changed her. That was super sweet of them, honestly I'd probably have waited the 15 minutes for them to finish the ride.
They mentioned that they didn't know what to do with the cloth diaper ( the grovia disposable insert isn't easily recognizable to those that do not use them) so they put her in a disposable.
it was fine, really it was, but I couldn't wait to change her out of that disposable.
On a similar note, Disneyland has a baby care center off main street that has a sink for rinsing cloth diapers, a leftover from days past. I wish I had known, I wouldn't have bothered with the hybrids.

Mama's back at work

I went back to work on Monday after 12 wonderful weeks at home with my daughter.

Ok so when I say wonderful I really am only talking about the time with my beautiful baby, the rest of it started to suck after about 6 weeks. Honestly, I am not one of those people who function well without something I HAVE to do each day (like work).  I've never been interested in freelance or working from home because I KNOW myself and I know better.
The first 6 weeks was just a blur trying to figure out the baby and feeding and all that jazz. Plus we had family and friends coming to visit, so there was plenty I HAD to do each day. After the visits tapered off, my sleep schedule got wonky, baby sleeps whenever so I started to sleep whenever, I found 4 am was about the average time for me to actually get in bed to sleep. It worked fine for baby, so I had no motivation to change. 
Except... 
I hate not having any day left when I get up, and even of you're not answering to anyone about your schedule it just feels off when you get up and 3 hours later the sun goes down.

So here I am SUPER glad to be back at work and have a schedule again, I honestly think it is better for all of us when I am busy. I suppose if I had to be the stay at home parent, I'd find classes or something for baby and I to take to get me (and her) up and out of the house...

As for stay at home dad and baby, they seem to be working out the kinks of not having mom around all day. I pump in the morning while I feed her. I try (usually unsuccessfully) to get her back to sleep before I leave. Then, I pump at work once in the morning, go home for lunch and feed her, then pump at work in the afternoon.  This works as long as I am good at communicating when I am leaving for lunch and when I am leaving for the day. If I don't call the second I know I will be later than a few minutes, baby and daddy pay the price of hungry baby.

I plan on being a mindful spouse and not setting unrealistic expectations for dad while he wrangles a relatively high needs baby. I hear stay at home moms complaining about husbands expecting a spotless house and dinner ready and giving them crap about not working (umm children are a TON of work). I don't want to be that person, I'd be pretty resentful if I was staying home and my husband expected that of me.
Although so far he's had dinner either ready or almost ready every night when I get home, I do like that.

Here we sit...

...in complete darkness and quiet... Something I wanted to avoid. I wanted a child who could sleep through the basic noise of the house. instead I have an inquisitive 2.5 month old, who absolutely will NOT sleep, no matter how exhausted she may be, if there is something going on.

We've been trying to sleep since 11pm, it is now 1am so add on top of exhausted, starving...

This poor kid is too much like mom and dad...

Hello World!

First blog post... Except my little girl is eating, which means I have only one hand to type. Sigh...

I'll start with a fun pic of our current cloth diaper stash...

Baby Nazi's - I hate you all

OK to be clear, what I mean is - that more and more I am meeting women who have quit their jobs to stay home with baby. They cloth diaper (CD), they babywear, they co-sleep and they exclusively breastfeed (EBF)...

Wonderful! I love it.

If you have the income and inclination those are absolutely wonderful things to do. What I don't get, is they then turn it around and are judgmental towards women who don't do all of that.

That is the part I don't understand.

When we talk about what our situation will be when baby arrives, I've gotten everything from "you're crazy" to a shake of the head and an almost inaudible tsk tsk.

Why do we get that you ask? Because dad is staying home with baby.

We plan to cloth diaper, babywear and exclusively breast-feed (we are skipping the co-sleeping because we're both really heavy sleepers and aren't comfortable with the idea). So technically we fit into the "it" parenting right?

Apparently NOT. Apparently ONLY moms can do this.

I don't completely understand why that is such a shock to everyone's system in this day and age where men and women are supposed to be equal. Our child will get the benefit of having a parent at home, something that many families do no have the luxury of,I might add.

How am I being a bad woman by letting this happen?

We are making sacrifices to be able to do this, we won't be buying a new fancy car anytime soon, we don't have all the latest technology. We made a choice and are working towards it accepting the sacrifices that accompany it, why aren't people just allowed to be happy for us that we get to do what we want.

I am constantly getting "oh, you'll change your mind" I bite my tongue as I look at the husband sitting next to the woman who is still in his work clothes because he had to work another shift so she can stay home. I want to say, "so what if your husband changes his mind and he wants to stay home."

If we had no other choice, like my husband had been laid off, or had a disability, they'd be more understanding. The idea that we CHOOSE to do this seems to be what baffles Baby Nazi's the most.

We made our choice based on several things, mostly because I absolutely LOVE what I do for a living. I work in a semi-technical field, so to stay current, I'd have to freelance anyways. So, if I am at a great company, why not stay and accept the steady income and benefits for doing what I love. My husband's career path is not the same. He is a in a world full of freelance and part time with no general guarantees of a steady income and benefits.

How is making the choice to have a steady income but still have a full time parent at home bad for our child? How is me continuing to work at all a detriment to her?

It seems to me that if we both worked, and put our child in daycare, the Baby Nazi's would be more understanding, they'd pity us, as opposed to judge us, for the choice we made.

What irks me the most is that they all consider themselves feminists.

Well, now that I think about it, feminists have a rocky history for being very vocal against other women who don't follow their ideals.

However, the meat of the issue is we DO follow the ideals. It's just the sex of the stay at home parent that changed.

Come on people get with the new century, equality will never truly happen while crap like this goes on.

Jan 24, 2011

I have become really fascinated with the new person in my belly.

She's moving enough to be felt on a regular basis and has started to actually make my stomach move on it's own.

It is a strange sensation to feel her then see her actually affect her surroundings. There is almost a little disconnect in the feeling and seeing the outside move.

She still goes quiet as soon as she hears her dad's voice, so I haven't been able to show Mathew yet.
He's convinced she doesn't like him, which we all know isn't true. I think she stops to listen to his voice.

January 23, 2011

After an emotional day yesterday, today was about comfort food.

We went to lunch with Adam & Shabnam at Olive Garden, then went to go see Green Lantern (3d)

A big bowl of pasta in cream always seems to make me feel better... Just can't do that too often or I'll start to look like a big bowl of pasta :)

The movie was cute, not sure it was worth seeing in 3d. There were some cartoon graphics in the credits that looked AMAZING in 3d but the movie as a whole didn't need it.

I suck at blogging Jan 22, 2011

So I have come to the conclusion that I totally suck at blogging.

Today we drove up to Vista to look at an apartment closer to my office. We need to move so that when I go back to work after the baby is born I am not commuting 2 hours out of my day. I don't mind commuting but when I think about having a baby, spending 2 hours away from her just sitting in a car every day just seems like a waste.

Our place in Hillcrest is great. I hate to leave but it isn't big enough to have more than one person over at a time and it seems our group of friends has migrated from going out to meet up to staying in and meeting up. Not surprising, but way less convenient. We have to wait until there is an invite since we can't really have anyone over at our place.

So onward to living far away again. I am not too worried that we will see people any less, in fact we may end up seeing people more this way.

Well the apartment is exactly what we want - and end unit with a private balcony, 15 min from work, with a washer/dryer. The catch, yes there is always a catch, it is available NOW, and we can't move until 2/15. They refuse to hold it that long. sigh... whatever will be, will be.

After the apartment we went to the lovely Stella's 2nd birthday. It sucks, because we really love seeing Stella and her parents but she is the same age as Ethan was when he passed away, so it is always emotionally draining for Mathew to see her. He slept for 3 hours when we got home tonight. I think it being a birthday party with several 2 year olds made it worse. Next time we'll try to hang out with just the 1 child around, it should be easier. It is pretty awesome for me to see her getting so big. heck I remember holding her at a tiny 5 weeks old. :)

January 7, 2011

So the pregnancy is impeding my ability to sleep.
No position is comfortable and I require a wedge and a body pillow to get anywhere close to comfy. With me, wedge, body pillow, hubby and dog the bed is crowded.
So every time I roll over I need to bring the body pillow with me and I of course whack either the husband or the dog with it.
Apparently if I can't sleep, no one can.

I am tired today, in case you hadn't guessed. The joy I realize is that it is only going to get worse over the next 4.5 months.

Although, I haven't even met her and I already know it is all worth it.
sigh, hormones make me sappy.

On the up side, hubby can take melatonin and sleep through my tossing an turning, I am happy for him, honest. If he turns up strangled it wasn't me. :)

January 6, 2011

Today was a long day.

It started out nice, Mathew woke me up and presented me with breakfast. The drive into work also started out fine. However, there managed to be 2 accidents on the freeway within a few miles of each other dragging out the drive horribly.

Work was fine although we have a project due tomorrow that is one of those that was on time, then dragged out, and is now a week behind... you know those... I haven't even gotten all the pieces to the project when the project manager asks me if I could get it done today instead of tomorrow.. Why are they asking this? No, not because of the deadline, but because they don't feel like coming in tomorrow. SERIOUSLY! I mean really, you can actually say those words with a straight face and still respect yourself in the morning? Wow I really don't have what it takes to be a manager then.

I am quite proud of myself, I took all those crazy pregnancy hormones and kept them inside and only responded with a "no, honestly I don't think I can rush the project to get it to you today instead of tomorrow, I'll try but I can't promise anything."

Honestly, I deserve a cookie for not strangling the person in question. It would have been within my professional rights to loose it, I am quite certain.

There was no way the project was getting done, the other person working on it hadn't finished their part when I left this evening. I don't feel bad at all.

Enough about work.

I got a desperate call from a dear friend this afternoon. Her 1 year old has been miserably ill with a stomach bug all week. Her husband managed to catch it as well, and while being ill, he put his back out. So all dear friend wants to do is go grocery shopping but she can't leave a (mostly better but still needy) baby with her invalid husband. So I stopped by after work to let her go grocery shopping and keep her husband from putting his back out even more. Everyone in the house is better, so there was no danger of me catching anything. The 1 year old of course was a total angel for me, because I am not mom, so none of the same needy behavior. It was a pleasure to go visit, we watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast, sang along then played with blocks.

January 5, 2011

Ahh, all caught up!
I am starting to get really sick of this cold rainy weather.
Enough said.

I guess there always has to be bright side, and the one to our crappy weather streak is that it has gone on long enough that people are now accustomed to driving on damp roads. The drive into work this morning wasn't nearly as bad as it has been the last few weeks. Mathew was up before me and made a nice breakfast so I was well fed, awake and had a decent drive.

Work had been slow, but now all the stuff that was behind schedule has finally been approved, on top of that a last minute needed to get this done 2 weeks ago project has popped up.. Oh joy. It's going to be a fun week.

Anatomy Scan and Choroid Plexus Cyst - January 4, 2011

Today was a big day.

At our 20 week anatomy scan, the sonographer found a cyst in our baby girl's brain.
A very scary thing to hear. It is a Choroid Plexus Cyst, which is common and not harmful in any way.
Unless, and of course there is an unless...
If the cyst presents with any other signs of genetic deformities (or soft markers as they are called in the medical articles) then the possibility of something called Trisomy 18. Trisomy 18 is similar to Downs Syndrome in the fact that is it an extra chromosome (#18 in fact) however it is particularly scary because this extra chromosome when present is not compatible with life.
Word to the wise, when your doctor tells you not to worry... Try your damnedest to listen. When you do run home and google whatever it is they found make sure to find a reputable medical reference and read all the way through.
The article I read started with an explanation of a CPC and it's loose association with Trisomy 18... Then in the very last paragraph it says... By itself a CPC is harmless.
Sheesh!
Anyways-- So we went in to the UCSD Fetal Care and Genetics department for the fancy scan to make absolutely certain there were no other soft markers. None found by the way. We are all very happy. Well except for my poor stomach. The Reuther genetics in our little girl are strong. She had found herself a comfortable position in utero and was not willing to move for anything. No amount of pushing and bouncing or repositioning was going to move her. So I feel slightly beat up after all that, but good to know she is comfortable.
So with a sigh of relief we went home and I promptly decided that I must have Thai food.
A nice Thai food dinner then we ended up falling asleep early.

January 3, 2011

Oh back to work today. How sad. Actually, I enjoy work, but the holidays were nice.
The weather today was NOT nice. The rain had, I thought stopped by the time I was driving in to work, but when you drive 30 miles you can never be sure. Th record time so far has been 1 hour 45 minutes driving in due to weather and related accidents on the freeway. Today wasn't that bad.

I ended up working late not by choice, I just looked up from my work and realized it was past 7pm. Dear husband called to check on me at 7:45pm which is when I actually got up from my desk and left.

Of course working that late and being pregnant meant I couldn't wait the 35 minute drive home to eat, so it was a Carls Jr night for both of us.

It bothers me that I have to pay almost double a burger/fries combo to get a burger and salad, but I know I felt better eating the salad.

Getting home that late screws with everything. No time for any housework, just one show on netflix while cuddling on the couch before bed. (hence why this is posted 2 days late)

January 2, 2011

A dear friend of mine is in possession of diaries belonging to her Great Grandmother. Aside from being insanely cool to see what daily life was like in 1910, it was an inspiration to her and then to a few others (myself included) to keep an account of daily life. We'll start with 30 days, see how far it goes.

Here is her transcription.

Just the basics, no need to put in huge insights on the world, just a humble account of my life and what is going on around me.

Here Goes:
January 2nd, 2011
I slept in today, it was very nice, but I think that having 2 long weekends in a row has done a number on my circadian rhythms. When I got up, hubs had been awake for a few hours but kindly (upon my request) made me breakfast. It was sunny out and I kept thinking, we should go for a walk this afternoon. Hubby and I played a little Star Trek Online. I know, nerdy to the max, but hey, I like it. :)

While we were playing, the little one started moving. She always moves mid-day, and of course as soon as Mathew tries to feel she stops. Though still an odd sensation, I do love to feel her move, it is a little reminder of "here I am mom". We took a break and I went through the box of so far accumulated baby stuff, we're getting a nice stash going of cloth diapers, hopefully we'll be all set by May when she arrives, lets hear it for saving money and the environment all in one.

When I finally decided it was time to go walk, of course it started raining. The dog was quite unhappy with the situation so the walk was only around the block. I can't believe the rain the last few weeks, it is very un-San Diego. Serves me right for waiting. Maybe that will be my resolution for 2011, when I feel like doing something I will do it, not wait until later. Of course, come May, we will have a baby who will likely have a say in our schedule, but we will see when she gets here.

We ended up taking a nap in the early evening, which left me up late reading once it was time to really go to bed... I have been reading pretty voraciously, I think I have made better use of Mathew's kindle than he has. I am in the middle of Laurel K Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Executioner series, so no, I am to reading aloud to baby... Once I finish this series I am moving back to the George R.R. Martin Song of Ice and Fire series, that one may be worthy of reading aloud.