Memorial Four-Day Weekend

Day 1 - Friday we went to the Shedd Aquarium to test out our new membership card. Ada immediately fell in love and was amazed by it all. The new baby beluga is pretty cool and Ada got really close to penguins and dolphins, among a million other underwater creatures. We decided an hour-and-a-half is the perfect amount of time to see what we can and get out before she gets hungry, tired, or just plain cranky--or I do. We'll have to schedule a special time to go see the water show and the 4-D movie feature, but that's why we have a membership.

Then it was out to LaGrange in traffic for a double stroller I found on Craig's List. It was a pain to get out there and back since traffic is always bad the Friday before a holiday weekend, but it was worth it to get that checked off the list. We had to be back in the city by four to see the Doctoress. I had hoped Ada would get a nap in while we were on our way out to get the stroller, but I was clearly mistaken. She finally fell asleep when we were twenty minutes from the Doctoress' office. At least she got some rest.

The Doctoress gave Ada Flownase thinking she might have seasonal allergies that are triggering her asthma. We had her blood drawn to test for allergies so we can avoid any triggers and stop assuming she's allergic to everything. (We found out today that she isn't allergic to anything they tested her for--mainly cats/dogs and seasonal allergies--which is good, but not aligning with her current diagnosis.) It turns out that we have a very rare child. She doesn't cry when you draw her blood or give her most shots, and she let's the Doctoress check her ears and nose without putting up a fight. She's just amazed by it all--causing great shock to all of the nurses. I think it helped that the nurse drawing her blood was awesome. She was calm, soft spoken, and friendly. She came in and asked for a happy vein. Then she asked if Ada would feed her "butterfly"--the needle has two blue "wings" to help her hold it in place. Ada was great and sat perfectly still while the butterfly snacked on her arm. I'll admit it was a moment of pure pride for Rick and I to watch our little rockstar in action.

We rounded out the day with dinner at a new, local burger bar that is environmentally friendly and offers grass-fed beef. I had my first veggie burger and it was delicious. All in all, not a bad start to the weekend.

Day 2 - Saturday didn't go so well. It started early when I smelled a gas leak in the basement as I was doing laundry and getting flower pots from the basement. The gas company found 3 leaks in the main line pipe and shut our building down completely until we got it fixed. That meant no hot water, and no cooking gas. Our building manager scrambled to get emergency pipe fitters to come fix it. She found some, they charged us time and a half and by 8 pm we had hot water. Still no cooking gas--that didn't come back until Tuesday morning (3 days later) when they could inspect each unit in our building to be sure the stoves were working properly. I spent a lot of the weekend getting in touch with our neighbors, who were mostly out of town, to try to get spare keys to allow us in to inspect their units, and to keep them informed of the situation. Not fun, but at least the building didn't blow up.

Before we knew the extent of the gas leak, Rick and I got to sneak out for BB's 36 week ultrasound. He's in position with his head down, just as the Doctoress thought, and all looks good. They think he's 7 lbs at this point, but who knows how accurate that is. And he's still growing so if we get to 8 lbs, I can handle that. It was nice to get the ultrasound out of the way early in the weekend as that always makes me a little bit anxious in case they see something and rush me off for more testing or something even more dramatic like you see on TV. No drama for this momma.

To make things interesting, this was a home improvement weekend. Grandma Ba was in charge of planting flowers in the pots on the porch with Ada while Rick and his dad were going to replace the air conditioner over the back door. When I think air conditioner replacement, I think "Pull out the old, put in the new, plug it in and turn it on." Easy, right? No. That is clearly not how this works. "Pull out the old one" took the majority of the day since we enlisted an Architect and an Engineer and they just don't jump into anything without figuring out how it works first. I respect that. But I sure didn't have the patience for it. They worked on that while Ada was entertained by her Great Granny, Great Aunt Terri and Grandma Ba, who all came in to cook out and enjoy a Memorial Day BBQ. Good thing they brought the food and we were able to grill because the stove wasn't going to do us any good. Grandma Ba and Ada had much more success with their plants and the addition of an herb garden to the baskets on our porch railing. Ada even has her own mini garden that is already starting to sprout. Now I just have to remember to water it all.

Day 3 - Sunday started with my imagined hope that the air conditioner project would magically become fast and easy, and ended with a reality check that we really should have just paid someone else to do it so Rick could have enjoyed some time off and we could have spent some quality family time together. Hindsight is 20/20. He ended up spending the day re-framing the space above the back door to hold the new, bigger, and surely better since the other one didn't work at all, air conditioning unit. I spent the morning making pancakes on the electric griddle and being thankful for having a microwave when the stove has no gas.

Sunday's high note was a BBQ with friends down the street. I gave Ada a bath right before we went since she was covered in dirt from playing on the porch and in the parking lot behind our place. I knew they would have a baby pool out at the BBQ but I wasn't sure how Ada would react and we were already running late so I opted for a dress and regular diaper instead of a swimsuit and swim diaper. At least I was thinking and had her wear water friendly Crocs instead of fancy shoes. In my defense, it took her a good hour to decide she wanted to get into the pool and when she did, there was no hesitation and little warning that she was going "all in". Now I know what diapers look like when they get dunked. Wow. Thankfully I had a change of clothes and extra diapers on hand. After finding a stopping point and cleaning up a bit, Rick arrived in time to clean up the leftovers and have a couple, much deserved, beers.

Day 4 - Monday's plans all went down the drain. Rick continued re-framing the space over the door -- we could charge admission to see this thing now it is so beautiful. We were supposed to have brunch with friends who spent the weekend moving to thier new condo, but knew that was unlikly since, well, they were moving and that throws all plans out the window. Then we could have marched in the annual WOOGAMS parade --a neighborhood parade that's been around for almost 50 years now, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as it started and I wasn't up for getting wet or hit by lightening. I decided to sit on the porch with Ada to have a light lunch and watch the storm blow by. Rick just kept working. That afternoon, when trying to find something local to have for a late lunch, Rick realized that most restaurants near us aren't open on Memorial Day so we ended up with soup from the Soup Box. By 4 pm, Rick was still working on the air conditioner project and it was time to go sell our single stroller to some friends and meet their newborn. We made a quick trip to the grocery store after that for the bare necessities and then went to dinner which turned into the longest experience we've ever had in entertaining Ada until the food came. It wasn't the night to be slow with our meal and Rick, Mr. Patience, was about to lose it. Luckily, Ada was a trooper and was easily entertained by his animal drawings on a lime green Post-it Note I had tucked into my purse. We made it home in time to put Ada to bed, put me to bed, and finally, at 11 pm, Rick turned off the drill and crawled into bed as well. The framing was finally done.

Tuesday, we ignored the air conditioner and took a night off. I cooked myself dinner on the stove and Rick played a little volleyball with friends. It was so nice.

Wednesday night, Rick caulked the air conditioner case into it's new home and suckered two strong neighbors to help him hoist the new unit into place, which took less than three minutes and it fit perfectly, of course. Then he did some final screwing and assembled the actual air conditioner front and insides.

But wait, we're not done yet.

Friday, the electrician is scheduled to come in and upgrade the outlet to a 15amp/230volt so we can plug it in. Oh yes, this is a powerful unit and needs it's own, special outlet. Chances are that this new outlet will cost a few hundred dollars -- hopefully not more than the air conditioner itself, but we'll see about that--and will involve the demolition of a portion of the wall in our kitchen. Can I just tell you how excited I am about the prospect of Rick having to re-drywall a section of our kitchen when I'm due to have his second child in three weeks or less? And home improvement projects in general? Needless to say, we won't ever be buying a "fixer upper", and I'll be getting a quote from a professional from this point forward on any projects we think we can handle ourselves. I'm much more motivated to find ways to save money so we can afford to pay professionals to get the job done. I think this is similar to the point you get after moving a few times when you finally say, "Next time, we're hiring movers."

Moral of the story: Home improvement projects are easy to underestimate. Do your best to know what you are getting into, and hire a professional if this isn't your favorite pasttime.

The Compact...hmmm...

So Rick had to make some purchases, which normally fall under his category of things to buy since he is in charge of the computer and all things electronic in the house. But I'm in charge of most things photographic including printing photos of Ada, creating photo albums, and organizing and archiving our photos.

To cut to the chase, he had to buy printer cartridges because we ran out of time while trying to get Ada's valentines into the mail. They will still be late by a day or so, but closer to the 14th than they would have otherwise. And why so much drama? The Compact.

You see, instead of sending Christmas cards each year, I've started the tradition of sending a Valentine's day card from Ada to some of our closest friends. Last year I had 100 copies of a photo we took of her at the lakefront copied and I made valentines frantically to send out. Knowing we would keep up the tradition again this year, we discussed how to go about such an undertaking while respecting The Compact. We considered having Snapfish print and send the cards, but Rick would have to make that purchase since I'm "not allowed" to buy things that are new and unnecessary, and it would be costly. Creating more waste defeats the purpose of The Compact so I instead wanted to use up supplies we already had in order to make this project more "Compact friendly". The solution was to do it all ourselves and instead of ordering photos from a chain drugstore or Snapfish, we'd print them on our home printer and reduce our mailing list. The list dropped from about a hundred to less than forty. We then incorporated an email version for friends who aren't big "photo people" or who have Internet access and can get the sentiment and print the photo, or make it their computer monitor's wallpaper, if they like.

To achieve this feat of printing the photos on our home printer, we had to get new ink cartridges since ours were dead and Rick didn't have time to reload them with our refill kit we have in the basement(which we may have already refilled them to death anyway), nor did he have time to stop at the cartridge recycle store a few blocks away since he's been working late. So again, we had to compromise, but do so with good intentions. We now have the old cartridges to refill and can use the new ones as back ups to refill and alternate so we always have some available. That's the theory anyway. Or we'll take them to the recycle place next time around.

Unfortunately, after printing most of the photos, the last 2 pages didn't print properly because, after spending $31 on ink for the printer, the color couldn't last beyond 11 full-color photo pages and lost it's luster on pages 12 and 13. Knowing that we still had 6 valentine's to stuff with a photo of our little angel, I received a photo coupon for a free 8 1/2 x 11 from Walgreen's today and bit the bullet to purchase 2 pages of photos so we'd have the six images we needed. I only spent $4, and technically it breaks The Compact, but... it's also technically an errand I did for Rick since I put this all on his plate two weeks ago and he just ran out of time. As it turns out, we didn't even use one of the sheets yet...the one I actually paid for...so it's an "extra".

We did, amazingly, only have to buy stamps to complete the rest of the mailing. It just so happens that I have a huge supply of heart stickers from years ago when my mom must have been doing a mailing for work or something. And my mother-in-law came to make valentines with Ada and just happened to leave us the "extra" cards and envelopes, which we exhausted for the mailing. I used returned mailing labels we keep getting from various charities, and hand labeled the envelopes myself.

Talk about The Compact changing my thought process and increasing my awareness of what I purchase. Whew!

In all of this, I've also justified the purchase of the new printer cartridges as a "necessity" for work since I use the printer when working from home. And even though Rick bought them, I still feel guilty for not planning ahead further so that we had more time to get them recycled from the ink cartridge store, or refilled them from our kit downstairs. I'm also feeling bad since I asked Rick to purchase some DVD's to backup our computer files, mainly photos of Ada, so that we can store them in a secondary location and be able to recreate my work files and condo association records. Again, something I "needed" for work, something Rick purchased, with my final justification being that by using DVDs that we didn't have instead of CDs that we did have, I can use less because they store more data, again making better use of the resources we have available to us.

Does your brain hurt yet? Because I'm exhausted just from thinking about it.

I also must admit to buying gift cards for two friends having babies in the next month since I bought them from a baby store. I didn't buy them gifts, and the gift cards could be used to buy cloth diapers or environmentally friendly toys or laundry soap, but that's less than realistic. I did buy them in conjunction with other friends as "group gifts" if that gets me any points, and I encouraged the "groups" to support a local baby store instead of going to Target--part of the whole "buy local" idea. So if we are keeping track, $10 goes toward one friend, and about $17 goes toward my portion for another friend. Keep in mind that they also may be used to buy nursing bras which would fall under the "necessity" category of The Compact as I interpret it. (I'm all about the technicalities.)

And I also bought a gift card for a local ice cream shop for a friend's son who just turned five. It's local, it's food, and it encourages him to enjoy a treat with his parents and new baby sister-to-be. How's that for a trifecta? Not to mention the homemade card Ada and I made for him tonight from our stash of leftover cards, envelopes, and stamping supplies. Entertainment all around.

Poor Ada must feel like she lives in an art studio or a sweatshop with all of the cards we've been cranking out of here. I'm not sure which but she sure seems to be enjoying it so far and I'm getting a tiny bit more storage space from the supplies we are using up.

Moral of the story: The Compact will make you think harder about how your actions affect the world around. Just know your head might hurt as a result of too much thinking after awhile.

Dreamy Bubble Bath...

Ever need to relax and draw a nice, warm bath?

You crawl in and adjust the water to stop scorching your skin. Pull back the shower curtain for some privacy in case someone walks in accidentally.

That's what I did just the other night. I got the flu and wasn't feeling very good so I thought a bath would improve my situation.

I got the water just right. Got settled with my makeshift pillow to keep my ears above water (Ada's rubber duck upside down works great). Quiet house. Ahhhh!

Sniff. Sniff. What the hell is that smell?

Ug! The diaper pail is 6 inches from my nose and rank nasty full of dirty cloth diapers. Gross!

I tried my best to picture myself on a beach somewhere warm with an umbrella drink in my hand, but after about 3 minutes, it just wasn't worth it. I got out, dried off, dressed, and did the laundry. Talk about calling Cinderella back from her elegant ball. I didn't even get to enjoy the bath at all. At least I'm clean and the diapers are clean. There is that.

The down and dirty of cloth diapers - update

So as you may have read, we are doing cloth diapers. 14 months later we are STILL doing cloth diapers. I will admit that we have been relying a bit more on disposables when we travel and when Ada has the runs because it's just easier.

There are a lot of positives --saving the environment, less cost overall, not ripping the sticky tabs off when you try to fasten the diaper, less diaper rash, less leaks, not having to use two disposables at night, and knowing that I don't have to go to the store to buy diapers every five seconds.

And a few negatives -- rinsing the diapers, washing the diapers, doing all of the diaper laundry, the vile smell of the diaper pail, having to buy several diaper pails to figure out what worked best for us (1 foot high flip lid garbage pails and we still aren't extremely happy with them) -- which could all be solved if we had a diaper service. But that would negate the whole cost savings thing...

So, we're still washing, rinsing, changing, drying, fastening, and for the most part, making cloth diapers work.

That's the update.

Swish and Spin - Poopy Cloth Diapers

Until now, Ada's diapers haven't been all that nasty. But recently, she started solids. Which means she also started pooping solids. And since we use cloth diapers, that changes things a bit. We're trying to adjust and I'm sure it will be a bit of a process. It seems to be going well so far.

The good news: Breastfed babies don't poop a lot. Some poop everyday, some poop once a week. It isn't like they poop in every diaper all day long and you won't be relegated to the bathroom to clean poopy diapers every five minutes.

The bad news: Poopy diapers stink. And you have to rinse them out before you wash them in the laundry machine - unless you use a diaper service, but even then you should at least remove the majority of your baby's handy work.

The solution: We've decided to change the poopy diaper, take it to the toilet, swish it around, flush the solid material while we hold the diaper in the water, then rinse the diaper in the sink and put it into the diaper pail. Since the diaper pail is smelling more funky than ever before, we're attempting to use a "wet pail" instead of a "dry pail" meaning that we fill the pail with water and let the diapers soak in it until it is time to wash them - which is about every other day. This is supposed to cut the acid of the urine and contain the funky smell a bit. If you have a top loading washer, you can dump the water in with the diapers when you do the wash. I have a front loading machine so I can either drain it in the tub and pull out some rubber gloves to transfer it to the machine, or I can run downstairs and wash them in the coin machine. Not pleasant but I'm doing what I can to save money and the environment.

I'm also going to try out the cloth wipes for when she has a poopy diaper. I think they will be easy to use and I can throw them into the "wet pail" with the diapers instead of throwing them into the garbage can and having to take the garbage out every time she poops.

Another tip -- we tend to use disposable diapers when we travel since we already have to take a gazillion things with us when we travel with the baby. Otherwise you have to take the diapers, covers, wipes, and a bag to transport all of the dirty diapers back home with you, and you may have to do laundry while you are out and about. We've done it both ways but find that for convience it is a bit less bulk to use disposables. That and I fear having to swish and spin in a public toilet.

Moral of the story: Cloth diapers are a bit more work and a bit more disgusting, unless you have a diaper service, but it really isn't that bad. You have to deal with the poop either way so just take a deep breath and try not to breath -- or be mature like me and yell "not it" as soon as you smell the baby bomb, then pass her off to your husband.

Ten things potential parents should know...

Babies need a lot of stuff – no really. A lot. Like a crazy lot, a lot.

Babies are expensive – no really. Really expensive. They go through clothes every five minutes. And diapers, my oh my how they go through diapers! And wipes!


Day care is really expensive – ridiculously so. And nannies aren’t any better.

Sex is never the same – unless you currently worry about constantly being interrupted by a screaming baby. Even then, no.

Laundry never stops. As soon as you get everything clean, the baby will pee, poop or spit up on whatever they are wearing.

Hospitals charge an insane amount of money to deliver your baby. Even if you have the baby “au natural”.

Giving birth involves a lot of gross bodily fluids. A lot. Like a crazy lot, a lot. It is not for the squeamish.

New Mom’s have their very own type of Tendonitis that appears in your wrist called “De Quervain's Tendonitis” from lifting the baby repeatedly. It goes away when your baby turns 3 –ish. You can expect mild discomfort for years.

Babies cry. A lot. They completely depend on you all the time.

Being a parent is the coolest thing ever and worth all the crap you have to go through to make it work.

A Day in the Life of Ada’s Wardrobe

It’s May 4, 2008.
6:30 am
Ada wakes up wearing a plain white onsie under her pajamas which I think resemble something Moses would wear back in the day, only pink with butterflies. Rick changes her into her first outfit for the day – a white onsie with grey and pink stripped pants, white socks.

8 am
She and mom were hanging out on the couch, having breakfast and threw up on Mom’s teal shirt (Mom shirt #1) and herself. Outfit #2 for the day - Elephant onsie with blue pants, same white socks.

9:30 am
Ada threw up all over. It’s time for a shower. Dad got started, Mom passed Ada to Dad but before the hand off could happen, Baby pooped on Mom’s teal tank top (Mom shirt #2) and black shorts (Mom pants #1). While in the shower, she threw up on Dad. Mom towels her off, diapers her up and puts her in a onsie for her nap.

11 am
Jon, Dani and Eli arrive from Milwaukee and are ready for lunch. Ada finishes up her nap and Dad dresses her in Outfit #3 for the day – a white onsie and green pooh top and pants, with white trumpette brand socks that look like mary janes. We pack her up and add her giraffe sun hat.

We enjoy a meal outside in the sun and decide to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo. But Ada needs something a bit heavier so we can carry her in the baby bjorn. Amazingly the green pooh top and pants stayed clean while she was in them.

1 pm
We’re ready for the zoo. Outfit #4 - light pink fleece jogging suit over her onsie and her giraffe sun hat. We made it the entire trip with just a bunch of drool on the burp cloth.

4:30 pm
We’re home and ready to go to a new mom group once we change out of our hot fleece jogging suit and into something a bit cooler. On to Outfit #5- we keep the white onsie and switch back to the grey and pink stripped pants (with a tiny spot of throw up on them but who cares.)

4:45 pm
Soil diaper cover with mass explosion but save the stripped pants, onsie and socks.

5 pm
Arrive at Liz’s house, and Mom notices something wet as she carries Ada into meet the new moms. Ada pooped and peed through her diaper cover and pants as we walked in. Entire outfit annihilated. Got changed into Outfit #6 - Cupcake onsie and pink pants.

5:10 pm
Throw up all over. Hit Mom’s brown Threadless t-shirt (Mom shirt #3). Mom strips down to her brown long sleeve shirt and wipes Ada up.

5:25 pm
Ada spits up on her burp cloth and outfit.

5:40 pm
Repeat.

5:55 pm
Repeat.

6:15 pm
Repeat.

6:35 pm
Repeat.

6:45 pm
Repeat. Mom gives up with slobber on the shoulder of her brown long sleeve shirt (Mom shirt #4). Thanks other moms and says it was nice to meet them all – yes, for the first time! Nothing like a whole bunch of spit up on you to make a good first impression.

7 pm
Arrived home and Ada threw up again, this time on Daddy (Dad shirt #1). Changed into pajamas (Outfit #7), and proceeded to throw up on them by the time mom walked from baby’s room to the kitchen to say hi to Daddy.

Total wardrobe ready for washing:
Pants: Pink Striped, Light Blue, Pink Solid
Onsies: White, Elephant, White, Cupcake
Burp cloths: too many to count
Mom’s: Teal Shirt, Teal Tank Top, Black Shorts, Brown Shirt, Brown Long Sleeve Shirt
Dad’s: Green Shirt
Diaper Covers: Pink, Royal Blue, Flowers, Light Blue
Socks: Surprisingly none. Normally they get covered in poop during diaper changes. This was the miracle of the day.

Moral of the story: Spit happens, poop happens, pee happens and all you can do about it is laundry, more laundry, laugh and giggle.

Cloth Diapers - note

So my friend Amanda just told me about another friend she has who started a cloth diaper website http://www.babycottonbottoms.com/. They have Thirsties diaper covers as a top selling item too.

I also wanted to add that you really do need to wash your cloth diapers 4 or 5 times before you use them to get them to be absorbent. It doesn't really make sense to me why but Rick and I forgot to wash the next size up that we have and started using them after about one or two washes. Boy were we in for it. Ada leaked all over the place because the pee just pooled on the diaper. Now that we've washed them, all is well with the world again.

And you do have to get used to folding the diapers and finagling them into the covers. It might take a little extra time but is well worth the effort.

Good luck to those other parents who join forces with me in saving the world one cloth diaper at a time.

Advice - Baby Clothes

To all of you who love to shop for baby clothes, here are a few practical tips from a mom.



Try to get things on sale or clearance since 1) you don't know how long it will last 2) babies stain things 3) you can buy more for the same amount of money 4) the baby might not even fit into it during the season it is made for.



Don't buy clothes with buttons, snaps or other decorative stuff (i.e. crap) up the back because baby spends most of their time laying on her back and that would not be comfy --it follows that whole do unto babies as you would have done unto you. Which leads me to my next point.



Get the kid some pants. I have a million onsies and three pair of pants, none of them that match more than one onsie. I default to one pair of pants all the time, which rarely match and frequently are in the wash. And baby's legs get cold.



Outfits that zip from heal to chin with footies are awesome. They may not be the most fashionable thing out there but if mom or dad is taking baby to the doctor, this is the outfit of choice. The doctor's office makes you undress the baby, re-dress the baby, and you may have to change the baby again while you're there so it just makes life easier for everyone. Especially when they are crying after getting their vaccines.



Pajamas with the hand covers for baby's first few weeks and months are great. Their fingernails are sharp and it makes mom feel awful when she notices they have a giant mark of Zorro (or the Harry Potter lightening bolt for generation Yers) on their forehead from a stray figernail gone wild in the middle of the night.



The soft and fluffy fleece blankets from Target that are 100% polyester suck. Don't waste your time with them because they pill up like crazy when you wash them and quickly become the crappiest blanket on the block. Not cool.



Sunhats and sunglasses often get overlooked on the baby shower list but would come in really handy - even in winter. And so would music for baby - but I digress as that is a whole different entry. A mom can never have enough burp cloths, wash cloths, baby socks and believe it or not baby blankets.



And if a mom has decided on cloth diapers, she'll need clothes with extra length as the diaper takes up a bit more room. When it doubt, buy bigger as babies tend to grow into things and the sizing on most baby clothes completely lies.



Moral of the story: Shopping for baby is tougher than it appears, look for ease of dressing and undressing in addition to cuteness, and avoid the crappy fleece blankets so your gifts don't suck.

Never Enough Momma Clothes

As a new mom, I've quickly learned what everyone means by saying that "you can never have too many baby clothes". With the way we've been doing laundry, that is surely the case. However they typically fail to mention that I can never have to many mommy or daddy clothes either.

When I heard "babies spit up, it's normal". I didn't really associate that with being all over me and her dad all the time. And I mean ALL of the time. I have this running joke with day care now that we are going to statistically prove that Ada throws up on me more than any other mother (as in every time I pick her up at the end of the day). I never go home with a clean shoulder. And it wouldn't be so bad but for the laundry. The first time she threw up on me at day care, I was wearing a black jacket that has a thin layer of quilted stuffing to provide a little warmth. She goobered on my shoulder and I thought nothing of it, wiped it off and went on my merry way. The next day I went to pick my husband up from work to run to the grocery store before picking Ada up from day care. The weather was still a bit chilly so I put on my black jacket. Everything was fine until I got into the car and turned on the heat a bit. By the time I got to his office I had the windows down and was trying to keep myself from puking. Being that the spit up was on my shoulder and a day old, it was right in my face and stinky. Every time I looked over to talk to my husband, the smell would overwhelm me and I would start to gag. Needless to say, we made that trip to the store and day care as short as possible. And when we got to day care, she threw up on the other shoulder - of course.

The next week, since my black coat was in the laundry and the weather was a bit warmer, I decided to wear a teal rain coat. Again, throw up on my shoulder. The following day, I opted to go coat less. I thought I could trick her into not throwing up on my coat since I wasn't wearing one. Unfortunately I was wearing one of my favorite t-shirts from threadless. It has a refrigerator running on it. Somehow I had forgotten that the stats for this t-shirt were even worse than for my coats. She threw up on it on the way home from Easter - about half-an-hour in during a five hour car ride. That was pleasant. And she had thrown up on it four other times in the four weeks that I had owned it. My husband had even taken the time to pre-treat the stains in an attempt to get the goober remnants to go away, with some luck, knowing that this was my new favorite shirt.

So here I am, at day care, holding Ada while wearing my favorite t-shirt and of course, she throws up. But not only on my shoulder this time. This time she has managed to get my shoulder and create a spit-up river down the front of my entire shirt. As I just chuckle, one of the day care assistants tries to wipe it off with a burp cloth and finally just hands it to me since my entire left boob is covered in regurgitated breastmilk. Nice. I'm going to have to teach Ada somehow that I don't want the breastmilk back. At all. Ever. Not on my coat, not on my refrigerator, not on my floor, not on my front door. Not with a hat or a cat, or a cat in a hat, or any other shape or form. I don't want it back.

Moral of the story: Babies really do spit up a lot, you can NEVER have enough burp cloths when you need them, and it might be smart to travel with a backup mommy and daddy outfit too.

12 Laundry, Remodeling, & Relatives Oh My!

It's been awhile since I've posted so here's the latest.

I mentioned babies soil things quickly so you do a lot of laundry as a mom. Hence the reason we decided to add a washer/dryer to our bedroom closet.

I must say that the thing is frigging AWESOME... But it has been insanely disruptive to remodel. Having a small home to begin with, space is important to us. We have been living out of the baby's closet for two months now. Oh yes, this process took two months. My fabulous husband has given up several weekends of his time, hours that could have been spent playing with the baby, and he even slept on the living room floor(see above) for a week so I could have the couch as we waited to clean our drywall-dust-covered bedroom. It has not been easy.

A huge thanks goes out to our families and friends for all of their help during this crazy time. Our friends from back home came to demo the wall, my brother-in-law and his girlfriend came the day I got diagnosed with strep throat to help re-drywall and babysit, my mother has come to help clean and bring some sense of order to the house, and my fantastic friends have come to entertain me, fold laundry, babysit, and just hang out without freaking out about the fact that my home looks like it was recently ransacked by a wild boar. Rick's parents plan to come in and help us re-assemble our home this weekend and I look forward to having a sense of normalcy back into my life.

My entry today has a little less bite than usual as I am recovering not only from strep throat, but the baby has a sinus infection and we chose this week to try the "cry it out" method -which I might add is working very well. I'm getting a good deal of sleep, for which I am very thankful, but I've also decided that this is the week that my maternity leave is officially over and I've launched my own marketing consulting firm - AY Marketing. I'm hoping to have my first client on board in the next week or so and I am actively seeking additional clients so feel free to pass my name on.

At least my schedule has been easy this week as far as appointments go. Ada is doing well in day care and between walks with neighbors and the fact that I have a 16 1/2 lb 4 month old, I get quite a good workout without even trying.

Moral of the story: Build a strong network of friends and family to help you through all that gets thrown your way, avoid remodeling, and try not to bite off more that you can chew as you only live for so long.

08 Rant Renovation

It is widely known that renovation is never easy. So why my husband and I thought it would be a quick and easy project to install a washer/dryer combo unit in our bedroom closet is beyond me. Way beyond me.

This all started when we had Ada and realized, (insert light bulb here), that babies soil everything they touch and thereby increase your amount of laundry dramatically. And to compound the issue, we’re trying to save money and the environment by using cloth diapers(see 07 Advice). So having one baby equals three or four additional loads of laundry each week for us.

My whole reasoning for even putting a washer dryer in our condo unit is that it is better for resale, we’ll get the investment back when we sell our place, and it will be more convenient not having to walk out the back door, down a flight of stairs, unlock the basement door and lug the laundry to the coin machines. My real breaking point was when one washer and one dryer out of the four machines downstairs decided to not work properly but to continue eating my hard earned quarters. Five quarters per load to be exact, then five more for the dryer.

I hit my breaking point quickly. Ada was born mid-December and I made it to Valentine’s Day-- almost two whole months mind you. I researched different machines online and went with an LG WM3431HW that we purchased from Compact Appliance. It’s an expensive piece of equipment, $1,300 after free shipping and the romantic holiday sale. It arrived just three days later, and has since been a conversation piece in our living room and then a night stand draped in plastic in our bedroom.

Our first mistake was to assume we could install hookups in our closet by sprinkling fairy dust in our bedroom. Turns out that in reality it took our friend Martin and my husband a day to bump out the closet wall six inches, several nights of re-mudding the drywall, half a day for the electrician, and a day and a half for the plumber, not to mention all the time it will take my wonderful husband to re-drywall, mud, sand, paint and re-install the closet organization system.

An inch of drywall dust later, (unfortunately they were out of fairy dust), we might have a running washer/dryer Tuesday evening, April 8th. Yes, that is just shy of two months later. Why? Because we thought our friend could do the plumbing, but it turned out to be way too complicated with a cast iron stack in the basement and no access to a vent pipe. Then we made the mistake of believing our plumber when he said he’d get us a quote. After three weeks of nagging him, the quote was $2,500! Ticked off from all that drama we called plumber #2 and he stopped by that day, quoted it on the spot, and is starting one week later for $700 less. Still way more than we expected but what can we do?

So that is the background to the story. Let’s zoom in on the day Plumber #2 came to visit.

April Fool’s Day started out well. Rick called to say that the plumber would be calling sometime today and maybe stop by to give us a quote. Awesome! Finally a responsive plumber. I was still in my pajamas feeding Ada when the plumber, Chuck, called. Mind you this was already my second pair of pajamas since Ada woke up this morning and threw up on me, down my cleavage and all over my pants at her first feeding.

Chuck said he’d come over at 11 to take a look. Fabulous! It’s 10 am and Ada is a bit fussy. I get the wise idea of taking a quick shower before Chuck arrives so I feel human and don’t smell like barf. I put Ada in her bouncy seat --which has no bounce as the batteries are dead and Rick hasn’t had a chance to change them and I don’t have four hands or a clone to do it either. I set it in front of the bathroom door as gather clothes to wear and undress for my shower. She starts screaming the instant I’m naked. Thank goodness I’ve got the blinds closed throughout the house as I now have to pick her up, walk to her room and nurse while naked. A few minutes later we try again. She’s still fussing in her bouncy seat and I jump in the shower. I have fifteen minutes until he gets here and can get ready in three so this is good.

I’m showering when, of course, the phone rings. I quickly shut off the water, grab my towel, run on tip toes past the screaming baby to the kitchen to get the phone, but it’s in the living room. We have 1,000 square feet of condo, two cordless phones and a wall phone and they are all in the living room. What are the chances of that? So I run on tip toes to the living room, soaking the floor along the way. “Amanda, it’s Chuck. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.” “Great. See you then.” I go back to the bathroom, towel off and jump into my clothes while singing to Ada to calm her down. I’m mopping up all of the water I’ve strewn through our condo when the buzzer sounds. It’s been five minutes and he’s here. Ada is fussing as I let him in. I grab her and introduce her as our family mascot. While she screams, I show him the closet.
“Oh, this isn’t good. That’s a problem. Is there a unit below you?” he asks.
“Nope. It’s the basement.” I reply.
“Okay. That’s good. Can I see it?”
“Yep.”

With Ada under my arm, I grab the key and head downstairs.
“Oh, this is better than I thought. If you were on a higher floor this wouldn’t work.”
He proceeds to tell me how he can do it and quotes it out. I thank him and we head out of the basement. Again with Ada in my arms I fumble with the MasterLock for a minute and finally get it to click, no thanks to him.

Back inside he checks out the closet again.
“I’ll have to make a new hole in the wall since the electrical is in the way.”
I laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“When the original plumber came to give us a quote, the electrician was here and I asked that question specifically and he told me it wouldn’t be a problem. I work with engineers and married an architect so I understand the whole coordinating projects and tried to prevent this. Oh well. It’s just drywall. Rick can fix that.”
“Okay, so we’ll cut the back wall open and put in a vent pipe at 48 inches.”
“Sounds great.” I reply.
He leaves and I call Rick to relay the message. We agree to go ahead with the project.

After calling the plumber to give him the go ahead, I hear a strange thumping noise. I thought maybe it was cell phone interference with the computer speakers but they were turned off. After a few minutes I decide to investigate. Then it dawns on me. As I enter our bedroom I realized that I had tried to put Ada in her swing before I sat her in her bouncy seat. She didn’t care for the swing so I folded it up and put it in our bedroom. I assumed the batteries were dead since it never seemed to swing on its own. To my surprise, there it was, folded up against the bedroom wall and rhythmically knocking it. How about that. The batteries do work!

Now it’s time for lunch. Ada nurses for a bit then goes down for a mini nap. I heat up a baked potato. As soon as the microwave goes off saying it’s done, she wakes up screaming. Hold on potato, I’ll be back. I get her back to sleep long enough to reheat the potato, add cheese, bacon and just as I’m adding the sour cream, she starts screaming again. Will I ever get to eat? I put her back on the boob and eat with my magical mom skills (aka the mysterious third hand).

In all of the chaos of the day, I decided to use a digital microphone to record this crazy line of events so I could blog it. To do so, I needed to get the batteries from the closet under the stair and to top things off, I hit my head on the low ceiling.

Moral of the story: Don’t remodel and think twice before procreating.