Microblog Mondays: Almost over

Back in June I declared myself ready for the election to be over. It could have something to do with being in my third trimester and already not being able to deal with the negativity of the Trump campaign. Fast forward to today. I voted early- almost two weeks ago and it was an easy vote for me.* Hillary has the experience, the temperament, and will work on issues that I care about. Like Louie C.K. said recently on Conan, Hillary is a mom and moms get sh*t done (paraphrased).

I am looking forward to tomorrow so that hopefully Donald Trump and his laughingstock of failed businesses will fade into oblivion.

I plan on rocking a pantsuit to work tomorrow and with any luck, celebrating the amazing (and overdue) accomplishment of our first female President of the United States tomorrow night. A friend recently added me to the Facebook group "Pantsuit Nation" and with over 1,700,000 members and tons of inspiring stories about why people are voting for Hillary, I am energized and ready for her to win!

#nastywomenvote. #imwithher

Want to read more Microblog Mondays? Go here.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Halloween

Leading up to Halloween Izzy was pretty excited. First things first, we made a Monster door with colored paper and ghosts to hang in our front yard (styrofoam heads, big button eyes, sticks for arms, and cheese cloth).

Izzy was pretty excited to pick out colorful buttons for the ghosts' eyes

Carving pumpkins went slightly better than last year. Izzy was more helpful in scooping out seeds, although she didn't like the slimy texture. 

Sorry for the bathroom picture but it is the only room in our house without light and it was sunny when we carved the pumpkins!

Finally it was the big day!

Ready to head out for candy

The last two years Halloween has either been snowing or freezing rain, so it was fantastic to finally have a nice night to trick or treat on Monday! I asked Izzy 5 different times what she wanted to be for Halloween and every time she answered it was "Superman." I even asked if she wanted to be Supergirl, but her answer was "No Mommy- Superman." Okay kiddo. I'm just excited that she didn't want to be a princess!

Meanwhile, Wes didn't have a say in his costume and Izzy's first Halloween costume wouldn't fit him, so he was a caterpillar. He wasn't a huge fan of the hat but was a good sport about being rolled around in the stroller.

Really Mom?

We walked around our neighborhood with a friend from Izzy's daycare and the kids did a pretty good job of saying "trick or treat" and "thank you"- sometimes with reminders, sometimes without reminders. Izzy had a good time running between houses and after getting candy would walk down the driveway and say "I want to go to the next house." Eventually, the kids got tuckered out from all of the running and excitement so we headed home.

Izzy with her stash

Overall, a successful Halloween. Now onto Thanksgiving and Izzy's birthday!

Friday bullets

I keep wanting to sit down to write but I simply don't seem to have the time so I'm going to have to do bullets.

*My hair has started to fall out. With Izzy it was right around the 4 month mark so it's a bit earlier but so far it's not too bad. What's funny is it is the same hair (so far) that fell out with Izzy because they are all shorter hairs that I am finding. I guess it's better than if a different part of my head decided to fall out. I'm not looking forward to the next year or so of wispies.

*Against my better judgment I got in a political conversation with the woman that does my Brazilian wax (I had a "I voted" sticker on). She is from Poland (still has an accent), as is her husband. I don't understand women that vote for Trump but realized pretty shortly into the conversation that she was going to vote for him. This is quite the generalization, but I do think that it is so weird how people who WERE immigrants are so close-minded to other immigrants coming into the country (she mentioned her worries about illegal immigrants). She was very worried about property taxes and only paying her share of what she owes. She only has one kid in the school system and thinks that she should pay less in property taxes towards schools and that her neighbor should pay more because she has three kids. I said that even though I don't have any kids in the school system, I'm okay with paying for schools with my property taxes because people are more productive when they get a good education. It's for the betterment of society. She was then complaining about people that "game" the system and get so much from the government, how she should just sit at home collecting welfare with five kids. Lastly she finished up the conversation with complaining about people with nice cars getting food at the food bank (she has a friend that volunteers). I did my best to not respond too much since we clearly have quite different opinions, but one thing that struck me was why are you so concerned about other people and what they do/do not get? Yes there are a few people that game the system but "welfare queens" are a myth. Maybe the person with a nice car just lost their job and is having a hard time making ends meet? You never know what is going on with that person. I left knowing that if politics comes up again with her I will quickly
change the subject.

*I voted early yesterday and I was excited to cast my ballot for the first female president. #nastywomenvote

*This year I asked Izzy what she wanted to be for Halloween about five times throughout the month. Every time I asked she said Superman. Not Supergirl but Superman. Okay kiddo. I would love it if you wanted to be an animal, but I'm cool with it because you are not asking to be a princess. I have no idea how she knows about Superman other than maybe some kids in her class? Wes has no choice on what to be for Halloween so I got him a caterpillar costume and it's adorable.

Izzy as Superman "flying" before daycare this morning

Mom, this is what I think of your caterpillar hat.

*I've already had to drop down to two pumps a day at work because three (this doesn't count the pump I do before I leave for work) hurts my nipples and I simply don't have enough time to get my work done and pump three times. I think that with my use of the nipple shield and Izzy's poor latch due to her lip tie affected my supply more than I thought last time. I do remember freaking out a lot about whether I was making enough milk. I am making plenty of milk for Wes and the boob that was producing more milk last time (right boob) is getting outperformed by left boob this time around.

*Things are not going well with the house reno. We did all the design work and the contractor came back with an astronomical price to rehab our house. So now we have to go out to other contractors to figure out whether our original contractor is just smoking crack or whether we need to change our design. We are both really annoyed because WHY DIDN'T THEY SAY SOMETHING A WHILE AGO? They knew that we didn't want to go above a certain price, so it would have been nice to let us know that we were probably getting out of our range. *sigh*

*I'm so pumped that the Cubs are in the World Series! I can't afford to go to a game nor do I want to battle the crowds (some bars are charging $250 as a cover charge) in Wrigleyville, but it's just all so amazing! Fingers crossed we can win the next three games and win here in Chicago!!

GO CUBBIES!!!!! FLY THE W!!!

CUBS!!

HOLY COW! THE CUBS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!

 

Rough Week

This has been a rough week. I dropped Wes off at daycare on Monday feeling terrible because we probably should have done a half day at daycare before dropping him off for an almost 11 hour day. He did fine but I had tremendous guilt despite the fact that we did the same exact thing to Izzy when she was three months old. (She was our first so how were we to know?) CP left for Colombia early Monday morning so he hasn't been able to help at all. Izzy was excited to have Wes join her at daycare but a couple of times this week as I go to leave her in her classroom she has been crying and desperately clinging to me. Hopefully it gets better next week when her best friend re-joins the class.

I have had little to no time to relax this week which hasn't helped. My schedule is essentially this:

Wake up at 5 and shower if Wes is still sleeping (if not, nurse him then shower). Wake up Wes to change him, then nurse, then pump. Head downstairs to finish making breastmilk bottles from dishwasher, let Buster out and feed him, eat a banana. Back upstairs to wake Izzy up at 6:30 to help her get dressed and into the car hopefully a few minutes before 7. Drop off Buster and kids (separate daycares of course) and catch the train putting me into work almost 3.5 hours after getting up for the day. I run to the train after work pick up Buster and then grab the kids around 5:45. We get home and I have to heat up/make dinner for me and Izzy, feed Buster, Facetime with CP, nurse Wes a few times, and hold him because he is understandably wanting cuddle time after a long day away from me. I try to get Izzy into bed by 8-8:30 and how much of a chore that becomes with screaming, hitting, and crying depends on whether she napped at daycare or not. I then work on putting Wes to bed, generally by 9pm. Then it is downstairs to clean up from dinner and get ready for the next day. My only time to "unwind" is during my two 35-40 minute train rides and between preparing for the next day and bed- but of course I can't take too long to do so because then I will be even more exhausted the next day.

The house doesn't get any cleaner, no laundry gets done, and Buster is essentially ignored. Not every week is going to be like this and I know it will get better but damn it is tough. Not to mention Izzy was up until almost 1am last night crying because her stomach hurt from a new antibiotic we are giving her to try to get her sinus infection to go away (I ended up having her sleep in my bed so that I could get some sleep).

Meanwhile at work I am trying to catch up on all of my projects while writing performance reviews for all six of my employees.

CP gets home tonight and I. Can't. Wait.

Despite all of that, I feel terrible for complaining. I still have it better than a lot of people in so many ways. *sigh*

3 months old

Wes is three months old already!

Height- Will find out next month

Weight- In a onesie and a diaper Wes weighed 17.5 lbs already. No wonder I am already having problems carrying him around in the infant car seat!

Nicknames- Chunkmasterflex, Baby Monkey Butt, Baby Wes, Buddy

Diapers- Size 3

Milestones- Wes is tracking more with his eyes and has major staring contests with people and objects. He looooves watching Izzy in whatever she is doing which is adorable! He found his hands this month which resulted in a lot of hand sucking. This month has also been all about blowing bubbles.

Staring contest with the sheep

Sleep- Longest night has been 8.5 hours. Last week after I went back to work he slept the whole night for three nights in a row! Great job buddy!

Clothes- Wes moved into 6-9 mo clothes right after his 2 mo birthday. Most fit him perfectly but some have extra room in the thigh region- I think because they are expecting a slightly older infant to be wearing them!

Repping MJ with his vaccination shots. Thankfully he took his two month shots much better than Izzy did!

Eating- Wes does a lot of drooling these days but I know that teeth are still at least two months away. His eating schedule is thankfully not as busy these days and can go longer periods of time without nursing. While he was home with CP he was eating three 4 oz bottles of pumped milk but he wasn't on any kind of schedule.

Likes- Snuggling in our arms, nursing (he will often shoot me a smile while he is nursing if I smile at him), walks in the stroller, activity bar, and the vibrating chair. He finally started to like baths this month.

Baths are fun!

Dislikes- Diaper changes (he only gets happy after you have removed the poop), not feeding him fast enough, and putting hats on him.

A friend knitted this bear cowl for him. He wasn't too excited to put it on.

Other firsts- First day of apple picking with my parents in MI. First time going up to my parents house in MI. First time to the aquarium and the Milwaukee Zoo while my inlaws were in town.

I love eating my hand

Day in the Life- Fall 2016 Day 2

As I mentioned in my DITL last week, I thought that documenting my first day back to work would be interesting as it would be quite a contrast with my DITL post on maternity leave last week. Work days are never super exciting and they don't contain as many pictures, but read on if you dare! (Not only was it my first day back to work after maternity leave but my FIL and his wife are in town to meet Wes and help CP out with the kids all week.)

If you want to join in on the fun you have until October 16th to post your DITL entry and send it to Julia. Information on how to participate can be found here.

Day in the Life- Fall 2016 Day 2

October 11, 2016

CP- 40 years old

NSC- 38 years old in two months

Izzy- 3 years old in one month

Wes- 2.5 months old

Buster- 5.5 years old

10:40- In bed and trying to fall asleep after gathering all of my stuff together for work (work bag, charge work phone, make salad for lunch, pumping bag, etc.). I start to get anxious (for instance when I realize that I was supposed to call work last week to let them know I would be pumping because we only have so many rooms- whoops) and can't fall asleep despite being exhausted so around 11 I put on some white noise.

2:20- Wes starts to cry. Damn it's going to be a bad night of sleeping on my first day back at work. Nurse him. Thankfully it is quick but he doesn't burp so I wonder if that is going to spell disaster? He either burps like he just chugged a beer or he doesn't burp at all...there is no in between.

2:45- I head back to bed. Wes starts to fuss/cry so I have CP get up to put Wes down again. He is back in our room by 3.

6- My alarm goes off and at first I am confused, then dismayed at how quickly 6am came. I change Wes then nurse him. CP comes in wanting to know if he can shower while I pump. I'm dubious that CP can shower quickly enough since he is prone to long showers but agree to it. After Wes is done nursing I burp him (again, no burp), give him a lot of kisses, then he goes into the vibrating chair while I pump. I am definitely out of pumping practice as I have to adjust a bunch. While I was on maternity leave I made the decision not to pump very often as I wanted to enjoy my time with Wes and not stress out about creating a freezer stash. He certainly nursed enough so it wasn't like I needed to pump a lot to drastically increase my supply.

6:35- I'm shocked that CP is out of the shower while I still pump. 7 ounces total.

CP hates these LulaRoe leggings and I will never wear them outdoors, but they are nice to sleep in!

6:45- I'm in the shower and 30 min later I am out and dressed. Hair down and styled! An underwire bra! Makeup! Something other than stretchy/yoga pants! It's amazing! Wes is fussing in his crib and CP is downstairs cutting meat for dinner tonight so I pick up Wes and nurse him. I wasn't going to make the train I had hoped for anyway. It's a quick snack for Wes and then I eat a banana before I walk out the door.

7:30- I'm out the door and walking to the train. My neighbor is putting out the trash and asks how I am doing. I respond that it is my first day back at work and she says "say no more. I understand." My mind races as I walk to the station thinking of all of the things that I need to get done including buying a train ticket which I should have done last night.

Once on the train I buy a ticket on my phone and sign into my work phone to see if I have any meetings scheduled today. Nothing so far but I may have some in my email that I don't know about. I've been periodically checking my work email while I have been out so that I didn't have 1500+ emails to go through like last time (although I would have likely had many more this time around now that I am a supervisor). Right now I have 259 substantive emails. Hopefully most will just be background information and not emails that I actually need to respond to. I decide to put my work phone down and mindlessly look at Facebook as I am starting to get anxious again. My train arrives at the station downtown and I decide that I will be taking the stairs inside the station instead of the escalator every day (I allowed myself the escalator while I was pregnant).

During my walk to work from the train station I pass a heavily pregnant woman and think to myself "thank god I am not pregnant and never have to be ever again." I then realize that statement is the first time I have thought that in at least six years!

8:30- I'm into my building and I get in line to buy a chai latte and some oatmeal before I realize that I don't have my wallet with me (it's in the diaper bag at home). The nice lady in front of me pays for my oatmeal as the woman behind the counter asks about the baby and tells me that I look great (such a nice thing to say to someone who just came back from maternity leave).

I head upstairs, drop my stuff off, and say hi to my boss. He is very happy that I am back at work. We talk for a few minutes before I grab some more water and talk to a few more employees. Scarf down my oatmeal and try to sign into computer. I call the help desk when it I get a weird error message and find out that because my computer hasn't been in the docking station in almost three months, the system thinks that the laptop has been lost and doesn't recognize me. Great. Now I have to wait for someone to come put my computer back on the network.

9:40- Head downstairs to pump. 5oz. Can't remember if that is good or bad.

10:10- Back upstairs where I check in with two more of my employees, make myself a Starbucks Refresher, and work through easy emails on my work phone.

11- Head downstairs to fill out some paperwork for my train subsidy and see if anyone from IT is in to get my work computer on the network (nope). This is going to be a waste of a day. I check in with my "problem employee."

12:10- I eat lunch (thank goodness I brought a salad from home today since I don't have my wallet!). CP texts that Wes has had no milk and that he is "chill" along with a picture of Wes sleeping. I freak out because it has been 5 hours since Wes had a snack of milk. CP texts back that he has been sleeping the entire time, which doesn't make me feel any better. I let CP know that Wes does take a nice morning nap, but in order to make sure that he sleeps at night, we should make sure that any naps don't last longer than 2.5 hours.

12:45- I head down to pump again and net 4.5 ounces. I come back upstairs and try to find someone in IT again. I'm told that the person that can help is traveling and to send him an email- hmmm that is information that would have been helpful HOURS ago. I head into my office and am shocked to find someone in my chair. She is working with the traveling employee to get me back on the network and thankfully at 1:30 I can finally get into my computer. So only most of the day was wasted... I start to go through my emails.

3:30- I pump again yielding 4 ounces then continue with emails upstairs until 5 when I run out the door to try to catch my train. I run into another manager who is happy that I am back. We catch up quickly but the short talk makes me miss my train by one minute so I catch the next one, reading blogs on the way home. I realize that I am running on pure adrenaline at this point, so this time to decompress is nice. I get off the train with two of my neighbors and we discuss the lack of sleeping with our kids and then our crazy dogs.

6- I get home and Buster is barking while greeting me at the front door. Izzy runs over and shouts "Mommy!" and gives me a big hug. I hear Wes crying, take him from CP, and then nurse him.

6:40- We (CP, Izzy, Wes, myself, FIL, and his wife) pile in the minivan and arrive at a nearby Mexican restaurant. We have been here only once before (for Father's Day this year) and really liked it so hopefully we have another great experience. I give Izzy a Melissa & Doug coloring book and between that, chips, and her meal Izzy stays pretty content throughout the meal. I drink a yummy strawberry mojito, all the adults share a lobster empanada, and my entree was salmon with mango and avocado. The restaurant was a little loud so conversation was hard. The manager/owner came over at the end of dinner to give us a free dessert (sweet potato bread pudding) which was awesome. Izzy took the entire scoop of ice cream off the top with her fork and ate it all to herself.

Wes sleeps through the entire dinner which was awesome.

8- Left the restaurant and dropped off my FIL and his wife at their hotel. On the way we quiz Izzy on the color of our house, our street name, our city, and the name of the city where my parents and my sister live. The only one she didn't get is the state we live in and who lives in Hawaii (trick question- CP was trying to get Izzy to say his mom since Izzy thought she lived in Hawaii after our vacation there in February). I joke that "Mommy's crazy aunt lives in Hawaii." Everyone laughs so Izzy keeps on repeating it so I'm pretty sure it's embedded in her brain. My mom will get a kick out of that (we are talking about her sister).

8:30- We are back home and Izzy heads upstairs with CP to go potty, brush her teeth, read some stories, and head to bed. She is exhausted. I change into pajamas, pick up the house a bit as there is stuff EVERYWHERE and take Wes upstairs. I change his diaper and put him into a onesie for sleeping while giving him lots of kisses. We head downstairs where he gets his medicine, I turn the Cubs game on (tied!), and then nurse him. Buster comes over for some loving but I don't have any hands to pet him. For the next hour I tickle, kiss, and try to keep Wes awake while watching the Cubs start to lose the game.

He certainly won't fit into this "My First Easter" onesie this spring so I might as well use it now!

9:30- I head upstairs with Wes. We read a board book about a train and towards the end, Wes lets out a big poop. I change his diaper and kiss his feet which makes him smile. I nurse him, then sing to him while burping him. He goes down at 9:50. I head into the bathroom to do my nighttime routine, then jump into bed to make a few notes on the day. I turn off Modern Family at 10:15 and fall asleep pretty easily.

5:50am- I wake up and realize that Wes slept the entire night!!! AND the Cubs won in an intense game? I feel bad that I didn't stay up to watch but sleeping through the night was GLORIOUS.