I'm so stressed about money! This has been such a difficult year for us, and I think we're both going to need to pick up extra hours at odd jobs to make ends meet for the rest of the year.
Any suggestions? Should I sell my eggs? Sell pies? C'mon, creative readers - any ideas for me?
Showing posts with label advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advice. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Christmas and December 2008 in review...
It's hard to believe the year is almost over. I do believe 2008 has been one of the most challenging and rewarding years of my life (so far.) I'm sure I'll have to take some "time to reflect" before New Year's Eve. For now, though, here's what we did in the past couple of weeks.
Many of you know that Maine was hit hard with an ice storm recently. We were without electricity for just over 24 hours at our house, but family members were without power for 3 and 4 days. Others in the state suffered for almost a week!
We heat our home with oil...our, I should say heatED. This summer Dan refurbished the boat and sold it, making enough money to install a chimney, hearth and wood-burning stove, plus buy enough wood for this winter and possibly next. The installation has been a struggle to say the least. We had a contractor lined up to do the whole project - he had great references, a good price, and Dan really liked him. He showed up with rusty, used parts that were not even the right size to meet code. There was no negotiating to happen with this guy, so he left and wouldn't return our calls. Thank goodness we hadn't given him any money. It was another month before we had someone else lined up, and he was a total administrative nightmare...he wrote down our information as Stan Welch, and kept getting our street name and family names mixed up...I actually told him that I was Stan's wife at one point...ha! When it was all said and done, he did a great job in little time for a great price.
Dan decided to build the hearth himself, which was a big leap of faith for me. Half-way through that piece of the project, our neighbor offered some advice, training, and help. In the end, he built the entire hearth in exchange for driveway snow-blowing for the winter! What a deal. The hearth was useable but not beautiful JUST in time for our power outtage, so we were toasty warm. We cooked on the stove, heated up water for baths, and dried hand-washed clothes on racks in the living room. We felt like frontier-folk. We were *almost* sad when the power returned.
Many of you know that Maine was hit hard with an ice storm recently. We were without electricity for just over 24 hours at our house, but family members were without power for 3 and 4 days. Others in the state suffered for almost a week!
We heat our home with oil...our, I should say heatED. This summer Dan refurbished the boat and sold it, making enough money to install a chimney, hearth and wood-burning stove, plus buy enough wood for this winter and possibly next. The installation has been a struggle to say the least. We had a contractor lined up to do the whole project - he had great references, a good price, and Dan really liked him. He showed up with rusty, used parts that were not even the right size to meet code. There was no negotiating to happen with this guy, so he left and wouldn't return our calls. Thank goodness we hadn't given him any money. It was another month before we had someone else lined up, and he was a total administrative nightmare...he wrote down our information as Stan Welch, and kept getting our street name and family names mixed up...I actually told him that I was Stan's wife at one point...ha! When it was all said and done, he did a great job in little time for a great price.
Dan decided to build the hearth himself, which was a big leap of faith for me. Half-way through that piece of the project, our neighbor offered some advice, training, and help. In the end, he built the entire hearth in exchange for driveway snow-blowing for the winter! What a deal. The hearth was useable but not beautiful JUST in time for our power outtage, so we were toasty warm. We cooked on the stove, heated up water for baths, and dried hand-washed clothes on racks in the living room. We felt like frontier-folk. We were *almost* sad when the power returned.
Popps decided to do his physical rehab here in Maine, so he arrived shortly after Thanksgiving to a nursing home about 20 minutes North of us. We've been visiting him a lot, and he's been making great progress. He's using a walker and a wheelchair, doing his exercises, and seems to have made peace with his PT after a rocky start. He's hoping to return to NY soon.
Vi has had an action-packed month. Between OMT for last month's ear infection, eczema, and a tummy bug, she's been in and out of the doctors' offices too many times to count. Her ears are all cleared up, and she started a growth spurt just after a four-day BRAT diet. The eczema still hasn't cleared up, so we visited the homeopathic doctor last week. She thinks that it's not an allergy, but a wrecked gut...from the antibiotics last month for her ear infection and the tummy bug. She is helping us cure this from the inside out with Cod Liver Oil, ProBiotics, and a homepathic remedy for her general constitution to help her immune system get balanced. Plus, she's having us eliminate dairy and soy for a bit, just to help along the process. (Goat and Buffalo are fine...we're sticking with Goat's milk, since Buffalo milk sounds revolting and wrong.)
New words that she's trying out: help, hot, down, cup, sit, ball, eyeball and all gone. All gone is a good one - it comes out sounding like the Law & Order chime - Ga-gong!
Her "receptive" language is still thriving - she seems to understand more than we realize. She is also using her signs as much as ever. New signs include train and rabbit. She can point to her body parts, too, so we're singing a lot of "head, shoulders, knees and toes" lately. We've been asking her lots of questions and trying to improve her ability to constructively use all of these tools. So, lots of fun stories are to come, including:
My brother's family was in town for the holiday, and poor baby Addie has started teething. There was a lot of crying in the past couple of days. (Which made Dan and me realize that a baby's cry is loudest to the baby's parents. Funny what perspective does.) Recently, Addie gave up the pacifier/Nuk/binky/bubba. I asked Vi if Addie had told her what she needed. (I sort of think the little ones actually understand each other...any research to prove that? I'd love to read it.) Vi nodded her head and said, "Yeh." I asked her, "What does baby Addie need?" Vi responded, enthusiastically and unprompted, "Bubba!"
This is one of those stories that's hard to tell without sounding judgemental, so I want to be clear that Addie's doing great without the bubba, does not need one, and I'm not suggesting they try to give her one! The Bub is one of those areas each parent has to make their own choices about, and I know how much I dislike uninvited advice. JD and I were comiserating about strangers giving us advice in public...so strange. That's the easy advice to shirk. Intra-family advice is harder because the advisors are witnesses to your choices. It can be hard to not take it personally, when parenting methods are not the same. I know we have different rules about bubbas and TV than my sister's family, and that sleep and slings are big differences between me and my brother's family...but you know what? It doesn't matter. I mean, of course it matters that one parents mindfully and makes these decisions with the overall health of all the family members being a priority, but it doesn't matter that we do it differently. These kids are all growing up loved and taken care of, with a great big family that loves them. That's all that matters.
Another word that Vi definitely understands is "scream." If you say the word, she willingly demonstrates. How can such little lungs make so much noise?
Christmas was great. We did our usual multi-family run-around - three families in one day. Vi got lots of new books, a table & chairs set, an emperor penguin, clothes, shoes, and money for college. I got clothes, a Kitchenaid mixer, slippers, and lots of sleep. Dan got a leather jacket, books, iTunes gift cards, and gift certificates for shoes and a wood-carrier. We got money for our oil bill, too, which is great...we'll have hardly spent any of our own money on oil this year! With a bunch of gift certificates combined, we also got a new camera. (RIP our Sony.)
My sister was here with her kids, and we got to go sledding, watch Prince Caspian, play with the electric train, draw and decorate cookies. The kids all did some disco-diva dancing at my dad's house that evening. I am hoping we have some video to post, because it was pretty hilarious. There will definitely be lots of great pictures coming from Noelle.
And, today, it's back to work. Just a 3-day work week for me, so I should really be plowing through my to-dos rather than writing in my diary...
Happy New Year to all of you!
P.S. 8 days until Birthday.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Eczema?
Vi's doctor has informed us that Vi's "itchy-scratchy" is actually eczema. Yuck. He gave us a topical cream and some other topical-strategic advice, but it's my understanding that eczema starts on the inside...
Any advice? Favorite websites? Anecdotal advice?
I will, of course, call our homeopathic PA for her take on it and we are considering allergy testing.
Yuck.
Any advice? Favorite websites? Anecdotal advice?
I will, of course, call our homeopathic PA for her take on it and we are considering allergy testing.
Yuck.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Birth Roots!
I mentioned Birth Roots many times during pregnancy - this is the Perinatal Resource Center here in Portland which offered the childbirth education, breastfeeding, parenting, and newborn classes in which Dan and I participated. This is the place co-founded by our awesome doula, Leah and her amazing business partner, Emily.
Birth Roots recently re-located, due in part to the closure of Portland's only free-standing birthing center, the Ballard House, which had leased space to perinatal resource groups through the years. Their new location is larger and more functional for the types of classes and services offered. On Sunday, I attended the grand opening of the new location. Here's a clip from the local news:
http://www.wcsh6.com/video/default.aspx?mid=895208689
I strongly encourage any family preparing for birth in the Portland area to see what Birth Roots is all about. I really liked the independent nature of the courses, which allowed for more open discussion on the shared experience. Rather than taking a course hosted by the hospital where we gave birth-which, I'm sure, is a fine course- we were able talk about how I wanted give birth, not just what it would be like at that particular facility. In our Birthing from Within class there was couple who started out planning to birth at Mercy Hospital, decided do home birth instead, and, in the end, finished up delivering at Maine Medical Center. In my Blossoming Newborns class, there babies born at home, at Ballard House, at Maine Med, at Mercy...in tubs, squatting, in beds, by cesaerean birth... A wide variety of experiences, and we were brought together to help each other through the strange, tumultuous, scary, frustrating, joyous, wonderful and humbling experience of being a new mother.
Thank you, Birth Roots, for all you have done for my family and friends! Congratulations on your new space - it's beautiful, open, welcoming, functional, and perfectly YOU!
Birth Roots recently re-located, due in part to the closure of Portland's only free-standing birthing center, the Ballard House, which had leased space to perinatal resource groups through the years. Their new location is larger and more functional for the types of classes and services offered. On Sunday, I attended the grand opening of the new location. Here's a clip from the local news:
http://www.wcsh6.com/video/default.aspx?mid=895208689
I strongly encourage any family preparing for birth in the Portland area to see what Birth Roots is all about. I really liked the independent nature of the courses, which allowed for more open discussion on the shared experience. Rather than taking a course hosted by the hospital where we gave birth-which, I'm sure, is a fine course- we were able talk about how I wanted give birth, not just what it would be like at that particular facility. In our Birthing from Within class there was couple who started out planning to birth at Mercy Hospital, decided do home birth instead, and, in the end, finished up delivering at Maine Medical Center. In my Blossoming Newborns class, there babies born at home, at Ballard House, at Maine Med, at Mercy...in tubs, squatting, in beds, by cesaerean birth... A wide variety of experiences, and we were brought together to help each other through the strange, tumultuous, scary, frustrating, joyous, wonderful and humbling experience of being a new mother.
Thank you, Birth Roots, for all you have done for my family and friends! Congratulations on your new space - it's beautiful, open, welcoming, functional, and perfectly YOU!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Knock on Wood
For almost eleven months now, I've been asked the question "Is she a good baby?" Which, by the way, seems like a very strange question to me. I mean, really. What could she do to be classified as a "bad" baby? Burn the house down? Cuss? I don't think I would want to have a baby who was completely uninterested in exploring the world around her. But that's just me.
I usually respond to the question by saying, yeah, she's a wonderful baby, she's a pretty happy baby, she eats well and is so funny. She's not good at sleeping more than three hours a stretch, but that doesn't seem to bother her a bit. We're exhausted wrecks, but she's happy.
The mildly superstitious side of me is concerned that announcing this week's turn of events will jinx her progress.
But, screw it. The fog is starting to clear, and I want to shout from the rooftop. Vi has slept until 4:00 am five nights this week! She's doing it! Finally! FINALLY!!!
Things we tried:
A crib in her room
White noise
Night light
Repetitive lullabies
Sleeping in her room, for quick, comforting shushing and bottom-taps
Co-sleeper (which, duh, isn't for the already-crawling baby)
Bed-sharing (which isn't for the hates-to-be-kicked parent. Fine and wonderful for the newborn and for parts of the night, but not for all-night with a 10-month old)
Waiting two minutes, then three minutes, then four minutes before going to comfort her (which totally did not work for any of us. When I got to thinking about it, what exactly is the lesson a baby is learning from that exercise? Our doctor recommended this method, but he's all about Ferber. Sleep issues is one issue on which he and I don't see eye to eye. I'm not interested in forcing her to learn to sleep on her own just so I can get some rest and feel less insane. She'll learn on her own time and with gentle, loving care that makes her feel safe enough to progress.)
Feeding more food during the day, eliminating feedings one by one overnight.
Nighttime routine - bath, massage, bed. This didn't work for us. We changed it to bath, family-time/book-time/snuggle-time, bed. We climb into bed with a pile of books, read, point, ooh and ahh, and then she climbs around, flops around, rolls around until she's asleep. With very little help from us.
A pack-n-play in our room
Things we didn't try:
Letting her cry it out.
Letting her cry herself to sleep.
Leaving her alone to cry until she fell asleep exhausted.
The Ferber method.
The Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby method.
The Baby Whisperer method.
Any method that involved her crying herself to sleep.
Pattern? Yup. I was told that 1) I had to be tough and let her cry herself to sleep or she'd NEVER learn and 2) I'll let my second baby cry his/herself to sleep (which, I really hope I don't).
The final winner is a combination of the things we tried. Night time routine of bath and family time. One theory I had was that she missed Dan, because he's working long summer hours, and was waking up wanting to see him. Extra time with him before bed seemed to help. Pack-n-play in our room is great for her and us - It's easy for us to hear her if she does need us, and she can hear us, which seems to be soothing to her. Feeding more during the day and not at night. I don't believe in stuffing a baby at bed time - everything I've read says that against conventional wisdom, this isn't effective.
That's it. We'll see if she's just turned a corner, or is trying something out for this week. I'll keep you posted. For now, we're catching up on several months of sleep deprivation, and looking forward to a much less cloudy outlook on life and less anxiety at night.
I usually respond to the question by saying, yeah, she's a wonderful baby, she's a pretty happy baby, she eats well and is so funny. She's not good at sleeping more than three hours a stretch, but that doesn't seem to bother her a bit. We're exhausted wrecks, but she's happy.
The mildly superstitious side of me is concerned that announcing this week's turn of events will jinx her progress.
But, screw it. The fog is starting to clear, and I want to shout from the rooftop. Vi has slept until 4:00 am five nights this week! She's doing it! Finally! FINALLY!!!
Things we tried:
A crib in her room
White noise
Night light
Repetitive lullabies
Sleeping in her room, for quick, comforting shushing and bottom-taps
Co-sleeper (which, duh, isn't for the already-crawling baby)
Bed-sharing (which isn't for the hates-to-be-kicked parent. Fine and wonderful for the newborn and for parts of the night, but not for all-night with a 10-month old)
Waiting two minutes, then three minutes, then four minutes before going to comfort her (which totally did not work for any of us. When I got to thinking about it, what exactly is the lesson a baby is learning from that exercise? Our doctor recommended this method, but he's all about Ferber. Sleep issues is one issue on which he and I don't see eye to eye. I'm not interested in forcing her to learn to sleep on her own just so I can get some rest and feel less insane. She'll learn on her own time and with gentle, loving care that makes her feel safe enough to progress.)
Feeding more food during the day, eliminating feedings one by one overnight.
Nighttime routine - bath, massage, bed. This didn't work for us. We changed it to bath, family-time/book-time/snuggle-time, bed. We climb into bed with a pile of books, read, point, ooh and ahh, and then she climbs around, flops around, rolls around until she's asleep. With very little help from us.
A pack-n-play in our room
Things we didn't try:
Letting her cry it out.
Letting her cry herself to sleep.
Leaving her alone to cry until she fell asleep exhausted.
The Ferber method.
The Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby method.
The Baby Whisperer method.
Any method that involved her crying herself to sleep.
Pattern? Yup. I was told that 1) I had to be tough and let her cry herself to sleep or she'd NEVER learn and 2) I'll let my second baby cry his/herself to sleep (which, I really hope I don't).
The final winner is a combination of the things we tried. Night time routine of bath and family time. One theory I had was that she missed Dan, because he's working long summer hours, and was waking up wanting to see him. Extra time with him before bed seemed to help. Pack-n-play in our room is great for her and us - It's easy for us to hear her if she does need us, and she can hear us, which seems to be soothing to her. Feeding more during the day and not at night. I don't believe in stuffing a baby at bed time - everything I've read says that against conventional wisdom, this isn't effective.
That's it. We'll see if she's just turned a corner, or is trying something out for this week. I'll keep you posted. For now, we're catching up on several months of sleep deprivation, and looking forward to a much less cloudy outlook on life and less anxiety at night.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
18 week update!
I've realized that none of my links were working properly. Instead of trying to figure it out - for which I have NO patience right now - I'm just going to paste the text from the Babycenter email into each post. Like this:
18 weeks pregnant: Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a large sweet potato) and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She's busy flexing her arms and legs — movements that you'll likely start noticing more and more. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin, and her ears are now in position and stand out from her head. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and Fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.
Changes with us: I'm ravenous - constantly. Pickles and ice cream are right up there on my list of favorite foods right now; it's not just a myth. I have had my belly patted twice, and I am told that I definitely look pregnant. The emotional roller coaster seems to have cooled down, only to be replaced by physical aches and pains. Why didn't anyone tell me how much it would hurt to be growing this much?!? I am, of course, worried that I am just a wimp and this doesn't actually hurt that badly, and that I will never survive the pain of labor. The ultrasound - the big one - is scheduled for March 12th. We STILL haven't decided if we want to find out the sex of the baby.
We'll be delivering at Mercy Hospital in Portland, and we had a tour of the Birthplace there yesterday. It is very much a hospital - duh, Lindsay - but this section has nicer curtains and some hot tubs. They have one tub for water births, an option we're considering. (If any of you have a good resource on the topic, please share it with me. ) It really looks like they have made an effort to make the delivering mom comfortable, so I will be perfectly happy to bring Critter into the world at this particular place. Dads beware, though: the chairs in the delivery rooms are plain, wooden chairs, and you have to wear a swimsuit if accompanying your wife in the tub. I know - who cares about the Dad's comfort?!? I certainly won't in the heat of the moment, but I got a sore rumpus just looking at those chairs.
We're both working a lot right now - Dan's district will be doing inventory for all of the stores next week, so he'll be on the road a lot helping out his fellow managers. I'm gearing up for my new consulting responsibilities at work with online training. We started a registry with Babies R Us, but gave out in a fit of exhaustion without really finishing it...I don't think what we accomplished is truly "starting" the registry. I think we managed to get a mattress and a thermometer on there...
My friend Bonnie will be here next week, so she and I will get to play/work on the nursery and registry some more.
We're still brainstorming a baby-moon to take this Spring. The one consistent piece of advice we receive from everyone is that we should take a trip together, just the two of us, before the baby comes. We hate the idea of spending any money, but we're going to make an effort to get away for a romantic weekend sometime in April.
Any cheap vacation ideas? Anyone win a vacation that they can't take? :-)
March is almost here, we're setting our clocks ahead soon, and the songbirds are out again. Hurray for Spring! I hope you are all well, and please stay in touch!
-Lindsay
18 weeks pregnant: Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a large sweet potato) and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She's busy flexing her arms and legs — movements that you'll likely start noticing more and more. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin, and her ears are now in position and stand out from her head. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and Fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.
Changes with us: I'm ravenous - constantly. Pickles and ice cream are right up there on my list of favorite foods right now; it's not just a myth. I have had my belly patted twice, and I am told that I definitely look pregnant. The emotional roller coaster seems to have cooled down, only to be replaced by physical aches and pains. Why didn't anyone tell me how much it would hurt to be growing this much?!? I am, of course, worried that I am just a wimp and this doesn't actually hurt that badly, and that I will never survive the pain of labor. The ultrasound - the big one - is scheduled for March 12th. We STILL haven't decided if we want to find out the sex of the baby.
We'll be delivering at Mercy Hospital in Portland, and we had a tour of the Birthplace there yesterday. It is very much a hospital - duh, Lindsay - but this section has nicer curtains and some hot tubs. They have one tub for water births, an option we're considering. (If any of you have a good resource on the topic, please share it with me. ) It really looks like they have made an effort to make the delivering mom comfortable, so I will be perfectly happy to bring Critter into the world at this particular place. Dads beware, though: the chairs in the delivery rooms are plain, wooden chairs, and you have to wear a swimsuit if accompanying your wife in the tub. I know - who cares about the Dad's comfort?!? I certainly won't in the heat of the moment, but I got a sore rumpus just looking at those chairs.
We're both working a lot right now - Dan's district will be doing inventory for all of the stores next week, so he'll be on the road a lot helping out his fellow managers. I'm gearing up for my new consulting responsibilities at work with online training. We started a registry with Babies R Us, but gave out in a fit of exhaustion without really finishing it...I don't think what we accomplished is truly "starting" the registry. I think we managed to get a mattress and a thermometer on there...
My friend Bonnie will be here next week, so she and I will get to play/work on the nursery and registry some more.
We're still brainstorming a baby-moon to take this Spring. The one consistent piece of advice we receive from everyone is that we should take a trip together, just the two of us, before the baby comes. We hate the idea of spending any money, but we're going to make an effort to get away for a romantic weekend sometime in April.
Any cheap vacation ideas? Anyone win a vacation that they can't take? :-)
March is almost here, we're setting our clocks ahead soon, and the songbirds are out again. Hurray for Spring! I hope you are all well, and please stay in touch!
-Lindsay
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