August 28, 2006 by veronica.

Last night I decided to check out how many hits my blog has been receiving. 1and1 is really good at letting you go over every silly stat about your site, but let’s be honest, it’s the number that’s really interesting. I’ll let Chris worry about browser data. So for last week, my blog had…wait for it…301 hits!!! WTH? Even taking into account how many times I check into my blog to see how it looks (and to keep me awake in the afternoons at work), that’s still a lot! Chris tried to tell me it was all from Google, but I don’t care. 301 is a big number.

This weekend I did realize that I actually own one other book on the DONA reading list. It’s actually the very first pregnancy book I bought. (I ended up with 3.) That was a very exciting discovery–almost like finding a $20 bill in the pocket of your coat when you put it on for the first time in the winter!

So, there’s a lot of stuff in the news about the one year anniversary of Hurricane katrina coming up. (What? You haven’t heard about it? You must not own a TV. Or a radio. Or a computer.) It’s really hard to see those images again, to hear the discussions of what went wrong, etc. I remember standing in our kitchen every night, feeling so upset and helpless about all the death and distruction. (Being very pregnant didn’t help, I’m sure.) What really got me upset at that time, though, were all the pictures of the dogs and cats that were abandoned and helpless. My wonderful husband, to help me feel better, helped me find a way to donate money to the animals.

Here’s where I get on my soapbox.

If, in this next election, certain officials start playing the fear card and start telling you that if you vote for their opponent, the terrorists will strike, Don;t beleive them. Don’t think for a SECOND that this administration can keep us safe. They can’t. They could not save 1,000 plus residents of a city even when they had prior notice that disaster would strike. FEMA left thousands abandoned in a stadium, Bush joked about doing “a hell of a job” while there were still many missing, and Congress continues play political games with the business of getting back to living in the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina was their test for terrorism and disaster and they failed. Not only did they fail, but they should be fired, plain and simple.

Ahh…sorry. I had to say that.

In exciting news, Lily in now the proud owner of a Weeble castle. The box said it was for children over the age of 1, but it looked fun and engaging. Lily loved it; even more importantly, she wanted to put the Weebles in their chairs and down the slides and push them on the horse…It was so much fun to watch her play with it. She’s not much for blocks or rings or cups, but she loved moving the little Weebles through their world, and that was amazing.

Posted in Soapbox anyone?, Life | 2 Comments »

August 26, 2006 by veronica.

I’m glad they got rid of Pluto.  It was a silly planet.

Chris is planning to add some things to our website on his latest hobby, winemaking.   He will do this as soon as he starts a new batch, which will most likely be in the next couple of weeks.  Our second batch was just bottled on Tuesday.  Since Tuesday, and with some help, we have polished off 3 bottles.  The latest wine was a Strawberry White Merlot.  It’s pretty good.  It didn’t need to be aged; usually wine needs to be bulk aged (in it’s HUGE 5 gallon glass jug) for awhile, then it has to be bottle aged.  The “Island Mist” wines are an exception.  They can be bottled after sitting around for 2 weeks after they finish fermenting.  Wally, the guy who owns the Von Klopp Brew Shop, had suggested that we add 4 pounds of sugar to the Strawberry White Merlot kit so it would have more alcohol in it.  I, ever the wino, wanted to go that route; Chris wanted to stay true to the recipe, at least the first time.  He won.  So while the wine is very good and very easy to drink (Think watered-down Arbor Mist), it does take a few glasses to feel anything.  Now we just have to decide what kind of wine to make next.  I voted for the Pinot Grigio; it’s what I use to make fondue, and I do like to cook with it and drink it.  However, it is temtping to go the fast route and make another flavor or Island Mist.  We’ll see.

I do have to say I really love having over 40 bottles of wine in my basemnt.  If there was ever an emergency, we wouldn’t have enough water, but we’d sure have a lot of wine, and that may end up being better.  Who wants to drink water in a crisis?  I’d rather drink wine; it might even make a terrible situation a wee bit better.

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August 22, 2006 by veronica.

Today I had to do something I have not done since before I got married.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve had to do it in almost 6 years.  I had to go to Target and buy new sunglasses.  My lovely, somewhat scratched, very bent, but well-loved glasses hopped out of my purse at Sam’s Club, never to be seen again.  However, Lily helped me pick out my new pair.  She let me know her level of approval by the volume at which she would cackle as I tried on different pairs.  So maybe this pair will last 6 more years, and by that time I will have at least one more child to help pick out the next pair.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m thinking of becoming a doula, also known as a labor assistant.  I’ve decided for sure to go through DONA International’s certification process.  The other organizations just aren’t as well known, nor do they have as many workshops.  I’ll be ordering my certification kit by this weekend.  The requirements are as follows:

1) Order the kit and register as a DONA member
2) Read the DONA position paper as well as 5 other books

3) Go to a Childbirth Prep Class, but going when you are pregnant does not count

4) Go to a birth doula workshop

5) Attend 3 births.  You have to be at at each birth from the point of 4cm on, and the total amount of time spent  TOTAL must me 15 hours minimum.  Then have someone fill out evaluation paperwork.

6) Send in all of the complete forms, and that’s it!

So I already started on the books.   I was able to get 2 of them at the library.  Also, I already have one of the books on the reading list that has to do with breastfeeding. That’s the easy step.  The hard step will be finding 3 women to let me be there during labor and delivery.  I have some ideas, but that’s the hardest thing for me to figure out how to do.  So if anyone would be willing to let me help them go through labor, that would be great.  So I guess I have made up my mind; now it’s just a matter of getting all those steps done.

Posted in Life | 4 Comments »

August 20, 2006 by veronica.

10 days later, and the visits all went very well.  Stephanie and I had a great time; well, I had a good time, I’m afraid she migth have found out that my life is very boring.  Gone are the days of tequila shots and Lance Bass.  She found out that most of my time is now taken up with arguing with Lily to go to sleep.  However, with everything that has gone on the past year it was wonderful to see her, and I do hope to make it out there next summer for my *gasp* five year college reuinion.  Then we’ll have to think about those tequila shots.

Anna, my sister, came to stay with us the day after Stephanie left.  We got her sort of ready for senior-year-living-in-an-apartment life.  Chris and I have a large store of extra things around this house, mostly from replacing what we had when we first got married with newer, nicer things.  It’s a process.  We just bought a new nice set of pots and pans at Sam’s Club that are not non-stick.  I decided Teflon was very, very evil and I wanted it OUT of my house.  So we bought Wolfgang Puck’s 19 piece set after a lot of thought and shopping, and I love the pans already!  That meant Anna inherited almost all of my Pyrex pans, one tiny frying pan, and a stock pot.  She should be pretty good to go, even if she does now have one or two evil non-stick pans.

However, I do have one announcement to make (and if you read our webpage,  Chris made an allusion to big news, but I AM NOT PREGNANT.  It’s something else).  I think I want to become a doula.  I’m not 100% sure yet.  But I have been thinking about this for a very long time, and I do need to do more research, but it looks very interesting to me.  It’s not a midwife.  I don’t want that kind of responsability.  It would allow me to work with other women to help them through childbirth, and, if I get certified to be a postpartum doula, help a new mom learn how to be a mom.  It’s all very exiciting and I could start as soon as next month.  We’ll see.  But I will need all the support I can get.

Oh, and I will put up pictures of Lily in this blog as soon as I figure out how.  She did learn how to stand up on her own yesterday, and she took 2 steps today.  Don;t worry, we got it in a digital movie.  I’ll get Chris to post it.  And I did fix the comments settings.  Have at it.

Posted in in a nutshell, Life, Uncategorized | 22 Comments »

August 11, 2006 by veronica.

I woke up very early yesterday morning to the usual sounds of Lily telling me she’s a little thirsty, and asking if she could crawl into our bed.  Ok, so she was really just crying, but that’s what she meant.  While trying to fall back asleep, for no real reason, I had the song “London Calling” stuck into my head.  It was strange becasue I’ve never heard the whole song, just bits and pieces.  But there it was, keeping me from falling asleep and making me wonder what on earth put it in my head.

At 6am, I jumped into the shower whith Chris and Lily still sleeping, like I normally do.  I always catch the news on my fabulous clock radio, and they mentioned something (It was KROC, not NPR) about a terror plot in London being thwarted, but no real specifics were mentioned.  Since my friend Stephanie was supposed to fly in, I was glad that they caught the crazies, but I didn’t think much of it.  That is until 10 minutes later, when Chris stuck his head in the bathroom to tell me that Stephanie had called to say her flight was cancelled.  I guess it was a bigger deal than the DJ made it sound.  In fact, once I got out of the shower and went in to see Chris, who was watching MSNBC, I found out it was a pretty big deal.  So the upshot is that Stephanie is flying in today.  It turned out to be pretty good, because Chicago was slammed by thunderstorms most of the day, and at 11am they had 2 hour delays.  Like Stephanie said, her flight was cancelled for a reason.  And the song in my head was wrong.  It wasn’t London calling, it was Stephanie.

I don’t really have much of a point to my story.

So yesterday, much time was spent by the major news outlets talking about how the terrorists planned on making bombs out of liquids, and how that traslated into not being able to take toothpaste on the plane.  I am not mocking any of the new security measures (but I will mock the newspeople for giving away bomb recipies left and right).  However, in typical satirical fashion, Stephen Colbert spent the fort few mintes showing what he wasn’t going to take on a plane and ways to cope, like eating Kool-ade and then drinking water on the plane.  But one thing he did show was “his” goldfish, named Anthrax.  No, you can’t bring a fish on a plane now.  But it brought me back to the days of flying with my beloved Beta, Fishy-Fishy.  It makes me sad that I wouldn’t be allowed to fly with my fish, if he were still alive.  Stupid terrorists.  You took away a fish’s freedom to fly.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

August 8, 2006 by veronica.

I am dead tired.  I had one of those days where I didn’t get a chnace to stop moving until…well, just now, actually.  It was a pretty good day, but Lily and I had a lunch date at the park.  The wasps were so bad that we ended up going for a walk.  That wore me out, but it didn’t wear Lily out enough to make her want to take a nap.  We got home, Lily ate lunch, and then we had to leave the house again to go to target and pick up Lily supplies.  THEN Lily took a nap while Chris stayed home with her and I headed off to the mall for quite time.  When I got home Chris and his dad were trying to install our new bathroom vent, but they were having problems.  Lily and I made dinner, and when we were done eating ( and I was done feeding Lily), Chris and his dad went off to continute the installation process.  That meant I had to sit and play with Lily.  When Lily finally made it to bed, Chris and I had to complete another step to make our latest batch of wine, I had to get Lily’s bottles and my pump ready for tomorrow, and then I got to mop the floor. And now I am writing this post.
Whew.  See?  Dead tired.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

August 7, 2006 by veronica.

Long before I ever found out I was pregnant with Lily, I made the decision to breastfeed. Formula was never an option to me. Having worked in day care, I knew it was possible to supply breast milk to put in bottles should I find myself a working mom, but I wasn’t sure how it all worked. I just knew that it could work. I was also very aware of the negative view most people in our country have on breastfeeding babies, but it seemed to be very minor, like some people not approving of rap music or skateboards. Nursing is natual, I thought. What’s the big deal?

I will say that Lily latched on within moments of being born. I spent those days in the hospital (Ok, and the next few weeks) completely wrapped up in trying to make nursing work. Sometimes it hurt. Sometimes it hurt a lot. I didn’t get any sleep.  I was Lily’s only means of survival.  I had to call the hospital’s lactation consultants a few times just for a little bit of help. And even though it was very, very difficult, never did I even contemplate switching over to formula. It just wasn’t a part of my parenting reality.

A quick word about how I view the breast vs. bottle debate. I applaud any mom who tries to make breastfeeding work but ultimately ends up bottle feeding. She made the decision to attempt to give her baby the best nutrition, but outside circumstances proved to be too much to handle. There are more people who condemn nursing than who commend any mother for it. However, and this may sound harsh (or judgemental?), I have a very hard time understanding why anyone would choose not to at least attempt breastfeeding. Maybe that’s because nobody’s been able to explain it to me. I will say this. Many employers are hostle to letting moms pump, many people do not want to see a baby being fed in public, and there are still only a few resources any mom has to get help with breastfeeding.  None of that sets up any new mom for success.
The mind-spinning reality of breastfeeding and working hit me soon after I began to create a gift registry. While trying to pick out bedding, highchairs, and bibs, I also found myself faced with the task of picking a breast pump. Breast pumps are almost always expensive. There is also a very large selection availiable, from small hand operated models to oversized models that require a special carrying case. And did I mention that they were expensive? A Medela Pump In Style ran around $250. The Avent manual pump was about $50. I went with the Avent pump. It worked great for some things, like when I needed to do some spot pumping, but I knew there was no way it would suffice for work. For awhile, I made do with a pump that was loaned to me, but it was difficult to wash and I wasn’t able to order any extra parts. We eventually decided to bite the bullet and purchase the $250 Medela model. I do like my pump. It makes aspects of the pumping process easier. However, it can’t fix everything.

I had a former co-worker once make the comment that I was so lucky that my boss allowed me to take the time to pump.  Lucky?  Never mind the fact that I worked an extra hour just so I wasn’t being paid for that time, never mind that I carried my own cooler just so milk wouldn’t have to stay in the fridge, and never mind that Minnesota law mandates that a mom be given unpaid time to pump.  I was still lucky.   And this came from a mom who breastfed.  How terrible is that?  How terrible is a it for a a working mom to condemn another working mom for trying to do the best thing for her baby?  Thankfully, I am now at a workplace that fully understood my need for 10 minutes, twice a day to pump so I could continue to feed my baby breastmilk until she was 6 months old.  That was 7 months ago.  They are still supportive, and I am getting even more confident that I am doing the right thing for me, and I am doing the right thing for Lily.

Lily will be a year old in 2 more months.  I haven’t decided if I will wean her then.   I don’t think she’s decided if she wants to wean by then.  I’ll be able to stop pumping and give Lily cow’s milk instead.  Most importantly, I do know that I will ignore the chorus of “Nursing after a year is gross!” and make the decision on my own.  Strike that.  Lily and I will make that decision on our own.

Posted in Raising baby | 3 Comments »

August 7, 2006 by veronica.

A long, long time ago, I set forth a created a blog, even though I don’t think the word blog was invented yet. It was to be my fifth class, as I was only taking 4 classes by the time my spring semester of my senior year rolled around. I had grand aspirations of writing many funny, witty, and insightful entries; I thought I would write in it every day. That didn’t happen. Some time last year a made a vain last grasp of trying to revive my dying blog. After all, now it was a blog, not just an online journal. That lasted for 2 weeks. However, this I do resolve to be different. First, it is the family blog. Chris is allowed to post on the blog, and Lily can as well, though I doubt her entries will be very…errr….readable. So even though it can can take me close to a month to reply to an email, I will keep up with this blog. After all, I am paying almost $4 per month for this! And we all know that you appreciate something more if you have to pay for it.  or maybe we don’t.  *sigh*  And so it begins…

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »