The New Normal

This has been an interesting week for our little family. Not only have I reinforced some pretty strict rules on house training for the pooch, we were also splashed with a nice, icy dose of a new reality. Our little princess had to start daycare this week. Not biggie, right? Em… Well, not so easy, really. In a few days’ time, I had to reinvent our entire routine and hope the little one can adapt quickly. Because of the addition of daycare, instead of me getting up at 6:00, and letting the little one sleep in, I am now up at 5:20. I walk the dog, feed the dog, hit the shower, get dressed, wake Baby Girl, get her dressed, get her to eat breakfast, take the dog out one last time, and out the door by 7:20. She would normally sleep in till about 8:30 – 9-ish when my parents were with us (the rules were virtually non-existent when she stayed with them). oh yes, to make all of this work, I also prepare her and my meals before going to bed the night before. I even determine what's for breakfast and get as much of it as possible ready at that time, that way I have a few less steps to deal with in the morning. I still don’t have all the steps quite right but it’s getting there. Of course, we also had to get the little one into her daycare routine, which is another challenge altogether. She now has to get used to eating at a particular time but more importantly, get into her crib and go to sleep. And that, ladies and gentlemen is the monster hurdle. See, at one point I used to be able to put the little one in her crib and she would kind of just hang out, get her pacifier and go to sleep. Then my parents insisted on holding her to put her to sleep, and then we were done. My Mom even got offended by my efforts to try to get her to sleep on her own. I was in the room with the baby, mind you, just not holding her. This made the little one wail like a banshee. It got to the point where I had to kick my Mom out of the baby’s room when she stormed in demanding to take the baby to their room till she fell asleep. Awesome. But yes, we were entirely too lenient and took the path of least resistance, and now we find ourselves with a kid who refuses to fall asleep on her own. Note to self, for the future, tough it out. So yes, in daycare, she is put in her pack and play and is expected to sleep. We’re in day three and she is still putting up a good fight. But the woman who runs the daycare is no-nonsense and it shows. The little one has been fussing a touch less about getting into her crib. The one great thing about daycare is that because she is more or less playing for the majority of the day, she has been coming home pooped. I love it, by 8:30 she starts saying, "night night." Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with Baby Girl, but she can make it difficult to do things like clean the house after dinner or even relax before my bed time. The other aspect that we had to deal with is the complete overhaul of our finances. I knew daycare is expensive but damn, it stings. Over the next few months I will have to don my Mr. Scrooge top hat and slash expenses across the board. I’m so not going to enjoy that but ah well. Until I win the Powerball—which by the way, is the kind of frivolous spending that I am cutting out of our budget— this will have to be the new normal. F- me!

This Afternoon

Not that it's really that surprising but everything is going to change today. It's awesome and kinda scary but mostly, just doesn't seem real. I suppose that's to be expected, though. I suppose nothing this big is ever real at first.

Luckily, I have a great sypport system to turn to should I need them. And really, that's all I could ever ask for.

I know, it's not very like me to be so cryptic, but I'll make sure to let yall know what I'm talking about in time. At this moment, I'm just not ready.

Still Here!

Hiya. In case you have been wondering, no, I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth and yes there is stuff going on. I'm just not exactly comfortable posting the news at this time. I am keeping a long and detailed entry that I will post when the time is right, but for now... Hiya.

I can't believe we're already at Memorial Day. Holy crap has this year flown. I mean honestly I have no idea what happened to the last three months. All I know is that I started work and, boom we're here at the unofficial start of the summer. Next thing you know, we'll blink and it'll be the 4th of July, then we'll give Halloween and Christmas miss and proceed directly to Groundhog Day. Huzzah!

Ooh, speaking of Huzzah! I'm really excited. I've already know which items I will be getting at this year's Ren Faire. It is almost the season es, This year I'll be getting the apron portion of the garb and a head cover of some sort. I haven't decided if I like the bonnet style or the floppy-style hats. Eh, I'll decide later. But yeah, I am so looking forward to all the Summery stuff .

Activities I've got planned for this summer:
Hiking
Kayaking
Camping (still have to determine where and get a new tent)
Ren Faire
Beach (Duh)
Vegas (Labor Day weekend)

The other thing I have decied on is finally getting a digital camera. I still use my old-school film camera which I adore and will NEVER give up on, but I think it's time to bite the bullet and get a point and shoot.

Obsessed?

The more I thin about this, the scarier it is; Aaron and I are not that different. That right there scares the beejeezus out of me.

I love him dearly, mind you, but he is a bit of a loony. He tends to find things to obsess over and once he gets on them, it's pretty much impossible to distract him for more than a millisecond. For example. His to-do lists: He will sit there for hours and hours shuffling things around and figuring out the order of things as he goes along, checking things off. House hunting: He knows every house on sale in the areas that we're interested in and knows when they drop in price or have new photos uploaded.

Where do the similarities come in? Ah-ha... For the last week I have been looking into anything and everything out there on the whole baby planning thing. I've even restarted putting entries on The Bump. I noticed I still have the blog that I started on The Knot. It's connected to The Nest as well. I'm apparently in the TTC segment. Yeah you'd think it'd figure out what TTC stands for sooner, right. Not so much. It took me till today to realize it means Trying To Conceive. Duh.

But, I digress. So yeah, I've been reading over dozens upon dozens of articles on WebMD (By the way, I'm now convinced I may have every ailment out there including an enlarged prostate and possibly rickets, thanks to all the damn scary-ass articles on there). I've also made my way through Fit Pregnancy, Pregnancy, Women's Health and yes, The Bump. And I've started expanding on my original to-do list. (Ta-dah) This was once a shortish list. No longer. The thing now runs into a third page. I've crossed things off already, mind you.

Ah well. I suppose it was bound to happen. I mean, you spend enough time with a person and some of their quirks are bound to rub off on you, right?

Lord, I still say that's a scary thought.

Oh yes, so here's where we stand on the whole house hunting thing; when we get home from Bermuda (we're taking off at the end of the month. Woo!), we're opening a new savings account and piling as much as possible in there. We've narrowed the search down to a handful of towns based on school systems and we've created a list of things we want and things we do not want in a house. Hopefully by the time summer rolls around, we'll be able to actually check out potential homes.

See, the obsession is contagious.

Jingle, Jingle. Hey Looky, Lots of Change!

Change, yes, it’s good; except of course if you have too much in your pockets and are trying to run, then it just gets in the way and threatens to pull your pants down. But of course, that’s not the kind of change I’m talking about.

Inhale and long exhale… Aaron and I have decided it’s time. Yep we’re finally ready to start trying for kids. And, oh yeah, you’re all the first to read this. I haven’t even told my parents yet. But then again, I also thought we were going to have another month.

Long story, short. My pill pack ran out BUT when I got that pack, the pharmacist didn’t tell me that was the last of the refills. I tried calling my doctor's office but missed them on Sunday (pill one) and yesterday I was in meetings all day long. By the time I had a moment to call, they were closed (pill two). So last night I realized that by time I got a hold of my doctor to let him know that I would needed another prescription called in, I would have already missed three pills and therefore, pretty much would have rendered the pills I would get, useless. Especially since I was going to be going off them at the end of the month. So when I told Aaron the situation yesterday he kind of laughed, particularly when I suggested he use protection till the month is up. Actually, if I’m being honest, that last bit stopped the laughter momentarily before he scoffed a “no!” and laughed harder.

It’s all good. He’s actually very happy about the turn of events. That, and he’s really happy because he’s ahead of where he wants to be on his “to do” list. Yeah, every month he creates and obsesses over his “to do” lists. He even gets pretty annoyed if he can’t cross something off. He’s about a month ahead on that too so for him; the whole pill thing is just going according to his plans. :)

It does feel odd though. I’ve been on the pill for ages so this morning was just off. I kept thinking I forgot something. Duh! Eh, it’ll take a bit to get used to this change. Of course, that’s nothing compared to the other changes coming our way.

So today after work I'm hitting the supermarket and Vitamin Shoppe to stock up on vitamins.

Since we're on the list topic, this is WebMD's checklist of things to do prior to getting pregnant. I'm screwed on the caffeine thing by the way, but does anyone out there have any other suggestions of things I should be doing?


• Take a folic acid supplement every day. This reduces the chance of certain birth defects. Do not wait until you are pregnant to do this.

• Make a doctor's appointment for a checkup/wellness visit.

• Make sure to get and begin taking prenatal vitamins.

• Check with your doctor about any over-the-counter and prescription medications you currently take.

• See your dentist for a cleaning or checkup if you have not done so in the last six months. Untreated gum disease is linked to preterm birth.

• Look into local prenatal exercise classes.

• Review maternity/paternity leave options at work and your health insurance's maternity coverage.

• Develop a maternity and baby budget.

• If you smoke, quit.

• Limit alcohol and caffeine intake.

• Stock your refrigerator with healthy foods and snacks.