For BabyA, not me. She slept until a little after 12:30! When I went in to get her, she was back to her smiley self, chatting away, although a bit distressed about the absence of her binky. She ate a great lunch, and played for a while. It was nice to finally be able to just sit and play with her with no other demands-that hasn't happened in a while.
Regardless, she went back down for a nap at 3:00, and hasn't stirred yet an hour later. I'm a little worried that all of this shut eye could make for a difficult night tonight, but I have a sneaking suspicion that she hasn't been sleeping very well for at least a couple of days, maybe more, so she is really just catching up. Even though I'm a bit tired, I'm really happy that we got this taken care of last night-she is a different kid when her ears aren't driving her nuts. She was still messing with the infected ear while she nursed this afternoon, but it isn't going to completely go away in less than 24 hours. At least she is on her way back to being my smiley little girl-all that I could hope for!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Had to happen
Just a quick synopsis of last night:
- BabyA started to melt down (and melt everything around her due to the heat radiating off of her) around 6:00 PM
- Ate around 7:00 after a late nap, craaaby baby
- 7:45 PM-took temperature and approaching 104. Melting baby with goo coming out of her nose and eyes. Cool bath was a disaster. Screamy baby, where even the always reliable binky didn't work. I could feel that little pang of panic/fear. She was just so different than normal, and I knew that the night would be painful if we didn't get something done.
- 8:25 PM-registered at ER Husband stayed home with Son, since the thought of crabby baby and crabby almost three year old was enough to make my head spin.
- 10:05-finally back in an exam room in the peds ER By this point, the motrin that they had given her when we were triaged had kicked in, and she was in a pretty good mood. Gah. Great, make mom look even more neurotic than usual. I'm a second timer-I should have ti more together, right?
- 11:10-see doc for grand total of five minutes. Pretty bad ear infection in one ear, lots of congestion that is forcing goo out her eyes. Oh, and in the interim, we roasted in the back exam room that was more than tropical. I ended up stripping her down to a diaper since she was warming up again. I almost wished that I could too, but that may have been frowned upon....
- 11:30-waiting at Walgreens for amoxi and baby motrin. I had to drive ten minutes away from the Hospital, since out here in suburbia, there seems to be a dearth of 24 hour pharmacies. At least she was happy as we were waiting, and the Walgreen's muzak has improved. (In a past life, I dated a Walgreen's pharmacist for a while, and spent A LOT of time waiting for him.)
- 12:00-BabyA fed, medicated, and in bed.
- 12:45-Mommy fed, medicated, and in bed.
She was back up at 6:35 this morning, goopy but hungry. I hit her with another shot of the amoxi and motrin, and after some decent booby time, she was back out. It is now 10:10 and she is still out. Poor thing. Mommy is thinking about taking some time to catch a couple of winks herself. Just a long night, after a long weekend. (I don't want to talk about it-I'm just so damn frustrated I cannot stand it!)
At least she seems to be feeling a little better-she just looks like hell. I'm only going to do enough work to not have to take a vacation or sick day, but that is it. My baby needs to be babied a little.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Just a few notes
It's funny how the random little things are really what compose the substance of your day-but yet get so very little attention. So, for the day, I'm going to try to document the little things that strike my fancy today. Could be nothing but extremely trivial and boring drivel, or a compelling insight to my psyche. I'm voting for the first part, but we'll see...
Husband stayed home this morning and actually helped! Oh the joy! He's working from home today, and had some very nice Rush concert tickets fall into his lap, so he'll be gone tonight. Some guilty conscience at work? Don't care, I got to work earlier than normal this morning.
A ruling just came down on an infringement case that I had been messing with last year. A patent troll (a company that just seeks to enforce patents, but doesn't actually produce anything, just sues companies for infringement) had been sniffing around a couple of our suppliers, causing all sorts of angst and reading of indemnification clauses. Said patent troll and its client lost! Hopefully that means that I won't have to deal with this again. Well, until the next client comes troll's way.
Husband stayed home this morning and actually helped! Oh the joy! He's working from home today, and had some very nice Rush concert tickets fall into his lap, so he'll be gone tonight. Some guilty conscience at work? Don't care, I got to work earlier than normal this morning.
A ruling just came down on an infringement case that I had been messing with last year. A patent troll (a company that just seeks to enforce patents, but doesn't actually produce anything, just sues companies for infringement) had been sniffing around a couple of our suppliers, causing all sorts of angst and reading of indemnification clauses. Said patent troll and its client lost! Hopefully that means that I won't have to deal with this again. Well, until the next client comes troll's way.
BabyA stood up all by herself last night (yep, probably should have been higher on the list). She crawled over to Husband who was sitting on the floor, put her pudgy little hands on his leg, got her feet under her, butt in the air, grabbed on to Husband's hand for some stability, and stood up. Just like that. She's not taking that not growing up too soon request very seriously.
I sent Son to daycare today in sandals with socks. He demanded that he wear his new sandals, and since it isn't full-on sandal weather yet, I let him go for it. Hey, he's two. Who's going to question that fashion sense?
Has anyone every seen a list on lactation room etiquette? Gah. A couple of weeks ago, we had a new addition to the user pool of the lactation room at work, and it has mucked things up a bit. OK, rule #1: clean up your drips. They are everywhere! I usually wipe down the table after I rinse my stuff out, but it irritates me that I have to clean up after her. It just seems gross to me. I don't know why. Rule #2: do not usurp someone's position in the refrigerator. We share a dorm-sized refrigerator, and my spot has been taken by the new arrival. I like to put my ice pack closest to the minuscule freezer compartment to try to keep it as cold as possible. I've now lost that spot. Rule #3: there is a five minute grace period beyond the scheduled period. So, if it's 3:01, and my scheduled time ended at 3:00, please don't be knocking on the door while I'm fumbling to put myself back together. The meeting ran late, I got in late, and so on. Don't do this especially when your scheduled time has come and gone, so it's not like you are doing the breastfeeding equivalent of the potty dance out in the hall. Finally, Rule #4: Always, always, make sure to change the "in use" sign to "vacant" when you leave (no kidding, we have a sliding marker outside of the door) so there isn't that awkward, should I go in or not, moment. (See Rule #3). If it's used consistently, you'll know if the sign is for real or not. There are rules, people!
Speaking of rules, after last night, I think we have a new house rule: no single parenting on bath nights. No exceptions. They both ended up in bed, but it wiped me out, and got me drenched.
Well, off to a long weekend. Any by long I mean laundry, groceries, litter box cleaning.....
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A new milestone
BabyA, like her brother, has a flair for the dramatic. Son started walking on the day of his first birthday party. By the end of the day, he was walking across the dining room, rather steadily. However, it was almost a week after the party that he did it again. With no audience other than mom and dad, where was the motivation?
BabyA started to crawl about a week ago, just little moves. A couple of feet, stop, rest, and sit up, grump, crawl some more. Husband's mom was up on Sunday, along with his sister and two girls. Having four under the age of four in my house was an experience to behold. It also taught me that having three may be a bit more raucous than I had bargained for. (Just for the record, it doesn't scare me, but may cool my baby lust a bit, at least for a while).
Anyway, BabyA put on a crawling symposium. All over the place, little head down with the concentration of effort to move forward. She is a little funny in that every third or fourth set she has to lift her left leg so her foot helps to propel her along, as if she needs a little turbo. She takes really small "steps." Son would make these large, grand movements, but my little flower takes her time, rather petitely. Nevertheless, just like Son, she turned on the charm for the crowd.
However, unlike Son, she has continued on. Yesterday she crawled to me across the play area in her daycare room, motivated by the glint and jingle of my keys. What can I say, the girl likes the shiny stuff! Her main focus usually is to get to something vertical so she can try to pull up. Fortunately for me, she hasn't done it yet. She can get to her knees, and even manages to get one foot under her, but she doesn't have the leg strength yet to get all of the way up. Once she does though, we are done for. She's too tall to leave the crib where it is, so that will have to go down, and I'll have to the balance on the front rail act to put her down at night (yes, I still nurse her to sleep, and no, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon).
She's leaving babydom behind so quickly. One of her daycare ladies told her to slow down and not grow up quite yet. She's a stubborn little thing, so I don't think that she'll be honoring that request anytime soon. I sure wish that she would.
BabyA started to crawl about a week ago, just little moves. A couple of feet, stop, rest, and sit up, grump, crawl some more. Husband's mom was up on Sunday, along with his sister and two girls. Having four under the age of four in my house was an experience to behold. It also taught me that having three may be a bit more raucous than I had bargained for. (Just for the record, it doesn't scare me, but may cool my baby lust a bit, at least for a while).
Anyway, BabyA put on a crawling symposium. All over the place, little head down with the concentration of effort to move forward. She is a little funny in that every third or fourth set she has to lift her left leg so her foot helps to propel her along, as if she needs a little turbo. She takes really small "steps." Son would make these large, grand movements, but my little flower takes her time, rather petitely. Nevertheless, just like Son, she turned on the charm for the crowd.
However, unlike Son, she has continued on. Yesterday she crawled to me across the play area in her daycare room, motivated by the glint and jingle of my keys. What can I say, the girl likes the shiny stuff! Her main focus usually is to get to something vertical so she can try to pull up. Fortunately for me, she hasn't done it yet. She can get to her knees, and even manages to get one foot under her, but she doesn't have the leg strength yet to get all of the way up. Once she does though, we are done for. She's too tall to leave the crib where it is, so that will have to go down, and I'll have to the balance on the front rail act to put her down at night (yes, I still nurse her to sleep, and no, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon).
She's leaving babydom behind so quickly. One of her daycare ladies told her to slow down and not grow up quite yet. She's a stubborn little thing, so I don't think that she'll be honoring that request anytime soon. I sure wish that she would.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Marginalized
Request received today:
"Please cut down everything you do regarding intellectual property for a technology dense company in an very competitive industry into four powerpoint slides. Thank you."
I want to rip something apart.
Let's see, I was also told that "patent stuff really isn't relevant" to most of the new hires, even if, as far as I can tell, most of the new hires are related to our research and development. You know, the one that we pump millions of dollars into a year (way more than our closest competitor) and then can't adequately protect because of resource (not enough lawyers) and knowledge (engineers that aren't educated about the process because some moron in some staffing committee decided it wasn't relevant) scarcities.
Argh.
I probably should give background. For several years, we have worked with HR to put together a presentation for new hires at their day one orientation. Basic things about how the patent process works, confidentiality agreements, etc. I've cut it down severely in the past couple of years. It's now been changed that someone in HR, with no IP background, gives our presentation. I could ask them to tell me the difference between the rights that are provided with a patent application (none) and an actual patent (over a decade of enforceable rights) and all they would do is blink at me. I know that it's not their job, but if you don't understand it, don't try to dictate to me what is or isn't important.
It's just another hit in a long line lately of being told that we are oh-so-important by our CEO yet not important enough to deal with our current resource crisis or address any much-needed growth in the future. It's sort of like being the other woman and hearing-I'll leave her next week-only to have it be two years later with nothing changed, yet years of your life are gone.
At least I get to decide which four slides I get to keep. How about the last one just being a picture of one particular finger extended, with an extreme close-up? Feels about right.
"Please cut down everything you do regarding intellectual property for a technology dense company in an very competitive industry into four powerpoint slides. Thank you."
I want to rip something apart.
Let's see, I was also told that "patent stuff really isn't relevant" to most of the new hires, even if, as far as I can tell, most of the new hires are related to our research and development. You know, the one that we pump millions of dollars into a year (way more than our closest competitor) and then can't adequately protect because of resource (not enough lawyers) and knowledge (engineers that aren't educated about the process because some moron in some staffing committee decided it wasn't relevant) scarcities.
Argh.
I probably should give background. For several years, we have worked with HR to put together a presentation for new hires at their day one orientation. Basic things about how the patent process works, confidentiality agreements, etc. I've cut it down severely in the past couple of years. It's now been changed that someone in HR, with no IP background, gives our presentation. I could ask them to tell me the difference between the rights that are provided with a patent application (none) and an actual patent (over a decade of enforceable rights) and all they would do is blink at me. I know that it's not their job, but if you don't understand it, don't try to dictate to me what is or isn't important.
It's just another hit in a long line lately of being told that we are oh-so-important by our CEO yet not important enough to deal with our current resource crisis or address any much-needed growth in the future. It's sort of like being the other woman and hearing-I'll leave her next week-only to have it be two years later with nothing changed, yet years of your life are gone.
At least I get to decide which four slides I get to keep. How about the last one just being a picture of one particular finger extended, with an extreme close-up? Feels about right.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Stuff
No more grumping (at least for now, I always reserve the right), as I am actually in what could be termed a good mood today. I don't know if it is the fact that spring has FINALLY arrived, with temps in the 70s today, or the good 80s tunes on the radio on the way in, or what.
**********
I have survived 3.5 days of being a single mom to two under the age of three. I don't think that I'll get any points for grace or perfect parenting, but I've managed to achieve the basic thresholds: they are both still alive, have been fed on a regular basis (with only one trip to Wendy's at Son's request), bathed, have clean clothes, and have been put to bed at a semi-decent hour. They have even been on a walk or two, and spent one afternoon listing to MPR and playing by themselves. I'm hoping the MPR and PBS will cancel out some of the other stuff.
**********
While I was getting ready this morning, Son climbed up on the bed and was doing his best yellow lab impersonation-panting, and, ewww, licking me. Often. I moved to get away from the little goon, and somehow he managed to head butt me (in his defense, completely unintentionally) squarely on my rather large and previously beat up nose. I heard that god awful noise of something moving in my nose, and boy, did it hurt. After my eyes stopped watering, my cursory inspection revealed nothing broken, but good lord, that kid has a hard head! Assuming that since my nose was throbbing, Son may have hurt himself too, I asked him if his head hurt. He looked at me with a rather confused look and said "no" and continued to look at me like I was an idiot. I banned him from the bed and sent him out to finish watching Clifford (see, use of PBS!)
**********
Husband came home last night. Hooray. Sort of. He was stressed out about what he will find at work after being gone for five days (the short answer? A mess of a remodeling project), and tired and just plain grumpy. Oh, and did I mention that we are going to be driving almost five hours on Saturday down to Iowa? Good times I tell you, good times.
**********
Son never ceases to amaze us in smart he is. In this instance, a little scarily so. Husband was home last night, and we were watching a slideshow of his pictures on the HDTV (it has this cool feature where you put in the memory card of your digital camera and it will pop up a slide show in 52 glorious inches). Son walked up to Husband, asked to be picked up, and says very earnestly, "I really love you." Hold off on the awwwws. He then proceeds, in the next breath, to say "I have a poopy diaper." Stinker.
**********
Oh, I love my real estate website that updates me on listings that I have been following! Husband and looked (as in peered in the windows while standing out in the rain) at a huge house that is bank owned, and has been gutted back to the studs. Apparently, the bank didn't believe in winterizing (duh, winter, Minnesota) and a pipe burst, and the first floor and previously finished basement had to be stripped of everything except the framing. ANYWAY, it was originally listed at $379,900 (it's over 5,000 sq. feet) but they reduced it today by $64,000. If it drops a bit more, we may seriously consider it. It would need about $100k of work to make the first floor and the second livable, and we could leave the basement until we were ready (pending of course, the bank's approval). The yard isn't that great, but the space...oh my God the space. It has a three car garage, and then a tuckunder four car attached to the basement. Oh, the things that we could do.
Of course, there is the small matter of selling our house, which in this crap market may be tougher than even I can imagine, but still, it's really worth thinking about. I've got a list an arm long on the things that we would need to do to make ours ready-minor stuff like repainting the upstairs and stairs walls, finishing the landscaping on the one side, etc. Of course, I get my usual anxiety whenever I think about taking on a bigger mortgage, and losing my big yard. But then again, losing our big yard but gaining some much-needed space would be good. The biggest perk to this? Husband is more than 50% on board with this. After all the fights about this, he is finally figuring out that we are getting space constrained, no matter what we do. How much clutter I throw, there just isn't what we need. And BabyA is only eight months!
**********
So, there's my week. How was yours?
**********
I have survived 3.5 days of being a single mom to two under the age of three. I don't think that I'll get any points for grace or perfect parenting, but I've managed to achieve the basic thresholds: they are both still alive, have been fed on a regular basis (with only one trip to Wendy's at Son's request), bathed, have clean clothes, and have been put to bed at a semi-decent hour. They have even been on a walk or two, and spent one afternoon listing to MPR and playing by themselves. I'm hoping the MPR and PBS will cancel out some of the other stuff.
**********
While I was getting ready this morning, Son climbed up on the bed and was doing his best yellow lab impersonation-panting, and, ewww, licking me. Often. I moved to get away from the little goon, and somehow he managed to head butt me (in his defense, completely unintentionally) squarely on my rather large and previously beat up nose. I heard that god awful noise of something moving in my nose, and boy, did it hurt. After my eyes stopped watering, my cursory inspection revealed nothing broken, but good lord, that kid has a hard head! Assuming that since my nose was throbbing, Son may have hurt himself too, I asked him if his head hurt. He looked at me with a rather confused look and said "no" and continued to look at me like I was an idiot. I banned him from the bed and sent him out to finish watching Clifford (see, use of PBS!)
**********
Husband came home last night. Hooray. Sort of. He was stressed out about what he will find at work after being gone for five days (the short answer? A mess of a remodeling project), and tired and just plain grumpy. Oh, and did I mention that we are going to be driving almost five hours on Saturday down to Iowa? Good times I tell you, good times.
**********
Son never ceases to amaze us in smart he is. In this instance, a little scarily so. Husband was home last night, and we were watching a slideshow of his pictures on the HDTV (it has this cool feature where you put in the memory card of your digital camera and it will pop up a slide show in 52 glorious inches). Son walked up to Husband, asked to be picked up, and says very earnestly, "I really love you." Hold off on the awwwws. He then proceeds, in the next breath, to say "I have a poopy diaper." Stinker.
**********
Oh, I love my real estate website that updates me on listings that I have been following! Husband and looked (as in peered in the windows while standing out in the rain) at a huge house that is bank owned, and has been gutted back to the studs. Apparently, the bank didn't believe in winterizing (duh, winter, Minnesota) and a pipe burst, and the first floor and previously finished basement had to be stripped of everything except the framing. ANYWAY, it was originally listed at $379,900 (it's over 5,000 sq. feet) but they reduced it today by $64,000. If it drops a bit more, we may seriously consider it. It would need about $100k of work to make the first floor and the second livable, and we could leave the basement until we were ready (pending of course, the bank's approval). The yard isn't that great, but the space...oh my God the space. It has a three car garage, and then a tuckunder four car attached to the basement. Oh, the things that we could do.
Of course, there is the small matter of selling our house, which in this crap market may be tougher than even I can imagine, but still, it's really worth thinking about. I've got a list an arm long on the things that we would need to do to make ours ready-minor stuff like repainting the upstairs and stairs walls, finishing the landscaping on the one side, etc. Of course, I get my usual anxiety whenever I think about taking on a bigger mortgage, and losing my big yard. But then again, losing our big yard but gaining some much-needed space would be good. The biggest perk to this? Husband is more than 50% on board with this. After all the fights about this, he is finally figuring out that we are getting space constrained, no matter what we do. How much clutter I throw, there just isn't what we need. And BabyA is only eight months!
**********
So, there's my week. How was yours?
Monday, May 05, 2008
Maybe Brittany had it right
Maybe this place is toxic. Really. (But no, I will not be dancing around in virtually nothing with a large snake. I have a phobia about snakes. Terrified of them).
I just don't get it. I get back into this office, and I hit a wall. I had a fairly decent weekend, all things considered. We had to drop Husband off at the airport on Saturday morning rather earlyish, so I had two tired kids, but they both did pretty well up until bedtime. On Sunday, I was able to do a little work out in my flower beds and around the yard while the kids slept.
Then I walked into this place, booted up, and want to do nothing more than run in the opposite direction.
I even went to a continuing education class on Friday that was really interesting and engaging. I was almost looking forward to going back to work on Monday. Now, I wonder what chemical they were pumping through the vents to make even begin to think that coming in today would be a fulfilling experience. I need to get myself more of that stuff, whatever it is.
Just have to trudge through, but I won't be winning any employee of the day awards.
I just don't get it. I get back into this office, and I hit a wall. I had a fairly decent weekend, all things considered. We had to drop Husband off at the airport on Saturday morning rather earlyish, so I had two tired kids, but they both did pretty well up until bedtime. On Sunday, I was able to do a little work out in my flower beds and around the yard while the kids slept.
Then I walked into this place, booted up, and want to do nothing more than run in the opposite direction.
I even went to a continuing education class on Friday that was really interesting and engaging. I was almost looking forward to going back to work on Monday. Now, I wonder what chemical they were pumping through the vents to make even begin to think that coming in today would be a fulfilling experience. I need to get myself more of that stuff, whatever it is.
Just have to trudge through, but I won't be winning any employee of the day awards.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)