Tha Winnah!
Comments (0) Janet won my A&D Diaper Rash products giveaway! Congrats, Janet!
Incidentally, she has an online store with the absolute cutest baby stuff. Go. Shop. Buy.
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It’s a good thing she’s cute
By admin, August 26, 2010 7:17 pm
I was late for work on Tuesday, and it’s all the Poptart’s fault.
Sometime Monday evening, she took off with my security card and bus pass. Then she was up until 10:30 (?!!) and up at 4:45 (%$*!). And CRANKY, because hello? NOT ENOUGH SLEEP. She wanted to snuggle, except she didn’t. She wanted breakfast, except she didn’t. She wanted a nap, except she didn’t, crazy lady, which is why she spent 5 minutes screaming while I held her.
When our Nanny got up, I passed her off and went to get ready for work – all I needed was my bus pass and I was ready to go.
We searched high and low, until 10 minutes after I usually leave to make the train, and the Nanny found it. Under the storage sofa.* So I missed my regular train.
She is so not playing with my pass when I get home from work. It is being clipped to the keyholder in my bag when I’m on the shuttle from the station to home.
The upside is that I got to have breakfast with her – meaning she ate most of mine and ignored hers because food always tastes better when it’s from my plate.
The downside is that 7am is way too early for wine.
But, she is cute.
* We have an extra loveseat in the living room which we affectionately refer to as “the storage sofa” because it’s where we dump all our extraneous crappe that we don’t want to deal with. The baby finds no end of amusement with this.
You can still enter my A&D Diaper Rash Products giveaway here
Take two advil and call me in two weeks, or proof that I am getting old
By admin, August 25, 2010 7:15 pm
So awhile back, I noticed that my right hand was hurting when I pushed on the fourth knuckle or on the tip of my fourth finger. It would hurt when I grabbed things and I was having problems doing things like opening bottles, cans, etc. I had an occasional trigger finger on that finger (note for those that click, that is NOT my hand. My nails don’t look quite that bad). My dad was visiting and he had had a similar issue a few years back, where they’d gone in and opened up the sheaths that hold the tendons in the hand.
So I hauled my butt into the Doctor a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, there’s a cyst on the tendon which is causing pain. He wanted to see if it would go away on its own and told me to take anti-inflammatories and come back in two weeks if its not better. The good news is that it’s a cyst because they can just drain it; if it’s the thing my dad had it would have meant getting the procedure re-done every couple of years.
Me: Excellent!
Doctor: I thought it hurt?
Me: Oh it does! But now I can tell my dad that I’m all Mature and stuff because I’m getting old!
Doctor: ??????
Me: Dad says that when you get old you start growing things. I think technically he was referring to things on the outside of the body, but I think this will do.
[crickets]
Doctor: So yeah. Just take some anti-inflammatories for a couple of weeks and see if that helps. Bye!
A week later I called for an appointment in a week because my fourth right digit started swelling up and it hurt to bend it. It was also difficult doing things like typing and using a mouse on that hand. At work I use a left-handed mouse, so that helps. I’ve switched my mouse at home to left-handed as well, but I can’t get away from the typing thing.
Yesterday, I went back to the doctor, schlepping the Poptart along because she had a rash on her face for the last month (we are extremely attractive these days, I have to say what with her spotted face and my swelled up hand).
Doctor: We’ll make an appointment for you at the hand clinic.
Me: How long does that usually take? It’s our slow month so if I could get it done in August or the beginning of September, that’d be great. [ed. note. I say this because I know he’s connected and can usually pull a string or two].
Doctor: Oh it doesn’t usually take too long because they put a whole bunch of people through each Friday. And there’s no way I’m going to try to drain that myself – there’re way too many nerve endings in there and I’d just make things worse.
[crickets]
Me: Oh, well. I’ll trust your judgment. You did, after all, catch my kid.
[crickets]
Doctor: So, yeah, I’ll see you for a followup after its done! Make sure reception has your contact information. Bye!
So now, I wait for the office to call me or email me and let me know if/when I get an appointment.
Update: October 13. Today I call the specialist’s office to see if they have a waitlist for cancellations.
Don’t get me wrong. I really like my doctor. He’s kind, sympathetic and has a good sense of humour. He just doesn’t know what to make of us because one minute one of us will be spouting about technology, and the next we’re spouting new age stuff and going on about the evils of dairy products.
You can still enter my A&D Diaper Rash Products giveaway here
What I learned today while cleaning my carpets
By admin, August 21, 2010 4:57 pm
1. If you want to rent a carpet cleaner at the grocery store, you need a credit card. If you don’ t have one on you, you will have to go home and get one because no amount of begging, pleading or flashing of boobs well-reasoned arguments will make the store manager change his mind.
2. Babies do not like the sound of the carpet cleaner.
3. Husbands/Partners, given the choice between entertaining the baby elsewhere and manning the carpet cleaner, will choose the former. Especially if it means watching The Cat in the Hat with the baby.
4. If you are wearing newish jeans, and they get damp because you are using the hand attachment on the cleaner to get at some exceedingly stubborn spots, the dye will stain the carpet and you’ll have to scrub it out with the aforementioned hand attachment.
5. If it takes you awhile to realize what’s going on with your jeans, you will have many blue spots to clean out of the carpet. At which point, you will merely take off your jeans and finish the job in your underwear.
6. This will provide much humour for your husband/partner.
7. It’s better not to think about the colour of the water that comes out of your carpet.
8. You shouldn’t leave the cleaner on the carpet while you go get a bucket to refill it because it will leak dirty water onto your now-clean carpet. The laminate is a much better place for it.
9. Puddles on the laminate are slippery.
10. A clean carpet makes me happy.
You can still enter my A&D Diaper Rash Products giveaway here
Post-Partum Depression, Depression and Living
By admin, August 18, 2010 6:21 pm
A year ago, I dragged myself to the doctor to deal with post-partum depression (PPD) which manifested as anger and anxiety. Honestly, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. The thought that you’re not in control of your own mind is something else. Coupled with the anxiety, it was a good recipe for now-daily panic attacks.
I knew I was a good candidate for PPD – depression runs in my family. My dad was diagnosed as clinically depressed years ago. He was put on Effexor which helped him, and at that point it was the antidepressant of the day. It’s also one of the strongest ones out there and the one of the hardest to get off. When he found this out, he weaned himself off, saying, “I don’t want another monkey on my back.”
His medication of choice, by the way, is scotch: two drinks before dinner.
Honestly, I think it was more the idea that he wasn’t in control of his own mind that scared him off.
And it’s here that we get to the difference between “mind” and “brain.” The way my doctor explained it was it was largely a biochemical reaction – brain chemistry is out of balance and Zoloft helps regain that balance.
For years, I had suffered “episodes”: I’d have a day, or two, or three, or seven where I just wasn’t motivated, was sad and just couldn’t deal with life. Then I’d go and sleep for about 12 hours and I’d be better for a while. “Awhile” varied: it could be months, weeks, or a day. And I thought this was how people lived their lives – that everyone needed a reset once in a while. Because for me, this was normal – at least since my mid-teens. As I got older, another coping mechanism became wine: for about a year before getting pregnant, it was not unusual for me to have a glass or two, or three at night after work. Once in a while, I expect this is okay – but when it’s every day, it starts becoming a problem.
And then I got pregnant, gave up wine and had a baby.
Until I gave birth, sleeping was my coping mechanism. Diet too, but more sleeping. This was fine and doable when I didn’t have a baby, but with the sleep deprivation of new parenthood, I went into a downwards spiral until one day I was driving home and considered plowing the car into a concrete median just so that the responsibility would be someone else’s. That afternoon I called my doctor.
A month later, the cloud lifted. A year later, I feel better than I have felt in years. I have mental clarity, focus and my drive is coming back. I have the occasional mini-episode, but they’re not debilitating like they used to be and are often fixable with a walk or a swim rather than having to sleep for 12 hours or take a day off work. For me, the answer is one pill, once a day before bed.
So what am I saying? If you think you need help, you might. It probably can’t hurt to go ask. And it’s okay – it’s not your mind. It’s a biochemical reaction in your brain. Like Katie said when I came out about this, “If you were diabetic, you’d take insulin, right?”
Author’s Note: I wrote this yesterday, before this twitterstorm about this article on AOL. The really offensive comment has been removed since the twitterstorm. Basically the expert they asked said that post-partum depression is situational, and people get depressed because they can’t hack their situation. When she was called out she actually responded that all depression is situational:
Generally speaking, I don’t buy the chemical imbalance theory for any depression; I believe people just don’t want to deal with real life issues and the fact that sometimes life is simply depressing and damn difficult. It isn’t about chemical imbalance but tough times and our own issues.
(Shamelessly stolen from Pretty Babies’ post, linked above)
And it is attitudes like that, from other women no less, that make it necessary for us to speak out, and not give depression the power it has had through silence. It’s time to break the stigma, like I said above. Depression is chemical. Some people benefit from counseling, other from anti-depressants, and some people need both.
If you want to read more about this, Her Bad Mother has been far more eloquent on the subject than I ever could be; she takes my “depression sucks, but you can get better and it’s okay to ask for help” and gives it a voice that can be heard all over the internet.
Given it was a year ago yesterday that I finally overcame my own prejudices and asked for help, and this occurred today, I felt I had to chime in. Because I’m fairly certain that for me, it wasn’t only post-partum depression – it was an ongoing depression. That pill I take every night makes me a better mother, and a better person because I’m not so wrapped up in my own misery I can’t focus on anything else.
And for people out there that want to think otherwise, go ahead, think it. But this is what works for me and my family. This is what helps me go beyond existing to living.
You can still enter my A&D Diaper Rash Products giveaway here
Open Letters: People on the Train
By admin, August 17, 2010 6:12 pm
Dear Weird Guy:
Yes, I was sitting in “your” seat with my bag on the seat next to me. No, I couldn’t believe that you actually asked me to move my by so you could sit next to me. The reason I looked you dead in the eye and said, “Really?” was because there were (a) two seats across from me, (b) the quad of seats behind me and (c) two quads of seats across the aisle, all free.
Of course, if not getting “your” seat throws off your day that much, all the power to you. Enjoy.
Hugs.
Nicole
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Dear Sleeping Lady on the Other Side of the table:
When you get on the train and the two seats across from another person are free, the unspoken etiquette rule is to sit diagonally across from the person there. That way, we can both stretch our legs out and we both might be able to walk when we get to the last stop.
Instead, you’re sitting across from me, snoring and you obviously didn’t brush your teeth this morning, but you had time to put on makeup? I don’t want to get close enough to you to find out if you put deodorant on – all the more reason to sit on the diagonal from whoever is there first.
Smell you later,
Nicole
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Dear Guy at the Train Station on his Crackberry:
I would really like to know who you talk to at 6:40am every single morning. Once in awhile, I can understand, but who the hell is awake at 6:40am every single day to talk to you? And such language! My delicate ears, they burn!
Don’t fucking swear,
Nicole
____________________________________________________________
Dear Considerate Man on the Canada Line
That ankle looked like it hurt and it was great the woman next to me gave up her seat for you. That alone would have made my day, but the fact that you made the effort to say, “Have an awesome week” to her as she exited made it even better.
Cheers,
Nicole
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You can still enter my A&D Diaper Rash Products giveaway here
An Argument for Always Putting Things Back Where They Belong
By admin, August 16, 2010 8:03 pm
I have a habit of losing things. Temporarily, usually. There was this one time I lost my cel phone in the hatchback of my car, or so I thought. I rummaged around for it, but couldn’t find it. I declared it fully and completely lost and went to TELUS and got a new phone.
About 3 days later, I found it in the container that I put in the hatch so that I wouldn’t lose things :headdesk:
The problem, you see, is that I have this habit of dropping things wherever and whenever. I misplace my keys regularly. And my sunglasses (I am shocked that I’ve managed to hang on to the current pair for two years now. Shocked.)
This weekend, for example, I lost the following:
· My cel phone. I’d checked it on the train, and put it back in my bag. When I got home, I put my bag on the floor and the Poptart decided to be really helpful and empty my bag for me. I knew she was running around with my phone, so at some point I took it away from her and then it got eaten by the couch. Oh and it was on vibrate. On Sunday, I finally ended up calling the damn thing hoping (a) it had a charge and (b) we’d hear it buzz.
One thing about the LG Dare, it’s got a really strong vibrate – to the point that Darren felt it while sitting on THE OTHER END OF THE COUCH.
· A pair of pants. This one, I have no idea. NONE. I wore them on Friday, took them off and somewhere between my bedroom and the laundry room they vanished. As of Monday morning, I have no clue where they are. But I washed the shirt I was wearing on Friday so that means they have to be there, right?
When I asked our Nanny to keep an eye out for them, she looked at me like I had 5 heads. Honestly, I don’t blame her.
Status update, Monday evening: I found them! The baby stuffed them in the linen closet, dammit.
It would help, I suppose, if I put things back where they belong (and didn’t let the Poptart play with my bags and things. It’s awfully cute though, when she “talks” into the cel phone.
Do you lose things? Or are you more organized than I am and always put things back in their place so you’re not running around Monday morning (or Sunday night) trying to find your damn cel phone?
You can still enter my A&D Diaper Rash Products giveaway here
BlogHer Bucket List
By admin, August 15, 2010 11:18 am
Since I plan things for a living, and I like having as much time as possible to plan, I bought a ticket for BlogHer 2011 in San Diego. So for the next year or so, I can hyperventilate and let my anxiety rage (thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for Zoloft). So I have about a year to get my ass in gear on planning what I want and need for BlogHer 11.
I get a real sense of satisfaction with planning things. Not necessarily executing, but planning them. In other words, I’m a lot of talk, and less do.
In the movie “The Bucket List”, Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson make a list of things they’d like to do before they kick the bucket. Some people call this a life list. While I have one of those, those are really long-term goals with no real time limits, and there are some things I want to do before BlogHer.
So I present to you, the BlogHer Bucket List:
1. Buy my BlogHer’11 Pass
2. Lose at least 2 dress sizes.
3. Renew my passport (it expires April 2011 so unless I do that I’m not going)
4. Find someone or a company to sponsor at least part of the costs OR start earning some sort of income from the blog to cover or partially cover the costs.
5. Get a smartphone. Better yet, find a US company to give a smartphone to use for the conference (Verizon? AT&T? you can email me ANYTIME) or find a Canadian company that’s willing to swallow the roaming charges (TELUS, I’m looking at you since I’ve been a customer for a long time. Anyone else – Wind, Virgin, Rogers? – email me, you might get a new customer).
6. Work four to seven extra contracts and save that money to spend there. This might mean doing a lot of 4 hour contracts, but it would be worth it. (To this end, I’ve arranged for two contracts already which are worth about $1100 each)
So are you planning on going to BlogHer? Are you making a BlogHer bucket list?
Once a month, I’ll provide you with an update on the BlogHer Bucket List. Will you do the same?
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You can still enter my A&D Diaper Rash Products giveaway here
Review and Giveaway: A&D Diaper Rash Products
By admin, August 13, 2010 6:38 pm
When I was pregnant, I had no idea of what my “must haves” were for the baby. All I really knew was that I needed diapers and some clothes of some sort. I lucked out on the clothing end and was given bags and bags of clothes by a friend who had had two daughters. I was also given a bouncy chair by the same friend (who had three of them) and that turned out to be one of the most essential things. The Poptart napped in there most days while I was in the living room or kitchen. As she got older, the bouncy chair turned into a Kick ‘n Play which let her build up her leg strength.
A year and a bit later, my top ten list of things to have when you have a baby is:
1. Bouncy chair (Best. Thing. Ever.)
2. Vaseline (especially for the first few days – the meconium poops are horrible to clean up)
3. Diapers (think of how many you’ll need, double it, and then buy twice as many as that number – that should last you a week or so)
4. Sleepers
5. Onesies
6. Receiving blankets (make excellent burp rags)
7. Ready access to a breastfeeding guru
8. A doctor I trusted (seriously, if you don’t have one, get another)
9. A travel system (carseat/stroller – so I could actually go out. I suppose this is only necessary if you have a car)
10. A supportive partner (seriously, I couldn’t have made it through the first few months without Darren)
(Sidenote: Strong legs + Busy baby = Early Walker. She started walking at 10.5 months and I’m not sure if this is a good thing)
As for the other end (ha! End! Diapers! Get it?), after a lot of research, we decided to use cloth diapers. For the first couple of months, I used a cloth diaper service. They’d come by every week, take the dirty diapers and drop off clean ones. It was great, it’s a family business and for starting out with cloth diapers I’d fully recommend them. Eventually though, I stopped using them and bought my own diapers which I found on sale from a local small online shop (which has sadly gone out of business). We stopped the service for a variety of reasons: cost (it wasn’t any less expensive than using disposables), my getting skeeved out at my daughter sharing diapers with other unknown babies, and there was a faint chemical smell to the diapers – like not all the detergent got out when they were cleaned. So I switched to my own diapers.
The problem with cloth diapers and diaper rashes is that you can’t use traditional diaper rash creams on them because the zinc oxide gets into the diapers and ruins them unless you use a liner. So when the Poptart was red and rashy all the time, I was kind of kicking myself for not considering that this might happen. We ended up using Vaseline, baking soda and fresh air – mainly because most diaper creams out there are zinc oxide based, and that will ruin cloth diapers unless you use a disposable liner.
So when I was contacted and asked to review A&D Diaper Rash Products, I jumped on it, hoping that there would be a solution.
And in a case of “Be Careful What You Wish For” the Poptart developed a bit of a rash right before I received the samples. Her timing is impeccable.
The A&D products are new to Canada and they look pretty good. There’s a cream (for treating rashes) and an ointment (for daily care and prevention).
(Oh and they’re called A&D because they both have vitamins A&D in them).
Pros
· Both products are paraben free
· You can use the ointment with cloth diapers as it is not zinc oxide based.
· The ointment can also be used for treating the results (i.e. – chafed skin) of diaper rash
· I used the ointment on the Poptart’s face rash (from teething) and it helped! I love multi-use products.
· The cream spreads well; I found other ZO based creams to be stiff. This one spread really easily and I ended up using a lot less for the same amount of coverage.
· Both are non-greasy.
Cons
· The cream is zinc oxide based and therefore not usable with cloth diapers unless you use a disposable liner.
So for me, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
And I have a giveaway for you if you’re interested in winning 3 tubes of each of these products – that’s almost a year’s supply of diaper rash treatment products. All you have to do is answer the following question in the comment: what are your “must-haves” for new babies?
Contest closes August 30, 2010 and is open to Canadians (sorry US readers).
Disclaimer: I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central and received a Mom Central gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.
Administrative Note: This Post Brought to You By the 6:44am Train
By admin, August 9, 2010 6:21 pm
Since returning to work, my blog and involvement in social media stuff has been sadly neglected. I am still around, but have problems making regular posts. I know I could schedule them, but the whole point is that I have to write them first, and finding the time for that has been difficult.
So after this morning’s 1:45am wakeup call by the Poptart (more on the current sleep regression in another post), I was slugging down some coffee after she went back to bed (ha! Ha! Ha!), and was surfing the internet and thought to myself, “Self, you have a laptop that you use every freaking day. You could, self, take it along with you and use it on the train to write a blog post for a half an hour.” Oh and Word actually has a “new blog post” feature that’ll format everything properly.
(except for the fact that Word is kind of screwed up in my laptop for some reason and for some reason after I go into a menu or make a table, I can’t click into another area and have to use the arrow keys)
(Note to self: Self, get Darren to install office 2010)
(Oh and this allows for posts to be backed up, so if another occurrence of the Great Hacking of 07 occurs, I don’t have to go to Google Cache to find old posts)
So hopefully you will see more posts. Unfortunately, on the train I don’t have wifi access (except when it periodically goes past someone’s house and picks up a signal.
Themocracy