Tuesday

[smallpotato]

I'm home with a sick baby and energetic 4 year old today. Poor G has had a bad cough, and spit up all over both of us. He was crying and just miserable. I took his temp and it was 101.4. I'm waiting for the pedi's office to open to call and see if they want to see him. MH is working so I'm on my own with this. And it's going to snow later.

How is your Tuesday?

[jwinct]

smallpotato - I hope your l'il guy feels better soon! Let us know what your pedi says.

I hardly slept at all last night and haven't really for the past few nights. I don't know if it's because of my cold, which really isn't too bad now, or just the fact that I cannot shut my brain off, thanks to President Hitler.

My kids have an early release today because of the impending snow, but thankfully their after school program stays open until the normal time. It would be nice to have to leave work early, but I'm super busy right now and have a lot to do.

[britta]

Uh-oh smallpotato. That sounds familiar. I'm sorry. Hope the little guy feels better soon and Ts&Ps for your sanity. That part is also familiar.

Not much going on here. Sleep was ok last night and DS1 slept until 7:30 this morning, so I suppose I feel pretty rested. DH should be home soon. He'll sleep till 2 and then I'll leave for work. In the meantime, I'll be trying to keep both boys semi quiet so H can sleep. It's hard when he's gotta sleep while they're both home. I'm excited to be able to work today, even if that's because it's going to be crazy town. 10 heart surgeries today. That's....a lot.

[iwantbacon]

Hope G feels better soon smallpotato

Sleep was terrible again. I tried so hard not to feed him the second big wake up because he almost seemed just belligerent about sleep instead of hunger. But nothing I did worked so boob it was. And he went right back to sleep until he started coughing. I. Need. Sleep. Seriously, why was he sleeping so much better when I was on mat leave and could actually nap and get stuff done during the day instead of cramming everything into two hours after work?!?

Ok deep breaths and big sip of coffee.

[ksyknelvr73]

I finally got my first full paycheck today since coming back to work and OMG it feels wonderful. This month has been AWFUL for us money-wise, I feel like I can finally breathe now.

I may try Amazon Fresh for the first time today. I need to go grocery shopping but I really do not have time - and I have to work 12 hours tomorrow and Thursday so there's no way I can go but we're running out of food. Hoping for the best here.

[hikingmama222]

smallpotato Hope G feels better!

britta Good luck keeping the boys quiet and have "fun" at work. I know how much you've been wanting to get back.

Swimming this morning for DD and that's all we've got planned.

So DD has this crush on a couple boys at school. It's so cute. She talks about them non stop and has even been asking to wear dresses to school (prior to last week she never specified). When we ask about them she gets all shy and blushes. DH is freaking out about it. Everywhere she goes she gets lots of attention from the boys already. My girlfriends two boys just adore her and so do a couple of boys at daycare. We're in trouble when she's older I think.

[smallpotato]

Thanks everyone. I just checked his temp and it's down to 99.8. I'm bringing him in later this morning. Poor guy is just so sad.

[Deleted]

Sorry for all the crappy sleep.

+1 to crappy sleep, but not from either kid. I just didn't sleep well. I didn't hear a peep out of DS all night...I managed to actually get to bed before he woke up. DD slept from 6-10, DH woke her and changed her into jammies, fed her and she went right back to sleep until 530.

I should clean the house today but I'm just not feeling it. We shall see.

[penguin129]

smallpotato Sorry your kiddo is sick.
htle07 Cleaning and reorganizing the house is one of my goals for this year too. I am working on getting as much from the garage into the house as possible. The toy room is a mess because it is like my holding zone and will be the last room I go through. Mr. P is not a purger so I'm going to purge mine and the girls stuff. 3/4 ain't bad.
britta 10 Surgeries!!! That's a lot. Yay for a busy shift.

[adouces06]

smallpotato hope the baby gets better soon!
htle07 you have a Camden, too?! That's my DS' name good choice!
ksyknelvr73 Amazon Fresh is awesome! I tried it recently for the first time. Really good produce!

Sorry for everyone with crap sleep. DD slept great until 4, then was up every hour until I got up at 7:30. You win some, you lose some.

Does anyone do bullet journaling? In an attempt to be more organized at work, I am going to give it a shot. I've been browsing Pinterest, and they have a ton of great templates I am hoping to use.

[penguin129]

I decided I wanted to talk to the health dept in person about dropping the home nurse. So when Lil P wakes up that will be our first stop. I need to go to the Property Appraisers office because I am worried I'm going to fill out the Sales Verification letter wrong. I also want to see about finally changing my address on my driver's license. We've been here a year almost and I still have the address of the town house we rented. Consignment store and then Wal-mart.

[penguin129]

adouces06 I am going to try it for Feb. I want to do a habit tracker, thankful tracker, a month title page, maybe a monthly goals page. I use a normal 5x7 planner for my to do list and appointments because I hated hand drawing those every month. Maybe a separate thread is needed

[fem]

htle07 I really need to purge toys, our living room is crammed full and I think it makes me anxious when it's that cluttered.

Pumping at work. O nursed 20 times yesterday. I think her bad latch is affecting nursing now and not just bottles. The more I read about lip tie symptoms the more I think this is our problem.

Can't wait until our dentist appointment Thursday. I sent the poor girl with a medicine dropper to daycare so they could get some milk in her.

[jwinct]

DH filed our taxes last night and we're getting a larger refund than expected because I didn't earn as much income last year due to maternity leave. I cannot wait for it to be deposited into our bank account. Hopefully it will be quick because we filed so early.

[britta]

smallpotato I hope it's not what I fear it is. 😖 I'm glad his temp came down though. Poor guy.
jwinct I can't wait to do our taxes. I'm pretty sure we'll get a decent refund for the same reason. We're being super fun though and putting our whole refund on our student loans again this year. Yay.

DS2 is fighting his first nap already. I tried giving him a paci and he pushed it to the side of his mouth and started chomping on it. Last night I'm pretty sure I felt a tooth under the surface of his gums. At this point, I think I'd be willing to bet my next paycheck that he is in fact teething.

[jwinct]

britta - We're mostly paying bills with ours, too. I'm also going to buy DD1's new bed. That's the last thing we need for her surprise birthday bedroom makeover. We even have the mattress already. Our pedi couldn't feel a tooth, but said the DS is definitely teething, just based on the chomping and amount of drool he produces. I wish we could feel a tooth because I want it to break through ASAP. Hopefully your little one's tooth will break through soon!

[smallpotato]

Well, G has an ear infection, and the pedi heard some wheezing in his left side. We did an albuterol treatment there and it seemed to help. So we have antibiotics and the nebulizer. We go back Thursday for a follow up. The snow started when we were leaving the office. After quick stops at Dunkin and CVS, we're hunkering down. The day care FB page said they are closing at 3:30, so I would have had to leave work early anyway to get them.

[smallpotato]

Maybe I'll start our taxes while I'm home if I can get both boys down. We can claim child care expenses this year which we weren't able to do before. Our refund goes to paying off small credit cards from the holidays, and the rest goes into savings for oil and other unexpected large expenses. Nothing too fun for us either.

[jwinct]

smallpotato - Poor little G. I hope he's all better soon.

[becole]

I wish I could do our taxes. My H does it and he always waits until April. We always owe though. Even when we have them take additional out, we still owe.

[britta]

smallpotato poor guy! Abx should do the trick, and fairly quickly at least.
becole OMG that sucks. MH works with a guy who owes every year, but he always owes because he takes out the max deductions every paycheck. He says he likes having all his money, but that it does suck having to scrape together what they owe every year. I can't imagine. That would stress me out so much. We always claim 0, so tons gets taken out, but I legit would have a panic attack if we owed. Especially if it was an easy fix.

[becole]

We claim 0 and have extra taken out. And still usually owe but it's less than $500. I think because we both make similar amounts and it always puts us in a higher bracket together.

[britta]

Jan 31, 2017 12:56:42 GMT -5 becole said:

We claim 0 and have extra taken out. And still usually owe but it's less than $500. I think because we both make similar amounts and it always puts us in a higher bracket together.

I feel you there. H makes twice what I do, so when I worked FT we were in a higher tax bracket. We never owed, but our refunds were minimal. Thank the Lord for kids and childcare.

[jillian]

I always run my taxes in January just to see how much we owe and prepare for when its due. This year, I am a student, on maternity leave and had a baby so we are actually getting a significant return. Our tax return fun is blinds for the bedrooms upstairs, a few odds and ends for the house and the rest is going towards our credit card.

My little had a quick hitting fever on Sunday, but seems to be back to normal now. She stayed with my dad yesterday. Who tells me he gave her a bottle of water. On top of like a million ounces of formula. If she cries, he feeds her. I cant wait until she can eat real food. Fill her on up. Until then, formula only and only every 3 or so hours. She's fine obviously, but 80's parents are still stuck in the bottle of water era.

We have a well baby visit this afternoon. I'm interested to see what the doctor says about starting cereal/purees. Her regular dr is a man and kind of just lets us go with the flow. The women at the practice are little more strict to age guidelines. We will be seeing a woman today. In the last 2 days she has been wanting to eat every 2 hours and sucking down a 4-5 oz. bottle every time.

[iwantbacon]

Who here uses Pumpin Pals- @kitchen? I am trying them today and feel like I'm doing it wrong. I have them on, then stuck into my Medela flange (the cone thing). This morning I got a good amount of output, but this afternoon is much lower than normal. I feel like I'm missing something important on using them.

[hikingmama222]

I barely have any of the paperwork to file our taxes... we don't usually file until late March or April. We always owe quite a bit because of our rental property income. We save up as the year goes on so not an issue.

[becole]

So I've been pumping an insane amount of milk at work and I'm not sure what to send now that the baby seems to take bottles.
So the baby is still only taking about 8-9 ounces in the 9 hours he's there. I send 4 three ounce bottles and he only takes 3 bottles and usually falls asleep and so it's like 2 ounces then a half hour late the other ounce.
Anyway- I'm pumping 15-17 ounces/ day in three pumps. I don't really want to send more because he's not drinking 3 ounces all at once and wanting more. But I have all this extra milk so I'm just freezing it. I would assume when he's with me, he's eating the 15-17 ounces. Otherwise I wouldn't have that much, right?
Wwyd?

[saraml13]

Jan 31, 2017 15:39:34 GMT -5 becole said:

So I've been pumping an insane amount of milk at work and I'm not sure what to send now that the baby seems to take bottles.
So the baby is still only taking about 8-9 ounces in the 9 hours he's there. I send 4 three ounce bottles and he only takes 3 bottles and usually falls asleep and so it's like 2 ounces then a half hour late the other ounce.
Anyway- I'm pumping 15-17 ounces/ day in three pumps. I don't really want to send more because he's not drinking 3 ounces all at once and wanting more. But I have all this extra milk so I'm just freezing it. I would assume when he's with me, he's eating the 15-17 ounces. Otherwise I wouldn't have that much, right?
Wwyd?

This was me with DS1.  I shortened up my pump sessions a little bit, but I was still freezing at least a bottle's worth of milk each day.  I only sent what he would typically eat to daycare, and they had frozen milk they could use if he wanted more.  At one point, I donated about 60 oz because I was running out of freezer space.

Eventually, DS1 started eating more at daycare and I stopped being able to pump as much milk easily.  By 9 months, I was dipping into my freezer stash a little bit each week to have enough for bottles.  I started cutting back on pumping at 11.5 months, and used up the last of my freezer stash over the last month that I BF.  

My advice would be not to kill yourself pumping, but if you can pump more milk then he eats, take advantage of it to build your stash.  

[sanibel21]

Sorry for the awful sleep everyone. We had a little better than up every hour. 10-330 and then every hour.
becole if it's not like a whole extra pumping session and not a PITA, I'd keep pumping that much. My supply ran low and I liked that I could still supplement with breast milk.
Not much going on here. DD1 whined and cried about preschool but the teacher said she stopped almost immediately and had a great day. DD2 napped an hour in her pack n play instead of her swing, so I was happy about that too.
I've gotta start dinner, we're having salad turkey burgers and fries.
penguin129 how did that meeting to drop the home nurse go?

[becole]

Thanks for the input ladies. I didn't want to be saving milk that he would normally be eating but I also don't want to waste it. Today they said he ate all 4 bottles so I'm guessing maybe he'll increase naturally anyway. I already had about 15 bags of frozen milk and I don't have a deep freeze, just a side by side. I wasn't sure how long the milk could be saved. I'm sure my supply will be down after 9 months and I can always use it for soppy cup. I just wasn't sure how long I could still safely use it and if it made any sense that he was eating smaller bottles than what I'm pumping. I always thought they eat more than you can pump.