Do you have any special routines for Spring Cleaning? Any rituals, semi-annually performed chores, ways of welcoming the warmer weather and preparing your house for it?
I don’t really have a spring cleaning routine. I am compelled to deep clean every week or so, though it never seems to get done. When it turns warm though, I LOVE to open all the windows and air the house with smells of spring and life!
Okay! How many co-sleepers out there? How long did they stay in your bed? If you didn’t co-sleep, did you have a bassinet in the room for a while?
Magdalena sleeps with us. When set in the crib or bassinet for naps, she screams like I left her forever. She wouldn’t even sleep in the bassinet in the hospital. Only one aide bugged me about it. The rest of the staff (who are VERY pro-breastfeeding and wonderful in that area!) realized that breastfeeding relationships are enhanced with co-sleeping so they didn’t say a word.
Like Andrea, I always have a list running of things to blog about, yet never seem to get here and then when I do, I’m just to tired and don’t know where to start. Anywho. Magdalena is 10 weeks old today! Wow. Where does the time go? She is doing great. She smiles constantly and nurses like a champ. She is in love with her Dolly and likes to sit and talk to us for what seems like hours! (Usually about 20 minutes at a time.) Since Saturday night, she has been sleeping 8 hours straight. While this is sorta exciting, it means my baby is growing up. And it also means that since she is sleeping so long, she is nursing ALL DAY LONG. It doesn’t bode well for my house. And “my girls” aren’t sure if they like it either since I wake up looking like Dolly Parton with implants. Little Miss Diva still wears 0-3 month clothes and we just bought her an Easter dress. I’m glad I waited on that. I figured that by Easter she would be in 3-6 months and almost bought her one. The Easter dress we bought is 0-3 months and it sorta looks really big on her. She really is a tiny girl. And a happy girl at that, though she is very very hooked to her Mommy, which is okay with me. 
Other than that, nothing much going on around here. Just boring, hum drum, SAHM mom stuff. Erich says my blog is boring, but I feel like I have nothing to talk about. I guess I’ll just ask ya’ll another question.
New pictures on the fotolog!
I’m curious, how much is gas where you live? Here in Central Indiana on Sunday afternoon it was $1.75 a gallon. Don’t forget to leave the price, what day/time, and the area you live in!
Rachel used that as a title to one of her entries a few days back. The song, though I really don’t know it, sparked a memory of a lady I used to care for in a nursing home. Since that day, this lady has been flooding my mind so I feel the need to share the story. So here goes…
I used to care for this lady (we’ll call her Jane) in a nursing home years ago. Jane suffered from old age and dementia. She was bound to a wheel chair, though could stand and pivot on her own. She could also walk about 20ft with a bit of help. Anyways, she was always into trouble. She’d wheel by you in the hallway and pinch you on the bottom. Or she’d wait until there was a crowd of people and come up to you and say, “Did you fart?” And then always just smile this big, wide toothless grin. Everyone adored Jane. She was a lot of fun to be with. At night when we were putting her to bed, we’d kneel down and sing (very off tune) in her ear, “Show Me the way to go home…” and she would bellow out “I’m tired and I wanna go to bed…” When we would lay her down, she’d call out, “are you coming in?” 
So one day, the state was at the nursing home doing their yearly inspection. The State Inspector was standing at the nurses station where a nurse, Rod, and myself were charting. The Inspector was talking to us and all of a sudden I felt Rod kicking my leg. I was about to turn around and tell him to knock it off when I looked into the lounge and saw Jane topless. When I went to her and tried to put her shirt back on (without the Inspector noticing) she yelled out “I don’t wanna do that” I finally got her shirt back on and she started to scoot away in her chair but not without going by the Inspector, pinched his bottom, and asked “Did you fart?”
Jane had a husband who was still fully capable of taking care of himself. Everyday her husband would come to the nursing home and feed her her dinner. One day her husband came in and we were all sitting around the feeding tables. I looked over at Jane and she had a very mischievous look on her face and I was really just wondering what she was up to. I looked over at the nurse who was sitting beside me and said, “heads up” and nodded towards Jane. A few minutes later, Jane looked over at her husband with this huge grin and says, “I could ride you all night, Stallion.” at which point his face turned beet red and she threw her head back in this very full belly laugh. The nurse and myself couldn’t help but bust out in laughter. He just kept saying to her, ” you don’t say things like that in public!” and she couldn’t stop laughing. It is one of my favorite memories of her.
What time of day do you do most of your housework? Is that by choice or by necessity?
I do housework when the baby sleeps. My mom comes every week day during her lunch break (she works in the town I live in, but lives an hour away since getting married) and I can usually squeeze in a bit of tidying while she plays with Magdalena. I also hand M over to Erich some nights when he isn’t busy and get some stuff done too! Good thing we live in a house so I can vacuum at 11pm (like I did last night!).
Fotolog is finally cooperating and a new picture is up for your viewing pleasure! This picture explains why I am just the happiest and luckiest woman alive!
(I think that is a title Rachel has used before. heh.) It’s been an awfully long week. I’ve been sick. (In Real Life it sounds more like “Ah’m siiiiiiiiiiiick.” 
It started a sore throat on Monday which I thought was allergies cause of all the dusting I’ve been doing and the warm temps. (it was in the 50s) Monday night I wasn’t feeling well at all with a vice around my ears. I was sneezing, congested, coughing, my ears hurt, and the headache not to mention the aforementioned sore throat. Tuesday morning I had had enough and wanted something strong to treat the symptoms. I went to the doctor and told him, “I want something for symptoms and if I should need antibiotics I don’t want them. I don’t want to deal with thrush.” To which he said, ” you’re getting to smart for your own good!” Anywho, the medicine has been helping a bit though the runny nose has gotten worse along with the cough, but the vice around my head is gone. Erich now has a sore throat so we’ve been dosing him up with some tylenol and Vitamin C. Magdalena has been doing great until the night before last when I noticed she was a bit congested. It seems better now, and she hasn’t been fussy or acting like she is hurting. We had her two month checkup today, he said she looked a little extra mucousy but not anything to fuss about. She now weighs 10lbs and half an ounce and is 21 and a quarter inches long!!! So she caught up in height with her weight and is beautiful. He said she is obviously not a big (fat!) baby and is beautiful and well behaved. She “talked” to him the whole time he examined her and even opened her mouth and said “ah!” He said she certainly knows how to open her mouth wide! I am convinced that her first word is going to be “wider” because I say it to her almost every time we nurse! She got 3 shots. Erich talked to her, I held her legs, and two ladies gave the shots (two at once, then the third) I cried, M cried, and Erich looked sick. It took me a minute to calm her down enough to nurse her but she eventually nursed and fell asleep. I woke her about 1 to feed her and change her and she fell back to sleep until about 4:30 when I gave her tylenol, changed her and nursed. She nursed again at 630 and again at 830 when I gave her a little more tylenol. Her legs obviously hurt, cause she gives me a hurt cry when I change her diaper, and shes running a very low fever. She is now sleeping and I expect she’ll be up before midnight to nurse again and then settle in for the evening. I’m still feeling sick and her feeling bad doesn’t make me feel any better. It is so much harder to be sick and be a Mom. It seems there is no one to take care of me! And I can’t just crawl into bed, cause she needs me! Anyways, Erich’s home now from work so I should go. Have a great weekend.
Things have been super busy around here but for the life of me I haven’t a clue what we’ve been doing!!! Magdalena seems to be getting bigger by the day and sweeter too. She smiles more often and she is gaining control of her voice. She loves it when someone whistles to her and she responds with “oo”s and “ah”s. The other day she cooed in the car to the Dixie Chicks. Her eyelashes have been getting longer to, making her even more beautiful when she sleeps. She recognizes me and more importantly her Daddy. She has discovered the joy of a moving object and loves to lay in the crib and watch the mobile. And that is all she likes to do in the crib. If I lay her for a nap in the crib or the bassinet, she screams as if I’ve left her forever. Daddy also made a smart move in bringing out the play gym. It buys me time to eat a meal and today she was batting at the toys with her hands. She did it a couple of times with her feet too! She is still eating like a champ without any crutches (the shield) whatsoever. We have discovered the joy of the Maya sling too and she loves to be in there watching people around her, her Mommy, and taking naps on her favorite “pillows.” We are very successfully cloth diapering too, which over joys me! I sometimes IM some family members who didn’t think it would last. I say, ” well I just finished washing a load of diapers! I love cloth diapering!!!” hehehe. I’ve also got one of Alicia’s friends interested in it and I think they’ll be coming over later this week to learn of the joys of cloth diapering. I’ll be teaching her about the different types of diapers and so forth. I seem to be getting a bit more daring with how often I wash. I’ve been averaging about twice a week the past two weeks or so, washing on Sunday and Thursday. I washed Thursday the 11th and didn’t wash again until this morning!!! We were down to about 7 diapers or so! Eeek! I’m constantly trying to stay on top of the house. The dogs have been spending a major part of the day outside when the weather is above freezing. It helps me accomplish things around here and keeps the “dog smell” at the door which I like. The neighbors may hate me but I do try and get the dogs in around 5 (I let them out around 9 or 10am) when everyone is getting home from work. I better eat soon though, before Miss Diva wakes from her nap. I’ll try and stop in more often.
A couple of things to post then I’ll be away from the computer for the rest of the day. I have forgotten to mention that I’ve been hanging out with my cousin lately. She is really really becoming annoying though.
I will be spending the rest of the day doing emergency cleaning using Flyladys detailed cleaning list. My house is in CHAOS and I can’t stand it anymore. So I’ll be starting on the top floor and working my way down to the basement. Why on Earth did I want a house with three floors anyways? It seems sorta silly to start at the top since most people see the middle ground level floor, but it seems I spend a ton of time upstairs with Magdalena and that is where we all sleep. I want Erich to have a peaceful serene and clean(!) place to sleep since he is so busy.
Oh and by the way, I was just kidding about my cousin being annoying. She has recently started reading this blog (the only family member, and I’d like to keep it that way Alicia.) And I just had to throw something in there that would catch her attention. So everyone leave a comment and say hi to Alicia! I’ll have to get her to start her own blog…
I called Rachel earlier because I was having a bit of an emotional breakdown. She helped SO much! Thank you so much Rachel. I get paid tomorrow so I’ll definitely have to check out her wish list. After all, her birthday is in 19 days and a girl only turns 33 once, right?
Magdalena is still doing great. She seems longer to me these days. We are completely out of disposable diapers and we start cloth diapering during the night… tonight! She outgrew the newborn diapers this last weekend (at 5 1/2 weeks!) and we used up all of the samples of size 1 during the night. I’m excited to be done with disposables. She’s smiling regularly and holding her head up. She’s finding her hands pretty regularly now and is still a joy! Okay she’s waking up.. time to eat!
So my checkup was last Thursday. Magdalena and I got all dressed up and headed out the door for my 9:50am appt. We arrived at 9:45am so we could get settled and be punctual young ladies. At 10:20am, they called us back. By 10:22am I was naked sitting on the table. The whole time I was thinking, “Magdalena is going to wake up and want to be fed right.now. and here I am sitting on this table with the flimsy little paper sheet. I’ll get up and as soon as my bare ass is exposed, the doctor is going to walk through the door. I just know it.” Well that didn’t happen. My little angel slept the whole time! And I was only naked sitting on the table by myself for FIFTEEN MINUTES! Anyways, the doctor came in, did a pap (last repetitive one since the abnormal one last year! woot!), declared me “back to normal” and told me not to get pregnant for at least 6 months. heh. She prescribed the minipill, which while I breastfeed exclusively, I’m not worried about goofing up. But seriously, when M starts eating solids, watch I’ll get pregnant. How can you not take that pill the wrong way? Everything and anything seems to affect its “performance.” Anyways, we talked about the next time, if I’d have a repeat section. And the answer is yes. M was a very normal size baby in a perfect presentation with a perfect labor and she just didn’t fit. She kinda implied she just wouldn’t try a normal labor with me because of the risks. But really, I’m okay with that. I suffered infertility. I conceived a child and carried her to full term. I am breastfeeding very successfully. If future babies can’t get out the “normal” way, why should I complain? I can have babies right? That’s all that matters. Okay, off to run some errands then come home and do some HEAVY DUTY CLEANING.
a tropical heat wave…
It’s 60 degrees! It’s gorgeous! A little on the windy side, but beggars can’t be choosers, right? I just went out to buy a pound of ground beef and the town just seems alive! This is why I love this small town! Children are outside playing, riding bikes, and enjoying life. The “elders” of the community are all out walking. People have their windows down and sunglasses on and waving to each other again! I went to the cemetery to “check” on my dad (yes he’s still there. bad joke.) and I noticed that the local ice cream shop is open! yay! Maybe I’ll convince my mom to go get a coke with me at her break time and we can go to the dollar store. I took Magdalena out of the carseat on our errands and placed her in the Maya Sling and she LOVED it. She was able to look around more and study my face and others. People kinda looked at me odd though. oh well. We just got home. I opened up the big window in the living room to let a little of the stale air out. Magdalena is asleep in her carseat (bundled up a bit cause I turned off the heat to open the window). And life feels really good right now. I will have to tell you of our weekend of hell we just lived through, but I don’t want to rain on my own parade!