Jammie J's Quest

April 10, 2012 · 1:07 pm

Tuesday Tidbits.

* At work, there is a crevice between the elevator carriage and the floors when the door opens. I don’t know why, but for some reason I always want to throw a gum wrapper or some small piece of trash down it. I won’t ever do it, but I always think about doing that when I step in or out of the elevator.

* My community is heating its pools 2 weeks early this year. Which is really great because we had some really warm weather this past weekend and so I had a couple hours of amazing swims. Pure bliss for me.

* Traffic has been lighter than usual this week. I assume because of spring break everyone went away. Instead of a 30 minute commute each way, it’s 20-25 minutes each way. Every minute matters!

* Another free oil change this past weekend thanks to the strange “loyalty” card the dealership gave me. I say strange because I’d only ever had my oil changed there once before, and they sent me a card for five free oil changes because I was loyal? Two used, three to go!

* We went to Sea World on April 1st. It was two years ago on April 1st that I miscarried our first baby. It was one year ago on April 1st that we found out I was pregnant with William and I was peeing on anything that stood still long enough because I couldn’t believe it. Now we have a beautiful baby boy who pees on us.

* Sometimes it’s important to pause to enjoy a beautiful sunset. So sometimes I do. Especially when a light turns yellow and I have no other choice.

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Filed under Blogabilities, Mermaid Envy, Tidbits

March 16, 2012 · 4:16 pm

Back to It.

At 7:05am on March 1st I left my home. At 7:28am I pushed the elevator button twice to avoid the elevator carriage that I hate, and then rode in my favorite elevator to the 2nd floor. I used my key card to enter the secure area, and walked down the darkened hallway illuminated at the end by the CEO’s office light. I flipped on the light switch for the executive area and sat down at my desk. There on my cubicle wall was my 2011 calendar still open to December, and the printout of the Outlook calendars for December 8th still posted from when I left work on the 7th, and there above my phone, the tiny printout of the ultrasound picture of my baby’s profile. It was as if a weird time warp had occurred, and if I didn’t know any different, it would have seemed as if my life hadn’t changed at all. Or that I can now post a color picture of my gorgeous baby, smiling even!

My company has been amazingly supportive of the new role added to my life and helping me to balance that with my return to work. I know that by law they had to provide me with a similar position, etc., etc., but they suggested a week of shortened hours to transition myself back into the swing of things, ultimately leaving the choice to me as to whether I wanted to do that or just return full time. That they are being so understanding is just remarkable to me and I am so grateful for that. They also seem to be genuinely happy to see me back at work, and that means a lot to me, too.

My mom has been an amazing support person and she has made the transition back to work for me seamless, as much as possible, and so much easier for all of us than if I had to put William in daycare. William is an incredibly blessed little boy to have a college professor as his weekday caregiver! I am beyond fortunate to have a mom like mine. She is such a blessing to us and I hope that someday I will be in a position to help someone the way my mom is helping us.

Tony is an absolutely fantastic father to William. I knew he would be. I always joked that when we had a kid I wouldn’t have to do anything but birth the baby and then hand him off to his father for raising. Of course, that’s not exactly true, but it was an amusing thing to say. Seriously, though, he is so involved and hands-on, and he helps in any way that he can, despite the fact that he works two jobs.

The relationship I have with my birth doula/lactation consultant has morphed into that of a long lost sister. I never thought when I was searching for a birth doula last year that I would have such a sustaining and fulfilling friendship with the one I chose, but she is so wonderful and helpful and has such an amazingly sweet spirit and energy. She has been integral in my success with breastfeeding William, which for me has been far more challenging than my pregnancy and birth (which, given his birth story is really saying something!). Now that I’m transitioning to pumping for him at work and breastfeeding him in the evenings, nighttime and early morning, it’s been even more important to have her as a guide. She truly is like a long lost sister to me.

It also helps that the little person who all this is about is an amazingly patient and healthy little boy. William is definitely an armful and has needs. There are times when he’s just not having a good day, he is a baby after all. For the most part, though, he exhibits patience and has the disposition of a baby who’s older than he really is. Plus, he smiles and laughs and “talks” to us a whole lot, and that makes it so much more fun than if he were crying all the time, which I hear a lot of babies tend to do.

Despite my commitment to my cichlid’s fish tank and doing water changes religiously every week, I lost two of them in the last couple months to some unknown disease. Or maybe they were just old and would have died anyway, I don’t know. My tank dwindled down to just two fish, one of the original gray females and the albino male, living together like an old married couple who hated each other in a 36 gallon tank. They spent most of their time hiding from each other, and if they happened to run into each other, they fought, and it made me sad. A couple weeks ago I called Fish Whisperer and he excitedly came over and took them and their tank. I was thrilled to learn that they have been moved into an 80 gallon tank where, according to him, they are reigning over all of his cichlids because they are so much bigger than his fish. We still have Tony’s guppy tank and they are so much easier to care for than those violent cichlids!

It’s worthy of mentioning though because it is the end of a decade for me with those fish. Maybe someday, when I have more time, I will enter the world of fish hobbyists again. For now, though, if I don’t even have time to bake the gingerbread cookie dough that I mixed up in January and had to freeze a week later, then I sure don’t have time to dicker around with dying fish! Who knows, maybe we’ll have gingerbread cookies in July.

In the meantime, we have a rainy weekend coming up. On my agenda: Wear green and go to Chick-Fil-A for free food, attend the annual Green Dinner with family, attend mass with family and the rest of the time? Snuggle my gorgeous baby (and try not to squeeze him so hard that his head pops off) and love on my husband!

Now, for your entertainment, a couple videos of William… the first one he was only 4 weeks old. The next one he was 6 weeks old. The picture is from his 3 month portrait session that my mom gifted us with.

Video 1: LINK
Video 2: LINK

Happy St. Patricks Day!

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Filed under Daily Journeys:, Money Hump Building, Our Kid is Cute

February 15, 2012 · 6:43 pm

Tidbits.

* Loving feeling healthy again. Having a cold while tending a newborn really, really sucked.

* We’re having a rainy day here today. I’m loving it now, but I wasn’t thrilled when it started, because it sounded like a train going through town when it pounded down on the roof at Target. Horrified, I realized I had left my car’s passenger side window cracked. On the bright side, nothing got too wet and I am grateful that I hadn’t left the top down on my car and that I had only one window open.

* At one week post-partum I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight. My clothes fit just a tiny bit weird, but I am astonished how fast the weight left me. I guess it makes sense though. I gained 24.5 pounds, William was nearly 11 pounds of that, his placenta was HUGE, so that left just a few pounds of fluid to lose. It was a bummer that I was so paranoid about my weight gain while pregnant, but it’s totally worth it on this side of the event.

* Speaking of, I’m loving that I’m allowing myself carbs and sugar again. I dramatically scaled back when I was pregnant, so I’m on quite the cereal kick lately and absolutely love this chocolate granola I found. Unfortunately, it appears to be one of those “limited editions” that Costco is carrying. So it’s apparently going to be one of my temporary loves.

* Got the “all clear” to start exercising again a few weeks ago from my OB. That night I attended the aquatic exercise class and I’m back to lap swimming every day since then.

* I am so grateful for my mom and my husband. They make it a priority for me to have the time to go swimming. I was getting ready to leave for the gym one day, and they both sat here and negotiated with each other which one of them was going to tend to William while I was gone. It was funny for me to observe, but only because it was never a consideration that I wouldn’t go.

* I have the most amazing friends, family and neighbors. Everyone has given us so many wonderful clothes, I think William is probably one of the best dressed babies I’ve ever seen! But also, baby carriers, strollers, car seats, a swing, an Angel Care monitor… given them to us. Just like that.

* I’m a bit… stunned(?) to realize that I think my son is going to be an extrovert and quite the charmer. He loves to engage people, he’ll stare people down until they acknowledge him and then he’ll give them the most amazing smiles and “talk” to them. He shuns his nap if we’re out and about in favor of charming the people around him. Which makes for a meltdown when we get home, but sure makes me feel like a million dollars when people tell me how adorable he is. Oh sheez, I think I may be one of THOSE moms, heaven help us!

Helping fold laundry…

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Filed under Mermaid Envy, Our Kid is Cute, Tidbits

January 16, 2012 · 9:39 pm

The Other Side of Bliss.

There was an accident outside our community tonight. It was a white mini-van and a small white pick-up truck. When I saw the white minivan, I held my breath without realizing it, praying without realizing it, that it wasn’t our next door neighbor. When we passed by and saw the woman on the stretcher, maybe it was bad, but I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t a neighbor we knew and my prayer changed to one that she would be OK.

Someone ran a red light in front of me the other day. His light had been red for at least 5 seconds before he sailed through. The guy next to me was so angry about it that he blared his horn at the person. Too late, of course, the law breaker was far on down the road by that time. I was just thankful that I had been checking my son in his car seat and hadn’t gone when my light had turned green.

I finally received my disability payment today from the state. They pay that stuff by issuing a debit card now, which I guess is supposed to be all hip and cutting edge, which is what I thought at first. But then I realized, it’s kind of a pain in the rear for those who already have bank accounts that they like, because then you have to create yet another login and password, initiate a funds transfer, which then takes up to 2 business days to complete. Plus, the debit card is issued in an account with Bank of America, which is not a bonus to me since I absolutely loathe that bank.

I caught a cold from someone last week and have been praying that William doesn’t catch it. If he manages to somehow avoid getting it from his main provider of food who breathes on him, and can’t avoid coughing on him, it will truly be a miracle. But then he’s a miracle, so maybe it’s not that far fetched of a hope that he remain healthy? I took some Children’s benadryl to try and help with my cold symptoms, but am being very careful about what I take as I don’t want my milk supply to suffer. As a result, I’ve had a couple bouts of insomnia this past week. Apparently, I’m one of those people that benadryl, instead of making me sleepy, has the opposite effect. Let me tell you, it really sucks to lie in bed listening to my newborn baby cooing in his sleep from his co-sleeper, hearing the house creak around me, knowing the minutes and then hours are ticking by and that everyone in the house is asleep but me.

I guess I should be glad I didn’t have any other orifices that stuff could come out of, because my ears are crackling, my eyes are red, my nose is dripping, my mouth is coughing out stuff that shouldn’t see the light of day, my breasts leak milk, my southern area is still working on recovery… and that just about sums up how I’ve felt this week.

The other night, I was nursing William and my nose was dripping. Rather than drip on my son, I shoved a kleenex up the offending nostril and just sat there, defeated, while William ate in blissful oblivion. I must have been quite a sight, because my husband walked by and stared for a second, told me how sorry he was for me, and then started laughing. Five minutes later, my mom did the same exact thing. They both apologized for laughing at me, but honestly, I can’t blame them. In fact, I almost wish I had asked them to take a picture of it, because I’m all about recording the reality of the moment.

Anyway, I think I’m on the mend, or at least I hope I am. My husband thinks he may be catching some form of something and is trying desperately to find someone to blame it on, but since his symptoms in no way resemble mine, I’m not allowing him to lay it at my doorstep. So far William hasn’t caught it, thank God, and let’s continue to pray that he stays healthy and strong. Because let’s face it, I would rather be the one with insomnia and sick than for it to be the other way around!

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Filed under Gross Can Fascinate, I Worry A lot, Love/Loathe, Our Kid is Cute, Sometimes I Sleep

January 9, 2012 · 9:23 pm

Savoring it All.

My time with him is so limited before I need to go back to work. Twelve weeks is what FMLA allows, and just over 4 of those weeks are already gone. Dissipated into the thin air that new babies demand.

Anyone who’s had a baby knows all about the endless nursing, endless diaper changes, baby clothes changes, laundry that includes more baby clothes than adult, baby butt baths, baby whole body baths, crying (both baby and mommy), squeezing in parental showers and parental nourishment.

Finger foods are my friend.

I find myself being intentionally selfish with William. Not wanting to share him with anyone outside of my immediate circle of family. I want to soak everything about him into my soul. He’s already growing, changing and doing things today that he didn’t do yesterday. It’s the new thing in my life, being grateful that he is healthy and sad that he’s even now growing away from me… and it started before he was even born! At 36 weeks pregnant, I remember looking at an ultrasound picture of him when he was 26 weeks and going back to his gummy bear ultrasound picture of 8 weeks and being sad that he had already been growing so fast.

So forgive me… rather than type one handed, I’ve intentionally chosen to simply stare in wonder at this marvel that I spend my days and nights with.

Speaking of finger foods, allow me to share a funny little story… the other night I was snacking on pistachios, we all know that pistachios, for some reason, are one of the snacks of the holiday season. It was late, and I was single handedly cracking the shells and eating them.

The next morning, Tony was doing a diaper change for William and in bafflement held up a green thing and asked me what it was. Excited, I exclaimed, “That’s the missing pistachio! I lost one last night when I was eating them… where’d you find it?”

Tony frowned slightly, and his eyes crinkled as if he were holding back a laugh and he said, “It was inside William’s sleeper, under his back. No wonder he was restless last night, he was sleeping on a pistachio!”

I scoffed and replied, “He was NOT restless, he slept the undisturbed slumber of his father. This is the story of the Prince and the Pistachio, NOT the Princess and the Pea.”

Although, now if I’m eating snack type foods that drop crumbs, I’ll look down and see this… and it makes me laugh and laugh.

Talk to the monkey paw…

…Or protecting himself from dropping debris…

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Filed under Our Kid is Cute

December 25, 2011 · 4:19 pm

Love Affair With An Elf.

As he nurses, he closes one eye… leaving the “upper” eye open to watch as his fingers dance a fine ballet, gently, lightly over the upper portion of my breast. Innocent and intimate, twirling, walking, from mole to mole. So gently that I can’t understand how he can even feel it, yet he coos in contentment. A connect the dots game that only a baby and his mother could find interesting.

Having a baby is such an earthy, innocent, intimate dance. I would have never thought those three words could be combined in one sentence, but it’s really the perfect and only description to me.

At the top of his right ear is just the smallest amount of lanugo. I know it will fall off all too soon, but for now I imagine that it’s all part of the proof that he’s our little elf baby, because it really does make his ear look like it belongs to an elf.

As the nursing session progresses, he will often time raise one of his blonde eyebrows, so different in color from all that hair on his head, and he’ll either fold his arms over his chest like he’s in a little baby straight jacket or he’ll put a fist up to his oh-so-soft cheek as if he’s really thinking about something while he eats his meal.

I don’t know how I’ll ever get enough of this child. This amazing 10+ pounds of elf boy goodness.

My only wish for you is that your Christmas be as overflowing in fullness as our hearts are this Christmas.

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Filed under Best Husband, Our Kid is Cute

December 11, 2011 · 10:29 pm

Home for the Holidays.

We would like to announce the arrival of our son.

He burst forth into this world on Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 10:53 AM.

We named him William John, in honor of my father and both of our grandfathers (respectively).

He tilted the scales at 10 lbs 11 ounces, and measured 21 inches in length.

Our son is healthy and came out with the most incredible, perfect nursing latch, with a piranha like suction and ravenous appetite.

My husband is the most amazing labor coach and baby support person I could have ever asked for. He did and is doing an absolutely amazing job. I am so, so proud of him and so humbled to be able to share this new little person with him every day.

My doula was absolutely perfect with me, with us, and was a great guide through the entire process. She is also a lactation consultant and is continuing to guide me. I am so grateful that I found her.

My labor started at 4:11 AM, I called my doula at 6:00 AM, we left for the hospital around 7:15 AM. We had an incredible team in the room to help deliver him, from the labor & delivery nurse who had had her two children in home births and therefore completely supported my desire for a natural childbirth and assisted in getting this kid’s enormous shoulders out of me, to my doctor who did an incredible job making sure she followed my birth plan to every detail possible.

I am sore in my breasts due to our son’s aforementioned appetite, and in my forearms due to the labor position I used, but otherwise completely fine and “injury” free. Yes, that means what you think it means.

I’ve been told I am the talk of the hospital since I delivered such a large baby completely drug, epidural and intervention free. Truth be told, I’m pretty proud of myself, too. I worked really, really hard to be as healthy and strong as I could be — eating healthy, preparing and researching for natural childbirth in a hospital setting, lap swimming every day for an hour, even the night before I went into labor! I was even at work on the 7th, the day before I delivered.

Oh, who am I kidding? No one really cares about all that crap. So… on to the fun stuff. Pictures!

Going home from the hospital…

I don’t suppose it needs to be said, but I’ll say it anyway. We are completely, over the moon in love with this little boy.

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Filed under Best Husband, I have Family, I have Friends, I Left Home for Awhile, Our Kid is Cute

Tagged as We have a kid

November 30, 2011 · 12:59 pm

Turkey and Stuff

Our Thanksgiving this year was perfect, awesome really, and I enjoyed it immensely. I’m so grateful for Tony’s family who has embraced me in their hearts and accepted me, quirks and all. The four days off from work were really nice, too, and spending them in my mom’s company made it a double blessing for me.

My contribution to the Thanksgiving feast this year was my standard sweet potato souffle. It’s an easy enough recipe that either Tony or I can make it, depending on who has the time available. Last year, he did it, this year I did it. This year I also contributed a green bean casserole quiche. It is different enough from the standard green bean casserole (which my sister-in-law makes) that it didn’t feel like we had doubled up on green bean things. Of course, my favorite dish of all the food was the turkey, but then I’m all about the turkey even when it isn’t Thanksgiving! In fact, I used money that was given to me for my birthday to purchase a broiler oven (like this one) so that I can easily make turkeys all year round if I want!

The hours at work are long, some days I’m there before 7am and usually leave after 5pm. Once work is over, the evening workout at the gym is done and dinner is eaten, there seems to be just enough time to prepare for the next day and get ready for bed. Under the heading of “Actions speak louder than words” I know my contributions at work are appreciated, because my boss relocated and now travels to the corporate office here in California a few days each month. This week he was here for three days. He spent one of the evenings he was here baking his seasonal batch of pumpkin bread just because I requested it. Now THAT makes me feel pretty special!

I’m also grateful for having a trustworthy mechanic in my life. Especially since it seems like there’s always something knicky-knacky going on with my car these days. For example, one of the tires in my car picked up a screw (insert various screwed jokes here) and I simply dropped it off on my way home from work and went and got it after they had closed. That minimized the inconvenience of the whole thing for me and they patched it right up at no charge to me.

My outside swim days are over for the season and the gym’s pool is my new haunt. While I’m not thrilled about it, it does serve its purpose and I’m grateful for that. Although it does seem as if the chemical levels in that pool are consistently wrong — I notified them last night that the chlorine levels are too high given that I went home one night and my swimsuit faded from black to grey in 24 hours and then last night I got home and discovered that the reason my skin was burning like I’d just been sunburned was because of a first degree chlorine burn (informational link) on the lower half of my body. I went back to the gym later that evening and did a “show and tell” with one of their female employees of the affected areas. She was stunned and promised to notify the gym’s manager this morning, which is good because I was uncomfortable last night feeling like I was sunburned on my butt (and elsewhere). In the whole scheme of things, though, my health is something I never, ever take for granted and I’m grateful that I am able to swim and eat and feel fantastic, healthy and strong.

My husband has already started putting up Christmas decorations on the outside of our house this week. He plans to finish it this weekend and I plan to decorate the inside of our home (as always) this weekend. We’re looking forward to that!

It should be a great weekend ahead with popcorn, hot chocolate and Christmas music playing while we decorate!

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Filed under Life Encompasses Me, Mermaid Envy, We Love to Decorate

November 17, 2011 · 8:58 pm

Through My Eyes.

I just thought I’d share some pictures from my world, taken over the last couple of weeks.

Halloween decorations are down. My work area is now decorated for autumn. Simple things like this make me very happy.

I can’t believe the trees around me actually have color. I know you Easterners are all, “Not a big deal, California chickie!” But in the most mundane of places reside these trees… the parking lot at my work place.

When we had a full moon last week…

When we went to the mountains the weekend after my birthday, we were coincidentally treated to witnessing the first snow of the season. We love that.

The mountain donkey was out for a visit.

I love Arby’s Jr. Roast Beef sandwich… Tony loves their Arby-Q sandwich. We both love the bag they give it to us in.

My albino fish has a weird something or other on her tail. I have no idea what it is. Her activity level seems okay, though, and none of the other fish seem to be infected. Just the strangest thing.

This is what I’m greeted with every morning now that the weather has turned cooler. That little green spot in the middle of the picture is our birdy’s butt. Lest you think she’s actually cold, remember she has a heated perch that she’s also sitting on.

My cat, Tug, found a sun spot to rest his front paws. That made him very happy.

Happy Friday to you and hope you have a good weekend!

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Filed under Life Encompasses Me, Wordless (mostly) Post

November 2, 2011 · 11:15 am

Two Big Things

The first Big Thing around our house this time of year is Halloween (in case you’ve forgotten or couldn’t guess). Our tradition of decorating for Halloween (our home and my work space), carving our pumpkins while watching Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin DVD, and my annual Barbie Doll outfit are things that we always look forward to doing!

Tony changed things up a little bit this year with the decorations on our home. He set up the flashing light and scary sounds CD so that they broadcasted through the vent of our garage, instead of on our front stoop. That made it a much more pleasant experience for us while we carved our pumpkins and watched Charlie Brown. He also moved the scary grim reaper closer to our front door making it appear as if he wanted to welcome our visitors with a warm embrace. The motion sensor "Welcome" was a big hit (to us) because it scared my mom every time she entered the house. Gotta love that! ha

Even though I didn’t win the decorating contest at work this year (like I did last year), personally I think the decoration of my work space was BETTER than last year’s decorations… and I even baked a shit-ton of pumpkin cookies to bribe my co-workers! ha I think we waited too long to decorate this year, since my area doesn’t get the foot traffic that the other departments get. But, Tony and I had fun decorating and my mom had fun watching us. We all had fun taking it down yesterday!

Cookie bribery for co-workers — Pumpkin caramel chocolate chip, Pumpkin oatmeal raisin and Pumpkin date:

Tony getting ready to carve his pumpkin:

Me getting ready to carve my pumpkin:

Carved pumpkins… Tony did the werewolf pumpkin. I did the "Best Friends" pumpkin:

Last, but not least, I decided to wear my favorite Halloween t-shirt to work this year and go with the whole Boney Barney theme, with my work space, me and Barbie. This necessitated the creation of a t-shirt for Barbie that matched mine. As you may recall, I go through this every year and am usually up until the wee hours of the morning hand stitching a tiny outfit for her. I was quite proud of myself for digging out Barbie’s wardrobe and assessing the situation early this year, which enabled me to create a matching outfit with a little less stress in preparation that reaped a TON of compliments and amazement due to the tiniest details that matched.

Barbie’s outfit:

My outfit:

The second Big Thing is my birthday, the day after Halloween… or All Saint’s Day. Because I’m just that saintly!

If there’s such a thing as ordering up a perfect birthday, I somehow must have done so yesterday! With a quiet, relatively stress-free work day, getting bright autumn colored flowers from my bosses, briefly seeing my friend, Grace (always a bright spot, no matter how short the time), discovering that our community pool was still being heated last night, sweet birthday cards from my loved ones, and dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the whole world with family… on a Tuesday night, meaning everyone felt I was special enough to come out and play on a school night.

Pretty birthday flowers: