Working Moms

Recently and for the fourth time in my life, I had a baby and returned to work. Sure, saying goodbye to my baby when I dropped her off to the sitter was difficult. Certainly getting back into the busy routine was challenging. Of course having to put on real clothes was an obstacle. But you know what was the worst part of it all? Having to to dust off and and reunite with the ol' bag pump. The nursing pump. The bane of working mothers the world over! The blight of dedicated mothers struggling with latching! The burden of moms of preemies! And simultaneously the salvation for all of these situations. Yes, it's a love / hate relationship with that...

If you work or have kids or are a breathing human being, mornings come every day. Every.Single.Day. And, even for the most morning of morning person, finding a routine to kick off your day can be a challenge. Well, I think I’ve found my magic morning combo. And tricky enough, it actually starts with a nighttime routine. I blogged about a nightly brain dump last month. That’s where it starts. I’ve also set up a “bedtime” routine in my iPhone. There are multiple apps for this same purpose; I’m a big fan of Sleep Cycle as well! I know that 7 hours is a minimum sleep total for me to function. So, if I’m not in bed by 10:30pm, my...

In just 20 days, my baby will be a big one year old. Oh, sure, I want him to stay little as long as possible, and be my baby, and “Time slow down!!!” and all that. BUT. But. I am ready to be done with the dreadful pump. I have no regrets about breastfeeding either of my children, and should we have more children, I will likely nurse them too. And that’s just it. Breastfeeding is one thing. The pump? Well, that’s another beast entirely. So, I am counting down the days until I’m done with this pumping business: 9 workdays left, with a few days of using freezer milk before his first birthday. I feel so giddy about my soon-to-be freedom...

Two days after Christmas, my husband and I moved from a four-bedroom house to a three bedroom apartment. After the flood, we had sold our house and moved to a rent house with plans to buy not long thereafter. Then my husband was laid off. And suddenly those temporary lodgings became a bit more long-term. So when Christmas rolled around, and we still weren’t ready to buy a house, I was pretty annoyed with the situation. Moving into a smaller apartment seemed like a step backwards instead of forwards, which stressed me out immensely. A few days after we moved, my daughter told me, “I don’t want to go to our new home, Mama. I want to go to our...

Resolution Déjà Vu Making New Year's resolutions seems like a rather solid idea of encouraging self-improvement, so I try to set resolutions each year. But the problem is that resolutions are almost always going to fail. I don't say this lightly: only about 8% of people who set resolutions are able to keep them through the end of the year! I have yet to find myself in that elusive 8% of people who keep their resolutions. Instead, I'm always a part of the 92% who just ... fail. This does not dissuade me each year from setting resolutions. The issue though is that I have resolution déjà vu. This seems familiar. Or, Hmm, I think I've set this resolution before and Hey, wasn't my goal last year...