PSA: You Might Want to Stop Using Conventional Maxi Pads

All right, guys.  You might want to just close this window now.  I have something important to share with the ladies.  STOP USING YOUR CONVENTIONAL MAXI PADS.  They might be messing up your reproductive hormones.

My periods have become more and more like a gruesome murder scene over the years.  I thought it was because my body wanted me to have a baby.  After the baby, they were okay for one month, and then they got so much worse.  I read that bleeding 2-5 tablespoons in that week was in the range of normal for most women.  Normal for me was something like 5 quarts.  I don't really know how I'm still alive, but they say some women just bleed alot. 

Yesterday, I posted this on one of the crunchy mommy forums:

My periods have always been super heavy, but now that I've had a baby, they are worse.  It's not cysts or anything like that.  I don't have pain, not even really much cramping.  But, it's so heavy for a couple of days that it wakes me up in the middle of the night and I have to jump out of bed to prevent it from getting everywhere.  Sometimes, I wake up the baby, because my boob was in her mouth.

Do you have any tips for herbs or other ways to reduce menstrual flow?

The responses that I got back included: 

Do you use mama clotth or disposable pads,or tampons? I have read that even switching to a greener brand of disposable pads can help reduce flow and cramping for those that get cramps. Cloth is supposed to make a greater difference though. -Anna2007

And:

Mine was completely like that until I got off all commercial products. I use Mama cloth for night time and sea sponges during the day (hadn't found a cup that fit me well). Suddenly my period was down to just one day of heavy bleeding with cramping and pain then 4-5 days of moderate to light flow. Then I added liquid calcium/magnesium/D3 (BlueBonnet brand) to my nightly routine, and boy was I surprised. About half the time (as long as I'm faithful), I get slight cramps about 2 hours before I start, and my heavy day is now a day that I would have called moderate before. Then it's just 2-3 days of light bleeding (even turning brown by the 3rd day) and a day of spotting. -Sharims

And:

Yes, I found the same info from pps when I was looking before. Low on those minerals and vitamins, and changing to cloth pads.  Also found some great info in the book making babies, believe it or not.  Another thing that helped me even out (from the book, actually, as I was ttc) was drinking loose leaf green tea. Made such a difference! -oceanmel

Yes.  This is it.  It's the conventional pads.  I would have never figured it out.  I was researching herbs for decreasing flow.  But, it's the MFing pads.  I have been using the Always super in a box forever.  I use the natural pads when my flow slows.  And, I thought it was really odd that it was heavy for 5 days now, instead of the 2 or 3 before I gave birth.  Since it's going to be heavy, I put the Always pads on when I first start bleeding.  This is actually causing my bleeding and cramping to increase!!  Can you believe that?  My period started yesterday, and it was really light.  I got excited.  Put an Always pad on and BAM.  Murder scene.  I was drinking lots of water for two days, trying to balance my hormones, which actually sorta worked to decrease the bleeding.  In previous months, I thought the excess water was decreasing my milk supply, so I wasn't drinking that much.

After I read that feedback today, I pulled out one of the natural pads (you can find them at Whole Foods, another organic market, or online) and put it on even though I was bleeding like a water hose.  THE BLEEDING IMMEDIATELY SLOWED ALMOST TO A STOP.  My cramps stopped.  My area down there stopped aching like someone punched it.  I feel great. I even went to dinner on day 2 of my period and sat somewhere for 2 hours at dinner, didn't use the bathroom, and I hardly bled at all!  I associated all of this with being late in the week.  I would have never thought it was the pads.

And, I bled for 3.5 months after birth.  My midwife said it was hormonal.  I thought the stress in my life had jacked up my hormones.  But, it was those damn pads.  Ugh.

mama cloth

I was reading on how hormones play a role in how heavy your period is, and I'm thinking that something in those conventional pads blocks your hormones from telling your body to stop bleeding.  Sean and I were talking about it today, and we think that it might not have been intentional on the part of the conventional pad companies, but once they figured that out, they decided to keep it going because they could sell more pads.

I am going to look into mama cloth, which is reusable pads. 

How are You Supposed to Run Errands with a Baby?

Just woke up from a nap outside the DMV
in line sitting in a folding chair

I don't understand how people with kids are supposed to do these inane and time consuming errands.  I don't know how all of you moms and dads out there do it.  This is ridiculous!  There's eating, nap time, boredom, and diaper changing to contend with. 

Sean is working his butt off, and I'm not able to take off work to deal with this stuff.  I talked to my boss about what she did when she was a single parent.  Did her parents watch her little one while she ran errands?  Nope, like me, she trekked around town doing this stuff with her baby girl.  I thought I hated waiting in a government line when I was single.  Pssh.  Try doing it with a squirmy, fussy, breastfeeding baby!

When we moved into the house in Maryland, I had to go change my tags, registration, and license.  That was a two-day process.  I took Lily with me, because it could take three hours a pop, and I could not easily pump the amount of milk we would have used during that time.  I showed up the first day right when they opened--it was me and 50 other people.  I thought I'd get a number and sit down in a chair to wait for your turn.  You know, like you do in Virginia when I worked the night shift and no one was in front of me at the first counter.  NOPE.  You had to tell someone why you were there before you could get a number.  I spent more than 30 minutes in line before we could sit down.  I was freaking out holding a squirmy baby that just wanted to nurse.  But, I had so much stuff with me, and we had to get in and get out so that I could make it to work, I couldn't just get out of line to do what we needed to do.  When I had to change her diaper, I was afraid I wouldn't hear my number be called!

I had to go back the next day because I needed a 10th piece of paper that said I was a resident.  Ugh.  The second day, I got there 45 minutes before they opened, took a folding chair up to the door, and even napped Lily before the DMV opened.  We were in and out as quickly as possible.

When I got the notice a few weeks later that I needed a separate emissions test (this after I had to drop my car off for two days to get a safety check), I about shit a brick.  Come on!  Why couldn't this have been required BEFORE registration?  Like in Virginia and Ohio.  Ugh.  And, why is this a 50 step process?!  Lily and I get in the car and head to the emissions test center a half of an hour before they opened.  This place was a cluster to say the least.  The gates to what looked like a parking lot were locked.  The only place to line up was on the street, but cars were parked there.  I was the first person there, but this van pulled up in front of me to "park".  I was nursing Lily in the back seat, and when the gate opened, I had to put her back in the car seat and jump in the front, so that I didn't end up at the back of the line.  I almost got into it with the guy in the van who tried to jump the line.  When they did the test, I had to pull the car in and there wasn't an opportunity to really get Lily out of the car the entire time.  And, there wasn't a waiting area.  It was just mostly unfinished shop-ish in there.  It was over in a few minutes, but what an experience getting to drive away.  I had to stop on the side of the road and check her diaper, because there was nowhere to do that near the complex.

Putting air in the tires was a two-day process.  I stopped to get gas, but the gas pump kept kicking off.  Had to wait for the lady in front of me to move to her car (she was idling doing something, I don't know what) so that I could use the pump in front of me. This whole 10 minutes, no one was at the air pump.  As soon as I'm finished getting gas, a car pulls in front of me and up to the air dispenser.  DAMN IT.  So, I decided to vacuum my car while waiting.  NOPE.  The only open vacuum was out of order.  DAMN IT.  I decided to leave and come back the next day, because I couldn't make this a 20-30 minute stop at Lily's bed time.

My tires were low on air, because I had screws in not one, but TWO tires that needed patched. I found several tire places near me.  The next day, I pack Lily into the car at 7:00am to get to the tire place when it first opened so that we weren't there all day and I could actually make it to work.  Oops.  I looked up the hours for the wrong tire place, so the one I showed up at opened at 9:00am.  No wonder why there were no cars in the parking lot!  It had awesome Google reviews and I remember Sean had a tire patched there lickety-split a few months ago.  I decided to head down the road with the fussy baby to the Just Tire place that was actually open at 7:30am.  Turns out that they do EVERYTHING and tires, so the guy tells me that I need to leave my car for a day (to patch a tire) because I don't have an appointment.  We head back down the road to the other place.  We walked to Starbucks, watched the cars, and then came back to nurse in the car.  When they finally opened at 9:00am, we'd been there for almost two hours.  They were super fast.  They patched both tires in 40 minutes.  But, I was starting to blow her nap time, and we were getting an increasingly fussy baby. If she fell asleep on the way home, we'd be in trouble, because the convertible carseat doesn't come out of the car, and I had to go to work!

I was finally able to vacuum my car on my lunch break.  I have been trying for a couple of weeks to find time to do that.

And now, I have a headlight out and the one lamp that does work is kinda pointed in the wrong direction.  I'd never know, except I'm on the night shift for two weeks, so I'm driving in the dark every day.  We have tried two times to stop at the auto parts store, but we keep running out of time in the morning.  I have no idea how we're going to manage to get a new bulb.  Hopefully, Sean can help me do that this weekend.

Thank goodness we can walk to Target.  That's all I have to say.

Night Shift Begins

So far this week, we've gone to a baby/toddler music time, library story time, and a baby/toddler pool play date.  It hasn't been a bad week.  This was the start of Monday and sums up our new routine:

5:30am - Baby wakes up.  Daddy the trooper plays hard with her while Mommy sleeps.  They had stations set up and just kept rotating around the house.  They were so busy, neither of them remembered to eat breakfast!

6:30am - Mommy turns off alarm and accidentally falls back asleep.

6:40am - Lily and Daddy come to find sleeping Mommy so that Daddy can get ready for work.  Mommy nurses Lily in the nursery glider.  Lily falls back asleep!  Whoa!  They really played hard. Lily and Mommy curl up back in the bed and sleep longer.

7:30am - Lily wakes up, nurses, and we go to find breakfast!  Lily doesn't want breakfast.  Well, she eats a potato and lots of bacon.  Hmmm.

9:20am - Mommy and Lily leave for baby-toddler music time.  Lily loves walking around a new place (since Mommy brought socks).  Lily hates the socks, because her feet were getting warm, but she likes to walk around.  There were several steps all of the walkers like to walk up and down.  There is often a traffic jam between toddlers, parents, and servers at the stairs.

10:30am - Lily is getting tired, but Mommy wants her to stay away as long as possible.  If Grandma has to put her down for a 2nd or 3rd nap later AND put her to bed, she'll use way, way more milk than Mommy can pump in a day.

10:45am - Lily and Mommy go to the store to buy bananas and apples.

11:10am - Lily and Mommy go to the library to return our book about penguins and check out a book about goats.

11:20am - Lily and Mommy get back to the house.  Lily has a blast walking all over the house.  Lily plays "Pay Bills and Read Mail" and then pushed her walker around.  Grandma brings Lily's pack-n-play upstairs.

11:50am - Lily naps!

12:20pm - Mommy absconds from sleeping baby to get ready for work, which includes packing pump, changing into work clothes, making lunches, and wandering around the house like a confused and lost mental patient.

1:20pm - Baby wakes up from nap.  Mommy tries several times to nurse distracted baby.  Walk around house with baby.

2:00pm - Mommy runs out of house like crazy person.

10 Months Today

walked to Starbucks

Wow, this is exciting.  The home stretch to the end of the first year.  I heard someone saying the other day that they've been having more bad days than good lately.  Oh, that's right.  It's not about being happy or getting it all right all the time.  It's not about balance.  The only thing I can balance is Starbucks on my head.  It's about having more good days than bad.  But, sometimes, I don't know that it's actually a good day until I look back on it and it's over.  And, a good day can totally include a freak out by Mommy or Daddy.  I have started pausing to appreciate the good moments in the day and the small victories amongst the chaos.

Lily is closer to walking than crawling. Watching her learn to walk has been amazing.  We have been kind of desperate to get her to crawl or move on her own.  She hates trying to crawl, though the last few days have given us a couple of good scoots towards a toy.  Even though everyone says we don't want her to be moving around on her own, we disagree because she so very much wants to move around.  She doesn't sit up well, doesn't play on her own much anymore (this because she wants to be WALKING all over the place to play with everything).  So, she drags us all over the place.  She's sitting up better this week.  However, if she sits herself down, she will still keep a tight hold on your finger so that you can't get away.  I'd much rather be running after a hyper baby with a coffee in hand instead of hunched over a determined, curious, playful baby for hours glancing towards the other room where my coffee sits on some table yonder.   All of the adults in this house agree.

She's happy, she's learning a broader spectrum of emotions.  She clearly knows what she wants, but she struggles when she can't have it.  It's hard to explain to a 10 month old baby why she can't walk around a restaurant when she has free reign at home.  Or why she can walk down the stairs when grandma's watching her, but we don't want to go down the stairs when I'm watching her.

Just when you think you figured it out, that you're just struggling to find your own space in this crazy existence of Parenthood, something funny happens. I start to appreciate moments that used to drive me crazy.  Last week was really hard for me.  It was emotionally draining in a way that hurt my soul.  The thing that got me through was curling up with my baby girl. It was the thing that healed my spirit.  It was all I wanted to do.  I knew it was a rough week for everyone, so for a few nights, I just brushed my teeth when I got home and fell asleep with this precious little girl.

Here's what happened this month:

play date

splash fountain

crunchy play date

visit from Texas

Elevation Burger

Port Discovery

play date

library storytime

first metro ride

first museum

splashing in water

retrying cloth diapers

now walking

loves beets!

Hanging in Old Town

elimination communication play date

Banana Coconut Flour Pancakes

Well, Lily has been an egg champ in the mornings, but she's getting tired of the egg.  I know this, because she'll eat a couple of bites of egg as if she's not hungry.  But, if I give her a banana or something else, she'll devour it.  Sean remembered this recipe for pancakes he used to make:

1. Wisk 2 eggs in a bowl.
2. Mash a banana in the egg.
3. Add a little coconut flour and baking soda.
4. Turn heat up above medium.
5. BAM!  Banana-coconut pancakes, biatches.

Throw some Grade B organic maple syrup on that stuff, and it's the bomb.  Grade B syrup is less refined, so it is supposed to have minerals in it. Grade A is basically sugar.

Happy Lily

Happy Daddy

About to Get Carjacked by the Night Shift

Next week and the week after, I'll be moonlighting on a long night shift.  Our routine is about to be carjacked, and the routine is the only thing (topped with food, booze, laughter, cuddles, and kisses) that keeps us sane.  Seriously, it will almost be as if someone walks up to our routine with a gun, tells us to get out of the routine, steals our money and our car keys and takes off with it.  This only to leave our routine burnt out on cinder blocks under an overpass in the bad part of town.  I ain't even playing.  You will hear about this on the news.  Let me tell me tell you how abouts my birthday week is going to go (don't worry, I already learned and I am taking this week off next year):

• The baby doesn't care that I won't get home until after midnight;  she is still going to wake up at 5am. And, WTF am I going to do if she's up from 1:30am to 3:30am like she was last night?  She's working on some big skills here!
• My mom will spend 10+ hours taking care of the baby for these 10 days I'm on the night shift, which is about two hours longer than normal.
• Between my mom and Sean, they will have to try to make the baby think that they have a boob for 4+ hours every night.  Hahahahahahaha. 
• Because there is no boob at bedtime, they might have to use a lot more milk to get her to sleep.  I'm pumping less, so that's a problem.  They might use less, because she could just sleep and not look for a boob.  We just don't know.
• Oh, and to make up for being gone so long, I'm going to have to pump a 4th time.  And, finding the time to pump is more difficult, because of the way the shows are stacked, and because I am by myself the whole evening.  Who am I kidding?  I can't pump 4 times on those shifts.  Shit.
• I will probably spend her naps during the day trying to sleep instead of bathing and getting ready for work.  That means I will rely on my mom help to get ready for work.  Lily doesn't mess around, and she's been dragging us all over the house as she's learning to walk.  It's really cool, but really exhausting.
• Crap.  And, I'm still going to have to make lunches.  Someone get me some coffee. Forget the cup, just IV the shit.
• What in the bleep are we going to doing about this mammouth of a convertible car seat that we just bought?  It lives in my car, we can't get it into my mom's car, and we do have to leave it here, so that they have it just in case they need to drive her around or bring her to me.  I take the baby places, and I won't be able to stay home all day with a finger-jabber-walky, fussy baby.  So, it's looking like we are going to have to keep pulling it out of my car each day.  What a pain in the butt.
• Daddy is going to have to take Lily in the mornings.  He loves to start the morning off with a little Lily Bean in his routine, though I often let him sleep in.  But next week, I am not getting out of bed until 6am.   
• I  am going to spend a shit ton of money on comfort food to get me through.
• I am going to loose my keys and other important things.  When the routine is jacked up, we loose lots of stuff.
• I will have zero alone time.
• Once I get home, I have to be ready for bed.  This because I will take a sweaty, sleeping Lily off of my Mom's chest, who will then be a squirmy-for-a-booby Lily, back to our bed room to nurse to sleep.  There's no doing anything after work.  It's home, change, boob, sleep. 
• She just started to sleep like a champ most nights (not last night, but she's working on big stuff). That all goes out the window when we totally change the routine.
• I really have no idea when I'm gonna take a shower.
• And, it's going to jack up our routine for the week after.  It takes awhile to get our jacked routine back in line.

There are several positive aspects to working the night shift by myself:

• I will get to maybe take Lily to some 11am events.  What, you ask?  I dunno...
• I won't hit anyone when I roll across the feed room floor to tune a microwave shot and then immediately record said microwave shot.
• I might see coworkers I generally never get to talk to.
• It will be quiet at night.  No one will be in the building.
• That said, I will get to breathe for a stretch without the damn phone ringing off the hook.
• Overtime makes happy check.
• We're leaving for vacation the next week, so that would have jacked our routine up anyway.  If there was a good time for my schedule to flip like this, this was it.

Pumping at 10 Months

monitoring trial footage while pumping

I have an ebb and flow relationship with my pump.  Sometimes, the milk flows.  And then, sometimes the milk ebbs.  Two months ago, I was pumping double what the baby was drinking during the day because of solid food.  I thought we were smooth sailing into the end of the first year.  Now, she's drinking much more than I am pumping, even though she's eating a lot of solid food.  WTF?  What happened?!  This on top of pumping less because of leaving work early while she is drinking more because she is sick.  We started to realize that we're starting to use the freezer stash to make up for the fact that I'm not pumping as much. 

I realized that if this continues to be the trend,  if she continues to eat more than I pump every day, then we might have to come up with a solution beyond breast milk.  I suppose I was against cow's milk, because I don't really drink it myself, I thought parents were giving it instead of breast milk, and the recommendation by most doctors is to switch from breast milk to cows milk at one year.  I didn't think we'd ever get to a point where I was pumping less than she was drinking on the daily again.  I thought we'd get to a point where she wouldn't drink any milk during the day.  That she would just eat solids.  I certainly can't go back to pumping up a friggin storm.  Forget that.  I can't bring myself to pump at home.  I talked to Sean about how maybe we'd just feed her this grass-fed, organic, low-temp pasteurized milk from the market when I could no longer keep up.  That sounded like the plan.

After that discussion, Lily and I went to a Le Leche League meeting, the topic being the very appropriate "Nutrition and Weaning".  I asked about what we're supposed to do if we get to that point where we're out of milk and she's drinking more than I'm pumping.  The feedback I got was that if that happens before a year, the recommendation is formula.  If that happens after a year, folks say I can switch to cow's milk. A couple of the moms pumped until 15 months.  One of the leaders mentioned that it was expected that milk supplies ebb around 9 months, when babies start to get mobile and too busy to nurse.  They then pick back up around 11 months when babies realize they left a boob or two behind and all of a sudden go f*#$!!

I suppose at this point, we're just waiting to see what happens.  Maybe things change again in a month or two.  Maybe we are fine until after the first year.  Maybe I need to start pumping like a fiend again (I think I want to push past the recommended formula point). 

The Crunchy on Cancer

Avoiding cancer is one of the main motivations to be crunchy.  Cancer pisses me off.  I get all in a tizzy by the pushing of chemo-drugs as the only answer.  I am furious that people with real answers about cancer are shut up by the medical community.  It upsets me that there was this hype about what we call cancer might not even be cancer at all.  You think?  And, this guy.  THIS GUY.  This guy who decided to scam insurance companies by telling people they had cancer when they did not.  THIS GUY is why you always get a second and third opinion.

It angers me, because, from what all I've learned about food and the human body, I believe that we do this to ourselves.  The way we alter our food and the land, we do this to ourselves, and I believe that it's possible to fix it.

Let me tell you a little bit about the some of my crunchy thoughts on cancer:

1. I do believe that we create an environment for cancer to thrive by what we put into our bodies and what we surround our bodies with.  From the chemicals in our beds, in our body products, and in our food, we bombard our bodies with radicals that negatively affect us.  We are surrounded by dead things and we eat things that have no living quality and do not resemble food all of the time. 

2. I believe that there is a life-giving quality to food that 99% of American food is missing.  And, I believe that life-giving food holds a lot of the key towards preventing and curing cancer.  Even in the organic world, this life-giving quality isn't always there.  We need whole food, food that is alive (even if cooked), and food that nourishes us.  This real food is often very hard to find.

3. I do not believe that chemotherapy and surgery are the most effective methods for dealing with cancer.  The body has the amazing ability to heal itself if we give it the right tools to work with.

4. I do believe that doctors and companies make a lot of money from cancer treatment and research, so they would like to keep the system as it is. 

5. I believe that once you actually have cancer, it can be cured with food.  However, it takes a monumental effort for a person living the average American life to go from zero to cancer curing.   This lady, Christina Pirello, is my hero and living testament to the power of food. She went from dead-in-a-few-months to cancer-free a year later.  And there are many stories like this guy, who was told he had "incurable" cancer and went on to get a cancer-free bill of health after using food to cure it.

6. At this point, I think that some radical forms of veganism, such as macrobiotics, are necessary to treat cancer, but it is not the answer to prevent cancer.  I do believe there are many vitamins in animal foods that we need.

The capitalistic nature of the world creates this environment where we have to be so aware of everything going on around us.  We have to watch everything from our food, our make up, our sunscreen to our bug spray, our bubbles, and everything else we touch.  It's hard, and sometimes it hurts, because you can't think about everything all of the time, and things slip through the cracks.  I sometimes get upset that I find something about a product I use all of the time is bad and I have to find something else.  Just today, we were reading about how fake olive oil is just as profitable as the cocaine industry.  We can't win them all.  We just have to do it all over again tomorrow.  This time, with feeling.

And, I hope that we can pass some of this happy natural living onto Lily without being militant or pushy about it.  With being a happy, healthy family.   Giving her the best chance that we could possibly give her to have a happy and healthy life.

My Free Breast Pump

Medela Advanced Personal Double Breast Pump

Lily was born before the breastfeeding provisions of the Affordable Care Act were in effect.  I remember the panic with which I sought out an easy hospital grade breast pump to rent. I rented my Medela Symphony from Babies R Us for $80/mo, which is apparently overpriced.  Whatever, because the silly thing retails for $1,500.  It didn't matter as long as it was in my hands.  I couldn't handle another difficult task on maternity leave.

Apparently, the recommendation is that babies switch to cow's milk at one year.  Not ever intending to switch from breast milk to cow's milk (insert hippie rant here), it didn't occur to me until recently that I would need to reevaluate my pumping expectations. We are closing in on one year, and I am definitely going to be pumping longer that I ever thought.  Longer than my boss ever thought, who asks me once a month, "So, how long are you going to be doing that?"  I told her a few weeks ago my realization that this was going to go on much longer that I expected.  But, for a woman who is privy to watching my crunchy food and beverage ways, this isn't a surprise.

I decided to see how a consumer grade pump would work for us, because it's supposedly free, right?  It just doesn't make sense to rent when I'm only pumping 30 minutes per day.  This opposed to the 320 minutes per day I was pumping when I first went back to work 9 months ago. 

I don't know anything about insurance beyond I have X benefits, and I hand someone my insurance card and they either want money or they don't want money.  Sometimes I get a bill later.  Sometimes I don't.   I read forum posts where ladies called their insurance companies and asked how to get a free pump.  I decided that I could do that.  I could call my insurance company and ask them how I would get free stuff.  I whipped out my outdated insurance card and called the number on the back.  The lady on the other end gave me three companies to call that they would cover, one of them being Edgepark, which is in Ohio.  Love supporting my homestate.  But the other two companies were local here in DC.  Love supporting local.

I decided to call Edgepark, because they touted that they would get all of the necessary paperwork for you by calling your insurance company and your doctor.  While I am sure they are making a boat load of money, I am really not good with doing things I'm supposed to do (like forms and stuff), so I decided to give in and go the easy route.  It wasn't exactly that easy.  I mean, it was, but I had to place a few follow up phone calls.  I don't have a doctor.  Primary care physician, whatever.  So, I asked if  our pediatrician or midwife would work.  I gave our pediatrician's information, followed up with him by email, only to find that he's out of the country for a couple of months.  Hippie doctors, yeesh.  Called Edgepark back to give my midwife's information, and though I'm not currently in her care, that seemed to be fine.  A few days later, Edgepark was still calling me saying that my order wasn't complete. Had to call them back again to make sure they had my midwife's information.  They did and called the office while I was on hold.  Everything was good to go.

There were three breast pump choices.  A Platex, Medela, and Ameda.  The Medela was out of stock and would take a few extra weeks, because it was the most popular.  I decided to just go with that one.  It doesn't appear that this model is the same as either of their consumer grade retail models.  This because it's provided by a hospital supply company.

Voila, in a couple of weeks, we had a new breast pump.  FOR FREE!  BAM. It works pretty well.  I think I like it better.  One of the touted features of the Symphony was the let down function that would change suction during a milk let down (when milk comes out). I wondered if I would miss this feature, but to my surprise, this new Medela pump has it, too. 

I Hate Buying Used from Parents

We have acquired many things used since this journey began.  When I started buying for Lily, I was a single mom counting every penny.  And, used is akin to recycled, so there's less waste when we reuse an item someone else bought.  I've had great luck with used items.  A few friends just gave me their used baby clothes.  I've hit up many garage sales and consignment sales.  I love a good consignment or thrift store. Here are a few things I've picked up on my own:

• Pottery Barn $250 crib set for $25
• Stroller for $40
• Spring/summer/fall wardrobe (30+ outfits) from 12mo to 2T for $100
• $40 in cabinet locks for $2
• Boba carrier ($120) for $60
• Bag of 12 mo clothes (10+ outfits) for $30
• $400 glider and ottoman for $80

However, I hate buying from parents who post on these mailing lists and Craigslist.  OMG.  Sometimes, it just take up too much time to be worth it.  It's parents (with half brains) selling to other parents (with half brains, usually with younger kids), which means it's like a mine field.

BOMB #1 - Mom-seller doesn't show up at her own house!  Seller in NW DC has a bag of clothes that would fill one of our holes for $30.  I tell her that I'll take them.  She tells me when to be there.  I show up early, so I park the car 3 blocks away and we get coffee.  Arrive 5 minutes early.  The seller is not at home.  Wait 20 minutes while emailing seller that I'm at the house.  Nothing.  We walk back to the car.  Finally, 25 minutes after we arrived, the seller emailed me to tell me that she got held up helping a friend and that she'd be back at the house in 5 minutes.  I am nursing in the car at this point.  I tell her that we'll finish up and be over.  This despite my desire to run as fast as I can.  We get there 10 minutes later to find that the seller is still not home.  I email her telling her we just left when we found she still wasn't there.  She says that they had another engagement to get to and that she can run home and leave the clothes out for me.  WTF.  No way.  You set the time.  You had 45 minutes to be home.  I don't respond.  She emails me again to tell me she went home and the clothes are now on the porch and that I can leave the money under the mat.  NO FUCKING WAY am I going back at this point.  No way.  So, I get stuck in hella DC weekend construction traffic on our way out of town.  Drove 30 minutes this way and an hour that way for nothing.

BOMB #2 - Seller takes 4 days to get back to us. Seller posts a walker activity toy for $10 on Craigslist.  It is seriously 1/2 mile from my place, so I really hoped it was still available.  I don't want to spend another $25 for something she's going to use for a couple of weeks and I swore I wasn't going to buy to begin with, but we'd really use right this moment.  I accidentally emailed this person 2 times in 3 days about the same walker (mommy brain + Craigslist app = funny emails).  At 10pm on the third day, I get an email asking if I wanted to come get it the next day.  I said, "Sure, what time would you like me to be there?"  Some 17 hours later, I write and ask if they still wanted me to come by today, and then offered that if they just left it on the porch that I could leave an envelope with money in the door.  No response. 

In baby time, four days is forever.  Seriously.  I'm walking around with this little baby, and everything 30 seconds for four days, I'm thinking "Man, we just need a walker.  Man, we just need a walker.  I need to get us a walker.  Should I just spend the $25 on a walker?  I need to get us a walker."  All of the other used walkers are in Germantown and Rockville (forget it!).  I just needed to skip the waiting and buy it new.  But, every other month, we get to this point where we are like f&#@, we need new toys NOW!  So, I'd rather buy used when I can.

This is why I love our local community.  I sent out an email asking the local moms if anyone would pass along a walker to us.  In fact, around here, just about every house has a porch, so you just put your stuff out for porch pick up and it's gone just like that! BAM!  I didn't do that in the first place, because I have a long list of things we'd like to acquire.  No need bothering them every ten minutes.  And, that poor bomb seller #2 could be on the email list wondering what the heck I was doing.  I don't know what I'm doing.  That's half of parenting!

Score!  Walker.  Lily loves it.  It was passed to us by a family down the street who had it passed to them by a family around the corner!  It has local history!

And so, in thanks for some of the amazing pieces we've been gifted, when I cleaned out Lily's stuff this week, we offered to pass them along to the local moms.  In 24 hours, I watched almost everything disappear, and all we had to do was put it out on the porch!

Being a Working Parent is Expensive

Working Mommy Time:
mimosa, coffee, and bacon
$16 after tip

Being a working parent is expensive.  Not even talking about childcare.  We spend too much money on eating out, comfort food, adult beverages, entertainment, and the like.  This because we work so hard, we should treat ourselves.  Or, we're flying by the seat of our pants, even on the weekends, and by the time we get from breakfast to a nap, we realize there is nothing in the house to eat for lunch.  We get lunch, do another nap, and realize there's not a damn thing in the house for dinner.

The routine is highly important.  Without a routine, there is no food to be had, be eaten, or food that isn't spoiled.  Food gets spoiled, because it is bought with good intention, but by the time anyone is home to eat it, it's no good.  And, the two of us parents are on such different schedules, we're never ready to eat the same thing at the same time.  Sean is out of the house by the time we're making breakfast, and he comes home to a wife that ate dinner at work, so that she can put the baby to bed when she walks in the door.  On the weekends, Lily has breakfast, I have breakfast, and by the time it's time for us to eat lunch, Sean is just put together enough to eat breakfast. So, he eats breakfast, and then we get Elevation Burger on the road.

There are a list of things that we purchase just because we think we work hard enough to deserve making something easy on ourselves  The DVR, Showtime, pay-per-view movies, baby toys, dinners out, candy bars, alcohol, etc.  Our budget includes $200 in shopping every week.  There's always something to buy.  Instead of buying the cheapest convertible car seat, I bought the one that was the least pain in the ass.  This because it's a damn avalanche-snowball to just get out of the house and in the car that if the car seat wasn't a pain in the ass, that would be a whole lot less stressful.  If we think that we had X, Y, or Z, and that would make this whole thing a whole lot easier on us, we buy it.

So, we work to make more money, but we spend a lot of money because we work.

In the past two months, I've done a lot to reign it in.  I was spending too much money at Starbucks.  Now, we're brewing organic coffee in my office.  Or trying to, at least.  And, I have been doing better these past six weeks or so about premaking us lunch/dinner.  I even nailed a couple of weekends with the cooking-at-home-thing, but last weekend, we ate out a lot. And last week, I canceled Showtime.  I guess I will watch the end of Dexter some other time.  I'm not nursing/napping endlessly in front of the couch anymore anyway. 

We are just trying to stay on budget, because there is this whole unknown future ahead of us that we have to plan for. We have no idea what this baby is going to need/want or need/want to do.

Metro to the Natural History Museum

Since we have a pirate baby who is just so curious about the world, I don't think I can handle spending a whole day at home with her alone.  She is close to walking, so she wants us to hold her while she walks around the house.  This is fun for about 10 minutes.  After the first hour, you start to black out from exhaustion, saying to her, "Will you please just let me carry you around for a little bit?!"  I didn't think she could handle being in the car all day for the sixth day in a row (even if we go do cool stuff).  So, on the final day of my vacation, I pack up the car and take us around the corner to the metro.

With me, I had the stroller, two baby carriers, and a ton of snacks.  I used it all.  She was just in the car seat (which she hates) so she already didn't want to be in the stroller when we got to the metro garage.  SNACK.  When we get to the platform, I took her out of the stroller and held her for awhile.  She loved to see the trains go by.  And, she loved to look around the metro platform.  My ears popped on the train, and there were a couple of points where she started to freak out and wanted to nurse.  I think that she could have felt the pressure on her ears as we descended under the city, too.

Archives/Penn Quarter was the closest stop to the museums on the Green/Yellow line, and I didn't want to have to deal with switching trains.  I was thinking the National Aquarium would have been nice, but it was a little far for us.  The obvious choices from Archives were the National Art Gallery, Newseum, or animals.  I picked animals.  We got off the metro and walked a few blocks to the Natural History Museum.  I had her in the Bjorn carrier at this point.

When we got there, I figured we should probably eat lunch first.  That would make for a happier baby.  I pick a $6 cheeseburger, thinking that would not make for an  expensive trip.  Added fries, because Lily likes fries.  And, I can just keep handing her fries and she stops fussing.  SNACK.  Had to pick up a cupcake.  Of course, I was on vacation.  Grabbed a banana for Lily later.  Almost $19 later and we have lunch.  I did bring our own water.  I forgot that I wanted coffee.  That's another $3.50!!  For just drip coffee.  After lunch, we walked around for a little bit.  Lily was sleepy at this point.  So, we just cruised around, not looking at anything specific.  Anything new to expose her to is cool.  She likes looking at new things, new places, and new people.


Eventually, she just got so tired that she needed to be out of the stroller.  She wanted to nurse.  She wanted to nap.  I didn't really have a nap plan.  But, I whipped out the ring sling and nursed her while slowly making a way towards the door.  She totally fell asleep fast, and she even let me put her up on my chest, which I haven't been able to do in a long time.  I made a pit stop at the National Gallery of Art Garden Cafe to pick up more coffee.  They even have wine, beer, and sangria!  Very cool.  I figured that if I could just get coffee and sit somewhere that we'd be good for a couple of hours.

Alas, that didn't work as I planned, as a crying baby woke up Lily while we were line.  I couldn't just BOOB-here-mouth-sleep her, so she fully woke up.  And, she was super excited to be in a new place.  But, we did eat a SNACK and practice walking while looking at the fountain at the center of the garden for awhile.  She really liked to watch the people there.  She was trying to get me to walk somewhere--to this bird or these kids--but it was too far away from all of our stuff.  Eventually, I scooped her up and we trekked back home.

Library Selections: Pink Pup and Little Pip

We finally made it to the local library recently.  I love the library, but I have no business taking out books.  I always end up with a fine.  Back home, in Ohio, the library would forgive fines once a year.  That's great, because I found a book in a box once that I had for 6 years.  Horrible, because no one else can check out that book.  I eventually did return it.  But, the library already forgave and forgot it years before.  Not in the DC area though.  If you have a fine, there is no cap for how high your fines can go, and then they turn you over to a collection agency!  Whoa!

As I've gotten older, I've gotten more responsible.  I learned that if I just take the books back before the due date that I don't have to deal with the whole late fee thing.  And then, I can take out more books without shelling out a bunch of cash!  I'm brilliant before my time, I know.

Anyhow, after we got a library card, we picked out a library book to read to Lily.  I wanted one with pictures of animals she has seen before and pictures of animals she hasn't seen before.  Last week, we got "Little Pink Pup", which is a true story.  This week, we picked up "What's in the Egg, Little Pip?"  I have to admit, the covers are a huge draw!

Storytime at the Library

 We made our first visit to a library story time last week.  I was really nervous to take Lily, because she's not a sit-in-one-spot-and-read-to-me kinda gal.  She's a balls-to-the-wall-pirate kinda gal.  You can thank her mom for that.  However, I'm on vacation and terrified of staying in the house all day with the baby who gets bored and cranky.  There must be adventure.  It's adventure or death.  See, I told you that she's a pirate.

She happened to wake up from her nap in time for me to throw everything in the car and go.  I love how we all can just roll into these kid things whenever we want.  This because the person who creates the schedule is not capable of reading a clock (analog or digital).  It includes a car ride, which Lily has a love-hate relationship with.  She loves going places, but she hates the car trip there because of the car seat.  Lately, she's been so excited when I pick her up out of the car seat.  She gives me big kisses and hugs.  It's hilarious.  Poor beanie baby.

The librarian running the program read stories to us, read stories with us, acted out nursery rhymes, and blew bubbles.  I mean, any program that includes bubbles is a winner in our book.  And, this is a free program to boot.  There were lots of toddlers, a few crawlers, and a couple of babies around Lily's age.  She really liked being handed her own copy of one of the books to read.  And, she really liked the bubbles.  She also liked seeing all sorts of different people. 

Mommy win.

Used Glider/Rocker Score

So, one of the whole bits of the crunchy mindset is trying to recycle, repurpose, or reuse in an effort to reduce what we waste.  Once I got pregnant, my focus shifted more into reducing chemical exposure to myself and my family and less about recycling.  But, I've purchase quite a few used things recently.  We've been gifted or purchased used toys, used baby clothes, used mama clothes, and a bunch of other used baby gear.

There are times when it's just safer, cleaner, and easier to order it new on Amazon.  There are, however, just some things I can't justify the cost of new.  Take a new glider/rocker for example.  With ottoman, these things usually run in the ballpark of $400.

My mom had the rocker she used when I was a baby some 30 years ago fixed.  That broke right after Lily was born, so we bought a $280 rocker/recliner on the cheap.  That thing is way too big for Lily's new nursery in the fourth place I've lived since getting pregnant.  So, it lives in my mom's living room area downstairs.  I have a big blue arm chair up in Lily's room, which is now a part of our routine 2-3 times per day.  When we moved in, it wasn't a part of our routine at all.  The couch in the living room was, but now being on the couch is distracting.  It is also hard to make a $400 purchase if you're not sure you're going to use it regularly in a few weeks.

Over the past few months, I've used a few different gliders at various play dates.  At a party Friday night, she passed right out after 2 seconds of being rocked.  And, I wanted one.  I wanted one bad.  But, I didn't want to part with $400 to get a set.  One of our daddy friends, Christian, mentioned that he bought his glider as a model mark down at Buy Buy Baby for $80.  I wanted a glider for $80!  "Check Craigslist!"  He said.  Duh, Mommy!

Glider.  Check.  Rocking baby.  Check.  Feet up.  Check.  Sleepy baby.  Check.

Port Discovery Children's Museum

Lily and I made the trek up to Port Discovery Children's Museum yesterday.  Lily had an amazing time.  There are two areas for babies.  One is a matted area they can roll around with a couple of toys.  The other is a story time area.  Lily is not a story time baby yet, so I was worried that there might not be enough for us to do there to have made the trip worth it.  It wound up being a 40 minute drive from where we are located, cost $10 to park (though we could have scored a street spot if we were capable of walking a little ways), and the tickets were $14.85 for each adult after tax.

On some days, they have scheduled activities.  One of our daddy friends (who has a very active one year old) mentioned to us that they make the trip worth it by going on a day there are several activities in the Tots Trails toddler/baby room.  Click her and scroll to Tots Trails for schedule. There is a lot of value there if you have a toddler/preschooler and you also have a baby.  If you think you're going to go more than once or twice a year, I think Port Discovery is really worth it to get the membership, because multiple adults can go in for free multiple times.  I also think that there is a lot of value for toddlers, preschoolers and especially for those 5 to 12.  There is a whole multi-level adventure area where kids over 5 can climb and explore. That looked really cool.

Despite my initial skepticism, this trip was completely worth it.  We were there for well over an hour, which for this baby, is incredible. Lily really liked that it was new.  That is one of our issues, getting her enough new stuff.  She'll be toddling around soon, so we'll be sure to make another trip up there when she can more around more.

She played with this toddler ant game above, though she couldn't do much with it.  She was really interested in banging it to get the ball to move.  She loved playing with the stackable waves below.  The wood was textured.

During Jingle Jangle Music Time, Lily tore it up.  She loved the tambourine:

She was able to hit the sticks together, though she liked beating the turtle with them, too:

OMG, she loves maracas:

Then, we found some toys to play with and she rolled around on the floor for a half hour.  She is rarely this happy on the floor for this long.  I just let her do her thing: