Mommy & Love: February 2012

February 29, 2012

You Know You're a New Mom When...

You know you're a new mom... when you have 2+ bottles of spoiled milk lying around your house... and you don't care.

When all your pants & shirts have baby goop all over them... and you don't care.

When your brain stops working and turns to goo.

When you forget to brush your teeth in the morning and don't realize it until the next day.

When 3 hours of sleep is rejuvenating, 4 hours of sleep is a miracle, and 5 hours of sleep is heaven.

When your boobs turn into milk machines and demand your labor 24/7.

When you no longer understand what is going on with your body.

When the nursery has more things jam packed into it than everything else in the house combined.

When you haven't seen the sunshine in days...weeks... has it been months already?

When your favorite daily outfit is underwear... maybe some shorts.

When you think a high pitched, "GOOOOOO" is the coolest sound ever!

When daddy tries to help prepare the baby's food and THIS happens instead...

When taking a shower feels like heaven... as long as daddy is there to watch the baby.

When taking a shower feels like hell because the baby is in her bouncy chair screaming her lungs off while you slab some bar soap all over your body AND HAIR...

When you can't go to the bathroom without feeling like you're delivering a baby again.

When you look like a train wreck 24/7.

When your baby makes a weird (new) facial expression or sound, and you're already on the phone with her nurse.

When your baby is coughing and you check her temperature every hour.

When you know life would be easier going back to a "full-time" job.

When you stare down anyone who says "It would be so easy to be a stay-at-home mom".

When you start obsessing over baby toys, clothes, cribs, diapers, breastfeeding, formula, parenting subjects, etc... You even create a blog about it.

:D

February 24, 2012

Should You Pierce Your Baby's Ears?

Before I found out the sex of my baby, I hoped it would be a girl so I could pierce her ears. Trivial, yes... but I thought it looked so cute and pretty. I've always been thankful that my mom pierced my ears when I was 6 months old so I never considered any moral issues with baby ear piercings. Now that Miss A is 7 months old already, I have grown more and more hesitant about actually doing it.

Pros/ DO IT!

It's Cute. Duh! [Pretty earrings to match pretty little outfits! :) ]
Chances are she will choose to get her ears' pierced later in life. Why not do it now and get it over with?
It is less painful for a baby because their ear lobes are thinner. (So I hear).) Baby will forget about the pain quickly... an older child will remember this memory. I personally am happy to not have this memory, even though it's not that painful.
This is not an abnormal thing for a parent to do... people have been piercing their ears for thousands of years. It's not like you are piercing your baby's belly button!
It's socially acceptable to have ear piercings.
The internet causes so much room for dramatizing every and any issue you never considered to be an issue in the first place. Do what you want as a parent. I've never heard of a girl complaining and irate about their mother piercing their ears when they were a baby. Just saying!

Cons/ Wait...

You as a parent have to provide daily ear care to make sure it doesn't get infected. Baby can't take care of it. (Obviously)
Baby might pull on the earrings or get it snagged on something and rip it out.
Baby does not choose to get a hole in their ear. Violation of baby's body???
Baby could swallow the piercing.
Doctor might not like the idea... though you can ask. (Update: Miss A's doctor is fine with it.)
You could hold off the excitement until she is older, when she asks to have her ears pierced. It will be a special occasion for her.

Clearly I am pro baby ear piercings!
However, I need people to convince me that it is okay to do it. This is mainly because of my baby's paternal grandmother and maternal great-grandmother who are strongly opposed to the idea. My mom is PRO ear piercings... but that is because she did mine and my sisters at a very young age.

Let me know what you think. I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions!

xx Monica xx

Update: My baby's ears are pierced now... Here is her ear piercing story! =)

February 22, 2012

Another Wave of Depression

In order to keep my Facebook and Twitter free from being bogged down by negative posts, I will try to capture them all in one blog post here. I told myself before starting my blog that I would mainly post about positive things related to family life--- life with a baby. But let's face it. Family life.. or any part of life does not only consist of sunshine and rainbows. If there are ups, there are downs. And right now... I am down.

I'm feeling...
Trapped. My beautiful 7 month old baby makes me feel like I can't do anything, despite all my ranting and raving of how "Just because you have a baby, doesn't mean you can't do anything!" The absolute worst thing about parenting is that I have had to wake up to a crying baby everyday for the past 7 months. [That's a big FML]. In addition, my husband is at a job with a crappy schedule & he is forced to work a lot of overtime. This makes me feel like I'm going crazy, especially because I am home 24/7 without him and without a job myself.
Bored. I am stuck at home... I feel like I'm waiting for my life to end. Nothing exciting is happening. Baby milestones are exciting but they aren't exciting when you're withering away while your baby is blossoming.
Uninspired/Unmotivated. I can't find motivation to look for jobs. I wanted to apply for jobs outside of Michigan/outside of the country. Now I can't do that because I am stuck with a million dollars in student loans and Bill has a job that he does not (rightfully) want to leave yet. He said he will leave it, if I find a job that is higher pay. Also we have been looking for houses to rent in a town I absolutely do not want to live in. Everyone (including Bill) thinks we should look there and it's because of convenience of having a free babysitter nearby. My biggest reason for not wanting to move to this place is irrational and therefore ignored. I simply hate this town. Why? Just because of how I felt when living there. Too difficult to describe. I'm uninspired because I'm not accomplishing anything I wanted to do. My bigger goals were moving away/having an exciting career, but I shouldn't complain because I have the family I've wanted too. Handsome/loving/awesome husband & beautiful/healthy baby...
Worthless. I don't feel like I will find a job that even has decent pay. When I say decent, I mean $20,000 annually. I have way too many student loans to settle for something like that. I can find a job, trust me but you what that job is? Sales clerk jobs.... Other minimum wage jobs. For now, I work as a reader, grading standardized tests. If that was full time, it'd be great because the people are awesome. It's part time though so... yeah.. I must motivate myself to commit to a full-time job search. I graduated from Michigan State University over a year ago now! It's crazy how fast time flies.
Overwhelmed by Nothing. I can't keep my life organized anymore with a baby. It is difficult. I feel like I should be able to do everything and anything I want. For goodness sake I am a STAY AT HOME MOM right now. My only task is to take care of our baby. I feel overwhelmed though. I used to be able to effortlessly keep our apartment clean and keep up on laundry & the dishwasher. I don't know how to do that anymore and it bothers me because I need a clean, clutter-free space to live in.

I feel like I should be on depression medication but I really hate medicine... including birth control pills. I'm not good about remembering them. My only cure right now (which helps a bit) is coffee.

I'll be fine... I just need something unknown that's around the corner.
I have a career fair to attend tomorrow. That could help me. We will see.

February 15, 2012

Don't Do This... [Wordless Wednesday]

Daddy's Work of Art: Peas in microwave for 27 seconds.

February 13, 2012

Honeymoon in Jamaica

The honeymoon was Fan-Fricken-Fastic!! We spent 5 nights, 6 days in Ocho Rios Jamaica at the Sunset Jamaica Grande [All-Inclusive] Resort. It was so much fun. No problems MoN!

Some words to sum up our trip in paradise...

80+ Degrees. Sunshine. Appleton Rum. Unlimited Drinks-- Piña Colada, Strawberry Daquiry, Purple Rain, Jamaican Delight, Miami Vice & many more! Blue Mountain Jamaican Coffee. Jerk Chicken/Pork. Fancy Restaurants. Snorkeling. Rafting on Martha Brae. Ocean. Beach. Mountains. Dunn's River Falls. Red Stripe Beer. Local Flea Market. YeaH MoN!!

Please enjoy some pictures! ;)

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