Hello Baby Blog

So apparently to get into the best day cares you have to a a super hero with advanced precognition power. Maybe if my midichlorians were a bit higher, I could just use my jedi mastery of the force to see into the future. If I was cool like that, I could have known over three years ago that in February of 2010 I would have a baby… and then MAYBE my little jedi offspring could have a spot in the best day care.

But instead I suck at seeing into the future and I didn’t know I would be giving birth in February until the pregnancy test told me so. Thus, I am demoted to the non-super hero waiting list of day cares.

I must admit I have heard of ridiculous waiting list for chid care before, but I always assumed it was in the big cities. Those fancy urbanites must have to deal with waiting lists, but surely I wouldn’t have to worry about waiting lists. ha!

The good news is that I found a day care I really feel happy with that has a spot available in August of 2010 for sure. So I put down my registration money, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed all the other parent’s on the list win the lottery and decide to stay home with their child. Wait a minute, maybe I should hope that for myself (or my husband actually). The day care I selected also has 2 sister schools, one of which has an opening when I need it. But the evil lord from the sister school doesn’t want to give me the spot. This evil lord happens to lives 3 houses down from me… I think some immature egging and dirty diapers at front door are in order. What do you think?

I have 6 months to pass after birth before my guaranteed spot. I figure 2 months will be maternity leave. Then I am not sure, but we’ll figure something out.

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photo credit: AMagill

I just love the smell of a fresh budget. Ahhh… Smell that? Beautiful. I used to be afraid of budgets. I thought they meant I had to restrict myself and this budget would some how own me. Once I gave the budget a chance I realized it was just the opposite. A budget frees you from worry. My budget may not be 100% correct. I may have underestimated the cost of toys or overestimated the cost of diapers, but I know what ballpark I will be in. A budget also means I have a target I am trying to reach. If I can manage to go under my target, I just won the coolest, dork-iest game!

If you’re into the budget fun you can take a look at my baby budget here. I’ve never had one of these foreign baby things, so I could be completely underestimating what all I will need. I believe the prices should be pretty accurate. I looked them up using various online baby stores. I plan on buying some items used either from garage sales or craigslist. If you are interested in budgets I recommend Baby Bargains by Denis Fields. It tells you how to save money on different baby necessities and how much you can expect to pay for every item on your list.

Click to see my Baby Budget.

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image by Jayel Aheram

I am a planner.  And a bit of an excessive planner at that.  Since I decided I was a dumb woman who wanted a baby, I have been planning away for this baby.  I have a special “Baby Folder” that I keep hidden under my desk that contains all my grandiose baby plans.  In my folder I have the following.

• Baby Book List (A list of all the books I currently have and, gasp, more I must get)
• Calendar with due dates for pre-TTC duties
• Printed out medical studies dealing with pregnancy and my blood disorder
• Print out of my insurance’s maternity coverage as well as fertility coverage
• A Pregnancy check list (because you can never be too prepared)
• An in depth first year baby budget that I painstakingly planned down to each sock I need to buy
• List of questions I asked my GYN at the pre-TTC visit

And in the left pocket:

• My glorious financial plan
• Confirmation for my upcoming vacation
• Print outs of “Bright Beginnings” Online course
• More budget data.

Now what else can I plan???

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image by Deanslife

Part of my pre-TTC to do list included kicking my sleeping pill addiction usage. Don’t worry, I’m not talking about prescription strength sleeping pills, just your basic over the counter benedryl. I knew this would not be an easy task since I have been addicted taking some sort of sleep aid since I was 14 and diagnosed with scoliosis. You try sleeping through the night with your spine contorted into a 90 degree curve. It ain’t easy. And so my love affair started.

Since benedryl isn’t good during pregnancy, I knew I needed to start working on this vice early on. I decided to do it in steps. You would swear it’s heroine, so difficult to give up. My process started by first kicking my 3 Dr. Pepper/day habit. All the sleeping advice I found online suggested cutting back or stopping caffeine. And so I did. I stopped drinking caffeine in one month. Then, once the caffeine was out of my system, I started cutting back to a half a sleeping pill every night. At first this cut was painful, but eventually my body was accustomed. Several weeks later, I stopped taking the sleeping pills all together.

In the beginning I hated it. I was convinced this would not work. I’ll have to tell my OB I have severe insomnia, I thought. MUST have sleeping pills. And why was it so hard to sleep? Well, after I turned off the TV, I would close my eyes and try to sleep. What’s that noise? Did you hear that? It was a small creak, but could have been a burglar beginning to pry open the door. This must be checked out at once! It’s nothing, back to sleep. Try to think of happy thoughts. Like this Serena & LIly Blake crib set. Ahhh, the blue and green are so serene. Did you hear that?!? An unexplainable noise. Someone could have sneaked in through our roof and be planning to sneak in through the drop ceiling in the kitchen! I must check it out. Are all the doors locked? We have to double check. What about the back garage door that has boxes in front of it and impassable? Is that door locked? And so my nights went. Night after night. At first my dogs would play along come check out the noises with me. Then they got bored and opened one eye with this “Bitch- you’ve already checked the doors, you’re crazy” look. Don’t judge me Minnie Pearl!

Making matters A LOT worse… my husband. He was totally not playing the knight-in-shinning-armor and let me check all 58583 of those noises for you hun. Things got to a nervousness crescendo the day the neighbor told my husband there had been a few break-ins in the neighborhood. Oh my god! This gave credence to all my mysterious noises. Someone was slowly trying to figure out HOW to break into my house and now it was inevitable. Must buy gun. Must rig entire house with booby traps and dig a moat. This must be done before bedtime for my sleeps sake.

No one broke into my house while I was sleeping. And my husband told me a few days later that he thinks the neighbor was wrong. Aw, was that a glimpse of a night-in-shining-aluminum telling me not to worry? Eventually, the creaks and pops and ticks got fewer and fewer. Or maybe I stopped listening for them. And as an adult, I began sleeping through the night without crack benedryl.

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