Mummy Failed!

Crib training did not go well last night. It wasn’t a horrible experience, or anything, but we were not successful. After bath time (and chasing Kodie to get a diaper out of her mouth), I fed Emerson and put him to sleep. I don’t think I waited long enough for him to fall into a deep sleep. I tried transferring him into his crib, but the second I lowered him, his eyes flung open. Let me tell you, he had the most adorable look on his face!!!!!!!!!!!!! He had a look like he was thinking “Mum, what do you think you’re doing?”, “BUSTED!”, and “Are you really going to leave me in here alone?” I had so many emotions going through me that I just started laughing. I felt sad leaving him alone and then I felt really goofy because I felt like he caught me in the act. With all of that said, my little buddy did NOT sleep in his crib last night. I had it ready too. I took everything out of it, plugged the monitor into his room, and set up the humidifier in there. It sucked because the humidifier and monitor weren’t in my room. I hate setting and then having to re-set things up in another room. I have so much plugged in as it is. My phone charger, a fan, the monitor, humidifier, and IPod docking station. I’m constantly plugging and unplugging something. I just need to get an extension cord to make things easier on me. Anyway, I can hear him downstairs if he starts to cry, but I like having the monitor right next to him, so I can hear him breathing, while I’m getting ready in the mornings. I didn’t have that luxury this today. I was afraid I’d wake him up plugging and unplugging things, so I just left it in his room. I’d like to give it another go tonight. This time, I’ll wait longer before I attempt to put him in his crib. Wish me luck!

When he woke up this morning, his nose was a little less stuffy and his cough wasn’t as bad. I think we are on the tail-end of this cold. My throat definitely feels better today. I can tell the congestion is starting to break up. Yay! I think we’ll both be better before mother’s day! That would be the best gift of all. Speaking of gifts, my sister accidentally let it slip today that she bought me the fire table I wanted for my backyard! I am so excited!! I absolutely LOVE being outside. I have such a great yard, so all I want to do is accessorize and get things that the baby and I can enjoy throughout the summer. This way, we spend less money going places, but we can still have a good time at home and enjoy the nice weather. I bought three outdoor chairs yesterday before I picked him up from daycare. They aren’t anything special. Two adult-sized plastic chairs and an aqua, baby chair for Emerson, but they’ll do the trick and we can finally begin hanging out in our yard without me having to stand and walk around carrying the baby! It’ll be nice for the dog too. She loves when we are outside with her. The fire table is just an added bonus. I can’t wait to have some friends over to enjoy it! It’s still too chilly for Emerson to be hanging outside in the evenings, especially with a cold, but I can definitely utilize it after he’s had a bath and is down for the night. Mummy time! Up next, a baby pool for Emerson and swimming trunks. It’ll be nice to come home from work/daycare in the summertime and plop Emerson in the pool in our yard. It’ll give us something to do before bath and bed aside from our usual tummy time and activity mat. I’d rather be outside than cooped up in the house, especially during the week when it’s just consumed with household chores and work.

Gah, I realized I forgot to put my garbage out as I was driving down the street towards daycare today. I only had 1 bag, but it sucks! I’ll just put it in the garbage can outside until next week. I hate that though. I always forget about garbage day, but I typically remember when I see the neighbor’s bags out there. I don’t remember seeing any when I got home from picking Emerson up yesterday.

My mum got mad at me yesterday. Apparently she texted me while I was bathing Emerson and I didn’t respond quick enough for her. “I guess you’re not talking to me. Whatever” If she’d ever listen to anything I say, she’d realize between 7pm and 8pm are really busy for me. I’m bathing the baby, doing jammie time, and getting him ready to eat before bed! On top of that, I have to let the dog out one more time and get her a snack. Yesterday, Kodie decided she wanted to grab a diaper out of the garbage during bath time. It was a real delight chasing her around the house trying to get it with the baby in a towel in my arms. I did finally get it, but it was in about a million pieces! Anyway, she was fine after I wrote back. She just asked how the baby was doing. My dad had been texting me right before she did, so I’m sure he told her and she was all upset when I didn’t immediately jump to talk to her. I don’t have time for that pettiness. Get over yourself.

She’s all upset with my sister because they had plans to go shopping on Friday. Well, my mother makes these plans all of the time, but then flakes out and makes me fill in for her. So, instead of being caught off-guard, Britt and I just decided to run errands together after I’m done working on Friday. I’m working from home, so I’ll have about two hours to run errands before I pick the baby up from daycare. Britt’s done working at three, so I was going to pick her up from work, run errands, pick the baby up from daycare, and then go back to my house afterwards. Friday is the same day as girl’s night, so I figured we’d hang at my house for a bit, get my clothes ready for that night, and all of the baby’s items ready for my mum to babysit him, then head over to my parent’s to hang out, get ready, and take care of the baby before we leave. This way, the dog isn’t left alone very long while I am out. My mum was sick with a cold last week and missed three or four days of work. She’s still complaining of this very same cold, so we figured she’d end up saying she doesn’t want to go shopping with Britt on Friday anyway. She’s probably not going to babysit for me either, so I’ll probably end up not going to girl’s night. She’s already making excuses to get out of Aunt Kathy’s 50th birthday for Saturday too. It’s ridiculous. She was telling Britt today that they never do anything together. Well, ask yourself why. Is it because you constantly flake? Yes, yes it is. Stop making excuses, be present in your life, and maybe it’ll be more enjoyable. I’m not going to sit around and watch life pass me by. I want to enjoy it and enjoy time with Emerson. I really don’t care if she doesn’t babysit on Friday night for TWO hours, but it’s the fact that she doesn’t have a real excuse not to. She hasn’t seen Emerson since last Sunday for 10 minutes. She should want to babysit him for those two hours just to spend some extra time with him. I’ve learned that you can’t force people though.

My birthday is in 20 days! I’ll be 31! Super crazy. I never envisioned 31 would look like this. Mummy, house, and a pup. It’s pretty sweet. I have the full package! I’m taking off Friday and Tuesday over Memorial day weekend, so I’ll have a nice five day break to spend with Emerson. We’re going to go to the animal farm, spend time in our yard in the pool, go to the park, have a big Memorial Day cookout/Birthday party with the family, and hopefully get in some Heather/Cam time! It’s nice that my best friend is on Maternity Leave now. I’m off Tuesday when mostly everyone will be working, so we can take the kids to the park to walk and hang out. Cameron is still tiny (2 weeks yesterday), but she does take him out in his stroller to enjoy the weather and get some Vitamin D, so I’m sure it’ll be no problem on my birthday. I’ll have her pencil us in! This might be the best birthday I’ve ever had!

So, my mission to stock pile 5 bottles of breast milk this week is right on course. So far, I have 2 bottles (10oz) frozen in storage bags in the freezer. My goal is to be able to stock 1 bottle per day. I’m on track to do that today. So far, I’ve pumped twice and I’ve gotten 12oz. I need another 8oz to have enough bottles for daycare tomorrow, but anything after that is all stock. I’m pumping again around 11:45am and around 2:30pm. I SHOULD have all of my daycare bottles by that point. I usually pump around 5:30pm from one side after I pick Emerson up from daycare and then again around 10:00pm. Let’s hope that’s enough to give me my extra bottle. If not, I’ll have to wake up around 1:00am to get what I’m short. That’s okay though. I usually am up several times during the night anyway even when Emerson isn’t waking me up. Between him and the dog, I am always up! She has to go out, or he has to eat. LOL The life of a dog mum and a baby mum!

I had a gift on my desk at work from one of my friends since February. I was on Maternity Leave, so I didn’t get it until I came back in March. Anyway, I didn’t realize there was a card in the bag. I don’t know how I missed this. I went to empty the tissue paper out of the bag and seen an envelope. I opened it up and there was a $25 Visa gift card inside. I was so happy. I ended up putting all $25 into my gas tank this morning. This way, I shouldn’t need any gas until I get paid again. I don’t drive very far. The park and ride, daycare, and my parent’s house are all within a few miles of my house. If anything, I’ll have to pop an extra $10 into my tank, but otherwise, I’m good! What a blessing! Speaking of blessings, daycare told me that I had a $76 credit on my account when I went to pay for the month of May on Friday. I could have cried!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Daycare absolutely KILLS me. I am so cautious with every single dime I have. Any money I spend is calculated down to the penny. I do not mess around. Buying those chairs was the ONLY luxury that I’ve given myself this pay period and I view it as an investment because we’ll be hanging in our yard all summer. $38 well spent! Getting a slight discount this month on daycare was more than I could ever ask. Even something as small as $76, which feels like a million to me! I was able to put a couple extra dollars into my savings account. I feel like I’ve hit the lottery twice this week!

I have my health screening next Wednesday. My company offers this awesome health screening that gives you a big credit towards your healthcare premiums. Carrying Emerson has really upped the cost, so having this saves me so much money. I did it last year, so my 2014 premiums aren’t so bad. I’m hoping 2015 doesn’t kill me either with this screening. I got a call last week because all of Emerson’s claims were declined. I had a coordination of benefit issue. I resolved it, so the claims were to be resubmitted and paid. I just got a call from the physician’s billing person. I was told the claims would take about 3 weeks before they were resolved, so my guess is they haven’t been paid out yet, and the doctor is calling about the outstanding balance, which spans over $1400.00. I’m not concerned though. Once the COB issue is fixed and claims are resubmitted, we should be okay. I’ll still call back just to make sure we are on track to having it corrected. It is absolutely insane how often baby’s go to the doctors in their first year. That doesn’t even include sick visits. He’s already had 4 well visits and 3 sick visits. Each time we go, there is a $30 co pay. He’s not even 4 months yet and I’ve spent $210 on co-pays. He has another round of shots at the end of this month, which ups that to $240. I was to have a pap done last month, but had to cancel it. I have a $30 co pay too, but Emerson got sick, so I had to use that $30 to pay for his doctor visit. I’m hoping to reschedule my appointment next month when he doesn’t have an appointment. $60 in co pays a month is a lot. It’s better if I can break it in half and not be on the same schedule as him. I finally feel better after having the Mirena inserted in March, but I want to have it checked out and get my annual pap just to make sure things are okay. I don’t trust the health center at work to perform my pap. I had a bad experience last year. To me, it’s better to just go to my OBGyn. Plus, I miss those gals. I saw them all the time for about 10 months, while pregnant. I’ll be nice to catch up and tell them how the baby is doing.

Alright, I’ve started and stopped this blog so many times today, which is why it’s so long. Again, I am so happy to still able to write here and I’ve appreciated all of the comments I’ve gotten over the past few days!