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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The end.

And just like that, the end has came today. The end of my school. After long two years, I had my second final test today (I was taking two last courses) and I am officially done. I do have to wait for the results but I feel pretty confident that I acually passed both classes. Even the today's class, which was really really hard, I have a good feeling as the test was not the hardest (the midterm had the 29% class average)

I started this degree 2 years ago, when my company paid. They don't anymore as I'm being laid off next week when my maternity leave is over. But I finished it regardless. It was not easy, during that time I worked full time, ended up on a sick leave (thanks to my then supervisor who felt it's a great idea to share my private medical problems with everyone else), got pregnant, had a baby, travelled to Prague for Christmas and lots of other things. It was not easy and I actually made the decision to swich for the librarian program and I got in three weeks ago. I had a post about it a while back, but I haven't told you that I managed to get accepted. I am also glad I dont need to face the certain teacher at my old school in any future classes.

I am going to start a new school in two weeks and I'm really excited. I am going to do everything online, which is great when you have a baby and don't have to worry about babysitting (although I have great friends who helped me when I needed, it was still hard at times) I like to do everything from home, both school and work. I know I can't be a librarian and work at home, lol, but at least I can work part time and close to home which is really important to me.

Now with my degree (if I, hopefully, passed both classes) I can actually have an advantage. The librarians work with computers a lot and one of the concentrations is computers. So that's like I'm done right there. I may not need all the (non)knowledge I have aquired but still, I may possibly know more than my future co-students. Which will be good !

Bye bye old school, I will not miss you !!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Fly Girls

This is a title of a new reality series about the Flight Attendants. I was very excited when I found out about this, but now, 3 episodes later, I'm not really sure. I thought that we will be seeing more about the job, flying, interacting with customers, cities they are going to etc. But they just seem to party, nothing else !

The show shows these girls as very shallow. They don't read, they don't really talk about interesting stuff, they don't care about anything else but good looking guys they meet on the planes and the yachts they are going to. That just doesn't seem right. My friend is a flight attendant and she reads classic books, studies, explores the cuisine of the places she is visiting and I'm sure she could care less about the parties.

On the last episode, one girl, Nicole, was having problems with her boyfriend cause she lived in L.A. and he in SFO. She was afraid he is breaking up with her cause she moved to another city. So later, he flew in to surprise her but she was having none of it. She was ready to go to the party on a yacht with her friends with whom she fought two first episodes and acted really unpleased that her boyfriend is there. In the end she actually got mad at him that he didn't meet other people (did she mean girls ?) and told him to leave cause she wanted to be only with her girlfriends (did I say she fought with them two previous episodes !!) and party away. Who does that, seriously !!!

I think I will still watch it but I am pretty dissapointed.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Sale: Green leaf handknit merino fingerless mittens

These are now $26 plus shipping (normally $35). Handknit, pure merino wool with buttons (the listing on Etsy will show you how they look). Will make a great gift either now or for Christmas. Click on the picture to go to my Etsy store where you can purchase them or let me know directly if you're interested. All sales from my Etsy store help us with our baby adoption costs.


Cry it out, day 3: took 7 minutes

But I spoke too soon. See, I am not a huge fan of Cry it out. I don't like the idea of a baby having to cry herself to sleep, of a tiny baby in a dark room calling mommy and she never comes. I've heard of a baby that threw up each time his parents tried for months. I've heard of a baby that developed serious nightmares that she carried with her long into a childhood. I am sure that eventually it benefits the baby but isn't there a better method?

On top of that, Cry it out never worked for us. We could have a baby screaming for 2-3 hours without any result, even if we tried over and over again. She just wouldn't sleep. If it would be few days, then ok, but weeks and weeks.... I dont' think that shows it worked for us.

I was getting really frustrated becuase everyone was telling me that I have to do that, and what else and such and that their babies slept right away through the night ever since they were born, and similar nonsense (I am not mad at those whose babies slept since 2 months, I had like 5 friends telling me this week, so I'm courious, is that a milestone or so, we did have a change in a sleeping pattern around that time as well, to be honest) I'm just angry when someone presents me with the nonsense that is not true at first sight and is just frustrating me further.

In last three days, we noticed that baby Moesha actually started to fall asleep fairly quickly. We tried hybrid Ferber method (hybrid because I don't really know in details how it works, so I did the bits and pieces from what that little bit I knew slashs some tips from Supernanny) Yesterday it took only 7 minutes !

I was so happy. Until 1 am . Bebe woke up and sang/cried/sand/cried/sang in her crib for 3.5 hours during which she threw up twice. Obviously I had to feed her because she wouldn't not go back to sleep again (she was hungry and gulped down 6 oz which she never doez, 3 is about the record)

Nights like this make me really angry at my husband. He is a very nice guy, but also a tv junkie and I suggested once that perhaps we can have one day a week sans no tv. He wasn't pleased and suggested that to work this out I must wake up at 7.30 am in return. So that would give me full about 2 hours of sleep and then I can get the no tv day and his full attention. Good deal !

At this point, I don't know what to do. Continue with cio or not, naps or no naps... If you leave me a comment, please don't tell me that your kids slept through the night ever since wherever. Today is not a good day for me to read that.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Sale: Old gold handknit mittens

These are now $26 plus shipping (normally $35). Handknit, pure merino wool with buttons (the listing on Etsy will show you how they look). Will make a great gift either now or for Christmas. Click on the picture to go to my Etsy store where you can purchase them or let me know directly if you're interested. All sales from my Etsy store help us with our baby adoption costs.

Recipe: Avocado sandwiches

Baby Moesha gets avocado everyday (and likes it!) but she can't eat the whole thing so I have to finish the rest (I hate wasting, especially with all that hunger in the world, it doesn't seem right) I tried few things and I like it on sandwiches the best.

Sandwich 1:
Put avocado on one half, cream cheese on the other, cooked turkey (or any other salami you like), and a bit of onion

Sandwich 2: (I was just told about this one at the recent playdate)
Spread avocado on the bread, cut tomatoes on top of it, add havarti cheese and grill. Yummy !!

If you have any other uses for avocado, than these sandwiches or quacamole, please share !


Friday, April 2, 2010

Cry it out

This refers to the oh so popular falling-asleep method which I am not a fan of at all. However, it actually works for us.

Baby Moesha gave us a very hard time when she was born. She had serious jaundice (just few units from having to have IV, actually!) She slept a lot, but mostly during the day. I got so many advices cause everyone seemed to know what I didn't and of course nothing worked. With each advice I got more and more frustrated as it came.

At seven weeks, a light bulb went on in her head and she suddenly realized that nites are for sleepy times. She demanded to be put into her beddie at around 7, so she can get nice and cozy and sleepy and whiney. She did sleep chunks of hours, sometimes she whined for a long time, sometimes she fell asleep right away. Somewhere between 1 - 3 hours (rather closer to 1) she woke up hungry. She nursed (most of the times, few times she got a bottle) and slept another 2 or so hours (sometimes up to 3 or 4 hours). Then she woke up hungry again.

Then we started solids. She still woke up fairly quickly for the first feeding but slept a bit longer after. But never through the night. Everytime I mentioned she's not sleeping, there was always someone who felt so empathetic to kindly add to my frustration by telling me his/her kid(s) do or did. Everyone was telling me do this do that dont do this dont do that, even though I never asked. Most of the advices were not to pick her up, not to feed her at night, or let her cry it out.

And that never worked for us. We let her cry for hours and hours and she cried more and more and chocked and even had problems with breathing. I also don't like the idea of a tiny baby in the dark room, alone, crying for mommy and she's not coming.

But lately I noticed without actively trying that if I actually leave her she does calm down on her own and eventually falls asleep ! So is it possible that she is one of those babies that respond to this method but was just not ready until now? I do now what seems to be hybrid Ferber method (hybrid because I haven't got familiar with it but I know a bit how it works), and she does fall asleep. Today it took about 1/2 hour but she has been sleeping for about 2 hours so far. The best she has done since birth, was to wake up once.

My friend is trying the sleep training but we can't afford it. But I bought her a sound machine so it's now constantly raining in our bedroom. She seems to be sleeping better. The other problem is that she is really tired during the day, she wakes up and within 45 minutes she's ready for her nap. Then in the pm she is really tired and just rubs her eyes, and doesn't want to eat, or play, and whines a lot. So the sleeping through the night would totally benefit both me and her.

I am also frustrated that all the advisers seem to think that I"m doing everything wrong. But I"m not ! Mind you, I know a lot about kids and all kind of stuff. I think I'm doing pretty well and she's just taking her time to cooperate.

Oh well, I still love her to pieces and one day we will both sleep. At least she doesn't wake up before 7.30 !!