because this girl is a dream

and the queen of peaceful sleep amid 19 month old brother chaos, I'm going to post something non-Bebe related. Pom's great post from the other day with a bunch of delightfully random questions will be my catalyst today -- and i'm definitely needing one after a restless night of aching stitches and a gassy newborn.

Laundry folding:
Always take to the bedroom to watch tv and be in close proximity to the folded clothing articles' final destination

what am i eating:
something wonderful each day this week (perk of post-partum homeboundness i guess): souperman, bo lings, lots of guacamole from pretty much anywhere that doesn't serve it baby-poo style.

hospital bag for baby birthing:
cameras, laptop, boppy, baby nail clippers (they won't do it there for some reason -- probably some overly-litigious new parent), comfy socks(!), comfy robe. oh yeah, and don't forget the car seat.

baby birthing music:
download a podcast of hearts of space. not something i'd listen to for fun typically, but this helped me greatly during contractions with Roman. we had another show on cd in the bag for this birth, but there wasn't time. however, while laboring at home, i turned on the visualizations in Windows media player and concentrated on those while listening to the soundtrack to Lost in Translation. just as effective.

what motivates me to clean/organize:
usually ill-channeled and/or irrational anger. also a general feeling of needing control over something. consequently, i clean/organize in a very bi-polar manner. my hubby just steps out of the way, which is wise i think.

makes me feel better when i have a raging cold:
1. take bath 2. make tea (ginger) 3. Fresh sheets on bed 4. Good book. 5. Fall asleep a few pages in.

time off for baby:
well this time around was a lot more laid back. i knew i wasn't coming back to the job, so it's been liberating. however, last time, i was brand-new to my job (only there for 2 months) and i was freaked out about losing my job. to make it worse, i only had 2 weeks paid leave and medical leave requirements dictate 6 weeks off mandatory for a vaginal birth. so we were broke for several weeks then, when i went back we had the additional burden of having to pay for daycare after having been out of 50% of our income for a month. Very rough. However, the job was cool. When I came back, everyone seemed pleasantly surprised and took it very easy on me. Very understanding about needing to readjust to the schedule and stuff. the worst part was really the financial strain of daycare costs (which even though it was slightly cheaper than regular daycare because we took him to my mother in law, it still was not affordable after time off without pay). The insurance ended up not being a big deal as they simply prorated my missed premiums over the remainder of the year. My advice: save up if you know you're not going to have the income you'll need once baby is here. Other advice: Work cannot trump your health. Most managers are human and understand this. And if yours doesn't, that's a clue that you're in the wrong spot. Because, once the baby is here, they're going to need to be able to work with you anyway. Babies get sick, babies have lots of doc appointments, etc. They need to be flexible with new moms unless they'd rather train someone else to do the job they've already trained you to do well. (a known entity is always better than an unknown -- this is working in your favor.)