So Lucky

Spring Break is coming up for me (yay - I really, really need it!) next week, and I plan on doing absolutely nothing. In fact, I think it would be a good time to catch up on all the movies I wanted to see in theaters, but missed because of the nuisance of studying! Just in time for Spring Break, Redbox is offering a chance to get free movie credits during the Redbox Lucky To Have Friends Like You promotion. They give you your own unique web address so that each time someone uses your link to rent a movie, you get a free movie credit. Pretty sweet, right? 


Besides being lucky enough to score free movie rentals, I'm lucky in a lot of more serious ways. Even with all the crap that has gone on in my life over the past few years, I have so much to be grateful for! 


First and foremost, I am so, so lucky and grateful to have a living, breathing child. Even at the most frustrating times of motherhood, that fact is never lost on me. I'm lucky that I was able to stay on bed rest to keep him baking for the 3 weeks that made the difference between life and death for him. I'm lucky that he did so amazingly well in NICU, and I'm lucky to have met all the amazing medical professionals who helped us through that difficult time and inspired me to become a nurse.


Speaking of nursing, I am so lucky to be able to "start over" and go back to school. If my mom hadn't stepped in and offered E and I a place to live, I might be stuck working for minimum wage and barely making ends meet forever. Literally, forever. Not everyone has the opportunity to get a college education and I'm so appreciative of this chance. 


I'm lucky to have all my friends! Even with the craziness that is my life, I am so happy to be able to stay connected through blogs, emails, Twitter and texts. It has saved my sanity more than once. At some point in my life I hope to get to be a little more social "in real life," but for now I'm grateful for the technology that can connect me to friends and family when I don't have the time or the means to get together in person. 


And now that spring has (almost) sprung, I'm feeling lucky for the beautiful and safe area I live in. It's so great to be able to take E outside without worrying too much. He loves to play outside and the weather recently has been so gorgeous! 


I don't pause often enough to count up the things in my life that are lucky. I complain too often and I want to change that! In what ways are you lucky this St. Patrick's Day? 


I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and redbox blogging program, for a $25 Walmart gift card from redbox. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Got Keys?

Thank you to P&G’s Have You Tried This Yet? program and Kroger for sponsoring my writing about trying new things and breaking out of my everyday routine. Click here to find great savings on high-performing P&G products at a Kroger store near you. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

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I am notorious for being late. When I say "Meet me at 3:00," it really means 3:15. It's awful and it's a habit I need to break before getting into nursing school, because in that program lateness is absolutely not tolerated. Nor is it tolerated at a job (although with previous jobs I've managed to get myself to work on time), so now is the time to fix that. 

One thing that has caused me a lot of lateness in the past is losing my keys and/or my debit card. Those are things I always haphazardly stash in a random pocket in my purse and inevitably they get lost in the dark depths of it. Then when I'm about to fly out the door I have to pause and frantically search for them. Not very conducive to timeliness. 


Funny story - I once missed a dinner with a good friend who lives an hour away because I couldn't find my keys. Seriously. I had come home from running errands, gotten ready, changed E's clothes, and went to find my keys like 30 minutes later and couldn't find them anywhere. ANYWHERE! I tore the house apart looking for them, and by the time I found them it was way too late and I had already missed the dinner. It was so awful and embarrassing.

And that's not the only time something like that has happened to me. Before this semester started I was looking for some ways to get organized - I wanted to make this semester a little less stressful than last. I got a fabulous idea - I invested in a lanyard and a zip pouch with a key ring on it! 

Ta-da!!! Now my keys, ID, and debit card are all in the same place. Even better? I just loop it over the handles of my purse like so

 and I don't even have to dig for it - it's always right there. I haven't lost my keys since I purchased this. 

Even though I'm still scrambling around trying to find a bottle, sippy cup, diapers, wipes, baby socks (HOW do people keep track of baby socks?! If you have any suggestions, please do tell), and all the other things that it takes for a mom to get out of the house, the essentials are always in one place where I can find them. 

What a simple change, right?! I'm not a very organized person, but I tried one new thing and it has made a huge difference in my life. I wonder what other little changes I could make! Do you have any suggestions??

Can't Quit

I think I have a problem. An addiction of sorts. They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, right? Right?! So maybe I have a problem. 

I'm afraid to stop pumping. Really, literally afraid. I can't imagine a world in which I don't need to pump at least twice a day. I can't imagine a world in which I don't have breast milk to give to my baby. 

The thing is, my baby? Will be turning two in only five months. Two. That's pretty old. (Yes, I have now been exclusively pumping for 19 months. Yes, I am insane.)

He mainly takes a bottle of breast milk at nap time and at bedtime. He's down to about 20 oz a day. The last week or so he's become obsessed with "wa-wa" (water) in his sippy cup or a regular cup (which I try to avoid since he spills it all over himself). He insists on will take sips of cow's milk out of a cup if I'm drinking it, but I haven't tried putting it in his sippy or a bottle yet. I have a feeling he'd be fine with it in a bottle.. but that seems so weird. 

I'm almost out of domperidone (which, in case you're unfamiliar, is the medication recommended to me by my OB to take to maintain milk supply while exclusively pumping). Do I buy more? Or do I stop taking it, and let my supply taper off and start mixing with cow's milk? I can't decide. I just can't decide. 

On the one hand, I'll be really glad not to have to worry about it. The day I don't have to wash bottles and pump parts?! Well, it will just be one thing I can scratch off my to-do list... for good. Yay. 

On the other... I like pumping. I like the assurance of knowing that E is getting good nutrition even though he still has some trouble eating solid food. I like that breast milk is free (well, sort of... I buy the domperidone). And that it's always available. 

Any advice?! Is my reluctance to quit a sign that it's not time yet, or is it just the inability to accept that my teeny tiny preemie is now a toddler and doesn't really need me like that anymore?? Maybe some of both. 

Dialect Vlog

Hey guys! I'm not a big vlogger but everyone is doing this and I had to join in, I think it's really fun! The point is to hear how different people from different regions of the country say this list of words, which I will paste below the video!

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil,Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

 Questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?

What do you call gym shoes?

What do you say to address a group of people?

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?

What do you call your grandparents?

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Wasn't that fun?! Play along and upload your own dialect vlog! 

Friends who already have:

Katie at Pickles and Paisleys
Emily at Baby Dickey
Alyssa at She's Mommafied
Natalie at Mommy Boots
Christa at Little BGCG
Joshua at Daddy Green's Pride
Joanna at Baby Gator's Den

It's Done.

Done. Over.

I signed the divorce papers today. It was such a... shock, I guess? That isn't really the right word. But it was really strange to see M's handwriting, his signature. It was like I had a flashback of all the notes he'd written me in high school, up to him signing our marriage certificate... and then this. I know that signature, that handwriting so well. It hit me kind of hard.

But it's over. The papers aren't going to be filed with the court until M provides documentation that E is insured under his policy (what good does it do if I don't have the information, anyway? I mean seriously) but as soon as we do, all it needs is a judge's signature and it's final.

It's a bittersweet day.

The Eve of Change

I got a call from my attorney today. After 16 long months, M has finally signed the latest draft of our divorce decree. I'll go in to sign it tomorrow.

After all of this time... I just don't know what to think. The decree itself is legally fair, but I feel kind of screwed over by it. I gave up on getting alimony, and just all around let him get away with too much for what he did to us. By legal standards for normal situations, it's a pretty standard document. But the reason for divorce said irreconcilable differences, when it should say "adultery and abandonment." I should get alimony. Those are the only major disappointments for me, I guess.

I can't help but still feel that this isn't right. I didn't think I still loved him - I thought I was completely over it. I'm not. I could never go back to him, but I still wish this had never happened. That it was all a bad dream and I'll wake up and things will be normal again. We were meant to be together. That's how I've always felt and it's very hard to change that perspective.

Another thing. I'm not prepared to be divorced. I'm not prepared for the pressure of people wanting me to date. I'm not ready. The thought of going on a date makes me want to throw up. The thought of taking any chances with my still shattered heart is just unthinkable, but I know there will be pressure from all around me. People trying to set me up. My mom, as good as her intentions are, is always telling me that I'll become bitter if I don't get back out there. Maybe she's right. I don't know. I just know I'm not ready yet.

I'm not ready. But tomorrow I'll put my pen to that paper, and just like that, "until death do us part" is undone. It's just unreal.

Things To Love (And Learn!) About Cloth Diapering

We've been doing great in cloth diapers, and our stash has grown enough that I don't have to wash diapers every night any more!! Yippee!!

It's so not as big of a deal as I thought it was going to be. It's like one more load of laundry a week, and it's fast laundry, not takes-hours-to-sort-and-fold laundry. That's it. That's the only thing that's different. I don't have more leaks than with disposables, I have considerably less trash, my house smells a lot better since the poop goes in the toilet and doesn't sit around in the trash can, and I don't ever have to worry about running out of diapers. I love it. 

I'm still learning, though. I learned a very important lesson about cloth diapering the other morning. 

E had slept in my bed, and was in only a t-shirt and diaper since he had spilled a cup of water from my bedside table on his pajamas and I was too lazy to find him another pair. So it's morning, and I'm all groggy but I can feel E moving around so I have to wake up. I look to my right, and there's his diaper. HIS DIAPER. Without him in it. As soon as I registered that, I heard a grunt. A GRUNT. I intuitively knew what was going to happen, and I jumped up and grabbed a cloth wipe from my stash. Just in time, I CAUGHT HIS POOP. WITH A WIPE. IN MY HAND. If it weren't for my superior reflexes, he would have pooped on my pillow. Oh. Em. Gee. 

So the lesson is: don't put your toddler in velcro diapers without pants. EVER. From then on I've been using snaps at night with pants or a onesie on top. He's never managed to get snaps off, but I'm sure he'll learn in no time! 

In case you've had some mishaps of your own, I'm giving away a $25 gift card to Diapers Etc.! They have revamped their web site and it's better than ever. The giveaway is being sponsored by Diapers Etc and EcoChic Parties. Yay! 

Mandatory Entry: 

• Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect and leave me a comment telling me about the funniest diaper mishaps you have had - cloth or disposable! 

Extra Entries: 

• "Like" Diapers Etc on Facebook
• Follow Diapers Etc on Twitter
• Follow @EcoChicParties on Twitter
• Follow me on Twitter! 
• Visit Diapers Etc and tell me what you're dying to spend your $25 on! 
• Enter other giveaways from the blog party - one entry for each other giveaway you enter! (Unfortunately, you can only win from one blog, though. Just FYI.)
• Tweet this giveaway: "Win a $25 gift card to @DiapersEtc! Join in on the @EcoChicParties fun with @HauteSingleMama! #clothdiapers http://bit.ly/i6bQzu  Ends 2/28 "

Please leave one comment per entry completed. Have fun! This giveaway will end 2/28. 

Open only to US residents 18 years or older. I was provided with a cloth diaper from Diapers Etc. No other compensation was received for this post. All opinions are honest and my own!