Windows Live
Surprisingly, I’ve actually been impressed by Windows Live Mail. It seems to have gone right everywhere Windows Mail goes wrong. Except for one thing… you can’t select more than one message at a time. This makes no sense what so ever. WTF, Microsoft?
holding your baby for the first time
She seemed to look right into me, as if she knew me. It was the most terrifying and beautiful moment in my life, and it was gone like a soap bubble the minute my mind touched it.
baby.com | your body | In search of the maternal instinct.
That’s what it was like when I held Brennan for the first time, and I must admit, it seemed a bit creepy that this little stanger looked at me like he knew me better than anyone else.
lynn – you are my IDOL!
‹tntlwh› i want to get laid while my house gets raped by that hurricane
‹tntlwh› dude screw the house i want to get laid in my car i a hurricane
my pregnancy, labor, and postpartum secrets
There are quite a few women that have been amazed at the fact that I had such a quick labor with minimal aftereffects and also got to go home the same day. I’m partially amazed at it myself, and also seriously respect the women that are able to deal with natural labors that are much longer than mine… mine only lasted 3 1/2 hours with 10 minutes spent pushing and it STILL felt like it took days to get my little guy out.
My best friend Amber is about to have her own little one and was picking my brains yesterday trying to find out what all I did to encourage such an easy labor. It’s really quite simple – I started drinking 4 or more glasses a day of iced red raspberry leaf tea early on in my pregnancy, walked every day for 30-45 minutes (in my later stages it sometimes panned out to only 15 minutes a day), and started vaginally inserting Evening Primrose oil capsules 3-4 times a day once I was about halfway through 37 weeks (37 weeks is full term, any earlier than that and you’re going to have a premie). The raspberry leaf tea helps tone your uterus, much like braxton hick contractions do. All the walking helped keep me in the best possible physical health, and also helped encourage dropping when the time came. The evening primrose oil was how I induced my labor.
There are some other things I did through my pregnancy that helped in the aftermath:
- I rubbed my stomach, hips, thighs, butt, breasts, chest, and underarms with a generous amount of Skin Milk body cream every day. The reason I used this and not anything actually marketed for preventing stretch marks is because this is the only cream I could find that had ALL of the ingredients that encourage skin elasticity and new cell growth. I continued with this until my stomach had mostly returned to its normal shape, then switched to Skin Milk body lotion to tone up the loose skin. I still had a few tiny stretch marks on my lower stomach, so to work those off I started using a good body scrub in the shower (which helps smooth the uneven skin) and then finishing off with a good amount of baby oil. So far the skin is evening out and the marks are fading. Even if they stayed though I wouldn’t be too upset – they’re so small and there’s so few that they’re not even noticeable (except to me of course, lol).
- I didn’t quit exercising after I had Brennan. Well, I did take that week off as recommended by my midwife, but after that I continued with my walking routine. I also do what I call “power cleaning”, which is simply cleaning the house at an accelerated speed that gets my heart pumping and my muscles working.
- I didn’t pig out when I was pregnant, and don’t pig out now. That’s not to say I ever starved myself but I only eat when I’m hungry, and I eat healthy. Granola, yogurt, and shredded wheat have definitely become my best friends because they taste good, they’re filling, they’re energizing, they’re nutritious, and they’re satisfying. I’m more muscular and voluptuous than I was before I was pregnant, but those aren’t really bad things.
- My big secret on how I got out the same day I had him – I went to a birth center instead of a hospital, and I had a natural, drug-free labor (for the most part – my midwife did end up having to give me something for nausea and to calm me down because I was freaking out… long story!). My midwife came to visit me on the second day to make sure we were doing well, and on the fourth day we had a check-up (then a one week, two week, and four week check-up – which is actually more care than you’ll get with a hospital).
Because of all of this I didn’t have nearly as miserable of a pregnancy, labor, birth, or postpartum period as I have learned a lot of women do. Brennan was a lot healthier as well – no bruises or marks from being suctioned or having forceps used on him, no weird coloring, no extreme wrinkling, and no jaundice. I got that picture perfect moment when your beautiful and perfectly pink little newborn gets placed in your arms and you fall in love immediately and are so overcome with happiness that you cry – which so many women now are told just doesn’t happen. It *does* happen, but you do need to prepare for it. Drugs make you woozy and kill the adrenalin rush your body normally gives you after giving birth so that you feel energized and ecstatic, and everything else just pretty much depends on how healthy you are, because the healthier you are, the healthier your baby will be.
dogs
When I was pregnant, I noticed that I got even more attention from guys in public than I normally do. It all seemed very strange to me then… and it seems even stranger to me now that I still get a lot more attention than I used to when I go out in to public with Brennan. Here I am with a four month old baby and a wedding ring on my finger and I have guys hitting on me. It’s pathetic. Is there a shortage on single women or something so that you have to start hitting on the women that are already obviously taken? Shame, shame.
whatever happened to good business communication skills
Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to make it through this world. Seriously. It seems there are no rules any more and there’s just nothing but chaos and paranoia and ignorance. I often wonder why I’m sitting in business communications classes right now when most of the businesses I’ve observed, from small businesses to large corporations, don’t seem to apply any professionalism in their communications. They treat their customers and providers of services they purchase like complete crap. I want to scream at them. I want to insult them. But alas, all MY professionalism holds me back from doing so.
How much worse are things going to get before enough is enough and we start stressing professionalism and courtesy again?
It makes me angry to realize that my four month old son has better professionalism and courtesy than most of those businesses I have observed, and he can’t even talk. He does smile at you though and gives you a warm welcome upon meeting and hardly ever is ambiguous about what exactly he wants from you. Am I alone when I say that’s more than I’ve seen out of most businesses I have dealt with?
How sad it is for them that I am often a rather valuable asset to be losing, and I don’t speak those words lightly.
Now, here’s my suggestion to every business/website/corporation owner and every form of customer service representative, trainer, team manager, quality assurance, etc.: Please pass a business communications course before you even start to talk to any of your customers or anyone that provides you a service if you don’t know how to be professional. If you do know how to be professional, how about acting like it as opposed to acting like you’re thirteen? You suck!
finally a haircut
Today David gave me a Chelsea haircut. So far I’m loving it, and most of my fears about looking like a butchered poodle or being criticized as being disrespectful towards the skinhead community (I’m not a skin and have almost no interest in ska or reggae). As for the former concern, it looks and feels great, and as for the latter concern, well, I was reassured by some people I trust that it would be fine, and I could really care less if anyone says otherwise.
the possible return of the stolen beach cruiser
A while back David’s beach cruiser got stolen off the porch when we had went back inside the house for 15-30 minutes. He ran off to hunt the guy down that stole it, and after a while I started getting worried about him, so I started following the tracks myself. Then, not far from the house, I saw two guys on bikes riding towards me. I had to squint in the dark to make them out, but I recognized David’s bike. I let out a yell and chased them down the street, waving my cell phone at them (I really couldn’t think of what else to do at the time, I was pissed beyond rational thinking). Well, thanks to that incident, David managed to track them and his bike down. He showed the cops where they were, but nothing could be done that night because they had hidden the bike inside the house so he couldn’t prove they had it.
Well, the cops just contacted David and told him they believe they have it. So – yay! ***UPDATE*** It looked like his bike, but it wasn’t – too small.
This is the third time (that I know of) that someone in our neighborhood has had a bike stolen straight from off their porch while they were home. Please, lock stuff like that up or store it inside! Even if you are home, these scum bucket crack heads don’t seem to care at all.
Tags: beachcruiser got stolen, bike stolen off porch, scum bucket crack heads
updates!
So here are some updates -
- I’m in college for Information Tech with a specialization in networking.
- I’m ghost writing content for website owners
- Brennan is 4 months old. He can play by himself now, laughs, can almost sit up unassisted, and is trying to crawl and even walk. He’s established a strange sort of grunting system that he tries to use to communicate with us. The funny thing is we’re learning to understand him!
- David is working for a German cafe downtown.
- I’m on laptop #5, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to be sticking with this one for a while. It’s an Acer Aspire 6920 – one of the Blue Gemstone series laptops. As in the laptop I had been drooling over for months and hoping it would come to the U.S. soon.
- We are all incredibly happy, and it shows. People are always remarking at how happy we look, and are always shocked that Brennan is such a happy and sociable baby.
- Mom has went absolutely bonkers over her little grandson.
- I think great grandma is pretty fond of him, too.
Tags: collegefor information tech, specialization in networking, ghost writing content, grunting system, german cafe downtown, laptop #5, acer aspire 6920, blue gemstone series, happy and sociable baby, absolutely bonkers, great grandma is pretty fond
