5 Things I Don't Like About Grocery Stores...

Why is it whenever I have a drop of beer in my system I want to rant. Maybe i'm subconsciously an angry winey drunk...although i'm not drunk at all. But today I was talking to one of my awesome employers about people in the supermarket that piss you off. And I decided to make a list of things that make me irritated at the grocery store.



5 things I don't like about grocery stores:


1. Super Duper Extreme Couponers: SERIOUSLY PEOPLE... if you have to bring your coupon binder to the store with you then you're taking it too seriously. If it has to take over 30 minutes to check out then you have a problem.

2.People who hog the aisle: Unless you're 300 pounds and as wide as a buick then how hard is it to move your cart (and yourself) to one side of the aisle.

3. Rude cashiers: I'm not sure if it's just my area..but every grocery store I go to, the cashier has the WORST attitude. Kind of like "hey I hate my job so i'm gonna take it out on you." Honestly it's not my fault you applied to work there...so cheer up buttercup.

4. Reckless Cart Driving: Just like theres driving etiquette, the same things should apply to when you're pushing a cart. DON'T cut someone off in an aisle, and if you're behind someone who walks slow..don't tailgate..just go around. OH and use a blinker ;)

5. Wait lines in the parking lot: I can not tell you how much this irritates the crap out of me. If I'm walking to my car with a cart full of groceries and a screaming baby..and you decide to stop in the middle of the parking lot to wait for me to load up my car..that is so rude. Not only are you holding up traffic, but it's going to make me go slower since you are so anxious to wait on me. I have literally had someone HONK THEIR HORN AT ME to hurry up and back out of target because they wanted my parking spot.  And you know what I did? Turned my car off and sat there. Put that in your juice box and SUCK IT.

The Downer on Breastfeeding...

SO I AM A COMPLETE ADVOCATE FOR BREASTFEEDING...and this post is just my opinion to some downers for myself breastfeeding. Since Autumn was born she's been breastfed...and will continue to be until other wise, but there are some not so wonderful aspects to breastfeeding that I myself have found challenging. 

Let's start with the concept of breast milk...it's nutritious, free, and quickly digested....very quickly digested. I get up ON AVERAGE around 3-5 times a night to feed Autumn not including I get up at work at 5 in the morning monday through friday. Breastfeeding would be so much easier if guys could do it too! Seriously. I know parents who switch off every other night on feeding their child formula so they could catch up on their sleep and I am envious (not really). And I guess you could pump and and then you'll have extra bags of milk so your partner could feed the baby at night...but then you have to worry about your milk stash depleting! And thats a rough thing to deal with when you're a working mom...believe me I know. So even if you wanted to keep your stash replenished you would still have to pump when your baby is being bottle fed so you're not loosing milk. It's kind of pointless to me. 

Also, if you wanted a girls night out, you couldn't be gone for more than 3 hours. Because (a) you're boobs could possibly turn into rocks...or (b) your milk supply could decrease due to not releasing the milk.  In addition to girls night out...you can't really drink. And I'm not big on drinking at all...but if I wanted to go out and have a couple drinks the MOST I could really have is like 1 or 2 drinks. Which again is pointless to only have 1 or 2 drinks.

And if you are a working mom you have to pump at work. For me it's not a problem at all because I can pump whenever I want. But the effect of supply and demand is so crucial in pumping. Because as all of us moms know...pumps aren't as good as the real thing. You're more likely to have decrease in milk supply when pumping at work.....while using formula...you don't have to worry about the supply. 

But there are wonderful WONDERFUL things about breastfeeding! It's a way to bond with your baby, it builds up your babies immune system, the risk of them getting certain illnesses is slim, it's good for brain development, it's good for the mother (dropping the baby weight), and of course...IT'S FREE!!!

And I know i'm going to be getting comments from people saying "well I breastfeed my child and he sleeps through the night blah blah blah blah.." Like I said before...this is my personal feelings for me breastfeeding.

To move in or not to move in?

So I had a girlfriend recently ask me to make a post about moving in before marriage or after marriage. The common perception is that if you move in before marriage, then your more likely to get a divorce. In comparison to couples who wait to move in after marriage. BUT recent studies show that moving in together has no effect on todays divorce rate. I honestly feel that moving in before or after marriage is a personal decision. But I think the smarter choice would be to move in before marriage for many reasons.

First and foremost, the way someone carries themselves doesn't always reflect on their everyday habits. For example: if your significant other looks well put together you would think they were a clean person. But if you move in together you most likely would have never known they were a slob! Luckily I never had that issue when I moved in with Bryon because he is a well kept clean boy!!!

When people start dating they want to spend every waking minute with that person...except you don't live together. So you really don't know someone until you're around them 24/7. THEN the newness wears off and the real test is to see if your personalities are compatible with each others all the time. Another reason why I think it's a good idea to move in before marriage is so you can "test drive the car before you buy it." Or as Gretchen from the Real Housewives of OC says "you can lease before you commit to buy." Thats what Bryon and I are doing...I moved in 2 years ago and look at us now..baby and engaged. I test drove the car. HAHA!

Favorite Cloth Diaper Survey

Favourite style (aio, pocket, ai2, fitted, prefold, hybrid etc): Pocket Diapers
Favourite brands: Happy Heinys
Favourite colors: Pink, Purple, and Teal
Favourite prints: Leopard Print!!
Favourite closure (snaps, aplix, pins, snappis) Aplix and some snaps
Favourite type (one-size or sized): Depends on the brand, mostly one size but I like happy Heinys sized.
Favourite diaper in your stash: Happy Heiny's size medium pocket diaper (Candy Pink)
Favourite laundry detergent: I just use Tide Free and Gentle. No problems so far.
Favourite diaper cream: Just started using Grandma Els Cloth diaper cream.
Favourite cloth wipes: I ordered mine from ebay from a private seller. No name brands.
Favourite fabric (for cloth diapers): Either Cotton or Fleece.
Favourite fabric (for cloth wipes): Flannel.
Favourite wipe solution: I make my own (1 cup water, 1/2 cup baby soap, 2 tsp baby oil.)
Favourite storage items (pail, pail liner, wet bags): Wet Bag-Alva baby, Pail Liner-Diaper Rite
Favourite place to purchase:  nickisdiapers.com  they always have free shipping and great deals.
Favourite thing about cloth diapers: They're so gosh darn cute, and you save SOOO much money in the long run.

Marriage After Baby???

So I can not tell you how many people have asked Bryon and I when we're getting married. And we're getting asked more now than before we got pregnant. So here is our answer...we will get married when we decide we will. It could be next month...or next year..or in the next 5 years.  And this is why we haven't gotten married yet..

It is socially acceptable to get married before giving birth to a baby, BUT is it the right thing to do? Is it the right thing for me? No. I believe that getting married just because you're having a baby is a very very bad idea. At least for me it would have been. In my opinion, I feel that a couple is more likely to fail at a marriage just because there's a baby involved. I mean honestly you're already stressing out about preparing for a baby AND THEN you have to stress about preparing for a wedding too? Not to mention after you have the baby you have to get accustomed to your new life with a baby...I think that getting married would make it that much harder. I know SO many people who are getting divorced before the age of 30 because they made a rash decision.

This is my theory on marriage and a baby...as long as you know you'll get married one day then it doesn't matter what order it goes in. Marriage then baby, or baby then marriage. Bryon and I got engaged WAY before we got pregnant so we weren't in any rush to have a wedding for the sake of Autumn. I think that you can successfully take care of a baby together without a marriage certificate just as well (if not better) than people who are married.

And yes there are couples that do get married because they're having a baby and DO have a successful married life..but it's not as common now and days. THIS IS JUST MY OPINION FOR MY OWN RELATIONSHIP...i'm not speaking badly about anyone else's relationship.

Possibly TMI...update on "Pumping At Work"

Soooo after I had written a post about 3 weeks ago about my issues with my supply and pumping while at work,  I did a whole bunch of trial/error phases to figure out how to increase and maintain a good milk supply. At the time I was NOT drinking the Mother's Milk Tea and was taking 3 capsules of Fenugreek 3 times daily. And after about a month I started getting serious abdominal pains...almost unbearable. And at first I thought it was this antibiotic I was taking because I had a bladder infection...but after my anti-biotic ran out I was still getting these horrible pains in my stomach. And normally when I have a belly ache I just deal with it and go about my day. But these pains left me on the couch curled up in a ball.


Anyways...I lowered my dose of fenugreek to just 1 capsule 3x a day....still massive stomach pains. So I just stopped taking it all together. BUT my employer had mentioned another supplement called "Blessed Thistle" which is good for healthy milk production. I had heard about this herb but I could not find it ANYWHERE! But luckily my employer had two extra bottles of it...so she gave them to me. So I started taking 2 capsules 3x daily...and it has made a difference (not too drastic). Before I was taking Blessed Thistle I was only pumping like 1-2.5 oz every 2 hours (which made me have to supplement Autumns bottles for about two weeks) but after taking the Blessed Thistle i'm now making about 2.5 to 3.5 oz every 2 hours. So I NO LONGER HAVE TO SUPPLEMENT!!  YAYYYY!!!
Now I just need to build up my stash in the freezer, because i'm literally pumping for the next day at the sitter's house.


ALSO I read that eating oatmeal could possibly help increase milk production (no one knows why though), So it looks like momma's going on a Oatmeal binge. 

First Try at Homemade Baby Food...

SOOOO today is the day! The day that I will introduce something besides Oatmeal cereal to Autumn. So I decided to make Avocado baby food, it was either between avocado or bananas. No particular reason to why I chose avocado. So I went and bought 3 of them while I was doing my normal grocery shopping.
Once I started peeling the avocados I realized that they are a MAJOR pain in the butt to prepare. If Autumn decides that she doesn't like it, I won't be too upset!

Luckily while I was pregnant, I was given the Ninja Master Prep Pro System for free from a friend of mine. Which is pretty much like the baby bullet, but it doesn't have the glass storage containers. But thats okay because I ended up using miniature tupperware containers anyways. 

Three avocados made about 8 containers, and each container held about 2 ounces each, so the three avocados made 16 ounces of baby food. Also, once I pureed everything I ended up adding about 2 ounces of water to thin it out. Ideally I would've liked to add breast milk to it but since I've been having supply issues I can't really use any for her solids. And I would've used formula in her food but since I was freezing it, you aren't supposed to freeze formula. Long story short, Autumn was not too fond of it, but i'm thinking maybe it's because it's something new but her facial expression says other wise.

Final product....TADA!!!! I can't wait to start experimenting with other fruits, veggies, and combinations!

Why I decided to return to work...

So my little vacation from work this week has reminded me of when I stayed at home with Autumn for 3 months. One of the reason's to why I decided to start working again was because I got bored so quickly at home! I thought "well I could keep myself busy around the house and with Autumn." But honestly, I could only clean the house so much, and Autumn slept the majority of her first couple of months. So I started just sitting on the couch doing nothing except watching the complete series of Desperate Housewives and other tv shows on netflix. And once I started doing that, I got lazy and some what depressed. Another reason to why I returned to work was because I have too much self pride and stubbornness to ask my fiancé for money. For some reason I just don't like asking anyone for money, even when I was younger I would never ask my parents for money.

Even though being a SAHM wasn't for me, I know tons of women who do it and enjoy it. And I always hear people say that being a SAHM is so easy and shouldn't complain about anything, but seriously being at home with a baby is just as hard as working 40 hours a week...IF NOT HARDER! At least when you work you get breaks throughout your 8 hour shift. While stay at home mom's don't get a break throughout their 24 hours a day/7 days a week/ 365 days a year shift. NOT INCLUDING keeping the house cleaned, maintaining your families finances, and having a home cooked meal every night.

And myself being a nanny, you would think that I would've enjoyed staying at home with my baby. Which I mean I DID, but  for my own sanity and mental well-being I wanted to return to work. And now that I'm working again, it makes me appreciate the time that I do spend with Autumn at home (not saying that I took it for granted before).

drunk blogging and ranting.

So i'm sitting here on my couch having quite a few beers and I have ALOT on my mind..and I'm having diarrhea of the mouth. And no, I don't always drink excessively due to the fact that i'm nursing, BUT i'm starting off my lovely one week vacation with a bang. Anyways, you know what I can't stand???

Mother's who have their priorities out of place. I know so many women who bitch and gripe about how their life is so hard, and they can't support their children, and their "baby-daddy" is such a dead beat. And these same exact women go out to bars EVERY NIGHT and get drunk. Excuse my vulgarity (I try not to curse in public) but why the hell are you spending your time partying instead of trying to work and support you children because GOD FORBID your children might be more important than going to bars. 

And don't take this wrong way, being a single mom is a HELL of a job and I bow my hat to anyone who does it, but i'm not even a single mom and I don't even go out and party. In fact, me drinking tonight is probably the third or fourth time since november. ALSO! why don't women stop investing their time into finding a sugar daddy, and (a) go back to school, (b) find a better paying job, or (c) both a and b. And if you're reading this, and you're a single mom who can support your babies and aren't negative, then i'll put my foot in my mouth.  THE END :)

Autumn's 20 wk update

SOOO today was a momentous occasion, Autumn had her first taste of solids!! Bryon and I purchased Beechnuts Single Grain Oatmeal Cereal. I decided to use this brand because we were looking at the ingredients in all of the other brands like Gerber and what not, and I couldn't even pronounce some of the stuff that was in the baby food. And since I really plan on making my own baby food, I definitely do NOT trust brands that had 50 things in the ingredients. But Autumn love love LOVED IT. At first she was spitting it out because she was trying to make spit bubbles, but afterwards she was going to town on it.

The reason we decided to start Autumn on solids a little bit early was because we are hoping it'll help her sleep through the night. And no we did not put rice cereal in her bottle, which is a huge "no no" according to pediatricians. Autumn gets up on average around 5-6 times a night, and since i'm still only nursing there's nothing that Bryon can really do to help. If I didn't have coffee then I don't know how I would survive throughout the day.

Autumn still hasn't learned to roll over yet but she almost has the hang of it. She can roll onto her side but can't manage to roll past her arm. This month I am determined to get her to roll over, which mean's Autumn will be in Baby Boot Camp. Also, Autumn's legs are SO chunky now that her thighs don't fit in her bumbo chair. Whenever I do manage to get her in the chair, when I try to pick her up the chair comes with her. So we had to put together the high chair (which I like better anyways).