Oy, Mondays

It's funny but now that I have been getting up at 5 am for 4 weeks, I am not really "awake" until I've had my coffee. I am kind of zombie like until I have my first glass and after my second (I make myself an Iced Mocha every morning for the drive to work) I feel like I am ready for the day. The drive to work was pretty good. I was just really tired today and I don't really know why. I guess I went to bed an hour late last night and then I wore myself out cleaning yesterday (and donating half my shoe collection). Speaking of cleaning, I have such a good little house husband. ;) He did dishes all last week, some laundry, and kept up with the cloth diapers. He kept our place tidy and made me dinner. Finally in the kitchen where he belongs.

Pumping was good today. I think it is just starting out the week pumping that makes me pump a little less than Friday. I only pumped 13 oz today. There is a new woman pumping now at work. She has a 7 week old baby in the NICU. He was born at 25 weeks. She returned to work temporarily so she could have some time with him when he comes home from the hospital. That is so awesome that she is pumping and feeding her baby. She told me she isn't allowed to attempt actual breastfeeding until he is 34 weeks (gestational age). I hope she keeps at it. She said she needs to buy a pump because the one she is renting from the hospital is $60 a month! Isn't that insane??? Pumps like the one she has are between $80-$300. For a little bit more money she could own it and keep it.

Alrighty, ladies and gents. Nighty, Night.

Fridays Are Overrated!

Today started off pretty good. Driving to work was awesome. We hit almost no traffic. I arrived at my CBs house early and she told me to come in. I was able to see the inside of her house and her girls. I have to say that her house looks bigger inside then from the front. It really is deceiving. We left for work and driving went pretty smoothly. You learn a lot about someone when you are in the car with them every day for an hour to and from work. Since we arrived at work a half an hour early again we forgot to clock in. Not that it matters that much but it's just funny that when you are late or on time all you can think about is clocking in and when you're early it's not even on your mind. We got to see what we will actually be doing with all the steps and systems open. We made blind calls to a bunch of numbers. It was funny. My CB was able to understand a man with a heavy Spanish accent and I thought he was talking a completely different language. Guess I have to brush up on my accents a little.

Pumping went well today. I pumped 9 oz on my first break, 4 on lunch and 3 on my last break. We got an hour lunch today so while I was pumping, my friends went to McDonald's and bought me 2 McDoubles. It's still outrageous that they charge an extra $.29 for a piece of cheese. Wendy's gives you it all for $.99. Anyway I was happy that I got another 16 oz today. I think I pump more at the end of the week than at the beginning. I forgot to see if the pumping in the dark helps me pump more. I got more than yesterday when I was in the dark so maybe it has something to do with the end of the week and being more consistent with it. I might try it on Monday. On Fridays I am a little more run down so I don't have the energy to think about that kind of stuff.

Cole had an appointment today and he ended up weighing 22.3 oz and is 28.5 inches. He is growing very nicely and he has only been drinking breast milk. He just started eating rice cereal when I went back to work. The doctor says that we should put him on a veggie or fruit every week now. So he will be eating rice cereal, a fruit/veggie and breast milk every day. They also said he is ahead in his development so I am very proud of him.

Xyler weighs 29 lbs and is 34.8 inches. Of course he is a lot more active than Cole so he has gone down in weight a little. They said that he is very active for a two year old and way ahead of most toddlers his age physically. He is right on track for his communication skills.

My drive home from work was a nightmare. We were paid today so I went to deposit my check in my bank and I then drove to the gas station. My card was denied both at the pump and inside twice. I called my husband and asked him to call our bank. My CB said lets go to a 7-11 to cash her check and the one we went to didn't have that capability. While I was waiting for Anthony to get back to me I figured I would just try to pump at 7-11 and sure enough it worked. When I called him he said he hadn't even gotten a hold of a live person yet. By the time we left Highlands Ranch it was 5:30 and I didn't get home until 7:00 pm. I'm worn out from my long day. I hope my direct deposit kicks in soon so I don't have to worry about that crap anymore. :D

Have a good weekend and I will see y'all on Monday!

In The Dark

Yesterday was a day like any other. I pumped 13 oz. We learned a lot of information in class yesterday and my brain was fried. I wanted to just veg out and watch YouTube videos last night. About the only interesting part of my day yesterday was there was a firetruck and a tow truck in the HOV lane last night on my way home. Don't know why and don't care but it was interesting to see that.

Today was crazy. We got to work 30 minutes early and there was almost no traffic this morning. We didn't learn quite so much today. Plus it's Thursday which means tomorrow is payday and jeans day. I'm excited to dress down. :) I wonder if tomorrow is going to be as long as last Friday was... Hopefully not. I got the days off I want when I go to the night shift. Friday and Saturday. I think I am the only person in the class that got a weekend day and a weekday together. I'm excited for my schedule. I am also excited to make more money when I finally start my real shift.

Today was the scariest pumping day I've experienced. I get into the room on my first break and just as I got everything set up, dun dun dun..... the lights went out. Okay so it's not that scary but I am a little scared of the dark. This is a secret room inside of a bathroom, mind you, so they don't have back up generators or anything in this room. I felt like I was blind and I had to feel my way to my purse and feel around my purse to find my phone. When I finally pulled it out it barely lit the room up. I grabbed my purse and ran out of the room with the key and left my stuff behind. I ran out to the trainers who were smoking outside and had no idea what was happening. I told them what was happening and they said wait for the power to come back on. Well, the break gets over and still no power (except back up lights and computers). They let me have an extra break and the training manager gave me her iPhone with a flashlight app for lighting. I went in and got the 3 batteries out of my bag and put them in my pump. It required four. I was just about to go ask the front desk (which was a bazillion miles away) for batteries when I remembered they put a clock in the room for me. I took the clock off the wall and put the battery in my pump. Sure enough it worked. So I am basically sitting in the dark and I picked up the phone to see how much I had pumped after a few minutes and to my disbelief there was over 4 oz in each bottle. I think from now on maybe I should pump with the lights out! I have never in my entire pumping life got 8.5 oz in one sitting. That is just craziness. I put the battery back in the clock and set it by my manager's phone. Shortly after I got back to class, the lights popped back on. Then from lunch I pumped 4.5 oz and my second break I pumped 3. That makes for a grand total of 16 oz. That is awesome. I am going to turn off the lights in the room after I get set up tomorrow and see if I get the same results! I know it's crazy but I like to experiment with different methods to see what happens. Yes, I know. I am easily entertained. :D

Just Another Day

Today was pretty basic. We learned more stuff. Work was work. I'm becoming to good of friends with my carpool buddy and the girl that sits next to me in class. They both picked the morning shift and I picked the evening shift because it's more money. When training is over we won't see each other as much. It will be a lot harder to get together. I really want them to switch to evenings with me but they need the day shift. If the day shift paid more, I would switch to it in a heartbeat. That's probably why the evening shift pays more, though.

Pumping was pretty much the same. I wore a dress that is pretty tight up top and doesn't allow me to it to the side to pump so I was in there with the other woman that pumps turned away from her with my dress up. That makes for an awkward situation. :D I apologized to her but she said she didn't care. I need to go buy some dresses that allow me to stay mostly dressed when pumping. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot out there that caters to nursing women. They only have a few styles and only at select places. If more of the clothes had style for a good price there would probably be more women pumping. For those of you who like the numbers, I pumped 13 oz today. It all went into bottles at work and into the fridge when I got home. The bottles are so much easier and if they tip over 99% of the time they won't leak. That statistic might be a little off but so are a lot of statistics. 80% of statistics are made up so it really doesn't matter. :D

Ending on a good note: Traffic was awesome today. We made it home in under 45 minutes! I can't believe that. We didn't stop almost the entire way home! If only traffic could be like that every day. Do you think that half of the people in Denver could be persuaded to move to a different state?? A woman can dream can't she? Until tomorrow my friends. :)

Long Day

I'm sorry I forgot to post on Friday. It was a long day. The drive to work was fine and then the day just sucked from there. It felt like I was at work for 24 hours. Every hour was taking forever to pass and even the trainers were dragging. They wanted the day to be over as much as we did. While pumping, I ran out of bags and use the bottles I use to pump. We got paid and when I got off of work after sitting in traffic for an hour and a half I deposited my check into my bank. I was also sick the last half of the day so I was really not in the mood to sit down and talk about it. :)

Anyway, on to today. My Carpool Buddy and I got to work about 40 minutes early. It doesn't phase us anymore. We just go inside and talk until class starts. Today went by pretty quickly. We learned another thousand systems. Sometimes I wonder why they don't just merge all these systems into one smart system. Maybe my thinking is to technologically advanced. I was a little more annoyed today with a lot of people for some reason. I don't really understand why. Maybe it's what my husband says and I'm just a woman. Our moods change like the weather apparently. Some days I really appreciate the quiet of the Mother's Room because I get away from the constant chatter.

Pumping was really nice today. I only got 12 ounces but I had bottles to put them in today and not baggies. It was so much easier just leaving it in the bottle I pumped it in and just putting a cap on it. I also bought a better insulated bag. I take my lunch in it and then bring the bottles home in it. I don't know why I didn't get as much today. It may have something to do with not pumping over the weekend. By the end of the week I'm usually pumping a lot more.

Mondays are hard. I'm dragging. I need to get a good nights sleep and wake up early. Catch ya later.

Ugh! Traffic!

So my carpool friend and I decided since we were 40 minutes early to work yesterday, that we would leave 10 minutes later and hope we weren't so early today. Well, I picked her up and we got onto US-36 and took the HOV lane. Everything was going swimmingly and then we got to almost the end of the HOV lane and there were a lot of cars stopped in the lane (which I've never seen in the HOV lane. So we waited a while and merged into the fast lane. It was slow all the way to Santa Fe. (Sorry if you don't know the street names but let's just say it was a long stretch of highway. We finally see what is slowing down traffic and it is a huge dump truck just sitting in one of the middle lanes of traffic with his hazard lights on. I was in the lane that was behind him. I go to get out of the lane and the car in the lane next to me is waving me on and a guy from the lane on the other side of him decides he wants to get into the lane I'm getting to also (because he is soooo impatient and wants to get into the very left lane). So we are both halfway in this lane and I stop to let him go and he has the dumbest "what are you doing" look on his face and he just sits there starring at me. I can't go until he does so I motion him like Dane Cook would and say "Fuckin go!!!" Excuse the profanity. He finally goes and then I'm able to go. At this point we still have 40 minutes to get to work so I'm not freaking out too bad yet. We are just praying that nothing else goes wrong because we still have about half way to go. As we pray the traffic slows down again. In the right middle lane (5 lanes) there is a Scion stopped on the highway with 2 cop cars on the sides of her and I don't even know what happened there but the traffic ate up another 15 minutes. Then things are good for a while I hear on the radio that someone ran into one of those cop cars we just passed and was in pretty big trouble. As we are laughing about that traffic starts to crawl again. We are just thinking, "What now??" when all of a sudden one of the signs that usually tells you about construction or weather on the highway now says, "Car on fire ahead, Smoke visible!" and I look and I realize that the big cloud in front of us is smoke from a burning car. When we finally get up to the car, it's pulled over to the side of the highway with 3 fire engines, an ambulance, and a ton of police cars sitting in the middle of the highway. The car pulled over has it's entire front burned to ashes. By this time we are gagging from the fumes. Traffic finally thins out again and we book it doing 80 (sorry cops) to work. We run from the car into the building and clock in at 2 minutes late. By this time both of us realize we had forgotten our potluck items at home.

We sat down and took the assessment. I got 2 wrong answers out of 74 questions. While I was taking the test I realized that one of those questions was wrong but once you answer it and hit submit it takes you to the next question and you can't go back. It doesn't really matter though because I passed and that's all I needed to do. The rest of the day was easy, peasy. Potluck and hanging out.

I pumped all 3 times today and was able to get 13 oz. I ran out of breast milk bags this morning though. I put all 4 oz from lunch into one bag. Then at my last break I put it all into one of the pumping bottles and put the lid on it. When I got home I just transferred it into one of my sons bottles. I just figured out that that would make it easier for my husband in the morning if he didn't have to defrost the milk at 7 am. So I will do that last part from now on.

When we got out to Andrew's car after work we discovered the Pepsi that she had left in the car by accident in out rush to be on time had exploded all over. I don't care who you are, when it is 97 degrees outside that is a hot day. I don't even know what it was inside the car but it smelled really sweet when we opened the doors! :)

Win is for Wednesday!

Today was an awesome day. It was a little sad at first because I had to leave Cole and he was crying for me when I left. After that, though, it ended up getting better. I picked up my new carpool buddy and she told me to take I-70 to I-25 and I said I wanted to try something out. Last night I looked up US-36 and I-25 on the map and tried to see if you could get on the HOV lane from US-36. I couldn't get on the HOV lane from Google maps but it looked like it went to it so I hopped on US-36 and got into the very left lane. It exited onto a road that was all by itself and went under US-36 and around to I-25 and sure enough I ended up on the HOV (carpool) lane. We passed up at least 30 minutes of traffic and passed I-70 trying to merge with I-25 and it was a mess of cars. I was so happy that my plan worked out because we passed up all that traffic. We got to work 40 minutes early today and just sat and talked while we waited for class to start.

All of the exercises and reviews we did today I knew almost all of the answers for. We have our first assessment tomorrow. It's based on the systems and some of the basic terminology. I feel like I'm showing off sometimes because I know the answers to almost every questions she asks so I don't say all of the answers because I don't want to be that annoying girl who knows everything. It's so funny but so true. I've had people like that in some classes and I always find them annoying. Even when I know the answer.

Now to the good part. I pumped more today than ever before and I know I've said that before but this was awesome today. I pumped 15 oz today! 6 on my first break, 6 on my lunch, and 3 on my second break. The last break I was pumping in the room with another woman from my work. She is the one that I met going home last week. She had the Medela pump and was amazed at my First Years pump. She liked how neat and compact it was. We talked while we pumped and I found out that she uses her hour lunch in two shifts to pump. So she has two 30 minute pumping sessions and two 15 minute breaks that she doesn't pump on. I find a lot of people like to do it that way but I can do it in 15 minutes so I prefer the way I do it.

On our way home my buddy and I took I-25 to US-36 and we made it home about 30 minutes sooner than I usually do. I am liking this carpool thing. It's good for the environment, gas cost, and sanity! Happy Sailing!

Milk

I had a good 9 and a half hours of sleep last night. I was very awake and on time doing everything today. I arrived at work 7:30 am. Sometimes I want to take some time from the days that I am early and transfer it to the day that I am running late. Life would be a lot easier that way.

I pumped more today than I ever pumped at work. Are you ready for this? I pumped 13.5 oz. I was so surprised when I pumped 5 oz on both my first break and my lunch and then again when I pumped 3.5 on my second break. Unfortunately, though, one of the 3 oz bags had a hole in it that I didn't notice. It was at the top and it was a deformity in the seal (manufacturer fault). On the way home my insulated bag tipped over and the baggie spilled most of the milk. "Whoever said there is no use in crying over spilled milk, obviously never pumped 3 oz of liquid gold." Anthony told me not to worry about it because he says I'm ahead with our supply by a lot. I know that but it's still frustrating. I spend my breaks pumping food for my baby and it fills like one whole break just went to waste. I will just be more careful with my bag.

On the plus side I found someone to car pool with and we are going to split the gas cost 50/50. She lives about 40 blocks south of me so I will be driving to her house before getting on I-25 from now on. Hopefully, we can take the HOV lane. I get to pick her up at 6:45 tomorrow. We might be early, especially if we take the HOV lane. :D I'm looking forward to that.

TGIF

Let's start the blog off with the worst part... the start. Andrew and Anthony have gone somewhere every night this week. Which means they have taken the keys out of my purse and they weren't there when I went to leave. This morning I didn't think to look until I got out to the car and was already leaving 3 minutes late. I had to come back in and look for the keys. I didn't get out of here until 6:55. "But, Rebecca, that's still an hour and 5 minutes to get to work on time!" Ya. I know. It's nowhere near enough time when there is an accident on Alameda (about half way to my work) and it's back up to 104th (my street) on I-25. I got to work at 8:03 and clocked in at 8:05. Because I left 10 minutes late, instead of taking me 45 minutes to get to work it took me an hour and 10 minutes. Imagine if I had left 10 minutes earlier, I wouldn't have been late. Thanks guys for putting the keys in my purse... *sarcasm*

From there the day did proceed to get better. I learned a bunch of new systems and understood all of them. I got done with all the exercises pretty fast. (before everyone else) I bet they're all thinking, "That Rebecca is such a show off." Hey, I can't help it if I'm intelligent and understand everything I'm learning and also happen to have a WPM of 80. Also, it doesn't hurt to have a working knowledge of almost everything Microsoft. In case all of you were wondering, the answer to your question is yes, I am an excellent "highlighter". :D There are some things in the computer/phone world I don't understand, but I am proud to admit it isn't a lot and it also probably has a lot to do with the fact that I haven't learned it yet. I am a quick learner and I'm glad they gave me the opportunity to show them. Okay, end of bragging about my knowledge.

And onto bragging about how much I pumped today! I pumped 10 ounces again and 5.5 of that was in the first break. For those of you having trouble pumping, I also figured out that if you change the position you are in sometimes you can get more. For instance, I sometimes slouch when I'm feeding my son, but when I pump I sit straight up. Well I slouched like I do when I feed Cole and tada: more breast milk. The clock in the "Mother's Room" (that I requested be put in there) was 3 minutes slow so I have been getting back from break late. I went in there at lunch and set it forward 3.5 minutes so I wouldn't be late anymore. I don't know if you've noticed but I hate being late. I have awesome news: I solved the blue bag mystery. Surprise! I opened it up and do you know what was in there?? It was just a pump. No scary, living, four year old breast milk. :D I am officially pumping an extra bag than my son eats every day! I'll have a back up stock again in no time. Now to increase my supply a little and we will be set! Happy pumping everybody and see you on Monday!

Thank Goodness Tommorrow's Friday

Work went pretty well today. Cole was crying when I was about to leave so I stopped to feed him for a minute to try and put him back to sleep. It made me a little late getting out of the house. I left here about 6:55 and I sat in traffic for a lot longer today. I didn't get to work until 7:50 today. I think I'm just always going to try to be out of here by 6:45 just in case. In total I pumped about 10 ounces today. For some reason I pumped an ounce less at lunch. I took a lot of food to work today and I just couldn't get full. I was hungry all day. Today was pretty good as far as learning goes. I have understood everything we have been taught about the systems that we are going to be using.

Tomorrow we get to wear jeans and I'm so excited. Being a stay at home mom, I got used to very comfortable clothing and dressing up this week has been a huge change for me. Not to mention, I'm still not down to my pre-first pregnancy weight which is what most of my business attire is so I don't fit in all of it... yet.

When I was leaving work today I went to the Mother's Room to get my cooler of breastmilk from the fridge and I met one of the other women that pumps. She was really nice. I told her if she needs to pump and she walks in on me we can just pump together. I'm not shy about pumping with her in the same room. She said the same goes for me. She has a 7 month old baby and the Medela breast pump. She said I'm the first person she has met there that didn't have it also. I just don't see the point in getting a $300 pump when I am only going to be pumping for a little while longer. There is a blue cooler bag that has been in the fridge since I started and she said that it has been in there for years and nobody knows who left it there. She said they are afraid to look inside it. I think I'm just going to throw it away. That seems really gross to me. I sort of feel like her and I and the other "pumpers" are in a secret club together. It's that club that you automatically join when you are doing something important together. I also like to think that I am in a special club of mothers. Once you have given 9 months of your life to a miracle and then give birth to them and raise them, you understand something new about life that you never could see before. Before that, all you can do is imagine what it would be like. It's so easy to talk to other mothers because you have something important in common and you are on this journey together. Okay, enough Hallmark-y stuff. :D

Better!

Today was much better than the last two days. I drove to work at 6:45 and arrived at 7:30. That is a half hour before I had to be there but I wasn't so early that I was bored out of my mind. Skip forward to break. I was so excited to use my new breast pump. I got 1 ounce Monday, 3 ounces Tuesday, and drum roll please.....RLRLRLRLRL (single stroke roll).... I pumped a total of 11 ounces today! 4 ounces at first break from each, 4 at lunch, and 3 at third break. That is almost four times the amount I hand expressed yesterday. I wasn't late coming back from any breaks. I was able to eat whatever I had to eat while holding the two pumps in place with the device that holds both of them at the same time. I didn't have any distractions or pain today during my training class and I was able to provide for my son. I am looking forward to increasing my supply and I think I am going to try getting an extra pump in each day or on the weekends. That's just to get some backup milk going again. If I hadn't had such bad luck the last two days we wouldn't have had to dip into the backup. It would have been immediately replaced by the new milk. I am so glad my mum bought me a efficient work pump. I am not intimidated any more by pumping for the next six months. I may go longer now that I have this awesome pump!!

It's Official

So, they called me back today and said that I officially have the job. I passed the background check and the drug test! There isn't even a reason I would fail either of those but you know my irrational fear is always there. Maybe it stems from the time I applied to be a teller at First Bank and they told me I had the job. I was so excited and then the next day the recruiter called me back and said I failed the credit check because I have some unpaid medical bills. "But Rebecca, that is ridiculous!" you say. Yes, totally ridiculous. How can I start paying back my medical bills if I don't have the money to pay them back? That's where having the job comes in. A friend explained to me that when you have unpaid debt of any kind you're in a statistic bracket of "People who are more likely to accept a bribe to rob a bank". Um ya.... right. I understand I am a statistic, but if anyone would take two seconds to get to know me, they would immediately ascertain that I am not that type of person. When the phrase bank job come to mind, I think of Dane Cook and his bit about pulling a heist. The monkey would be the getaway driver. Oh well, they lost out on a great employee.

In other news I've gone over it a billion times in my head and I keep wondering how all this is going to work out. If I knew what exactly the traffic was going to do and at what time I would be home, it would all be a little easier. Unfortunately, I have to start the job and learn from experience. People are probably going to look at me funny when I walk in on the first day with a huge bag. It will have a pump, bottles, my snacks, lunch, and a few other necessities. I also have contemplated how I am going to make friends. At most of my other jobs, you make friends when you are able to talk to them on breaks and lunches. I wonder if they will think I'm that stuck up girl who never wants to hang out with the training class. Should I just come out and tell everyone I'm pumping? That could be a bit awkward. I've already talked to the woman that hired me about it. She says they have a beautiful area for me to pump and my choice of 5 fridges. Wow! How will I ever choose?

We received the 10 more diapers we ordered and laundry is a little easier now because more time passes between loads. I will tell you that the brand of diapers we are using is iCute. You can get 10 for $45 and no shipping cost on ebay. It is by far one of the best deals out there and I love them! They work really well.

I'm starting to get a bit anxious about going back to work. I am going to miss my babies so much. I wonder how Cole will do without me. He likes Anthony and Xyler but he loves to be with me. I know he'll get used to it, Anthony will have his hand(s) full for the first few days/weeks. He thinks that taking care of two boys will be easier than working. Haha. Boy, is he going to be surprised. *It's not as easy as you think* Taking care of Xyler, the errands, and the house was a lot before Cole came along. I wonder what he will do when both babies are crying at the same time. I'm sure I'll here all about it when I get home on Monday night. I'll let you know how he does. :D