Getting Busy

I did some post-partum abdominal exercises yesterday that I got out of an old Fit Pregnancy magazine. Unfortunately, I still have diastasis, or separation of the stomach muscles, so I really can't go whole hog. I'm doing the sitting and standing exercises and will add the floor work when I figure out a splint for my abs or my diastasis gets better. It never improved much in the eleven months after N was born and before I got pregnant with AC. I wonder what will happen if my abs never come back together?

I'm eating fairly well still. Avoiding rolls, eating more fruits and veg, making sure I'm getting plenty of calcium/dairy. However, I've snuck in one or two desserts a day, which isn't helping. Some of the gals I know have joined Weight Watchers for breastfeeding mommas. I wonder what that is like or if I could stay with it. Unfortunately, I'd have to find an even narrower niche: Weight Watchers for vegetarian, breastfeeding, penny-pinching mommas. I don't think they have a program for that beast.

Today I'm going to try a fitness ball routine. I figure if I write it here, then I'll be more apt to do it.

My Measurements, Week 1

Okay, so the title says it all in humiliating, living color. I weigh 153, am 5'9" and the two areas I'm worried about are thus:
waist--32 1/4"
hips--39 1/2"
I measured my waist at the smallest part of my torso, which is an inch above my bellybutton. I measured my hips at the largest part of my bottom, which is actually a little lower than where I usually consider my hips to be, but this is where I want to lose the weight. I guess I did it right...

I've been doing pretty well keeping my diet fairly healthy (remember I'm breastfeeding a one-month old), but have just LOST the energy and motivation to do my walking. The biggest factor bleeding all the fun from the task is my $&*^#@ right knee. It is always in some state of pain. If it isn't aching, it's burning, and if it isn't burning or aching, then it's stabbing. I guess I've got to do something about it if I'm to exercise my way to fitness, no? Barring the walking, I still have a set of exercises I can do with my balance ball, but have I done them? Unh-unh.

I will check in again next Wednesday with weight and measurements, as well as a report of my physical activity over the past week.

Health insurance after all

I am so relieved. The benefits director at D's workplace has managed to get AC signed up for his company health insurance after we were one day late trying to get her enrolled (and were promptly refused). Now she can go ahead and have her specialist visits. Load off my shoulder, I must say.

Mommy Brain Ruins Financial Future

I FORGOT to sign AC up on my husband's insurance during the one-month open window. It was TODAY, 32 days after her birth, that I finally remembered to call. And, guess what? Because we are ONE DAY LATE (31 days is the window), they will NOT accept her until the "open enrollment" period, in November, after which she won't be covered until JANUARY OF 2006. I started crying on the phone to the insurance people.

We have to fill out an appeal form that goes not to the insurance company (BCBS), but to husband's corporate HQ, and THEY decide whether AC can be covered or not, based on our description of why we deserve to be made an exception. What do I say? I don't want to lie. I'm just a forgetful, busy mother of a newborn and a toddler. Is this enough of an excuse? Their response to our appeal may take up to 30 days. Damn them.

Meanwhile, AC has already had two appointments at the pediatrician, vaccinations, etc. that will have to be paid in full retroactively. I had just paid the $20 copays for her last two visits, but now must fork over mucho dinero. Then there's the April ultrasound just scheduled yesterday to check for the spina bifida occulta issue in the tailbone, which could lead to Xrays and other doctor visits, and the surgeon's appointment (umbilical hernia) originally scheduled for May. I have just gotten off the phone after rescheduling both for June, when we will know our insurance status. I don't want to wait to hear the opinions on her issues, but we are going to have to.

So, if we can't get her insured this year, do we buy temporary insurance for her? I know it will be DREADFULLY expensive, but might it be worth it considering the spate of visits and vaccines she'll need this year? Will a temporary insurer consider her to have preexisting conditions that would cause them not to insure her or to charge us WAY more than we can afford? I have been crying off and on all day, mostly because I feel like the stupidist person alive who is now at the mercy of another bureaucracy who doesn't know my baby or me from Adam. And then when we try to get her on the insurance in November, will BCBS look at her record and claim she has preexisting conditions and not give us the usual family rate that we've been getting? I am so confused and have ALWAYS hated insurance things (especially after BCBS helped put black marks on my credit rating).

My husband's local HR person doesn't seem to have any insight on it. All she's said so far is that we need to appeal.

If any reader has any suggestions or experience with appeals or similar situations, please send them my way. I am going to blow our emergency savings (PLUS some) through my mistake if we can't get husband's insurance to pick us up NOW.
(P.S., Delaware has vaccination assistance programs, but I don't think we'd qualify b/c our income is too high.)

153

I weigh 153 now, in my nightie first thing in the morning. I've been pretty good over the past four or five days with my food choices, but our babysitter down the street keeps bringing by boxes of pastries every Sunday. She works for a bakery, and they are closed on Mondays, so they send their employees home with the leftover merchandise on Sunday afternoons. I told her yesterday that maybe she'd better come every OTHER Sunday from now on... (I'm too addicted to tell her to stop bringing them altogether.)

I'm still walking daily and doing lots of stairclimbing in the house (laundry room in the basement, bedrooms on top level of split-level home), and my right knee is freakin' shot. Here I am at forty years old, suffering from knee problems that started when I was fifteen. You'd think I would've figured out how to fix those by now. I don't know whether to lay off the walking or not. It's not like I'm a runner or anything. Why does it have to hurt so much? Makes it too easy to avoid exercise at all...

Here it is 2:29pm and I have the rest of the afternoon to fill with keeping kids out of peril and making a run (more like a crawl) to the grocery store for the things I forgot yesterday: pantiliners, Kleenex, and diapers. Gasp! You cry out, "For God's sake, woman, if you're trying to live on a budget, don't buy your paper products at the grocery store! Go to Target/Walmart/BJ's/fill in your own favorite box store here." Here's my answer: "I hate those stores."

Why I hate the box stores and love my local grocery store:
1) Box stores are always out of the specific brand/thing/variety I need.
2) Their prices are rarely better than my grocery store's special, minus whatever doubled coupon I can use there (box stores don't double, far as I know). I only buy paper goods from my grocery when they are on special and/or I have a coupon.
3) Walmart is ten miles from here. My grocery store is one.
4) I get babyclub points at my grocery store and they pay me $20 when I've spent $200 on baby stuff. That's a 10% discount, on top of the special discounts and doubled coupons I already use.
5) Shopping at those box stores can make me buy things I don't need. Best I just stay home.

N is up from his nap and requesting either his bear or the chair, I'm not sure which. Back to my day.

Baby Fat--it's all on meeeeee!

Here it is, mid-April, and I'm one baby richer! N now has a little sis, sweet AC, born four weeks ago today. My kind brother-in-law finds her likeness hauntingly familiar, and sent us this comparison...

AC, phone home!

So, Mommy is keeping two critters happy now (well, four, if you count Rocket and Waldo, which you DEFINITELY SHOULD). I'm breastfeeding AC, as I did N, so I still need to eat more than my usual non-pregnancy diet. But, I'm feeling really unattractive, not to mention that I have no clothes to wear save one pair of size 12 Lands End blue jeans (transition jeans from last pregnancy) and about four baggy tee shirts.

Don't get me wrong - I don't want to drop all my pregnancy weight pronto; I know I need some fat stores to breastfeed and I also know I need to go about this in a leisurely way. But I would like to lose the saggy belly and get some healthy exercise. So, I figured using the blog might help inspire me to stick with my plan. What's my plan, you ask? Well, it is 1) to get some exercise every day. That means, typically, taking the kiddos for a walk around the neighborhood. But I also throw in some pelvic tilts and mini-crunches now and then, and of course, there are the ever popular Kegels. Not helpful for tightening the abs, I know, but you women out there will understand why those internal exercises are necessary. I plan on adding more exercises gradually, particularly ones that target my mid-section. Part 2 of the plan is to eat a healthier diet. So, I'm trying to replace my usual cake/carb/cookie type snacks with a piece of fruit or cheese throughout the day. If I can't do that, then I at least try to go with a bowl of cereal with skim milk.

I've been dedicated to this plan for about three days now, but I never weighed myself before I started, so don't know my starting point. (Not that I particularly want to lose pounds, per se.) Last week I weighed 154. I had gotten up to about 174 right before giving birth, and my usual weight is 138. I also don't know where my measuring tape is, so I haven't taken measurements of those areas I'd like to trim. These are what I'm more interested in, so I'll try to get my stats down in the next few days.

I have so many nice clothes waiting in my closet for me, and I am trying NOT to spend any money for transition clothes this summer. Too, having summer staring me in the face is forcing me to think about banishing the flab (I will want to take the kiddos to the pool next door, I'm sure).

I'm Back

I hate budgeting. In August, I left my full-time job as English professor to stay home with N, but it has become a part-time job in itself to budget the remaining money we have coming in. I want to buy things for the house and yard, buy presents for Christmas, buy some goodies at the grocery, but we are on a budget now. Yes, it's self-imposed because D isn't a "buyer" unless it's computer or electronics related. Here's the part that sticks in my throat. I've managed to build up a large cushion of savings for us through the flush years, which I'm now trying to ignore (emergency money for future needs - D's car may die soon and N is having surgery in January, then there's the new baby due in March). As I look at all my budget categories that are already spent for October, I wonder why I can't buy some seed and maybe a few bulbs that send me even further over budget, and just let the emergency cushion absorb the cost. What's $20 out of the greater sum? And then I feel like a cheater because, as the family financier, I'm supposed to be working on keeping us secure for now and for the future. I'm not much of a dieter, but it feels like I'm trying to stick to a strict diet, and wanting to have a dessert at every turn.

I started off trying to use Quicken's budget function, but the way it has me enter the salary deposits to our accounts doesn't subtract withholdings properly on the budget spreadsheet. I also still can't get our mortgage and HELOC payments properly split toward their appropriate budget/account categories. I liked the earlier version of Quicken much better. I finally gave up and used this simple yet effective free budget tool, then wrote myself a budget in a binder filled with college ruled paper. A few sharpened pencils with good erasers, a calculator, and now I'm in business. And hating it.

Americans reading less - Jul. 12, 2004

The article is not as depressing as it may seem at first scan. Nonfiction is holding up pretty well; it's fiction sales that are suffering. I won't even bring up poetry... (the article doesn't--guess it presumes it's dead).
Americans reading less - Jul. 12, 2004

The Governor wrote me back.

As you may remember, I wrote Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner an email expressing my dismay at the high infant mortality rate in our state, and asking where and how I could best help with the state's efforts to reduce this statistic. (I blogged it in "Delaware Highest in Infant Mortality," 6/9/04.) Well, she wrote me back June 18 enumerating our state's initiatives that have apparently not helped reduce infant mortality. In fact, I have taken advantage of lots of what our state offers pregnant women and new mothers and their kids, since the services are all incredible and at low cost or absolutely free. She's named an "Infant Mortality Task Force" to assess the current status of the problem and develop strategies for improvement, including raising awareness of our state's problems. She writes:

I have alerted my staff as well as Division of Public Health staff of your interest and experience in infant mortality issues. As we move forward in development of the task force, my staff will contact you about a possible role in the task force or in the implementation of related activities.

I don't have to have a role in the task force, of course, but I would like to know where I can be put to best use. I will visit new babies, I will stuff envelopes, I will drive pregnant women to doctor's appointments. I don't care, really, I just want to do something.

Is the Bush camp losing it?

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Hitler Reappears in '04 Campaign, This Time in Bush Ad

Go to www.georgewbush.com (Bush's campaign site) and watch the video, "Kerry's Coalition of the Wild-eyed." Does the Bush camp not understand what they are doing? What the public will think? I'm mystified and fairly disgusted.

Breastmilk: Is there nothing it can't do?

CNN.com - Breast milk compound shrinks warts - Jun 24, 2004

I should open an eBay auction to sell off my frozen supply to a warty public; heck, I'm still making enough to send a daily FedEx of fresh to a big enough spender.

Dog levels Chinese greens

It is so difficult to NOT call Rocket an asshole. You may remember my greens-seeking Italian Greyhound from a former posting, "The Shared Garden." After chasing him out of my garden twice yesterday, he finally did his damage without me seeing him this morning, taking out two more pak choi, leaving me with only one. Oddly, he did not touch the two remaining broccoli or the three cauliflower (who are just barely hanging on even without Rocket's loving care). He is just a dog, acting on basic dog needs, which apparently include Chinese vegetables. He is not purposely trying to upset me. Is he? In fact, that question is beside the point. I'm using the gradual loss of my little green babies as practice in non-attachment. Trying to feel the pain and regret of their deaths. And trying to feel my anger at the dog. This instead of, as I am used to, trying to shove what I've always thought useless and harmful feelings out of the way and move on.

Of course, these aren't the only vegetables I have for us to eat. We do use the grocery store. But, even better, we have a subscription to a CSA farm. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, a national movement designed to bring consumers and farmers together, and to keep seasonal produce on local plates. Here's the USDA's page of links about CSA. We paid $265 to our supplier, Calvert Farms (over the DE border in NE MD), for a weekly box of their organic produce from late May through early October. I pick up our box at a nearby drop-off point (another local, smaller family farm called Highland Orchard) where I buy more goodies to supplement what our box contains. To give you an example of what they supply, Wednesday's box contained: five beets, two zucchini, a head of green leaf lettuce, six medium red potatoes, pole beans, and snow peas. In past boxes we have had spinach, asparagus, strawberries, red onions, green onions, garlic, and mesclun. Now if I could only get the baby interested in any food that is not pureed beyond recognition...

News on the vanishing twin

I posted a few weeks ago that the Olsen twins are now in their majority. However, one of them is shrinking rapidly, and has recently gone into treatment. CNN.com - Source: Mary-Kate Olsen treated for eating disorder - Jun 22, 2004

American culture is so screwed up. We've built ourselves a house that it's impossible to live in healthily. Just to show you how insidious the quest for thinness is, there is a small, ashamed part of me that is jealous of anyone's ability to discipline themselves enough not to eat. I know it's a fatal illness. I know that the struggle to survive is hell. And yet I harbor this feeling. And if I--a healthy, non-dieting, slightly-more-slender-than-average woman--can feel that way, then surely there are hundreds of thousands more American women who do also.

Just when I thought it was okay to go back in the water...

Here's one of many links to the announcement yesterday: TheWBALChannel.com - Health Alert - Doctors: Women, Children Should Eat Less Fish Due To Chemicals. This is a more stringent recommendation than that of several months ago. What's a fishetarian gal who is trying to get pregnant to do?

Shizzolate that blog!

I have some respect for some rap and hip-hop artists (see short list below), and Calvin Broadus, aka Snoop Dogg, is not among them. To be fair, however, I can't say I don't like his work, because I just don't know his work (other than what I hear twelve year olds in headphones singing on the bus--think Pretty Woman in the bathtub with Prince's "Kiss" on the Walkman). This English professor does admire the man's brilliance in selling himself through a novel use of the language, though. I've caught snatches of Snoop's shizzle language in some unexpected places, National Public Radio among them, but never really understood when it was okay to throw an "izzle" into a word. So I was relieved when my husband found something called "tha shizzolator" on Snoop Dogg's official web site. It is so freakin' funny I had to share. (Word on the site is that it's running slow now that everyone has discovered it.)

So, I decided to translate my own work to see how far I had to go to master the shizzle. Here's an excerpt of what the shizzolator gave me back when I translated my June 6 blog about baby's first string of steps on his own:

Down 'n Up 'n Ahead 'n Behind
I feel like I've been driving a bumper hooptie izzall day today. My 10.5mo took tha dude's first giant steps this afternoon, know what I'm sayin'? Tha dude's been taking one or two here 'n there fo' a month now, but izzall of a sudden, today, tha dude forgot tha dude wasn't holding my fingers 'n walked six steps n' shit. Yo' ass see, tha dude has a new hat that tha dude loves. It wuz on tha dude's heezee, 'n tha dude wuz so intent on looking up at da brim that tha dude just took off across da floor. I cheered 'n cheered once tha dude stopped (I had been holding my breath until then) n' shit. And a few moments later, tha dude wuz clutching da hat, waving that shiznit in da izzle, 'n took eight unassisted steps. And promptly izzle nursery carpet, leaving a bright red burn on tha dude's cheek. Much wailing 'n real tears n' shit. And that wuz da end of walking unassisted fo' today. I hope tha dude will forget tha dude's spill by tomorrow 'n try that shiznit izzall over again.

As mentioned above, shortlist of hip-hop/rap acts I usually like:
OutKast
KRS-One
Public Enemy
Beastie Boys
Us3

Rice Paper Flushable Liners

The rice paper flushable liners came yesterday and worked like a charm today (ref. First, the End.). Earthbaby.com got them to me a little over a week after I ordered them online. They come in a roll of 100 and you tear them off like paper towels. I read on another site that they're washable, so I've rinsed out the ones that he only peed on and plan to reuse. The one he pooped on today was so incredibly easy: just hold the diaper over the toilet and let the paper roll off with the poop. Toss the dipe into the pail, and move on.


Roll of Liners


Liner on a cotton pre-fold (CPF) trifolded in a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap diaper cover.

By the way, up until now, I've bought all my diapers from two companies: www.naturalbabies.com and www.mamaessentials.com. They've both been great. Earthbaby.com had a good price on the liners, though, so I gave them a try. Quick and cheap.

The Shared Garden

The backyard garden is progressing, except where Rocket has intervened. I have four raised beds, three 4'X4' and one 1'X6'. This is the second year I've done "square foot gardening," but this year's project isn't as ambitious as last's (odd since last summer I was greatly pregnant). The left box has Royal Chantenay and Sweet Sunshine (yellow) carrots, Chicago Red beets, Fukiyama green onions, Precoville petits pois peas, some curly mint and some oregano. Middle box has my cole crops: 4 broccolis (Bonanza), 2 of which Rocket has leveled; 3 cauliflowers (Snow something), Rocket has gotten one; 4 pak choi (Joi Choi), 1 for Rocket, 3 for me; lots of arugula, romaine (Little Caesar), and mesclun. Right box has four heirloom tomatoes: Aunt Ruby's Green (green/yellow stripe), Pineapple (orange/yellow stripe), Golden Jubilee (orange), and Brandywine (pink). I also have parsley and basil coming up, and some rosemary. The long box against our fence has volunteer cherry tomatoes (Sungold) from last summer. So far, we've eaten some baby greens from the arugula, romaine, and mesclun plants, and some peas. Everything else has gotten in so late that it's not going to be ready for a while.


Broccoli Breath

Delaware highest in infant mortality

I can't go to bed tonight without posting this Email Form to Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner. If you are a Delawarean, you will know the shame of being the state with the highest infant mortality rate, again. I have just written Governor Minner asking her what I can do to help keep our children alive, and I urge other caring Delaware residents to do the same. As I discover opportunities for volunteering, I will post them. I don't want to let another day go by without trying to help.

The rate is for 2001, the most recent year for which there are statistics. News Journal article Del. Infant Death Rate Worst in U.S. states:

In the past five years, Delaware has lost about $600,000 for infant mortality prevention programs.

It makes me shake to see that figure in front of me. How can we help?

Spot The Fake Smile

Will you please take this quiz? BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - Spot The Fake Smile.

I took it just now and correctly identified 13 of 20 fake or genuine smiles. Be sure you can see the face on the screen before you click play or you will miss the smile. They only let you see the smile once. Had to get this up ASAP before I forgot. More later on the dog who eats his vegetables. No, wait, I mean the dog who eats MY vegetables.

Monkey Babies turn Swans

In CNN.com - Commentary: A very Olsen birthday - Jun 4, 2004, Kendra Howe says:

I can't fathom how two babies some people have likened to monkeys ended up being the stuff male fantasies are made of.

I'm so thankful she said this. I thought I was the only one who saw the simian link, and I thought it was based on my jealousy. No, not jealousy of their proximity to Bob Saget, God forbid, but jealousy of their inexplicable rise to the top of the financial heap.