Stay-At-Home Moms Christmas Week! 12/22 - 12/28

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3babybeans
3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
in Motivation and Support
Happy Monday, Mommies!

The Christmas crunch is ON!

:flowerforyou: :heart:
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  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    Happy Monday, Mommies!

    The Christmas crunch is ON!

    :flowerforyou: :heart:
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    allenhm - what is your master's program in? how did the job search go?! I'm sorry you dh was being all werid about the tree. At least you cried. I would have took the ornaments off the tree & chucked them at his head. Well, not really but I would have WANTED to!

    Supermom - hang in there, sweetie. The first 3 months are the hardest for sleep. I have insomnia & had to learn to nurse while laying on the couch b/c it never failed that as soon as I was ready so sleep, the baby would want to eat. I don't recommend half-coma nursing, but it was purely survival on my part. The boppy pillow was also my friend in those times for nursing in our recliner. It'll get better. Hopefully you'll be able to get some good sleep between semesters.

    Lori - CUTE cookies! We decorate with my SIL at my MIL's house yesterday. Chaotic & full of back-handed remarks, but I got some cookies out of it, so it's all good. :bigsmile: How did Dave being gone this weekend go? I know Tabitha goes down better when Doug puts her down, too. Little stinky daddy's girls. :wink:

    Lyn - I SO hear you about the kids being overly excited about Christmas. Zeke is just starting to get the whole concept of it & since Santa's been SHOVED down his throat by my g.ma & my MIL, he's nearly shaking every morning when he runs to the tree to see if Santa came. *eye roll* It's gonna be a long week.

    MM - glad everything is still going well for you & the baby! I'm SO jealous of your weather right now. Our wind chill is -22 & our air temp is 0 right now. Downright balmy. :tongue: I'll be praying over your decision to travel or not for Christmas. Tough decision. Oh! How are hubby's shingles?

    Marla - I'm SO glad you got a nap yesterday & survived cookie baking. I couldn't imagine that many little hands trying to help. Would make me nutty. Belive me, God picked the right mommy for 9 sweet babes. You're awesome!

    Loki - you out there girly?

    I know I'm forgetting people but someone is pulling on my arm & driving me nuts *cough*zeke*cough so I need to run for now.

    Good luck getting the rest of Christmas prepping done, ladies! Haaaaapppy Birthday! :huh: Oops. I mean, Happy Monday! :yawn: :heart:
  • iftcheiaf
    iftcheiaf Posts: 960 Member
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    I just want to say I think it's so awesome the way you personalize everyone. That takes a lot of thought and consideration.
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    I just want to say I think it's so awesome the way you personalize everyone. That takes a lot of thought and consideration.

    Awww...thanks! We're a pretty close group of women so I try to make sure everyone feels included. It helps that IRL, I'm a HUGE talker, too. LOL:laugh: I don't want to miss anything! hehe
  • iftcheiaf
    iftcheiaf Posts: 960 Member
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    I'm a stay at home mom, but have the privilege/curse of currently working from home full-time as well. Although my kids are in school during the day, I spend a great deal of time with them there volunteering or running them on appointments or what have you. Does that quality me to join the group? :blushing:
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    SURE! Marla works from home as well. :happy:

    What kind of work do you do from home? You little boy in your pic is just TOO cute. I love the face he's making to match the sculpture. LOL
  • iftcheiaf
    iftcheiaf Posts: 960 Member
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    I do medical transcription and have been doing since my daughter was two weeks old (over eight years now). I have loved being available for my kids at a moments notice, witnessing all their "firsts", and being able to volunteer in school. The downside: I work from 3 am in the morning until they go to school, then sometimes in the afternoon if I can squeeze it in, because my family has a hard time knowing that me being home doesn't mean I'm available. Also, lack of adult contact can make any mother a tad bit looney. That's why I love this website. People from all walks of life, all different ideas, with one main goal of being healthy. They may not have to commit me after all.

    By the way, I've always loved how positive your posts are. They have kept me motivated!
  • guntherma
    guntherma Posts: 115 Member
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    I was wondering where you all were from. I see the posts date/time at 3 am and wondered what part of the world you were in, but apparently where ever you are, you are just up that early. I get up at 5am to start cleaning for my first daycare child to arrive at 5:30 and thought I might be the first one on the thread. Good morning - happy Monday. My first daycare child didn't show as his mother took the day off - of course she didn't call or I might have slept in - rrrrgggghhhh!!! Oh well, got my house clean and am up and ready for the next arrivals at 6:30. Have a great day.
  • iftcheiaf
    iftcheiaf Posts: 960 Member
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    I was wondering where you all were from.
    I'm from the East Coast of the United States. It is 7:30 a.m. right here, although the time stamp usually shows something different when I post.
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    O-H-I-O! aka Eastern Time Zone. My 3yo gets me up WAAAY early so I'm usually on here by 6am at the latest for a moment of sanity before I get wrapped up in the breakfast shift.

    iftcheiaf - I looked into medical transcription when I quit work to be a SAHM, but I was lost in the world of "classes" and chickened out. I wasn't sure what were the good ones, what ones were scams, etc... Good for you, though! I couldn't imagine trying to work while people were home. I'm always "in demand". :tongue:

    Guntherma - That sucks about the no-call! I hope your day goes well, anyways!
  • iftcheiaf
    iftcheiaf Posts: 960 Member
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    iftcheiaf - I looked into medical transcription when I quit work to be a SAHM, but I was lost in the world of "classes" and chickened out. I wasn't sure what were the good ones, what ones were scams, etc... Good for you, though! I couldn't imagine trying to work while people were home. I'm always "in demand". :tongue:
    I actually went through at At-Home course. I found with Medical Transcription that it is really an on-the-job training more than anything. Yes, you need to have some medical knowledge to know what part of the body they are talking about. But if you know how to use Google (my wonderful hubby taught me), then you can find almost anything on the internet. I think there are better on-line courses that you can probably take now. And since you are paid by how fast you get things done, being a fast typer also helps. :happy:
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    That's the main reason I looked into that. I was in nursing school & "know" most of the "body" stuff, plus I type about 85wpm so that's a bonus as well in that field. Huh. Maybe I'll look into it again. I go through phases about every 6 months were I feel like I HAVE to get a job, but 3 kids not in school doesn't allow for many out of house opportunities with the $ of daycare! When I just had 1, 1/2 my paycheck went to daycare every month! That's why I ultimately quit when #2 was born. Thanks for the info!
  • iftcheiaf
    iftcheiaf Posts: 960 Member
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    With the recession and such, this is one job market at least as far as I have seen that has not had a reduction. Even with improving technology, such as speech recognition, we still have work as computers are not nearly as efficient as humans yet. I am constantly busy and there is always work. So maybe look into it. A little extra money is never a bad thing. Right now, while my husband is a full time student in his last semester for civil engineering (wahoo) this is really our only income. It's tight, but we live low maintenance. I have no idea what I would possibly do with the money when he starts bringing in a weekly paycheck...but I'll think of something. :wink:
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    My hubby just graduated with his business degree on Sat.! It is SUCH a good feeling when it is over! He was a part-time student/full-time worker, though. I wish he could have gone to school full time b/c this nightmare would have been over a LOT sooner! Good luck to both of you in the last semester! It gets wild!
  • iftcheiaf
    iftcheiaf Posts: 960 Member
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    This past semester was supposed to be his last and I never saw him, but he was unable to finish his major project, so that is the only thing he is taking next semester and entering the work force also. We were very fortunate because he was able to get all his education paid for with scholarships either for minority (Spanish) or for high GPA. He is an extremely hard worker, besides being a full time father, and a bible teacher. He amazes me every day.

    Congrats to your hubby. Hope the weirdness with the job market doesn't effect you guys too greatly. It definitely is scary, but somehow we'll all survive in one way or another. And think of all the weight we'll lose when we can no longer afford to buy food...:noway:
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    Luckily, my husband is already in his field so we don't need to worry about a job (Thank the good Lord). The degree will just help him in the raise department come April! We didn't have any luck with scholarships. He graduated cum laude, but it was never enough. Everyone that he was qualified for wanted him to be involved in extra curriculars at school & he just simply didn't have time for that. Oh, well. That's awesome, though! I hope his project goes smoothly. My associates degree is in structural engineering & our last project (although MUCH smaller than his, I'm sure) was craziness.

    LOL about the food. You're silly...at least I HOPE you're joking! :huh:
  • iftcheiaf
    iftcheiaf Posts: 960 Member
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    Our biggest thing, as money gets tight, is not to skimp on the good foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables are much more expensive than processed foods. But my husband is very adamant about the kids eating healthy, so we'll make it :heart:

    Well, my workday is ending for the most part, so away from my computer I must go to face the busy world of motherhood.

    I hope all of your wonderful Stay-At-Home Moms have an awesome day. Take 15 minutes somewhere for yourselves and breath. You've earned every second of it. See you all tomorrow.:smooched:
  • mechanicmom
    mechanicmom Posts: 5,696 Member
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    Supermom - hang in there, sweetie. The first 3 months are the hardest for sleep. I have insomnia & had to learn to nurse while laying on the couch b/c it never failed that as soon as I was ready so sleep, the baby would want to eat. I don't recommend half-coma nursing, but it was purely survival on my part. The boppy pillow was also my friend in those times for nursing in our recliner. It'll get better. Hopefully you'll be able to get some good sleep between semesters.
    Sara, you are so sweet to post to everyone! I can't remember them all to be able to do that. :smooched:
    Supermom, I don't know if what I'm about to say will help you or not with sleeping and maybe you already do it. We had a hard time with Alex sleeping. He actually slept in four hour spurts so we were really blessed but he would wake up about an hour after we went to bed. A friend gave me some suggestions while my husband was away and when he got back he wondered what happened to our baby! First when you are putting your baby down for nap or night make sure it as dark as possible so they know the difference between day and night. Feed the baby and get her to sleep. When it's time for you to go to bed, whether it's an hour or two later, go in, pick her up without really waking her. Then feed her as much as she will take, put her back down and go back to bed. We got a couple extra hours of sleep this way. There's a book called the Baby Whisperer that had some ideas in it. I didn't agree with everything. One thing to help her go down for naps/night is to pat her back or upper chest in the rhythm of a heartbeat and to quietly say, "shhh". It helped with my son most nights. When they are real little the patting is enough because they can't concentrate on the patting and the crying at the same time. As they get a little older, when they can focus on two things at a time you can add the "shh". I hope this helps! It did wonders with Alex and it worked within a week because Dh couldn't believe it when he got back home! Yes half-coma nursing is not a good idea but sometimes it's necessary. Just don't do it while sitting in a chair. :laugh:
    MM
  • Nonibug
    Nonibug Posts: 1,214 Member
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    Good morning Mom's!
    Sorry I havent posted in here for a few days. I had another one my surgeries this past Saturday and although I should be getting used to it by now, Im not:noway: This one went a little better than the last one though, not quite as much pain afterwards this time, just a little soreness.
    I just finished reading alllllll the posts from the days I missed and I just love you guys!:heart: Marla, 3BB, loree, MM and all the rest of you...you guys just crack me up and I never tire of your back-and-forths:laugh: especially you 3BB and Marla!!:laugh:
    How is everyone doing with the xmas shopping? We're finally finished here:drinker: I think its the first time in YEARS that we wont be out there on xmas eve frantically trying to get done!:laugh: All we have left now is a little more grocery shopping for xmas dinner....piece of cake! OHHH, no I didnt just say cake:blushing: Seriously I havent had a piece of cake in months!!:ohwell: :laugh:
    Today I plan to do one of my Walk Away The Pounds dvd's, I havent got to do any of my cardio for 3 days now. I was really wanting to get back into my strength training this week too, but I think with stitches in 2 places I'd better wait a bit, wouldnt wanna pop a stitch!:noway: :laugh:
    So, thats about it for now....take care of everyone and stay jolly!!:happy: :flowerforyou:
    ~Roni
  • mechanicmom
    mechanicmom Posts: 5,696 Member
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    MM - glad everything is still going well for you & the baby! I'm SO jealous of your weather right now. Our wind chill is -22 & our air temp is 0 right now. Downright balmy. :tongue: I'll be praying over your decision to travel or not for Christmas. Tough decision. Oh! How are hubby's shingles?
    Thanks for your prayers about whether we should travel or not. I've been SO depressed the last two days and I am really dreading Christmas this year. I'm a scrooge and I'm never a scrooge. I could go on a long vent, but I will try not to. I just wish my family was a little more flexible. Maybe wait till the weekend to have Christmas and make the drive up here to be with me. My older sister might come cause she's just sweet like that, but I have a large family and I will miss it. One nice thing is that we will be able to wait till Christmas morning to open presents. My family does it all, including stockings on Christmas Eve and within 15 minutes! I would like to slow it down and enjoy it more. So maybe this year we can. Right now I am working on being ready mentally to stay here.
    I am still spotting, whether I am up or down all day, but no cramping. I am going to ask the midwife today if there's ANYTHING we can do to figure out what's going on: another sonogram (which wouldn't break my heart), or an examination, or a test to see if I have an infection. Anything! It's going on four weeks, and I'm getting impatient. I hope I at least get the hcG test results back today.
    DH's shingles are better but he's still scratching at them. I guess they still itch quite a bit. He's not hurting anymore that I know of. Thanks for asking about him!
    I've gone on long enough I guess. I was tempted to not check in for the rest of the week because I'm Mr. Scrooge but I would miss you all too much and I don't have anyone else to talk with. I'm glad you all put up with me. :happy:
    MM

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