My not-going-to-worry-about-frugality-post-partum bills have started to arrive and they’re giving me a good idea of how much we had been saving. Our water bill went from 13 to 32 dollars, and our electricity bill rose from 137 to 212 dollars.
I hate having to make the decision whether to go to the ER. [Or to the doctor at all, for that matter.] It’s expensive, it’s almost always unpleasant, a long wait sitting around people who may very well make you [or, worse, your child] even sicker.
Sometimes I’ll sit and dither for a day or two, and by the time I call and wait for the day the appointment comes, by the time I get there, the thing has passed on its own. And then I feel like they’re making a little “Hypochondriac!” note in my chart.
But last night, it didn’t take a lot of wondering before we brought Audrey in. She started with a bit of an itchy rash for awhile, and by the time I took her in, she was one big head to toe red rashy welt. Poor girl. A lot of benadryl, a shot of adrenalin, and some oral steroids and she’s doing better now.
But why do these things never happen M-F during office hours? I can’t wait to see the bill. [And why do the bills always seem to come several months later?]
There are many reasons to breastfeed your baby, and of course the one most relevant to this blog is that it’s substantially less expensive than formula. And, hey, it’s the natural thing to do, blah blah blah.
It can also be terribly difficult.
Unfortunately, that is the boat that we are in. Both of my children have been born with large overbites, with very short and physically traumatic labors. I have heard fairy tales of people who are able to put their newborns to the breast and they magically latch on, but that’s nothing like my experiences have been.
Audrey didn’t eat at all for almost the first 72 hours after her birth because she could not latch. Thankfully, I already had a really great pump and my milk was already starting to come in. At first we fed her with drops of milk on our fingers, then we used a plastic syringe, and then finally we graduated to the small bottles that come with the aforementioned Medela pump. We then worked with Barbara Wilson Clay, a nationally renowned lacation consultant/expert who thankfully happens to be local, and she was able to get Audrey to occasionally latch with the help of a nipple shield. But it was still a matter of pumping every two hours around the clock for those first three months until one day, magically, she was able to latch on her own.
After the proverbial “10 fingers, 10 toes” wishes I had for Owen, the next was “Please oh please, let him latch.” But it wasn’t to be. On the other hand, it hasn’t seemed as bad this time around. Perhaps because we’ve been through it before and I know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, or perhaps because the situation is not quite as bleak this time around — after the first few days, I’ve been able to get him to latch about once a day, when the circumstances are exactly perfect. Audrey was so frustrated by latching that she would cry whenever I held her. Those were dark days. Owen doesn’t do that. With his rare latch, plus Audrey’s continued nursing, I only have to pump every 4 hours or so, which makes a huge difference. Plus, with Audrey’s help, I’ve so far been able to avoid engorgement and mastitis, both of which plagued me when she was the little one.
I am a terribly, terribly stubborn person and it’s funny how the same trait that made me a pain in the rear as a child and in the majority of relationships in my life has been such a great boon to me as a mother. Not only can I unflappably outlast any tantrum/meltdown, but I see the prospect of another three months of pumping as a challenge I know I can beat.
It’s utterly amazing, from a statistical point of view, just how many folks on Ebay we do transactions with that apologize for slow response times due to a Death In The Family.
Andrew’s birthday is today, and he said a few weeks ago that he wanted a Nintendo. I looked around on Ebay, but realized quickly that, hey, I may be a nerd, but I’m not a gaming nerd, and he really needs to pick it out himself.
*Time passes*
He’s changed his mind. He decided that he’d rather have a new dishwasher! One that is quieter, and has a temperature booster. So he’s been cruising Consumer Reports and elsewhere on the web for a good model at a good price. Anyone have one that they like?
[Are we getting old?]
As I get more and more ridiculously pregnant, I’m wanting to make meals from scratch less and less. So, last night we decided to *gasp* go out for dinner.
It’s been awhile since we’ve gone out for dinner, but we have a couple of favorite places. They tend to have at least a few of the following criteria: cheap, family-friendly, not too busy. Emphasis on the not too busy. See, but therein lies the rub. We like to go to places that don’t have a lot of people in them because then it’s not as stressful if Audrey happens to act up. On the other hand, places that don’t get a lot of business tend to, well, go out of business.
Did we drive well out of our way to go to our favorite tamale house only to find that it was no longer? Of course. "But I loved going there, the food was good, cheap, and it was always empty!" Uh huh. [Is this the first time this has happened to us? Of course not.]
So, we went to Luby’s — less than 20 bucks for all three of us — we ate big and took home leftovers [and it was filled with familes and small kids so the pressure was off].
My previous post, about deciding to prioritize comfort over cash ? Turns out everyone else in Texas had the same idea. Apparently maintenance on the power grid happens in April, so 100+ degree days don’t jive too well with that. But we’ve got power back now. [Obviously. Heh.]
It’s just like being in California, but without the state income tax! [Good thing, too, since we just sent out an $8k dollar check to Federal IRS today…]
It’s going to be hovering near 100 degrees for the next couple of days. And, alas, the air conditioning is now on. I’ve got it on 76 and all the fans on in the house, which is still enough for a line of sweat on my brow when my big swollen-belly body tries to run around and do chores, but not so bad that I’m lying on the floor saying, "Aaaaaaaarrrgghhhhh." Most importantly, it saps the that terrible, terribly humidity out of the air.
It’s expensive, sure, but my golly, it sure is bliss right now.
Oh, and I finally updated my blogroll some along the righthand side. I have been really lazy about that.
I’m trying to keep the food budget tight, and more importantly, I’m trying to avoid lengthy trips away from the house now that we’ve passed 38 weeks. Audrey was born about 5 hours after my very first contraction, and within about 20 minutes after my first contraction, I was 2 minutes apart and would have been completely unable to drive myself home … or even tell someone else where I lived. Heh. [In fact, about an hour of that short labor was because her shoulder got hung up. It would have been even shorter!] With second labors statistically going shorter than first labors … well. I’m getting leery about even running errands right now.
With that in mind, our meal plan this week is primarily out of the pantry and cleaning out the vegetable crisper of what we already have:
With this menu plan, I should be able to avoid going to the grocery store all week, though we will run out of green leafies pretty early in the week.
[Update on previous post about Audrey’s sickness: She’s better now, thankfully. She was able to feel better enough around 7:30am to go back to sleep until about noon. She’s been pretty normal since she woke up. I, however, am a zombie.]
We have two cars in our household, a Toyota Echo and a Honda CRV. The Echo was mine before Andrew and I married, but he drives it now because it’s an ideal commuter car. [It gets very, very nice mpg.] His commute is less than 10 miles each way, I think he puts some gas in every other week. The CRV that I drive isn’t quite as fuel efficient, but it does fit two car seats and two dogs quite nicely. Audrey and I will, maybe, make one 10-20 mile trip or so during the week, and some weeks we don’t drive at all. If we go somewhere as a family on the weekend, it’ll be in the CRV, but I do our grocery shopping on Sunday morning in the Echo. We put a half a tank of gas in the CRV every week and a half or so.
Honestly, I think gas could be 5 dollars a gallon and it wouldn’t even make a blip in our budget [save for other things, like groceries, that would become more expensive due to shipping increases, etc]. I feel very blessed in that regard. Being a homebody has many financial advantages.