Remembering My Angel Baby

October 15 

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day

http://abbysworkinprogress.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-post-i-never-wanted-to-write.html?m=1

The Tale of the Most Unlikely Fantasy Football Girl

So recently, as in sometime in the past few weeks, I found myself with a team in my husband's fantasy football league. How did I, someone who knows so very little about the sport, end up involved in this gridiron gang? I volunteered. The league was short two teams so I said I'd take one spot. You're welcome, League.  I figured, what the heck, why not? I'll draft some players (dibs on Peyton Manning!!) and just see where the season takes me. Now I'm the cool wife, right? Even better, my friend Alison joined up too, so we're the newbies in this craziness together.

 

What I didn't realize was how involved the whole thing would be! I only had a week from the time I joined to draft day, and there is prep time. Serious prep time.  My husband bought me a fantasy football magazine. Yes, there are whole magazines devoted to stats and analysis and mock drafts and lots and lots of contradictory opinions. Now, on my coffeetable sits this book of football information I could only hope to retain as well as I do the recipes in the Food Network magazine it sits next to. He also gave me a list of all the players, ranked in order with potential scores and snippets of information about each one. It was overwhelming, to say the least.

 

In the days leading up to the draft, my dear husband tried to give me advice. I think it sunk in mostly, but I'm sure the deer-in-the-headlights look on my face never fully disappeared. I'm the sort of football fan that likes players, not necessarily teams (except the 49ers, which is pretty much a requirement to live in our house) so my husband had to make sure I knew not to draft players just because I like them. Cool dude does not always equal a good player.  Lucky for me, Peyton Manning is both so I was sticking to my guns on that one! Anyway, I made my list of players I wanted and it looked something like this: Peyton Manning, Adrian Peterson, Calvin Johnson, Arian Foster.  If you aren't familiar with the game, these guys are all like, the number 1 picks. The hubby looked at, tried to hold back his laugh and politely said, "You aren't going to get all those players."  Well, shoot. 

 

As if trying to learn all the players and how good they are isn't enough, there is a strategy to drafting. You don't draft a quarterback first, unless you do because some people do. And you wait until the end to draft your kicker and the defense team, unless you're my brother who drafted his defense team sort of in the middle which caused others to follow suit. And you make sure to fill up your wide receiver and running back spots first and you need back ups but only a few and you don't need a back up tight end and you don't really draft linebackers because they don't really get a lot of points, unless, again, you do. It was too much.

 

Most of the league went to Vegas to draft. I, having a 3 year old and a 2 month old, stayed home and drafted via webcam with a few others. I had my dad on speakerphone and we talked out each pick and built up a pretty great team (including Peyton Manning and Calvin Johnson, by the way). About half way through the draft, my dad's phone was dying and he had to go, promising he'd call back later. That was it, I felt the pressure of drafting a team alone. I suddenly didn't know what I was doing. There is a lot of anxiety in drafting! I made a pick "A.J. Hawk," I said. To which my loving husband says into the computer some 300 miles away, "Why did you pick A.J. Hawk?"  Oh, I don't know, he looks just as good as anyone else, but not as good as some others? I like a challenge? AHHHHHH!!!! (Update: I dropped him this week and picked up someone else.)

 

Finally, after 5 hours of this craziness, the draft was over and I had my team. I felt like a load had been lifted. The anxiety was gone. Whew. Except now I have to come up with a witty team name. I never did, but that's OK. My team name is just fine.

 

I find myself now watching NFL Live, pouring over the commentators analysis. I text my dad things like "Shane Vereen is on the Injured Reserve until Week 11. I'm thinking about picking up Joique Bell off the Waiver Wire." Injured Reserve? Waiver Wire? Joique Bell? Add in Rushing Yards, Audible, Down By Contact, and shouting "he was totally in bounds before that tackle!" and I hardly recognize myself anymore. This is my life now.

 

Last week was week 1 of the season. Normally that doesn't mean anything to me except that the garage turns into "The Man Cave" and is over-run by football junkies and I make the "snack of the week" before heading out and doing anything else. This time, I am in it. I wasn't going to just dip my toe into the Gaterade, no sir. I am diving in. I'm a Gridiron Girl now! A Pigskin Princess! I sat and watched the games. I know my players. I still made yummy snacks! This is happening!

 

I ended up winning my first match-up and am currently 5th in the league. This week the hubby and I go head-to-head. Should be an interesting week in the Weber house...

My mantra these days

Philippians 4:6-7

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything,but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

San Diego Family Getaway

Since I am on maternity leave, we wanted to take advantage of the fact that I don't have to request any time off to go away. Also since I'm on maternity leave, money is tight, so any trip we take needs to be easy on the wallet. Fortunately, we only live a couple hours away from San Diego! 

We packed up the kids and headed down south. The plan was to go to Sea World one day, spend the night, then go to the zoo. We had the truck packed to the brim! It was one night, but we were so full, you'd think we were staying until Christmas. I'm a big "just in case" person. "Well, you never know..." "I'd rather have it and not need it..." 

Seriously, it's a problem.

Kathryn is way too young to care about anything we did. She is a trooper though, and traveled very well! 

JJ, however, loved it! He is a big fan of animals and had been talking about going to see them for awhile. I'm not sure he remembers, but my brother and sister-in-law took him when he was just over a year old to the LA Zoo.  I loved watching his reactions to all the animals and seeing them so close. 

I really wish we could have stayed a few more days, but we really loved the time we did get.

Food for thought

When your kids are older and are looking back on their childhood, what do you hope they say about it and you as a parent? "Oh my mom always...." "I remember when my dad would...." "Our family was...."

How do you hope they will fill in these sentences and what do you need to do to make that happen? 

Totally Un-PC Mommy Confession: I Hate Breastfeeding

OK, so I know this post is going to be all about something people don't want to hear and I should probably watch out for angry mobs storming my house with fire and pitchforks. I know breastfeeding is best for the baby health-wise and bonding, etc. and that is why I do it, but if I'm being totally honest, I absolutely HATE it.

So far my experience with my newborn daughter has been just about the same as my previous experience with my now-3-year-old son. And I remember hating it then too. Here are my reasons:

1. The first month, give or take, is painful. My nipples hurt whenever the baby starts to eat. It usually subsides within a few seconds, but that initial latch is never pleasant. I also have a fast let-down and the baby will "bite down" to slow it down. Ouch, ouch, ouch!

2. Both the baby and I am getting used to a schedule and adjusting milk levels. I tend to overproduce (which is ironic to me, since I can't seem to keep up supply after stretching it to 6 months), which causes a lot of issues with the baby eating mainly leading to reflux problems. We deal with a LOT of spit up, which is both a cleanliness issue and also stresses me out because I get paranoid about how much they are actually getting to eat.

3. As convenient as it is always having milk ready to go, it is just as inconvenient being the ONLY source of nutrition for the baby. No matter where we are or what we are doing, I am the only one who can feed the baby. Wouldn't I love to sleep all night and have the hubby get up and feed her? Even if I did pump and had someone else give her a bottle, if I skip a feeding, my boobs get really full and extremely sore. Not. Fun.

4. Cluster feeding is the worst. My son did this occasionally, but my daughter is only 5 days old and we've already had two rounds of it. Feeding her on demand every hour is exhausting. It's like I just plant myself on the couch and without being able to move anywhere because I know I'm going to have to feed her again soon. As if I don't feel enough like a cow/milk machine...

No matter how I feel about nursing, I choose to do it exclusively because it is the healthiest choice for my baby. I know the long-term effects are worth going through every single item I mentioned above and even more that I probably am forgetting right now. It is also a financial decision. Babies aren't cheap, so with one less expense without having to buy formula is a BIG bonus for us.

Not to mention the selfish reasons I do it as well, as so humorously outlined here

June 27, 2013

So blessed...

Kathryn Grace