Mamas and Babas - find out what happens when a 1st generation gal becomes a mama in a modern day world...

Jan 19

The Two Hour Window

Ever wonder what you can accomplish in two hours?

My life has become mini chunks of two hour windows. It's been an adjustment, but my task master self is adding another project into my daily routine - this one happens to be a human being. It took me some getting used to, and I'm still not there yet, but the two hour chunks are becoming a bit routine.

I have at least two hours at different intervals during the day to:

-bathe

-attempt to nap

-attempt to create some kind of hair style, aside from the a) ponytail or b) clip

-balance the budget

-clean

-cook or bake

-read

-spend time with my husband

-eat

-write

Some of these tasks can be accomplished whilst baby is in a sling (which she is now, and out cold, bonus)

Then there are various 90 minute intervals that include:

-change dirty diaper

-breast feeding (I've mastered the art of propping the iPhone with one hand and reading feeds during a feed)

-burp baby in an attempt to stop spitting up

-relax baby post feeding

-try to make baby laugh with bad jokes (even though she's only 5 weeks old)

-see what apparatus baby wants to relax in a) sling b)bouncy seat c) swing

-change possible second diaper which became full during feeding (this one's a sneaky little thing)

It's no wonder that working moms make some of the best corporate citizens. What can you do in two hours?

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Jan 18

Liljana Smiles After Her Late Night Victory

We are almost there but this little girl becomes a night owl between 2 and 8. Last night, we were all business. Bath, feeding, swaddle, sleep. She was out from 10-2. At 2, it was over trying to get her down easily.

This morning? Sleeping like...a baby.

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Jan 17

It's All About Post Baby Body & Doing It Fast

Taken at the checkout...I wonder if we could have a Social Media magazine and pay fellow digerati to pose post baby..and make a cool mint.
Not.

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Jan 15

Doing It All, But Not At the Same Time

A quiet Friday night and it’s just us girls. Michael is enjoying a pre birthday drink with his brother and I’m enjoying Liljana’s naptime, a glass of wine and running the washing machine.

I realized that four weeks have passed and I’m finally catching my breath. There are times when I gaze at my daughter and daydream about the fun things we’ll do together. Then I switch to daydreams of my own and wonder when the mini projects I started will get finished. I’ve always had this ‘problem’. I come up with interesting ideas and try to do too much at one time. Irony is, someone else comes around with a similar idea and sees it to fruition because they focus 100% of their time on that idea.

I started a site for women in their 20s, but have so many features I need to add to the site. These are the days that I wished I was a developer.

I developed and began a patent for an idea to assist condo dwellers with the complicated (and financial) ins and outs of condo ownership. The site is currently offline because I couldn’t get the financial backing to run the site like a true start-up. I also had a mortgage to balance, which led to balancing consulting and trying to run a start-up. Alone. Oh yah, and being a woman.

I started chronicling various tech/agency activities in Chicago (the domain currently forwards to my other blog). Because of my deep Chicago roots, access to companies and contacts was (and still is) easy. Time became a factor. I added writers to join me, but everyone’s schedules got complicated and the project died off. Circle back to present day and I’ve been asked to forward this domain name and export its contents to another site that would like to do something similar. A fine idea, but the approach wasn’t something I expected.

I’m still supposed to take the travel journal I scribed, detailing my 2004 break from the world, regrouping in France, and make it into an actual book.

I work full time and actually, yes, really enjoy my job.

Oh, and I just had a baby. She’s my world, my priority, but I can’t help but to think about the other projects going on in my life and wondering when I can bring them back to life.

Then I go back to the old saying that ‘Women can do it all’. I only believed in this statement from the standpoint of…’at one point or another, we can do it all, but not all at the same time’.

I’ll always wonder why it’s expected, and accepted, for a guy to have multiple projects going on, complete with having a newborn and/or an already established family.

Since having Liljana, I’ve heard everything from, ‘You should drop everything and focus on the baby’ to ‘Are you really going back to work?’ to ‘You’ll need to get rid of some projects’.

Sorry to report, I just don’t operate that way. I’ll get it all done, just not at the same time.

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Jan 14

Baby Wants the Light Off (warning there is crying in this)

(download)

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Jan 13

My Fabulous Delivering Midwife, Amy

I can go on and on about how terrific my experience was working with the midwife practice at 680 N Lakeshore Drive. I actually visited a doctor when I learned I was pregnant but switched to midwives when my doc was shocked I wanted to go into the birth drug free.

I also watched Ricky Lake's documentary , 'The Business of Being Born' and that solidified my beliefs that giving birth should be a natural thing in this country...not an assembly line.

Amy delivered Liljana and was a terrific coach!

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Jan 11

We Can All Use a Nurse Nancy

Glad to hear that you future moms and curious ladies alike are enjoying the stories and tips! Today’s tidbit is a tribute to Nurse Nancy.

As mentioned in my first post, Liljana had a case of jaundice. After back and forth consultation with the pediatrician and nurses, it was decided that we qualified for in-home care. You know, the old fashioned type of situation where the doctor/medical professional came to your house? (They still do this in Paris, by the way).

We brought Liljana home on a Saturday and learned that we needed to begin treatment of the jaundice on a Sunday. Treatment meant Liljana would need to sleep on special lights for three days. These lights help to eradicate the jaundice. I was a basket case. Keep in mind, my head was f-l-o-o-d-e-d with rules, tips, how-tos and other random bits of information that flew my way from doctors, nurses, admin assistants and all other folks that claimed to know what was best for our newborn. We spent that Sunday at the pediatrician’s office for one exam, then Children’s Memorial for blood work. Then we came home, waited for the phone call and the subsequent conclusion that Liljana needed at-home care (my nephew had the same thing, so don’t fret if this happens to you).

Within an hour or two, our phone rang and someone named Nancy was on the line. She was going to drive down from Morton Grove (a NW Chicago suburb) to our downtown Chicago home that night and get things set up for us. Ok, I began to feel better.

Traffic was a pain, but Nancy finally arrived. I learned she wasn’t just Nancy, she was Nurse Nancy. As soon as she walked in our door, took off her shoes and said hello, I felt like things were going to be OK. Perhaps it was her Chicago accent. Perhaps it was the fact that she was a mother of five girls. Perhaps it was the fact that she told mom and me ‘how it is’ with the baby, jaundice and trumping everything else we heard at the hospital. I couldn’t get enough of this woman.

Nurse Nancy went to town. She set up the special jaundice clearing lights, instructed mom, me and Michael on what we needed to do for the next three days (feed baby every two hours, take temperature, jot down wet/soiled instances, keep baby on lights at all times, supplement with formula if needed). I continued to ask questions and Nurse Nancy answered all of them. At the end of our meeting, I looked at her with exhaustion and cried. She must have sensed my tears were coming because she cried, too. Then my mom cried. It was the first time I finally felt OK. Granted, having my mom in our home for 10 days was a Godsend, but Nurse Nancy’s no-nonsense style to new mom advice was so refreshing. Having her in my home was so natural and put me at ease. Mom and Nurse bonded, swapped stories and I felt bad for not having listened to all of my mom’s tips at the hospital.

For the next two days, Nurse Nancy visited us, weighed Liljana, took a blood sample and ran that sample at the hospital. Our little champ is a fighter and pulled through earlier than expected.

Big thank you to an amazing woman who was ‘just doing her job’, but made an impact on all of us that I won’t forget.