Nursing Challenges

This was my third week back to work and so far things have been going great. I have a decent routine down for pumping at work. I’m starting to get my 12 ounces consistently. And Maya seemed to have adjusted very well, until this week. On Wednesday, things went as usual. She had her three bottles at the sitters and came home where I nursed her. On Thursday however, she did not want to nurse. She wasn’t latching on even though she was hungry and I was ready to feed her. I noticed that she was trying to suck as if I were the bottle and she wasn’t getting any milk that way, which led to screaming baby! After struggling with her for an hour, I got her to finally fall asleep in the swing with her paci. At her next feeding, she was fine. I was so happy. I am not ready for her to stop nursing. I love this time together.

On Friday, I ran into the same challenge. Except this time, she wouldn’t nurse. I refused to give in. We struggled together for 6 feedings and finally on Saturday at noon, she nursed without fighting me on it. I am really panicking now. I am home with her for four days. Will I be going through this each week? Is she going to hold out longer and longer each time? There has to be a way to nurse and bottle-feed. Don’t people do it all the time? I want her to learn that when she feeds with her sitter or with daddy, she takes the bottle and when she is with me, she will feed from the breast. Is that even possible?

Adventures in Couponing

I have two friends who are so into couponing that I’ve been inspired to become better at it. I have always clipped coupons but when I get to the store, I forget to use them or I don’t feel like digging through them at the cashier’s register. Also, I don’t think I was leveraging them properly. Plus, I don’t want to end up spending money on things I don’t need just to use a coupon. Anyway, as I spend more time listening to my girlfriend Maria and reading about Cindy’s quest and adventures in couponing, I’ve started to learn more and more. The internet is filled with such valuable information. I found that some people really do their homework when it comes to combining sales circulars with coupons and they share that information with others.

So, I decided to pay CVS a visit yesterday. Thank goodness Maria’s ride home crossed with mine at the exact same time and she stopped into CVS because she really helped me get through what could have been a crazy ordeal. We went through the aisles picking up the good deals. They had Pantene on sale at 3 bottles for $12. I picked up 6 bottles and used two coupons in conjunction for a total of $8 off. Then, I picked up two tubes of paste that I used with two coupons for a total of $1.75 off. I found a box of pantiliners on sale for .99 cents so I picked that up as well. I got to the cashier and presented her with a $4 online coupon from CVS (which I got for updating my profile with my email address). She rang up all my items and took my coupons and my total was $16.97.

As I am walking out with Maria, I can’t but feel like I didn’t really get a good deal. I spent $17 and only received $2 back in extra bucks. As we look at the receipt, we realize that we didn’t receive the extra bucks for the paste so back to the register we go. I had mistakenly gotten the wrong size tube so we had to do a refund. Oh no. What a mess. She refunded the two tubes but needed to put it on my card and my card’s swipe wouldn’t work. Then another cashier came to help and couldn’t get it to work. Before you know it, the manager is involved and I’m starting to sweat. Thank God Maria was there. They finally decide to put the credit back onto a gift card but tell me that I’ll loose my $1.75 in coupons. Why? That doesn’t make sense to me. But I only said this to myself so Maria steps up and demands to know why. The manager never really explained it but says she’s going to apply the discount for us. What a mess.

This morning, I went back to CVS and picked up a box of pantiliners. They weren’t on sale and I didn’t have a coupon but there was a promotion running where you would receive 3.84 back in extra bucks. How can I loose? As I sit down and look over my receipts and calculate spenditures, coupons, and extra bucks I realize that I spent a total of $21.14. I used $13.75 worth of coupons and received 12.50 back in extra bucks that I can use on future purchases. Wow, maybe this couponing really does work. I was so inspired that I bought a newspaper subscription and I can’t wait to start analyzing the sales ads and the coupons. Thanks Cindy and Maria for getting me on track!

What a Scare!

It was a dark and stormy night. No sir. Just kidding. But it was about to pour. I had just let Rio out and decided to check the mail just in case there was anything interesting. I was happy I went because I found some notices from the immigration office. I headed back to the house and find myself face to face with a locked door. Could it be? There’s no way. He doesn’t reach. Or does he? No, I’ve never seen him at the door messing with the lock. But lo and behold, there I am in front of a locked door. I calmly knock on the door and call to Jayden. After a few minutes, I hear the pitter patter of his feet running to the door. I say to him, Jayden, open the door. No response. Jayden, please open the door. I hear fidgeting. I check the door, but it’s still locked. I hear Jayden say oh-no. I’m trying to stay calm, but now I hear Maya crying and I knock again and say Jayden, open the door. I hear the unmistakable sound of fear and frustration in his voice as he’s trying to open the door and cannot. I am about to loose it when all of a sudden he tries again and unlocks it. My initial thoughts are to beat him senseless, but of course I can’t do that. Words can’t express what I felt at that moment. All I could do was cry and tell him to never lock the door again. That was probably pointless since I haven’t taught him the word door or lock. I have been working on open, close, on and off. I just broke down thinking about the what-ifs. What a scare!

On a positive note, the immigration notices turned out to be approval notices. The applications we turned in for my husband’s kids have been accepted and hopefully the kids will receive their visas as a result. I am not sure how much longer the process will take, but even if it does take the estimated 4 or 5 years at least the kids would be able to come and visit us. Maybe they can even come to school here. As of now, the kids are 15, 13, and 10 years old. They are so big now. The oldest, Shanel, just had her Sweet Fifteen party. She was beautiful.

Jayden and Esteban

Do you think they look alike? I was completely flabbergasted when I came across this photo. It's like seeing Jayden in another time and another place.

Esteban - Age 2

Jayden - Age 2