Ok so yesterday I had a question posed about my profile about what job I loved and gave up to come home to be with my family.  I decided to do a walk down memory lane post.  Its a good day to do it since its Sunday and such a blessing of a day.  It’s raining out and my thoughts are turning to old past times.

I have one sister and three brothers that I love dearly.  My parents are both still living.  I thank God for that each and every day.  My heart goes out to anyone that has lost a parent.  I grew up in a very dysfunctional family so hey that might be why I am who I am.  But I’m much more complicated than that.

Early on in life, I met the man of my dreams, Michael. Michael was a wonderful man.  I lived through so very much with him.  I watched someone die from diabetes.  Back in that time, diabetes was not understood at all.  I remember firing doctors because they would literally ask my husband what to do when he was sick.  Yes that makes sense lets ask a man that is in a delirious state.  One of the reason that you hear me constantly tell you to trust your instincts when your little one is sick.

Did I ever mention that I’m a grandma?  I doubt it.  You see when Michael passed away his daughter’s mother decided it was best that I not be involved in her life anymore.  I respected that wish.  How could I not?  It wasn’t until she was 18 years old that I did approach her again.  My heart believed that she deserved to know a little about her father.   Now here is something that I have never talked about.  You see, when I met with Christie, I found out that she always worried about her father.  She worried about if he was saved.  Something that I know he was.  She worried because no one ever allowed her to speak of him.  She wasn’t allowed to talk about what she remembered so the memories faded.  I was handing her back a photo album with all of his pictures.  Today I miss that album.  There were such memories of who he was in it.  But I hold his memory in my heart.  He was the first person that taught me to love unconditionally.  He was my blessing.  My angel on earth.  And now he is my guardian angel.  The thing was when she came to meet me.  She brought her family.  Her husband.  And my little grand daughter.  I cried when I saw her.  You see her child looks exactly like she did.  So much of my precious Michael was in her.  I don’t see them now but they are always in my heart.  Christie didn’t know me.  How could I expect her to include me now?  I still mourn him though.  The love is always there.

Ok so while I was with Michael, I was also suffering with endometrosis.  And that story could go on and on.. so go here and here for that information.  Long story short I ended up not being able to have children before I was 23 years old which was when my love, Michael, passed away.  I spent 10 years mourning him severely.  Oh I dated a lot of men.  They’d want to get close I’d back up and say see ya.  I had 2 dates in one day.  I’m not bragging here.  It’s just that when you are in this stage you don’t really think.  You try to hide your feelings.  I did.  And I did it well.

During all this time, I continued working as a Administrator.  I was good at my job and I loved it.  I didn’t want anything else.  You see, when you know that kids are not a possibility in your life.  You don’t think about getting married.  You don’t think about having a family.  You don’t think about it because it hurts to know that you aren’t capable of doing so.  Instead you become goal driven career minded.  Or so I believed.  I volunteered during those years for various organizations, such as:  Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce), American Red Cross, March of Dimes, Tall Stacks, hospitals, schools, literacy organizations, etc.  Before you start saying I’m so good.  That’s not true.  I did it for the feeling that I got as a volunteer.  It is an amazing feeling.  If you haven’t given of yourself freely please consider volunteering.

I turned to my sister’s kids for my maternal instincts.  I took them to Kings Island and various other locations.  We made a gingerbread house every year so that my sister could go shopping.  Its not that I didn’t want to adopt at this point.  Its that I did not want to inflict my problems on someone else.  I spoiled her kids as if they were my own.  I always went home feeling empty.  I hated going to any baby shower.  I tried not to tell anyone how I felt.

My job was going great.  I had the looks of going to the top of the chain.  I was working for Great American Financial Resources when I met my husband, Ken. I was moving up in the ladder at work and here was this good looking younger man who was interested in me.  We had a lot of fun.  Honestly I never dreamed I would end up being married to him.  I still remember my thoughts “wow he’s a great guy.  We can have some fun until he decides he wants to get married and have kids.”  Nearly didn’t marry him for exactly the same reason.  I wanted him to be able to have kids.

How was I ever suppose to know that we would end up having two children?  Well as it turns out Pumpkin came along eight months after we got married.  I adopted her as a step mother adoption. We were fine financially until Pumpkin became ill.  We couldn’t keep her well.  She was sick all of the time.  I love Pumpkin with my entire heart.  I don’t believe that I could be a better mother if I had been able to carry her myself.

OOps have to run..hope you enjoy it.  Oh I forgot if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I was asked to review a new Baby and child community website about everything to do with babies and pregnancy called Babiesbase.  It is a fairly new website but it has a lot of promise.  It is very organized.  I love the parenting section where they go into topics such as:  ineffective parenting, emotional, parent tools, repercussions, etc.  I, also, like the featured articles and did you know facts on the home page.  Since the website does have a lot of great information, you will have to ignore the ads.  Its well worth ignoring them for the information.  Did you know that your baby won’t shed tears for 3 weeks up to 5 months?  I never knew that.  I found that out on the website.  Check it out.

Disclaimer: This review is 100% my opinion and has not been edited or reviewed by anyone. I was not compensated in any other way for this review.

My brother in law is having a baby.  Well his girlfriend is.  I simply can’t wait to see her.  She went in last night to be induced.  My niece, Gabriella, should be born today.  I can’t wait.  Heather doesn’t want anyone at the hospital for a while yet.  We are just in the beginning stages so I’m impatiently waiting.  Her cervix is thinned out.  She is 3 centimeters dilated.

This video is in spanish but you will get the hint. Its hilarious

This video is in spanish but you will get the hint. Its hilarious

I had a friend asking me what I did to get used to a new baby in the house. Here are my suggestions to her:

Get on a schedule. That whole thing about ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’ only works if you have one baby. When you have a new baby plus a two-year-old running around, there’s no way to nap when the baby naps, so you have to buckle down and get the whole family on a routine. On the rare occasion they may both be sleeping at the same time, lay down even if you cannot get any actual sleep.

So many new moms make the mistake of trying to get things done while the kids are sleeping. I would encourage Instead, I suggest you schedule your activity concurrent with theirs. My kids loved to color or play a game in the kitchen while I fixed dinner. It is noisy. But at least we were both getting things done and they were where I could keep an eye on them.

Accept help. If someone offers to watch either of them for a few hours, say YES. Even if you prefer to keep the visitors to a minimum and think you are doing well, you need this.

Get some sleep. The only real cure for lack of sleep is sleep. You may be deprived for a while, but get some sleep whenever you can and note that the quality of the sleep is as important as the quantity, so when you can, make it as restful a sleep as possible.

When you are sleep deprived you can suffer from numerous negative effects that lack of sleep causes including irritability, loss of emotional control. Pro-longed sleep deprivation can impair your immune system making you more susceptible to getting sick and fighting off infections. Because you are tired, you may start eating more to compensate for the lack of energy and your metabolism will get sluggish – making it harder to lose the baby fat and susceptible to gaining weight. It even impairs your memory and physical coordination.

Just remember, you can do this and breath!