Saturday, June 17, 2006

And the Title Must Change!

As of yesterday morning, I am not longer a working mom. I resigned from my comfortable job at Emerson College to stay home with my kids. The decision was wrenching and difficult. I did not want to blog about the process, because my number one rule of public blogging is: NEVER blog about anything you wouldn't want your boss to read. So, until I had really made the decision I did not write about it here.

After Kaylee was born and I had been home a couple of weeks, I was having a harder and harder time contemplating leaving her to go back to work. I even completed and submitted my application to get an au pair. But when they started calling me I froze. I did not want a stranger living in my house and I did not want somebody else taking care of my kids all day. I wanted to do it. Daycare in this area would have eaten my entire take home pay. For me, with one kid it was do-able. With two it was not. The very thought of getting them both back and forth to daycare, and getting myself to work via public transportation made my stomach churn with stress.

So, come September Eric will be in preschool half time, from 8:30-12:45 and I'll have the girl all day, and both of them all afternoon.

This decision was hard and gut wrenching, but after I finally talked to my boss I felt like a great weight had been lifted. It's the right thing for me now, and I feel really good about it.

Ask me again what I was thinking come February! Watch this space for news of this transition because I think it will be a doozy.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Mixed Messages

So, last night Kaylee woke up sniffing and coughing. The stuffy nose really freaked her out a lot. A stuffy nose in a breast-fed baby is a difficult thing, because they can't nurse when they can't breathe through their noses. So we dutifully flushed it out with nasal saline and used the Evil-Booger-Sucker (TM). But it was no use, she was still stuffy, so we gave her half a dose of infant decongestant. After that she had a really peaceful night, and she could nurse.

So, I called her doctor's office this AM to check on the dosage. The nurse called me back and said they don't recommend giving babies medicine before 3 months, because we want to track their fevers. "But Kaylee doesn't have a fever." And we went back and forth a few times, until I realized that the fever thing was moot. The infant decongestant doesn't have any tylenol in it, so it wouldn't effect a fever one way or another. So, I got no useful information out of the conversation.

They don't like to give infants medicine because they want to track fevers. But my infant has no fever, and the medicine I gave her wouldn't bring one down if she had. But I'm still not supposed to give her medicine. It makes no sense.

During both my pregnancies, I refused to heed any doctor's advice that sounded made up. For example, I ate goat cheese, cold cuts and took many long hot spa baths. And I had perfect kids both times.

I think in the case of the infant sudafed, I would have gotten a much more coherent response from one of the doctors, but I really don't want to spend the day there for a little case of the sniffles. It's beautiful out. Can you blame me?