Returning back to work...

I was "reorganized" out of my job, better known as LET GO, LAID OFF, CANNED and whatever else you call it, at 37.5 weeks pregnant.

During this time, I looked for work actively and delivered and cared for my baby girl full time. I am lucky to report that I am returning to work effective Monday, February 11th. I am mixed with emotions and can best sum them up to bittersweet. Thus I have been quickly adjusting to life back at work and taking care of my baby.

I would be crazy to say I am not having a major anxiety attack over the sudden changes. Some random thoughts through my head

• Will my baby forget that I am her mother?
• How will I balance work and wanting to spend time for her?
• How am I gonna wake up and get her out of the house at the same time?

To answer my own anxiety ridden questions, who forgets their mother..no one! To achieve work life balance, I have signed up for mommy and me classes, meetups and pretty much have scheduled my weekends to be all baby all day. Finally, organization and routine are the only way we will get out of the house on time.

I keep repeating, I am not the first mom/dad to go back to work and I won't be the last. Will it be hard, of course but I HAVE to get through it.

Looking forward to being a proud working MOM!

Help! I have no Mom Friends, is it important and how can I make some?

It is completely true that once you have a baby you will never go back to  the person you were pre-baby. Your life revolves around your Little One and as they start getting older you want to cultivate friends for them but what do you do if you have no mom friends.

I am in this situation, a lot of my friends do not have babies and therefore I feel a slight disconnect because this little person has me changed so much. I have never been one to require a lot of friends but since having K, I want to cultivate more relationships with fellow moms.

K had her first playdate with a friend of mine's daughter, the experience was nice for the babies but even better for the moms. Its a time to vent, asks for opinions on all things baby. In fact, we spent the majority talking about our little ones from diaper brand preferences to how many times a week we bathe them.

It was nice, having a familiar friend in the situation but of course I want K to have maximum exposure to babies. So I began looking for ways to meet other moms and I have had some mild success in meeting new people. I come from a background in Career Services and the single handed best way to land a job is to NETWORK. Well, I have taken that same philosophy and am networking my way into a few groups

1. Signed up for Living Social and Groupon
I signed up for both services before baby to go to restaurants and do adventurous things. However, I noticed that one offered a baby sensory class which engages her to play using all of her sensory. We attended the class and met a few other  moms and made a contact with a mom, who has a facebook group.

2. Facebook
There are several mom related groups on Facebook. The group I am a member of is a private group so locations, details cannot be seen. I have noticed that they have yet to do a meetup but at least I am in the loop.

3. Meetup.com
Similar to Facebook, there are several groups on their and meetsup are encouraged. K and I have our first meet up today at a local park. I will let you know how it goes.

All in all, its a bit awkward to build relations with random strangers. However, I have noticed that it is good to get out of my comfort zone and expose my daughter to new experiences.

Until next time.

How becoming a mom has changed me!

They are so many cliches about the moment they place your baby in your arms, how everything changes, how you will never be more in love than will you see s/he. It's true, I have never been in love more with anyone and I think about that moment every day. My daughter will be 4 mos and boy has she brought about changes. Here is my list on how becoming a mom has changed me.

• I am always TIRED! I don't think I have had a solid night's sleep since being pregnant. Sure, she sleeps through the night but I am so busy trying to get caught up on housework that I don't sleep.
• I have become more domesticated. Before Baby, I liked to cook but cleaning, finding things for the home were not my forte. Now, I am constantly looking at things for the home that keep it clean, organized or smelling great.
• I CLEAN daily. Like I said, I don't enjoy cleaning at all besides for the Kitchen, bathroom etc...Well having this baby I clean daily and have a routine. I must say I get satisfaction out of sweeping the tile daily.
• I MULTITASK. Yeah, I've heard it you can't really multitask but seriously I do. In the morning, my husband watches baby, I put bottle in warmer, walk the dog, feed the dog, take bottle out, change baby diaper and feed. 
• I HAVE DONE WHAT I SAID I WASN'T. Prior to baby, I had grandiose unrealistic expectations ideas of what I would never do. For Example, I was against COSLEEPING, guess who cosleeps sometimes...ME!
• I am searching for MOM FRIENDS. Again, I have always been shy and somewhat of a loner but since having baby, I have had a quest to find moms with babies. I feel that by making friends, I can bounce ideas, the babies can get together.
• DISORGANIZATION to ORGANIZING CHAOS. Before Baby, clutter and papers littered the house, bills got paid but not efficiently. Because spending time together as a family is so important, we have been streamlining our papers, filing away mail and trying to de-clutter our house one day at a time.

These are just a few ways that being a MOM has changed me. I do know that each day, I strive for better and I have a motivation so strong. I look forward to seeing the evolution of me, a year out, 2 years out and 18 years out.

Grocery Shopping, Meal Planning and Paying in Cash..oh my

When we were a dual income with a family size of two grocery shopping had no rules or limits. However in the last three months we went from a family of two to a family of 3 and sometimes 4 and one income so there has to be rules and limits.

Ever grocery shop and think you got it all only to realize that none of the stuff equates to meals? Well, this would happen to me several times and I would feel like I had nothing and race out to the store. Ever set a limit for the total amount of purchases only to go over and use your debit to cover purchases?

So I have made changes to my shopping techniques.

So first thing is first, I create a meal plan with common ingredients nothing worse than running midweek for some exotic ingredient.

The game plan for this week:

• Jambalaya- chicken, shrimp and sausage 
• Pot roast with potatoes
• Baked Chicken, rice and beans and steam veggies
• Spaghetti and Turkey meatballs (turkey because I found it bogo)
• Salmon, potatoes and steam veggies

This will keep me on track and under our budget of 80 bucks. Now that I have a working list, let's talk snacks.

I don't buy package cookies, cakes and prefer to make my own. I can usually buy the mixes cheaper and it seems better for you.

The only snack I splurge on is ice cream and I mean GOOOOOD ice cream.

Again for veggies and fruits I go to the local farmers market and this is a huge savings. I have a steamer so I can steam all my veggies. I learned how to make my own apple sauce so again I have saved on paying for packaging.


For Beverages, cleaning products, cheese and the like, I have to go to walmart to get the savings.


So I was able to do it all within my budget of 80 dollars this week, plus the coupons helped meet this goal.

Bottom line: I am no expert at grocery shopping but I am learning a few tricks of the trade and at the same time feeding my family quality food.

Baby Clothes Galore...

The biggest piece of advice to all New Moms and Expectant Moms is DON'T BUY ANY CLOTHES for your child. This will save you a bag of money that can be used elsewhere.

I am a proud mom of a 3 month old daughter and can state that we have not bought one stitch of clothing for my child yet. While I was working at my previous job a fellow coworker let me know that she had not bought any clothes for her almost 1 year old daughter because so many people had given her onesies, dresses, shoes, socks etc. She told me to focus on the big ticket items and leave the clothes for the friends and family.

With this advice in mind, my husband and I agreed that everyone loves to shop for a little girl, tons of headbands, dresses, cute onesies and bibs. So why not let friends and family have fun picking out the clothes and we stick to buying the stroller and etc.

We were fortunate to have several showers with tons of clothes at each. I quickly (after sending thank you notes) organized them by sizes keeping the newborn and 0-3 months out first and rotating her through the outfits. Then for Christmas, we were fortunate to receive clothes from size 6 months and up, so now she has a full wardrobe up until 24 mos.

Now, that my baby is growing we don't just hoard the clothes we share the wealth, I used instagram to give her clothes to those who may need it.

Bottom line is that a baby is costly and you have limited resources put your money where it is most needed.

Deals deals deals

Deals..

As a SAHM, there are few days I look forward to Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

I love deals, coupons and discounts especially for grocery shopping. Since becoming a wife with my own "mini" household, I relish the opportunity to oversee all foods that we purchase. Growing up I would see my mom coupon, shop at 3 different grocery stores and knock of 50-60 off her bill consistently. As a kid, this was so embarrassing holding up the line to save some pennies here and there but now I see its well worth it.

Back to my favorite days of the week, Wednesday and Thursday my two grocers put out the circulars and Sunday the ads come out. Since having my little one, I get the Sunday paper delivered to me, scored sunday delivery for a year for just 10 bucks.

My usual grocery routine involves surveying the cupboards and basing meals on what we have. Shopping once a week, never hungry and trying to stick to my list. Since we function primarily on one income, I spend approximately 60 dollars per week for 2 people and 1 dog.

To make my dollar stretch here are my strategies ( you may have heard)

• Buy all produce at the Farmers Market, seriously I spend 18 max for all the apples, onions, green peppers and potatoes we can eat.
• Buy meat in bulk and separate to dinner portions and wrap and freeze.
• Buy juice, Milk, Eggs and all toiletries from Walmart because you can't beat the price.
• I stack my coupons for weeks and try to use them when the markets have a sale on them.
• I sign up with Kraft, Kellogs and Pillsbury for deals and recipe ideas.

My goal in the New Year is to meal plan more effectively and cut costs and waste down. Also as my little one grows, I want to make her baby food.

Until next time....

My Baby has what...Torticollis??

You spend 9 months (in my case 40 weeks and 3 days) hoping and praying that your baby will be perfect. In fact, I had several dreams that my baby would come out looking like an alien. I worried that I wasn't showing like a 9 month pregnant woman then something must be wrong.

Fast forward to when Ms. K was born, she had all ten toes and ten fingers, two eyes, one nose, well you get the point. She was perfectly healthy 6lbs 6oz little girl. I was relieved that she looked normal.

However at about 5 weeks, I began noticing something strange, she favored her right side, only looked to the left and her head never looked even on her neck. I decided maybe she needed time to develop and I would ask at the 2mos check up. At the check up, I showed the doctor and she explained my baby may have  congenital torticollis.

Basically, from the doctor's explanation and my hours of research on the Internet its a stiff neck. How the heck do you get congenital torticollis ? Well, you're born with it, some babies wedge themselves in a certain angle in the womb and therefore the muscles stiffen. This makes sense as my lil one every time we did an exam was always in the same position. She put herself head down from about 22 weeks and I guess she stayed that way.

So I took Ms. K to the physical therapist who confirmed the diagnosis and stated that with regular exercise she will be fine. Now I diligently, massage her neck, make sure she doesn't just look to the left or right.

The physical therapist says that it will take about 6 months to correct. I have been exercising for two weeks and so far a big difference she now looks right.

All in all, if she has to have something wrong, I am thankful its something like this and we caught it early.