(no subject)
So many things...
1. Charlie pooped! Only a mom could possibly be excited about this, but he's been more or less constipated for a week now, or producing solid little poops, and the poor baby has been super uncomfortable and unhappy. This is one of the reasons why we were trying formula roulette, and yesterday I'd nearly given up, because he was worse than ever - unhappy and uncomfortable and complaining and unable to fall asleep and super upset, and finally I took him upstairs for a bath and while I was drying him off afterwards he got this serene expression on his face and I noticed that he did not smell like lavendar baby bath anymore. It was green, but it was enough to fill two diapers, and then on a hunch, I put him in a disposable diaper anyway, and sure enough - not five minutes later, he'd filled that one, and then he was the happiest baby in the world.
He really was, too - he was cooing and gurgling and waving his arms and kicking and just having a fine ol' time, and he was alert and awake instead of grumpy and half-asleep, and then last night, after his 10:30 bottle, he slept until 5:30 this morning. Definitely a happier baby.
The only thing is - I'm not sure what prompted the poop. Was it the new formula (which he's fully on as of today; yesterday he was still on the 75/25 mix)? Was it the warm bath? Was it the mini baby massage I was giving his tummy with the lotion after his bath? NO IDEA. But I'm going to keep up with the tummy massages, and obviously the new formula, and next time he's constipated, the kid's getting dunked in a warm bath again.
(Which I admit, I enjoy doing, less because he enjoys it - he doesn't, not yet - but more because I love smelling his lavendar-scented head afterwards.)
2. In Which I Bemoan the State of Secondary Markets. The only trouble with the new formula (Similac Total Comfort, for those wondering) is that I can't buy it in bulk at Costco. Which means I'm going to be hunting down for sales and such for the next year. (Boo.) I mentioned this to another mother at Andrew's speech therapy earlier this week, and she suggested going to eBay. Not for the formula - for the coupons that Similac sends out.
(And they do - I just got my bunch of coupons - 7 of 'em, all for $5 off. Which will last me about a month.)
So I went. And was promptly horrified, and now I'm wondering if I have any right to be horrified at all. See, if you sign up online for their mom program, Similac (and Enfamil, and maybe other companies, I don't know) will send you a ton of $5 off coupons for their formulas. They come in the form of a "check" (which means you can use it at Costco, very useful) and they're good for a specific time frame. And I suppose you're not meant to transfer them, but no one ever checks the name on them at the store (because hey, the store don't care who's using it). So people do transfer them - I remember giving away extra coupons when Andrew aged out of formula.
But on eBay, you can buy them from other moms who don't need (or want) them. I figured, okay, people will be selling them for a dollar or two, just to cover postage, because really, I'm not entirely sure of the morality of selling a coupon. Except... they were selling them for way more. Like, half the face value of the coupon, so people were spending $8 and $10 on $20 worth of coupons - plus postage. Which is just... riduculous, particularly when you realize that eBay claimed postage for a couple of slips of paper was over $2.
(Okay, yeah, I'm horrified and appalled and all the rest. I mean, we're talking things that people got for free. In one case, someone was selling coupons that they had clearly printed out from one of the online coupon companies.)
I'm watching all of this with a horrified fascination. Just how much will someone pay for a coupon? And for that matter, how much would I be willing to pay, to save a couple of dollars in the long run?
(Answer, at the moment, is $1, to cover your postage, but I can't decide if this is me being annoyingly holier-than-thou or not. And obviously, I am being outbid for every lot so far.)
Bill points out that I'm being horrified by secondary markets, and perhaps if I'd paid more attention in Macroeconomics in college and not daydreamed about planning weddings between all the various examples of trade* I'd have been able to see this coming, but he is also not willing to have a discussion about how often Charlie poops, so whatever.
* So in my college Macro class, there was this example of Jane on Island A with her sheep, and John on Island B with his wheat, and how many sheep equals how much wheat. This was several weeks long and covered different aspects of trade. Meantime, I decided that John and Jane should get married and just share their sheep and wheat, which is much easier than economics. I spent lots of class time figuring out which island they'd live on, for what portion of the year, so they could keep up with their sheep and wheat. Surprisingly, I did not flunk Macroeconomics.
3. The Diaper Saga continues. I am slowly bulking up Charlie's cloth diaper supply. He's got enough to take him (barely) through two days now, which is pretty good - I think about four or five more and I'll be truly set. The pocket diapers are working better, as long as I stuff the bejeesus out of them, but that means that the newborn size diaper is now too small, because if I stuff them enough to absorb all his pee, they're so stuffed there's gaps along his thighs, which then lets the pee run out. Catch-22. Which is a shame, because those diapers are way cute.
(However, eBay, and secondary markets. I feel vaguely better about reselling a cloth diaper that I initially purchased than I do a coupon I received for free in the mail. Also, those newborn diapers are brand-new and not stained in the slightest.)
I've been taking pictures of Charlie's butt in the new diapers, though, so when I have a chance, I'll load them and put them up here.
4. Also noteworthy, in Andrew's world. He went to sleep without the melatonin last night! He's awake now, I hear him talking to Bill, so not a full night exactly - probably 10 hours - but still, really good. He's been getting the melatonin every night for the last... oh, month at least, and I'm not entirely sure it was necessary those last few weeks, but bedtimes were moving so smoothly, and yesterday was no exception - and it could have gone badly, because Bill had to go back to work after my tap class and Charlie wanted his bottle just as Andrew was going up to his bath, so I was juggling both boys at once. But it did go smoothly, and I figured, "You know, let's try it, I don't have enough hands to measure it out at the moment anyway", and sure enough - Andrew went to sleep with very little fuss, and I think he slept all the way through the night, too.
Of course, the real test is what sort of mood he's in today. We'll see.
(I am being summoned now. More later.)
1. Charlie pooped! Only a mom could possibly be excited about this, but he's been more or less constipated for a week now, or producing solid little poops, and the poor baby has been super uncomfortable and unhappy. This is one of the reasons why we were trying formula roulette, and yesterday I'd nearly given up, because he was worse than ever - unhappy and uncomfortable and complaining and unable to fall asleep and super upset, and finally I took him upstairs for a bath and while I was drying him off afterwards he got this serene expression on his face and I noticed that he did not smell like lavendar baby bath anymore. It was green, but it was enough to fill two diapers, and then on a hunch, I put him in a disposable diaper anyway, and sure enough - not five minutes later, he'd filled that one, and then he was the happiest baby in the world.
He really was, too - he was cooing and gurgling and waving his arms and kicking and just having a fine ol' time, and he was alert and awake instead of grumpy and half-asleep, and then last night, after his 10:30 bottle, he slept until 5:30 this morning. Definitely a happier baby.
The only thing is - I'm not sure what prompted the poop. Was it the new formula (which he's fully on as of today; yesterday he was still on the 75/25 mix)? Was it the warm bath? Was it the mini baby massage I was giving his tummy with the lotion after his bath? NO IDEA. But I'm going to keep up with the tummy massages, and obviously the new formula, and next time he's constipated, the kid's getting dunked in a warm bath again.
(Which I admit, I enjoy doing, less because he enjoys it - he doesn't, not yet - but more because I love smelling his lavendar-scented head afterwards.)
2. In Which I Bemoan the State of Secondary Markets. The only trouble with the new formula (Similac Total Comfort, for those wondering) is that I can't buy it in bulk at Costco. Which means I'm going to be hunting down for sales and such for the next year. (Boo.) I mentioned this to another mother at Andrew's speech therapy earlier this week, and she suggested going to eBay. Not for the formula - for the coupons that Similac sends out.
(And they do - I just got my bunch of coupons - 7 of 'em, all for $5 off. Which will last me about a month.)
So I went. And was promptly horrified, and now I'm wondering if I have any right to be horrified at all. See, if you sign up online for their mom program, Similac (and Enfamil, and maybe other companies, I don't know) will send you a ton of $5 off coupons for their formulas. They come in the form of a "check" (which means you can use it at Costco, very useful) and they're good for a specific time frame. And I suppose you're not meant to transfer them, but no one ever checks the name on them at the store (because hey, the store don't care who's using it). So people do transfer them - I remember giving away extra coupons when Andrew aged out of formula.
But on eBay, you can buy them from other moms who don't need (or want) them. I figured, okay, people will be selling them for a dollar or two, just to cover postage, because really, I'm not entirely sure of the morality of selling a coupon. Except... they were selling them for way more. Like, half the face value of the coupon, so people were spending $8 and $10 on $20 worth of coupons - plus postage. Which is just... riduculous, particularly when you realize that eBay claimed postage for a couple of slips of paper was over $2.
(Okay, yeah, I'm horrified and appalled and all the rest. I mean, we're talking things that people got for free. In one case, someone was selling coupons that they had clearly printed out from one of the online coupon companies.)
I'm watching all of this with a horrified fascination. Just how much will someone pay for a coupon? And for that matter, how much would I be willing to pay, to save a couple of dollars in the long run?
(Answer, at the moment, is $1, to cover your postage, but I can't decide if this is me being annoyingly holier-than-thou or not. And obviously, I am being outbid for every lot so far.)
Bill points out that I'm being horrified by secondary markets, and perhaps if I'd paid more attention in Macroeconomics in college and not daydreamed about planning weddings between all the various examples of trade* I'd have been able to see this coming, but he is also not willing to have a discussion about how often Charlie poops, so whatever.
* So in my college Macro class, there was this example of Jane on Island A with her sheep, and John on Island B with his wheat, and how many sheep equals how much wheat. This was several weeks long and covered different aspects of trade. Meantime, I decided that John and Jane should get married and just share their sheep and wheat, which is much easier than economics. I spent lots of class time figuring out which island they'd live on, for what portion of the year, so they could keep up with their sheep and wheat. Surprisingly, I did not flunk Macroeconomics.
3. The Diaper Saga continues. I am slowly bulking up Charlie's cloth diaper supply. He's got enough to take him (barely) through two days now, which is pretty good - I think about four or five more and I'll be truly set. The pocket diapers are working better, as long as I stuff the bejeesus out of them, but that means that the newborn size diaper is now too small, because if I stuff them enough to absorb all his pee, they're so stuffed there's gaps along his thighs, which then lets the pee run out. Catch-22. Which is a shame, because those diapers are way cute.
(However, eBay, and secondary markets. I feel vaguely better about reselling a cloth diaper that I initially purchased than I do a coupon I received for free in the mail. Also, those newborn diapers are brand-new and not stained in the slightest.)
I've been taking pictures of Charlie's butt in the new diapers, though, so when I have a chance, I'll load them and put them up here.
4. Also noteworthy, in Andrew's world. He went to sleep without the melatonin last night! He's awake now, I hear him talking to Bill, so not a full night exactly - probably 10 hours - but still, really good. He's been getting the melatonin every night for the last... oh, month at least, and I'm not entirely sure it was necessary those last few weeks, but bedtimes were moving so smoothly, and yesterday was no exception - and it could have gone badly, because Bill had to go back to work after my tap class and Charlie wanted his bottle just as Andrew was going up to his bath, so I was juggling both boys at once. But it did go smoothly, and I figured, "You know, let's try it, I don't have enough hands to measure it out at the moment anyway", and sure enough - Andrew went to sleep with very little fuss, and I think he slept all the way through the night, too.
Of course, the real test is what sort of mood he's in today. We'll see.
(I am being summoned now. More later.)