R.I.P. Microwave

I have the solid food thing down.  I steam a batch of finger foods on the weekends (carrots, sweet potato chunks, green beans, apples, etc.), freeze them, and then pull them out on an as needed basis.  Throw them in a little dish with water, pop them in the zapper for about 20 seconds, and then serve them up to my little man.  It works well, it's convenient, and it's fast.  We are doing well on solid foods!

That is, until three days ago when the microwave died.  Done.  There were occasional flickers of hope as the indicator lit up to 88:88 every couple of hours, but it was nothing more than just a last breath.  We tried banging on the door, jiggling the side, and adjusting the power cord in a vain attempt to resuscitate it, but it now sits on the kitchen floor as a giant drum for Weston to bang on as it awaits trash day next week.

"Go buy another one," you say.  I would, except that we're moving into a house within the next month and the kitchen is brand-spankin' new, complete with all appliances, including a microwave.  So, we're sucking it up and figuring out how to live life B.M.O...Before Microwave Ovens.  

At first, I panicked when all the times we use the microwave flashed through my brain.  Oatmeal in the morning, making tea, warming up water for Weston's bottles, reheating leftovers, defrosting meat because we forgot to take it out of the freezer the night before...  How are we ever going to pull this off for a month???  It was like me thinking of life without the Internet.  How would I ever find the lyrics to a song?  Directions to the nearest Target?  Movie times?  Recipes for twice-baked potatoes?

Then I remembered my dear friend Vanessa in Milwaukee.  She doesn't have a microwave, and she's actually had people over to her house for dinner on multiple occasions.  There was hope!

Steaming basket thingie

The reality is that I've been washing a lot more pots lately, but it's okay.  I'm grateful for the steaming basket thingie that we have because that's how I heat up baby's little finger foods.  Nate said making tea is a lot faster on the stove top.  Oatmeal made on the stove is way better than how it turns out in the microwave.  Sure, it takes more time to do all these things, but that's okay.  It'll make the return of the microwave next month that much more enjoyable.

After Winter Break Bummers

Yuck.  I had to go back to work last Monday after almost two weeks of 100% baby time.  It was absolutely wonderful to spend all day with Weston.  I was also very excited about not having to pump and looking forward to just breastfeeding.  Like I've said before, I am glad that I am able to continue to breastfeed Weston while I work, but pumping has certainly worn out its welcome.  It's a pain in the ass sometimes.

Anyway, as I packed my Medela Freestyle on Sunday night, I packed all four bottles thinking that after exclusively breastfeeding for 12 days, I would have copious amounts of milk to express during my first pumping session at work on Monday morning.  Since going back to work in August, I've usually been able to bring home about 10-12 ounces of expressed milk from two pumping sessions at work.  However, to my utter horror on Monday at 8:30 am, I sat looking at less than an ounce after pumping.  What??!?  What the hell had happened?  I quickly searched for other moms relating the same story on the Internet, but couldn't really find anything other than a few women talking on a forum about low milk production after taking vacation.  Fortunately, they said that their bodies regulated and once again got used to the pumping schedule.  I pumped again in the afternoon and then squeezed in one more pumping session about an hour later, but was only able to take home a bit less than 5 ounces.  Yikes!

Good news though...I've seen an increase this week, with each day yielding a little bit more, but I only brought home 7 ounces today.  Thank goodness for freezer stashes.

Going Back to Work

I don't wanna.
I really don't wanna.
I am less than enthused about going back to work full time on Monday.  If teaching were truly a 40-hour work week, then it might be easier to swallow.  The reality of it is, though, is that teaching isn't just 40 hours a week.  It's coming in early, staying late and taking work home at night.  Yeah, yeah, we get about 2 and 1/2 months off in the summer, which could make up for it.  But I don't think it does.

Yes, I'm whining.

I'm hoping that if I whine enough, Nate will tell me, "It's okay, honey.  Don't go back to work full-time.  I'll figure it all out."

By the way, we'll really see how this blogging thing goes after working next week.  This could be the last post on the West Allis Baby Project...  I've thought of starting another blog, something along the lines of being a Midwesterner in the South...Corn Fed in the Blue Grass State.   I don't know.  I just hope that Weston doesn't end up with a twang or drawl when he starts talking.

Insurance Woes

Worst case scenario happened...WEA Trust, my school district's insurance plan, has refused to cover any of our Certified Professional Midwife's services.  Not even an out-of-network percentage.  Their reasoning is that LaNette, the midwife we were working with, is not a nurse, and therefore, the plan will not cover any of the claims submitted.  I found this out a couple of weeks ago after the insurance company called me, and I was super bummed.  We have absolutely loved working with LaNette, and she has been everything we were looking for in a provider.

After I had my meltdown, I took the recommendations of LaNette and a Physician's Assistant friend here in the Milwaukee area, and we decided to go with Aurora Sinai Midwifery and Wellness Center.  It's a group practice of Certified Nurse Midwives, and they have birthing privileges at the Aurora Birth Center.  We took a tour of the birthing center, and it seemed nice (like a hotel room nice), except that they don't allow water births.  They do have a whirlpool to labor in, so that's close.  It's on a first-come-first-served basis, and the nurse that gave us the tour said that not many people use it.  Good.  That means that as soon as I get there, I'm jumping in and not getting out until the baby is delivered.  Nate reminded me that if I do that, they'll probably drug me.

I look at it like this: having a baby out of the "standard hospital-OB/GYN birth" box is a luxury birth, even though it costs significantly less.  Some behind-the-times insurance companies refuse to recognize that there are other options to having a baby that cost half the amount of what the traditional methods cost, and these options are just as safe.  Unfortunately, Nate and I cannot afford to pay the near $5,000 it would cost us to have the prenatal care and delivery that we wanted, so we're forced to have the baby in a traditional hospital setting.  Of course, this all happened for a reason, and whatever reason that is, I've been trusted to have this experience, even though this wasn't exactly what I had in mind.