A Good Laugh - The Seal

Been reading this way too much.

And I think I'm a little sleep deprived. This is the true story of what happened during our nighttime routine last month:

Hubby: Will you say the prayer tonight?

Me: Sure. [closes eyes]

Our Father in Heaven, we're thankful we could touch such a BEAUTIFUL animal. . . and that it is a seal. . . [wakes up] Wait what?!

Me & Hubby: [laugh uncontrollably]

Soon to come: What does Nacho Libre have in common with my boob?

Baby B'Air Product Review

Two firsts: Flight and a head cold. Doh!

I was oh-so-fortunate to win this little item from The Marketing Mama. The Baby B'Air is a vest meant to be worn by small children during a plane ride while sitting on their parent's lap, which fastens them to the seat belt. If you go to Baby B'Air's website and watch the video, you'll learn why the inventor was inspired to come up with something more secure than mommy or daddy's interlaced fingers.

I'll start out with things to keep in mind when using the Baby B'Air vest, just to get that over with:

• When sitting upright, the child has to face away from you. My baby loves to make eye contact so this was a little hard on him.


• You can lie your baby down, which is nice. . . but the harness becomes more taught in this position and can cause skin breakdown. I found this out when I went to change Philippe's diaper and discovered an area on the thigh that had been chaffed.
  

On to the good stuff:

• The Baby B'Air makes total sense! If you strap your kid down in a car, why not on a plane?


• It makes you feel prepared. This was our first flight with baby and having the B'Air made us feel like pros.


• Peace of mind. I won't name names, but I know someone who let her newborn roll from her arms to the floor as she dozed off on the sofa. Things happen. And there are worse consequences if all of a sudden turbulence strikes. I have to say our plane got jostled from time to time and I felt better knowing Philippe was secured by the Baby B'Air.


• Finally, it's cute! We got a lot of compliments.

Herbal Help

Hey, this actually works.

Since I'm on my most demanding rotation now, I need all the help I can get to keep up the milk supply. My average output was on the decline and I decided to give this herbal tea stuff a try. The active ingredient is fenugreek, which can also be found in curry. The result? I went from 9oz to 12-15oz at the end of the work day (depending on how much I get to hydrate).

The taste isn't spectacular, but it's fine with a drop of honey. The downside is that I think my sweat now smells like tandoori chicken.

Sidenote: As a follow-up to my neck injury, it still hurts! One of the young male nurses called me Dr. Batman. -Which I thought meant I was heroic in all my doctorly pursuits. Alas this is not the intent. It's in reference to the rigid mask Michael Keaton wore, which didn't allow him to turn his neck during Batman's fight scenes.

A Pain in the Neck

I had hope for the future . . .

But then I destroyed my neck. I hurt it by using a bad side-lying position to breastfeed my sick baby all night on Saturday. The following day I went to pick him up and heard an awful tearing sound coming from my cervical spine.

The irony is, people in the medical field get the least mercy when they are ill or hurt. If you're having fevers, puking, or got the runs you're still expected to come in. A torn muscle? Puh-leez. So I tried to endure the first few days of my new rotation, but here I am typing this post from home. . . unable to look anywhere except straight ahead.

I actually don't have any sick days to use because my maternity leave (a whopping 5 weeks) ate them all up. I'm using the last of my vacation days, which I had reserved for emergencies such as this and/or my brother-in-law's upcoming wedding . . . in Japan. Sadly, this time off might mean I can't go anymore. (If you're reading this Paul and Mayu, I'm soooo sorry!!!)

I couldn't have imagined I'd hurt myself this badly. If you consider that I gave birth to my son who was face-up without an epidural and now I'm tearing up from pain you know that this is bad.

Just trying to rest up and pray that I'm OK by tomorrow. Because this resident mommy must get back to work.