Ok, so the rules never once mentioned not reading your favorite books over, right?
I've read this one a hundred times. I should consider reading the others again, though. They were pretty fascinating in themselves.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York, New York: Scholastic, Inc, 2007.
We all know this book, so I'm not including the description. It's also upstairs in my bookcase and I'm too lazy to go retrieve it.
Total pages: 759
Total pages for 2011: 9,513
Pages remaining: 1,487
23 days remaining, so that's what... 65 pages per day? Oh boy... Wish me luck. Wish a baby, it's difficult!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
11K in 2011 - An update
OF COURSE I haven't stopped reading! haha. My infant only sleeps on my chest during the day, and honestly doesn't sleep much at night any more. I've done quite a bit of reading lately, actually. Nothing too interesting, though. So here's just an update instead of a 1 by 1 post.
Your Pregnancy week by week - 6th edition.
Curtis, Glad B and Judith Schuler. Your Pregnancy week by week. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Da Capo Press, 2008.
I'm counting this book twice because I read most of it twice, and I've also read lots from other informational books that I'm not counting, so I know that I'm probably low-balling my page estimate this way.
600 pages- read twice = 1200!
Where the Heart Is.
Letts, Billie. Where the Heart Is. New York, New York: Warner Books, 1995.
Read on my Kindle!!!!
384 pages according to Amazon.com
Twilight
(Yes. I love the series. I re-read all of them, as is my custom for any movie release. PS- I loved the movie. Much much better than the others!)
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. New York, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2005.
498 pages
New Moon.
Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2006.
563 pages.
Eclipse.
Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2007.
629 pages.
Breaking Dawn.
Meyer, Stephenie. Breaking Dawn. New York, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2008.
754 pages.
I've also read countless Dr Seuss books, Berenstein Bears books, and various other children's stories. I'm conservatively estimating 250 pages. This is definitely a low estimate, only because you know how many words are on those pages- not as many as the other books I've read!
Grand total- 1200 + 384 + 498 + 563 + 629 + 754 +250 = 4,278.
Total pages read in 2011: 8,754
Pages remaining: 2,246
Holy WOW! I think I caught up quite a bit!!! I still have a lot to read in December, but I think it's manageable at this point. Earlier in the year I would have sworn I could never catch up. Looks like I've done a pretty good job!!!
36 more days left. So if I can read 63 pages a day, I can make my goal!!!
Your Pregnancy week by week - 6th edition.
Curtis, Glad B and Judith Schuler. Your Pregnancy week by week. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Da Capo Press, 2008.
I'm counting this book twice because I read most of it twice, and I've also read lots from other informational books that I'm not counting, so I know that I'm probably low-balling my page estimate this way.
600 pages- read twice = 1200!
Where the Heart Is.
Letts, Billie. Where the Heart Is. New York, New York: Warner Books, 1995.
Read on my Kindle!!!!
384 pages according to Amazon.com
Twilight
(Yes. I love the series. I re-read all of them, as is my custom for any movie release. PS- I loved the movie. Much much better than the others!)
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. New York, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2005.
498 pages
New Moon.
Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2006.
563 pages.
Eclipse.
Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2007.
629 pages.
Breaking Dawn.
Meyer, Stephenie. Breaking Dawn. New York, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2008.
754 pages.
I've also read countless Dr Seuss books, Berenstein Bears books, and various other children's stories. I'm conservatively estimating 250 pages. This is definitely a low estimate, only because you know how many words are on those pages- not as many as the other books I've read!
Grand total- 1200 + 384 + 498 + 563 + 629 + 754 +250 = 4,278.
Total pages read in 2011: 8,754
Pages remaining: 2,246
Holy WOW! I think I caught up quite a bit!!! I still have a lot to read in December, but I think it's manageable at this point. Earlier in the year I would have sworn I could never catch up. Looks like I've done a pretty good job!!!
36 more days left. So if I can read 63 pages a day, I can make my goal!!!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Maddie Mei- The birth experience
Oh hello! Yes, we are still alive. It's been a challenge to get online at all, let alone write a blog post (or 2 or 3). I have barely gotten bills paid!
But Maddie hits 3 weeks old tomorrow, and we are slowly falling into some sort of routine. How do you actually get a routine going, by the way? Someone give me some tips, please.
Oh, right. Birth.
So my birthing experience was interesting, to say the least. I started having contractions Sunday evening. Finally at about 2 am we went to the hospital. They kept me for 2 hours and released me. I had progressed between the doc appointment on Thursday (1 cm) to 3 cm, but in those 2 hours nothing changed. Boo. Mike stayed home Monday, but went back to work on Tuesday. The contractions never really stopped, and finally got intense enough to go back on Tuesday. I called everyone in around 2:15 (my mom and Mike) and we were at the hospital by 4. At 4 pm I hadn't progressed since Sunday (still at 3 cm). They kept me an hour before making any decisions. Miraculously in that hour I went from 3 cm to 5. YAY! Baby is coming! I was admitted.
And then from 5 pm to 12:30 am, nothing changed. My contractions weren't intensifying or coming any faster, I wasn't dialating. So the doc came in and asked me to make a choice- go home, break my water, or start pitocin. I was trying to go without meds, and I certainly wasn't going home, so I opted for breaking my water. THAT was interesting. And let me tell you- contractions BEFORE the water breaking- nothing compared to after. HOLY WOW. It didn't take long and I opted for the Nubane.
Nubane is a trip. I rested through the pain for a few hours. 4 am came and I was checked again- STILL no change!!! At this point I have been laboring for 12 hours at the hospital and I was still just at the beginning of active labor??? WTH?!?!?
So despite any plans of mine, pitocin it was! However, the nubane was wearing off, and I was afraid of pitocin intensifying that pain, so... epidural it was. I got the epidural around 4:45 am. The pitocin was started around 5:15 am.
Everyone had gone home around 11 pm except Mike. He was napping on the loveseat. My mom stayed at my house and came back around 5:30 am. Which is good, because when the nurse checked me at 5:45 am I was at 9 cm!!!! Apparently SOMETHING worked.
So we woke Mike and he made the calls to everyone. Time became a blur at this point, but a little while later they came in to change out the internal monitor on the baby's head- it was all over the board for readings. So the nurse goes to change it out, and sees that the old monitor had fallen off because oh wow, baby's head is RIGHT THERE! And it's full of hair, which is why the readings were so bad.
So all of a sudden things are set up and the doctor was called in and I'm pushing before I knew what was happening. Didn't take long at all- she arrived at 7:19 am.
7 pounds 1 ounce
20 inches long
full beautiful ROUND head of hair
Absolutely perfect.
I must say that delivery was the easiest part of the whole pregnancy. And I'm recovering just as nicely. The epidural was definitely the right choice for me. The nurse said that the epi is probably what jump started my labor- they barely got any pitocin in my system at all.
And Mike? He was such a champ. Such a good labor coach- very supportive. He made it all the way to the end, heard it's a girl, and THEN nearly fainted. My poor family- they were all out there waiting to hear girl or boy. The hospital plays Braum's lullaby over the hallways when a baby is born, so they knew she was here. And then they had to wait 45 minutes before the doctor would let Mike get up and go tell them!
But Maddie hits 3 weeks old tomorrow, and we are slowly falling into some sort of routine. How do you actually get a routine going, by the way? Someone give me some tips, please.
Oh, right. Birth.
So my birthing experience was interesting, to say the least. I started having contractions Sunday evening. Finally at about 2 am we went to the hospital. They kept me for 2 hours and released me. I had progressed between the doc appointment on Thursday (1 cm) to 3 cm, but in those 2 hours nothing changed. Boo. Mike stayed home Monday, but went back to work on Tuesday. The contractions never really stopped, and finally got intense enough to go back on Tuesday. I called everyone in around 2:15 (my mom and Mike) and we were at the hospital by 4. At 4 pm I hadn't progressed since Sunday (still at 3 cm). They kept me an hour before making any decisions. Miraculously in that hour I went from 3 cm to 5. YAY! Baby is coming! I was admitted.
And then from 5 pm to 12:30 am, nothing changed. My contractions weren't intensifying or coming any faster, I wasn't dialating. So the doc came in and asked me to make a choice- go home, break my water, or start pitocin. I was trying to go without meds, and I certainly wasn't going home, so I opted for breaking my water. THAT was interesting. And let me tell you- contractions BEFORE the water breaking- nothing compared to after. HOLY WOW. It didn't take long and I opted for the Nubane.
Nubane is a trip. I rested through the pain for a few hours. 4 am came and I was checked again- STILL no change!!! At this point I have been laboring for 12 hours at the hospital and I was still just at the beginning of active labor??? WTH?!?!?
So despite any plans of mine, pitocin it was! However, the nubane was wearing off, and I was afraid of pitocin intensifying that pain, so... epidural it was. I got the epidural around 4:45 am. The pitocin was started around 5:15 am.
Everyone had gone home around 11 pm except Mike. He was napping on the loveseat. My mom stayed at my house and came back around 5:30 am. Which is good, because when the nurse checked me at 5:45 am I was at 9 cm!!!! Apparently SOMETHING worked.
So we woke Mike and he made the calls to everyone. Time became a blur at this point, but a little while later they came in to change out the internal monitor on the baby's head- it was all over the board for readings. So the nurse goes to change it out, and sees that the old monitor had fallen off because oh wow, baby's head is RIGHT THERE! And it's full of hair, which is why the readings were so bad.
So all of a sudden things are set up and the doctor was called in and I'm pushing before I knew what was happening. Didn't take long at all- she arrived at 7:19 am.
7 pounds 1 ounce
20 inches long
full beautiful ROUND head of hair
Absolutely perfect.
I must say that delivery was the easiest part of the whole pregnancy. And I'm recovering just as nicely. The epidural was definitely the right choice for me. The nurse said that the epi is probably what jump started my labor- they barely got any pitocin in my system at all.
And Mike? He was such a champ. Such a good labor coach- very supportive. He made it all the way to the end, heard it's a girl, and THEN nearly fainted. My poor family- they were all out there waiting to hear girl or boy. The hospital plays Braum's lullaby over the hallways when a baby is born, so they knew she was here. And then they had to wait 45 minutes before the doctor would let Mike get up and go tell them!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Proud Parents
Baby Madeline Mei was born 10/5/11 at 7:19 am.
She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and is 20 inches long.
We have been doing very well. There are lots of pictures (she's gorgeous and has a full head of hair) but none are on my computer yet.
More updates to come when I learn to juggle my baby and non-baby activities.
She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and is 20 inches long.
We have been doing very well. There are lots of pictures (she's gorgeous and has a full head of hair) but none are on my computer yet.
More updates to come when I learn to juggle my baby and non-baby activities.
Friday, September 30, 2011
On raising a boy vs a girl
As I sit here on my EIGHTH day of maternity leave, I've gotten a nice lovely chance to catch up on reading some of my favorite blogs.
I talk about her all the time. Remember Rebecca from Girls Gone Child? She wrote this wonderful post in response to another article somewhere else about complimenting your daughter.
Basically, the original article related complimenting young girls on their looks to telling them beauty is more important than brains and by complimenting them on their looks you are encouraging them to diet as a pre-teen and expect surgery at 17. Along with other things.
Rebecca disagrees. Her post is fascinating to read because she really knows how to say it, ya know?
With my impending D Day, and with it the impending knowledge of whether I will be raising a son or a daughter, the topic really struck a cord with me. Why do we focus so much on topics such as these for girls? Maybe it's why I think a boy would be easier to raise. There isn't so much controversy on what to say and when to say it. How to raise them. Why is that, by the way?
Like Rebecca, I don't see the topic as polar opposites. Why do people think you can be beautiful, or you can be smart. You can be a successful career woman, or you can be a mother and wife. You can be an adventurer, or you can have a family. This has probably been the hardest thing to get past as I have come out of the college world and into the working world. My mom struggles with seeing this, and I have never understood it. Why can't you be a little of everything?
I was raised in a world of compliments. I was also teased in school for my good grades (and really bad athletic skills). I was not a pretty child, but I never really saw that because my family is so loving and complimenting. My grandpa always told me I should be a model! HA! And while I wish I had learned a little more about fashion and beauty at a young age (I still know squat) I at least learned the value of cleanliness and taking care of yourself. First impressions are important, and they often start with how you look. While I was not a gorgeous child I was always clean and dressed appropriately and I was confident in my body. Isn't that the important piece?
I'm actually of the mindset that the opposite is true when you don't compliment a young girl. Telling her she is pretty is going to instill confidence. Avoiding compliments is going to make an already self-conscious teen question herself and make her wonder if she needed something more. Like... surgery? a diet?
I think for the most part parents need to just chill out and stop over-researching every tiny little detail. You raise your daughter in a world where everything is possible- beauty AND brains, successful in the classroom and on the field. Yes, it is possible to have a little bit of it all. You don't worry about what you say and when you say it- you worry about the examples you show her (AND HIM). You teach them the importance of a healthy lifestyle by HAVING a healthy lifestyle. You teach them confidence by HAVING confidence.
But seriously... Why does it seem like there are way too many complicating things to think about when raising a girl vs raising a boy?
I talk about her all the time. Remember Rebecca from Girls Gone Child? She wrote this wonderful post in response to another article somewhere else about complimenting your daughter.
Basically, the original article related complimenting young girls on their looks to telling them beauty is more important than brains and by complimenting them on their looks you are encouraging them to diet as a pre-teen and expect surgery at 17. Along with other things.
Rebecca disagrees. Her post is fascinating to read because she really knows how to say it, ya know?
With my impending D Day, and with it the impending knowledge of whether I will be raising a son or a daughter, the topic really struck a cord with me. Why do we focus so much on topics such as these for girls? Maybe it's why I think a boy would be easier to raise. There isn't so much controversy on what to say and when to say it. How to raise them. Why is that, by the way?
Like Rebecca, I don't see the topic as polar opposites. Why do people think you can be beautiful, or you can be smart. You can be a successful career woman, or you can be a mother and wife. You can be an adventurer, or you can have a family. This has probably been the hardest thing to get past as I have come out of the college world and into the working world. My mom struggles with seeing this, and I have never understood it. Why can't you be a little of everything?
I was raised in a world of compliments. I was also teased in school for my good grades (and really bad athletic skills). I was not a pretty child, but I never really saw that because my family is so loving and complimenting. My grandpa always told me I should be a model! HA! And while I wish I had learned a little more about fashion and beauty at a young age (I still know squat) I at least learned the value of cleanliness and taking care of yourself. First impressions are important, and they often start with how you look. While I was not a gorgeous child I was always clean and dressed appropriately and I was confident in my body. Isn't that the important piece?
I'm actually of the mindset that the opposite is true when you don't compliment a young girl. Telling her she is pretty is going to instill confidence. Avoiding compliments is going to make an already self-conscious teen question herself and make her wonder if she needed something more. Like... surgery? a diet?
I think for the most part parents need to just chill out and stop over-researching every tiny little detail. You raise your daughter in a world where everything is possible- beauty AND brains, successful in the classroom and on the field. Yes, it is possible to have a little bit of it all. You don't worry about what you say and when you say it- you worry about the examples you show her (AND HIM). You teach them the importance of a healthy lifestyle by HAVING a healthy lifestyle. You teach them confidence by HAVING confidence.
But seriously... Why does it seem like there are way too many complicating things to think about when raising a girl vs raising a boy?
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