Baby and School Dilemma

So there is one thing I've been thinking about recently.  Between my mom, husband, and I, we've all been able to work our schedules out so that I can still work 3-4 days a week, go to school full time, and make it so my hubby can work his desired schedule.  However, despite all this, I'm still forced to skip a class on Fridays.  It wouldn't be a big problem aside from the fact that it's organic chemistry.  It may quite possibly be one of the hardest classes in my whole college career.  I've been thinking about bringing the baby to school with me.  Overall, he's a good baby and doesn't cry much.  I'm sort of in a predicament here.  I'm contemplating just bringing him and telling the teacher it was either skip class or bring the baby.  If he doesn't cry, I can't imagine it being a problem.  What do you think?  Is this a horribly awful idea (worst idea ever)?  Of course, all of the younger girls in my class (since I'm unfortunately the oldest) are so excited for me to bring him!

*UPDATE*

So I ended up bringing Monkey to school with me.  None of my professors had any problems with him.  My first professor (a woman) was very excited and just wanted to see him and hold him after class.  My second teacher showed me pictures of his grandkids and just asked me not to breastfeed in class because it would be a distraction.  My third teacher told me that it was okay because his students cry during his exams and apparently college students used to bring dogs to class with them?  I've never heard of that before!  Of course, a lot of the kids loved him.  But along with all of the "aww's", I did get quite a few weird looks and even some exclamations, "Is that a real baby?!?!"  Obviously, I'm not going to make this a regular thing where I bring the baby to class with me every day..but it's nice to know that if I absolutely have to, I can.

5!

I've had a total of 5 blog views.  FIVE!  These people probably didn't even look at my page or read anything on it.  If they did, they probably thought it was pretty dumb.  I haven't really had the time to do anything with this blog recently.  Being a mommy, student, and worker hasn't been the easiest thing.  Maybe I should start doing some reviews or something.  I wish I could get a give-away started so that people would actually look at my site but I doubt anyone would want to put a review up on a site that doesn't get much traffic.

I'm tired of unanswered texts and calls!

I don't know if your parents are like mine, but if they are, they are the type to call you at the most inconvenient times.  They like to call when I'm at work or when I'm in class..or, even worse, at 2 am when I'm trying to sleep.  I don't know why they do this because I have a pretty set schedule, so I'm in the same place every single Monday at the same time.  It wouldn't be so bad if they just called once, but they don't.  If I don't answer, I get multiple calls.  And I'm not talking like 1 or 2, I'm talking like 11.  Yes...eleven.  Eleven calls within a matter of 15 minutes is a little excessive.  After that, they start to text me.  If I weren't 22, they'd probably call in the National Guard thinking I was a missing person.  Just last week, I came home to my mom (who was babysitting the monkey) crying because I was half an hour late coming home from class and she had run out of pumped milk and thought I was dead. 

However, I found the solution to my parents' craziness with the Moby App.  The application, which can be downloaded on your iphone, blackberry, or Android phone(not available yet but coming soon), allows you to track family members and friends.  Users are able to let their friends and families know their location, check-in to places, and even alert people that you need help.  Unlike other programs that allow you to let others know your location, the Moby app allows you to let only certain people know where you are (so yay! to no stalkers) and for a certain duration.  While this may not be great for teens who never want their parents to know where they are or for affairs, it does prove to be useful for the most part. 

Right now, if you head over to Between the lines, you can enter to win an Ipad 2 from Moby!

Want to win a food processor?

If you want to win a food processor, go to:
http://skdeliciousrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-31-2011-giveaway-brand-new-food.html?showComment=1316215182310#c5027998877642633598

Not only does she have this awesome giveaway, but also has others and, as the name suggests, some delicous recipes!

Cloth Diapering

When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to cloth diaper.  Being a college student, money is very, very tight at times.  I knew cloth diapering would be a great way to save lots of money and help save the environment too.  However, I quickly learned that building up a stash would not be as cheap as I had hoped.  I was looking at spending at least 300 to just get started on a smaller sized stash.  It wasn't long before I discovered Ebay diapers and Craigslist.  On Ebay, I got 12 diapers with 2 inserts each for less than $100.  From Craigslist I got: a decent stash of small Gdiapers for free, 17 Kushies diapers for $60. and then a mixed stash of Kawaii, GoGreen Pocket Diapers, and JustSimplyBaby pocket diapers (31 in total).  I spent less than $300 on my stash which has given me a grand total of 68 diapers!!!  With one baby, I DO NOT need 68 diapers but this was a great way to give me a chance to try a bunch of different diapers to see which ones I liked best. 

The Gdiapers, which were the most popular brand of diapers, were alright in my opinion.  I really liked the fact that I could use the same cover and just use the insert.  I also liked the fact that you could use either cloth or disposable inserts.  What I did not like was that it was a little difficult to get the insert to stay in the liner, it seemed to fall out a lot.  This difficulty is what made Monkey's Daddy HATE the Gdiapers.

I really liked the Kushies.  The nice thing about them was that they were just like a disposable in the fact that there were no pockets to stuff or unstuff and they held a ton of water.  I never had any leaks with them, even when he wore then for 6 hours overnight.  What I did not like about them was that they were HUGE.  These were meant to fit babies from 10-22 lbs but when Monkey was 10 lbs, these still looked giant on him.   They're also all gender neutral.  Gender neutral is great but I'm really a fan of cute diapers...and, face it, gender neutral things are never as cute!  These diapers also take a lifetime to dry since they are so thick.

My favorite diapers were the pocket diapers.  Aside from stuffing the darn pockets, they work exactly like a disposable.  At first, I had trouble with leaks overnight.  I fixed this by double stuffing them and making sure I didn't leave them on for any longer than 6 hours.  Since I've bought them, I've played around with inserts and discovered that a microfiber plus bamboo insert works best for overnight.  I also love that these are one-size so fit him now and will continue to fit him until he's potty trained.  That means I no longer have to worry about building up my stash.


Another way I've discovered to try diapers is through giveaways!  I wish I had found this out BEFORE Monkey was born so that I could have read more in-depth reviews about which diapers people liked and didn't like.  Maybe then I could have been steered in the right direction in the first place. 
If you're interested in trying to win a diaper, head over to Momma Told Me's giveaway of an Oh Katy! one-size pocket diaper.

http://www.mommatoldmeblog.com/2011/09/make-way-for-baby-oh-katy-pocket.html

Giveaways

Since I've been really bored this past month being at home alone with Monkey, I've been entering in a lot of these giveaways online.  I guess I could be doing something more productive with my time...like cleaning the apartment or something but I figure, maybe one day I'll win something.

Well, I have yet to win something but I'm crossing my fingers.  And I'm trying to get this whole blog thing started so that maybe I can start doing giveaways of my own.  I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to setting up a blog much further than this.  If anyone ends up reading this and you know how to set up a blog, then please help me!  I'm so lost!

Here are some giveaways I recently entered in.  Enter yourself and maybe you'll have good luck and win.  Let me know if you do!

I entered in a Romanico's chocolate box give-away by Susan's Disney Family.  I am a chocoholic so of course this one would catch my eye.  I think Monkey's dad is a little tired of me sniffing out all things chocolate and eating it before he gets a chance to have any.  To be fair, he never wants it until it's all gone!!
http://www.susansdisneyfamily.com/2011/09/romanicos-fine-artisan-chocolates.html#comment-form

I entered in a giveaway for a Eureka vacuum.  The last time I bought a vacuum was on Black Friday two years ago...and with all of the dog and cat hair we have in our house, it's basically dead after sucking up so much hair!  So I recently "borrowed" (stole!) my parents older Oreck vacuum.  It works well but needs bags in order to work.  Plus, they came over the other day and noticed I had it....they want it back!
http://www.nycsinglemom.com/2011/09/12/eureka-airspeed-gold-review-bagless-vacuum-review-and-giveaway/#comment-13349

9/11 Then and Now

Ten years ago on 9/11, I was 12 years old.  I had just started the 7th grade, which here in Chicago, means the first year of Junior High.  Classes started at 8:30 AM and I arrived at school around 8:15, after the towers had already been hit.  Before I had heard of the WTC being hit, I had chosen to wear a New York t-shirt.  When I got to school, everyone was appalled that I was wearing a New York shirt.  I had no idea why until someone told me the towers had been hit. 

The rest of the day went by in a blur.  Some people I knew were crying, some went home.  I was saddened by what had happened but I couldn't really grasp it.  I hate to say it but I didn't really care.

However, now I find myself caring.  I don't know if it's because I'm older and wiser now or if it's because I'm a mom.  I couldn't imagine myself losing my child, my parents, or my boyfriend like that.  I just watched a TLC special about how two men stayed in the building to help others from the 88th and 89th floors get out alive but didn't make it themselves.   I don't even want to know what it was like for those who were in the towers and knew they were going to die.  To think that some people found themselves flinging themselves from open windows to escape from being burned to death. 

Today, my heart goes out to the families and friends who lost someone; to all of the firefighters, policemen, and good Samaritans who lost their lives trying to help others. 

Do I have anything interesting to say?

Since I've been home the past month with my newborn baby boy, I haven't had much to do.  There's only so much to do by myself when Monkey's daddy isn't home.  So I started to browse the internet and found tons of blogs by women who do reviews and giveaways.  I figured, I could do this, despite the fact that my plate is already pretty full being a full time mommy, full time student, and working part-time.  However, Monkey's dad says that I won't have anything really interesting to say and that nobody will read anything I blog about.  I figure if there are hundreds of other mommy-bloggers, what's one more going to do?  There must be someone out there interested in what I have to say.