The pros of working

After re-reading my last post, I realized how negative I sounded. It's not all bad. Promise.

In fact, things are pretty good.

Yes, I'm exhausted. Yes, the girls are having some difficulty. But...

I'm getting to use my brain again. I really like this job and not to toot my own horn, but I think I'm pretty good at it. I'm attacking the queue of outstanding issues and resolving them quickly; the Pharmacists are so grateful.

My anxiety has diminished. I am calmer and more relaxed than when I was at home. I'm equally stressed {but for different reasons now, of course} but I find that I'm dealing with the stress better. Along the same lines, the agoraphobia is completely gone. We're going out every day and having so much fun. Dare I say that I'm enjoying the girls more than before?

The money. Money isn't everything, of course. But this job means that we'll be able to save a hefty down payment for a future home. We can now afford a second car and are living comfortably. It's nice to not have to worry about money for the first time in a long time.

Last, I feel productive and fulfilled...I'm helping other people out and contributing to our family at the same time. But I miss my little princesses. If I'm able to negotiate for a ~25 hour workweek (half at home, half onsite) come July, I think I'll have the best of both worlds.

These girls <3

Thanks so much for all of your messages and words of support, and for sticking with me despite my sad sad lack of posts lately. And I think I'm a few weeks behind in e-mails. I'm sorry! I promise I'm not ignoring you.

Oh and apparently Top Baby Blogs just reset (who knew?) Me lurve you long time if you click below and send a vote my way ;)

The cons of working

We're slowly starting to settle into our new routine. There have been a number of difficulties including the fact that Mike and I are both exhausted all.the.time and the house is a dump since cleaning is the last thing I want to do when I get home after a long day. But, the worst has been how it has affected the girls.

When I leave in the morning, Aurelia fusses and Carina gets upset. For Carina, it ranges from just a sad pout to full blown tantrum depending on the day."Momma gotta stay", "Mommy snuggle!" and "Nooo Mommy!" are what I hear most often. We had been slowly weaning her from the binky but now she has started regressing; the Nanny told me today that she wants it most of the time. We're down to only 1 and we were hoping to avoid buying more since Aurelia doesn't take them. I'm not sure if cold turkey is the way to go, though. I can't believe it's almost a year later and we're still dealing with this...

Teeny went from chillest baby ever to whiny and fussy, freaking out if I turn the corner into the kitchen to cook dinner. She won't let me out of her sight when I'm at home. Fortunately, she has taken to sippy cups and is drinking enough breast milk during the day. She's also developed a fond love for food and is close to eating whatever we're eating for meals. I'm glad our bottle troubles are behind us; it was a rough first week until we tried sippys.

I LOVE FOOD

Their sleep is regressing. Both girls went from sleeping 7 PM until 7 AM straight to waking multiple times a night. Carina calls out for me and I usually end up bringing her in bed with us so she doesn't wake the baby. It's also taking them longer to fall asleep in the evening, and they often wake early. Aurelia was up at 5:30 AM yesterday. Uhmm BRING MOAR COFFEE.

I'm hoping this becomes easier for them soon. Probably just in time for my contract to end, though, right? Doesn't it always happen that way? Although all signs point to the probability of them keeping me on board longer than mid-July. I'm hoping to negotiate to part-time at that point. ~12 hours onsite and ~12 hours working from home would be my ideal situation. We'll see. I think that kind of a schedule would be easier on all of us.

How was adjusting to working for you?

On top of the world

I apologize. Cheesiest post title ever, as we were actually on top of a mountain yesterday. Well, not a mountain, but the rather large peak just a few minutes away from our house. We had never been, despite its proximity.

My Mother's Day began with Mike letting me sleep late and making me a lovely breakfast of coffee, eggs, Nutella on toast, and a chocolate chip croissant. Me likey chocolate. After Carina's Noontime nap, we headed out to West Rock State Park. It was beautiful out and Carina had a blast running alongside the stroller (BTW pushing the stroller up the hill was quite the workout). What we didn't realize was that it would take us 45 minutes to reach the top. We were exhausted, but had a nice picnic once we reached the top.

Aurelia was hungry?

Teeth!

For dinner, Mike grilled salmon and shrimp and sauteed 2 lbs. of mussels - 3 of my favorite foods. Dessert was some chocolate fondue and Moscato while we watched Game of Thrones. I couldn't have asked for a better day. My gift was a Garmin GPS -- something I've been wanting for quite some time now. And yes, we used it when we traveled to the park, just 1.5 miles away ;)

How was your Mother's Day?


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This week's Toddle Along Tuesday topic is Mother's Day! What did you do? There are no rules here, except that you link up a relevant post (old or new) rather than your whole blog.

What I do all day

Oh hi there, blog. It's been a little while.

Most nights this week I crashed as soon as I put the girls to bed or had so much to clean I didn't even get a chance to turn the computer on. No matter how much laundry I do or dishes I wash, a few hours later there are more. I hate those chores that you can't ever be finished with. And even more I hate not being able to find a way to construct a sentence so that I don't have to end it in a preposition. Ugh. Oh, and yesterday we drove 2 hours each way to Mike's Grandfather's interment at West Point. That part of New York is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. But I digress...

A few of you have asked what I actually do at my job. So here, it is...with a warning. It's probably pretty boring to the majority of you, unless you get turned on at the thought of electronic medical records. And yeah...said no one ever.

My days are spent in a cubicle, making my way through a queue of outstanding issues from the most recent Go-Live in the health system for which I work. I read through the problems and then tweak the build of the software system as appropriate. Sometimes changes are quick and easy, like adding a button so that a physician can order a 10 mg dose of a certain medication or specifying that a medication can be dispensed at a particular pharmacy. Other times, the problems run deeper and I have to spend hours investigating what went wrong. In truth, I love these issues. The ones that require me to run queries and search through line after line in an attempt to identify the problem get me all hot and bothered. Okay, not really, but you get the idea. When I finally find that pesky root cause I mentally high-five myself {yeah, I'm that cool} and triumphantly respond to the user who reported the issue, letting them know it will be fixed shortly.

One afternoon a week I go to the hospital and meet directly with the Pharmacists and help solve their issues and explain aspects of the system to them. I'm hoping to do this on a more regular basis since it is so productive, and the hospital is less than 10 minutes from home (versus a 20+ minute drive to my office).

In many ways, it's very similar to my old job. I'm working with the same software and investigating issues much like I did before. Except now, I'm trying to fix the problems rather than cause them! In Quality Assurance, we basically did everything we could to make the software not work as intended. Now, I do the complete opposite.

It's been easier than I thought it would be to jump back in after 20 months away. My boss has been really impressed with my efficiency and told me today he wishes he could hire me directly. I'm feeling confident and happy that I can help them whittle away at their list of 400+ issues. And I'm making more money than I ever thought I would.

Carina is still having a hard time when I leave in the morning, and they have both regressed a little bit in their sleep schedules. More on that when I'm not about to fall asleep myself ;)

Here comes Carina!

Toddlers say the best things, and Carina is no exception:

• When she hurts herself, she says, "Mommy kiss it!" And magically, after I kiss her arm/leg/head it's all better. Yesterday she had a mild diaper rash and demanded, "Mommy gotta kiss the bum!" I told her that no, Mommy wouldn't be kissing her bum...to which she replied, "kiss it just a little bit?"
  

• Zooming off in the car or stroller, she yells, "here comes Carina!" While walking to Mike's soccer game this weekend I began pushing the stroller and preemptively announced, "here comes Carina!" Instead of repeating it (like she usually does), she added, "and baby sister!" ::heartmelt::


• Each day when I return from work she asks me to take off my coat and shoes. Then she proceeds to step into my shoes (usually heels) and walks around in them exclaiming, "Carina's so big and strong!"


• Her favorite treat in the whole world is Orange Sherbet. Of course, that's not what she calls it. To her, it's "Clementime Ice Cream".


• She's going through a bit of a nudist phase, and would rather not wear clothes. She'll take off her shirt and then come up to me and say, "oh no! What happened to Carina's clothes?" No idea, love. No idea...

 

What awesome things do your kids say?


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This week's Toddle Along Tuesday topic is things your kids say! Cute, funny, weird, gross, ...whatever you'd like to share. There are no rules here, except that you link up a relevant post (old or new) rather than your whole blog.