Year in Review

I haven't posted since the end of September. Damn.

Anyway, onward to a quick monthly recap because I can.

January
We made the most progress we'd make all year with our aquaponics project by acquiring cinderblocks and the pickle barrels.
I had lots of little rides on Gwyn despite doctors orders but felt MUCH better because of it all.
I got the nursery painted and Kaylee helped.

February
I had a very against doctors orders trail ride and felt spectacular
I tried to make Hazel a blanket and didn't get very far
We got a harness for skijoring and introduction for Gwyn pulling something behind her went... off the rails so to speak and Kaylee got upset that I broke her sled.
We started the process of putting in tile where we had hardwood!

March
I made a trip to Ikea all by myself while hugely pregnant and it was awesome
I got norovirus and dropped a ton of weight
I made monthly horse goals that I largely met!
We made good progress with the floors
We toured the hospital where I'd be giving birth.

April
We finished the floors and they still look fantastic.
I ended up in the ER again with breathing issues. No more clots but we finally figured out why I had a 4 month long cough (reflux)
Hazel finally flips head down and my huge worries about labor ease up
I anxiously wait through many bouts of false labor before finally being induced
Hazel is born!

May
I spent most of this month snuggling new baby
I also rode for the first time post baby

June
We did a test run of the water circulation for aquaponics
I had more baby snuggles
We enjoyed the start of summer and Hazel was a portable potato
I set up the electric fence tape so Gwyn and Saffron could assist in lawn mowing, much to Eric's delight

July
I find time to ride where I can with the assistance of baby monitors and long naps
We acquire an ATV and a small trailer to assist with farm chores
Gwyn learns to hi-tie
Kaylee turns 4
We visit a cool fossil park in Canada
I get a paid writing gig!

August
I start ramping up prep for endurance rides
Gwyn and I do the intro ride at the Metropark Express and easily meet our goals
I finally find a riding safety vest that fits me!
I get an interview for a microbiology job and get the job!

September
I start the new job and LOVE it, even if Hazel refusing to eat from a bottle is stressful
We explore the back roads and I find beautiful horse and hunt country finally
My posting starts to significantly drop off since I'm not at home

October
Busy horse month!
I compete in the Hunter Trials
I meet my friend Heather on my birthday for a Hunt Pace (which I never posted pictures of!)
I compete the 30 mile LD at Oak Leaf Run and camp with Gwyn solo for the first time!
Kaylee went trick or treating with her Aunt while I hung out around a fire with Hazel. Very pleasant

November
Not much going on. I rode maybe once.
Dealt with family drama over who was hosting Thanksgiving. Had a good holiday in the end

December
Decorated for Christmas and dealt with the arrival of the deep cold
Rode once, on New Years Eve
Family came to visit for Christmas, which was really awesome, my brother got to meet Hazel
Hazel starts crawling and cruising (walking around while hanging onto stuff)
Eric got a new car (Chevy Volt) and I'm using his old one (Sonic) so that my commute cost in gas can be reduced and so that I don't go over miles for the lease of the truck


So there you have it! You get a quick run down of the stuff I didn't blog about because I just didn't have time. We had a rough go of bedtime for a while so I couldn't escape Hazel and sit on the computer uninterrupted. And I just don't like blogging on my phone or tablet, which is what I'm using when I'm nursing Hazel.

A day in pictures

Hazel wakes up before my alarm. She'll chatter a bit while I snooze, then its breakfast for her. I love these morning snuggles.

Happy baby while I take the morning constitutional.

Kaylee hasn't woken up yet, so time to go get her out of 'bed'.  

Then changing Hazel's diaper while Kaylee actually wakes up. 

Since her pajamas were wet from a minor diaper leak, it's new outfit time for Miss Hazel.

Kaylee hasn't really woken up.

Hazel gets playmat time while I finish getting ready. This includes figuring out what Kaylee will eat so she's not grumpy, getting Kaylee dressed, packing my lunch, packing Hazel's 'lunch' of breastmilk pumped from the day before, getting myself dressed and getting everyone out the door on time.

Contemplate picking today's outfit from the load of clean laundry waiting to be folded. Decide against it. Resolve to fold laundry after work.

Everyone is in the car!  I don't have a set start time on Fridays but I like to be out the door between 9 and 9:15.  The earlier I get to work, the earlier I can leave.

Space shirt! 

Hazel isn't asleep, she just doesn't like rain.

I top Hazel up and the kids are begging me to put her in the bouncer. Hazel is very popular. Everyone wants to play with her.

I decided to 'dress up' today.  An amber pendant necklace (with insects!) and some matching ish earrings. 

The drive takes about 50 minutes. Eric wants me to go to Costco on my way home to get cat food.

I'm at work! I drop my lunch bag in the freezer so it stays cold and head back.

Clock in!  I have to punch in a number, they do not have my fingerprint programmed in yet.

Immediate tasks: Plates that I innoculated yesterday are finally dry. They go in the bell jar with a candle to consume all the oxygen. The bell jar gets labled with the Lab ID and the date it gets taken out.

Then put into the incubator. All of those black plates? Those are all testing for Legionella. 

I can't get into the excel file where we log new samples yet (only one person can edit it at a time) so I decide to do some research on a funky bacteria I've seen every week on the floor sampling of the clean room. Turns out its Bacillus mycoides and it's a soil bacterium. This means a few things. 1. The current cleaning procedure is not sufficient 2. The current steps being taken to minimize contamination are not sufficient or not being followed. I bring this up to my lab manager and discuss it with the facility manager. I've seen this problem before. It was solved with SporGon and sterile mops. I feel awesome.

I also feel some letdown and check it out in the bathroom. Good thing I have spare breastpads because I forgot to put some in this morning and have suffered the consequences.

The lab log is finally usable so I log in the new samples and assign them IDs. Then I take two to work on. I will be in charge of following them through to completion and writing the report at the end. Here I've prepped for more Legionella analysis of water samples.

Then its lunch. As a part time employee I have 30 minutes of break. I spend 15 minutes eating and 15 minutes pumping. This company is good, they have a nice private space for me to do this that's not a bathroom. I browse reddit while I pump and try to think about Hazel cuddles for extra oxytocin boosts of milk.

Good boobs!  This goes into my freezer chilled lunch bag and I go back and finish the samples and get them set up. I was going to try and browse a lab supply company for some parts that we need but the network needed to be restarted so our computers had to be turned off. It was not back up by the time I left.

4 hours later... Time to go home.

And it's raining decently hard.

Greaaaat. I do stop at Costco and then head to pick up the girls. It only added about a half hour since I was only getting a few things. 

The video is loud, but I love her reaction when she recognizes me.

Then a short drive home and unloading the truck!

Hazel is pretty much ready for a nap and we snuggle a bit.

When I'm able to escape the tiny one, Kaylee gets some one on one and snacks. Eric comes home shortly after and gets glomped on by Kaylee.

Hazel wakes up and seems cold. I'm cold. So I bundle her up.

We demonstrate for Nana's facebook friends that the happy smiling baby isn't always happy and smiling. No babies were harmed in the taking of this picture. 

After I make myself dinner (Eric and I have decided that we're fending for ourselves) I take over Hazel duty. She's hungry so I get comfy on the couch.

Kaylee watches Episode VI 

Hazel takes another nap, much to my surprise. I am trapped.

I play some Clash of Clans. War is about to end so I need to get in my final attacks. Hazel wakes up and is still acting fussy and hungry so I get ready for bed and put her in more appropriate pajamas. Eric handles Kaylee. I'm pretty much in bed for the rest of the night and entertain myself with Hulu and Netflix. I'm watching early ANTM on Hulu and Criminal Minds on Netflix.

Once I'm able to escape I grab a snack and set up with the laptop to browse the internet and write this.  Hazel will likely fuss in an hour or so, I'll feed her then, try and move her to the crib and pass out myself.

Ta da. A day in the life.

Note: In the winter this day would include an evening barn visit to feed. There's no point to grain and I know they have plenty of fresh water, so horses were fairly hands off today.

Hazel is almost 5 months, whaaat?!

Hazel is adjusting well to daycare. She's finally taking a bottle with gusto and I was immediately getting comments on how chattery she is and happy. Well, yeah, with a full belly she definitely is!  It just took some time for her to figure out that bottles still got her the good stuff.

I do have to say, when I went back to work with Kaylee I didn't need to really bother to take time and pump. She was pretty much on solids and cow milk and only nursed at night and in the morning.  This is a whole new ballgame for me with pumping! I'm constantly worried that I'm not going to make enough for the day, even though I'm really not gone long. Plus... how do you know how much to give them?! I'm used to just sticking a boob in the babies mouth until they tell me they're done. So much less guesswork!

Right after she actually ate, legitimately, from a bottle. 

Morning cuddles before we get ready to leave for the day.

Happy girl

Gwyn says "I see you're working on dinner. I can eat that dinner. Oh you left the stall door open? I didn't notice..."

Set up for a bacterial and fungal analysis of paint samples. Pretty colors! 

Not sure what this is, not what I'm looking for at least. On black agar (it has charcoal in it, typically used for isolating Legionella)

I might look ridiculous, but I did kind of miss dressing up like this from my days at BioRad.  I'm about to enter the production room at Biosan. Clean room attire required! Booties on my shoes, sterile jumpsuit, gloves and hair net.  If there was active production I'd add a face mask too. 

Hard to see, but there is roadkill over there with a Happy Birthday balloon tied to it. I was amused.

In baby news, Hazel is getting much more adept at grabbing things. Her favorites include Kaylee's hair.  She definitely communicates, it's great. She loves bathtime, especially with Kaylee in my big tub and will laugh if she sees the tub or if Eric starts getting her undressed.  She has learned other patterns of behavior. She could be crying and hungry but if I bring her to my room and lay on the bed the cry turns more into this hicupping excitement. She knows I'm gonna feed her. There's an instant mood change.  She laughs easiest for Kaylee. All she has to do is jump and Hazel is giggling. Kaylee can also soothe Hazel by singing a song. It's fascinating.

Hazel prefers being outside. Winter is going to suck. She gets bored inside. She is starting to be able to sit up on her own. I've also started to slowly introduce solid foods. I'm into baby led weaning, baby will let you know what they're ready for.  Hazel is interested in our food. She leans in and opens her mouth or will grab for things I'm eating if I'm holding her.  She hasn't lost her tongue reflex yet though so she'll automatically push things out of her mouth. That being said, I'm not opposed to food for fun and taste. It's not going to be a big part of her nutrition for a long while yet. So far she's had baby food apples, which she liked, and tonight I let her nom on a banana, which she LOVED. I doubt she's actually swallowing much, but she's learning more tastes, which is great. 

Job Stuff

I got an email today saying that the Texas astrobiology curator position was cancelled. Balls.

But!  Last week I found and applied for a microbiology job. I submitted the application in the morning and had an invitation to interview just after lunch.  The interview was yesterday and went pretty good, I think. Now I just need to wait for a response.  They had me perform some basic lab skills to show that I had aseptic technique and I rocked that.

I then shopped on Amazon for different bottles because Hazel once again refused to eat the whole time I was gone. Mom's boobs are her favorite, I guess. Silly stubborn baby.

Omnomonom boobs with bonus hickey from baby mis-latching

Why use a pacifier when fingers are so CONVENIENT?!

Me after rockin' the interview

Breastfeeding Stroll

St. Clair County Health Department hosted a Breastfeeding Stroll at the riverfront in Port Huron (gateway to Sanilac, Ontario CAN) I had seen the event posted on facebook in several places and my doula had signed up as attending so this morning I decided, ah hell, why not?  It was only 45 minutes away and I knew the view would be nice and there was likely to be a breeze from the water so it would be pleasant strolling weather. 

Vendors were set up on the walking path that ran along the riverfront and they had lots of stuff to hand out and stickers for the kids. If you visited every tent you could be entered in a raffle drawing. Most things were about WIC or medicaid which doesn't apply to me, but I did snag some business cards that had breastfeeding rights on them (applicable state laws) in the event that I'm ever given grief about breastfeeding in public.

Anything you see on the other side of the river is Canada. There were also cool sculptures and info displays along the walk. The permanent ones were about the biology and ecology of the area and the temporary ones were about breastfeeding. 

Being in the stroller didn't last long. 

Breastfeeding at the breastfeeding stroll!

I know it's blurry, but I think it's neat. 

My dorky, yet effective sun shade hat!

Ducks and Canada

She got so wet but had such a great time!

There was this sculpture along the path. Her name is Sugar!

Kaylee for scale

We ate lunch at this bench and fed the ducks. It was such a pleasant day.