Things That Give Me Joy

 

I've never felt the spirit of Christmas as strong as I have this year, except for maybe when I believed in Santa Claus. But it's different, still.  It's not the gift giving and receiving part of Christmas that I am exciting for as I was when a little girl, but rather the deep connection and longing for family and friends, light and dark,  life and loss that hovers with winter's gloaming. So, in the spirit of those that I love dearly and the reason that I am excited to listen to Christmas music non-stop, bake cookies and pies until my pants feel a little snug, and acknowledge that angels are real while hugging my darling Una, here is mini photo collage devoted to my dearest and closest that I have been lucky enough to have in my life and capture on my iphone recently:

A "p.s." To My Last Post & Tis the Season to be Teething

So, now that we're living in the past, present and future phone wise with our landline, iphone, and Google Voice respectively, I thought that it would be fruitful to share our emergency contact form that we hang on the fridge and store in Una's diaper bag. This was a form that we created based on the advise of the pediatrician that taught our child CPR class at Still Hip. It's supposed to be a reference tool for any sort of emergency situation that we might encounter in the home or outside the home. The form in the diaper bag is supposed to be laminated, but we have simply folded it up and placed it inside a ziplock bag stored within the zipper purse attached to the bag.

Anyway, here are the nuts-n-bolts of our emergency contact form:

1. Una's Full Name
2. Address with all cross streets listed so share with 911 
3. DOB
4. SSN
5 Allergies
6. Known Medical Conditions
7. List Any Medications
8. Contact Information
8.1 Dad (c)(w)
8.2 Mom (c)(w)
8.3 Nanny (c)
8.4 Grandmother (c)(h)
9. Medical Information
9.1 Pediatrician's Information: Phone Number, Address, Insurance
9.2 Nearest Hospital: Phone Number, Address
10. Emergency Numbers
10.1 911
10.2 Poison Control Center
10.3 Gas/Electrical/Plumber: We have listed our landlord's information since he is responsible for these issues

At present we've never needed to use our emergency contact form, but it eases my mind a little bit knowing that it exists.

As the holiday season is in full swing, things are a bit nuttier than usual. To ease into the season, I'm trying to drink less coffee and more tea. Both Una and I finally received our dose of the H1N1 vaccine which should negate a bedridden Christmas and New Years. H1N1 was unavailable for babies 2 years and under in the city until quite recently, so I was excited when her pediatrician was providing doses. I was a bit on the fence to take the vaccine for myself, but then I performed a mini cost-benefit-analysis formula in my head and decided that I'd rather not deal with being sick while taking care of my toddling baby girl not to mention that I wouldn't have to wait in a long line in a weekend public clinic. One issue that we're dealing with that cannot be avoided is that Una is teething in the most extreme way. She has THREE molars cutting all at the same. exact. time. She also has her fourth front bottom tooth cutting too, and I see big white bulges where her bottom incisors will likely cut in the next week or less. Needless to say, Una has been extremely fragile this past week day and night. She's still sleeping much better than she before our trip to St. Martin, but she has been waking up every night this week shrieking (not crying) and shaking in a way that I've never seen before. So, as I try to drink less coffee and drink more tea, I am grateful that I still have a light tan because otherwise I would need to wear makeup to cover my big bags and dark circles (which would also mean that I would need to buy makeup since I haven't really worn any makeup since before Una's birth).

Strike That Reverse It

I have been living without a landline phone since July 2002, that is until yesterday. Michael and I decided that we should have an old-fashioned telephone in our home as a safety mechanism for emergency calls in case our nanny doesn't have a cellphone, forgets her cellphone, or in case our cellphones are not working. I was thoroughly excited for our new hook-up since it also meant that I could call my friends living abroad. However, just  I was enjoying the warm company of our friend Gene while eating some of Michael's delicious boeuf bourguignon with the cable man working on our upgrade, I learned about whole new world of telephone calls: Google Voice. Google Voice (GV), formerly GrandCentral, is a free (of course) Internet VoIP service that started in March '09. It is still invitation only, but our kind friend Gene sent me an invite. In sum: it's fantastic! It looks and feels just like gmail, but for making phone calls. Also, I was able to pick out my own GV phone number which closely resembles my mobile number that I've had for years. The great thing about GV is that calls to Canada are free (!) and calls to France are only .02 a minute. And I have activated my cell phone and new landline into my GV account which means that I can use either device for making calls. I'll probably only use my mobile phone since I'm completely unused to having a regular phone around. Anyway, once I have accumulated some invitations I'll send 'em out per request (US only, at this point).

Swine Flu in the City

I absolutely love this "information visualization" depicting the safety of the H1N1 vaccine. As a mother of a 13 month old baby girl, I would love to get my paws on the vaccine for Una. Despite city and federal efforts, it is still impossible to find the vaccine in NYC. More on that later...

A New, New Year Resolution

It's been a long while since I last posted anything on my blog. I failed to keep resolution number one which I posted on 1/7/08, obviously. I did, however, fulfill my promise to organize and annotate my delicious site. Anyway, a lot has happened since January 2008: I got married, had a baby, and starting working part-time. With all of that in mind, I decided that it was time to resurrect my blog and shift focus -- somewhat. I hope to weave in public health issues that I find interesting. I also plan to blog on family related things too. And I plan to blog whenever I find the time and/or inspiration to blog.

At present, I have been trying to get Una to take her first nap of the day. Nearly an hour has passed. In sum, she's a terrible sleeper/napper. She's 13 months old. We just finished two weeks of the Ferber Method of sleep training. We've been anti-sleep training all along since it seemed pointless to train a baby to sleep when he/she reaches monthly milestones interfering with whatever sleep success one may have achieved. However, after 13 months of sleepless nights for everyone we decided that we needed to change gears. The Ferber Method was gentler than I originally thought. One doesn't abandon the baby all together, but rather allows the baby to cry for measured intervals while visiting the baby, caressing the baby, hugging the baby at each interval. The big change for us was not picking her up. It was extremely rough for the first week, but she's sleeping *much* better. We still have major hurdles each day and night, but at least she is not waking every hour. Unfortunately, the hour has passed and she's been crying throughout which means that the first nap attempt is over. Hopefully we will have better luck a bit later today. In any case, I've attached a photo of Una while she was sleeping for all of three minutes during her fake nap.