Working Online: My second stay at home mom job

It has to be one of the most asked questions to new moms: "Do you work?"  Of course, we all work...it's just a matter of where, who your boss is and if you earn a pay check.  Until recently, I always responded with 'no' (playing patient isn't work, is it?)  But there was always this little part of me that wanted to add 'but...'

From time to time my husband would be there during this line of questioning and would always pipe in and defend my working online as legit work. That got me thinking - actually I do work and I do earn a paycheck. Heck, there have been months I've earned more than him - working in corporate America. So now my answer is 'Yes, I stay home but I work part time as a freelance writer.'

Working online, I have found is one of the best stay at home mom jobs because I can make my own schedule (or should I say my kids make my schedules - let's be honest they're the real bosses here!). Then the next question - 'What do you write?'  Eek - I hate that question because I always feel like I'm leading some double life. I usually try to get by with saying I write an entertainment column for Examiner.com but sometimes that's not always enough to divert the conversation.

That's when my double life is exposed. Yes, this SAHM of two, this wife from Delaware, this former TV news producer who just three years ago was writing about city hall and the Flight 93 memorial - now writes about Jersey Shore.  Not only do I write about the MTV reality show about 8 20 and 30 somethings who pretty much get paid to drink, party, and have sex - but I think I know more about Jersey Shore than should be legal. That's when I have to tell myself - it's a business decision and let me tell you- business is booming.

I actually have five Examiner.com columns but it's Jersey Shore that pays the bills; it's Jersey Shore that's trumped my husband's paycheck from time to time; it's Jersey Shore that has helped rebuild our saving account to where it was pre-move; and it's Jersey Shore that has allowed me to stay home to raise my kids. 

Before Blake was born in May I had months that I made upwards of $4000-$5000 but time is money and I don't have nearly as much of it anymore. But that's the beauty of it and that's why writing online is one of the best stay at home mom jobs.  I write when I have time, when the kids are sleeping or when my husband takes full control of the remote. While we're always careful not to rely on the money I make - we quickly learned that when one of my other online writing ventures suddenly stopped paying its writers - it's nice to pad the savings, the kids' piggy banks, or do something fun.

For me, writing isn't working - it's something I enjoy.  And until I stop enjoying I'll continue to work online to make extra money and to satisfy my own feelings of needing to contribute financially. And when Jersey Shore runs its course I'll be on to something else...because I 'shore' won't be giving up my second job.

Click here to learn about working online for Examiner.com. Apply today and start writing about what you're passionate about.

Are you a closet Jersey Shore fan too? Subscribe to my Jersey Shore Examiner.com, friend the Jersey Shore Examiner on Facebook, or follow @JerseyShore411 on Twitter.

Blake - And our crazy, happy, dreams-realized, never-again year

I recently picked this blog back up after a year or so hiatus..and boy (pun intended) what a year you've missed. To be honest the only reason I started this blog back up again is because I've found myself routinely coming back to it to check out my own advice on what worked for my daughter as far as sleeping, eating, nursing, etc. That's when I realized the last post I made was about giving up the binky when she was 19 months old. She turned 3 in August.

So where have I been and how did I get here? There's no easy answer, really because 2011 has been the most stressful and best year for our family all rolled into one.

Let me back up a little - in August 2010 my husband and I finally took our long awaited fifth anniversary trip to Hawaii. We left Olivia with the grandparents for two weeks and took the trip of a lifetime in Maui and Kauai.  (I blogged daily from Hawaii on our trip and later turned my journal into a scrapbook). We'd been holding off on baby #2 until after the trip because I didn't want to be pregnant on another vacation. In May 2011, Blake was born. (Since I know you're doing the math - I'll just make it easy for you - yes, he was conceived in Maui.)

I had a relatively easy pregnancy at the beginning, despite running after a toddler during those tiresome and nauseous first trimester days. But then in December a job transfer back home turned our world upside down. For 12 years my husband and I had been taking jobs and making moves getting closer to 'home' but this job would finally land us there. The place we'd both grown up, the place all our family still lived, the place we'd always wanted to raise our family, the place we'd finally be able to call home again. I'm getting all teary typing this remembering the emotional day we found out we'd finally be making our last move...we had more than half a dozen moves and six states between us in the 9 years since college. This was it.

It was December 24 and I was barely 4 months pregnant.  Bob was starting his job after the holiday season and he'd be out of town and not able to come home every night. I had a toddler, a dog, a growing belly, and a house on the market - which we stood to lose a lot on. These were the most stressful, sleepless nights of my life.  Within a few days we decided it would be best if we all moved out of the house and simply left it staged to sell. On January 9 we moved out and into my mom's house with the plan that we'd be into something by April - giving us at least a month before the baby was born.

Thank the real estate Gods our house sold in 2 months, bought our dream house, and we are now 'home.'

A month later we were complete - Blake Robert was born May 16. And yet again our world was turned upside down by all that an infant brings.

And that my friends is our crazy, happy, dreams-realized year that I will never do again!

Baby Reflux...gag me now!

Surely you've heard of baby acid reflux, heck your kid probably has it. That's just the way it goes these days -ask any relatively new parent and they'll tell you their kid has been treated for reflux. Ask any parent whose kids are at least 15 years old and they'll tell you 'no one had reflux back then - it was colic.'  Well, it's not like there's some new surge in reflux, it's just that it's being diagnosed and treated far more now - in some cases probably just to shut the parents up.

I have to admit, I'm guilty. When my now 3 year daughter was an infant she was cranky - or at least what I considered cranky. I all-but begged her pediatrician for a solution to stop the cranky pants. He put her on Zantac - the most common acid reflux med for babies. I didn't see a difference and she eventually outgrew it. Now did she outgrow the crankies or the reflux?

I only ask myself this now because my 4 month old son has legit reflux. His pediatrician (a new one since we've moved) forced me to wait 6 agonizing weeks before treating my son's reflux - despite having every classic symptom. He threw up (a lot), he projectile vomited (a lot), he screamed bloody murder when he spit up, threw up, and gagged, he had hiccups after nearly every feeding, he often was cranky while trying to nurse, and at times I swear he threw up half of what he just ate.

When the doc did finally put him on Zantac I didn't notice much of a difference. Beside myself that I couldn't take away his obvious pain and on the verge of giving up breastfeeding after less than 2 months (I nursed my daughter for a full year and intended to do the same with my son) I took him back to the doctor. They put him on an additional medication called Prevacaid. He was to get Zantac in the am and the Prevacaid at night. Please forgive the totally non-medical explanation, but each of these reflux meds shuts down different acid producers in the stomach. It's the stomach acid - hence acid reflux - that causes the pain when it comes back up the esphagus.

After a week or so on both meds my son was like a new baby. My doctor warned me however that he would continue to spit up - it just shouldn't be painful. Now I have a happy spitter who despite making me change my clothes, his clothes, and wipe up the floor more times than I care to count each day is no longer in pain.

Now, excuse me I'm off to do another load of reflux laundry.

New Mama Round 2

So....it's been awhile. Okay it's been a LOOOOONNNNNGGG while...but I'm thinking of bringing the blog back. I'm technically no longer a "new mama" -  my first born just turned 3 years old. However, I'm trying this new mama thing out all over again. We added a son to the bunch in May and I gotta say it's not much easier the second time around.

Despite having been through it before I still find myself questioning almost everything. Why he won't sleep, why he won't eat, is he gaining too fast, why does he have cradle cap - still, why does he have a hydrocele and when will it go away or will it require surgery, why won't he sleep longer than 30 minutes at nap time, why won't he stop crying in the car ... you get my point.  And then there's that one big WHEN - when will I start getting a full night sleep again?
Anyway my brain is fried right now so I will leave you with a few pictures of my two loves.

Bye Bye Binky: Take 2 (Finally, success)

For my loyal readers you know I tried, and failed, to successfully wean my daughter from the binky around her first birthday.  I did, however, give her a 19th month birthday present: the title "big girl." And yes, I'm proud to say just three days later she's successfully and completely weaned.

I've long-decided it was time for my little girl to give up on her beloved binkies. Olivia, on the other hand, not so much. I put my foot down about a week ago when she started calling them each by their own name. We had blue (her favorite), green, white and clear. She'd gleefully hold all four in her hands, look me right in the face and say "eat" as she rotated each binky in and out, in and out. We have still yet to figure out what prompted the rotation...was it she needed a "fresh" binky and what was "fresh?" Anyway, the attachment was quickly increasing and so was my concern that breaking up the relationship between Olivia and binky was only going to get harder.

We settled on the cutting method which I found online. It was recommended by a pediatrician and sworn on by parents. It was, however, highly discouraged by my pediatrician who said my daughter may bite the cut binky tip and that could be a chocking hazard.  Instead, he suggested either the "Binky Fairy" or the binky giveaway.  Since the binky fairy method requires a lot more backstory and time, I opted for the binky giveaway...although, to be honest, I didn't think my daughter would buy it.  Basically, he suggested telling her babies needed her binkies now that she was a big girl. Perhaps he doesn't know Olivia...sharing isn't her...or any 19 month old that I know...strongsuit. But I went with it.

Monday, I put her in the car, all four binkies in hand, and took her to the local CVS (I couldn't have her throw them away anywhere close to our house or I'd be too tempted to fish them out and give them back when the going got tough...and it would!).  I showed her the trash can outside the store and told her it was collection site for baby stuff.  Everything in there, I said, was going to go to a little baby.  She happily threw blue, green, clear and white in and waved bye-bye as they lay on top of a crumpled up paper McDonald's cup.  That site will forever be etched in my mind. We turned around and drove home.

I put her for her nap about 10 minutes after she and the binky parade parted ways.  Unlike when she normally goes to sleep, she cried. But never once did she mention her binkies. I could tell she was just a little out of sorts and truly sad. She missed her binkies. That was the first of just three sleep periods (nap, bed, nap) where she cried before going to sleep.  Just two and a half days after throwing her binkies in a big ol' trash can she's over it.  I even followed up the binky giveaway by showing her a newborn with a binky and telling her this was the special baby who got her old one.  Gosh, I hate lying to her...but snatching her binkies when she wasn't looking and throwing them away without her knowing was NOT an option, it would be too traumatizing. I needed to her be in control and this way she was.

I can tell she feels proud of herself...and as her mom, I do too!