From the monthly archives:

August 2009

The great placenta scare of 2009

by selfmademom on August 29, 2009 · 11 comments

placentaYou don’t understand the power of the placenta until you think something’s gone awry with your unborn baby’s.

I know, I know. How silly of me not to realize the importance of the icky red organ. I always knew it provided the nutrients, oxygen and lifeblood to my baby, but what I didn’t know is that when you think something might be wrong-ish with it, just how dire that can be.

I don’t usually get so personal here, but what I experienced last week was so scary and dramatic that I am hoping to educate you with my good fortune.

Flashback to 20 week anatomical ultrasound: docs find a placenta previa. Not complete, but enough to put me on “pelvic rest” for now. (You can guess just what that means.) “Come back at 28 weeks to check it out again.”

Flash forward to last week, 29 weeks for follow up ultrasound.

“Well, good news is that the placenta moved, but now we are seeing blood vessels covering your cervix. This condition is called vasa previa. It’s pretty rare. Uhm… so you should be on modified bed rest, and we’ll get you in with the high risk OB specialists to get a second opinion and take it from there.”

Then of course I went and Googled vasa previa and went off the deep end. (Seriously, why do sites need to use the word “death” on the first page of their website?)

I couldn’t get in to see the high risk doctors until yesterday, when, in a blink of good fortune for my seemingly crappy/ dramatic pregnancy luck, I was told I was misdiagnosed. All is fine. Placenta moved, no blood vessels in the way of me delivering my child.

Behold the power of the placenta.

To tell you that this has given me a new lease on my pregnancy, and a new appreciation for the power of nature, second opinions, doctors who are smart and a wonderful support system in the event of imminent crisis would be understating it.

To tell you that being told I was allowed to workout again, and therefore went on a lululemon bender would not be overstating it.

G-d bless my placenta. I may just bury it in the backyard a la Matthew McConaughey.

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HFCS in our food: an update

by selfmademom on August 23, 2009 · 8 comments

I rarely use my blog to wax poetic about various causes as you all probably know. I’m just not that deep. But there are a few causes that I will advocate for:

And…

  • High Fructose Corn Syrup in our products (No blog post, but it doesn’t mean I don’t care.)

Since Liz first posted about HFCS in our food, the dangers of HFCS and the brands that were doing things to eradicate it from their products, I’ve been vigilant about checking labels and weaning out HFCS from our home. (The candy Dots aside, because, hey, I’m pregnant and not perfect.)

I thought I had been doing a good job until recently, when I went to eat my high fiber breakfast of champions (remember the anemia-induced digestive problems?) – presented by Kelloggs Raisin Bran and Frosted Mini Wheats – only to find that they both have HFCS in them. So does Post Raisin Bran. (Yes, I like sugar cereal).

I was so pissed. As Liz points out in her post two days ago, marketers and big name brands like Kraft and Pepsi have responded to consumer demand and have taken the HFCS out of their big name products. We’re making progress.

But, as with all major movements, we still have a ways to go to get more big brand names on the anti-HFCS bandwagon. And g-ddammit, I need my fiber, so please, Kelloggs and Post, please step on it?!

P.S. next on my activist watch, endocrine disrupting chemicals… watch for my interview with Dr. Karp in next month’s Babble. You won’t want to get your nails done ever again.

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It’s no Accident there are two Good new shows for fall

by selfmademom on August 21, 2009 · 1 comment

I really didn’t need to add any more television shows to my repetoire. But my friend Beth has a way of looping me into her world of lovely CBS television shows, chances for conference calls with TV stars and on-set visits (which of course I can’t do being 7 months pregnant) that get my dorky Midwest heart all-a-flutter. I just can’t say no to someone asking me to watch a new television show.

Especially when they’re good. 

So last week I sat down to watch two new shows appearing on CBS’s lineup this fall – The Good Wife and Accidentally on Purpose. Starring Julianna Margulies and Jenna Elfman, respectively, these shows deal with the issues I write often about here: re-entry into the workforce after having kids. Of course, I have no experience about dealing with the issues of an unfaithful husband or getting accidentallky knocked up at age 37, but whatever, I’m always trying to be transparent about putting reviews about anything up here on this blog.

Because they’re good.

According to CBS press materials, The Good Wife is:

a drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband’s very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.  Pushing aside the betrayal and crushing public humiliation caused by her husband Peter (Chris Noth), Alicia Florrick (Margulies) starts over by pursuing her original career as a defense attorney.  As a junior associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm, she joins her longtime friend, former law school classmate and firm partner Will Gardner (Josh Charles), who is interested to see how Alicia will perform after 13 years out of the courtroom. Alicia is grateful the firm’s top litigator, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), offers to mentor her but discovers the offer has conditions and realizes she’s going to need to succeed on her own merit.

Hello, you had me at Chris Noth. (Even if does play the biggest prick to cross the TV screen since Elliott Spitzer.) Margulies looks great and shows a depth of emotion in her character as a jilted wife. I’ll be back to see if she sticks by her husband’s side for much longer.

You can watch a clip here:

 Accidentally on Purpose is a little lighter and a little, well, less realistic. But it’s still fun. According to CBS the show is:

is a comedy starring Golden Globe Award winner Jenna Elfman as Billie, a single woman who finds herself “accidentally” pregnant after a one-night stand with a much younger guy, and decides to keep the baby… and the guy.  A newspaper film critic, Billie is barely surviving a humiliating breakup with her charming boss, James (Grant Show), who’s still trying to resume their relationship.  Suddenly expecting a child with her “boy toy,” Zack (Jon Foster), Billie and Zack make an arrangement: to live together platonically. Billie’s party girl best friend Olivia (Ashley Jensen), and Abby (Lennon Parham), her conventional, younger married sister, eagerly look forward to the new addition and offer their own brands of advice and encouragement.  But when Zack and his freeloading friends, including Davis (Nicolas Wright), start to turn her place into a frat house, Billie isn’t sure if she’s living with a boyfriend, a roommate, or if she just has another child to raise.

Hello, you had me at Grant Show. Like I said, not so realistic, but Jenna Elfman is way cuter and less annoying as she was as the wacky wife on Dharma and Greg, and the dad-to-be is rather adorable and endearing. Plus, you had me at Grant Show.

Watch a clip here:

Both shows air this fall.

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If it weren’t true, I wouldn’t have believed it

by selfmademom on August 18, 2009 · 4 comments

Ah yes, I’ve been quite AWOL around here lately, haven’t I?

Well, all I can say is that if you’ve:

a) been on a bumpy turbo-prop flight over the Rockies

b) watched your son boot all over your husband and himself mid-flight

c) you yourself boot upon landing and a bumpy descent

d) drag your screaming, underwear-only clad child screaming through the airport so that you can put him into clean clothes

e) barely make your connection back to Chicago only to learn that your husband had to sweetly coax the ramp agent to get himself new pants

f) then sit aboard another bumpy flight where your son proceeds to boot again (I caught it in the bag that time, and yes, I am very proud of that one)

g) wait on the tarmac one hour before heading to your gate upon landing

h) arrive home 10 hours after you left on what was supposed to be a 4 hour trip

Well, then, you’d be AWOL too.

More soon, I promise, once I stop rehashing the details of the world’s most-comical, yet messy flight experience.

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A Royal Flush: American Standard does blogger outreach right

by selfmademom on August 7, 2009 · 1 comment

professortoiletAs we all know, I’m not much for online contests, or linking, or really anything related tangentially to my blog other than what I feel like writing about at any given moment, but when I got an e-mail from a nice woman named Tracey, with a subject line that read, “Loved ‘The Great Underwear Experiment,’” well … I was beyond skeptical.

But for some odd reason, I decided to read the e-mail and realized what an idiot I was. I wrote a post with that exact same title about 4 months ago. What a coincidence! So I decided to read further. And I was shocked with what I found.

The e-mail author Tracey had actually read the post I wrote, had some follow up questions for me about it (yes, my mad method worked in about a week), and oh, yeah, she was doing research for a new blog for American Standard toilets called Professor Toilet and they had come across so many funny toilet stories online they created an interactive awards list for their new blog, and I was a nominee in their Best Potty Training Advice category.

She coddled my ego by saying I wasn’t a D-lister, and then THANKED ME FOR MY BLOG.

First I laughed out loud that this was my new claim to fame (and yes, I won the category, if you must know). And then I was shocked. Here was an email from a person doing blogger outreach, or PR for American Standard and I was asked to do nothing for their new site or brand. No products being pushed (although I could use a new scrubber, hint hint ;) ), no links being asked of me, and no “can you spread the word about our new site?” mumbo jumbo.

Nope, for one of the few times in my two-plus years of blogging someone just thought I was funny.

This of course led me on a mad search through the Professor Toilet site (I didn’t know how funny people who make toilets can be) and a realization that without the slightest nudge, beg, trickery or giveaway I happily spent 20 minutes perusing information about flushing, toilet humor and saving water.

And now of course, I’m writing about it, because that’s what I’ll do for a company that made me chuckle and had connected with me through my blog in a unique and non-overbearing way. So often we write about bad pitches, promos, ads, etc. But many professionals, like Tracey, get it right and when they do, it builds that authentic experience with the person and the brand, that is worth way more than a $2 coupon for wipes.

So, kudos. American Standard and Tracey and your team. Thanks for making me laugh and for doing my former professional field proud. Even though we’re a Kohler household (sorry, we live close enough to Kohler, WI that we have little choice), I’m now American Standard at heart.

p.s. thanks to Jean for the blog post title. You still got it, girl!

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Part-time work is the devil

by selfmademom on August 4, 2009 · 13 comments

Sometimes I think I’m the expert on what it’s like to go back to work part-time after baby.  Sometimes I have a big mouth.  When those two sometimes collide, it ‘aint pretty.

So first, my apologies to the poor mom I talked to on Sunday at the benign street festival in my neighborhood.  Because really, I know you were just trying to have fun with your kids, and you really didn’t need me to lay into you about all negatives of working part-time. You’re just trying to scale back your workweek, and really, I get it.

But, in case you, or anyone else cares, I’m gonna lay it out there real nice and simple. I just don’t think part-time work works all that well. Especially if you’re trying to “scale back.”  You may think your company will be all sorts of grateful to you for giving them a day back of your salary, but really, going from four days to three days of work a week, just creates a scheduling and organizational headache for your colleagues and managers.

I worked a three-day workweek. I think it’s the devil. I may not have said it before, but with a year-and-a-half on the SAHM front, I think I have a new perspective on the matter.  I know at one time I said I loved working part-time, and so if you use this post against me I will come find and kill you (remember I am channeling the devil), but that was like a whole naive six months before my part-time love went down the reality drain.

I think staying at home for awhile now has opened up my eyes to the annoyance of some part-time jobs.  Part-time work alludes you into thinking you’re getting “the best of both worlds,” (that, by the way, is like one of those annoying new-mother sayings, like “just sleep when the baby sleeps.”) but in reality, you’re neither here nor there with work or home life. You’re torn on your days off because your client really needs you to be on a 3 pm conference call, but you really need to be at the mommy-and-me class. The part-time devil makes you think you’re getting some kind of good deal on the whole work-life situation, but if you’re like me, you just end up feeling stressed out and maxed out instead of productive and profitable.

Even though I think my part-time schedule started off grand, in the end it didn’t work out so well for me.  (Can’t you tell?) This doesn’t mean it can’t work for you, but I think there need to be some ground rules and expectations set up from the start before you try it. I tried to set these up in that old post I wrote about how you need to have an understanding boss, terrific child care, great coworkers, and a partner who has awesome benefits.  If I were to add to that today, I think my only piece of advice would be: don’t get sucked in.

Don’t let the devils of part-time work - conference calls on your days off, not getting paid for working over your alloted hours, only breaking even between work payment and child care, lack of promotions because of your reduced hours – get you down. If you can work it out to be just part-time, I think there is a fighting chance of succeeding. If not, I think you’ll just end up dancing with the pitchfork amidst a hot fire.

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