How My Netbook Improved My Life

I've been wanting a netbook for awhile now because I thought having one would make my life much easier. First of all I wouldn't have to repair my laptop that's seriously outdated anyway. I've had it tucked in a drawer for months needing repair, but I just haven't felt like doing it. I thought having a netbook would be much easier because it would be so much easier to carry with it's small size especially now that I'm lugging around a baby tucked in a car seat and a diaper bag everywhere I go!

Even though I've wanted one for awhile I had decided to put my purchase off until after the new year since we had so much other stuff to worry about with the baby and then the holidays coming up. Then I ended up in the hospital for 9 days laid up in bed bored out of my mind with nothing to do but watch tv and listen to the beeping of my monitors. I wasn't physically able to take care of my newborn, so Hubby was handling that while I was shooting off short little text and picture messages to Facebook and Twitter from my phone. That was the only contact I had with the online world, the only way to share my new baby girl with my online friends, and my only way to contact my bosses to let them know of my emergency hospital stay.

That's when we realized how much easier those 9 days could have been if I'd had my netbook already. I could have taken advantage of the free wifi in my room, and I couldn't have not only contacted everyone I needed to contact, but I could have even kept working from my hospital bed! I could probably say I would have been the only woman in history to go back to work within hours of delivering lol!

Hubby decided he was going to buy me one as my Christmas present, so I picked out the one I wanted, and he ordered it from Amazon on Black Friday. I decided I wanted the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook after reading numerous reviews on it. This one has meets all my spec requirements, and it has the 10.5 hour battery life. As it's setup out of the box I'm getting about 8 hours battery life, and that's to be expected since the battery life depends on the computer's power settings.

It arrived Monday, and it's so much more than I expected. I love it, and I'm so glad I chose this one. I'm quite impressed with it, I have to say it has made a world of difference already. For starters I moved my desktop pc back to the office where it belongs which got it out of the living room floor. I can now work on my Netbook in the living room without having to worry about trying to be close to the baby. I was also having to use our tv as my monitor in the living room, and now I can put a movie on for the baby while I work from my netbook. It keeps her occupied, and I get more accomplished. Yep, at 5 weeks she does watch the tv. She's got two movies that totally intrigue her.

Also now I'm not carrying around a huge stack of photos everywhere I go without the baby. Now I'm carrying my netbook, and I can just pop up a slideshow of photos at anytime. Oh yeah, and when the baby's with me the netbook slides perfectly in the outer pocket of the diaper bag.

The best part of all for me is the fact that I can now keep myself occupied at during those late night breastfeeding sessions. I can lay in bed with her, and I can keep myself occupied online so I don't fall asleep without having to turn the tv or lights on which disturb her and make it harder to put her back to bed. When I'm having trouble putting her to sleep I can load up the ambient sound mixer on the Johnson's Baby website, put my laptop near her crib, and let the white noise and various sounds put her to sleep. We've used that technique two nights now when she was fussy and didn't want to sleep!

I never thought a little 10" netbook would make my life so much easier, but it has.

One Month Milestone

I'm having a hard time believing my little girl will be 1 month old this weekend. It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. We were so overwhelmed with everything involved with being a new parent, and I thought for sure I was going to have a mental breakdown by the end of that first week without the hospital nurses to turn to every time something went wrong.

 

It's hard to believe we've settled into a routine now, and hours when both baby and I are crying seem to have disappeared. Now I'm not rushing to get my to do list done while she's sleeping, but we're interacting as I get my work done. I sing to her between paying bills and looking up free car insurance quotes as I try to budget for the addition to our family. I'm learning to type with her in my arms, and she watches as the words I type pop up on the screen.

I'm amazed at how interactive she has become in such a short time. My heart skips a beat every single time she returns my gaze or gives me a little smile. One question keeps lingering in the back of my head even though I already know the answer.

Why didn't we do this sooner?

Because if we'd done this sooner it wouldn't be her.

Preemie Diapers: Pampers Swaddlers Vs. Huggies Little Snugglers

Who knew it was going to be so hard to figure out what kind of diapers we want to use?  Of course I would prefer to use cloth diapers, but with a preemie it’s just not going to happen right now.  I had planned to use disposables until she grew out of the newborn size anyway, but with a preemie I’d basically have to cut down and sew my own little diapers to fit her.  Yeah that isn't happening right now.

Anywho, we’re very thankful that a ton of family members and friends ran out when she was born and stocked up on preemie diapers for us knowing that newborn diapers would be way too big for her.  We received a ton of Pampers Swaddlers and a few packs of Huggies Little Snugglers.  Both diapers are for preemies up to 6lbs, but unfortunately weighing in at 4lbs 5oz both types of diapers swallow her whole.  Pampers does make an xs size of Swaddlers specifically for babies 1-5lbs, but the nearest store that carries them is still almost an hour away.  I could have ordered them online, but none of us had our laptops at the hospital and by the time they would have shipped to us she was already grown out of them.

Through trial and error we figured out how to make the Pampers work without leaking all over the place, but the Huggies were benched until she gained more weight.  I was hoping to be able to use the Huggies once she hit 5lbs because I love that they have the wetness indicator strip.  The Pampers have the strip on the newborn diapers but not the preemie version. 

Now that she’s weighing in at 5lbs 3oz I figured I’d give the Huggies another try because I’m running low on Pampers.  Plus the Huggies say they’re for “up to 6lbs”, so I didn’t want her growing out of them before we could use them.  I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that because the Huggies are still huge on her, and I don’t see how they’ll ever give her a no leak fit before she reaches 6lbs.  Even the Pampers newborn size fits better than the Huggies, so it looks like the Huggies have become our emergency only diapers until I can get to the store to exchange the unopened packs.  We definitely recommend the Pampers Swaddlers preemie diapers over the Huggies Little Snugglers.

Surprise!

Last time you heard from me I was freaking out over the possibility of my doctor having to induce me in a couple weeks due to the fact that I might be developing preeclampsia.  Well surprise! 

We didn’t make it a couple weeks at all.  I ended up in the hospital that very night, and I was induced the next day.  Little Miss Elliana Grace arrived on Saturday October 24 via an emergency c-section at 12:11pm.  At birth she weighed a whopping 4lbs 5oz and was 17 1/2 inches long. 

Of course you know that means I didn’t have time to get any of my reviews together.  In fact a lot of things went wrong right there at the last minute, so I actually ended up in the hospital for 9 days. 

Until today I’ve done almost nothing except sleeping to recoup and taking care of Elliana, but my doctor cleared me for any physical activity today.  That means now that I’m getting into a pattern I’ll definitely be getting back to my reviews, and boy do I have some to write up. 

Hubby carried my computer into the living room and we set it back up with my LCD TV as the monitor so I can hang out in the living room all day. I've got Elliana setup here in her bassinet, and it makes everything a lot easier for me. Now I just have to get to work reviewing all these baby items that came pouring in thanks to all our wonderful family and friends. My baby shower just happened to be the day after I delivered, so we ended up receiving almost everything we needed to bring our little girl home. If it weren't for the shower we wouldn't have been ready at all considering we thought we had another month to work with here.

Anywho I’ll try to start taking photos and writing up some of these reviews in the free time I have.  That time may be limited, but I’m already starting to see it is more time than I was originally anticipating that I’d have with a newborn. 

Definitely Freaking Out

I think I've totally found a huge appetite suppressant whether I wanted to stumble upon it or not. Just have your doctor tell you your blood pressure is through the roof and she may have to induce you in a couple weeks. Now I'm freaking out because I don't want to have to be induced early both for the sake of the baby being as healthy as possible and because I'm 100% scared to death of Pitocin.

Since I tend to stick to a pretty healthy diet for the most part my doctor doesn't really think my sodium intake has anything to do with it, but I can't help but look at the sodium content on the package of everything I eat anyway. That right there is enough to scare me out of eating anything! Don't worry I'm still eating. I'm just totally freaking out right now over everything that's going on and happening so fast.

I’m trying my best to get all my products I bought recently reviewed and photos taken so I can hopefully get them posted before she gets here.  I know there’s a very good chance I’m not going to have time to do it after she arrives, and then you’ll probably be seeing a lot more from the baby department and a lot less from the things I indulge myself with.