Leaf and Steel

motherhood - growth - living

August in Review

Whew, August was a doozy. This whole summer has been…well let’s just say it’s been a summer. August had its ups and downs like any month, but there was certainly a lot of turbulence.

I am %100 solidified in my opinion that summer is the worst season. The bugs, the heat, the expectations of fun, fun, fun. It’s not for me. I think I’m just conditioned from childhood to believe that summer is a break.

Well, there are very few breaks in adulthood and there are *checks notes* zero breaks in parenthood. I know, I know, I’m complaining. This is my site, right? I’ve been complaining all month. It’s cute to quantify the gripes with a word count.

Okay, so August. Let’s start with good. Let me try to squeeze a drop of gratitude or delight out of the last 31 days.

The Good

The month started on a Monday. That’s cool, am I right? The simple pleasures.

I stopped reading a book. Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty. If you’ve read my other monthly recaps, you know that I love her books. I got about 100 pages in and realized they’re all the same books? They’re all so formulaic (this is not a term I would use in my everyday-life, but I would imagine people who read, like really read, would use this word). Why is this on the good section? Well, I only have so much free time and it felt kind of…empowering?…to say no. To a book.

My baby is cute-cute. She started to say “wuv yew”. She has been watching Trash Truck on Netflix and now she calls me mom (cue sobbing). Seeing a little toddler waddle into the room saying “hey mom” is absolutely adorable. She’s just the cutest and smartest and sweetest.

I got some part time work. It’s been exciting to make some more money and sit down at my computer and really did my teeth into something, other than blogging. I also got a new computer (the Air), which I love!

The Not-So-Great

Oh boy, are you ready?

Can I preface? I’m going to preface.

I don’t follow a lot of influencers on social media, but one that I continue to follow is Amber Fillerup Clark. I feel like the things she shares inspire me to be better. She’s always making these cute snacks for her kids or suggesting books or doing these sweet little doodle-dos at night. I started doing cute little doodle lists at night.

You know, like making a checklist for the week or content calendar- whatever, but using it as time to unwind at the end of the night and using pretty colored markers. I think I’m making it sound weird but it’s fun.

ANYWAYS, I want you all to know that I sat down on July 31st and I wrote the cutest damn goal list for August. I was going to read 5 books, walk the dog everyday, publish blog posts left and right, drink water. The month was starting on a Monday. What could go wrong?

mouth watering
swollen poison ivy hands
making this into a christmas ornament
healing stages
this sick boy stayed handsome

We all got Covid. The bad kind. Vaxxed, boosted, ready for anything, right? So, so wrong. My husband got it first, on August 2nd, followed by myself a day later, and then my daughter a few days after that. I won’t go into details but we all got very sick and my poor daughter got it the worst and it was all very scary. We are all healthy and take good care of ourselves, it was definitely a reality check that you never know who’s going to get a worse case. It took about a week and a half for us to feel better and two weeks before all the symptoms cleared up.

We all got poison ivy. I would like to thank my dog for this. He probably rubbed against it in the backyard and spread it to us. It has since been cleared.

I got poison ivy. The bad kind. I had to go on antibiotics and steroids for the 3rd time this summer (the other times were from bee stings). You might hear bee stings and poison ivy and think that I’m this Subaru-driving, Hydro-Flask drinking outdoor girl, but I go outside maybe twice a day and only in my backyard and I’m just convinced at this point that I’m allergic to nature in general.

The dog got sick. Yup, him too. The cat is the last one standing. He got some little bacterial infection and was coughing constantly. Luckily the meds they put him on got it cleared up within a few days.

Everything is just a very human mess. I worked during all my free time the last week and a half of August, which was great. But, since I’m home with my daughter all day it’s been a lot and I haven’t really had any time to myself. Factor in laundry, cooking, and making time for this blog and my other projects has been, well, an adjustment.

My post originally ended there.

That’s how I was going to file “August 2022” away in my brain and on this blog.

Well, after I finished writing this post I went to my phone to gather photos to add in.

I was surprised to see all that happened during the month.

I had a great month. I thought I spent it all inside, suffering (not like suffering, but you know what I mean). That couldn’t be further from the truth.

I went so many places this month. I saw my family. I got the baby and the dog out of the house. We went to the beach, the splash park, friend’s houses. I laughed, I was present, I had fun.

What an important lesson in perspective.

Some other little high points:

I got to see a cousin that I haven’t seen in years.

Pumpkin Spice coffee creamer hit the stores.

Baby M and I baked her first pie (it was delicious). We also baked her first pizza (“ew gross” were her exact words). She also had her first trip to McDonald’s which was surprisingly overwhelming, I kept telling her “this is America this is just part of it” and I think she knew what I meant.

Our local animal sanctuary opened back up. They were closed for months (?) due to avian flu. We were so happy to see “our” chickens again!

…and so, so much more.

How was your August? Have any complaints?

Did you try anything new? Are you as excited as I am for a new month and a fresh start?

Let me know below!

O.

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The Weirdest Week of the Year

…it is, isn’t it?

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is weird.

Our decorations are still up and my pants still don’t fit.

Everyone is nervous about the virus, and rightfully so. It is burning through New York right now, and it seems everyone I know has it.

I have this fidgety energy around the New Year and all the things I want to accomplish.

I know that this week is meant for relaxation and reflection, but I can’t bring myself to do either!

I just can’t wait for a fresh start in January. I find myself sighing loudly throughout the day, as if I could let out all the distress of 2021 out in a sigh.

In a few days I’ll be clinking my glass of Martinelli’s and on my merry way to a new and shiny year.

Exhausted,

O.

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Packing my Hospital Bag: Covid Edition

You know one thing you can’t reschedule? Babies. I’m 35 weeks and waiting on my little turkey. I am beyond excited to meet the little bub and finally tell everyone the sex and name. I can’t wait to see who it looks like and count it’s little fingers and toes.

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This baby has moved low this week. Last night, the pressure on my pubic bone was so intense I swore I could’ve reached up there and pulled this jelly bean out by the hair. So, at 35 weeks I find myself in the in-between. It still feels too early to wash all the clothes, too late to start a big project. Everything that technically needs to be done is done (I say technically because the nesting instinct has me thinking completely irrationally).

The baby could come in 6 weeks. Or it could come in 4. Or 3. Or tonight. I oscillate between seeing this as a one of life’s most magical mysteries or a very, very cruel joke from the universe.

Having a baby during a pandemic is definitely not what we expected. I found out that I was pregnant on March 12th.  I remember going to Target to get a First Response test be sure that I wasn’t seeing ghost lines on my cheap Amazon test strip. All I wanted was a pregnancy test and a seltzer. My normally quiet Target was PACKED with shoppers rifling for toilet paper and hand sanitizer and cans of soup.

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I had been so busy lately that I hadn’t really been following the news. So, you can imagine my shock at 9pm in Target looking for the right test in the pharmacy section thinking that I’m finally pregnant after all this time and the world is ending. I started crying and then I waited on line for twenty minutes. That was a Thursday. My last day of work was Friday. The last time I hugged my friends was Saturday. My last time inside of a restaurant was Sunday. And on Monday, the world shut down.

I was horrified by the pandemic and tried my best to limit the amount of news I was consuming. I still feel like if you were a New Yorker during the spring of 2020 you’ve suffered a collective trauma and will always have some hesitation about touching your face and a different level of respect for healthcare workers.

My heart goes out to the brave women who gave birth at the beginning of this mess. The women who had the terror of a deadly pandemic slapped on to the already astounding uncertainty of childbirth. The women who gave birth in comas, or sick, or with loved ones in ICU down the hall. The women who gave birth alone.

Reusable Face Masks

To be pregnant and isolated with hundreds of people dying a day was definitely an experience. There was nothing in my books about how to labor in a mask or what to do if you test positive for Covid. There was nothing about going into every doctor’s appointment alone. We don’t get to have visitors at the hospital. I don’t get to meet the pediatrician before baby is here. 

All I do know is that my husband and I will be quarantining two weeks before baby’s due date. He can go to work but this means no more outdoor dining, trips to Target or seeing friends. Luckily, we had a few months there where we were able to have a sense of “normalcy” thanks to the good weather and New York’s low positivity rate.

So, with all that being said, my hospital bag looks a little different. As much as I hoped Covid would have just “disappeared” by now, it looks like it’s just going to get worse. But, I’m prepared.

For reference, we are planning on having a hospital birth and I’ve pretty much pre-ordered that epidural. We live very close to the hospital and I am hoping to labor as much as I can at home.

Now that it’s only a few weeks away, my doctor is pretty confident that the rules now will remain in November, unless we have a surge here on Long Island. Right now that means no visitors, and only one birth partner. We will both be rapid testing at admission. We will have to wear masks even if we test negative, and I can take it off to push. Here’s what’s driving me crazy: if my husband tests positive, but doesn’t have symptoms, he can stay for the delivery.

Now, of course I want my husband there, but the idea of Covid-positive partners walking around a maternity ward freaks me out. This means our plan is basically “get in, get out”. We will be stripping down and washing everything as soon as we get home. This obviously has me very conscious of how much we bring in to the hospital and what can or can’t be sanitized.

Our hospital provides everything we’ll need except for a going home outfit. I have a separate bag packed with more clothes and snacks in case I need a C-section and have a longer hospital stay.

Here is what I’ve packed in my hospital bag so far:

For me:

For baby:

For my husband:

I’m hoping that we will have everything we need and for a smooth, simple delivery. Are you giving birth soon and have you modified your go-bag due to the pandemic? What are you packing? Let me know below.

Stay Safe.

O.