New Shoe Blues

     I made an error in judgment last Monday. I was on my way to work when I decided to get off of the train a stop early and pick up my watch band.

     My everyday Burberry watch's iconic plaid-leather band had been disintegrating, and after a few Google searches and phone calls, the solution was to visit my local Burberry store to see about obtaining a replacement. The store was a little out of my way, so it took me a while to find the time to be in the area and stop in. I am glad I finally did, though, because their customer service was excellent, they were able to obtain the band earlier than predicted, and they even tried to get it in before I left for my vacation. I ended up not being able to pick it up, unfortunately, because my Angel Pie became ill, and then we left for our trip, so I felt badly about not picking it up, so I tried to get it as soon as I got back into town.

     Back to yesterday. I was excitedly wearing a new pair of shoes,

and because they were flats and I thought ahead to put in heel liners, I didn't think twice about attempting the walk, even in the 90°+ heat. That was the wrong decision. Almost immediately, I developed blisters on both heels. Upon leaving Burberry, the blister on my left heel broke. I hobbled to the nearest CVS, going to the extreme of stomping down on the back of my does to stop the rubbing. At CVS, I grabbed lunch supplies and blister first aid--blister-specific bandages, knee-highs, footies, and Band-Aid Friction Block Stick. If only I would have thought to apply the last product in the first place, I wouldn't be in this situation. After my purchase, I hobbled to my office.

     The first set of blister bandages ended up being a bust when used with the footies. I think the footies would have been useful in the first place as well, but at this point, they just broke the seal of the bandage. The second set of bandages worked better because I left my shoes off for mostly the rest of the day, with the exceptions of restroom trips. I still had to make it home, though. I added the knee-highs and removed the heel guards, and hobbled to the train station. Thank goodness my walk is short.

     From my train stop, I had my husband bring my sandals. Big improvement in terms of pain. I was able to walk almost normally through a quick grocery store run. At home, though, the hem of my pants became an irritant, bumping the raw skin of my left heel pretty constantly. I thought I would fare best to leave the broken blister uncovered overnight. Huge mistake.

     I got about four and a half hours of sleep. There was no comfortable position for my heel. I couldn't get up much to find something to fix it because my Angel Pie nursed a lot. Add to my pain the fact that our poor elderly kitty caterwauled constantly all night. She's old and currently dealing with untreated anxiety issues, and since returning with us from our trip, she had been going nuts. We made a vet appointment for this weekend to address these issues, but until then, she's going to meow incessantly, which makes the quality of sleep terrible for everyone.

     For my work day today, I am faring pretty well with my sandals and my heel covered with antibiotic ointment, gauze, and a bandage. Our medical tape was not sticky at all. I may run to CVS again for more supplies, especially for overnight.

     What have I learned? Mostly, don't attempt a long walk in bare feet with new shoes. If I would have stuck to my normal routine, I probably would have been fine, even despite the heat. I seem to forget this and reteach myself this lesson about once a year. I hope this will be the last time!

Sale Alert! Village Square Tealight Trio from PartyLite

     Blogged about in a previous post, I today learned that the Village Square Tealight Trio from PartyLite is on sale during the vendor's Christmas in July promotion.
Village Square Tealight Trio, $30 $12-$16 for the set of three
I really loved this piece, but the original price was $30, and I couldn't justify it at the time. Today, I picked up the piece for a mere $12 + shipping! Curiously enough, now the link lists the product as $16 although my receipt confirms that I paid $12--could the price raise as supply wanes? Who knows, but if you want one on sale before it disappears, now is the time.

Makeup for the commute!

     I have a confession to make. I used to judge women who put on a whole face of makeup on the train. I am lucky enough to have the majority of my commuting time on the WMATA Metro (well, lucky 75% of the time, stuck in delays for the rest). Sometimes, I see women applying their full makeup routine on the train, and I used to think, "Ugh, why don't you do that at home?" I think I now know the answer for some of those women--they have kids.

     I offer up my morning for example. I woke early so I could be on time for a work meeting. I went to the kitchen to feed the cat, started packing lunch, got caught up in straightening up so the babysitter wouldn't see what slobs we are (we're not hiding it very well), came back upstairs to get ready just as the baby started crying, spent time soothing her, then showered, dressed, and ran out the door late without coffee and with my hair still wet. Early efforts go out the window. When I'm at home, my time goes to the family, and that is the have-it-all tradeoff of the working mom. I don't regret it (with the exception of a wet head on cold mornings), but my train commute is what allows me to still present a makeup-professional face when I walk into the office.

     I am now a woman who applies her morning makeup on the train. There are some concessions that a commute makeup application must make. As I am applying makeup on the go, everything must be low-mess and easily transportable, able to fit in my purse without taking over. This really streamlines the process and products. Through trial and error, I have chosen my favorites.

My entire commuting makeup collection, dumped from my makeup bag.


Before and after, five minutes tops, a professional face of makeup.

     This is non-makeup, but if I didn't get a chance to apply my favorite face lotion that morning, I keep a slender bottle of L'Oreal Paris Youth Code Texture Perfector Pore Vanisher. I know that most of the time, pore minimizers are just hocum, but I decided to try this product after reading this comment from The Beauty Brains. TL;DR--although they didn't share the data, L'oreal must have some research to back up their claims, or else they could be sued. The product itself reminds me of a light primer--it feels very silicone-based, and seems to help with my oily skin. I'm not using it day and night like the box instructs, but maybe I will once I run out of my current Garnier jar. L'Oreal Paris Youth Code Texture Perfector Pore Vanisher is much pricier than my Garnier gel-lotion, but it is still drugstore-available, so I'll think on it. For now, though, the very portable bottle is in my purse makeup bag.

     On to makeup. I start with foundation. My skin is oily and doesn't take well to liquid foundations, so I prefer mineral powder foundations. My favorite brand currently is L'Oreal Paris True Match Mineral Pressed Powder. It is a pressed mineral powder with a sponge, and the package includes the mirror I use to apply the rest of my makeup. I like the True Match like because it offers a lot of shade variations. I have pretty fair skin, but it is usually just a hair darker than most brand's lightest shade, but the next darkest shade is too dark. The True Match line has three "lightest" shades based on skin undertones. I find the W2 shade "Light Ivory" is pretty much my skin exactly, and I can get it in a variety of forms: liquid, mousse, powder, or mineral. I had searched for a while and returned some products in my search for the right shade. This is it.

     I love the next product that I'm going to talk about--L'Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional The One Sweep Eye Shadow. Before I used this, I was a fan of Neutrogena Crease-Proof Eye Shadow, but I found that the L'oreal product suited me much better. I prefer the "Natural for Brown Eyes" shade. The reviews of this product on Amazon are either "amazing!" or "terrible!" I fall in the amazing camp. Maybe it has to do with the shades in the version I use, but I think that the one-sweep gives me the eye color and shading that looks like it took way more than a few seconds and a single swipe. It looks much better than I can do on my own. I also own a different shade in this product, and I don't like it as much as I like the "Natural for Brown Eyes" blend. When you are on a bumpy train, you don't have the time or room or effort to carry around multiple shades and brushes, and that this does it in one swipe--perfect for me.

     To finish off my eyes, I use mascara. Full disclosure, I tried using mascara and eyeliner for a while, but I suck at eyeliner. I don't know why, maybe it's the shape of my eyes, maybe it's the fact that my mom didn't let me perfect it in high school, maybe it wasn't big when I was a teenager like it is for teens now, but yeah--a 13-year-old could out-eyeliner me. I'm okay with that. On the train, mascara provides enough poke-danger, so I don't need to go overboard. I think that for the appearance I'm aiming for--work professional--eyeliner ends up being too much anyway. So, knowing that my eyeliner skills are lacking, guess how my mascara skills are? Needing help! So that's why I really love Maybelline New York Volum Express Falsies Big Eyes Washable Mascara. You get two brushes! One for the top lashes, and a tiny that doesn't get overly goopy or springy for the lower ones. Genius! I know exactly where the mascara is going, and it's just so much easier for me to manage, especially on a moving train.

     Finally, I finish with lip color. I have very strong opinions about lip color. For example, I don't like to wear glosses--I think they are a young lady's game, and I dislike that when the wind blows, my hair gets stuck on my lips. So no water-wet lip looks for me. I also feel that straight-up lipsticks are dated. If you're going for a retro look, that's one thing, but I don't think there are many women who are going for a plain tube of lipstick when there are so many other options. For me, the best alternative is a colored balm--you get sheer color coverage, but and you don't dry out your lips. I personally prefer Burt's Bees for my lip color. I don't usually buy into the greenwashing of cosmetics and toiletries, but I know based on experience--the non-natural balms still dry out my lips and Burt's Bees balms do not. I was using L'Oreal Paris Colour Riche Lip Balm for a while, as I like their color offerings better, but my lips would still grow flakey, so I went back to Burt's Bees, and my lips returned to feeling in good health. My favorite shades are Apricot, Cherry, Fig, and Peony. I'll have to try not to buy any others or else my makeup bag will be all lip colors.

     And that's that! Five products, no more than five minutes, and I become Business Tish, ready for what the day will throw at me, and those five minutes do not take any time away from my Angel Pie and family. Out of a forty minute commute, five minutes to spare to make me feel prepared and professional is well worth it.

Mom Advice! Teething and biting during breastfeeding

     One question that comes up often at Moms.com is biting and breastfeeding. If you breastfeed long enough for a baby to grow teeth, most likely, you will experience this. However, babies can bite while nursing regardless of whether they have teeth. It hurts more with teeth then without. It's funny in the beginning without teeth. It's much less funny when the teeth start popping up.

Can it hurt you?
     Yes, but probably not to the extent that you need to stop nursing. Whether you want to stop nursing because of it is a different matter.

What if I'm bleeding?
     Nipple cream is your friend. Blood in your milk is okay and will not hurt the baby. If you can, nurse or pump through it. It will feel better with time.

Can I teach my baby not to bite me?
     You can try! I tried, but it never really worked. She would still bite at the end of nursing or when she thought I should be paying attention. At times, it even made me angry--it hurt! But I swallowed my frustration and kept nursing.

Does it ever stop?
     I think this is the most important point in my article--yes! And then you think you're out of the woods, and it can begin again! The important thing to remember is that biting is a symptom of teething, and that when the teeth and jaw feel better, the biting will stop. If you can wait it out, it could be worth it!

     My daughter had two spells of biting me while nursing. The first happened around eight months, and I swear, it seemed like it would never end. The second one happened around a year, and was just as long. In reality, they probably didn't last longer than a month apiece, and she stopped doing it after her teeth stopped bothering her. I tried to teach her not to bite me, but it never really worked. She would still bite at the end of nursing or when she thought I should be paying attention (at least it felt that way). At times, it even made me angry--it hurt! But I swallowed my frustration and kept nursing. I'm glad I did, though, because once her teeth stopped bothering her, she stopped bothering me, and we continue to nurse with ease.

Mom Advice! Making the medicine go down--can you change the medicine?

     I have recently accepted a part-time position on Moms.com as a Site Hostess, and as such, I've been composing a lot of short advice articles related to my first-time parenting experineces. I thought it could be helpful to share some of those advice articles here.

     Getting your baby or toddler to take medicine can be difficult. I realize that if you are talking about a perscription, then that's that, and there may be no other options. However, if you are talking about OTC medications, you may be able to try different brands or formulations. While my baby is teething, we offer pain reliever. My daughter hates all pain relievers EXCEPT dye-free CVS generic ibuprofen--that she takes without issue. We've tried name brands, and even CVS generic with dye, and she refuses them. I'm glad we found a version that works, and maybe if you fall into this situation, you can too.

     I also once read advice that if you give baby a small dropper of water every day, baby will get used to this and be more likely to take medications in the future. I haven't tried this exactly, but when my Angel-Pie was under six months old, we did have to give her reflux medication. Because of that, when I had to give her other medications later on (like ibuprofen), she didn't fight them as much as I expected--she was used to the idea of drinking liquid from a dropper. I think that saved us a lot of trouble.


Cross-posted @ Moms.com

Article: 5 Workplace Rights That Every Pregnant Woman Needs To Know

     Many women don't know the full extent of their rights as pregnant and nursing mothers. Check out these five things you should know. Includes information about hiring AND breastfeeding.

5 Workplace Rights That Every Pregnant Woman Needs To Know

Cross-posted @ Moms.com

30! Wonderbar things to remember from my birthday

     I am officially 30 years old! No regrets here, no fighting my age, at least in a mental sense. I've been ready for my 30's for a long time. Physically, I've been doing my research on The Beauty Brains with the help of their website, showgrams, and book, checking my acitve ingredients and so forth. I'm finding that I once really bought into the hype. I'm looking forward to turning a new leaf with an honest beauty regiment. Let's be wiser in our 30's, right?

     With that, here is an official list of the things that made my 30th birthday special.

• Marmi Shoes. My favorite store for quality, wide-width shoes. I made a birthday-gift-type purchase, but it's really more of an investment, as these shoes will last me ages.
• SparrowWoodStudio's Etsy store. I've been on the hunt for a stamped mother's necklace that would hold all of the characters of my Angel Pie's name. If you want something special done correctly, go custom. When I found SparrowWoodStudio, I knew I found the right place.
• It's OK to have Lead in Your Lipstick, the text mentioned above and pictured below. A very informative read!
• Wubbzy's Dance Party, app by Cupcake Digital Inc. My Angel Pie is into Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, but only as a tablet app. She still doesn't watch television, but I wonder how long that will last. Anywho, we received the Wubbzy's Dinosaur Adventure through a Free Friday's Nook Blog offering, and we decided to buy another. There's a character that exclaims "Wunderbar!" in the app, and my Angel Pie thinks that's just hilarious, so now I'm exclaiming it too.
• Twin Peaks. Okay, this is a weird one. My husband and I are big fans of the show Psych, and we were watching the Twin Peaks-based episode, Dual Spires. But, we knew we were missing MOST of the jokes because we never watched Twin Peaks. Well, we started on my birthday, and it was fun.
• Duolingo. While browsing around my app store, I stumbled upon this app. I've been yearning to brush up on my Deutche, so I downloaded, created an account, and started playing. It's really good!
• Wegmans. My wonderful husband took a secret trip to Wegmans and bought me my favorite things. The word you are looking for is decedent.

Lobster Bisque | Virgil's Cream Soda | Jumbo Fresh Steamed Shrimp
Prosciutto di Parma | Gustosella Mozzarella Di Bufala Campana D.O.P.
Angus Beef Prime Tenderloin Steak | Lobster Tail
Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake | Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix

And that's how I spent my day! It was relaxing, and I felt very loved. Onward and upward!



     Please note that this post contains product links using Amazon Associates. Should enough people click the links and make purchases, I would get paid. Amazon Associates pays once your clicks equal $10; in my entire history with the program, I currently have about $3, so I have never been paid yet, lol. The biggest reason I use Amazon Associates is so that I don't have to use my own personal server space for image hosting when I refer to products, and to ensure proper and unbroken links for archiving purposes.

Vicks Vaporub, Tiny Noses, and Tiny (or not so tiny) Toesies

     February is nearly over, and if you've made it through this winter without a cold, stay away from me. I am finishing up a cold right now. My symptoms began on Valentine's Day, and they ran the gamut of a low fever (99-100), sore throat, coughing, and nasal congestion. Right now, I'd be healthy if I could only lose this cough. Such are the effects of viral acute bronchitis (diagnosed myself with the help of WebMD. If I am still coughing on March 7th, I'll seek medical aid.

     Over the course of this cold, I took a generic version of Advil Cold and Sinus for the first time in what I calculated as years. Ibuprofen isn't recomended during pregnancy, and psudoephendrine runs the risk of reducing milk supply for nursing mothers. Although I'm still nursing, my Angel Pie is keenly into her toddler years, I felt that I could risk a lower milk supply for some relief. I took it for about two days, and at first it felt wonderful, but then I found that it was causing a dry, itchy spot in the back of my throat that was making me feel like coughing, so I stopped.

     I'm down to an occasional cough right now, but days ago, the cough was incessant, and I was pretty desperate to find something that would let me sleep through the night. Isn't waking up coughing the worst? Not only was I waking my husband, I was also waking my Angel Pie! So I took to combing the internet in the wee hours of the morning to find a fix. It is suggested that rubbing Vicks Vaporub on one's feet and covering with socks was a good remedy. It's all over the mom boards on various parenting sites.


     My first instinct was to fact-check, and indeed, there are a few sites addressing it.

Snopes.com
Geekosystem, "No, Rubbing Vicks Vaporub On Your Feet Does Not Prevent Coughing"
UrbanLegends.About.com, "Does Vicks VapoRub on Soles of Feet Relieve Coughing?"

Buuuut...anecdotal evidence here. I noticed that I don't cough as much when I'm fiddling on my phone. That got me to thinking maybe Vicks works as means of distraction? Closer to what the UrbanLegends.About.com article mentions, maybe it's a counter-stimulus? Laying in bed, thinking about the tickle in your throat, hoping, "Don't cough, don't cough" ? Of course you're going to cough! But maybe if your feet tingle, that distracts from the tickle, and you can use that to sleep. So, I thought I'd give it a go! I had a jar of Vicks Vaporub and some socks, and it was time to go to sleep. So, did it help? For me, unfortunately, a flat no. I didn't feel anything on my feet--no warmth, no tingle from the menthol, nothing. As there was no point of distraction for me, then, all I had to focus on was the throat tickle, and of course I coughed. Again, this anecdotal. Perhaps if someone had more sensitive foot skin than I have, it can help, but for me, it was a bust.

     I am concerned, however, about the moms prescribing this for their babies with coughs. I understand wanting to be able to do something--my Angel Pie is currently dealing with a nasal congestion, or as we call it, a terrible "boogie nose". I hate nasal congestion the most for my baby, and I think I've written about it before. If my Angel Pie can't breathe through her nose, she can't nurse, and that makes the one thing that brings her comfort when nothing else does, it makes it not work. And then she cries, which makes her nose run even more, and it becomes a vicious cycle of my baby just not feeling well. She is under two years old, though, and that means that Vicks Vaporub is not the answer. In this article from Parenting.com:

The ingredients in Vicks VapoRub can irritate the airways and increase mucus production. The effect isn't huge, says Dr. Rubin, but it can be significant in infants and young children (under 2) who have very small airways to begin with. And when those pipes are already inflamed from a cold or other infection, a little bit of extra inflammation and mucus may narrow them quickly and severely.

And I'm sure the last thing we want to do is make our little ones feel worse. I'd think that even if we're putting Vicks on a baby's feet, the baby is still inhaling and thereby getting the negative effects from those vapors. I'd personally recommend not trying it and sticking to a steamy bathroom and nasal aspirators. Hang in there--colds generally only last about ten days. My Angel Pie could possibly be on day eight of her cold, so maybe we're close to the end!

     Please note that this post contains product links using Amazon Associates. Should enough people click the links and make purchases, I would get paid. Amazon Associates pays once your clicks equal $10; in my entire history with the program, I currently have about $3, so I have never been paid yet, lol. The biggest reason I use Amazon Associates is so that I don't have to use my own personal server space for image hosting when I refer to products, and to ensure proper and unbroken links for archiving purposes.

What's harder than explaining extended nursing to your in-laws?

     Explaining twiddling along with it! My poor father-in-law is a good sport!


Cross-posted @ Moms.com

Happy New Year

     I really had a lovely Christmas, but the ball has dropped, and now, as I lay in bed and nurse my baby to sleep, it's 2014, and it's just winter. Are there any resolutions to declare? I'd like to guide my family toward a healthier lifestyle. I'd like to make sure we make happiness a priority. I'd like to reclaim and hone my career. Right now, though, I'm going to cuddle down and enjoy the warmth. Being present through stillness is not inactivity; it's the best kind of progress.