my subjects mean nothing any more

[mamajoan]

Last night I watched this week's Smallville episode "Calling." Oh my god was it terrible. How can y'all stand it? The previous ep was so good, or at least creepy in the good way, but this one was so damn BAD. *shudder* The only halfway decent bits were the scenes with Lionel. I'll watch the season finale next week, but I'm seriously doubting whether I'll even bother to watch the show next season. Sigh.

I talked to the woman who teaches a childbirth class on Tuesday nights. She said it would be fine for me to come out of order -- the class runs for six weeks and if I started a week from next Tuesday it would be like the fourth or fifth class, but then I could rejoin when it cycles around again in late June. She said she wouldn't charge me for the class at all (since she gets paid the same amount by the hospital whether there are two people in the class or twenty) and she even said that if the Tuesday thing didn't work out, she'd get together with me privately sometime and do a one-on-one crash course. Isn't that sweet? :)

Thanks to jenwrites for pointing me to this article about how much unnecessary crap is marketed to parents, which makes me feel a lot better about my whole shopping/registry/baby-stuff thing. Cuz already when we were setting up the registry, there was a LOT of stuff available that I was like, "but why on earth would I need that?" It's really pretty damn ridiculous how much stuff the manufacturers come up with and then try to guilt-trip you into thinking you need. And a lot of it is useful, sure, but it's also stuff that solves problems for which there are already tried-and-true solutions that people have been using for generations. Like the things they sell now as "burp cloths" for wiping baby's face when s/he spits up. Our parents and grandparents and probably great-grandparents just used an extra diaper for this purpose. Okay, so now it's almost all disposable diapers, but still, dude, it's basically just a piece of absorbent material. You could use a washcloth, a paper towel, a handkerchief. Do you really need to spend $10 on a piece of cloth that you're told is specifically for this purpose? Come ON. Geez.

And don't even get me started on the extra-pollution-causing buckets with special sanitizing methods that are designed to keep you from having to smell your baby's dirty diapers. Dude, get the fuck over it. Your baby poops and you're going to smell it, that's the way life is. The moms in the article are all, "well yeah, it bothers me to think that I'm harming the environment ... but it doesn't bother me enough to give up my smell-killing device." Stupid thoughtless bitch, get yourself a box of baking soda and fucking get over yourself!

Ahem. But it's not like I have any deep-seated resentment against short-sighted selfish parents, or anything. Heck no, not me. O:)

Anyway, my point is, I like to think that the things on my registry list(s) are almost all things that I actually do need, or at least that will be good to have and don't have a very obvious, simpler, cheaper alternative. Although honestly it's all a blur, cuz when we were setting up the registry it was just a lot of "Oh that's cute! Zap it! *beep* Oh, look at this...." Heh.

My chiropractor says that my spine is doing extremely well, and my own experience seems to bear that out, in the sense that I haven't been having much back or hip pain lately at all. This confuses me, because it's certainly not like I've been practicing better ergonomics lately or anything. In fact, I feel like I've been worse -- more of a slug, more sitting around like a lump on the sofa, less moving around and stretching and exercising. But apparently somehow it's working. *scratch head* My chiropractor is all, "ehh, hormones," but it still doesn't make sense to me, but hey, whatever. Anyway, she's going on vacation, so it'll be two weeks till my next appointment instead of one, and we'll see how that goes.

Feeling optimistic, I went to the library and checked out three of the five Hugo-nominated novels. It seems highly unlikely that I'll actually manage to read them all in the time allotted, but who knows, it could happen.

Someday I'll write an LJ entry with actual meaningful content again. *sigh*

Comments

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

About a year ago I bought The Complete Tightwad Gazette which was written by a woman who raised something like 6 kids on an annual income of $30,000 for her and her husband while buying a big home, etc. It really made me think about a lot of the stuff that we're hyped into buying. Pesonally, I know a bunch of people who are pregnant now or just had kids, so I figure they'll be growing out of their stuff right around the time I need to buy it all (a year and a half or two from now). I plan to hit up everyone for their second-hand baby stuff (make a note, I call dibs!) so I can get as much as possible for cheap/free.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well pretty much all parents I know believe that the best way to get the majority of your baby stuff is as hand-me-downs (despite that article's claim that today's moms refuse 'em). Much of my maternity clothing and almost all my pregnancy books are from others; and I'm getting a crib from a friend, and the thing I'm going to use as a changing table and baby's clothes-bureau was from a friend. And I've gotten a fair amount of baby clothing as gifts or from yard sales/thrift stores. (There's a new baby/maternity thrift store nearby that I'm hoping to check out tomorrow.)

But there *are* a few things that you really shouldn't get as hand-me-downs. Most notably, the baby's carseat. Unless you can be absolutely 100% sure that it has never been in an accident, you really shouldn't take a used carseat.

Thanks for the book recommendation, though. I'll definitely have to check it out.

[lizr.livejournal.com]

I guess this means you won't be getting the heated wipe dispenser? ;>
(Those really cheap teeny baby washcloths make great wipes and you can use your own lovely warm water to clean baby's tender bottom.)

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

lol, nope, I sure won't. The warm water idea is nice for during the day, but in the middle of the night I'll probably just use a regular baby wipe ... cold or not, too bad! It'll get my baby prepared for those New England winters of ours! ;)