I’m Annoyed

Okay, I’ m a bit annoyed a a few things. Maybe it’s because I’m tired (the perpetual disease of motherhood), undercaffeinated, or because I sat in traffic for nearly 2 hours because they closed down the expressway for over an hour. Or maybe it’s my normal level of crabbiness creeping up past my sometimes-sunny exterior. Either way, here they are in no particular order:

1. I am really annoyed about MRSA, partly because I’m in the DC area where there’s been a sizable outbreak in the “community” version of it and one high schooler has died, and partly because there is an infected baby in Cooper’s class at daycare. I mean, the baby hasn’t been back to school since his/her infection was detected, but it still gives me the heebie jeebies, and I have been, as I mentioned to my SIL, inspecting every little scratch on Cooper to make sure it doesn’t turn into something scary and nasty. I really just don’t appreciate this obnoxious strain of Staphylococcus aureus entering my inner-circle.
2. I am also annoyed at my baby monitor. I would think when you pay $80-something for baby monitors that they would work correctly at least for the first year of the child’s life. Not so. One of my fancy, highly-recommended Graco monitor parent units is acting like it’s not getting charged, so I am never able to pull the thing off of its base to carry it with me to another room. I have tried turning it off while it sits on the charger, I have tried plugging the power cord directly into it, and I have tried the Fonzie method, but no dice. Good thing I bought the service plan when I purchased them in July…too bad I’m too tired lazy busy to go to Babies R Us to deal with it. Maybe this weekend since I need diapers and I have a coupon for diapers that expires on the 31st.
3. I am really tired of my commute. Not just because they closed down the expressway, but because on a Saturday, I could get to the office in about 35 or 40 minutes. During the work-week, it is now about 80 minutes to work and 90 minutes home…and this is utilizing the HOV lane. Someone mentioned that daycare may be slowing me down a bit, but I paid attention to it this past week or so and usually I’m only in the daycare center for about 5 or 6 minutes to drop-off or pick-up BOTH kids. Obviously if I come to get Cooper and he’s just started a bottle, that’s a whole other ball of wax. But I am really, truly tired of being in my car 3 hours a day. We get home around 6:30pm and see other families out walking the neighborhood, kids playing, etc. because they’ve already had their dinner. I really want to be able to come home, eat, and spend more than 15 or 20 minutes with my kids before I have to toss them in bed and start the whole mess all over again.
4. I’m also getting tired of my job. I’ve been in this particular position for just under a year and I have yet to have enough work to do to keep me busy for an entire day, and that’s not because I haven’t asked. But after the first 3 or 4 months of bugging my boss for more work, I stopped asking because (1) I got tired of asking and rarely getting anything, and (2) I kind of need this job so I didn’t want to set myself up for getting laid-off or anything. I mean, the people I work with are nice and busy (with the exception of the other two people in my team…they are not busy, either, but they have been not busy for a lot less time than me). It doesn’t help that I work for a company that is very picky about who’s doing what work, in that I have offered to help out others who are busy, but because they are not in my group (even though we are under the same director), I am not allowed to do it because it is outside of my job-function and some garbage about budgets and other crap. So I can’t even try to be a team-player for the bigger team (which is what I used to do all the time in my previous position at a subsidiary). I keep looking at the job postings to see if something comes up at the office location closer than what I’m commuting to now, but haven’t seen anything. I kind of don’t want to leave the company entirely because I am getting good pay (especially for just sitting around being ready for work), and I have really good benefits (even though I grouch about them sometimes…like when it took my benefits office a month to add Cooper, so all of his hospital and pediatrician bills were getting DENIED left-and-right and I had to make 20 different calls and re-file, etc.).
5. I am tired of wearing maternity clothes. Now I know my baby is only 3-1/2 months old and I’m very lucky that out of the 37 pounds I gained with Coop, I only have about 7 left to lose. But. I only have 2 pairs of “normal” pants I can wear. I had three other pairs, but they’re now too big and hang all sloppy and fall down and make my butt look bigger than it is. My other pants that I can’t quite get into are waiting there in my closet…nice pinstripes, nice greys, pants that are the correct length, pants that have zippers. Not that I think I’m ready for zippers because I can’t seem to remember to zip them up after I use the washroom at work. I’ve been in elastic-waist pants for nearly a year and have gotten out of the habit. Case in point, last week I was wearing a basic black knit top and dark khaki pants that had two buttons and a zipper. By 11:00am I had deodorant on the outside of my top (from pulling it off to pump at work) and was walking around with only the top button on my pants fastened and the other button and the zipper wide open. Yep. I was seething sexiness in the office. And the best part of it was that I didn’t actually notice what a mess I had become until I went to the ladies room around 3:30pm. In-between 11am and 3:30pm I had walked around the building a few times, checking on things, ran to the store, and talked to my boss. Four-and-a-half hours of flashin’ the maternity panties (yeah, still wearin’ those) and rockin’ the deodorant zebra stripes. So maybe I don’t deserve to wear normal clothes yet, but I’d kinda like to be in them.
6. I kind of hate admitting it, but I’m tired of pumping. Tired of getting up 2 or 3 times a workday to go sit in a tiny, dark office to pump. Tired of getting half-undressed and getting deodorant on my tops (since I’m a klutz). Tired of getting frustrated at the meager amounts of milk I’m able to procure for my son. Tired of carrying my pump (which I LOVE…it’s great) to and from the office. Tired of washing pump parts each night. But I’m afraid if I don’t pump during the day, I will risk not having any milk for my baby come dinner and bedtime, and I’m not quite ready to give that up.

So I think that’s it. For now. Gimme a few days and I’m sure I’ll have more to crab about. Like it took me 2 hours to get home, and this time there weren’t any road closures…stupid DC folks and their non-raining driving skills. *sigh*