Baby Bug Has Arrived!!!!

Brenda’s water broke yesterday at about 3 pm. While she waited around for Toby to shower things were slowly changing. If only she knew how big those changes would really be.

Sue, my MIL and I recieved the news at about 5 pm, and were on our way to the beach by 6. When we arrived at about 8 pm Brenda was still at 1 cm. A little after 9pm they checked her and she was at 2 cm. At 10:12 pm her contractions started to get stronger, they were painful but tolerable. By 10:37 she was closing her eyes due to the pain.

It wasn’t long after that B’s pain became extreme. She was shaking due to the pain, and it took a lot of rubbing to get her through the contractions. But she made it. By 12:45 she was dilated to 3 cm and could have an epi.

At 1:18 the epi was in place and in just a few minutes she was feeling a little better. By 1:45 she was feeling no pain and all.

At 2:15 am they checked her again and she was at 7 cm. Wow! She dilated 4 cm in 1 1/2. Her reply was wow, why was I crying so much earlier.

Finally about 3:30 am I realized Toby wasn’t going to sleep, so I did, sort of. I woke with every sound waiting to hear there was a change. I wa slike a kid waiting for Santa to come, But this was an even better present.

Just as I fell into a good sleep, I heard the words, “you’re complete.” That was the end of sleep for me.

Toby and I each grabbed a leg and encouraged Brenda to push. Toby stayed very calm and was excellent at coaching her through the pushing and breathing. Brenda pushed like a champion, it amazed me at how hard she could push. (The rest of the delivery details will be given by Brenda.)

At 8:38 am, after a break from pushing, He1en@ V1ctor1@ P0nn@y was born at 7 lbs. 12.7 oz. and 18 1/2″ long.

Toby was instantly enamored with his little girl, and comforted her as the nurses did their thing. I saw a side of Toby I had never seen before. Toby is not a touchy feely emotional guy, at least not that I’ve ever seen. With the exception of his wedding day. When he saw He1en@ placed on Brenda’s chest for the first time, he teared up and beamed with pride. Those were his girls, he loved them, and it showed.

Once all the nurses left Brenda was able to bond with her little one. Who instanly stopped crying and fussing once in her Mommy’s arms. Brenda beamed with pride, and was in awe at her daughter’s perfect beauty. I thought my girls were cute when they were born, but He1en@ blew them out of the water.

When Sue and I fially left, which we really didn’t want to do, Brenda and Toby were in a state of euphoria. Brenda was nursing her little love bug, and Toby was lovingly watching them.

Brenda and Toby will be in contact with the outside world soon enough, but for now they’d rather not have any phone calls or visitors.

Now what you’ve all been waiting for. Pictures. There will be many more pictures, but we only took a few with this camera. We figured two cameras going at once was enough, we didn’t need three.

Did I mention I cried like a baby when she was born? No, well, I did.

I also want to thank Brenda and especially Toby for allowing me to be there. It is a day I will never forget, and always cherish.

It’s A Love Hate Relationship

The last month has been nothing but a blur. Every night I go online and check my email, get my blog fix, and then am ready for bed. Most nights I don’t even want to eat dinner. Let alone do anything productive, like laundry, or play with my kids.

I’m just tired. I’ve been working full time since my birthday last month. I start at 7 am and get off anywhere between 3:30 and 5 p.m. I get paid $7 an hour, but I don’t actually get paid by the hour. I get paid for 8 hours a day, unless, of course I have to miss two and half hours to enroll Rapunzel in school. Then I only get paid for half a day. Which wouldn’t be so bad but my boss doesn’t exactly divide things up evenly. He pays us cash at the end of the week, if he goes to the bank that is. So he only gets 20’s and 100’s, so if you missed a few hours and it means that he’s going to over pay a few dollars by giving you a twenty, he just shorts you a few dollars.

To make things worse Shawn works there to, I’m not saying that working with my husband is bad, because it’s not. I’m saying that he was told he was going to get $500 a week and he only gets $400. Then when the boss said him and the other mechanic,R, who has only been a mechanic for less than six months, would get a raise once I got some of the back billing done, goes up in flames you start to wonder. I mean the man won’t actuallt sit down and write what was done on the trucks, or how many hours it took to do the job. Plus, he lets his regular customers go with out paying their bills. Then he actually has the nerve to tell Shawn that when he and R get more work done he’ll give them a raise, and that he didn’t even break even last week. Well duh, when you let people leave without paying invoices, and you won’t send out ionvoices that have been done for three weeks, on jobs that have been done for months, what do you expect.

The guy is nice enough, but there are some serious issues with the way things are done. I’m supposed to run the office so he can work out in the shop, but that is not what’s happening. Me running the office is allowing him to go on parts runs on his motorcycle. Yep, he takes his work truck home, gets on his big old cruiser, and goes to get parts. Parts, that don’t get there any quicker than they would if they were being delivered by the parts house. Then when he gets back he announces that he’s going home for the day, and takes all the files with him. which means that I sit in the office for at least an hour with nothing to do. But that doesn’t mean I can leave.

I’m only supposed to work 8-4, but I get there at 7 because that’s when Shawn has to be there. But that doesn’t mean I actually get an hour lunch, or breaks for that matter. Lunch usually takes place in which ever five minutes I can squeeze it into. Whether it be at noon or at 3. Most days I’m lucky if I have a chance to pee, and my desk is six feet from the bathroom, literally.

Then there’s the fact that there are two bathrooms. One in the shop and one in the office. The one in the shop has hot water to wash your hands, while the office bathroom does not. But you have to dump water down the shop toilet to get it to flush. So the boss uses the office bathroom. There is nothing worse than going into the bathroom, putting the seat down, and having to clean off the grease before you can sit down. To make matters worse, he walks from the shop to use the office bathroom. Which means he won’t use that bathroom because the toilet doesn’t work right.

Oh, and did I mention that we don’t have health insurance, workers comp, or taxes. Yep. We’re supposed to get a 1099 at the end of the year. Which means that were independent contractors working for him. Which also mean we are responsible for 100% of all taxes. State, Federal, FICA, and Social Security. Which means technically, about 44% of EACH of our “paychecks” is supposed to go to taxes. Let’s brake that down a bit. $680 a week times 4 times a month is $2,724 a month. Multiply that by .44 and you’re left with $1,198.56. That’s a whopping $14,400 a year after taxes, approximately. Who in the world can live on that a month??? Let alone a year. And we only get that if we work five days a week 52 weeks a year, at nine hours a day. Both of us.

I am looking for a new job, and so is Shawn. With what I’ve done in the last few weeks, I know I can get something better. Plus at least then I don’t have to wait for the boss to go to the bank to get the money to pay us at the end of the week. if he feels like gong that is.