Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Stop Effing Yelling at Me!

I hate our new UPS lady. I get a package delivery at least once a week now that we are in the holiday season and her thing is to swing our downstairs door open, yell "UPS!!!!" and chuck packages into our stairs. Not onto, into. I got dog/cat food last week and it was fucked up, the box was super dented. Sure that could have happened in transit but I doubt it.

I get that I sometimes get crazy heavy things but part of the job of a UPS delivery person is lifting said crazy heavy things.

For reasons unknown to me, she must get bored and started putting things in front of the downstairs door. The downstairs door goes to the first floor apartment owned by my brother-in-law and he rarely uses it. I didn't know about a package my mom had sent as a gift until days after it had been sitting there because of it.

I don't even know how to complain about this. My husband also recently found a package sitting on the ground next to where he pulled in. He gets home when it is pitch black out now thanks to Daylight Saving Time and I was damn lucky he didn't smash it because it was part of something for my Reddit Secret Santa that wasn't easily replaced. That one was USPS, so I'm not quite sure if they are taking hints from new UPS lady or what.

I looked up getting a package locker so that they know where to put things but the cheapest one I found was $200, it isn't super super secure and one of the delinquents on my street could easily walk off with it. I suppose they could easily walk off with the packages too but they haven't so far.

I bet it doesn't help that my dog is pretty aggressive with the UPS people. She liked the guy from a few years ago but the one that replaced him and now this woman are not her friends. She'd never hurt them, but she runs out the dog door and barks like mad at them. From their perspective, they are out here on a weekly basis and she's being a pest, so I wonder if it is irritating for them or if they are used to it.

I know I can't tip them so I'm not quite sure how to express my gratitude that they allow me to have items delivered to my home that make my life easier, but this lady is quickly earning my ire rather than my favor.

Friday, November 30, 2012

This Is Not A Deal Blog

I consider myself somewhat frugal (says the woman who just spent $300 on a phone*) and I've gotten a little ribbing for this.

I don't usually buy something without price matching it. I am a pain in the ass when it comes to this and I know I've tested my husband's patience more than once because I have to check things.

Frugal doesn't mean cheap. It means smart. I didn't grow up with a ton but we didn't go without because my mom was frugal. She clipped coupons and planned shopping trips and got us things we needed for holidays, not just toys. Most of what I've gotten my son that I've managed to not open and give to him straight away is practical stuff because I know his relatives will be getting him clothes and toys and what have you.

There are sites like Slickdeals.net that I'll browse but I find that sometimes, people get overwhelmed with "deals" and buy things they don't need. My house is way too small and packed with stuff already. I don't need to wind up on Hoarders clutching a mountain of toilet paper.

I see some people in my life who absolutely suck at finances and I want to help them but I feel it is overstepping my boundaries. Not everyone is comfortable with a financial system. I personally use Microsoft Money and my bank's online banking. That's it. No magic involved. Microsoft Money is free to download as it is no longer supported (*sniff sniff*) and I personally don't use it for anything but balancing my account. It is really handy for categorizing purchases and seeing where your money goes.

I love the "split" option, for example if I order on Wag/Diapers/Soap.com and get say, $50 worth of diapers and wipes, $30 worth of cleaning stuff and $50 worth of dog or cat food, I can split the transaction into those three categories.

I also use my PayPal Debit Card for almost every purchase I make. 99.9999% of my purchases are online as my husband pays from our joint bank account. I'm not a fan of credit cards, having fallen into the "trap" at a very young age and spending years digging myself out, so I only use debit cards. I don't like cash because I lose it, but I occasionally have some of that on hand too. The PayPal Debit Card gives me 1% back monthly which isn't a lot, but since I'm feeding in a lot of our household expenditures into it, I get a nice little bonus.

The only trick is matching stuff up - it comes through on my bank as just "PayPal" and sometimes there is a bit of a delay, so I do have to keep on top of it.

I also use sites like Ebates to get more cash back from my usual online shopping places. Unfortunately Amazon doesn't really do cash back year-round but they occasionally do. I'm an Amazon Prime member which means that many items they sell are able to be shipped in two business days. It is $79 a year and paid for itself over and over, especially when I had under the $25 total for "Free Super Saver Shipping".

*Said phone is the Galaxy Note II in white for my husband who requested it even before he knew our carries (Verizon) would be getting it. I saved up and purchased it today for him, it should be here next week and I'll be getting his old-new Google Nexus phone that was ordered a couple months ago after his 3 year old Droid X was "misplaced" at his work.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Unnecesarian

The title of my post comes from a reddit comment I saw while feeding the kid.

I think "scheduled c-section without medical reasoning" is becoming the new "welfare queen". Yes, it does happen but not as often as expected.

Maybe my reaction is because my son was a c-section baby.

He certainly wasn't planned that way at all.

I haven't really posted a birth story and I don't want to get into all the gritty details but I will summarize:

We did the "quad screen" and I had an amniocentesis after a long debate about the risks. The kid has perfect chromosomes. A big needle going into your belly is actually a lot less scary than it sounds.

During the last trimester of my pregnancy, my always-good blood pressure got unstable. I started swelling up. At one point, I gained 10 lbs of what was later to be determined to be all fluid in one month, meanwhile I'm being told to continue drinking water. I was drinking water like it was going out of style. I would have close to 100oz a day when I was at my temp job because the water cooler was so close.

My due date of July 3rd came and went. By all accounts, the kid was fine. I developed a PUPPP rash which was awful. The only "cure" is having a baby and most cases that occur are with people having sons. Mine started right at 40 weeks. My son didn't decide to make his appearance until 42 weeks. I got some fancypants Pine Tar Soap from Amazon and that helped immensely.

My midwives were really at a loss as to why I wasn't going into labor. Some people just don't. I know my dates for conception weren't incorrect as I'd been tracking my cycles for years and that included logging when sex happened. I knew when I had sex and approximately when I ovulated and that matched all of my kid's dating scans.

Some people suggested I got the dates wrong and heavily pregnant and cranky me got all bent out of shape about it. Even if I had, I was rapidly approaching D-day.

My husband and I went to "Prepared Childbirth" classes. No lamaze breathing, just a general rundown of "so this is what happens, this is what can happen". The teacher was a nurse and the lactation consultant for the hospital the kid would be born at.

I never actually went into labor on my own. On the 16th, I went in and my blood pressure was higher than they would have liked it to be. I went in to the hospital for monitoring and they decided that they were going to keep me there and perhaps there would be a baby soon. I was already swollen with water and I just wanted the baby out and was willing to do whatever my midwives and I felt was safe to get him out.

I'm not quite sure of dates as a lot of it has blended together but I do know the events in the order they were happening --

I was pissed off that due to my blood pressure, I wasn't allowed to go anywhere without my IV pole and had to disconnect the fetal monitor belly band thing. This made moving around difficult, but I did have a really great nurse who did some hand-held monitoring while I used my exercise ball to try and get things to move along.

I wasn't progressing, not even a little bit. They put this really uncomfortable insert (like a tampon) against my cervix and I had it in for hours. When they removed it, it felt like sandpaper in a place  you really don't want sandpaper. I yelped in pain and cried.

We eventually decided to try induction. I was on the drugs for three days with hardly any contractions that I could feel. The monitor would pick them up but it was nothing. My water broke on the 18th and it was gross. It felt like peeing myself and I cried again because it was uncomfortable. I offered to clean up the trail from the bed to the bathroom and the nurse kept scolding me for it.

They gave me something else (Pitocin, I think) and it didn't do anything so they were upping it. It felt like it all kicked in at once and I was having 30 minute long contractions. They'd dip a bit and then go back up. I was so out of it from the intense pain, I would sort of fade out for a few seconds and minutes would pass. My husband was horrified.

We decided to go through with the epidural after talking to the nurse. I was in so much pain, I hadn't slept much and I just wanted to rest and hopefully that would allow me to progress. I knew from class that being in labor for that long can wear on the body and make it stop so I thought it was a good idea.

Well, it didn't work. The epidural was fine though I got really shaky during and after as it felt like someone was putting ice water in my spine.

Then my legs wouldn't work due to the epidural. They put in a catheter. I tried to sleep. They kept waking me because the baby's signs were dipping a little during contractions, so I'd get moved to one side, get a half hour of sleep, get moved to the other... and so on.

During the contractions the next morning, I could feel them... in my bladder. Ugh. I could feel the catheter and it hurt. I had to go through two nurses before one of them would remove it. The first one assured me that  I couldn't feel it and that my bladder was empty. I peed after the catheter was removed, so HA! Another was put in its place but I felt vindicated a bit.

My favorite midwife came in and we discussed what could happen. We were now on day four of induction, getting closer to 24 hours since my water broke and at 42 weeks gestation. The baby needed to come soon.

I talked it over with her and we agreed on a c-section. The OB who would be performing it came in and introduced herself and explained the procedure. I signed a bunch of stuff. The anesthesiologist and his assistant came in and re-upped my epidural. My husband was handed scrubs.

I was wheeled into the OR. I wasn't scared at all as during baby class, one of the things they had us do was hold signs and pretend we were people in the OR so we'd know exactly how many people were needed. I knew the baby was fine and that it was just a larger compliment of personnel because I was being sliced open and another human was being extracted from me.

My blood hadn't been typed in the last 24 hours so they did one in the OR. I knew my blood type from donations but they have regulations and so yet another needle was popped into my arm.

My midwife was also qualified to assist on the c-section and she came in with me.  The anesthesiologist poked me a lot and I couldn't feel anything besides pressure just below my sternum.

I was being sliced open when my husband made his way in. He got to see my innards and was not grossed out.

We did our breathing and I felt a lot of tugging. Baby was out! They popped him over the surgical curtain and he wasn't crying, he was just squinting and looking like he'd been dipped in a tub of Vaseline (yay vernix!). Husband and baby went to go get his vitals checked and I called out because I was worried he wasn't crying. He cried in response :) It was awesome. He quieted down just as fast and got a 9/10 on his first test ever. Bands were put on my husband and son to pair them up and one was put on me too.

Then the awful started. I told the assistant anesthesiologist that I could feel what was going on. She said "pressure or pain" and I didn't know how to describe the feeling. It was a feeling of... wrong. Not that something was GOING wrong but that I shouldn't have people inside my body squishing things around like that. There was a little bit of pain but it wasn't severe at first. I wasn't having an anxiety attack, I could FEEL them moving things around and it was terrible. Then the pain kicked in. I screamed. The assistant told the midwife she gave me as much morphine as she could.

My husband heard me, made sure the baby nurse was okay with my son and came back in the OR. He sat with me while I cried, told him I was going to die and then got me to do my breathing which calmed me back down.

I was wheeled into the room and my son was brought to me. I immediately put him on my skin and had him nurse a little bit. The morphine finally kicked in and I was struggling to stay awake.

The midwife later explained that there are nerves that run from the abdomen to the chest and perhaps they weren't as dulled from the epidural - that my epidural was for a vaginal birth, not a c-section. She apologized and I felt bad that she had to apologize but I guess she read the anesthesiologist the riot act.

I'll skip the hospital bit but it was really comfortable, nice and supportive. My son is also a giant flirt.

I wound up back there a day after we left because I started having chest pains and shortness of breath. My first thought was "blood clot" and the ER was overcrowded. They tried to get me a private room since I had my six day old kid but they couldn't and I sent him and my husband home because I didn't want his immune system getting overloaded.

I cried in the ER bed, had to have help getting to the bathroom due to the incision... and then had some bigwig ER guy come in saying how fascinating I was because it looked like I was having postpartum congestive heart failure. I had fluid in my lungs.

Um what.

Seriously?

My phone was nearly dead and Dr. Google was telling me I'd basically be the same.

I laid in the bed kind of numb. At some point my husband called and I forget what I said.

In the morning, I was taken to cardiology which shares a floor with the maternity ward I'd just gotten out of. Within minutes of my transfer, my husband found his way to me. He left our son with his mom and asked me what was going on.

Ugh.

I'll try to summarize this too, it is not all linear:

Basically I was in fluid overload from already being full of fluid, having IV fluids from being induced, IV fluids from the c-section and the cardiologist who was on duty insisted that I should go to Boston because it was absolutely not fluid overload. She also told me I had a "raging UTI" for a week and that the maternity ward never told me. When I explained that I was postpartum and that a urine sample was going to be contaminated... she wanted a catheter in. My nurses tried. I was so swollen they couldn't do it.

My staples were taken out by one of the OB's and the instructor of our class/lactation consultant brought over a pump. I cried (I cry a lot, okay?) and told her that the nurse had told my husband it wasn't a good idea to bring my son in. She told me she'd look into it and I woke up to the maternity ward director at the foot of my bed telling me she made sure my son was allowed.

My husband contacted the patient advocate and I think the cardiologist got pissed. The OB who sliced my son out of me came over trying to tell her it was not CHF. The chief cardiologist who read the scan I had done said my heart was 100% healthy. She wouldn't listen and said "well if I don't know what it is and you don't know what it is, let's send her to Boston".

She also felt that the pain medication I was on wasn't a good idea (I had just been sliced open less than a week prior) and that I should be on diuretics. Diuretics can reduce breastmilk supply, so I refused at the advice of the lactation consultant. I was told in the ER I'd have to "pump and dump" but was also told that was incorrect. I was just getting my supply in so I REALLY needed accurate advice and not bullshit.

A midwife I'd had came over and we talked about what to do. I agreed to the blood transfusion the cardiologist was pushing but wanted to leave after that. A nurse from maternity had been sent over in case I needed a hand with the kid (I didn't, as I was mostly mobile and husband was there) but she was awesome in terms of explaining that it was probably fluid overload.

I had the blood transfusion and had to sign myself out against medical advice. The cardiologist's final act was to walk up to my nurse and tell her that my insurance wouldn't pay for my care if I signed out.

Oh really? Because that's a common scare tactic. If you are insured at the time of service, it's covered, even if you sign yourself out.

And the reason my son was a c-section baby? His head was wedged in my pelvic bone. He had a little welt on his skull for a couple hours after being born. He really WAS trying to be born but he just took a wrong turn.

And that's why I had a neccesarian and I don't feel guilty about it but I do feel a weird need to defend against people who throw out shit like "30% of women in the US have them!!!!!111"

Yes, while there is an uptick, there's also a lot better monitoring and I'm sure some doctors would rather do it (like the one who immediately put my little sister on Pitocin and she wound up having an emergency c-section hours later) versus a vaginal birth but you know what? It shouldn't matter as long as the baby comes into the world safely and the mother isn't harmed.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Wishful Thinking

I finally thought of new things to add to my Christmas list.

BAKING SHEETS.

EVERY time I've gotten a good one specifically for baking, it gets ruined.
K does most of the cooking in the house and I don't like to criticize but we have giant rolls of aluminum foil that he should be using.

I tried using two different cleaners on the most recent effed up sheet. We haven't even had it that long. I tried vinegar + Dawn dish soap, which worked great in my bathroom but barely touched this weird greasy black stuff that was all over the pan. I then tried hydrogen peroxide and baking soda and that did a little more. I wound up using a metal spatula and scraping it but that barely did anything. It has these grooves in the metal and after scraping about a quarter of them, I gave up. I walked out of the room to get something from my office and the pan was gone when I came back. K threw it away.

I reminded him about the aluminum foil as I cleaned up Thursday night's pot pie from my really good cookie sheet.

His mom likes to tell a story about how when our place was being remodeled and we were staying with her, I did the dishes and scrubbed one of her baking sheets. According to her, the baked on stuff is "where the flavor comes from". Ew. I'm sorry but I was not raised that way and I am not going to have greasy, nasty sheets in my cupboards.

The only other things on my Christmas list thus far are gift cards to The Container Store so that I can get the organizing setup (similar to this) for Simon's closet door so all my craft stuff isn't taking up his whole closet. The Container Store does a giant Elfa sale in January so I figure if I get gift cards, I can use those on it then.

I've been talking about getting a Mint robot but I don't know if I really want one or not. I'm scared to plunk down or be gifted an expensive thing like that only for it not to work as I'd like. I vacuum at least once a week if not more and K is starting to vacuum as well but even that isn't completely getting rid of all the pet hair.

I have maybe a half hour before the kid wakes up so I'm going to wander the internet and look at reviews of that thing for a bit.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Simon's Mom

Yesterday, a friend posted on Facebook asking what honorific title other people preferred they use, specifically asking ladies she knew.

I explained that I have used "Ms." since I could fill out my own forms and that it didn't matter much anyway as pretty soon, I'd just be "Simon's Mom" soon.

I think my tone came across incorrectly though because she posted that I wouldn't just be Simon's Mom and a few people "liked" that comment.

I grew up calling people's parents "[friendsname's Mom]" or "Mrs./Mr. [friendslastname]". Since my last name isn't the same as Simon's, I don't expect little kids to know it or for Simon to explain himself every time someone uses my husband's last name to address me.

I'm okay with being Simon's Mom. Making the commitment to try to have children with my husband made me realize that I'd be committing myself indefinitely to his family, a family that hasn't had a baby in over 18 years. I knew what this meant.

There are jokes made - a lot by one of K's uncles - about making sure that I'm greeted when we come to family functions. It's funny because there is a big ol' grain of truth in it. Simon is the main event and I can sit on the sidelines and watch while he interacts with my in-laws. I've never been much for being the center of attention and I certainly don't feel a need to compete for attention against my own son.

The "Simon's Mom" comment comes from a conversation I had with one of his aunts about how the shitty midwife I had commented on the fact that my last name is different than my husband and that it would cause difficulties with my son while he was growing up. She said that she was called [her kids names] Mom and that it really, really didn't matter.

I was around 6 months pregnant when I met this midwive her as I was doing what they call rotating through the roster. The comment pissed me off. I asked online if I was just being sensitive and I was asked how old she was. I can't imagine she was more than mid-40s so I didn't understand the comment. Maybe she was confused when I said "husband" after looking at my chart?

I kept my last name because I love it. It's not perfect and it doesn't go with many names. It is my mom's maiden name and when I was engaged, I told my husband I didn't want to take his last name and he was fine with it - he said if my last name would have gone better with his first name, he might even consider taking mine. We decided together that Simon would have his last name as it goes much better and I didn't want a hyphenated last name little kid. I don't think having a different last name puts Simon at a disadvantage. I grew up with my mom having a different last name and it was rarely if ever questioned and considering the amount of people who aren't married who have kids now, I'd imagine it is far more common and far less of an issue than shitty midwife wants people to think.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Weekly Chores, Smushed Days and Why I Hate Wet Cat Food

Today I made weekly chore charts. After spending the last couple days looking around at what needs doing on a weekly basis, I think I've figured it out. I'm doing fifteen minutes a day in different areas of the house.

For my week, it will go like this:

Monday - living room

Tuesday - bathroom

Wednesday - kitchen/laundry

Thursday - vacuum / dust

Friday - laundry

Saturday and Sunday - rest!

The living room tends to get a bit trashed over the weekend from use so I figured Monday would be the best day to tackle that. The bathroom was kind of arbitrary as it doesn't really require a TON of work but could use a weekly clean. Wednesday is going to be my not-so-favorite day as I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate doing dishes but I will do them if I have to. When my son came home from the hospital and everything had to be sterilized and what have you, I got contact dermatitis from doing dishes. My hands were peeling for about a month and it was awful.

Before this place was remodeled, we didn't have a dishwasher. My biggest complaint about dishes is how our pots and pans, which I love, can't go in there. We had a big issue with a really nice set - the enamel started coming off and I was so angry. We were gifted a new set from a different brand last Christmas and they've yet to see the inside of the dishwasher.

Our washer and dryer is in a cubby in the kitchen so it makes sense to do laundry on the same day. I was doing laundry basically on demand but that felt like I was constantly doing laundry and I was getting angry about it, so I think having specific days will help. I don't generate a ton - my "mom outfit" for most days is pajama pants, easy access bra for feedings, a tank top and if it is cold like it is today, a hoodie and warm socks. The little man wears a onesie and pants and gets changed out of those daily (or more, if he gets it dirty) and his stuff is so tiny anyhow. My husband is the main laundry generator. One set of work clothes plus pajamas plus towel for his daily shower and boom. I've started separating out the towels a little more diligently so I can use the Downy Unstoppables with them. I get that it's basically perfume but they smell soooooooo good. I've only tried the purple (Lush) and teal (Fresh) but there is a new one called "Shimmer" in a pink top that I might try if I find it on sale. I don't like using anything with fragrance for little man's stuff so we tend to use Method Free and Clear on most of our laundry.

Thursday is my "why did I ever decide to have three cats and a dog" day. My one wish for Christmas this year is a Mint cleaning robot. This one, actually. We have hardwood throughout most of the house, bamboo in the kitchen and tile in the back hallway and bathroom. There are "Roombas" for that but they are darn near double the cost and I don't know if I'm wiling to ask for a $500 vacuum. The kid will be crawling soon and that's my big concern - there is absolutely no way I can keep up with the hair. We are getting the dog groomed soon as she's been shedding like mad but the cats are also getting their winter coats in and it is just hair tumbleweed city.

Dusting is... well, when we moved back in here, there was still a ton of sawdust and I suppose "regular" dust as a result of this place being under construction for about three years. We were both working a ton and never got it completely 100% un-dusted and there's still pockets here or there that I've been working on. We did a big clean before the kid came home from the hospital but this house just really likes its dust. It is over 100 years old so I don't think it will ever be pristine, but I am going to fight the good fight.

Laundry again on Friday and then a free weekend. I don't have a job outside of the home at the moment and I think giving myself a free weekend will make being home seem less crappy. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my kid but another reason I'm doing this is because for a while, days were blending together and I'd forget what day it was. Not that great when you are the person responsible for paying bills on time.

He was sleeping decently but after his vaccinations, he slept for almost sixteen hours straight, only waking for feeds and diapers and he turned nocturnal. I would be up until my husband's alarm went off at 7:30AM. On a "good day", I'd be in bed with him by 5AM. It took almost a week and a half for him to adjust back and now he's back to going to bed around 11PM, doing one or two overnight feeds and sleeping until sometime between when his dad's alarm goes off and 9AM. I can live with that.

I did make a weekly chores for my husband but it is significantly different than my own. On Mondays and Wednesdays he needs to empty the cat box - I will do it the rest of the days of the week - and on Tuesdays he needs to take the trash out. We don't have curbside service here so we hired a private company and they come Wednesday mornings. They are a bit dippy when it comes to their "single stream recycling" and general pickup rules but they are a third of the cost of the last place we used and generally tolerable. It works out to $1 a day which is way better than trying to get my husband to wake up on the weekend, load our car with garbage and take it to the transfer station. On Thursdays I'm having him clean his desk off as it is a big problem spot for him. It gets cluttered in dishes, garbage, you name it, it is probably on there. He did a big clean of it last month but it's starting to look horrible again and I just want him to keep up with it.

He gets Fridays and Saturdays off and then on Sunday, I'm requesting he do the dishes. Why? Because he tends to make a huge mess in the kitchen over the weekend and I'm tired of having to clean it up. A week ago I spent hours cleaning the kitchen and he's already trashed it. He has a mental block or something when it comes to taking the recycling down and chose to stack giant boxes on top of the kitchen trash bin, rendering it useless, and he also tends to leave cans in the sink. Not soda cans - mostly cat food cans.

Now for three cats, we flipped them to all Wellness wet food as two were having weight and skin issues. Our places is so small that we can't feed them separately and in trying other foods, the slender kitty would get lose too much weight or one or two of them would barf up the food or they'd just refuse to eat it. They like Wellness a lot.

It's helped immensely with their health issues but wet food grosses me out. I had an incident as a kid where, after a vacation, I came home and was told to feed the cats. I opened up a can of Friskies and there were maggots in it. Even typing this is making my stomach lurch. My husband understood that when we flipped them to wet food, he'd be doing the feeding. If I absolutely must feed them (he forgot and is at work, he's running late, the dog got past the blockade and ate the food, etc.) then I will but I prefer not to.

Hopefully we can stick with this. Obviously if the kid is having a fussy day and I just can't get away for 15 minutes, stuff can wait, or if there is a mess or an overload of laundry for some reason, I'll adjust accordingly. We also have some big and small projects that will require both of us so those will be weekend only things.

The dryer just buzzed and little man is asleep, so I'm going to try and finish up the laundry. I do assure you there is an end to what seems like infinite laundry, it just takes a lot of doing to get there.




Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Peas in a Pod

My inagural post is of course, one about complaining. I hope it doesn't set the tone for the whole blog, but I needed to get it out somewhere.

I occasionally use the grocery service Peapod. For those unaware, it allows you to order groceries online and have them delivered to your house. I'm also a big user of Amazon Prime for things that are harder to find or more expensive locally, so the UPS and FedEx guys know my house well.

Peapod is different. They will lure you in with "FREE DELIVERY" and things of that nature. Where I live, the grocery store paired with them is Stop and Shop. I don't mind Stop and Shop so much, we have a "Super" one in our town and while it is close, we are a one car family and I don't drive. I'm working on this but even so, Keenan doesn't get back from work until 6:30 and the idea of carting an infant around a grocery store doesn't exactly appeal to me right now.

Having groceries delivered seemed like an ideal solution, especially since I am still in the post-op recovery period after my c-section to get my stubborn kid out. I sat in my living room and looked at the ad online and added things to the Peapod cart. I saw an ad for "30 cents off gas" if you bought six items in a category and there were things in the category we normally use, so I added those too. Stop and Shop does gas points - some stores, like mine, have gas stations and they are also partnered up with Shell gas stations to offer these discounts. You get a point for every dollar spent and 100 points equals 10 cents off gas per gallon. I try to be frugal and spending $100 isn't unheard of for groceries in my house but I try to keep it lower than that, so when one of their "X cents off gas" deals pops up for items I actually use, I go for it. Keenan drives about 50-60 miles round trip to work so any money saved on gas is nice.

After sending the login info to Keenan to go over the list, we checked out and I agreed on a delivery time. Unfortunately it was on a day he was working late and wouldn't be home to help me put the groceries away. I figured I could handle it as long as the delivery guy brought the items up the stairs for me since we live on the second floor.

I didn't have free delivery and paid $6 for that. I did, however, get a dollar off because I use "direct check" - linking my bank account to the service. My total was a little over $85. I didn't get a ton of items but I did get things we needed.

Keenan and I agreed on a $3 tip and I set the cash aside on a shelf so I'd remember when the guy came.

A text message arrived the next morning updating me on my delivery window - they'd be there between 6:30 and 8:30PM. I went about my day and the kid was asleep just after 6. Great, that way I wouldn't have a crying baby and a rowdy dog to deal with.

I heard the delivery truck pull up and put the dog out back, shutting the door so she couldn't get through the dog door. I waited at the top of the steps and the doorbell rang. The downstairs door was unlocked, but the guy was just standing there. It's pretty clear that there are steps that go up, but it was also clear that he had no desire to open the door. I figured "maybe it is policy not to" and slowly went downstairs in my sweats and t-shirt.

When I opened the door, he stared at me and I greeted him. He looked around and started grabbing the bags he'd set on the outside steps and looking for somewhere to put them. At this point I realized there'd be no help from him getting things up the stairs, so I moved over and told him he could set things on the steps. I'll admit to not using Peapod a lot but every time I have in the past, the delivery guys have always offered to bring whatever I ordered up the stairs for me. I typically decline as I'm stubborn but the one time I needed it, the guy just did not seem interested in doing anything.

I still tipped him, because hey, he probably makes ten bucks an hour and he did bring eight or so bags up my driveway, but I wasn't too thrilled about attempting to carry probably more than my ten pound weight restriction up my stairs. I did manage to do it but only put the "cold stuff" away and left everything else out while I went to shower.

Oh it doesn't end there. Nope.
A couple days later, I was REALLY excited to eat some strawberries and kiwi. Fresh fruit was a big craving of mine while pregnant and unfortunately after the pregnancy, I haven't had much of an appetite. I'm breastfeeding, so obviously eating is very important to fuel that and while I'm not eating bad food, I do have to force myself to eat a lot, so really wanting something was surprising in a good way.

No sooner did I grab the carton did my face fall. There was a big splotch of mold on the bottom. Many four letter words came out of my mouth when I looked at the top and saw a huge patch all over a nice juicy strawberry in the center of the carton as well. The kiwis were okay, but dammit. I tossed the strawberries in the trash and walked into the bedroom to complain to my sleepy husband.

I wish I could say this is the first time this has happened. I get that someone else is shopping for me and they are probably trying to get their oldest produce rotated out but I feel that is like sticking it to the consumer. I am kicking myself for not checking things but I don't even know if there would have been recourse if I had seen the condition they were in when the guy dropped them off. Could I have refused to take them? I don't know.

Either way, I won't be using Peapod again. Between the unhelpful delivery guy and this latest produce incident, I guess I'll be carting around an infant and a husband to the grocery store.