Swiffer Sweepervac Review

Today as I was Swiffering the floor, I thought I ought to tell the blog about my Swiffer Sweepervac. I can't tell you if I think it's worth the cost, because mine was a gift from my step-mom, but I can tell you that I like it.

If you are unfamiliar with the Swiffer concept, google it, because I keep trying to describe what it looks like and I'm failing utterly. More than likely though you've seen an ad for one or seen them in the grocery store. By and large I think the original Swiffer is junk.* It will grab hair and dust pretty well, but larger particles of dirt end up being pushed around, not picked up. The Swifvac builds on the concept of a dust collector by adding a low powered vacuum to the end of it and a tiny canister to catch what it collects.

Before getting the Swifvac I was using an old broom (that really needs replacing) to clean the downstairs. We have 2 rooms of Pergo, tile by the front door, and linoleum through the kitchen and laundry room. The sweeping was always a horrid chore because all the cat hair just flew around and landed back down once you were done. Trying to get the swept material off the floor into the garbage was yet another challenge, and then the dust barely clinging to the end of the broom bristles that wouldn't come off in the trash can where I wanted them, but instead clung on until over a clean bit of floor...

I'm pretty sure the floor is getting cleaner than when I swept manually, since the fine particles don't just get to fly around and land back down behind me. It's definitely easier to manage, and that means that it gets done more often which is a good thing.

I am frugal, and a bit environmentally concerned, so I don't buy the disposable Swiffer cloths to use with it. We took an old t-shirt and cut it up so that I have several reusable cloths to use. The t-shirt does really well with the fine dirt, dust, and cat hair. I recommend cutting up a t-shirt over all the other reusable cloths I found when I googled for options. Most of them are far more time consuming, and probably don't work much better.

My only real complain is the battery life is not great. By the time I'm nearing the end of the downstairs it is running out and the suction plummets down from "not great" to "ha ha yeah right". My work around is to rotate which room I start with, and make sure I go after the dirty spots first saving the lower traffic areas for last.

When they gave me the Swiffer they also gave me a box of the wet wipes for "mopping". I put that in quotes because it's basically like wiping down your floor with a baby wipe. It does remove some dirt, even after first using the dry cloth, but you're leaving something behind too. It doesn't do anything for removing a drip that has dried from the night before, and I'm only using them because we have them. I wouldn't ever recommend buying them. Once we run out I'll have to investigate reusable wet pads, I'm thinking maybe one of the shammys I found when we moved might work well. So far it seems that if you want a mopped floor then you have to mop the floor. I have to tell you that I like mopping even less than I like sweeping.

All in all if you have a moderate amount of smooth uncarpeted floor that you need to sweep regularly then I highly recommend getting someone else to buy you a Swiffer Sweepervac. If you'd like to test drive one, you are more than welcome to come over and clean my floors sometime. Just let me know in advance so I can make sure the battery is charged.


*Statement based on performace of the Swiffer Sweepervac when it has run out of batteries, and is relying on the Swifferness of itself to finish cleaning the floor.

Sleep Is For The Weak

... and boy are we weak lately. As Jeff put it earlier today, there is nothing worse than peacefully sleeping while your baby peacefully sleeps, only to have an alarm go off so that everyone can wake up and get pissed off in the middle of the night for a feeding.

At the doctor's today Max weighed in at 9 lbs 6 oz, well above his birth weight (50th percentile for a 1 month old which he will be in just a few more days). The doctor was very pleased with this gain and gave us the go ahead to stop waking him up. If Max wants to sleep 8 hours at a stretch at night, then we can all get a good night's sleep. Now, I'm under no illusion that this is actually going to happen anytime soon, but there have been times when I'm sure he would have slept a solid 6 hours if we had let him.

Today was a day full of adventure for the little guy. We went back to NAMC, but just for a visit. My friend Beth had her twins yesterday evening, and we went to go say hello. This was her first chance to see Max in person, and for us to meet Alyssa and Ethan. As Julie mentioned that Max makes Etta look huge, so the little twins make Max seem gigantic.

Alyssa 7/21/09 19:03, 5 lbs 13.8 oz, 18 in

Ethan 7/21/09 19:06, 5 lbs 3.2 oz, 18 3/4 in

We also took Max up to Flextronics so my coworkers could visit with him. They were all smitten with his good looks, and he was remarkably well behaved. Then Jeff had to stop by one of his clients on the way home, where Max had a snack and a diaper change. Luckily the office wasn't busy and no one had to listen to his screaming for long. We grabbed a burger for us to split and ran home so I could pump and Max could get back to his busy day of relaxing.

It's time for some pasta and a glass of wine. Max is sleeping in the swing, and things are good.

What I've Been Up To

So it's been a while since my last post, but I have a very good reason. On June 24th I came down with a nasty bout of food poisoning and with major contractions went off to the hospital. Unfortunately the contractions did jack squat, and I was sent home early the next morning still pregnant, and still feeling crappy. Later that morning I spoke with my doctor and it was arranged that Friday I would trek back to the hospital to have labor induced.

I don't have any spectacular labor stories to tell. It was pretty uneventful. Although I was pretty entertained by the way the pulse ox made my finger look like E.T.'s.I tried to get Jeff to Twitter something for me about it, but this was before the epidural and apparently another contraction came and the tweet just went by the wayside. We were only in the hospital for about 8 hours before our son was born, so pretty much all the fun stuff happened later.

Blog meet Maxwell Everett Kievlan, born June 26th 2009 at 2:59 pm. He was 8 lbs 8 oz and 22 inches long.There were all sorts of bumps along the road to where we are now. Jeff got a worse stomach bug than me on Saturday night, the day after Max was born. I'll spare you any details, but it was super bad times. Then Max and I had problems with breastfeeding, and lucky for you I did not take pictures of my scabby nipples so I can't show you the horror that was. It was bad though, bad enough to warrant a $60 prescription cream to heal them. The lactation consultant couldn't find anything wrong with Max's latch, and felt that the problem was with his tongue not sticking out properly. We tried to work through it, but after a week and a half I couldn't handle the pain anymore. Even trying to alternate breastfeeding and pumping for a bottle wasn't letting the nipples heal up. They looked better than they did on day 5, but every time he tried to feed they would get injured all over again.

Max was also losing weight over the course of the first week. If everyone's scales were accurate he dropped from 8 lbs 8 oz, down to 7 lbs 9 oz. To make sure that he was getting enough to eat we started supplementing formula feedings into his schedule. He immediately started sleeping better, and gaining some weight back. We go back tomorrow for another weight check, but at his 2 week check-up he'd made it back to 8 lbs.

Check out the Kung Fu Grip (2 wk appt)

Once I decided to exclusively pump and give him breast milk that way it was obvious that I needed help getting my milk to come in better. The lactation consultant recommended herbal supplements, but I balked at the volume of capsules that she wanted me to consume. I decided to call my OB and talk about the prescription drug option, which is Reglan. The nurse said no problem, and that people rarely have side effects and had an order phoned in for me. Well, I got me some side effects. I ended up with drowsiness, sleeplessness, anxiety, and I couldn't eat more than 4 bites of food every 5 or 6 hours so I was always starving. It took me 3 days to figure out the medication was to blame, and that it wasn't just "new mom crazies". Luckily the anxiety that had built up to the point of low grade panic attacks went away within a day of stopping the medication. Looking back on that first week now I can barely remember it. We were so tired at first, I guess - I don't really remember, and then I started that medication and everything went away. I have no idea how I made it through the weekend, and I can see why everyone kept asking if I was okay and looking at me a little funny.

The morning I stopped taking Reglan I spoke with the lactation consultant again and she said that she considered Reglan a last resort, because many of the women she has worked with have had side effects. So once again she recommended the Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle, only 2 pills of each 3 times a day... *sigh* So that's what I'm taking now. It may or may not be helping. I am producing more milk, but I've also been pumping 6-7 times a day for a couple weeks now and that could be part of the increase as well. Still, other than having strange smelling sweat and urine I'm not having any side effects, so I'm thrilled with the results. We're still having to give him formula, but I'm able to pump about 2/3 a days worth of milk for him now, instead of less than half.

Everything is going a little smoother now. I'm still working out the kinks in trying to keep Max happy by myself during the day, now that Jeff's back at work, but for the most part things are good. Since Max spends most of his day with a furrowed brow looking very serious, I'll leave you with the least serious shot I've taken of him so far. From just this morning.

Thbbbpt !

Parsley, Sage, and Other Stuff

Last night was movie night at our house, and we put that sucker through its paces. We had (including ourselves) 10 adults and 6 children over for dinner, and other than needing to borrow folding chairs it went pretty well. I saw places where improvements could be made in layout and organization of the kitchen area, but all in all it worked out, and everyone got fed. We may not routinely have that many guests at once, but I'm very happy to see that we can manage. Our duplex was just way to small to accommodate that kind of gathering.

The house quickly emptied by the time the movie was about to start. That's the problem with movie "night". Our group doesn't do night as well as it used to, and by 8pm when the movie is ready to start a lot of people are ready to head out so the kids can climb into bed. Still, some folks might have stayed if I had picked a more kid friendly film. Rosemary's Baby is not kid friendly. Only 4 of us were left by the time the movie came on, and none of us remembered how kid unfriendly it got, or how fast. So any of you thinking about watching it at home, take my warning and don't watch it with the kids. Still, I enjoyed the movie and I'm glad that I picked it because it had been a long time since I saw it. I bet the last time I watched it was on tv and that's why I don't remember some bits, they were probably edited for content. The funniest moment came when Rosemary finds out her due date is June 28th, just a day after my due date. That cracked us all up.

Due dates are a funny thing. Everyone knows that you can't count on that date to be accurate, but we can't help but hope anyway. I've hit the end of my rope with this pregnancy thing, and I'm officially ready for this baby to be born. If I thought he would care I'd threaten or bribe him anyway I could think of in order to convince him that it was time to leave my body. I'm tired of being tired all the time. I'm tired of not being able to bend over, or having it cause me pain or exhaustion. I'm tired of being thumped, kicked, stretched, and otherwise abused from the inside out. I'm tired of having a pain I compare to getting a pap smear done repeatedly for sometimes 30 minutes or more at a time. But not all my feelings are of frustration. I'm excited by the prospect of being able to see what this little creature looks like, and play with his little toes. I'm ready for his dad to be able to hold him and cuddle him, and for me to be able to see them together. I'm ready for him to have a name and to hear other people use it, so maybe we need to settle on a middle name... It would be nice if the nursery were actually ready, but at this point I don't care. I'll take the baby now and the nursery later, thank you very much.

I officially have 12 days to go until the promised due date, but it if were less that would be okay by me.

Marching Along

So Jeff and I have been working on getting the house put together, but I think we're both running out of steam. We worked pretty much non-stop (either at our day jobs or on the house) for a month and a half it seems. This last weekend was a much needed rest. We did do some things around the house, and Jeff got the last full coat of paint put up in our bedroom, but it was nothing like previous weekends. I mean we slept in until 9:30am on Saturday. I can't remember the last time we'd stayed in bed that long.

The cats seem to have settled in. They no longer look forward to being locked up in our bedroom, they want to be left out all day and night to see what they can get into. We're nervous about this, since there are still pieces of furniture that need to be secured so they don't tip over, but we're going to have to let them out sooner or later. It's nice to know that they are ready.

It's time to get the china cabinet secure so the cats can roam free, and it's time to get to work in the nursery. We only have 2 1/2 weeks before our due date so there's no time to lose now. I don't care if it's fully decorated yet, because Jeff does have some grand plans, but I'd like to get the painting done so that I can move in the furniture and have a functional room.

Still, we're finding time for all sorts of little baby worries. I had a great dream the other day that I had a baby girl and the next day I was at work when I realized that since she had been born I hadn't fed her. Oops. Not a real fear I have, I mean I've never even forgotten to feed a cat that long and I have less biological drive to keep them alive. Not to mention that I will use my mind to put out the sun before I go back to work 24 hours after having this baby. The real fears that I have center around doctor visits and what they will say.

I was worried that the ultrasound would find that our boy was still sideways, and that we'd need to schedule an ECV. Although I was almost sure over the weekend he had settled into the correct position. Happily the ultrasound showed he was head down, and Dr Darby is pretty sure he'll stay that way, apparently the baby is pretty well down? (very scientific these docs can be) So now I have a regular OB appt tomorrow and I have new fears. Fear number one is that all of a sudden baby won't be head down anymore, and that he was just performing well for the ultrasound because he's mean and he wants to torment me. I don't think this one is likely, but the nagging worry is there. Fear number two is that although I was dilated to 1 cm last week, and had a couple of decent contractions over the weekend, that tomorrow she'll find that I'm not dilated at all, completely sealed shut. Fear number three is that she'll check and find that I'm dilated to like 4 cm or something and declare that I need to cross the street to go have a baby, and I am not ready for that. So on the one hand I feel pretty calm since I'm not freaking out worrying about crazy things that can go wrong, but on the other hand I feel pretty silly because I'm worrying about relatively trivial things that are unlikely to even happen.

Another Early Morning

5 am is either some sort of cat witching hour, or a time when I am absurdly light in my sleeping. Once again I was wakened by cat mischief. Cats seem to have a magical ability to find mischief in places that you never thought it could exist. I assume they are only rivaled in this ability by some species of monkeys and small children.

This morning I learned that our new bathroom drawers are for cats. The following traits have made them irresistible to Cabbit and Spooky.

• The drawer is eye level with them
• The drawer is easy to grab from the side and pull open with a paw
• The drawer is deep enough to fit a hunkered down cat
• Apparently while inside you can push/pull something to slide your drawer in and out over and over and over and over and over....

So that's how I woke up this morning. The sound of a drawer opening and closing repeatedly. Upon investigation I found a cat inside. While making a pee stop before heading back to bed the sound started again, and when I reopened the drawer there was a different bigger cat inside. To preserve my sanity and keep from chucking any cats out windows at 5 am I used some painters tape to secure all the drawers and climbed back into bed. They've already started to chew through the tape, so this solution won't last for long.

I'm now a little afraid to let them into the rest of the house. I had no idea how much trouble they could find in just our master bath and bedroom. I have ideas on how much trouble they can cause with free roam over the rest of the house, especially since we aren't unpacked yet, but I suppose that's just life right now. I want to let them have a couple days to explore before we have company come over this weekend, and frankly Spooky and Bullet are ready to get out and see what's beyond the bedroom door. Dinah may not wander far, but I'll be happy if I don't find one of those two on a ceiling fan before the day is out. Thank god that cats don't have wings.

4 Days of Work : I Want My Weekend Back

Well this last weekend was a killer. Not literally, except for some ants and weeds, but still pretty brutal for the rest of us. Since Friday we've been packing boxes and moving them over to The House. New baseboards have been purchased and cut to the proper lengths and then painted, some have even been nailed up despite sabotage attempts by a shitty Home Despot nail gun rental. The master bedroom has been painted 3 times (primer and 2 coats of burgundy) and still needs at least one more. Thankfully the nice manager at Sherwin Williams took pity on us and has gifted us with some free rollers and a gallon more of paint to help us get it into shape without laying out even more cash, cause paint is damn costly.

We've packed and unpacked over and over to move stuff from one place to the other, since we 1. don't have enough boxes for all our stuff, and 2. don't have a car big enough to move it all at once anyway. Monday we had Aloha Moving come drag all our furniture and what appliances we own, plus some heavy book boxes and such to The House. I highly recommend these guys, they were very pleasant (at 8am on Memorial Day) and very easy to work with. They were also FAST without being careless with any of our stuff.

There is still so much to do. Baseboards are still laying around the house, turns out our dining table is wobbly (carpet hid this from us), there's a fridge to be delivered tomorrow, book cases need to be secured to walls so that they can be filled with books, we still have a few trips to and from the old duplex to finish grabbing things like computers and millions of comic books. This would all be a bit easier except for the breastfeeding class tonight and the childbirth prep class Thursday night.

Last night was our first night spent sleeping in our new home and it was interesting. Despite vet prescribed dope Cabbit was still unconsolable the entire trip over. I hear that Bullet wasn't all that great himself, my scardy Dinah was however pretty quiet. This is probably because she was catatonic, but quiet is quiet in my book. She came to sometime around 5 in the morning and started crying, when I called her she would come to the bed crawl under the covers with me and purr while I pet her, then she would go look out the window a bit and get back down on the floor and cry some more. Yeah, that was fun. Screaming cat and 5 am, I should make an audio tape of that and sell it for people that need more spice in their lives. Now she's lost. It appears that there are 3 pieces of bedroom furniture that come all the way to the floor in front, but have large openings in back so we think she's under one of them. Either that or an alien space ship beamed her out of the bedroom between 6:30 and 8 today.

Speaking of 8 that's what time I woke up today. Jeff had the dryer running after the great plug fiasco. If you saw his tweets then you should know that the 4th wire is not mojo, it is nothing, neutral, just a way to sell you a new cord set when you move to a house with 4 holes in the socket instead of 3... bastards.

Anyway, the dryer is done now so we really should get going. This is my first time to drive to work from here. I hope the traffic has died down a little bit. I've had enough stress in the last few days, it would be nice if a day of work could be a little relaxing.

Happy Belated Memorial Day!