Does anyone still have a landline? That's all I really want to know today. You can skip over the part about the sheets in this one.

Is this a new tradition? Posting every day while on maternity leave? This is very unlike me. I mean, I did go to Texas A&M and if there's one thing Aggies are positively enamored with it's creating and maintaining traditions. But...no, I think I am just having a lot of time on my hands and I am reluctant to start any project that takes more than a half hour mostly because that means I'll probably have to stand up and reach or bend over for more than a half hour and HA HA HA that is so not happening when I have this slick Ikea POANG chair in my husband's office to sit in and make occasional requests for water and cookies. (That he happily fulfills with nary a sigh or eyeroll, gosh, I LOVE HIM.)

Here's what did happen today:

1. I made Claire's bed. Really, I changed the sheets and then instead of haphazardly putting the covers back on I actually made the bed like a real grown up. (This picture is tiny because I am using the crap code from TwitPic but I'm too lazy to email it to myself and upload it so just click on it if you want to see it bigger.)

I will let you in on a secret: I have changed the sheets on Claire's big girl bed exactly three times since January. I know, you are grossed out, but LISTEN TO ME. She has a bath every night. We are Bath Every Night parents. She goes to bed clean (right after her bath) and she is dry all night and she's not eating leftover birthday cake in there or anything and...the sheets seem super clean to me and they even smell like freshly washed kid most of the time, which is rather nice. So, now you know how lazy I am. I never make her bed and I hardly ever change the sheets. (But, I would like note that I did change her sheets one day before my due date which I think earns me some sort of extra credit because that shit was HARD.)

It's the Land of Nod Circles Quilt and we've had it since January and really, I love it. I couldn't be happier with how it looks and how it's wearing and the weight is nice as well.  It cost too much but it was a gift and that's the way I recommend everyone try to obtain this quilt if it's on your Want List. One day I'm going to put some art on the walls but it will probably be after she stops throwing temper tantrums at bedtime, which will be when she's what...13? SIGH.

2. I went to visit my midwife and I'm 2.5 cm (no change from last week) and I have a very active baby and very normal blood pressure and you can still see my ankle bones (but you have to squint a bit). My midwife is wholly unconcerned that I have not delivered yet and she sent me on my merry way with a request for an NST Monday just to start keeping closer tabs. She never once mentioned the word induction.

3. I had a handful of contractions where I needed to stop what I was doing and go WHOA THAT HURT but only a handful and not close together and I'm pretty sure I'll be pregnant forever.

4. Claire fake-called her grandparents on a cordless telephone that is leftover from the days when we had a landline. I am not sure why we still have this phone, but Claire has adopted it and we have let her. I'd be curious to know who still has a landline and who doesn't. We haven't missed it at all.

5. My friend Julie came to visit us with her 6-month-old daughter and Claire was positively SMITTEN with her. She kissed her and held her hand and when we put the baby in her lap so Claire could show her the mini-Coleman lantern she got in her stocking last Christmas? I thought Claire was going to demand we keep this baby forever.  Good news Claire! WE WILL HAVE ONE OF OUR OWN SOON! (I hope we will have one soon. We better have one soon.)

6. Claire did not take a nap because she was too busy with the visiting baby.

7. As soon as the visiting baby left, I went to my midwife appointment and left Chris with a Crazy No Napped Toddler.

8. Then I came home, said hello and went to dinner with another friend while he bathed her and put her to bed (unwillingly, as she was overtired).

9. Basically, my husband kicks serious ass today as he saw all of Claire's worst sides while I just had fun.

10. All day long I read your comments on my last post and they made me so happy. Thank you for being so supportive and awesome. I have the best readers and friends inside the computer ever, ever, ever. I want to have coffee with all of you.

Comments

[Susan]

We have a land line. I bet your positive responses will only come from the over 50 crowd. And aside from your mom and mother in law, you probably don't even have any other over 50 readers! I'm probably IT!!!

[Holly]

We still have a landline!!! It's kind of a habit. We give out the number to people/agencies we really don't want to talk to, and then use caller ID to screen it. Partly because we don't have millions of cell phone minutes, and partly because I have these weird visions of needing to call 911 and not being able to give out my address because then the bad guys will hear me, and yah. Paranoid.

[Tracy]

(mostly a lurker, going to try to comment more often) - We got rid of our landline a few months ago. I'm not over 50, but give me a few more years and I'll be there...

[craftyashley]

We ditched our landline about 4 yrs ago- the line was having serious issues and the carrier could never fix it, so we cancelled and hoped that being a solely cell family would work out. I've never missed the landline.

[Shilo]

I haven't had a landline since 2004? 2005 maybe? It was definitely gone by the time I moved to NYC in 2006.
Sometimes I miss them, like when you have to call some ridiculously long wait-time customer service phone tree number and you reallyreallyreally don't want that cell connection to cut out because they still totally do that. Also, WHY do cell phones still cut out? Don't we have the technology to fix this? I mean, in some remote part of the woods, sure, but I'm talking decently large suburbs, or say, one of the biggest cities in the world? Crazytalk, I know.

Now I'm rambling. I love the daily maternity leave posts about everything as it makes me feel in the loop about what's going on, specifically if the baby has yet to arrive. babybabybaby!

[kirida]

We still have a landline! My husband doesn't have a cell phone. Isn't that crazy? But I love fake calls to grandparents.

[ANNIE]

We have a landline. Sometimes I wonder why, but those times are few and far between. I think we will always have one.

Also, we used to be bath every night parents too. I will be very interested to see if you remain Bath Every Night parents once baby #2 enters the scene. I don't say this to be all "just WAIT until you have more than one child because EVERYTHING CHANGES and you will DEFINITELY not be doing the bath every night anymore!" because I hate it when people say things like that to me. Hate it with a thousand hates. So I totally don't mean it to sound like that. I say that I'll be interested to see if you maintain the nightly bath because if you do, I will be bowing to you, you Bath Every Night With Two Kids parents. (For the record, Chris got baths every night. Jake got them around once a week. Nate....we never once set up the baby tub for Nate. And I think I can count his 4th trimester baths on one hand.) (shhhh.)

And also? We won't discuss how frequently I change the boys' sheets. All we'll say is: you win on that one too.

[Tara]

We have a landline! It made our bill cheaper to have the whole kit and kaboodle (or bundle... whatever). I think the bill went down $4 a month by adding the service. And we hardly ever use it, but we have the cool tv caller id thing, which is nice in the evenings when telemarketers call (no call list? Come ON!) So we don't have to get up.

[HereWeGoAJen]

I have a landline. I would get rid of my cell phone except that every once and a while I need it at the grocery store or something. I make almost all my calls on my landline because I hate cell phones.

I rarely change the sheets in Elizabeth's crib. I mean, she's clean when she starts on them.

[Karen]

No landline here. We ditched it...I can't remember how long ago. I have a cell, husband has a cell, and we have a spare cell that my oldest son can use in an emergency.

I can't remember the last time I washed the kids' sheets. I try to wash their pillowcases once a week, though. They are boys and do not wash their hair every day. Guck.

[Grandmother]

We still use the land line all the time; good for 911 to know address. Of course we are approaching 80! Cell phone is in my pocket or in reach most of the time for safety and long distance. That is what I grabbed the one time I had to call 911. We also use it like an intercom here at home.
Our first cell phone was 8" x 10" and was so heavy it had a shoulder strap!

[Becky]

We technically had a land line for about 6 months, when we signed up for new cable/internet and it was cheaper to get the bundle. It was never actually connected to a phone. Then when the bundle price went up, the line was canceled. I have considered adding another cell line to our plan and having that be our "land line" so there is a phone at home even we were are not. We'll see.

And I only change sheets when they NEED to be changed - they look dirty, they've been peed on/puked on/jumped on by a muddy dog. So for my oldest, that is sometimes maybe 3 times a year, because she is clean. For my youngest, it's still every 8 weeks tops, longer if I can get away with it. And the daycare sheet and blanket that gets sent home every Friday to be washed? Just sits in the back pack until Monday, when I refold it to look like I washed it, and send it back.

[Elizabeth]

We still have a land line, I use it all the time. I HAAAAAAAATE talking on my cell phone, and it;s never charged, and I hardly ever use it. I know I'm in the minority, but I'm just not a cell phone person. The reception is weird and I can't hold it in between my chin and my shoulder while I do other things! And the landline is cheap because it's bundled in with the cable and we don't pay long distance or anything like that.

[BigP's Heather]

We haven't had a land line for about 7 or 8 years but we are going to be getting one eventually, probably. We just use our cells for everything but I would like to have a land line when we ever (hopefully) start using babysitters. BUT, most of the people we are even considering to babysit have their own cell phones so I don't know if it will even be necessary then??

[Dr. Maureen]

We have a landline. Vonage. Which I sort of hate; we used to have Verizon and I miss it because Vonage does that thing where I can hear myself echoing sometimes, and Verizon always sounded better AND we have a corded wall phone that worked when the power was out. It is currently decorative because we never hooked it into the Vonage line, and that bugs me because I wanted a corded wall phone so that if there were an emergency I would always be able to find a phone. And I will continue to have a landline because of emergencies also; I want to be able to call 911 from my land line. And also I weirdly want the entire family to have one phone number.

[Mama Bub]

We have a land line. Cell service in our neighborhood is spotty at best, so it's a necessity. I think I will always have one in case of emergencies and I prefer talking on the landline to my cell phone. Also, my husband is the least techy person around and turns off his cell phone the minute he comes home, so he would be completely unreachable at night and on the weekends. And all summer.

[Sarah in Ottawa]

We have a landline AND I no longer have a cell phone. And I'm only 33!

But here's the thing - Dave has a Bberry for work, as do I when I'm not on leave. And cell phone plans here in Canada are just painfully expensive. I am near a landline most of the day - either at home or at work (when not on leave). And when we're on long trips, we have Dave's phone.

I imagine that I'll get a pay-as-you-go cell before the Blathering and for emergencies.

I change Teddy's crib sheet quite frequently but he's a drooler. He also HAAATES covers. WTH? Does anyone else have a kid who refuses covers? They're quite possibly my favourite part of bed.

[Erica]

We have a landline along with our fios but we don't actually have a phone plugged into it. I don't know what that makes us.
Very cute pic of Claire on the phone.

[Mel]

We have a landline but my husband offices from home and its paid for by his employer. Otherwise, I don't think it'd be happening. We did have to have it for the security system on the house, so it has its uses I suppose

I don't change sheets very often. Maybe twice a month but only because she sweats and drools some at night. We also bought one of those super expensive fancy mattress covers and I think that gives me a mental justification not to change more frequently. We have the side rails installed so she won't fall out of her gigantic bed and let me tell you just what a B it is to make the bed and change sheets. They even "slide under with ease" according to the manufacturer, but NO. NOT SO MUCH.

xoxo

[Wendy Watkins]

We have a landline because my mother is old and will not call me on my cell phone because she doesn't want to cost me all that money!? No matter how much I explain about unlimited minutes, she's just not gonna get it.

I wash Ava's sheets when she pees on them. Period. Bad Mommy, I know. I'm pretty sure no one has been seriously harmed from less than pristine sheets.

[Jessica]

I've never had a landline of my own. When I went to college I got a cellphone and that's all I've had ever since. It was weird when my parents got rid of their landline, though. The phone number they'd had since before I was born now belongs to someone else.

[Elsha]

We do not have a landline. My parents still have one, as do my brother and sister-in-law. The main reason I prefer cell phones is that whenever MY phone rings I know it's for ME. I only want to answer the phone when it's for me.

[Sarah in Ottawa]

Want a laugh? Not half an hour after I posted this, high winds caused us to lose power for 2 hours. Our landline is through our cable company, and without power - no internet or phone. And no cell phone right now. And I couldn't get the van out of the garage.

I was plotting a walk to the nearby plaza to use a pay phone if necessary. Maybe I'll be buying that pay-as-you-go cell phone sooner that I thought...

[Roberta]

We still have a landline and use Vonage VOIP. At one time we had it b/c we got really cheap calls to the UK and Australia where we had family, and b/c our house alarm and the satellite TV need a landline. Now the UK dwellers are back in the US, and we all use Skype and iChat anyhow, and I think the alarm and the satellite don't need a landline anymore, and uh, I don't know. I guess we have it in case of some unforseen emergency situation. I'm not really in charge. I delegate these things to my husband because otherwise, I would probably still not have a DVR, a flat screen, wireless internet, a Blu Ray, an iPhone, or an iPad. I call him the CIO of our household operation. ;-)

[Petroni]

We have a landline. I totally cannot be bothered to carry my cell with me wherever I go in the house, and invariably when someone does call me on my cell, I'm on a different floor and can't get to it. That's the thing I wonder about only having a cell: Do you just have to carry it with you all over the place?

I also hate holding a cell against my ear using my shoulder. It's too small.