I Asked, I Received

Thank you all so very much for all of your support and suggestions in your comments to my last post. One of the things I have learned more recently in my life is that if you need help it is best to just ask for it, and I’m glad I did. Your comments gave me new ideas for activities to look into as well as motivated me to reconsider some things that I thought I could not do. And yesterday afternoon I took Sam to the neighborhood where I would think lots of moms go with their kids to walk around. Saw no moms (big shocker) but did go into every place and pick up those little free magazines for parents that list events and stuff. Of my stack one of them was very helpful and listed some promising things to look into. Between your comments and this paper I think I am on the right track. I’ll try to give as brief an update as I can here to let everyone know what is going on.

La Leche League – You know, I didn’t do these meetings after first having Sam because he was so amazingly, ridiculously fussy/cranky/colicky/cranky/did I mention fussy? I couldn’t really go to mommy groups those first 6 months because he made it a fairly miserable experience. He is a very light sleeper (still is) and was easily overstimulated. So by the time 6 months rolled around I kind of felt like those meetings might really be for moms new to breastfeeding. Don’t know why I thought that, but clearly from your comments I was wrong. So I am looking into a group that is listed in the paper that meets pretty close to me, even though they don’t have it on their website. If I don’t hear back from the woman I called I will try and work out going to the meeting a little further away. Problem is, it meets at 10:00.

It seems that 80% of gatherings take place at 10:00 or 11:00. Sam has his big nap of the day from about 10:00-12:00. I know, it’s weird. But that’s what he does instead of an afternoon nap. So because most kids his age nap in the afternoons very few activities take place then and are held in the morning instead. This nap issue will become a theme in this post I have a feeling, because it really is putting a cramp in my Let’s Meet Friends Plan.

The Little Gym – I had only heard of Gymboree classes before (which is very far from us) and did not know that these Little Gyms were in this area. Turns out there is one fairly close by and we will be going to a free trial class next week. It’s pretty expensive, but at this point I don’t think I care anymore.

Food Shares – I actually looked into this last week and learned that these groups were full way back in March. It didn’t occur to me to do that before moving out here. So instead we’ll be hitting the Farmers Markets nearby (first one is this afternoon) and checking out the groups that way so that we can get on a waitlist for next year.

MOPS Clubs and MOMS Clubs – I had never really looked into any type of “Mom’s Clubs” before. I had assumed that Moms of Preschoolers actually meant preschool aged kids, like kids in pre-school, but when I looked into it I discovered it was from infancy, but then I learned there isn’t a group anywhere near us. This suggestion did, however, motivate me to look into the clubs listed in this paper I got and one of them sounds promising, the MOMS Club, which is also an international group. There is one that meets right in may area. Waiting for a response to my email. Are these clubs good things? I guess the word “club” has negative connotations for me, but the website did not mention a hazing, so I hope to attend a meeting and an activity of this group soon to see if it’s my thing. It sounds really cool and welcoming.

Libraries and Book Store Storytimes and book groups – I have confirmed that none of the surrounding libraries are doing any type of story time this summer. Some of the bigger bookstores that are a little further away I think have some, but they are listing them for slightly older kids. In fact, a lot of what I find is for 3 years and up and I think that may be some of the challenge here. Sam is very young and can’t do much, but I am also not considered a “new mom” so we are sort of in between groups right now. I wish that the libraries didn’t drop their programs for younger kids just because the older ones have summer reading. I have found 3 potential book groups to do myself in the evenings. 2 meet in 2 weeks and I am intending to go to both to check them out. (CMommy, I’m about half way through the book and it’s pretty clever – I’ll let you know.)

Church – I have found a great sounding church that I want us to visit. Finding a church that’s right is always hard work, as I am sure many of you know who have looked at new churches. In addition to the regular difficulties in finding a good match, we also have the Sam sleep dilemma. Service times are always in the morning during his nap hours. And so we still have yet to make it to this place I found because he is always, ALWAYS mid-nap when we would need to go. Isn’t that always the way? They know you want to do something and it’s like they go out of their way to stop you. No, that’s not really true. But it is true that doing anything during the 10:00 to 12:00 window is going to be very difficult. I may go to this place by myself to check it out.

Starting my own play group – I really like this idea and was considering it before moving here. I havn’t decided if I want to try and start one within this apartment community or one for the area in general. And this may be my way of procrastinating because it’s a little scary to see myself trying this out. Any of you that have had success doing this please let me know your tips. If I was going to start one just in the area I suppose I’d post something at the grocery store and the library and plan to meet at a nearby park at a certain time. Are there really play groups for kids this young?

One Fit Mama – This is an awesome thing I found in the paper I picked up. The group of mamas meets with their babies for a fitness class and there is a meeting place close to us. They spend a lot of the time pushing the kids in the stroller around the park, stopping periodically for strength training using the kids as their resistance. They even have a class at 5:00 once a week in that park I showed pictures of in a recent post. So excited.

Other highlights – I’m waiting for my zoo membership card to come in the mail. We have a Makin’ Music, Rockin Rythms class starting next week. It is at 9:45am, which is totally going to cause problems with the Sam nap but I was desperate when I signed up and they only had morning classes (again with the morning meetings). I know there’s more…

Basically I have a left a lot of messages and am waiting to hear back on several things. But there is a lot that is promising. Thank you all again for your comments. They made me feel so much better and I feel like I have a lot of possibilities now. As my Mom and Hubby so very kindly pointed out, “I think you are upset about this because you are getting your period soon…” Well, they are both right. Let’s here it for the people that really know us. So while that does not make my feelings invalid, it certainly can make things feel exponentially worse and slightly more hopeless. I suppose that’s why it felt like it was really bad very suddenly. Thank you all again for coming to my pity party giving me the help I needed.