Pregnancy is hard work. Anyone who says it isn’t is lying. Don’t get me wrong… it is amazing and wonderful and miraculous, but nonetheless, it is tough on a woman (and her spouse!).

And through the 10 months of morning sickness, fatigue, and other ailments, there is little you can do to make yourself feel better. The one thing I had that made my day at work just a teensy bit more manageable was a cup of coffee or a crisp new can of soda… And now they take that away, too! Ugh.

Yesterday, a new study came out recommending that pregnant women, especially in the first months of pregnancy, avoid caffeine all together. Say it ain’t so.

I’m not sure if we’ll even have any more children, but the thought of having to give up my morning juice hurts. It really hurts.

This link is a video from the Today Show re: SAHMs.  I really don’t like Leslie Bennett who wrote “the Mommy Mistake.”  I think she has some good points, but I think her appearance on so many shows now is just to irate and irritate us.  Women and their families should make informed decisions, but they shouldn’t be scolded for making the decision to take care of their children full-time.  Give women credit, Honey.  We are thinking big picture, too.  Some of us, if we’re lucky, will get the opportunity to enjoy the time at home with our children. 

She’s on the show gabbing about the Mommy Wars… I’m off to play with my kids. 

The news report says that onlookers had mixed reactions, from supportive, to thinking it excessive punishment.  However, she stuck to her guns, and the son understood saying, “I feel like my mom cares enough about me to do this, she loves me.”  I’m glad I don’t have to deal with these issues yet, and hope I won’t ever have to.

Always on the lookout for interesting stuff featuring moms or things a mommy would love, I stumble across interesting news periodically.  Today, I found an interesting story about a mom with one of the video baby monitors (I’d love to have one for my baby and to see what my son’s doing) who started picking up video of the international space station.  It’s an interesting story and make you wonder how she’s picking it up.  Here’s the story from Fox News Chicago.

I thought this was a very interesting read for a new stay at home mom.  It described several scenarios that sahm’s face including preparing to quit, dealing with money issues, feelings of self-worth, etc.  It also gives a lot of pointers for positioning yourself to go back to work (something I plan to do in a few years).  I’m nervous about all of these things, so it was good to get some perspectives from the writers and the many people they interviewed.

I’m still digesting a lot of what was discussed in the book, but if you’re thinking about staying home or currently at home and thinking about going back to work, I recommend checking it out.

Lincoln, Nebraska – Police ticketed a 39-year-old woman this week after she allegedly drove seven kids to a teacher’s home to toilet paper it.  A seventh-grade English teacher at Pound Middle School told police that over the weekend, the outside of her house, yard, trees and driveway were vandalized with toilet paper, syrup, adhesive tape, dishwashing soap and eggs.  A message directed at her was written on her driveway.

Four 13-year-olds and three 12-year-olds who attend Pound were referred to the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office for possible charges.  And police ticketed the mother of one of the 12-year-olds on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of minors.  Police said she drove the girls to the teacher’s house, knowing they intended to vandalize the home.

A 60-year-old New Jersey woman gave birth to two healthy baby boys yesterday, becoming the oldest woman to give birth to twins in the U.S.  The babies were doing well after being delivered by planned Cesarean section. Their mother, Frieda Birnbaum, had in-vitro fertilization in South Africa.

She and her husband of 38 years, Ken Birnbaum, were exhausted but happy last night after adding the 4 pd. 11 oz infants to their family.  The couple also has a 6-year-old son, a 29-year-old daughter and a 33-year-old son.

Birnbaum broke the American age record for twins, previously held by a woman in her late 50s, but she is roughly 7 years younger than the oldest woman to have twins. That record is held by Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, a Spaniard who had twin boys in December 2006, just days before her 67th birthday.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=3e738a5f-496e-4f42-a512-46e3730a079c&f=00&fg=

I let my son watch TV, probably too much, but it would be hypocritical for me to ban something that my husband and I enjoy every evening.  We are TV junkies and unfortunately our kids probably will be, too.  The good news: I finished a book yesterday and hope that I’m able to also influence my kids to love books by reading to them and letting them see me reading sometimes.  Like the “Facts of Life” states, “you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have…”  (Hey, was that a TV reference?)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year, according to research released on Wednesday.

This reflected a 3 percent raise from last year’s $134,121, according to Salary.com Inc, Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts.

The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother’s work were housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said.

The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime.

A mother who holds full-time job outside the home would earn an additional $85,939 for the work she does at home, Salary.com.

Last year she would have earned $85,876 for her at-home work, it said.

Salary.com compiled the online responses of 26,000 stay-at-home mothers and 14,000 mothers who also work outside the home.