Post price increase wrap up

Every year my price increase week is among my busiest of times, second only to the couple of weeks right before the camp in July (which is also my birthday and the time I have to clean the entire house and yard for my big pool party, after a year of neglect). So at the moment I have many unanswered emails and FB messages, again many asking me for favors and discounts, but also people just checking in with me for various reasons because my increase in Facebook activity jogs their memory and reminds them they need to ask me about that thing. This always annoys me somewhat - don't they know it's Price Increase Week and I'm freakin' busy? But then I'm reminded that no, they don't know that, and I would do the same thing. So, there you go.

So how did it end up? Well, for the early part of the day Tuesday I was in a bit of a depression, convinced there was no way I was going to make the $29,000 by midnight I'd need to be on a par with last year. I was already making budget cuts in my head. But then as often happens everything picked up after about 8 PM. The best thing is unlike previous years the system didn't crash every ten minutes ushering in a flood of angry phone calls and emails ("I'm entitled to my discount, dammit!"), also the system now sends automatic confirmations, which means I didn't have to check over every registration, I could just hang out and watch the money roll in and be there to answer questions, which were few. Having a good working online registration form with no bugs and a website with clear information makes a HUGE difference, and just in time, with a baby on the boob!

In the end I fell about $5000 short of my goal, which sounds bad but actually doesn't really mean anything when you factor in how little I currently have on my credit card, and other factors. So the money is kind of ok. The one thing that's worrisome is the fact that I have 50 more people, which technically should mean I should have $5000-$10,000 more than last year, but instead I have $5000 less. What caused this disparity? It's not hard to guess when I was stuck with a huge tax bill and a $7000 hospital bill I wasn't expecting. There's your disparity right there.

So I'm kind of annoyed the money is sucking AGAIN and AGAIN I'll have another tight year where I can't do the home repairs I've been putting off forever...but the good numbers means the camp's future is secure, and as was pointed out, I should really celebrate that I have zero debt from Robert's conception and birth, which not many choice moms can say just three months in. So today I'm feeling happy and grateful.

Evenings have been much better around here. I don't know if the baby just made a "leap" or I'm better at figuring him out or what, but last night he spent hours happily in his swing while I did paperwork, and in fact I had to wake him to eat, which never happens. Use of the paci instead of my boobs means less pain. I hope this trend continues!

I have him all signed up at the drop-in sitter place in Pasasena. I'll admit I'm afraid to use it the first time...but it's just one of those mom things I'm going to have to get used to - sometimes you just have to trust an institution to care for your child. I should think of it like the NICU - technically he's in better hands with professionals who know what to do if he chokes or falls anyway, and he's too young to be freaked out by being left with strangers. My hope for this place is that he can stay there from time to time, get comfortable there, make friends with the other kids, use it for preschool, and beyond. I hope I don't find some glaring problem with it and have to find somewhere else!

I remembered that last year during price increase week I got a terrible back ache and fever, which scared me because I was in the middle of my second 2ww after using Femara. Just a week or so later I got my first BFP, which was such a magical moment. It would end badly, but not for long. As of a year ago I was already on the baby train. And look where we are now!