Cell Physiology Professor Van Breukelen

This was a very hard class. It's a 400 level and 600 level course. Understanding the physiology of the cell. Cell signaling pathways, communication, and organelle function, in the greatest detail ever! Yet what you learn is that we don't know very much, and there are still mechanisms that we have no clue how it works. One thing that I learned that I will never forget is the ever so interesting phosphatidylinositol, and ubiquitin degradation :)

Tips:

Record the lectures
Write everything down he writes on the board
Take extremely good notes
Study the figures

Organic Chemistry Professor Pradip Bhomik

If you like to sleep. Don't like headaches. Enjoy your weekends. This class is not for you.
Organic Chemistry is an extremely demanding course. Practice makes perfect in this class. I think every Organic Chemistry course taken anywhere is a challenge, but if you were taking it with me Fall 2009, you knew the kinds of emotional roller coasters there were.
This class is insane. The tests are painful. I remember walking out of my first exam really happy that I studied effectively, and I thought I did a good job. I got sick immediately after I recieved my exam. I have never felt like vomiting, and my heart closing up after seeing my exam score. I could see the looks on my fellow students as they recieved their exams. People were scoring less than 50% on their exams. My first exam score I recieved a 44%. I studied for hours! Days! I practiced, I read all the chapters assigned. I did all of my homework with understanding. What happened! I felt so hopeless. After I got my grade I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I felt like a loser. My friend Sarah and I both scored pretty awful scores, and I immediately decided to go to the academic success center. There we met the best Organic Chemistry tutor ever: Alan Stephens. Without Alan I would have failed the course.

We also met some other students in our course who had recieved pretty awful scores as well. So I felt better. I am so thankful there is a place like the Academic Success Center. They really saved me. The subsequent exams were just as painful to study for and take. I did discover the beauty of Organic chemistry and can't wait to enjoy Organic Chemistry II, with Bhomik again :)

Here are some tips:
A lot of people have old Exams, Professor Bhomik has been teaching at UNLV for a very long time, and his test look the same every year. Yes it is helpful to use his old exams to study, but if you don't know what you are practicing and don't practice with understanding, you will Fail. I promise that you will fail without practice. This is not an easy A or easy B class.

You can go to class everyday, take good notes. Do the homework and still FAIL.
I would highly suggest the academic success center. They have great tutors.
I bought Orgo Cards from Borders. They are great, but I didn't use them.

Getting Ready for Spring 2010

Wow, is it Spring 2010 already? Yay! If things go as planned, I should be done in July.

These are the courses I will be taking January 11, 2010.

Biology 415 Evolution with Daniel Thompson (TR 8:30-945)
Biology 486 Animal Behavior (Taxonomy) Michelle Eleckonich (MW 8:30-9:45)
Organic Chemistry II, Pradip Bhomik (MW 2:30-3:45)
Organic Chemistry II Lab (W 11:30-2:20)



In the summer I need to complete

Biochemistry I
Anatomy

That should be the last undergraduate course I take at UNLV.

Molecular Genetics Biology 304 Professor Andrew Andres

Why did I take this course?

Sequencing the DNA of an entire mammalian genome now seems routine. The challenges of the 21st century is what to do with this data. If you take "classical" genetics, it will probably cover a lot of the fundamentals, but molecular genetics will prepare you to start thinking of disease pathologies and what kinds of effective therapeutic interventions have been done.

I was very happy to learn on the first day of class that you can take Molecular Genetics in place of Biology 300 Classical Genetics. It is also an acceptable prerequisite for Evolution but only if you get a pre-requisite waiver from the Biology Department. Don't quote me, but in order to get into Evolution you need to have taken Biology 300, Classical Genetics, but if Classical Genetics is not offered, you can take Molecular Genetics and get a waiver to get into Evolution.

This course is a course that you must be prepared for. Be in shape to absorb as much information as possible if you are not used to it. Professor Andres does a lot to help students do well in the course, but it is a VERY challenging course and it covers a lot of material. If you have never been exposed to Genetics before, or the terminology and concepts of the gene, it would probably be a good idea to pick up the book for the class and look over the main concepts. Read the chapter summary. Familiarize yourself with the big picture, as you will be learning tons of detail. Not only will you be learning about gene and it's role in protein synthesis. You will study all the names of the enzymes involved in all of the mechanisms of protein synthesis. I put a copy of the exam results from exam 1. The classroom size was very large. It was a full class, I had to petition to get into this course and was lucky he let me in because it already seemed as if it reached its capacity. By the midterm, a little less than half the students dropped.

How much do you have to study in order to get a good grade?

I studied a lot.
There were days that I studied 6 hours, and sometimes 8 hours.
I had to balance my other courses and being a mother.
If I had to do it again.
I would fit a good uninterrupted 2 hours everyday.
The book is needed to reference his lecture notes. I don't think I could have done well without the book. If you don't want to purchase the book, it would be a good idea to find it at the Library. That is what I did. The only annoying thing about that is that it is due after two weeks and if you are not careful you could go without a book for a week or end up with late fees.
But his powerpoints are so detailed, some people don't think the book is really necessary.

Each week you will be presented with 2 lectures, 3 hours worth of information.
Before each class he posts a partial powerpoint, and if you go to class and fill out the powerpoint it could be a good way to learn while in class.
I made a huge mistake of trying to write everything down. Even though he provides you with all of the information after class. I wasn't thinking very effectively.

This course started at 8:00am Monday and Wednesday. I would have liked to be given the powerpoints that he posted over the information he was going over before class so I could read what he was going to go over before class, but that wasn't an option available to me. I saved all of the PDFs so that if I needed to retake the course another time, I would have them.

It would probably be better to just try to pay attention in class and still take very good notes. Dr. Andres believes that if you take good notes in class you will retain more of the class, and it did turn out to be a better way for me to learn. My mistake was I took too many notes, because I didn't trust my brain to retrieve any information. I had this class back to back with Ochem, so by the time I exhausted myself by writing everything down that I could, I was pretty tired at the end of Ochem, which ended at 11:15am. The days that I got good rest I would go over recent lecture material with a friend, but most of the time I took a break and prepared for Cell Physiology at 2:30pm. My schedule was long, and if I had to do it again, I would take less courses or take less challenging courses.

Dr. Andres does write new test questions every year. But the one time that someone gave me one of his old exams, using it to study was very helpful and helped me get a better score.

Do the extra credit.
There is no curve in this class.

Released the Yoke

I haven't had time to update everyone on how things have been the past months because I have been tied by a yoke and have been too busy tugging Ochem, Mol Gen, and Cell Phys to the finish line. I have to admit I was drained and often times felt a roller coaster of emotions. My exams were hard, and at times I felt very hopeless.

A week before the 9th, Herbie and Ricky went on a trip to Benecia to visit his Grandma Lucy. I was so relieved because I desperately needed time away from the family during finals to focus on my classes. Even though I work all weekend, it feels great. Work is a nice walk in the park compared to school.

Nothing really exciting has happened, so let me go and review my classes now.

Lost 10 lbs on Dr. Loks Diet :)

I have been on this diet for about 10 days. I have lost 10 lbs.

No grains.

No dairy.

No sugar.

Everything else ok!

Anticipating her grades for her first exams!

After hours of study, I don't know how I did on my exams.
I think I did well on my Genetics exam, as I focused most on this course. Sarah and I spent a lot of time reading, and rereading the lecture notes, listening to the recordings, and making note cards to quiz each other, so hopefully we managed to get good grades.

The Organic Chemistry exam might not have went as well as I had hoped. After doing all the homework, and going to class everyday, I don't know how I managed to miss important test concepts.
I need to review acid base reactions again and resonance structures! Even after watching and following Steve, I think I froze up on the test. I didn't have time to finish the resonance structure problem in the end. I might have done two :( Alexander gave us some free tutoring and it was very helpful, but for some reason we both felt that Dr. Bhomik was being tricky :) He often jokes about how he is not "tricky" and he merely expects us to really understand the material, but under the time constraints of the exam, I wasn't able to visualize the concepts learned while doing homework at a level to repeat the thinking process on the test. Practice, Practice. Next time.

Anyway, we did have fun doing a purification process called Recrystallization. (Picture above), and got some hiking done at Red Rock :)

Rathany is in love with Steve, the free lance Organic teacher.

Organic chemistry is scary to me. So far, I haven't found it to be that difficult, but perhaps I haven't gotten into the nitty gritty of it all. I have heard too many horror stories so I've been careful not to fall behind. I found Steve from Youtube. I really like him, his instructions are so very clear- just they way it should be explained to someone who has never been exposed to organic chemistry, and doesn't have a very good memory. Professor Bhomik has a very heavy Indian accent and I can't understand his lectures. I tape record them and still can't understand it:( I know he is a very knowlegeable and helpful professor but I needed to find a quick solution to my problem. Steve offers a pay-if-you like lecture/tutor via Youtube. But lives in Berkeley. I would love to visit him before my final :)

I searched Resonance Structures on youtube, and found him. You can reach his videos from him website as well. http://www.freelance-teacher.com/videos.htm, but these are the lecture videos I have been watching. I am now a resonance structure drawing pro :) Thank you Steve! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9AMWGN_pyY&feature=PlayList&p=A0D83886239F1E58&index=0&playnext=1.

It feels just like a classroom when you put Youtube on TV at home.
I can pause, rewind and repeat as many times as I need. It is especially helpful because I can't always be away from home because Herbie has not been able to get accepted into Infant University yet ;-)

New Schedule Fall 2009

Left: Distillation of mixture of hexane and toluene using a Hickman Still.
Right: My new home at the Palms for the weekend.


I have been pretty busy getting adjusted to my new schedule of classes, and my new home on the weekend, which is a super nice "Technology Center".

My new schedule of courses are:

Organic Chemistry I - Dr. Pradip Bhomik
Cell Physiology Bio 445- Dr. Frank Van Breukelin
Molecular Genetics Bio 304- Dr. Andrew Andres

M BIOL 304 830-945 OCHEM 10-11:15 BIOL 445 2:30-3:45

T CHEM 241L 11:30-2:30

W BIOL 304 830-945 OCHEM 241 10-11:15 BIOL 445 2:30-3:45

R Study

F Work
SS The Palms

I have rarely been able to find the time to do anything other than school, Herbie, study and do Bikram yoga whenever time permits (I have done it 3x's this week, go me!) and of course go to work. It's been a pretty rigid schedule but I like keeping busy. It helps me keep my focus.

Herbie is beginning to crawl, but hasn't figured out exactly how to do it. He has been able to get on all fours. http://herbinatorii.blogspot.com/

Herbie's grandmother and great grandmother visited him this month. (Lucy and Doris) I was able to get my sushi fix more than enough times this month :)

Kanpachi, from Sumo Sushi. Spices for Garam Masala, and then toasting.
We also had another super nice treat at Roy's: Tuna Poke, Tuna Sashimi, Sirloin.

But, eating in has been favored so I took on a new task to learn how to cook my favorite food, Indian. I attempted to make Saag Paneer, Chicken Masala. I have become an expert at making Basmati Rice.

Semester Break at Last!

It is really nice to finally get a break from school. Fall semester starts again end of August so I will have plenty of time to regroup. It took a lot of work and determination to get myself in shape for school. During the break I took after Fall 06, the habits and lifestyle changes really took a toll on my ability to hop back into the swing of a full time course load. I learned it the hard way when I returned to school this past Spring '09. But I am so lucky to have been able to do so. I feel that I am in better shape to tackle the new challenges of my final year in school. However, my goals have once again changed. I am considering pursuing a dual baccalaureate. The first is to complete a Bachelors of Science degree, with an emphasis in Biotechnology. I will be taking so many required Chemistry courses in this degree, that it might make sense for me to also spend an extra semester doing senior research and some senior coursework to finalize a Biochemistry degree as well. I have been learning that I am a lot more interested in Chemistry than I am in Biology so hopefully it works out to my benefit. This way, if I wanted to apply to a graduate school I can choose a Chemistry program rather than a Biology program. (It might not matter)

I have not done very many exciting things other than school this past month. Herbie has grown so big now. He is about 5 months old now. He is a very happy baby and is very loved. I went to a No doubt concert to celebrate the completion of my summer semester. The opening band was Panic at the Disco. My classmate Sarah invited me at last minute and it turned out to be a nice evening. By the end of that night my feet were killing me, but at least Sara had VIP at the Hard Rock Valet, because her husband works there.

I didn't blog for my birthday because it wasn't very exciting. Sarah sent my mother comps to the Prime Rib loft in the Orleans, and Ricky and mom dressed up Herbie in Melly's Hawaiian outfit and met me there for dinner. I could only dine and dash because I had to work that day and study for a midterm the next morning.

As a birthday gift, Ricky gave me funds to join Bikram Yoga. Unfortunately, I only found the time to attend five 90 minute sessions. I have been attending the Green Valley branch. I need to keep going! www.bikramyogagv.com. I might consider switching to a bigger studio on the west side. That way I can get more of my west side friends to join :)

Richard and I saw The Hangover last weekend. It was a pretty degenerate movie, but funny.

To do:

Attend more Bikram
Learn how to cook
(I don't know how I have managed to pay for Himilayan and Nepalese as often as I have this past month. It has been super hard to avoid since I have turned Sarah on to their recession lunchb special. I need to learn how to budget my finances so I don't run into major issues later)

Chemistry, Work, Study, Sleep... (repeat)

Sharon Andres, Me, and Sharon's friend from MIT.
(Notice how I was not drinking ;-))

This has been my schedule. I took on another dose of Chemistry. Attending lab two times a week, and lecture 5 days a week during the summer is really gruesome. Good thing I have a good job that allows me access to a nice quiet desk to do most of my reading and studying on. When you have 2 chapters worth of exams every week, studying consumes all of your day. My life has just been wrapped up in my studies. What's worse, this fall, I will be doing the same thing! I think I am insane. But I should get used to it :)

There was a little bit more going on this month than I have lead you to believe. It was June and Sharon's B-day month. We found coupons to gather at Texas de Brazil. Then had a endless week of partying. From a night of I love Sushi that ended to us being rescued by Z at Christian Audiger, to another night beginning at Ra Sushi and Independence day bash at XS. I think I managed to cover the fun aspect for the month of June.

Cooking like a real chemist!

Last week I got to experience a pretty intense dose of chemistry review. Tamara and I are determined to get an A in this class. The class has taken a lot of my time this last week, and this is going to continue for at least another 5 weeks. Herbie is getting a lot bigger too fast. He has been a great chemistry student though. Since the lab is the same lab I have already done a few years ago, everything was familiar. During lab, we separated a ternary mixture. We used ammonium chloride, sodium chloride (table salt), and silicon dioxide (sand) and combined them together. We were asked to separate each compound from the mixture by using different methods. The coolest part was heating the mixture and watching the ammonium chloride sublime from the table salt and sand. I was standing in the lab with my lab coat and goggles on with a glass stirring rod in my hand stirring my mixture over a Bunsen burner, and as I was watching the thick white smoke of ammonium chloride evaporate from my dish, I was thinking to myself, "I am cooking like a real chemist!" So far the math in Chemistry seems really easy. Understanding how ions combine to form different compounds, balancing equations, and relearning chemistry nomenclature has been really great. I haven't been doing chemistry for a long time, so this review was a really good idea.
The week ended at "Ditch Friday", but I didn't really ditch from school to go. Sharon and I had a little bit of fun. It turned out to be a really windy day, but it was still very relaxing. Well, I have to get back to doing my homework...

The Pursuit of Happiness in San Diego

Sharon and I went to San Diego for a couple of days to embark on a memorable trip. We woke up bright and early on Tuesday, and were on the road by 8:30am. We made great time when we finally arrived in San Diego at around 2:00pm. We hadn't planned on seeing anything in particular while we were there, we just wanted to have a good time away from home. Our first destination was the "gaslamp district" downtown. We walked for hours to find a place to have lunch. We were famished because we discovered that we were both indecisive people when it came to what we wanted to eat. So we finally decided to eat at "Taste & Thirst" on 4th street. I had a greek wrap and Sharon had a pepperjack cheeseburger. Sharon proclaimed her burger to be the best burger she had in a long time. I thought my greek wrap was good, and it was certainly a portion large enough to share! However, it wasn't made the way I wanted it to be made, which was with their tasty rasberry dressing :( Instead they made it with blue cheese! Finally, her friend Pia got off work and directed us to her apartment near Mission Hills. It was a very cute little apartment and I was happy to have Pia be very hospitable to me especially since she didn't know me. She took us out that evening to a really nice wine bar in Point Loma. I remember getting a "daisy" flight and half a cheese board, and really enjoyed talking and laughing with Sharon and Pia. We had planned to have a night out on the town "like the good old days" but we ended up running out of gas by the time we left the wine bar. We decided to have a movie night instead and put on "Benjamin Button". I don't think any of us stayed up to finish the movie!

The next day we woke up bright and early and went shopping in PB. We walked up and down Garnet to kill time until Pia got off work. For lunch, we both really wanted Thai food. Sharon suggested we use this application on my Iphone that helps you locate restaurants, it was called "urban spoon". I really love this application, it has a GPS system that locates where you are... and all you have to do is choose what kind of food you are interested in and it will show you the nearest restaurants to you that serves the kind of food you like. That is how we found Karinya in PB. It was very tasty. We shared yellow curry and pad thai. The yellow curry was amazing and the pad thai needed some more bean sprouts and peanuts. We also went to the beach and strolled up and down the boardwalk and and do what Sharon loves to do, check out the hotties:) We took some photos out on the beach and got lots of sunshine.
Later that night we went to little Italy and had dinner at "Buon Appetito", which in Italian means "have a good meal". I had risotto made with truffled oil and Parmesan cheese. It really hit the spot :) I found a caffe latte at "Cafe Zucchero" after our meal and we went back to Pia's to plan our night out. Again, we ran out of gas and decided to just go to a bar called "Starlite". It felt like a star was lighting inside. It was two stories, and the upper part of the restaurant was open air and you can stare at the stars! It also had a bar, tables and heating lamps. We had a really nice time out together. The next morning we went out to La Jolla. I wanted to take Sharon to this breakfast place I have been to a few times last year that overlooks the beach, but it was closed by the time we arrived. So we found Cody's next door. That was our last hours in San Diego. We were sad to have to leave San Diego, but I couldn't wait to see Herbie. Sharon played the beach boys and we drove back to Vegas.







Me and Sharon heading home from La Jolla, Ca.

Day Before Mothers Day :)

I really love being a mother. It truly is the greatest feeling in the world. He is learning how to smile. I would kiss him and he would open his mouth with his big eyes lit up displaying this excitement that makes me melt. He is getting really big, he has doubled in size since the day I brought him home. Herbie loves to play "bouncy baby" and "peek a boo". We recently purchased a really nice swing that plays music and automatically swings back and forth. I am not sure if he likes it as much as his carseat. Ricky has conditioned him to fall asleep in the carseat. I don't really like it, but it works. We found a great deal for the swing at the Pickled Pepper event for $40, along with a few bags of really neat baby toys that were packaged into bags that cost only $3! The swing probably would have cost $200 brand new, and each individual toy could have been $5 to $10 so we saved a lot of money going there.

I have been waiting for this week to come since January. It's been 5 months of very hard work, and hours and hours of studying... now that it is over, it feels so good! I love walking around feeling really confident that I know how to differentiate and integrate various types of functions. I also really enjoyed professor Starks lectures, and studying with Tamara. She will be my new study buddy this summer too. No more stressing out about those classes. And yes, I am crazy enough to take summer classes too! How exciting!

I have been so busy with school and work and my own family that I don't have very much time for my friends. Not that I have many, but the ones who are in my life- I really do cherish. It's a good thing that Jan lives down the street and we are able to have coffee now and again. I don't get to see Anthony anymore, he lives too far, I miss his bear hugs ;) Last night I took a day off from the family to spend with my friend Sharon, the Vivacous Glamazon. We were out for 6 hours, shopping! I found some really cute sandals for $20 that were originally $50 at Guess. I was really happy about that! We also ate lunch at RA, and filled up on sushi during happy hour and our tab turned out to be $23.50! Splitting that tab was awesome! That was so much better than the damage Ricky and I did at Kaizen :( (And I doubt he is ashamed)

I am taking a mini vacation to San Diego with Sharon and we are planning to relax! I can't wait to walk around the gas lamp district and vegetate on the beach. Go shopping in Pacific Beach. We might go to Sea World too if we can find someone to hook us up! We are going to stay with her friend to avoid having to pay for a hotel. I will only be gone for two nights and I will really miss Herbie. But I realize that I won't be able to take vacation like this soon. Once Herbie grows up and begins learning how to express his feelings and notice that I am gone, I won't be able to leave. I didn't really want to go on a vacation without my family, but a little break will actually be good for us.

My first age spot. It's really horrifying. Seriously. I didn't think this day would come so soon! I went to the doctor on campus and had him check out this newly formed age spot on the side of my right cheek. He said it was nothing for me to worry about, just a sign of aging and not using enough sun screen. I also have this mole on my back that has since grown to about 3 mm in length, so I am going to have that removed soon. My doctor said it was up to me if I wanted to have it removed or not, but I don't see a reason to have it continue growing larger on my back.

Yesterday I spent an hour studying the facial moisturizers at Sephora. I can't believe a small bottle of moisturizer costs $40-$100. I don't know if I can justify paying that much for a moisturizer. I decided to try Neutrogena Healthy Defense daily moisturizer SPF 45 from Walgreens and hope it works. I hope I don't find out that this will clog my pores and have to resort to paying more for the expensive moisturizers.

I really needed a bang trim last week. I thought "how could anyone mess up a simple bang trim?" I usually go to a nice salon where I can guarantee the person working on my hair is a professional, but I thought any person who has a license to cut hair could trim my bangs. Afterall, I couldn't justify paying $40 just to have my bangs trimmed. So I went down the street to a nail salon that advertised haircuts for $9. It was a disaster. The minute she began touching my hair and I noticed her hands trembling. I felt hopeless :( I am determined to find a hair magician and stick to him, and hope he can make this mop like du go away.

My to do list:

Register for classes
Work on being more precise
Go to bed early
Clean my apartment
Fix my bad haircut


Update: Ricky took me to "B&B Ristorante", Mario Batali's restaurant in the Venetian and we had a three course meal with wine pairings. It was great. I will post some photo's up later.

How much I love Calculus!

I can't believe I am finally getting the hang of how to do most of the math problems that I have been struggling with since I started this class! I don't have to learn any new material next week, and the following week I will be taking my finals! I think I have come a long way from having trouble with the algebra and arithmetic to finally being able to get through most of the problems on my own, with little coaching from my friend Jan ;)

I really feel that most of the concepts and problems, once you practice them and begin to see the connections... are really obvious! I can't wait to continue Calculus II this year and hopefully earn a better grade than I will in Calculus, but hopefully I can do very well on my final.

I have been very busy with Herbie, school and work is beginning to pick up for me again. I started last weekend at the Palms.

Richard at opening night of the A's game.

We had really nice seats. I was really happy to see Ken Griffey Jr. in the right field.

The week prior to that Richard and I went to visit family. We went to an A's game, visited his family and mine. It was nice to be in California. It rained in Benecia the first few days we were there. His family had a nice little brunch in San Jose, and Herbie got to meet "The Grijalva's". They threw him a little shower and gave him lots of gifts.

I also had the opportunity to go to a Cambodian New Year festival in Stockton with my dad. There were lots of people and tons of food. I will posts some pictures soon...

My Breastfeeding Aggravation

While I was in the hospital, Herbie was bottle fed Similac Advance Infant Formula Early Shield for immune support. I really should have seen a lactation consultant earlier on because the advice the hospital lactation nurse gave me was not very helpful last minute. I was in a lot of pain, and it was really difficult for me to breastfeed. It took three different nurses to convince me to try harder to squeeze the colostrum out from my breasts, it hurt! Breastfeeding was aggravating for me because I was very sensitive, and every time Herbie latched I would cry out in pain. It is now week three and I am still supplementing. I really want to breastfeed exclusively but it is hard when I have to go to class.

I strongly advise new mothers to purchase a brand new double electric breast pump right from the start. Manual pumps are a waste of time, they are too slow. When I pump manually, it takes up to 30 minutes to express an ounce of milk. Unless one was looking to strengthen their hand muscles, there really is no point in spending the money on them. I purchased the Mendela single electric pump for $50 at baby depot, and that was a lot better than the manual pump, but it took 30-45 minutes to pump 4 ounces of milk, and it wasn't the most comfortable device. There are so many benefits to breastfeeding, and in the long run, making an investment on a $300 pumpwould easily pay off for itself. We are going to learn the expensive way, because we are stubborn about spending the $300. We even considered renting a pump at $45 a month, but the initial month you have to pay an extra $50 just for the parts, which means you have to pay almost $100 just to rent it for one month. I thought WIC would give us a double electric pump, so I waited a few weeks until I got an appointment with them, and when I finally picked up my pump, they said they only give them out when they are available and instead gave me a manual pump, which I still have in a bag if anyone wants it. I also heard that some insurances will pay for a breast pump if their doctor indicates a specific health need. Everyone I have spoken to about breastfeeding says I should only be breastfeeding and supplementing with formula is a very bad idea, but I can't help it sometimes. My busy schedule makes me too busy, and I don't have the time or energy to produce enough milk to keep up with Herbie's needs. Richards family from California were nice enough to buy our first months supply of food for Herbie. He has finished a whole can of formula already, and he is not even a month old. If I invested in a nice breast pump I would have been able to pump and store milk for him and not put him at risk to getting sick or having digestive issues as he is growing up.

Going back and forth between formula and breastfeeding has been stressful. I keep telling myself, I need to breastfeed for the health of my first son. I need to be a good mother! But, I wasn't breastfed, nor was Richard... and we are fine... i think. Ok, well on second thought, maybe I really need to take this breastfeeding thing seriously! :)

March 11, William Herbert Eng Grijalva was born...

He is the absolute most beautiful boy I have ever seen!

Emergency C Section by Dr. Liliana Leon and Dr. Timothy Sauter.

7lbs 7oz

Henderson, NV