The Oxygen Experiment

Although Mozy was 9 days late, he was born with a condition called respiratory insufficiency, which is more common in premature babies than those who are full term (and late). He even spent a night in the NICU to stabilize the condition. Its causes range from high altitude (thin air) to insufficient surfactant, or inefficient surfactant conversion at birth (when the lungs switch from breathing amniotic fluid to breathing air. That first cry plays a huge role in the conversion, helping lungs expand and fill with air). Whatever the case, he needed oxygen for 3 weeks, a slow 1/16mLH administered by nasal tube.

At 2 weeks old, we did the first overnight test to see if the lungs had matured more. Basically the pediatrician puts in an order with a home oxygen supply company, who loan you a pulse oximeter. You are supposed to monitor over at least a 6-hour period with the subject off oxygen, then send in results. The pediatrician usually calls within a couple of days with her observations. Even though I thought the numbers looked good, we were crushed when the pediatrician told us Mozy's numbers were to borderline to get him off the oxygen. For the next test a week later, I really wanted to see the numbers myself, and ensure that the oxygen machine we had at home was working.

At 3 weeks old, we did the second test. This time, I sat for the first three hours (between feedings) and recorded the numbers every minute (180 readings). Either I'm a bad parent for conducting experiments on my kid, or I miss the lab environment at university, or I'm just a nerd. Either way, the first 60 readings were while he was on oxygen so I could see how efficiently his lungs were performing: 98% saturation on average. So the darn oxygen machine was doing its job; I couldn't blame that if this test failed.

Without oxygen, I took 120 readings and plotted them thus:

As can be seen, he had mostly 95% saturation (median and average are both 95%) over that period. The normal range is 94% and above, according to NIH. In fact, he was above the threshold 88% of the time! I would have been so surprised, or even reject the results, had the pediatrician called and said the second test was a failure too. I'd show her my numbers and demand to see hers. My first 3 hours would have had to match her set for me to accept her conclusion (which would mean that Mozy slowly deteriorates in lung function the longer he is off oxygen). But thank God the pediatrician confirmed our expectation: Mozy did not need to be on oxygen anymore, everything looked great.

You can't imagine the freedom: no more noisy oxygen maker or a slacking a line from it wherever the baby is taken. No more oxygen canisters when we travel, and irritation on his upper lip from the oxygen tube. He had grown strong enough to rip the tube off his face, and it worried us how hazardous that could be. Better sleep!

Couponing Reboot: 10 Observations

Back in August, we started a couponing habit to try and fill up our pantry with non-perishable foods. It didn't quite work out as we had planned, and instead became a savings strategy for groceries and other household items. Along the way though, we learned a few things that we'll apply in the second phase of couponing.

(1) We obtained all our coupons from the local Sunday paper in addition to what King Soopers offers (online). The next phase will see us diversifying our sources, going more online and utilizing couponing mobile apps.

(2) We realized that coupons were giving us ideas of what to buy, and causing us to routinely spend beyond our budget. Rather, we should go about our purchase decisions normally and only use coupons if they are available for what we need. In fact, we should either get more stuff or spend less without ever going over-budget.

(3) We saw some great savings nonetheless: over the 17 weeks that we couponed, we've saved an average of 26% off weekly groceries (about $392 total or $23/week). Not bad, considering we are not even that hardcore about the habit.

(4) Of the $392 in savings, $286 (or 73%) was from King Soopers discounts and offers alone. This means that manufacturer coupons really do not contribute much to the overall picture. It helps to shop at a store that offers regular rewards and discounts.

(5) Speaking of King Soopers and rewards, gasoline points are awarded based on the full pre-savings shopping amount. So to maximize savings on gasoline, we fill up both our cars at the same time (off the same pump) and have seen $0.25 off the price.

(6) We hate manufacturer coupons that require you to buy two or more items or that explicitly disallow doubling up. Too stingy, so we've been discarding these coupons unless we really need two of said items or there is sufficient long-term benefit to buy multiple stuff now.

(7) It seems to us that a majority of coupons are for beauty products. Other categories you might expect are snacks, supplements, household cleaning products, personal care products, OTC medications, and of course some non-perishable food items. Not much of what we were looking for in this experiment.

(8) We wish the prices of items were included on the coupons so you know about how much savings you are really getting. It's disappointing later find out you are only saving pennies on an expensive item. I suppose we ought to always be mindful of what things cost, a sort of "The Price Is Right", in order to discern which coupons are great deals.

(9) Couponing requires time, diligence, and organization. In the beginning, we had different ideas of how to organize and use the coupons. Eventually we settled on a simple system of keeping them sorted by expiration in a few specific categories. Sunday afternoon became coupon-clipping time, replacing the time we used for napping busy weekends away.

(10) We now know that the Sunday papers do not carry that many useful coupons. The two major papers (Denver Post and Gazette) in fact have the same coupons any given Sunday. The big differences are the deals and discounts offered by local businesses, useless for our experiment.

Pantry Filled On Coupons?

For August and September (and possibly October), the experiment is whether we can fill our pantry with items obtained for free (using coupons). We have watched "Extreme Couponing" and similar TV shows, and find it incredible that couponers can walk out of grocery stores and supermarkets with $500+ worth of stuff, for next to nothing. Is couponing practical for people like us, and what is the payoff in real terms (off television)? What does it really take to pull such feats off?

The plan is to get coupons for the main supermarkets in our area, namely King Soopers, Albertsons, Safeway, Target, and COSTCO. They send some in the mail, and we are told there are plenty offered online and in mobile apps. But we think the majority of coupons will arrive via the Sunday local newspapers (The Gazette or the Denver Post). The goal is to obtain as many non-perishable items as we can for less than $0.20 on the dollar each (80% discount or more). We also know we need to stay tuned to when the big sales are happening, which is when we should get items for free (with coupons).

We are not limiting ourselves to stuff we think we'll use ourselves. If we can get it completely for free, we'll take it anyway and give it to someone that may need it. We are giving ourselves 8 weeks because it will likely take us up to a week/supermarket to figure out how their couponing system works. We will optionally extend it another month depending on their sales cycles (when we can actually use the coupons).

This exercise does not affect our budget; for now it's about how much stuff we can get for free on coupons. Though if it works, we'll consider incorporating it as a money-saving strategy. The maximum we expect to spend on everything (including buying the newspapers and the items) is $50. No clear estimate on how much time will be invested in this exercise. Here's to some fun experimenting ...

Fitness for One Month (Results)

For May, we had decided to be serious about fitness for one month (wrote about it here). In brief, we would work out, get outdoors for some physical activities, and juice one meal. While we didn't fail at these goals, the project didn't succeed completely. By the end of the month, we had given up on some aspects of it.

We worked out, juiced, and hiked as planned, but not consistently. Sickness befell us after two weeks, some kind of cold. Juicing became too expensive for our budget that we decided to exclude it for the rest of the month. And by the end of the month, the busyness and stress from other daily obligations made me decide to quit the workouts (she continued to the end). Those were the challenges.

On the plus side: we continue to work out regularly (more her than me), have seen an uptick in fitness, shall continue juicing on a smaller scale, and plan to get outdoors as much as possible. In fact, I used this month to jump-start the summer habit I call "Saturday Mornings Outdoors" (mostly hiking area trails around the city and beyond or doing the incline).

The takeaway is that these activities can be part of our lifestyle if we want them to. And we plan to incorporate them as much as possible.

Wheat-Free for One Month

After the success of our "one car for one month" experiment, we decided to start looking into how and what we eat. Fresh off her diet, my wife suggested we try a month of wheat-free nutrition. The research turned up mostly gluten-free and vegetarian foods, which we have been on since the beginning of this month.

The research also turned up diet ideas based on blood types, with all its controversies. This is worth consideration another month, as I think there is some scientific merit for a hypothesis that you should eat what would be more compatible with your blood (which is where it ultimately all ends up anyway). An interesting topic ...

The goals for this experiment are simple: to see whether wheat-free can reasonably deliver healthier nutrition as claimed, and how life is like on gluten-free/vegetarian diets, especially for us meat-lovers. Depending on how deep we get, how difficult will it be returning to our normal foods and what will we miss most? It's not like we weren't already eating reasonably healthy food, but perhaps there are good habits and recipes we can roll into our lifestyle.

One Car for One Month

What if we had one vehicle between the two of us, how weird would that be? That question is the topic of this month's experiment, where we'll try to use just one of our cars all month long. Already three days in, there are no issues yet except for the extra effort in coordinating our goings and comings, and that I might need to walk to work sometimes (not complaining!).

Like any good "scientist" though, I am also interested in answering a few other questions come March 1st:

• How much do we save in car-related expenses by using one vehicle?
• How many miles do we both drive in an average month?
• What other challenges, apart from the artificial limited transportation problem, arise from having to use one car?
• How well do we work together coordinating our schedules and transportation needs?
• Are there activities we may find unnecessary or have to forgo just because there is no transportation? (How much does transportation influence our decisions to participate in external activities?)
• What personal issues shall surface, that we might need to work on?
• What strengths will come into play, that maybe we didn't know we had, or that we hadn't had a chance to express? Big opportunity to serve one another.
• What other lessons shall we learn from this experience? I'm sure there will be a few.
• Will the experience be beneficial to our marriage somehow, or a total waste of time? Do we grow stronger from adversity or shall we crumble under pressure?
• How much urgency should we have to purchase another car, should any of ours go out of commission?
• How reliable is whatever car we choose to use?
• Did our apprehensions, assumptions, and fears pan out?

It all sounds like some assignment from a marriage workshop, but it is completely self-assigned. We are in no such hardship (both our cars work well), but I think this experience will reveal some things we perhaps hadn't had to deal with, and enhance the marriage in ways we hadn't thought about. We'll have  answers in 25 days.