Wednesday, February 27, 2013

I'll Be a Cloth Diapering Momma

It seems as though nearly ever time I say I will be doing cloth diapers with baby #3, people are shocked and think I'm crazy! Okay, well I'm a little shocked I chose this route too, but I don't think I'm crazy. Over the last several years, I've been *trying* to do what I can to "go green". Baby steps I suppose - things like actually using the reusable grocery bags (which I love so much more than plastic!) and recycling pop cans to name a couple. But more so, I still find it quite alarming that we, a little family of four, can load up a giant trash can in week...only to be dumped in a landfill.

I am eagerly, patiently, nervously awaiting the day I have this baby, for numerous reasons. Foremost, I am literally counting down the days until I am done with work. I have been working at the hotel now for just over 6 years. It seems like forever, and a few of my co-workers feel like family. It'll be hard to say good-bye, but I know its for the better. Since I'll be leaving them, I'll be able to stay at home with my boys, and maybe girl?, and raise them myself. I've wanted to be a stay-at-home mom for quite a while, but we haven't been in the best place financially to do so. Although we aren't in the ideal place now, we're still going to be better off with me staying home. 

I have a few personal goals that'll I'll be working on as a stay-at-home mom, but I won't get into all of them now. When it comes down to it, I need to find a way and make it a habit to save money. So with that said, a couple things to help out with that are things that I alone will be able to do, without the help of Perry. Those are a) Cloth Diapering b) Breastfeeding c) Making our own baby food. Okay, Perry might actually have to help with making baby food, but more realistically it will be me. I breastfed both the boys, but not for too long. Hunter was breastfed for a solid 3 months, and then after a lot of convincing, I went downtown for my 21st birthday and had to "pump and dump" the next day. From then on it was hard to keep up and I eventually dried out. I didn't get a maternity leave with JP. I took 2 weeks of vacation and then brought him to work with me. Feeding at work was a challenge to say the least, and he cried a lot more than Hunter did. He was probably breastfed for a month and a half. I'm not sure how long I'll breastfeed baby #3, but I'm hoping for a good chunk of time - formula is expensive!

 But I think cloth diapering is really going to be the key to saving us money. They are a little pricey upfront, but will end up paying for themselves over time. It'll be nice to know that I won't have that ridiculous diaper bill hanging over my head. An extra $40-$60 a month can really add up for disposables! I don't know how we managed in the past! If we spent $60 a month on diapers and were done with diapers at 2 1/2 years, we'd have spent $3600 in that amount of time. That's basically an extra mortgage payment per year (which if we did would save us even a bunch more money!) 

The first step on this new journey of mine was to actually buy some diapers. I did just that. I bought 11 used ones. A couple are blue, and the rest are green and yellow. After picking them up (I found them on craigslist), I let the boys boys check them out. JP exclaimed, "OH! These are cool! When I'm a baby, I'm going to wear these!" At least someone else in the family approves! If only he understood the concept of aging! When we arrived home, I demonstrated how they worked. He loved it!

Right now I have 11 cloth diapers, of one kind. I didn't want to buy too many of one kind, only to find out I didn't like them. But these ones are the All-in-One kind. For you generations above me, they have the liner sewn into the cover. There is also a pocket in them, should I want to add an extra liner for more absorbency, like over night. Not quite what you were thinking when I said cloth diapers, huh?
Here's what it looks like up a little closer. They are the most similar to disposable diapers too. Unlike pins and such, these have velcro and are very daddy friendly. The down side to these is the velcro tends to wear out faster than the rest of the diaper. But since these were only used for a few months, they are still in good condition. I won't have to worry about saving them for baby #4, because, there simply won't be one....unless something completely unplanned happens! After this baby, I don't know if I'll be able to handle another pregnancy anyways! : ) Anyways... there are a bunch of different styles of cloth diapers that all have different price ranges. I thinking I'm probably going to like this All-in-One kind the best. The ones I have have are size small, but they do come in a one-size, that has snaps on it, instead of velcro, so you can adjust the height and waist. I will probably be purchasing some of these as well. 

In the little chat I had with the lady I bought these cloth diapers from, she explained that she was used these for about 7 months. The first two months she used disposables because her baby was super small. I will also use disposables when the baby is first born, mostly because of the the umbilical cord that will need to fall off, and the icky meconium poop they have when they are first born. We've have to get through that stuff first! 

In the meantime, I've also been preparing the boys for another baby in the house. They helped me sort through clothes the other week too!

The Green House & The Play Dough Thing

My little JP cracks me up. All. The. Time. The other night after he finished his dinner, he began talking about his green house. His imagination is enormous when it comes to his green house. Randomly he'll say things like "Oh I left that at my green house" or "You can't come to my green house" etc. Over New Years, his story was that he had actually painted his house brown. A week later, it repainted it green again. Most recently, his green house caught on fire. He discussed this in detail before I got the camera out. Keep in mind this video is about 8 minutes long. Perry and I bust up laughing every time we watch it. Especially around 3:30-4:15 minutes in. 

Friday, February 22, 2013

26 Weeks

I haven't done a baby update for a while. Mostly because I've been procrastinating getting a new mirror to paint with chalkboard paint. Little JP knocked the other one down on accident and it shattered. That was around week 20...and a month and a half later, I keep forgetting every time I'm at the store! Ah well...

Here's a few photos from the past few weeks!
 23 Weeks
I'm 24 Weeks and Kile is right behind me at 22 Weeks.
Not exactly the best tummy picture, but this is at 25 weeks.

How far along? 26 weeks
Baby is the size of? An English cucumber - 14 inches long!
Baby's heart rate? 
Maternity clothes? I finally gave in around 23 weeks and bought some maternity clothes.
Stretch marks? No new ones
Sleep? I tend to toss and turn a lot. My back aches when I sleep on my side, but I don't have any other option!
Movement? Some here and there, a lot stronger now. I can see my tummy move now.
Symptoms? Morning sickness...again!
Food cravings? None lately
Anything make you queasy or sick? Dog poop
SCH News? I had a bunch of bleeding in January, most likely from the hemorrhage. Other than that, no news is good!
Moment of the week? Taking the boys to the Carousal with Aunt Kim
Looking forward to? Feeling better! I've had a headache now for over 24 hours. And I woke up with a head cold. Since I've been battling headaches off and on for a few weeks, and since my blood pressure was elevated at my last appointment end of January, I called my nurse to see if I was okay to take medicine, which I don't normally do. In chatting with her, I mentioned that my eyes were a bit sore today as well, so she suggested checking my blood pressure regularly. If it's over 140/90, I'm to head to Labor and Delivery. Let's hope I don't have to! Go away headaches!



Bowling with my Boys

I feel pretty pathetic for a couple reasons. I'll start with the first and end with the second. This was the first time Hunter and JP have been bowling...we live about 10 blocks away from the alley. Kind of ridiculous. But if it counts for anything, I've wanted to take them for a while! 
 Hunter did great! Most of the time he was able to throw the ball down the lane. A few times he did opt to just push it though. 
 I'm embarrassed by the scores...but at least I wasn't loosing to the kids! Hunter even managed to get 2 spares throughout the game!
 JP loved bowling! He bowled a few times for Hunter while he was getting over his pinched fingers.
 He rolled it down every time, and waited and waited and waited for the ball to reach the pins each time. 
 And was excited every time he knocked some down...he had the bumpers up, obviously.
 In between frames, the boys chased this doll around : )
Why I feel pathetic #2. I tied with Hunter and used to be the State Bowling Champion...And now I can't break 100. Eek!


Saturday, February 9, 2013

My Little JP Turns 3!

My little baby is growing up! And to celebrate, I made a cake...of course! A guitar cake that he has not stopped talking about all week!
Its hard to image that only 3 years ago we were snuggling this little boy in our arms!
 Arriving a surprising two weeks early, with a full head a of hair, he still surprises us every day! (Most recently he got over his fear of using the toilet with out the potty seat! "I didn't fall in!")
 And now three years later, Perry and I are blessed with this happy little guy who, I don't recall ever was in the "Terrible Two's" category...or maybe we were just pre-occupied by Hunter!
 Here he is showing off his new skill of winking!
 Family photo! These are far and few between!
 Obviously this kid loved blowing out his candles...what kid doesn't? He kind of struggled a bit though! 
 Of course Hunter just HAD to help open presents...but Jim was such a good sport about it.
 Grandma and Grandpa came over for the party too! After every gift Jim opened, Hunter would exclaim "Hand it over!" and Jim would hand the gift to him...push over. So this is Hunter holding a toy from Aunt Kile and Uncle Chris.
Aunt Kim and Uncle Ray snuggled up with Jim to look at his new restickable sticker book they gave him. Pretty sure he loves it! 

Friday, February 1, 2013

Baby Cake with Rattle

Last weekend I was approached by a co-worker (well a couple actually!) to make a cake...for this weekend. Normally I would need more than a week heads up to make sure that I'll have plenty of time to bake it, clean the house, chase boys around, etc, and decorate it. But knowing the boys would be visiting Grandma and Grandpa I reluctantly agreed. Did I mention JP turns 3 in about a week?! One more cake to do...

So in chatting with her about the cake she wanted me to make, I thought she might have been confused when she said a little girl was turning 3 months old next weekend (this weekend). I thought she was meaning 3 years old...but nope, she's was turning a whopping 3 months. I found the cake request to be a little odd, especially since babies don't eat cake until their 1st birthday, and this one wasn't even on solids yet! Just formula, as it should be. 
But since I agreed to make the cake, who am I to judge what the occasion is? So with little direction other than "it doesn't have to be very big", here is what I came up with. Didn't quite turn out as planned, but I don't think the baby will mind... : )

Speaking of babies have I mentioned mine is over 11 inches long and weighs over a pound! Getting a little more excited every day! #114 days left....