This week has been a milestone week for Everly & Adalyn. They are now playing together, like actually both enjoying the same thing… And they are cooperating. As opposed to parallel play or Adalyn simply undoing everything Everly is trying to do. This is a welcome development. Adalyn has also discovered the joys of trying on her sisters clothes. It was so cute when she came out of their bedroom with an arm load of stuff for me to help her put on.
Everly seems to be really warming to the idea of being a big sister lately. She leads Addie around all day on excursions and she loves to try assisting us in coaxing Addie to do various things (like eat or have a diaper change). We’ve even had a few instances where mom & dad fail to get Adalyn’s cooperation but she’ll do it for Everly. I feel the girls will be conspiring against us sooner rather than later. LOL. One afternoon I even had to intervene as Everly was coaxing Adalyn to wipe her after a poop. It was one for the baby book! Continue reading “Milestones and upcoming excitement in 2013”
Over the weekend we made the 4 hour drive down to Summertown, Tennessee for our 6 week checkup at The Farm. We got to stay in our midwife’s cabin again, the same one Everly was born in. I had her right there on the floor where the rocking chair is in this photo. Ah, the memories.
We had some playtime upon arriving at the cabin. We figured letting Everly stretch out on the bed would be a nice change from being cramped in the carseat all day. E had fun playing as you can see in the above photos.
We learned that an increase in humidity impacts a baby’s bottom. Poor Everly got kind of rashy while we were in Tennessee so we put a potty pad (left over from the birth kit) under her and let her go naked for a bit. She liked being free but was also startling much more without clothes on. The fresh air and sunlight did help with the rash though.
The checkup went well and Pamela was very excited to spend time with Everly as you can see. You can read more about how the checkup went in this post.
We had a great time on our trip, it was a time for us to reflect on Everly’s birth and we also made some good memories while we were there.
We read that tired babies are fussy and can often seem gassy or colicky when all they actually need is to sleep more. We’ve learned this the hard way.
We bought Gripe Water, Mylicon gas drops, we made catnip & lemon balm tea for her, gave her digestive enzymes and basically tried everything to cure what seemed like tummy pain that caused her to fuss and cry inconsolably.
Turns out she was awake way more than she probably should be and she was getting so overstimulated and overtired that getting her to relax for sleep was practically impossible by the end of the night.
When we headed home with her everyone was all “babies will tell you what they need when they need it”. I nursed on demand, let her sleep when she wanted to, changed her when she screamed. All that resulted in was a fussy, rashy, unhappy baby that would sleep right through the night and fuss all day.
Once we figured out that babies typically shouldn’t be awake for more than about 2 hours at a time it was easy to see what the problem was…
She was getting overly tired and overtired babies only have more issues going to sleep which is probably why E would only doze off in my arms but would not fully sleep or let us lay her down for a nap. The whole time we were thinking she was fussing and crying in pain, it was just exhaustion though.
We committed a baby signals interpretation fail! Poor E.
Now we have made a few changes to help Everly with falling asleep and staying asleep per our reading.
Things like keeping our bedroom dark, changing her and feeding her in the dark when sleep should follow and building a bed time routine have helped. Also, we are having to swaddle her and also place her in the swing to get her to initially fall asleep at night.
The good news is she is actually napping during the day these days which in turn makes her easier to get back to sleep thought the day and night. A well rested baby fights sleep much less and isn’t as fussy. It is amazing and kind of “duh” all at the same time. This revelation is all thanks to reading, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
Some parenting books have been very helpful reading material, I’ll admit there is quite a bit of conflicting info out there though. We were lucky enough to find some helpful stuff this time. If you’ve got a parenting book you love please let us know @laurensnellings from twitter recommended the above mentioned book to me and boy are we glad she did.
It’s only taken me 25 days but I believe I am almost back to my normal self again. Dang, those postpartum hormones are killer! Add them to the 4th degree tear and to the normal new parent postpartum stress and healing and you’ve got yourself one bloody, stitched up, stress filled emotional mess of a person.
It was a rough three weeks getting used to our new roles, especially for me and my crazy after birth hormones. I am feeling good now (hormonally speaking), the postpartum bleeding has just about stopped and my stitches (from what I can see) are practically healed up.
As you can see from the photo, I am getting good at holding Everly in one hand while doing the internet thing with the other. I am still struggling with the self care while caring for a newborn thing though…
You see I’ve lost about 40lbs in 25 days which brings me very close to having my pre-pregnancy body back. I am attributing that to genetics and the fact that I am breastfeeding. I wont be comfortable loosing much more weight though.
Also, I am having a very hard time finding time and freeing both my hands so I can prepare food to eat. That probably has something to do with my quick weight loss too. We are working on that, it’s just hard to walk away from Everly while she’s fussing.
Yep, she’s still fussing here and there. She’s a great sleeper and a very good baby when she’s not uncomfortable. The problem is she’s still got an immature digestive system (like all newborns) and she doesn’t like pooping or passing gas for whatever reasion.
She’ll fuss and struggle and wont sleep when her tummy hurts, she startles in apparent pain whenever she starts to doze off. I’ve tried eliminating common allergens from my diet (which leaves me starving), we’ve tried digestive enzymes, gas drops, exercises, tummy time, burping and massage. Nothing helps her poop and pass gas without the fussing and struggling. She’s fussing a ton today actually.
The nighttime nursing and exhaustion aren’t even bothering me all that much, it is the fussing that is the worst. Other than the fussing things are going really well.
She’s smiling more and playing mimicking games with us these days. Her red hair is getting pretty long in some areas and she’s getting so big! Almost 11lbs it seems according to our bathroom scale.
In just a few weeks we’ll be heading back to The Farm for Everly’s 6 week checkup and we’ll have an exact weight for her then. I am pretty excited to go back. Pamela, our midwife, is so calming and supportive so we can’t wait to visit with her. We’ll probably stay there a day or two if N can get the time off work. The quiet time together will be a nice bonus too.
In other news we got Gabby, our newest kitty, fixed today (finally) and am so darn glad! Now Boner just needs to be fixed and we’ll have all the pets spayed or neutered. It’s good too, we don’t need anymore madness going on around here. Everly’s fussing is enough.
I am honestly amazed at how blessed we are. I’ve got a slew of blogging buddies I want to give a “shout out” to because they rock. So many unexpected gestures from so many people have warmed our hearts.
You know when you build relationships with people it is easy to forget how truly special friendship is. Sure you chat from day to day and you really do become involved in each others lives but rare is the occasion when you realize just how blessed you truly are by their friendship and companionship.
This whole having a baby thing has totally opened my eyes to how many unexpected blessings we have in those friends and family around us. Now since I am away waiting for labor to begin I thought sharing a slide show of Tater’s gifts would be a good post idea.
I am working on the thank you cards right now but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for thinking of our little girl, we treasure and totally appreciate everything you have done for us! Here is what has been sent to little Tater from afar:
Teeni awarded me the Honest Scrap Award sometime ago. The idea is that I am supposed to tell you ten honest things about me and then tag seven victims/ friends to do the same on their own blog.
So, my 10 honest things are:
1. I have a very tiny tattoo that my little brother gave me one thanksgiving. It is the smallest one in history I think!
2. I’ve only ever lived in 2 states, Arizona and now Indiana.
3. I am the oldest and have 2 younger brothers.
4. My mom had me, waited 5 years, had my brother, waited 5 more years then had my youngest brother. How is that for perfect spacing?
5. I died my hair green in 6th grade to win a contest. I love contests!
6. N and I were legally married (on Halloween 2009) but we plan to have a wedding in Arizona once Tater is born.
7. I have a nice mole type freckle in my left armpit, so does my mom. We share many of the same freckle markings. Strange huh? This armpit freckle/ mole is hard to shave around without cutting the darn thing off, luckily since my mom has one too she showed me the shaving tricks at a young age so I am good. 8. Speaking of shaving, I wasn’t allowed to shave my legs until I was in middle school and I had some long ass blond leg hairs that everyone teased me about. Heidi do you remember this?
9. I am an organ donor and have told N that being buried in a burlap sack under an unmarked tree 100% natural is fine by me.
10. In reality I’ll probably be cremated though since unmarked graves are illegal and all. Cremation is fine by me.
“The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the Zombie Chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…”
Well, what an honor to receive this award. My favorite thing about it is how the description makes me laugh! So, lets see I would pass this on to:
Yep, you guessed it I am doing some more pregnancy TMI posting! If this is not your cup of tea or if you are having breakfast or whatever feel free to skip the post. I’ll understand.
Today I am 38 weeks pregnant and last night was the first night I’ve been in actual pain with regards to contractions. You know that cervical pain I’ve been mentioning? Well I’ve now decided it feels like Tater is poking or clawing at the cervix and that I’ll pop and gush water at any moment as a result, lol.
I know it is kind of a strange way to describe it all and technically Tater isn’t touching my cervix since my bag of water/ membranes are separating her from the actual cervix right now. She isn’t clawing the cervix so to speak but I am pretty sure she is stretching or pushing on it based on what it feels like and I am sure that is how it will feel right before my water breaks.
I am not leaking or bleeding and my membranes are still intact as far as I know but the cervical pain sure got worse than normal last night for a few brief seconds. I would not describe the pain as all encompassing or as debilitating by any means. It was more like a stabbing pain inside me where I think my cervix is. The pain would last a few seconds and then go away, like she was bumping something and it caused a stabbing pain.
Didn’t feel anything contracting or tightening during the stabs of pain (it would come before or after) but I did have some lower abdominal aching and some real back aching that N massaged away while I laid on my side.
It all came on late last night right after the tornado sirens sounded and I went out to secure the bunnies. I was making some spaghetti Alfredo (didn’t have fettuccine noodles) with shrimp and N was almost home from work. I took this video of the coming storm, the lightening was way cool. Make sure your sound isn’t on full blast when you play it though. The sirens are loud!
Anyway, I was having a burst of energy so I took a video, got the animals ready for the storm, was cooking dinner and then I even mopped the kitchen floor because there were ants coming in from somewhere and eating somthing off the floor that you couldn’t see.
I was having a few moments of “nesting” or whatever and then the weird pain and uncomfortableness began. At first I would find relief in sitting down but towards the end sitting or laying just didn’t do the trick. It was not like I was crying or screaming in agony like everyone perceives woman should be. It was annoyingly uncomfortable that is all. Not sure if that is normal or what but that is how I felt.
Oh, and how come nobody talks about the constant constipated feeling of late pregnancy when the baby drops? It is like people are scared to say that it feels like you’ve got a 10 lb shit chillin in there. Some have said it is like sitting on a bowling ball, others say you feel like you are trying to carry a bowing ball between your legs. None of those descriptions seem to fit what I am feeling.
After some internet searching I was able to uncover the fact that feeling like “you have to #2” all the time (when you really don’t) is an early labor sign. Yeah, okay so feeling like you need to crap 24/7 means something is definitely getting ready to come out of there (either baby or poo), got it. Was that so hard to say?
It’s like women are afraid to bluntly discuss the yuck parts of labor and pregnancy because they aren’t lady like or something, LOL. Well I am proud to say I lack that behavioral conditioning and I am all for being real about it.
Oh and anyone else have stabbing pain in the anus/ perennium when they bend over? I know this is related to the 10 lb shit I described above, just putting it out there as pretty annoying in my book.
So yeah, my ass hurts along with my tailbone my pubic bone, my belly skin and occasionally my cervix. I am happy to report no diarrhea or hemorrhoids though, what a silver lining huh?
My hormones are changing too. Just the other day I went from sweating my ass off to freezing ass cold in minutes. I stayed huddled under the covers all day and now I’ve got a cold sore coming in so it seems my body is making the shift from human incubator to no longer incubating spawn. Woot.
We are counting down the hours till we leave for The Farm, can’t wait to get this show on the road and to meet our little girl already!
Yeah, so thanks to Witchypoo’s talks of birthday cake and wine I was having my own cake craving yesterday. She recommended I search for the 5 min cake in a mug recipe for some instant chocolate goodness and I found it here.
Calls for tablespoons of sugar, flour (specifically cake flour), cocoa powder, milk, oil and an egg. Seems simple enough but then you microwave it. Sort of strange if you ask me but what the heck?
So I combine my all purpose flour (didn’t have cake flour, is there a difference?) , sugar, cocoa and the egg.
Then I added the milk and oil and mixed the heck out of it as directed.
Popped the mug in to the microwave and stood back. Our microwave makes this strange sound when you nuke stuff, like it’s got a radiation malfunction or something. I never stand near it because of the sound. I am paranoid. LOL. Plus if the cake exploded I didn’t want hot nuked batter all over me.
When 3 min were up I took out my creation and inspected it, looks questionable. It has solidified though, I guess it could be good. Looks strange though, see…
Once it cooled, it came out of the mug and on to a plate. It had all these air bubbles and was a strange consistency from the looks of it. Still to soon to know if it is good though, the darn thing is piping hot!
I slathered some frosting on it, I tasted it and cut it in half for N and I to have after dinner. Upon first taste It wasn’t bad. When I cut it in half though it was pretty brick like.
I think it came out pretty dense and not as fluffy as I would have liked (you know like normal cakes). I bet it was the flour, had I used this flour substitution guide (or the flour they called for in the recipe) I would have been better off.
I had a few bites and was done, N ate his whole half. See, he always eats my bad food because he doesn’t want to make me feel bad. LOL.
It was a fun thing to test out but it did not cure my preggo cake craving. I guess I am a cake snob or something. Today I’ll make brownies to try satisfying that chocolate urge of mine since I seem to be bursting with energy.
I used that energy burst to get my bags packed and am just about ready to leave for The Farm this weekend. I am going to an Evansville BirthNetwork Meeting on Thursday to meet with some fellow mama’s, get some support for my upcoming delivery and to meet the local La Leche League leader.
Only base we haven’t covered is finding a pediatrician in the area for when we are home from The Farm and ready to think about vaccinations (oy). Oh and Gabby is finally out of heat and done with the pissing (I think), woot. We’ve gotta get her fixed after Tater arrives, her and Boner!
On Sunday we met a lady to pick up some free infant girl clothes that were offered up on freecycle. We have a love/ hate relationship with freecycle. Mostly because so many people are flakes about coming and picking up the stuff they claim they want.
Anyway, since the budget has been so tight we have not been reluctant to ask for things we need when someone posts an offer on freecycle. We’ve managed to get some pretty helpful things like pet food and baby stuff which has helped us big time. This last freecycler takes the cake though!
We expected a box or a sack of clothing items when we came to claim the baby girl stuff. She said she had a range of sizes and some various other odds and ends. She wanted the same person to take it all so she could be done with it. Sounded fine to us, we’ll just pick through it and pass on the stuff we don’t need or can’t use.
I have no problem with used baby clothes. I know some people do and N has even felt a bit bad about so much of Tater’s stuff being hand-me-down but the reality is babies grow out of stuff so fast and will only poo and vomit on things so there is no shame in reusing and recycling clothes. Saves money and is good for the environment right?
😛
Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been gifted many new clothing items and we’ve even bought a few special outfits for Tater but after this recent freecycle score we wont need much clothes wise for Tater until she is in 6-9 month stuff, this makes me pretty happy and very relieved.
Here is what we ended up keeping:
This is the newborn & 0-3 month stuff that is hanging to dry after being washed. We don’t have a dryer yet (well we do but it doesn’t plug in to the outlet right now) so this is how we are drying clothes when we can’t hang them outside.
I know, it looks like an explosion of pink baby clothes. Don’t laugh, it saves us money with the electric bill too! Also, the pink might make my eyes bleed but I can’t complain when it is free right?
This box overflowing with clothes contains all the 3-6 month stuff and some blankets that still need to be washed. We got lots of good stuff! There were 4 total trash bags full of clothes, we are keeping about half of it. Freecycle was good to us this time around!
Now for the TMI pregnancy updates, flee if you don’t want to know about my cervix and other lady parts stuff.
I am still 50% effaced and am now 1cm dilated since my last visit a week ago. I’ve gained 4 more pounds (yep 4 in a week, enter your baby weight guess soon!) and have had more frequent BH contractions since last week too. Oh and I am now having some brownish, light spotting that my midwife says is just the result of the recent cervix check. The cervix check didn’t hurt today either.
Haven’t started leaking fluid and haven’t noticed the loss of my mucus plug. I am also not having any painful contractions though I am noticing some pelvic pain that is not accompanied by tightening. I’ve got irritable uterus it seems (Hot Belly Mama opened my eyes to this) and I need to be drinking more water.
Yesterday I ate an entire half of a watermelon in addition to drinking like 4 glasses of unsweetened iced tea. Still need more water though.
We’ve got 23 days until Tater’s “due date”. She is full term on Thursday and in 11 short days I’ll be at The Farm waiting for labor to start. Time is just sort of flying by.
I am eating some nut & chocolate trail mix. Just slathered more goop on the belly and was thinking I should write a 35 week pregnancy post.
Still pregnant as ever, feeling more and more uncomfortable as the days pass. Am still gaining weight despite all the talk in books about how weight gain slows or stops towards the end of the pregnancy.
Captured this belly shot yesterday after getting off the phone with Krystal. She said “you must be getting so huge”, I sure feel freaking huge but you can be the judge of that based upon the photo.
My hormones are sure in full swing these days. Yesterday I had a blow up at the post office thanks to a rude postal worker. Super annoying situation, very irritating employee and I reacted.
Snatched my stuff off the counter to allow the next person in line to be helped and remarked at what a “fucking bitch” the employee was. Oops, it just flew out of my mouth. I assure you it was warranted though!
Oh and it seems Tater is also going to have no problem expressing what she doesn’t appreciate either. She is already letting her feistiness shine through and she hasn’t even left the womb yet.
Just the other day I was laying down for a rest. I laid on my right side as that is usually the side she is calmest in. We were going to have some nap time and take some of the weight off my upper belly skin.
I laid there for about 15 min while she kicked the hell out of my ribs and also jabbed my hip. She even got a few good punches to the cervix in during that time and man those are painful. After several minutes of this I got the memo that she wasn’t happy in that position so I rolled over to my left side instead. Sure enough that calmed her right down and we both napped.
Told N he is going to have two feisty ladies in the house soon and is he ready? He said he’s probably going to need to get a hobby or two that will get him out of the house on occasion. LOL. Poor guy is going to be outnumbered.
Talked to my midwife out at The Farm yesterday. Two more weeks until Tater is “full term” and we are getting in the baby having mindset. Three more weeks until I leave for The Farm. It is all becoming more and more “real” as the days pass but I suspect it wont completely sink in for us until the labor begins.
My accommodations are all lined up out at The Farm and I’ve got an appointment set with a backup doctor near The Farm in case hospital transport is necessary. Everything is pretty much lined up and seems like it will just fall in to place once labor begins. I am still having no pregnancy complications and am feeling pretty good about how my body has held up throughout the process.
Oh and the mad-lib birth announcement is making it’s rounds to those who have said they would like to be included. There is still time to sign up if you wanna play too, the more the merrier!
Since Tater’s arrival is nearing and we’ve almost got all our ducks in a row for labor and delivery I’ve shifted my focus back to my cloth diaper fun. Once we bring Tater home we’ll begin cloth diapering fun (if we’ve managed to acquire a few more diapers to use by then).
I am not too worried about the “grossness” factor that prevents many moms from even attempting to cloth diaper. I figure babies poop, pee and vomit on you anyway right? What is a little poop scraping/ spraying and diaper washing in comparison?
It is another all-in-one diaper with Velcro, snaps and a removable soaker for absorbing wetness and mess. I like this one because of the “quick dry mesh” on the inside and also am curious to try it out because it is made from different material than the one I already have.
I figure while I am starting out my diaper collection it is good to sample a few of each before I get my heart set on one specific brand/ maker. Seems logical right?
Plus, I hear from all the experienced cloth diapering mama’s that each diaper is good for something. Some they use only at bedtime, others are less bulky and do great for day wear under clothes, etc.
So I have set my sights on GroBaby as another potential option for us. That makes 2 cloth diapers now in our stash, that means I have like 22 more to go now huh? LOL. Slowly but surely we’ll get there.
There are only about 3 weeks left until I’ll be at The Farm. I am doing great and Tater seems to be planning to stay inside for a bit longer (thank goodness). I’ve told her she has to stay put until June 4th at least, that way she’ll be full term!
In the meantime we have been trying to do things to have fun and to keep busy while we are waiting for Tater to do her last bits of growth and development. Things like putting the house together the way we’ll need it when Tater comes home, unpacking, organizing and even vegetable gardening have been a few of our pastimes these days (other than my excessive napping).
It has sure been quite a critter filled weekend for us though! Late last week we were out in the front yard planting some of the free iris’ we were given. I was working under the tree planting them and N was working under the mailbox.
All of the sudden this frog comes hopping out of the grass at me. I was pretty surprised by it but was also excited because I have never really played with a frog. We didn’t have many water sources in Arizona so in turn we didn’t have many frogs to encounter. Here with the water pond behind our house the frogs are everywhere so I got to play with one for a bit while gardening. Is this a frog or toad though?
Then on Saturday we were out on the deck enjoying the warm morning and planting some seeds when we noticed our outdoor cat, Haley, acting a bit odd. Dixie, our dog, was also quite interested in what Haley had going on. It turns out the cat caught a garden snake and was playing it to death.
N rescued it with a rake and we were sad that it’s head and body were bleeding. We grabbed it away from the cat mainly because we wanted to see if we could get some photos of it and figure out what kind of snake it was. The reason we were so curious about the type of snake is because we are pretty sure a much larger snake got Dixie a few weeks ago.
We noticed she was trying to get at something that went under the deck, she dug a huge hole that went under the deck. We also suspect she got bit while digging that hole. She’s been limping and babying her one paw for about 2 weeks. It is getting better now and she is doing fine but we are sure it was a bite of some sort. Hopefully not from a bigger snake!
Anyway, after taking some photos to reference and compare to what we’ve found online we let the poor garden snake slither off to safety. We still have no idea what kind of snake it is.
Haley was a bit bummed to have her torture subject freed but she got over it pretty quick.
We’ve got frogs frolicking in the back yard, snakes slithering in the brush and we even have huge scary spiders crawling through our grass (with egg sacks on their backs) as I discovered while putting a bunny out to run the yard. The critter fun never seemed to end!
The rabbits seem to be loving the supervised play time in the yard and Dixie is getting very good at not going crazy over the rabbits running free. I recorded a few videos of N, Dixie and Maybelle out in the yard.
Here N has a moment with Dixie, he is telling her how she’ll need to watch over Tater soon…
I also recorded a video of some crazy kicking of the belly while we were watching American Idol last week. The lightening is poor but you can still see the jabs and kicks (and you get to hear the song recaps too. LOL).
The BumGenius 3.0 diaper I ordered is here and let me tell you, it made my freaking day! I’ve been learning about modern cloth diapers online for months and was sure they were the way to go for us but to finally have one in your hands is the absolute best way to understand all their glory.
So many people have remarked “You are so brave” or “I know I couldn’t do it” when they hear our plans to cloth diaper. People really don’t understand how modern and improved cloth diapers are these days. Everyone seems to need the low down on them, even N and I had trouble understanding all their features until we held one in our hands.
Here is how the diaper was all packaged when it arrived:
The velcro makes the width of the diaper totally adjustable. The outer pink material is super soft on the outside but on the inside it is a plasticy waterproof material made of polyurethane laminate waterproof fabric (or PUL).
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Then their are 3 snaps that run along the front. Those are to adjust the height of the diaper, which is helpful for accommodating an infant and their healing umbilical cord. Plus it is one of the features that makes this diaper truly all in one, it’s size and shape grows with baby.
When you look at the inside of the diaper you’ll see the white inner lining, it is suede cloth. This is what comes in to contact with baby’s skin and gets pooped on. It is super soft and way absorbent.
Between the inner liner and the outer cover there is a nifty pocket where the inserts are placed to absorb liquid and moisture. When you look inside the pocket you can see the shiny, polyurethane laminate side of the outer fabric.
Here are the two inserts that come with the diaper. One is the infant size, the other is a size adjustable (via the snaps) regular insert. The inserts can be used individually or can be used together for more absorbency. They are also made with super absorbent suede cloth.
Here is what infant the pocket looks like with an insert inside. You just slide it right in the pocket and fold the flap closed keeping the insert inside and hidden.
And there you have it, the BumGenius 3.0 cloth diaper. I think they are pretty darn nifty, don’t you?
In other news yesterday marked the start of my 32nd week of pregnancy. N went in to work early to cover a fun story and make some extra money. We succeeded in getting all our crap (including the motor home) off the premisis of the old place.
We’ve still not heard back from the slumloards about a walk though inspection time and thus haven’t returned the keys to them. We’ve also kept posession of the garage door openers to intice them to actually contact us so we can officially end this madness. It looks like they wont though.
Tomorrow is the date of the Arizona baby shower being thrown in our honor. We are both excited and also a bit nervous that the turn out wont be great. We’ll see… I’ve got Tater’s nursery all spiffied up as best as possible for the video conference we’ll be doing during the shower.
That is pretty much all there is to report right now. It’s supposed to be a rainy weekend and we don’t have that many errands planned to tackle so hopefully it will be a somewhat calm and quiet time. Probably not though 😉
Hopefully the sun is shining and you are going to have a nice spring weekend in your neck of the woods.
I’ve got 3 posts in my saved drafts that I’ve been working on. I’ve written them pretty well but cant seem to actually finish them. They are even decent writing pieces that focus on specific topics rather than my usual “here are the updates” posts like this one.
I’ve been trying to bust out some posts in advance that I’ll schedule in June to keep the blog fresh while I am away from the internet waiting for Tater to come. That is the idea at least. If anyone wants to guest post here just sign up as a user and I’ll get you all hooked up to be a contributor.
Okay, so over the weekend we did get lots done, as usual… For starters we wrangled the freecycle dog home through our back gate so now Dixie has an even nicer shelter to enjoy. Problem is Haily, the outdoor cat, is smarter than Dixie and she manages to take over the dog house every time. Dixie refuses to fight for it and just sleeps out on the deck.
Mind you Hailey has her own house that we built but she refuses to use it unless absolutely necessary. So when we go out and lure her out of Dixie’s home, Dixie can use it but it seems every time the rain starts to fall or when it gets windy Hailey is in the dog house and Dixie is outside… I give up! If the dog doesn’t want care to fight for her home that is her bad, right?
We also went by the old place to do some deep cleaning. We spent 3 hours there doing the kitchen and basement. We’ve only got a few rooms left to do now and then we’ll be totally done with that shit hole. Yay. Oh and while the cleaning was happening guess what we discovered growing on top of the basement carpet and up the outside of the wood paneling in the corner…
MOLD!!!
Yep, you can see it with your own two eyes just growing right on top of all the carpet and wood siding. We had a freestanding shelf in that corner holding my business stuff but once we moved all our things out of the basement and began vacuuming we spotted the fairly big moldy corner. N took some photos of it on his iPhone. I’ll share them soon.
It’s been over a month since we met with the slumlady and started the ball rolling on having them sign our mutual release letter. They’ve been avoiding us now for over a month and N has begun the harassing phone calls to them again. We’ve not paid them April’s rent and are trying to set up a meeting time to turn over the keys and complete the final walk though. It seems they could care less, still.
Last night N put the freecycle crib together in Tater’s room. It was an interesting process since it’s an older crib that needs work, plus the assembly instructions were nonexistent so we were winging it so to speak. It is now pieced together, just needs some wood glue and some screws tightened. We’ll buy a crib mattress for it sometime after Tater is here if we still haven’t found anything better/ safer.
We spent Sunday thrift store hopping. We were window shopping for a washing machine since come May 1 we will have no way to wash clothes (other than a laundry mat), we also thought we would keep our eyes peeled for some necessities for Tater while we were there. Things like cloth diapers, receiving blankets and a variety of sized onesies.
We managed to find some clothes and a few receiving blankets that we spent $6.00 on. We didn’t see any pack n’ play’s or newborn sleeping solutions and we didn’t see any washing machines either. We plan to keep looking, hopefully we’ll find all that we need in due time.
It’s was a windy, rainy weekend but we still managed to get some good progress made! We even found a work around for our failing external hard drive (I’ll post more on this later) and N painted my toenails for me since I can no longer reach them. Isn’t he a trooper?
We took my blood pressure at the grocery store and it was 108/70, I am still not swelling or having any heart racing or blood sugar issues. I haven’t weighed myself since we moved in, the scale is still missing but I feel like I’ve gained a few (5 or so) pounds. LOL. What do you think?
We’ve got a shower in our honor taking place in Phoenix, AZ courtesy of Krystal on May 2nd that we are getting excited about. We’ll be there via video conference to talk to and enjoy everyone’s company. If you are going to be out that direction and haven’t already received an invite shoot me an email and I’ll hook you up with the details.
Don’t forget to put your dollar in and place your baby weight bet! Remember 2 winners split the pool of cash so the more people who enter the better it is for YOUR pocket book, lol.
Okay, I am off to try finishing those 3 blog posts and I’ve got to feed the animals and such. Have a good monday everyone!
Oh, and if you aren’t afraid to see how an actual homebirth was featured in a commercial check out this video. Thanks Ryan and Kari for blogging this! Don’t worry it is peaceful and beautiful. Just graphic, shows nudity and you know a baby coming out from down there:
After yesterday’s Vlog post and the 2 hour chat I thought I would post about cloth diapers since there was so much discussion about them in the chat. Plus, I have family that are also intrigued about the new advances and technologies of the cloth diaper. So here is my view on them:
After research and talking to other cloth diapering moms I’ve found that the bumGenius 3.0 is the diaper everyone raves about! It is an eco friendly diaper that most resembles a disposable diaper. You can click to enlarge the image.
It has velcro and snaps to fasten and change the fit of the diaper. It has a super absorbent lining (plus a removable insert) and a waterproof outside. They fit most babies from 7 to 35 pounds which saves me money and they will last! Plus they are good for the environment and machine washable so I can take care of them myself which is the ultimate in sustainability!
Nothing about them is disposable which saves the landfill some space. Of course eco friendly disposable diapers are also useful for certain situations which is why I’ve also registered for a few of those on my amazon wishlist.
Anyway, the idea is to shake or spray the solids off the cloth diaper before washing. Then you launder them with special enzyme detergent that eats the poo particles and germs. They go in the dryer to dry (or on the clothes line) and you reuse them time and time again. They really are the best of many worlds in regards to cloth diapering.
The key is to have as many in your stash as possible so you can be changing baby and laundering diapers in a relaxed fashion. Plus the more diapers you have the more often baby can be changed which in turn keeps baby’s bottom dry and rash free!
If you want to know more about the bumGenius 3.0 watch a video on them! Just click the size you would like to watch: small or large (Windows Media Player required). (The yellow undies are just to cover the baby bits in the video. They are not part of the diaper.)
I am hoping to build up my stash of cloth diapers so I wouldn’t mind getting other brands of cloth diapers like Fuzzi Bunz, Gro Baby, Bumwear, Econappi, etc. in addition to the bumGenius 3.0. Some of the other makers of cloth diapers have some pretty cute patterns and styles, plus variety in design and functionality is always good right?
I even found an online store that has a “choose your brands” diaper pack sampler that allows for a variety of different brands of diapers to be purchased all at once.
So, yeah. That is my overview on cloth diapering and my pick of most preferred diaper brand. Now what is your take on cloth diapering? Do you have a brand or style you swear by?
We had a blast this weekend and even took some photos to share with you. Hopefully you enjoyed the belly shot photos I shared with you over the weekend. If you haven’t seen those yet you can by following this link.
For those of you who didn’t already know we planned to spend my birthday weekend in Tennessee. It was our last appointment with our midwife out at The Farm until we come to stay and deliver Tater in early June.
We figured it would also be kind of nice to plan a mini vacation for that weekend since it will be basically the last time we travel for leisure as just the two of us before Tater arrives.
N did have a nice dinner planned for me at The Melting Pot in downtown Nashville on Saturday night. We saw Pamela for our prenatal appointment Saturday afternoon then we stayed at the very unique Hotel Preston that evening.
On Sunday we headed out to the Cheekwood Botanical Garden in Nashville, we also stopped by The Mall at Green Hills to buy me a nice maternity top since the one I brought wouldn’t button around my boobs anymore.
I found 2 at Macy’s for $16.00 that weren’t even maternity tops but fit great, they were my birthday splurge. We also went by the Whole Foods near the mall to pick up a few grocery items and some calcium supplements per Pamela’s suggestion.
Like I said we had a blast together and we captured so many great belly shots for the scrapbook and our baby announcements (that I am not allowed to share with you just yet because they are a surprise!).
The photos I am allowed to share are of The Farm and I figured I would tell you more about the appointment too. First here is a slide show of the photos:
We were late to our appointment again which was a bummer, being late is also a big anxiety trigger for me so that wasn’t pleasant for us. Plus poor Pamela was waiting for us. We got lost on the way there once again thanks to GPS and internet directions.
I think we’ve finally figured out the correct directions there so N will be able to navigate his way there confidently once my labor has begun. It would really suck for him to be lost while I am in labor!
Anyway, once we arrived at The Farm Clinic I got to pee (finally) while N and Pamela talked. N ratted me out about my anxiety and stress levels these days then the appointment got underway.
All checked out normal. I am still weighing in at about 123.5 and my blood pressure is good but I’ve been warned to start laying more and to stop feeling bad about it. Apparently, laying down (preferably on the left side) means better overall circulation which has a major impact on kidney function while pregnant.
Blood pressure and kidney function go hand in hand so if my blood pressure is to stay at a good level my kidneys need to have adequate blood flow which means I need to lay down more… Like I’ve got time to lay! I am making a big effort to lay my ass down more now so don’t worry.
I am also working to drink more water and I’ve added a calcium supplement because calcium and magnesium also go hand in hand with lowering blood pressure. Blood pressure is basically the only potential concern for us right now. We are trying to be proactive so that we don’t have problems later.
We heard Tater’s heartbeat again and she checked out fine, N was having a great time taking video and snapping photos the whole time. We all got to chat about what is going on with life. We told Pamela about the move and all the stuff that is going on for us right now.
My OBGYN said I could lift stuff and not worry about a weight limit on lifting as long as it didn’t hurt. Pamela advised me not to lift stuff during the move at all. She said major lifting could lead to premature labor and that it is better to be safe than sorry, which we totally agree with.
We also talked and have ultimately decided to hold off on getting the RhoGam shot until after Tater is born (if her blood type warrants it). Having the injection while pregnant is just something we are not comfortable doing. We are more concerned with safeguarding Tater now as opposed to safeguarding my future fertility.
Oh and we did talk about the game plan for possible early labor and when to call Pamela or head to The Farm. Right now I am having some of my first practice contractions, fun!
All in all we are feeling good about the pregnancy progress, confident and ready for the last leg of pregnancy! It was a great weekend for us and now we are looking ahead to next weekend with anticipation. We get the keys to our new place, yay!
Today has started off with a bang! For starters it is my birthday. I am feeling better than yesterday, thank goodness and I know I’ll feel even better tomorrow when we go to see Pamela at The Farm.
I am still having fun entering all sorts of giveaways to try winning some of the things we need for Tater, you can enter too. See this post for more details.
N was so cute, he made a little scavenger hunt of gardening goodies for me to find for my birthday. You see all I wanted was plants and bulbs for my birthday so he ordered them. Unfortunately growers will only ship after your latest frost date so I wont actually have the plants and bulbs until April, which was expected.
Still he wanted to make some excitement for me on my birthday so he clipped out each photo and description of each thing he got me, then he glued the paper to Popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. Then he hid them in various plants and other places for me to find. He even wrote this cute little poem to kick off the scavenger hunt:
Now I can’t wait to be in the new place and to start planting the pretty garden goodies there! Fun. Also, my birthday fun would not be complete without some pet drama right? Well, our rabbit gave birth to 4 babies last night!
*WARNING* This is not a happy baby Easter bunnies story, if you can’t stomach the ways of nature skip this section!
While I was in the tub last night N was making the rounds feeding all the animals and he discovered 4 pitiful dead baby bunnies at Maybelle’s feet. Apparently she had given birth and we were unaware. So N comes to get me so I can see what happen.
We weren’t sure if Maybelle had killed the babies or if they had just died on their own. There are a number of reasons why baby rabbits don’t survive birth. We expected that genetics issues (a lop ear and a dwarf mating) combined with Maybelle’s lack of experience in mothering would have contributed to the lack of survival of the babies. Also some rabbits kill their young too.
Basically warmth is the main killer of baby rabbits (called kits). Mothering rabbits don’t usually carry their young around the cage in their mouth (like cats do) and when babies are born outside the nesting box they often aren’t warm enough to survive and mom can’t do much to remedy this.
Normally breeders will have to rub the born babies to warm them up. They’ll also move them back to the nesting box where they’ll be warm and safe if mom births outside the nesting box for some reason.
Well upon inspection of the 4 dead bunnies we did not see any signs of cannibalism or mistreatment. The babies were either born dead or died shortly after birth on their own (either because of cold or whatever). It is sad but is ultimately part of nature especially in situations like ours where the babies are an accident and the mother is not experienced in breeding.
Now this morning apparently Maybelle was birthing another baby. When we went down to check on her she was in the process of having one that was breech, it was partially out (from tail to ribcage)… After about 10 minutes of no progress we knew it was stuck so we helped her out a bit by gently pulling on it while she contracted. It came out and was of course dead as a result of being stuck.
She is still acting a bit weird so I am keeping an eye out to see if she has more babies today. I can’t feel any moving inside her but you never know. The reading says her delivery of a litter should be done in about 20 minutes and we aren’t sure if last night’s litter was from a separate uterus than the breech one we noticed this morning. She could still have more in there so I am watching her closely, just to make sure.
*Update* Since publishing this she has birthed one more baby but she started munching on this one.
I did snap photos of all this for the blog but am opting not to post them right on here, since I don’t want to offend or scar anyone not wishing to see the sight. If you want to see the photos you can view them here: #1, #2, #3 & #4. Just be sure the kids aren’t looking over your shoulder or anything. They aren’t gross, just sad.
Oh and in addition to the dead bunnies Dixie also left us her own little presents overnight:
After being outdoors until about 9pm yesterday and having fun all day yesterday she managed to shit out all that for us between midnight March 19th & 10am March 20th. Nice huh, good thing we are keeping her confined to a tiled room at night.
As you know we’ve been busting our butts to get stuff done these days. Yesterday we had my chiropractor appointment, talked with our slumlords on the phone (and got out of our lease), then we went to the bank per their request to place stop payments on the 2 checks we sent them for rent but they never got.
At the bank we got the really old and really slow teller lady who was oozing of germs. We explained our situation to her and asked to have the 2 stop payments processed, then we were planning to have a cashier’s check cut in place on the 2 stop payments. Easy enough right?
Well for starters the old teller lady was hacking up a lung the entire time we were trying to tell her what we needed which didn’t help her hear or understand what we were wanting.
I was sitting right across from her trying to hold my breath while she coughed and sneezed her germs all over us.
We explained it all about 6 times before she got a grasp of what we needed so that meant more coughs and sneezes for us to enjoy!
N was getting pretty annoyed and on edge about it all too. The whole time she was handling our documents her nose was running and she was casually wiping it with her sleeve and breathing/ coughing on her pen (that she later passed to us for use).
Normally I am not a germ freak and I have a pretty strong immune system but I am freaking pregnant folks! And I refused the flu shot (which I do every year) and any other shots that expose myself and baby to unnecessary things. So I am not loving this germ ridden encounter with really old, slow and very sick teller lady!
N wanted to ask for someone else to assist us. He also wanted to tell them to send the poor sick woman home already, she needed to rest and recuperate… She probably would have been offended though but what are you supposed to do? When I was a retail worker I remember a few times where customers spoke up for me and I appreciated it… N bit his tongue though and let her keep helping/ germ assaulting us.
I only ever get sick once a year, max and I don’t take pills or get shots to prevent illness. I sometimes have allergies or headaches but full on flu or other sicknesses skip me somehow (knock on wood). Still, your immune system is weakened by pregnancy and being sick while pregnant can be a pretty uncomfortable thing since you aren’t allowed to take anything. I haven’t been sick yet and want to keep it that way!
Anyway, I got assaulted big time with germs at the bank yesterday, now I am chugging OJ! Thought I would share that with you.
Today we’ve been pouring over legal documents and I think my eyes are going to bleed. We are on round 3 of the lease/ purchase agreement for the new house. I just typed up 2 different mutual release documents to get out of our lease, one of which will be signed and executed Friday when we meet with and pay the slumlords.
We are also reading up on tax and home buyers intensives in addition to researching IRA funded home purchase rules, mortgage options and Indiana closing cost info. Fun stuff huh?
I am energy zapped today! The growing offspring inside me is needing food every 2 minutes today and on top of that I have zero energy so this is a lazy post… Sorry.
By the way, bloggy peeps- I heart you! It seems you are truly the only ones who know what is going on in our lives these days.
N and I take the time to draft lengthy emails to all our friends and family about Tater’s progress and the progress of the pregnancy. We don’t want people to feel like they aren’t included and we don’t expect them to read this blog everyday for news… but NOBODY takes the time to read those emails and updates. Ugh!
Oh and it looks like we got some mysterious boxes in the mail today, I am assuming they are for Tater! Not sure who they are from or what they contain… N and I will be opening them together tonight and will share photos on twitpic.
Take a second and enter the baby weight contest okay? You only need $1.00 to get in on the pool, 2 winners split the pot after delivery and so far only 3 people have entered. The more bets placed the more someone will win! You know you could use some extra money.
And now for my strange search terms:
“melissa bridge” modeling: I know a melissa bridge and I don’t think she runs a modeling agency… Hmm, Melissa, got a secret? Are you a model?
“krystal mccarthy”adoption: I know a Krystal McCarthy, I don’t think she is adopted… Man people are looking for info on my commenters big time!
a big scary 3 headed dog: Run, hide or throw a stick at it! Better yet wake the hell up and stop having that beer and pudding right before bed okay?
aint gonna pee pee my bed tonight: So do you want a cookie? Lots of people can sleep though the night without peeing you know!
www.babytatertot.com: No I didn’t buy the domain for little Tater, maybe I should. I was curious though so I googled it, sure enough I am #1 but apparently other parents have nicknamed their babys Tater Tot too… They just want to be cool like me though, LOL…
Now I want to try something a but different an include you guys in the strange search terms. Here are some questions that have landed people right here on this blog. Now you answer the questions that jump out at you! Put on your funny, creative or witty cap and lets see what we can come up with!
(left over from the birth kit) under her and let her go naked for a bit. She liked being free but was also startling much more without clothes on. The fresh air and sunlight did help with the rash though.
She was getting overly tired and overtired babies only have more issues going to sleep which is probably why E would only doze off in my arms but would not fully sleep or let us lay her down for a nap. The whole time we were thinking she was fussing and crying in pain, it was just exhaustion though.
As you can see from the photo, I am getting good at holding Everly in one hand while doing the internet thing with the other. I am still struggling with the self care while caring for a newborn thing though…
She’s smiling more and playing mimicking games with us these days. Her red hair is getting pretty long in some areas and she’s getting so big! Almost 11lbs it seems according to our bathroom scale.
Janelle from Junk Food 4 The Soul gave me the Zombie Chicken Award
I am eating some nut & chocolate trail mix. Just slathered more goop on the belly and was thinking I should write a 35 week pregnancy post.
