Kidney

Is the kidney bean shaped, or is the bean kidney shaped?

 The bubble words have nothing to do with this post, I just thought the talking kidney was cute.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know anything, which is why I'm trying to learn something each day.

And I didn't know exactly what the function of the kidney is.
Kidney's process about 200 quarts of blood a day. (for those of you like me who measure the american way, here's a little refresher, 4 quarts = 1 gallon, so the kidney is flushing about 50 gallons a day). The kidneys flush out the waste and water from the blood and send it to the bladder.

The kidneys measure out chemicals like sodium, phosphorus, and potassium and release them back to the blood to return to the body. In this way, the kidneys regulate the body’s level of these substances. The right balance is necessary for life. 

Now if Gracie asks me about the kidney, I have something to tell her.


 

Honey

After my Honey Bee post, which really just turned into a Queen Bee post, Skylar really wanted to know WHY bees make honey. 
So honey this one is for you.

The answer is simple; bees make honey for an energy source (food).  But here's what I didn't know, honey also acts as insulation for their hive during the winter. 

Because most bee colonies are maintained by beekeepers, the bees overproduce honey, which is why it's ok for us to take it from them.  Human consumption of honey is not doing any harm to the baby bees, they still get their fill.

Here are a few other interesting facts I learned about honey:
Nectar is regurgitated into the honeycomb, the content is high in water and natural yeast, if it was left this way it would ferment and be no good; but those smart little bees fan the nectar, thus making the water evaporate so that it is more sugar concentrated and turns to honey, and will not ferment.

Honey can be used as an antibiotic for burns and ulcers or gangrene, honey draws water away, so when honey is applied topically, the infection will be dehydrated to death.

Babies should not consume honey!  They can get botulism and die within 3-30 days. While the botulinum spores are not harmful to adults and children, they can be fatal to infants as their immune system and digestive tract are not fully developed.

HoneyBee

My friend told me that her father raised bees when she was young, their family got rid of the bees when she was 11 so she didn't know much about them, and I had a lot of questions as she was telling me what she did know.  So my research today is on the Honey Bee.  There is so much about bees I could probably study them all week, or all month, but I'm just going to focus on a one, after all, I do still have a baby to take care of.

 What's the deal with the Queen Bee?
The Queen is the only fertile bee in the swarm. She's incredibly important to the rest of the swarm for this reason, she lays all the eggs. 

A queen is made when the swarm becomes very large and they decide it's time to create a new colony, at that time the queen lays a few eggs in queen cups (see picture above), at which point the larva are fed exclusively something called royal jelly, a protein rich substance excreted from the heads of the worker bees.  All larva are fed royal jelly for a couple days, but the queen larva are fed it exclusively.  Being fed the royal jelly makes the queen larva sexually mature and fertile. 
When it's time for the queen bee to mate, she mates with about 16 drone (male) bees and stores up their sperm in a spermatheca (?) and then releases the sperm for 2-7 years (her queenly lifetime) onto the laid eggs.  Isn't that fascinating?  
I also learned that all worker bees are female, and only females have stingers because the stinger is actually an ovipositor (egg laying organ).  And the worker bee does die if it stings you, there are little barbs on their stinger that stick into the stung individual and when the bee pulls out the stinger stays in and kills the bee.  However, the queen bee's stinger is not barbed, so she can sting as many times as she wants. 

In short, Bees are magnificent, and I'm grateful for them.

Learning something new: Egg

There is so much that I don't know, and I'm often very inquisitive in conversations, so I decided that I'm going to make an effort to learn something new everyday, afterall, with Google and Wikipedia, there's no reason that I shouldn't know a lot more than I do.
In order to retain a little more about what I've learned, I'm going to write some small summary reports here and make a learning journal.
If anyone has suggestions on what I should study up on, please give me your suggestions!


I'm starting with an egg. 

Yesterday we didn't have any eggs, so I had to look up what I can use as an egg substitution for baking.  There are many options, most of which I did not have, such as arrowroot (what's that?) tofu (yea right), and soy milk (nope!)  The two most helpful and feasible for me were 1. Applesauce and 2 Banana.   
I made pumpkin pancakes with applesauce instead of an egg and they turned out perfect! 
Tangent:  It seems like applesauce is going to be a new family staple as I now use it as an oil substitute in baking, and can also use it when we run out of eggs.  Applesauce, you're a life saver.

So my next question about the egg is the nutritional facts, of course we've all heard that the egg white is the healthy part with all the protein, and the yolk is bad bad bad.

So here's my discovery:

One YOKE contains all of the vitamins, A, D and E.
Calories: 60
Protein: 2g
Fat 5g (2 saturated)
Cholesterol 212 mg (71% of your daily value of cholesterol)
Carbs 0g

Yoke contains your daily value of Choline, which I'd never heard of before, but it's apparently important to pregnant and nursing women as it is important in brain development, and increases fetal/infant brain development.  So maybe Choline is why breastfed babies generally have higher IQs than formula fed babies? 
Also interesting, the yoke's color is due to the diet of the chicken, so if a chicken is fed colorless food, the yoke will also be colorless.  Which makes sense why my parents chicken's yokes are bright orange rather than a dull yellow.  So I'm going to just make a guess and say that the more deep the yoke color, the more vitamins it has.

So you see, the egg yoke should not be shunned.  Although it has heartattackingly high cholesterol, it's also goodness packed.  So throw a yoke or two in with those whites, then do a little exercise to transform the cholesterol to good! (is that how it works? maybe I need to study cholesterol next)

Egg Whites consists of water (87%) and Protein (13%), sounds like the egg white isn't as proteinalishious as it's cracked up to be (cracked up.. egg.. get it?) 
Calories: 16
Protein 3.5g
Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0g
Carbs 0g

So here's what I'm going to do... change nothing!  Skylar and I already make our scrambled eggs with more whites than whole eggs, the portions depend on how many eggs we have on stock, since using just the whites makes less food.  Today we had a full carton so I only used 1 whole egg and the rest all white. 

Another tip I discovered for the poor homemaker, whipping your whites makes it look like you have more food.  I wanted to make a quiche, but we only had 4 eggs, and it usually takes about 5 or 6 whole eggs to fill up a pie crust, but I didn't want to use the whole egg because we're trying to be more healthy, so I whipped the heck out of those four little egg whites gently folded in some turkey, spinach and feta and viola, a beautiful low cal quiche filling. 

Scripture Reading Discovery.

I always seem to struggle finding time to read my scriptures, while I have plenty of time to read blogs, check facebook and watch internet television shows. Well, I have discovered the new LDS.org website, which is beautiful, I decided to read a chapter online as it was easier to read from the computer while holding Gracie than from a book, and I love it! I don't know why, but when I read from the scriptures on the computer I paid attention better, and felt like reading more and more. Even cooler, they even have audio so I can listen to someone else read scripture to me while I'm cooking, folding laundry or feeding a baby. I love the new lds.org website, especially the scripture page.
http://lds.org/scriptures/?lang=eng

Cooing

I love her noises

progress

My weird black skin in and around my belly button finally decided to shed off today, I think my body is finally coming to grips with the fact that it's not pregnant anymore. Maybe this means that I'll start losing the weight now too. (not likely)

Milestone

Since I started EC with Gracie, I would try to spring out of bed and take her to the potty as soon as I heard her starting to wake up. But now we've moved her from our room into her own room. She's been doing so well in there too, she sleeps all night! It's wonderful. Since she's in her own room I don't hear her rustling around. Skylar wakes up before me and now just brings her to me and I feed her in bed, play with her, then change her diaper. I figured if I didn't take her immediately after pulling her out of bed then its probably to late anyway. This morning when I got around to the diaper change, I noticed her diaper was still dry! Yes, dry, after a 9 hour sleep, after eating and playing a little. I plopped her on her potty and WAMO, she did the biggest poop and pee she ever has. She was totally holding it until I took her potty. Bless her little heart, explains why she was so wiggly at the breast this morning. Sorry Gracie, mommy's still learning with you.

EC

(ps that's not a bruise on her bottom, it's a birth mark)

In an effort to minimize laundry, I decided to start holding Gracie on a little potty when I changed her diaper. She was regularly peeing or pooping as soon as the diaper came off, and her poops are major projectile! Then I remembered a friend of mine told me about elimination communication. Gracie was already successfully peeing in the potty at diaper changes, so I decided to take the next step and learn her "I have to go potty" cues. About 1 week into it and we're catching about 5 or 6 pees a day and usually 1 or 2 poops.
For those who have never heard of elimination communication (EC) it's simply learning a baby's cues and helping them eliminate in a more sanitary way than in a diaper. Humans and animals are born understanding that it's gross and uncomfortable to soil themselves. Humans teach their babies to eliminate in a diaper. Before a baby has learned that the diaper is her toilet, she often waits until the diaper is off to "go potty." It's not just because the cold hits the little fanny, it's because she knows her waste isn't going to be trapped against her skin. All babies have some kind of potty cue, the trick is to figure it out. So we're in that process. I have noticed that if Gracie suddenly goes from happy to fussy, it's because she's gotta go, also, when nursing if she starts to get aggravated, it's usually because she has to pee.
I never thought that "peeing" my baby would be so fun, I'm so proud of her every time.

I'm sure many people think that I'm crazy, and I understand that this probably doesn't work for many parents, but it works for me and Gracie.

Big girl

Congratulations Gracie, you turned 2 months old! And to celebrate your first 2 months of life, mom is going to take you to a cold doctor's office, take off your adorable clothes, make you lay on a cold metal scale with a thin piece of paper covering it, and then make you drink something weird and let a strange lady stick 3 sharp needles into your legs. Do you believe me now that I love you?


Stats: 9 lbs 1 oz - 24th percentile
19 inches - 50th percentile


P.S. Gracie, I want you to know that the shots were for your own good, to prevent you from getting horrible illness that will make you cry much longer than the few minutes you screamed about the sharp needles. You were so brave after the initial shock of pain. And, by the way, you liked the weird drink thing. Then later that night, you got baby tylenol, and you loved it so much you smiled after a long sad day.
You're our precious angel.

poop

Gracie didn't poop for over 12 hours. That's a first for her.
I pride myself in having a baby who has a healthy digestive system, so no poop all night and all morning got me a little worried. Then she regulated around hour 16 and I was very happy to see that sticky yellow mustard poop coat her clothe diaper, and then again and again every 2 hours afterward. Maybe I should give it 24 hours before I bother worrying the next time.

For daddy!

Skylar, Gracie misses you so she wanted to make a few videos for you, but then she got camera shy and forgot what she wanted to say.

But, she told me beforehand, and she just wants you to know she loves you.

Accomplishments!

Gracie slept all night! It was lovely.
Of course, on normal nights she's not bad, she sleeps 4-5 hours, I change her diaper, feed her, and she goes back to sleep. So I usually only wake up once anyway. But it was really nice to sleep the whole night.
Also, I didn't even have to put her to sleep, I just laid her in her bed after she ate and she quietly babbled herself to sleep. I love my little girl. She's so awesome.

Also, Gracie peed in the potty! haha
I bought a little potty for Gracie yesterday, because, why not? She pees or poops on me probably 50% of the time that I change her, so I decided that I'm going to start putting her on her potty every time I change her diaper so that she'll get used to it and the idea is that when she is ready to be potty trained she'll already be used to it.

I love my Gracie girl.

Newborn Pictures

They took some pictures of Gracie in the hospital. I just realized that I could save them to my computer.
Here they are!

Gracie snuggles

Again, Gracie is so completely our daughter. She loves to snuggle. And while I am not very surprised that she likes to cuddle, as both her parents love a good snuggle, I still melt every time that she whines just because she wants to be loved on.

One day I had put her in the baby swing, which she also seems to enjoy, and she started to get whiney. She had a clean diaper, a full belly, and seemed comfortable enough. I picked her up, she smelled me a bit and nestled into my arms, gave me a big smile and then just laid contentedly in my arms.

Words cannot express how much I love this little girl. She is truly an angel, and she reminds me of that every day. I am so grateful that I get to be her mom.

100 points goes to Gracie Faye de Jong for being the most absolutely, undeniably perfect baby.

Gracie smiles

Gracie has the best smile! I haven't been able to catch a picture of her yet, but I will as I think I've figured out that she almost always smiles right after she eats. She gives me a big grin, it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my 27 years of life.

Gracie is most definitely Skylar's and my daughter, as she is the only baby I have ever known or even heard of who actually laughs in her sleep. As I an often known for my laugh, Gracie must have learned it while in the womb. It's adorable. Again, I wish I had a video of it, but that one I can't predict as well.

Perfect baby, 10 more points given.

Gracie sleeps

At two and a half weeks, I think I probably can't complain much about our sleeping situation. Gracie wakes up probably only twice a night, and we're up for about 30 minutes to 1 hour each time she wakes. So all in all, I'm only missing two hours of sleep at night, then we make up for it together during the day (sometimes).

Of course, when I'm actually in the middle of feeding Gracie at 4:00 am, and she's fussing for 5 or 10 minutes, I feel like we've been up all night and I catch myself feeling bad for myself and a little frustrated that she won't just close her eyes and zip it (rude, I know). So I mostly have to write this to remind myself that Gracie is still the perfect baby, and being up for a little time to give her some food and love is really the least I can do to reward her.

Hurray for the perfect baby. 5 points given.

Gracie eats

When we were in the hospital and I only had colostrum, Gracie had a hard time eating. While in the belly, she developed a habit of sucking on her tongue, which prevented her from latching on correctly and persuading the food to come out of mommy. She also bites, and she bites hard.

We had to see the lactation specialist a coupe times and she taught us how we can train our baby to suck correctly by having her suck on our finger and pushing her tongue down when she sucked badly, and giving her a reward when she sucked correctly. Since most of the time she was not sucking right, she wasn't getting much food from me, so the lactation specialist set up an eating plan that I had to try to breastfeed for at least 15 minutes, then pump for 15 minutes, then feed her from a bottle whatever I pumped, plus formula, if I didn't pump enough. The whole ordeal actually took a lot longer than it sounds, and by the time I was done feeding her, it'd be time to start over again almost right when I was finished. Needless to say, I was a very frustrated new mommy.

The good news though is that my milk did start flowing in an abundant supply. Gracie still bites, but she's learned to suck and definitely gets her fill, we can tell from all of her lovely yellow poops that she's practically floating in.

I'm still trying to figure out how to teach her not to bite me, I'm really just hoping that she quits before she gets any teeth, otherwise we'll probably have to stop the nursing sooner than I would like to.

All in all though, Gracie is a great eater. Two more points toward the perfect baby.

Gracie poops

My little Gracie has very loose bowels, she also seems to have a great sense of humor. Almost never fails, at least once a day, she waits for her diaper to be off before she lets the poop loose and gets it all over her changing pad, and her mom or dad. We've also discovered that she likes to poop after she eats. Skylar held her over the toilet one day after her feeding, and just as we predicted, she pooped. So, she's already practically potty trained! (jk)

Ever since my milk came in, and Gracie started to eat well, I don't think I've ever changed a diaper that was just wet, they're always poopy.

I'm grateful that Gracie doesn't have problems with her bowel movements, I think it makes her a more content baby.

Go Gracie! One more point towards you being the perfect baby!!

Video

Success!!!

I have to start by saying, I loved loved loved my nurse. She was wonderful.
After the doctor's came in and briefed us on the possibility of the C-section, my nurse avoided checking on me until the last possible moment, reason being, if she checked me and I was still a 7, they would have had to admit me to the OR. Instead, she gave us some time and thank heavens for that! When she checked me again, I was at a 10!! and Gracie had finally dropped like she was supposed to! (THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR PRAYERS)
I complained a little about the pain, and she told me that I should start pushing. She and Skylar held my legs and coached me, and 40 minutes later, Gracie was born.
I am truly amazed how much easier it was than I expected. I thought I'd be pushing for hours with little progress, but we could see her head already after the first round of pushes, which was very encouraging.
I did not get an episiotomy, not by choice though, only because they didn't do it, and the pushing went so fast I don't think they even thought to check if I would need one. I did tear a bit and had to get stitches, I don't know the implications yet.
She came out beautiful and healthy. We love our little Gracie and are so excited she has joined our family.

These are in backwards order. I'm too tired to fix them.

continuation of labor

5 hours later, I'm still 7 centimeters and 90% effaced. Gracie isn't dropping, which is a problem. If she doesn't move like she's supposed to, they're going to have to cut her out of me.

Prayers are appreciated.

Labor, so far

Story time
I had my 40 week appointment at 3:15 on 8/25. Skylar called me right before I left to pick him up and go and told me to pack the car seat and our hospital bag. I was hesitant because I didn't want to just set myself up for disappointment, but did it anyway.
We met with the doctor, and talked about the risks of induction. However, he also said that since I was at 40 weeks, and hadn't felt any contractions yet it was likely that in a week they would still have to induce. The good news though was that I was at a 3, which was a good sign that the induction would be successful and not lead to a C-section.
Then he measured me, and I was measuring smaller than I had last week.He decided to do an ultrasound to see if the fluids were low or if Gracie had just dropped and was hiding in my pelvis.Results: Fluids were below normal, placenta had calcified considerable, and Gracie was measuring the same as she had almost 3 weeks ago at our last ultrasound. She wasn't growing. That was concern enough for them to admit me immediately instead of waiting a few days for the next open induction slot date.
He gave us some paper work and we just walked on up to labor and delivery.
It certainly was not the experience that I had imagined checking in would be like. No wheel chair, no labor pains, no feeling of urgency.After undressing and mooning my nurse several times, I got an IV and hooked up to a bunch of tubes and monitors. The nurse kept asking me, "how's that contraction feel" and my response was, "what contraction??" So apparently I have been having contractions, I just couldn't feel them/didn't know what I was looking for. SO, for all you who told me that I'd know it when it happens, I'm sorry to say you were most certainly wrong.

All wired up and ready to go

They started the Pitocin around 5:30, I think it took a couple hours before I started to feel anything.
By 2:00am the contractions were moderately high and only giving me about a 30 second-1minute break in between and I was still only around a 5.
It's true what they say about induction and Pitocin, it's a horrible painful drug.
Throughout my whole pregnancy I have been studying about natural labor and had really set my mind that I could do it naturally. I was also terrified of the epidural's side effects. But, I have also never felt so defeated in my life.
Nothing about this pregnancy has been natural. I couldn't get pregnant naturally, I always felt too good and didn't feel many of the natural pregnancy signs (which was wonderful), and I wasn't laboring naturally, so I surrendered to the trend.

Feeling miserable, the breaking point.

I got an epidural.


So, here I am now, 7:00, almost 14 hours in labor, feeling great and anxious to meet my daughter. I'm currently 7 centimeters dialated and about 90% thinned.
Gracie isn't dropping so I have to sit up straight now and can't sleep anymore. to be continued.

Stinkin Castor Oil

Yes, I have become so desperate that I tried the castor oil. I did a lot of research, thought it all through, and even prayed about it. I feel like really good about giving it a shot, and it was the last thing that I knew about that I could do to help this baby come that I haven't already tried.
10 oz of orange juice
2 oz of castor oil
tsp of vanilla
little bit of salt
and NOTHING!
Skylar and I stayed home from a party we had been invited to (80s party, sounded totally fun) as we fully expected me to be toilet bound, which would lead to contractions.
We were fooled.
I spent the rest of the evening feeling normal, just waiting and waiting to get sick.
[TMI Alert] I got the runs, but not the horrible-can't-wait-to-get-to-the-bathroom kind, just whenever I had to go number 1, some number 2s came with it.
I went to bed at a normal hour and slept great.
Worst night ever! Not because it was uncomfortable, gross, or sick, but because it was so disappointing. I was so optimistic that this would finally get something to happen.
Nothing is happening still. Never a single cramp or contraction.
Poo on that.

Finally, some progress!

I had my 39 week doctor visit yesterday. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it because I was afraid it would just be the same nothing news: that I'm still not dialated and a baby is still far away from being in my arms instead of my belly. But to both my and my doctor's surprise, I went from barely 1/2 a centimeter to almost 3.5 centimeters! I was delighted.

I've been working hard, walking a lot, bouncing on the exercise ball and some other stuff...

Looks like it's paying off. Of course, I know many people can sit at 4 centimeters for weeks and have nothing happen, so I have to keep reminding myself I still might never go into labor. lol

When I told Skylar, he was happy, then reality hit him that he really might miss one of his first days of law school. I'm sorry honey. Of course, he's more excited for the baby than he's nervous about school, so ultimately he's fine with getting a call at any time of the day and dropping whatever he's doing to take us to the hospital.

Come on baby!! Get out of my belly!! We love you and want to kiss and hug you!

Frustration

We were really hoping that Gracie would arrive before Skylar started school, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen as he starts on Monday. In fact, it's looking more and more like she's just going to be late.
I haven't progressed at all, my cervix is still closed, I've never had any cramping or braxton-hicks contractions. I'm unfortunately still very comfortable. How awful is that? I'm such a brat, I really do feel great, but I'm so pissed about it! I want to have labor pains already!
I've been trying to walk about an hour a day, maybe that's not enough, but it's stinkin hot outside. I sit on an exercise ball as often as I can instead of a chair or the couch, I don't know if that makes any difference.
I do feel like I've dropped a little bit, but I only get that impression because all of a sudden I got a ton of stretch marks (which do burn) when I've gone so long without them, and I'm not measuring any bigger than I was before the stretch marks, so I'm just guessing that there's more pressure on my lower belly than there was before.
So, I'm just being a whiny pregnant woman when I should really just be grateful that I've had a blissful pregnancy, I'm carrying a healthy baby and I have a wonderfully supportive husband.
I am grateful that we have the opportunity to be parents. I just want that to happen now :(
I'm ok with not having her come early, but I really would like this little child of ours to at least arrive no later than 1 day past her due date because I've got my mom coming, and I don't want my mom's visit to be a waste, I need her help with a newborn, not with the final week of pregnancy, I think I've got the pregnancy thing pretty down pat. Plus, mom doesn't want to see me, she wants to see her grandchild!
So if anyone has any sympathy for me (and I don't blame you if you don't, because I know that I really don't have it bad) please pray that I'll go into labor by or before August 25th.
Thanks.

Still a girl

We got an ultrasound today because Ohio doesn't trust the one we got in Utah. jk, I don't really know the reason, but when they said they wanted another ultrasound we didn't complain about it, we love seeing our baby.
Looks like everything is still going well, she's developing just as she should, and they double checked for us and Gracie is still a girl (thank goodness!)
After taking some measurements it was determined that she is approximately 5 lbs 15 oz, give or take 13 oz (lol).
We're getting a little trunky and ready to have a baby in our arms.

We love Gracie

Baby girl, whom we now call Gracie, still seems to be doing well. We went to a new doctor here in Ohio and nothing has changed from our last visit with Dr. Watabe in Utah. I didn't gain a pound, and haven't progressed at all (still at 1/2 centimeter). The no-weight gain is deceiving though because I'm pretty sure that I lost some water weight as my feet and legs have shrunk down considerably (thank you Ohio humidity and central air!) I was also still measuring at 35 weeks when, on the day of my visit, I was 36 weeks. I think I just ballooned quick and now I'm leveling off. I don't feel like my belly has grown in a few weeks.
Gracie's heart beat is still in the healthy 140-150 range, she's moving well, at least as far as I can tell, she gets hiccups regularly and still doesn't like me taking her space when I lay on my side. Otherwise, she actually seems fairly quiet, I hope that this means she's going to be an easy going baby that sleeps a lot. We could really use an easy baby right now with Skylar starting law school.
Skylar and I set up Gracie's room and we're so excited to add her to it as the finishing touch!

Fatty fat feet

The picture really doesn't do them justice, but I've felt for the past couple weeks that I've been walking on a couple of giant water balloons.
I have cankles
When standing, my ankle bracelet rests about an inch above it's usually spot
I feel like if I stick a pin in my skin I'll spring a mighty leak
I'm so excited for this baby girl to join our family. :) :) :)

Quick baby stats

At 35 weeks, baby girl is head down, I'm dilated to 1/2 a centimeter and 50% softened. Everything is perfectly on target. I couldn't have asked for a better pregnancy.
I'm still feeling as well as can be expected, there are a few discomforts, but nothing unbearable.
The doctor said that baby will probably be a little big (nice was of saying that I look huge), he estimates birth weight to be around 8 lbs.

Cloth Diapers

We decided that it's high time we do our part on getting on the going-green train, and do a little environment saving ourselves. It just so happens, that our environment-saving decision is also going to be a huge money saver for ourselves. We're going have our baby do her little waste business in cloth diapers.

Turns out, there's a lot to learn about cloth diapers.

First- they are not the big rag and scary diaper pins that our moms likely used on us.
Second- there's a whole bunch of types of cloth diapers, all-in-ones, pocket diapers, hybrid diapers, covers, inserts and a whole bunch of lingo that I can't ever get right.
Third- Sizes and Fitting. Some come with Velcro, some with snaps, some require you to get the snappy (very cool alternative to the scary pins). Some are all size fits all adjustable and others are specific sizes from Newborn to Toddler.

So after tons of research, pricing comparing, review reading and asking friends, I decided that I liked the shell/insert type of cloth diaper. There seems to be less laundry to do as when the diaper is messed in, often times you just have to change the insert and reuse the actual diaper shell. So we wouldn't have to buy as many diapers, just buy more inserts which are cheaper than the actual diaper shell.

I started really liking the Gdiaper because they have both reusable (washable) and biodegradable disposable inserts for those times when we're out and don't want to carry around a dirty diaper. Only thing I didn't like about the Gdiaper is they didn't have the one-size-fits-all option, we'd have to buy diapers for all sizes, newborn, small, medium and large, in addition to two kinds of inserts, small and medium/large.

While looking for better deals in the classifieds I discovered GroBaby. A diaper that met all my wants, shell/insert and the one-size-fits-all option so we just have to buy them once, and both the washable and disposable inserts. I read the reviews, and found them all positive, unlike all the other diapers I researched which all had mixed reviews, everything from Love it, wouldn't do anything different, to Hate it, they're leaky and don't fit right. I did not find one single negative, or even luke-warm review about GroBaby. (If anyone does find a bad GroBaby review, don't bother telling me because I've already made the plunge and I'm not going back... on second thought, I'd like to see it as I am curious...)



We bought our diapers from a woman who purchased the whole package while she was pregnant, then her husband got cold feet about cloth diapering and made her sell them, so we got a great deal as she had to sell them "used" but they've never touched a baby's bum.



I was super excited to try them out when we got home and tried them on a "newborn" sized bear and a large bear. The newborn bear is more the size of a premie and is drowning a little in diaper, but it still works! I even put on a premie size onesie over the little guy to see how that fit, and still looked fine!

We feel really good about our decision, we're excited to save money on diapers, and do our part in keeping a couple thousand diapers out of the landfills.

daddy's girl

I love this little baby that squirms around and kicks in my belly.
Her last heart rate was 151. That's about average for her.
It doesn't seem like she's settled into one position yet, the majority of the time I feel kicks on my left side, but she rolls with my at night and kicks on whatever side I'm laying on.
We're so excited to meet her. Skylar is going to be the best daddy. He already loves his little girl so much.

I started riding my bike to work. It's only 7 blocks, but still took a lot of persuasion on my part to get Skylar to let me go, he wants me to wear a belly helmet. I'm not quite sure how that would work, he's just concerned about his girl. So I'm a lot more cautious, and ride a little slower (partly because I just get tired faster), and we went on a little ride around the neighborhood so I could prove to him that I'll be alright. I did get the green light from my doctor too.

I love being pregnant, I love every kick, punch and movement I feel. I like that I can't bend over very easily anymore because I have this big belly in the way, I love that my clothes are getting tighter and more uncomfortable, and I love that it's just going to get worse, or rather, better, because it means we're closer to seeing our little princess and she's growing like she should.

Beautiful Baby Girl!

I love this little girl so much already! She's already made us cry with joy. I just pray that we will be good parents to her and teach her all that she needs to know to do well in this life.
I love you baby girl. I'm so happy you're coming to our family.

as good as it gets

I'm just past 16 weeks, my belly is getting big, and I get some serious heart burn/indigestion, but other than that, I feel great. I went to the doctor this week and the heart beat was at a happy 150. My weight gain is perfectly on track, I'm gaining about a half pound a week.
I haven't felt any flutters or popcorn popping in my belly or whatever it's supposed to feel like... but I'm hoping that I will soon.
Life is good, we're really excited for this little friend coming into our family.

oh the woes, again

I went shopping with my sister for nursing bras. We went to Target, that may have been our first problem, but we don't have the luxury of spending more somewhere else that specializes better in women's underwear.
Target has a fairly decent selection, except one thing, nothing smaller than a 34 B. Now it's no surprise that my skinny darling sister is smaller than me. I was quite annoyed. Have bra manufacturers just decided to completely rule out the flat chested women? Just because they don't show up on TV or in magazines, here's a little newsflash, WE STILL EXIST!! AND (most of us) ARE NOT ASHAMED OF THE WAY WE ARE. And not only were the Bs the smallest size, they looked more like an engorged B, closer to C.
So flat chested women have been apparently, completely, ruled out when it comes to fertility and lactation. Well here's a little FYI, small breasts can still give milk.

Still in there?

We finally got to see the doctor again on Friday.
I was starting to get nervous, wasn't sure if I had imagined that I was pregnant or if there was still a tiny growing person inside me. I've been really lucky so far and have had the easiest pregnancy, I've only thrown up twice, and both times it was when I stayed up past 11:30pm. If I go to bed early, I don't get sick at all (except for the acid reflex stuff which has increased a bit, but I had that long before).
I'm also gaining some weight in my middle section, but I also haven't exercised much in the last month, mostly due to laziness, so I can't tell if I'm starting to show, or just getting fat. (I did go running on Saturday though, it felt great!)
Friday we went to the doctor and heard the heart beat, a healthy beat of 160. Baby is still in there. Thank goodness. It wasn't a dream after all.
He also said we're pretty much in the clear to go public as from here on out there's only a 1% chance of having the worst happen. So I've unlocked this blog and started texting some friends.
We are so excited (mixed with a little uncertainty as to how this is all going to work out, but trying to exercise our faith that it just will)

My Sister's Beautiful baby, Illiana Maylee Harlow

One Healthy Heart

Bitter-sweet would be the best word to describe our ultrasound. The good news: We saw a healthy lima bean sized baby with a rapidly beating heart. Heart rate of 164. It was the strangest and most beautiful thing I had even seen in my life. It's little heart was pumping right out of it's tiny chest. The baby was measuring right on target and looked overall as healthy as it could be for an 8 week old embryo.
The bad news, there was a twin, it didn't make it.
This may not have been so jarring except that my husband was already convinced that we were having twins, ever since day one of a positive pregnancy test. So finding out that we were right.... and wrong, at the same time, was more than sobering. It was hard to be happy for the healthy baby and morn the loss of the one that didn't survive at the same time.
We were glad that we called the doctor. We were glad to know of our misfortune so that we could also know of our rich blessing. We are very grateful for everyone who has offered prayers on our behalf.
Our doctor told us that since we have seen and heard a heart beat, there is now only a 5% chance of miscarriage. After the first trimester, the rest of the whole pregnancy there is a 1-2% chance of losing the baby. So we are happy with those odds. I am now nearly 11 weeks, so only a few more weeks to go until we can ease up just a little more.
We look forward to every moment. I don't mind being sick at night (I don't get morning sick). I've been really lucky and have only thrown up once, but I didn't mind, it means that I've been given what I wanted most!
I'm pregnant, we're going to have a baby, how can I be unhappy about any aspect of that?

Bloody Scare

I came home from work on Monday with some serious abdominal cramps. It hurt to stand, it hurt to sit, all I could do was lay fetal position. It felt like I had eaten a porcupine that was trying to make it's way out with a vengeance. I went to the bathroom and noticed that I was bleeding. I completely freaked out, I've been afraid of a miscarriage since day one, getting pregnant was just too good to be true. Skylar was incredible sweet and sensitive and took good care of me all night. The bleeding and the pain subsided after I took a long bath.
I was afraid to go right into work the next day, because I was still mortified about what might have happened.
I called the doctor and they asked me to come in and do a blood test to see if all my hormone levels were normal.
The doctor's office called back the next day (which quite impressed us because at our previous doctor, we had to call them to get our lab results, and it was still like pulling teeth to get information, ridiculous). The nurse said that my HCG was very high and healthy, and the doctor wanted me to come in for an ultrasound, and that we should be able to "see good things". We set my ultrasound date for a week and a half later, because that's the soonest they had available that coordinated with Skylar's school schedule. They called back about an hour later and said that the doctor wanted my ultrasound done immediately, so they made an available time slot the next day.
Again, I am super impressed with this doctor office.