Quiet book ideas

Because I totally have more time on my hands than I know what to do with (eye roll), I've recently been thinking of making a quiet book for Bubba. So I've been casually pinning ideas on Pinterest, and it's made me realize that should I make everything I've pinned, Bubba will have numerous quiet books to choose from. Yeah, chances are I won't make all of them, and I'll actually congratulate myself if I even get one done. But if I work on it a little at a time, maybe it'll get done by the time he's ready to use it. Here are the ones that I LOVE:

Needs Dr. Crusher and Troi to be complete, but aren't these adorable?

That's right... a Star Trek quiet book! This is a complete book, and the picture above is just one of the pages. Those are finger puppets, by the way. How awesome of a mom would I be if I made this? But never fear... I will make them with the correct rank pips. Imagine Captain Picard being demoted. As if!

The cloud is the pocket to hold everything

This cute rainbow has snap-in pieces to help kids work on their snapping as well as their color recognition and matching abilities.

It's like Mr. Potato Head, but not.

 Build your own robot. Enough said.

Sand castles!

This double pager lets you make your own sand castle. All the bottom pieces are interchangeable, so he can really have fun with it.

My head just exploded from the awesomeness!

And finally, yes, a Harry Potter quiet book. Made by the same chick who did the Star Trek quiet book, this one is also a complete book instead of just a page or two. Now you can see why I say I will be making quiet books for the rest of my life. :) Oh, and this chick also has a Star Wars one, which is also cool. But of the 3 she has, it comes in last in my list of awesomeness.

But now that I've listed them all out, I realize I better get on it. Bubba is almost 5 months old, and it can take me a long time to get a project done. So I'm not kidding when I say I hope I get one done by the time he's ready to use it. I shall start with the Star Trek book. Wish me luck!

On the "ability" of being a SAHM

Last night, DH had his company Christmas party, where employees from all the branches come to town to have a nice meal, free alcohol, door prizes and free hotel rooms. It's a huge deal, and they go all-out. Anyway, before the party, DH told me that some of his co-workers are jealous that I am able to be a SAHM. And indeed, a handful of them mentioned to me and DH that they wished they could stay home.

The thing is, they CAN.

Now, I've thought this way long before Dave Ramsey entered my life. So I won't turn this into a "take a Dave Ramsey course" plug, although I'll admit that his program has made it a little easier to be a SAHM. But soooo many people don't realize that if they really really wanted to, and both the husband and wife agreed, one of them can stay home and raise children for a living. They just have to realize that they'd have to sacrifice on some of the more creature comforts Americans have grown to "need". And yes, it is hard. But again, if they really wanted to, they'd find a way.

Here's a list of things we've sacrificed a bit on which makes it possible for me to stay home.

1. Our mortgage is modest enough that I don't need to bring in any money to help keep the roof over our heads. And a modest mortgage means that we have a modest house. No McMansions here.

2. Both our vehicles were bought used, were paid for in cash, and are creeping up on 10 years old. We have no plans on getting a new "used" vehicle anytime soon, as we haven't saved up enough to pay in full, and a car payment would take a big chunk of our budget.

3. DH's cell phone is mostly paid for by his employer, and mine is just a simple TracFone. I can make a call and text. That's it. No camera, no WiFi, no games. It's maybe $100 a year. (No, I don't talk on the phone a lot). If DH's employer decided to stop paying for his cell phone, he'd get a TracFone, too. And like the vehicles, we don't get the newest phones that hit the market.

4. We eat out once a week. Sometimes twice, depending on what's going on. But eating out is expensive, and it's sad when you spend more on eating out than what you spend on groceries. We used to eat out a ton, but when we added up everything we spent, it gave us a wake up call that we were wasting money.

5. We no longer have cable. If DH had his way, we wouldn't have internet, either, but a girl's gotta put her foot down sometime. :) Out of everything I've listed so far, this one is by far the hardest. I liked the background noise it offered, and the trashy MTV shows I got addicted to. But when it comes down to it, we really don't need to spend $60 a month on trashy MTV shows that I could watch for free online.

6. We don't do a lot of shopping. And this might be a product of where we live, where Walmart is the best place to get stuff, but really, we take one or two big shopping trips to Fargo a year. But otherwise, there is very minimal amounts spent on clothing, shoes and whatever else other people like to buy.

7. We don't take many vacations. And by vacations, I mean "go somewhere that's more than 1 state away". We'll take an occasional weekend trip to see friends in Minnesota or go see my family in Montana. But besides gas, those are pretty cheap as we don't pay hotel costs. Maybe some day we'll take a big vacation... and of course we'd save up for it.

Anyway, those are the big things that most people don't want to give up. Not saying that everyone does all those things, but just one or two of them alone can make it impossible for someone to stay home with the kids. But if they really worked at it, I bet they'd find that they COULD stay home.

Black Friday damage

I told myself that I wouldn't go overboard, and would just get the necessities... like sizing up the diapers I really like, and most importantly, a diaper sprayer. I will not start Matthew on solids without one, because I refuse to "dunk and swish"... where you literally dunk the dirty diaper in the toilet to get the poop off.

Anyway, DH and I recently received some extra money, and we took a small portion of it for ourselves. We call it "fun money". I decided to use some of mine on cloth diapers. DH doesn't understand how in the world that could be fun, but trust me, I had a ball! He just shrugged his shoulders because I had fun buying things our baby will poop and pee in.

Unfortunately, the diaper sprayer I'd been eyeing sold out super fast, so I'm still sprayerless. I've tried to buy this darn sprayer a few different times, and every single time I go to buy it, it sells out! It's like I'm not meant to have one, and I'm doomed to a life of dunking and swishing. But if I have to pay full price for one, I will. My mistake is that I wait until they go on sale, and it seems as though others are, too. No more. I figure I have 2 months to get one, as that's when Matthew will be 6 months old, and when I want to start him on solids.

On to diapers....

Most of my existing stash is solid colors, and everything I sized up followed in that path. But there were a few new diapers I wanted to try out, and there I picked some fun prints. I'm very excited to try them out!

Rumparooz G2 One-Size Pocket

Swaddlebees One-Size Simplex AIO

Peachy Green Solo Luxe AIO

Fun, huh? DH is especially going to love that last one. He has a thing for dragons. The side snaps might throw him off though. Oh well. That's the price you pay for having an awesome diaper!

And as always, I'll review once I've gotten a good feel for how they work!

Cloth diaper update

Well, seeing as though Black Friday is coming very quickly, I thought I'd give a quick update on how it's going with the cloth.

Truth be told, I'm a little frustrated, as they continually get the stinkies. This is when detergent doesn't get completely washed out, and next time baby wets the diaper, the urine mixes with the trapped detergent and creates a strong ammonia smell. Then next time they'll not only have trapped detergent, they'll have trapped urine, too. Compounding the problem is that we have very hard water.

I've altered my wash routine many times, and I still haven't landed on the one that works. Right now, it's a warm rinse with no detergent, a hot wash with 2.5 Tbsp of powdered Tide and same amount of washing soda (to help with the hard water problem), and a few short, cold washes, as I usually still see suds after the hot wash. I've tried more detergent, less detergent, no soda, Dawn dish soap, different temps in my wash, different settings, different amounts of cycles.

Next thing I'll try is adding water manually. Since I have a front loader, it uses significantly less water, and as I pointed out in one of my previous posts, you want more water with cloth diapers. I should have just started using more water from the beginning, but I'd read many wash routines from women with my same washing machine, and most didn't need to add water. So I trusted it'd be the same for me. Nope, not looking like it.

I've already stripped all my diapers 3 times, and today I noticed "the smell" again, so another strip will be happening soon. My prefolds are the worst culprit, but fortunately, they're the easiest to fix, even if only temporarily. All I have to do is boil them for 15-30 minutes and then run them though a rinse. The first time I did this, I couldn't believe the grossness of the water after I was done. It was cloudy and yellowish. My other diapers are trickier, because you can't (or shouldn't, rather) boil them since they have elastic and/or plastic snaps. I don't want to completely destroy the diapers, so I use RLR. I still haven't figured out what's in it, but needless to say, it didn't really help much. But I did ALL my diapers, so next time, I'll boil the prefolds and do RLR with my covers and pockets... that way the load will be smaller.

And all I could think of is that I might be super lucky that Matthew hasn't developed ammonia burn or diaper rash from this yet. I might have to strip diapers every month, but if it means he's rash-free, then I'll gladly do it.

Anyway, I've been making a list of new diapers to buy for Black Friday. Won't be a lot, and DH is fighting me over buying more, but some of the diapers we have are sized, and Bubba will soon outgrow them. I have also added a few single diapers of brands I haven't tried yet, but get good reviews. This one I'll have to rein myself in on.

To buy:
6 Thirsties Duo Wrap diaper covers, size 2
4-5 FuzziBunz perfect size diapers, medium
1 swim diaper
2-3 trainers
1 diaper sprayer
RLR
CJ's BUTTer

Looking at:
Rumparooz OS diaper
BumGenius Elemental
BumGenius FreeTime
Kawaii Baby Goodnights
Thirsties fitteds
SoftBums Omni

Yes, you read correctly... I put trainers on the list, even though Matthew isn't even 5 months old yet. And knock on wood, but judging from the fact that he H.A.T.E.S. to be wet, I want to be prepared in the off-chance that he'll potty train early (as in, before Black Friday 2013). I just have to find the right trainers, because if he does PT early, he'll be smaller, and if he doesn't go early, the small sizes won't fit him. So I won't get many, and I'll just sell them off if he doesn't fit them.

Overall, it's going pretty well with the cloth diapering... stinkies aside. Sometimes I just wish I could slap a disposable on him and call it good, but that's not too often. DH even likes cloth, which is surprising. Now if I could only get him excited about buying more of it... :)

Hospital recovery for me

I'm writing this out, because when I was pregnant, I had only a vague idea of how recovery would go, and that recovery would be from a normal vaginal birth. Obviously, I had no plans in getting a c-section, so I didn't even think about what would come after getting major surgery. So here are my memories of it... should have written this down a long time ago, while it was still fresh in my memory. But alas....

First thing we learned, was that when you're in the hospital after having a c-section, it was preferable to let the baby sleep in the nursery instead of in your room. The first night, DH slept at the hospital and the baby was in the room, too. We got pretty much no sleep at all. Matthew cried a lot, and as new parents, we had no idea what was going on. I was not allowed to get out of bed (not that I wanted to), so DH did the vast majority of the care at this point. So we decided it was in everyone's best interest to let the nurses take care of Matthew at night. That way we could get some rest, and if he needed to feed, they'd bring him in to me. The next few nights were a lot more restful with him in the nursery. And the hospital states that they encourage rooming-in, but the nurses kinda think that's a bunch of non-sense. They know that moms want/need their rest while they can get it, and having a newborn in the room will guarantee that they won't get it. They even told us, "that's what we're here for!" Okay, have at it!

I also learned pretty quickly that the instant I started feeling pain, I needed to call the nurse for more meds. If I waited too long and let the pain get too strong, it was harder to get it back under control. The percocet I got also made me tired, so I got lots of sleep with its help.

The compression socks they made me wear for almost the entire 3 day stay were a pain in the butt. I get the point of them, but after 2 days, your legs just want to be left alone. Due to the swelling I got towards the end of pregnancy, my lower legs looked pretty freaky whenever they'd take the socks off. My feet were still hugely puffy, while my ankles were making their reappearance. Then I'd have another area of puffiness and then another of normalcy. Picture is below.

Results of 3 days of compression socks

The surgeon wanted my to keep my catheter in almost the whole time, too, which was nice, but also a huge pain in the butt. It was nice because if I needed to go to the bathroom after drinking tons of water, I didn't even have to think about getting up. But it was a pain in the butt because once I started walking around, the tubing served as a convenient path for the blood that was pouring out of me (sorry). There were a few times I had to turn around and go back to my room to clean up because I was leaving paths in the halls.

Speaking of walking, they had me up on the second day. I just walked around my room a bit, and I was exhausted. But the worst part was the act of getting out of bed. That alone took a good 5 minutes the first few times since it was very painful as well as awkward with all the tubing to negotiate. I got the hang of it towards the end, but it wasn't any less painful. Walking sucked, but was necessary. They gave me a small pillow to hold against my incision and that helped, though it was awkward.

My nurses, for the most part, were awesome. Out of the half a dozen or so that I had, only 1 was questionable... she tried to give me "more" medicine for my Group B Strep. Only I wasn't Group B Strep positive. I managed to catch that in time, as she was just about ready to insert the meds into the IV. Her overall bedside manner was a little brusque, but not horrible. For the other nurses, my only complaint was when one of them came in in the middle of the night to inform me that my baby was "starving" and could they give him some formula. I wasn't intending for him to have formula, but since she worded it like that, it set off my new mom panic alarm. YES! GIVE MY POOR STARVING BABY FORMULA!!!! I was a little annoyed afterward, because one should never use the word "starve" on a brand new mom. They also gave him a paci, which I also didn't intend for him to have, but honestly, I saw that it was either using ME as a paci or an actual paci. I had no intentions of the former, so paci it was. That was a good decision.

The food was alright. Breakfasts were awesome, but lunch and dinner were subpar. I would have asked DH to bring me Taco Bell, but never really had the thought until my food had actually arrived. Oh well.

Nursing was interesting. They put him on a boob as soon as I was out of recovery, and since I couldn't sit up, the lactation consultant just laid him face down on my boob. Not my favorite position, but it's all I could do at that point. Later on, I was able to nurse in the normal position, as well as a modified football hold. He latched really well on one side, but had difficulties on the other. My milk came in on the 3rd day, and one boob produced more than the other. Yes, the one with more milk is the one he latches well on. To this day, I have the same "good" boob and "bad" boob.

I had plenty of distractions for when the baby was sleeping or in the nursery, but I didn't partake in many of them. DH & I watched a movie or two, watched a few episodes on HGTV, or played on the internet. But on the whole, I just wanted to sleep. And sleep I did. It was lovely.

The day of discharge was a bit rushed though... apparently 3 women had called in and were on their way in to have their babies, so the nurses were all busy getting ready for the rush (in my hospital, it's rare to have more than 2 in labor at the same time, so they staff accordingly). So we got signed out quickly and the LC came down with us to make sure our carseat was installed correctly. It was. Then we got in the van and drove home. Oh, and it was also hot as blazes out.

The swag we got from the hospital was: a basket of food stuffs from the cafeteria; the pillow I used to walk around with; the paci they gave him while in the nursery; a flannel burp cloth; a package of Pampers diapers; a package of wipes; a gift set of formula; rectal thermometer; nose sucker; baby wash; baby lotion; small wash bowl; gauze; anti-bacterial ointment; a silver spoon and a Halo swaddle sleep sack. Oh, and they let me take home a few gauze undies, ultra huge pads and some of those waterproof sheet things they put on the beds.

Sorry for the way I wrote this. I mainly wrote this late at night over many days, so it doesn't flow at all. Also not helped that I had a hard time remembering what actually happened. But whatever. I got it done, and that's all that matters. :)

Christmas gift ideas

The closer it gets to Christmas, the more I think about what to get Matthew. And it's hard, because there's so much I want to give him, but then I realize we're still doing Dave Ramsey and that there are limits. Limits are okay, as DH & I aren't super big into holidays, and we want to teach our children that Christmas isn't *just* about getting gifts. But I still want to have fun. So with that in mind, I started formulating gift ideas. And then one day....

On Pinterest, I came across something that I thought was a great idea... the "Four Gift Rule". It can be so easy to overbuy, so I think this will help keep us in check.

1. Something they want
2. Something they need
3. Something they wear
4. Something they read

See? Awesome in its simplicity.

My problem though, is going to be that most of the things I want to buy for Christmas, he'll actually need/want to use before then. So I have some thinking to do about it. Nonetheless, here's my list:

WANT
I think Bubba really wants a jumperoo. His head control is getting better everyday, and he loves to kick his legs, so this would be perfect. But I don't know about waiting until Christmas for something he'll be ready to use sooner than that. I dunno... I just want to get my money's worth if we get this. I don't know what he'll want otherwise. We have a TON of toys given to us, and I'm pretty sure my mom will shower him in toys as well.

NEED
Although I have to get DH on board with it, Bubba will need an amber teething necklace. I've heard awesome things about them, and am eager to try one. Again, we could get this sooner, because he's already showing signs of teething. But I suppose waiting until Christmas will work, too. After all, all his teeth aren't going to pop out all in one day.

WEAR
With Bubba's fluffy butt, putting jeans on him is difficult, as the ones that will fit over his ghetto booty are too big everywhere else. I came across these jeans one day a few months ago, and I decided that these might be the right jeans for him. They're Project Pomona's... jeans made specifically for babies in cloth diapers, although even babies who wear disposables can wear them, too. They have an adjustable waist band and cute cuffs on the legs, which gives them more life than regular sized jeans, as there are 3 pants sizes in each pair. So I think they'll be worth the money.

READ
I also came across this idea on Pinterest... buy a Christmas book, wrap it up, have the kids open it up on the 24th, and then read it to them before they go to bed. We can get away with this this first Christmas, but after that, the kid(s) will get a Christmas book AND another book to go in this category.

So there you have it: my initial Christmas gift list for Bubba!

I'm here!

Yes, I am alive! I just haven't gotten much time to blog. See, I like to write everything all at once. To do otherwise, my writing turns into a choppy, hard-to-follow mess. And I'm sure you all appreciate me not doing that often. :)

Anyway, Matthew is now 10 weeks old, and the love of my life. He's a pretty easy baby, not too fussy, and is a smiley baby. Nonetheless, he's pretty high-maintenance, like all babies tend to be. I'm lucky if I can clean just one little thing a day. Yeah, it'd be easier if his sleeps during the day weren't only 10 minutes long, but by the same token he usually only gets up once during the night, so I'm okay with that.

Having fun during Nakey Time!

He's meeting some good milestones, and DH & I are both in love with him the more he becomes interactive. His favorite thing right now is to get a diaper change. We usually let him have 5-10 minutes "nakey" time before we put the new diaper on, just to let him air out. That's the bad thing about cloth diapers... they're pretty non-stay-dry. The ones that are, Matthew HATES. So he sits in wet diapers (which he generally doesn't mind unless he's super super wet). Anyway, Matthew loves nakey time. He talks, smiles and laughs with whomever is changing him, and this is the only consistent time in which he's happy. Not to say he isn't like this other times. It just is more consistent on the changing table.

He's kind of found his hands, which is good and bad. Good, because it means that if he drops his paci, he'll usually nom on his hands instead of fuss until one of us puts his paci back in. But bad because he's realized that his hands are connected to him, so he's taken to flailing his arms about. He's starting to learn about his feet, too, so his legs also flail a lot. And based off the jumping motions his legs do during nakey time, I think he'll love a jumperoo. Hopefully anyway.

He had his 2 month check up and first rounds of immunizations last week. He now weighs 11lbs, and is 24 inches long. The shots went as well as could be expected... he screamed for a couple of minutes and then calmed down although he was still less-than-happy. When we got home, I put him in a disposable, because the covers we usually put on him land right on the shot sites on his legs. And we used disposables for the next few days, which Matthew really liked, because he could kick his legs more. But we now know that we do not like disposables for another reason... they reek when he pees. Like, we want to gag when it happens, and it resulted in near instantaneous diaper changes. Our Diaper Genie (which we got as a gift and we decided to keep for some reason) was completely full within a day. I don't know if that's normal or not, but I'll assume "no". So we were more than okay to put him back in cloth, although Matthew doesn't think it's as awesome since he can't kick as easily.

He's now almost outgrown all his newborn sized clothes, which is sad. Again, the cloth diapers are the culprit, since they make him longer than he really is. But we'll live. Speaking of clothes, I've found that pants on a baby are super annoying. I like him just wearing a onesie. But I suppose we do live in North Dakota, so more clothing is necessary now.

And related to Matthew, but not about him per se, I've been starting to think about Christmas gifts. He'll be 6 months old by then, and I'm pretty sure he won't even know what's going on, let alone what he got for presents. But nonetheless, I've been formulating ideas, and I think I landed on what I want to get. I'll write another post with all that on there, so you'll have to wait! :) Hope it won't be that long before I post it, but you never know...

First month in cloth diapers (picture heavy)

The first week & a half of Matthew's life, he wore disposables, and I was okay with that. After all, I was laid up after having a c-section (so I wouldn't be doing laundry for the time being), DH had *just* learned how to change diapers and we were both learning how to be parents. Yeah, I guess we still are learning that last one, but you know what I mean. I kinda also wanted to wait until his cord stump fell off, and thought that a week & a half was sufficient. Me <---- rookie.

Anyway, after the pack of diapers the hospital sent us home with ran out, it was decided to keep on with the disposables for a few more days, as I was still having a lot of difficulties getting around and disposables are easy. So DH went to Walmart and bought a pack. Which lasted a grand total of 3 days because Matthew poops a lot. But I'd said when he bought that pack that when it was done, we'd be doing cloth... after all, we had newborn diapers to use, so why not use them? So what if his cord stump hadn't fallen off yet? So with great trepidation, I strapped him into an infant-sized prefold and cover. I immediately doubted the decision to do cloth. And I do mean IMMEDIATELY. They were so so so big and bulky on him. It surprised me because going in, I knew that cloth diapers were bulkier than disposables and the thought didn't bother me at all. But when I saw it in action, combined with the fact that Matthew was screaming his head off, I had the first of many post-partum freak-outs that involved tears. And it wasn't just the prefolds that were big and bulky. His XS Bum Genius AIO's were that way, too. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures because it depressed me that much.

I felt so incredibly guilty that I had to talk and push DH into doing cloth only for me to end up hating it. I felt buyers remorse when I thought of the hundreds of dollars I'd spent on them. I felt bad that others had gifted us cloth diapers, and they might not be used. I felt like a horrible mother because Matthew usually doesn't fuss during diaper changes, yet here he was, freaking out. And later, when he didn't sleep at all because of the change, it made me seriously consider making DH go to Walmart and get more disposables. I admitted all this to DH, and he was supportive about doing whatever I wanted to do. He didn't make me feel bad about thinking of quitting so soon. So I made the decision to keep on cloth for a few more days and re-evaluate.

Over the next few days, I became okay with cloth, even though I still hated how bulky they were on him. I mean, cleaning them is easy. Actually putting the diapers on him is easy, too... just not as easy as a disposable. But one thing still bothered me a lot... enough to go back into disposables for a bit. As his cord stump still hadn't fallen off after 2 weeks, it was common to see blood on his diaper covers from where it had rubbed up against his cord. I didn't want it to become infected because it wasn't properly drying out, so DH went and got another pack. We also received more from my in-laws, so we had about a week & a half's worth of disposables, with the hopes that Matthew's cord would fall off in that time. It did.

But that brief break made me think that disposables weren't that great either. Matthew developed diaper rash pretty much as soon as we put him back in them. It didn't get bad, but that may have been because we started putting on the cloth diaper-safe ointment before every change. But I found it telling that he didn't get the rash until he went back into disposables. He also now hated to be changed, as where after that first day in cloth, he became okay with cloth. Could have been because of the rash. Who knows? Anyway, point being, after those disposables ran out, we went back into cloth, and haven't looked back. He also grew a lot so they don't seem *as* bulky as before, so that helps. It also helps that DH now really likes cloth and is excited to see how much money we'll save at the end.

So given all that, here's what I've found I like and what I don't like.

What I like:

Unbleached Indian Prefolds, infant sized
from CottonBabies
6 weeks, 11 pounds

I actually really love prefolds & covers now. Yeah, they'll always be big & bulky, but when it comes down to it, they're the only diaper I haven't had a leak from. Not a one.

Thirsties diaper cover, size XS
4 weeks, 9 pounds.

Thirsties Duo Wrap cover, size 1
4 weeks, 9 pounds.

Thirsties covers. I have covers from Thirsties and Bummis, and I vastly prefer Thirsties. Reasons why are listed under Bummis in the "selling" section. But other than those reasons, I do like how Thirsties has the Duo Wrap covers, which will last longer on Matthew than just a single sized cover since there are 3 different sizes you can snap to. I do have one Thirsties cover in size XS and one in small, and they both work great, too. But in their case, it's either they fit, or they don't.

Cloth wipes. I made about 20 of my own, flannel on one side, stretch terry on the other. They're the bomb, although I do need to make more since we tend to run short, what with Matthew still needing about 12 diaper changes a day.

Eh.... I can do without, but they're not horrible:

FuzziBunz OS Elite, smallest setting
4 weeks, 9 pounds

Pocket diapers. At this point in time, they're still a little big on him, so we get the occasional leak from around his skinny thighs. We'll give it some more time for him to grow into them. We have FuzziBunz OS Elite, BumGenius 4.0, Kawaii Baby, Lotus Bumz and FuzziBunz Perfect Size small. But so far, he's only tried out the FuzziBunz OS Elite. BTW, in the pic above, the snaps that adjust to the thighs are not set to their tightest setting. I re-snapped them after the picture was taken.

BumGenuis NB AIO.
3 weeks, 8.5 pounds

Bum Genius NB AIO's. The fit is fabulous. However, he gets leaks out the top, which is weird, because the waist is tight enough, the inner fabric isn't wicking out, the rise is just fine and we point his penis down. Could be we have a super soaker on our hands?

Kissas fitteds, size 0
4 weeks, 9 pounds

Kissas fitteds. They work well, but going along with the super soaker suspicion, these get completely soaked very quickly.

RagaBabe Easy AIO, size small
5 weeks, 10 pounds.

Sad to admit, my RagaBabe AIO. He must be super excited to wear it, because every single time I put it on him, he poops in it within 5 minutes. And I'm not even exaggerating... 5 minutes, tops. Every time. So it might work awesomely, but if he keeps this pace up, he'll out-grow it before I get to find out if it was worth the money or not.

What I'll definitely be selling:

Bummis Super Brite cover, size small
6 weeks, 11 pounds

Bummis Super Brites covers. The top part of the cover folds down easily, and so the velcro becomes exposed. The velcro on them is sturdy, which means that it's stiff. And it usually ends up rubbing up against Matthew's bare tummy and leaving red marks, which I do not like even if Matthew doesn't seem bothered by it (see pic above for said red marks). The PUL material is also noisier than I'd like... to me, it almost sounds like a plastic bag. The covers themselves work fine in that they've prevented leaks. But that's not reason enough to keep them when we have other options.

Grovia NB AIO

Grovia NB AIO's. Again, the fit is fabulous. But the way they're constructed (serged edges), it wicks any urine/runny NB poop right onto anything his diaper area is touching. So with this diaper, you pretty much have to change the diaper after an hour, tops, or else you're changing his clothes, your clothes, bedding, blankets and/or cleaning furniture. Too much work for only an hour's worth of "protection" IMHO. There are no pictures of him in this diaper, because he's only worn two of them once, and that was long before I considered taking pictures of him in his diapers.

So that's the run-down of how things stand at this point. Although we're starting to experience the dreaded "stinkies", much to my dismay. I think it's a build up of detergent. Can't comment much on that yet, because I'm still trying to find the best way to strip the diapers. Blue Dawn dish soap didn't work. I'm now trying baking soda. If that doesn't work, I'll order some RLR. As always, I'll update when I think I got it figured out.

Matthew @ 1 month

Time has gone by so quickly! It's hard to believe he's already a month old, as it seems as though it was just yesterday that I was pregnant. And at the same time, he's already changed so much. One of my pre-birth purchases was a newborn-sized romper (not 0-3 months, but truly NB size) and his first week, I put him in it when he and DH went to church. He was so teeny that he was swimming in it. A mere 3 weeks later, I put him in it again when we went to a friends' wedding. It is now on the verge of being too small. What can I say? He likes to eat. And on a related note, he is a champion pooper because of his love of the boob. :)

We've also gone through a few stages already, too. Like the lovely 3-week "I'm a cranky baby who gets painful gas every time he eats" stage, as well as the awesome 2-week "I'm going to stay up all day and all night because I'm cluster feeding" stage. I know we'll go through all these again numerous times, so I'm not looking forward to that. But it all does mean that he's growing, and that's good, so I'll just have to take one day at a time.

But for the most part, he's a really good baby. Very aware of things when he's awake, and he sleeps at night with only a few feeds. He mostly falls back asleep after them, too. Mostly. We do spend a few hours sleeping on the couch in the living room once in a while though, just so DH can sleep when Matthew doesn't want to sleep in his Rock n Play sleeper.

And the part I think is the best? Since newborns don't smile consciously, I have to wait until he falls asleep to see one. That's how I know he's truly sleeping... his eyes aren't always closed when he falls asleep (it's kinda creepy), but he almost always smiles a few times when he first goes out. It's so cute!

Name negotiations

Ah, names. As much as I talked big about not letting DH have any say as long as he kept coming up with insane suggestions, I really did want him to have some say in it. The day of Matthew's birth, I point-blank told him "his name will be Matthew". And that was that. Luckily, he likes the name, so there wasn't a fight there. So that left the middle name as DH's.

Problem was, I already had a middle name picked out, and I was completely in love with it: Sebastian. I thought I could have it because it is a known name, but unusual and not used a lot. That was DH's biggest argument... that he wanted his kid to have a "cool" name that almost no one else had. So I thought Sebastian was an awesome choice.

Yeah, not so much, in DH's opinion. So we started hashing out the same negotiations we'd been having for the past week or two, with me vetoing 99% of his suggestions. He finally got stuck on Star Trek names, as we're both Trekkies (he vetoed the name Data though). His first suggestion was Khalis, and honestly, I kinda liked that. He was so excited that I actually gave a green light for it, that I thought that's what it would be. But then he decided to push the envelope a bit. His next suggestion was Locutus. As in Locutus of Borg. *sigh*

I mean, it isn't horrible, but at the same time, I didn't want my son to be fodder for bullies because we, his parents, decided to give him a weird name. So I asked him to research the name to make sure there were no real negative connotations behind the name, and this is what he found that ultimately led me to okay the name Locutus:

"I am Locutus... of Borg. Resistance... is futile. Your life as it has been... is over. From this time forward... you will service... us."

Appropriate, don't you think? Anyway, he also found that the name is based off the Latin word, which means "spoken, or having spoken". So not a bad connotation.

But at the same time, I was still stuck on Sebastian. So I pulled the "I just had major surgery to have YOUR child" card, and told him that Sebastian would be a middle name, regardless of what he thought. He could have two middle names. I thought it was only fair since DH supplied the surname. :) So we'd each get 2 names. I was even nice and let him put Locutus first. Aren't I a nice wife? 

The name is so long, that when Matthew's social security card showed up, Sebastian had the "n" left out. Yeah, he's going to hate us for giving him such a long name. But at least he'll have good reason to learn the alphabet early. :)

Matthew's birth story

In true Jaime fashion, this will be long.

It all started on Friday, July 13, 2012. At that point, I was 39w4d. I woke up and noticed that I was having contractions... actual contractions! None of this lame Braxton-Hicks stuff. They were just barely a step up from BH's though, and very irregular, so I thought I had a few more days left, since a lot of women have irregular contractions for even a few weeks before they deliver. So needless to say, I wasn't timing them and just went about my day since they weren't very painful and I was feeling pretty good. I even went to Walmart, and later on that night, to a friends' house to play some games... although by that point, they were just a bit stronger. Still irregular and far apart though.

DH & I got back and watched a movie, and went to bed at about 2:30am. As soon as I layed down, WHAM! Painful contractions, and they were right on top of each other. It took me by surprise because all day and all night, they were never less than 10 minutes apart, and all of a sudden, they were 3-4 minutes apart. I tried to sleep, but by 3am, it was apparent that they weren't subsiding and that perhaps I should get up and start timing them. My hospital goes by the 5-1-1 rule... 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute, for 1 hour. So from 3-4am, I timed so I could fulfill that requirement. The only thing was, my contractions generally weren't lasting a minute. A few were, but for the most part, they were only 30-45 seconds long. By 4am, I decided it was time to wake DH and get ready to go to the hospital. But first, DH called labor & delivery to ask if we needed to come in. Since I wasn't having contractions that were a minute long, they thought it was just false labor, but since they were so close together, they wanted me to come in and be monitored, just to be sure.

We arrived at the hospital at about 4:45am and they put me in an observation room right away and strapped some monitors on me (which really hurts while you're having a contraction BTW). They left me alone for 10 minutes to gauge where I was, and after the 10 minutes were over, the nurse came back in and said that when DH called, she initially didn't believe that I was having short contractions that close together, but after watching the monitors, she became a believer. Then she checked my cervix. Yeah, I was 6cm dilated. So the nurse told me that I got to stay! Yay! They then moved me into one of the sweet birthing suites and we settled in (aka DH layed down on the couch and tried to take a nap).

The things that happened over the next 4 or so hours went by like a flash. It seemed as though everything that happened, happened in just an hour. First, with almost every single contraction, I felt the overwhelming urge to pee. I was told this was normal because the baby was all up on top of my bladder and constricting things. This, along with the steadily intensifying contractions and my starting to hyperventilate, made me so uncomfortable that I requested an epidural. I have no regrets over this decision, as once I got it, things seemed to calm down for me. My epidural hadn't had time to fully set up though when my doctor appeared to check my cervix. But this point, it was probably about 7am, although I can't be sure because I wasn't looking at a clock. I was just about at 10cm... just a little bit of cervix was left. So she went back to wherever doctors go when they're waiting, and about 10 minutes later, a nurse came in and had me do a few practice pushes to see if I could get that last little bit. I did.

Now the fun part. The nurse left with instructions to let her know when I had the urge to push or if I felt like I needed to poo. Well, I never got either urge, although the urge to pee was still going strong. And before I go further, I must mention that my epidural had not yet completely set up. This will play a factor in what would happen later.

Anyway, about 20 or so minutes after the epidural, the nurse comes barreling into my room, telling me it's time to push. Apparently they can tell by the baby's heart rate when that is. So while my doctor is on her way to my room, the nurse has me start pushing. Then my doctor shows up while I'm still pushing and not getting anywhere. All the while, I'm watching the monitor that showed my baby's heart rate to be plummeting during each contraction. Almost every time, it dropped drastically... down to 50 bpm a few times. I knew that that was bad. Then they put an oxygen mask on me. Yeah, it was bad. Then after about 5 minutes (I think... like I said, it seemed to go super fast), my doctor utters the word "c-section". But she knew I didn't want one unless needed, so as a last resort, she had me try pushing a few times on each side and then on my hands & knees, just hoping that the baby's heart rate would come back up. Nope. So while I'm still on my hands and knees, she tells me that she strongly urges me to consent to a c-section since the baby was in trouble. I immediately agree, a consent form was slapped in front of me, and DH does his job and questions whether it was really needed or not. He knew my feelings as well and was just making sure that the doctor wasn't pushing an unnecessary c-section on me. But I assured him that it was okay, because I knew the baby was in trouble. So I signed.

But this is where it got scary for me. Because the baby needed to come out now, and since my epidural hadn't fully set up yet, they told me that they were going to put me out since they didn't have time for the epi to kick in fully, or time to set up a spinal. That meant that DH wouldn't be allowed in the OR. That scared the crap out of me. I needed and wanted him with me. But by some miracle, the on-call surgeon got held up trying to get to the hospital, and that gave them the 5 extra minutes they needed to set up the spinal. So DH did get to be there for me and the baby's birth. And another scary part was that while the nurses were getting me all set up in the OR, one of them had a doppler continuously on my belly... and I couldn't hear the heart beating. That was scary shit. So needless to say, by the time DH got in the OR and the surgeon was cutting me open, I was crying from fear. DH was talking to me, trying to distract me, and the anesthesiologist was doing the same. Within minutes, I feel a sudden emptiness, a suction, a cry and someone saying "it's a boy!" He was born at 9:49 am.

DH then goes over to the baby (because I told him to) and after they clean him off a bit, they bring him over to me so I could say hi. Then they take him back to the nursery while I got stitched up. I didn't feel them packing my uterus back in or the stitching/stapling back up. But when I was transferred onto the gurney, my stomach definitely felt that. Within seconds, I was telling them that I felt like I was going to puke, and a few seconds later, I was. Can I just say that those little dishes they put by your head to puke in are completely useless? Like I can aim when I'm laying flat on my back and can only turn my head to the side. I ended up puking all over myself, the gurney, the floor, and I'm pretty sure I got a nurse or two. Then I spent about a half hour in a recovery room near the OR where I proceeded to get the severe shakes. If it weren't for the fact that I was told that it was normal, I would have thought I was having a seizure. And then on the elevator ride back up to labor & delivery, my stomach decided to rebel again, though by that point they had given me something bigger to puke in, so I managed to keep it contained. I did feel bad for the laboring couple that witnessed this though. But there was nothing I could do besides look embarrassed.

Since I had a c-section, they moved us from the birthing suite I was originally put in, to a post-op room. It was still pretty nice though. DH was there with the baby when they rolled me in, and once they got me situated, I got to hold my son for the first time.

And we (I) had a few names to consider, but wanted to meet the baby first. He is totally a Matthew, so that's what we named him. I actually call him Bubba though... I think he likes it. His middle name... well, we still were debating that well into the second day. That story will be continued in another post. As will my hospital recovery and home recovery.

Anyway, it turns out that the baby wasn't moving down like he should and heart rate was dropping because the cord was wrapped around his neck AND his body. Must have been all those flip turns I did while swimming. I'm glad my doctor was on top of things because it could have turned out devastating. But he was screaming and pink when he made his appearance, and got the clean bill of health from the doctor.

So that's how Matthew came into the world. A little too exciting for my taste, but it turned out good, so I can't complain.

Introducing...

Matthew Locutus Sebastian!

He was born Saturday, July 14, 2012 at 9:49am via emergency c-section. He weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Obviously, he's the most beautiful baby in the world. I'm sure you'll all agree. ;)

Sorry I haven't updated sooner. I'm still trying to get my feet under me, and honestly, one of the last things I've been wanting to do since having him is be on the internet. Hopefully I'll get my rhythm again, and then I'll probably start blogging more regularly.

Until then, just gaze at this wonderful face and wait in great anticipation for my birth story and how in the heck he got stuck with a huge mouthful of a name, even leaving out our last name, which is long all by itself. Poor kid. :)

Pregnancy: 39th week

Week 39
July 10 - 16

Progression. That's what I think I'm having. Lots of Braxton Hicks, some real contractions (though short and not very painful) and lots of cervix hits. It's still pretty surreal for me... I mean, I know I'm pregnant, as that fact would be hard to miss seeing as though I'm roughly the size of a small house. Cliche, I know. But it's true. Anyway, it's hard to grasp the fact that within a week, DH and I will be solely responsible for another human being. We've waited so long to get to this point, and now that it's here, it's scary as hell. Which is normal, I'm sure.

Physically, I'm doing as well as can be expected. My feet are pretty swollen, but not painful. It's kinda weird walking though. With every step, I can feel the water sloshing a bit. After a brief hiatus, my nose is back to being stuffy. Rash is still gone! ECP still here. And fingers now feel arthritic in the morning, and periodically throughout the day.

My 39 week appointment was another short one. I'm measuring good, blood pressure is good, baby's heart rate is good. She offered a cervical check, but I declined until next week, if I get that far. I just felt that I could go for weeks being 2cm dilated, and besides, there's nothing I can do about it. Baby will come when it wants to come.

But the next day, I was wishing that my appointment would be the next day, as the baby was trying its hardest to make an escape. And that included a lot of cervix hits. So I'm guessing I'm closer to 3cm now, although I can't back that up without her actually checking me.

Pregnancy: 38th week

Week 38
July 3 - 9

Well, things are starting to progress and I'm excited about it, in a terrified kind of way.

My 38 week appointment included another cervical check, and my doctor determined that I'm between 2-3 cm, but closer to 2. And it's apparently thinning out nicely, too. So yay! I know it can still be a few weeks before the big event, but every cm I get will just be less work for me when that time comes. And I'm Group B Strep negative! That's one less thing to worry about.

On the 4th of July, DH persuaded me to go with him and some friends while they disc golfed, just to walk around. I was feeling a little crampy, probably from the cervical check the day before, so I told him I would walk the first 9, but then I was going home while they finished up the back 9 (he brought his bike so I wouldn't have to go back and get him). Pretty much as soon as we started walking, I started having some minor contractions. Most of them were Braxton Hicks, but a few of them were uncomfortable enough for me to stop walking. It didn't help that the park we were at is pretty hilly and the baby was pressing on my cervix. DH was teasing me that when I was in actual labor in the hospital that I'd just want to lay in bed since I didn't seem interested in walking any more to see if things progressed. But I replied that there are no hills in the hospital halls, and that was my biggest problem... I didn't want to tumble down a hill. That, and I was exhausted. 

After they got through the first 9, I went home and did something I rarely do... I took a nap. And it was glorious! I was originally planning on going with DH & some friends to the lake for a bit to swim after that, but figured I should stay home since I was exhausted (they went swimming while I was napping). Besides, every time I go to the lake, no matter how diligent I am about sun block, I always end up burned. And I didn't want to tempt fate by getting burned and then going into labor. I can't even imagine how much that would suck. I continued to have contractions throughout the day, but not nearly consistent enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. I was hoping that I'd continue having them the next day, but alas, they stopped. I've definitely dropped though, so that's something.

And I'm sad to report that my Evil Crotch Pain has reappeared after a brief hiatus. Not cool. But what IS cool, is that my rash has seemingly disappeared. Guess the threat of that monster tub of steroid cream scared it off. Either that, or the antibiotic I took to get rid of my bladder infection helped it go away. Who knows? All I know is that I don't care, just as long as it stays gone! But another annoying thing has cropped up at night: restless legs. It's not horrible, but prevalent enough to keep me from falling asleep in a timely manner. I've heard that putting a bar of soap at the foot of the bed works, so I'm going to try that if it keeps up.

I'm also finishing off buying all the little things we'll need right away, so that's a relief. I finally got the garbage can that will hold all the dirty cloth diapers, as well as baby nail clippers & files, brush & comb set and a pack of socks. I also rearranged some shelves in our kitchen in order to have space for the bottles we have. DH was especially impressed by this, as he has a weird thing about cupboard space. I intend to breastfeed, but just in case, we have a dozen or so bottles and 2 sample packs of formula. Hope we don't need them, but it's nice to be prepared so the baby won't starve if breastfeeding doesn't work. 

And finally, the most daunting part... I need to finish up the nursery/find home for stuff in the nursery. But that means I need to get on some sewing, as some of the mess is fabric/sewing stuff. I also need to make a painting for over the crib. That's not as important, but it'd be nice to have that done before the baby arrives. So maybe DH should get on making me a frame for my canvas, huh? I'm also waiting to find out what we're having before I do the curtains. I have a few fabrics I've been looking at, but a few of them are more girly, and although I originally aimed to keep the nursery gender neutral, I decided that fun curtains would be the exception. So now we wait. But for the most part, the nursery is done... just a little messy, but that comes to no surprise to those who know me. :) There'll be pictures at some point, but I can't guarantee a time-frame for them. Soon though. :)

Thoughts on maternity clothes

So I was thinking the other day what, if anything, I'd change about my maternity wardrobe if I got to build it all over again. And technically I could buy more mat clothes, but with only 2 or so weeks to go, it'd kinda be pointless unless I REALLY needed something, which I don't.

But anyway, here's my conclusion on maternity clothing, and what I recommend for a first time preggo who is wondering what they'll need. But note: I do not work outside the home, so you're on your own for figuring out work clothes. :) Oh, and my style is decidedly very casual... I am far from being fashionable, and am the first to admit it. So if you're a t-shirt & jeans type of girl, this is more up your alley.

Anyway....

1) You can never have too many tank tops!!! I wear them about 95% of the time, although part of that has to do with the fact that it's warm out. But I honestly think I'd wear them that much in the winter, too, only I'd layer stuff on top. I have 6 that I'm rotating between, and I feel as though I could use a couple more, even though 6 sounds more than sufficient. It's not. Next time I get pg, most of my maternity purchases will likely be tank tops.

2) They might look weird, but the stretchy panels on pants, shorts & skirts are the bomb! The bottoms I have that do not have this panel, I'm always having to pull back up because they slip down so easily. And it also offers a barrier between your skin and your shirt when your belly becomes big and itchy.

3) Maternity jeans suck. Now it could be the reason I think this is because my 2 pairs don't have the stretchy panel, but they are so uncomfortable that I only wear them when everything else is dirty... which is never because I do a lot of laundry. Instead, I'm wearing gray cargo pants that roll into capris (awesome purchase, by the way), khaki shorts, black leggings and skirts for my bottoms.

4) Casual dresses and skirts are your friends! I have 2 skirts and 1 maxi dress that I absolutely love. They lend an airiness factor that you can't really get with shorts or pants. It's hard to explain. But if you've been pregnant, you'll understand.

5) Empire waisted shirts & dresses: do it! I've found that the further along I get, if my clothes don't have this waist, it makes me feel huge and dumpy. Now all of my tank tops don't have this feature, and for those, I don't seem to mind. But all my other shirts, I do. Just a personal thing, I think.

6) Seasonal weather doesn't factor in very much, so think before you buy. When I found out I was pregnant, it was heading into winter. So of course my first purchases were long-sleeved t-shirts. How many times have I worn said shirts? Maybe 2-3 each. I was so warm even in the cold of a ND winter that I would just get too sweaty in them. So I'd end up wearing short-sleeved t-shirts and tank tops, and bringing a sweater just in case I did get cold. Yeah, I got a lot of weird looks, especially since at the time, I hadn't told anyone I was pregnant. But weird looks are infinitely better than huge sweaty pit stains.

7) Maternity clothing leaves a lot to be desired, so if you're able to, go to your favorite clothing stores and just buy the next size up. My favorites are t-shirts from Old Navy. They run a little big anyway, so my medium shirts lasted quite a while. If I tried any on right now, I'm thinking I could get away with wearing an XL. And I had one pair of pre-pregnancy jeans that worked a lot longer than I thought they would. I was able to get away with this up until my 7th month before I needed to have a 100% maternity wardrobe, although I realize that a lot of women won't get as far as that.

8) Unless you buy a lot of maternity clothes, you WILL get bored with your wardrobe. I purposely didn't buy a lot because I was only going to wear this stuff for a couple of months and didn't want to spend a lot of money. But now I wish I had bought a few more things, because I feel I'm constantly wearing the same thing over and over again. It also makes it hard to pack your hospital back with extra clothes when your wardrobe is so limited anyway. And I look at all my pre-pregnancy clothes just hanging there in all their wonderful colorfulness in my closet, and I wish I could wear them still. Just a few more weeks, and maybe I'll be able to fit back into some of the looser articles I have. And perhaps that pre-pregnancy pair of jeans that worked for such a long time will fit soon, too. We shall see.

Pregnancy: 37th week

Week 37
June 27 - July 2

Woot! I'm full term now! It's an awesome feeling to know that should I go into labor, my baby would be considered fully developed. So this baby can come any day now. Truly, it's okay.

Because I got the official PUPPP diagnosis from my doctor, although she said my rash isn't typical, so it could also be Papular Dermatitis of Pregnancy, which is very similar, but not as extreme-looking. And since it's now on my feet, ankles, whole upper legs, lower belly and parts of my arms, she re-ordered the steroid cream. To avoid having me ask her every week for a new container, she just went ahead and ordered a 1 pound container. The picture is blurry, but that doesn't matter. I just wanted to show you exactly how huge this container is! I don't know if I need quite THAT much, but I guess it's nice to know I've got enough to see me through until it goes away.

Anyway, my 37 week appointment went fine. It was a short one. But I forgot to ask about the results from my Group B Strep test, and she was pre-occupied with my rash so she forgot to mention it as well. I would call, but I'll see her again next week, so no biggie. There is one thing I noticed the past 2 weeks that has me a little alert though. Usually when she measures my belly, she'll say "looks good" or something along those lines. But there's been no comment at all the past 2 appointments. I'm sure it's nothing, and the baby has been active, so it isn't causing panic. But just the same, I'm curious about it. Has the baby's growth slowed? Is she just assuming that I know that I'm measuring fine? I don't know.

I am now at the point where I'm super uncomfortable. The hot weather has made my feet swell, and now it's working its way into my face. It's more painful to be up and moving, but by the same token, I'm not that much more comfortable just sitting around either. And lately, I've noticed my fingers feel arthritic, especially in the morning. At first, I thought it was just that I'd slept with my hands in weird positions, but they've hurt every day for a week now. And some of my July baby internet friends are reporting the same thing, so it's just one of those fun things you get late in pregnancy I guess.

And finally, I've been having moments of panic regarding money, especially since I've been looking into insurance stuff. Sometimes I'm convinced that we seriously cannot afford to have children, which then leads me into feeling guilty that I don't work outside the home, not bringing in any money. But then I have to remember that wise old saying of "if people waited until they could afford to do something, they'd never do it" and then I calm down and realize that we'll find ways to make it work. Heck, that's what got my DH to finally propose to me... he expressed to his mom that he couldn't afford to get married and she told him that saying. It worked, because not too much later, he asked me to marry him. And we've made it work. So this will, too, even if it means me getting a job and bubs being put into daycare. But that's a last resort option before more drastic measures, like selling our house, happen.

Yeah, another not fun & cheery post. But I'm not that perky normally, and I tend to worry a bit, so it's reflected in what I write about, which I consider keeping it real anyway.

Pregnancy: 36th week

Week 36
June 19 - 25

Ah, the infamous 36th week. The week where one typically gets tested for Group B Strep and also the joys of the first cervical check. To tell the truth, I was super nervous going in. No one likes to have exams where the doctor sticks their fingers or whatever up inside you (get your mind out of the gutter!). And I'd heard that cervical checks hurt massively. I also woke up feeling a little off, so that did not help matters at all.

Before all the fun started though, I brought up my rashy feet, which I updated in the previous post and bitched about in another, so I won't repeat that here. And then we got down to business. First was the GBS test. I knew essentially what would happen and that it'd be quick. I just wasn't excited to have a swab go places where no swab should go. Luckily it wasn't bad and was over before I knew it. And then the cervical check. Honestly, I'm thinking that if you go through any sort of infertility testing, it kind of desensitizes the area. I say that, because my cervical check, while a little uncomfortable, wasn't in the least bit painful. And my cervix was hiding a bit, so she had to search for it. Perhaps it'll be different when I'm actually in labor? I don't know. Anyway, I'm 1cm dilated. She didn't mention how effaced I am or how soft/firm my cervix was, but I imagine I'm still a ways away from going into labor. So while I'm glad to have at least a little progress, I'm not too excited over it, because I know that I can go for weeks and not have it change any.

Then right before I left, she got my urine sample results back: I have a bladder infection. It was news to me because I have no symptoms of one, which is one perk of being pregnant. I did mention to her that I had my full prescription of Macrobid, minus 1 pill, that I'd gotten when I was diagnosed with a bladder infection during my first ER visit in February (I was back the next day, where they determined I didn't actually have one, so that's why I still have the pills). I just wanted her to know so she didn't need to order anything unnecessarily. But she said that she doesn't recommend Macrobid at this point in the pregnancy. Apparently it has a tendency to cause the baby's bilirubin to go up, and we don't want that. Excess bilirubin causes jaundice.

The next day, I got the call telling me that the prescription for my bladder infection was ready to be picked up, so off I went to the pharmacy. As the clerk was looking at the slips, she looks up and asked me if I am allergic to penicillin. I replied that I am. Then she leaves the counter and comes back with a pharmacist. Apparently, with the medication I was prescribed, Cephalexin, there is a 3-5% chance that since I am allergic to penicillin, I'd be allergic to that as well. Great. I took the meds anyway because 3-5% is pretty low odds, but I made myself wait until DH was home from work before I took the first pill just in case I got a reaction. With all the bad going on right now, I'm happy to report that it appears as though I'm NOT allergic to Cephalexin. If I were, that would just be the crappy icing on top of a crappy cake.

Sorry... I don't like to complain about pregnancy, although from my posts, it doesn't seem like it since I complain a lot. I really AM grateful to be having this baby. I just hate that I'm experiencing all the bad things I never learned about until I got them... and I considered myself pretty educated about pregnancy for someone who'd never been pregnant. Silly me. I knew absolutely nothing. And should I be so fortunate to get pregnant again, life will probably throw more curve balls at me to prove it.

In more uplifting news, the baby seems to be thriving and is pretty active. Its new favorite activity is stretching its feet up into my stomach. As you can imagine, this isn't very comfortable for me as it causes more reflux and heartburn. But it seems to like the activity, so we'll just go with it. Like I can do anything about it anyway.

DH & I also had our initial name discussion, and it left me wanting to bang my head against the wall and regret even proposing that he be involved in naming the kid. Apparently it's very common for men to not take this seriously and suggest absolutely insane names that will cause a lot of hassle for them in the future. And then they complain that they didn't get any say in the matter. Well, they only have themselves to blame. Anyway, I gave him my requirements and told him to try again. We'll see if it pans out any better next time. If not, I'm going to have to inform him that his naming rights extend to the surname only. Otherwise, they've been permanently revoked until the next baby, when ideally he'd have learned his lesson.

If you're curious, my requirements are 1) must be traditional, but 2) not trendy, and 3) no kre8tive spellings. The way things are going, I might compromise on the trendy requirement, but the name has to be just right for that to happen. When I told my mom my requirements, she asked about the kre8tive spelling one, and she was shocked to learn that I wish she'd just named me Jamie, and that I hate having my name spelled Jaime. Not only is it super annoying to consistently have your name misspelled by everyone, even people you've known for decades, it's doubly more annoying to have people pronounce it the way they would if I were somewhere where Spanish was spoken. I realize that she just wanted my name to be slightly different, but when your personality is like mine, "different" is one of the last things you want to be. Yeah, she had no way of knowing this while I was a baby, so it just goes to show that you can't assume stuff like that. So I'll give a traditional name with traditional spelling just to play it safe. Boring? Perhaps. But at least I'll know that if my kid gets picked on, it won't be because I let DH have his way and name it Spicy Chicken Sandwich. And yes, I'm completely serious... it's the baby's in utero nickname, and DH likes it so much, he thinks it should become official.

Oh, what fresh hell is this?

Title says it all. I think I now officially have PUPPP, although I will have to wait until my next appointment for an official diagnosis.


Since my update, the rash has spread to about mid-shin on my legs, as well as right above the knees both front and back. Also, joining in on the fun is my lower belly and the most enjoyable of all, it's starting to spread to the soles of my feet. I know I said before that it generally stays off the soles of the feet, the palms of the hands and the face. But now I know that "generally" is the operative word in all of this.

I cannot even begin to explain the suckiness of this condition. All I can tell you is that my resolve to not be induced except for medical necessity is severely being put to the test. Not that my doctor would consent to that before 39 weeks, but that doesn't mean I haven't thought of begging on the off-chance that she'll let me.

Here's what's worked for me so far, and what hasn't... although what works one day sometimes doesn't work the next, so it's pretty much trial and error.

1) Steroid cream Triamcinolone. My doctor prescribed this, and I'm to put it on my feet 3x a day. It kind of works. It usually stops the itching for a short period of time, but not nearly long enough for my liking. At the time of her ordering it, the rash was only on my feet, so the tub is quite small. Now with the rash spreading, I don't know how long it'll last. So I will probably end up requesting more next week at my appointment.

2) Hydrocortisone cream. This works so long as the itching isn't too bad and only in the beginning stages. Once a full attack is on, I don't even bother looking at the tube since I know it'll just go to waste. And like the steroid cream, it only helps the itching for a short while.

3) Aveeno lotion. The only place this works is on my belly, and again, only for a short time (see a pattern here?).

4) A&D ointment. This works wonderfully well on my feet at night, as long as there is no itching when I apply it. I just slather it on, and since it's greasy, I put on knee-highs to keep it from getting on the sheets. The knee-highs also serve as a barrier between my skin and the sheets. If the sheets moved ever so slightly, it would set off another round of torture. Anyway, this combo usually gets me through the night.

5) Cold water soaks. I've only tried this on my feet when nothing else will work, and it surprisingly works very quickly. Haven't gotten the courage to try this on my whole body yet.

6) Scrubbing myself raw with my loofah during a shower. This works awesomely, but is likely something I can't do very often unless I want no skin at all.

And next time nothing else works, I'm planning on breaking out my box of baking soda, making a paste, and then slathering it on, letting it dry and then rinsing it off.

This sucks.

Foot rash update

I had my appointment today, and the first thing on the agenda before getting the GBS and cervical check, was to ask about my rashy feet.

My doctor doesn't exactly know what it is. Because it hasn't spread to other body parts, she doesn't think it's necessarily PUPPP. But she had no other ideas to offer either. So she prescribed me some steroid cream to use 3x a week, and instructions to keep an eye on it. If it starts spreading, it's PUPPP. And unfortunately, the only sure way to get rid of it is to have the baby. Unfortunate because I'm 36 weeks, and unless it gets about 10x worse, I will refuse to be induced just because of it. So it's looking like I'll just have to live with it for the time being.

Pregnancy: 35th week

Week 35
June 12 - 18

****WARNING****

The following post includes photos of my rashy feet. Although I would consider them very mild in comparison to other photos I've seen, if you are squicked out by skin condition photos of any sort, don't read any further.

Okay, something possibly really sucky is happening with my feet (and hopefully it only stays on my feet). Of course, I'll have to wait until next week for my appointment to get my doctor's opinion, but I think I have PUPPP... Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy. Sounds horrible, and although it is bad in an annoying way, it's nothing major. Basically PUPPP is a rash one gets in their first pregnancy, usually in the 3rd trimester, and it's itchy as hell. About 1 in 200 women get it, it can spread over your entire body, though thankfully it generally stays off the face, hands and soles of the feet (ugh, can you even imagine that?). Right now, my rash is just on the tops and sides of my feet, including some on the tops of my toes, and some even perilously close to in-between some toes, though I think it's starting to creep up my legs. But then again, I just shaved, so that might be unrelated. Have to wait and see.

At first, I thought I just got some bug bites on my right foot, right below the ankle bone, but then it started to spread to my left foot, so I started researching. The bumps are pretty small and don't react the same way as a mosquito bite would on me (I get huge welts). So I ruled out mosquitoes, although with the amount of bumps I have, I doubted them anyway. I looked up bed bug bites, and my bumps don't look anything close to that. So that's good at least... I don't want to deal with bed bugs. It doesn't look like a typical shingles outbreak. I didn't walk through a nest of spiders, nor fire ants, although the day before the first bumps appeared, I was outside walking in some grass for an hour or two, but I very much doubt I walked through anything poisonous at Relay for Life. But I don't know what else could cause this reaction.

In the meantime, I've been putting hydrocortisone cream on it, and as long as I don't touch it or let clothing rub up on it, it's not bad. But all that is easier said than done because usually when something itches just a little, you unconsciously scratch it. And in this case, just a little itch turns into torture, so I've had to literally sit on my hands sometimes so I couldn't scratch. I'm just curious what my doctor will think about it. I have hopes it'll be gone by next week, but I'm not counting on it.

And as an interesting aside, women with PUPPP have boys about 70% of the time for some reason. So if I do have it, and I end up with a boy, it would appear that I'm allergic to boys. :)

Onward...

This weekend, I decided to get all wild and stuff and go walk around Walmart (don't judge, Walmart is about as awesome as you get in the town I live in). I'd been cooped up pretty much all week, and I'd been just itching to buy some of the last-minute hospital bag items. So I finally got to go, and while I did satisfy my urge to buy stuff, I also painfully realized that my baby is starting to engage. Ouch, I just love the feeling of sharp stabs to my cervix! So walking around Walmart wasn't as fun and fulfilling as I wanted it to be, and it also took longer because I had to slow my roll. And it's just going to get worse. When it's happening, I really wanna physically move the baby up and away from that area, but I don't because as much as it hurts, I know that things are progressing and it's ultimately a good thing.

I can now officially say I have hit that point in my pregnancy where I wouldn't mind if the baby came early. But in my heart of hearts, I know that I NEED to have the baby stay put for at least another 2 weeks. And in all reality, if I have this baby before 40 weeks, I will be shocked.

We are getting ready just in case though. The baby bag is ready to go, and I'm working on mine. Mine's a little more difficult because most of the things that will go in there are things I wear/use on a daily basis. And I'm not going to go out and buy a second set of everything... I've got other, more important stuff to buy, like the diaper pail (commonly known as a garbage can) the dirty cloth diapers will go into. I also informed DH that we (he) will be installing the car seat base next week. I thought I'd get some eye rolls with that, but apparently he's been told stories of babies coming early by various people, so he understands my slight urgency and is rolling with it. Works for me... it's easier to get ready when you don't have to stop and explain why I'm already doing such-and-such when the baby isn't even due until the middle of July.

Men.

Insurance headaches

This week, I've been looking into our upcoming insurance conundrum. Here's how things stand at this very moment: DH is on a single BCBS plan through his employer; I am on a single high-deductible individual plan through Medica. We have separate plans because for DH to go to a family plan at work, it would basically take about 3 quarters of one paycheck a month away. Just for the 2 of us. We cannot afford that, and likely can't even consider it unless we have more than 4 children. So the question arises of whose plan the baby goes on when it arrives?

1. Although BCBS does offer single + dependent plans, DH's employer hasn't included that option to their employees. So that's out, unless DH wants to drop his work plan and do it privately through BCBS (I'll explain later why he would have to be the one doing it).

2. The baby can go on mine, automatically making it a family plan, which will increase both the deductible and the premiums (to be expected), but will also be the least headache-inducing option since all you have to do is let Medica know within 30 days and they'll adjust stuff without having to re-apply. DH would stay on his current plan. And I did call them and ask about the deductible, since my $2,000 limit has already been met. It would transfer over to the family plan deductible of $4,050, so that was a huge weight lifted off. I'd feared that we'd have to start all over again on it, which would completely BLOW.

3. Likewise, DH can come onto my plan as well with only the premiums rising. The only thing about that is that he'll have to apply to be included. And while I have no fear that he'll be denied, it is kind of a hassle. The good thing is that his employer would reimburse him a few hundred dollars a month to be on mine. They currently pay $400 a month for him on their plan, and should he decide to drop their coverage, they'll still pay... not $400, but I think about half that. So that would cover most, if not all, the rise in the premiums should he be included on mine.

4. We could also shop around for a completely new plan for all of us, though it's very unlikely that that will happen. The biggest hurdle is the fact that I still want maternity coverage, and not many insurance companies in the state of North Dakota offer that in individual plans. Just BCBS, Medica and Sanford Elite1. BCBS has already denied me coverage due to my infertility problems (when I worked, BCBS was my insurance, so they know my history), so I doubt that'd change, even with the addition of a baby. Sanford's is a plan I'll look into more, but from my quick glance at it, it'd be more expensive all-around.

So without knowing all the numbers and such, #3 is probably what we'll go with since DH still has to pay towards insurance each paycheck, even with the $400 his employer kicks in... and whenever he goes in to the doctor, we still get bills for it. The nice thing about my plan, is that even though the deductible is high, once that's met, the plan pays 100%, and there's no co-pay at any point unless you go to the ER. And even then it's only $50. Right now, since my deductible has been met, we pay for nothing save the monthly premium. I go to the chiropractor: no charge. I get my Metformin refill: no charge. I go to my bi-weekly soon to become weekly doctor visits: no charge. Any testing I get done: no charge. Anything else that comes up, like a potential ultrasound to check baby's position: no charge. So it's nice not to have to worry about that until the baby is born.

All this makes me wanna move to Canada though.