Cloth Diapering

Yes, I plan on cloth diapering. Let me explain. I have had so many people tell me I am crazy for wanting to cloth diaper. They all say, 'Oh, that'll only last a couple months' or 'You want to scrub poopy diapers?!' Anyone who grew up in the older times (my parents generation) saw their parents or even older siblings cloth diapering their children and let me tell you, the technology has GREATLY improved since those times. So it's been mainly my mother, and aunts telling me I'm nuts for wanting to cloth diaper. Because its true, I want to cloth diaper.

Not just for the financial benefits, but also for the environmental impact. I'm not a hippie by any means, although Jared says I'm becoming more granola as the years go by, but I definitely wouldn't want to deal with throwing away 15-20 diapers on a daily basis for the first six months. It just seems way way way to wasteful for my taste. Plus the idea of spending upwards to $200 a month on diapers is something I am not OK with. It's like throwing away your money, literally.

The main complaints of cloth diapering: having to deal with poopy diapers, the cloth diapers are inefficient in fit and fabric easily stains, the smell is awful, and it's inconvenient because of necessary soaking and scrubbing of the diapers.

Firstly dealing with poopy diapers doesn't bother me at all, and I think I can just chalk this up to my four years of CNA work. But also you don't really have to touch any poop more than you would if its disposable diapers, because the recommended practice is to have a hose hooked up to the sink and while holding the end of the diaper rinse the poop into the toilet and flush. Pretty non-poop touching if you ask me.

Secondly like I said previously cloth diapers have changed immensely in technology which has changed the typical ill fitting fabric which stains easily, to specific diapers that can fit snug-ly from birth to potty training and are made of anti-bacterial stain resistant fabric (minky). I am specifically planning on using Fuzzibunz Elite one size which, while costly to get started, are designed (and tested by many other mothers) as being the best fitting diapers for complete diapering until potty training. From all the mothers I have spoken to who have cloth diapered they say there is rarely ever blow-out's with this type of diaper, and if there are blow-out's they would happen in a typical disposable diaper as well. So if a blow-out is going to happen it will happen regardless of what type of diaper they are wearing.

Thirdly regarding the smell the same mothers I talked to noted that if you leave poopy diapers inside for any amount of time, it's going to cause the same smell as if you don't wash dirty cloth diapers on a daily basis either. Either way there is a poopy smell in the house, and the benefits of washing poop into the toilet immediately out of the cloth diaper will help get rid of the smell faster. I've heard of mother's using disposable diapers leaving them inside for a couple days before taking the trash out, so I think that would create more smell then cloth diapers because you have a limited number of diapers so you have to wash them on a daily basis essentially.

Fourthly the ages of having to pre-soak your diapers in buckets before washing the diapers in the washing machine and having to sit and scrub poop out of cotton cloth rags that had to be pinned around the baby is over. Because of the fabric of the new cloth diapers that are specifically not going to absorb poop, the majority of it rinses off into the toilet eliminating the need for scrubbing diapers. Also because of the bacterial resistant fabric no pre-soaking of the diapers in bleach is necessary.

Major plus's after doing my research on the realities of cloth diapering now is pretty obvious after debunking my mother's issues: they are do gosh darn cute!

Like this cute cow print one. I mean, come on, it does not get cuter than this!

Another huge bonus of cloth diapering is you are dramatically reducing the amount of harmful chemicals and possible rough fabrics from disposable diapers that can cause diaper rash and irritation on my tender babes bum. 

Lastly these cloth diapers are meant to last for multiple children. So the initial investment of $400-$500 can last through two to three kids. If you can stick through cloth diapering, it essentially reduces the amount you spend for each child's diapering. Two kids would mean $200-$250 apiece, and three would mean $134-$167 apiece.

For me it's a no-brainer. But we'll see how it goes after I go back to work. The one true downside is that I will need to be doing laundry on a daily basis. But I really plan on sticking it out even if it isn't the most convenient option like disposable diapers. The real question is, how will Jared fare?

p.s. a lot of my information on cloth diapering came from here.

Gender Reveal Party

We had a great time at our gender reveal party and are so grateful for all the love and support from our families that were able to be there. It was a small affair, so I'm sorry to all the cousins we couldn't invite we wish you all could have been there.

I should have taken more photos, but unfortunately I only got the really important ones: the gender announcement photos!

Baby Smith's cute little profile, you can even see it's beating heart

And it's a.....

 BOY!!!!!

Jared was the main one cutting the cake, I think he was a lot more anxious about it then I was so I let him take charge. His reaction was so cute. I don't know if everyone heard it but after he made the first cut and pulled out the knife crumbs from the cake were on it and clearly blue, and he let out this little giggle of excitement because he was so happy it was a boy! I honestly think the idea of having a girl first scared him a little, and he really has wanted a little buddy to take fishing and shooting because let's be honest after an hour of that I'm done and want to go home.

The thing that everybody got a kick out of was how cake is our kryptonite. The first thing after holding up the slice of cake that Jared tried to do was smash it in my face, so once he stopped trying of course I retaliated and smacked his own hand into his face with the cake in it. Then he took the remnants and smeared it in my face before I could move. Everybody was laughing except my mom because of the blue cake on her carpet. But everybody got a kick out of it, and it helped release some of our jitters. I hope someone got a picture of that!

We're so excited for this little soul to come to our family and even though we were both guessing Boy and are both really happy it is a boy, I just want an extremely healthy baby which I think it will be after our ultrasound. The tech was amazing and explained each organ she was looking at during it, everything was normal. She even took pictures of his little feet because I was concerned if there were ten toes. She kindly counted them out for me, and even got a frontal face view to make sure there wasn't a cleft pallet. So far I've been so impressed with my doctor and his staff and I'm excited to complete the last half of this pregnancy so I can meet our little boy at the end.

20 Weeks

Week: 20

Weeks left: 20, halfway there!!!

Stretch marks: no change in this department and I hope it stays that way!

Bathroom breaks: more and more frequent. I think the baby is sitting (or jumping) on my bladder!

Sleep: getting a bit more difficult, with my waking up everyday during the week at 6:30-7am my body will NOT let me sleep in at all on the weekend which I hate. Also I get really easily overheated in the night so the dogs often get kicked off the bed if I'm too hot.

Cravings: bagels, every morning! Want to make me happy real quick? Asiago with plain shmear from Einstein's please and thank you.

Weight Gain: a little concerned about this one, I dropped 2 lbs. this past week which is nice but not good for baby I don't think.

Clothing: I definitely cannot wear my old clothes anymore. I'm starting to stretch out some of my shirts and so I've started investing more in maternity tops. Normally the plain t-shirts from Target.

Daddy: VERY excited about finding out the gender!

Week 19

Week: 19

Weeks left: 21, almost halfway!

Stretch marks: none yet. Mom never got any with me and since they're half genetic/hormonal I'm hoping I don't get any!

Bathroom breaks: every hour and fifteen minutes. Without fail.

Sleep: a full eight hours with only one potty call around 3am.

Cravings: Cafe Rio has been what the baby wanted this past week. Less salty foods than the beginning of my pregnancy.

Weight Gain: only 12 lbs. I'm very proud of this!

Clothing: definitely in maternity wear, not because I wanted to but it honestly is so much more comfortable than trying to fit into my old shirts and pants.

Daddy: is very excited for our first real ultrasound this upcoming Friday so he can see his baby. I don't think it's really sunk in yet for him.

Cravings of the oddest sort

So far pregnancy has been filled with a couple odd cravings, but often times its really spur of the moment when I get hungry that's when I have previously been having intense cravings. Like "I need it right now" kind of cravings. Normally I've been craving pizza, or Leger's (sub place near our house).

But of late the strong cravings I've been having are for snack kinds of things, most strongly is root beer on a daily basis, and then today out of the blue I want Easy Cheese and Soda Crackers. Explain that? Most of the things I've been craving have had high salt content which is irregular for me because I don't like salty things at all normally and I never added salt to anything.

Cravings for week 16:
1. chips (BBQ, Salt and Vinegar, Doritoes, Cheetoes)-actually this has been the majority of my pregnancy so far
2. Anything with mustard on it-also been the majority of my pregnancy
3. Easy Cheese and Crackers
4. Cream Cheese and Wheat Thins
5. Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream

I know this is so late but better late then never! Here is my 15 week update. I'm not going to lie, I've been awful about taking weekly photos. I promise I'll try to be better.

Lie 2 of Pregnancy

I want to preface this with the sentiment that I don't want these posts to come across as negative or making me seem ungrateful to be pregnant. I am not doing this to complain about pregnancy, merely to highlight a lot of misinformation that floats around the baby world that really just isn't how it is. If anything this is to help give insight to other soon to be pregnant women that shows why a lot of the widely publicized doctrine is misinformation. I want to clarify you should always follow your doctors advice, and all opinions given are mine from my own experience.

Lie 2 of Pregnancy: you should only eat 300 calories extra each day vs. you're eating for two

I feel like both of these are terrible awful horrible guidance's of how to adjust your eating habits for pregnancy.

Firstly people who watch calories and weigh themselves daily are more prone to having issues with self esteem, stress management, and lets be honest are just really control freaks. Suggesting an nutritional intake based on calories confuses a lot of women, and it really backfires more than it helps. Those who have never counted calories before and then start, often spend most of their day hungry and when you're pregnant being hungry is the first step to being sick, nauseous, or faint.  You really shouldn't be letting your blood-sugar levels drop based off 'caloric intake', because it risks all of these things. And quite honestly when you are pregnant your blood sugar can and will drop unexpectedly and quickly. From personal experience I can go from feeling fine to white as a sheet in a five minute period, especially if I am busy and forget to snack on anything. And yes, as a pregnant woman snacks will be your new best friend at work, in the car, at school, on your bedside table, and trust me you eat them between every meal or else you feel you might die.

The whole concept of you're eating for two really gets taken the wrong way. This concept is given a bad rap because supposedly people use it as a guide that they should be doubling each meal because baby needs a whole meal as well as you. First of all this concept that women are eating double at their meals is ridiculous. The majority of us are so sick until about 12 weeks that we can barely eat anything. I personally LOST five lbs. during my first trimester because it was all I could do to gag down enough food to not starve. And then after the first trimester you feel like you are carrying around a bowling ball that is pushing up all your organs and constricting your body cavity space including the space your stomach usually would expand into after a normal meal. So the concept that women are going to eat double meals is ridiculous because we feel we can barely fit half a regular meal! And I say regular very loosely but basically a meal is what makes you feel full, but not uncomfortably full to the point it could all come back up.

In my personal opinion the best rule of thumb for eating is just like it should be before you get pregnant-eat until you become full but don't be a glutenous pig. And if you feel like you need to eat two hours later then eat! If you have extra food from your meal then don't eat it! And you need to know your body enough to know when it is bored or actually hungry. But being pregnant you are normally pretty clear on when you are hungry because you either will be nauseous because of acid reflux or have heartburn if you haven't eaten in a couple hours. Or pass out. Essentially small (half a normal meal) frequent meals (about every two hours) are the best guidelines to how your eating habits should change when pregnant.

That is all.

Read Lie 1 of Pregnancy here