Funny Story...

I know, I know, I haven't been around lately. I did finish my Blogolympics, but it just fizzled out, I didn't, as my track coach used to yell at me, "finish strong". I'm so sorry, I just ran out of steam, which seems to be the story of my life lately. I'm just so darn exhausted these days. Between working and Lucy I have absolutely no spare time. I feel like the thing that always gets put aside is my blog, which is a bummer because I love blogging and I have all of these topics that I'm just dying to share, like how breastfeeding has gone for me and about how hard it was going back to work...

Today I will share just how tired and worn down I am with a story. Here's some background on the past couple of weeks, Lucy has been extra fussy during the day and waking up a lot at night. I think that she's teething, poor thing. So I haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep. Basically my weekday schedule goes as follows:

• Get up at 6 (earlier if Lucy is hungry earlier), feed Lucy.
• 6:30 Jump in shower and attempt to look halfway presentable. By presentable I mean hoping there is little to no spit-up on my work clothes...or worse, poop (it has happened folks, truly). On a good day my hair is soaking wet but at least has gel in it, I have a bit of makeup on that I may or may not have had to apply with Lucy on my lap to prevent a screaming fit and possibly my armpits shaved (my legs...not so much).
• Get Lucy ready and leave by 7:15.
• 7:30 Drop Lucy off at my Mom's house and feed her again depending on whether she ate early or not, hoping breastmilk doesn't drip down my shirt...if it did then drive to work with the heat on full blast to dry it. Thank God for extra strength deodorant.
• Fight traffic (past the Nike World Campus which happens to only be ONE LANE, WTF?)and be at work by 8:00 and work until 5:00.
• Drive through hellish 5:00 traffic to my Mom's to pick up Lucy.
• Feed her at my Mom's house and attempt to get out in a timely manner, my Mom always wants to chat and I want to go home!
• Get home at 6:30-7:00ish.
• Rob makes dinner, lately I've been in charge of soothing fussy Lucy who cannot STAND anyone else to hold her at night.
• We go upstairs at 8:00 pm, yes, when it is still light out for goodness sake. Lucy goes to bed and Rob and I watch TV (aka turn on the TV and pass out until one of us rouses the other to get ready for bed...or, we wake up in our clothes from the night before, this doesn't happen often but I am ashamed to say it HAS happened once or twice, yuck!).

Sounds awesome right? Well this schedule has been wearing me out for the past couple weeks and over the last couple days I've been feeling like I'm starting to get sick. On Thursday I had a super sore throat, headache and a fever (swine flu?) and Lucy picked that night to wake up EVERY.SINGLE.HALF.AN.HOUR.ALL.NIGHT.LONG. I'm not kidding. Friday morning I felt so sick that I thought I might pass out in the shower but had to go to work because there was a important project that I needed to finish first thing in the morning. I'm terrible about calling in sick too, I just never do it unless I'm on the verge of death (aka morning sickness + migraines last year when I was pregnant, and even then I only did it ONCE).

So Friday evening I'm feeling pretty horrible. We go to bed early and Lucy actually goes to sleep pretty easily, yay! Lucy must have woken up in the middle of the night because I vaguely remember holding her in bed and suddenly realizing I need to go to the bathroom. I whisper to Rob that he needs to take her to I can go. No response. I ask again...SNORE. I get out of bed and walk around to his side of the bed and HISS:

"ROB. Wake up and hold the baby dammit. I have to go to the bathroom."

Rob opens his eyes and looks at me like a crazy person and says.

"Babe, you don't have the baby."

Oh crap. I look down at my arms...yup, he's right, no baby. She's fast asleep in her room and has been all night long. I was either a.) hallucinating from being sick and lack of sleep b.) dreamt that I was holding her and was half asleep when I walked over to his side of the bed c.) am losing my damn mind.

Oh man. Being a working mom is TOUGH, and I only have one baby...how the heck do people keep this up? Any crazy stories from you dear readers? Can you top that?

“No doubt exists that all women are crazy; it's only a question of degree.”

-W.C. Fields

Kangaroo Korner Sling Review...

So I FULLY intend to answer the second half of my Q & A post, but today I thought I would do a quick baby item review today as it is beautiful and sunny outside and we are BBQ-ing Bratwursts on the grill as I speak.

Today's Item:

Kangaroo Korner Slings

http://www.kangarookorner.com/



"Our Adjustable Fleece Pouches are made with unique 200 weight Malden Mills polarfleece and can be used in most climates year-round. The snug and flexible fleece will hold your baby snug against your chest. This style of pouch is perfect to use with all ages - including premature babies, infants of all sizes and even your growing toddler! All Kangaroo Korner brand products are manufactured in Minnesota, sweat-shop free."

Man, how much do I love the fleece Kangaroo Korner sling? So much!! It was so convenient when she was tiny and so incredibly cosy being made of soft polarfleece. It kept her, and me, really warm and comfortable. I used it whenever we went out, to the store, to church to a restaurant...anywhere. I kept it in my car and instead of keeping her in her carseat when we went anywhere, I would just pop her in the sling. It was great, and still is!

Out of the several slings I have tried this was has been BY FAR the most comfortable on my back and shoulders and it is also adjustable so that I could adjust it as Lucy got bigger and I got smaller, it could even be adjusted for Rob to use it. I will say the worst sling that I tried was my Hotsling that I picked up on sale at Target for our trip to Florida, since I thought the fleece sling would be too warm. I hated that thing, it killed my shoulder and Lucy did not seem comfortable because it had no give whatsoever. I do love my Moby Wrap though, which will be another review for another day!

The only drawback is that the fleece is way too warm now that the temperatures here in Oregon are in the 70s-80s, which means I need to purchase one of their lighter, all-season adjustable slings. Right now all slings on the website are 25% off, so I better hurry up and order my next one. Love this product!

“God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.”

-Proverb Quote

NOTE: To clarify for Anonymous, I put her in the sling when we were walking around, like in the grocery story for example, instead of unhinging the entire carseat and bringing it into the store to put on the grocery cart or instead of putting her carseat into the stroller when we are walking around. I re-read that part and can see how it sounded strange. I would NEVER let her ride in the car without being safetly strapped into her car seat !! Thanks for pointing that out!

Q&A Part 1...

Thank you for all of your questions, I'll attempt to answer them all before Lucy gets tired of playing her in Exersaucer! Let's jump right in, shall we?

1. What do you envision for your daughter in the future? Dance, art, sports, music?
I'm pretty sure she's going to be either the first female president, Barack Obama's got nothing on her and I think that Rob and I would enjoy living at the White House, D.C. is supposed to be beautiful in the spring...just kidding!

Activity wise Rob and I are at having a bit of an argument about this. I say that I get the girls, he gets the boys. He disagrees and thinks that Lucy is going to be doing baby jujitsu wrestling (um, no). If it is up to me Lucy will be doing dance, most likely ballet (how adorable are little girls in tutus?), horseback riding and swimming...which is basically what I did as a child. Knowing karma and the way that life rolls, she'll probably want nothing to do with any of those things. It's just the way things go, right?

My mother law once told me that she went to a women's retreat where the speaker said that if you have a little girl the one thing to do to keep her out of trouble is to get her into horses. Once little girls are into horses, there is nothing else on their minds (boys will worm their way in eventually, but at least it delays this for awhile). I was a poster child for this, I was so into horses from the time I was 5 until I was 16, they were my whole world. Then high schools boys came into the picture around 16/17, but at least I wasn't a 12 year old dressing like a two bit hooker or Britney Spears (same thing basically).

Also, I would love Lucy to play an instrument, which is funny because I played piano for 10 years and it was the torture of my life when I was a kid. But now that I'm older I really appreciate those ten years and the fact that I can still play. I'd actually like to get back into playing. I have a piano but it won't fit in our tiny house, so once we move into a bigger house we'll get the piano and probably get Lucy lessons. How funny it is that the things that you promised you wouldn't make your child do is exactly what you end up wanting them to do?

2. I was curious - during the unexplained IF - did you ovulate normally, and see a lot of EWCM? What were your cycles like, if you don't mind me asking?

I did ovulate completely normally. Like clockwork on CD 15. I saw EWCM and we timed right right 98% of the time. I used ovulation predictors and the Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor, which always gave me highs and positives. I got definite O cramps right before day 15. It was textbook ovulation. I had lots of tests, as did Rob, and nothing was ever diagnosed as being wrong. I guess we'll never know what the problem was, which is a little frustrating when I think about it and the prospect of trying for #2.

3. For my question, what types of cloth do you use? Do you have a favorite?

I adore the Bum Genius 3.0s. Hands down my favorite. Easy peasy to use and to keep clean.

4. Are you and Rob planning to have another baby any time soon? Will you have to go through the same things infertility wise that you did in order to conceive Lucy?

We are planning to have another...and maybe another and another. We're thinking 4 total (maybe more) and we definitely want to look into adoption, probably for our 3rd and 4th. We've talked about it and we'd like to start trying again when Lucy is 3 years old. That gives us time with her one-on-one (two-on-one?) before #2 comes along. If it is a boy his name will be Patrick Alan, after my dad and Rob's dad.

I'm not sure if we'll have to go through the same thing. As my doctor says, sometimes you can try for years with #1 and then the second pregnancy comes almost right away. We definitely won't need to wait as long this time around, my doctor told me that she can now order IUIs through the Reproductive Endocronologist's office that we went through. This means no need for a $500 consultation, so that is nice. We would probably try for several months on our own and then just get a referral from my OB/GYN to get an IUI if it we didn't get pregnant within a reasonable amount of time. Regardless of if it is easy or hard I don't think it will be anything like what we went through trying to get Lucy. For me, I there is a difference between having IF and secondary IF (this is purely my personal opinion, not trying to lessen the pain of secondary IF for anyone else). If we absolutely couldn't get pregnant with #2 it wouldn't be earth shattering because we ARE parents and we have our Lucy not to mention that adoption is definitely an option for us.

5. Are you changing diapers more frequently than you were with disposables?

No way. You have to keep in mind though that we were using disposables when Lucy was a newborn, which meant a new diaper at LEAST every 2 hours. Now we usually check her diaper when we feed her or when we hear the crazy, explosions that come out of such a tiny thing! In the beginning I felt like it was a never ending diapering extravaganza, so it definitely felt more frequent. Plus, the cloth wicks away wetness very well, sometimes its hard to tell if she's even wet and now she only poops 1-2 times per day, as opposed to about 12 times per day like when she was a newborn (fun!).

6. Where do you come up with your quotes?

Ha ha, I get this question so much. I usually just google whatever topic I was talking about like "baby quotes" or "motherhood quotes". http://www.thinkexist.com/ is one I use the most frequently. I'm afraid I'm going to run out of them eventually!

7. Now that your a mom - what are you best at multitasking? Meaning what is the most you have done at one time while holding the baby?

Blogging while holding Lucy is a frequent one! As in she sits on my lap while I type with one hand, it makes for slow blogging for sure. The other day I put my makeup on while she sat on my lap. Ever tried to put makeup on one-handed? I definitely do not recommend it, not to mention she really wanted to put my brushes into her mouth. The other day I strapped her into her Moby Wrap and made dinner, did the dishes, swept the floor and did a load of laundry all with her strapped to me and she didn't make a peep once! One multitasking that I don't recommend is driving while attempting to reach over the back of the seat and stick the paci in her mouth. I really need to not do this, but the only other option is a screaming baby. I try to only do this at red lights. Kids, don't try this at home.

Ok, well this is about half of the questions and Lucy is DONE with the Exesaucer, done as is screaming at the cow while smacking at the poor horse and gnawing at the lamb's head, so I think we're done for now. I'll try to get to the second half of the questions later this evening when she's (hopefully) gone down for a nap.

“There are four questions of value in life... What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.”

-Movie - Don Juan deMarco (1995)

Short Post...

...because today has been beautiful and we've been at the Farmer's Market, Home Depot, out in the yard and then down for a nap (both Lucy AND myself) and now I've gotta get myself spruced up for (drum roll please) ...DATE NIGHT! Rob and I are going to go to dinner at one of our favorite Greek restaurants and then off to see Star Trek or Angels & Demons. I'm excited to spend time with Rob as a couple instead of as mommy-daddy, but is is weird that I hate to leave Lucy for that long...a whole 4-5 hours? She'll be here at home with my mom, who has had Lucy withdrawals this week while I've been home, so I know she'll be fine, but still... I'll miss her. How ridiculous am I?

I'm working on the Q&A post, though it's taking me longer than I thought since I'm trying to thoroughly answer every one's questions. I'm hoping to post it tomorrow afternoon. Hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday, how are you spending yours?

“It's the national addiction: warmth on chilly winter nights, innocence on Saturday afternoons, the essence of hearth, home and blissful abandon.”

-Patricia Linden

Review O' the Day...

So I had this lofty goal of writing a huge, all-encompassing review of the baby paraphernalia that we use, but life got in the way (aka work got in the way) and I only got around to posting one short list. So I have decided that I'm going to attempt (ATTEMPT, no promises!) to write a review of one item a couple times a week.

Today's item:

Burt's Bees Products

www.burtsbees.com





I love these products because they are Sodium Lauryl/Laurenth Sulfate free, Paraben Free and Phthalate Free (all chemicals that I don't particularly want on my sweet baby), they are 96.08% natural, not tested on animals and the bottles are produced with 80% post-consumer recycled material.

Now that all that important stuff is out of the way, Burt's Bees products also smell delicious and leaves Lucy's skin oh-so-soft. We use the Baby Bee Shampoo & Wash, the Apricot Baby Oil (I use a couple drops of this in her cloth wipes solution along with Castille Soap and Water) and the Baby Bee Buttermilk Lotion. I've also heard that the Mama Bee Belly Butter is awesome for growing pregnancy bellies, I never got to use it but I have heard it works wonders. Burt's Bees is fairly pricey, if you compare it to Johnson's products, but I think it is worth the extra $$. Love it! I buy mine at Fred Meyer or Target.

NOTE: It has been brought to my attention that Burt's Bees has recently been sold to Clorox (thanks GHW!), which isn't exactly the most "green" company. I searched around on the internet and while still feel that the ingredients are still natural I came across an interesting article in the NY Times: "Can Burt's Bees Turn Clorox Green?" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/business/06bees.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1. Another option is California Baby, www.californiababy.com, (which we use for face moisturizer for Lucy AND myself), and Belli Baby products, www.belliskincare.com (which we use for baby powder and baby lotion), both also excellent natural choices which I will review in the future!

"We make people's lives better every day — naturally."

-Burt's Bees Mission Statement

ps. Last day for questions as I'm going to try to post my Q & A post this evening!

Dear Celebrity Mom...

W.T.H?




She is probably rocking my CRAZY girdle under that dress, at least I hope so!





Who has time to go clubbing TWO MONTHS after a baby? And would you look at that stomach? The belly button alone AMAZES me.





You bitch, put down those damn weights. Now you're just showing off.


Sincerely, Bev.

Yes, yes, I know. They are celebrities. They get paid a enormous amount of money to just look like this (and act in movies/tv shows/whatever they still get paid to look good in my mind). Yes, they have trainers 24 hours a day, nannies to watch their baby while they work out and plastic surgeons that will never leak their tummy-tuck/breast lift/thigh lipo secrets due to doctor-patient confidentiality laws, but damn it ladies, can't you just let the pooch hang out a little two months post baby? Must you wear tight pants with no apparent saddlebags and crop tops without a sign of a saggy belly, stretch marks or a c-section scar and say it is all due to working out and "eating right"? No? Fine then! ::sulks::


I do admit, I don't think my body looks THAT bad post-baby. I meant really, I gained something like 42 pounds in the end, and Lucy was only 7 lbs 3 oz, so I did pack on a little extra padding on during my pregnancy. Maybe it was the cheesecake that I ate everyday...mmm, cheesecake, God I love cheesecake.


I started out at 140 lbs pre-pregnancy, I am now at 137 lbs but STILL do not necessarily fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans (I think I've got two pairs on steady rotation out of like...oh... twelve!). That is frustrating. I am still holding a lot of my weight around my middle and, let's be honest, a bunch of it in my boobs (formerly A's now C's, I'm not complaining about that!), so mathematically speaking I should be thinner somewhere else, right? Now if I could only find out where that is and highlight it... does anyone know how to highlight thin ears or skinny feet?

Anyways, you are now officially warned, I'm posting pictures of my bare stomach (::gasp::). Here are the before, during and after pictures:


April 2008





December 2008





May 2009






Ok, it's not too shabby, right? I even think it doesn't look THAT different in the pictures, (you can't see the stretch markets that MAGICALLY appeared only AFTER I had Lucy!), but I definitely notice my extra baggage around the middle, especially when I sit down. Also, when you look at my stomach from the front my belly button now looks sad think :( instead of surprised :o.


Ideally, I'd like to get down to 128 lbs. It's the weight where I've felt the most confident and I haven't weighed that much since Rob and I were dating (damn him and his culinary training!). Any ideas on how? Is anyone out there doing the 30 Day Shred? I've heard about it in the blogosphere and am thinking of giving it a whirl.

"Think of stretch marks as pregnancy service stripes."

-Joyce Armor

Picture Time!...

Well, last night wasn't much better than the night before. Although Lucy woke up only four times as opposed to six (ONLY 4? Ugh!). I haven't been feeding her in the middle of the night since she was about 6 weeks old, which is when she started sleeping through the night, but Tuesday night and last night she wanted to eat three times in the middle of the night! It is really messing with my daytime supply. So here I am, blogging while drinking my Nursing Mom's Tea from Yogi Teas. I'm not crazy about the taste, it is very licorice-shy and I much prefer PG Tips with milk and sugar. However, whenever I've felt like my supply was getting low, especially from pumping at work, I start trying to drink it 2-3 times per day and it does really help (in case anyone is wondering I get it at Whole Foods and New Seasons). My guess as to what is going on is either:

1. A growth spurt
2. Teething
3. Lucy knows that I wrote an entire blog entry dedicated to her wonderful sleeping habits and decided to keep me on my toes, just to show me who is boss. Little bugger!

Right now she's napping peacefully on my bed so thought I would jump on and share some of her latest photos before I go join her and conk out until Rob gets home from work.

"There are three reasons for breast-feeding: the milk is always at the right temperature; it comes in attractive containers; and the cat can't get it."
-Irena Chalmers

Jinxed!...

What a night! I must have jinxed myself by bragging about Lucy's sleeping abilities because last night she screamed for an hour while fighting the sleep (all through 24 I might add) and then proceeded to wake up SIX TIMES in the middle of the night! W.T.H? She hasn't done this since she was a newborn. Crazy!

Then, this morning, she woke up perfectly happy....perfectly happy to explosive poop on me, while spitting up down my cleavage and then proceeding to put her tiny hand in the spit up and promptly stick said hand into my mouth before I could dodge it. What can I say? Apparently being up six times in the middle of the night doesn't exactly leave you with cat-like reflexes. I'm not lying, this totally happened. It was like a scene you'd see in a sitcom about having a baby. Lucy thought it was hilarious too!

That being said, I'm still having a blast, even in spite of poopy shirt and spit up in my mouth. I can honestly say I would take that over having to go to work any day!

Coming up on my blog this week: Comparisons of pre- and post- baby body (complete with pictures, and I have to warm you, I'm not going to suck it in), Q&A post (keep the questions coming if you have some), my crunchy mama transformation and of course more pics of the tiny pig!

"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one."

-Leo J Burke

Let's Get Cloth Diapering!...

I started thinking about cloth diapering when I read a statistic on how one child's diapers is equal to waste the size of a blue whale in your local landfill. When you think about how many children are born in the U.S. alone in one day it is absolutely mind blowing to think of how much non-biodegradable dirty diapers that are churned out into those landfills on a daily basis. Unacceptable! I did use disposables until Lucy was two months old, (I even feel bad about that!) but do believe that better later than never in this case.

So lets jump right in, shall we?

I started by reading blogs and websites about cloth diapering. What really got me going was Jill from www.babyrabies.com, she made it sound so easy! Then I just googled "Cloth Diapering" and spend the next couple of hours combing the internet on everything cloth diaper related. As cloth diapering is quite an expense these days I decided early on in my pregnancy that I would by the diapers little by little, instead of a several hundred dollar all-at-once purchase. Plus that gave me time to look at several different kinds and weed out the ones I didn't like. I would have loved to do a newborn diaper trial, like they have available at www.sunshinediapers.com, but I never did get around to it. Maybe next time! Speaking of www.sunshinediapers.com , they have some really GREAT cloth diapering 101 resources, just FYI.

Back to my buying diapers little by little. I started out by being alerted of a BumGenius 3.0 sale at www.amazon.com (I found this out by reading www.babycheapskate.com a great baby/child money saving blog). They were selling the BG 3.0s for only $12.50 at the time, for diapers that usually cost$17.50, this was a great deal. I had also heard rave reviews on the BGs from many bloggers and websites, so I went ahead and bought four of them. The next diaper purchase was from www.costco.com, this a package deal for five Bumkins Bamboo Fitted Diapers and five Bumkins diaper covers. Next came three handmade Etsy diapers, and then after Lucy was born I bought 3 more BG 3.0s, two used Happy Heinies from Craigslist and two all-in-ones from a local store that are very much like FuzziBuns (they have snaps). All together I have nineteen diapers on rotation, (although I hate the two Etsy ones, so they really don't count). I spent about $330 on all of them, that seems like a lot but since it was in increments it really wasn't that bad. Additional costs were three wetbags (2 small, 1 large), www.crunchyclean.com diaper detergent and the cost of the diaper sprayer that Rob installed on our guest toilet. So that is a grand total of around $400.00. I am planning on buying 5-6 more BG 3.0s, as I'm not particularly happy with the Bumkins Diapers, so that will bring up the cost quite a bit, but I may get those on Craigslist or from a diaper swapping site, we'll see.

Now to the reviews:

Bum Genius 3.0s- All-in-one pocket diapers. Love, love, love them. Super easy to put on, they are adjustable in sizing so you supposedly only need one diaper from birth to potty training age. These wick the wetness away from Lucy wonderfully, most of the time I can't even tell that she's wet except for when I pull out the insert (or feel the weight of the diaper). These are also super easy to dry since the insert is pulled out. She rarely blows through these and usually only when I put them on her lop-sided (she's super squirmy!). The downside, they are quite bulky. She always wears BGs at night and has never leaked through yet.

Happy Heinies- These were gently used when I bought them off of Craigslist. These are also adjustable sizing all-in-one pocket diapers but have a different velcro closure at the front. I like these but definitely not as much as the BGs. The fabric that wicks away the moisture seems to pill a little, although it is very soft and it wicks away moisture very well.

Bumkins Bamboo Fitteds- I don't \ like these because they don't wick the moisture away. They are bamboo, which is an antibacterial material, so I like that part but they get so darn wet I have to change her way more than with the BGs or the HHs. I never leave her in these at night. These are also only for 7 lbs to 22 lbs. One really bad thing about these is the velcro part on these damages my other diapers when they are in the wash. It is really frustrating to do two separate washes for them because they have almost ruined the velcro on several of my BGs!

Bumkins Waterproof Covers- These work really well, she rarely leaks or blows through them and they are in super cute patters at Costco.com. If you need covers I do recommend these!

Tiny Tush Elite (similar to Fuzzi Buns)- I bought these at a local cloth diapering store in Portland that also sells online (www.zoombabygear.com) and like these a lot, but I still prefer the velcro over the snaps. I feel like Lucy gets a better fit with the velcro. Still a great all-in-one, adjustable size diaper that wicks away moisture really well.

Etsy Handmade Diapers- don't like. She blows through them every time. Enough said.

Other things that have been super helpful in my learning to cloth diaper:

www.CrunchyClean.com - delicious smelling diaper detergent. I also buy Lucy's regular detergent here. I love the Baby Bee Clean scent!

Rob's homemade diaper sprayer- I saw that they sold these online and asked Rob if he could make one. He did a great job and the spray is very forceful so it is easy to get all the solids off of the diaper (if people would like I can try and get him to be a "guest blogger" and write up the directions on how he did it).

BioClean BacOut- This is a all-natural stain and odor remover. I use this diluted in a spray bottle next to the diaper sprayer in the bathroom. After the diapers have been washed off they get a spritz of this. I also put a couple of squirts in the pre-soak with the diapers. My diapers are never stained, I must be doing something right! I purchase mine at Fred Meyers.

Cloth wipes- If you're going to go with cloth diapers, why not do the wipes too? Now you don't have to ever run to the store for diapers OR wipes! We picked up some tiny Circo wash clothes from Target and use a simple solution in a spray bottle: castille soap, baby oil and water. Your baby's bottom will be super soft and you'll be even more eco friendly!

Some burning questions I know people have:

Is is gross to wash the diapers? Not at all. When you have a baby poop becomes a way of life. It isn't that gross anymore and you totally get over any squeamishness the first time your baby poops all over you or spits up into your face. This is how we do it. Diaper off of Lucy, into the bathroom it goes to be sprayed off into the toilet, diluted BacOut sprayed on it, pop it into the large wetbag that is inside a large, lidded trashcan we bought at Ross. Every other day we do a wash. I take out the inserts, make sure the velcro tabs are down and throw them in a warm pre-soak with 2-3 squirts of BacOut. I leave them for a couple of hours or overnight if I do it right before bed. Then I put them through a hot wash with two teaspoons of detergent and a second rinse. Then they either go out on the line to dry if the weather is nice or they are put in the dryer on low to tumble dry. Easy peasy! And no, it absolutely does NOT make your washing machine smell like poop (people always ask me that!), most of the poop is in the toilet anyways!

Do they leak? Mine rarely do. A couple of them started leaking last week so I decided to try and strip them. I put in a tablespoon of distilled vinegar with the presoak and that totally fixed the problem. Once in a blue moon Lucy will have a blowout, but I this also happened when we used disposables too...sometimes the poop is just too explosive to contain! **it happens...

Are they bulky? Frankly, yes. It took awhile for me to get used to my baby with her huge ass. Yes, I said it...huge ass. Baby got back. It also meant that she bypassed a lot of her 0-3 month pants and onsies because they just plain didn't fit over her diaper. So now we buy a size up in pants and use onesie extenders from www.onestepahead.com. Problem solved!

Why did you decide to do cloth diapering? The cost was not an issue for us, or at least it wasn't a deciding factor. I did it because I don't like the idea of a synthetic, chemical laden diaper on my sweet baby's booty and also I am trying really hard to be green and eco friendly so this just seemed to be the logical step in that direction. I do believe it has benefited Lucy, she never has diaper rash and the cloth is oh-so-soft against her skin, lastly, they're dang cute. One caveat though, when the BG 3.0s were on sale only the pink color was left, therefore if we have a boy next time around he will be rocking the bubblegum pink diapers. Ha!

Ok, well I think that is enough for now. If anyone has any other lingering questions, please let me know in the comments of this post! Hope that helps all you all out there who have been asking about our cloth diapering adventure! I highly recommend it!!

“Laughter is like changing a baby's diaper. It doesn't permanently solve any problems, but it makes things more acceptable for a while.”

-Unknown

“Diaper backward spells repaid. Think about it.”

-Marshall McLuhan

Happy Mother's Day...

...to me! My first official Mother's Day was wonderful. It started with a lovely good morning in the form of a giggling, happy baby, followed by breakfast in bed a la Rob (his new invention a "Cremble", a cross between a crepe and a crumble, filled with strawberry and rhubarb. YUM!), then a trip to our family's cabin on the lake for lunch with my mother. Rob, er... I mean Lucy gave me a beautiful bracelet for Mother's Day. Rob must have told Lucy how much I adore jewelry and I also received a very sweet card from both of them. Rob, who is not a super sappy guy, always writes the sweetest cards (SO much better than Dear Bev, From Rob). I just have to share it, he is such a sweetheart:

"To the first Mother's Day of the rest of your life. I love you so much. Lucy is so lucky to have you for a mom and I couldn't be happier to have you for forever. Happy Mother's Day, Love Rob and Lucy"

I would write more but I have a bit of a fussy baby on my hands as it was a pretty long day for her. I promise a good blog entry tomorrow, I'm thinking either a "Bev's Body Update (complete with pictures)" or my "Fun With Cloth" entry, either way it'll be a good one.

Lastly, my dear Readers, how was your Mother's Day? Hope it was fabulous!

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new."

-Rajneesh

Farmer's Market Day...

I have an obsession with our local farmer's market, so the first market of the season is super exciting day for me and today was not only the first day of the market but Lucy's first market day too. Hurray! The weather today was absolutely beautiful, as we speak I think it is at least 75 degrees. We headed down to the market this morning and it was packed, full of fresh fruits and veggies, tons of plants, delicious smelling food vendors and of course a ton of people. It is such a fun, family-friendly atmosphere, I just love it. We had a total blast, though Lucy slept through almost all of it. I can't wait until she is old enough of run through the huge fountain that is right next to where the market is held. So fun!

We had yet another great sleeping night last night. Lucy sleeps through the night like a dream. I still need to work on our bedtime routine, but as of right now our routine is as follows:

• We head upstairs at around 8:30-9:00.
• Lucy gets changed and put into a onsie.
• We spread out one of her million of small blankets out on our bed (I'm OCD about her laying on clean things, and since our cats jump up on our bed I always put her on a blanket).
• We play for about 15 minutes.
• Lucy gets swaddled anywhere from 9:00-9:30. We LOVE the Swaddle ME and had three in newborn sizes and currently are using two that we have in the larger sizes, one fleece and one cotton. If you don't have any, buy some! Lifesavers!
• Once she's in the swaddle me with her paci in she usually doesn't fuss at all (although she fights the swaddle me tooth and nail when we go to put her in it). After she's in she'll snuggle up to me and fall asleep within minutes, but amazingly I don't have to rock her or hold her, she just likes to be close.
• Rob and I are then free to watch whatever we want on TV or chat while she sleeps.
• At around 10:30-11:00 pm I feed her once more. This is so funny because I never have to wake her up, she always sleep eats!
• She gets put into her crib after the feeding and usually sleeps until we wake her up to eat around 6:00-6:30 am (I'm STILL always engorged in the mornings, or I would let her sleep longer).
• Sometimes she is awake when I go in to get her in the morning, but she's never fussy. Usually we find her just smiling up at her bird mobile while attempting to free her arms from the swaddle me. Last week Rob went in to get her she had freed an arm AND a leg! Houdini baby!

Why do I feel the need to change this routine? I feel like I should put her in her crib right after I swaddle her, so she gets used to sleeping without us right there next to her. Right? But darn it, she always looks so damn sweet and peaceful and since I'm usually at work every day I pretty much want to be near her as much as possible, even if she is sleeping. How silly am I? On the other hand Rob and I do need some...er... private time so maybe tonight I will pop her straight in her crib. All I know is, she is amazing at this sleeping through the night thing, and we feel so lucky. Thanks Lucy-Goosey!

What's your baby's sleeping routine? Any tricks of the trade I'm totally missing out on?

"Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are."
-Louisa May Alcott

4 Month Doctor's Appointment...

It was Lucy's 4 month doctor's appointment today. We got all dressed in our rockin pink Adidas tracksuit, (she looked like she needed to bust out a tiny Missy Elliot move, instead we just flailed out arms around a bit...close enough) and drove downtown to the doctors office with Nan in tow. My mom was super excited to be "invited" to meet Lucy's doctor and we decided to make a morning of it.

Lucy officially weighs 14 pounds now. My big girl! I can't even wrap my head around the fact that she used to be half the size she is now. It's amazing! Today was a bummer though in that it was a immunization day...boo. I hate them. Lucy is always so happy and cooing, sitting on my lap, and them BAM two shots in each leg! Poor baby. I decided, along with with Lucy's pediatrician, that we are doing a rolling immunization schedule. We break them up since four shots at once really seems like a lot for a tiny baby and my doctor was totally on board for it. Lucy was such a trooper, after the initial shock she was a total doll and didn't cry for the rest of the morning. I do find that nursing her immediately after the shots, whether it is feeding time or not, really calms her down.

After the doctor's appointment we headed off to eat bacon and cheese scones at the tiny coffee shop around the corner, and then headed to Mother Natures, a totally granola baby shop in downtown Portland, (which means it is right up my alley). I have to write a blog post about my transformation from "material girl" to "crunchy mama" because I'm taking this green baby thing all the way. Once I started cloth diapering, the rest of the green, organic, eco-friendly lifestyle just seemed like the way to go. I mean, why not? When I get on a bandwagon I REALLY get on it. Read later on this week to see just how far I'm taking being green (to Rob's dismay, he had no idea he married a hippy! ha!).

At Mother Natures I bought another Bum Genius 3.0 (love these), a couple teethers from Nattursutten since Lucy is really big on just nomming on anything and everything. I wanted to buy more than one diaper but they were out until next week, lucky for me I'm off work next week so I'll be making another trip out there. Love that store!

Now we're just taking it easy for the rest of the day. She's fast asleep on my bed and I'm doing some laundry (when am I NOT doing laundry?). I'm hoping she feels up to a jaunt down the block in the stroller later since the weather is beautiful today, but we'll see how she feels.

Don't forget to ask questions!

"Go gentle ... into the green."

-Charles de Lint, Into the Green

Blogolympics Day One...

I love being home so much. I love waking up in the morning, grabbing Lucy from her crib, feeding her and going back to sleep for an hour with her all snuggled up against me. Rob bringing me tea in bed isn't too shabby either. HA! Lucy is so darn happy when she realizes that mom isn't rushing to drop her off at Nan 's in the morning (Nan=My Mother who takes care of Lucy when I'm at work). She gets so excited when she wakes up from her morning nap and, whahoo! Mom is still here! I'm that exciting folks, or at least my daughter thinks so.

We had an exciting incident this morning as this morning was bath time. I find bathing a baby very difficult without another set of hands to help. She's just so darn slippery and wiggly and I'm always afraid I'm going to bump her head or get her ears underwater when she lays back onto the headrest... but I digress, when bath time was over I put Lucy on her changing pad in her crib to go get a diaper. Now USUALLY I put a washcloth under her bottom because we have peed on ourselves one too many times, but this one time that I don't what to I come back to? Poop...and pee... all the way up to her HEAD! EEK! On my nice clean, delicious Burt's Bees' smelling baby. Damn!

What to do? I don't want to run another bath, and there is just too much poo to simply wipe her down, (poo in the HAIR people, poo.in.the.hair). So I jump in the shower with her. I expected that she wouldn't like this very much, but she LOVED it! She laughed the entire time. Apparently showers are hilarious! So much easier than the bath too... I think we've found a new way to clean this baby. Hurrah!

As I type right now she's sitting in her ExerSaucer, a gift from "The Easter Bunny", which in actuality is my mom's friend "Grandma Barb" (as she calls herself) who is extremely smitten with our Lucy (really, who isn't?). We had lunch today with the girls from work and next up on our busy vacation schedule will be napping while watching Oprah and doing a load of cloth diapers (which I love and will post about this week).

Man, I would love this to be my life everyday, yes even the washing dirty diapers part. I'm totally not kidding.

Lastly, Since people often ask me questions in the comments section and I never get around to answering half of them I'd like to do a question and answer post this week. So if you'd have any burning questions to ask of me about...well, anything, go ahead and ask in the comments of this post. I'll do the Q&A post later this week.

“Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love.”

-Mildred B. Vermont

Bev's Blogolympics 2009...

So starting tomorrow I'm off work until the 18th on "mandatory vacation", otherwise known as "the economy sucks right now so Bev gets time to hang with Lucy! Hurrah!" and guess what my grand goal is for those 11 days? To post on my blog EVERY.SINGLE. DAY. That's right folks, every day. It's like a Blogolympics of sorts. Let the games begin!!

Stay tuned.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

-C.S. Lewis