What's New in the World of Baby Prep?

So far Merrick's stash of essentials for his nursery is coming along nicely. I haven't worked on any "baby stuff" in about three weeks, but I will be taking some time today to do so. Since my first initial haul from Craigslist, we've also found these items. 

I went to pick up the teal Bumbo seat (I have the seat belt repair kit, but haven't installed it yet) from a Craigslist ad, and really hit it off with the mom and her 11-month daughter Chloe. She also gave me a really, really nice play mat with lots of dangling attachments and music box for free, answered a lot of my questions about cloth diapering, and sold me their glider for $20. Quite the find if I do say so myself. The Boppy (u-shaped pillow) and wedge came from another deal where I picked up 4 trash bags full of baby boy clothes for $60 (size 0-3 to 2T). I bought the boppy for an additional $3 and she just gave me the wedge, which will be great for baby to sleep on in the pack 'n play.

We have some clothes for baby now, but it's only about 30% of the stash I want to have. My friend Candice is meeting with a coworker who recently had a son to pick up all the clothes that he's already outgrown for me. Merrick also already has his first leather jacket thanks to Marshall's parents. :) My mom sent him a super soft panda blanket that he will love.

I was asked if we had decided on a color scheme or theme for Merrick's nursery. We've decided with a forest theme so we can stick with greens and cute little boyish animals like deer (a must), owls, bears, foxes, raccoons, moose, etc. One of my tasks for today is to brainstorm some ideas for wall decorations with this theme.

A little over a week ago Marshall and I went to a cloth diapering class at the birthing center because we are interested in cloth diapering for our children, but wanted to get some questions answered first before "diving right in." I think the most challenging aspect will be what seems to be a lengthy washing process. A cold rinse followed by a hot wash, another cold rinse then drying? Something like that... We'll have to buy special detergent too. All of this is very manageable, and well worth the extra time.

When I put my thoughts on paper, this is what they look like. I'm not sold on prefolds. I'm not convinced that the snappy (T-shaped tool to keep the diaper together instead of using pins) would do a good enough job keeping the diaper together on a very active baby. Plus, they look so ancient. I understand that economical benefit of using prefolds, but for some reason my mind is saying 'naye.'

I am interested in the Kissaluvs size 0 fitted diapers though. I'm optimistic with all the positive reviews I've read and seen about this brand. One thing that was mentioned at the CD class was that although the majority of one-size diapers, which are designed to go from newborn to potty-training (7-38 pounds), can fit on a newborn, they are often bulky and probably don't have all the specifically-designed features a cloth diaper made specifically for a newborn (5-15 pounds) do. This thought also has me thinking of pursuing a rental service I recently discovered. 24 newborn Kissaluv diapers for a 3 month period for $100 ($175 but you get $75 back when you return them). They will be used, but I'm confident in good shape and condition. 24 diapers is about a two day supply since I'm told to expect newborns go through  roughly 12 per day. Hopefully we will receive other diapers that we have on our registry, and we can try out those brands on Merrick at the same time as the Kissaluvs, perhaps when he's 10 pounds or so. I really want to avoid buying lots of diapers ahead of time, then finding out they don't fit him very well.

After the Kissaluvs, I want to have pocket diapers. They have a pocket for inserts and extra absorbency. They will dry faster than the All-In-Ones, which don't have a pocket but the inserts sewn into the diaper. I want to get as many fleece inserts as possible as they absorb more than the typically microfiber ones do. The bamboo and hemp ones are also very nice.

I'm also going to be spending time today updating our baby registry, which is not an official registry, but an Amazon Wish List. I like the Wish List because I can include items from different websites. Here it is if you'd like to take a look: Baby R's Wish List.

Our Son--Merrick Rainier

Most important post first, yes? We're having a son! It's been almost 4 weeks since we found out at the anatomy ultrasound. All of his measurements were slightly ahead or right on target. The report did not indicate that he was developing slowly. Although they aren't going to change my due date, if they did, it would be 12-31-12, which I wouldn't mind as my birthday is 12-13. :)

We did our gender reveal with the following pictures the following day.

It took me by complete surprise that we were having a boy instead of a girl. It took me a full week to adjust to the idea of having a little boy in our lives instead of the girl I had been envisioning. I know my family didn't appreciate me being silent on the day of the ultrasound when they were excited to find out the details, but I just wasn't emotionally in control of myself. We'll just leave it at that.

I am now in my 24th week of pregnancy, and by the first week of October I'll reach the third trimester and be 6 months pregnant. Baby will be perfectly healthy by arriving as early as my birthday to the middle of January. Obviously I'd like him sooner rather than later because I am not excited about expelling a 10 pound baby in mid-January, but it will be what it will be.

I'm feeling great, and find so much enjoyment watching my husband's face light up when he feels Merrick kick. My next appointment is on the 28th, and I will be taking the glucose test that morning. I have to drink a sugary drink in 5 minutes, then get my blood drawn one and two hours after. I learned that at the third trimester mark, the metabolism of pregnant women changes, and it is at that time when they would develop gestational diabetes, which is what they are testing for. If I fail the test, I have to be much stricter about my food choices and check my blood sugar regularly. If I pass, all is well.

Back to Team Blue!

I'll be doing some massive blog updates this morning since our internet is back up and working in the mornings. Since July, our internet connectivity has been lousy to say the least. I would wake up at 6am, and have no connection. I would come home at 5pm, and it would be working fine. I had a tech come out in early-August to investigate, and it slightly improved, but we quickly were experiencing the same frustrations as before. The router was would have a blinking orange light when it was not working, and a solid blue light meant we could go online. We did not like being on Team Orange. :(

Yesterday a tech came out and replaced the router with what appears to be an upgraded version, and we've had consistent internet ever since, including this morning! I'm so happy!

Now that I do not have to fear about the internet crashing while I'm posting, get ready for some updates!

Craigslist Booty

I was very successful this past week with obtaining three out of four big items needed for preparing for Baby R:  Pack 'n Play; stroller & carseat travel system; and dresser. I'm still trolling for a glider and ottoman. 

Pack 'n Play is by Graco and is $150 in the stores. The colors are leaf green, light blue, brown and teal. It comes with the diaper changer attachment and napper basket, which can play music and vibrate. Because of how the napper mounts, I don't think I'll be using it very much. My price -- $75!

The dresser has five drawers and is completely made of wood. Some of the knobs need to be tightened, but for $30, this is a major find. 

I really wanted a jogging stroller that has a matching carseat that can snap into it. My friend and I were at Lady Bird Lake one day and saw what I had been envisioning. I was so glad it existed, so then I started looking online. Turns out it is called a 'travel system' when the stroller and carseat come together. I bought a Baby Trend Expedition XLT that at Babies 'R Us is $240. I think Amazon lists it for $169, but I bought it for $155 from a couple whose daughter has outgrown it. The carseat expires in December 2016, so this will probably last us for Baby R1 and Baby R2. :)

Here's my view. Can't wait to see the little baby that will fit in there!

We find out the gender on August 21st, then we can start getting clothes. I already have a few craigslist ads bookmarked for oodles of girls clothes. Once Marshall's home, I want us to research together more about cloth diapering, then that will be the next big purchase. 

Daka, Daka, Daka

 This is the view of Fremont Lake from the cabin balcony. The cabin was started in 1958 and completed in 1965, and is about 10 miles north of Pinedale, Wyoming at 7500 feet. 

 This is a picture of the Windy Range Mountains, and was taken on a little looking point on our way to Elkhart Park where we did a little hiking. Absolutely gorgeous view. 

 This is the little creek we found on our hike in Elkhart Park. It wasn't hidden or anything, but it was just a nice little babbling companion along the trail. The water is amazingly clear and it was quite cold. I love that streams like this still exist, and it makes me want to do everything possible to preserve them so we can take our children to experience them too. 

 Capitan Marshall at the helm! We took the boat out on Fremont Lake, which is pretty big. I even got to steer for a little bit! 

 We stayed at the Dawson family cabin, which was built by Marshall's great-grandfather Elias Dawson and his family. One of the coolest features of the living room is the giant map of the western United States above the fireplace. To the left is a giant buffalo head; to the right is an elk head. 

My little buddy Clark wanted a picture of him and Cabin Moose. :)

We flew to Salt Lake City from Austin, and spent the night with Marshall's cousin Jacob's family in Clearfield, which is about 30 minutes north of the airport. Jake's wife Shelley is a stay-at-home-mom with their three children: Ava, Jackson, and Ethan. Another baby girl is due in November. Jake is a nurse in the oncology department of a nearby hospital. Jacob was one of Marshall's groomsmen in our wedding too. They have a trampoline in the back yard, and Ava and I jumped on it together. :) 

Monday we drove to Newton, Utah, which was 75 minutes from Clearfield. We visited with Bermuda, Marshall's grandmother, and the Anderson clan--Doug, DeeDee, Heather, Annie, and Bonnie. Heather lives in a nearby town and came over for dinner that night. Annie is going to college less than 2 hours away starting this fall. Bonnie is going to be sophomore in high school (I think). Bermuda loves to quilt, and showed me a box of quilts that are reserved just for family. Between quilts and baby afghan blankets, I think we took home nearly a dozen! It was so generous of her to give us so many. :D 

Tuesday we left for the cabin in Wyoming, and it was a 5 hour drive. We got to go through Idaho!

After being up in this area, we both looked at each other and truly committed ourselves to doing everything possible for us to move up this way immediately after Marshall graduates. We loved the weather and the beautiful countryside. Yes, yes, we want to move to Idaho!

Wednesday was Independence Day, and we went for a hike in Elkhart Park, found the boat dock, and watched the fire works in town. Oh yeah, our little rental car Fido, a Fiat 500, got stuck in the dirt. It took 5 locals and a truck to pull us out. Oi! All during our trips back on the dirt roads going up to the cabin, we would see these little chipmunk/prairie gopher guys scamper across the road. I told Marshall they reminded me of the creatures we call Dak Rats back in North Dakota. So, every time we saw one scurry across our path, we would call out, "Daka, daka, daka" at it. It was quite fun. 

Thursday we went out on the boat and kept on relaxing. Friday morning we packed up and headed back to Newton. Saturday around lunch time we left to go to the airport. The flight from SLC to Denver went well, but we had a rain delay in Denver, so we didn't get home to Austin until midnight, then back to our house until 1pm. Our neighbor Beverly watched our cats for us, and they were happy to check out all our luggage. 

We had a fabulous trip and are so enthused about moving to Idaho in 2 years!

*Baby R*

Everybody's wish came true! Marshall and I are going to be parents. Baby R is due the first week of January 2013! After a heartfelt talk in late February, we decided to try for a baby in March, but April ended up being our lucky month. We found out on April 24th, the three year anniversary of my college graduation and our engagement. It was quite a special day.

I told my boss at 6 weeks, which is very early, but I started having morning sickness and feeling emotional. I wanted her to know so she wouldn't be alarmed if all of a sudden I was calling out sick or coworkers came to her with concerns about my behavior. Thankfully I only came in to work late twice and only 30-60 minutes. We told the rest of the family around week 11.

I wasn't afraid of being sick because I knew it was a healthy, expected part of pregnancy, but I did want to understand what my body needed to help me not feel so icky. I learned that if I woke up in the middle of the night, but couldn't fall back asleep within 15 minutes, I needed to eat something or I would throw up. It was small understandings like this that helped make my morning sickness very mild. For about 2 weeks straight I would come home from work every day and take a nap. It was at almost 13 weeks when I started feeling better with my energy. Now I am 16 weeks, and I feel back to normal. :D

We are using a birthing center instead of a hospital for a few reasons. First, financially it is about 25% of a hospital birth. When we decided to try to get pregnant, my health insurance would not cover maternity care, and I didn't want to pay $12,000+ for a natural delivery at a hospital. Second, I was really interested and curious to learn about pregnancy and labor through a holistic approach. Third, the birthing rooms at the center are amazing! I want to use the Art room (below) if it is available when my time comes. The walls are the same color as our front living room, hehehe.

What will happen when I go into labor? I'm sure yet at what point I need to have Marshall drive me to the center. We'll check in, and I pick which room I want to use. I can move around the entire room and give birth anywhere I want to. I'm leaning towards doing a water birth in the big tub at this point. The midwives have some herbal remedies to help take the edge off pain, but there will be no actual medications. After delivery, a nurse will come in and teach Marshall and I how to do Baby Care 101. We'll get to rest and be discharged 8-12 hours after delivery.

What if something goes wrong? If something goes wrong during labor such as I stall out or more severe complications arise, the midwife, Marshall and I will go to a nearby hospital that the center has a close relationship with. The midwife will be with us in the room, but I'm not sure if she will be able to deliver the baby. In the very least, she will be more like a doula or birthing coach. We will still have to pay for the hospital bill, but the good news is that I have health insurance through my work that dramatically reduces the cost to us. I'm not sure how the discharge from the hospital would work, but probably not as quick as the birthing center.

At three days old, we'll get an at-home visit from a nurse/lactation consultant who will make sure baby is feeding probably, answer any questions, check on baby's health, etc. At 6 weeks, we'll go back into the birthing center for a general check-up. They will provide us with a list of pediatricians that their other parents have recommended over time, and then that's the last link to the birthing center.

Leading up to delivery though, the center offers birthing classes during month 7 of one's pregnancy as well as prenatal yoga in the evenings. I'll start doing the yoga in September probably.

I have a routine appointment with a midwife on July 26th. There won't be an ultrasound, probably just more questions, checking blood pressure, and listening to the baby's heartbeat. Then I will get to schedule the 20 week ultrasound! I want to get it on Tuesday, August 21st because Marshall and I already have an 8am dentist appointment together (so I'll be taking off some time from work anyways). If the ultrasound can be that day, I'll request the whole day off and we'll go to lunch and spend the day together. I can't wait to see Marshall's reaction to watching and hearing Baby R. We definitely want to find out the gender, and aren't buying anything until after this ultrasound. Please oh please, Baby R, show us the goods!!

So far I haven't felt any movement, but that's normally the exciting element of week 18. I do have a bump, but my clothes still hide it pretty well. I can't lie on my stomach anymore. I've been sleeping really well lately, which is a vast improvement from the first trimester. I'm itching to go to garage sales and find good deals on baby things, but instead, I'm using the next four weeks to research and brainstorm what really needs to be on our registry.

Let me know if you have any questions about Baby R and I'll be happy to answer them!!

Holding Down the Fort

May has been a very fortunate month in our household. It started off with Marshall only having 2 final exams for his four classes and being finished on May 4th. Sarah watched the Kentucky Derby on May 5th, and Marshall began working on his car (Natasha), which has been out of commission since December. He also logged quite a few computer programming hours for his part-time job. His big task was creating a mobile app for the truck drivers to use instead of their current paperwork method.

The biggest news of all came around the middle of the month when Marshall was in contact with Denison Industries (Denison, Texas), and they negotiated terms of his summer internship. He will be employed May 29th through August 17th. The company is taking care of a fully furnished one bedroom apartment for him (that by the way it sounds is decorated nicer than our house), plus a generous weekly salary. Marshall is on the Engineering team, which consists of the Engineering Manager, one experienced engineer, a newbie, plus now Marshall. There were two other team members recently, but one retired and one was let go. Based off my own experience at the company that I work for, it sucks having a short-staffed engineering team. Marshall seems to be getting along fantastically well with everyone, even charmed the HR ladies his first day. He foresees a very possible job opportunity with Denison after he graduates in just under 2 years.

So with Marshall away, it's just me and the three cats. We're holding down the fort alright. I bought the cats new toy mice, which they seem to like better than their current collection (hurray). They miss Marshall though. Misti, who is very much a daddy's girl, actually seeks me out at times to let me pet her; that never happens.

I'm still working, and trying to have some fun during the week. This past Wednesday I went to Pluckers Wing Bar with some girlfriends and we played trivia. I had their lemon pepper wings and macaroni & cheese--absolutely delicious! We may go again next week too. This weekend I feel like browsing through stores, so I think I will go to the mall. I haven't been to a mall since Black Friday, plus I can get some exercise walking around in the air conditioning. I'm also going to meet up with my friend Candice this weekend to talk about her baby shower since she found out she's having a girl since the last time we hung out. Eek! I'm so excited. My other goal for the weekend is to retire all of our Christmas decorations including the tree and box them up. Yes, I've had Christmas in my house for six months. With Natasha's front end taken part and stuck in the garage, we couldn't pull down the ladder to the attic where all the storage boxes were. Before Marshall left he brought everything down for me. This weekend it will all get boxed up, then when he comes home next weekend, he can haul it up there. I'm not even sure if we're going to put it back up this year. Oi!

Marshall did such a great job putting Natasha back together again. The engine started on the first try; it was beautiful and horrible at the same time. Something sounded like metal popcorn (ut-oh), and he found out he needed a new water pump. Since he had to leave no later than May 28th, and Natasha wasn't fixed, we rented him a car and made plans for me to have her towed to a local specialty shop for German cars called Austin Veedub, which was Marshall's home-away-from-home in May since he was there every other day picking up replacement parts. I got Natasha over there on Wednesday, and haven't heard back from them about proceeding further and a cost estimate, so I'll call on Monday and see if there's going to be a snowball's chance in hell that they can have it ready for pick up next Saturday morning.

June promises to be an exciting month. Marshall will be home late on Friday the 8th, and we're going to lunch with his parents and some of the Lesnick family who will be in town on Saturday. Mars will drive back to Denison on Sunday the 10th. On Friday the 15th, my best friend Heather in NC flies out to spend the weekend with me. I'm so excited!!! The following weekend (23-24) is free yet, and then we get ready to leave for our Utah/Wyoming trip on July 1st!!