Cloth diapers

For some reason I have always wanted to use cloth diapers with my children. I don't really know why-maybe I just want to be old fashioned, maybe I like the idea that it is better for the baby or maybe for ecological reasons. Really, I think it is a combination of all three. Oh, and saving money comes in there somewhere too. Well, when you think of cloth diapers you think of the dust rags your mom used as you were growing up (they used to be the diapers she used on you when you were a baby but you don't remember them in that capacity). Cloth diapers have evolved these days and are just as easy to use as disposables (except for the whole cleaning up part) and cute too. I started doing research on different kinds of cloth diapers and found that there are many different options that could make the start up cost of cloth diapers very expensive. I could justify it because you can use them for several children so when you spread the cost out you are still saving money but that requires us to have money now... When we started looking at the easiest but cheapest route I started to realize maybe I could just make my own diapers. So I started researching that.



2 weeks ago we had 8 inches of snow and in NC that means you don't go to school for a whole week (we did make it to school for part of a day but that doesn't really count). I decided to make good use of my time and start turning out some diapers. In that week I made 24 newborn size fitted cloth diapers. These require a waterproof covering which I think I am just going to buy because making all the diapers seems like a big enough challenge for now. So, my little guy should be set with diapers for at least the first little while. Now on to the next size! Where is that snow?!

Boy or Girl?

We decided to give up on waiting until after the Super Bowl to tell what we are having...so, everyone just needs to wear blue to the Super Bowl-not to support the Colts but because

WE ARE HAVING A BOY!

During our ultrasound, the tech told us to feel free to ask any questions we had, she didn't mind answering questions. Lee asked a lot of questions about how it worked so she told him that when she was done doing all the measurements she needed to do, etc. she would let him play with the ultrasound. That was really cool for him and he started to understand how it works and how to turn it to get different views.

I thought it would be easy to switch from saying "it" to "he" but it really hasn't been. I thought finding out a little bit more about "what" was in "there" would make it seem more real but it hasn't as much as I thought. It is getting more real and I am getting used to "he" and telling myself I am having a baby boy but I think it is going to be more of a transition than I had at first thought.

Nerves

My body has a strange way of handling stress. There are some stresses that my body handles normally, headaches, sleeplessness, etc. These are stresses that I am aware I am stressed about. But for some reason my body tends to take some stress upon itself and not tell me about it! For example, when I was in high school and college, the week before exams I would be super emotional and not have patience with those around me. I wasn't consciously worried about my exams and feverishly studying or worried that I wouldn't do well on my exams but for some reason my body was still responding with stress. After several years my mom pointed out to me that I always acted strange around exam time. With this knowledge I tried to calm myself and not let exams bother me but I haven't seemed to be able to accomplish that.

Fast forward to now... On Thursday we had our ultrasound to do measurements of the baby and find out the gender. I took the day off to celebrate and clean our house for some showings we had scheduled. Well, I went to eat lunch with Lee and he commented that I was being short with him and then on the way home I just started bawling. I know your emotions are crazy when you are pregnant but I haven't been this crazy in the past 5 months so I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then I remembered my issues with exams and realized I was probably nervous about our ultrasound. It was such a bummer because I had been so excited about finding out about boy or girl and then all of a sudden I was just so sad and worried that something would be wrong with the baby and what would I do and how would I handle it if that was the case.

Well, just to make sure to not leave you in this same dilema let me tell you that our ultrasound went great and the baby is perfectly healthy as far as they can tell at this point. The baby was super cooperative and they were able to check all the vital organs and get some great pictures...including the all revealing one! But more on that later...


In case you aren't skilled in looking at blurry ultrasounds (and this one is very blurry because I took a picture of it in order to put it on here) this is a picture of the baby lying on it's back. It's head is on the right side and you can see the chest and and arm on the left side. The facial profile is facing up. This is my favorite picture we have so far. I think it is very sweet.

A Kids' Perspective

I am taking tomorrow off so that I can go to the doctor and have my ultrasound...so today my class did a graph to show what their thoughts are on the gender of our baby. We do a graph everyday and the choices are normally "yes" or "no". Today's graph took them a lot longer to decide on. They stood at the graph and debated for quite awhile. Their reasonings were very interesting and worthy of sharing with the world!

One said, "Well my mom had boys, so..."

Another, "Mrs. Williams is a girl so it will probably be a girl."

One asked me, "What did you pray for?"

I said I just prayed for a healthy baby and he said, "That's what my mom prayed for too!"


According to my class we are having a boy. The vote was close but more people voted for boy! We shall see.

Movement!!

Today, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., and so I could get my room cleaned up, we watched Our Friend Martin in class. The movie has a lot of popular music in it and at the end when the credits are rolling it plays several of the songs. Well, as I was putting some books away (while the music was playing) I felt a strange feeling in my tummy.

The baby was dancing to the music!! I think this baby likes music. I don't know what that says about the gender but for now I'm just sitting around waiting to feel some movement again. I thought it would kind of gross me out when I first felt the baby moving but it didn't!

This Baby is Getting Big

So, I know the baby is only 5 1/2 inches long and 7 oz. People can't really tell I am showing that much at this point. But, I think this baby is getting big! I know there is so much more to grow but here is where we are at this point.

7 weeks

17 Weeks

Also, as a current update for the gender vote...

boy: 2

girl: 8

If you haven't voted yet you still have a week left!

What KIND it is!

Well, we had an appointment today and everything is going well. The nurse was able to find the heartbeat on her very first try and the heart rate was good. We also made our appointment to find out what KIND it is (aka girl or boy). We will get to find out what kind it is on January 28. Unfortunately for you we had decided that we would have a superbowl party to let people vote on what they thought we were having by wearing either pink or blue to the party. We expected our appointment to be a little closer to the Super Bowl so it wouldn't be so long to wait but it didn't turn out that way so I guess you will just have to wait about a week and a half longer than us! You can however cast your vote for what kind it is in the comments. Just about 4 more weeks to find out if your guess was right! Happy guessing!