Success!

The wipes have been washed and dried...and did not fray! Yay! Looks like we are a go for changing diapers.

Baby wipes two ways

In my horror of how much disposable diapers and wipes cost I have decided to use cloth diapers and wipes (excepting the first two weeks: when the umbilical cord hasn't fallen off, when Tim will just be learning how to change a diaper at all - thought it might be cruel to expect him to also learn how to do a cloth diaper right away- and when I am sure the last thing we'll want to add to our sleep deprived plate is loads of diaper laundry; we'll be using disposables).
I am super lucky in that I can borrow diapers from friends so it is even more economical. However, I did need to procure my own wipes...I received one set of 8 bamboo wipes I had registered for at my North Carolina shower- but then when I was reading about wipes I kept coming across people who tout the wonders of flannel wipes.
A couple of years ago when Tim and I were living in Virginia my local Hancock's fabric store went out of business and had a sale where you could pay just $3 for any fabric left on a bolt-so I picked up a few- one of which was a baby print on flannel.
So out comes the flannel. I look up instructions online "how to make flannel baby wipes" find a women's instructions on ehow.com... and when they seemed too easy to believe I really should not have believed them. She basically said just cut up the flannel to chosen size with pinking shears to minimize unraveling- wash and use. I thought, Great! I don't even have to get out my sewing machine just my grandma's pinking shears.
I cut out 40+ 8inch square wipes and should have taken a picture of them at that point because they looked oh-so-nice all stacked up with their pinked edges...but instead I threw them in the wash to get them ready to store until baby comes. They came out of the wash fine, and into the dryer they went...and THIS is how they came out....
One big tangled mess with VERY frayed edges. I tried to clip them apart with scissors and trim the strings...but decided after freeing 3 wipes from the mess that it wasn't worth the effort. Into the trash they went. Thankfully my $3 bolt made it about a $.50 waste...not much to cry over.
Second attempt- another flannel stash from Hancock's along with my sewing machine. At first I was making them square but having to stop at each corner was so time consuming that I decided trimming the corners into curves would actually take less time.
And, yes, that is my belly getting into the picture at the bottom...I didn't realize it had gotten so big.
I should add that the second attempt have yet to be washed...so their fate might be the same as the first attempt...I'll let you know later how they survive their first wash.

6 hours

Yesterday we were supposed to have 6 hours of birthing class (with another 6 next Sunday). We had mixed feelings about going to it. I was both eager to make sure I have all the information and practice techniques I need to make it a healthy & happy birth, but wasn't all that thrilled with spending an entire Sunday afternoon and into the evening with a teacher who might be annoying, cheesy or downright boring. Tim was thinking that perhaps we could just watch some videos at home and get all the information- since he's trying to get the shed done an entire afternoon with a room full of people (he is probably the most anti-organized-group events person I know) he was almost dreading it and we ended up having a light bantering about going or not- with me finally saying with a laugh that I am sure he didn't want me to tell his mom that he didn't go with me...so he went...and it was...fine...even great!
First thing in the class's favor- it's held at a local church instead of a hospital (no way I am getting Tim to a hospital until this baby is practically crowning!); second, the teacher- Megan- was old enough to have validity but young enough to be fun and easygoing...she was a labor and delivery nurse for years, now working in fertility, has two children of her own and has been teaching this class for 4 years. And lastly, we got out an hour and a half early.
Also, no videos of gory births or even non-gory births- so that was great. The other 8 couples were low-key with none dominating the time with vast number of picky questions or overly strong controversial opinions. What was amusing was that of the 9 of us couples 3 had some of tallest women you've ever seen congregated in that small of a gathering. They were all easily over 6 feet tall. I felt downright petite.

Things we learned:

• If my water breaks at home tell the midwife- Time, Amount, Color, Odor
  
• go to the hospital at 511- contractions every 5 minutes lasting one minute each that have been going at that rate for one hour
• How to tell the difference between false labor and real labor- false will go away if you empty your bladder, drink a huge glass of water to make sure you aren't dehydrated, and change positions
• The different stages of labor and what to expect- how to deal with them, including massage techniques for Tim to do to me to help me relax and distract me from the pain, breathing techniques and when to do them (Tim actually made sure I drew the diagram for him and then added his own notes to it so I am expecting lots of coaching from him regarding the breathing)
• The risks and benefits of pain relief with most time spent on epidurals. I thought before I didn't want one and now I KNOW I do not want one. The negatives I had associated with them were that first, you get a huge needle in your back and second, it can slow down your labor and lead to further interventions (like pitocin, etc). However, Megan let us know that for some people they don't even work or just work on half your body (her first worked great, her second the anesthesiologist tried 4 times and never got it to work), that 25% of women have lasting tenderness at the sight for a least a while and some have it for life (!), and that 50% of women who get epidurals end up getting c-sections. That along with the big piece of tape down your back they use to keep it in place sounds like a nightmare in waiting for me since I react to adhesive. So going natural it is for me!
• How to self-induce labor: sex, evening primrose oil, eggplant (mentioned but she was more joking than anything, apparently there is an Italian restaurant somewhere in Atlanta that will refund your money if you eat their eggplant Parmesan and go into labor within 48hours), ankle massage, Castor oil (much groaning at the mention of this), and there might be another that I am forgetting I'll need to look back over my notes.
• What to expect during delivery, right after delivery for both mom and baby and basic hospital rules (like that babies must be wheeled in their bassinets in the hallways, never carried...something to do with child-abductions).
• And a whole lot more

Next week is only supposed to last 3.5 hours- going over newborn care, breastfeeding, and something else I am forgetting. It was good enough this week that I don't think Tim or I will have any issue going.

Another 6 hours to be happy about is that last night I slept straight through from about 10:30 to 4:30! I really can't remember the last time I got a solid 6 hours- it was wonderful. I think it helped that I ate a half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at 9:30 since I think part of the reason I am sleeping poorly is because I am getting hungry at night. This morning after waking up at 4:30 to use the bathroom I couldn't get back to sleep b/c I was hungry and finally got up at 5 and drank a glass of milk...but that blissful 6 hours of sleep was apparently restful enough that I couldn't really get back to sleep so I thought about how I am going to sew some flannel baby wipes, pee pee teepees, changing pad liners and how I will organize the various sizes of clothing so that I can easily change them out as the baby grows...finally falling asleep around 6:30.
Tim is in Philly tonight as he has a presentation tomorrow- so I'll be getting out the sewing machine tonight.

Pregnancy brain hard at work...

or perhaps better said...hardly working.
Today when I went to mow the lawn I adjusted the mow-height by changing the back wheel position...thinking I was raising the height for a longer cut...however you can see from the left side of the lawn that I did EXACTLY the opposite. At first I was thinking...wow! this really isn't achieving what I had intended...but when the mower stalled out (too close to the ground getting clogged on all the clippings) it made me pause and take stock. Thankfully my brain kicked back into gear and I realized what I had done.
Poor lawn! It had been looking so good until I partially scalped it! Hopefully it won't take too long to green back up. Supposed to rain this afternoon and that should help.

7 months today!

This shot gives a better idea of the size of the shed- I was incorrect in my last post when I said the inside height of the walls was 7 ft-they are actually 8ft. Tim is nailing (with his new uber cool nail gun) the 1x4 sheathing that we'll (or rather Jarrett, Tim and Jarrett's dad) will be nailing the cedar shingles onto tomorrow. We (Tim & I) worked for 8 hours today- hauling the 16ft boards from the driveway down to the backyard, cutting them to length and nailing them on.
For the backside of the roof we decided it would go faster if I could help from above rather than just below handing up the boards.

Not the best view for the belly but Christi was over for a bit and took this picture from below inside the shed (while muttering that I was crazy for being up there). I must admit that being able to actually help felt great- I do like playing the girl card and the pregnancy card sometimes (just ask Tim) but I also HATE feeling truly helpless. So getting up in the rafters and truly helping was wonderful! (And it helps that I'm not frightened by heights and have pretty darn good balance despite the growing belly. In fact, the only time I got "hurt" was when I was holding the ladder stable for Tim and he accidentally dropped the hammer and it grazed my nose.) Though after 8 hours on my feet- I am also truly thankful to be off of them- not any noticeable swelling, but all these extra pounds I'm hauling around make for some sore soles!

Tim's nursery project

If you remember this post then you'll recall that my soon-to-be nursery currently houses a fair amount of Tim's woodworking tools and that we planned on building a workshop/shed in the backyard as a new home for all those manly pursuits.
Well, while I was in North Carolina at the most fabulous baby shower thrown by my mom, sister Krista and Sharon (I'll post about it as soon as I get some more pictures)- Tim was home with Jarrett and Jarrett's brother, Stephen building the "shed".
Shed is not quite the right word for it as it is 10x12 with at least 7 feet walls (then of course the roof peaks) so it is quite spacious inside.
They got a ton done on it- but, of course, projects always take longer than anticipated- so we still need to get the siding and cedar shingles on, plus put on the trim around the windows and doors (and Tim needs to build the doors)...and finally paint it to match the house. We'll also do a bit of landscaping in front of it so that it looks like it's been there forever- rather than just plopped down recently.
The coolest part is that Tim completely designed it himself using Google Sketchup (an awesome free program from Google that I think is basically a CAD program). I can't wait for it to be finished for 2 reasons: first, then I can finally put together the nursery (including steam vacuuming the carpet with the steamvac I borrowed from my mom) and I've got a list of projects for Tim to build (including a changing table that will eventually convert into a desk). He's already made us a coat rack, two nightstands, framed a mirror...all from the back bedroom- so I can only imagine what he'll produce with a proper workshop!

31 Week Appointment

• 159lbs (theirs), 156lbs (mine)- so up just 2 lbs in 3 weeks...not bad!
• Blood Pressure 112/76
• Baby's heart rate and beat good
• Fundus measurement must have been fine because she didn't say otherwise

My questions/thoughts for midwife:

• Do I need to do anything other than inform them that Tim and I will be collecting/banking the cord blood? Answer: Just bring the kit with me and she made a note of it on my file
• When do I need to write up my birth plan? Answer: do it now and bring it on all the rest of your visits because each midwife (there are 5 in the practice) needs to sign off on it.
• I've decided that I don't want the IV port (refer back to this post for my original discussion with the midwife on this) due to my allergic reaction to adhesive. I get hives the exact shape of the bandaid. Also, I think it will be a distraction since I'll be worried about knocking it around and having it hurt. The midwife said this time that if everything is going perfectly they would be fine with me not having a port put in- and the longer I wait to come into the hospital the lower the likelyhood of needing an IV. This discussion could be premature though if my Group B strep test comes back positive (test is between 35-36 weeks) because that would mean I would automatically be on IV antibiotics during labor.

So I am working on my birth plan (Christi was kind enough to send me hers as an example) and Tim will go over it with me this evening. I had my first pang of slight panic earlier this week as I was going to sleep...this pregnancy has been a breeze- I've really enjoyed it, but it struck me that the end of blissful pregnancy is fast approaching and this child has to come out somehow!