Sorry this is so long, but it's VERY important to us.

Alright all you people in internet-land!! We’ve made the decision. We’re sticking with this decision. And we’ll need your support to make this work! We’re cloth diapering our baby!


We have weighed the pros and cons with each other and have decided that the money saved would be enough to sell us on the idea. But, on top of that you add that it’s better for baby and for the environment and we’re hopping on the cloth train! WOO WOO!!!

First, let’s talk cost. It will be approximately $500 to keep a diaper on our child’s heiny from birth to potty training. It seems like “Oh $500 for a new parent, that’s a lot isn’t it?” but really that’s a considerable savings. Most parents who use disposable diapers on their children will spend between 1500-2000 on diapers between birth and potty training! So overall that’s a savings of 1000-1500 over the infancy of ONE child. NOW take into account that we plan to have several children, all of whom will be cloth diapered! We’ll probably have to re-invest about $75-100 for each child for things that have worn out or we’d prefer to replace. SO, if we have 3 children. We’ll spend about $800 total on diapers. That’s STILL a significant savings over putting just ONE baby in disposables. But when you consider disposables on three kids that could easily be almost 6000 dollars! OMG, right? I’d rather spend $800 than $6000.

Now, why is putting cloth on my child better than sticking plastic and petroleum by-product and recycled car tires and old bleached tree fluff next to my child’s skin? Good question. Since disposable diapers have been around babies have been getting diaper rashes more than ever. It’s because children’s skin is sensitive. You wouldn’t rub half the stuff in those diapers on your face, so why would you want it sitting right up against your baby’s skin for a couple of hours at a time? Not to mention disposables aren’t as breathable and so they will actually trap that moisture next to the skin as opposed to letting it out some. Also, parents who cloth-diaper are more likely to change a diaper that’s only a little bit wet than a disposable-using parent. A lot of parents who use “sposies” don’t want to throw away a diaper that hasn’t been used to its full extent so they will keep a child who’s only peed a little in the diaper. I’m sure the kids LOVE that, right? Whereas, as parent who cloth-diaper will take the diaper off, throw it or just the liner in the pail and re-diaper the kid in a fresh dry diaper. It doesn’t make the load of laundry any harder or more expensive, so why think twice about changing a barely soiled diaper?

Now, when a parent takes that disposable diaper off their child what happens to it? It gets folded up in a neat little package and stuck into a fancy, smell-reducing, individually wrapping, diaper trash can. Then what? To the landfill, to sit for hundreds of years until the plastic and petroleum by-products can break down. Not that they’ll break down into anything that’s good for the environment. They’ll break down into chemicals that will leach into the water table and HOPEFULLY be filtered out over a matter of years and years through gravel and sand and rock and then through city sanitation services (maybe, unless you have a well.) Then those chemicals are just hanging out in the Earth in a place where they weren’t supposed to be. WONDERFUL, right? There have been arguments that, because of extra water being used to wash and energy to dry, cloth diapers turn out to be just as harmful to the Earth as “sposies.” I don’t buy it. If I take one extra step (spraying them off with a diaper sprayer) with my diapers before tossing them in the pail (and only the poopy diapers, not the just wet ones) I will be able to put my diapers in a regular wash cycle with original Tide powder detergent. So, it’s the same as doing a load of towels. Then all summer long I can put my diapers on a clothes line to dry in the sun. Not only will they be using “solar” energy to dry, but the sun is also the best stain fighter there is. With my clothes, I can’t line dry them. They get stiff and scratchy, because they’re made of all kinds of fake stuff. But a 100% cotton baby diaper will be soft to the touch when you take it off the line. That’s the best thing you can do for the environment. And if you choose to use a “natural” detergent that is biodegradable, that’s just one more step closer to making cloth diapers more Earth friendly than disposables.

We’ve decided that we will refrain from putting disposables on our baby from day one. We will bring cloth to the hospital. We will leave cloth with family if they’re babysitting. We will use cloth at home and on the go. It’s good for us, it’s good for baby, and it’s good for the Earth.

BOY BOY BOY

You definately could've guessed it by now, I'm having a boy! This little guy will be Rex Arthur Smith. We are so delighted! I knew it was a boy the whole time and Mother's Intuition is doing me well. We simply cannot wait until we get to meet him!

AND we will get another ultrasound in 4 weeks because they couldn't see all the detail they wanted to see in the brain. So I get a third Ultrasound and I'll get to see baby one more time!

A great giveaway on a friends blog! CHECK IT OUT

So, an E-friend of mine is hosting a giveaway of a $50 gift card to The Spoiled Mama. Check out their amazing products and check out my friend's blog to see how to enter for this contest. I'll also put a button for her blog on the side of my site, so you can check it out anytime!

Our Babymoon is coming!!

So I don't think I've bragged about our babymoon yet! We had originally planned to try to cruise this November as a well deserved vacation from everyday life, but were holding off on booking until we got our tax returns in the new year. Well, we found out we were pregnant and that really threw that plan off track. We can't cruise with an infant younger than 6 months and I'm not allowed to cruise after 24 weeks, so we jujst decided that our "cruise money" would probably go to baby things. Well, as winter progressed and we started to get our taxes together I decided that I couldn't wait to take another vacation until the baby was old enough to travel. I asked Andy if we could use our tax refund to take an anniversary cruise. He thought that was a great idea and we started looking. Then we realized that for our ann. in the middle of May I'll be too far along to cruise. So we got a little downhearted. Luckily we both were able to agree that taking a cruise in the middle of April would be just as special as one last Hurragh before baby gets here!

So on to now, we are two weeks away from leaving and just over two weeks away from cruising and I am SO EXCITED! On Monday we get to figure out if this little baby inside of me is a boy or a girl and then two weeks later we get to go on a relaxing vacation to enjoy the two of us together "alone" for the last time for a long time!

Our cruise is leaving out of Miami and we're driving down again. We'll leave sometime on Friday the 9th and get to my sisters place sometime the next day. Saturday night we'll stay at Kelly's and enjoy some family time with the kids!! Then on Sunday we will drive down south. We'll meet up with my brother somewhere (Ft. Lauderdale or Miami, depending on his schedule) to visit for a while, then we'll head to our hotel to the night in Miami. We'll try to sleep then the next morning we'll grab some breakfast at Denny's (WOO HOO GRAND SLAM) and head off to the port to get on the ship! Then we're on vacation for a week!!! We'll be back on Friday and we'll leave right away and get home late-ish on Saturday, relax and unpack on Sunday and then back to normal life on Monday!!

So there, you can all just drool over our good fortune at getting to take a relaxing, romantic, fun-filled vacation. I've officially bragged!!!!

This weeks survey

How far along? 18 weeks yesterday

Total weight gain/loss: Loss of about 16 pounds, still sitting right there.

Maternity clothes? I'm actually losing even more body fat so there is NO way I'll be able to wear maternity clothes this week.

Stretch marks? still only ones I had before.

Sleep: jeez. I wake up a couple of times a night finding myself on my back, but I can usually turn over and fall back to sleep.

Best moment this week: Feeling Burger Kick me!!!

Movement: Almost consistent flutters in the evening and a kick yesterday.

Food cravings: cheese and sweet. Not chocolate though. That still grosses me out.

Gender: we'll be finding out in one week!

Labor Signs: Still WAYYYYY too early. Keep baking little burger!

Belly Button in or out? still in.

What I miss: the fat roll that I pretended was a bump. Now my belly is getting flatter and I'm still not showing.

What I am looking forward to: The big U/S on March 29th, Leaving for our babymoon on April 10, SHOWING

Weekly Wisdom: if you want it, eat it. DRINK WATER!

Milestones: KICK KICK KICK!!!! YAY.

First Kick!

So, sometime last night I am pretty sure I felt The Burger kick me. It felt like a twitch in the left part of my uterus (which is about 3 and a half inches below my belly button right now). It was so exciting. I haven't felt anything today, but it's good to be feeling something finally!

Huston we have movement.

Finally. Last night I think I felt movement for the second time. And I didn't get all strung out on caffiene first! I was laying in bed and I just sort of felt little wiggly type feelings. It was really exciting! and then of course Andy got into bed and he was bouncing the mattress and every time he moved the whole bed shook so I couldn't feel anything anymore. I tried to tell him to lay silently in one position, but by then I couldn't feel it anymore. Hopefully I feel it again tonight. Or today during the day!

A little survey of my pregnancy so far!

How far along? 17 weeks yesterday

Total weight gain/loss: Loss of about 16 pounds

Maternity clothes? I bought some pants, but I'm not really wearing them.

Stretch marks? Nothing from the pregnancy yet.

Sleep: jeez. I sleep about 10-11 hours a night and still need a nap sometimes.

Best moment this week: not pregnancy related, relaxing in bed with Andy.

Movement: Once a week or so ago after a TON of caffeine.

Food cravings: Changes day to day. Mostly light things, nothing too heavy except pizza.

Gender: TBD
Labor Signs: None yet. And let's keep it that way!

Belly Button in or out? still in.

What I miss: being able to eat a whole bunch in one sitting without throwing it all up.

What I am looking forward to: The big U/S on March 29th

Weekly Wisdom: Eat small bites.

Milestones: Nothing big this week. Baby is working on hearing and yawning a lot this week.

WELLLL, It has been a really long time

A lot has happened. Today I'm 16 weeks 3 days pregnant.

My first appointment was memorable. The phlebotomist (blood lady) was a fill-in for the regular one and she was kinda stupid. I had to have several vials drawn for testing and I told her I usually get pretty light headed when I have blood taken and she should recline the chair before she starts. Well, she didn't. So after all the vials had been taken I felt really sick and puked all over the floor of the little lab room. It was funny and embarassing. Then we met with the CNP who was an absolute bitch. I hated her. But she's not the doctor and I really won't have to see her at any other time, so I'm not worried about it. Then, we had an ultrasound to date the pregnancy and we were EXACTLY where we thought we were. 9 Week 6 Days. Baby's first heartbeat reading was 168 BPM. Andy was able to be there and it was a simply magical day.

My second appointment was pretty ho-hum. I went in and she asked if I had any questions I didn't really so she used a dopplar to find baby's hearbeat and it was at 150 BPM. Super healthy. We scheduled our big anatomy ultrasound for March 29. YAY!

I've lost about 16 pounds to date and my doctor is thrilled. I haven't felt much movement yet. A couple of days ago I think I felt somersaults that felt like rubbing against the inside of my uterus. I did have a lot of caffiene that evening so I think that made the burger hyper!! I don't like having that much caffiene so I haven't tried to make it happen again. I figure once he's big and strong enough I'll start feeling him.

We've decided that if the burger is a boy (Which mother's intuition is telling me it is) we'll name him Rex Arthur and if it's a girl she'll be Olivia Paige. We're so excited for the end of March.

I stopped working this week, so hopefully I'll find more time to update this little blog more often!!