Baby Things I Love...

I've been thinking about the things that we use for our little ones, since I have a newbie.

I LOVE...

Pampers Swaddlers. These are great because they feel so soft. I only use "name brand" diapers when my kiddos are small and switch to a store brand later, but I really do like the Swaddlers and I pay the extra for them. Huggies are nice enough, but for some reason my kiddos don't fit well in them. There's too much space around their skinny little legs when they are young and they leak considerably. I'm sure they are great for many families though and we do like the umbilical cord notch, since it's cut lower--we still had to fold down the Pampers to keep the diaper off of it.

Cetaphil. I am not a fan of the standard baby scented soaps, though I will admit I really like the lavender ones. For little bitty babies an unscented soap is a better choice, per our pediatrician. We also used this for Gabby's face since she's always had sensitive skin there. She still breaks out if we don't wash her face with it regularly.

Aveeno Baby Lotion. Again, it's unscented. It works well on dry baby skin, even through the winter months with our young babies (they've all been born in the fall).

Boudreaux's. While I'm not a fan of the full name (The only 'but' allowed in my home growing up only had one 't.'), this stuff works so well that I forgive it. My oldest daughter had a horrible time with diaper rashes, but we started using this regularly (at every change) and we rarely ever saw red after that. We used it intermittently with Gabby and have a tube ready for Nate.

Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent (perfume free, dye free). I do lots of laundry (five loads just today!), so separating baby's laundry from the rest of the family would just add to that. Instead of pricey 'baby' detergents I just opt for my regular detergent sans the big allergens. I've never had a baby react to laundry washed in regular detergent, but we have no family history of that kind of sensitivity. I'm sure it's saved us quite a bit of money and who knows how many loads of laundry!

**I was not compensated for these reviews nor did I receive free samples beyond one Pampers and one Huggies diaper--sent to anyone who signs up that they are expecting a new baby (I also purchase packages of each of these).**

Black Friday

I’m not usually one of those people that thinks it’s worth getting into the mess that is “Black Friday,” but young Master Nate was in need of a few items and I could get 60% at Carter’s if I got there by noon. So I got the girls set up with Sesame Street (leaving Daddy here to tend to them) and took the little one with me. We were able to get him some long sleeved onsies to go under some of the cute short sleeved shirts that we were given. I also got him a pair of pants, since he was lacking a little in that department in the small sizes. We got an outfit—cords and a sweater for family pictures and I got a cute little ‘dress’ shirt from another shop for $2.00. Shhh! I also got the girls Christmas Eve present from us: very cute little red night gowns. They will love them—they are so sweet.

We went to the scrapbooking store to get vellum (40% off) for his birth announcements. Hopefully I’ll get those finished up soon. I was actually working on those until the little man woke up again.

All said and done, including the drive to and from—1 hour and 20 minutes! Not bad for some good deals. And my littlest shopper was well behaved the whole time in my handy-dandy Moby Wrap! Thanks again Ann!

Thankful

I am so blessed. I have a husband who loves me and provides for us. I have three beautiful, healthy children. We have a warm place to sleep and food to eat. We have clean water and enough clothes.

We have family who love us and are willing to fly or drive hours to help us adjust to life with a new baby, not once, but three times. They prepare food for us and stock our freezer. They make late night runs to Wal-Mart to stock up on paper goods before they go home.

We have friends who also help take care of us and were given God’s discernment to stay with us, so the girls did not have to be present at the birth of their little brother. They celebrate birthdays with us when our family is too far away to do so. They bring us meals and give us gifts for our children.

We have a Savior who loves us and a heavenly home awaiting us.

Girl-isms

(baby edition)

In one of Kate's favorite books it states, "Pirates sleep with one eye open just in case.

Looking at Nate sleeping...
Kate: "He's a pirate! He's sleeping with one eye open, just in case!"


Gabby says insists that Nate always be referred to as 'baby'. Baby brother, baby Nate, baby boy.

After hearing me call him, "Little Man..."
Gabby: "Hi, Baby Man."

And Then There Were Five

Life has been quite busy around here. We've had a little over a week with my mom here and my dad came over for a few days too. Justin took a few days off work last week too.

There are now three little people vying for my attention. My parents went home yesterday and Justin is at work today, so it's my first day alone with all three munchkins. We just have two days until he's off for Thanksgiving break.

I've succeeded in showering; getting everyone fed, dressed, and teeth brushed; and dinner is thawing in the fridge. Our big challenge for today will be gymnastics class, since Gabby can be a bit rambunctious while we're waiting. So far so good!

Birth Story

I woke up at 3:30 in the morning with some contractions that quickly moved from 20 minutes apart to about 5 minutes apart. I got up and took a shower and got dressed. At about 4:30 I woke Justin. He got a shower too. At about six I called a friend to come and sit with the girls.

By the time she got here my contractions had slowed down. I sent Justin on to work and tried to send her home. She decided she and her son would stay, and sent me up to take a nap.

About 10:30 I had three contractions about five minutes apart that were quite intense (they had been 10-20 minutes apart before that). I called Justin to come home. I had time to get on my shoes before he walked in the door. I called the midwives' office, where the nurse asked for me to come in to their office. Not what I really wanted to do—I thought we should go straight to the hospital. Then my water broke! As we were on our way up I called back and said I didn't think we'd make it to the office with broken water and contractions now 2-3 minutes apart. We got stuck in lunch hour traffic for 10 minutes or so.

We got checked in, two nurses working to get a lock in, and vitals taken. They started the water in the tub for me. I had an intake time of 11:20. The midwife came in to see me right away—the doctor I saw for my discharge said Lindsey took off running with the call I was here (their office is just across the street). I had a few minutes in bed for the line to be put in and basic evaluation, then they let me get on the birthing ball—I had maybe five contractions there, they were still trying to get a good baseline on baby when I felt the urge to push, so in to bed and maybe 10 pushes (27 minutes after arrival), Nate was born. The tub had been forgotten and nearly overflowed—Justin remembered it. How does he remember that and not the garbage? :)

I still wasn't finished with the admission questions, so I finished those after delivery. We did a one day discharge and we were home Saturday evening.
We’re enjoying our little man. Happy one week Nate!

Your sisters love you too!

It's a...

BOY!

Nathaniel Michael was born Friday November 13th. He was 8 pounds 1 oz. and 19 inches long. More details later!

Still Here

Yep. I'm still here. This baby has decided that he/she wants to hang out awhile longer.

I had a very lengthy appointment today. There evidently was a bit of a mix up (or three) with the gals in the front office, so we had a late start. I saw two different midwives and a student midwife today, due to one of those little mix ups. I had another NST. The baby fell asleep though. This made that test take a little longer, since we have to have an awake baby to see if the heart rate increases appropriately with movement. I was contracting through out the test, but that's not exciting, as that's how I spend the last weeks of all my pregnancies.

After the baby finally passed on the NST, we discussed the induction date and moved it up to Monday. First, I am pretty sure that regardless of how long we give baby we're going to end up in the same place anyway, as is my midwife at this point, though she is ever hopeful that we'll have a spontaneous labor. Second, she has mentioned several times that she thinks this baby may be a pound bigger than my previous babies, despite the gestational size ultrasound (which can be off up to two pounds in either direction) from a few weeks ago. So rather than allowing the baby to get even bigger, and since we'll likely end up in the same place (an induction) within a couple of days anyway, we'll go ahead.

After that I waited for the very busy ultrasound room. The gal there checked to be sure the baby had enough fluid. She can't tell me anything, but as no one called and told me to get to L&D, we'll assume that all was well with that too.

So baby is happy and healthy, mama is tired, and the eviction date has been set, unless of course, with all our plans laid the baby decides to come earlier--no complaints here, other than the headache it may cause in getting my mom here/care for the girls, but I'll gladly take that one.

Over Due

It's so interesting that if someone says that her baby was three days early, or even two weeks, no one blinks an eye, but once you reach your due date people start questioning your practitioner's sanity with allowing you to continue your pregnancy.

I will admit there are some nice draws to an induction...I could pick the date of my child's arrival (at least probably--with a third, it's not likely we'd continue to the next day). I could have child care arranged. There's no mad dash to the hospital.

But, with every intervention there is extra risk. If I wait it out, perhaps I will avoid Pitocin...

I'm also kind of hoping to avoid an IV, which will be placed if I go in for an induction. I used to be hugely needle-phobic, and I'm sure that doesn't really help the situation, but over the years I've been poked and prodded several times with out running away in terror or even crying. The real reason for not wanting this is that evidently placing an IV in the forearm (where they like them for labor) for me is very difficult. My arm hurt as much as the labor did last time because they blew out several veins in my left arm before the nursing supervisor had to come and try for a second time in my right. I looked like a junkie for a good month. It wasn't just unattractive--it was quite painful.

That said, at some point in the next week and a couple of days, this baby will have to be born for safety's sake. We're looking forward to meeting him or her, but I'm trying to be patient. I am so very thankful that the end of this pregnancy has been so comfortable. I have the occassional late pregnancy malidies, but nothing that is so difficult I can't stand it another week (at least once the moment of discomfort has past!).

The baby looked great on my first NST (non-stress test) yesterday. I will go back on Thursday to check the fluid levels and have another NST. We will re-evaluate again then, but at current, the date is November 19th, unless baby decides to come more quickly.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my Mama, who would like to share her day with Ehud!

Due Date

Here's Baby Ehud at 40 weeks! We'll see when he or she decides to show up.

Gabby-isms

As Kate's alarm went off: It's Katie time!

As she pointed to my belly, "Baby Uh-hud!" I think this baby is going to be Ehud longer than I expected.

Okay, so maybe I over reacted...

Someone knocks on my door this afternoon wearing a cable company logo garb. I told him I wasn't interested and closed the door. For the record, we used to have their service for our Internet and their services was...lacking (see here). He waits a good minute, and then he knocked again.

He tells me he wants access to my back yard. I asked for proof of who he worked for. He didn't have a truck parked on the street, and really, how hard is it to get a shirt with a logo on it? Then he told me my name (which is printed in the phone book). He showed me an ID badge, but he was making my life difficult and badges like he was wearing would also be easy to fake. I ask for a phone number to confirm him. He hemmed and hawed, but finally gave me the number.

Admittedly, I probably should have taken him at his word, but I didn't. When the woman answered the phone I asked if she could confirm that she had sent someone to my home. She cheerfully answered yes she had. The problem I had with this answer--she didn't ask who was at my door, who I was, or where I lived! I told her that her answer didn't mean much to me, seeing as she hadn't gotten any information from me.

I spoke to her supervisor, who did actually confirm the person worked for them. He thanked me for being a concerned citizen. No one got in my backyard, by the way. I was told in the future I would be notified prior to anyone attempting to gain access to my yard.

I did the "right things," but I still felt silly. Such is life I suppose.

Kate-isms

Kate, when one of our toys annouced cheerfully, "It's learning time!" while we were cleaning up.: No, it's not!


Kate to Gabby as she was singing "Jesus Loves Me": We sing this song because this is not our home. Heaven is our home, we're just here for a few days.

Out of the mouth of babes...

Time Change

I think the time changing twice a year is Ben Franklin's idea of a never ending practical joke on parents. It takes a week (or more) to reset your child's internal clock so you stop hearing things from your two year old (whom you recently got sleeping to a reasonable hour) like, "Up! Downstairs, chair, play!" And from your four year old like, "My alarm clock must be asleep," as she point to her sunny window.