less than 50 days to go

I think I say this in every blog, but I'm so bad at remembering to blog.
I have like 6 weeks to go and it can't go by any slower. I'm so ready to just have the baby already. I want to hold her and love her, I even want to change her diaper!!! I know weird. But I just ordered some super cute cloth diapers and I can't wait to use them.
That's right Mitchel and I cloth diaper. We started out cloth diapering Brighton, but the daycare he went to didn't allow them so we used disposables, but when I lost my job and put ourselves on a strict budget, it was either food or diapers, so we went back to only cloth diapers. I think Brighton was about 19 months. Let me tell you, it saved us soooo much money. There were some weeks that we had no money left over after bills. This may have potty trained Brighton sooner, but having the cloth diapers just made everything easier. I also hit a lucky break when a cloth diaper retailer was running a promotion for store credit and I was able to get 6 more cloth diapers for free!
Cloth diapering will also save us money for the new baby too because I won't need to buy diapers. Yes, Yes, I did buy diapers for her, but all of Brighton's diapers were blue and green and I wanted a few girly looking ones. One of my favorite diaper makers Nifty Nappy went out of business at the begining of February so I hurried up and bought some from her. Plus, I didn't start full time diapering Brighton until he was 19 months and he didn't go through as many diapers as a newborn will. So I did need to add to my stash. But, spending $100 for some diapers is nothing compared to spending $2000+ on disposables.

I also loved wearing Brighton around in a sling and I'm looking forward to carrying this little one around too. I think it will be essential seeing as I'll have a busy 3 year old running around. I have 2 ring slings, a pouch sling, I made a moby style wrap, and I just got a mei tai wrap on ebay! I know, that's alot of slings for jsut one baby, but I only had the ring slings with Brighton and I wanted to try other slings to see which was more comforable.

Anyway. I can't wait for baby girl to get here.
Brighton's moving right along. He's regonizing most of his colors. He counts (not always in order), he can say his ABC's and he's getting more imaginative with his playing. Today he was giving his cars voices. He mainly just repeats things he's heard Mitchel or me say, or something he's heard on tv. Today one car apologized to the other for knocking him off the table. It was too cute. He loves to pretend he's an animal. Usually it's a dog or a T-rex.
We've been thinking of sending him to preschool or headstart this fall. Mainly just for some social interaction. I think he gets tired of me sometimes and could use some peer to peer playtime. He is a super social child and thrives on personal interactions.

Here's a super cute picture from our family photo shoot back in June 2010. My friend Beki's a photographer. If you are in Kansas or Missouri, give her a call. Her website is http://www.therustedchain.com/

So, What's Up?

So....What's up? Not much here. Still pregnant. I have like 89 days to go. I'm pretty excited. All I can think about is having the baby in my arms and for Brighton see her. I have some new cloth diapers I can't wait to try out, I made a sling wrap and got a new one I want to use. I just can't wait to have this little girl and dress her up. I also can't wait to breastfeed again. I loved nursing Brighton and I was sad when he decided to stop (but glad too).
Not much as changed in the last few weeks since I last blogged. I've grown bigger obviously. I did have to spend a few hours in the hospital (in L&D) but only to get some fluids. I was really dehydrated. I'd spent the previous night throwing up to the point where I couldn't even keep water down. They ended up putting 2 bags of 1000cc's each through an IV and I only peed out 200 cc's, so only 10%. The doctor said I was really dehydrated and that my body was just sucking up the extra fluid. Since then I've been drinking water, juice, anything. And I've been trying to eat a little better too. It's not always easy. I did break down and have a huge Wendy's double cheeseburger last weekend. It was soooo yummy.

I have my next appointment on tuesday and i'll have my glucose testing done. What fun. Drink a nasty sugary drink and get my blood drawn. I passed with no problems last time and I don't think I'll have a problem this time either. I also get to have the rhogam shot. My blood is negative and Mitchel's is positive. That equals a potential problem if this baby has positive blood like Mitchel. Shots don't bother me so it's all good.

One of my New Year's resolutions (or goals) is to do more sewing projects. I'm almost finished with Brighton's quilt. I just have to get the backing on it. I've made a few purses, and I made a wrap for the baby. I think I'm going to try to make a few small size diapers for her too. The diapers I have will be a bit big for a like a month and I don't want to spend a bunch of money on newborn diapers so I thought I'd make some to save money! I do need to pick up some flannel though.

Well that's all for now. I'll try to post some pictures soon. I'll do a christmas post maybe.

so I have these really awesome blog ideas and have no time to write them. So here's a quick update.

I do have a giveaway coming up. I have in written I just have to email it to the company who's hosting it....

I don't have internet at the moment, but i'm making it work.

I was going to post a picture but the picture button disappeared on me...someone help please.

i got a happy heiny diaper in the mail from franklin goose. It was the first cloth diaper I ever heard of. The owner was on a podcast i listened to call Pregtastic and she inspired me to try cloth. This was back in 2007...3 years later i finally have one! It's a pocket style, which i've never used before, but i like it. It is really good for night time and it's cute. I got the chocolate color and the snaps are white. I wish the snaps were chocolate too. But that's my only complaint.

I should be getting two katydid diapers today. I can't wait to use them. I do have diaper laundry to do today so maybe i'll get that done too.

I love my life right now. B and I get to play and read and eat all day and I love it.

does your baby really care...

...what you put on his butt? I got this question the other day from a lady (mom) who saw that B had on a cloth diaper.

You know what, he probably doesn't care if he's in cloth or not (or maybe he does), but I do care.
I care because the pros of cloth diapering far out way what little pros disposables have. What pros do disposables have? They are easier????? Not really. Did you know that you are not allowed to throw human waste away. That's right. I heard it was against the law in some states. So you HAVE to shake out that poopy disposable diaper, just like you swish the cloth poopy diaper in the toilet. Did you know that breastmilk poop is water soluble? Which means you can just toss the diaper in the wash, no swishing. How easy is that.
I care because I don't want dirty disopsables on the side of the road. I don't want there to be no room for trash on earth so they have to live in space (have you seen wall-e?).
I want my son to grow up on a clean earth. I want him to have children who grow up on a clean earth.
I care because I want to save money. I have about $300 dollars worth of cloth diapers if that. I have something tangible for my money, that I use daily. I'm not throwing my money in the trash.
I lost my job at the begining of this year. I now am able to cloth diaper B full time and I love it. I don't have to waste my gas to go buy diapers. I made my own cloth wipes so i don't buy those anymore. I make my own wipe solution out of stuff i already had. I did have to buy baby oil, so i spent 3 dollars on diapers in 3 months.

So no, B probably doesn't care that he has cloth on his bum, but maybe someday he will.

wow!!

I have 18 followers!! this morning I had 14. Yay! Maybe when I hit 20 I'll do something specail...or not since i don't know what to do...

Thank you everyone who follows me. I do have so exciting blogs coming up. I'm reading an amazing book called CrazyLove by Francis Chan and everyone should read it.
I have a couple cloth diaper blogs on hold until i can sit down and finish them. And I'm really behind on my recipes.

This isn't a blog dedicated to any one topic. It's a blog about me and my little B (who's not so little anymore) with alittle of my husband thrown in for good measure. I try to write about what I love and what i know. I'm honest in everything.
If you'd like me to write about something or research something for you I will. I love getting feed back. Send me an email anytime

heatherd0584 at yahoo dot com <- i guess you do it this way so you don't get spam...

Thank you all!

Heather and B

saving money/live greener

I recently lost my job and have now been forced to find ways to save money. Forced my be a strong word, but I've always known i need to save money, I just never had a good enough reason to. Now I do. And I know alot of people have been effected by the economy and any way to save a penny is good advice in my book. I actually enjoy finding ways to save, or use less, and even be greener in the process. This is a list in my head that i've created. it's not a top 5 or 10 list. just some tips i've picked up in the last few months (or longer).

1. Cloth diaper! I got cloth diapers for my baby shower (i wanted them) and was able to cloth diaper B for the first 2 months then our daycare wouldn't do it so I CD'ed part time. Now that I'm home, I cloth diaper full time. Green too because you are creating less waste

2. Cloth wipe. Makes sence when you cloth wipe. who wants to pick out poopy wipes from the poopy diaper. Make your own out of flannel or fleece. i made about 35 out of a yard. but i doubled mine. Green too because you are creating less waste

3. cloth wipe solution-go here for a ton of recipes-its i use water, baby wash and baby oil. stuff i already had http://www.zany-zebra.com/cloth-wipe-solution.shtml
Green too because you are creating less waste


4. make your own laundry soap-i make mine...does it work...i wash my cloth diapers and wipes in it. they are definatly clean. if it can clean poop off a diaper then it works. go here for the recipe. you can also google the Duggers. they have one too
It was probably like 7 dollars for all the ingrediants but the ivory soap came in a three pack so i was able to make 3 buckets of laundry soap for 7 dollars. how much do you spend on laundry soap. I've made three buckets, one per month. it can do about 64 loads.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefamilyhomestead.com%2Flaundrysoap.htm&h=d9cb53dd9a55a80935f093b140ba35ac
Green too because you are creating less waste


5. Thank you Margaret for this tip. Put olive oil in your hair before you shampoo then you won't need conditioner. and it's all natural so it's ok to wash down the sink. She also uses it as lotion. she mixes it with tea tree oil.
Green too because you are creating less waste

6.I get recipes in my email from parentsmag.com. it is great because they are usually fairly simple to make and don't take alot of time to make either. And alot of them use items you may already have, or are inexpensive to make. I've printed out about 20 so far that i keep in rotation and some of them call for the same ingrediants so it's easy to shop too. I spend less money at the store too, because I know exactly what i need. I can spend $50-$80 a week on groceries!

7.Sign up for giveaways on blogs. you can win free stuff or get coupons or ideas on other way to save money. The Mom Blogospere is amazing. It's mom's reaching out to mom's. it's a great way to meet new moms in the same situation you are.

8.Participate in a consignment sale. I made $80 by selling B's old clothing and toys. And I'm doing another one this week. It can be better than a yard sale because you set the price and the buyers can't ask for less.

9. shop at the dollar tree. Do you really need to spend 10 dollars on shampoo and conditioner. Like i sad before, you wash it down the drain.

10. Look for ways to mak your own of things. Invest in Dining on a Dime cook book. there are tips on how to save money on grocery bills and the back has recipes for homemade everything (margaret and I made leg wax...ouch) But seriously, you should check it out!


So I guess that's all I have for now. It was a top 10 list after all. I do all of these except use olive oil, because I seriously just bought new shampoo and conditioner (from the dollar tree).
If you do things to save money email me heatherd0584[at]yahoo[dot]com

Brighton's wool diaper cover adventure

I have never made something out of something else...does that make sense? Today I made a wool diaper cover out of a goodwill find, a ladies wool suit jacket. it was definatly a challenge. First I had to take apart the jacket and I discovered that there was some iron on interfacing on the inside of the wool. I didn't know what to do so I moved on the ripping open the 2nd jacket i purchased, no iron on interfacing there. So I cut out the pattern. for some reason I'm not getting the measurements correct even though i trace them exactly like the pattern is. So i ended up making the cover too small. It would fit him if he didnt have to wear a diaper underneath! lol. that wouldnt be good. But I'm going to keep it because it's stinkin' cute! ok here are the pictures








since i don't know what order they are posted in; one is a picture of the taken apart jacket, one is of the finished cover, and one is of them on him.

i will be trying this again with another jacket. I will go back to goodwill to pick through some more wool soon!

i made my own fleece diaper cover last night!. I've been wanting to try it out for like a month. i'm glad i made the extra large! It fits well, but is a little crooked but I think that's because I traced the pattern wrong. I only got enough fleece to make one, but i need more covers because I run out of the PUL covers quickly. I don't have enought cloth diapers to be doing it full time anyway. I have about 15 diapers and like 6 covers. But two covers and 4 diapers are the gro baby system, I can use the gro baby covers on other diapers, but i can't use the gro baby diaper part with other covers. So I'm trying to make them. this cover cost me $2. The fleece was on sale and i only bought 1/2 a yard. If it holds up to the pee pee test I will make more.
here's the pattern i used

http://katrinassqs.blogspot.com/2007/10/free-soaker-pattern.htmld




i made my own fleece diaper cover last night!. I've been wanting to try it out for like a month. i'm glad i made the extra large! It fits well, but is a little crooked but I think that's because I traced the pattern wrong

another blog about a giveaway

So i'm blogging this morning about a cloth diaper giveaway! Go here to enter yourself

http://www.theecochic.com/2010/02/21/get-a-kick-out-of-babykicks-new-bumboo-pocket-diaper/#dsq-comments

I love it when i enter giveaways for a cloth diaper made by a SAHM. And I love it that this company (babykicks) makes 90% of her own products.
You should definately check out this diaper. it's trim and ultra absorbant because she uses a hemp fleece soaker pad. I love hemp fleece.

i totally made a cloth diaper today!

YAY!! I made a cloth diaper today. it's not the best in the world because Brighton was awake through most of it and getting restless (i should have gone to the YMCA today so he could run off some energy!) Also the fabric wasnt even all the way around. I has to improvize a little.

Hopefully Hobby Lobby will have their flannel on sale next week so I can get some nicer looking flannel. I'm going to get some fleece too soon. Hancock fabrics has really cheap fleece and they have ALOT of styles to choose from.

good day!

I had a really great day! It started with breakfast with my dad at Village Inn. I was sad to see him leave, but it was great to spend time with him and help him get a new car!
Then I headed up to Newton to check on our house up there and to get our Finacial Peace University books because we are taking the class in a small group. I can't wait to start it. Mitchel took it his last semester at MCC so it'll be a nice refresher for him.
While I was in Newton I gave my friend Trenna a ring and we met at the local library to have a chat. It was fun to see her and her kids and her new baby (who is 5 months old already). We made some plans to get together again and to do another sewing day. I can't wait for the sewing day because I found a cloth diaper pattern to try.
I also went to the Healthy Baby Boutique and picked up a super cute new Gro Baby diaper and some Rubbabu toys for Brighton. http://www.rubbabu.com/
You should check them out. They are cute, simple and very inexpensive. I'm definatly going back for more soon!
So the day is flying by already. B is down for his nap, but needs to get up soon so he sleeps tonight. I do have to go across town and get some fabric (free!) I got hooked up with on www.freecycle.org It's a great place to get rid of items you don't use and also to get something you may need. I'm thinking we are going to get rid of alot of stuff soon and it may not be worth the hassle of a yard sale. You should sign up for it!

home made cleaning products

So I recently made home made laundry soap and I love it! It workd really well! My cloths smell great and feel good too. I do have to run the cloth diapers through twice sometimes though but other wise I'm really satisfied. Sometimes I go around the house looking for clothes to wash just so I can use it.

So I'm going to try to make more home made cleaning products and let you know how they work. It kind of goes along with my new years resolution and blog resolution to live greener and on a budget. The laundry soap will definatly save us money!

I also made some cloth wipes last night and wipe solution. I haven'ts used them yet so I'll save that for the next blog.

I was thinking about cleaning with something besides like bleach or a commercial cleaning product and in my mind i think that they won't work as well, but i've done some research and we don't have to spend 3 dollars of spray bleach. I can use vinegar and lemon juice and it does the same thing. Disinfects and cleans. And it smells better than bleach and I don't have to worry if Brighton licks it. It may still be harm full if he drinks it, but not as harmful as bleach. And this coming from the girl who couldn't live with out clorox wipes. Maybe I could make clorox wipes like I do cloth baby wipes!

Hmm...i'm excited about this!

after bath time

It's after bath time because I didn't think 'bath time' pictures would be appropriate. I didn't want the nudity police after me.

So usually Brighton chucks his towel after bath time because he hates it! But today he wanted his towel back after he was dry. So I gave it to him and he paraded around the house in it like a cape. It made me feel good because I bought that towel for him. I guess I think everything I buy for him is specail because so much was given to my by wonderful friends. It was just so cute to watch him wrap himself up in is towel that mommy bought for him.

And I decided to put his super cute dr. suess diaper on him tonight. He wouldn't stay still enough to take good pictures, but I got a few. I love that diaper. I just wish I'd gotten a medium because the large is a little big.

So here are some pictures of after bath time, actually they are up top because I don't know why