Five on Friday

1.  I accomplished several pre-birth to dos this week, including some crafting

I made bloomers and 2 hairbows to match the dress I sewed earlier.  One hair clip is a polka dot bow and the other is ribbon shaped into a strawberry.

Matt hung Anna Reaghan's name letters above the crib

 

The flash kind of washed out the E and H in Reaghan, but I promise it's adorable in person! :)

And I made 2 important phone calls.  I confirmed with our pediatrician's office that Anna Reaghan can be added as a new patient.  Thankfully Asa's been so healthy, we haven't been to the office and our ped didn't know I was pregnant!  I wanted to give them a heads up. ;)  I also called the hospital to see if they prefer for patients to pre-register.  Not only was I able to pre-register over the phone (in FL, Matt & I both had to be present in person, answer a zillion questions, have photo ID and all sorts of things--this was obviously more stream-lined than that, so hopefully Matt's up for answering all those questions when I go in in labor and need to focus on slow, controlled breathing ;)), but the hospital also gives a 30% discount for pre-registering!  They ran our insurance through to give an estimate of what our responsibility for labor and delivery will be, and we got GREAT news!  Our doctor's fees meet our deductible!  Woo hoo!  We're free and clear from here on out for the rest of the year. :)  We have a small co-insurance for the hospital, but it's measly compared to Asa's birth (which was still a smaller amount than I thought it might be, and TINY compared to the portion insurance pays.... especially when you have room and board fees for a DAYS long induction).  This was very happy news to me.  We have a higher deductible here, so I don't know how it worked out that we pay less for the birth, but I'll take it!  And we have an HSA to cover the deductible/co-insurance we ARE responsible for.  I am praising God for the provision.  It was kind of scary to go into this with new insurance and hope we had interpreted and understood it all correctly.  YEA!

2.  I also received a call this morning that our new couch is in and ready for delivery!  As you might recall, when we ordered a new comfy reading chair for Asa's room, we browsed for a couch or love seat for the basement as well.  We found one we both liked, but it was on back-order.  It's in even earlier than they thought it would be!  The salesman said he though it would be mid-June before we'd get it.  Woo hoo!  Now we just need to decide if we want to hurry and get carpet ordered this weekend before we have the couch delivered (we have carpet picked out, we just need to purchase it).  Decisions, decisions. :)  I, for one, am very thankful we'll have a nice place to sit in the basement very, very soon.  Getting up and down is an increasingly cumbersome task as the weeks fly by. ;)

3.  Earlier this week I saw a listing on Craigslist for a now-discontinued Fisher-Price washer/dryer/laundry station.  My parents have one that all the grandkids love to play with.  The seller was asking only $5 and she lived less than 10 miles away!  I was so excited to receive an email reply that it was ours for the taking!  Asa is loving opening the washer compartment, putting things in the dryer compartment, and carrying the "in-ron" all around the living room.  I also think it's amusing and cute that whenever he puts something into the washer, he tells me he's "washing diapies."  Yup, we have a cloth diapered kiddo over here, all right. ;)  You see, our actual washing machine has a transparent window on top (it's an HE top loader), and he loooooves to sit on top of the washer while it fills and when it starts agitating.  He knows we wash his diapers about every other (sometimes every 3) days, so that's what gets washed most frequently and what he ASKS if we can wash several times/week. :)  The things he'd never know or say if we didn't use cloth! hehe

4.  Asa got some new shoes in the mail yesterday.  They are a brand that includes an optional squeaker.  I kind of feel like we're probably past the age of that being adorable out and about (the squeaker is supposed to encourage heel-to-toe walking as it's in the heel of the shoe), but he was HILARIOUS running around the house in them.  We had a pair back around Christmas that had squeakers, and he liked them but I'm not sure he tooooootally made the connection that he was in control of the squeak.  Does he EVER "get" it now!  He immediately starting bouncing up and down to make them squeak.  He'd start to walk and then run really fast to make them squeak more quickly.  I was cracking up and Mom could hear him squeaking all over the downstairs when we chatted on the phone.  The ones I ordered are for a few sizes from now, but I am certain he'll be thrilled when they come back out of the closet to wear all the time.  He couldn't stop grinning and giggling, and neither could I. :)

5.  We are sooo excited for a long weekend!  I can't say we have any big plans, but just knowing we have 3 days with Matt sounds WONDERFUL!  Tonight we're actually helping set up a fund-raising garage sale for a family at church.  The husband/father sustained a traumatic brain injury in a car accident about a year ago (visit supportjeff.com), and the garage sale is to help support the family.  It's part of a larger, huge neighborhood garage sale that I hope we can peruse tomorrow morning (it's over near the townhouse we rented).  Then Saturday afternoon Matt's helping finish and clean up the garage sale.  Sunday we'll have church.  Monday Matt has off.  The only thing I know for sure is that he'll be grilling us burgers :), and Asa and I will both LOVE having him home an extra day. :)

We hope YOU enjoy time with family this weekend and the sweet freedom that has been won for us... not only here in America, but in Christ!

One of THOSE Crazy Moms

Okay, well, *I* don't think it's crazy, but YOU may think it's crazy that we have switched Asa to cloth diapers full time during the day (we still use a disposable diaper at night).

What?!?  Where did this come from??  I have been intrigued by cloth diapers since before Asa was born.  My friend Holli was the first person I knew using cloth diapers, and she made it seem SO easy.  And to be honest, they were even cute (alright, so her ADORABLE daughter didn't hurt the cuteness factor).  I mentioned it to Matt when we were expecting Asa, and as much as I tried he was not to be convinced.  He was grossed out (he thought I'd throw a load of dirty diapers AND our clothes in the washer at the same time and never quite got that image out of his head) and there was NO changing his mind.  He said he'd be willing to reconsider if we had more children.

Enter:  pregnancy #2!  Ha!  I started gently mentioning to Matt I'd like to try some cloth diapers on Asa to see what I thought.  I had read a LOT about cloth diapering and determined what style I thought would work best for us.  The amazing thing is that cloth diapering these days has soooooo many options!  And even if you choose to use a prefold (think the style of cloth diaper often used for a burp cloth) and cover, you never need to touch a pin!  There are great inventions, and modern cloth has come such a very, very, very long way.  No rubber pants.  Seriously.  The diapers we are using on Asa look and go on JUST like a disposable.

After trying a couple different styles and determining that Asa is quite sensitive to some synthetic fibers (microfleece in particular) we have settled on mostly pocket diapers.  They are shaped just like a disposable diaper, but there is a flap in the back of them to a "pocket" into which you can stuff whatever type of absorbent insert you want.  From absorbent to most absorbent, the most common materials are microfiber, organic cotton and bamboo, and hemp.  You can customize 1 insert or 1 insert + a little extra booster, change the type of material you insert for play time diaper vs. naptime diaper if you have a baby who is a heavy wetter when sleeping, etc.  If you don't want any mess on your diapers, you can even use a fleece (or flushable) liner between the diaper and your baby's skin so any mess flips right off into the toilet (that is how we figured out Asa's skin does not like fleece).  In our case, because fleece and Asa do not agree--he got a bright red rash and broke out in welts everywhere the fleece liner touched him--I either use a flannel liner (not as great at shaking off messes, but still helps) or nothing.  And the "nothing" option isn't as bad as I thought.  Since switching to trying no liner, I am very thankful for the utility sink in our laundry room, and we plan to install a diaper sprayer at the new rental (you can buy one or make it a DIY project).  Serious--the diapers come out of the wash smelling like NOTHING, smelling CLEAN, and they are still white on the inside.

We also have a few all-in-one diapers, which means an absorbent insert is actually sewn into the diaper.  The ones we use have an insert sewn in AND have a pocket opening in the back if you want to use it overnight, etc. and want to add even more absorbency.  These are GREAT for people unfamiliar with cloth diapers and we'll be using them in Asa's diaper bag when he's in the church nursery (the nursery already welcomed us to change him over to cloth while he's there).

You might STILL think I'm crazy.  But we don't have leaking issues.  I might change diapers SLIGHTLY sooner than with disposables, but not more and 1-2 more diapers a day (IF I change more than I did with disposables, it's usually just 1 one).  And that "extra" diaper doesn't cost me ANYTHING more.  I even hang dry--and they dry QUICKLY--our pocket diapers (that's another advantage over all in ones.... pockets dry super quickly) and our microfiber inserts.  I do use the dryer for our all-in-ones for now (I might try drying them outside when it warms up) and our hemp inserts as they are suuuuuuch a thirsty material and take a long time to hang dry.  As for washing, I wash every 2-3 days using a cold rapid wash (you could try a cold rinse and spin, I haven't played around toooo much since my washing routine is working great... why mess with it if it's working?!) with no detergent followed by a hot wash/cold rinse with extra rinse using detergent.  You do have to be careful what kind of detergent you use with cloth diapers and how much you use--there are formulations specifically designed not to be high sudsing so your diapers don't develop detergent build up and can easily rinse clean.

It's really NOT that complicated.  It's really very simple.  And when your baby asks for his fire engine print diaper by making siren sounds whenever he sees it, it becomes extra irresistible. ;)  If you have cloth diaper questions, please ask!!!  If I can't answer it--because I will admit I'm newer to this than many mamas--I'll be happy to ask someone else for you or direct you to someone with more experience.

P.S.  Matt is coming around.  I think he still thinks I'm more crazy than sane when it comes to this, but he's becoming intrigued.  He's pleased to see how clean the diapers really get in the wash.  We're not changing clothes because of leaks (we didn't much with disposables either though).  He has requested we stick with disposables for Anna Reaghan, at least for awhile.  That is our compromise.  But I see him coming over to the cloth side..... hehe :)