Baby Shower!

Last weekend was Cora's baby shower, and it was a lot of fun!  I am still shocked by the number of people that were able to show up, and it made me realize how lucky I am to have such supportive friends and family.  I'd like to thank my mom, Brenna, Sarah, Casey, Emilie, Molly, Allison, Christy, and Mariah, who all did such an amazing job of decorating and planning for this party.  Jordan and I had such a wonderful time and we will never forget it!  We received a ton of things that we really needed (diapers, wipes, car seat base, bath supplies) and Cora got several cute new outfits and toys to play with. Here are some pictures to help sum up the big day!  I completely forgot to try and take any pictures, so all of these were taken from Facebook or are pictures that my Aunt Joyce took.  Thanks to everyone who has unknowingly contributed :)

Decorations

Party favors

Diaper game!  The key to winning is putting your nose all the way into the diaper and closing your eyes so you can really focus.

Kasey, Sarah, Heather, Sarah

The 35lb cake which was absolutely delicious

Hannah and Jordan playing the Mad Lib game

A picture that captures several of the beautifully wrapped gifts we received

Gift card from Jordan's mom and step-dad that  we used to purchase our glider!  

My mom... aka Grandma Poole.  

Hannah, Jordan, Casey, Brenna

One of my favorite gifts, a hand-knitted blanket, cardigan, booties and hedgehog from Allison!

All of my high school friends that were able to make it to the party minus Kaylan!  Sarah, Noelle, Heather, Brittni, Amanda, and Jordan! 

They are hard to see in this picture, but baby jeggings from Jenna!  Too cute!

Cute clothes from Mariah!  Jordan looks truly delighted in this picture.

Welcome banner that my mom had made :)

Yummy food! Thanks to everyone who helped contribute!

 I found out I was pregnant 2 days before I was supposed to leave for Christy's bachelorette party in Vegas so I wasn't able to go.  Now Cora has a Vegas t-shirt from Allison and stuff dog from Brenna to commemorate the trip :)

The wonderful hosts! Sarah, Molly, Emilie, and Casey

Brenna, Mariah, Allison, and Stephanie

Jenna, Mariah, Brenna, preggo, Stephanie, Allison, Christy

The "How big is Amy's belly?" game.  Obviously Brenna over-estimated my size.  My cousin Dianne won, but I couldn't find any pictures of her guessing.

Brenna and I with my "sand dollars".

Ladybug Boppy from Christy

A shot of the storage shelves and cubes that Emilie, Molly, and Casey got for me.   The storage has already come in really handy with all of our gifts and looks great in Cora's room!

The amazing gift basket from my Aunt Joyce and cousins, Kasey and Sarah.  This basket was stocked full of baby gear and supplies!

 Graco high chair that my grandma got for us :)

Overall it was a really fun day, and Jordan and I left talking about how blessed we are to be surrounded by so many people who love us.  We are truly grateful for everyone who came, and for everyone else who has taken the time to send us gifts and cards in the mail.

Work Shower!

 I went  the whole month of September without updating my blog (oops),  but our wonderful co-workers on the ISCU threw a really fun shower back in the middle of September for the three ISCU babies due in October and November.  We received a lot of cute gifts and a very generous Target gift card which has already gone towards diapers, bottles, and other necessities.   Here are a few of the pictures I managed to steal from Amanda!

Talking dog toy from Angela, we checked him for fleas per Amanda's advice :)

Group shot of the men

Group shot of the ladies with all the preggos in the middle :)

Julie, Kristen, and I 

Hosts/Planners:  Amanda, Shelley, Lindsay, and Shannon

Lindsay and Amanda

Will and Kristen (due 10/27), Jordan and I, and Julie and Reid, who just had their baby boy Isaac on 10/5!!

We can't wait for baby Cora to meet all of our friends, family and co-workers... only a month to go!!! Here are a few belly/nursery updates...

35 weeks.  Cora is about 5 1/2 pounds and 20 inches long.  She is already positioned head down and her favorite activity is kicking mom in the ribs.

Nursery is still in progress, but it's coming together.

My new favorite seat in the house.  Scooby is ready for a bedtime story.

My boys :)

Buying Diapers

One of the main things I have been contemplating since I got pregnant is cloth diapering.  After doing a lot of research, Jordan and I decided that we want to give it a try.  Most people I mention this to laugh in my face, and I can kind of see why.  Originally I thought cloth diapering would be really inconvenient and a lot of extra work.  But after doing some research, I am convinced that cloth diapering is not as hard as I thought, and that cloth diapers today are just as easy to work with as disposables.  So I have come here to share some of the cloth diapering wisdom I have gathered from research and blogs.

Cost Effectiveness:

I originally looked into cloth diapering because disposables are expensive.   A lot of websites have their own costs listed for what diapers cost, but I wanted something accurate and non-biased so I did the math for myself.  Babies go through several diapers a day, normally around 8-12.  Newborns often use more than this, as they normally get changed at least every 2 hours.  Say you are in the middle and use about 10 diapers a day.  At Target, a pack of 92 diapers costs $30.00.  For around 9 days worth of diapers, you are spending $30, and each diaper costs about 32 cents each.  This adds up to at least $90.00 a month, and that is not including wipes, diaper genie refills, and all the trash bags you use.  You can save some money buy buying in bulk quantities and hitting the store with coupons, but overall it is still very expensive.  Most websites that I have looked at estimate that people normally spend about $2000 on diapers by the time their kids are potty trained.  That is a LOT of money that is literally getting thrown away.  

On the other hand, you can buy cloth diapers when your baby is born, and use the same cloth diapers until they are potty trained.  And there are such a wide range of cloth diapers available, that you can really spend as little or as much money as you want to on them.  On average, most people spend between $150 and $300 down on cloth diapers, and then they are basically done. So far I think Jordan and I have spent around $200 on diapering supplies.  Our collection is not yet complete, but so far we have a bunch of soft washcloths to use for wipes, 6 GroVia diapers with shells, 4 extra inserts for the shells, and 6 Thirsties diaper shells.  We also now have two PixieFluff pocket diapers that my Aunt Lori gave us at the shower.  We still need to purchase some prefolds for the Thristies and possibly some more GroVias, but I think our grand total will be below $300.  Yes, some additional money does get spent on detergent and washing the diapers, but this water and electricity usage is pretty minimal.   I know we will probably use disposables some, mainly when Cora is a newborn and then when we travel, but I still think we will save a ton by trying to stick to a cloth diapering plan.

Other Reasons to Cloth Diaper
Saving money is not the only advantage to using cloth diapers.  Every website I have looked at says that cloth diapering is actually better for your baby's skin than using disposables.  Disposables are full of chemicals and other things to help wick away moisture, while cloth diapers use natural materials that wick away but still allow children to feel that they are wet.  This leads to more frequent diaper changes, which obviously helps to cut down on diaper rash and keeps kids from wearing a dirty diaper for an extended period of time.  Without all the added chemicals, cloth diapers also are a much more natural option to have against a babies skin, and allows their bottoms to breathe a little bit better.  We aren't allowed to use diapers on adults at the hospital because studies have shown that it causes increased skin breakdown.   Adults can go a while without realizing they need to be changed, and an hour or two of sitting in a soggy diaper is not good on the skin.  We use giant cloth pads on the beds because this is better for their skin and it is really easy to tell when they are wet or need to be changed.

Most moms that cloth diaper also claim that they have much less blowouts than they did with using disposables.  I don't know if this is because they get their babies changed faster or if the cloth diapers hold it in better, but I am all for having to only change a diaper instead of doing a bath and changing an entire poop-covered outfit.

This ability to easily tell when they need a diaper change also leads to kids potty training sooner.  Children that cloth diaper generally potty train quicker and easier than the ones that use disposables.  It makes sense, as I think I would be much more likely to use a toilet if I could easily feel a mess in my pants instead of having it sink down to the bottom of a disposable diaper.  

 What Happens to the Poop?        
A lot of people that I tell I am cloth diapering to immediately ask me what happens to the poop.  Well, breast milk poo is completely water soluble and technically does not even need to be rinsed before being thrown in the washing machine.  However, I will probably still rinse the poop diapers off with a sprayer that we have installed in the bathroom beside Cora's room.  When babies get older and start eating solids then you can shake a lot of the poop out and give it a quick rinse.  From there it can go to a wet bag, a diaper pail, or straight into the washer.  After cleaning up 100 to 400 pound adults at work for the past 4 years, it takes a lot to gross me out, and I don't think baby poo will be an issue with either me or Jordan.  Our  diapers can be washed and dried, and they don't need to be folded or hung up, just thrown back in the diaper drawer when they come out.

Cloth Diaper Resources:
There are a TON of online resources to cloth diapering, so if cloth diapering intrigues you or you still have more questions, here are a few links from websites/blogs.  There are several different types of cloth diapers available, and these websites are a great way to learn about all the options.

http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/
http://www.diaperpin.com/clothdiapers/cloth_diapering.asp
http://www.clothdiaperblog.com/
http://www.diaperjunction.com/

 Fuzzibunz and Bumgenius are probably the most popular cloth diapers, but after a lot of online research and playing with the options at the store Jordan and I opted for GroVias as our main system.  Finding somewhere that actually stocks cloth diapers was hard to do, but the Doula that taught our birthing class told us that the Women's Wellness Center in Chapel Hill sells them.  And man, that place is awesome!  It is a birthing center run by midwives (the largest in the state), and they also have a baby boutique that sells a lot of hard to find and natural/organic supplies.  We were actually able to see the different types of diapers and feel the material they were made out of.  They also had a knowledgeable staff, which is not something you will find at Babies R Us or Target (they know nothing about cloth diapering and don't stock any in-store other than Gerber pre-folds which make much better burp/cleaning cloths than they do diapers).  We also got some Thirsties, which have great reviews and are slightly cheaper than some of the other cloth diaper options.

Links to GroVia and Thirsties websites:

http://www.thirstiesbaby.com/

http://gro-via.com/

Women's Wellness Center:  http://www.ncbirthcenter.com/

Our Cloth Diaper Purchases:

The GroVia Collection

They velcro shut at the top, so taking it on and off is just like a disposable.  The white buttons are how you can adjust the size of the diaper, so that the diaper can grow with your baby.  This diaper is completely unsnapped, so it is as large as it goes.

Snapped to the smallest fit, for newborns and small babies :)

The diaper taken apart.  The shell and the insert.  We ended up picking these over pocket diapers because the insert to GroVias snaps into place.  If the shell doesn't get dirty, then you can just unsnap the insert and snap a fresh one in it's place. With pocket diapers, you normally have to wash the diaper and the insert every time.  Not really a big deal, but we figure we might as well cut down on laundry where we can. Plus, snapping the inserts is quicker than tucking.  

The snaps

Snapped into place and ready for action

The Thirsties covers are the ones to the left in the photo, and the one to the right is one of the ones my Aunt Lori got us at the shower.  She got two really cute ones that are PixieFluff brand.  They also adjust sizes to grow with your baby and are super soft, I can't wait to try them out!

The inside of the PixieFluff diaper.  These diapers are pocket diapers, which means there is an insert that you tuck into a pocket in the diaper that absorbs and wicks moisture away from the baby.  In this picture I have the insert pulled halfway out so you can see where it tucks in.  Most Fuzzibunz and Bumgenius diapers are pocket style like this.

Bunny demonstrating the excellent fit and cuteness.   How could you not want to use cloth diapers?

Beginning of the Third Trimester!

I am now in my third trimester and  I only have about 10 weeks until the baby is due!  That is incredibly hard to believe since it feels like only yesterday I found out I was pregnant.  While the time has flown, I think that Jordan and I are pretty well prepared.  We started out with a giant to-do list and at this point we have managed to take care of most of our important tasks.

Finding Daycare: 

Finding daycare was the number one thing on our to-do list.  Our daycare search started about two months ago.  I am sure finding daycare is challenging for anyone, but finding daycare when you are both nurses is really difficult.  First of all, the hours we would need are 6:00 am until 8:30 pm.  After calling around, we soon found out that no major day cares will accommodate those hours, majority of them run from 8 to 5, with a few that will extend hours until 6.  We could try having a sitter who dropped her off at daycare and picked her up, but that would be really expensive, so would a full time nanny.  We also don't have set schedule and could need childcare anywhere from 1-3 days a week depending what days we both work, so finding someone who'd be willing to work with that was also a challenge.  We ended up calling Childcare Services Association of Orange County and asking them for advice.  They recommended in-home daycare, which is a lot more flexible than standard daycare but they still have to meet all the state licensing requirements.  They are rated on a 5 star scale, and you can look up to see if they have ever had any claims or complaints filed against them.  We got a list of local home day cares sent to us and began setting up interviews.  After interviewing at several of them (and driving by two which I refused to interview at based on the house/neighborhood) we finally found one that we liked.  It is in a nice neighborhood right next to ours, and the lady has converted her entire basement into a little daycare.  It is very organized, clean, and all the kids there seemed really happy.  She has a lot of experience and all of her references had wonderful things to say.  We were lucky that she actually had an opening, and Jordan and I are both relieved to finally have found someone we both feel comfortable with.

Nursery Updates:

We now have all of the major furniture for the nursery in place except for the glider.  Since we used my old furniture as a dresser, changing table, and night stand, we were lucky in that the only big thing we really needed was a crib, and my parents were nice enough to purchase a crib for us as an early shower present.  I am also starting to think that we will definitely need a bookshelf and a library card, because Jordan and I seem to buy books everywhere we go.

Our crib!  It is a Graco Covertible Crib, so when Cora gets bigger we can turn it into a toddler bed.

The letters that I ordered from Etsy, which are currently being shipped to us.  I can't wait to see them in person, it looks like they turned out great!

Jordan and I were also very excited to receive another early shower gift in the mail, our travel system!  Jordan's dad and step-mom had it shipped to us, and I literally squealed in delight when I opened the door and saw it sitting there.  We tested a lot of them out at the store, and then I did some online research, and we ended up picking out the Chicco Cortina Keyfit 30 Travel System.  For those of you who have never heard of a travel system, it is basically buying the car seat base, car seat, and stroller together.  The car seat can snap out of the base and right into the stroller so that you never have to lift the baby out or lug around a heavy carrier.  The car seat is rated #1 in safety, and the stroller is easy to use and light.   Scooby is terrified of it, so hopefully we can get him used to walking beside it before the baby comes.

The color is called "Adventure", which is basically green.  I thought it'd be nice to have a neutral color that Jordan wouldn't be embarrassed to push around.

On a completely unrelated note, Jordan and I recently had our anniversary and he surprised me with roses and dinner at Maggiano's.  It is unfortunate that  I am currently experiencing an aversion to pasta and threw up everything I ate that night.  I may never eat pasta again, but it was still a fun night.

Baby Updates:
This week I will be 30 weeks pregnant.  This means that Cora is about 17 inches long and around 3lbs.  She still a few inches to grow and quite a few pounds to put on.  I can feel myself getting bigger by the day, so I am trying to take more pictures.  Enjoy!

Just incase anyone was wondering what 17 inches long looks like.  At this point she can give me some pretty strong kicks and punches.

And from the side

Belly shot.  According to What to Expect, my uterus is now the size of a basketball... I believe it.

Emilie and Casey came to visit me last week!  Thank you guys for coming, and also making me realize how unnaturally pale I am right now.

Best parents ever.

Laziest dog ever.

Jordan and I have a few more days of work and then we will be hitting up Charleston, South Carolina for our 4-day babymoon!  I can't wait and I will be sure to take a lot of pictures :)

Home Improvement

So it has been a while since my last post and I have been very busy.  Well, I guess I haven't actually been that busy, but it feels like I have.  Ever since we found out we were pregnant Jordan and I have been in the constant process of prepping the house for baby and fixing all of the things that we probably won't have the time or money to fix after she comes.  At the beginning of the summer we planted a lot of flowers in the front yard, and pulled up some really ugly shrubs in the backyard and planted a garden there.  The garden has actually turned out better than I expected, and we had squash, beans, tomatoes, and watermelon grow in it.  

Squash is to the left, beans, tomatoes, watermelon.

We also fenced in the backyard and installed a doggy door so that Scooby would be able to go in and out on days we both had work.  However, we underestimated his jumping abilities, and it turns out he is able to jump over the 5 foot fence.  He doesn't do it when we are at home, but he has really bad separation anxiety and when we leave he wants to find us.  One day he jumped out when we were both at work and I was scared he would run away, but when we got home he was laying by the front door and there were paw prints on my car from where he had jumped up to peep in the windows.  Jordan's parents were nice enough to send us an electric fence this past week, so we plan to line our fence with that and hopefully he will learn not to jump.  Other than that, the fence has been wonderful.  It makes the yard look so much bigger, and it will be nice to have a fenced in yard when Cora is old enough to play in it.

The fence

The escape artist

We have also done a lot of work to the inside of the house.  The biggest and our favorite new feature is definitely our floors.  The house had carpet flooring that was about 8 years old, so it was time for some upgrading.  We had the carpet ripped up in the living room along with the laminate in the kitchen and installed some hardwoods, which have been WONDERFUL.  They are easy to keep clean, durable, spill proof, and they look great.  We also had the carpet in all the bedrooms replaced.  The new carpet is mostly tan, but it is the multicolored carpet that has the little dots of different colors in it so that it hides dirt really well.  The last big living room/kitchen purchase was a new kitchen table.  The old one was smaller and had a glass top, so we opted for a more durable wooden one that is still relatively small, but it has a self-storing leaf so that we can pull it out to seat 6-8 people if needed.

Hardwoods in the kitchen

New kitchen table

Living Room with the new floors and rug

Jordan also recently replaced the bathroom sink faucets and shower heads.  I was skeptical of his plumbing capabilities but he watched "how to" youtube videos and managed to do it all by himself.

And last but not least, we got new bedroom furniture!  All of my bedroom furniture went into the baby's room, and all Jordan had was a tiny little dresser and night stand, so there was no room to store stuff in the master bedroom.  We got a new headboard/footboard, dresser, chest of drawers, and two night stands.  It looks great and I was really excited to get my clothes out of the baby's room and have a place to put them in our room.

New bed!  It is really nice to finally have a headboard and two night stands.  You can also see the carpet that is now in all three bedrooms.

Chest of drawers... along with the most amazing fan I have ever purchased.  It cools the air as it blows it and I keep it pointed straight at me while I sleep.

Dresser... and a lot of extra storage space 

Our recent purchases have also taught me that Jordan can pretty much sell anything on Craigslist.  He posted a bunch of things we needed to get rid of... a table, rug, dresser, night stand, a weight bench, and a bookshelf and sold all of it for about the same price he paid for all of it, if not more.  He sold the bookshelf for $50 when he only paid $10 for it at a garage sell, which was pretty impressive.

Hopefully I will get around to posting another pregnancy blog later this week.  I am in the third trimester now... bigger and better than ever :)

Shopping Has Never Been So Fun

Shopping for a baby is SO MUCH FUN.   I will be forever grateful for baby shopping because it has led me to my greatest discovery in recent years:  consignment stores.  Obviously I knew about consignment stores before getting pregnant, but I didn't realize how awesome they were until I started shopping there for baby items.    You can find some amazing deals on just about anything you need for baby, and load up on stuff without spending a lot of money.  My best find thus far has been a Synergy Mesh Baby Bjorn, which retails at Babies R Us for $179.00.  My mom and I picked one up for $30.00.  I was really excited about finding this, because Jordan has been talking about wanting a Baby Bjorn since I first got pregnant.

Jordan testing out the Baby Bjorn

Other supplies we have gotten through consignment stores include a Bobby/playmat, a bathtub, baby books, nursing apron, and a LOT of clothes, gloves, socks, hats, jackets and such.  My mom got a pack-n-play and a travel system for her house at a consignment sale, they are both in GREAT condition and were awesome deals.  She also had a friend at work sell us a really nice baby swing and baby seat for $50.

Our living room after arriving home from a consignment sale at the fairgrounds, this was only some of the stuff.

My favorite thing to shop for at consignment stores are clothes.  A lot of the clothes, especially newborn stuff, still have the tags on because kids don't even get the chance to wear them before they grow out of them.  We got Cora the cutest christmas dress for $2.00, and several other cute outfits for $2.00-$4.00.  Between the things we have picked up consignment shopping, and the cute outfits that we have gotten as gifts from friends and family, we already have a nice little collection of clothes started.  After previewing some of my mom's baby shower purchases I think that Cora is not only going to be beautiful, but also a very well dressed baby.

Fur trimmed dress that I purchased for $4.00

Scottie dogs, $4.00

Cora's First Christmas Dress, $2.00

While I love consignment stores, the fact that we live about 5 minutes away from Southpoint, which entails Target, Old Navy, Babies R Us, Nordstrom and numerous other stores means that I visit them frequently.  I had been pretty reasonable with all my expenses until I walked into Pottery Barn Kids.  After shopping around at Target and Babies R Us, I still hadn't found any bedding that I was crazy about.  This led me to online shopping at Pottery Barn Kids, where I found bedding that I LOVED.  I decided that I would go there, purchase the bedding, and immediately leave the store so that I didn't get tempted to buy other things.  That place is like heaven on earth, and despite the ridiculous prices, everything is set up in such an adorable way that you think it might actually be worth the money.  Thank goodness Jordan was with me the first time I went in, because kept me from grabbing up everything I saw. The first time we went in we just bought the quilt for the bedding, and a giant pink stuff rabbit that is incredibly soft.  Recently I went back and purchased the rest of the set, and now we have all of our bedding.  It is the Hayley theme and it is precious.  I found a designer on Etsy that makes these custom letters to hang on the wall, and she is designing them based on the  bedding, so I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Samples of previous letters done to coordinate with Hayley bedding from the Etsy shop I ordered from (so cute!)

Pictures of the nursery bedding, taken from the Pottery Barn website

The nursery has been a work in progress, and we finally have the room cleaned out so we can start organzing all of our baby stuff.  Some of my favorite decorations we have for the nursery so far are a picture and a pillow that we picked up in Wisconsin, they are both so cute and sweet that they make me want to cry.

So cute

"I love you to the moon and back" pillow that is similar to the picture.  Also pictured are a changing pad,  cover, and sweet dolly that my grandma bought for Cora :)

Jordan wanted to get me something that I really wanted for my birthday last month, and that ended up being a diaper bag.  Well, originally it was a new purse, then I remembered I am having a baby and decided a diaper bag would be more suitable to my needs.  After a couple weeks of looking around, I found two that I couldn't decide between, and Jordan surprised me by getting both.   One of them is a Petunia Pickle Bottom bag and the other is made by Storksak.  They look nothing alike, which is nice, and I know I will get a lot of use out of both of them.

The Petunia Pickle Bottom bag

The best feature of the bag... it converts into a backpack!

And the Storksak bag, which is really cute and looks more like a purse than a diaper bag

Jordan's birthday is coming up at the end of August.  He will be 30, so I have been trying to think of a memorable present for him.  When I asked him what he wanted, he told me he wanted new pots and pans to cook with.  I doubt many people know this, but Jordan is an amazing cook, and he does most of the cooking in our house.  I am trying to learn how to be a better cook, but I would probably eat the same 3 meals over and over if I didn't have him to show me how to make new things.  Anyways, the point is that getting him a new set of cookware is basically like getting a present for myself, because I love to eat the food that he cooks.  I went ahead and bought him a set and gave it to him, and I am still on the prowl for the perfect birthday gift. 

Jordan beaming over his new set of pots and pans. (Not sure why this picture came out kind of fuzzy)

Scooby wearing some ribbon from Jordan's box

 Last but not least, a weekly belly shot...

26 weeks, baby is 2 pounds and 14 inches long.  She can now hear, see and swallow... guess I better start reading out loud!