Things left to get and wishlist! :)

We are so close to having our little one with us! Lately we've (more like Eric) been painting the trim and the closet in the baby room. We decided to keep the walls the green color they were and to just add a dark brown trim color. It looks great so far! We just have a few touch ups and then we can start setting up furniture and making it more welcoming for our little one.

After talking with several friends, we've decided to continue on in our path to cloth diapering. So soon we'll be buying some prefolds (cloth diapers) to use in our gdiaper covers. We've also decided to do cloth wipes as well to help save costs over the long haul. We weren't sure about it at first, but after researching it a bit, we've found it's easy, economical and actually cloth wipes work better and use less than the other wipes. Soon we'll be buying cloth wipes and a wipe warmer to help keep them wet and ready to use. Luckily we have some money on a Target gift card left to be able to pay for those things.

This leaves us to our wish list of things left to get. I'll probably be updating this as we go, but here are the items so far:

1. Fisher Price Newborn to Toddler Rocker

2. Ergo baby carrier

3. Travel Crib (either Graco or Chicco) with a bassinet and changer

4. Jumper (something like this)

5. Night and Day Bottle Wamer

6. Thirsties Duo Wrap Diaper covers

There are more things...but those are the "extras" for right now we are working on getting over time. :) I'll update it more as we go!

Blessings,

Kristine

Blurred Vision...

I thought I'd chronicle as best I can different things that happen to me during this pregnancy cause I find it's useful to look at later when talking with the doctor since my memory is not that awesome. (How's that for a long sentence)

Throughout this pregnancy I've had issues with my eyesight. Sometimes my eyes would get dry and cause it to be difficult to wear contacts. I think the whole first trimester was like that. I can deal with wearing glasses. Although sometimes my eyes would get dry even with glasses or super watery and cause it to be difficult to focus or make it scary to drive! (That's happened twice during this pregnancy while I've been driving)

Well at 33 weeks and 4 days pregnant (Today) I found that reading small print is difficult. Like what I am typing right now....it's like my vision correction is slightly off. I can look around the house at things of for the most part it's fine, but when I try to read what I type it's slightly blurry or when I try to read smaller letters at a distance it's difficult too.

I called into the doctor and left a message. I should hear back later on tonight or tomorrow about it. I am hoping I can get some advice on what I can do. Maybe it'll go away tomorrow but I am unsure. It's really annoying to try to read things and have it be slightly off. I think it's more when I have to focus on something it's slightly out of focus. Cause I can look at furniture and it's fine.

So if you could keep this in your prayers that it's just normal pregnancy stuff that would be awesome! I was also EXHAUSTED this morning and basically had to take a nap not soon after I woke up. Even so, I am still not 100 percent.

Bathroom DEALS! :)

So we went looking at bathroom remodeling stuff for fun. Whilst strolling through Lowes we saw some bath vanities on clearance for ridiculous prices that weren't damaged! So we got two bath vanities, both worth close to $350 EACH. We got one for $75 and one for $85! It was something we planned on getting to remodel the bathrooms, so we couldn't pass it up! I am excited as they are both undamaged and great! These don't include the sinks or faucets, but they are still good deals!

Here are some pictures from the box, so they aren't great. Keep in mind we got the bottom parts, NOT the sink and faucet stuff. So look only at the bottom wood parts of these photos:

Sorry I took this photo from an angle. I think this one was $85...

Again...just look at the wood part! This one was $70. :)

Diapering :)

What are you doing for diapering?
One of the most frequent questions I've been getting these days is, "What are you doing for diapering?" Everyone seems to have their own methods, some that work, some that don't. It's been a big deal for Eric and I to figure out honestly. I thought maybe I'd be a person that was all for disposables, but the more I thought about it and the more Eric has been thinking about it, cloth seems to be a great option for us! :)

Bella Stella and Cloth Diaper Deals...

Upon researching for hours upon hours, talking with various people, we decided the first two weeks will probably be hectic and we'll go with disposable diapers most likely for those weeks. Now brings us to what cloth diapers we want to use after that. Originally we were just going to buy some Thirsties diapers and do prefolds inside of them. However, we went to a small store in Portland called Bella Stella. They've always been super friendly with us. This time they have five gdiapers and disposable liners in their used cloth diaper section for $5 each. These diapers are normally either $16-18! Eric seemed to really like them, so we got them (one size small and three medium). They also had two packages of the small liners. One for $8 each and one for $5 each.

Changing Plans...

This, in a sense, dramatically changed our plans on diapering. I wanted something Eric was on board with even though I am the one who'll most likely do most of the changing when he's at work or doing airplane stuff. So I began to look for other g diaper deals and found a great deal on craigslist for six small gdiapers for $45! Like I said before, these diapers are usually $16-18 each. We got them and the guy included the swish stick and a holder for the stick as well as extra liners! It was a fabulous deal. So what are gdiapers?

G Diapers and Liners explained (well as best as I can!)

Gdiapers are the perfect combo of cloth and disposable. You can go online to http://www.gdiapers.com/ to find out more information, but I'll give you a quick summary. These are cloth covers with snap in plastic liners that velcro shut. There are a couple of ways that you can diaper the baby after the basic cover. There are two types of liners you can use.

1. They have another liner that's disposable that goes inside the plastic liner. This liner is actually flushable and compost-able. After the baby uses it, you can rip it open put it in the toilet, swish it around and then flush it! If it's just wet and you have a compost bin, you can put it inside that. Or... you can just throw it away and not feel bad about it because it breaks down tons faster than the disposable diapers. Depending on how much the baby went, you just wipe out the snap in liner, and place a new disposable insert inside. This option is great when you are on the go and want to use a disposable diaper.

2. Instead of the disposable insert, you can put a cloth insert into the diaper. There are many options for this including using a prefold diaper and just folding it in thirds and placing it inside. Then when the baby soils the insert, you put it into your hamper, wipe out the snap in liner and place a new prefold in there for the baby to use. This is the option I will most likely use when I am at home. That way I don't have to deal with soiled diapers on the road.

The gdiapers and snug fitting and fit more easily under clothes than the other diapering options. As you can see below, they look nice when they are all complete. (Keep in mind these are used) you velcro towards the sides/back and the little g is on the back of the diaper. So cute! So because we got a deal, we are going to give these a go. If they don't work out, we'll just sell them! We will use these most when the baby is little, when the baby is bigger....

When the baby is bigger we'll use...

We plan on still using the thirsties duo wraps in a combination with prefolds. This seems like the best option all around for when the baby is a little bigger than 18lbs. This diaper cover has two different sizes so you only need around 7-10 of them total. We'll buy several prefold cotton diapers to use inside of them so we only need to wash once or twice a week. We will wait to see how well the gdiapers work for 7-18lbs before buying the thirsties covers for that size. We maybe just use them for the bigger sizes. :)

What about long trips or well dealing with the poo!?!?!?

When we are on the go for several hours at a time, we'll most likely still use disposables since we've been told they hold up a little better than the gdiapers. We'll see though! It's all trial and error at this point. But Eric is on board with cloth diapering so I am super excited. Some of you may think ewww....what about the poo?!?!!? Well..there's a secret. You just place part of a viva paper towel inside the cloth diaper and it catches the poo when it's more solid! Then you just throw the liner in the trash or toilet (depending on how much paper towel you used) and then you have just a wet diaper to deal with! It's genius. Seriously.

Anemic? Dang... :)

So I met with my doctor today. She's back from her fabulous three week vacation with her family. She was great and answered a lot of my questions. She asked me if I knew I was a little anemic. I said, "No... what does that mean for me?" She says that I need to eat more red meat and potentially go on an iron supplement. I can't remember how big a supplement she mentioned, so I'll call her later to figure that one out.

But this would explain some of my cravings for red meat lately and my feeling of extreme tiredness and weakness! I'll try eating some red meat and see how that helps me.

On the upside, the baby is moving around often enough so that's exciting. I love feeling my baby move inside me. Yes, it's creepy but cool at the same time. At nights I've been sore and in pain, maybe adding more pillows might help but I think this is all just what happens in pregnancy. :( We so look forward to meeting this little one! It's exciting in a way not knowing if it's a boy or girl for sure. At first I was annoyed, but really I am happy. It'll be fun to find out when the baby comes.

Well that's it for now! Blessings!

Kristine

Great Deals today!

Well today was a day of great deals. My hubby and I walked down the street to a yard sale and we got a sweet cutting board with a drain thing on the end for $2.00. It was a great deal!

This morning I decided to check out what gliders were on the Craigslist. I saw several. Most had the weird green design with the dots in it...you've probably seen it if you've ever searched for gliders on craigslist. The price range for those were typically $30-$80 or more depending. I e-mailed a few people and then I saw a listing for a glider and ottoman for $20. Only there was no picture. I e-mailed the person to see if they still had it for sale and they did. We e-mailed back and forth and Eric and I decided to go up there and look at it in Portland. Well I am glad we did! When we got there and looked at it, I was thrilled. It's comfortable and comes with an ottoman. It's tan as well. Here's a picture of it:

As you can see it's pretty nice for $20! It's SUPER comfortable too! I am so happy that we got it! After we got done with that we went to a store called Bella Stella in Portland. It's a great store that sells used stuff. We went there and looked at their cloth diapers to see what they had. Well we found some g diapers that were $5 each! They normally are $16! They also had two bags of g diaper refills (the disposable/flushable/compostible inserts for the diapers). One bag had 40 refills and that was $8 (normally $15) and an open one that looked pretty full for $5. So we bought three Medium diapers and one small diaper, the best ones out of the bunch and bought the small refills. A great deal! After we went to another consignment store and looked at cloth diapers and we bought a Moby wrap at regular price! Here's a picture of the loot:

After we got the stuff we went and got some stuff for Eric, we went to Woodburn so I could look at Sundresses. Unfortunately I didn't find what I needed there...so we went to the dreaded Salem Center location. At least this time I had Eric with me!

We walked into Motherhood Maternity and low and behold...the same crazy employee was there! She is the pushy one that basically talked with me the WHOLE time I was there last time and tried to sell me EVERYTHING in the store. This time Eric was there.. to my surprise and kinda shock she said, "Welcome back Kristine". I maybe said my name to her once... so that was kinda creepy. She went on to try to sell me a few things, but luckily there were others there for her to prey upon. :) I tried on a few dresses and found a couple that worked. I was glad to have Eric there to give me his opinion and to fend off the lady. However, she still tried to give him stuff to have me try on. We laughed about that.. when I got out she again tried to sell me some bras, but I declined again.

All in all it was a great day for deals! :) Ending the night watching a movie with my hubby with my feet up. :)

No Gestational Diabetes!!!

I got a call from the doctor's office today and they said my levels looked good and that I didn't have Gestational Diabetes. They still want me to watch my diet, but yay no Gestational Diabetes! It means that I don't have to test my blood sugar every day and worry a lot about a huge baby as long as I watch my sugar intake, which I do anyways. So...Praise God! The test was worth it. :)