A little addiction

I realized today that I have a slight cloth diaper addiction.  It was not until I took a picture of my diapers for this blog that I realized that I might have an addiction to cloth diapers.  I have recently made several purchases from Kelly's Closet. They are amazing!  They offer coupons weekly for free one-size diapers.  Which has helped feed my addiction and multiply my stash.  

Here are a few pictures of my recent purchases.

These two grovia AIO I received free with my purchase.

Grovia AIO newborn, 2 lil joeys AIO newborn, 2 Kissaluvs AIO newborn, 2 FuzziBunz Pocket newborn, 3 Bum Genius AIO newborn. 

6 Bum Genius One-size, 1 FuzziBunz pocket one-size(free diaper),  2 swaddlebee AIO newborn, 2 lil joey newborn AIO

Bum Genius is currently offering a deal that is available at Kelly's Closet.  If you buy 5 diapers you get one free.  Click here for the Bum Genius deal.  

So, after all of those purchases, here are pictures of my current stash.  

 Newborn diapers:

 3 bum genius, 2 fuzzibunz, 2 swaddlebees, 4 lil joeys, 1 grovia, 2 kissaluvs, 1 perfectbum, 1 happy flute, and 2 WAHM.  

One Size:

11 happy flute, 2 grovia, 1 coolababy, 4 Kawaii, 1 perfectbum, 20 sunbaby, 6 bum genius, 1 fuzzibunz.   Not pictured 2 happy flute.  

The happy flute diapers are a Chinese diaper that I ordered on e-bay.  They go for about $4 each.  They are awesome!   

I cannot wait for Baby girl to arrive and try out these newborn diapers!   

26 weeks!!

We made it to 26 weeks!  I had another appointment with the midwife today.  Weight and blood pressure both were great.  My uterus is measuring a bit larger (28 weeks) but I believe it is because of so many pregnancies (1 full term, 1-8 week, 1-16 week with twins, and my current).  Despite my growing size, my pre-pregnancy pants are too big and need a belt to keep them up.

Here is a belly picture from 24 weeks.  

Charlotte tends to like hanging out on my left side, so my belly is always lopsided.  

I have another appointment in two weeks and I will be doing the glucose test.  Yuck.  Stay tuned! 

Baby update

Sorry for my absence.  We took a trip to visit family in Maryland and Delaware.  It was great to get away and really good to see family and friends.  Before our trip I had my first midwife appointment, on the 20th.  Owen got to come with me.  It was the first time that he was able to hear the baby's heart beat.  The midwife even put the doppler on him so he could hear his.  Baby Charlotte's heart beat was 147 bpm.   So far so good.

I also was able to ask the midwife some questions about her practice and her labor/delivery practices.  I took a tour of the hospital that I will be delivering at and all of the nurses are trained in natural childbirth and will not push drugs or medical interception if there is not an absolute medical necessity.  Which is a huge relief.  My best friend will be acting as my doula for the birth and she is also going to attend the birthing classes since they are in the middle of the week and DH will be out of town.   The next thing I have been debating is whether or not to have a photographer at the birth.  A friend who did my wedding photography as well as some Christmas pictures volunteered to do the birth photography.  I do not know her super well and we are not very close.  Not sure how comfortable I feel about her being there through the birth.  However, I really really regret not having someone to take pictures of labor/delivery of Owen.  I am debating having a photographer there or just handing my best friend the camera, but if/when I need her support she wont be able to take pictures.  hmm...

Anyhow, my next check up is on the 17th.  Watch for a "bump" picture to follow soon.

Pregnancy update

Wow!  It has been almost a month since I have posted anything.  Over the past few weeks I have been struggling with the decision to stick with my regular Ob/Gyn, or see a midwife.  I knew one thing for sure, I did not want to give birth at the same hospital I previously did, but I hated to leave my regular doctor.  After doing tons of research and talking to tons of moms, I decided to make the switch.  I had an ultrasound and check up with the OB today and I told him I was going to see a midwife for the remainder of my care.  The wonderful doctor that he is, supported my decision.

I was nervous going into the ultrasound today because I have been having crazy pregnancy dreams that I was actually pregnant with a boy.  While doing the anatomy scan the tech made all the necessary measurements and said she is growing as she should and everything looks good.  She also checked for signs of and health complications or abnormalities and again, everything looks good.  Baby Charlotte looks as healthy as can be.  She also confirmed it is indeed a girl.  Which obviously the health is the most important thing, but I am so thrilled to be having a girl.

Here are some pictures from today's visit.

Also, I am exactly 20 weeks today.   Here is a comparison of what I look like today, and what I looked like at 20 weeks with DS.  

Change is a Constant

      There is a saying  "the only constant in life is change."  This holds so true especially in parenting.  From the moment I found out I was pregnant for the very first time six years ago my life has completely changed.  I also know that babies do not stay babies, toddlers grow up, and your once completely dependent child is now feeding himself, picking out and putting on his own clothes, washing dishes (or at least trying very hard to), and playing independently.  
   
     In the past month Owen's personality has changed more than I could imagine it would over a month's time.  Just last month he was having me swaddle him in his blankie and singing to him as I rocked him like a baby.   He loved to cuddle, all the time.  He would hold my hand when walking or going up the stairs.  He sat in my lap sometimes for meals and to play.  Lately however, I am lucky if I get a hug or if he blows me a kiss.  He tells me that he is my 'big helper' and he also does not ask for help with much anymore.  He LOVES to help me clean, do laundry as well as wash dishes.   I love my 'big helper,' but I also miss my little cuddle bug.

    WELL... This morning he woke up at 9:00 and grabbed my arm and snuggled in real close.  We layed in bed all snuggled for almost half an hour.  It was bliss!  I felt like I had my little baby back.  Do not get me wrong, I am not one of those people that say "I wish I could keep him this size forever"  I want to see him learn and grow and become his own person.  But, I absolutely adore those moments where he is all mine.  Where I am all his and nothing else matters.  

    I look forward to every day I have with him.  I am amazed every day by how much he has learned so far and how independent he is becoming.  Each moment is precious and I want to remember it all.  I also look forward to the day he gets to meet Charlotte (his new baby sister!) and shows what a great big brother he can be.  For now I am going to soak up every moment I have with only him.

   Hug your child/children, hold onto those special moments.  Life is so precious and it passes us by so quickly.

It's A.....

GIRL!!!!  

We are so excited that our baby is a girl!  We get to have one of each.  While it would be more convenient to have another boy, I cannot wait for the princesses, and baby dolls, and tea parties!

Now I can't wait to pick up some cute girl dresses.  One of my friend's is also going to help me re-do the nursery to make it more suitable for a girl.

Pregnancy Dreams

I have always heard that dreams when pregnant, are much more vivid.  I lived it when I was pregnant with Owen as well as the twins, and I have been with this pregnancy too.  Lately my dreams have been similar including my neighbors and trees.  I am not really sure what that might mean.  Last night I had a completely different type of dream.  It was so vivid and I remember so many details that it seems as if I really lived it.

So here are a couple of my dreams.  The dreams about the neighbors and trees I do not remember as many details and they did not seem to last very long.

I remember two very distinctively.  One dream there was a terrible thunderstorm with tons of strong winds.  Well, the wind and wet ground caused a huge tree in my neighbor's yard to knock out almost their entire house, all but their garage and room above the garage.  Since there was so much damage I invited them to live with me for a while until they were able to rebuild.
 Woke up right after that.  While we both have many trees in our yards I do not think there is a tree that would do near that much damage.  Lets hope we never find out.  ;)

Another dream I had was that a different neighbor (that not very many like) crashed his car through my fence and knocked over a tree, and then backed out and crashed through another part of my fence.  To top it off, he refused to fix it.
The parts of my fence that he crashed through are not connected to the road so I am not sure how it would have happened.  Again, weird pregnancy dream.


The cream of the crop so far though has to be the dream I had last night.  And it is really long.  I cannot believe all the minor details that I remember, although I do not describe them all.  But I remember scenery and smells and everything.  Here it is:

Utah had a pro football team (which they dont in real life) but one of the quarter backs died and he had a zoo type thing in his back yard with tons of guard lions and stuff. (the team mascot was a lion) I some how has at the house and he also had a huge aviary with macaws and a male and female pair of eclectus. Well one of the lion was coming after me so I climbed the bars of the aviary and stood on top of it and then somehow distracted the lions and jumped off the aviary and ran to an suv.  But it was locked so I jumped into a truck but in the bed of the truck was another lion. So I started up the truck and pressed the gas and then slammed the break to knock the lion out. And then I drove the truck for a while and saw a cop and since I stole the truck and knew about the dead football player I wanted to hide so I drove down a different road. I drove for a while and then drove back.  By time I got back there were tons of authorities and I explained why I stole the truck and my sister (that just had a baby last week) was there and she was pregnant and I didn't know how since she just had a baby. And then I asked the cops what was going to happen to all the birds and he said they were going to be killed, so I stole them all. I hid them in my dinning room and then built an addition onto my house to put them all in. And I had to try to convince Martin that since I got the eclectus (which is one of the only types of bird he likes) that I should be allowed to keep all of them.

Yeah. It was an extremely crazy dream. I am sure the football aspect of it is related to the fact that the Super Bowl was on yesterday. Not sure about all the rest of it or why there were birds.

So, if anyone wants to take a stab at what these dreams mean I would love to hear your ideas. Also, tomorrow I have a doctors appointment to follow up from my ER visit. I will post how it goes when I can.