Disposable vs. Cloth

I hate to be a tease, but I am going to do so! I have a spreadsheet that compares the costs of cloth diapering vs. disposable. I'm not going to tell you the results (mostly because I've not finalized my input). There are already a lot of online ones out there I'd recommend checking out (but for me, half the fun is playing in the spreadsheet). Also, I'd like to thank Krislyn and Brad for the spreadsheet set up and info on their cloth diapering experience! Knowing that I want to reduce the quantity of diapers in landfills is my major choice for diapering method, finding out the cost simply adds entertainment value.

After all that rambling, I did however want to share a website I thought was helpful in calculating cost of washing/drying of cloth diapers. [Again with thanks to Brad and Kris]

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/laundry.html

The site actually has a host of helpful information that I just didn't explore in entirety. I suggest checking it out if you need any data for your own spreadsheets!

2 Points

Well, I'm home and doing fine for anyone that is following along and heard I was in the hospital. For those of you that didn't know, and even those that did, here is the story...

My weekly doctor's appointment was made for 3:45 pm Friday afternoon with a quick follow up of a regularly scheduled NST at Anderson at 4:30 pm.

My driver (also known as Chris the husband) drove me to the first appointment and patiently waited with me. Finally at 4:15,I walked to the window to tell them I needed to skip the doctor's visit, skip the NST, or come up with another idea. The staff decided to do the NST in the office while I waited for the midwife to be ready to see me. Finally some where around 5:00 (I lost track of time being annoyed about the lack of ability to run an efficient office), the midwife finally saw me.

When my blood pressure was checked it was something like 130/92. My cutoff for acceptable blood pressure is 140/90. You can obviously see that I was 2 points over the diastolic which is allowable. Despite the fact I had just done an NST, the midwife sent me to the hospital for another (as well as another 24 hour urine test). Needless to say, my anger was above that which should be allowable during pregnancy.

Now I know there are those of you that say 'better safe than sorry', and typically I would agree. I prefer to be conservative. However, I also don't believe in testing someone UNTIL you find something wrong. If the tests you did within the two weeks before were fine (at least 5 different tests), and all of the NST's that had been done (even as of 5 minutes before seeing the midwife) were fine...maybe take a moment to recheck my blood pressure. Maybe take time to notice the pattern of high BP at the office and low BP everywhere else. Maybe listen to the patient.

Now, if you know me at all, you know I don't handle stress well. It makes me angry and depressed, both equally raising my BP. I was so upset with the situation I couldn't get words out of my mouth, my BP was EXTREMELY high (and it wouldn't have been if I they simply let me be on my way), and then of course there was the blessing in disguise...I got to yell at one of the midwives. Yell at her I did! I felt a lot better after that. It got me admitted to the hospital for a lovely overnight stay, and it did get to allow me to prove to the doctor/midwife that I was in fact NOT lying about high BP at the office, low BP everywhere else.

Chris was with me for the evening and morning, and my mom came to sit with me over night. I was only there for observation, and thus far, all tests performed have come back fine. I have yet to finish my 24 hour urine, the final flaming hoop to jump through before my follow up visit with the midwife on Monday or Tuesday. For the record I am on MODIFIED bed rest at 35 weeks. There is no indication that I am having contractions, that I have effaced, or that I am dilated. The baby is good. I am still pissy.

Greatest part of the story, getting to come home and snuggle with my dogs. It's always a welcome reunion coming home to dogs that had to miss an overnight snuggle session with mom!

[post script] - Many of you have commented to Chris with well wishes and suggestions. I appreciate these very much. With that said, please don't be upset if I didn't respond to you personally, or if I allow myself to take all instructional suggestions with as much/little approval as possible. While I am not a doctor, I know my body better than any doctor, I know when my BP is high because I'm stressed vs. when I feel ill. I rest when I can, which is most of the time these days, and I do what I need to do otherwise. If/when I overdo it, I know it and I take a break, I lay down, or I call the doctor/nurses with my concerns. I'm not out there willy-nilly being non-compliant because I want to be a bitch of a patient, I do what I need to do to get by one day at a time. We each have our method of coping, and those are often very different. But, again, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to care and offer suggestions for when I'm ready to listen.

Diary Notes, Having a Bladder

It was a marvelous day in terms of comfort. I did have a lot of discomfort which is to be expected at this point, but what was really great is that the kid was not directly on my bladder today which means the bladder held more than normal. I wasn't in the bathroom every 30 minutes and I didn't have that irritating urgency to urinate with every squiggle and bounce!

Busy But Still Here...

I've been really busy. There's work, baby classes, non-stress tests, doctor's appointments, and just general things that need to be done. It's actually good I'm swamped because it makes this last stretch, the really uncomfortable stretch, go by quickly.

To update you on my well being, I'm good. I've had a few high blood pressures, coincidentally only at the doctor's office or hospital. All of my blood work has come back good, my urinalysis indicates the protein in my urine is elevated (but not yet at a level considered "high" and therefore indicating pre-eclampsia). I have weekly doctor's appointments along with non-stress tests (NST's) three times a week. I also continue my regular routine. Thus far, everything indicates baby is well and doing what he/she should.

With that said, I want to show you the nursery. It has been generoulsy filled with many of the wonderful gifts I recieved from wonderful family and friends at the baby shower. Sadly, I'm not quite able to show everything, there is just so much and some of it isn't out for use yet. Anyway, this is some of what we got...

Travel...
Storage and items...
Sleepy Time...
Decoration...
Stay tuned so I can update you on other stuff as I get time!!

Don't forget to sign up for the Baby Poll if you haven't already...time is running out!

Baby Heartbeat

It's been a while since I blogged about baby stuff. A lot has happened! Last Saturday my friends threw me an amazing baby shower. Since then Chris and I have assembled all of the baby gear we got and set up the nursery and ordered the changing table. Pictures are to come.

I had two baby classes since then (one for preparing for child birth and the other for caring for the baby directly after birth).

Today I had a doctor's appointment where I took a one hour glucose test that will result in me having to take a three hour glucose test. I also did a non-stress test for the baby where I was able to record the heartbeat [ignore all the ruckus in the beginning].





I'm now at the point of my pregnancy that I visit the doctor's office once a week and I have a non-stress test done three times a week. Fun times!

Interesting tidbits from today...Chris asked the baby to kick for him if it was a girl...nothing. He then asked the baby if that meant it was a boy and the baby kicked! Then when I was doing the NST, the baby's heartbeat wasn't peaking the way that it should (to indicate good movement) so Chris rubbed my stomach and the heartbeat jumped!

Anyway, on a side note, Ruben is back working at HOK part time (woohoo!). He took this great picture of my and my tummy at work!

It's All in the Dress

Diary Notes for 2010-Oct-7...

I wore a cute dress today, one of those cheap sale finds. It was obvious to me after my first encounter with a coworker that the dress made me appear VERY preggo. Sharon N. and I had a conversation that went like this:

Sharon N.: “wow, you’ve just gotten so … I mean, as of recently you can really see the baby”
Me: “yea, I know, blew up like a balloon”
Sharon N.: [You could tell she was trying to find a way to agree politley] “you’ve just blossomed".

It was really rather sweet. Within the rest of the day a few people that were afraid to speak up and ask if I was pregnant finally broke the silence to ask me about it. The concensus was this, "You still have two more months of growing to do?"...yea, well, the cookies don't help people! So, note to self, watch out for what you wear while preggo!

Diary Notes, Excerpts of Class One

Diary notes...yesterday was our first baby class, Prepared Childbirth at Anderson Hospital. We were late to our first class because we were both sleeping! Whoops. It was okay, we got there during the "housekeeping" and made it in time for the introductions and lessons. I noted in my intro that my fave thing so far are the baby kicks (common among the moms), my least favorite thing is keeping up with the doctors/constant monitoring, and that we are not finding out the gender. The RN teaching the course said that it's only like 5% of couples that do not find out the gender. Thought that was interesting.

I didn't like the birth videos so much. I didn't really feel like I learned anything new, but that was relieving. I didn't want to have any great revelations that made me realize I was less prepared than I thought.

The breathing exercises are hard to do...when giggling.

"Surprise" Work Baby Shower

Today, the gang at work threw me a baby shower. It was a surprise shower, but I knew about it. I won't go into how I knew, but I did. Anyway, the super mind behind the shower was Crystal, and I thank her very much! I'm lucky to have her as both a coworker and a friend. Some days I would not get through the day without her!

With that said, it's on to the shower details! The structures crew was of course there along with others from the office I did not expect to see such as Jan, Marilyn, Mike H., and my husband. Even the HOK West crew made it into the office. Good thing they did because the got to eat some LAMB CAKE. Not a lamb, no no, I'd never do that, but an adorable lamb cake like this:



Here are a few pictures of the people that came (in order: Abdel, Chris, Michael, Jim, Cory, David, Sal, Jan, Steve, Me, Yong, and Crystal (not shown: Marilyn and Mike H., and Andrew))
In addition to a card (that required a double take with the initial thought that the bib should have been a diaper) I got a stroller that we registered for, which of course, has been assembled and rolled through the house several times!
It was an exciting day! I thank everyone involved, I really appreciate it more than you know (especially since I've got to still find a way to afford the rest of the stuff we need)! Crystal, knowing how I am, collected a list of names for me so I knew who to thank. Thanks girl, I owe you one! Well, as soon as you get knocked up, the favor will be repaid.

Gifts

I want to send out a quick thanks for some gifts I received recently and in the past. I had already mentioned that I received a gift from Maureen (thanks again). For my own reference, I've included the following picture so that I know she sent me the sleepers and the Baby Einstein soothing sounds machine.



I also blogged for work about an HOK onesie that Michelle P. gave me. I've got it shown in a picture below.

When I first found out I was preggo, and well, once Eva found out, her sister went shopping to buy some baby stuff. What can we say, she loves the babies! Since we are each pseudo sissies to the other, she got her future nephew/niece a gift (seen in the photo below). I don't know that I've said thanks to her yet or not. I guess I can consider this blog my reminder to do that!



Last night when I got home Chris showed me that a package came from my cousin Kim and her family. I was excited to see the pacifiers (since these are the ones that Erika B.-H. said are the bee's knees (also the same ones used in the hospitals)). I'm really excited about it all though, included with the pacifiers are the Medela bottles (to be used with the nursing pump I plan to get) and the car bottle warmer. Since we camp a lot, this should be pretty useful for when we are on the road and it's time for the bottle! So, thanks Kim! I really appreciate it. For my reference, the gifts are shown below with the HOK onesie previously mentioned.



Today my mom and I went shopping and then to Eckert's. My mom bought some baby stuff as well as a maternity outfit for me so I have something nice to wear to my shower next weekend. It was really great she got me an outfit. Most all of the clothes I have are hand-me-downs (which of course are great), but it will be nice to have a new pretty outfit to wear! So thanks mommy!! At Eckert's we of course did our routine of buying apples, cider, and then eating nachos while listening to the band. The major difference this time is that neither of us were in any condition to walk the orchard (and I was in no condition to take the bumpy tractor ride) so we bought prepacked fresh apples from the store. The other major difference is that we didn't get to hear a band but instead watched a magic show!

Anyway, when I returned from our adventure, I found out that Chris' parents had stopped by to drop off our shower gift. It was too large to wrap and too large to lug around so they dropped it off early. After putting it together, I can say that Chris and I are proud of our new baby's dresser! Many many thanks to Chris' parents (Ricky and Debbie) for getting this for us! It is greatly needed and very helpful. You can see the final present below.