Baby Update-24 weeks 4 days

There has been a whole lotta movement going on lately. It's now gotten to the point where some punches or kicks are so hard that you can see my belly move. It's quite extraordinary. Tyler isn't impressed, though. She was on my lap today and there was a particularly hard kick that actually moved Ty's ear. She freaked out, barking. It was kinda humorous.

I've finally finished my shorties soaker, in a nice kelly green. It was made from a purchased pattern and I LOVE IT!!!! I'm gonna see if I can adapt the pattern to make longies out of it.

Ben and I have decided we don't want much pink and blue stuff. All the yarn I've bought so far has been dark green, blacks, reds, nice cobalt blues, and maroons. Some browns, too. I'll be making some t-shirts, likely in black, and khaki greens, to go with all the nice wool I've been turning into soakers. It's unlikely the baby will be wearing much else other than shorties, soaker wraps, and longies with t-shirts.

If it seems like this pregnancy picture makes me look SMALLER than the previous one, I think you're right. Can't explain it, other than maybe I've lost some fat. Cuz the baby is certainly getting bigger. Or maybe it's just that the clothes make me look smaller, who knows.

Midwife Appointment: 23 weeks 4 days

"I have no idea what it is, but I think it's a girl."

Wow. Isn't that profound? That was in the report by the radiologist regarding my ultrasound results. I assume that it was one of those "I don't see a penis so it's a girl" guesses. Likely highly inaccurate...I figure he has about a 50% chance of being right...so no pink crap, please.

That all said and done, the results also showed a healthy baby, with good spinal cord, heart, brain, etc. Everything looks normal.

Not much else to report.

Diapers, Covers and Soakers... Oh My

Keeping up with my obsessive compulsive, driven bent towards being way too ambitious for my own good, I've made one diaper per night, up until Saturday. Then I started crocheting wool "soakers" to put over top the non-waterproof, fitted diapers.

I've improved greatly since my first fleece diaper. See pics.

The green swirly one I made with leftover flannel from my body pillow pillowcase. Inside it is 100% cotton t-shirt material with a microfibre soaker insert. It is size newborn.

The denim one is made from jeans, with a red cotton t-shirt interior, and a microfibre insert. It looks AMAZING!

Practice makes perfect. I've ordered 10 Yds of a waterproof poly urethane laminate material to use so I can make covers and waterproof diapers.

I figure I'll save about 75% of the cost by making them myself. And it's fun! Who knew?

Half Naked Pregnancy Photo

So: a lot of people who haven't seen me in a while have no idea how big I'm getting. So Ben thought it would be a good idea to take pictures every so often to have a "digital keepsake" of my belly's development thru the last part of the pregnancy.

An old public school friend, Tisha Johnson, works at Carmen's Foto Source (hope I spelled that right) in Ingersoll and runs her own business, Intrigue Photography. Anyway, she takes AMAZING photos. See some:

http://www.freewebs.com/intriguephotography/

Tisha has offered to take pregnancy photos of me. We'll do that later, when I'm hugely pregnant. For now, we'll stick with the once-every few weeks-photos to keep everyone updated.

So here I am, at 22 weeks, 5 days.

My First Attempt at Cloth Diapers

Last night I made my first cloth diaper! As you can see in the pictures, it's VERY rough. I used a nice purple fleece for the outside, a waterproof layer attached to that, and a grey microfleece inside piece that will be a "stay dry" layer. There's a pocket in between the waterproof piece and the grey piece where a microfibre "soaker" stuffer will go.

The diaper is fairly thick but won't require a cover. It's supposed to be a size "little", fitting a baby 10-22 lbs. We'll see!

I'll be experimenting with different patterns and different styles of nappies: I'm about to start a cotton one that will have the soaker sewn inside. This one will require a cover, which I was researching today: I've decided to go back to the old fashioned "wool soaker" style. The name "soaker" is a misnomer in this case: the point is that the wool remains mostly waterproof-it repels as much water as possible, but is able to absorb 30% if it's weight in water and still remain dry. The trick is to keep it "lanolized"-now where to find lanolin in London?

I picked up some nice soft 100% wool yarn tonight. I got a nice silvery purple skein, a medium green one (like grass), and some white which I will dye using sugar free Kool-Aid. Interesting.
The nice thing about wool soakers is that they're easy to make, last forever, if you care for them properly, and look nice. AND they're all natural. Even better.

22 Weeks 4 Days - Making Diapers

Last night I cut out 12 Newborn sized layers of flannel to use as the outer layer (the side you see) of my new diapers. It's a lovely medium green with darker green swirls. I had the flannel left over from my first sewing project, a body pillow sized pillowcase. I had about 1.5 m left of 45" wide fabric.
I had figured to use the waterproof material from a waterproof sheet that I've had for a while but no longer use as the inner layer of the diapers - but the ladies on my diaper making yahoo group had told me it's likely vinyl, which will crack and dry out after repeated launderings. I COULD use it to make waterproof covers and hand wash them and air dry to get maximum life from them. Maybe I'll do that, there's no point in wasting the material.

I'll have to check out FabricLand. I called yesterday but the lady had no idea what I was talking about when I said I wanted PUL (polyurethane laminate)-she looked and came back with a "hospital grade barrier cloth"-likely vinyl-that costs $20/a metre. No thanks. I'll order PUL online!

A lady at Scouts has some PUL left, a metre or two. She's going to look for it and bring it to Scouts next week. I'm impatient to start NOW.

22 Weeks 3 Days

So last night I decided that "**dammit**, I can make my own diapers!" Mom bought me a sewing machine for Christmas. I can knit, crochet, chainmaille, run a traffic trial, fire a gun, chase down criminals...I can make my own cloth diapers!!

So-having decided THAT, I might as well make my own cloth wipes too!

I've deleted most of the baby washcloths off of the registry list cuz I figure I can just make them. Instead, I'm asking for MICROFIBRE towels, you know, the ones you can get at the dollar store. I'll use them for the soaker inserts for inside the diaper (they hold the pee)-apparently they are among the best for overnight use, with no leaks.

I'll keep everyone posted on my progress. I'll even give a few away (for a trial period) so I can work out any kinks before actually needing them for myself. Lucky Misha, Donna, and Ashley!

My first ever blog

These ultrasound pics were taken on Jan 8, 2008 at 21 weeks 3 days.
We wanted to find out the sex, however the little scamp kept it's legs crossed the entire time. The ultrasound tech said that the radiologist MIGHT be able to make a guess...my next midwife appointment is on Wednesday the 16th (I think) so we might find out more.

The heart rate at the ultrasound was just over 160 bpm. Now, before everyone goes running off into the sunset yelling "it's a girl!", I want to let you know that at our last midwife appointment it was only in the 130's. And heart rates fluctuate depending on age of baby, etc. Also, the "using the heart rate to determine sex" wives tale is just that: it was disproven 20 years ago as an accurate method of determining sex.

As for me, I'm feeling fine, and have started to really show. I'm OBVIOUSLY pregnant now, even to strangers. I'm not as tired as I was a few months ago, and have a reasonably ok appetite (could be better). I have an aversion to pretty much all meat items, except ground beef and bacon. I'm loving fruits and vegetables, which is probably a good thing. And the smell of honey nut cheerios makes me gag-forget eating them!

Ben and I went on Friday night to Toys R Us and made up our baby registry. They have a huge baby section in the back corner of the store, and things are pretty reasonably priced. They had almost everything we'll need (their clothes selection is a little iffy). We put over 50 items on the registry list, with everything from washcloths to a rocking chair. For anyone who wants to know, our registry # is 40485155. You can go to the Toys R Us website and click the Baby Registry link and type in our # in order to see what we've put on it. Just a reminder, if you DO decide to buy something from it, PLEASE check the registry in-store before purchasing, and make sure the cashier knows that it's for our registry so he/she can remove it from our list. I'm unsure of their return policy without receipt, and we don't want to end up with needless duplicates (like the 3 coffee makers we got for wedding gifts!)

A notice to anyone planning on buying us diapers or wipes or any baby bath care (Johnson and Johnson), soothers, or any baby formula products---DON'T! We will be using cloth diapers and wipes. I plan on making my own wipe solution and baby bath products. Did you know that Johnson and Johnson products rate the HIGHEST in toxicity when it comes to carcinogenic ingredients? No thanks. As for soothers, we have a couple but plan on TRYING to avoid using them. I will be nursing so have no need for formula.

If you're curious about the type of cloth diaper we will be using, please go to the cheeky monkey website and search for cloth diapers. We will be using a couple different kinds, all in the "All-in-One" or "pocket diapers" section. Feel free to get us one or two of those, in any colour! We plan on using the ones that are one-size-fits-all type, so they will last from newborn to potty training size. Talk about economical! It may seem expensive ($24-28 each, which adds up to around $800), but when you figure it out, we'll need about 30 diapers for the whole time the baby will be diapered, compared to the approximately $2000 worth for disposables. In addition, we'll be able to re-use the diapers for another child, or sell them. Not to mention we will be RESPONSIBLY reducing the amount of diapers going to landfills-4 MILLION disposable diapers a DAY go to landfills in Canada. Talk about gross. Also, did you know that solid waste is supposed to be put into the toilet before throwing out disposable diapers? How many people do that? Not many, I'd think. So our landfills are full of untreated human waste. Tasty.