Berry's Baby Bump

My trip to the EPAU

2011-07-14T12:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went to my appointment at the Fertility Clinic/Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit. Seems like a cruel joke to call it that.

Anyway, my appointment was for 115. My mom came over to watch D and I took the bus. I had a bit of a mishap at first, because I had thought the unit was located at St Joe's Hospital. When I called for more detailed info about where to go, I found out it is located at University Hospital. Yikes! That was right before I left, so I had to re-plan my bus routes. Thanks to Ben, who told me the Wellington goes right there.

I arrived early enough that I could get a coffee and a tea biscuit at the Tim Horton's just inside the entrance. I took it up to the 9th floor to the EPAU to eat and drink.

A nurse came to get me shortly after 115. She asked some basic info and took my blood pressure. (129/89). A little high on the systolic side, but understandable.

A few minutes later, the intern came in (I didn't catch her name) and didn't realize I was there to confirm a miscarriage. She was talking like "how far along are you, how do you feel" etc and I said, "I should be 7w4d but I miscarried on Saturday." She seemed a little shocked. I guess she should have read my file before she came in to talk to me.

We discussed what happened, then she left and then both her and the Dr came in. He gave me the standard "If you refuse the ultrasound, all of these ______ bad things could happen to you." I understand it's a matter of informed consent, and that they need to cover themselves in case of lawsuit, but grrr. Really.

They gave me some bloodwork requisitions and I headed to the basement to get blood drawn for the quantitative hcg test.

*image from http://www.clipartguide.com

I called the EPAU this morning to get the results and it was 65. They want to see it go to 0 so I'll be going back on Monday. If it's not to 0 at that point, I'll have to get another vial drawn the following week.

The thing that bothered me the most (but I expected it) was when the Dr called the baby the "product of conception"...seems a little insensitive to me, but I guess when they don't know if there was even a baby in the first place, it's impractical to call it so. Also, I was so put-off by his words that I didn't even get to talk to him about future conception, whether I should supplement with anything special in the next little while (like iron, B vitamins, etc) or things like that. I guess I'll just do the research myself, like I always do.

Positive Pregnancy Test

2011-07-13T18:03:00.000-04:00

I'm actually writing this post after losing the baby, but I wanted to have it recorded for future reference.

I was 4 days late for my period and so tested with a Dollarama pregnancy test ($1.25, can you believe it?) on Monday, June 20. It was positive! A faint but definitely positive line.

Ben wasn't convinced (or maybe didn't want to be convinced), so a friend of mine gave me one of her Digital ones that leave very little questions. Not only does it tell you if you're pregnant or not, but how far along you are. I questioned the accuracy, because I should have been 4-5 weeks, but at the time I wasn't sure if it went that high. I think it should have said 4+. Looking back, that might have been an indicator that things were wrong...but hcg levels vary widely from person to person, and I think it's difficult to say what happened or when. I took this test a week or so after the first one.

My Pregnancy Loss

2011-07-12T02:01:00.000-04:00

**very detailed, very graphic, very long.

This pregnancy was unexpected, but not unwanted. My husband had reservations, but those were easing by my 6^th week. I had an EDD of February 26, 2012. I was looking forward to a possible Leap Day baby. I was waiting for my first midwife appointment, scheduled for July 21^st.

I didn’t have many symptoms with this pregnancy, just exhaustion, hunger, thirst, and sore nipples when my DD nursed. The (almost) lack of symptoms didn’t really worry me, because my 1^st pregnancy was similar. I lucked out in the morning-sickness area.

Looking back, the few symptoms I did have this time around abated at some point in the beginning of my 6^th week. I didn’t really notice at the time.

On Wednesday, July 6, I had strange perineum pain, like a shooting pain that intensified when I changed positions or got up from a seated position. It reminded me of my labour with my first child and I was worried. I also had cramps first thing in the morning, which I attributed to the very loose stools I experienced shortly afterward. The perineum pain had disappeared by Thursday morning.

Thursday evening, I was surfing for baby carriers and thru Kijiji (like Craigslist in the US) had found a woman nearby who makes them. She was selling wraps for $15 each (which is a GREAT price) and sent her off an email. I had to pee, so I got up to go into the bathroom….and saw bright pink blood on the toilet paper, and a dime-sized spot of red on my underwear. I was SHOCKED.

I had zero bleeding with my first pregnancy, so I was immediately very scared. But it was late, close to midnight, and I didn’t want to “bother” my midwife at that point. So I tried to relax, and went to bed.

The next morning, the TP was free of blood the first time I peed, so I relaxed. But an hour later when I went in again, there it was – and stronger than before. I paged the on-call midwife. She told me it could be anything, and since I didn’t have cramps (I mentioned the perineum pain and cramps from Wednesday but she didn’t seem concerned) she wasn’t able to offer a definitive answer. She said I could go to an Urgent Care Clinic, make an appointment for the Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit (EPAU) for the following week, or wait and see what happens. I said I’d wait and see.

I bled all day. Like a light- to medium-flow period. It’s hard to judge exactly how much blood I lost, because I use cloth pads with dark surface fabric, but there was a large amount each time I wiped, and drops fell into the toilet as I would pee. I was getting more and more worried, and I found the “Exactly what to expect with a m/c” thread on MDC. I started reading and was very sad and cried off and on all day Friday.

Friday night, I decided I wanted to know if the pregnancy was viable, if the baby was dead…I wanted to KNOW. So I decided to go to the Emergency Room. At that point, the Urgent Care Clinic (which would have been more appropriate and I would have gotten better service) was closed. I had to wait until after my husband came home from work to stay with our daughter. I ate dinner first, because I knew I’d be there for a while. My husband and daughter (and dog) dropped me off at the ER and my friend would bring me home. They drove off. My daughter had asked all the way there why I was going, when I was going to be home, and if they were going to cut me up. I have no idea where she got that. She’s three and very intuitive. I understand now she was very upset at leaving me there.

I walked in between 1900 and 1930 hrs, and my heart sank to see that every seat was filled. It’s a big hospital, in a large city (350 thou plus) and the wait board said “6 hour wait for non-urgent cases.” I waited until 2000 hrs triaged, got registered, and the triage nurse drew 3 vials of blood. I went out to the waiting room and my friend showed up about half an hour later. Around 2100 hrs, another friend of mine (a doula) showed up and offered me a shot of whiskey to help relax me and hopefully stop the (undetectable to me) contractions that were making me bleed. She said one shot wouldn’t hurt a viable baby, and if some other reason/irritation was causing the bleeding, it might save the pregnancy. I figured, at that point, that I would try anything, and it wasn’t going to hurt. I went back into the ER to wait.

At midnight, I decided to go home. At 2200 hrs, they had changed the sign to read “8-hr wait,” I had been there for 5 hours, and figured a good night’s sleep would be better for me than waiting even longer just to hear my beta hcg level. They had already said they wouldn’t do an ultrasound because there wasn’t a tech on duty. So I had basically wasted my entire night. My friend drove me home.

I ended up falling asleep around 0200 hrs.

Saturday, July 9, the bleeding was even heavier. More like a medium period. I called the on-call midwife around noon and was on the phone with her when my husband got home from work (he works half days on Saturdays and Mondays). She didn’t seem optimistic, given the rate of flow. I had also seen some small clots, similar in size to those I saw during a regular period – about ½ cm across and smaller. She told me how much blood is “too much” (soaking a pad front to back and side to side within 20 minutes, 2 in a row) and said to expect a heavy period with cramps/labour pains. I wasn’t overly worried, just hoped it would be over soon.

My husband had been invited to a friend’s campground for Kids Day – he was asked to do an RC helicopter demo for the kids. There would be swimming, kite building/flying, and a BBQ. We had all planned on going, but I couldn’t bear to be out somewhere and end up having to deliver my baby in some latrine, so I asked him to take her and go. The dog and I stayed home.

I slept from about 1500 hrs to 1800 hrs. I got up and re-heated previous night’s dinner (Indian – yum) and took it outside to eat and read the “Exactly what to expect” thread. I was feeling mild cramps at that point. I think I had felt some previously, but nothing severe. Ones that are indistinguishable from poop cramps, if you know what I mean. (I had been suffering from intermittent constipation, so that’s nothing new).

I knew at that point that I should expect to lose the baby for sure. Before I got cramps, I could pretend it was possibly something else happening, but once I felt cramps, I knew.

My neighbour came out (she’s awesome) and I talked to her for a bit. My husband and daughter got home around 2000 hrs and my husband carried my DD inside (she was sleeping) and up to bed. I gathered my stuff and followed them in.

I had to go to the grocery store, so I left. I could feel some heavier bleeding when I stood up from the car, but nothing terrible. I was a little afraid that I’d suddenly have a big bleed, like some women described, so I hurried. I went to the beer store, too – I had originally planned to get wine (there’s a wine store right in the grocery store) but I arrived too late (2110 hrs) and it had closed. So I had to drive about 4 km to the closest beer store that would still be open. Basically, the idea was that, if I was going to miscarry, I wanted to be able to numb myself. But I wouldn’t drink it until/unless I had an actual event that caused me to believe I had lost the baby for good. When I stood up out of the car, I felt a small gush of blood, and thought, “Please God, not here,” and went inside. Of course there was a long line. I made it through and drove home.

I got home close to 2200 hrs and put away the groceries, then sat on the couch for a minute with my daughter, who had woken up while I was gone. She wanted to nurse. I felt like I had to pee, so I went into the bathroom. While in there, I felt the need to push and out plopped a big clot. I called my husband to get a pyrex bowl, a colander, and a slotted spoon. I scooped the clot out of the toilet and looked at it – but it was just a clot. I flushed it.

Shortly after that (just before 2230 hrs), I felt stronger cramps – but nothing painful. More like period cramps. I knew it was my body trying to get something out, so I went into the bathroom. I had read of a woman using a menstrual pad to catch what came out when she pushed, so I used toilet paper. I put it against me and pushed just a little – there was no pain - and out came a piece of tissue about two inches by three inches. It was irregular shaped and coloured like liver. It was smooth on one side and grainy on the other. It was thicker in spots, especially against one edge. It was fairly thin – only a couple millimeters. It was the placenta. There were some egg-whiteish areas that I think were the sac. I didn’t see a baby. At that point, I would have been 6w7d.

I was very calm. I put the placenta into the pyrex bowl and called in my husband. We both looked at it. I should say here that I never experienced the “rush” of blood following delivery of clots or placenta like some women. I think that it’s because I had bled so heavily for the 2 days previous that there just wasn’t as much to come out.

My daughter saw it too, but I didn’t want her to be scared. We didn’t really tell her much. I had said over the previous two days that “Mama and the baby are sick” so she would let me rest, but nothing aside from that.

I didn’t shed any tears. Not then.

I called my doula friend and she said to keep the placenta in case the midwife wanted to see it.

I paged the midwife again (same one I had talked to earlier that day) and told her what had happened. I was very matter-of-fact and unemotional. I think she was surprised at my lack of emotion, but she was very professional. She said she didn’t need to see the placenta, and suggested I do a follow-up with the EPAU and said she’d get a referral going for me. They’d check for remaining tissue, confirm there wasn’t a viable pregnancy still in there, and take blood to make sure my hcg was dropping from Friday.

I went out into the kitchen and got a beer. I carried it into the living room, and DD said,

“There’s no baby in your belly anymore?” I was stunned. How did she know? But then I remembered that I had told her that I couldn’t drink beer because I had a baby in my belly. That was 2 months earlier, almost – and here I was, holding a beer. She had made the connection. Amazing. Like I said, she’s my intuitive girl.

I got a little drunk – I drank every single one of those 6 beers and read more loss stories on the MDC forum. Then I realized I was hungry and cooked two sausages. Just after they were done cooking, my husband stumbled out to go to the bathroom and I had a bit of a crying spell in his arms, then I was fine. He went back to bed.

About an hour or so later, I went to bed. As I lay there, it hit me – my baby was gone, dammit! My sobs and wails woke up my husband, but not our daughter (who co-sleeps). I crawled around the bed and wrapped myself in his arms, and just sobbed. I got too hot and went back to my side of the bed (DD sleeps in the middle because I get too hot when I’m sandwiched). I continued to sob and wail for quite a while. I don’t know how long. Finally I stopped and went to sleep.

I’ve not cried since.

Sunday I bled just as heavily (a medium flow) with occasional small clots. Nothing baby-like, so either it already came out in a clot, was inside the placenta, was decomposed enough that it was indistinguishable, or there never was one in the first place (blighted ovum). We’ll never know.

I called the midwives around 1000 hrs this morning (Monday) since they hadn’t called me with the referral info and the admin gave me the # for the unit. I called and made the appointment for Wed afternoon. The admin told me my hcg levels from Friday night – 687. Way too low for being 6w6d. So it had ended at some point before Friday.

We had a chiropractor appointment today. We go every two weeks, and talking to my chiro’s wife really helped (she works as business manager). She’s very practical, like me, and says I don’t really need to go to the follow-up appointment, since they’d just prescribe Misoprostal if there happens to be any remaining tissue. I have no intentions of taking it, so why bother?? I might go, I’m worried about a possible haemorrhage caused by retained clots (happened after my daughter’s birth) preventing the uterus from shrinking back down to normal size. I might see about an herbal treatment to help, if I decide not to attend the ultrasound appointment.

I continue bleeding like a medium-flow period, with occasional large-ish (cherry sized) clots plopping out into the toilet.

The thing that shocks me the most, aside from the complete lack of physical pain, is the almost complete lack of emotional pain. I don’t know if I’m numb, in denial, or what. Is this one of the early stages of grief? Will I be paralyzed with grief in a couple days? I don’t know. All I know is, I don’t feel what I expected to feel. Does that make me a terrible person?

I’m sad that I’ll never know if the little one was a boy or girl (I feel it was a boy, but people have been wrong before). I’m sad that I’ll never meet him or her, and all of the potential that has been lost – an entire lifetime of memories.

But I’m ok.

HCG result

2011-07-11T10:57:00.000-04:00

I just spoke with Susan at the Early Pregnancy Assessment Clinc (Unit?) at St Joe's. I have an appointment scheduled for Wednesday at 115. They'll do an ultrasound to make sure no tissue remains and draw more blood to check hcg levels again.

She looked up the hcg results from Friday night's trip to the hospital. My hcg level was 687. At 6w5d, the level should have been in the 1,100 to 56,500 range. They will draw blood again and make sure it continues to go down.

So at this point I'm pretty certain there isn't a viable pregnancy in there (twin, etc).

A very helpful forum thread

2011-07-10T11:46:00.000-04:00

When the bleeding first started, I found a thread on Mothering.commune where women discuss their miscarriages. It is very detailed, and helped prepare me for my own miscarriage.

HERE is the link. I hope none of my friends ever need to use it, but if you do, it will definitely help.

Women (and men) need to talk more openly about miscarriage. It isn't shameful, and it really helps when you have friends and loved ones around you to support you and help you through it.

It's done

2011-07-09T22:53:00.002-04:00

It's all over but the crying. About half an hour ago, I passed what I think is the placenta - about 2 x 3 inches. Dark red like liver, smooth on one side, and kind of grainy/bumpy on the other. There was no cord or baby. Either that is still in me, or it disintegrated and was absorbed, or it never formed in the first place.

I'm strangely numb and accepting. I feel fine, physically.

Thanks to everyone for the love, and the support, and the prayers.

I'm glad I'm not doing this by myself. I don't think it should ever be a secret, unless the woman wants total privacy. I am happy to have the community I do, who I can talk to openly about this.

**edited to add
I talked to the midwife right afterwards and she reassures me it's fine for me to stay at home unless bleeding gets very heavy or I get clammy/panicky/shocky feeling.

I will still go to the Early Pregnancy Assessment Clinic on Mon or Wed to have them check my hcg levels and for an ultrasound to verify everything has been passed.

***edited AGAIN to add
This could go on all night and tomorrow. Cramps, passing more clots, tissue, blood, etc. Yay. But it is strangely painless, aside from very mild period-like cramps. Nothing like heavy-labour contractions, like some women experience. For that I am very grateful.

Early Pregnancy Assessment Clinic

2011-07-09T13:45:00.000-04:00

I called the midwife on call and spoke to her about what was going on, and told her about my trip to the hospital.

She's doing a referral for me to the Early Pregnancy Assessment Clinic, hopefully I'll get an appointment on Monday. They will do an ultrasound and another blood test, to compare baseline HCG levels to see if the numbers are increasing as they should be. If they are the same, or have dropped, we'll know the pregnancy has ended and to expect a miscarriage.

The amount of blood has me worried - it seems like it's not possible to lose this much and still have a viable pregnancy. But stranger things have happened. I'm going to try to be positive, but it's hard.

Pointless exercise

2011-07-09T07:31:00.000-04:00

Well, my trip to the hospital was almost pointless. Besides being subjected to all manner of germs and such, I actually ended up leaving the hospital at midnight without being seen. Apparently having a meeting with a doctor (or Nurse Practitioner, for that matter!) for two minutes to discuss bloodwork results is impossible. I'm going to have my midwives call for the results Monday.

When I got there, the waiting board said 6 hours for non-urgent patients. By the time I had left, they had changed it to 8 hours.

Thanks to Jenn, who went and sat with me for three hours even though she had to work this morning.

Thanks to Alex, who brought me a little something to help me feel better.

Thanks to everyone's well wishes. Hopefully stuff gets resolved one way or the other. It's the not knowing/waiting that sucks.

Up in the air

2011-07-08T18:06:00.000-04:00

Well, we still don't know what's going on. I've been having more bleeding and I spoke with my midwife this morning. She suggested I go to the Urgent Care Clinic to have bloodwork and ultrasound done. I couldn't do it earlier but will go after dinner when Ben is home.

Hopefully that will give us some definitive answers of whether or not the baby is alive. HCG levels will tell us if the baby stopped developing at some point in the last few days/weeks. And the ultrasound may show a heartbeat, or not, or an empty sac.

This sucks.

I will post regarding the results.

Worried

2011-07-08T00:41:00.000-04:00

I'm a little worried. I've had some spotting, and I'm concerned I might be miscarrying. I know that bleeding is actually fairly common in the first trimester, but it's still a shock to see it. It's early days, yet, and I don't want to be a statistic.

Please pray or light a candle or whatever it is you do in these situations.

New baby, old blog

2011-07-07T00:34:00.000-04:00

Wow. Hard to believe it's been since 2008 that I wrote on this blog. I guess there isn't much to say about your pregnancy, once you have the baby! But guess what! We're having another baby!

We have a lot going on right now - just bought an apartment condo in Woodstock so Ben will be closer to work, and now a new baby on the way. I'm a little scared, to be honest - it's a lot to take in, and with the issues that arose with D's birth, I have some stuff to deal with, emotionally and physically.

I've got my first midwife appointment (Thames Valley Midwives, since they serve Oxford County woohoo!) on July 21. Looks like I'll be going by myself or with D since Ben probably can't get the day off. They have their head office in London just down the road from us (about 20 minutes walk or a 4 minute bus ride) and clinic in Ingersoll, so that's where we'll be going for checkups once we move.

I would have loved to have used Womancare Midwives again, but all of the old midwives are gone anyway, except for Marie, so it's no big deal. And they don't serve Oxford County. They said they could present it to the midwives to see if they would all agree to drive to me, but I didn't think that was fair. So I went with TVM.

I'm hoping that the Woodstock Hospital is done by February! I'm assuming since the hospital will be brand new, that the birthing section will be awesome. Hopefully a tub and stuff like that. I'd like to go natural and avoid the whole lithotomy position (on the back) because that will virtually guarantee another broken tail bone, and I CANNOT deal with that again. It still bothers me, sometimes!!!

Oh yeah - the estimated due date is February 26, 2012. Just think, if it stays in there a few extra days, it'll be a Leap Year baby!!! But it's not likely to stay in there past due date, considering D came early and all. We'll see.

I don't have any photos of me (or ultrasounds) to show, so here's a photo and some text from a pregnancy clinic I found online. At the end of this week I'll be 7 weeks pregnant, so I'm in the 7th week of development right now. Tell me that's just a bunch of cells. Yeah, right. Hard to believe abortions are legal and accepted at this stage, huh?

Major organs have all begun to form. The embryo has developed its own blood type, unique from the mother’s. Hair follicles and nipples form and knees and elbows are visible. Facial features are also observable. The eyes have a retina and lens. The major muscle system is developed and the embryo is able to move.

Spin-Off Blog

2008-08-19T16:03:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone,
I've decided to create a second blog, with a more descriptive URL. Come check it out:

http://berryberryquitecontrary.blogspot.com/

I'll be switching over to that blog and will no longer be publishing any posts on this blog. I originally created this one to keep family and friends updated with my pregnancy news and feel that a fresh blog will keep me inspired to write posts about our daily lives and happenings. Please bear with me while I set up the new blog and get it just right.

Feel free to come back to this URL any time to look at the pictures or read the archived posts!

Rebecca

Jam and Wine

2008-08-19T15:18:00.003-04:00

I've just spent the morning (and most of the afternoon) processing apples and peaches. It's my first attempt at making wine at home. I'm making an apple wine, from a combination of two recipes: one from my friend Chad, aka Evil Wizard, and one from the internet. I'm also trying my hand at some peach freezer jam.

The apples I'm using for the wine are from a combination of places: 98% of the apples came from the apple tree in my front yard. The rest is supplemented by 6 large gala apples from the grocery store that I had knocking around. So far I've chopped and cored the apples, over 30 cups worth, and mashed them a bit in my primary fermenting pail. I've added one pound of raisins and poured about 6 or 7 litres of boiling water over it all. Now the pail is covered and will sit for 24 hours before adding all of the other ingredients. 5or 6 days from now I'll mash the apples more and then strain them out, and add water to make 20 litres. After that I rack the wine after 3 weeks and then add some sugar. I want a slightly sweet wine, not a dry one.

As for the peach freezer jam, my friend gave me 4 packets of no-cook reduced-sugar freezer jam gelling powder. Each packet, along with the fruit and sugar, makes 4.5 cups of delicious freezer jam. It was super easy to make and I now have 4 full jars in my freezer, and one in my fridge. I had enough left over to spoon over a bowl of vanilla ice cream. YUM!

Next: I'll can some pears and make another batch of peach freezer jam. I can't wait for local tomatoes!

Sustainable Living

2008-08-17T20:47:00.005-04:00

There is an unclaimed, unharvested apple tree out front of my townhouse. It is left unharvested because other residents in my amazing community think they're CRAB APPLES (and for some reason think crab apples aren't useable)! I've since disabused them of that notion but they're still too lazy to do anything with them, so the pleasure is all mine. Last week I made a super tasty apple crumble. Yum! Tomorrow we'll gather about 32 cups worth, as I've gotten some good advice on how to make a lovely wine. I'm not looking forward to the collection so much but I'm sure that the feeling of self satisfaction I'll feel in a year when I first drink some will be overwhelming. Maybe not quite so overwhelming as if I had planted the tree myself, but there you go.
I had the fine fortune of coming across some really inexpensive mason jars on Kijiji.com, in the 250mL and 1L sizes. I have enough jars now to make several each of strawberry freezer jam, salsa, and some corn relish in the small size as well as almost 20 large jars of canned peaches, pears, and tomatoes. I can't wait!
The thought of eventually raising chickens, growing our own produce and eating in-season fruits and veggies is exciting. I look forward to the day when I open the door of my house and walk out into my garden, walking between the rows of beans, tomatoes, peas, carrots, potatoes, corn, beets, and peppers. Then I'll walk among the fruit trees: cherry, apple, pear, and peach. I'll weed my strawberry patch and then feed my chickens and let them out into the garden to free-range. The goats will greet me and follow me around looking for treats.
During all of this, Delilah will be learning, along with me, how to build a sustainable, ecologically responsible lifestyle. I hope that eventually our society will learn that the way we have built it (driven by consumerist lifestyle) is not sustainable and must come to an end. Commuting in and of itself is destroying our planet, global relations, and our health. Buying grapefruit that come from Africa? Frozen vegetables from China? WHY?!? Seems kind of ridiculous to me, considering North American, not to mention Canadian, farmers could grow all of these things, if they weren't so consumed with the idea of growing corn for E85 fuel. Grow food, not fuel! Alternate methods of transportation are the answer, NOT alternate sources of fuel. But who am I to convince people? Perhaps it's just as well that we'll exit the city gracefully and live happily ever after on our oh so satisfying homestead.

How Time Flies

2008-08-09T10:23:00.003-04:00

Delilah is 3 months old today! I can't believe it, the time is flying by..yet, at the same time, seems to be going so slowly. Every day I wake up and look at her and thank the gods that my beautiful girl is healthy and here to share the world with us. She wakes up with a smile on her face, full of enthusiasm for the day ahead. She's such a joy.

Speaking of her being a joy, I have a hard time with people who ask me, "is she a good baby?" ... um, ALL babies are good, aren't they? I mean, it's not like babies are in the habit of knocking over liquor stores! "Oh, you mean, she's good because she's not crying all the time? That's because she has all her needs met BEFORE she has to resort to crying! I wear her in her carrier when we're out (or Ben does), she has a clean diaper, she's fed as soon as she starts showing me cues she's hungry, and she's HAPPY! Why would she cry?" Ok, she cries when she's overtired, but that's another story. Sometimes I wanna cry when I'm tired, too!

As more and more time goes on, I'm left to ponder what I'll do when it's time to go back to work. Yes, officially I am going back. Unofficially, there's no way in hell I'm going to leave Delilah to someone else to raise while I go to slave for a few bucks...especially since child care would eat over half of my income, anyway...so what's the point? I can't see it happening. So I guess I'll have to find some other way to make some sort of income, at least what I make on maternity leave, and stay home to raise our baby.

Staying home to raise your own child... how novel! I think more people should do it. I think it's very affordable, if you don't have an excessive lifestyle (2 cars, 400 thousand dollar house, dining out all the time, etc). I believe you can be very happy with less STUFF. A smaller house, one (or no) car, home cooked meals, perhaps even growing your own food, all these things are attainable, and reasonable. It amazes me, the consumerism disease that is killing our society. But that's another discussion for another day.

Some day (soon, I hope!) we will have our "Semi-Self Sufficient Hobby Farm". The sooner the better. I want chickens (for eggs), goats (at least two), maybe a cow...a huge vegetable garden, and a fruit garden..apple and peach trees, raspberries, strawberries...I dream of the day where we could grow most of our own food. Spring chickens and broiler hens will supply us with chicken meat, we will likely outsource our beef and grains but could we do everything else ourselves? I think it's doable. Now we just need to find the house in the country with a little property and build the outbuildings for the animals. Can you picture me and Delilah, going out into the yard each day to care for chickens and goats and to tend the garden? I can't wait.

Howling at the Moon

2008-07-22T01:39:00.008-04:00

So Delilah has decidedly begun to respond to the world around her...tonight she mimicked me with her coo that sounds like howling. Unfortunately we only captured the second episode on video, which isn't quite as obvious (poor hiccupy baby!) But it's still funny!

Today we visited Ingersoll and saw Boppie and Nini. We got lots of pictures!

Every Girl Needs Macy's

2008-07-13T22:16:00.003-04:00

Delilah loves to meet new people, especially when they come bearing gifts!! She ESPECIALLY loves it when the gifts are clothes from MACY'S!!!

Today Delilah met her Great Grandma and Great Aunt Linda. It was cool seeing 4 generations all in one spot. We took lots of pictures (I promise we'll get some of these ones printed!)

I've also made a folder with all of the pics we have of Delilah since birth. I have to photshop some of them and then I'll be getting them printed.

At Delilah's 2 month doctor visit (her first and last well-baby visit), she weighed 11 lbs 15 oz. She's doing really well, and I can't believe how big she's getting. It seems like yesterday we were in the hospital with a newborn.

Delilah Eve Hohner-graphic details

2008-05-28T20:05:00.005-04:00

Well.
The major events:
-woke Thursday May 8th 2008 at 1:00 AM with timeable cramps
-thought my water had broken early (an issue) so went into midwives and had a test that "confirmed" it, so I was on a time limit to start active labour (contractions 5 minutes apart or less, or 4 cm dilation) within 6 hours or I'd be induced (NOT cool)
-found out my midwife, and my backup midwife were both at births so I'd be getting Sam (YAY!)
-she performed a stretch and sweep that actually broke my water and started active labour around 11 PM
-130 AM May 9th, called Sam back (she'd gone home for a couple hours sleep) as I was in active labour
-my blood pressure was up and baby's heartrate was high (not good)
-I developed a temperature (also not good)
-the heater in the birthing tub didn't work (picture Ben and midwife dumping buckets of boiling water into tub and bailing out cold water)
-contractions that were coming on top of one another but not dilated enough to push, for what seemed like hours
THEN:
-midwife concerned with continued high blood pressure, temp, and baby's high heartrate, combined with my lack of progress and eventual swelling of cervix, which then led to my contractions STOPPING (REALLY not good)
-midwife telling us we had to transfer to hospital, me to rest and get my blood pressure down, and take an epidural
-we got to hospital at just after 6 AM, and baby was so low that I could feel her pressing down, what a feeling....
-epidural (by that time I was thankful for it, trust me, but upset that I had to have it started, plus a catheter, what joy
-midwife Marie arrived
-there was still a lip of the cervix left so the OB on call, Dr Murencic, came in and helped push it under the baby's head so she could proceed down
-pushing...pushing...pushing...
-more pushing...
-constant beeping from the fetal monitor
-baby's heartrate was still high, and my blood pressure didn't go down as they anticipated, since epidurals will often cause a drop in blood pressure
-meconium appeared in amniotic fluid so midwives concerned even more, and we're told the baby will be intubated and deep suctioned immediately after birth to prevent chemical pneumonia in the event she had aspirated meconium
-OB notified of what was going on
-we were told that I had to deliver the baby ASAP but I couldn't get her past the pubic bone, even with help, so the next option to prevent C section, we were told, was forceps (I was picturing all the horrible things that can go wrong, let alone the tearing and/or episiotomy involved
-transferred to delivery room, more like a surgical suite than anything, with big padded stirrups and everything - cold, bright, and very intimidating and scary

-Dr Murencic is an AMAZING OB - when he came in the room I said, "please don't cut me" and he said "Oh no, I don't do that"...he told me when to push, when NOT to push, and used the forceps oh so gently to just guide the baby's head under my pubic bone
-as the head was coming under, I felt a "POP" and a weird sensation in my tailbone, but didn't think anything of it
-what seemed like HOURS later, and many contractions, her head was out!! Ben had tears in his eyes as he watched...
-finally, after several more contractions, and many pushes, at 11:11 AM on May 9th, 2008, our baby was born!! Ben announced the sex - a GIRL!! And I said, "Delilah Eve!" and they whisked her away (Ben yelled., "I'm going with her!" and followed)
-the looks on everyone's face as they saw how HUGE she was
-I delivered the placenta, looked like a large liver
-I had a tiny tear, one stitch (thank goodness, man I must have good skin), to fit a 35.5 cm head AND forceps...
-I remember Sam saying "You worked for every inch of her!"
-the OB came back in after inspecting her (I still hadn't seen or held her, at this point), and said that he'd let Ben tell me how much she weighed..so I figured she had to be huge
-turns out she cried before they could intubate her, so they just suctioned her nose out and got her to cry a lot to get the meconium out
-her Apgar scores were 9/10 at 1 minute and 10/10 at 5 minutes-wow!
-finally she came back into the room in Ben's arms, all wrapped up and with a hat on - the most beautiful baby in the world, and he told me she was 9 lbs 4 oz!! She was 20.5" long.
-I got wheeled back into the birthing room, and held my daughter for the first time
-Delilah nursed for the first time, at 1140ish
-I got transferred up to my room on the mothers and babies floor
-when the epidural wore off completely I realized what the "pop" had been - my tailbone had been broken again (which has caused agonizing pain in the weeks since her birth)
-later that day I had a massive hemorrhage which would eventually lead to my receiving a blood transfusion several days later
-several horrifyingly painful obstetric procedures were performed on me to ensure no blood clots remained in my uterus
-my blood pressure remained high
-Delilah was perfect and healthy but I had to remain in hospital until Sunday morning (Ben stayed the whole time, of course), Happy Mothers Day to me! Release!
-my blood pressure still remained high so I was put on medication to lower it
-Ben was off work but had to go back Thursday so my Mom came Thursday morning and ended up taking me back to the hospital to get 2 units of blood to bring up my hemoglobin levels, which had dropped to 68 (should be a minimum of 115-120)

BUT
-Delilah is beautiful and healthy, and I'm getting there
-I'm already down to my pre-pregnancy weight

38 weeks 4 days

2008-05-07T20:55:00.003-04:00

Today we had another midwife appointment. I had one last week, too, the "home visit", where the midwife comes to your house and checks things out to make sure everything is ready/appropriate for a home birth. No biggie.

There isn't much to tell. We had our pregnancy pics taken on Sunday (Thanks Tish!) and should have them sometime soon.

I've been having cramps off and on since Saturday night, but nothing that could be considered consistent. Jennifer, our midwife, says that since they're more constant than intermittent, it could be getting close. I hope so. These cramps suck. I consider that I'd rather have the baby than 3 more weeks of cramps. Seriously. Besides, I want a beer and a deli sandwich.

Tick Tock - 37 weeks and 3 days

2008-04-28T21:28:00.002-04:00

Wow - a month has passed already since my last post. In that time, I've developed Irritable Uterus, my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome just about drove me nuts, my feet lost their bones, AND I left work earlier than planned for my mat leave.

As for the Irritable Uterus (I.U.), now that I'm "term" (able to have the baby at home, safely), it doesn't provide much of an issue other than terrible discomfort to me. But oh well. It was the reason I left work 2 weeks earlier than planned. I.U. can cause pre-term labour. Basically, any physical activity or prolonged sitting or my jeans digging into my belly causes my entire uterus to contract painfully - for hours. So it's like a contraction. AND I get Braxton Hicks contractions on TOP of this. Yay.

As for the being "term" part, for anyone not familiar with pregnancy issues, a pregnancy is considered to last 37 to 42 weeks, since doctors are stupid and can't quite figure out how long a baby needs to be in there (answer: FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES). So, having said that, a woman is "allowed" to home birth anytime after midnight on the first day of her 37th week of pregnancy, which for me, was Saturday morning. Yippee!! I'm in the clear, no threat of a forced hospital delivery (gak), etc etc. I can officially go into labour at any time now. Preferably before 42 weeks and one day, since at that point they'll be pressing me to be induced (not a good thing).

Today I picked up the birthing tub and all the supplies we'll need for the home birth, so we're all set, on this end. Ben set up the tub in the spare room, so all we'll need to do once labour starts is put in the plastic sheet (to keep it sanitary for next person), and fill it. That's a relief.

We have a ton of onesies now, for 0-3 and 3-6 months size, and a few in sizes bigger than that. We have absolutely no "clothes" for those sizes, other than the sweaters I've made. Not sure how that's gonna work, but I'm sure we'll not have the baby in any clothes for the first little while, since it will be summer, and it's a baby, for jeepers sake. Everything else, we have, thanks to family and friends' shower gifts (thanks everyone!) and purchases we've made. The only item we've yet to buy is the monitor off our registry. We'll likely pick that up later this week.

Ben starts his new job tomorrow, should be interesting. I guess him being laid off the day before he had his appendix removed was a good thing..upward and onward!

As for actual pregnancy news, I've had some signs of pre-labour (trust me, you don't want to know), and have it on authority that I'll be having this baby sometime in the next few weeks (snide laugh inserted here) but I feel it likely won't be that long. I could be wrong. We'll see. Ben wants me to "wait" until the weekend. I'm not sure the kiddo will agree, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Sorry to everyone who is awaiting an updated pregnancy pic, but we just keep forgetting. On Wednesday night we're having official professional pregnancy pics taken by Tisha Johnson of Intrigue Photography. I'm not sure what her copyright preferences are, but if I'm allowed, I'll put up one of those as soon as I can. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until Ben and I take more pics.

Appendix? Who needs it? 33 Weeks and Counting.

2008-04-01T16:29:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone.

Wow-check out how huge I am! I don't feel this big! And I still have (about) 7 weeks left!

There have been quite a few interesting occurrences in the last week or so. Starting off with me waking up with Carpel Tunnel Syndrome in my left hand and then developing it in my right-apparently this happens often during pregnancy? The extra fluid and swelling - and boy are my hands ever swollen - puts pressure on the nerves etc and causes the pain/tingling/loss of mobility and strength. What fun. I found that the exercises I found online have been helping with the mobility/pain in my left hand, but my right hand still suffers from tingling and numbness. It sucks bad. I can only hope it goes away after Fred is born. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The next major issue: Ben developing appendicitis and having surgery on Saturday to remove a piece of his body...what a nice way to enjoy a baby shower - Ben texted me about an hour before my family baby shower was to begin, to let me know the ultrasound had showed appendicitis and he would be having surgery that day to remove it. Now, I immediately wanted to cancel the shower, but there were several people coming from out of town to attend. And we had no idea WHEN the surgery would take place (turns out they took him shortly after 5 pm). So I put on a (mostly) happy face, bad cold and all, and tried to enjoy the shower. Immediately after the last guest had left, I took off to the hospital and made it about 5 minutes before they took him up.
I was seriously worried. Any number of things can go wrong during surgery. Add to that fact that Ben had never been admitted to a hospital before, let alone had surgery, I was scared. But everything turned out ok, and around 8 pm they wheeled him by on a stretcher on the way to his room (so much for the surgeon coming to talk to us). He was ensconced in a room on the surgical floor and fought the anesthesia for several hours (he lost) and ended up sleeping, off and on, until about 1130. He woke up for quite a while then, and was taking it like a trooper. I ended up leaving the hospital shortly after midnight (thanks for the ride, Lindsey!) and went home to a very lonely bed - the first time we've been apart since our wedding.

Add to all of this: I was developing a NASTY cold/flu virus from Thursday morning on. Thank goodness it didn't get too bad until Sunday, but man, when it hit, it hit hard. I've been out for the count-fever, headache, sinus pain, coughing, congestion, runny nose, earache, you name it, I have it. I've been off work these last two days and still feel terrible. I've developed the fever in the last 24 hours - I hope it's not pneumonia or sinus infection, I really want to avoid antibiotics. I'll keep monitoring the fever and go from there.

As for baby stuff, we got some really nice stuff from my family. In addition to tons of onesies and sleeper (please, NO MORE SLEEPERS OR ONESIES), we got two awesome diaper bags, lots of small sized pre-fold diapers, a baby gate, the coolest bath toy storage system EVER, and lots more. We also got some cash to help us out with purchases in the future. Thanks everyone!
Anyone coming to upcoming baby showers should check out our registry lists at Toys R Us (look under 40485155 or Rebecca Maclary) and Cheeky Monkey (look under Rebecca MacLary) for ideas-all the stuff we need is on those lists.

I've been cutting out cloth wipes and started sewing them this afternoon - I got thru three of them before my headache kiboshed that plan. Oh well, at least they're started now. I also cut out the outside pieces for several more diapers in newborn and small sizes. I think I've got those pretty much covered, for up to 15 pounds, anyway. We still need diapers for over 15 pounds. Either pre-folds, fitteds, or pockets. See our registry lists if you want to help out.

Thanks!
Rebecca, Ben, and Fred

Midwife Update-30 weeks

2008-03-11T10:43:00.003-04:00

Ok, so it's been forever since I posted. We've had a busy couple of months (moved) and now things should settle back to normal.

I just had my 30 week midwife appointment yesterday afternoon. Things went well-the baby is head down (YAY) and anterior (YAY) so everything looks good on that front. HR was about 144. I'm measuring at about 31 weeks, which is ok, since my first ultrasound actually places my EDD at May 13, not 17.

I haven't taken any preg pictures lately, we should get on that. I'm a lot bigger than last time. But it's still all baby, so I'm ok with that. The bending over part sucks now. Ben does my shoes up for me (what a nice husband) and I thank him for that.

I've set up my sewing machine in the basement with the computers and am still hard at work crocheting things. I've added several items to the baby's wardrobe so I'll have to take some pics.

I have a baby shower coming up, the family one, on March 29th. It's at our new place, for lack of location in London, but Lindsey is gonna run it (yay Lindsey!). Should be good times. I am hoping people will actually USE the baby registry that we spent hours completing - it lists all the stuff we NEED and want. Especially since there are so many things that we DON'T want.

I've added some things to my unacceptable list, too: plastic toys (can we say leaching chemicals?) and things from China. Which pretty much rules out WalMart, but I think that's the point...once the babe is older and having birthdays, holidays, etc, we'll enforce the no plastic toys no stuff from China rule. I hope people believe me when I say we'll just throw out the gift or give it away rather than give it to our child, so maybe people will actually make thoughtful, conscientious decisions when it comes to buying toys. I'd rather he/she get a nice homemade gift, or a book, or whatever....but maybe that's asking too much?

Baby Update-24 weeks 4 days

2008-01-29T21:50:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-22T19:36:00.000-05:00

"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

2008-01-21T22:17:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-17T21:08:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-16T21:44:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-15T08:17:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-14T08:59:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-13T15:55:00.000-05:00

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.