16 weeks pregnant with Twins

How far along are you: 16 weeks 1 day

Maternity clothes: Pants but not shirts.

Sleep: It's getting harder to stay comfortable while I sleep, but it's not impossible unless Ellie decides to be a monster like last night and keep me awake all night. Yuck.

Best moment this week: Going to my 16 week appointment and having a doctor who not only is in favor of pushing for a normal, non-c-section birth, but who did us an AWESOME favor that will be blogged about later :) He had a very open mind and didn't try to just shoot down my plans for an unmedicated birth like the first doctor I saw. He was also VERY impressed that I had Ellie unmedicated because he said at least 80% of the people who plan to go without an epidural don't go through with it! That gave me a reason to be proud of myself with Ellie, and more hope for having the experience I want! Thank heavens there is at least ONE doctor in the practice that's on my side!

Miss anything: Other than being comfortable, nope.

Movement: More than last week, but always very spastic and out of nowhere.

Food cravings: Sweets, SWEETS, sweets, SWEETS and SWEEEEETS! Holy moly, I have never in my life wanted so much sweet food! Luckily, I don't keep much sweet food other than fruit and honey in the house so it's not really a problem. I just let myself have cravings and get over it by replacing it with something else that is a better option.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Just when I don't get enough sleep, or haven't eaten in a while.

Have you started to show yet: Yes, but I'm still in that stage where people would probably not dare ask me, for fear that I've just had too much to eat lately and am not pregnant.

Gender: I have no inclinations one way or the other, I just want to find out! Luckily, we find out at my next appointment!

Belly button in or out: More out than in. Good thing it's not like the Turkey timer, because I am definitely NOT done!

Labor signs: Nada

Wedding rings on or off: On. I'm hoping things are similar to when I was pregnant with Ellie and I don't get super swollen, because that was one of the best things I had going for me!

Looking forward to: Like I said, the next appointment, because we get to find out what they are and I CANNOT WAIT!

Things are all going well and the babies are healthy as far as we know. We opted to not do the amniocentisis and when we have our big 20 week ultrasound, we'll be able to see that everything is going well for sure. The babies' heart rates were in the 130s for baby A and in the 140s for baby B. Does this mean they're different genders? WHO KNOWS! Make sure you take the poll on the top of my blog!

For Jess & Linds: Cloth diaper tips

This post is mainly for my friends Jessica & Lindsay but anyone who is even a LITTLE bit interested in cloth diapers should give it a read, if you want to, of course!


We've been cloth diapering for 2 1/2 weeks and seriously I am not looking back. I've gotten over any fears I had about poop, leaks, washing, smells, and all that jazz. I'm turning obsessed, because I'm matching Ellie's shirts to her CUTE diapers and letting her run around pantsless! 


First things first, I want to give some advice on some accessories that I now deem 100% necessary!


#1. A diaper sprayer. I don't know what I would do without it.  Our diaper sprayer was made using this tutorial, and it cost us about $35, about $10 less than the legit sprayers you can get on the market. However, I think buying everything in Utah, you can make it for A LOT less, it's just that the parts were more expensive here. It is necessary because it does exactly what it's called, sprays the poop off the diapers. On its own it's great, but I would ALSO suggest that you spend another $10-$12 and make your own Potty Pail, which is #2 on the list.


#2. Potty Pail. What is a Potty Pail? Basically a 5 gallon bucket that has a hole in the bottom, hooks to hold the diaper and a place for your sprayer to rest. Why is it necessary? Well, if you don't have it, you're basically spraying poo water ALL OVER your bathroom, and I'm not even exaggerating. I was never able to contain the mess without a Potty Pail, and now I'm SOO glad I don't have to disinfect the ENTIRE bathroom after taking care of a poopy diaper. You can buy a legit one here but to be honest, David put this together in less than 20 minutes (without using a drill) so don't waste your money, and make it yourself! It will take even less time and look better than ours if you own a drill.

  

 View of our PottyPail 

#3. Somewhere to put your diapers while they wait for the next wash. Right now, I'm just using our Diaper Dekor with a cheap trash bag that I change out every once in a while. Because I wash every other day, to every two days, I haven't ever noticed a smell. I prefer to separate my inserts and covers BEFORE I put them into the Dekor, because then I don't have to do it after they've sat for a day or two. Trust me, this is the better method, because usually a diaper isn't all the way wet at the back of the insert where you pull it out after changing your baby's bum. BUT if you let the diaper sit for a while, the moisture wetness (that was for you, Jess) wicks to the back of the insert, and it's gross to pull it out when you're getting ready to wash. Also this makes it easier to wash since you just dump the diapers into the washer and go.

#4. A good cloth diaper detergent. I started out using All Free & Clear, then I read so many bad things about it, and I also noticed that it wasn't rinsing out very well, and I had to run additional washes/rinses, and that was annoying. It's not a HORRIBLE choice for cloth diapers, as it doesn't have perfumes or dyes, but it does have some things that are on the no no list for cloth diapers, like optical brighteners. I ordered Rockin' Green in the classic formula and I really like it. I had to use more of it than I thought, but since I figured out a good washing method, it's a great choice!

#5. Somewhere to line dry the diaper covers. I know some brands say they can be dried in the dryer, but I line dry my covers, and it takes seriously maybe a couple of hours, so no biggie there. I bought a retractable clothes line from Home Depot for like $12 and it was a great investment for me, especially since we live in such a humid climate and drying outside wouldn't work well because of the humidity!



What is NOT necessary:


#1. Liners. Liners are no good if your child climbs, walks, or moves a lot (and I've read TONS of reviews to back this up) so don't waste your money on them. I stopped using them all together, because they really don't keep the poop off the diapers because after Ellie runs around for a while, the liner is just a wad in the diaper, and that's annoying and I'm sure it's VERY uncomfortable, too!

I don't have anything else to add to that list, ha ha! I just feel very cheated that I thought my liners would work...they work BETTER if you use 2, but then the price per liner is more than I want to spend, and I was trying to get away from the whole buy something disposable and waste money thing.


The washing routine:

You can spend hours, and I mean HOURS trying to research *how* you should wash your diapers. Trust me, I did. But this is what works best for us:

1. Put everything (liners, covers, doublers) in the washer run a short wash on cold/cold with NO detergent. I usually only have 7-10 diapers to wash at a time, and with this first wash/rinse/whatever you want to call it I set my load size to small. This make sure the diapers rub up against each other and really get a lot of the nasties out during this first wash. 


2. After the cold rinse is finished, set the load size to medium (yes, I even do medium with only 7 diapers in the load, I will explain why later) set the temperature to hot/cold and set the extra rinse option to on. I add about 2 Tbsp of Rockin' Green detergent and let the washer do its thing.


3. After the hot wash, I give EVERY single cover a good sniff before I hang them up on the clothes line. Your diapers should smell like nothing. IF there is a smell, you have a problem. I had a problem of having the coupe of diapers I knew were pooped in smell like poop still, so that to me said they weren't clean. After doing a lot of research, I figured out I wasn't adding enough water OR detergent, which is why I set the hot wash to medium even with such a small load. After I sniff them and they pass the test of my nose, they're hung up and the inserts are put in the dryer and dried on low with NO DRYER SHEET! Dryer sheets will ruin your diapers because they will leave residue.


4. After everything is nice and dry, I stuff the diapers and put them where I need them.


There is a learning curve to cloth diapers, but once you figure the routine out, it's not really hard, scary, gross or anything else you may be afraid of!


I just wanted to add that on the days when I've run out of diapers and had to put Ellie back in disposables, she's gotten a rash, but as soon as I get her back in a cloth diaper, the rash is gone SO FAST! That right there is motivation to want to cloth diaper.


We are still only using bumGenius 4.0 diapers with snaps, and I don't know that I'm going to try any other kinds. They're awesome, and on the times when Ellie has had huge explosive poops, they have contained it, when we STILL have problems with disposables not containing poop. 


There you have it! I hope you can appreciate my tips and that you find what works for you! Ask me any questions you may have, and I'm happy to answer them, even though I'm still a newbie to cloth diapers!

The next 15 days can't come fast enough!!

Warning, venting and emotionalness ahead...

Tonight I'm having a hard time with everything. I really *want* to like it here in Tennessee, I do. I just am having a really hard time liking it. Sure, it's pretty, people are friendly, we have a nice place to live, David has a great job, but none of those things are making up for how I'm feeling now.

I miss my old ward. I am having a hard time liking the ward here. There aren't any other young couples and it's really hard for me since that's where I was hoping to make friends. I've made a couple of friends here so far, but you can't replace your friends, and I'm REALLY missing the friends I have that I'm so far away from right now. I was way too spoiled to have the best friend I could ever have living right next door to me and now it's totally killing me to not have someone nearby I can just visit with!!

I'm having a hard time with the fact that there's not really a good place for Ellie and I to go play that is within walking distance. The grass at our house is so terrible that it's not for playing, as it's full of poky, prickly weeds. There isn't anywhere for us to go on walks, except up and down our street, which is not great, either.

I have a hard time being motivated to actually do things during the day, because I always feel like I have nobody to see, nowhere to go, and not much to look forward to, so I just bum around and attempt to be productive. Because we only have one car, I couldn't go anywhere if I wanted to anyway, so that makes me even less motivated to do anything.

Most of all, I miss my family. Not that I was with them every single day, but the mere thought of being able to drive just a little while to see them was great, and I miss having them close to me, especially when I know they're all together celebrating something or having fun.

It's hard to be excited for the weekends here, because I feel like there's not really anything fun for us to do, other than sit around our house! I miss the many things to do in Provo/Utah County and people to have fun with!

All in all, I'm having a REALLY hard time liking living in Tennessee. It's pretty pathetic when I've only been here for about a month and a half and I'm already counting down the days (15!!!!) to when I'm going back to Utah again! Don't get me wrong, I'm not ungrateful that we're starting a new chapter in our lives and that we have the great opportunity to be here, I'm just having a REALLY REALLY REALLY hard time with it, and it's no fun to feel this way.

Anyway, enough venting/ranting/whining/complaining. I'm going to go sit on the couch and maybe I'll fall asleep sometime tonight??

Favorite toy

Ellie is obsessed with this stroller and loves to push it all over. I got it when I was 10 or so and it still looks brand new.  I kept it hidden from grandkids so it wouldn't get ruined and now my kids can play with it!

17 Months: Ellie

I've been pretty terrible at updating about Ellie as she gets older, but here's to hoping I will do better now that we're a bit more settled in!

Ellie turned 17 months old on the 1st! I can't believe she's that big, yet sometimes she acts like she's so much older!

This is the ONLY picture I have of her this month so far...

 She loves to wear headbands, and take them off...also she loves to run around in just a diaper :P

Here are some notable things about Ellie at 17 months old:

• She LOVES to draw with crayons, pens, pencils, ANYTHING...and she loves to draw on anything, too! We bought her a coloring book, but she prefers the coffee table, random papers she finds around or things she's not supposed to draw on!

• She's got 6 teeth! Woo hoo! 

• She weighs between 22 and 23 lbs

• She wears 18 month size clothes, the tallest setting of her cloth diapers :) but size 3 of disposables, and size 4 shoes. 

• She's a great sleeper, sleeping 12-13 hours at night and takes a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon.

• Outside is where she loves to be most, it's just unfortunate that we don't really have a place for her to play here, and the grass is just full of weeds. And it's also unfortunate that her pregnant mama has a hard time being outside in the heat for more that 5 minutes!

• She loves to run around our living room, especially with a blanket on top of her head (no idea where she got this idea...)

• She's become a picky eater lately and only wants to eat "papa" (pasta) "ish" (fish-goldfish) apples, bananas, "chsss" (cheese), peas, sometimes steamed broccoli and carrots and any kind of cereal. Occasionally, I can get her to eat chicken, if it's mixed in with other things. 

• She says quite the variety of words but her new ones are, Lemonade, birds and more. I can't think of any but those 3 right now but she also says lots of names, like "Hay Hay" (our neighbor Harrison back in Utah) "essca" (Jessica, also a neighbor in Utah) "NorNor" (Friend Norris) "Nena" (Friend Brenna), "Mama", "dada", "Papa" (Grandpa. Grandma is always Papa, too...)

• She loves to sing and dance and listen to my iPod when she gets her little hands on it!

• Whenever she makes messes or does something she knows she isn't supposed to, she says, "No No No No No!" It's funny, but not all at the same time!

• She goes to Nursery now, which is SO nice and she totally loves it! The only problem is that we have church at 1, and she usually doesn't take a nap before church, so by the time church is over at 4, she is SO ornery and worn out that the second we put her in the car to go home, she's out. She usually stays asleep when we bring her in though, and will sleep until we wake her up!

• She loves to play with anything and everything, especially bowls and cake pans from my kitchen cabinets! 

• She will watch ANYTHING on TV. Seriously, anything. It's no good. Though we only let her watch for up to 60 minutes a day. That may seem like a lot, but sometimes when I feel like dying or falling asleep, I can lie down on the couch, turn Netflix on, and she'll be a good little girl and sit with me while we watch Shaun the Sheep or Curious George.

We love her SO much and she's such a joy in our lives. I don't know what we would do without her...life would probably be much more quiet and not nearly as much fun!

Finding deals and saving dough

I'm not turning my blog into some kind of save money blog or anything, I just like to tell my friends about awesome places to get awesome deals, so here you have it!

I hate paying full price for anything and most times I don't buy something unless I can find a deal! This also forces me to not buy things I don't really need, because by the time I've searched around for a deal on something, I've decided if it's really worth it or not! Anyway, I just want to make my friends aware of great sites that are worth your time!

I find deals on electronics, baby/kid stuff, clothes for me, movies, you name it. It's so worth it!

• Woot
• Baby Steals
• The Mini Social
• Zulily
• Baby 1/2 off
• Freebies2deals
• Totsy
• 1SaleADay 

Now, those are just SOME sites you can check, but they're my favorite. Other tips I have for saving is to ALWAYS search Google for a coupon code for a particular site or product when buying online. Honestly 9 times out of 10, I find a coupon that saves me at least 10% or more off my entire order, so why not save some extra money!?

For my friends buying baby stuff, I recommend buying most of the "gear" you'll need (i.e. Car Seat, Stroller, etc.) from Albeebaby. I have purchased Ellie's two car seats there, and they give the absolute BEST prices around (at least on the particular car seats I have purchased). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this post, and can find some AWESOME deals!

Pregnancy updates

I stole this format from another blog I saw, and I loved it, so I am going to update this way! It makes it easier!

 

Sorry, no picture today!

 

How far along? 14 weeks 5 days
Maternity clothes? Baha, since like 9 weeks I've HAD to wear maternity pants and/or wear my pants unbuttoned. These days we're rocking maternity jeans full-time.

Sleep: I sleep relatively OK for the most part. I wake up every once in a while uncomfortable and have a hard time falling back asleep.

Best moment this week: Finally having energy to do things!

Miss Anything? Cookie dough!!

Movement: A bit, but not much

 Food cravings: Bagels and cream cheese!! Can't get enough! Also salty things, fruit and ice cream!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Only if I don't stay hydrated. I usually feel pretty good most days, I just still don't have a big appetite for food yet!

Have you started to show yet: Yep. I'm as big as I was with Ellie at like 22 weeks hah!

Gender: ? Hoping for one of each!
Labor Signs: Nope
Belly Button in or out? Half & Half
Wedding rings on or off? On

Looking forward to:  My 16 appointment next Friday. Cross your fingers that they'll do an ultrasound and we'll get a peek at the genders!

 

All in all things are going well. I've finally come to terms with the fact we'll have TWO newborns! AHH! It's getting less scary and more cute the more I think about it :P

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend, we headed down to Dudley, Georgia to attend David's niece's graduation. Crazy! He has a niece that is not much younger than I am! Anyway, it was a great opportunity to see some family we haven't seen in a couple years, and it was also a great opportunity for Ellie to meet cousins, aunts and an uncle that she's never met before!

I don't think I took any pictures (fail) but we had a good time. We only stayed until Sunday, because we wanted to make the long (6-6.5 hours) drive back home and still have a day where we could get a few things squared away back home. 

On Monday, we did a lot of running around, as well as some shopping! We bought some flowers to plant in our little basket that is on our front porch and David and I each bought a new pair of shorts! Woohoo...maternity shorts... hah!

After getting back home, we fed Ellie a quick lunch, then decided to head to the lake. It was about 30 minutes away, but it was well worth it. We paid our $2 day use fee and parked on the grass on the side of the street because it was SO darn crowded! Even though there were so many people, we still had a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures

I only added this one because Ellie looked so cute...now if only I didn't look like I was in pain, or something...

Ellie didn't want to leave, but I was getting tired, and I was also burning so after about 1 1/2 hours, we called it quits. We came back home, cleaned up and assembled our little mini grill that we've NEVER used that we got for our wedding. It worked well and we had some tasty hot dogs and macaroni salad. 

All in all, it was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun!