Big Weekend

What a busy weekend!  Friday night we had a great dinner at Mermaids with our friends Scott and Taylor.  Then we headed to Joplin first thing Saturday morning. And, we got a lot done!  We stopped at the Better Living store first and finally picked a ceiling fan - thank goodness!  And we found some cute decorations for baby's room at Kirklands.

Birdie Bookends

Owl on the Shelf

After Kirklands we found some adorable baby and maternity clothes at Kohl's.  Then we headed over to Babies R Us to register.  It was much more overwhelming than I'd anticipated.  I thought I had a  pretty good idea of what we would need, but there was just SO much stuff in that store!  So, I think the registry is a little disorganized and there is a lot of random stuff, but it was fun.

We stopped in Seneca for dinner with my dad and finally made it home around 11.  We were excited though because we had goodies in the mail!  The hats I ordered from zulily came in and so did the valance Jason's mom made for the nursery.  It turned out perfectly!  Can't wait for the bedding to come in, too.

Doctor, Doctor

Samson and I both had appointments with the doctor yesterday.  Dr. Collins said  the little one is a "happy baby" since her heart rate was 161 (same as last time), so that's good! Samson, on the other hand, got in trouble for gaining 8 pounds in the last year - oops!  But that doesn't sound so bad considering I gained 9 this month!  Yikes, I'm in trouble with myself!  I was really wanting to keep it at the previous pace of 1 pound per week.  

I was hoping to take some pictures at Jessica's wedding this weekend, but we forgot the camera and didn't think to take any on our phones, so I let Whitney take one of me at work on Tuesday.  This is 23 weeks, 4 days.  I pretty much feel huge and am a little nervous about the weeks to come!

I've also been bummed lately because I can't make all of the cute (and so expensive) boutique dresses I've seen lately.  I love them, but just can't stomach the price.  So, I'm thinking about taking some sewing lessons.  My mother may remember the last time I tried to learn to sew.  It lasted about 30 minutes and wasn't pretty.  Hopefully, this time will yield better results.  I want to be able to to make things like these (all courtesy of some amazing and talented etsy sellers):

Swing on Down

We got an awesome gift from my Aunt Margaret this week!  She told me that she wanted to get us a swing, and I was so excited when I saw the box on our doorstep.  Of course, we had to put it together that very night!  I love this swing, and can't wait for our little girl to use it.  I'm sure she will love it!  It is so soft and comfy and incredibly cute - it has the sweetest little bunny ears and a mobile with little leaves and birds.  It rotates so baby can swing front to back or side to side and even has a wall adapter so that we don't have to go through tons of batteries.  Love it!

Fluff Love

Just got home from starting my registry at Terra Tots in Fayetteville, and I'm so excited.  As most of my friends/ family know, I decided early on in my pregnancy that I wanted to use cloth diapers on our little one.  Initially it was out of sticker shock at the prices of disposable diapers.  I figured that cloth would suck, but it would save a lot of money, and that was good enough for me.  When I started telling people my idea, most everyone thought I was crazy.  So, as I always do, I did some research.  I became so overwhelmed by all of the brands and types (prefolds and pockets and all-in-ones, oh my!) that I started to give in to the naysayers.  Maybe I was taking on too much.  After all, just being a mom sounds scary and overwhelming.  Should I make it any more complicated than it already is?  But then a couple of things happened that made me reconsider cloth.  The first was my friend and esthetician, Alicia.  Alicia is a cloth diapering, baby wearing, natural child birthing (at home even) mom of three.  I have always respected so many of her thoughts and ideas about parenting and she was eager to tell me more about her experience.  She explained the different types in a way that was easy to understand.  She also told me her "routine" for washing and making cloth just as easy as disposables.  She uses the BumGenius pocket diapers and swears they're the best.  So I thought, ok, I'll just do what Alicia does and that was simple enough for me.  Then my mom chimed in.  My brother and I were both cloth babies and she didn't realize how much times have changed when it comes to cloth (you mean you don't have to pin them and they aren't just big pieces of fabric you fold up all fancy-like?).  She started doing some of her own research, encouraged me to keep thinking about it, and even volunteered to come to the Cloth Diapering Workshop at Terra Tots. Initially she thought the fact that a workshop is needed was completely hilarious, but now she understands.  


So, I was back on the bandwagon.  I made sure to make my research more specific to avoid that overwhelming feeling, and I'm SO glad I did.  Now that I've learned more, my reasoning for cloth diapering has expanded well beyond cost (although that is still a huge factor).  Here are the reasons for me.  If you want to know where I found this research, feel free to ask :)

1. Cost is still big.  The average baby goes through 6,000 diapers between birth and age 2 - 6,000!!!!  The cost for diapers alone is between $1300 and $1600 per child.  Based on the type of diaper I'm planning to use, my entire stash should be around $750 and can be reused if we have more children.  What a great savings!  And this doesn't even factor in the cost of wipes (yes, we'll use cloth wipes too).  Note that if you plan to use a diaper service, the cost for cloth goes up.  We will be washing our own.
2. Mother Earth. Those 6,000 disposable diapers that end up in the landfills generate about 1 ton of waste per child and make up about 4% of all waste.  Yuck!  It is estimated that they take between 250-500 years to decompose.  Yuck!  It also takes more resources to make all those diapers.  Some argue that the fact that you have to use water and electricity to clean cloth negates the benefits, but research has found that not to be the case.  And yes, I will have to do a couple more loads of laundry each week, but it's worth it.
3. Health.  This one is BIG for me.  Have you ever thought about what is in those diapers you are putting on your child's most sensitive parts?  How about Dioxin?  Dioxin is listed by the EPA as one of the most toxic of all cancer-linked materials!  Next comes Tributyl-tin, a pollutant known to cause hormonal problems.  And then there's Sodium Polyacrylate (SAP).  This is that gel-like stuff you often see on baby's bum after a diaper change.  They used to put it in tampons until it was linked to Toxic Shock Syndrome.  All of these things sound pretty icky to me. 
4. Blowouts!  I was constantly getting questions like, "Isn't that gross?" and "What about the poop?".  I may not have a baby yet, but I'm pretty sure if I want to be a mom, I need to get over any fear I have of poop or other bodily functions.  I've heard countless stories about blowouts and ruined clothes from other moms I know.  The thing is though, this is far less likely to happen with cloth because of the way the diapers are made.  Yay!  Also, the poop goes in the toilet, where poop belongs.  Most people don't realize this, but in many places, it is illegal to put human waste in the trash.  That includes human waste in diapers.  You are actually supposed to rinse out disposables, too!  Besides, I'd much rather have a clean stash every couple of days instead of having poopy diapers in my trash for a week until the city comes to pick them up, but that's just me...
5. They are so stinkin' cute!  Yes, they are covered by clothes most of the time, but cloth comes in so many fun colors and patterns and is down-right adorable!  Need proof?  I've never seen a disposable that's this cute!

Blueberry Newborn All-In-One (Made in Arkansas!)

Bumgenius 4.0 Pocket in Lovelace

So, I know this has been a long post, and I apologize.  But, I really feel strongly about this decision.  Many people don't even consider cloth as an option, and I hope this opens their minds to some new ideas!

My Only Sunshine

I'm absolutely loving the nursery!  Today, the artwork for the wall came in.  Every time we add something new, I like it even more!  I just love etsy.com, and can't say enough about this seller, GoJumpInTheLake. 

I also made some fun purchases today.  I recently discovered zulily.com

"zulily is fabulous! It's a new online store offering daily sales events on top-quality apparel, gear and other goodies for moms, babies and kids. We carry the best brands at the lowest prices.  Members enjoy savings of up to 90% off retail prices. zulily loves to find deals on favorite styles, and we love introducing our members to exciting new brands, too."

I'm usually just bummed because they have SO much cute stuff, but even at a discount, clothes for kids are ridiculously expensive!  I've always had a soft spot for crocheted hats, but they don't come cheap either - usually $25-$35.  So, imagine my excitement when I saw that zulily had a daily deal with the most adorable hats for $6.99!  I couldn't resist these 3:

Working for the Weekend

Well, I've almost recovered from the weekend.  It started out with a couples wedding shower for our friends Jessica Maland and Justin McCutcheon.  Jessica is actually the one who introduced me to Jason, and we're so excited for her St. Patrick's Day wedding.  I left the shower and headed straight to Rhea Lana with Rea.  Needless to say, I was beat by the end of the day.  Luckily, I came home to Jason prepping the nursery for a new paint job!  He even let me sleep in on Sunday and got up early to start painting (to be honest, I didn't even hear him get out of bed).  I am always very stressed about new paint colors because I've had some not so fantastic outcomes.  I almost always end up repainting everything I paint.  I won't forget the marshmallow green bathroom anytime soon...  As I posted earlier, we painted the walls Sherwin Williams's Embellished Blue.  The ceiling got a coat of leftover gray Sherwin Williams ceiling paint from our room.  I must say that I've really grown to love Sherwin Williams paint and think it is worth the extra $.  It goes on the wall so well compared to other things I've tried.  But, I digress.  As it turns out, the nursery turned out EXACTLY like I'd hoped.  I couldn't be more pleased.  It is the perfect soft aqua with a little touch of green.  Of course, I would paint my little girl's room blue!  On to the pictures!

Panoramic View - Click to Enlarge

The wall art should be here tomorrow, and I can't wait to hang it!  Now we're just waiting on the bedding to come in.  Jason's mom is working on the valance and the basket liners.  Once all of that is done, we will just be waiting for baby!

Rhea Lana

Rea and I had so much fun today at Rhea Lana!  If you're unfamiliar with Rhea Lana, it is a franchise consignment event.  Basically, thousands of families in Northwest Arkansas take 'all things kid' to sell on consignment during the week long event.  There was TONS of stuff - clothes, strollers, toys, and all kinds of other gear and furniture.  Moms To Be are in one of the first groups to have access to the store, and it was packed.  You could barely move without running into another pregnant lady, and it didn't help that we all take up more space than we did a few months ago.  Although we didn't find any furniture or gear, we made out pretty well when it comes to clothes.  Here are a few of the cute things I found.

 I should probably slow down or this little girl is going to have more clothes than days to wear them!