A (Not-so-Awkward) Secret about Breast Pumps

Whenever you get a good piece of advice from someone, it’s normal to want to share it with others. When you take the good piece of advice and save yourself hundreds of dollars, it becomes something you need to share with others. But when you realize that this piece of advice that saved you lots of money is not known by too many people, it becomes your duty to spread the word! So, with that introduction, I want you all to know this little secret that I found out right before Levi was born: you may be able to get a brand new, double-electric, super-nice breast pump…for free!

That’s right! A few weeks before Levi was born, I attended a breastfeeding class at my hospital. We were talking about pumping and people were bringing up how expensive it is to buy or rent a pump. Then, one girl in my class said that she heard a rumor that you could get a free pump through your insurance company if you requested it.

That sounded awesome to me, so when Levi was born, Justin called our insurance company to find out about it. Turns out we could get a free pump if we ordered it from a list of medical supply companies that they provided to us. We can also get a new pump for each kid that we have, again, for free! You can’t beat that!

To be honest, even after we found this out, I was a little skeptical. I mean, a free pump from a medical supply company could be some weird, cheap, off-brand, crap machine. Nope! We got a Medela Advanced Double Breast Pump. The only complaint I have is that the carrying case is rather ugly…its old-lady beige and is not disguised to look like a briefcase or anything. I’ll take it though if it means we get a $450 breast pump for free!

So, pregnant women of America – call your insurance company and see if they will do this for you! It’s just another great way to alleviate some of the cost of having a kiddo!

Cloth Diapers 101 - Choosing a Diaper (Part 1)

 

Choosing a Diaper
Believe it or not, there are quite a few types and brands of cloth diapers to pick from. They range from the old-fashioned pre-fold with a diaper cover to more modern pockets and hybrid diapers. Deciding what type of diaper you want to go with depends on why you're doing cloth diapers (to save money, to be eco-friendly, because they're awesome...you know...whatever your reason) and how much "extra work" you are willing to deal with (although, as I mentioned last time, the extra work isn't that big of a deal, hence the quotes).

No Matter What, I Need to Save as Much Money as Possible!
If you are solely looking to save money and don't care about how much work the diapers are, I would recommend looking into pre-folds and diaper covers. Pre-fold diapers are what a lot of moms use for burp cloths now - those white, rectangular cloths that are thicker in the middle and pretty dang absorbent. They seem intimidating because you have to fold them yourself, but it's actually really easy. (Click here for a great video on different ways to fold them!) Pre-folds come in different sizes depending on the size of your kiddo, but there aren't a lot of sizes (because you can fold them!) so you don't have to buy a bunch of them throughout your kiddo's diaper career.

To keep the diapers in place you can use safety pins or you can use snappies. These are stretchy clips, similar to the ones you use with ace bandages, that hold the diaper in place. They are MUCH easier to use than safety pins, especially with a squirmy baby. These are also inexpensive and, unless you lose yours, they are a one-time purchase.

Finally, the diaper covers, which you place over the pre-fold to keep pee and poo from going everywhere, cost very little compared to other types of diapers. And because they are just covers, you don't need that many. Unless the cover gets poo on it, you can just wipe the pee residue out with a baby wipe and let it dry while you use another. These are also typically sized, like the pre-fold inserts, so you will most likely need to buy separate sets a few times, but, like I said, they don't cost much.

Another big reason that these diapers are so cost effective is because you don't need to use special laundry detergent like you do on other diapers. From my experience, regular free and clear detergent works just fine, which leads me to...

My Two Cents
When Justin and I decided to do cloth diapers, we did not decide to use pre-folds and diaper covers. However, once we got Levi home from the hospital, it became clear that he wouldn't be big enough for the diapers we had for a while. We didn't want to use disposables because newborns poo and pee A BUNCH and we were trying to save as much money as possible. So, after some research (see Making the Decision), we decided to try pre-folds until our other diapers fit. One of the main reasons we went with these diapers, besides the cost, was the fact that you can get them in extra-small that fit newborns. They even have a little notch for the belly button, just like newborn disposable diapers.

We bought two Thirsties diaper covers in extra-small ($12!), a set of snappies, and just used some pre-folds that were given to us as gifts. Two covers was definitely enough because most of Levi's poos weren't substantial enough to dirty them up. And since breast-fed baby poo is water-soluble, we just threw the pre-folds right into the wash, poo or no poo, without dunking them in the toilet or any of those other horrors you hear about that scare people away from cloth (don't worry, I'll cover cleaning and laundry in a future post). Honestly, it was easy as pie and it worked great for us while we waited for Levi to fit into our other diapers. And once Levi could wear his other diapers, we still kept the Thirsties around until he outgrew them - they worked really well!

While I didn't have the foresight to take a picture of tiny Levi in his Thirsties diaper, I won't leave y'all completely picture-less. Here he is!

What better way to brainwash your child into attending your university than to take him to sporting events? Sic 'em Bears!

Cloth Diapers 101: Making the Decision



After four months of baby-ness, I can finally say, with authority, that I love using cloth diapers! The following is the first installment of a little-bit-of-everything guide to cloth diapers. In this post I'll let you know how Justin and I made the decision to use cloth diapers, including helpful research information for those of you who are thinking about using them, but just aren't sure.

Research!
Justin and I found out about cloth diapers pretty early-on in my pregnancy. We were looking for any way to save money and this seemed like a great way to somewhat avoid the "babies are so expensive" feeling that was slowly creeping toward us. Before we decided to use cloth we did LOTS of research, which I highly recommend to anyone that's looking into it. There are plenty of blogs out there dedicated to cloth diapering. They have all kinds of statistics and reviews to look through for all the different types of cloth diapers, and let me tell you, there are lots of them. Here are a few places that were helpful research sites for us:

• Baby Center - This is a good website for pregnant folks anyway, but this page specifically gives a brief rundown of all of your options, as well as links to give you more information on what it means to use cloth diapers.
• Dirty Diaper Laundry - This is one of those blogs I was talking about that's dedicated to cloth diapers. It's got more reviews and videos than you could ever ask for. We visited this site a lot!
• Product Sites - when we started seriously considering a brand of diaper we would visit the company website. Obviously the sites are all biased, but they give you good insight into how the diapers work and the overall cost (i.e. disposable inserts, special detergent, sizing, etc.). Warning: These sites are designed to sell! You may want to google negative reviews after visiting the site just to give you some perspective.

YouTube
Another random but excellent place to go to research cloth diapering is YouTube. There are videos about all aspects of cloth, from organization and folding to reviews and time commitment. Here are a couple videos that we found helpful in the beginning:

Why Choose Cloth Diapers?

  



A Day in the Life of a Cloth Diapering Mom

YouTube is also a good place for the hubs to research cloth diapering. Justin found some videos made by other dads that gave him the male perspective, so that was good. I've read about some women doing cloth diapers without having their husband on board with it, but I imagine that's a huge pain in the butt. Just sayin'...

My Two Cents
If you're on the fence or are just finding out about cloth diapering as an option, you may be wondering why people would willingly give themselves more work to do when it comes to taking care of their baby (although I would argue it's not that much more, but I'll get to that another day). As I mentioned earlier, Justin and I originally started looking into cloth diapering because of the lower overall cost. I know there are some price comparisons out there that factor in things like disposable liners and laundry services, neither of which apply to us, so this is all relative, but from what I've read we're saving about $1500 over the course of Levi's diaper career by using cloth. Other benefits include the fact that cloth-diapered babies tend to potty train faster because they know what it feels like to be wet, they are better for the environment because you aren't throwing away large numbers of diapers each week, and the threat of diaper rash is slim to none. In fact, the only time Levi started to get a little diaper rash was when he was wearing disposables when we first brought him home. Since we transitioned to cloth we haven't had a problem with it. Finally, call me crazy, but I hate the smell of disposable diapers. I don't know if they're scented or what, but I think they smell like a public bathroom and I'm so glad that I don't have to mess with that on a regular basis.

Obviously, other things that you may want to consider are the additional loads of laundry you will be doing and the fact that you will most likely need to buy special laundry detergent for the diapers. Other than that though, and I know I'm biased here, I totally think they're worth it.

In future Cloth Diapering 101 posts, I'll explain some of the things I've briefly touched on above, but as a first installment, I hope this is helpful in providing some background information on how to go about researching cloth diapering and why Justin and I decided to go this route. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment!

And now, a gratuitous baby picture featuring, you guessed it, a cloth diaper (and a cute baby to boot)!



Levi's Birth Story (finally!)

DISCLAIMER: As the title suggests, this post is about Levi's birth, and while I don't go into too much detail, it still talks about each part of the labor experience. If you are at all grossed out by this, please stop reading here and take comfort in the fact that you know he was born and is doing well.

Levi's arrival having been a month ago, I am finally awake and sane enough to recount his birth story (yay!). And now that he's gone to sleep, I have (limited) time to write it down.

If there was a moral to Levi's birth story, it would be that you can't believe everything you read about labor and delivery - everyone's experience is different and mine is just another example of how true that is. Around 11:45PM on August 30th, right as Justin and I were going to bed, I had a pretty painful contraction. I had already experienced a few false labors, so Justin and I were hesitant to believe that this was real, but this contraction was more painful and it hurt in a different way than all the Braxton-Hicks contractions I had before.

Here's where things started to differ from everything I had read: Instead of my contractions becoming regular and gradually growing closer together and stronger over the course of several hours, within 30 minutes my contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes. While they were all pretty painful, they were not consistently so, meaning that some were more painful than others. Justin and I were both pretty confused by this, so I called the doctor (finally) at around 2AM and she told me to come to the hospital. At this point I was also starting to doubt my willingness to give birth naturally, because my contractions were getting to be pretty excruciating. The contractions themselves were not what was so painful, it was the back labor I was experiencing in conjunction with them. Because of Levi's position (which also played a role in his delivery), every time I had a contraction, his head would press on my lower spine.

At the hospital, even though I dilated a centimeter during the hour that I was there, they would not admit me. My contractions were irregular and I was only at 3cm. I felt frustrated because it seemed that the nurse did not really believe the amount of pain I was in. When I asked her what I could do about the pain (because she was treating them like Braxton-Hicks contractions), she told me to take 2 Tylenol (really...). By the time we left I was crying because of how much pain I was in.

Back at home, I took my two Tylenol, which of course did nothing, and continued to have contractions every 2-3 minutes. Thankfully, there was about an hour where they seemed to back off for a while, so Justin and I got a little bit of sleep, but for the most part, I was crying, yelling, and grabbing Justin for support every time a contraction hit. We called the doctor again at around 8AM and she told me to come back in if the pain got too bad, but I was convinced that I would just get sent home again because my contractions were still irregular. Finally, at about 10:30AM, I told Justin I couldn't take the pain anymore. I insisted that we go to the hospital immediately.

This time, as soon as I walked into the lobby, the receptionist looked at me and told me to go straight to check-in. After I checked in, which was done very quickly, they got me a wheel chair and wheeled me to triage. This time there was no denying that I was in labor. Even though my contractions were still irregular, I was now up to 5cm. When the nurse asked if I was planning on getting an epidural, I said that I hadn't planned to, but that I would like one. The pain was too unbearable. After the nurse left to get our room ready, I cried to Justin, telling him that I felt I had let him down because he believed in me so much. He insisted that I shouldn't feel that way because he was already so proud of me. He was so supportive the whole way through.

Once I got to my room, they immediately put me on Fentanyl to help ease the pain until I got my epidural, which happened within about 30 minutes or so. After getting the epidural I was finally able to rest and enjoy my time with Justin while we waiting for Levi to arrive. After about an hour without dilating past 6cm, the doctor broke my water to try to speed up delivery. She also wanted to put me on Pitocin at that time, which was the one thing at the top of my list that I did not want (besides a C-Section). As soon as she explained what she wanted to do, Justin asked if we could wait for an hour after she broke my water to see if I could dilate naturally. She agreed without hesitation and when she returned I had dilated to 8cm (yay! no Pitocin!).

After this, I started to dilate more quickly and began to feel the urge to push by 6PM or so. With Justin's support (which was more helpful than he will ever know) and the help of different nurses, I pushed for about 2 hours. After about an hour and a half of pushing (I think...time started to lose meaning at this point), the doctor came in and realized that he was sunny-side up, meaning he was facing the ceiling rather than the floor, which is what was causing my back labor earlier. I didn't realize it, but apparently it's difficult to deliver babies in this position vaginally if it's your first time. She mentioned that we may need to do a C-section if we couldn't get him out, but that she wanted to try turning him with forceps. I was getting scared for Levi at this point and I was upset at the thought that I may have to have a C-section.

After a couple of attempts, the doctor was unable to get Levi to turn, so she decided that she could deliver him vaginally using the forceps because he was low enough. All of the sudden my room was full of nurses and the anesthesiologist returned to give me additional pain medicine because of the type of delivery. At this point I was determined to get him out, and fast. After a little while longer, Levi was delivered with the forceps and we were able to avoid a C-section! I asked that he be placed on my chest right after delivery, which he was, and I was able to hold his little body and see his face as soon as he was out. The first thing Justin said was, "He looks like me!" and when I held him, I agreed. His swollen little face looked just like Justin when he was a baby.

After the fact, Justin and I both felt that Levi's delivery had been a traumatic experience. The length of time spent pushing, the urgency of the doctor and nurses during delivery, and the fact that forceps were needed left both of us scared to go through the process again. Now, a month later, I feel better about the idea, but feel that, no matter how much you try to prepare for it, labor and delivery cannot be understood until you go through it. In the end, Justin and I have a beautiful, healthy, pudgy son, and while it really takes a toll on your body, having a kid is totally worth it!

Finally, I would like to add that I have had several people say negative things about delivering at a hospital, and even specifically at Hillcrest, because its not a birthing center. Even though I felt that Levi's delivery was traumatic, it was not at all because I was in a hospital or because I was at Hillcrest. I would recommend that hospital to anyone, and, because of how Levi ended up being delivered, I'm glad I had him where I did. The process would have probably been more upsetting if I had been somewhere else. All of the nurses and doctors were extremely friendly, helpful, and supportive, and would have remained so, I am convinced, if I had not had any pain medication. So if you're pregnant in Waco and trying to decide on a place for delivery, I highly recommend Hillcrest.

Saving Money with Homemade Liquid Handsoap

Part of becoming a new mom, at least in my situation, is learning how to be even more frugal than we have been throughout our marriage. I would say that Justin and I have been operating at a nearly professional level of money saving for our entire marriage, sometimes out of necessity, and sometimes because, quite frankly, why wouldn't you? We don't have cable, we rarely go out to eat, we keep our thermostat at warmer or cooler than average temperatures depending on the time of year, and I plan our weekly menu with coupons and cheaper food items in mind.

With all of this already in practice, it would seem that we were on the right track to be able to afford this baby, but if there's one thing you learn during pregnancy, it's that babies are EXPENSIVE! We've already been able to cut some of the heavier costs by using cloth diapers and wipes instead of disposables items, as well as by planning to breastfeed (assuming all goes well in that department), but I've been feeling like there's more that we can do. Also, I think going all cloth in the diaper department has put me on an all-natural kick.

That being said, we were running low on liquid hand soap in the bathroom late last week, so I suggested to Justin that we make our own instead of continuing to buy refills or new pumps. Being the awesome and like-minded guy that he is, he got just as excited as I was and told me to go for it. I'm so glad we did! After doing some research, I got my recipe from this blog. I won't repeat the recipe here, so feel free to go there if you are interested.

For our soap, I used Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap in Almond. It's a fair trade, organic product made with essential and vegetable-based oils, so you know its good for you, the environment, and social justice (win win win!). I spent about $8.50 total on the soap at the Vitamin Shoppe here in town (they're cheaper at the store than on the website above), and then about $.84 on a gallon of distilled water from Walmart. So, for about $9 I made A BUNCH of soap. After I finished with everything I filled 2 liquid hand soap dispensers and two half-gallon glass jugs (I'm guessing...they may be bigger) that I already had around the house. I'm guessing I won't have to make more soap for probably a year, but we'll see.

As far as the soap itself, it seemed pretty snotty and kind of gross when I was stirring it and later when I poured it into the containers, but when you get it out of the dispenser it doesn't feel any different from store-bought soap. It also works really well and rinses easily, leaving your hands feeling clean without feeling dried out. Justin especially loves it and refuses to help me finish off the rest of the store-bought soap we have in the kitchen and bathroom. Haha!

Overall, it feels good to be able to save money in this way and, while hand soap is not a major expense, anything helps, especially when there's a kiddo in the mix. This has also convinced Justin and me to try other homemade items to help save money in other ways. So far, on the non-baby front, this is all we've pursued, but we will also be making our own all-purpose cleaner soon (maybe tomorrow?) to replace our Clorox Wipes, and are researching homemade laundry detergent, though we're a little hesitant to do that (what if we do it wrong and ruin our clothes?). Finally, we'd also eventually like to go from paper towels to cloth napkins (and I can embroider them to make them more fun!).

The Nursery is Finished (well...pretty much...) Part 1

I got my last needed item in the mail today (hello, white lamp stand!) and can finally say that Levi's nursery is ready to go! Granted, I'm still looking for a new cushion for the rocking chair since the sage doesn't really match anymore (and I've only been able to find other fall shades in stores lately...lame), but other than that it's ready!! Here's what we've got goin' on...

Because we live in an apartment with limited storage space (understatement!), I've expanded Levi's room to include the little entryway just outside of his door. Thanks to one of those cube storage units from Target, this space now makes up for the lack of storage in the bathroom, kitchen, and Levi's room. Yay! I topped the storage unit with a name board that my sister made (super cool!), a set of sock monkey nesting dolls (just combine my two favorite things why don't you?) and some vintage baby books that I got at one of my showers (thanks Cindy!).

 

 

Here's a close-up of the name board that my sister made. It's pretty neat! You can see other cool stuff she does here.

 

 



 

I'll post more pics soon of the rest of the room.

More Natural Birth Motivation

I'm sure lots of women firmly believe that they are married to the greatest guy on the planet, but I just can't imagine anyone else having a better husband than Justin. Not only does he get me as a person, which can be hard when you're a reserved introvert like myself, but he constantly helps me better understand myself and cheers me on in my endeavors. (What a great quality to have in husband, right?)

Today Justin was able to go with me to my 36 (and-a-half) week appointment with my OB-GYN. This was the big one...the one where we found out for sure if Levi was head-down (he is...yay!), and where we found out if I was dilated and/or effaced at all yet. This was also the appointment where we discussed my birth plan with my doctor, so I was a little nervous. This may come as a surprise to some people, but I actually hate conflict and will avoid it at all costs when talking to someone I don't know well (like my doctor). I could tell this was going to be a problem because, as supportive and awesome as my doctor is, she is definitely a fan of pain-relieving drugs during labor. I knew I would have to come into my appointment with confidence, and having Justin there to support me was such a great help.

While I would rate my performance of confidence as mediocre, Justin was a great support. After the appointment Justin sat down with me and asked me how I felt after the appointment and expressed his conviction that he firmly believes in my ability to accomplish a natural birth. In my last post I talked about a quote that I found to motivate me during this process - today, Justin provided an unforgettable (and funny) image for me. He said, "Approach your labor the way that Ron Swanson approaches a steak." Haha! My fellow Parks and Rec fans know what this means, but in case you aren't a fan of hilarious mockumentaries, here's a clip of Ron Swanson, the epitome of all that is man, ordering a steak: Ron Swanson Ordering Steak

I absolutely love my husband and I know it would be tough to be committed to natural birth without his support. Let's be real, lots of people don't support/understand/appreciate the decision or desire to have a natural birth. As frustrating as that may be, it's ok, because the one person that matters, the one person that will be in the room cheering me on, believes I can do it.

Miracle Ball!



I went to my first Childbirth Class last night at Hillcrest Hospital. The class was excellent and our instructor was very friendly and open to all sorts of birth plans. My greatest take-away from my first class? Every pregnant woman should get an exercise ball! I've had some serious lower back pain in the latter half of my pregnancy and sitting on an exercise ball practically eliminates it! After class, Justin and I went straight to Target and got a C9 exercise ball for about $15 and it's great.

Not only is it comfortable to sit on when you're pregnant, but I can do exercises on it to prepare for labor, and can take it into the hospital with me if I want when I go into labor. One of Justin's coworkers who is due on the same day as me does not care for exercise balls because she feels it causes her to slouch, squeezing all of her insides together, so it's not for everyone. That being said, I absolutely love it and encourage any pregnant woman struggling with lower back pain to try one out.