the start of cloth diapers....

The Arrival

 I came home from work last Tuesday and this box was waiting for me.  It felt like Christmas.

enclosed were my baby legs (free and adorable)...

2 beautiful wetbags (I am extremely happy with the quality and durability thus far)....

the newborn covers (tiny and adorable)

the main diapers (also adorable)

...and the liners & snappi's.  Here is everything from the one shipment!

Here's a picture of the newborn covers next to a standard bottle of water.  see how tiny they are

Here's a close up of one of the Bumgenius diapers. you can clearly see the snaps that you use to adjust the rise of the diaper, depending on the size of your baby

and here is a Bumgenius diapers alongside the 2 inserts that are included.  There is a pocket inside the diaper where you stuff those inserts

said pocket

First Day

Yesterday was the very first time I put Trent in his new diapers.  He didn't seem to care one way or the other about them but it didn't take him long to christen them.  I was scraping poop into the toilet within an hour.  It's not the most pleasant experience, but it doesn't bother me too much. 

Kevin hasn't warmed up to the diapers yet, but it's only been 24 hours - he needs time. 

We put Trent in a disposable overnight diaper last night (like we always do), instead of a cloth diaper, because Trent is a heavy wetter and I'm not ready to see if these cloth diapers will get him through the night.  I'll do a trial run this weekend when I don't have to work in the morning.  If he leaks through the diaper overnight then I will have to invest in some different inserts for the diapers.  Hemp inserts come highly recommended, as they are trim yet super absorbent.  I have a feeling there's going to be some trial and error but we should eventually find a system that works for us. 

Daycare - take 1

I sent some cloth diapers to daycare this morning.  Trent was wearing one, I gave her a wetbag, 2 spare outfits (in case of leaks), and 3 additional diapers.  I sat down with her and briefly showed her how to use them, and that was that.  I'm lucky she's open to using them - I think some daycares have a Disposable Only policy.

I just sent her a text asking if she's had any problems with the diapers so far and her response was, "no, not at all".  That's a good sign.  She said she hasn't dealt with cloth diapers in about 15 years (prefolds) so I'm sure she was relieved when I gave her easy pocket diapers to deal with.

summer with the kidS

A few of you have asked if I plan to keep Trent home from daycare while I am on maternity leave.

I've gone back and forth with my decision so much ever since I found out I was pregnant.  Finally I decided that I want to keep Trent home with me.  Not only is this something I want but financially it would be difficult to send Trent to daycare.  I certainly wouldn't be able to stay home for 5 months if I were paying daycare weekly. 

I informed daycare of my decision just this morning - which is why I didn't blog about it before....I didn't want her to hear about my decision from anyone other than myself or Kevin. 

We're basically giving her 6 weeks to find a replacement for Trent.  While I would like for his spot to be held, i really hope for her sake she is able to find a replacement quickly.  When it's time for me to return to work she will either have spots for my kids, or she won't.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

with only 4 months left....

Anonymous Asks: what are your plans as far as child care with baby #2? do you plan to continue to work full time and put both children in daycare or will you decide to stay home or will you work part time? if you plan to continue to work full time, will the new baby go to the same child care as Trent? also, while you are on maternity leave will you continue to take your son to day care or have him stay home with you and the new baby? also, what ways are you preparing Trent for the new baby? do you think he understands the "baby brother" "baby sister" concept?

Answer: As of right now:

~ I will continue to work full time and have both kids in daycare.

~ Baby #2 will go to the same daycare as Trent.

~ I'm not 100% sure what we're going to do with Trent when I am on maternity leave. On one hand, if we send him to daycare everyday that will give me a great opportunity to bond with the new baby and focus 100% on the baby. Not to mention daycare may not hold his spot if I pull him out for 3-ish months. That is something I have yet to talk to his daycare provider about. On the other hand, if Trent stays home with the baby and I, it will give Trent time to really adjust and bond with the baby. It will also save us a ton of money. On yet another hand, keeping Trent home for 3 months then sending him back to daycare may be a hard adjustment on Trent (from both standpoints: pulling him out. sending him back). And on a 4th hand, will I actually wake up each and every morning and actually drive my son to daycare when I have a 1, 2, 3+ week old in tow?

~ So far we have done very very little to prepare Trent for the new baby. Occasionally I will say "baby" when he's looking at my tummy with that "time ease up on the donuts mom" look on his face. From the beginning we've been trying to teach Trent was "gentle" means when it comes to our dog, and I think that might help for when the baby arrives. When I was putting together the new crib and Trent was in the room with me, I was telling him how this crib was for his future sibling, etc. But really, I don't think he understands what any of it means. Some parents will use a babydoll as a training tool before they have a newborn, but I just think he's too young right now - maybe I am underestimating Trent all together. If anyone (Chrissy) has any advice on this subject, please let me know.

Halloween at Daycare

Every year our daycare acknowledges Halloween by allowing the kids to dress up in their costumes for part of the day. Usually it happens at the end of the day before the kids get picked up - which is nice because the parents get to see the kids. This year, however, she did the costumes in the morning/early afternoon, so I didn't get to see the kids. I was bummed, but our daycare provider took tons of pictures and sent them to us parents. Here's a group picture of the kids all dressed up:

And here's a couple of Trent

some pictures

first 3 pix are from the billy Joel & elton John Face-To-face concert!

(yup, that's Bryan and Beth hand behind us :-)

Alicia's first time out sans baby. She did me proud - she got drunk off her butt!

trent last night - watching daddy mow the lawn

and playing with a piece of quarter round

the only other boy at daycare, cameron!

a few mornings ago - so precious in his pj's eating his cheerios

playing with daddy

working out with work

1) do you work out during your pregnancy? With pregnancy #1, no. Shortly after I found out I was pregnant I canceled my gym membership (because of the pregnancy and also because we were moving and I wouldn't continue going to that gym anyway). I had morning sickness pretty bad for the first 4 months and never felt good enough to actually work out. Once I started feeling better, I was out of shape, therefore did not go back to working out. I regret not being more active.

With this pregnancy, not yet. I had a hard time getting back into a work-out routine after having my son. There just never seemed to be enough time to work out in between working full time and bonding with child. This continues to be the case. I really hope I will walk more and maybe do some yoga, or something, throughout this pregnancy. I know it will only benefit us! I would love to join a gym that offered aerobic classes on the weekends, but it just doesn't make sense financially to pay a monthly fee when I only go 8 times a month (that's assuming I go both days on the weekends). This is one of the million ways winning the lottery would come in handy.

2) have you made a decision on whether or not you will stay at your current job, work part time, or stay home completely? how does one come to making this decision? (i ask because my husband and i trying to figure out what i will do once we begin having children.) I have partly made a decision. No, i will not stay at home completely (financially impossible for us). Yes, I will stay at my current job. Whether I go part-time or continue to work full-time will depend on daycare costs. With the kids going to daycare full time I will have to work full time. If daycare has part-time openings when the time comes we will have to crunch some numbers. Currently I do not know what the part-time rate is at daycare. This is something we will look into more as the pregnancy progresses. I personally do not think I could be a full-time stay at home mom, even if my husband made enough to comfortably support us. I personally have a need to contribute financially, and I enjoy getting away and having adult interaction.

Then there's the daycare experience. While I do not love every aspect of daycare, I could not imagine taking Trent out of it all together. We feel that he is benefiting from it in so many ways.

new girlfriend

There's a new baby at daycare. Ava is 6-ish months old and very tall! Natalie (the other "baby" at DC) took today off because it's her birthday. I don't think Natalie is going to be very happy to see her "boyfriend" canoodling so with this new girl.

Almost Fall

This is the kind of weather I love. Not too hot, but not cold. Dreary and cloudy. Rainy. I just wish I didn't have to wake up early and work all day. This is stay-home-and-cuddle kind of weather. But it's also Fall weather! While I am dreading the short days and the winter that follows, I am not sad to say bye to summer and the heat. I am now looking forward to dressing Trent in his cool new clothes, and I just love Halloween (have I mentioned that?) and the holidays that follow (and Trent's birthday, and California!!). I can't wait for the turkey dinners and holiday desserts (can you tell im hungry, i'm ready for my second breakfast). Yesterday, to make it feel even more like fall, i bought (and devoured) the most delicious caramel apple I've ever had!!!!

This morning I dressed Trent in his usual t-shirt and shorts, but on top of that I added a pair of socks and his fall hoodie I just bought. Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as chilly outside as I thought it would be, so the extra clothing was totally unnecessary, but he looked adorable either way.

Driving into work I got a text message from daycare. She sent me a picture of Trent with his BFF and the caption "They were sitting there and he just climbed up her and laid down. Brianna loved it". Too cute! He is always trying to climb up me at home - like he's on a mission. It's adorable

another milestone!!

Last week Trent pulled himself up for the first time. He was in the bathtub of all places! He's done it a few times in the tub since, once at daycare, and once in the living room. Linda was able to get a picture of him doing it at her house. In the picture you can see Peanut - a precious little guy! Anyways - that's Trent's newest trick!!! Three cheers for the big guy!

sesame street

I'm not thrilled with the idea of Trent watching TV all day at daycare, but I just love this picture! Linda just sent it to me via text message

Trent's first sick day

Daycare called me at 11:30 yesterday asking me to come pick up Trent because he threw up. I guess its protocol: if a child vomits they must be picked up. No biggie. I'll use any excuse to leave work! Since I don't have much vacation time left for the year, I was happy to be able to charge my time off yesterday as "sick time".

I picked Trent up and he was off and on fussy the whole way home (which is only 6-7 minutes). He had thrown up his entire bottle at daycare, so when we got home he was pretty hungry. I nursed him until he was content then I observed him with caution as he played. He was rolling around on his belly (something that I imagine would aggravate the belly if he were sick) and acting totally normal. An hour or so later I fed him some broccoli then he took a nap. When he woke up I took his temperature - on the lower end of 'normal' - then we took Maggie for a walk around the block. No vomiting the rest of the day.

When Kevin got home I hoped on the Internet and found out vomiting often goes hand-in-hand with teething. And guess what. Trent is cutting his first upper tooth.

I'm no doctor but I am convinced Trent was/is not sick - he's simply teething.

He's been a fairly healthy baby since birth. A couple runny noses here and there but nothing pediatrician-worthy.

solids

As I've said before, Trent gets 1 meal (something other than breast milk) a day, but not everyday. While in OBX Kevin and i started giving trent 2 "meals" a day. We did 1 veggie and 1 fruit each day and Trent was fine with it. Hannah ended up with some sweet potato in her hair one day, but thats neither here no there. Well, we were going strong until the end of the week when we ran out of produce. We were too lazy to buy more, so Trent was back to no solids at all for several days-which he didn't seem to mind at all.

We originally planned to start sending one meal a day to daycare starting when we returned from vacation. Well, Monday rolled around and Trent went to daycare with 3 bottles and no food. big surprise there. We're just in no rush....obviously, lol

Well, Today i sent food to daycare! I sent 1 serving of avocado for today and 1 for tomorrow. Linda (daycare provider) was surprised to learn that Trent isn't already on a solid 2 meals already (given his size she assumed we were giving him breakfast and dinner already). The plan is for Linda to give Trent his homemade food mid-morning everyday - until I start feeding him breakfast, at which point she will push her meal back to more of a lunch. Meanwhile we will continue to give Trent his dinner meal in the evenings. I have no idea when I will start feeding Trent breakfast but I have a feeling it won't be anytime soon.

Today was also my first time using those nifty food containers I bought a while back!

daycare

I haven't talked much about daycare, aside from telling you all that I had a really rough time dropping Trent off when he first started there. Well, things have obviously gotten better. I can't kiss him good-bye enough, and I obviously hate leaving him there, but it's definitely gotten easier. Once in a while I call Kevin after I drop Trent off and cry to him about how I feel like a terrible mother for leaving him, etc, but most days I'm fine. Every time I kiss him he lights up with a big smile which always makes me happy - it lets me know he is happy and it makes me feel OK to leave. We're usually the first ones there, so Linda (the daycare provider) gets a little one-on-one time with him, which I like. Since Kevin gets off work 1.5 hours before me, he always picks Trent up. This gives Daddy and Trent some manly bonding time and it gets Trent out of daycare a little early. Trent is the first one to leave daycare most days so Kevin is able to see all the kids playing and interacting. Once in a while he will have a funny story to tell me about what one of the kids did or said when he was there. You have to know these kids to fully appreciate their silliness, but they always crack me up

On an average day, Linda has 2 babies and 3 toddlers. The other baby, Natty, is 2 months older than Trent but a little smaller than him. She is probably average sized for her age, but since Trent is so big they look about the same size. The toddlers are Cameron (4 years old), Bryanna (3 years old), and Kayla (almost 3). Cameron is a very chatty little guy who plays t-ball and loves Natty! When Natty is around he runs up to her and starts talking to her. Bryanna is one of the cutest little girls I've ever seen and she absolutely loves Trent!! I cant even get him out of the carseat before she is by his side, talking to him, and touching his hands & feet. She loves to make him smile! I trust that she takes good care of my little guy while I'm at work. Kayla is the shiest, most petite, most adorable little girl! She sometimes says "baby" and points to the swing in hopes that Linda will put the baby in the swing and hold Kayla instead. It's precious!!


There was another little boy, Dylan (5 years old). I think he was part-time because Kevin and I rarely saw him, but his mom just gave her 2-weeks not that long ago so I think he's officially done. Then there's Lexi. She is probably 9 years old (give or take a year) and comes to daycare when her school is closed (including the entire summer).


Once in a while I will get a text message of a picture of Trent from Linda - it's usually after he did something cute, and it just makes my day! Here is a pic she sent me the other day. The other baby in the picture is Natty (Natalie) and the little girl is Bryanna. I can't wait for Trent to discover his feet like Natty has.



To keep things fun, Linda does special little things with the kids and has parties for the different holidays. Trent had his first Pajama-Day a couple weeks ago. Everyone, including Linda, wore PJs all day. Well, Linda didn't keep hers on all day - she said she was TOO comfortable and got tired, so she had to change, haha.

Linda has 2 daughters, both of which are attending the UofD. Her one daughter will help out during the day if Linda needs her to. She loves kids and is getting her degree in.........either early childhood development or elem school - I don't remember exactly.

As of right now we plan to keep Trent in her care until he is maybe two years old, then transfer him to a more structure school-like atmosphere - but we're going to play that one by ear.



There ya have it - an update on daycare!

take 2

Today is going much better than yesterday! Kevin took Trent to daycare this morning, which I think helped me tremendously. I came straight into work and have been trying to keep my mind off daycare as much as possible. Now it's lunch time and I havent cried once. I got teary eyed a couple times but kept it together. All of my coworkers have been very kind and understanding.

my first day back

My first day back to work didn't go so well. It was actually a disaster. I was totally fine until I gave Trent a kiss goodbye - that's when I started to lose it. I managed to keep it together until I was in my car on my way to work, then I completely lost it. I got to work and just couldn't keep it together. I ended up in the bathroom at work for about an hour and a half before deciding to just go home. I did, however, decide to leave Trent at daycare for the day. I hope that being home today with him will help with the transition into being a working mom. At least at home I can cry all I want. Kevin is going to take Trent to daycare tomorrow for me so that I wont have to hand Trent over to a stranger and kiss him goodbye again so soon. The fact that this is a short week also helps.

I really didn't think I would have this kind of reaction to taking Trent to daycare, but what can ya do?!?! I guess I just need time to adjust.

In other news, a couple weeks ago we took Maggie to the vet for her annual visit and to get more allergy medicine for her. While there the vet discovered a Mast Cell Tumor on her back leg. She said it was crucial we get the tumor removed ASAP and have it biopsied to find out if the tumor is stage 1, 2 or 3. We took her in last Monday for the surgery and everything went smoothly - Doc said the tumor came right off and Maggie did very well, but that we wouldn't know the results of the biopsy until next (this) week. In the mean time Maggie has been taking pain meds, antibiotics, anti inflammatory pills, and wearing that stupid satellite dish collar. Well, I got the call this morning that the tumor was a stage 1! Anything above that would have required further action (chemo, etc) but as it stands right now we don't have to do anything except keep our eye out for other tumors that may develop in the future. PHEW, what a relief!! I was so worried for her

first day of work

....turned into a snow day!!! I get one more day home with my baby boy!!!! If you are at work today please be safe!!!

maternity leave & daycare

The plan is for me to work right up until i go into labor - even if that means im working past my due date. I got my bosses to agree to give me 4 months maternity leave and I would like to spend all 4 of those months with my child. Any time I take off before the baby is born will cut into my 4 months with Baby. Ideally my pregnancy will go smoothly all the way until the end, I'll give birth right around my due date, then I will return to work sometime in the beginning of March. Of course we have no choice but to play it by ear. Anything could happen. Whenever my four months are up I will return to work and Baby will go to daycare fulltime.

We already interviewed 2 daycare centers: one being the well-known KinderCare Learning Center and the other being an established local center. KinderCare did not impress us and we felt it was over-priced. The other center had its pros (was a little cheaper, cleaner, nicer staff, better perks) and cons (less convenient, still expensive) but overall we really liked it and will seriously consider enrolling our child there.

Tomorrow evening we are interviewing a home daycare that comes highly recommended to us. I know 4 parents who send their children there and love it. Several months ago I called her and at the time she had no openings for us so I gave her my name and number to put on her waiting list. Early this week we get the call! She will have an opening in March.
After tomorrows interview Kevin and I will have a lot to discuss.