Paleo Pregnancy

Paleo is a type of diet consisting of natural fruits and vegetables and meats found around the Paleolithic Age.  Though not exactly a perfect representation of what the cave man ate, Paleo dieters have found success in losing weight and regressing type II diabetes. 

I am pregnant.  Officially.  This is my second pregnancy, when he/she is born, he/she will be 17 months younger than my first born.  Back to back pregnancies mean that I wasn’t able to drop all the weight I gained with the first pregnancy some 45 lbs.  AND I was hoping to drop an extra 20 from my starting weight. 

But pregnancy is wonderful, and I’m still nursing my seven month old.  He’ll be eight months in six days.  I went with a fly-by the moment kind of pregnancy when it came to eating.  If I felt like it, and it fit in my mouth, I ate it.  And I did not want to look at the scale after I hit 200lbs. 

So this time around, I will not let myself loose on all the chocolate cake I can eat.  I will not buy Reeses Peanut Butter Cups every day because I will eat Paleo.  I will stick to meats and vegetables and stay away from dairy, sugar, and grains.  I will suffer, as many Paleo dieters have before.  But I will not get gestational diabetes or close to it and have the nurse give me the talk about how I need to cut out my carbs.  I will.

Oh please, I hope I do.

 

So you want to cloth diaper

I started cloth diapering in March 2013 for my then 3 month old son.  My friend had two sons she used cloth on and it seemed like a good idea since we were planing on having more children and disposable diapers were okay, but every single day we had a blow out (where the poop seeps out of the diaper and onto his clothes.)

There is a wealth of resources out there but I went to the diapering store because I needed to touch and feel it before I got in over my head.  I went to a cloth diapering store, this one was named Cutie Poops and Bottoms, to learn more, dragging my husband kicking and screaming because he thought it was a waste of time.  We decided to do a diaper trial, some stores will offer this, a 3 week try-em-out-and-see-if-you-like-em.  We tested Grovia, Bumgenius, MP2, and Thirsties.  They worked great, no more blow outs and they were good quality.  We tested All In Ones (AIOs), Pocket, and Covers with prewraps, but Initially we decided we liked the Thirsties, but as my son grew, I sold them back and purchased mostly pocket BumGenius diapers 4.0.  It cost us $300 for 24 diapers (12 AIOs and 12 Pocket.)  There are cheaper brands out there, and they are still great quality, I narrowed it to the diapers that were in our trial so those are the ones I picked from.

We now own 21 Pocket style diapers * You don’t need as many pocket as you will AIOs, and we wash diapers every third day.

What I didn’t know going into cloth diapering was the amount of extra stuff you’ll need to do it.  I thought laundry detergent and a good washer would cover it.  Then you run into that first diaper stain that doesn’t come out in the wash.

So here is my experience of four months of cloth diapering.  Here’s what I used, what works on stains, and what to expect when you’re expecting to use cloth.

Insert goes through the back. The peepee soaks through the fleece liner and onto the insert.

4.0 BumGenius Pocket Style

BabiesGrow: Your baby will grow.  And the cloth diaper can grow with him/her.  Some diapers have elastic pulls on the inside like oshkosh pants and some diapers have snaps.  The ones I have use snaps. We started out with Thirsties AIOs and ended up selling them because the baby just got too big.  The sales lady insisted that “It was not possible, they go up to 40lbs.”  But if they’re not fitting well, and it’s causing little red marks on his stomach then trust your instincts and try a different brand.

Velcro with snaps

Snap closure with snaps

Velcro is the easiest to put on.  It works like a disposable diaper.  Snaps are a little harder to put on at night, but the baby isn’t able to unsnap them when he gets old enough to learn how to take off his diaper.  Experience-wise we like Velcro for use with baby-sitters and mothers who want to come over and are confused about the whole cloth diapering thing.  I personally like snaps because I get a better closure with them.  My husband has time and time again snapped the baby up too loose and he’s leaked.

Leakage: Cloth diapers are not fool proof.  There will be some leakage and you may have to adjust the snaps to accommodate your growing baby.  First, find out where the leak is occuring.

Up the back-Make sure that there is no fleece liner showing on the diaper’s back side and that the diaper fits snug around waist.

Around the legs-Adjust the snaps (you may just adjust the two snaps on either side of the elastic or all three.)  This may help.  If you’re using another brand you can visit their website and see if it addresses leakage.

In the front-Keep a snug fit.  Don’t turn the child blue, but try to make sure there is little space between the stomach and the diaper.

Smallest setting for BG diapers.

Largest Setting

You can adjust diapers from newborn to potty-training.  BumGenius says it goes up to 35lbs, but your baby will change and grow and get fat then skinny, so you’ll have to go to a big setting to a smaller setting back to a big setting.

PreWash First

Then wash on regular setting on HOT with a 2nd rinse.

How to wash cloth diapers-

You don’t have to boil water, go out back and hand wash each diaper (unless there’s a stain, I’ll get into that later)  Prewash diaper with WARM water, and then use detergent on regular wash cycle with a 2nd rinse.

Drying–

I dry the inserts for pocket diapers on HIGH HEAT and have had no repercussions so far.  If it’s nice out, I’ll hang dry the Liners outside in the sun.  If it’s raining I’ll dry them on LOW HEAT on the delicates cycle.

Detergent–

There are many kinds of cloth diaper friendly detergents out there.  I have found none at my local Target.  Eco-Sprout I found on Amazon but I know others to use Tiny Bubbles and Rock Star cloth diaper detergent.  After pre-washing

For poop stains

POOP STAINS-If you are breastfeeding, you rarely need pretreatment before you put the diapers in the wash.

Once you start feeding solids, they can leave pretty nasty stains on the diapers that are hard to remove in a regular wash.  I found a Youtube video describing the process but have since forgotten where I found it or what it was called.  If you google or youtube cleaning cloth diapers, you’ll run across it.

The way I’ve found to get rid of poo stains is to get a large tub that fits in your sink.  Fill it with HOT water and a small splash of bleach and Dawn dish detergent.  Then agitate until the stains are gone. The bleach has never stained any of the colored diapers, so do not worry about it hurting the fabric.

Another method is to pretreat the solid poo stain as soon as it comes off the butt with an enzyme cleaner such as Bac-Out.  I found this on Amazon, but I have also found it on Diapers.com as well.  Spray generously on the stain and normally you won’t have to do the hot water and bleach method.  Unless the baby bombed his diaper.

Trash cans

Planet Wise Pail Liner

Planet Wise Pail Liner

Trash Cans and Pail Liners:

The first thing you’ll need are a pair of trash cans.  One large, one smaller.  Probably smaller than the one in the picture.  If you have your diaper changing station in your bathroom, you may not need the smaller trash can.

The pail liner goes into the big trash can and can be washed with the diapers.  I bought two of these Planet Wise pail liners from Amazon, so I could replace it when the other was in the wash.

The small trash can holds the poop.  When you start feeding the baby solid foods they poop solids (this might be different if you’re using formula) and you can use a diaper liner, Grovia makes a good one, to catch the poop and either flush or toss into the can.

Grovia Cloth Wipes in a Prince Lionheart Diaper Warmer

Coconut Oil and Tea Tree Oil

I’ve used cloth diapers with disposable wipes.  It works just as well.  If you’re thinking about cloth wipes, here is a method you can use.

Grovia Cloth wipes are pretty awesome.  They come in a pack of 12.  I bought 2 packs.  Though, they don’t all fit into the warmer at once.  You can also create your own wipes using a cut up t-shirt or towel.  I’ve fed mine into a Prince Lionheart diaper warmer so they pop out like regular wipes.  You can find a Youtube video on that as well.

To moisten the wipes you can use plain old good fashioned tap water or add baby wash to it.  I add a TBS Coconut oil and a DROP or two of Tea tree oil.  This is some strong stuff.  DO NOT GO OVERBOARD.

Soak the wipes, squeeze the excess and fold them into the wipe warmer.

There you have it.  I have a picture of everything, except for the Grovia Diaper Liners that can be found on Amazon if you are so inclined to go looking for them.  For those of you expecting and are looking into cloth diapering, it might be best to wait till the baby is a bit bigger like size 1 as the fit might not be as good.  Bum Genius and Thirsties make Premie and newborn diapers, but they’re only good for the month or so that they are tiny.  Good luck finding the right cloth diaper for your baby.

A mother’s prayer for her son: Inspried by Tina Fey’s A mother’s prayer for her daughter

Dear Lord,

Give me strength to raise a healthy man from the little baby boy I have made.  Give me the strength to remember every little league game, forgotten lunch, and left-at-home-homework assignments.  For I am new at this mommy thing and barely managed to make it through childhood unscathed.

Give him strength lord, to make it to the potty before he sh*ts his pants in the kindergarten classroom.  Encourage him to draw inside the lines so the anal art teacher doesn’t give him a C, and occasionally, allow him to be captain of the kickball team, so that he can pick the jerk of the class last and put that butt-head in his place.

May his middle school years be without screeching from his voice changing, bloody noses caused by humidity,  or getting depants’d by the school bully.  May he also be tollerant of middle school girls.  Because they can be viscous little darlings who circle poor unsuspecting boys and force them into relationships.

Should he become a bully, help me teach him the path to redemption and respect his fellow classmates.  Should he be bullied, keep me from making irrational decisions and chasing said bullies around the playground and throwing soccer balls at their family jewels.

Let him go easy on the amount of Axe Body Spray he uses, and may the acne come and go before the girls start to like boys.  That may be really early.  Just try to keep his acne down to a few important hallmarks, like homecoming dance but hopefully gone before senior photos.

I pray lord, I pray that when he learns the big curse words that he does not use them at every chance he gets or that they do not sprinkle his sentences in place of verbs, adjectives, and nouns.  That he learns the value of a hard days work, because lord you know, I will put that boy to work if he smarts off at me.  And generally, please let me get through his room with ease.  That if he does not keep it *clean* at least let there be light, and a pathway with visible flooring.

When it comes to picking a degree, please guide him to the path of an Engineer, a practicing doctor, not a PHD with hundreds of thousands of dollars in school debt and living in my basement, or an MBA, except marketing, marketing is for schmucks.  Lead him away from professional sports.  We don’t have that kind of money for coaches or private leagues, and I don’t think I could take sitting on hard aluminum benches watching back to back baseball games on a hot summer day.  Should he drink alcohol, or smoke pot, let him realize that it has a time and place, but that he needs to focus on a bigger picture, and not get addicted to a bar stool.

May he find a career, a job, something to send him out of my house by the age of twenty-five and not into the arms of a devil woman who will eat his soul.  Just as the mothers of daughters do not want them to run off with guys on motorcycles, I do not want my son to run off with a pierced up, multi-color hair hussy who resembles Amy Winehouse.  May he always always always use a condom until he is ready to be a father or that he is 100% positive that she is on birth control.  Guide him to a good woman.  One who will eat my food and not complain about it on the car ride back home.

Have I left anything out, lord?  Remind him to bathe, pick up his dirty laundry, and eat a vegetable once in a while, when I am no longer around to nag him.

Ahhhh-men!

Short and Sweet

I got a workout in yesterday!!! It was an hour before baby’s bedtime and My husband and I had just eaten ice cream. But I insisted he was taking the baby after we got home.
I did the Cardio X DVD from P90x and made it through 30 minutes worth. The baby cried the whole time my husband held him, minus the few minutes he drank the pumped milk I left in the fridge. I was hoping to use that for the child care at the gym today.
It’s getting easier to leave a crying baby in my husband’s hands for myself, but I know he’s not happy about it. At six weeks, baby isn’t smiling and can only calm down with me. It’s exhausting being the only one who the baby can be with, most of the time in a front carrier. He doesn’t sit well on his own in a swing or in the bouncy. Today I will hand him off to my husband again for an hour and see how he does. It’s chest, back and triceps DVD.

The Winter Slump

As a medical small practice, we do fairly well in the months leading up to January.  However, when January hits, our patient visits start to take a dive, and we start finding reasons to do extra projects around the house.  We’re doing better than last year, but it never fails to slow down between January and March.  Typically by March we’re back in the swing of things and up to our earlobes in walkins and new patients.

I’ve noticed the “winter slump” trend in retail stores and in other medical practices, at least in our area.  With the exception of the funeral home across the street, which booms after the holidays.  I guess most people hold out till when it’s cold and gloomy for their relatives to stand around a grave.  In our case, people’s deductibles reset, or they are just plum tired of spending.  Tax season also correlates to our slump.  By April, when everyone has received a return and the sun shines a little bit longer during the day, people are more likely to fill up the later time slots.

So what is to be done during the winter slump?  My husband and I are expecting a baby any day.  This is like staring at a pot of water .  I’m trying to keep busy while I wait for the water to boil.  So this is what they call nesting.  Cleaning, laundry, and installing new floors in two rooms.  After all the get-up, get down, no contractions.  No water break.  Baby is holding tight, head down but waiting for a blizzard to blow through because that’s the least ideal time for him to come out.

 

 

 

 

 

While we wait, and clean, and get house projects done before we have a newborn waking us up every 2-3 hours in the night, here’s my itinerary till his debut.

The Hobbit– Three hours of Peter Jackson’s interpretation of J.R. R. Tolkien’s novel split into three films.  I find theater seats incredibly uncomfortable as of five and a half months into pregnancy.  But for this, like Avatar, I’ll make an exception.  I’m hoping to convince the hubby that we need to see it at the $14 Imax show.

Les Miserables– Like the Hobbit, with Frenchman singing and parading in the street.

Chocolate– I’ve been told by my mother-in-law that chocolate while nursing causes colic.  I may have to say fudge it all, he dealt with it while in utero, he’ll deal with it later.  I’m all for giving up broccoli and cauliflower.  So until baby, I’m having all the chocolate ice cream, cookies, cake and hot cocoa.

Chicago Museums- This one is really for my dad when he comes up to visit us after the baby arrives.    The Art Institute has free admission on weekdays for Illinois residents through February.

The Museum of Science and Industry is free for Illinois peeps January 21-25, 28-31 and February 6, 13, 20, 27.

The Shedd Aquarium is free January: 7, 8, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 28, 29, February: 4, 5, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 25, 26.

Technically, my dad won’t be free, but my husband and I will.  And presumably, they do not ask for state ID for the baby.

So far I’m planning to watch six hours of drama and eat a lot of chocolate.  Baby- you can come any time soon.

Mother Letter

A friend of my mother’s contacted me recently and asked me to write a letter to my mother about her or about anything I wanted to say to her.  She will receive this letter on Saturday as a surprise during one of her christian group services.

I’ve written about my mother before.  Most of the time I’ve criticized the way she raised me or about any of the number of quirky habits she does.  See  my blog Every Rapture Has A Silver Lining.  Tasked with writing a sentimental, non-critical piece, I could spew lovey dovey phrases about how I’m so thankful that she raised me.  It would look something like a macaroni piece a second grader would make.  I could even add a crayon drawn picture.

She’s written letters to me before.  When I went to camp three summers in a row, I received maybe one letter from her.  I have a feeling it went something like:

Have you been a good girl?  Are you washing your face and brushing your teeth?  Don’t get fresh with any of the boys.

 

Now that we live in different states, our interactions work like this each weekend when she visits:

1 Hour of her telling me I don’t keep a clean house.

1 Hour of me telling her that I do too keep a clean house and if she doesn’t like it then she can clean it.

She’ll throw in “The world is going to end, you better behave.”

I’ll tell her that gay people are equal and should be allowed to marry.

Every daughter has this relationship with her first generation immigrant mother.  I am grateful that she raised me, even if we weren’t the closest while I was going through my teen years.   Mothers are supposed to be unconditionally loved by their children.  That’s why she can get away with buying a bulk load of ugly cheap dollar store fake flowers for my wedding.  And why I can get away with having a bridezilla moment and throw them from the second story window.

I’ve never had to write a letter to my mother.  Putting unspeakable unconditional love down in words seems impossible.  But I’m not the daughter to leave her mother out in the cold while everyone else gets a secret surprise love letter from a family member.

So here it goes:

Dear Mom,

I hope you are enjoying retirement.  I bet the house is sparkling clean.  Any of my old clothes I left in the dressers or any of the household items I brought back from college can be thrown out or donated.  Unless you want to keep them.  But you really shouldn’t because you don’t need anymore clothes.  Tim and I and the baby are doing fine.  We love you very much.  We look forward to having you clean our house and to help us with our first baby.

Love,

Kristina

 

Pregnancy-isms

Here are the top fifteen phrases I’ve said most while being pregnant: 

(Oddly enough there are a few Taylor Swift-isms too)

15).  I just, I just, I just want to watch Here Comes Honey Boo Boo

14). I’ll fit into this again: the lies I tell myself.

13). He’s just going to puke on it: in reference to expensive baby clothes.

12).  Honey, can you do it?

11). The baby farted.

10). Shut up Taylor Swift, I do not want to hear about your whiny teenage girl problems: Usually while listening We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

9). Because I’m pregnant: Said to my husband.  This will ultimately become “because I said so.”

8).  I don’t care how many calories are in it!

7).  Oh look at that: In reference to the newest thing my body does because it’s pregnant.

6).  I apologize for nothing!

5).  No, I did not say “hot blast/ram scan/neonight,”  is it impossible for you to have any deductive reasoning!

4). We-are-never-ever-ever-getting-back-together-your friends-talk-to-my-friends-talk-to me-:

3).  Don’t worry kitty, I’ll never forget about you.  Kitty-why won’t you let me vigorously pet you!

2).  My back hurts!

1). Every time I poop, it’s like a Christmas Miracle!: Just said this today!

Oh yeah-I’m pregnant

The first trimester of my pregnancy is turning out pretty dull.  There’s no head in toilet every morning.  No wave of uncontrollable sleepiness, although I have been taking naps in the middle of the day because I believe in a regimented siesta for every one.  This isn’t an unwanted pregnancy.  The baby’s conception had been timed down to the second using ovulation test kits and my husband and I running the obstacle course that is the health insurance industry.  It’s just this pregnancy so far has been forgotten.

For instance, I get the urge to run.  Like really go balls out, sweat in a hundred degree heat run for seven miles, then I remember, I’m pregnant.

I see those quaint brewery start-ups, the ones with the restaurants and the cutesy names for their batches.  Like Zombie Dust.  And I remember, I’m pregnant.

I guess I haven’t been completely in belief that my body is carrying a tadpole that will one day be a baby because I haven’t had my first doctor’s visit.  For a healthy woman, they schedule the first visit at 9 weeks.  And it’s an ultrasound.  I’ll either get to see or hear the beating heart of my unborn.

Before that you get a checklist of no-nos from the nurse:

No drinking-covered as I stick my tongue out at her through the phone.  I know some doctors are okay with it, but not mine and I’m not about to argue with a doctor.

Exercise normally, but keep heart rate below 120bpm-impossible.  That limits me to strength training which is not as fun as sweating to the oldies on my treadmill.

Eat normally, just add 200-300 calories like a piece of fruit between breakfast and lunch- except no sushi, and no more than 16 oz of fish when the only pregnancy cravings I have had so far are for fried cod.

Then they ask you if you want to come in and have a blood test done to watch your pregnancy hormone HCG spike in twenty-four hours.  I heard this and thought, just another costly test for no-good-reason.  If it doesn’t spike they do administer a pill which helps move things along.  To this I thought, nah- if I miscarry, I miscarry.  I’ll try again next month.

Bless the stars, I haven’t lost anything but my ability to remember that there is a living creature somewhere under my pudgy belly.  I haven’t stepped foot inside of a Babies R Us, and I don’t plan to until I either I have a baby in hand, or someone shows me exactly what to buy that won’t be a waste of money. Babies, like weddings, are a business, and one can get lost in the commercialism of your first born.

In three weeks I’ll get to see the baby- by then it will be the size of a grape according to baby center.com.  Maybe then it will finally click and I’ll go into mommy mode and start thinking about where the h-e-double hockey sticks I’m going to put this fella when he comes out.