Yeah I just said piss.

In other news, I’m 34 weeks pregnant as of Wednesday. Yeehaw! The end is in sight! I have an appointment next week at 35 weeks, then a sono at 36 weeks to check the size and make a “more final” decision on the vbac vs. c-section issue. Yeah I changed my mind again. I can’t decide. Don’t ask. Long story.

I’m now going to throw my laptop out the window and then go to bed.

• How About I Don’t Get Bit By A Snake Tonight
• I’ve always liked back to school season
• Another snake?! Are you kidding me?

The girls start preschool tomorrow and they are so excited! It’s so cute, they got their folders all ready and put them in their backpacks with their other supplies. So precious. They got put in the afternoon class, which is good because I won’t have to have them at school by 8am (we aren’t morning people around here), but bad because it’s right in the middle of the day so it might end up being a bit hard to work errands and things in since living out here puts us so far from everything. Their class will be from noon to 3:30pm Monday thru Friday. It’s hard to think about them being away from me daily, they have only been left with family (and a babysitter who is like family) so I’m trying not to worry too much! They got to see their classroom and meet their teacher last Thursday, so that was nice for them and for me because I got to see what everything is like at this school. I was disappointed they wouldn’t be attending the school they were planning on attending before we moved, but this school seems really great too. I’m happy with what I have seen so far. I’m going to try not to be to emotional tomorrow!

I start classes again tomorrow as well and it’s going to be an interesting semester! Actually it might not be that bad since the girls will be in school I’ll only have the baby, I might have a nice chunk of time to work on class work – hopefully! All my professors know that I’m due in October so we’ve already worked out how to handle the time spent in the hospital and what not, which is nice to have out of the way. Luckily I picked understanding professors, thanks to ratemyprofessor.com. I accidentally signed up for an express course, American Lit I, which means the class is only half as long as the others. I didn’t even realize it until I was going back over my schedule a couple of weeks ago. This is both good and bad – good because after the baby is here I’ll only have 3 classes to keep up with instead of 4, and bad because American Lit is of course reading and writing intensive, and the class will end the week after I am set to have the baby, which means I’ll be working on a huge final paper right before I have him. Last week I started reading all the assigned works for the first week so I’m hoping I can stay a week on top of everything.

Well I need to get in bed, sitting or standing too long has started to take a toll on my back so I’ve been spending a lot of time laying down the last couple days. I thought the baby had moved from his sideways laying position to being head down or up, but now I’m sure that he’s still sideways. Maybe he moved and then moved back? I don’t know, all I know is that I had some much needed relief for about 3 days (and kicks/movement only in the middle) and now it’s back to being completely uncomfortable and feeling him the same way as before when my OB confirmed he was sideways. I’m seriously hoping he decides to go head down and stay there soon! I have an appointment on Wednesday so we’ll see what’s up then.

• Goal: Read the Classics
• Preschool
• Oh yah, I have a blog

I asked her what would happen if I go into labor before my scheduled c-section and she said that if that happens then she recommends that I try for a VBAC. They won’t give me a c-section just because I have one scheduled, unless that’s what I want, so that was nice to hear. The whole concern I’ve had, and my doctor has had, with a VBAC is having labor that doesn’t progress and having to have drugs to help labor along, I really don’t want that. My mom and sister, as I’ve mentioned before, never went into labor on their own and were induced past 40 weeks and ended up having c-sections after laboring for a very long time, so I really just don’t want to do that. My doctor seems convinced that my moms/sisters labor is a good indication of what mind would be like, so I’m taking her word for it because I trust her opinion. BUT, if I go into labor on my own before my c-section date I’m going to be pretty excited because that would be a good sign that things would progress on their own just fine. So secretly, I’m hoping I go into labor like, the day before my c-section. She did also say that I can cancel the c-section at any time if I change my mind. This is one reason why I love my OB, she doesn’t try to push anything on me and she always takes my feelings/thoughts into consideration.

Soooo… 8 weeks or less left! I can’t wait!

• Lets all freak out!
• Me = Chicken With Head Cut Off
• ONE BABY!!!

About the special education qualification they both have – clearly they both need speech therapy, but I’m really not so sure anymore about Ava’s autism diagnosis. I do trust that the people who evaluated her know what they are doing. It’s what they do day in and day out, so I don’t think they would just make the wrong diagnosis about her. But, it’s becoming harder for me to grasp that she “has autism” or “is autistic” because she has made such huge improvements since she was evaluated in April. Maybe it’s just that I’m her Mommy so I don’t “see” it like other people do because I’m around her 24/7 so to me she’s just Ava. While I’ve been writing this though, Preston has pointed out to me things that she still does so I guess while she has improved a lot, she still has some underlying, or base behaviors, that are in line with autism. She’s just naturally so “busy” all the time, I can’t help but wonder if the setting of the evaluation would have been different, if her outcome would be different. It’s pretty hard to put a toy-crazy kid in a room packed full of toys and expect her to sit still for specific activities and make eye contact with complete strangers. Either way, the label doesn’t really matter as long as she’s getting the educational help that she needs, I’m happy. I’m pretty sure they re-evaluate in a few years so it will be interesting to see what the outcome is when the time comes for that.

Anyway, back to being sad and sappy about school… I’m so excited for them because I know they are going to have sooooo much fun and just love it, but I’m also sad because they are growing up too fast, and I’m paranoid and nervous at the thought of dropping them off somewhere and leaving them there for a few hours. It’s something I’ve never had to do before and I get all these awful “what ifs” going through my head. And don’t even let me get started on riding a school bus – nope. No way. Being a parent is way, way harder emotionally than I expected it would be. How do you refrain from keeping your kids locked up inside the house enclosed in plastic bubbles when you hear about all the awful things that happen to kids on a daily basis? And they are only three, this is just preschool we’re talking about! What about when they are older and they actually want to go somewhere alone or you know, just basically grow up in general?

I can’t even think about it, I’m such a mess. And pregnancy hormones don’t really help the situation any!

• Autism Evaluation Update
• Oh yah, I have a blog
• I’ve always liked back to school season

I needed to feel like I got something baby related accomplished today, so naturally I went and bought more baby clothes. That and I had a coupon, and it’s been burning a hole in my pocket so I had to use it. Oh and in case you need to go shopping, JC Penney is having their fun $15 off a purchase of $75 or more, or $10 off a purchase of $50 or more through Saturday. That’s my favorite place to buy Carter’s. And I fully intended to jump on that this weekend when we go to pick Ashton up. I want to go to a bigger mall and not the small one that is nearest to me. Another semi-downside to living in the boonies, you actually have to plan to go shopping, it’s not like you can just stop by somewhere. But I suppose that is a plus for my husband’s wallet.

Tomorrow I’m planning on working on sanding the walls some more, I want to get it done before the weekend. I’m trying to convince Preston that the walls in the girls soon-to-be room aren’t that bad and maybe we can leave the texturing how it is and just repaint it a pretty color, but so far he’s not convinced. He’s absolutely right, it really is hideous. This is the room they decided the texture would look fantastic on the ceiling also. They were wrong! I just am dreading doing it like, really a lot. I can’t wait for this step to be over with.

Alright then, I think I’m going to go hop in bed and watch some Lie To Me episodes. We downloaded some episodes to see what it was all about, and now Preston and I are both hooked. Have you seen it? It’s good. I feel like I’m cheating on House though. I do need to catch up on that as well… hmm choices, choices. I could use a good sexy House fix right about now…

or…

Yes, I do have a thing for sexy older men who need to shave.

• 31 weeks
• Lets all freak out!
• Me = Chicken With Head Cut Off

So the second snake was last night that I told you about, and then today Preston and Ashton got back from the zoo and Preston calls me and says, “There’s another snake out here”. So I came out the front door instead of the side door which we usually use, and sure enough another damn snake just hanging out in the grass where we usually walk to the side door. This one decided to put up a fight and made a strike at Preston when he approached it with the garden hoe, and then the dog ran past it and it struck at the dog too, barely grabbing his upper lip! Luckily it didn’t puncture him! After that Preston got rid of the snake and the dog stayed away. However, he likes to pretend he was the one that killed the snake.

This might not be the type of snake that we thought at first. It’s really hard to tell, it has a distinct head shaped like a cottonmouth, and it has the very white mouth, and the coloring is the same. Not entirely sure now though. Either way, I hate snakes. They can go ahead and stay far, far away!!!

• How About I Don’t Get Bit By A Snake Tonight

I think, well I know, that sometimes I take for granted how much my husband goes above and beyond the typical husband. I frequent a few pregnancy and motherhood forums and all too often I see women on there ranting and complaining about their husbands, and then others chime in with their comments relating to whatever topic is at hand, and it always reminds me that I have it so good. Preston is always so considerate of me and always puts my needs and wants above his own, he is helpful around the house when I need him to be, he’s an amazing father, he’s hilarious, he’s genuine, he’s romantic and sweet, and I never have to question if he’ll be there for me when I need him. Sure, we have our fights and we can get on each others nerves at times, but it never takes long to make up and every time we do it brings us that much closer.

I love how observant and thoughtful Preston is. He’s frequently told how impressive it is how well he knows his wife and children. We might be at the pediatrician, or my OB and Preston is always able to help me explain things in such detail about myself or the kids that it amazes the people around him. There have been times where I wasn’t able to do the talking in a situation and I never have to worry because I know that Preston is always fully aware of what’s going on with his family. I would hate to be the one taking care of the kids so much so that my husband has no clue when asked a question about them, or have to be sick and worry if he remembers all the necessary things about me when asked. Heck, I think most of the time he knows more about me than I know about myself! And I love it.

I love how Preston is just enough of my opposite to fill in all my weak points, and I do the same for him. It sounds cliche but he truly is my best friend. I love how funny he is, he sometimes makes me laugh so hard I cry. I love how we can be total goof balls together. I love how he’s the perfect mix of silly and serious. I hate how he knows everything, but I love how he just knows everything! I love his passion, his imagination, his ambition. I love the way he smells. I love that he wears gloves when he’s working outside so that his hands are soft for me. I love how our bodies fit perfectly together like puzzle pieces that were made for each other.

I miss being able to stay up all night together and lay in bed snuggling into the afternoon. I miss being able to go out on dates as often as we wanted. But, I love seeing how our relationship changes as it grows and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us. Whatever it is, as long as we have each other and our precious children I know it will be amazing.

Happy Anniversary honey.

• The Family Scrapbook
• 2010 Surprise
• Me = Chicken With Head Cut Off

So while the girls and I waited in the car, Preston found a hoe to kill the snake with. A garden hoe, not a hoe hoe. I had to get out of the car and hold the flash light while Preston proceeded to beat the living daylights out of the snake. I’m glad the snake didn’t decide to run off while he was looking for the murder weapon of choice, because that would have me up all night worrying about snakes everywhere.

You would have thought the snake died after it’s hoe beating, but no. That thing was tough. Preston moved it to the gravel and it was still making an attempt at moving and opened it’s mouth in an attempt to say “bring it on, hoe”, revealing it’s signature white “cotton mouth”. After a few more whacks, it was officially dead.

This is the second encounter we’ve had with a water moccasin and I’m not liking it too much! I would assume they are coming up from our pond out back. I’d pretty much like it if they just stayed there, or you know… didn’t exist at all. That would be good too.

Living out in the country next to the middle of no where is great but it definitely has a few down falls. Like when snakes, spiders the size of your palm, and all sorts of other bugs try to become roomies with you. Not cool.

*Thankfully, it wasn’t a cotton mouth after all, so that’s good! Preston won’t be killing any more snakes that look like this one since we know now that it’s not as dangerous as it initially looked.

• Another snake?! Are you kidding me?
• An update OMG
• This is what not to do

Okay lets start out with the cheapest way to cloth diaper your baby – prefolds and covers. Prefolds are pieces of cotton fabric sewn to have extra absorbency in the middle where it’s needed the most. They are called “prefolds” because although they require some folding, they don’t require a lot of folding to get the thickness in the middle, they have been “pre-folded”.  This is probably what you think of when you think of cloth diapers. These types of diapers can be folded and either pinned or snappied, or simply folded in thirds and placed inside a cover. These diapers are not waterproof on their own and require the use of a diaper cover to keep moisture inside. There are tons of choices now for diaper covers. Used to be, back in the good ol days, babies wore ugly plastic pants. Not anymore! Diaper covers have come a very long way since my mother was cloth diapering! I’m going to show you two types of diaper covers. There are many others out there that would require an entire website to tell you about!

These are prefolds. You can get prefolds for around $20-$30 per dozen depending on the size and if you choose organic or non-organic.

These are two different types of diaper covers both from Thirsties.

The first is a sized cover (about $10.95 each) which can give you a better fit, but you have to buy more covers as your baby outgrows each size. The second is a one size diaper cover (about $12.25 each). These have snaps that adjust to the size of your baby and will fit most babies from birth to potty training! Like I said before, these are just two options available, there are plenty of others that vary greatly in price. I’ve been told, and have read, depending on how much laundry you want to do you can get by with about 2 dozen prefolds and 6-8 covers. These two particular covers can be wiped clean between diaper changes and reused before being put in the laundry (because if you’re changing often enough they will only get a very small amount of moisture on them, if any at all).

Prefolds and covers is the system I plan on using the majority of the time. After lots of research, these are the covers (I’ve chosen the one size) that I’m going to try first. I also have my eye on some other “fancier” covers but that’s a whole different blog post all together!

Next is fitted diapers and covers. Personally, I don’t see the point in these other than they can come in come really cute prints (and I’ll admit… some of them are very tempting!) and they are super simple to use, but they still require a cover. So that really cute $35 fitted diaper you paid for is just going to get covered up! But, there are plenty of people out there that swear by fitteds. They also vary greatly in price. Basically these go on just like a disposable diaper. No pinning, no folding. Then you simply put on any diaper cover. Very daddy and babysitter friendly! The one below is also from Thirsties and runs about $13.95 each, although I’ve heard rumor this particular one from this company is being discontinued. But that only means something better will replace it!

Now we move on to some really fun stuff – pocket diapers! How a pocket diaper works is like this – you have the “shell” which is waterproof and has a “pocket” on the inside for you to stuff a cloth insert or a tri-folded prefold. After stuffing the diaper, you simply put it on baby the same way as a disposable. You can pre-stuff your diapers after washing so all you need to do is grab one and put it on your lil punkin’ making this a very daddy and babysitter friendly option as well. They can come in either sized or one size. The one size option has snaps that adjust to fit your baby from birth to toddler. Lots of people swear by pocket diapers, and I can definitely see why. For myself personally, I don’t like the sound of this option for a couple of reasons. First of all there are many different brands of pocket diapers and many different price ranges. This particular diaper I’m showing you is from BumGenius and will run you about $17.95 per diaper. Depending on how often you want to do laundry, you will need about 12-24 or more of this type of diaper. Second, you have to stuff the diaper. Stuffing diapers doesn’t sound like something I want to spend a lot of time doing. There are a lot of great things about this type of diaper though, and it’s completely a personal decision! Much like almost anything when it comes to parenting.

Next up is the all in one diaper, commonly called AIO Diapers. This is exactly what it sounds like, it’s all in one! No folding, no pinning, no stuffing. Everything is all sewn together. Just put it on your munchkin the same as a disposable and you’re ready to go! Obviously these are probably the most daddy and babysitter friendly. Again there are many different brands and price ranges. The one below is from BumGenius and will run you about $24.95 each. These also come in sized or one size. You would need the same amount of these diapers as you would the pocket diapers, making this the most expensive cloth diapering option. But if you want convenience, this is your best bet. Although I have heard they take quite a while to dry. That’s the only complaint I’ve seen on these other than the price.

Finally we have what is called hybrid diapers. I haven’t looked into these much myself, but they are out there if you are interested. Basically a hybrid diaper is a diaper cover with a disposable insert. So, you’re still throwing some kind of diaper waste away, but the disposable liners are supposedly more land fill friendly than typical disposable diapers. You can also buy the hybrid diaper covers and use cloth inserts, and I’ve heard lots of good things about the covers that are intended for hybrid systems.

So there you have it. This is the very basic cast of characters in the cloth diapering world! You will find many different brands, prices, etc but all diapers are going to fit into one of these categories I’ve outlined above. Allow me to answer a couple of questions you might have after reading this. Maybe you’re wondering if cloth diapers would really save you money? If you go all out on the most expensive options, then it might not. But if you stick to the tried and true basics, it most definitely will!!! It’s all a personal preference, and when you do the math, in most cases cloth diapering could save you hundreds of dollars. Not to mention that cloth diapers an be reused for future babies! Double the savings! You also might be wondering, what do you do with the poop? Contrary to what you have heard, you do not have to dunk a diaper in the toilet to get the waste off. There is a fantastic thing called a diaper sprayer that you can hook to the water line of your toilet and simply rinse the diaper off before putting it in the diaper pail. Then it’s off to the wash! After baby is eating solids it’s even easier to discard waste. So don’t be thinking it’s all super nasty, because really it doesn’t have to be.

Alright well there ya go! I might do a few more posts on cloth diapering before my little man arrives. I have so much information packed into my brain about cloth diapering it’s ridiculous. And even more ridiculous is how excited I am to cloth diaper! Who would have thought you could be excited about diapering?! If you aren’t convinced to use cloth diapers just by the savings and the impact on the environment, consider how completely adorable a baby looks in a nice cloth diaper as opposed to paper pants!

AWWWWWWWWWWW!

*All images are copyright to their respective owners. I found all these images through google image search.*

P.S. Jillians Drawers is my favorite online store because of their variety and prices. And feel free to buy us some diapers if you’re feeling generous.

• Cloth Diapering?
• Cloth Diapering This Time Around
• An update OMG

And can I just tell you that for some reason I am leaning toward Caid. We’ll see when he gets here, but lately he just “feels like” a Caid. Which is funny because when Preston told me the name Caid the first thing I said was, “You mean like, Medicaid?”. But it’s grown on me and I really like it.

We made our very first baby purchases yesterday. I’m amazed that I’ve gone this long without spending a single dime on baby stuff! When I was pregnant with the girls, I started shopping the day I found out they were girls! I guess when you’re a brand new mom you go overboard. This time I’m definitely not going overboard, there are several things I learned the first time around that I don’t really need. I know for a fact that the girls didn’t even get a chance to wear half the clothes I bought them in the first few months. And can I just say that I think baby bath tubs are completely worthless? Oh and wipe warmers, and bottle warmers. I used to really dread bathing the girls because the baby bath tub felt so limiting, and I really sucked at bathing them in that thing. Bath time was very frustrating. That was until Preston’s sister told me to fold up a towel and put it on the floor of the tub, add a tiny bit of water and lay the baby on the towel. GENIUS! It worked perfect, especially since the bath tub is ever so slightly sloped. And when I started that bath times became simple and fun. Oh and to each there own – no offense here – but you will never catch me bathing my baby in my kitchen sink.

Anyway, we got several outfits for little mister. Poor Preston had to hear, “Awww that’s so cute!” all day long. Emma and Ava said that probably 624 times each yesterday while we were shopping. Miss Ashton found two super adorable outfits on a clearance rack that I didn’t even see. That girl is a good bargain shopper! She’s officially my new shopping buddy. I better get a move on with baby shopping because time is running out! I’ve been putting it off because I don’t have anywhere to put all his stuff yet, and I don’t want it just sitting around in my bedroom, it has to have a place. I guess I’m odd like that. But, we are making progress with removing the texturing on the walls up here so his room will be coming together in the next few weeks. Oh and by the way, sanding all this awful texture off might be “easy” (as in, it comes off pretty easy considering) but it’s tedious and time consuming, and frustrating. I’d like to write the previous owners of this house a strongly worded letter about their ridiculous choice of wall texture.

Anyway, time for dinner which means I’m doomed for heart burn the rest of the night. No matter what I eat, never fails. It’s coming up to the “really not so fun anymore” stretch of pregnancy. But hey, it’s worth it!

P.S. I know I said my next post would be a continuation of cloth diapering, I’m working on that one. Check back!

• 31 weeks
• Lets all freak out!
• Me = Chicken With Head Cut Off