My daughters gift

Those of you who have been following along for a while, might have an idea of what these are. For those of you who are just joining in my madness, these are my placenta pills.  I've been taking between one to three a day since I got them. These isn't a prescribed way to take them, it's mostly based on how you feel. Bad days, take more, good days, take less. They have a bit of a funny smell to them, but no worse than any other vitamin (not that I go around smelling vitamins).  I've been taking them for about three weeks now along with the iron tablet I was taking while I was pregnant.  I can't tell you how wonderful it has been. Sure there have been hard days, mostly it's just learning how to deal with two kids and really wanting to get out and work this baby weight off.  But, I can tell you I would not be this functional if I wasn't taking these and the iron. When I was three days post, I crashed. My mood crashed, my energy, everything.  (This was before they were finished.) I cried because my husband had burned the risotto. Yes you read that right, I wasn't cooking. I had started the meal and my husband took over because someone else was demanding food.  Well, he partially burned the butternut squash risotto I had started. It wasn't ruined, it just started to stick to the bottom of the pot. But that was enough to send me to our bedroom in tears. So, going on that trend, I don't think I would be functional without these vitamins. I'd probably be found in the bathroom crying because we were out of Kleenex or something else stupid. (Not deodorant though, I do cry when I run out of that.)

Cloth diaper mental mayhem

I've been cloth diapering our daughter since her cord stump fell off. It's been a mish-mash of what was left that was usable in our stash from our son. I have four pocket diapers that are different brands (Kawaii baby, Coolababy, Sunbaby, and Babyland), I have the Dappi's rubber pants in size newborn which the elastic is stretched out on, I had bought some of the Dappi's size small velcro cloth diapers and I have one diaper cover by Flips (which also makes BumGenius). Gratefully my daughter has chunked up enough that we decided to go ahead and order a new stash of pocket diapers, the trouble was, which one????
With our son, I used a system of wraps and just used the Gerber cloth diapers. Towards the end I had attacked the Gerbers, sewn them together and created a contoured cloth diaper. Also, in my learning curve I had ruined four wraps by Bummis, which, surprisingly, wasn't that hard to do. But it was still money that went down the toilet and I ended up throwing them out. Which sucked because they were SOO Cute!

Now knowing what detergents are safe and how to wash them properly, I am ready to go into the world of pocket diapers. Which are awesome because they go on like a disposable, you pull out the insert when dropping it in the dirty pail, wash, dry, stuff, REPEAT! Love it! I love cloth diapering!  My dilemma was, which ones to go with? One of my friends love BumGenius, which I love too, but we just weren't ready to shell out over three hundred for cloth diapers. I love the Snazzy Minky Kawaii baby diaper, it's super absorbant, cute, but it's bulky as heck (huge diaper butt here!) and the legs and waist don't fit right. If you have the right fit on the waist, it's too tight on the legs, to the point of leaving red marks. The other three are nice, very nice actually, but they are made in China. Now this is where it got sticky with me. Do I order the American made diapers and pay twice as much? Or do I pay around $150 and get the same amount of diapers with similar quality? For about three days I had a headache because of this. In the end I went with the Coolabay diapers, bought on e-bay, made in China and I'll tell you why. Everything is made in China! The clothes I put on my kids are chinamade, my clothes are and so are my husbands. I pretty sure half the crap in our house is too. So, why feel guilty about it? I know, work conditions, pay, yadda yadda........but if I'm going to be a stckler about where the diapers are coming from, shouldn't I be about everything? Honestly. The point of cloth diapering is about saving money and the enviroment, which I can do with these diapers. So why the guilt trip? Because there are so few things that you have this much of an option with, that tells you where something came from. If I was shopping at a store that had a rack of American made clothes, same style, in with clothes made in other countries. I'd do my best to buy American made. Yet, if that shirt cost twice as much as the others, I'd think twice. Why? Because, like thousands of others, I'm not rich. I'd splurge on occasion and get the american made, but not if it meant putting myself in debt.

So with that being said, I guess I am a true American, I buy imported, made some where else, things. But I'm saving the enviroment...........that counts right?  Oh well, at least the diapers are cute.

My Second

If you haven't guessed by now, the reason why I haven't written anything in two weeks is because I had my baby.  That and the lack of access to a computer without one of my kids needing me.

That Saturday was pretty uneventful. Needing to get out of the house, we went to the mall and did some window shopping and walking. Later we ordered pizza and wings and then watched a movie before calling it a night.  Around 11pm, I woke up to a strange pressure/pop feeling. I stayed still wide eyed, trying to figure out what just happened. "Did my water just break or was that my hip?" Since there wasn't a gush, I closed my eyes assuming it was my hip. Later I rolled over and then there was the gush. I bolted out of bed into the bathroom, expecting the all out waterfall I had had with my son. This was a trickle, maybe a cup of water and then nothing. I got stood up thinking that moving would get more to come out. Nope. Standing did get the contractions going though. The first and second came one on the other before they got into a pattern. After they were over, I went back to the bedroom to tell my husband that I was in labor. He almost didn't believe me. I then called one of the midwives to tell her my water had broken. She asked me to time the contractions and call back in 20mins. We timed them, they were between 3-5 mins, I called back and she said they were on their way.
So far they weren't very strong, I could talk through them, walking made them more intense, but not enough to make walking impossible. The midwives arrived around 11:45pm and we sat and talked for a bit. I sat sipping Red Raspberry tea and womens blend while my poor husband struggled to get the hose to work with the faucet, no luck. He couldn't get it to stay tight enough to create enough pressure to send water through the hose.  He started bucketing water into the pool. Once we ran out of hot water, we all decided that rest was a good idea. Not knowing how fast or slow my labor was going to be.  The midwives dozed in our sons toy room, which has two guest beds. I was on the sofa, my husband on the love seat.

Around 3am, I got up not able to sleep or even rest during them. I had gotten up several times to use the bathroom, mostly just ending up sitting there through the contractions. I found myself in the kitchen when transition hit. I had been thinking about food, if I was hungry enough to eat and then what to eat. Cereal, yogurt?  After having two that I had to vocalize through, I headed back to the bathroom. I became stranded there with them coming closer and closer and much more intense. I had to add to what vocalizing I was doing. My husband came in and started rubbing my back, I asked him to get one of the midwives.  I had just hit a place I'd never been before and was worried if I would be having the baby soon or have four more hours of this. She came in and listened to me for a min, then she listened to the baby's heartbeat. She asked if it was ok to check me. I said sure and pryed myself off the toilet, slowly making it back to the living room. My husband had started his bucket filling of the pool again, this time enlisting the help of our giant pots. I lay down on the sofa so she could check me. Surprise filled her face as she said "OH! Hi baby." She smiled and told me I was fully dilated.  When I sat up the next contraction doubled me over into a hunch as I felt the sudden urge to push. (They weren't kidding when they coined that sentance!)  I moaned out " I need to push....!" The second midwife jumped into action.  They assesed the pool situation and despite my husbands best attempts, it wasn't half yet. So, they set up shop right there on the floor. Chucks pads galore. With the contractions almost one after the other, I draped myself over one our footstools in a supported squat. It felt soooo good to push. I pushed to where I couldn't stand the burn and then panted it out, letting myself stretch to let baby out.  As soon as it was beyond intense it was over. They caught her and placed her between my legs. I picked her up and sat down in complete awe. I had done it! I had my baby at home, she was healthy pink and let out a nice sqwak. She nursed while we waited for the placenta, then they cut the cord.

My mother-in-law (who had been there the whole time) heard the whole thing through the grate in the living room ceiling that led to the upstairs guest room. After realising that she had heard it all, we asked if she wanted to come down and meet her granddaughter. She rushed down and we all celebrated, quiet as possible because my son was still asleep in bed. After the celebrating, one midwife asked if we wanted to see the placenta. She showed us the maternal side (that was connected to me) and the infant side. The amneotic sack was still intact and she showed us the hole from which the baby had come out of. (I wish we had thought to take pictures.) We donated the cord and they took the placenta to encapsulate it for me. My husband called my parents who were wide awake at 4am for whatever reason.

The midwives hung around after I was tucked into bed in case something happened. I drank two cups of Red Raspberry Leaf tea before I fell asleep. When my son woke up, my husband brought him into our room to meet his new sister.  Still high from the experience, we were visited by friends and family while the phone rang off the hook.

A most happy experience that I would love to repeat.