These are not your grandmother's cloth diapers.

My mother: "So - I've been stocking up on diapers, when do you want to start taking some home?"
Me: "Actually, Nick and I have decided to invest in cloth diapering."
My mother: "Oh.................................................................................... well you're going to need waterproof pants and bloomers and pins and -"

MOM! Stop.

This is the reaction we get from most people who have no idea what they're talking about when we tell them of our decision to invest in cloth diapering. Most people think of the piece of white cloth that isn't much bigger than a dinner napkin (or thicker, for that matter), wrapping your kid in it, sticking a few pins in for good measure, and praying there isn't a poo-splosion.

DIY Dresser: The Tutorial

Continued from this post, it's time to go step by step of what it took to refinish this amazing piece of furniture. With the help of my DIY savvy mother and my wonderful husband we turned this:

Into this:

Being uncomfortable (33 week picture included!)

Pregnancy will be uncomfortable. No matter WHAT you do - your pregnancy will make you uncomfortable in at least one way at some point. However - I have made what I think is a direct correlation between diet and level of comfort. Before I start my lecture I want to say that I am in no way a doctor or a dietitian; nor do I know what is best for you and your baby. These are observations I have made that have been working best for me during my pregnancy and thought it might be helpful if you're to that point of un-comfort where you're willing to try something new.

This weekend I splurged. Nick wanted to go to a burger joint, and being that it was almost noon and I hadn't yet eaten I was ravenous. I got a burger. A huge burger. And I ate the.whole.thing. I went to sleep at 11pm and was still burping up onion. Around 8am I started to get these shooting pains from my stomach to my brain. It felt like that pain you get when wait WAY too long to eat - you know, how any pressure you put on your stomach gives you the worst headache ever? Usually food makes it better, so I ate. 3 hours later it hadn't gone away. It was to the point that I wasn't able to concentrate. Everyone kept telling me to call the midwife, it could be a sign of this or that or oh ya know, death. I decided that if I woke up this morning and still felt it I would call. I woke up this morning feeling great. I'm convinced it was that burger.

For the past couple months I've been sticking to a mainly "clean" diet. Not because "it's good for me" or "good for the baby" but because I literally crave plates upon plates of cooked vegetables and fresh fruit. Do I also crave and consume things like cosmic brownies and sour patch kids? Of course! But I have found that what works best for me is eating mainly things that grow from the ground. Due to not really eating much outside that diet for the past few months I didn't realize how much of an impact "straying" from it would have. There are a lot of pretty common pregnancy symptoms I haven't experienced yet and I'm wondering if my diet may having something to do with it. To list a few:

T-48 days

I used to laugh at people who talked about nesting. I thought, "duh... everyone needs to create space and buy shit for a new person, why give it a name and description that makes it sound like we're losing our minds?" Well my friends... I've recently learned that the name and description are 100% for real and spot on. Sure, I went on a few cleaning and organizing and "get rid of this crap we haven't touched since we moved in two years ago" kicks and I thought "wow, my nesting is kicking in early! I'm smart to do this now so that there's less to do later when my huge belly won't let me fit in this small space anymore!" Well, that was nature's way of tricking me into thinking I was getting ahead of the game. Because today, I turned into this:

Book Review: Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth

Amazon Link

As you can see, this book didn't take NEARLY as long for me to read. Not that that means one is any better - Ina May's was a little longer but was written in an experience based manner, making it read like one adventure after another. It also helped that the first half of the book was nothing but birth stories told by all different mothers who all had different experiences. The first half took me less than a day to get through and the rest of the chapters took about 3 (week) days to finish.

The magnificent H2O

Source

Why didn't I discover this miracle element sooner? Water is the greatest thing to happen to pregnant women. EVER. Why do I say this you ask? Well dear readers, mainly because of it's versatility.

How water has helped me -

"Your Best Birth" - A Book Review

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Remember this post?  Where I said I was going to read that book and write a review? Well.... I read it. I read it all the way up to the last 10 pages. Then, somehow, I lost it. Yeah. Last ten pages, I put it down and forgot where it was. I blame it on the parasite that's currently sucking the life out of me. Well anyways, I lost it back in June and being naive, I thought I would find it again and finish it so I delayed writing this post. Truth: I never really looked for it. It's not in any obvious places and I can't bend over anymore without assistance so I'm just going to pretend I made a valiant effort to find it before I gave up my search and decided to write my review.

The Dreaded Pregnancy Weight Gain

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This is a subject no one wants to talk about. So far, I personally have gained 10 pounds during this pregnancy. Weight gain during pregnancy is inevitable and healthy but it's a really touchy subject. No matter which end of the spectrum you're on people are going to have something negative to say and therefore no one talks about it. However, I think it's extremely important to inform people how much weight a pregnant woman is supposed to gain - because many people just don't know. When you throw out that you've gained 30 pounds and you're met with shock and surprise it's not because people think you're fat it's because people don't know any better. My husband thought 10 pounds of weight gain was too much! So the average pregnant woman is supposed to gain 25-35 pounds steadily over her 40 week pregnancy. Let's break it down: