Cloth diapers

We have decided that we want to use cloth diapers for baby. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but mainly we feel like it's the best use of our resources (ends up being cheaper for a year of cloth diapers washed at home than a year of disposables) and is the most responsible (cuts down on waste). The initial decision was fairly easy, however deciding which diapers to go with has been quite the ordeal. I'm still not positive which diapers we are going to end up using, though I think we've narrowed it down significantly. Whew. I've added some all-in-ones to our Amazon.com registry. These will be good for traveling (short or long distances). The others that we're trying to decide between are Imse Vimse contour diapers or MotherEase one-size diapers. Both would need diaper wraps/covers as well, but those don't have to be washed every time a diaper is changed like the all-in-ones do. Our final consideration is cost. We have a good chunk of funds stored away for cloth diapers, but still fall short of what we need to have enough to go cloth-only. I'm not really sure what the point of my rambling is...except that your prayers for my sanity while trying to decide what diapers to go with would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you feel so inclined to donate to our cloth diaper fund, Baby's bum would be appreciative. :)

Till next time...

Bottom's Up!!!

No, I'm not talking about a delicious pint of beer...I'm talking about Baby!!! She decided that it was time to quit fooling around and get into ready-to-be-born position. So we now have ruled out the last reason (that we know of) for a scheduled C-section. Can I get a witness!??! Seriously, though, we are relieved and very thankful that she is no longer breech. This means that all of the hard work we put into childbirth class can actually be put to good use. It also means that she can come when she wants to and not have a planned birthday. I like that.

We are busy washing tiny clothes and bit by bit getting the nursery ready. The crib is put together (though it still needs a mattress), the carseat is out and ready to install, and I've even thought more than fleetingly about packing a go-to-the-hospital bag. It's hard to believe, but her due date is only five weeks away! That seems like so little time to get everything done! And yet, we are both impatient to meet this wiggly, spirited, and precious little girl of ours. I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like to look in her tiny face for the first time and know that no matter how much I love her now it will only multiply a million times over in the years to come.

Joshua is keeping himself more than busy by trying to get schoolwork done in the midst of all of his photography stuff (and all of the baby related chores I keep asking him to do). But he's a trooper. He'll get everything done by the time it has to be done--even if it's just under the wire.

Cheers, for now!

Bumper Stickers

So today, as I am sometimes want to do, I thought up one of my inappropriate bumper stickers that I could never put on a car, but I would really like to.

I saw a student a fellow student driving on campus, which prompted me to come up with this:

Do you think its too much?
Cheers

Less Artsy...More Belly...

Joshua took this during our "artsy" belly photo shoot yesterday, but I did all of the editing. Yes, I am a photo rock star in training. :)
(still 33 weeks, in case you were wondering)

Week 33

This is a bit of a creative shot, but it also counts as a "Belly Update" photo. Enjoy.
Cheers

Creep Thus Disabled

The countdown continues...

So here I am at 31.5 weeks. It's funny to me that I look this big from the side because from the front I feel like you can hardly tell that I'm preggers. Maybe other people can, but it's still amusing to me. This sweater is also amusing to me because it is one of my two turtlenecks--this one fits me best even though this is not a maternity sweater and the other one is. Go figure. In other news, we put our stroller together the other night. That was fun. Who knows when we'll actually use it, since we now have a wrap and Baby Bjorn, but at least we have it if we need it. I think that it will be more handy to cart baby's stuff around than to actually cart baby around. Good times. We also went on our hospital tour last week. It was good to see the Labor and Delivery floor as well as the postpartum rooms. We also got to check out the nursery (from the outside, of course). Even though it still feels very medical (obviously--it's a hospital), I feel very confident that they will respect our desire to have a natural labor and delivery (unless complications arise). This hospital works so closely with so many midwives that they lean more in that direction than any other hospital I've ever heard of. I love it. We're looking forward to having a great birth experience there. That's all for now...

Holy Sheet Metal, Batman!

As you can see from our baby counter at the top of the blog...we're getting close! Since we're still in January, the end of March seems (in theory) to be a long way off. However, when you stop to think about it, we have just over 60 days left until the estimated arrival of our little one. Zoikes! (as Shaggy would say) It's amazing to think that we have so little time left to prepare everything for our daughter. I'm guessing that it's near impossible to have EVERYTHING ready, but we can be as prepared as possible. I think that the reality is starting to set in a little more, too. We went out to a movie a few weeks ago and I realized that we were going to have to think about babysitters for future movie dates (or not go to movies anymore). Babysitters! The good thing about the due date drawing nearer and nearer is that it means we will get to meet our little girl soon. I can't wait. I want to know who she will look like...will she have hair...what will hear voice sound like...I have all of these questions that I can't wait to answer. I guess I'll have to just continue being patient for another 60-some-odd days.

My visit with the midwife went well today. She said that Baby is looking great (and me too!) and that she's just the right size. She does seem to still be breech, so please continue to pray that she'll move on her own. We're going to start implementing some home "encouragements" (playing music down low, shining a light down low, putting heat on her bum and cold on her head) to try to coax her into flipping around. In the end, I'm not super worried about it because I've already made my peace with the idea of a c-section. I'd prefer that she come out on her because I'm sure that it will be less traumatizing for both of us...but as long as she is healthy that's all I really care about.

That's about it for now...we'll get more pictures up for you sometime soon. Seriously!

Squirmy...

The last week or two has seen an upturn in how squirmy this little girl is. She likes to poke me with pointy parts of her body, like her heels or elbows, too. Good times. It's really fun, though, to lie down and watch her move around in there. It's sort of bizarre, but amazing too. I could lie on the couch for hours and watch her move around in there. It will be strange when she's on the outside and I can't feel her in my tummy anymore.

In other news, we went to a baby wearing class last night. It was hosted by a local baby store called Crunchy Granola Baby. The store is really cool and they carry all organic baby clothes, toys, cloth diapers, etc. Definitely a Seattle type store. Anyway, they hold classes every few weeks about various topics that parents are interested in. They host CPR/First Aid courses as well, which is cool. But last night was the baby wearing class, and it was tons of fun. Joshua and I have been talking about the concept of baby wearing for a long time because of the benefits for both the parents and the child. I should probably briefly explain baby wearing for those of you who may be unfamiliar with it. Essentially, it's just what it sounds like. Instead of leaving the baby in a bassinet, stroller, swing, or carseat, one parent "wears" the baby (using a Bjorn, sling, wrap, or other carrier) for the majority of the time. This frees up the parent's hands so that they can get things done, while at the same time helps the baby to bond with the parent and adjust to the world. There are studies that have been done about the benefits of baby wearing, and there's a huge website that is dedicated to the practice. All of this to say, we've been talking and doing research about it and thought that a class about it would be helpful for us. We actually ended up buying a wrap there after the class was over because Joshua is really stoked about it. We both are, but he was the one who picked the color and decided we were taking it home with us. All in all it will be a great adventure and bonding experience for us. Hopefully, we'll get the hang of it quickly, too.

If it's not one thing...

We had our third and FINAL ultrasound today! Yay! Baby looks "perfect" and the good news is that the placenta has indeed shifted. It's still a little low, but I should be able to have a natural labor instead of a planned C-section. What a relief! At least momentarily...we also found out that she is full-on breech right now. That's right toes up by her eyebrows, pike position, butt first, breech. Sheesh! She still has 10 weeks to turn, so I'm not too amped up about it yet, but it's still somewhat annoying/amusing to find out that we have one worry out of the way and another one to consider. So, as you pray for the three of us...PLEASE pray that she turns on her own and ends up head down like a good little baby. In spite of the surprise that she's breech, the ultrasound was really cool. Since she's so much bigger than last time (especially for Joshua who only went to the first one), we were able to see her in much more detail. She smiled prettily for the camera and didn't even stick her hand in the way like the last two times. We have a great face shot that we'll get up as soon as possible. If she comes out half as cute as she is on the inside, we're going to have one beautiful daughter! We could also see her legs really clearly with all of her bones and joints and everything. Truly amazing!

In other news, we're still working through all of our boxes from the move. It's been a slow process, mostly because I can't just buzz around the apartment getting things put away. Joshua has been a huge help, and I'm so thankful for all the work that he's put in making our new place feel like home. We've set a goal of getting everything (mostly) in order by January 20th. That should give us enough time to set up Baby's room and feel at least a little settled before she decides to arrive.

I still don't feel like we have anywhere near all of the stuff that we need for a baby. Not that I should worry too much about it yet, because we still have 11 weeks to go, but I must admit that I get a little paranoid about her coming early and us having no baby carrier (other than the carseat of course), no diapers or wipes, and very few newborn baby clothes. I'm sure that it will all work out--after all we haven't had a baby shower yet or really started buying things on our own. But I'm a mom-in-the-making and I worry about stuff.

So, that's enough rambling for now, I think. If you want to check out some awesome pictures while you're waiting for us to post the ultrasound photo, you can check out Joshua's photoblog . He has some fabulous pictures up right now of our friends' dogs. They're quite striking. Till later...

And now for some explanation...

Okay, so you may be thinking to yourself "What happened to Sarah's blog?!? It looks different, it has a different name, and Joshua is posting...what's up?!?" Well, when we first set this blog up (before moving out to MA) it was intended to be a "family" blog. However, Joshua decided at some point that he wanted to have his own place to share his theological ponderings and generally rant about things. That blog seems to have run its course, and we are now back to a point where a family blog makes sense again (since there's a little one soon to join us). So, "Sarah's blog" is now the "family blog." You should be able to tell who is posting because it will have our name at the bottom of the post. So, if you're wondering why I'm talking about photography or why Joshua is talking about being pregnant...check out who did the post and that should clear everything up. :)

Another clarification that is in order relates to our new blog title. When we discovered that we were going to be parents, we decided to keep our thoughts about naming the baby to ourselves. Thus we've had to answer the question "Do you have a name for her yet?" with "Yes, but it's a secret." That can get old after a while, mostly because it seems like an answer that not many people want to hear (not that they don't respect it, but it's not a very satisfying answer to those who were hoping to be filled in on the name situation). So one day I told Joshua that we should come up with a ridiculous name that we obviously would never give our child. I then proceeded to suggest Clotilda. Let's just be honest--that is not a name we would choose for our daughter. Ever. (No offense to anyone named Clotilda.) So, we've jokingly told people for the last few months that we're naming our daughter Clotilda. It's been a source of amusement--mostly for the two of us. I'm not sure that anyone else finds it as funny as we do. So, as we were trying to come up with a new name for our family blog (and we came up with some pretty ridiculous stuff), I just blurted out "No, her name is NOT Clotilda!" In retrospect, I think I was just trying to be funny as opposed to making any effort to come up with a good title for the blog. Apparently, Joshua liked it because he typed it in--and it sort of stuck. His first post (the one previous to this fabulous and thought provoking post) is a testimony to how even in the things that we find hilarious to begin with there can always be something to add to the humor. Leaving no rock unturned, Joshua wanted to check to make sure that we were spelling Clotilda correctly and...well, click the link below and we think you'll get a good laugh too.

Hopefully that clears up any confusion that anyone may have had. Perhaps you weren't confused at all, which means that you track with things much faster than I do these days. :) We hope that with our powers combined, we will post more frequently. So check back often--we'll try to keep both the humorous and thought-provoking posts coming.

Her Name Is Not Clotilda......

Ok...Seriously?

More Registry info...

Just a note to let you know that we've created an Amazon.com baby registry. It has pretty much all of the same stuff that our other registries do--this just gives you another option for prices, shipping, etc. You can find it at amazon.com by clicking on baby registry and typing in one of our names.

Ultrasound #2

Since we'll be having our third (and hopefully last) ultrasound next Wednesday, I thought that it might be time to get the pictures from the second one posted. These were taken in November. She's obviously much bigger now, and if we get any good profile shots from the next US, I'll make sure to post those too. Anyway, here she is...with one hand in front of her face (top pic), as usual. Apparently, she doesn't like the paparazzi too much. I guess she'd better get used to it...

26.5 weeks

Merry Christmas!

A friend sent this my way and I thought it might bring you some Christmas cheer! Enjoy!

Elf fun

23 weeks

Here are some new photos for you...I would put up a real post, but I've gotta get packing!!!!

Baby Wishlists

Hey all! Happy Monday! Just a note (and reminder) that I've posted links to our baby registries on the sidebar to the left.

Victory!

In my last post, I told y'all about how we were setting out to find a new apartment and asked for your prayers during the process. Well, the whole pursuit of finding a new apartment was, start to finish, quite short and surprisingly easy. We ended up signing a lease for a privately owned two bedroom. It is above the landlord's garage and is really quite cute. The space is perfect for us, and we will now have the joy of a dishwasher and a washer/dryer. Hooray! The landlords, Kim and Bill, are very nice and seem to be really down to earth people. On top of finding a new place to live so quickly, we are also moving very soon! On December 15th, barring any unforeseen blizzard, we will be moving into our new place. Yes, that's approximately three weeks from now. I'm not entirely sure how we'll pull it off, but we'll make it happen. So you can turn your prayers from finding a place to actually settling in without losing our minds. :) We're both really excited and will be sure to post some pictures from the move, as well as some once we get settled in.

Cheers!

For your consideration....

We are currently in a state of hunting and deliberation. What does that mean? Well, we're not tracking bears, that's for sure. We were originally planning on moving in May, but the more we've thought about it the less that time made sense. So, we're now thinking about moving sometime during December or January. Good times. This means finding a place out here that is bigger than a cardboard box and yet still affordable. This is no easy task, mind you. Most one bedrooms around here are really expensive, and two bedrooms are even worse. This is precisely why we initially decided that we had to live on campus or not come out here for school. Well, now we're nearing the end of school and surprisingly want to stick around for a bit. So tomorrow we'll be looking at three different apartments. Two of them are two bedrooms, and one is a spacious one bedroom. They're all privately owned, which we've had experience with and have liked a lot. And the big bonus is that at least one of them has a dishwasher AND washer and dryer!!!! Raise your hand if that sounds like a little bit of heaven to you! I'll keep you posted on what we discover...it could be that all three are not anything like what we want. Then again, maybe they'll all be fabulous and I'll be posting about how much of a pain in the rear to decide between all of them. All of this to say, please be praying for us...