Mommy's aren't allowed to be sick...

I felt the germ coming on Monday...sneaking up on me like it had too. My body was slowing down and by the time Monday evening rolled around, I ached all over and felt like my head was going to explode. BUT, I still made diner, cared for Little S, lowed the crib and changed the sheets on her mattress. My darling husband was a big help...he brought me the tool in which to lower the crib with. :/ I believe I was fevered as I went to bed. It was a horrible night and I ended up missing work on Tuesday. This meant that Little S. also missed her second day of daycare. I did rest more on Tuesday ...but I still was up about 8AM to put food in the crock pot and take out the trash. I still cared for my baby girl all day. I went to the doctor and got meds for me even if they are limited. (Can't take many meds while breastfeeding....haven't had good meds since 2008 - I miss them!) We then took Little S. to her InfantSee appointment at the eye doctor. She did GREAT!!! She is slightly far sighted so we'll be going back in 6 months. She was such a good girl though! I gave her a bath and did my normal evening routine at home.

Today, I'm back to work but have no voice left. Feeling some better but still pushing myself. Seems like the only option I have! I am a woman, I am a mom!! Sickness is an inconvenience that just doesn't fly around here. Hope my limited meds do wonders!

First day of Daycare!

I dropped little S. off at the daycare this morning. I really hope I remembered all her stuff! I was so stressed out! They are going to use the cloth diapers (which I'm super happy about!) so I had to take a container and all the "special" diapering stuff for that. She was the first baby there this morning and the girl wasn't sure which bed they were going to use for her yet. They would figure it out once the other girls got there at 7:30. Ugh! I was really hoping to have everything sorted out before I left her this morning...but I know she'll be fine.

Naturally, she has to be cutting teeth at the same time we start this journey. She had one top tooth break thru over the weekend and I think the one beside it will be soon to follow. Her nose is running like crazy!

Then it rained in a complete downpour all night last night. I had trouble sleeping and kept having nightmares that the road would flood while little S. was there and we wouldn't be able to get to her after work. (The road to the daycare right beside the river.)

Neither of us cried as I dropped her off this morning....but I really hope she has a good day. I'll be thinking about her a lot today. I know this is for the best but part of me still feels extremely guilty for not being able to stay at home and take care of my own kid. I love that little girl.

Let's talk cars...

I REALLY miss my pre-baby car much like I miss my pre-baby body. :( Before I had little S., my car was my baby. I loved him....but said goodbye as I realized I'd have to choose between baby and baby stuff each time I left the house not to mention the anti-fun-car snow storms that gave me anxiety attacks all winter. I called him the Captain....because that is what he wanted to be called. A 2002 MINI CooperS in dark silver....the one I learned to drive a stick shift with. ~sigh~ I bought him without knowing how to drive him. My hubby taught me pretty quickly and I was in love! During the first year of the MINI, we went on a road trip to Williamsburg and I spent many nights buzzing around town while playing Def Lepard with the windows down...ahh... Yes, by nights, I mean middle of the night when traffic was almost nonexistant. I would sleep from like 7-11:30PM, get up and drive around shopping and visiting hubby at work until 3 or 4AM, sleep until 7:30AM to go to work the next day! No problem!! (Now I can sleep most of the night and still be exhausted for work!) BOY ARE THOSE DAYS GONE!! LOL

At the beginning of the winter, we traded the Captain in on a 2008 Honda Element. I like the Element....I'm not in LOVE but it's a good car. I think it helps that I got another stick shift! Once I learned how, I love the feel of having control like that. The Element is a smarter winter car for our area too. Little S has room and so does all of her stuff....gosh babies have lots of stuff! I must say though, summer time really makes me miss my zippy, little fun car even more. I really want to close my eyes, feel the wind in my hair and have "Pour some sugar on me!" raging thru my car and just pretend that I'm in the MINI.....but I'm afraid I'll wreck with my eyes closed! ;) Plus, I just don't think it has the same effect when you have a vehicle loaded with baby stuff and groceries and a diaper bag the size of luggage PLUS the exhausted, overweight woman being a dumbass with her eyes closed behind the wheel who somewhat resembles the care free youngster that I once was....

Drop the undies and go wash my dishes!!!!

I have a few things in life that REALLY weird me out. On of those things is having someone else do my laundry. ~shudder~ It disturbs me to a point that is unreasonable. There have been times in my life that I would rewash any clothes that were washed/dried/folded by anyone other than myself or husband. Weird...yes, I know. I can't help it. Is it my problem? Yes. Do I need therapy? I don't think so. I really just want my laundry left alone!

So recently I've had an in-law move close to us. She is always wanting to help with something. I get that she just wants to be helpful and I do get behind on things while working full time and caring for an infant and husband. I'm the first to admit that I can't do it all! That being said, I do somehow keep up fairly well on laundry. I wash pretty much everyday between clothes, towels, sheets, baby clothes, and diapers. I just tried to use the clothesline out side as much as I can. :)

So I've told this in-law at least twice since she moved here that I do NOT want help with the laundry - thanks but no thanks. I was nice. She does often wash dishes when she's visiting. I am totally fine with that!! (The dishes never touch my nakedness ...that's probably why it doesn't bother me!) I have told her I don't mind if she help out with dishes. I only lose things occasionally because she puts them away in strange places...no biggie!

So last night I come home from work to hug my baby girl ....and there's a basket of my clothes folded in the hallway. Grrr to myself. I immediately start shaking and my blood pressure rises slightly. (yes, I know this is weird..) I bit my tongue and tried my hardest to be nice and ignore it. I keep reminding myself....only one more week til daycare....one more week and my house is mine again....one more week!!

I'm to the point in my life where I'm to tired to rewash everything however I still end up refolding half of it the way I want it to be and cringing repeatedly until I've forgotten about it. I don't know why I have some physical reactions to such things. I just wish she would respect my wishes. Do the dishes if you feel the need to help but leave my undies (and the rest of my laundry) alone!!

Finding the inner thrifty mamma...She's got to be here SOMEWHERE!!

This summer I will have my 8th wedding anniversary. During my entire married life, I've very rarely (if ever) worried about money. Yes, once in a while we have a bad month. (or summer ...like the one where our transmission in the truck blew, we had poop backed up in our basement and had to dig up the entire yard, had to redo all the pipe work inside to fix draining problems...and I (pre-mommy) developed a short lived alcohol problem!) ANYWAY!! I have recently became very aware of our spending habits and they SUCK!!! Especially my husbands. :D I have a great need to horde money...he doesn't. An example: Last night he says he thinks he's going to need some new clothes when he goes to his new position at work. I so ok...how many outfits do you have now? Enough to get you thru a week or week 1/2?? He says "Oh yeah!" I suggest taking a good inventory of clothing before buying more. I also remind him that I do NOT have enough work clothes to get me thru one week and must wash them midweek to have something that my larger than life ass can fit in to! AH!

What really brings money to the forefront for me is daycare. We will be starting little S in daycare next Monday. I KNOW we can do this! It may make things tight but we can!! We have to! I would just like to still be able to get ahead on some bills at the same time. Make things appear to be going on just the same while in the background I'm clipping coupons and stretching meals and such. ~sigh~

So, in the light of this, I've been googling and yahooing and such looking for new ways to save money and/or tools to help me do so. If anyone has any "thrifty" help suggestions...be it a personal suggestion or a blog or website....share with me, please!!

Rave for CJ's BUTTer!!!

I just started using this awesome product today and I'm already in LOVE!!! I ordered the sampler because I couldn't decide on only ONE scent and I really wanted to try them all! LOL The sampler comes with 8 different scents in 0.5 oz tubs. I think this will be perfect in that I can have some at the changing table, in diaper bags, and at the daycare! :D

I went ahead and put some on little S's behind this evening....she really doesn't get diaper rash. She was slightly red (SLIGHTLY) and by the next diaper change the red was completely gone! This stuff rocks! Oh, yes it is cloth diaper friendly where most (if not all) diaper rash creams found in the store are NOT cloth diaper friendly. I am so happy with this product that I want to share with everyone!

To buy some to rave about for yourself, go to http://www.cjsewingroom.com/ and see what you might like! It looks like she's just rolled out some new goodies as well!

(Image borrowed from CJ's Sewing room website)

Cloth Diapers made me TWEET!!

For a long time I avoided all the online social networks. While trying to get pregnant for S, I joined my first forum! By the time I was pregnant, I was a board host and I was loving it! I met lots of friends there that I still talk to now as we watch our babies grow. Some of those friends talked me into trying Facebook. ADDICTING!! I am now a facebook freak and wouldn't want to live without it! I can share baby pictures with most of my friends and family with a click of a button.

I began learning about cloth diapers from the forum I participate on. I found and talked to other ladies that used them and it helped me believe that I could do it too. Then I became a fan of different diapers I tried on facebook. Soon I found myself joining another forum JUST for diapers! http://www.diaperswappers.com/! It's also addictive but in a more monetary way. They have a buy/trade/sell area and it's just way to easy to get excited and buy to much!

While going thru my initials trails of cloth diapering, I also realized that I could blog about this stuff! So here's my new (and only..) blog!

Last night, I found out about Twitter and that there are Twitter parties where I can possibly win FREE cloth diapers! So, naturally, I signed up in hopes of being able to feed my addiction!

That's how cloth diapering led me to tweet, blog, facebook and forum post! lol Here's a couple pics of some of my diaper stash. Not all are included and I also have some GroBaby diapers too!
The first picture is of BumGenius AIO Organics...


And this picture is most of my BumGenius Pocket diapers and a couple BumGenius AIOs!

Green Mommy by accident

I have never been known for being "green" or super into the whole "save the environment" movement. We don't recycle anymore, we drive whatever vehicles we want with the only concern being the cost of gas to run it. Hybrids are to expensive to buy. We leave lights on and use resources poorly at times. I really need to do better following up on somethings that are within our control.

That said, yesterday at church I was talking with some other mommies and mentioned breastfeeding. They were shocked! They said that you just don't hear about people doing that anymore. Huh?? Then I mentioned that I used cloth diapers too and that got an even more surprised reaction. I expected an amazed reaction about the diapers but not so much the breastfeeding! The one mommy said "Wow...you're just an all natural mom, aren't you?" Who? me? Seriously? I guess I'm getting more green all the time! I guess I am a pretty natural mommy! I sure didn't start it to be green....I always knew I wanted to breastfeed. It just seemed like the best thing for me and my baby and it meant I didn't have to spend all that money on formula! Save money, good for baby - win win, right?! The cloth diapers - I started them because I thought there were super cute! Also, I really don't want to keep buying sposies that just gets thrown away. It really feels like throwing away money. Also, my nursery was beginning to smell like poo all the time! I guess you're really supposed to dump poo out of sposies too but I don't know anyone who does! Even the diaper genie could not contain the smell once we started baby food. Since using cloth, NO SMELL!! I dump, dunk, swish - whatever I need to do to remove the poo and then throw it in the pail!

I guess I'm a green mommy by default! I still have many other areas of my life that could be "greener" but one thing at a time, I guess! Being that diapers take 500 years to disintegrate in a landfill, I feel like I'm making a difference even if small compared to the whole.

Getting braver!

Sunday was the first day I took Sheridan to church wearing a cloth diaper. As each week passes I'm getting braver with the cloth and I love it more and more! We went thru the whole service without having to leave to change her diaper AND no leaks!!! Awesome! I just changed her immediately when we got home. She was wet but not soaked! I used the BG AIO. I must admitt that I did get a little nervous when she was playing on another ladies lap and fell asleep. You know leaks always happen on other people! The thing is though - it can happen with sposies too!

I am officially addicted, if I haven't said that already! lol I just ordered 3 more GroBabies because they were buy 2 get one free from Jillian's Drawers!! WOO HOO!! I also have some more BGs coming because I used the coupon - buy one get one free! LOVE IT!! I'm tempted to find other online stores to use more than one coupon. I'm so rediculous!

Easter Weekend!

What a busy weekend it was!! Little S. and I went to see my parents and to see my Grandma on Sunday. We spent a lot of time on the road and she did WONDERFUL!!! I swear, I couldn't ask for a more pleasant baby! LOVE HER!! :)

We visited some family friends on Saturday and had a Twilight/New Moon marathon with my folks that night. We really had a good time! Abby dog enjoyed playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house too. She loves to travel!

I did end up going back to disposable diapers for the weekend so I wouldn't have to worry about bringing a bag of dirty diapers home. I must say that it was really weird using them again! Who would have thought! Of course, my mom is still against cloth. She doesn't really care but just doesn't think it's necessary. Oh well! I think they are so super cute ...I love my cloth diapers!

I'm the one with the suitcase...No I'm not traveling!

So thru the first 8 months of my daughters life I have used a small diaper bag that matches our stroller, carseat and even the pack n play. (How "new mommy" can I get!) It's themed yet not so sissy that the hubby won't use it. As time goes by, I'm finding that it is just way to small!! Little S's clothes are getting BIGGER, the cloth diapers are BIGGER, and she needs room for toys and stuff too! When out with her, I just thro my keys and wallet in the diaper bag too. I see no point in carrying a purse in addition to the diaper bag. Yesterday I hit a breaking point! I was running around with the diaper bag bulging to extremes. The flap would even close! I didn't even have everything in there that I really wanted in there either! :( So, while we were out, we went to Wally World and purchased the bag you see to the right... It is HUGE!! It was the biggest one they had there and at $19, it was the right price too. I'm hoping that it lasts me many moons to come. It also got Daddy approved when I told him it was by Jeep. lol So from now until I'm done with raising babies....I'm the one with the black suitcase everywhere I go! Please make room and excuse us!

Picture from Wal Mart website.

Bloomer Day at my House!

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day!! I couldn't wait to get out of work so I could enjoy the sunshine! It uplifts the mood and makes everything better! I took advantage of the pretty day to hang my new BumGenius diapers on the line. I love the colorful display! I got so overly excited about this (hence the photos!) and still smile when I look at the photos. :) I am very thankful for a big yard with a clothesline. I hope that thru my excitement I can teach others about cloth diapering and help spread the word! I never dreamed I'd get so excited over diapers!