For the love of Autumn, it's time for a change!

I love the Autumn. The leaves are changing, weather is changing, soon the time is changing. So much change. I love how pretty everything looks as you drive down the streets. Even the overcast skies are pretty to me against the bright orange, yellow, red and some green leaves. The streets are lined with leaves falling. It's just a great time of year. So many holidays to look forward to! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and then New Years.

Ironically, this Autumn, we will be figuring out a big change for us! Where Nick will work after graduating in just a few more months! He has only 7 and a half weeks left of classes towards his Bachelor's degree. He has had interview after interview this month and we are waiting in anticipation to know all of our options and then make our decision. In the next few weeks we'll know if we're staying here in Utah or if we'll end up moving to Arkansas, Idaho, California, Ohio... or any other number of places. So many options that may pop up for us. It's exciting! I can't wait for the next couple of weeks to come to a close so we can have a plan set in place for what we're doing after he graduates! Meanwhile, I just get so excited about the future that I look at houses on Zillow in our main potential locations. :) It keeps me occupied.

In other news, Harvey must've got something from watching all the other babies and little ones at the Shreeve Halloween party we went to on Sunday because he is a lot more interested in practicing sitting up now. We'll see how much longer it takes the little guy to catch on. Some things about him right now. He is a 110% Mama's boy. If someone else is holding him and he sees me, he just loses it and throws himself in my direction. A skill he's getting good at is turning the pages in books when I read him. He also enjoys knocking. He makes a fist and hits everything these days. When he wakes up from a nap in a good mood, he will sit in his crib and knock on the backboard until I get him instead of cry. When I'm changing his diaper, he knocks on the wall or changing table. He knocks on the toys, his books, the side of his car seat, pretty much everything he can. I have no idea where he got it either because we didn't teach him to do that, but he sure is cute when he does it! He's also very much into trying our food. If we are eating, even if he just ate, he tries to pull the food out of our hands and shove it in his mouth before we can grab it from him. He grabbed a huge piece of cookie the other night from right out of my hands. He loves stuffed animals, music, and anything electronic. Another recent thing is his love for paper. He likes to scrunch paper and try to eat it before we catch him. He is a sneaky little guy who can be perfectly content playing by himself if he is getting into trouble, but he would rather be around people. He loves to talk with us and cuddle too. He is starting to catch on that Nick is "Dadadada" and I am "Mamamama". He will say "Dadadada" when Nick comes home and if he's sad or wants to be picked up he says "Mamamama." He loves to be held and probably would be fine in my arms all day long if I am standing. His perfect day would be me carrying him around all day long on one giant outdoor walk, letting him take bites of whatever I eat, letting him eat paper and also my phone, and skip all of his naps. We love our little guy AND I cannot believe he's going to be 8 months tomorrow! His first birthday just keeps getting closer and closer! This first year of his is going by way too fast.

Vegas & Other Updates

Our Vegas trip turned out to be a lot of fun! Nick's mom was kind enough to watch Harvey for us last Monday and Tuesday. Monday we drove down to Vegas. First, we went to the Atomic Testing Museum, which was really cool. The Area 51 exhibit had some cool stuff. There were a few "what if" sections that had testimonials from people who used to work in certain sections and swore they were working on an alien craft, but the rest of the other people said it is basically a military weapons/aircraft test facility. It started up during the cold war when the U.S. was trying to keep up with Russia. They thought Russia had all this technology so they were trying to build it. Then they'd steal Russia's more advanced technology and reverse engineer it. There were a few cool things we read about and saw in that. One was a plane that basically has this camouflage exterior that changes to it's surroundings and scatters radio waves to go undetected on radars. Kind of neat! The other thing we watched a video of was this plane that went so fast you could SEE it breaking the sound barrier. That was pretty cool. It looked like a ripple effect, only in the sky!

After the museum we checked in at our hotel, the Stratosphere. Neither of us had ever been to Vegas before so the Casino atmosphere was pretty funny to us with all the lights flashing, videos playing, card games going, SO much going on in all different directions on the main floor. And how many different kinds of slot machine themes do people need?? Seriously! Wheel of Fortune 1, 2 AND 3, Bay Watch, Beach Boys, Michael Jackson, etc etc etc. JUST in slot machines!? We were there on a Monday and Tuesday and it was still pretty packed. Aside from that, we had a few things we wanted to do but nothing else set in stone. We ended up eating at the buffet, walking towards Fremont street, giving up 3/4 of the way there and stopping in the pawn shop from the show Pawn Stars instead, and riding the "Big Shot" ride at the top of the Stratosphere. It was a lot of fun even though we didn't have time to do everything that we thought would be fun. Maybe we'll go back again some day and we'll have some more stuff to do on our list already.

Meanwhile, Harvey did pretty good for his first night away from us. Grammy Potts took great care of him even though the second day he was being a little stink and decided he had had enough of taking milk from a bottle so she had to squeeze the bottle into his mouth to get him to eat the milk. He was fussy for a day or two after that but now he's back to his happy, bubbly self. Goofing around, trying to crawl, stand, sit up and grab everything in sight. I can't believe he had his half birthday already too! His first birthday seems like it's just going to sneak up so quickly since the past 6 months went by so fast!

Where is August going?

August is going by so fast! I seriously can't believe it's already the 14th. Our 2 year anniversary is less than a week away. Those two years went by fast, but have been great! We decided we wanted to actually go do something this year so Harvey is going to have a sleepover with Grammy Potts while we go down to Las Vegas for a night. We're really excited! We've never really been to Las Vegas so we thought it'd be a fun little overnight trip. We're going to be staying at the Stratosphere (and I am SO going to ride at least ONE of those crazy rides on top. I haven't decided which one yet.) and a dinner buffet came with our hotel room too. Then our main planned thing is going to an Area 51 exhibit in the national atomic testing museum. It's the only exhibit ever made about area 51 and it was made by people who used to work there! We are totally interested in that kind of a thing (especially after the hundreds of episodes of Star Gate) so we're pretty excited to "see what 'the truth' is behind Area 51". Oh and you can't bring cameras in to that one so you're all out of luck, but I will tell you all about it. :) Aside from that though, we haven't got much else planned. A few free things to go see and some frozen custard. A nice relaxing day.

On the Harvey news front... As many of you saw on facebook, Harvey was sleeping so awesome until he was about 4 months old. Unfortunately he got the sleep regression bug. It also didn't help that his little molar poked through the side of his gums and made him the incredible hulk baby for a few days around that time too. We figured it was just a short-lived thing, and we didn't want to start sleep training until we could be consistent with it. We were going out of town for Nick's family reunion and then just traveling around a lot in July so we figured we'd put it on the back burner and maybe he'd grow out of it. Well. He kept up his yucky sleep habits for a few weeks and I was trying everything. Crying it out with time intervals, without time intervals, rocking, walking, going outside, etc etc etc. The crying it out methods did NOT work for us at all, even after a few days of consistency it did not improve or anything. Harvey would just roll around his crib for 45 minutes to an hour, usually end up with his arm or leg poking out of the side and then scream louder. He never cried less than 45 minutes if we tried to let him cry it out and when he did fall asleep after an hour of crying, he'd only sleep 10 or 15 minutes and then wake up screaming. With the time intervals it was just the same, except we'd go in every 15 minutes one day, 20 the next, etc etc. With that, he hardly ever fell asleep and again, when he did, he wouldn't sleep long. He slept longer than he did with just crying it out, but still no more than half an hour. We needed to figure out what to do.

Well. When I took him in for his next well check/shots, our doctor (who I absolutely LOVE by the way) suggested just changing ONE simple thing. Only feed him once at night and decide when that's going to be. Have Nick put Harvey back to sleep when he can if it's not a feeding time, especially the first few nights, and then if Nick's not available, then just put him back to sleep myself. Well, within two days, Harvey was back to only waking up at 1 to eat like he was doing before. Now he's sleeping amazing. He still been waking up about an hour or two after he goes down just from being startled or natural waking or something, but Nick or I will put him back to sleep and then he'll sleep all the way to 6 or 7. YAY! It's been SO nice to get back to a good amount of sleep and without any crying too.

Harvey's Five Month B-day

Harvey turned five months old yesterday! Since last month, he has been on his first hike (for the family reunion), been to seven peaks twice and loved the lazy river and wave pool, is working on sleep training (it's been tough on all of us, but it's getting better), and has started solid foods daily. He was getting to a point where he was hungry pretty much constantly and so we started introducing more solids this week. He's had applesauce and sweet potatoes and he's love them both. Oh and to celebrate his five months yesterday we checked out the Jimmy Stewart movie "Harvey" (based off a play) and finally watched it. We often get asked if we've seen that movie when we tell people his name and now we can finally say we have.

Here's a picture from yesterday on his five month birthday when he was just hanging out, sticking his tongue out and staring at me with his cute little baby grin. 

Goates Reunion

This past weekend was so much fun. I got to meet the last few family members from Nick's Mom's side of the family at the Goates Family Reunion. We had a ton of fun. It started off Thursday with going to Cedar City. We all went out to eat and then Nick and I watched babies and hung out with two of the uncles while everyone else went to a play. This may shock some of you, but we aren't really big play/musical people so we really didn't mind missing out. (Yeah, I know I was in a play in high school... I have the dvd of it and still haven't even watched the one I was in myself... haha)

The next day we woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel (and all the Goates relatives took up the entire breakfast area), then rounded everyone up to head down to my favorite Southern Utah Hike in Kanarraville. I recommended it to my mother in law another summer when they went down with some friends and they loved it too so she planned to go again with the whole family. It was a hit. It's an awesome hike because it's nice and cool. You walk through a creek most of the time and it's almost 100% shaded.

After the hike, we came back up to Cedar and ate lunch at my favorite place EVER, the Pastry Pub. Their bagels are so delicious and are ginormous. I got my favorite bagel sandwich and a slice of the infamous chocolate confusion cake. SO good. We ate in the car on the way back up.

The next day was family picture time. We took a huge picture with the 50 of us and it couldn't have been a better experience. It was amazing that the kids all sat still long enough to look at a camera for 10+ shots. We got ourselves a little family picture too, which we love! We came back down to Provo and hung out for the afternoon and had a nice BBQ evening ending with S'Mores.

This whole time I had been taking pictures and staying up late each night working on the Goates slideshow. People sent in pictures before they got in town so there were at least 400 pictures to pull from for it. For those of you who have been following me long enough, you might remember that I made a roommate slideshow video once upon a time. I don't know why, but I enjoy putting together slideshows just for fun. Even if it takes away a few hours of precious sleep time these days, I really enjoy it anyway.

Now to end with a few pictures & the 15 minute slideshow video.

This is right before the log ladder (you can kind of see it on the left of the pic).

So tired after the hike.

Our first nice looking family pic.

 Little cranky after sitting still for pictures so long.

All of the little girl cousins. I think this picture turned out way cute if I do say so myself. :)

 All the 2012 cousins. Youngest to oldest. It was so stinking cute. They were all awake at the same time looking around at all the moms and kicking their legs and swinging their arms around. If we had another camera around, I would've taken video instead. The pictures we got just don't even come close to the cuteness factor that was going on in person.

Harvey and his cousin Lizzie held hands.

 Then Lizzie wanted a taste of Harvey's arm. Harvey pretty much froze after that and stayed in that position with that face for the next few minutes. haha.

 The 2012 mommies with their babies.
Kait & Harvey - February, Kendra & Lizzie - March, Adreanne & Liam - May, Zoe & Finley - June

And just for fun, how they're related to us - Kendra is Nick's aunt. Adreanne is our sister in law, Zoe is Nick's cousin's wife. So we've got all of Harvey's cousin bases covered here in this pic. First cousin, First cousin once removed, and second cousins. 

Video time!

Garden Pics

These were taken about a week and a half ago so they're not completely current but this gives you an idea of our gardening success so far. :)

My Gardening Attempts

This year I wanted to plant some sort of garden. Since we're in an apartment I had to do a potted garden but it's doing pretty well (pictures to come in a post soon... Nick has the camera today). I sometimes forget to water, but thankfully, plants are pretty forgiving and perk up if I water two days in a row instead of my usual every other day.

The plants we have are a small and large tomato plant, 2 green pepper plants, 2 red pepper plants, a butternut squash plant, and an anaheim pepper plant (for chili). Oh and we also have a basil plant which is probably the least productive... It needs a lot more water than everything else and so I have to make sure I water it every day or else some of the leaves dry up and die.

So far though we've had a TON of mini tomatoes and they are super delicious. SO juicy and sweet. I'm trying to save some so we can have them all at once on a salad or something. They pop up and then ripen pretty quickly. There are 4 tomatoes currently ripening on the larger tomato plant and several more flowers that are on their way. There are 3 red peppers that are growing and the green pepper and anaheim plants looks like they'll start producing something soon too. Several of the flowers on the squash also look quite promising. I'm really excited to start using the fresh food from our little garden. I can't wait to see how much we end up with.

Maybe by next summer we'll be in a house and we can plant a garden in the ground.

This one's for the females...

This topic doesn't exactly come up around the dinner table or in friendly conversation, but I wanted to share this product with the women who read my blog because well, I had no idea this kind of thing existed until just after I got pregnant last year. After Harvey was born, that monthly visitor came back a lot sooner than expected and I was kind of disappointed that I couldn't have a nice long break like most other breastfeeding moms. Mine didn't even skip a beat. Just right back into it after the regular post partum stuff stopped. Thanks body... :sigh:

Anyway, on to the product I want to talk about. Instead SoftCups. Like I said, while I was pregnant I had found out that this product existed from a mothering/baby/pregnancy site and I kept it in the back of my mind though I really had no intention of trying it and certainly not any time soon...until I found out I was one of the lucky minority who continues bleeding through breastfeeding. I had never heard of anything else other than pads and tampons (and cloth pads) and didn't really think to look for anything else either because it hadn't really occurred to me that there WAS anything else since that is all they talk about in the "Welcome to your Period 101" class in elementary school. Turns out the rest of the world has been ahead of us in this department for a while. ---Side Note: There are also these nifty things called "menstrual cups" that pretty much every other country (even Africa) uses. One of those cost just $30-40-ish and will last you for 10 years. You just wash it between uses and use it over and over. That sounds like a good deal to me and I may try that some time in the future. But, they also wear a little differently than the SoftCup. You can also look into those though if you're interested in all of the different options out there too.--- Anyway, back on topic. I figured I'd give the Soft Cup a try and see how it compared to other products. There was slight learning curve at first and I wasn't sure it was going to work for me the first day, but after I re-read the instructions and tried again two more times, I can say that I love this product. These are so much nicer, more comfortable, and have more benefits than wearing tampons and pads that I wanted to share with all of you lady readers of my blog who are probably also oblivious that there are even any other options out there. You can even get them at Wal*Mart too. They've been in plain site all along. Their website has a list of stores that carry them - mostly drug stores and Wal*Mart. They also make "reusable" ones so you just use one per cycle (think I might try those eventually too) but those are only available online.  My favorite part is that you can wear them 12 hours at a time so you don't use as many of them or have to worry about carrying a bunch of feminine products or different "absorbencies" with you if you are going somewhere or for "just in case". And what a convenience this will be when traveling! Rather than explain what they are and how they work, here is their website for you to check out.

http://www.softcup.com/

Pictures Galore

Here are some of the pictures starting with Easter and then Arizona (I seem to have only taken Arizona pictures when we were at the zoo... haha) and then more from just hanging out at home since then.
 Can you believe he's going to be 4 months old next week?? I can't. Oh and he seems to be teething already too! Red cheeks & chin, slight temp of 9.9-ish, cranky as all get out, chewing everything and slobbering everywhere, there is a small tooth you can kind of feel, but it's where his right molars would be so I have no idea how that works since they usually get the front ones first. Either way, he is growing up so fast!

Busy Busy Bees

We have been busy around here. In fact, I'm just going to write this post and then some time in the future I'll do an all picture and video post to go along with this narrative.

In April, Nick finished another semester of classes and now is down to ONE left! WAHOO! This means he is finished with his Bachelor's in December. Being the proud wife I am, I also would like to brag that even with having a new baby in the house for more than half of this past semester, he still did great in his classes with his lowest grade being an A-. After Nick finished the semester we took a day to clean our house really good and then took our first big road trip with Harvey down to Arizona. The drive wasn't too bad. Harvey sure is a trooper with us. He did pretty good on the drive considering he hates his car seat. We got to visit my dad and surprise two of my sisters and their families. My dad knew we were coming because we stayed with him, but my sisters had NO idea and it was really fun to COMPLETELY surprise them and their families. We had never pulled off a big surprise like that on anyone and they had never been surprised like that by anyone so it was really fun!

While in Arizona, Harvey had a lot of firsts. He got to meet some of his aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time (I think he and Daniel will get along great. Daniel loved to give Harvey big hugs.) He went to two major league baseball games. He went swimming in Grandpa's pool. He went to the zoo. He came to the movies with us. He slept really amazing because we kept pretty busy and I also think because of the heat. We stayed for two weeks because we had no obligations back in Utah and took advantage of our last summer that we don't have to worry so much about a work schedule.

After we got back home from Arizona, we went to Davis's baby blessing and said goodbye to my grandma who was going back to Michigan. We used our pass of all passes some more to go mini golfing. We have had several parties with friends. We went up to my mom's Mother's Day weekend and went to the drive in. And speaking of that, it was my FIRST Mother's Day as a Mom. Nick made my and I breakfast that morning and we both got plates with Harvey's footprints/foot-smooshes. He kept curling his little toes in the paint for Dad :). We got a new washing machine (which works amazing on the cloth diapers). Nick's brother got home from his 2 year mission in England. Nick inherited a giant TV from his grandpa who had it in storage at his Dad's work. I'm talking the size of TV that we had to rearrange our entire living room to fit it in. I was kind of annoyed at it at first, but now I'm kind of enjoying it just as much as Nick is. We got to have a couple date nights in there since we've been back. Our neighbors are moving and we found out that some of our friends are moving in next door. Also, when our landlord came to renew our contract Nick asked him about doing maintenance to decrease our rent even more and the landlord said that would be great for him too so another yay for saving us quite a bit of money. And last but not least, we also got some soil, pots and plants and made a potted garden to the side of our 4-plex. We have 2 tomato (one larger, one smaller), 1 butternut squash, 4 green pepper, 4 red pepper, 3 anaheim pepper, and a basil plant. I've been checking on the plants each day to make sure we keep them watered since it's already getting pretty toasty here.

So far the summer has been going great and keeping us super busy. We are having fun being social and taking advantage of the extra time Nick gets to spend at home for a few months. We still have a lot more coming up too. Harvey is finally getting to the doctor (we were waiting to make sure he got covered from Medicaid and then we got notice that he was covered while we were in Arizona... then now finally this week he has an appointment.) At the end of this month, we'll be going on another road trip with his family to Arkansas to visit Nick's older brother, wife, and their new baby Liam. Then Nick will be working on a deal for his work with his dad and if that goes through, we're planning on coming out to Michigan for my cousin's wedding in July. If we can figure out how to go with a baby, I really REALLY want (though I feel like it is a need) to go to Cedar Point when we're out there. We'd be so close to it and I have not been since I lived in Michigan nearly 10 years ago! Best amusement park ever for those who are unfamiliar with it... and it's in northern Ohio. We also have a large Potts family reunion in July that will be taking place mostly down in Southern Utah.

What a long update and I could make it even longer so maybe I should start posting little things here and there again so it's not such an overwhelming catch up post every time I post! :)

Another Diaper Update

So, now that it's been a month of cloth diapering, I can honestly say I LOVE our cloth diapers. We had a few small issues along the way that were not nearly enough to make me want to quit or even issues with the actual diapers, but I will mention them so it doesn't look like this road was completely bump-free.

Problem 1 - Detergents. I ended up having to try two "diaper friendly" detergents (no enzymes, brighteners, dyes, blah blah blah) only to find out that as our regular Tide that we already used works the best... It is not recommended on a lot of cloth diaper sites because they use brighteners, enzymes and dyes, but then on the Rumparooz website it recommends you DO use a detergent that has enzymes because they claim it helps with stink and other build up.

Problem 2 - Skinny legs - At first, Harvey's skinny thighs didn't quite fit into a few of the diapers we had. FuzziBunz sized ones, Just Simply Baby, and our Bum Genius ones. Now, he fits into them just fine and I even like the BumGenius ones quite a lot now.

Other than those problems, we really have had a great experience. Oh I will also mention it took me about a week to get a washing routine down once I finally settled on a detergent to use too. Our HE machine makes it a little more difficult but not hard.

Now that Harvey's legs are getting bigger too, we don't really have any leaks. There were also a couple times that we knew he would've exploded out the back if it had been a disposable and were grateful he was in the cloth so we didn't have to clean his clothes too. Even the few leaks we have had have only been from sizing issues (around the leg) or the way we put the inserts in and not the actual diapers.

My favorite diapers! They have changed now that he's a little bigger too. I am really loving the Rumparooz (I bought two more of those and will probably buy one more soon), the FuzziBunz One-Size Elite (I bought two more of these also), and the Bum Genius (I am looking at buying a few more of these ones soon to replace the gdiaper stash that he's growing out of). The Bum Genius and Just Simply Baby didn't quite fit him around the leg until a week ago and so I couldn't really have an opinion on them before that even though we used them anyway. He is also finally fitting into the Just Simply Baby (JSB) ones around the leg too as of the past few days so I'm starting to feel better about those too. I don't think I'll get more of them, but I do like them and their inserts actually fit nicely into the Bum Genius ones so I usually put the hemp JSB inserts into the Bum Genius diapers when he's going to be in it longer like his longer sleep at night.

Other diapers. Now that he's bigger, we are actually having issues with the other ones that we used to love. He seems to have outgrown the small gDiapers. He leaks through them about 3/4 of the time now unfortunately so I haven't really used those since last weekend. I'm thinking it's probably because of sizing but I don't know and I don't really want to get more inserts/liners for that one since I'm liking other brands anyway. The GAD diapers are now really difficult to get on him since they are side snapping ones. He usually cries when we put that one on him for two reasons. It takes us longer to put that one on than the others because with side snap it is hard to get a good fit. Also, the setting that makes it tight enough around the bottom of his leg on these make it too tight at his thigh and he screams because it pinches him, unfortunately that means that the setting that IS comfortable for him right now means we risk leakage if he poos a lot because it leaves a little gap around the bottom. I was going to buy more of these ones at first because I loved them at first, but after a month, these ones are probably on the bottom of our list now. I have also noticed the most wear on these after a month. They were brand new when we got them and on one, a snap is loose and threads are coming undone. I'm sure if I e-mailed the woman she'd help out, but since I don't really like these that much anyway I don't really care about replacing them. The one redeeming thing about these diapers is that they hold a LOT when they do fit. The inserts are really great. I may get their inserts and just use them on other diapers for night-time in the future.

Overall cloth has been a really great experience for us. I am loving everything about it now. Nick and I really like them and the no rashes and less leaks deal.

How many faces can Harvey make in 90 seconds?

After Harvey eats, more often than not he's pretty sleepy. When he is REALLY out after a feeding, he has the funniest facial expressions and his eyes even roll around. I finally was close to our camera when he was done eating today so I decided to take a little video for you all. I don't know if this will entertain others the way it entertains us, but we sure think it's funny. So, enjoy the minute and a half of Harvey's many faces before he decided he still had a few burps stuck in there. :)

Three Weeks

Hello world! My name is Harvey. I am three weeks old now. Life is going by pretty quick for me and I am already getting really close to being able to smile. Mom and Dad sing me funny songs and tap the tune out on my cheeks and I think it's pretty fun. Some of my other favorite things are staring at the pictures on the walls, meeting new people, eating, taking naps, going for walks with mom and dad, going for car rides, hanging out with Mom and Dad, bath time (if it's warm enough for me) and I can't wait to get even bigger to do even more fun things. I am always finding new things to stare at and try to figure out how it works. Last night Mom & Dad weighed me on a scale my Great Aunt let them have, and I am already growing fast, topping off the scale at 9 pounds 11 ounces. Aren't you impressed? Not bad for refusing to eat the first 48 hours of my life, eh?

Some things I don't enjoy are getting my clothes and my wet diapers changed. I try to hold in some extra pee so when mom and dad change me I can let them know that I disapprove of the current activity. They're starting to catch on though and just open the diaper and leave it on me for a few seconds til I can't hold it in any longer, so I need to come up with something new soon. After I get a clean diaper though then I get to eat a large helping of milk. I love eating and I can't help but make happy tummy noises (you know, those cute little grunts of satisfaction in between gulps) when I eat. After I eat, I'm usually pretty tired, but sometimes I like to just be held and hang out with mom and dad for a bit before I drift off. Once I get tired, I like to be wrapped up nice and tight in one of my many cozy blankets. I'm still getting the hang of this whole hand-eye coordination thing, so if I don't get wrapped up tight enough I tend to poke myself in the eye or grab my cheeks and give myself a scratch and that kind of hurts. Some times if I'm having trouble falling asleep, I like to listen to the dryer. Mom and Dad would use a fan in my room, but the one they had died on my birthday. They had it on in my room and then it just pooped out in the middle of the night. The Wal*Mart by us didn't have any fans for sale yet (only heaters) so whenever they hit the stores for the summer season, I'll probably get my very own fan to help me sleep better. Well, not much else going on in my first three weeks. I'm enjoying life and can't wait to meet all of my family some time soon!

Happily After Birth

This blog (link below) made me laugh and I think it will make all of you other mommies out there laugh too so I wanted to share it. I found it the other day when one of my friends pinned it on pinterest.

Just a little FYI for those of you who might care to know before you click on the link - there 2 or 3mild pg-13 swear words, but trust me when I say you'll be laughing so hard that you really won't even notice or care.

Happily After Giving Birth - 10 Things they don't tell you

Cloth Diapering Day 6 & Up a size!

Today I tried putting Harvey in some of the small sized diapers because the tiny gDiapers were starting to seem a bit TOO snug on him. The size up fits great now! I can't believe he's moved up a size already, but that is a good thing . Hopefully at our appointment tomorrow they will confirm that he is in fact growing like it seems like he is. :)

Now, about the diapers. The ones I tried on him today were the small gDiapers, small GAD, a One Size FuzziBunz, and a One Size Rumparooz. No leaks out of any of the brands so far (though he pooped in the rumparooz right after I put it on him and then pooped in the fuzzibunz one just about 10 or 15 minutes later so I really don't know how they hold up yet). The GAD ones are still on my favorites list now that I have used them a few times. I just really liked the design and how soft the inside velour part is. I was hoping they'd work well and so far they seem to be great and fit him well. I also really like the gDiapers. They fit him really well and I think they are the trimmest fit out of all the diapers. I haven't had any trouble getting them to fit right like many people seem to complain about on reviews. I'm not sure what their problem is. Maybe the brand just didn't fit their particular baby? I just double checked inside the leg when I had it on to make sure the inside part was against his leg and then double checked that the top was done tightly enough. After a 3 or 4 hour nap both times he used them, he didn't have any leak issues at all.

I'm really happy with the cloth decision. I haven't felt overwhelmed by laundry or anything and it is really nice mentally because I don't really get as mad when he "wastes" a diaper by peeing on it during the change or pooping 5 minutes later. I know I will just wash it and use it again. Whereas with disposables it was kind of frustrating as it was a one-time use and I kept thinking "there goes another perfectly good diaper". Nick has actually really enjoyed them too because Harvey can stay in the same outfit all day and use the same blanket all day too. He also feels like the cloth fits him better. You can tell if it's fitting him correctly so you know to adjust it to stop leaks.

Harvey leaked through the disposables at least 70-75% of the time (maybe more) those first 3 days. Leaking so often was frustrating because we had to change his clothes each time because it would go all up on the side or front of his belly. Then we had to switch out blankets, any sheets on our bed or his crib that he happened to be laying on when the leak occured (he had leaked to our fitted sheet two times in a row so we had to sleep on our regular sheet one night), our shirts or pants if we were holding him, etc etc. Anything fabric that got soaked when it went through his clothes was added to the pile. We did laundry at least 2-3 times a day because of the dang leak issues those first few days before we made the switch to the cloth. Going from that to only having to wash the diapers once a day instead of everything he touched was really nice. Once all the inserts from the newborn ones are washed tonight we can use the size up and we'll have a bigger stash of diapers (we only had 13 newborn ones so we had to do it every day) so we should only have to do laundry every other day or every day and a half for the diapers. It's sort of funny to me how I feel like I'm doing less laundry now that we switched to cloth when a lot of people don't want to do cloth because of the laundry.

Here's to hoping the cloth experience continues in the direction it is going! I'm enjoying it so far and will update on the cloth experience again in a few months when we've had more time to REALLY test out all the brands. :)

Cloth Diapering Day 2

We started the cloth diapers yesterday and it has gone really well! I figured his poos would start to get more normal soon since my milk was starting to come in and I wanted to start the cloth as soon as possible because I wanted to get used to it when we still had a few disposables to fall back on. It took about 2 diaper changes to get used to the fit on the newborn gDiapers but once I figured out what I could do to make them fit better (since they soaked through in the same spot both times) they have worked great and I haven't had any more leaks.

I have 12 tiny gDiapers that look like this. You just put the cloth insert inside it snugly so in this one the cloth insert is right up against his skin. It holds everything in super well. His poo didn't come out of the sides or up the back at all.

And we also have 1 Rumparooz Lil Joey one which is an "All in One" diaper (so you don't stuff the insert inside of it or do anything else. It's close to a disposable in design.) I really like this one. I might get one more of this one from the quilted bear right by our house. It fits him really well. His wet diaper in this one gave me a taste of what the pocket ones will be like. I could tell it was wet but it was practically dry next to his skin. It also has an extra gusset on the inside to contain more in case of a poo.

Overall I am actually really loving them a lot more than the disposables. I've been really impressed. He seems to leak through disposables almost every time. We put him in disposables last night through the night and he leaked through every single one. We had to change his diaper AND clothes AND get a new blanket every two hours. When he's in cloth during the day I don't have to change his clothes once so I'm thinking I'll try him in the cloth tonight just to see how it goes. I'm washing the first load right now and the only thing that is a little difficult is that I wish we had bought our diaper sprayer already to help get some of the stuff off a little easier. Other than that, the cloth diaper experience has been going great!

Harvey's Big Day

For those who are interested in his big entrance to the world just 4 days ago, here are the details (well most of them. I know I am forgetting some stuff so maybe I'll edit this later.)

Of course on Friday night we stayed up a little late playing games on the iPad (expecting to sleep in Saturday, but seriously I feel blessed that I got the almost full night's rest before I went into labor as some women aren't so lucky). Saturday morning I woke up as usual to go to the bathroom for the zillionth time at 7:15 and noticed a some "real" contractions while I was walking to the bathroom and back to bed, but decided to lay back down in bed to see if I could go back to sleep. They were strong enough that I couldn't sleep and I was practicing my hypnobirthing breathing through them, but I still convinced myself they'd go away because even though I felt like he was going to come early, I was sure I was just making things up in my head because I wanted to meet him so badly. Well when they didn't go away and kept getting stronger, around 7:45 I decided I should start timing the contractions with this handy website/app called "Contraction Master" that I had actually just found the night before and though it was pretty cool. They were 3-5 minutes apart lasting anywhere from 45 to 90 seconds. I was kind of surprised at that and thought "Wow. This is really it! I guess I should call the midwife soon." haha.

Nick woke up at 8:15 for his morning bathroom break and I told him I was having real contractions and about the timing. He was super caught off guard but very excited and realized he should call the midwife so at 8:30 he called. They asked us the usual questions about timing and intensity and said they'd call us back. We were on the "student midwife program" at the birthing center, so the student has to call the real midwife and consult with them before telling us anything concrete. Between our call to them and the time she called back, Nick took a quick

shower because he couldn't sit still and wanted to be prepared in case this was really it. Around 8:45 she called back and of course said to try taking a bath (right after Nick just used up nearly all the hot water. Haha. He felt kinda bad.) and to eat a good breakfast to get some fuel in me in case this was really it. While I was in the tub Nick made me some eggs and was running back and

forth with pans of water he was heating on the stove to add to the tub to make it warmer since it was barely warm and for some reason our tub stopper wasn't working so it was continuously slowly draining and the only water coming out of the faucet was cold.

Around 9:30 we called back and updated the midwife that the contractions were getting stronger and now were about 2-3 minutes apart. They said to go ahead and come in. We got there around 10:15 and they checked me and determined I was a "4 or 5-ish". They never gave us updates on effacement so I have no idea about any of that. They told us that labor would progress faster if we were to walk around for another hour or so if possible and suggested we go eat something else for the big day ahead. There is a Good Earth store right around the corner and they said it had a little cafe that we could try to get breakfast at so we went for a walk stopping every few minutes for contractions. The cafe was still closed of course so we just walked around the store trying to find something to get to eat. People were kind of staring at us at that point because I would squeeze Nick's hand to let him know to stop when I had a contraction and he would turn so I could bury my head in his chest and then start rocking back and forth a bit. I really didn't care that people were staring because I was just in the zone and Nick was being great with helping me through it. The store smelled disgusting to me (there were all these herbal tea things that smelled super strong and I swear they were at the end of every aisle) so we quickly bought a thing of teddy graham type things and walked back to the birthing center and decided to keep walking outside a bit longer in their courtyard since I still felt like I could. It was a super windy day so it was a little chilly but I was super toasty so it felt pretty good to me. Nick started to get a little cold though and it had been an hour so we went back inside. When we went back inside I felt super warm after being in the chilly air for so long that they turned the heat down a bit for us.

Around this time we realized we should take one last belly picture before he was out and before things got more intense. I feel like I look so big. Especially now since my swelling and belly have gone down quite a bit. My belly button looks so crazy right now a few days later.

After that, the next 5 or 6 hours flew by for me mentally so I don't remember as many details. I just remember I kept looking at the clock (while I was still capable of opening my eyes between contractions) and thinking "wow, time is going by really fast!). Anyway, when we got in, they checked me again when we came back in at 11 or 11:30ish and I was at a 7 already so walking around really helped things along for us. They brought us the

birthing ball and and the midwife gave Nick some awesome tips for helping me through contractions. When I had one, she showed him a pushing on my tailbone technique and when she did that it felt like magic. I think I even said an audible "Wow." If I didn't, I sure thought it. After she showed us that trick the two midwives left us with a "We'll give you some privacy and just let us know if you need anything or want to be checked". Nick was doing great at helping me through everything so I stayed on the birthing ball for quite a while to help things along as much as possible and it just felt like a relaxing position to labor in. The tailbone trick really almost made the contractions numb too so that was nice and Nick did a great job of adjusting where he was pushing

on my back when I asked him to.

Contractions were getting more intense at that point and I was thinking about how I wasn't sure that I could I stay awake for the rest of the labor because it was getting exhausting. I don't know how women do it when they go into labor at 2am or just before they are laying down to bed at night. Haha. Anyway, I stayed on the ball for a bit longer but then I could feel him descending and after a certain point the ball just wasn't comfy anymore so they checked me again and determined I was an 8 or 8.5 and so I got in the tub. I waited to get in the tub until then because they informed me that usually labor in the tub slows things down a bit because of the position your body is in or something. The tub labor went by quickly for me and although it was intense, I still felt in control. They checked me again around 4ish and determined I was at a 9 and starting transition. That was the last they checked me. I knew transition was going to be the toughest part because of the birthing books and articles I had read so I was mentally gearing up for what was to come.

My mom, step-dad and grandma got to the center just before or after that point (I really don't remember as I was focusing on working through contractions). My mom came in the room with Nick and I. I didn't know if I would want her in there or not before I went into labor, but at that point I wanted the extra support in the room and couldn't care less that I was half naked. I knew she would be helpful and that she was really hoping I'd want her in the room. Nick and my mom just kept helping me through everything. I seriously couldn't have done it with out them both. Cold washcloths on my head and neck were all I needed them to do, but it made a world of a

difference. Transition was all a blur. I am really sore from that part because I was contorting my body however I felt like I could get through the contractions and my arms and legs are paying for it! They said I could start pushing when I felt like it with the contractions and it felt like only 20 minutes went by, (but pushing really lasted an hour and 20 minutes). When I could feel his head with my hand I got super excited and even though I could already feel that it was going to be pretty painful, I wasn't focused on that at all at that point. I was just super focused on pushing during the contractions and that seemed to make them hurt less too. I remember I just kept thinking over and over "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, he is coming! Right NOW! I get to meet my son!" I was so happy that any pain was not really on my mind anymore. I even laughed out loud a few times between

contractions while mumbling "He's right there. He's going to be out soon!" When I could SEE his head about 3 inches out of me and I knew only a few more pushes would get him out, I got so excited and mustered all the determination I had for the last few pushes and out he came! They laid him right on my chest and Nick and I just looked at him and fell in love He had such a sweet little cry and we just talked to him. His skin was COVERED with the vernix so he couldn't really open his eyes at all. I tried to wipe his eyes off with the wet towel so he could see us but it was just too thick. DH wasn't super attached to cutting the cord so when they asked who wanted to cut it we offered the job to my mom. She was super excited about it so we felt good that we let her do the honor. The placenta came out way quick compared to what I thought it would and then it was

all over and the aftermath began.

Everything else also kind of ran together. They dried me off and I got in my robe and with some help walked to the bed in the next room. They hooked me up to a cathedar because I couldn't urinate during labor after his head was down farther. (They actually had to break my water during transition because my bladder was blocking the way.) I couldn't really feel anything down there afterwards to try going myself either. They massaged out as many clots as they could and then they worked on the stitches after that which was not fun but Nick helped me through that too. Meanwhile Harvey was getting weighed and measured, etc and my mom took him until the midwives were done stitching me up (which felt like an eternity).

A little later I tried to walk to the bathroom (with lots of help) and then I almost passed out on the toilet. I literally couldn't hear anything at all and I started losing some vision too. I'm pretty my eyes rolled back or something. They very slowly got me back to the bed and then a few minutes later said it wasn't a 100% necessary but asked if I would be okay with running an

IV to help get fluids back in me. I really hate needles but even I knew I needed it so they did an IV and gave me two packs of the stuff. After the IVs, 3 or 4 gatorades and some snacks later I felt much better so we let people come in and meet Harvey. He was a little overwhelmed with all the people in the room but he didn't cry at all. It was pretty chaotic and I was pretty tired but then things died down and we had a little time to ourselves. Then we decided we should go home and get to sleep since we were just hanging out there doing nothing.

We were in our own beds by 12:30! As Nick likes to say - what a day, what a day, what a day, what a day.

Four days later, we couldn't be happier with our little guy and after having a few days to recover and reflect on the birthing experience, I really feel lucky to have such a good first natural birthing experience. It really was a very positive experience for me. I feel very happy with how things turned out and very fortunate to have such a great support system. I wouldn't change a thing with how things happened!

First Week off Work

This week was a pretty good week for my first week with no actual job. I feel like I had the right balance between relaxation and productivity.

Monday everyone was off anyway for President's day so it was more of a fun day. I dropped Nick off at work for a bit and I went grocery shopping. I got stocked up on some quick meal items just in case Harvey comes. I know we'll probably have some meals brought to us, but our ward is kinda slow at things like that so I figured it can't hurt to have a few quick things on hand like potatoes and a few frozen meals. Later on we met up with my Mom, Chad and my Grandma (who came in town on Sunday and is staying until May!) and went to this Chinese buffet up in Orem that we like. After that, Mom and Chad stopped by Seven Peaks to get their pass of all passes ID card since it was on the way back to our apartment (more explanation about these awesome passes in a minute). We all just hung out for a few more hours and my Grandma told us some funny stories from her and my Grandpa's pass. Let me just say that she is and always has been a fascinating story teller even if she repeats some things a few times :) In one story, she mentioned how my Grandpa had at one point in his life joined the circus for a few years to get out of his house growing up. Nick then felt confident that the middle name we picked for Harvey was a good one because if my Grandpa was in the circus, he had to have been pretty awesome.

Nick and I had a few date nights this past week too going to play mini golf with OUR pass of all passes. We recently bought some of these passes a few weeks ago and we have been loving it already. Normally these passes cost about $60 each, but we got ours for $20 on a website. They are good for one year and include unlimited use to Trafalga and Seven Peaks and a few sporting arenas - here's the link to the details if you are interested. We've been to Trafalga twice already to go mini-golfing. We figure we can go once or twice a week until Harvey's here because maybe the extra walking will help things along a bit. Our other date nights have been to go see a dollar theater movie and then last night we used up the rest of our gift cards we had to Olive Garden. It's been fun enjoying the last bit of time we have together as just us, but we are already anxiously awaiting Harvey's arrival even though I barely hit full term this past week.

The rest of the week it was extra nice to get some things done on my own to-do list and not on Provost's never ending techy to-do list. I was able to keep up with the dishes all week. I was able to clean a bit extra in the bathroom and keep stuff picked up around the house. I was able to catch up on laundry and do some organization in Harvey's room. I finished all of the cloth diaper prepping too! I still have some other things I'd like to get done before he gets here, but it's not all necessary so I am a lot less stressed out than I was a week ago. Now we just keep telling Harvey that he can come any time now and we will be ready, though we know he still probably has about 2 more weeks left. Can't wait to meet our little guy!

Pre-Labor

Crossing my fingers that I have at least a few more days to get stuff done before he's here!

I woke up to go to the bathroom last night and then I thought maybe my water had sprung a leak because of how my potty experience went. I'll spare you all the details. I laid on my side for 30 minutes and got up, but nothing else came out so I knew my water hadn't broken. After that though I started getting irregular Braxton Hicks and couldn't go back to sleep of course. After about an hour of the practice contractions I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep until they stopped so I got up and got a snack and surfed the internet while I had a timer website open just to see how many I would get before they stopped and to make sure they weren't turning into a pattern. I ended up with about 11 in the second hour of me being awake before they started going away but they weren't in a pattern at all or increasing in strength/length and all that good stuff (although some got a little uncomfortable). Some were 30 seconds, some were 2 minutes and some were only 2 or 3 minutes apart and others were 8+ minutes apart. After they slowed down to more than 10 minutes apart and started to lessen, I was able to get back to sleep. Today I've still been having a few contractions here and there - about 5 short ones each hour, give or take. It seems they get more frequent and more intense as it gets later though.

Anyway, on top of being pretty "crampy" the past two days off and on and getting a lot more Braxton Hicks than usual that are getting increasingly uncomfortable, he also dropped about a week or so ago and other people have noticed too so I know I'm not going crazy. I'm thinking he is going to come early because of all of these things, but I'm not going to get my hopes up because you never know how long pre-labor stuff can last. BUT I do hope he comes a little bit early so these pre-labor symptoms don't feel like they were for nothing!

It's Harvey Time!

Getting ready to be done with work has been somewhat surreal. TWO more days and I am DONE! I am definitely ready to be done and I enjoy picturing the next chapter of my life that is coming up so quickly (these Braxton Hicks contractions just keep coming and coming), but I know I will still look back at my time at this job as a good memory. It really has been a great job. I don't think I realized how much I have enjoyed working at the school and getting to know everyone until I started training the next person. I am already planning on taking some walks with Harvey to visit everyone since it's so close. It will be fun to go back with my little boy and see some of the teachers and the office ladies and hang out for a bit.

Ultimately though, as much as I really have had a good time at Provost, I am ready to finish getting things ready for Harvey! I am very much looking forward to being a stay at home mom as long as I can. As long as things go according to plan, I shouldn't have to go back to work at all, which will be nice! I think this little boy will be keeping me busy enough and I already know I am going to have way too much fun with him. I am so excited to meet him. I keep having baby dreams!

Can you believe he could be here as early as next week!? This weekend we'll be putting the car seat in the car just to be ready in case. It's also the last shower on Saturday too. We'll be getting the rest of Harvey's stuff after that. I'll just need to wash a few more of histhings and prep a few more of the cloth diaper inserts and we'll be good to go. We are almost ready for him to be here and it's getting really REAL now! I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy has gone by! In just a short short while, there will be a post on here introducing our little guy! YAY!

So close!

I can't believe it is so close to Harvey's birth-day! In just about 3 weeks we'll be in the "safe zone" (37 weeks). Harvey will be considered full term, and I'll able to deliver at the birthing center with the midwives from there on out. I get Braxton Hicks contractions anywhere from 1-4 times throughout the day now which I am guessing is probably because of my job, which I am almost done with by the way! February 17th will be my last day at work. I am pretty sure since I'm on my feet a lot and doing a lot of physical work with my job pretty much daily that it's helping to keep him down in the right position and causing some of these Braxton Hicks contractions. I'm betting that he'll probably come earlier rather than later (especially since I'll be working right up until the Friday before I hit 37 weeks), but who knows. Nick is hoping for February 29th and at first I thought that would be a horrible birthday, but I am actually thinking now that would be kind of fun. I sure would rather have him come 2 weeks before his due date than 2 weeks after! You never really know when it will happen even if my feelings, physical signs, and even the history of my sisters' and mom's births seem to point to him being a bit early or on time rather than late he could still decide to show up at the end of March!

Either way, we are slowly getting his things more and more prepared. Baby showers are right around the corner and then we'll be able to finish getting the last few things we need. In just a few more weeks we'll be packing the labor bag, putting in the car seat, then just enjoying the last of his little karate moves inside my belly and waiting for him to come out!

Photo Follow Up

Okay, here are the photos of the diapers. (And we have added a few more since the other day too.)

These are our 12 tiny ("newborn") gdiapers. I don't think we'll use them for very long since he won't be too tiny for too long, but these ones will definitely last us for all of our kids since they won't get much use with each kid.

These are all of our "one size" diapers. The top row are the bumGenius brand and the bottom row are the FuzziBunz ones. I played around with the sizing on the yellow FuzziBunz one to see how small it could go (if you can't tell), so that's why the extra elastic and insert is stuffed out the middle of it.

These are the gDiapers we got today for $5 a piece. 4 small ones, 3 medium ones. I want to wait to get the Large on this brand since I'm not sure how I'll like them and plus, we haven't seen many awesome deals on any that included the large ones.

These are our sized FuzziBunz ones. 2 Small, 3 Medium and 3 Large. These are all used and they have the most wear and tear out of all the ones we got, but I think they'll still last us for a while and all of these were $5 each or less (which is a really good price.) I figure I can always get new inserts if I need to for these ones.

So, there you have it folks. We now have 23 diapers (and the 12 tiny ones). I'm hoping to get 6 more small and medium size ones too so we'll have 20 for each sizing stage. And then a lady Nick knows from his mission is going to make us some extra inserts too. We're almost there! It's been a huge relief to get all of these in the past week and I feel great about getting them at a good price too.

Diaper Stash!

I'm finally at a point where I can start building the diaper stash, which is pretty exciting for me. It's been lingering in the back of my mind that I need to get these cloth diapers before he gets here and today I can say we are starting to collect them now. I had the bright idea to look on ksl this morning while I was trying to stay awake at my desk when a kindergarten class was in the lab. I help around the lab when kids are in there so I don't feel guilty doing my own thing on the computer once in a while if a class is in the lab. 99% of the time I am doing yearbook stuff, photo editing, printing, or something with e-mail so if during that 1% of the time I check my own e-mail, look at blogs, or on this day, ksl, I really don't feel bad.

Anyway, I was like a kid in a candy store when I found all of these really awesome deals. I couldn't help but share the excitement on my blog, even though I know most of you probably won't be as excited over these cloth diaper deals as I am.

Deal #1 - "Tiny" set of gdiapers. This particular set brand new online costs about $150, not including any shipping or tax. My deal is for $50.

I was super excited because I wasn't originally going to get any newborn cloth diapers for him. I figured this time we could go with solely using disposables until Harvey fit into the one-size and small ones of the cloth diaper brands we are going to try. The $150 just didn't seem justifiable for me this time around given that I am going to stop working next month. I figured that we could afford getting some newborn sized cloth ones for our next kid. However, when I found them for $50, I knew this would be a good deal since this is our first and we plan on having a few more kids. This $50 purchase will last us for all of our kids since they aren't usually in diapers that small for very long. I am super excited that we'll be able to use cloth right away now though. Since there are only 12 in the newborn pack and I'm not planning on doing laundry every single day with this, I'll probably rotate these cloth ones with a few disposables during the day and use just disposables at night until he fits into the sizes we'll have more of.

Deal #2 - 4 New fuzzibunz one size diapers. Online, 5 of these ones + tax and shipping would cost just over $100. My deal is for $68. This is the deal that is good, but not as good as the others I found. We're saving about $15-20 by buying them off ksl on this one.

Deal #3 - 3 slightly used fuzzibunz larger diapers. Online this would be about $60 if you include the price of tax and shipping. My deal is for $25. Even though I won't be able to use these 3 for a while since they're large, I know I'll eventually need them and it's saving us over half. This particular seller used mostly pre-folds and covers but had 3 fuzzibunz too which she didn't use a whole lot.

Deal #4 (which we haven't called on yet, but I'm pretty excited about so hopefully we'll be able to snag this deal this weekend since it's a little farther north from where we're at) - 3 small, 3 medium and 1 one size brand new fuzzibunz diapers. Online, this would cost about $140 if you include tax and shipping costs. My deal (hopefully) would be for $75. Crossing my fingers on this one that we'll be able to get them.

Anyway, now that I know ksl has a bunch of these types of deals I'll be checking back every week or so to see if any more good deals pop up so we can continue adding to our stash of cloth diapers. And, if we do get that deal #4 too we'll have a pretty good stash already and not need much more after that! I'll post some pictures of our stash after we go pick them all up in an hour.