Steph, Jeff, and Co.

Jeff had to work on Christmas Eve, so I put all the presents out myself. Here's the tree and stockings. I think I did a good job piling up all the gifts in an appealing manner (just makes you want to jump in and start tearing off the paper, doesn't it!).


When the kids got up and saw the tree, the first thing that caught their attention were the puzzles that were unwrapped and sitting in front of all the other gifts. They played with those for a while before even opening any other presents.


After that, I put the camera away and we just had a great time opening presents. I didn't get any more pictures until after the gift-opening mayhem had ended.

Thomas enjoying his new truck (gotta love the huge mess of gifts all over the floor):


Zaylee showing off her new outfit (in this picture, she looks so much like my younger sister Janelle did when she was little! Right, Mom?):


And of course, gotta post pictures of Audrey! This is her adorable new outfit from Jeff's mom. Still big on her, but so cute!


And here she is modeling the new diaper cover I made for her. I finished it on Christmas Eve, so went ahead and wrapped it and put it under the tree for her.


Isn't she just so precious!


Later, we went over and visited Joy and Jim, visited for a while, had a ham dinner, watched The Christmas Story, and basically had a good time with them. It's fun having family close by (they're only about 10-15 minutes away) that we can go visit and spend time with.

So here's the loot we hauled in: I was excited to receive a rotary cutter and mat from Jeff, now I can cut out several diapers at the same time! He also got me one of those fancy glass cake stands that can double as a punch bowl or trifle bowl. It's something that I've wanted for a while, but couldn't justify spending the money on such a non-necessity. So I'm excited about that, I can't wait to make a fancy layer cake to display on it! And a complete surprise was the massage cushion that Jeff got me - now I can be getting a back massage while nursing Audrey! How cool is that?

I got Jeff new church shoes and a new computer mouse, since his old shoes are falling apart and our mouse was on the fritz. I also got him the third Lord of the Rings movie. We've had the first two for years, but never got around to completing the trilogy. Also some beef jerky and cream wafers, both of which he loves to snack on.

Zaylee got lots of alphabet games and puzzles, and some toy ponies and dolls, and new clothes. Thomas got toy cars, a toy truck, clothes, and new church shoes (he and Jeff opened their new church shoes at the same time, Thomas thought that was pretty cool). Audrey got clothes, the diaper cover, and a beautiful blessing gown that my mom made. I can't wait to put her in it for her blessing next Sunday.

Speaking of Audrey's blessing, I'm super excited because my family will be driving down to spend that weekend with us and attend the blessing! I love family visits, and this one is extra special because of the blessing and also because this will be their first time seeing our new house (mental note: CLEAN and DECLUTTER!). It's so awesome that our house is big enough that all 8 of them will fit and have a place to sleep. It might be a tad snug, but everyone will fit. Try fitting an extra 8 people in the tiny apartment we used to live in, ha!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Man, I'm really not feeling on the ball lately, especially in regards to Christmas. I have a really good excuse though:


Don't you just love that little mini-mohawk on top of her head? She's had that ever since she was born, just a tuft of hair that's longer than all the hair around it, and it stands up like that unless we brush it down. So cute!

Anyway. Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat (except for my cloth diaper blog. I seem to manage to update that one much more frequently), and housework has really been falling behind (except for laundry - gotta wash all those cute diapers!). And as for Christmas preparation, all I can say is WOW. We put the tree up a while ago, but it just sat there without decorations for at least a week, because neither of us knew where the box of ornaments were and we didn't even bother looking for it. I found it while looking for something else and we finally decorated the tree this past Sunday - less than a week before Christmas.

Then a couple days ago I finally did my shopping for Jeff. He had already gotten his shopping done long before, and everything was wrapped and in the closet, ready for Christmas. Whereas I didn't even know what I was going to give him until I was in the store buying it!

And then yesterday I mentally went through all the gifts we had for the kids and realized that they would have a pretty pathetic little Christmas unless we put a few more things under the tree for them. Especially Zaylee - all we had for her was a little memory game, a couple stocking stuffers, and the gifts from grandparents. Seriously, Jeff and I had more gifts for each other than for the kids. That's when I realized how not on the ball I really was, yikes! I was so caught up with so many other things - the pregnancy, and making diapers, and now having a newborn - that I really haven't been making sure to be getting/making gifts for the kids this season.

So we braved Wal-Mart today to get a few more (inexpensive) gifts. I'm sure Zaylee will have a much better Christmas now that she's also getting some My Little Ponies and an alphabet game. And Thomas will enjoy his new toy cars. Also we grabbed a little plastic bowling set as a shared gift for Zaylee and Thomas. As for Audrey, I'm sure she won't mind the fact that all she'll be getting is some adorable new diapers and diaper covers.


And here's a picture of Thomas just because he's so cute:


Just a little funny - Thomas and that hat he's wearing have been absolutely inseparable for weeks now. He wears it constantly - around the house, when we go shopping, to church, even when he's sleeping! It's gotten to where he looks a little strange to me when he's not wearing that hat. Funny little guy.

Wow, time seems to have just flown by. I apologize for not posting anything for so long, though I do of course have a good excuse. The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind of feedings, diaper changes, and more feedings, with some scattered naps here and there. Audrey is eating wonderfully, and has already grown so much. Her face is so filled out compared to when she was first born!


She loves being swaddled up like a little burrito, and I think it's so adorable!


Zaylee and Thomas are adjusting to their new little sibling pretty well. They both think she's just the greatest. Zaylee will come up to her and say, " This is my baby sister. She is so pretty! Her name is Audrey. I love my sister," and on and on. Thomas comes up and gives her kisses, or tries to help me burp her by patting her on the leg or the arm, wherever he can reach. They're both very gentle and loving around her. Though they are having a hard time adjusting to having less attention from me - they are acting up more than usual, and pestering each other even more than they used to. Hopefully that will die down as things get settled.

Cloth diapering has been going well. I'm still getting used to it. The cloth diapers do need to be changed a bit more frequently than disposables, so I've been having to adjust to that, but I'm slowly getting into the swing of things. I do like knowing that every time I put a cloth diaper on the kids, I'm saving money. Plus they're so soft and cute, I like seeing the kids wearing them and knowing that I made them! :-)

We got our Christmas tree put up the other day. It's pre-lit, and Zaylee loves plugging it in to see the lights glow. But the lights are all that there is on the tree - we have yet to find the box in which we packed the ornaments! Poor tree is just sitting there in the living room all naked and lonely. I have a pretty good idea where to find the ornaments and decorations, so hopefully we'll be able to actually decorate the tree sometime this week, I know the kids will love it.

No promises, but I'm going to try to take more pictures of the kids, especially the three of them together, to post on here. It's hard getting Zaylee and Thomas to hold still long enough to take a decent shot, they always want to come look at the camera to see the picture before I have a chance to take the picture! But I'd like some pictures of the kids with Audrey. And maybe I'll do one of myself, to show how awesomely flat my stomach is already and how gorgeous I look (haha, yeah right, unless dark circles under the eyes are gorgeous).

My brother Owen came to visit on Friday evening. The plan was for him to spend Saturday with us, pick up his girlfriend Julie at the airport on Saturday afternoon, we'd have a nice evening together, and they would leave to drive up to Idaho on Sunday morning. Owen had been joking that it would be cool if the baby came while he was here. Haha, the joke was on him...

I woke up around 8:00 Saturday morning and felt some gooey moisture between my legs. I knew I hadn't peed myself, so I excitedly told Jeff that my water had broken. When Owen came upstairs and I told him too, he just stopped and looked at me for a second. "Seriously?" I don't think he really believed me at first, but it eventually sunk in that I wasn't joking - Audrey was coming during his visit after all!

I put on a pad (it felt more like a slow leak than a gush) and we went about our morning routine of getting the kids dressed and getting breakfast ready. Jeff made French toast and then Jeff and Owen worked on installing our gas dryer while I was making phone calls. I called Mom and told her about my water breaking, and she reminded me that I needed to call the midwife.

So I called the midwife. By this time, it had been a bit over an hour and I was starting to get contractions. Since I was already dilating and the baby was still high up (according to my last checkup), the midwife wanted me to come in and be monitored a bit since there was a chance for cord prolapse.

My contractions were coming pretty regularly, about five minutes apart though not yet uncomfortable, so I figured we would probably not be coming back home if we went in. Owen cheerfully volunteered to watch the kids while Jeff and I were at the hospital, we took the car seats out of the van and showed Owen how to use them (so he could take the kids when he went to pick up Julie), we gathered all the stuff we needed to take with us, and headed out to the hospital.

It was a bit after 10:00 when we got to the hospital. The contractions had been coming 3-4 minutes apart, but they slowed down quite a bit on the ride over. At triage I was hooked up to the monitors, which showed that the baby's heart rate was just fine. They checked to make sure that the fluid I had felt really was amniotic fluid, but it turned out it actually wasn't. It was just super watery and prolific discharge. I felt a little silly about that - you'd think I'd recognize amniotic fluid by now. Oh well, it ended up not really mattering, since I was dilated to a 5 and 70% effaced. I was in labor and we were going to stay until the baby was born!

Since contractions weren't really feeling strong yet, and the delivery room wasn't quite ready, the midwife encouraged us to get out and walk around for a while before being admitted into L&D. So off we went. First we walked around the halls of the second floor (where L&D is located), then got more adventurous and headed downstairs to walk around more of the hospital. As long as I was up and walking, contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart. But if I sat down at all, they immediately slowed to 5+ minutes.

We started getting hungry, so we headed down to the hospital cafeteria. Just for fun, to see if we could get these contractions to pick up, we ordered the spiciest sandwich we could from the deli - Cajun turkey with spicy brown mustard, pepper jack cheese, and pepperoncini, with jalapenos on the side. It was one spicy sandwich, but it sure tasted great! Then we were back to walking the halls.

After a bit more walking, we went back up to report that things still weren't picking up, and we would be walking some more. I had Jeff grab our jackets out of the room, and we headed outside for more walking (there's only so much to look at in the hospital, it gets boring walking the same halls over and over). We headed out of the hospital, off of hospital grounds, and down the hill. There was some great scenery, we got to look out over the whole Salt Lake Valley, which was cool. But we didn't want to venture out too far, so we headed back.

With all this walking, I was getting a bit tired, but every time I sat down, the contractions slowed again. I was getting really frustrated and discouraged at this point. It was feeling more and more like false labor, and I was getting tired of things not happening. We went back up to L&D to talk to the midwife about options. She was out on rotations at the time, so we sat in our room and waited. Jeff took a nap on the hospital bed (poor guy had worked the night before, and only gotten 4 hours of sleep), while I sat in the chair and listened to my relaxation CD and music. That was just what I needed - I was getting so worked up over labor not going anywhere, I really just needed some time to calm down and relax.

The midwife came in and told me basically that she didn't want to send me home since I was already at a 5 and really effaced. After discussing a couple options, we decided that she would check my progress, strip my membranes, and break my water. When she checked, we were a bit relieved to find that all those ridiculously inconsistent contractions really were actually doing something - I was dilated to a 6 and 75% effaced. So the membranes were stripped and the water broken, and then we just sat and waited.

Here's where it started to be really cool. I have been practicing hypnobirthing techniques for months, and it was really paying off. I started getting fairly strong contractions, but the midwife and nurse said they could hardly tell when I was having one because I just slipped into my relaxation and deep breathing, totally calm and relaxed. Jeff took a video of one of my contractions just to document how calm I was, even though the monitors were showing really high peaks. I seriously look like I've got an epidural, with how easy I make it look (shameless brag there). Unfortunately, I can't load the video on here because it's too large of a file. Maybe I'll try to put it on youtube or something, but that can be done later. Just take my word for it, I was doing awesome!

Things went on like that for a while, the midwife kept commenting on how awesome I was doing, and how amazing I was. I was pretty proud of myself as well, considering how I was yelling my head off at this stage when I was in labor with Thomas, and in an epidural-induced sleep at this stage with Zaylee.

My contractions were still coming at pretty slow intervals, so the midwife had Jeff and I get up and walk the L&D halls for a little while. However, the contractions started getting harder to breath through, and I didn't want to be standing through them, so we went back to the room. I would walk around until I felt one coming on, then immediately sit down on either the labor ball or the chair, whichever was closer, so I could focus on my breathing. My deep breaths were starting to get a little shallow and shaky, and my relaxed face was starting to look a bit harrowed.

Finally I reached the point where I just couldn't deep breath through my contractions anymore. They were consistently stronger and more intense, and the pain was more than my breathing could conquer. The midwife and Jeff helped a great deal at this point by pushing hard on my knees every time I had a contraction, it provided good counterpressure, and I started to vocalize with low "aahhhhhh"s. Using a low-pitched moan actually helps the cervix to relax so it can open more effectively, as opposed to high-pitched yelling. I told Jeff and the midwife that I just didn't want to do this anymore, I wanted it to be over with. I knew that this was a common thing to think when in transition, so logically I knew I was almost done and everything was going to be okay. But as I told the midwife, "That doesn't change the fact that I still don't want to do this anymore!"

At this point, the midwife checked my cervix. I was incredibly disappointed to find that I was only dilated to a 7, when I had been expecting at least an 8 or 9. But I was 100% effaced. Here's where things got really crazy. Just after she checked my cervix, I felt an incredible amount of pressure and realized that I was ready to push (remember, I had just been checked and found to be at a 7!). So I started pushing (still doing my "aahhhh"s, which were starting to sound a little frantic), and after only a couple pushes the baby's head was crowning. Another couple of pushes and her head was out, but her shoulders were stuck. So the nurse and Jeff lifted up my legs and bottom, and pushed my knees up into my chest. This unstuck her shoulders, a couple pushes later and the midwife was handing me a baby!

I went from 7 cm dilated to holding my sweet little Audrey in 2 contractions, after only 4 minutes of pushing. Whew, what a whirlwind delivery!

I had wanted to "catch" the baby myself, but my position when she came out (knees to chest and all that) was such that I couldn't. Still, the midwife handed her to me as soon as she was out, and I got to put her on my belly myself. What a physical relief to have labor done with! I just dropped my head down onto my pillow and heaved a huge sigh, holding my baby close to me as they wiped her down and tried to get her to cry.

But she wouldn't cry. They rubbed and rubbed, trying to stimulate her to cry, or at least to breathe well, but she wasn't cooperating. As soon as the cord stopped pulsing and was cut, the nurses took Audrey to the warming table and continued trying to make her cry, suctioning her nose and mouth. This continued as I birthed the placenta. Finally, they brought her back to me to hold, but only briefly, then they took her to the nursery. Jeff went with them.

I was left alone. I wasn't completely alone of course; the midwife needed to stitch up the tiny perineal tear I had experienced, and the nurse kept rubbing my belly painfully to get the uterus to contract. But I felt more alone than I ever had before. I didn't have my baby with me. Before, after delivering a baby, I always got to hold and nurse the baby while I was getting stitched up and during that immediately-after-birth period. But now, I had just had a baby, but she was somewhere else, and it just felt so wrong, and so lonely!

They finally brought her back a little over an hour later. Apparently, only being in the birth canal for four minutes, all the fluid in her lungs hadn't had the chance to be squeezed out like it normally would in a vaginal birth. So they had to suction her out, and she finally coughed up the fluid after they gave her the vitamin K shot. Once they determined that she was going to be fine, they brought her back to me. I was so relieved and so happy to finally be able to see and hold my baby! I put her to breast immediately and she latched right on and fed like a pro. I might add that she's been feeding like a pro ever since and my nipples are killing me!

A little while later Jeff had to go home. Owen and Julie needed to be rescued from the kids (though they had been doing a great job and the kids really had a lot of fun with them). So then it was just me and Audrey, and the million nurses and aides who kept coming in to check on us all throughout the night.

Anyway, the nurse and midwife told me that they were so impressed at how well I had handled birth, with the hypnobirthing and relaxing through the contractions. They told me I was strong and amazing, and that they would share my story because it was so inspirational. I really am proud of how well I did. All my practicing and conditioning paid off, and I had an absolutely wonderful birth as a result.

Audrey Michelle was born on Saturday, Nov. 28, at 5:02 pm. She weighed 7 lb. 7 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. She's healthy, and absolutely adorable! We just got home this afternoon.

Full birth story and lots of pictures to come. :-)

Wow, I can't believe I'm due next week! I figured I'd better get a belly pic this week, it might end up being the last one I take! :-)


We had a fun Thanksgiving yesterday with Aunt Kathy and family, which I'll post about later. Have a great day!

It's official, we are completely moved out of the apartment. We checked out this afternoon, after spending the entire day cleaning like mad. My goodness, how did we ever let the apartment get that filthy?! I'm glad we had all of Sunday to rest before doing all that cleaning, we definitely needed it. Jeff and I have promised ourselves that we'll never let the house get that yucky. But anyway, we're all done, and that tiny apartment will now be nothing but a memory. While I'll miss some things about it (proximity to the library and Smith's Marketplace, our amazing ward, the charming old houses in the area), I won't miss the apartment itself.

What a wonderful birthday gift to me - to be completely done with that apartment!

Oh my gosh, I am sooooo tired!!!! Our big move was this week. Jeff just got our computer hooked up at the house so I can finally blog about it.

We've been doing all sorts of packing and moving boxes this week, really getting serious about the move. I've mostly been packing stuff in boxes. It's a delicate balance between doing enough to feel useful and not doing too much because I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant. So I'd pack a couple boxes until I started feeling tired and getting lots of Braxton Hicks, then I'd get a drink and sit on the couch and just rest until I felt better. Then I'd get up and do it over again. That's pretty much been my week!

Meanwhile, Jeff has been the man of steel this week, actually the whole time we've had the house. He has a moving dolly that we bought a while back, and has been moving boxes from the apartment to the house. He's really doing all the hard work, and it's amazing to me to look around the house and see all the stuff that he's moved all by himself! He's really impressed me throughout this whole move.

Last night was our first night that we spent in the house instead of the apartment. Yippee!! Jeff moved the kids beds into their rooms, and he and I slept in the family room on the hide-a-bed (the one that came with the house). I have to say that, while it's awesome that we have a hide-a-bed, I'm super glad that we don't ever have to sleep in it again, lol! It's not the comfiest of beds, especially being sore and tired from moving and being pregnant. But the fact that we were actually in the house overshadowed any discomfort caused by the less-than-ideal sleeping arrangements. And the kids slept great. Thomas woke up crying once, I just went in and comforted him for a minute and he slept great the rest of the night. They were so excited to see their beds all set up in their new rooms!

Today some guys from the elder's quorum came and helped with the big furniture, the stuff Jeff couldn't get by himself and that wouldn't fit in the van. They brought a big trailer, and helped Jeff haul out the couch, the dressers, the entertainment center, the organ, and our bed. Meanwhile, the kids and I hung out at the apartment, me stuffing last-minute stuff into one box after another. Now there's only a few little things left, and we'll be done by tonight. We scheduled our final check-out of the apartment for Monday at 3 - that's my birthday and Happy Birthday to me!!! No more tiny apartment! :-)

Back to this afternoon - after packing and moving boxes all morning, Jeff and I were absolutely pooped. We could hardly walk! We took the opportunity to go out for lunch, because neither of us felt up to making even something as simple as sandwiches for lunch. So we headed out to Chuck-a-Rama and had a delicious all-you-can-eat meal, where I ate way too much, as I always do at buffets. But oh, it was so yummy, and just what we needed after the week we've been through! After lunch, we all conked out - Jeff on one couch, me on the other, Thomas in his bed. Zaylee played preschool games on the computer while the rest of us slept. Boy, did we need that nap! Then Jeff hooked up the TV so the kids could watch a movie, and now he's back at the house finishing up the last few things that need to be packed.

Whew! So that's been our busy week. Next week will be equally busy, unpacking boxes and starting to get things organized and settled in. I'm getting tired again just thinking about it...

But it's so exciting to be in our house!!!

We went to Sears today and made some very big, very exciting purchases - washing machine, dryer, and freezer! I feel so homeowner-ish! It's going to be so awesome to have our own laundry appliances, to have more control over the wash cycle than white or color, to not have to leave our home to wash our clothes. Sigh, domestic heaven in a laundry room!

Sears was having a really good sale on large appliances, so all three that we bought were 20% off, plus we get a $100 rebate on the washing machine, and a $65 rebate for the delivery charge. Our washing machine is a comfortably large 4 cu. ft., and the dryer is a spacious 7.5 cu. ft. It's a gas dryer since the house only has a gas hookup for the dryer. A slightly higher price up front, but it should save us money on the power bills.

Here's the washing machine we bought - Energy star qualified to save on water and power, cleans up to 18 bath towels in one load (though we don't even own that many!), adjusts water level and temperature based on load size and selected soil level, nifty neat-o!


And the dryer (except that this is the electric one, ours will be its gas equivalent) - comes with a dryer rack to dry stuff like shoes and sweaters and hats without tumbling them, you can select whether you want the signal to be soft or loud, auto moisture sensing.


Choosing a freezer was an adventure. I really had my heart set on the 14.9 cu. ft. chest freezer. The only place we can fit a freezer without it being really awkward and in the way is in the shed beside the house. It's already wired with electricity and everything. However, when we measured how big of a freezer we could fit in the shed, we were very disappointed to find that the chest freezer we wanted simply wouldn't fit. We would either have to scale down to the 8 ft. freezer, which is too small, or go with an upright, which is more expensive. After being disappointed and stubborn for a while (well, I was the one being stubborn - I really wanted that chest freezer!), we found an awesome 16.7 cu. ft. upright freezer that only cost a bit more than the chest freezer, thanks to being on sale. I finally gave in and admitted that it was a good freezer and I could be happy with it. We get more space, the price was good, and it will be nice to not have to bend myself in half to dig something out of the bottom of the freezer.

Here's the freezer (full of brand name stuff that we never ever buy!) - 3 cabinet shelves, a slide-out lower basket, and flexible door storage, holds up to 599 lb. of frozen food, security lock and external power light.


Our total cost for the day was more than I care to post, or even think about, haha. With three such large purchases, that's to be expected. But we got them all at great prices, and I'm so excited to know that soon we will be able to use our new appliances in our new house. The freezer will be delivered this Thursday, so I can start stocking it with freezer meals for after the baby is born. The washer/dryer won't be delivered until next week though, because they have to special order the gas dryer. But once it arrives, I am going to have so much fun doing laundry! At least for a little while, anyway, until the newness wears off. But still. :-)

I've been so absorbed with making diapers lately, but I didn't want this blog to get completely bogged down with all the diapers and such. So I made a new blog, specifically for my cloth diapering adventures! That way, if you don't care one way or the other, you don't have to see all the absolutely fun and adorable diapers I've been making, or the kids wearing them when we get to that point. But if you do want to see, you're welcome to visit Fluffin' it up! I've already made a lot of progress since the last time I posted.

Anyway, in other news, Jeff has been making a lot of progress in painting. We stopped by the house really quick yesterday to get the vacuum and the dolly, and I got to see how far he's gotten. Go figure, I forgot to bring the camera, oh well. The accent wall is completely painted, a gorgeous dark green. The living room has also been painted, and the dining room. Pretty much all that needs to be done now is the kitchen and the hallway. It's really neat, the white paint we chose to use on the living room etc. has really brightened up the upstairs. It used to be a dark cream color, which was okay, but now it's bright and cheerful. I can't wait until it's all done!

Also, we bought a kitchen table yesterday. We've been using a small round table borrowed from my parents for a while. It has met our needs wonderfully, but with another one coming along, and a much larger dining room to fill, we wanted to go ahead and buy a 6-seater with an extending leaf. You know, the kind of table that we'll own for years and years, that will seat a nice big family. So we visited a furniture store yesterday to look around. I knew right away as soon as we walked into the store that we absolutely would not find anything in our budget there! We were walking around past tables that cost $400-$1200, which we simply would not be willing to pay.

Anyway, we walked all the way through the store, admiring how pretty everything was, but pretty sure that we wouldn't be buying any of it. Then we came to the back room - the room where they keep the as-is stuff, the stuff that nobody would want to buy at full price. And we saw our table.

It was a rich brown color, big enough to seat 6, or eight with the leaf in. Simple, but pretty. Exactly what we were looking for. The only thing wrong with it is that the leaf doesn't lock in completely - there's a tiny gap between the pieces which could be easily covered with a table cloth or a centerpiece. The price - $147 - was enough to convince us that this was the table for us. We've been keeping an eye out at D.I. for tables, but the offerings have been scant, unappealing, and of low quality. A new table at D.I. costs $248, so we knew we were getting a great price. Now all we have to do is pick it up and put it in the dining room.

Just wanted to do a quick post and share my progress with making cloth diapers. First, I wanted to show off this absolutely adorable soaker (diaper cover) I made today. It's newborn size, and it's just so tiny!!!


Isn't she just going to be so cute in that? I was squealing the whole time I made it, because it's just so little and cute.

Since starting this whole cloth diaper sewing thing, I have completed 25 diapers! And have the pieces cut out for several more. Here's my current stash.


Man, that's a lot of diapers! Until you think about the fact that it's enough to last a newborn about a day and a half.

Yeah, I'm finally getting around to posting about our Halloween festivities. The day before Halloween, we were invited to a little Halloween party, with some of the other moms and kids in the ward. It was mostly so the kids could have a fun time while we moms supervised and got to enjoy a little bit of adult conversation in between helping the kids.

The kids had fun making witch's brew. They took turns stirring the cauldron of punch and dry ice.


Then we made sugar cookies. Moms helped kids cut out the cookies, then the kids had a heyday drizzling way too much icing on all the cookies.


And then ate way too many cookies! :-)


It was a fun morning, and everyone had a good time.


On Halloween, we attended our ward Trunk-or-Treat. Here's our van all decorated up like a pumpkin patch. It probably could have used a few more pumpkins, but over all I was pretty pleased with the effect.


To match, I dressed up like a pumpkin as well.


Zaylee was a princess, and Thomas was a Jedi. Right up until we left the apartment to go to the Trunk-or-Treat, Thomas absolutely refused to wear the Jedi robe I made him. But when it was time to go, he put it on, and he wore it all night! When we got home, he tore it off and threw it on the ground. Then picked it up and threw it again, several times. Well, at least he wore it when it counted!

This is pretty much the only decent picture I got of Thomas in his robe. Everything else was blurry. The flash light is his light saber.


Zaylee in her princess dress. Making a princess face.


I liked this picture of the kids running down the hallway to get to the van. They were just so excited!


We came home with lots of candy, most of which is gone now. I'm sure the kids didn't notice that there was always less when they woke up in the morning than there was when the went to bed the night before. I ain't admitting to nothing! But it sure was yummy... ;-)

You know you're 8 months pregnant when:

- It takes you five minutes to put on your socks. Then another five minutes for your shoes. Despite the cold, flip flops have been sounding really inviting lately...

- You ponder how much you really need those last few socks at the bottom of the washing machine, because reaching in far enough to grab them would require a lot more effort than you're willing to exert.

- Baby kicks you in the ribs, nudges your pelvic bones, and punches you in the cervix - all at the same time.

- Shaving your legs on a regular basis has become a thing of the past.

- It's easier to sit down and stand up if you grunt loudly while you're doing it.

- You spend more time at night peeing than you do sleeping.

- When you drop something on the floor, you actually ponder whether it's worth picking up.

- If you decide to pick it up, you first try to do so with your feet.

- If the feet don't work and you actually have to bend down to pick it up, you squat like a sumo wrestler.

- Turning to the side to squeeze through a small space just doesn't work anymore.

- You don't realize your toddler is standing right in front of you because your belly blocks the view.

- You can't fit into public restroom stalls unless they're the handicap stalls.

- You squat down to look at something on the bottom shelf at the store, then suddenly realize that you have no idea how to get back up again. You end up grabbing at the upper shelves and pulling yourself back up.


The sad thing is that most of these aren't even exaggerations.

I think my nesting is taking the form of crafting. Sure, it would be nice if it were more along the lines of cleaning and getting ready to move, but I'll take what I can get. I've been really busy making all sorts of fun stuff lately. Check out all the projects I've been working on!

Here's the progress I've made on my cloth diapers: 9 pocket diapers, 4 fleece covers, 10 wipes, and 3 more covers cut out just waiting for elastic and velcro.



As far as Halloween/fall decorating, I've been crocheting up a storm. Here's two new pumpkins, a white pumpkin in the works, and a jack-o-lantern garland.


Last of all, here's Thomas' costume that I just made today. He's going to be a Jedi, so I bought an old sweater at D.I., cut it up, and sewed it into a Jedi robe. Unfortunately, Thomas apparently hates it and tears it off immediately as soon as I try to put it on him. Tough, kid - you're wearing this robe on Halloween whether you like it or not!


Jeff and I volunteered our van for the stake trunk-or-treat this Saturday, and I've decided to decorate the trunk all in pumpkins. Hence all the pumpkin crocheting. So I'll likely be crocheting a few more pumpkin things between now and Saturday night. Since I'm the one with the big belly, I get to sit in the van and hand out candy while Jeff takes the kids car to car collecting more candy. So I'm going to be dressed like a pumpkin - I got an orange sweater at D.I. and am going to draw a jack-o-lantern on the belly. Should be fun. Then, as soon as Halloween is over, it's back to making diapers! Yeah, I think I'm having way too much fun with all of this.

Just a some pics to show what progress we've been making on the house for the past little while. Most of the progress we've made has been Jeff's doing. I can't do so much of the heavy labor, so Jeff has really been awesome about jumping in and getting stuff done.

Jeff has been taking loads of boxes and stuff over, things that have been stuffed in the closets and the corners of the bedrooms for the whole time we've been here in this apartment. We've got lots of stuff in the family room, and the bedrooms. It's been nice to get some of the extra stuff out of the apartment!



A couple days ago, Jeff worked outside and raked up all the leaves that have been taking over the yard. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring trash bags to put the leaves in, so they're still sitting in piles in the yard. Well, we'll get around to that eventually.


Jeff has also been working hard to peel the wallpaper in the kitchen and hallway. We bought a ladder today to help with the high stuff that he hasn't been able to get thus far. Working with his water spray bottle and a scraper, Jeff made fast work of the yucky gluey paper today.



I helped out by gathering all the paper and stuffing it in trash bags, then by starting to tape the baseboards and fireplace in the living room. It's nice to be able to help with little stuff like that. I can feel useful, but not overexert myself.



We've already bought the paint for the walls. The main walls in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway will be white. Just a nice, simple white that will be easy to decorate around. The accent wall in the living room will be a rich, dark green. Oh, it's gonna be so pretty!

This morning I got to go through the longest three hours of my life!! My midwife told me this past Wednesday that my numbers on the glucose screen were just barely over the cutoff, and that I had to do the three-hour glucose screen. Oh the joy!...

So I went in this morning to get it over with. Fasting is hard enough when you're not pregnant, but put a baby in your belly and it's much harder! After one super-concentrated, sickeningly sweet orange drink, three hours, and four needle pokes, I was feeling lightheaded, had a backache (from sitting on the waiting room chair for so long), was getting a migraine, and was super hungry!

But I survived, made it to the parking lot, and scarfed down the tuna sandwich I had brought. Tuna sandwich has never tasted so good! Anyway, here's hoping that my numbers come out okay. I'd really rather not be diagnosed with gestational diabetes right before Halloween and Thanksgiving. Boy, what a bummer that would be! Michelle, I totally admire your ability to keep with the GD diet, because just thinking that I might have to is making me grimace!

Anyway, on to funner matters - I finished making my first cloth diaper!



This is just the diaper pocket - there's an opening in the back where you stuff in a thick, absorbent soaker (I'll use prefolds, washcloths, whatever I find that works). I've got a couple other diapers that I've started, and enough fabric to make 30-40 diapers! Plus I have all that fleece for making water-repellent covers. I'm getting really excited about all this, making diapers is fun!


***Updated: As soon as I finished posting this, my midwife called. My glucose screen results are already in, and everything was fine! Hooray!!!! I don't have GD. I'm very relieved. :-)

Here is my new obsession: Making cloth diapers!

Since we'll have our own washer/dryer, I'm finally taking the plunge and going full-time to cloth diapers. I tried cloth briefly with both Zaylee and Thomas, but ended up getting too frustrated with the coin-op laundry situation and the difficulty of using cloth diapers.

I have lots of prefolds from Michelle that will work great for when the baby is small. But I have learned that cloth diapers come in so many more shapes and sizes than just prefolds, even when they're very high quality prefolds (not the Gerber cheap-o's you get at Wal-Mart that are pretty much only suitable as burp cloths).

So I'll be making a nice big stash of cute pocket diapers - elastic around the legs for a better fit, and a pocket in which you stuff an absorbent insert. Since this particular pattern is one-size-fits-most, it will work for both the baby and for Thomas. Easy to make, easy to use, easy to clean, and waaaaay cheaper than disposables. It can cost a lot of money to buy quality cloth diapers, but since I'm making them myself I can save a ton of money. I hit up D.I. today and came home with all this:


These fabrics on the left are flannel sheets that I will use to make the diapers themselves.


These three fabrics on the right are fleece blankets that will become the diaper covers. Did you know that fleece makes good diaper covers? The fabric is water resistant, so the pee won't leak through. If you pour a bit of water onto fleece, it will just bead up instead of soaking in; that's what makes it a good fabric for covers.


The total cost of all this fabric was about $25. That's what we currently spend on two boxes of diapers for Thomas, which last only about a month, maybe a month and a half. These diapers will last for years! I will need more than what I have here, to have enough for both baby and Thomas, but this is a good start. And as an added bonus, I can use the scraps to make wipes and bibs, saving even more money. Woohoo!

I have printed, cut out, and pieced together the pattern for the diapers, but will need to wash the fabrics and buy some elastic before I can start actually making them. Super excited to start my stash of super-cute homemade cloth diapers!