25 weeks

Wednesday 27 February 2008 at 8:34 pm



I am supposed to be putting away laundry, but thought I would do a quick little post first. Today is 25 weeks. I can hardly believe how fast time is going by. We have quite a lot to do before the baby arrives, mainly decide on some cloth diapers and buy them, and get a crib. For the first little while we are planning on having the baby sleep in our room in a portable crib thingy, so a real crib isn't totally necessary immediately. We have another baby shower coming up at the end of March in Florida.

We may have won some fun prize, but we won't really know until this weekend. We are going to visit Flying L Ranch. Basically I think they are going to give us a tour and try to convince us to buy a timeshare or something and then we get to draw for a prize. We are supposed to be getting a letter in the mail that guarantees us a prize. I'm not totally convinced we will actually win anything, but we will get to visit a dude ranch, so that should be fun.

green things

Tuesday 26 February 2008 at 8:21 pm Most people these days are concerned about the environment, and so I thought I would share the things we are trying to do to be better to the environment. Obviously we can do a lot more, but we are trying to change things a little at a time.

1. I bring my own bags to the grocery store. This took a while to actually implement on a regular basis. For a while I always forgot my bags, now I pretty much always remember thing. It just takes a little while to get in the habit. If I buy enough stuff to warrant a bag at other stores, like Target, I usually get a plastic bag. We use the plastic bags to clean out the litter box, so we need at least a couple.

2. Soon we will be switching part of our power to wind energy. In SA, we have the option to pay a bit extra and have a portion (or all) of our power come from the windmill farms in west Texas. To have all our power come from wind energy it would cost about 30-40% more than regular power, so for now we are only going to do about 50% of our power. This is a pretty unique thing, since the only place in the US that has wind power is Texas, so we might as well use it to help the environment. The extra cost is supposed to go towards expanding the windmill farm, so maybe one day others can use wind power as well.

3. Recycle. Really if you aren't recycling these days, I'm not sure what is going on. In North Carolina, you could receive a fine if recyclable items were found in your trash can. I don't think they ever actually checked, but still. Recycling is simple, and most places have curbside recycling. Here we can actually recycle just about everything, including #1-7 plastics. Most places I have lived only allow plastics #1 & #2.

4. We have replaced many of our light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. They cost quite a bit more, but when you factor in that they last for 5 years and that you save money on your power bill, they probably are about the same price. We still need to change some of the bulbs in the house, but will do that eventually.

5. We plan to use cloth diapers. We won't be putting piles of disposable diapers in the landfills, which has to be good. We will probably still use disposables some of the time, like when we travel, as I am not sure how cloth diapering will work in airports and such.

6. We both have cars that get decent gas mileage. Mine gets worse, but I drive a lot less than Matt does. If we do need to buy a new car in the future it will be something that gets good gas mileage. It will probably also have to be something that holds a couple of kids. Right now both of our cars have over 100,000 miles on them and we hope we don't need a new car anytime soon, but if we do need one it will not be a big SUV like everyone else here drives.

7. I am trying to eliminate the use of paper towels. We have oodles of towels and rags, so I am trying my hardest to use those for cleaning and cleaning up spills. We also have started using either towels or cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. The one place I haven't figured out how to eliminate the paper is in microwaving. I microwave leftovers a lot, and always use a paper towel to cover the food so it doesn't splatter everywhere. I guess maybe I could use a towel, but that seems odd. Any suggestions?

8. We have set up the compost machine that my sister gave us for a wedding gift. We didn't want to set it up in NC because we knew we wouldn't be there long, and we didn't want to have to leave it behind. We have it set up in our backyard and we add the leftover veggie stuff and scraps to it.

9. We want to plant a garden this spring, but I am not the best gardener. I want to grow veggies and to plant a fruit tree or two. Who knows how this will turn out. Hopefully one day we will actually be able to grow something edible.

10. We have an old fashioned lawn mower. It doesn't use gas or electric, so good for the environment!!

11. We have a front loader washer that is supposed to use less water and energy.

That is all I can think of for now. We are planning to do a few things on the house that will hopefully make it more energy efficient, but those things aren't done yet and won't be done for a little while. I want to switch to more green cleaning products, but they are expensive and I haven't decided which ones are the best for the cheapest price, any suggestions?

What other things are you doing? Any other suggestions of things we can do?

another contest

Saturday 23 February 2008 at 7:06 pm

MommyKnows and www.thebabymarketplace.com (a great place to shop and learn about cloth diapers) are hosting the bumGenius 3.0 One-Size Cloth Diaper Give Away.Go on over and comment and be entered to Win one of two bumGenius 3.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers.

beautiful weather

Thursday 21 February 2008 at 9:25 pm Most of the 'winter' here has been beautiful. Except for that week of 40 degrees and rain that I complained about, it has been absolutely lovely. The highs are usually in the 60s or 70s and it is sunny and breezy. Not too bad for winter. Remind me that the winter is lovely when it is miserable this summer.

I am watching A Walk to Remember, and boy does Mandy Moore look young.

We are going to a class about cloth diapering this weekend. Maybe after that we will finally decide which kind of diapers we want to use. Our carseat/stroller combo came today! One major item is ready! Only a zillion more to go.

If anyone has State Farm insurance, you can get free federal and state online Turbo Tax software. You have to have an online State Farm account and have at least one policy added to your account. Then the link will appear on the left side under additional links. Our taxes are mostly done, just have to finish up the NC portion of stuff. Luckily Texas doesn't have state income tax, so only one state to do this year!

I am having a lot of trouble getting us signed up for childbirth classes. For those of you with kiddos, did you take a childbirth class? Was it worth it? The ones at our hospital are full and the only weekend ones offered between now and when the baby is due start next weekend, so I don't think we will be getting off the waiting list. What other classes did you take before your baby was born? The hospital offers a couple of other classes that we may take, but I don't think any of them are all that necessary. Were any classes particularly useful?

In the past week almost all of the presidential candidates have been in SA. The only one who hasn't is John McCain, but I guess he doesn't really need to do anymore campaigning, at least not in this state. I haven't actually seen any of them. Anything new and exciting happening with anyone?

hospital choice

Wednesday 20 February 2008 at 8:13 pm Just a few quick things first:
1. I updated the links over on the side, feel free to check them out.
2. The weekend was nice, hectic and I took very few pictures.
3. I updated the header with something more Texan. You may have to hit refresh to actually see the new picture.

Thank you all for your responses to my hospital questions. It is nice to see how hospitals work in other places and see that these are pretty standard.

We are definitely going with the second hospital we visited. The hospital itself is much newer and nicer. It is smaller and they allow many more options, which is what worried me at the first hospital. Everyone around here says that either hospital is good, but I'm not totally convinced of that. I guess they would both be good, but I want great!

At the first hospital, the baby would be away from us for about 2-3 hours after birth. I plan on breastfeeding and seem to have a fear of something not working right (maybe because all I ever hear is how difficult breastfeeding is), so I know that it is best to attempt breastfeeding as soon as possible after breastfeeding. Our hospital allows you to keep the baby with you at almost all times, except for daily weigh-ins. If your pediatrician will visit the baby in your room, then they allow that.

At the first hospital they also do continuous fetal monitoring once you enter the hospital. This more or less confines you to the bed. I didn't really want that, especially after reading how important movement is during early labor. At the hospital we chose, they monitor for about 20 minutes when you arrive at the hospital and then once every couple of hours after that, unless there is some complication or need to monitor more often. At this hospital basically everything is dictated by what your doctor is willing to allow you to do.

The second hospital is also where the one of the local midwives groups delivers their patients. This means the nurses are more used to natural and alternative birth stuff. The hospital also offers squat bars. Depending on if I make it to pushing time without drugs, I may try the squatting thing. For those who don't know giving birth in a vertical position is supposedly much easier because you aren't fighting gravity, but instead working with it. Makes sense to the engineer in me :)

There were a couple of odd, but not necessarily terrible things about the first hospital that we didn't particularly like. One, you had to pay extra to get cable. I know we won't be there long and probably won't watch much tv anyways, but we might want to watch something other than the main networks. The other, more disturbing thing, was that you were not allowed to plug anything into the outlets in any rooms, supposedly because of a fire hazard. How the heck is plugging my cell phone in to charge going to cause a fire? Since all of our family is out of town, it is nice to be able to charge our cell phones when they die.

And so it was decided that we would deliver the baby at the second hospital. The end.

23 weeks

Friday 15 February 2008 at 10:01 am Here are some new pictures of my growing belly. It seems like it grows a little every day.





This weekend we are off to PA for our first baby shower!

My parents had a lovely visit here, we did all sorts of things, including celebrating my aunt's birthday, going to the botanical gardens, shopping and just general exploring.











I'm sure there will be more pictures next week of all the nieces and nephews, plus my pregnant friend, Kristen!

And I promise to conclude my hospital birth stuff sometime next week.

contest

Wednesday 13 February 2008 at 07:36 am Thanks for all the replies about the hospital stuff. I have another post coming soon, but I haven't had much computer time with my parents visiting. Maybe tomorrow I will update about the other hospital and how I am feeling about it. But today I am posting about a contest that I really want to win. I get to earn an extra entry by sharing the contest with you fellow readers. So if you are interested, feel free to enter by posting a comment on MommyKnows. You could always enter and give it to me if you don't want it :)



MommyKnows is hosting the Think Love, Think Peanut Shell® Valentine’s Day Giveaway! Go on over and comment and be entered to Win one of two prizes packages each containing a Peanut Shell® Baby Sling and a Peanut Shell® Nursing Cover.

t-shirt bags

Friday 08 February 2008 at 5:13 pm I sent an email out to a couple of people, but for those who weren't on the list for whatever reason, I thought I would share this with you as well. One of my friends, Deb, has opened an Etsy shop that takes old t-shirts and makes them into shopping bags. So for those of you who can't part with some of your old favorite t-shirts, but don't really wear them anymore, Deb will take them and make them into something you can use. Great idea. I think I might send her some of my shirts, if I can bear to part with them. :)

Feel free to send her your t-shirts, I am sure she would love to make you a bag!

rodeo

Thursday 07 February 2008 at 12:43 pm Yesterday I went to the rodeo. I went during the day to see the animals. Next week my parents and I are going to go to nighttime rodeo show, which has events like bull riding and such. That should be more fun, and hopefully bring a few more pictures. My favorite part of yesterday was the auction. I even took a video to share. However, I am having a very terrible time getting it uploaded. I have tried so many times and it always stops at some point. I just don't understand. Maybe one day I will be able to share it with you. Until they you have to just look at the pictures of the pretty animals. I was one of the few people there who wasn't wearing cowboy boots and a hat. During the day it is mostly school groups and cowboys, who are buying/selling animals or showing animals.

For those who don't have their own bull to ride, you can get your picture taken on this fancy fake one.


Here is a view from the auction. Notice all the hats. I was a little scared to move too much or else they might think I was bidding on a bull or something.


Here is a cute cow. There were lots of pretty animals.


And this cow was my favorite. I don't know what kind it is, but I love the floppy bunny-like ears. So cute.


I really liked the sheep. Some had hair and others didn't. I don't really know why, but they were all cute and said bahhhh a lot. Here are two sheep snuggling up together.


This sheep is getting groomed, not a hair cut, just a trim. I guess he was going to be in a show later on or something.


And lastly, here are some cute little baby chickens. Some of them looked dead to me, but I could see they were breathing, so who knows. They must sleep in strange positions.

hospital birth

Tuesday 05 February 2008 at 12:09 pm We have a choice of two hospitals to deliver the baby. On Sunday we went to visit the first of the two hospitals. I was not really impressed. I am hoping the other hospital is much better, and I believe it may be, based on some things I have read. I have some questions for those of you who have given birth in a hospital.

How long was the baby away from the room after delivery? This time may have not occurred immediately, but did your baby ever have to go to the nursery without at least one parent with it?

How come during pregnancy you aren't supposed to lay on your back at all, yet almost all births occur while you are laying on your back? To me, if laying on your back can harm you and the baby during the pregnancy isn't that still the case during labor and delivery? And maybe even more so because your uterus is contracting and your body is under more stress than normal.

Were you allowed to move around at all during labor (before receiving an epidural obviously)?

Were you allowed any food or drink?

Was your birth the way you dreamed it would be? What would you have changed?

If you don't want to leave all these answers here, feel free to email me at matt at macyfron.com. (I had to get rid of lucy at macyfron.com because I was getting so darn much spam.)

Great Flood of 2008

Saturday 02 February 2008 at 11:07 am The other week when I was sick I was sleeping with the humidifier on. Humidifiers make noise. I awoke around 3 something in the morning and though I heard water running. I told myself it must be my imagination or the humidifier and tried to go back to sleep. Another minute or two later I finally convinced myself to get out of bed to go see what was going on. I walked into the bathroom and water was everywhere and continuing to flow from the sink. It was shooting up and shooting down, shooting everywhere. I turned the cold water off to the sink and it stopped, thank goodness. I got some towels out of the closet and threw them down, deciding to deal with the mess in the morning.

Then I thought long and hard about going downstairs. I really didn't want to, I mean it was 3:30 in the morning, I was tired. I decided I really should go check and make sure there wasn't any water downstairs. As I was coming down the stairs I heard the dripping sound, actually it was more like a raining sound. When I got to the bottom of the stairs and turned the light on, I realized the kitchen was totally wet as well. Lovely. Water was still pouring out at a good rate so I thought maybe a pipe had burst or something because how was this much water still coming out of the ceiling.

So I did what any normal wife does, I called my husband, who was out of town, and asked where the main water valve for the house was. Since we have lived here for only a short while, and really I am here a lot more than he is, he had no idea. So I start looking around everywhere. No sign of anything that looks like it would be of use. I did turn off the valve on the hot water heater since that seemed to be the only thing that looked like it could be turned off. Water is still pouring out of the ceiling. The water is coming from the AC vent, so I take off the cover to that, all while water is still pouring out onto me. I can't really see anything, other than that water is coming from there. There weren't any exposed pipes or anything.

I decide to go to my friend, google, and see what he had to say about where the water shutoff valve would be located. It suggested I look on the outside of the house. So I somehow find a flashlight with working batteries and walk around the entire outside of the house. Nothing. The only place I can think of is the actual thing in the ground that you can shut off, but both Matt and I thought that the water company had to do that. Plus I wasn't really sure if the one I saw was ours or our neighbors and I don't think you make friends with your neighbors by turning their water off in the middle of the night.

Next I try to call the water company, but it just so happens that the only phone number on their website says it has been disconnected. How perfect. I keep trying to call, nothing. I try calling from the house phone and the cell phone thinking maybe something is wrong with one of the phones. Nothing. By this point about 20-30 minutes have probably past since I turned off the water upstairs and I convince myself that maybe the water coming from the ceiling is slowing down a bit. At some point I tell Matt to go back to bed because really there is nothing he can do and I will just keep trying to call the water company and see if they can tell me where water shutoff valve is. Soon enough the water definitely slows down (about an hour and half after I turned the water on the faucet off). When it finally slows to a drip I convince myself that everything will be fine and I will deal with it in the morning. I attempt to go back to sleep, but fail for about 1.5 hours. Finally about 6:15 or so I fall back asleep.

Since we have a home warranty thing I call them first thing in the morning. Eventually the plumber shows up and says that we need a new faucet. The warranty will only replace it with a builder's standard, which is quite ugly compared to what we have. The plumber thinks the faucet should be covered under the manufacturers warranty so we decide to just get the money from the warranty company and try to fix it ourselves with the manufacturer. Luckily we have another sink in the bathroom, so it isn't a huge deal that it isn't currently working. So that's where it stands right now. I am supposed to call the manufacturer, but I haven't yet. Soon enough. The end.