38 weeks and counting down to BABY!

Yup, you heard right! 38 weeks!  Actually 38 weeks 2 days now! WOW!

Baby Hudson can come literally at any time. The anticipation is killing me!

That's okay though, I don't know that I'm ready to forfeit my sleep just yet anyway! =)

I had my weekly OB appointment on Wednesday this week.  Last week at our appointment we got some funky ultrasound measurements on little man and he was measuring smaller than he had been previously (only about 6 lbs 5 oz which put him in the 33rd percentile instead of the 55th percentile he'd been running in this whole pregnancy).  This week they were sure to get very accurate ultrasound measurements on him to make sure there wasn't an issue (like IUGR - Intra Uterine Growth Restriction) and it showed that he is a perfectly healthy, albeit chubby, little guy weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz! Holy buckets!!

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I intend to do a VBAC with baby Hudson.  He's getting so big though, I was really hoping he would come sooner rather than later!  I do have to push him out after all! However, it seems I'm not progressing as the OB would like me to.  I've been stuck at "soft", 60% effaced, and 1.5 cm dilated for 3 weeks now.  Baby Hudson is still "high" and has not dropped and is not engaged.  According to my OB, he should have dropped and he should be engaged by now.

My OB said that if I was "inducible" that he would induce me next week (previously he told me he would not induce a VBAC under any circumstances).  But his criteria for being inducible is pretty strict! I have to be dilated to 3 cm, 80% effaced, and Hudson has to be engaged.  So, Hudson has until Monday to drop and engage or my OB is going to recommend a C-section.  Sigh.  I can't say that I am incredibly surprised.  Livvy was our Baby A and she was head down most of the pregnancy and in perfect birthing position, but she never engaged either.   C-section may be likely. Boo.

Either way though, whether it be via VBAC or C-section, we should have a brand new baby boy next week! IF I don't go into labor before then =).

I will make sure to post pics once little man is here, but for the time being, here's a picture of me at 38 weeks 1 day.  I don't have a comparison picture with the girls because they were already 2 weeks old at this point! Crazy! =)

I will keep you all updated when little man decides to come!
Until then - have a great week!

Until next time -
Megan

The switch to cloth diapers!

I have never considered myself a "crunchy" momma.  

Sure I breastfed my girls.  

Sure I made my own baby food.

Sure I "wore" my girls (in a Moby wrap - LOVE!)

Sure I switched just about everything fresh from "conventional" to "organic".

But I never did feel "crunchy".

Until now. =)

Let me go backwards a bit....

When we finally got pregnant with the girls my mom encouraged us to cloth diaper them. She had cloth diapered all three of her children, and felt I should do the same.  I thought she was absolutely nuts! I quickly dismissed the idea. Cloth diapers?! Pins?! Plastic Pants?!  Too much laundry.  Too much grossness.  Too much headache.  No thank you!

Then a couple of months ago, the girls transitioned from size 4 to size 5 diapers.  No big deal right?

Wrong.

Several things had been going on over the last 6-9 months in the diaper industry and with diaper suppliers.  We had been using Pampers Sensitive Swaddlers since the girls were born.  Bri had very sensitive skin and would break out in an awful rash any time we tried to switch to any diaper other than the Sensitive Swaddlers.  We found that we could purchase these lovely diapers from Amazon Mom last year with a hefty "subscribe and save" discount, so they were actually significantly cheaper than most stores, and they were delivered to our door. Score!  

BUT.  Then it seemed Amazon Mom quit offering stellar deals on diapers, seemingly because they had acquired their competitor company, Diapers.com.  No need to offer stellar deals anymore, because they no longer had any real online competition.

Nearly concurrently, the price of Pampers in stores went up a minimum of $5 a box, across the board.  

AND, the girls went up from a size 4 diaper to a size 5 diaper. 

We switched to Huggies. Significantly cheaper, and the Little Movers were great!

And that worked, for a while.  Huggies didn't increase their prices on their boxes of diapers.  They still haven't. However, what those sly little buggers did was decrease the number of diapers provided in a box.  Where first we were getting 104 diapers, soon we were getting 88.  Now 78.  The price of the box has remained the same $30 as it was when there were 104 diapers in the package. And obviously you get less use out of a package of 78 diapers than you do out of a package of 104 diapers.

Our monthly diaper cost went from about $80 a month to about $120 a month.  And now we were looking at the cost of having yet another kiddo in diapers.  We figured that would be another $50 a month, easy. Making our monthly diaper total around $170. Oye.

So I went backwards.  

What about cloth diapers? I wondered.  They are so much better for the environment.  They could save us money in the long run.  Could we make it work?

After a MASSIVE amount of online research and reading tons of reviews and watching countless Youtube videos, we decided to make the switch.

The initial investment?  About $400.

$347 in one size fits all Bum Genius 4.0 pocket diapers - snap (26 in total - purchased on sale over the course of 2 weeks - buy 5 get one free promotion, plus two different get one free with $50 purchase promos)

$20 in special diaper detergent

$19 on a "wet bag" to put the diapers in

$10 on reusable wipes

We still need to get an actual cloth diaper pail (about $45) and a diaper pail liner ($16).  I didn't want to buy everything that was "suggested" right up front because, well, there has to be some suggestive selling with this stuff! I mean, do we really need 24 diapers per child at this point? Not likely. Do you really need the toilet sprayer?  I personally don't think so. But for future reference, do you really need a diaper pail and liner? Um, yes!

SO....

We have been using cloth diapers since Saturday.  

The verdict?

We have so much less trash, and smell, and mess! It's amazing!

I feel crunchy! LOL!

No, in all seriousness, it is much easier than I thought it would be.  There is definitely a learning curve (i.e. - what do I do with the poop?!), and you have to get into a wash routine that will work for you (the liners can be dried in the dryer, but the pocket diapers do best when line dried so you have to make sure you have enough clean at one time so you don't run out of diapers), but otherwise, it's cake! Seriously! And we are saving about $5 a day with just the girls by not having to buy disposables (I keep telling myself that - that's a smoothie a day at Starbucks!).  Sure, we still have a couple of boxes of disposables around, but we don't  need to use them at this point, so we aren't. =).  I feel so green!

And the girls like their new diapers too....here is Brianna, modeling her white Bumgenius 4.0 for you....=)

And both girls sitting, posing in their "Tutu cute" shirts and matching diapers...

The girls think they are pretty darn cool.  They like to run around without pants on now! And yes, I got colors other than white! Although I have to admit, most of what we got were gender neutral/boy because I intend to have the girls potty trained here in a couple of months, and then these lovely diapers will be used primarily for baby H! The girls always pick the pink, purple, red, and white diapers over the blue and green ones and want to wear those first...lol...such girly girls! They learn at a young age!

Here are the girls messing around in just their diapers =).  They love this!

So, that's been our biggest recent change!  We are still prepping everything for baby H's arrival...I think we have almost everything done...I  just have to be willing to give up my sleep now =).  I will be doing another post in a day or two with an update.  I am 38 weeks this week - less than 2 weeks to go! Eek!

Okay, that's all for now! Hope you all are well!!!

Until next time -

Megan

35 Weeks and busy, busy, busy!

It's been two weeks since I last posted, and it's been SO busy here.  Not that that should be an excuse, but it's definitely being honest!! Life is crazy in the Hollibaugh household!!

Here's what we've been up to:
Lots of playing with sidewalk chalk and playing in the yard =)

The OPMC Spring Clothing and Equipment sale (we had so much stuff to sell...and we still have so much stuff left! HA!)

Gramz and Grandpa came down and watched the girls the weekend of the sale so Si and I could work the sale, shop, clean up, etc.  The girls LOVE their Gramz!

Si's 30th birthday - our fabulous food at Joe's Crab Shack (YUM!!!)....and note that's not a beer bottle...it's root beer...and ice water...naturally =)

Planting flowers and planting the garden (I figured I should plant everything while I still could kind of bend over! The girls have been great helpers - they love to dig using my planters and water after everything is in the ground - very helpful! And Livvy has this fascination with brooms....)

Fostering an adorable black little baby girl pug puppy...and Livvy standing at the door with the pugs "barking" along with them at passerby's....HILARIOUS!

We are definitely staying busy!

And, we are 35 weeks pregnant this week.  Wowzers! We had an OB appointment on Tuesday and little man is looking great (although we got no pictures of him - bummer)! He is measuring in at 5 lbs 13 oz and is right on track to be an 8 lb baby if I make it to 40 weeks.  Crazy.  An 8 lb baby...what the heck will I do with that?!  The girls were 6 lbs for weeks!
Here's a current picture of me with little man...

One thing that I may not have shared yet on this blog is that I am hoping with this baby to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean).  I wanted to have a vaginal birth with the girls, but because of my pre-eclampsia and the urgency in which the girls needed to be delivered, we decided that a C-section would be best. 

I have to tell you though, my recovery was awful.  AWFUL.  I personally wouldn't recommend a c-section to anyone. I'd had multiple surgeries before (although admittedly none as intensive as a c/s) so I thought I had a decent handle on what I was getting myself into.  Nope.  Inadequate pain control from the get go (I'm allergic to percocet and vicoden so they were only giving me tylenol #3 and 600 mg of Ibuprofen), paired with tons of fluid retention and my blood pressure being so high that they wouldn't let me out of bed, paired with nursing/pumping for twin babies and sheer exhaustion, paired with the fact that I didn't stop bleeding (until 2 D&C's and 12 weeks later), paired with the fact that I couldn't lay flat for 7 weeks and LIVED on the couch, made my c-section experience a less than pleasant one. 

Si liked it -naturally - he got to see the birth, there was no screaming, pushing, mess, etc. (lol), we knew when it was going to happen (within a day or two) so that was nice for planning purposes, and, well, Si didn't have to deal with the pain of recovery.  Of course HE liked it!

Not I though.  My OB assumed I would be doing a repeat c-section with little man.  I told him at 24 weeks that that was in no way my intention.  I wanted a VBAC.  I wanted pain control.  I wanted to be able to play with and maybe even pick up my girls (who are going to have no idea what is going on anyway) a week or two after delivery.

He tried to lure me into a repeat c-section with a mini tummy tuck (free of charge)....
It didn't work.
He told me that everything would have to be perfect for him to allow me to try for a VBAC....baby in the right position (head down, not breech, etc.), no pre-eclampsia or other conditions, no need to induce (because he won't induce a VBAC)...
It was far from a for sure thing....
BUT....
My body gets this whole baby thing now I think....=)
At 31 weeks Baby H was as breech as breech can be. 
But now?
Now he is head down, face towards my back (in PERFECT birthing position)
My cervix is soft, I am 50% effaced, and I am dilated 1 cm.

My OB is VERY pleased.  He said this is the best possible scenario for a VBAC.  Some women's cervix don't soften after a cesarean....some women don't dilate on their own....sometimes the babies don't participate and insist on being breech....but not mine!! 

Fingers crossed, but it sounds like I'm getting my VBAC!!! Woot woot!!!

One month to go!!!! And currently NO restrictions! YAY!

That's not stopping me from hiring someone to help with the cleaning around the house though...yup...I'm breaking down and hiring help.  The dining room walls need to be scrubbed (because my toddlers think it's fun to fling food EVERYWHERE) and I don't have the time or energy to do it, and I can't really get down on my hands and knees to scrub the shower, bathtub and floors...so...I'm paying someone to do it for me =).  Hopefully it doesn't break the bank!

Okay, that's all for now! Hope you all are well!

If you have any information on VBACs or vaginal births in general that you think I should know, please feel free to share it!! Good, bad, ugly, whatever! I need to hear it so I know!!!

Until next time -
Megan