Oh my...

My poor, pitifully neglected blog. I promise, promise that I'm going to start updating this more. Especially since we have some exciting news to start off with. In case you live under a rock and missed this on Facebook...

Wherein I talk about butts and poop

(So if those things make you uncomfortable, skip this post.)

So, we made a big switch around here... we started using cloth diapers, and they're surprisingly easy! Poor McKayla has had THE worst diaper rash for about a month, possibly longer. It goes away for a day or so, but comes back for a week. Last time she actually got a chemical burn from her disposable diapers, and diaper rash cream was not helping. I decided it was time to take the plunge and start cloth diapering. For about a month I did tons of research about types of cloth diapers, benefits of cloth vs. disposables (do y'all know what is in disposable diapers!?!?), cost savings, water/electricity usage, and how to wash the darn things. Then I bought some, and waited, and waited for UPS to finally bring them.

I got three Flip covers and three bumGenius 4.0's. My bumGenius diapers are pocket diapers which have pockets you can stuff with absorbent layers to make them more or less absorbent. Once they are stuffed they're pretty much the same as disposables. Especially since I got mine in hook and loop closures, which for those of you who are now confused, like I was.. VELCRO. Seriously y'all, this is NOT hard. Flips are a little different. They're covers that have flaps on the inside top and inside bottom and you stuff the insert between those flaps and then put it on the baby. Flips are nice because when I need to change a diaper, I can just change out the insert and leave the same cover on. Well, unless it's soiled, like, you know, with poop. Both diapers are one size diapers which means they're both fitting my itty bitty baby girl and my GIANT 40 lb. two-year-old.

Y'all, McKayla, my SUPER sensitive-skinned baby girl, woke up this morning WITHOUT diaper rash! Granted she leaked a little because she fell asleep in a Flip and not my double-stuffed bumGenius, but she was not even red. John slept in a bumGenius though and he didn't have a single leak. Oh, and poop, it's really not such a big deal, and I don't even have a nifty diaper sprayer. I grabbed the insert by it's tag and dunked it. I didn't touch poop, and I didn't touch pee which never happens because McKayla always has a blowout when she poops! No one should get concerned at this part... I wash my hands. In all seriousness, cloth diapering is maybe a little more time-consuming than disposables, but the benefits far outweigh a few extra loads of laundry and some poo dunking.

Catching Up in Pictures - Christmas

Yes, I know it's March, and Christmas was THREE months ago, but you'll forgive me because these are ADORABLE pictures.

When John gets excited, he sticks a finger in his nose. This is a Mickey Mouse shirt, and he's got both fingers up there.

Wordless Wednesday

Here's what's been happening in our lives lately according to my iPhone...

When I have more time, I'll post more of an update. It just occurred to me that I never did a CHRISTMAS post...

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Not-so-wordless Wednesday (The Story of McKayla)

John woke up extra early, and McKayla is still asleep, so I finally have a second to post her birth story. There are pictures at the bottom, and this post is very long!

I hadn't yet scheduled to be induced, and was still very pregnant and somewhat miserable when we went into my 39 week appointment Wednesday, September 14. I hadn't really made much progress at all up to that point, and that was really what my doctor wanted to see before we talked about induction. I wasn't really expecting anything to happen, be scheduled, or have a baby anytime soon. I had been having a lot of really painful contractions that would be regular for a couple hours every day that weren't getting this little girl anywhere closer to being born, so at this point we were both pretty frustrated and done. Anyway, we went to my appointment and it went on just like every other one. My doctor checked me, I got dressed again and he came back in the room, and shocked us (well, mostly me. Cade says he knew it was going to happen) by asking if I'd like to go to the hospital to be induced the next night. I didn't hesitate and answered yes emphatically. He told me to arrive at the hospital at 11PM to start the process and warned me not to eat a huge dinner before I went and not to take a nap before I came, so I could sleep that night. He was pretty adamant that nothing was going to happen until mid-day on Friday. He kept insisting that because I wasn't dilated much at all yet that it would take a while for us to meet our baby girl. So, I didn't nap, and to be truthful, I was too excited to eat much of anything. We made plans with my parents to drop John off on Thursday night before we went to the hospital, and as we were getting out of the car to take him inside they called asking where I was. I let her know I wasn't told to be there until 11, and that no one told me otherwise, but we would get there as soon as possible. We dropped John off, and headed to Gwinnett Medical. We got there, checked in, filled out all the paperwork, and I walked to my room. By 11PM I was hooked up to everything and checked (I was still only 1cm and 50%) and was too excited to sleep which is the first point where I started regretting not taking that nap. Cade fell asleep in the most uncomfortable chair I've ever seen, and I watched TV. I wasn't really feeling anything at all. I mild contraction here and there, but nothing that made me cringe or that I couldn't breathe through. About an hour and a half - two hours later my water broke, so I paged the nurse, got out of bed, went to the bathroom and all of a sudden I was REALLY contracting. They were regular and I was shaking because of the intensity. Five minutes after the nurse walked out of my room, I paged her and requested my epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and went through all the paperwork and legal stuff, and I got my epidural and went to sleep. I woke up a few times and threw up, and the last time I was feeling some pain around my right hip, and requested to be checked. My only complaint is that no one ever checked me practically this whole time. Anyway, she started and said "Oh, I can feel her head." So I got some help rolling over onto my back, and she paged the on-call OB from my practice who was my favorite one, so I could start pushing. After I got rolled over onto my back though, I started throwing up and couldn't stop. I guess she had descended pretty far because next thing I know the nurse is pushing her back up, Cade is telling me to stop throwing up, and the nurse calls Dr. Williams and says, "You better run, or I'm going to have to deliver this baby." So she got there just in time, and after at most, 10 minutes of pushing we welcomed our McKayla Rilee. The next day, my regular doctor came into my room and said a few times how he couldn't believe that she was already here, (I was only in labor for 7 hours.) and that for my next pregnancy I'd just have to hang out in the parking lot of the hospital starting at 37 weeks so that nothing happened before I got to the hospital. It was the best birth experience I could have asked for and we are so happy to have our baby girl here with us.