It's All in the Cloth: Flipping Out

First diaper I "test-drove" was the Flip. This diaper has a waterproof shell that you place an insert right inside, then close with snaps. You can use the snaps to adjust the size as needed.

I was concerned with the snaps because I thought it would take forever to do and would be nearly impossible with a very mobile toddler. They took a tad bit longer than velcro (of course) but were a "snap" (hee hee) and weren't a problem at all.

                                     
Here is Brenna in her Flip. (I love this picture because it's like she's the calm in the center of a brother/dog tornado.) I tried to take better pictures of her and the diaper, but she just wasn't having it. The diaper is a little bulkier than a disposable but her pants still fit her just fine. It just makes her look like she has a little more junk in her baby trunk. :-)

I really liked the Flip because it was easy to use. To change the diaper, you just open up the cover, remove the dirty insert and put in a fresh one. I never had any problems with leaks - even after an extended period. I haven't put her in it overnight yet - once I do I will probably put in two inserts for extra absorbency. The Flip seems to be the best economical choice out of the two I've tried because you can re-use the cover. The covers can be purchased for $13.95 and inserts are $4.95 a piece. I used four inserts with Brenna and only had to use a new cover after her BM. If you could time it right, you could easily use just one cover a day and just swap inserts as needed. The Flip system also has biodegradable, disposable inserts available for travel or scheduled poos. :-) I've used these and found them to do just as well as the cloth inserts.

For another really great review, check out Rachel's experience with Flip!

It's All in the Cloth, Part One

Call me crazy ("You so crazy!") But I'm thinking about using cloth diapers on Rudd baby #3. I never in a million years thought I would be one of "those hippie moms", but I've been reading up on it and it just makes sense. Here's why (in my humble opinion):

- Diapers are EXPENSIVE. And I believe you get what you pay for, so I am pretty loyal to Pampers. Even with sales and coupons, I'm paying an average of $10/week on diapers and wipes. That's $40 a month, $480 a year,  or approximately $1440 until potty trained.

- Diapers are AWFUL for the environment. It takes an average of 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose.

- A few times I've gone to change a diaper and found clear, gel-like beads on their tush. I had no idea what it was, but wasn't comfortable finding it there! (I googled it, it's sodium polyacrylate, a polymer that can absorb 200-300 times it's weight. It's no longer used in tampons because of it's link to Toxic Shock Syndrome.)

I decided to buy a couple cloth diapers and try them out on their toughest critic...

...Brenna-Saurus Rex. (Here she is in her cloth diaper 'helping' me fix the screen door.)

I bought a bumGenius 3.0 One Size in Tangerine and a Flip One-Size in Blossom. You may ask, "But Bethany, why would you buy diapers for Brenna if she's going to be potty-trained soon? (God willing!!) Shouldn't you buy small diapers for the new baby?" That's the beauty of it! Since these are one-size diapers, they adjust to fit babies of any size (average of 7-35 pounds!) So I can use the same diapers on Brenna and Baby Siobhan (not going to be the real name)! Brilliant! Frugal! Neat! I attempted to get uni-sex colors just in case Siobhan is a William. That and I LOVED the springy yellow and orange. :-)

So how did it go? What do I think? Will I continue on my quest to cloth diaper? You'll have to come back and find out!

MPM and a Friday Surprise

I really have no idea what we are doing for meals this week. I'm all tapped out of ideas and really wish I could hire someone else to cook (and clean!) for me! Based on what we have on hand, here's what will probably be having...

Monday - Fettucini Alfredo

Tuesday - Grilled Chicken

Wednesday - Steak and Potatoes

Thursday - Spaghetti

Friday - Homemade Pizza and breadsticks

Not too shabby for just coming up with that right now!

Friday I had an OB appointment. Jeff went with me because we were suppose to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Things went as planned until the doctor gooped up my belly to hear the baby. After searching with the monitor for a few minutes, the doctor said she was going to bring in the nurse to help. The monitor's cord kept coming loose and dying. So while the nurse searched and my doctor held the monitor together, I was panicking. Why couldn't they find anything? Was something wrong? They finally gave up with the monitor and my doctor said she was sending me to the hospital for an ultrasound. That's when I started crying. She assured me that she was confident nothing was wrong with the baby, that it was just their faulty equipment and that everything would be fine. Checking into the hospital I glanced at my paperwork - it said, "No Fetal Heartbeat Detected". Ugh. I started mentally planning how I was going to tell Riley that there would be no baby William. How do you explain that to a four year old? How would he understand that? I didn't even understand.

After the longest wait I've ever experienced (probably not, but it sure seemed like it!) they called us back, gooped me up again and started looking. And this is what we saw...

See that dark spot in her chest? That's her heart - and it was beating just fine. Did you catch that? I said, HER. The techinican was quick to tell us it's still pretty early, but he "saw no evidence of a penis" HA! He kept checking every now and then and finally said, "That looks like a labia to me." Funniest words ever. So there she is. And we'll get to see her again in a few weeks when we go for a second ultrasound to see her organs and such! Thank goodness for insurance!

Spring Cleaning Update

Wow, am I ambitious. Or delusional. Maybe both? I guess when I called it Spring Cleaning WEEK I forgot that I had two children who create messes EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY. So I'm doing the same things over and over again. And that makes me tired. And I'm also pregnant. That makes me tired too. So I did get quite a few things done last week, but the list is far from complete!

Master Bedroom

Declutter!
Clean Carpets
Take down the big desk
Move in small desk and treadmill

Living Room
Clean Carpets
Wash Curtains
Wash couches (sweep, spot clean fabric)

Kitchen
Wipe down all cabinets and appliances
Defrost Freezer/Scrub fridge
Declutter counters
Declutter plastic ware
Declutter pantry
Wash Curtains

Dining Room
Finish Sewing projects - I have quite a few things completed, but doubt this will ever be completely checked off! There's always something I want to make!
Clean carpets
Organize Hutch

Riley's Room
Clean carpets - Thanks to Lilly the Wonder Puppy, this has to be done again. :-(
Reduce toys by 50% - attempted to do this while he was awake...bad idea
Reduce books by 50%
Wash curtains

Family Room
Clean carpets
Reduce toys by 50%
Take down train table
Set up play kitchen area

Brenna's Room
Declutter toys
Organize Dresser
Organize Diaper Caddy
Wash Curtains
Clean Carpets

Bathrooms
Scrub tub/showers
Soak Showerheads
Declutter cabinets
Organize Cabinets
Get a new shower curtain

Household
Write down budget!
Write out 15-18 meal ideas
Take photos of all of Riley's preschool art and discard


Thanks for letting me bore you! This really is helping me keep accountable, so it will all get done! Maybe by fall! :-)

Menu Plan Monday, My Kids and Prayer Request!

I accidentally threw away the menu I had written out...so I hope I remember what I'd planned!

Monday - lasagna
Tuesday - turkey manhattans
Wednesday -  Mexican Chicken and Rice
Thursday - chicken, bacon, ranch sandwiches
Friday - homemade pizza

I realized that I haven't posted pictures of the kids in forever! So here's a few...

Here's Riley modeling the robot shorts I made for him.

Brenna found her winter hat one morning and decided to wear it.

One more thing! There have been lots of babies on my mind lately. First is James. His mom and I went to school together and he is working on recovering from a big surgery. Next is Paxton. His mom writes one of my favorite blogs and is a brand new parent! William was also born recently - his mom also writes one of my favorite blogs. Last but certainly not least (and no link for him!) is Kellen. He was born a month early but is doing remarkably well and already at home! Babies are such a special part of life and certainly change everything.  If you could say a little prayer for these babies and their parents, I'd appreciate it!

Spring Cleaning 2010

The weather is nice, the situation in my house is not. Don't get me wrong, we're far from being called in for an episode of Hoarders. But like many families with two small children, two dogs, a cat and an absent-minded, pregnant mother we have our mayhem and foolishness! So we're going to have Spring Cleaning week (month?) at the Rudd's! Follow along or join in clearing out your OWN mayhem and foolishness!

Here is what I have planned:

Master Bedroom

Declutter!
Clean Carpets
Take down the big desk
Move in small desk and treadmill

Living Room

Clean Carpets
Wash Curtains
Wash couches (sweep, spot clean fabric)

Kitchen

Wipe down all cabinets and appliances
Defrost Freezer/Scrub fridge
Declutter counters
Declutter plastic ware
Declutter pantry
Wash Curtains

Dining Room

Finish Sewing projects
Clean carpets
Organize Hutch

Riley's Room

Clean carpets
Reduce toys by 50%
Reduce books by 50%
Wash curtains

Family Room

Clean carpets
Reduce toys by 50%
Take down train table
Set up play kitchen area

Brenna's Room

Declutter toys
Organize Dresser
Organize Diaper Caddy
Wash Curtains
Clean Carpets

Bathrooms

Scrub tub/showers
Soak Showerheads
Declutter cabinets
Organize Cabinets
Get a new shower curtain

Household

Write down budget!
Write out 15-18 meal ideas
Take photos of all of Riley's preschool art and discard

Whew! Still with me after that long list? It's mainly a bunch of small things I keep putting off, but I'm ready to tackle them! Ready, Steady, GO!

Total Gleek

GLEE is back on tonight!!! I adore this show. ADORE! I almost feel like a teenage girl going to see Justin Beiber in person. There may be screaming, jumping up and down and fainting tonight at 9:28!

AND I just heard there will be a Glee app for my iPhone - WHAT?!?! Fox won't tell me what it does -- but I don't care! I will have it!

I leave you in all my giddy excitement with one of my favorite moments from last season.

I

GLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Menu Plan Monday

Last night we had hamburgers on the grill, corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes...one of my favorite spring/summer meals! Unfortunately, I found another food that the baby does not like (the hamburgers!) so I will be avoiding nearly ALL cookout food from now on! The corn, tomatoes and strawberries we had for dessert were yummy though! I'm practically vegan!

Monday - Cavatini
Tuesday - grilled chicken and baked potatoes
Wednesday - taco salads
Thursday - leftovers
Friday - homemade pizza

Find more menu ideas at Org Junkie! 

Lucky.

Today starts my second trimester. It is going so fast - too fast!

At my last appointment I found out that my doctor has new nurses, (sidenote - would it be weird for me to ask what happen to the other ones? There were three wonderful nurses that are now gone...I'm not suspecting anything sinister, but I liked them!), and a new computer system. This meant that the doctor's office that I  have been going to for five years, that was with me through both of my other pregnancies and knew EVERYTHING, was treating me like a new patient. I was there to get blood drawn and had Brenna with me, so I wasn't happy about having to answer a ton of questions that they should have already known. So we're going through the questions and she asks me if this is my first pregnancy.

Duh. Have you seen my chart? Do you see my daughter next to me? No lady, this is my third.

She then proceeds to tell me about how often I will need to be seen and what will happen at each appointment. I wanted to scream, "I'VE DONE THIS BEFORE! I KNOW THE DRILL! JUST TAKE MY BLOOD SO I CAN GO!" And then she asks me a question that stopped me in my negative tracks...

"So this is your third pregnancy, and you have two living children?"

Yeah, yeah I do. I have had two wonderful, problem free pregnancies that resulted in two beautiful, healthy children. I wonder how many women she's had to ask. And how many couldn't answer yes. How many women have been a patient for as long as I have and are still struggling with a negative pregnancy test from month to month. How many have been pregnant, but never got to experience the joy of bringing the baby home?

So I humbled myself, answered the questions and thanked her for her time. Then I counted my many, many blessings.

Menu Plan Monday

I feel very off this week - so who knows what we will end up with for dinner! But here's the plan, Stan...

Monday - tonight it was Easter leftovers
Tuesday - turkey burgers and baked potatoes
Wednesday - Crockpot Creamy Chicken with rice
Thursday - something Italian...maybe stuffed shells?
Friday - taco night

I've been really inspred by a blog I found - Inspired to Action. Today she posted a challenge to create a goal - I'm following her lead and working on a mission statement for myself as a wife, mother, house manager, etc. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you all when I finish!

What is your mission statement?