Tales From Another Planet

I've determined a few things while starting my cloth diaper journey. Picking one method and sticking with it is much cheaper, unless you make the wrong choice. Here are a couple of the methods I've tried with the pro's and con's. "traditional cloth diapers" Diaper "Cover"   Pre-folds and covers.  This is by far the cheapest route to go when cloth diapering. I didn't find it that difficult to fold the prefold and put it inside the cover (we used velcro or snap covers, so we did not need to pin). However, my husband vetoed this idea as being too difficult. Since I do want him to at least know how to change a diaper, I went with his decision. If my husband were okay with it, I would definitely go this route. Pocket Diaper One-size pocket diapers.  This is probably the second cheapest route, if you find a pocket diaper that really works for your baby all the way from birth through potty training. My recommendation (especially if you ha...

I've been writing and editing this post for almost 5 months now! This is D's birth story. We'll start at about 6 weeks before my labor actually started. At that point, D was head down deep in my pelvis with his head turned slightly to the left. The doctors actually ordered an ultrasound because I was measuring "small for dates". Everything checked out fine and he actually weighed 5 pounds 6 ounces at that time (approximately) which was a little ahead of schedule. I figure the low measurement was because he was literally that low in my pelvis. Well, he stayed that low in my pelvis, head down, for the remainder of the pregnancy. It was great news for labor, because he was unlikely to be breech. However, I did start to have terrible hip pain. I suffered through as long as I could, but finally begged my doctor for a note to get off of work so I could rest up. I managed to get the note at my 38 week appointment and my last day of work was August 13th. I had been goin...

So I'm starting to think that I have a "high needs" baby. I wouldn't really call him "colicky" because he doesn't seem to be in pain, but he does get very mad at mommy and daddy for about 3 hours a day usually in the early afternoon. I think the real problem is that he has a hard time going to sleep in the daytime and wakes himself up easily because he is so active. But how do you "make" a baby go to sleep? We've tried all the methods: nursing, swinging, holding, rocking, walking, dancing, singing. The only thing that works consistently is the stroller. And once we bring him back inside, his eyes pop right back open and he's awake and soon to be screaming. Most things will work for a minute or two and then he'll be screaing again. After 3 hours or so of fun, he decides not to be upset, and he'll usually sleep for several hours. He's been sleeping on me right now for almost two hours after his latest escapade. He does sle...

So, I have an almost four week old infant sitting on my chest as we speak. I thought I was prepared, but having an infant is so much more exhausting than I thought it would be. First, there's the general recovery from 2.5 hours of pushing. I will say that labor and delivery was much less painful than I thought it would be (yay Bradley classes and naturally high pain tolerance). But 2.5 hours of pushing is essentially running a marathon. I actually found out later that a C-section is recommended after 3 hours of pushing. I'm so glad the doctors didn't tell me that. Anyway, it takes two full weeks to recover enough to feel slightly human again, and then you hit that magical period where your baby starts to get gassy and colicky. We think it was from a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance and oversupply syndrome. My milk took a little longer to come in and baby was starving. He seems much less gassy, but still cries more than he did the first two weeks. He doesn't cry at night, a...

OK. I haven't posted in a while, but after reading this article , I felt I had to. I don't see how ANYONE can support the healthcare bill as it is. Are democrats stupid are do they all just want to be on the same bandwagon? First of all, even being somewhat conservative, my biggest issue is surprisingly not the extra taxes. The $250,000 limit is a little low I think, but Obama already said he was going to raise taxes on anyone making more than that, so it's not a big surprise. My biggest issue is the fact that this bill will actually make MY healthcare WORSE and MORE EXPENSIVE. In the order of the CNN aricle: 1) Extra fees on healthcare companies, as if healthcare isn't expensive enough as it is, these fees will certainly pass along to all consumers. 2) Cut healthcare tax breaks - again making my healthcare more expensive. I already have $2,500 in out of pocket expenses from a childbirth, now I can't even use pre-tax money if I spend any more than that? 3) Long-term...

Proverbs 29:25 in the Message says "The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that." Luke 12:4-5 (NIV) says "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after killing the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." I have been hearing a lot lately in my devotion and prayer life about fear. I'm not afraid of dying, but I'm also not as afraid as I should be of dying without making a difference in the world. If I continue to procrastinate and ignore God's plans for my life, I am worse than dead already. What will I tell Him when He looks at me and asks for an accounting of the life He gave me. Will He say "well done", or "I never knew you"? I fear right now that the answer would be that He knew me a little, but was saddened by my disobedience. I keep crying out for the an...

Lately I have been doing everything that makes me feel more depressed. I've been thinking negative thoughts, judging others, not doing what I feel is right. Why do we do this to ourselves? The American motto is to "do what makes you happy." But so many people are trying to live this "American dream" and falling into depression. Does it make me happy to mindlessly search the Internet for houses I can't afford or jobs that aren't the right fit for anyone? Does it make me happy to feel my eyeballs almost pop out of the socket staring mindlessly at Internet articles or computer screens? Does it make me happy to think negatively about my job and my life rather than doing something about it? I didn't write anything this morning on my novel. Despite the fact that I had an extra two hours before work. Was I tired this morning? Yes. Did it make me feel any better to lay in bed and extra 30 minutes and then laze around the apartment for an hour and a half?...