Whoops. I’ll admit it, getting pregnant again was definitely not on my to-do list. But this rascal had other ideas and decided to beat the odds to do so.
It’s kind of an awkward feeling. I’m delighted about having another baby, but at the same time, I’d meant to stick with just 2 kids. There’s some of that green guilt for adding yet another person to the world.
But it’s a baby. I really can’t stay upset about it for long.
Nice thing is that my green leanings have been steadily rubbing off on my husband. I wanted cloth diapers with our previous two, and he was flat out against it. He saw a show on National Geographic called Human Footprint
But there’s another impact for us. One car won’t cut it anymore soon. This is really rough because my husband is still looking for a new job. But our one car has a total of 4 seats. Won’t exactly work with this fifth person comes into our family. And with car seats we’re going to need something wide enough that all the kids will still fit. My oldest doesn’t legally need a car seat anymore, but I prefer her to be in one. She’s still small enough that it’s safer.
The second car is also needed because I just cannot visualize trying to take public transportation with 3 young children to handle all the doctor’s appointments a new baby requires. Beyond that I still want to live like we only have one car and keep unnecessary driving to the barest minimum we can manage.
There’s not much we’ll need to buy for baby right away. We have access to boy clothes and girl clothes from previous babies; just have to get them back from relatives. We were in the process of cleaning out the old baby toys from the garage, but hadn’t quite gotten rid of them yet. I have to see if the breast pump still works. I’ve never used formula and can’t imagine doing so with this baby. We still have our food mill
I can also admit to being some nervous about the pregnancy itself. I’m turning 36 soon, and my last pregnancy was not so easy as the first, ending in what could have quickly turned into a miscarriage. Fortunately an alert doctor caught the lack of amniotic fluid on an unscheduled ultrasound and sent me in for a C-section. Unfortunately, that means my new OB (we’ve moved since then) is determined to do a C-section at 38 weeks or earlier if necessary to avoid that problem this time. I was so hoping to avoid that, even knowing my odds were slim!
On the plus side, to be blunt about it, it means I can easily get tied off and make it even harder for an unplanned pregnancy to occur again. 3 kids is quite enough, and 2 C-sections is very much so my limit!
Congratulations! I don’t know how much research you’ve done into cloth diapers, but THE BEST resource out there for information is http://www.diaperpin.com I found their product reviews particularly helpful when I was deciding what type of cloth diapers to use with my son. I recommend choosing some type of pocket diaper. I tried prefolds with a cover because they were so much cheaper, but ended up switching to pocket diapers because of the convenience once the little one became wiggly.
If you want to further lower your diapering impact (and the cost), you can buy used diapers through http://www.diaperswappers.com/ This might be an especially great deal since you are only planning on using them with one kid.
If you have any questions about cloth diapering, please feel free to email me. I love to help other moms avoid feeling overwhelmed and confused like I was when I was trying to figure out how to make it all work.
Thanks for the resources. Good to get a start on this well before I need them!
Congratulations! What an exciting time for you. Keep us posted through your green pregnancy.
Congratulations!
We cloth diaper, and love it. I bet you will too. Just FYI, we chose Kissaluv’s contours. Our little pumpkin is tall and skinny, and many of the other diapers we tried were too bulky and her clothes won’t fit. WIth the invention of the Snappi, contours are super easy to use. The best way to “bleach” them is to put them in the sun, also. Then there will be no nasty chemicals next to your precious baby bum.
Also, it can be a pain to tote around cloth diapers on long days out because they take up a lot of space. If you should decide to use disposables at all, you might check out Nature Baby Care if you don’t already know about them. They are a corn based diaper and the diapers and the packaging they come in are biodegradable.
Something that my husband and I are trying to test out is E.C. (elimination communication) which is no diapering at all. It’s based on the fact that babies, just like every other living creature, have the ability to control their bowels and know when they have to go. We are starting around 7 months, so it’s hard, because Sakura is already trained to go in her diaper, but new babies will usually signal when they have to go. My friend Emily successfully did this and reports that baby bums are super cute, and he always tells her when he has to potty. He’s only 7 months. If nothing else, it might be an interesting read for you. I wish I would have known about it sooner, because I think we would be more successful.
~Teresa
http://www.naturalbabybiz.com
Thanks for the tips!
I think elimination communication must be what my grandmother used back when her kids were babies. She told me back when I had my first that they used to potty train around 6 months!
Congratulations!!! How exciting 🙂 I’m like you in that the “plan” was to stick with two kids. I’ve often wondered, though, what it would be like to have a third at this point. I’ve had two C-sections, and am NOT interested in doing that again, lol!! Babies are wonderful though. Best of luck!
[…] I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how differently my husband and I are talking about starting things out with this baby. First time around, there was no way he would even discuss cloth diapers. Now he’s all but insisting on them. […]
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