Baby Stuff

I am 35 weeks pregnant and have done nothing to get ready for little mans arrival.  I shouldn't say nothing... NOT MUCH is more like it.  

The crib is not in the room.  The dresser/changing table is not in his room.  All of the newborn clothes are still in the attic.  The newborn diapers are still in the attic.  I have no swaddles or blankies down from the attic yet.  There is no chair in his room.  Nursing pads and covers are still in the attic.  Car seat and base are in the attic.  Yea basically I have done nothing!  

I brought the baby cradle down from the attic and that is in our room so if he makes a surprise appearance he will have somewhere to sleep.

Last weekend I went to a Sprinkle for a girlfriend who is due with her 2nd babe the same day as me.  I decided I would make her a little homemade gift.  

I bought some beautiful vibrant dye.  I also bought gauze material (the material that Aden & Anais Swaddles are made out of).  I know that she loved those swaddles with her first born.  I know I LOVED them with the boys.  I figured since we were both due in May that they would be the perfect swaddle and we would use them all summer.

I was so excited about the green.  Green is her favorite color and I think she will love that one!  Personally the blue is my favorite.  How will my little man not be a show stopper in that blue.  I'm assuming he's going to have the same eyes as the rest of us.  BLUE!

I love the yellow too.  If little man is anything like the big boys were he will will be jaundice.  Hopefully not, since he isn't 'scheduled' to come early like M & G were.  They were yellow for 3 months.  If little man is yellow then I think this swaddle might not even be pulled out haha.  If he's not... then I'm sure he will look mighty handsome in it.

After dying the fabric I just folded the edges under 2x and sewed.  I still have to finish the green ones.  I got 1/4 the way done with the first green one and my bobbin case in my sewing machine broke.  I ordered a new one online (it's probably sitting at my PO waiting for me).

Potty Training...NO!

In my opinion potty training is more difficult than changing and washing diapers.  Everyone A lot of people keep telling me I am crazy and that I need to potty train the boys before baby #3 arrives.

I have been saying NO.  There is no way I am going to do that to them (or myself).  I have tops 5 weeks before this little man is born.  Yes maybe I could potty train the boys in 5 weeks or less... but from what I hear they will most likely regress when baby brother comes.

I physically can't go up and down on the floor like I use to.  I can't 'run' to get another pair of underwear or the kid to the bathroom or the toilet to the kid.

For some reason I decided who cares!  I'm going to try!  I don't think they are ready at all.  They are showing some signs but really not at all.  They will go in the potty before and after bath.  They will go in the potty if I pull it out and sit their cute little bums on it.  BUT they don't tell me if they are wet.  They could have a soaked diaper and soaked pant bands and not tell me.  (Yes, sadly I let them get that wet sometimes).  They DO tell me if they do pee-u stink, but not always... just if it's annoying them.

Earlier this week I went to the store and bought some really cute underwear.  The boys were allowed to pick out what they wanted.  (Sorry I didn't take a picture of them).  They choose Mickey Mouse and Thomas the Train.  I also bought 2 packages of Gerber Training Pants.

This morning I decided to pull out the potty's and leave them in the living room.

 And I put the boys in their big boy underwear.

 I think the underwear is so cute.  I love how skinny my boys are.  It cracks me up.  Their bums are SO BIG in their cloth diaper and so tiny in these underwear.

They wet through their underwear about every 5-10 minutes.  

I would make them sit on the potty for 5-10 minutes.  Maybe they would give me a little pee-pee, but normally not.  I put a new pair of underwear on them and they peed again.

Haha, I didn't last very long.  After about 3 underwear changes per boy in 30 minutes I said... ALL DONE!  Let's put on a diaper and eat breakfast.

I don't plan on trying again.  I know sad!  I will continue to put them on the potty before and after bath. I might even try it more often during the day, just so they get more and more comfortable on it.  BUT, I am not potty training!  Not while I am so incredibly pregnant.  Not while they aren't 'ready'.

I will let you know when we start again.  Hey, at least I have awesome underwear that is washed and ready to go for whenever they are.

J Family Photo Shoot

I had so much fun today on my play photo shoot.  

Photography has always been something that interested me.  Back when I turned 17 my parents got me a Christmas and Birthday present.  When I opened it Christmas morning I was SO incredibly excited.  It was my own (at the time) good camera.  I opened the camera box ready to start clicking away... and there was NO camera.  There were car keys.  Yes I know I should have been more excited but I was a little disappointed.  I really wanted the camera.  

After high school graduation I went to Spain with my dad for 10 days.  When we were there he let me be in charge of his old 35.  He knew how much I loved photography.  When we were there (towards the end of the trip) he dropped it and it completely stopped working.  The last day or so I didn't know what to do with myself.  Looking at everything through my eyes was totally different than through the view finder of the camera.  When we got back from our trip he started to play around with the camera shoving pens in it, thinking, well it's already broken what's the big deal.  HE FIXED IT... and GAVE IT TO ME!!  Talk about awesome!

When I was in college I made my roommate and Hubs roommate pretend to be dating so I could do a photo shoot of them.  I took that camera everywhere with us.  

When Hubs and I got married he bought me a wedding present... NEW LENS' and other camera goodies.  

I eventually stopped using that camera because it was film and of course I wanted a new one when we could 'afford' one.  

Before the boys were born Hubs surprised me with my new limb ... I mean camera.  Ever since then I haven't stopped trying to learn how to use it correctly and become a better photographer.  I still have so much to learn and now that I am not teaching anymore I have tried do even more.  

J Family

Today I had the privilege to photograph the J family.  They are a beautiful family of 5, working on becoming a family of 6.  They are going through the process to adopt their 2nd child, making it so they have 4 beautiful kiddos.  You can find some more information about their adoption here.  They need a cover photo for their portfolio and I offered to try to capture that for them.

This is a picture of the beautiful little girl that they are adopting.  Angelica was born in Russia and is HIV-positive.  She is going to be 5 in January.

As many of you know, the adoption process is costly.  The J family has a paypal account online if anyone feels led to donate to help bring their Angelica home.

Diapers

Some of you probably know that we cloth diaper.  We have been cloth diapering the boys since they were a few months old.  I wanted to start earlier but after Hubs and I finally  made the decision to do it we decided to buy our diapers from my awesome sister in-law who makes and sells them through a cute little online store The Nerdy Gerdy Boutique.  I was able to choose my shell and snap colors.  I had so much fun picking out the combinations I wanted.  

However, since she does custom orders I wasn't able to get them next day mail.  It took a month or so to get them.  I didn't know any different.  I didn't mind that it took a little while.  (Next time I order diapers from her I will remember that they are so cute and that they take a little while to be made... so I will order them early and not wait!)

Once I received the diapers I was THRILLED!  I couldn't wait to get them on my boys bums.  Sadly they didn't work the way I wanted them to.  The boys wet through their clothes ALL THE TIME!!!  I need to let you know that this was not my sister in-laws fault.  My boys were skinny little things.  They had no thighs.  They were 5lbs13oz and 6lbs1oz when they were born.  They never did get baby meat. 

Since the diapers didn't fit the boys we almost decided to just go back to disposable.  After some discussing we went ahead and purchased cloth diapers that came in 2 sizes.  I love the fact that some cloth diapers are one size from birth to potty training, but with my little skinny boys it was not going to work.  I mean how does a diaper that fits a 3 year old going to fit a 6 pound baby right.  So we bought a different brand of diaper that came in 2 sizes.  We only bought the small size.  We decided that we would try my sister in-laws diapers again when they grew out of the small diapers.  

I was so THRILLED when my sister in-laws diapers began to fit the boys.  We wore the small diapers up to their suggested weight and then moved on to these.  I am actually happy that we have 2 different sized diapers.  I have enough diapers to diaper 4 kids at one time.  I can diaper 2 newborns and 2 bigger babies.  This is perfect since I will soon be diapering 3 babes.  

 Anyway, since the boys were sick and I wasn't feeling well and then Hubs got sick diaper laundry took a little bit to get to.  We decided to use disposables while the boys were sick.  There was just no way I could get the diapers washed and have enough clean ones on hand when they were that sick.

Tuesday I finally got to the diaper laundry.  Yes they sat in the pail for a good few days.  Thank goodness for my diaper pail.  You seriously don't smell anything!  Actually the house smelt more from the disposable diapers then my pail.

Since Tuesday was so sunny out I decided to give the diapers a nice sunbath.

 I just LOVE these diapers!  Look at how colorful and bright they are.

I think this might be one of the reasons I don't want to potty train.  Haha.. I don't want to stop using these adorable diapers.  I guess I just have to go shopping for some super fun big boy unders.