A little update

We are driving home from our Bradley Class, so I thought I do a quick update on what's up with us.

- We only have one more Bradley class and then we are done. Crazy! I will be glad to have that extra night back and to not drive to Gallatin once a week. But I am sad to not hve class anymore. I really enjoy my teacher and the other couples, and I feel like I have learned a ton!
- Hopefully I will get more time to share what I have learned soon.
- We finally got a mattress pad and put it on the bed, just in case my water breaks. Even though it is a soft version, it sounds crinkley and makes me hot. I will be glad to take it off after delivery : )
- Church softball season is officially here. Our first game is this Thursday. I am tryin to have a positive attitude about it this year, because I normally hate it. It will be a fun time to socialize with my church fam and good exercise for Mr.Pate. I just hope it doesn't take over our summer (which has been known to happen).
- Work has been crazy busy! We are moving to a new software system, gearing up for summer employment, and trying to get ready for 2 of us to go on maternity leave. Whew.
- I am over the rain.
- One Tree Hill anyone?? Last weeks episode broke my heart! I dvr-ed tonights so I can't wait to watch it later this week.
- Confession: I am taping 16 and Pregnant also.... And Pregnant in Heels. Don't judge.
- That is all.


- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Comparison

Remember in December when I went shopping at Motherhood Maternity and tired on clothes with their fake baby bump?? Here I am at 13 weeks sporting the fake belly:

Well I just realized that I wore that same outfit today... at 30 weeks:

I remember thinking it would be forever till I was that big... and now I am bigger than that! Haha!
Here are a few more pics in that same shirt:

30 Weeks and Counting...

• How far along: 30 Weeks
• Total Weight Gained: 27 lbs (started 107, currently 134) didn't gain any this week
• Maternity Clothes: Maternity pants and regular & maternity shirts. I really need to go get some capri's and shorts with the warmer weather. 
• Sleep: I am getting used to it (the waking up and being on my side). So I guess its ok.    
• Best Moment of the Week(s): Taking my sis to my Bradley class was a great bonding moment for us and working the nursery at church this morning with Mr.Pate just made me more excited to see him with his son!!! He will be such a fabulous dad! 
• Movement: Yes! This week I felt tons of the "bulges" or random pushes, and Saturday night he completely moved to my left side for some reason. It was funny!  
• Food Cravings: Salmon & mac n cheese.  
• Food Aversions: Still not really digging most chicken or steak. I will eat it, but not loving it at all.  
• Symptoms: I am always out of breath, my tailbone is sore sore sore, I can barely bend over to get things (lots of squatting), peeing all the time, and I am hungry every hour and a half or so... 
• What I miss: Breathing! 
• What I'm looking forward to: Baby Showers that are coming up! Starting on the nursery in May and getting this place organized! Ha! And meeting our little boy!!!!!  
• Other news: Well we interviewed our first Pediatrician option, Dr.Fraser, and it went great! I was nervous going in, because it feels weird to interview them. But he was really laid back and answered all my questions well. We really liked him and I am realizing we may end up loving all three options (they all come highly recommended by friends). At least it is good to know we will be in good hands whichever way we go! I never made it clothes shopping last week, so maybe that will make the schedule this week. I cannot believe I am 30 weeks pregnant! Goodness it has flown by! I am still feeling really good and havent felt achy or had bad pains, so I feel blessed by that. And I feel like there is a ton to do before we welcome little Griffin into this world!!! Here is to hoping we are productive these next 10 weeks! 
• Gender & Name: It's a Boy! Griffin Alan Pate

Milestones:
According to Babycenter.com : Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

A day off...

Today is the first Saturday in months that Mr.Pate is off from Starbucks!!! Woo hoo! A whole day off!

Well we have an egg hunt in Edmonson County our church is putting in this morning, so not a whole day off... But no Starbucks! I am pumped to get to spend the whole day with my man. Hope you enjoy your Saturday too!!


- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

What is a wet bag??

So one question people often have concerning cloth diapers is what do you do with the dirty diaper? Totally logical question!

Most people have a "diaper pail" or some type of trash can with a liner in it where they put the soiled diaper after each change. Then on wash day, you dump the diapers and liner in the washer. I'll expand on this part in a later post.

What about while you are out and about? Can you use cloth then??Where will you put the gross messy diaper? Enter the wet bag.

A wet bag is a bag made to contain wet things without getting everything around it wet. You could put dirty diapers, a wet swimsuit, wet clothes etc in a wet bag. So people purchase a wet bag and keep it in their diaper bag. Each time you change a diaper you just put the used one in the wet bag. Once you get home, you dump the contents into your diaper pail and are done.

I just got my first wet bag (I'll prob get a few so I have two to rotate at daycare and one for other outings) and it is soooo cute!!! It's made from a fabric I love and looked at when I was picking my fabric for curtains. What do you think?






- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

More sweet gifts!

Little Griffin received more sweet gifts this week! My friend Sarah got these personalized goodies for my little man:









How cute are they?? Thanks Sarah!!! Can't wait for him to be here and wear them!!

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Change up

A few updates while I am waiting on my sis:

- One of our youth is signing with WKU today to play golf. Congrats Brandon!! So Mr. Pate is staying in town to see that happen.
- This means I needed someone to come to our Bradley Class with me (it's very partner oriented). Enter my sister. So we are about to grab a bite to eat and then Misty will experience her first ever childbirth class, and it's a natural one to top that off. This should be interesting! Ha!
- I just went to my thyroid doctor and everythin looks mostly good. I am up ing my meds again, but all explain more later. Peace out!


- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

The Walk

 If I have another kid, I am so making this happen! Some people are so creative! You could even do this for documenting each month of your growing kids life too I think. Check it out:

http://pacingthepanicroom.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20walk%20to%2040%20weeks

Cute Cute Cute!

You have probably noticed I like to document milestones in life with photos... ha! So I obviously knew I wanted to do monthly shots of Griffin's first year of life. But I had no idea that there were such cute stickers to help me with this! You have got to check out etsy and the cute onesie stickers different sellers make just for this. After looking though tons that were cute, Mr.Pate and I decided on two for us (one cutesy animal one and one sports one) and ordered them this weekend:

Find this one here. 

And find this one here. 

How fun!!! I am so excited to have our little boy here for monthly photo shoots : )

And I am sure he will be thrilled too.... haha!

29 Weeks and Counting...

• How far along: 29 Weeks
• Total Weight Gained: 27 lbs (started 107, currently 134)
• Maternity Clothes: Maternity pants and regular and maternity shirts. My t-shirts are now getting tight... but you dont really just buy t-shirts do you? All of mine are from church or something I participated in, so I am not sure how I will just stumble upon mediums... 
• Sleep: I am getting used to it (the waking up and being on my side). So I guess its ok.    
• Best Moment of the Week(s): Playing tag on my belly with Griffin!   
• Movement: Yes! Lots of pushing or rolling or something now. I will just feel almost like a pushing out in one area for a few seconds and then it will move to somewhere else. He is moving more throughout the day, so that is fun!  
• Food Cravings: Nothing specific, just still hungry a lot.  
• Food Aversions: Still not really digging most chicken or steak. I will eat it, but not loving it at all.  
• Symptoms: Shortness of Breath, Have to pee constantly, crazy dreams, cant bend over very well, really sore tailbone, leg cramps, I wear out much quicker now ...
• What I miss: Being able to breathe when I talk and not having to eat every two hours. 
• What I'm looking forward to: Fixing up the nursery (wont start until mid- May), baby showers, and having him here!!!!! 
• Other news: We have our first interview with a Pediatrician this week, so I am a little apprehensive about that. I have to go shopping this week sometime and find some capri's or more maternity pants. I only have 3 pairs so that just wont get me through a week. My first 2 showers are set and coming up in May, and I cant wait! How fun! Thats about all I got this week. 
• Gender & Name: It's a Boy! Griffin Alan Pate

Milestones:
According to Babycenter.com : Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.

28 Week OB Appointment

Yesterday we went in for our 28 week OB appointment. We had to wait for over an hour, so that part sucked!! It normally is not that bad. Anyhow, according to their scale I gained 10 lbs in 4 weeks! But Dr.Gass said that's normal for most people during those weeks because the baby doubles in size. He said I prob won't gain much more now, so we will see about that! Ha!

Griffin's heartbeat was 160 and sounded good. When the nurse put the Doppler on my belly he immediantly kicked her and she went "woe!" ha! Yesterday he was super active all day and it was way fun! Everytime I would touch my belly somewhere he would come to that spot and push or kick or roll. It was like a game of tag! Ha! He did it for Mr.Pate too! And even McKenna when she came over last night.

I am measuring 30 weeks, which just confirms I have seriously had a growth spurt. All else looks good. My blood pressure is still good at 102/62.

We took our first draft of our birth plan to Dr.Gass and talked through it yesterday. I felt really good about it overall. There are some things on there we will probably change some, but I'll do a whole post on that later! Point being, it made us like Dr.Gass even more. He is very understanding and I really do trust him.

The only bad news is that he may be on vacation when Griffin decides to come!! Major bummer. It isn't set in stone yet, but he will prob be gone July 5-11th maybe. And I do not want to be induced unless absolutely necessary. So we will see what happens I suppose. One of the realities of having a baby in the summer.

We are now going to the OB every 2 weeks!! Crazy! That means we are getting close people!!


- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Why didnt I think of that??

 

How cute is this idea??? Someone who is not pregnant yet, please do this!!! 

(Photo from http://simplybloomphotography.com/blog/?p=6680)

Gifts Galore

Griffin Pate is already a pretty blessed and spoiled little boy, and he is still 12ish weeks from being born! So I wanted to take a few moments to record some of these fabulous presents and say a special thanks to everyone! In no particular order:

• A Homemade Quilt from Mandy! Isn't it fabulous?!! Thank you sooo much Mandy! 

 

• These fun Animal bins from Kristen! Mr.Pate picked these for our registry and was so happy when they arrived at our door! Thanks Kris! 

• Wooden Owls for nursery and "Guess How Much I love you" book from Whitney! She is so thrifty and I am excited to transform these owls with some spray paint soon! Woo Hoo! 

• The Jesus Storybook Bible from Amanda! I actually got this for her right after I found out she was pregnant the first time, so it is neat and fitting that she would get Griffin his copy. 
• This precious Onesie from Alex! I begged Mr.Pate to let me buy it when we saw it at Target, but he made me wait. Guess he was right! This will definitely be a hospital outfit, ha!

• The fabulous Bedding from Mist & Ash! Love it sooo much! (And baby clothes, etc etc)
• Cloth Diapers from my Mom and Dad!! And a cute cute bib that says "Party at my crib, 2 am!" Haha! And cute baby clothes, a baby sling and who knows what else? My mom gives me something new every time I see her... can you tell she likes shopping?
• A cute cute baby animal book from Justin's Mom! It makes cute sounds and has all kinds of interactive things. 

Thats just a few gifts I didnt want to forget. I love getting things for little Griffin! It makes me so excited to meet him soon!!!! I cant believe how close we are getting. 

28 Weeks and Counting...

• How far along: 28 Weeks
• Total Weight Gained: 24 lbs (started 107, currently 131)
• Maternity Clothes: Maternity pants and regular and maternity shirts. I cant pull up most of my regular pants anymore! Ha! 
• Sleep: This was a pretty good week.   
• Best Moment of the Week(s): Working on our birth plan together!  
• Movement: Yes! There are all kinds of different movements that I dont have a clue how to decipher between. I feel something and I am like what was that??   
• Food Cravings: I have actually been really wanting milk, which is odd because I was not a milk lover before. But now that I am making myself drink it so much I find myself wanting more. Salmon also! Yummy! 
• Food Aversions: Still not really digging most chicken or steak. I will eat it, but not loving it at all.  
• Symptoms: Shortness of Breath, Have to pee constantly, crazy dreams, cant bend over very well, really sore tailbone, leg cramps, I wear out much quicker now ...
• What I miss: Being able to breathe when I talk and not having to eat every two hours. 
• What I'm looking forward to: Doctors appointment this week, fixing up the nursery (wont start until mid- May), baby showers, and having him here!!!!! 
• Other news: I cannot believe I am in the 3rd Trimester. This pregnancy has really gone by fast. We are registered for the hospital and went to tour it. They were booked with people laboring, so we didnt get to go into the labor and delivery part actually. I was bummed about that. We saw the postpartum area and the nursery and talked through what postpartum care there would be like. It was helpful, but I really wanted to see one of the labor rooms, so I may stop by one day to do that. I have made calls and have some interviews setup with possible Pediatricians, so thanks for the feedback! When you see me in person, my belly is really looking big. People are starting to ask me when I am due and when I say July they are shocked and think I am about to pop. Ha! Its because it looks so big on little ol me. It will be interesting to see how big this belly gets by then...
• Gender & Name: It's a Boy! Griffin Alan Pate

Milestones:
According to Babycenter.com : By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Pocket Diapers 101

Lets talk Pocket Diapers, shall we?

As I mentioned in my Types of Cloth Diapers post, we will mainly be using pocket diapers. So here is an up close look at what a pocket diaper looks like and how it works.

Here is a picture of the components of a pocket diaper. From left to right: the diaper shell itself and two inserts. 

The diaper shell is made of a waterproof outer layer, usually a material called PUL (Polyurethane laminate), and a micro-fleece inner layer. There is a pocket opening (usually in the back) where the inserts are stuffed in. 

To use a pocket diaper, you choose if you want one or two (or more I guess) inserts used based on how much absorbency you need. You then stuff the inserts into the pocket openings located (usually) at the back of the diaper. Some diapers have a flap over the pocket openings like these pictured. 

Here you can see the inserts being inserted into the pocket opening. When the diaper gets dirty, you pull the inserts out and throw both the diaper shell and inserts in a diaper pail or wet bag... 

You can get sized pocket diapers (ones that come in Small, Medium, Large etc) or One Size (a diaper that can be adjusted in size). We will be using One Size diapers, because you can use them typically from 10 or 12 lbs to 35 lbs or so. 

One Size pocket diapers have snaps to adjust the rise (how long the diaper is). Most have 3 or 4 choices for the rise. You snap the rise up for a smaller diaper or leave it unsnapped for the largest setting. 

Pocket diapers have either snaps or velcro (also called Aplix) to adjust the waist size. 

To wash pocket diapers, you want to make sure they are pulled apart (the diaper shell and the inserts) and then wash them and the pail liner or wet bag together. You would then dry the inserts and preferably line dry the diaper shell. This helps the shell to last longer and stay in better condition. Drying the diapers in the sun helps eliminate stains too. Then for the most ease of use, you would stuff the diapers before putting them away to use. 

So thats how a pocket diaper works. I hope this helps you see that cloth diapers are not crazy and out there, and are really not that different than a disposable. They are the same shape, similar size, and work in the same manner. Its just what you do with them afterwards that changes things. 

The Types of Cloth Diapering

I am back to share a basic rundown of the different methods of cloth diapering that are out there. As I have mentioned before, cloth diapering today isn't your grandma's cloth diapering. It has come a long way with many new options. 

Basic Types of Cloth Diapers:

1. Prefolds: 

Prefolds are the traditional cloth diaper. It is usually several layers of fabric sewed together in a rectangle. You have several options of how to fold a prefold and how to use it. You can use a prefold all by itself, securing it to baby with diaper pins or the modern snappi (see pic below). You can also put a prefold inside a diaper cover (more about this next). Using prefolds is the cheapest way to cloth diaper. 

2. Fitteds: 

Fitted diapers are super absorbent fabric that has been sewn into a diaper. So unlike prefolds, they need no folding and are diaper shaped. Most today come with velcro or snaps attached to close them, but you can still get them with no closure and use diaper pins or a snappi. Fitteds do not have any kind of waterproof outer layer, so they need a diaper cover to prevent feeling the wetness. Here is another look at a fitted: 

3. Diaper Covers:

Diaper covers are just that, a cover that goes over your cloth diaper. They are a waterproof shell with some type of closure (velcro or snaps). The most popular today adjust to several sizes (meaning they can get smaller or larger) so you can use them longer. You put diaper covers over prefolds or fitted diapers, and when it is time to change the diaper you just remove the insert, wipe the cover and reuse it with a new insert. So you can reuse a diaper cover several times in a day and do not have to have as many covers as you have prefolds or fitteds. 

4. Pocket Diapers: 

Pocket diapers are the most popular modern diaper. They work and look very similar to disposable diapers. The diaper basically has a waterproof outer cover, an inner layer of microfleece with a "pocket" opening and it includes either snap or velcro closure. You stuff pocket diapers with absorbent inserts in the pocket, and that is where the absorbency comes in. The microfleece allows urine to go thorough to the insert and keeps your baby feeling dry, even when the insert is soaked. For most pocket diapers, you have to remove the insert before washing but some come out naturally in the wash. Pocket diapers are very user friendly. They typically come in "One-Size" meaning they can grow larger with your baby and you can use them the whole time your baby is in diapers. 

5. All-In-Ones(or Twos): 

All-In-One (AIO) cloth diapers are a step up from the pocket diaper. These are the most like disposable diapers, only you dont throw them away. They have the waterproof outer shell, then on the inside they have the inserts attached. That means they require no stuffing or unstuffing. You just put the diaper on baby and take it off. They do take a longer time to dry because the layers do not come apart... unless its an All-In-Two. That basically means the inserts snap in, so you can take them out. 

So there you have the very basics. There are a few more variations, but this is cloth diapering in a nutshell. I hope that helps give you an understanding of what cloth diapering can look like today. Mr.Pate and I will be mainly using pocket diapers for little Griffin. I will do more in depth post with more pictures and explanations of pocket diapers soon.

But until then, what do you think? Did you know there where this many ways to cloth diaper today? Anyone got a specific kind they like and why??