Update on Tori

I'm just going to call her Tori from now on. :) Hopefully it will sound more natural on my tongue by the time she gets here. I like it, it just sounds foreign for some reason.

I'm almost 31 wks pregnant with Tori. She has been incredibly active lately, especially down low in my tummy. I think that means she's head down? This pregnancy continues to have a pace of its own, compared to Brianna's. The back pain has not been as severe, but again I'm not moving around as much as I was w/ my last. Of course, I'm also not going up and down 2 flights of stairs 2-4 times a day for work either like I was at this point, last time. I had some sort of nerve pain for a couple of weeks where I would move a certain way and get a shooting pain up and down my leg, but its mostly subsided now.

We have decided to take the same route as we did with Brianna, in this pregnancy. We have seen a nurse-midwife for the first part of the pregnancy, and are going to have this baby unassisted at home. We will have someone give us one last check up right before and a check up right after though same as last time.

We're really not ready for Tori to come though honestly. So much stuff to do, clothes to sort through, diapers to make or buy, birth supplies, etc. Sometimes it seems so overwhelming, and sometimes it seems like it will be no big deal, ya know?

My blood pressure has been a bit all over the place, but I think my cuff is malfunctioning. Maybe I'll try my larger cuff and see if that makes a difference.

Sorry to ramble on! The family is great, the baby to be is great! (she could technically be born NOW and be ok, can you believe it?!??!!?!?!?) Brianna has just hit her terrible two's and is as we speak doing some sort of pouting/tantrum thing in the chair next to me. Cody is visiting grandma and having a lot of fun.

An Update

I realized this morning that I had 6 blogs running all at once. SIX can you imagine? Like I have time to update so many! :)

So I consolidated all of the family/pregnancy/birth stuff into one that we can share with family. I put all my ranting/crafting/knitting/sewing stuff into another.

I'm not 29 weeks pregnant. Blood pressure looks ok so far. We have taken a slew of tests but declined the routine pap and gestational diabetes screenings. I finally feel pregnant and not just like I'm gaining weight. There is a very large bump where my tummy used to be. I cant see my feet anymore! I'm carrying really big, but I dont remember if I was big last time as well. Aches and pains are starting in. I wish I had a live in chiropractor.

The kids are great. Mom and Dad are bringing up the dresser and daybed this weekend. We're finally going to get our bed back to ourselves. Brianna has been sleeping with us by our choice, but its just not working out any more. Cosleeping is great (Great Article By Peggy O'Mara on Cosleeping) Its something that has been done the world over since the beginning of time and really was wonderful the past 2 years with Brianna. I dont plan on doing it with the new baby unless the situation changes, just because I'm ready to have my bed back. We'll be using the cradle next to the bed at first though, most likely. So we'll have Brianna's daybed and the cradle in our room (which is also our den and our computer room and my base of business and craft room...) It will be crowded, to say the least, but its a lot easier to heat/cool 1 room than the entire house. Our house is way too big, we've learned, but thats another discussion for another day.

Cody is going to spend a few weeks with my parents. He's going back to stay with them this weekend. He's very excited. Brianna is saying more and more every day now. She said "I love you" for the first time yesterday. Of course she wouldn't say it again when her daddy got home, lol. I feel bad that he misses out on so much of her development and it makes me feel so much more lucky to be able to stay with them myself.

July Update

Victoria is due the middle of October, so about 3 months to go now. I have absolutely nothing ready for her at all. I don't have my birth supplies, or any clothes brought out, any diapers for her what so ever, or anything. I really havent prep'd for the baby at all, neither has Jason. I guess having Brianna so recently has kind of downplayed it for us. Plus we have no family here, I have been working on my online business, and I guess life is just going on as usual. I keep thinking that money will rain from the sky and we'll be able to run out and get everything we need but you know how realistic THAT sounds. :) Part of me wishes we could do the whole baby shower and Blessingway thing, and do registries and stuff, but I guess I'd have to know people for that to happen. Never did get around to meeting people here in SC. Oh well.

After our little Downs scare a couple of months ago, the pregnancy has gone very much without issue. My BP is down, Victoria (never to be known as Vicky... we'll think of another way to shorten it... Tori or Vee or something) is moving around well, and I'm getting bigger every day. I'll be so happy when this is over and Victoria is here. I will have my body back (yay!!). I hate having to share my body with little babies, lol.

My Baby Stuff Wish List

We set up a registry at Babys R Us, because I love the cloth diapers they have there (Kushies) and they have pretty much everything else we need (except they didnt have socks in the online registry...wierd huh?) Its www.babysrus.com if anyone is interested.

1. Cloth Diapers - This is REALLY what we need more than ANYTHING else - The decision to use cloth diapers is not one we reached without a lot of thought, but we're sticking with it, and could very much use them since Brianna only has the large sizes. (list of sites that sell them, my favorite ones etc is at the bottom) Let me tell ya... these are NOT your mother's cloth diapers! Also, more often than not these are not covered, because they have a diaper cover built right in, so they're really like little shorts almost :)
2. Material - Cute Baby Materials in Flannel, Terry Cloth, Fleece, Microfleece, Wool yarn (100% wool, NOT washable/superwash) I have been making baby accessories for Brianna and would like to continue to make them for the new baby. I can make some diapers, although I really love the brands I listed below. :)
   
3. DONE Dresser - Thanks Mom! :)
   
4. Socks (no idea how we managed to keep every single baby thing but socks haha)
5. non Playtex Bottles (I want the kind that dont need bags)
   
6. DONE Twin Bed for Brianna - Thanks Kelly and Mom! :) This will be coming by the first of August from Fla :)
   
7. Changing table pad (for some reason ours didnt last very long last time, and this time I'm going to make a waterproof cover for it to help durability)
8. Over the door storage unit (this is PERFECT) for our tiny nursery...I could technically use 2 or 3 of these :) http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267671&cp=2255986.2256246.2256297&parentPage=family
9. 
   

What I don't need but want anyways: :)

• ERGO brand baby carrier
• cant think of anything else :)
  

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Cloth Diapers

*AIOs are the easiest ones to use, and pockets are the more versatile of the two, and OS means they will fit from birth till potty trained (although some may not work for the first couple of weeks...they generally fit from 8lbs - 30lbs so that covers at LEAST 90% of the duration)

1. Mommy's Touch OS Pocket Diapers
   
2. Happy Heiny's Pockets - I have a wholesale account with them for my business, which gets me a great discount if you want to pick them out and have me get them (this is probably what I would use a gift card for :D, or you can buy them here These are the main part of Brianna's diaper collection and they work great
3. Berry Plush AIO Diapers
   

Basically, anything from these sites that is an "AIO" or "Pocket" is great.

Mudpie Babies
Snooty Booty Diapers
Lucy's Hope Chest
Diaper Ware The drybees lacy ones are incredibly cute :)
Abby's Lane
Sunflowers and Sunshine
ClothWorx - tracy.ries@gmail.com = Tracy has made me a couple of custom made diapers and they've worked great (and are very inexpensive) She does mostly (maybe all?) custom work, where you pick the fabric and she makes them from hand and they're never more expensive than the name brand ones
http://www.hyenacart.com


Generally, I like what are called "AIOs" (all in ones) and "Pockets" (same as the all in one except you wash the absorbant part seperate, and it makes them easier to clean/faster to dry/easy to customize absorbancy) I also like those with velcro or "applix" (I think thats just an industry standard brand of velcro or something) but anything cute with snaps is ok too :)

There are also options for which outer layer works best. I've found that "PUL" (polyeurethane laminant) works best. There are some that are specifically designed to grow with baby so we wouldn't have to get new ones as Victoria grows (and could technically use the same ones for Brianna and Victoria, if Brianna is not potty trained by then) They are called "OS".

We're having a girl!

We're expecting baby Victoria on October 12th, 2007. Its been an interesting journey with this pregnancy. I've had all of the standard pregnancy symptoms (some that I didnt have at all last time) but this time, they have been about 10 times worse. I had a bit of nausia w/ Brianna, in the early morning and it was gone as soon as I ate something. With Victoria I was near puking every waking moment of every day for most of the first 3 1/2 months. Cravings that were tolerable last time have me wanting to kill someone if I dont get the subject of my craving this time, lol. Although... last time I craved pizza and chocolate, and this time I'm craving fresh fruits and veggies and sushi (which I cannot get because there are no sushi places within a 45 min drive of this hick town).

We found a great midwife this time, and we are just going through the standard prenatal care routine, although with our eyes open this time. Its amazing how many tests and proceedures they just expect you to have without even asking if you want them. They still look at me like I have 3 heads when I ask them what a blood test is for, whats the chance is of it being a false positive (you would be amazed at how many tests come back incorrect due to pregnancy and various other things), if its necessary to have a test at this time or that time, etc. We did have a result come back from the down syndrome blood test that was "bad", and it was a pretty horrible experience. We worried and worried about how bad it would be (the neonatal special care clinic called me to make an appointment and wouldn't tell me why...I had to call my midwife for the information... talk about a scary couple of hours). So after all was said and done, the national average is 1/2% of all babies are born w/ downs syndrome, and after taking the test, it took my probability from 1 in 200 to 1 in 190.... So I was all freaked out for absolutely nothing. We still went to the specialist clinic just to make sure, and we took a "level 2" ultrasound, which showed absolutely no problems what so ever. So not only did we panic over nothing, but we also paid $150 for nothing as well.

On the positive side, we saw without a shadow of a doubt that Victoria is definitely a girl. The detail that the level 2 ultrasound shows even showed all of her little girl parts as well as her heart, abdoment, spinal development, brain, facial development/structure, etc. Regular ultrasounds take about 15 minutes, and mine took about 1 1/2 hours because they measured every single thing (heart stuff, blood flow, brain development, bone structures, spinal column, etc)