Cloth diapers vs. Disposable diapers

I'm really debating on using cloth diapers during the day with our little man. I know it is MUCH better for the environment and it would really save some money not having to buy a ton of diapers that you literally throw your money away on. I just don't know a lot about them. I have been online researching them a little this afternoon and it is all so complicated with all the different types of cloth diapers and the covers or the all in ones etc. Is there anyone that has used cloth diapers that could give me some advice? Is it worth it? Is it a huge PITA? Does it really save all that much money?

26 weeks

Click here and here to see what Baby Reeves is up to this week. Yesterday we had a doctor's appointment and everything is going well. I found out my doctor is due 3 weeks before me so I'll have to switch doctors again. I'm going to get to go back to my original midwife that I was seeing in the beginning but there is no guarantee that she'll be the one delivering him. Also, during my appointment yesterday, we were told that we needed to determine which hospital we will be delivering at by my next appointment (in two weeks!). So after we met with the doctor we went by one of the two hospitals we have to choose from and we were very happy with what we saw. The hospital isn't very convenient to get to but that is the only drawback. I have to do the glucose/gestational diabetes test on Friday and that will be at the second hospital so we are going to try and take a tour of that one while we are there so we can make our final decision...we are leaning towards the first one though.

Baby Boy Reeves

Well once again we are back to letting this little boy name himself! We now have a few different names in the running but for the next 14 weeks (or however long before he makes his appearance) we are going to call him Baby Reeves. I'm not committing to another name (at least not publicly) until we write it on his birth certificate!

25 down...15 to go!

Click here to see what Brody is up to this week. Nothing new with me really...I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to start watching what I'm eating after Christmas (notice I said AFTER) if I want to stay under the 35 lb weight gain goal. I have a doctor's appointment next Monday and from there on I'll have to start going in every 2 weeks for appointments instead of just once a month. Here is another cool site we found that tells a lot about each week.

It's a day late but here is my 25 week photo. The shirt isn't fitted like the other ones I use for pics but you get the jist....

Merry Christmas

Since Jess left for Texas this morning, we celebrated our Christmas as a family this weekend. Here are a few pictures:

Surprise!

Last night, just before dinner, Jess and I were playing Wii and we heard the garage door go up. You would have thought it was Santa coming through the door we were so excited! He was in Fort Riley setting up a Child Care Center for them and they ended up finishing early, he wasn't supposed to be home until Friday night or Saturday!

While he was there putting together the toys and the center they realized one of these Little Tikes Police cars was missing a few parts-or so they thought-so they let Kevin have it (he was thinking we could order the missing parts from Little Tikes). So last night Kevin and Jess put it all together, the only thing different from the ones they put together at the center were the back tires. The set that were in this box were a little bigger but it works! We realize Brody won't be using it for a while but it is nice to have a "boy" toy for when our neighbors come over to play or when our nephew is here. Kevin's job has some pretty cool perks!

Ego Boost

Last night, Jess and I were cuddling and hanging out before bed. I signed up at the beginning of the year to play a game with her class during the party, so last night we decided we are going to play "Santa says" (like Simon says). So a few minutes later Kevin calls and she starts telling him about her party and says, "and when we play Santa Says, Mommy is going to be Santa, cause she's fat like him!"

24 Weeks

I'm enjoying feeling him kick more and more everyday and Kevin and I have fun at night watching my belly bounce around - he is a strong little guy though, there have been a few times where it just plain hurts when he's kicking!

Click here to see how Brody is developing this week.

I've gained 16 pounds so far. And they say average from here on out is one pound a week...IF I can stick to that, my total weight gain would be around 32 pounds which they say is normal. We'll see!

Christmas is right around the corner! (Weekend Update)

All afternoon yesterday I baked and made Christmas treats. YUMMY! I'm planning to finish wrapping presents today while Jess is at school and get the rest of them under the tree. We will be celebrating Christmas with Jessica early since she will be leaving on the 22nd to go to Texas for a week.

Friday evening we went to Chuck E Cheese with Kevin's family, the kids had a great time playing (and truth be told so did Kevin and I, if you get a chance ask him who kicked his butt at basketball AGAIN!) After Chuck E Cheese we went back to Rita and Randy's and played another game of Trivial Pursuit, the girls won this time!

Saturday I went with my neighbor, Chelsea, and finished up the rest of the shopping I had to do (at least most of it). I only have a little bit left. Then Saturday evening we went to Kevin's parents house to borrow their truck and ended up hanging out, playing Wii, and eating dinner.

Sunday I went to the grocery store (what a mad house!), then came home and started baking and making dessert/snacks. Kevin left around 1 for the week, he'll be gone until Friday.

We don't have too much going on this week, just trying to stay warm. Hope everyone is doing well!

Holiday Shopping

Jessica is super excited today, she gets to go shopping on her own at the Christmas store at school. She's been talking about it for days. I remember doing this when I was in elementary school. You get to walk through and look at all the tables of gifts they have and buy gifts for your parents, siblings, etc. She was dancing around this morning singing "I get to go shopping by myself." Now we'll just have to see if she's able to keep it a secret when she gets home!

23 weeks

Well I am to the point I would rather not take pictures of myself. I feel like I'm as big as house and according to Jessica I'm not too far off! LOL Everytime she sees my belly she laughs and tells me I have a fat belly. Six year olds are great for the ol' self esteem!

I'm feeling good for the most part. I've been really tired the past week again but a lot of it is probably the weather too. Cold weather always makes me want to sleep anyway.

Click here to see what Brody is doing this week.

Weekend Recap

Friday night we went to Toys R Us and finished up a little shopping, then went back to Kevin's parents and played Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. The guys won.

Saturday Kevin went to help his dad put up their Christmas lights and we did a little more shopping and running around. Saturday evening Kevin and Randy went to the OU vs MU football game.

Today we went grocery shopping and then stayed in the house. It was nice and relaxing. Kevin watched football games and I cleaned and organized. Jessica's room really needed it. I got caught up on laundry again and made some cookies. Hope everyone else enjoyed their weekend!

Christmas in the park

Last night we had Christmas in the Park. Chelsea and Payton went with us. The local schools sang a few carols and Santa and Mrs. Claus rode in on the fire truck. The Christmas lights were turned on in the park and they looked so pretty and afterwards there were fireworks. Here are a few pics from last night:

22 Weeks today

Nothing has changed this week, he's still kicking and waking me up most mornings around 6:30-7:30. My heartburn is getting worse so I'm expecting this little boy to have a head full of hair, as the wives tale goes. We thought we had decided on a name, even bought the letters to decorate his room and now we aren't so sure again...boys names are SO difficult!

Click here to learn what Baby Reeves is up to this week.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving with Kevin's family. Friday we drove to Hays to visit with my family for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. The kids swam on Friday night and we all had dinner together. Saturday morning, after breakfast and all our good-byes, Marcus, Kevin, Jess and my dad all went to the Sternburg museum. Here are a few pictures from their visit:




When we got back home there was a light layer of snow covering the ground. Jess was fell asleep that night anxious to go play in it the next day. Since it continued to snow all night there was more snow than I expected outside so we bundled her up and sent her out to play.
We had a nice relaxing day on Sunday, Jess played outside for several hours, I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and put a roast in the crock pot for dinner, I even made a yummy dessert. Also, while we were in Hays my aunt gave us five large bags of clothes for Jessica so I got those all sorted and had Jessica try those on. She was pretty excited to get so many new clothes - probably not as excited as I was though since she's been growing so fast! It was nice to have a day at home to relax!

21 weeks

I'm a little late getting this posted. He's kicking a lot harder this week and has been waking me up early in the mornings feeling like he's going to push through my stomach. My cravings for this week have been Simply Orange Juice with Calcium and powdered doughnuts! YUMMY!

Click here to see what he's up to his week.

Monday Night

Tonight after school we went to get Jessica's hair cut. It was getting pretty long and heavy and pulling the curl out of it. She got a shampoo and everything. I'll post an after picture tomorrow after I get her ready for school.


After her hair cut we came home and had dinner and our friends Chelsea and Payton came over to make Thanksgiving cookies with us. Here are a few pictures:

Weekend update:

We had a good weekend, we helped Amy and Jason move into their new place on Friday and part of Saturday. I went to a birthday party with my nephew, Layne, and I realized that was the first time I had ever done anything with him by myself. We had a good time and it was pretty cute to watch him bowl and carry the ball all by himself (he's only 3). He was getting tired while we were there and he kept coming back to sit on my lap and cuddle up with me - such a sweetie!


Saturday after we left Amy's went to Hobby Lobby and picked out letters to hang on the wall in the baby's room. We decided this weekend on a name and since we bought letters it is now official!


We got a phone call later in the day from Jessica letting us know that she lost her second tooth! She's growing up so fast!!!


Saturday night we went to Sherri's 50th birthday party, it was so much fun. The food and music were amazing and some of the dances/dancers were quite entertaining.

This is a picture of Papa and I, can you tell who is farther along?

20 Weeks

We are half way there! Click here to see what Brody/Jett is doing this week.

We had an appointment with our doctor today, I've been sick for about a week now and ever since Saturday I haven't felt Brody/Jett moving very much, I was also feeling a lot of pressure in my pelvis. I had a scheduled appointment next Monday so I called yesterday to see if I could get it moved up a few days, just to check things out. When I told them why I wanted to move the appointment up they kind of scared us by telling me to stay off my feet last night and drink a lot of water. They said if the pressure wasn't gone this morning that I should go to labor and delivery instead of waiting for my appointment. The pressure was a little better when I got up this morning and since my appt was at 10:50 I went ahead and just kept that instead of going to the hospital. After getting checked by my doctor we are happy to say everything is fine. She said the pressure I am feeling is probably from a pulled ligament or muscle from coughing so hard, she said to wear a belly belt (those are SO hott!) and it should feel better soon. We heard his heart beat again today and it was in the 140's, we weren't able to hear it for long because he was on the move and didn't want to be bothered!

Daddy got to feel him!

This morning Daddy got to feel him! Kevin swears he's going to be a soccer player! Jett/Brody was very active this morning and even though it was early I thought I could get away with waking Kevin up, since it was for the baby. The first few kicks he wasn't sure if it was his bones creaking/moving in his hands (yeah I know, he's getting old) but there were a few hard kicks and there wasn't any question.

I guess it's my turn

I've had a horrible headache for the past two days and last night before bed I started in with a little bit of a sore throat. By 3 o'clock a.m. I was almost in tears and could barely swallow. I went to the doctor this afternoon and needless to say...Jessica gave me her nasty strep germs! Thankfully I was able to get in to see the doc before it got too unbearable. Hopefully the antibiotics will start working quickly.

Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy

I bought this book last night at Target and I had it finished within 3 hours. I have never laughed so hard while reading a book before. For any of you that have ever been pregnant, are pregnant, or plan to become pregnant, this is a GREAT book! I plan on reading the other two books in this series as well...Baby Laughs and Life Laughs.

19 Weeks..almost 1/2 way there!

I've gained between 7-10 lbs depending on when I weigh myself and my belly seems to be getting bigger by the minute. I've gone a little over a week without vomiting (except when I had my chocolate milk shake so that was entirely my own fault...chocolate and ice cream haven't worked well for me at all so I was just asking for it.) Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good now. I'm not queasy anymore, the heartburn is pretty manageable for now, and I'm able to get through the entire day without a nap! HUGE improvements!

Click here to learn about Brody/Jett this week.

Weekend update:

Friday afternoon Kevin and I were sorting through some of the Christmas presents we ordered for the kids, we had a pile for "Jess" and a pile for "Jett." After a few presents it became a little frustrating trying to determine if we were saying Jess or Jett. SO....we are having MAJOR second thoughts about attaching that name to our little boy since he has an older sister with a very close name. We also like the name Brody and are seriously considering that name, I'm just having a hard time letting go of Jett since I've been calling him that for the past week or so now.

Friday afternoon/evening we met my Aunt Tanya who was in town for a couple days. We met up at the mall and then headed to Gordman's. I found the CUTEST snowmen Christmas decorations and now I'm struggling to not dig all my Christmas decorations out! After Gordman's we headed to Houlihan's and got stuffed mushrooms (for those of you that haven't had their stuffed mushrooms they are to die for!!!). After we were all stuffed we headed out for more shopping and went to the Great Mall and hit up a few stores there. Then after we were shopped out we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert! YUMM-O as Rachel Ray says.

Saturday I got up and cleaned out the basement as much as I could, we are in the process of finishing it so we can move my office downstairs and make room for Brody/Jett upstairs. After that we headed over to Amy & Jason's new place to help them get it ready for them to move into at the end of the month. Sunday was pretty much the same, I peeled wallpaper until I couldn't handle it anymore and then we went to Nana and Papa's and played their new Wii game and ate dinner with them.

All in all it was a good weekend, we hope all of you enjoyed your weekend as well!

She's all better!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!! After six days of a high fever and feeling pretty awful she woke up this morning bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to roll. Her temp was right at 98.6 and she has been playing dress up and coloring all sorts of pictures this morning. I'm SO glad she is feeling better, while it was pretty awful for her, it wasn't all that peachy for Mom either. She gets kind of demanding when she's sick-for the life of me I can't figure out where she gets that!

Misc Updates

Jessica is still sick, I just took her temp a few minutes ago and it was 103.4. She is absolutely miserable and completely tired of being sick. She is bored, hungry for real food, tired of feeling bad etc. and I can't say I blame her one bit. This is now day 4 of this sickness, she has taken two quick strep tests, she is on an antibiotic and has been for 3 days and she is showing no signs of improvement. We are going to be heading back to the doctor tomorrow I think. They told me to bring her in tomorrow if she still wasn't better and they would look at other possibilities.

Also, here is a recent picture of George. He hasn't made the blog lately so Kevin wanted me to put a picture of him up.

Week 18

I'm actually feeling pretty darn good! Aside from the occasional queasiness and heartburn I'm actually feeling "normal" (and I use that term loosely). I'm feeling Jett kicking me quite a bit, especially in the early morning, and my belly seems to be growing by the day.

Saturday I actually felt great and Kevin and I got a lot accomplished around the house; cleaned the bathrooms, dusted, swept the floors, cleaned the windows, vacuumed, hung the rest of the pictures/shelves on the walls, fixed a big breakfast and dinner, etc. By Saturday evening I was hurting though, my tailbone/sciatic nerve was killing me and I could barely walk...BUT at least our house was all clean at once!

Click here to see what Jett is up to at 18 weeks.

Sick girl

Unfortunately, after her great Halloween, Jessica woke up Saturday morning complaining of a headache. As soon as I felt her I could tell she was running a fever. Her temp was 101.6 so we got some Tylonal in her. A few hours later we went to the walk in clinic to have her checked for strep throat. Last year she had these same symptoms several times and ended up having strep. The doctor we saw was very nice, she said her throat was red and inflamed and her lymph nodes were enlarged. She did a quick strep test on her which came back negative (same thing that happened last year). She was nice enough to write us a prescription so we didn't have to go back to anyone else later on if she wasn't getting better. By 5:30 she was getting worse and feeling pretty miserable so I went and got her antibiotic filled. She has pretty much just been laying around the house all weekend reading stories and watching cartoons or movies. She's tired of toast and applesauce but still complaining of stomach ache and still telling me occasionally that she feels like she's going to throw up, thankfully she hasn't yet though! She slept through the night except when I had to wake her up to give her more Tylonal.

Pippi Longstocking-Happy Halloween

Jessica had a great time for Halloween, she got to see her baby brother for the first time and then went trick or treating and got lots of candy. Can't beat a day like that! She had quite a few compliments on her hair and all the adults knew who she was right away...some of the kids weren't so sure. Someone asked her if she was the Wendy's girl!

Baby Boy Reeves

I had my regular check up today and my doctor is SO awesome...Jessica was with us at the appointment today and my doctor asked if she was with us on Monday to see the sonogram. I told her she wasn't and she was a little disappointed about it...so she said "Hang on and I'll see if our sonogram tech can fit you in!" Sooo...we got to see our little boy again today! We got some really cute pictures (well as cute as Skeletor can get anyway)!!!

Foot:

Profile:

Trying to grab himself:




Baby Skeletor:


Sucking his thumb/Picking his nose (not real sure on this LOL):

Two days in a row!!!

I'm really hoping I don't jinx this but...I have gone two days in a row without throwing up! I've only taken a 1/2 pill before dinner both days but have gone the rest of the day without anything. I'm praying all of that is over now!!!!!!

17 weeks

Click here to learn about Baby Boy Reeves this week. We are super excited to be having a boy but we haven't even come close to finding names we both like and agree on. I told Kevin last night that we are just going to name him Baby Boy Reeves until he's old enough to pick his own name! I'll take a belly picture later today.

It's a.....

BOY!!!!!!

I started spotting so I called the doctor and she said to come in and get a sonogram done. We went in this morning and they checked the baby. He's doing great, heartbeat was in the 150's and he was about 6 oz. He looked like a little alien but he was still beautiful!

Profile pic:

Hand up by his face:

Face: