week 34

average size: 17.2 to 18.7 inches, 4.2 to 5.8 lbs.
what's going on with baby: "She's recognizing and reacting to simple songs, if you're singing them. If you're not, start! She may find them soothing after birth. She's also urinating about a pint a day."


gross about all that urine! haha...and as for the songs, i decided a while ago that i wouldn't sing/play music on my belly because what if she hates it?! i know a girl who would always play a song on her belly and her son would move around a lot while in the womb when she would play it. she played it all the time, and once he was born, she played it for him again, and he started screaming and kicking because he hated it!!! so i'll just avoid all the music stuff lol...i don't want to torture her!

this past week i made my own moby wraps! for those of you who don't know what a moby wrap is, it's a very handy wrap that you put on yourself so you can wear your baby while doing other things. here is what they look like:

i reaaaaally wanted one, but they are about $45 - $55 each! sheesh! it's just one long piece of fabric! so, i decided to make my own. i looked on fabric.com and chose two fabrics that i liked:

this one is a cotton/jersey knit, and it has a 20% stretch to it ($5.98/yard):

and this one is a 80% Rayon/15% Polyester/5% Lurex combo, and it has a 40% stretch ($2.99/yard):

i was originally only going to get the blue flower one, but the total came to $29.90 (you need 5 yards to make a wrap), and you get free shipping if you reach $35, so i started looking for an extra option and found the tan one so i would get the free shipping. and actually, i found a 15% off coupon online too! so, i got 10 yards of fabric for a total of $40.36. that meant i could make 6 WRAPS for less than 1 moby wrap! woo! i could make 6 wraps because the dimensions of the material is 60"x5 yards, so you just cut the fabric into thirds :)

so, i just measured, and marked where i should cut, then cut!

easy peasy! here are the wraps, once cut:

and after washed and folded, they are put away to wait for rem! 

i wanted a pretty pattered option, and a neutral option so i could match with whatever i'm wearing. these will be perfect! i also wanted one more stretchy than the other since i heard newborns work better in more stretchy material, and as they get bigger/heavier, a less stretchy option is better to keep babies more secure. once she gets even bigger, i'll want to switch to a different carrier like the ergo, but these wraps are great for the beginning months. so excited to use these! 

i also ordered her cloth wipes for changing diapers! i found these on etsy:

so cute! and i got 64 of them for only $22.15 after shipping! will be so handy and save so much money to use them over and over again :) if you are interested, here is the shop i ordered from: tender bottoms

the shop owner was so friendly and responded to my question within minutes! highly recommended! 

i also got a yoga ball because my midwife suggested one to help with my lower back/hip pain. it can also help with labor as i get closer to delivering! here's how the birthing ball can help during labor:

1) when sitting on the ball, it encourages a very natural rotating or swaying motion of your hips which will encourage the descent of your baby through the birth canal. using the ball will help to support the perineal area without applying a lot of pressure and will help keep your baby aligned for delivery in the pelvis. 

2) the sitting position is similar to a squat and it has shown to open the pelvis and speed up the labour and delivery process.

3) on the floor, you can kneel and lay on the ball and it has been shown to help posterior positioned babies to turn to the correct position making the birth process much smoother. 

so i hope it does all that for me! i got it for $17.54 on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/TKO-Fitness-Ball/dp/B005IRX14W

i know our hospital also has them, so i'd like to get used to it now so as i'm laboring i can use the ones at the hospital too. 

that's it for this week! i love checking more things off my list as we get closer! :D

week 33

new fruit this month! honeydew baby!

average size: 17.2 to 18.7 inches, 4.2 to 5.8 lbs.

what's going on with baby: "She's getting closer and closer to being able to breathe on her own. Her skin is getting smooth and soft and her gums are rigid. Her liver and kidneys are in working order. Circulation and immune systems are basically good to go, too."

okay, they MUST be comparing her to a honeydew's WEIGHT and not length, because i'm pretty sure 17" honeydews don't exist! hahaha...

we had a regular midwife check-up this past week, and i'm still measuring right on time, and her heartbeat still sounds great! actually, she kicked the doppler when our midwife was moving it around on my belly! hahaha...i asked our midwife a TON of questions while we were there and one of them was if she suggested that erik and i get the tdap vaccine while in the hospital (after i give birth) since whooping cough is making such a huge comeback right now, and she said definitely. the tdap also includes tetanus, and i needed a booster for that anyway (it's been over 10 years since i've gotten that) so it will protect against that as well. doctors are now saying to just get a tdap every 10 years instead of just the tetanus shot so it protects against other things like whooping cough too. she also suggested that anyone else who will be close to her (like grandparents) to get the tdap too, just for extra protection. it sucks that whooping cough is making such a huge comeback right now! and poor remi will only have the antibodies from my breast milk to protect her for a while since her regular shots wont start until her 2 month appointment, so hopefully she won't catch anything in those first few months of life!

this past week i spent 2 days doing 9 HUGE loads of baby laundry! hahaha...we're SO lucky to get so many hand-me-downs!!! after washing everything, i separated them by age, then folded all the bigger clothes nicely into labeled boxes for later :) the stuff she will use right away i put into her dresser, and i washed all the cloth diapers too. now everything is ready to go for her! :) nesting much? hahaha...

oh, and i pretty much finalized our birth plan! a birth plan is something hospitals encourage you to do, so they have everything you want/don't want on a sheet of paper to easily look at. of course things don't always go as planned with labor and delivery, but it's good to have things written down so they know what you would like in certain situations, and it's just easier for communication. 

forewarning: i am a nut. a perfectionist nut lol...

when i was writing out our birth plan in regular microsoft word, it was driving me crazy. going to school for graphic design, i have been TRAINED in ocd perfectionism lol...so, just typing things out line-by-line looked so bleh to me. where was the hierarchy? how could i make this look nicer? my only options in MS Word were bigger font for breaking up the sections, changing the color of the font, and i guess bolding things lol...

so i caved. 

i designed a pretty layout for our birth plan in adobe indesign, and i'm SURE i'll get the super eye-roll from the nurses at the hospital for it, but you know what? i like it much better, and it's organized in a way that is very easy to read, and after all, my degree is in "VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN". this is sort of my thing lol...to communicate an idea clearly for the viewer. so even though it might be a bit over the top, i bet they will EASILY be able to find the information they are looking for on here, rather than searching for something specific on a normal boring one where all the font is the same size lol...

so there you have it! another check off my list of things to do before she decides to come! woo hoo! 

week 32

average size: 15.2 to 16.7 inches, 2.5 to 3.8 lbs.
what's going on with baby: "She's getting ready for her descent. She's likely in the head-down position now, and she's probably feeling even more cramped!"


sounds about right! here is my 32 week bump photo!

and my friend tony made this updated gif file of my bump progress! i love seeing it grow so quickly! 

so cool!!! :D it's hilarious to see my shirt creep up at the end too hahaha....

and this past week i felt her have hiccups! it was a rhythmical tapping feeling. so weird!

also, this past weekend was our baby shower!

it was SO much fun. it was at the wine bar in rocky river, and everything was perfect! even the weather! 

my mom made me this beautiful corsage to wear:

here are the yummy favors:

and centerpieces:

and the adorable menus with the custom message we wanted!

cute confetti was on all the tables:

and i know it's hard to see because i couldn't find a good spot to take the photo without reflection, but here are photos of me and erik as babies! haha :) 

my mom also made this SUPER CUTE "rose" bouquet out of pink baby socks!!! LOVE this! so, so, so, adorable!

and she decorated the backs of our chairs too!

these fun little coasters were also on all the tables with questions/facts about babies. 7,300 diapers in 2 years is a LOT of diapers! hahaha...another reason why i'm happy we're cloth diapering! sure it's a lot of laundry, but think about how much disposables would cost!

and the lovely cassata cake! it was SO yummy!!!

there were also fabric pens and blank bibs on all the tables for everyone to decorate for remi! so fun! now she is super stocked up on bibs made by people who love her! 

and everyone also wrote a message to remi on a piece of paper so that later on once she gets older, we can show them all to her! here are just a few:

my mom:

 my aunt ly'nette and erik's mom:

erik's sister (left), aunt patti, and cousin falicia:

my aunt joann, and aunt ria:

then a big "aunt war" broke out, and all the aunts were claiming that they will be her favorite aunt hahaha! so, we took this fun photo of all the aunts together :) 

so awesome! then it was time for presents! 

we're cracking up in this photo because this diaper bag is called the "diaper dude". erik was really hoping he would get this hahaha...but he always calls it the "baby bro bag" LOL! 

and wonderful homemade blankets!

we had such an amazing time!!! everything was perfect, and we're so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family who are anxious to meet remi :) she is very loved!

week 31

average size: 15.2 to 16.7 inches, 2.5 to 3.8 lbs.
what's going on with baby: "She's going through major brain and nerve development. Eye development, too. Her irises now react to light! All five of her senses are in working order."


we had a midwife appointment this past week, so i decided to ask her what my number was for the glucose test. i knew i passed, but didn't know by how much, so i was curious. she said, "we like the number to be under 140 for gestational diabetes, and you got a....68." and laughed. she added, "so i'm not worried about you at all." hahaha...but a 68 is like...SUPER low. i think 70 is the lowest without having to worry about hypoglycemia (which is low blood sugar). but, she didn't even say anything about it, so i guess i shouldn't worry. i didn't feel light-headed from the glucose test or anything, so i guess it's fine. i told erik it's an excuse to eat more ice cream, right? ;)

remi's kicks/punches are getting stronger again. she had a couple of weeks where things got tight in there, but now i think she has become used to the tightness, and is just getting stronger haha...i can see her push out a lot of the time, and erik has watched my belly jiggle all around with her movements! really fun to watch.

honestly, not too much happened this past week! so, i figured maybe i would talk about something i'm really excited to try out (which sounds weird because it has to do with BABY POOP!).

cloth diapering! :D

here's all our dipes!

in the beginning of my pregnancy, i decided we should cloth diaper. not only is it better for the environment, but it would save us TONS of money. disposables really add up money-wise, and since our utilities are all included with our rent, we thought this was definitely the best option for us! i did LOADS of research on all the different kinds/brands out there, and i decided that Best Bottom was the brand for us. 

i love this system because it's so easy, and that's definitely something we wanted when it came to cloth diapering. here is an easy guide showing how they work:

you just snap in the insert! it's that easy! 

here is an example of one of the "shells" that we have:

two snaps for the microfiber insert to be placed in there, and it's done. also, if the mess isn't TOO bad, you can easily wipe out the inside of the shell because it's made out of a special wipe-able material, then just insert in a new microfiber insert so you don't have to use a whole new diaper every time. that will also save space in the diaper bag for trips!

the Best Bottom system claims it will keep your baby cloth diapered from the newborn stage to potty training because the shell can convert to different sizes as she gets older (and there are different sized microfiber inserts: small, medium, and large to go with the shells as they expand). here are two of the shells at the smallest and largest settings (my hand is just for size reference):

although the smallest setting gets REALLY small, i'm not sure if it will fit a newborn properly. the waist gets small, and the leg holes get really small too, but the whole thing still seems big to me. we're planning on using disposables for those first few weeks anyway because babies get this tar-like poop called "meconium" which could stain the inserts (doubt i'll be super excited about doing a bunch of laundry straight after the hospital anyway haha), and also, i think the cloth diaper would interfere with her umbilical cord stump before it falls off, so we'll just wait a bit for that to fall off too. 

the above photo also shows the "double leg gussets" to help keep the mess in! from what the reviews say, it really works well, and people have claimed to NEVER have an overflowing poop explosion with these diapers! hopefully we get that lucky, too!

they also have "doublers" for overnight (on the left in the pic below):

it's basically just another microfiber insert, but it has snaps on both sides of it, so you can snap a regular insert to it, to "double-up" on protection for overnight. smart!

for laundry, we'll have one of these kanga care cloth diaper wet bags hanging on the back of the nursery door:

supposedly they really keep the smell contained! i really hope so! i'll be doing diaper laundry every other day, so it shouldn't build up TOO much anyway. 

so, it sounds weird to say, but i'm actually really excited about using these!!! not only will they save us a lot of money, but how cute are they, right??? all the colors! i love them! we also plan on cloth wiping too. i figure, "why not?". i'll be washing poopy diapers anyway, might as well toss in some cloth wipes too. just another way to save on money, and i LOVE that!

once she's here, i'll give an update on the whole cloth diaper thing. i'll test to see when she fits into them and everything because i'm really curious about the whole "fits a newborn" claim that they have.