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.