Midwives Return to Austin Hospital

It is a small step, but it is one that I didn’t think I would see for many years — Midwives return to an Austin hospital.

When thinking about the next baby, I’m more than a little scared. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I just can’t justify a home birth now that I have entered the realm of “high risk”. I still want the level of care that home birth delivers though. Yes, I think my overall level of care is much greater with a midwife. Having to face a pregnancy and delivery with nothing but a physician in a hospital makes me more than a bit sad.

I am elated that I now have another option. Midwife support and delivery in a hospital. Even if I end up with the physician herself, I’m happy. Why? Because a physician that actually supports midwifery has the mindset that I’m looking for. It means she supports natural childbirth and minimal interventions. It means that she gives a laboring woman the time she needs without rushing to a c-section. It means that she supports the woman and that is all I ever wanted.

I’m not exactly sure how this came about, but to whoever made it happen, THANK YOU!

The Downside and The Upside

The major downside of the new house (other than the fact that it is completely dangerous for a child until we install new railings everywhere)? Roaches. I know. Did that just totally give you the heebeegeebees? Mind you, it is not a roach infestation. The house is in an old neighborhood surrounded by lots of big old trees. These trees are like high rise condos for all sorts of critters and occasionally those critters wander from their spacious condos into our nest. This morning I was putting on makeup and I felt the cat brush up against my foot and then I looked down and there was no cat. In its place was a giant roach. On My Foot. Are you throwing up in the corner yet? I choose to be brave and just squeal like a girl.

The upside you ask? Two cats that are excellent roach hunters. They came running to the sound of my squeal and immediately took over roach duty. I actually let them have their way with the bug for a while. Loki would let the roach scurry around and then he would grab it in his mouth and deposit at my feet on the bath math. Good Cat. I let him do that a couple of times before I called Tony to dispose of it for good. When we don’t intervene the cats just play with the nasty until it dies. Good Cats!

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

**UPDATE: Baby Cheapskate is giving away 12 bumGenius 3.0 diapers (over $200 value)! Details here.**

We got Isabel back from the grandparents just after lunch on Saturday and immediately velcroed a fresh diaper to her bum. Thus began our weekend trial of the Bum Genius 3.0 One-Size Cloth Diaper. So far we have tested day use (works great), night use (all night, no leaks), and poop use (no problems). Our early opinions? The diapers are great. In actual use, they are as simple as a disposable. Tony is really happy that they don’t stink like disposables. I was extremely worried about the overnight use, but once again Tony commented about the lack of pee stink and I was shocked that she was perfectly dry. Even when I removed her diaper, there was no redness or signs of moisture. 

But what about all of the other stuff? Let’s start with the basic info about the diapers. They are Bum Genius 3.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers. They are a one size fits all pocket diaper. There are snaps on the front to adjust the size and there are inserts that stuff into the diaper to provide the absorbency. We are using a dry diaper pail system which means very simply that we just toss the wet diapers into the pail and sprinkle with some baking soda. Dirty diapers have their contents dumped into the toilet and then go right into the dry pail. When it is time to do the laundry, the diaper pail liner and diapers all go into the wash. We run one cycle on cold/cold without detergent and then follow with a sanitation cycle with detergent, and an extra rinse. Everything goes into the dryer and that’s it. 

Why cloth? I thought about it for a very long time and for a while I just wasn’t convinced that cloth was that much better. One of the biggest reasons tempting us to make the switch was money. We liked the idea that we could buy a stash of diapers and those diapers would see Isabel all the way to potty training and also work for any future children. It also doesn’t hurt that people can resell their used diapers and recoup much of the initial investment. The secondary reason really was the environment and this is where it becomes a grey mess of a toss up. With disposables, the environmental impact is in the production (chemicals (petro and otherwise), deforestation) and in the disposal (chemicals, landfill). Not to mention the sheer wastefulness of such a one time use product. I couldn’t get my chi or whatever to cooperate guiltlessly with the constant throwing away of stuff. The cloth diapers are more friendly upfront with their almost complete use of natural fibers, but they require water use for the washing. However, we have a super efficient washer and I use eco-friendly detergent, so I think we are actually doing ok there. 

Disposables = oh, so convenient. I love them for that. Costly. Wasteful.
Cloth = pretty darn convenient. I love how soft and breathable they seem. Costly to get started. Much less wasteful.

We have decided to order 12 more diapers. I hope everything continues as well. Next, we’ll see if we can get daycare on board.

Interested in cloth, but not sure about making the leap? Baby Cheapskate is going to be giving away 10 free BumGenius diapers. Psst. That is $180 worth of diapers and about half a stash!

Weekend Review

Oh, the excitement! After much waffling, I finally bit the bullet and ordered 6 of the BumGenius 3.0’s. Cloth diapering, here I come. I had everything pre-washed and washed again and dried and ready for a weekend cloth diaper test. The results to follow shortly.

Saturday morning we spent our time thoroughly sanitizing all of Isabel’s toys. I’m tired of passing this cold back and forth, so I decided we needed to bleach everything in sight. We had fun with our cloth diapering adventures. 

Sunday we had a lazy morning of coffee (for me) and oatmeal (for the kid). The kid actually had peaches and cream oatmeal with real peaches and real cream. It was so yummy that I scraped her bowl for her. 

Later, we spent plenty of time crawling around and playing. After a diaper change (right after I started a load), I ran to throw the diaper in the wash with the others. I left the kid happily playing on her back with a toy held high. I returned to this: 

 

After that lovely shot, she decided to crawl over to the nearest electrical outlet and try to stick her fingers in it. Ahem. We’ll be baby proofing this week.

We took the kid to her first sitting at the JC Penney Portrait Studio. Oddly, I’m not that into that type of thing, but I love me some cheesy portraiture. They delivered! The kid actually put up with it all and we have some lovely grins on generic backgrounds to show for it. If you go, find a coupon. I was truly expecting some kind of bait and switch scam where the coupon looks great, but before you know it you have racked up over $200 in photos. We walked out with 11 sheets of pictures ordered for less than $50. That was it, the total bill.

We finished off the weekend with a visit to the grandparents. The kid was so exhausted that she fell asleep almost immediately after her bath.

Out for a walk

Austin Love

Just one of the many reasons I love Austin: Full Moon Swimming.

9 month well check

Isabel had her 9 month well check today. Things went really well. She is a whopping 18 pounds and is at the 45th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height (27.5 inches). The Dr. gave us the go ahead to feed her anything we want (minus honey), including nut products, shellfish and eggs. I had been holding off on those things, but since the doc says it is ok and we don’t have a history of allergies, we get to go wild.

The baby refuses baby food now. She eats oatmeal with fruit puree and diced fruit for breakfast, but everything else has to be people food. If you dare to eat in front of her, you better be willing to share. At the supermarket we grab all of the free samples and let her nibble on those while we shop. It keeps her busy and she gets a free meal. I think her favorite food is still hummus, but she devours everything.

She is multitasking these days. She’ll carry a toy in one hand while she crawls around. She is now crawling completely on all fours and omits the belly flopping. That is quite a milestone. She is pulling up on things. She isn’t really cruising yet, but she likes to walk with us holding her hands. She is a daredevil too. She will pull up on something and then see one of us and immediately let go of her stabilizing object, turn, and start taking steps. Geeze! C’mon kid, save the parental heart attacks for a little later.

Morning routine

We finally have it down to a science and now that we have elliminated all of the night/early morning feedings, things are even smoother. So here we go:

7am: Alarm goes off. I hit the snooze button.

7:09am: Alarm goes off again. I get up, hit the bathroom and start the bottle warmer heating. I head downstairs grab the morning bottle from the fridge and head back upstairs to heat it. Note to self: I think we can move the bottle warmer downstairs now.

7:12 - 7:30am: Greet the baby and give her a bottle (which she holds on her own now, but ONLY for the morning feeding). Strip the baby down and change her diaper. I like letting her have some diaper only time in the morning.

7:30 - 8am: Tony plays with the baby while I get showered and dressed.

8 - 8:20am: I take over again while Tony showers and dresses. I dress the baby and then take her downstairs. She plays in the jumper while I let the dog out, feed the cats, gather the day’s baby bottles and lunch for Tony and me. While all that is going on I play peek-a-boo with the kid to keep her distracted.

8:20 - 8:25am: Grab the kid and the stuff and load into the car.

8:25 - 8:40am: Drive the 2 minutes to daycare. Drop the kid off and talk to The Grannies. Play around a bit with the kid and make faces at the other babies. Once the kid is situated, we do lots of Bye Byes (we are working hard on the waving thing) and then head for work.

The idea for this post was taken from ParentDish. How do your mornings go?

Where do you find them?

Really. I need to know. I’m feeling that pull of needing to hang out with like-minded individuals. You know, the ones with kids. The adults who can kick back with a beer or a glass of wine and let the kids play. The ones who will want to share weekends of entertaining. The ones who will want to hit the river with a mess of kids and tubes and a picnic. Where are you?

I seem to be friends with all of the people in Austin who are either at a different life stage or have chosen to not procreate. Which is great when we have babysitters (grandparents on duty) and we can go out and act like normal people without children. Except, we have a baby and we want to be able to share those same experiences with other people with babies. Dear friends, I love you, but would it really kill you to pop out a rugrat?

Austin is teaming with parent/kid combos. How do I meet them? I feel like I’m at a new school on the first day. Shy and awkward. Do I need some type of fancy calling card? Is there a secret handshake?

The weekend roundup

With much skepticism, I went with the group to watch Hellboy II. It was good to get out, spend time with friends, and not have to go anywhere for the entire weekend. The movie ended up being pretty darn good and I was actually so engrossed, that I didn’t notice the waiter bringing back my credit card slip to sign. I know, that sounds weird. If you aren’t blessed with an Alamo Drafthouse in your vicinity, I am very, very sorry. I refuse to see movies anywhere else. The gimmick is that each row of seats has a long, skinny table. You get to watch a movie, order good food and have some beer or wine to accompany the whole deal. It doesn’t get any better than that. If I didn’t already live in Austin with a slew of Alamo’s, I would definitely be getting in on the franchise.

Saturday was a completely mundane house cleaning day. Except, that Tony and I are spoiled and rarely do any deep cleaning anymore. We save in other areas so that we can have someone come out every other week and do the heavy-duty stuff. We finished off the day by soaking in the pool and grilling some burgers with the grandparents. I ended up getting stung by a bee, but I’ll let Tony tell you that story. Smooches, I love you honey. The bee event took place right when our baby was being kick-ass. She had been playing on the top step of the pool when she decided that she wanted to crawl out. She actually managed to figure out the whole “get the knee up and over the edge”. 

Sunday was a completely lazy day. We had a slow morning and finally rolled out of the house around 11am. We ran some errands and grabbed some lunch. Afterwards, we decided to see if the baby’s brain could be melted into calmness with the dizzying lights and colors of a movie. We hit an early showing of Wall-E. The girl did good for about an hour and then it was time to go. Perhaps we’ll get to see the last half at some point, but I highly recommend the first half. There was plenty of adults and kids alike. I found myself watching the girl as she stared at the screen. I can’t wait until she is old enough to really appreciate the humor like the older kids did.

Perhaps the biggest news of all is that Izzy will start eating the school lunches on Monday. We are working on a rapid phase out of all baby food. She no longer eats any baby food at home and I was ready to end the baby food at daycare. Almost all of the school lunches are suitable for her, so she’ll eat those and we’ll send her lunch on days when the food is “too advanced”. The 9 month check-up is this week. Stay tuned for stats.