On Bedrest :/

A couple of doctor visits ago I was told that there were trace amounts of protein in my urine, which meant that there was a possibility I was developing pre-eclampsia. I had no other symptoms at the time so it wasn't a very big concern. However, over the last couple of weeks, my blood-pressure has been creeping up higher and higher.

I just found out this evening that I do have pre-eclampsia and have to be on bedrest at home for the remainder of my pregnancy. I may be induced as early as this friday, and no later than two weeks from today. The only cure for pre-eclampsia is delivering the baby. Staying on bedrest is supposed to help keep my blood pressure down and give Noah some more time to grow before I'm induced.

The bad news is that I can't go to class at UWM. Luckily all of my midterms were last week, so I have that out of the way! Also, we are supposed to close on our house this friday. I'm not going to be able to be there, and it's a possibility neither will Scott if I'm induced that day!! It is going to be difficult for me to stay put laying on the couch or in bed all day and night. So, prayers for my patience are much appreciated!!!

Scott is enjoying his new role as nurse. He has already made a grocery list and is making all of my food in advance (like Dr. Lawrence told him to) since I'm not even allowed to get up to go to the refrigerator. I have strict orders to stay laying down except for going to the bathroom and showering once per day.

Fortunately, as of last week, I'm already 2cm dialated and 90% effaced. Last week he was also already at -1 to 0 station, which means his head started dropping down farther. This is all good news because it means it will not be difficult to go through labor if I'm induced early since my body is already prepraring for him to come out!

Cloth Diapering

We have decided to use cloth diapers for Noah in order to save some money! Apparently, the average cost of diapers per year is $800. Most kids are in diapers for two to three years, so you do the math. That's a lot of mulah!

Although the money saving is our main reason for cloth diapering, there are other benefits to it as well. For one, cloth diapers are much better for babies' skin. In disposable diapers, babies are more likely to get diaper rash. Another reason to cloth diaper is because it's just so good to save the earth! Cloth diapering is very "green" since we are not adding to the mess of thousands of diapers in landfills.

I'm not going to be folding my own diapers from cloth and using pins, however. The picture at the top is of the type of cloth diaper we are using. It's a Best Bottom Diaper from Nicki's Diapers. http://nickisdiapers.com/catalog.php?category=1899

We have 20 inserts that snap in and out of the different colored shells. The awesome thing about Best Bottom Diapers is that we will never need to replace the cute shells because they are resizable with the snaps down the front. So, Noah will be able to use these from birth all the way through his diapering years. We will need to buy another set of larger inserts later on when he gets bigger.

Here's a link to a youtube video that explains the use of Nicki's Best Bottom Diapers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1rS0UNbK4o
In the video, she demonstrates with the "hook and loop" diaper which seems like velcro. We are not using that kind. Ours are like the other ones sitting on the table that just have snaps.

I also made about 50 cloth wipes to go along with this trend. One side is terry cloth and the other side is a soft cotton flannel. I'll be making my own cloth wipe solution to dampen them with, which will also be much better for Noah's skin than traditional store-bought disposable wipes. In addition, using cloth wipes will save us even more money :)

The dirty inserts and wipes just get thrown into a "wet bag" (which I also bought from Nicki's Diapers) and then thrown into the washing machine on wash day. Easy!

29 weeks and 1 day

Thanks to Ashley Baumann, I have decided to start a blog about our coming baby!

Since I'm already so far along, I'll just start by giving a quick run-through of what the first two trimesters were like!

The first trimester was crazy as it was sinking in that we were actually going to have a baby! At our first pre-natal appointment we had an ultrasound to measure the size of the tiny baby in order to determine a due date. At the time (only 6 weeks along), the baby looked like a blob of white with a yolk sac! In the very center of the blob of white, however, was a constant little flicker which the nurse told us was a beating heart.

At 11 weeks, we were able to listen to the fast little heartbeat rhythms for the first time. It took Dr. Lawrence about a minute to find it since we were trying to hear the heartbeat at the soonest stage possible. I got a little worried but then there it was, a strong beating baby heart :) Now we get to hear his precious heartbeat every two weeks as our appointments become more and more frequent.

At 18 weeks, I felt the first flutters of movement, which started out feeling a lot like bubbles and now, at 29 weeks, he's definitely able to make strong enough movements to kick me in the ribs and bladder at all hours of the night! I don't mind him waking me up though because feeling him moving around is always reassuring that everything is going well :)

At 20 weeks, we had the awesome experience of seeing our baby on ultrasound when he was about the size of a soda can. My mom and Scott were there for the ultrasound and our eyes were glued to the screen for the entire 40 minutes as the nurse and doctor mesasured and photographed him from all different angles. He was constatly moving around, curling up in a ball, stretching out, crossing his ankles, touching his face. This was, of course, the day we found out our baby is a boy! As soon as the nurse put the doppler to my stomach, she paused the screen and typed "I'm a boy." I could hardly believe it because we were, for some reason, so sure it would be a girl! We're so excited we're having a boy and we decided to name him Noah Charles. Our doctor double checked everything on the ultrasound and she kept saying "Oh there it is again! You can paint the walls blue."

The second trimester was definitely the easiest one since I didn't have any more nausea. Now, I still have been feeling great but the size of our growing baby is starting to take a toll on my back and abdomen. It's hard to believe he still has 11 more weeks of growing to do before he'll be out in the world!