Heart attack or Childbirth?

My mother recently fell ill and was admitted to the hospital. It was a very hard time for her and the family, because the doctors seemed baffled as to what was wrong with her. I stayed with her in the hospital and was a bit overwhelmed at the amount of poking and prodding that being done to her. I kept thinking that with all of the tests they were running surely they would figure something out soon. They were ambushing her with worse case scenarios left and right, maybe you have had a heart attack,  or maybe it's an enlarged hernia,or perhaps it is pleurisy.

While sitting there watching nurse after nurse come into the room to ask the famous "on a scale from 1 - 10 where would you rank your pain" question I started to have a rock in the pit of my stomach. Wow, they are trained to treat birthing women and possible heart attack victims the same. I know that there are some rare instances where birthing women need to be closely monitored but the optimal word there is rare. When a woman is giving birth she should not be bombarded with questions about a pain scale and be "managed". A birthing woman who feels she is supported by those around her will be able to "manage" herself. She is then allowed to feel what she needs to feel and is able to make adjustments if she or the baby needs to. The whole thing just kind of got under my skin.

It turns out that after two days of being in the hospital (even after she told them she is a type 2 diabetic treating with diet) they finally decided to run her blood sugar. A quick poke of the finger showed that her sugar was up to 272. It was probably increased due to the iv (with glucose) and steroids (which increase your glucose levels). But again it was a perfect example...I could tell they really wanted to help her and give her the best care out there, but in return made the situation worse. I am so thankful that it turned out not to be anything with her heart...I love her so much and plan to have her around for years! She is half way to her weight loss goal and that will help out her situation tremendously!

My First Diaper Dilemma

I was around six months pregnant with my second child thinking of all the ways to save a few bucks. After having a less than satisfactory breastfeeding relationship with my daughter I was bound and determined to go the long haul with this kid. But surely there were more ways to save money. I was fairly new to this whole "do it the way we have been doing it for centuries" thing, and I didn't have a lot of natural mama friends yet. I started thinking about cloth diapers and then I was thinking about all of the horror stories of past generations of diaper pails, stabbing their babies with safety pins, and soaking through all of their clothes four times a day. UGH....that didn't sound fun!

Right about that time I came across a website for gdiapers and was floored. You mean there are alternatives to disposables and to cloth? That started me on the search through what seemed like one million cloth diapering websites. Information overload was an understatement! Never did I think I would ever have a dilemma in choosing which kind of diaper to use. Then, while checking the website of a local breastfeeding support store I saw they were offering a cloth diapering class. That's what I need!!!!

Next step...convincing the hubby to join me in what I am thinking is not his idea of a fun date night with his wife. "Nick, I think we should really think about cloth diapering." Nick stares back blankly "Nick, there is a class we can go to." Another confused look. Nick replies with "Um, ok." 

So we went to the class and heard all the good reasons to be using cloth, the different kinds of cloth, and briefly about the care of the diapers. I think Nick was sold on the price alone. After getting our tax returns that year we purchased our first cloth diaper...something in my first parenting go around I never would have imagined.

 We have been very happy with our decision to cloth diaper and here is a list of my personal top 10 reasons why I love to cloth diaper. 

1. $$$$ We spent approx. $650 to cloth diaper our son from 1 month up to when he will potty train. When purchasing diapers for that time frame we probably would have spent somewhere near $2000 - 2500. 

2. The environment. Every disposable diaper that you throw into the dump takes around 500 years to decompose. You are also throwing human waste wear it doesn't belong and it ends up in places it doesn't belong...like the ground water. 

3. My baby's bum. Disposable diapers are made with chemicals to help absorb the urine, unfortunately it absorbs right into our baby's bodies right through their skin. 

4. Helped him sit. Having that extra cushion really helped my little guy achieve all sorts of goals faster. He could sit up faster due to the extra cushion. I believe he walked faster due to not being hurt when he fell. 

Liam rockin' his cow diaper and argyle baby legs...too cute!

5. Keeps his pants up. My little one is well umm..pretty little and the cloth diapers help him keep his pants from sagging most of the time. 

6. Cute and fun. I don't know how many times people stop me when I am at the store and ask about the cute patterns on his diapers. I mean who doesn't think a cow print on your baby's bum is probably one of the cutest things ever!

7.. Making all kinds of new mommy friends. I know it seems strange but just as some mommies bond over breastfeeding and birth stories, some of us also get to bond over cloth. 

8. No need for box stores. Since I was breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and making the baby food, I believe I saved so much money on other items as well. This was because there was no late night trips to the big box stores for formula, diapers, or food. So there was no dazed shopping in the baby section which always leads to more uneducated decisions about what I would need to make my life with baby easier. 

9. All the fun words. My friends and I get to use all kinds of words that are like our own language; fuzzibunz, bumgenius, happyheinys, rumparooz, and flips. 

10. Love spreading the word. So many people are unaware of all the advances that cloth diapers have made. I love to show people how much better it has gotten. I know I would have loved someone to show me.