Another Year

It has been a year since I wrote anything on here. That is so sad. My intention with this was to remember all the moments, but clearly I'll have lost some. But a quick recollection of the past year:

1. E2 turned 5. He got a new bike for his birthday. He learned to ride his bike without training wheels, begrudgingly. He played soccer again, but this time got to have our friend, H, on his team with him. He protected her whenever her could! He started Kindergarten.At the moment, he doesn't really like school. He sees the world in black and white, and he has trouble with the blurred lines of grey; consequently, he is easily upset by the bad behaviour of others. We've had tears and sadness. Trying to work through it and figure out the best solution for him. He makes my heart hurt in ways I never knew it could, and yet he brings me more joy than should be possible. He is my cuddler and my coffee buddy. His favourite thing is a coffee date to the Copper Cup with mom. Love that kid.
2. E1 turned 7. She got a Target version of an American Girl doll--a Juliet Our Generation doll. She was thrilled beyond belief. She doesn't know it yet, but she is getting a real American Girl doll for Christmas from her Nana and her Aunties in England. She also started piano lessons and has done very well. Her teacher says she's her favourite student. She started first grade, but I wonder if I should have started her in Kindergarten at 5 like they wanted instead of keeping her. I'm happy with the group of kids she's with, but she is ahead of them. They have moved her to a second grade reading group, but even there she's at the top. I don't know if she'll stay ahead, or if she's just momentarily ahead. We'll see. She LOVES to read, and can easily (with enough time) read books at the fourth grade level. Conferences are next week, so we'll see what the teachers say.
3. E3 turned 2. She has been potty trained basically since last Christmas, but not to a point of trustworthiness. Now she rarely has accidents during the day. Still have her in nappies at night, but I need to work at getting her out of them so we don't continue with problems as she gets older. She is hilarious. I was reading back through the list of words she knew last year. I can't even begin to count her words this year. She speaks perfectly. At the moment, her favourite word is "actually." She loves playing with E1's dollhouse stuff and the toy kitchen. She also loves her baby dolls. She loves reading books and snuggling, but she is constantly on the go. Can't imagine the quiet we would have without her. God provided us with the perfect last child. She'll keep us on our toes for a long time to come.
4. We made a trip up to Minneapolis and got to see some new things. We went to the Children's Museum, the zoo, and the MOA, but we also went to the Science Museum this time. Great time.
5. We discovered the Kirby Science Center in Sioux Falls and had a blast there.
6. We made several trips to Omaha for different occasions, such as member days at the Safari Park and the opening of Sue at the Durham. We got to enjoy member-only breakfast at the SAS Museum and see the Math Alive exhibit first. We also recently did trick or treat night at the Zoo, which was neat.
7. We went to England. It was awesome. Wish we lived closer. We had a horrible journey over, delays and rerouting through Paris, but we still got there.
8. Today is 29 years. I miss my mom.

Time has slipped.

I can't believe I haven't written anything since April 23rd.  Bubba's birthday.

In the time since then, we have celebrated some other major events:

• The Princess turned six and then started Kindergarten in August.
• Goo Magoo turned one, and started walking (really walking) on July 29th--our 8th anniversary.  She also started climbing on everything.
• Bubba started Begindergarten
• Goo started talking.  Here are the words I know she can say at 16 months:

1. Mom(my)
2. Daddy
3. Bubba (and his name, though it comes out Oh no)
4. The Princess's name--shortened and long
5. Uh Oh (her first word)
6. duck
7. baby
8. cracker
9. cup
10. cookie
11. puppy
12. kitty
13. milk
14. spoon
15. eat
16. sit down
17. up
18. book
19. Kindle
20. kick
21. Jello
22. yellow
23. colour
24. ball
25. shoes
26. socks
27. coffee
28. pizza
29. pasta
30. get down
31. owl
32. blue
33. poop
34. potty
35. dirty
36. shirt
37. pretty
38. hi
39. bye-bye
40. bath
41. hungry
42. done
43. tea
44. see
45. school
46. hug
47. nose
48. eyes
49. teeth
50. ears
51. please
52. naughty
53. balloon
54. sshhhh
55. tree
56. night night
57. house
58. mouse
59. stars
60. toes
61. no no
62. pooh bear
63. hot
64. cold 
65. spot
66. owie
67. butterfly (with accompanying hand flutters)
68. cheese
69. chicken
70. beep beep
71. B (for her pacifier)
72. and she can make the appropriate animal noises for a dog, cat, horse, cow, duck, sheep, chicken, owl, bear, and lion (at least that's what I can remember she does)

I've probably missed a few, but that's what we could remember.

Goo is also 70%-80% potty trained, depending on how closely I am watching her.  Pretty smart little things.

Goo loves to colour and read, and she LOVES to play on the Kindle.  She likes watching Cloud Babies.  She loves the book Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton (or whatever it's called). She's such a funny kid.

The Princess is reading VERY well.  She is far beyond grade level, but not sure where exactly.

Love my babies.

I should be doing. . .

Anything but sitting here typing this blog entry.  Except that this is exactly what I need to do.  I have not written for so long, which frustrates me.  Our life has exploded into busy and I don't like that.  We're exhausted at day's end, and I have no time to record our lives.

So, despite the fact that I SHOULD be cleaning in preparation for our Coffee-Mate Free Flavour Friday party (try saying that forty times quickly), I will take a minute.

Goo Magoo:  She is 8 1/2 months old.  How did this happen?  I know. Still.  This past week she figured out how to sit herself up.  She's been fairly steady sitting on her own, but now she can get herself up.  She also rocks back and forth on her hands and knees.  I honestly can't remember how old the others were when they started crawling, but I know she'll get there.  She has gotten and survived her first bad cold, complete with amoxicillin. She also has six teeth.  She is my skinny baby--happy and healthy, but NOT the eater her brother and sister were.  Bubba was 28 pounds at 9 months.  Goo is 17 pounds at 8 months.  She is a bit spoiled.  She's our last, which we knew before she was born, so she has gotten to sleep with us way more than the others did.  I'm sure I'll rue my choices some day, but not now.  Now I love the snuggles.  She is also perfecting her army crawl.  Oh, sweet baby.  Stay little a while longer, please.  Momma loves you.

Bubba Joe:  He is very excited for his fourth birthday, which will happen at the end of April.  He has chosen a Spiderman cake.  He continues to be fascinated with the human body and is very good at putting together his skeleton puzzle.  He also wants to dig up bodies.  I am choosing not to be alarmed.  I think it is just a boy thing.  He will not turn into a serial killer.  More than the other two, this kid makes me laugh.  I can NOT stay upset with him.  He says the funniest thing and has the best expressions.  Love you, Joe.

Princess:  She's 5 1/2 and nearing the end of her first year of school.  So hard to believe, but she is such an amazing kid.  I know I am biased, but she's smart. Some of that is having an English teacher for a mom--my princess speaks using correct grammar and has a large vocabulary.  She is so much more, though.  She is kind, generous, loving, sensitive, logical, imaginative, and adaptable.  They are working extra with her at school on reading, giving her a little more.  She was also asked to be part of the video for the school site visit. 

Pretty proud of her.  She did a great job, even though she was sick when they filmed it.  She was running a 102 temp.  She amazes me every day, and I need to spend more time with her, just knowing her and cuddling her.  She'll be too big for cuddles soon.  Oh, Princess.  You have my heart.  I love you.

The husband is nearly done with his EMT training, so hoping life will return to normal soon.  We miss him at night.  A few more tests, then the big exam.

Better end now.  Goo is tired.

Cloth Diapers

Eibhlin at 6 weeks in her BumGenius cloth diaper

Saving Money, 

One Change At a Time

For anyone who actually reads my Facebook status updates on a regular basis, the subject of this note will not be surprising.  I can't help it.  I have to talk about it.  It is the one thing that has changed my parenting more than anything else over the course of three children: cloth diapers.  Ewww, you say?  Gross, you think?  Hardly.  A cloth diaper is no more gross than anything else involving children.  In fact, cloth diapering has proven to be easier and less expensive than disposables.  

Let me start by discussing the ease of cloth diapering.  First, the image you may have in your head of big rectangles of cloth (which you have to have a master's in origami to correctly fold) with safety pins jutting precariously close to baby's tender bum all covered in a hot, crinkly pair of plastic pants is wrong.  A modern cloth diaper is not your grandma's cloth diaper.  Though a full description of all of the options would take more time than you have, modern cloth diapers use mostly snaps or hook and loop (generic term for VELCRO®).  Rather than a pair of plastic pants, the diapers themselves are made of fabric that is waterproof on the inside--and if it's waterproof, it's other liquid proof as well! It is as easy to put on a cloth diaper as it is to put on a disposable diaper. 

 

Secondly, modern cloth diapers will contain almost ANYTHING your child cares to deposit into it.  When our baby recently had some stomach issues that produced volumes of  very loose bowel movements, I pulled out a few disposables we had left over from our second child thinking it would be easier for my husband.  After one change, he pulled the cloth out and refused to use the disposables.  Without being too descriptive, disposable diapers tend to allow what I call "pooplosions."  If you're a parent, you've been there--up the back, in the hair, up the front, under the arms, down the legs, etc.  Cloth diapers do not allow this.  Seriously.  I have NEVER had poop leak from a cloth diaper.  Really.  No joke.  Bottom line, cloth diapers are not difficult to use and make my life easier.

 

Now, I know you're thinking "But oh, Kellie, the laundry."  I wash my diapers roughly three times in the week, every two to two and a half days. Rinse cold, wash hot, rinse one more time.  That is the equivalent of two loads.  Even better, I never touch them with my bare hands after I have taken them off the baby.  They go into a dry pail, and when it's time to wash I just dump the pail contents into the washer.  That's easy.  The best part?  I don't ever have to run to Wal-Mart at midnight because I'm out of diapers.  I just throw a load in the wash.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  We also don't ever have to empty a diaper pail or garbage can full of diapers that have been sitting for a week--if you've ever done that, you know how gross that is.  And since we don't keep dirty diapers around in the house, we don't have that "Oh, you have a baby" odor in our house!!  Brilliant!

 

Even better than the ease of cloth is the money-saving aspect of cloth diapering a baby.  I went back and totaled what we have spent on our cloth diaper stash.  I have watched sales and bought seconds when possible, and on the actual diapers I have only spent $362.03.  That's it.  And that's pretty much all I will ever spend for this baby.  Even better, when we are done with our diapers, I'll be able to sell them to a friend or back to the store where I bought them, Cotton Babies (the ONLY place I buy my diapers!!).  I'd love to see someone try to sell a used disposable!  

 

Seriously, though, I can't tell you how much using cloth has eased the monetary stress of having a child.  I don't have to worry about how much it will cost to keep my baby dry and clean.  Consider the chart below--values are approximate and conservative as I don't have an exact total for the first two children (and I have probably estimated low).  I estimated roughly 8 diaper changes per day for a total of 2,920 diapers for a year.  Using the average of 80 diapers per box (some have more and some have less, depending on size), we used roughly 36.5 boxes each year.  At an approximate cost of $18 per box, diapers cost us at least $657 for one year--$1971 for three years.  Again, I think my estimates are low.

If I had started with cloth, I easily could have gotten by having spent no more than $600 TOTAL for all three children, figuring in costs for diaper repair/replacement.  The red on the chart, money spent on pull-ups, was drastically different for child #2, which I attribute to having started using cloth on him just after his second birthday.  He potty trained at two and a half years having never used a pull up.  Cloth diapers allowed him to feel wet, which I think helped him learn more easily.  Child #1 wasn't fully potty trained until she was three, mainly because she didn't care if she was wet because she couldn't feel it.  She was also dependent on pull-ups for nighttime use, while child #2 wasn't.  I wish I had back the roughly $4,000 I threw away on disposable diapering and pull ups.

 

Interestingly, another small expense cloth has saved me is in diaper rash cream.  With my first child I went through tube after tube of the stuff.  This baby is six months old and I haven't even bought any.  (I could go into a long segment on the health benefits of cloth as well, but I'll save that for another time.)  

 

Nothing I have done as a parent has made my life easier than cloth diapering.  I know my baby is clean and dry, her skin is healthy, and my marriage isn't stressed by the constant worry of how we're going to afford diapers.  Even if you are not a parent yourself, I challenge you to consider people you know who would benefit from less stress in their parenting journeys.  Try cloth or tell a friend.  You won't regret it.

 

Please note that I have not received any monetary compensation for all the gushing I've done about cloth diapers or for proclaiming my love of Cotton Babies, but I have entered this writing into a competition where, if I win, I could receive more cloth diapers!!  Here's the link to the contest details:  http://jenniferlabit.com/2011/12/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-to-tell-the-world-about-cloth-diapers/

Leave me a comment!!   (You, too, could win!)

 

 

Behind behind behind

Oh my, have things happened in the past two months.

The in-laws have come and gone, and what a time it was.  I think I'll update by child.

The Princess:

• started school.  I cried, she loves it.
• was surprised in Omaha when we went down to meet Stu's family.  The kids didn't know they were coming, so when they flew in they just went straight to the hotel.  We arrived the next day and had them sneak into our room and hide behind the curtains when the kids were distracted.  The Princess was so excited.  Had a great time in Omaha.
• Celebrated Daddy's birthday with an ice cream cake from DQ.  He turned 40.
• September 1st, I came home from class in the morning to have Stu great me with the news that the Princess was puking and had the flu.  Watched her all day and around 2:30 in the afternoon she told me her lower right side hurt.  I called the Dr. to see if I could get her in.  They said come now, so I told the in-laws that they could find bottles and nappies for McGoo and they were fine with Bubba.  Took the Princess in, and Dr. Veit was more than 50/50 that it was appendicitis.  Took her to the hospital where they drew blood, got an IV started, and admitted her (to the same room Stu had been in when he was in in May).  Stu arrived 5:15.  Dr. Ivey arrived 5:45 and said her white count was 22,000 instead of 10,000.  He said he was 75% to 80% sure it was appendix and he would take them out if it were his daughter.  So we gave the go-ahead, and they started prepping her for surgery.  Stu ran home to get McGoo, and I waited there.  Ben Cox was her anesthetist, so I felt more comfortable that he was with her.  Her surgical nurse was Dondee Halverson.  I followed her bed down, and she went through the doors at 6:45.  Stu arrived with McGoo at about 7:05--she was screaming.  Dr. Ivey came out at about 7:20 to say she was done and that the appendix had definitely been the problem.  We went up to her room to wait for her.  She was pretty out of it when they wheeled her back up.  Stu and I stayed--I stayed until 3:00 in the morning and Stu spent the night.  I arrived home just before a bad storm (drove in the garage and the deluge started, got McGoo in and set her carseat down and the tornado siren went off, woke everyone up to get them downstairs only to discover the water softener overflowing when we got down and was forced to turn off the water to the house).  Storm passed and we went back up.  I had a few hours of sleep, then headed back to town with McGoo.  Amy Letsche came not long after Stu left (he had to finish a job at the bank).  She spent quite a bit of the morning helping entertain the Princess.  My parents and Michael Wilson also came by to see the Princess.  They dismissed her at 3:30 that afternoon.  Went home with some Tylenol with codeine.  Got home, and Stu, Bubba, Daniel, Debra, and Terry took off for the Mall of America.  We were all supposed to go, but obviously couldn't.  Elsie, McGoo, the Princess and I had a long weekend ahead.  
• September 2-3 the Princess had different visitors: Holly, Jen Bush and girls, Grandma Jennie, Linda Grauer, Francine, and Donna.  Sunday, Elsie got sick with what was later diagnosed as an ulcer when she got home.
• September 6 was a Tuesday, and took the Princess in for Dr. Veit to check her.  I was pretty sure she had an infection in the incision and she did.  Had to take her back to the hospital for a blood draw to check her white count, which was at 11, 400.  So another round of antibiotics and a followup with Dr. Veit again the next day.
• September 7--infection was looking a bit better, but had started seeping and oozing.  Dr. Veit opened it up a tiny bit more at the end so it could drain and he squeezed some stuff out.  But since it wasn't full of puss, he didn't make us go for another white count.
• September 8--Dr. Ivey check up, and said she was fine.  Finish the antibiotic and she could go back to school the next week.
• middle of September, the antibiotics caught up with her and she ended up with urinary/yeast infections.  More antibiotics and cream.
• October--finally just getting her all cleared up after getting her on a probiotic and keeping up with the cream.
• She's playing soccer and has gotten quite fast!!

Bubba

• He's just Bubba.  He got to go to Mall of America with Dad and had a great time going on all the rides.
• He still loves to think about cutting arms and legs off, but I think he's just being a boy.  He wants to take the skin off things and look at bones, so I think he's just curious as to the inner workings of things. 
• He's my lovey boy.  He still loves cuddles.
• He makes me laugh.
• He is already planning for "when you die, Mom, *the Princess* can take your job."  I don't think he wishes my death, but he's just planning ahead.
• Love that boy.

Stinker McGoo

• She's growing.  Probably about 12 pounds or more and 25 1/2 inches long.
• She sleeps through the night.  Last night she slept from 8 to 8.
• She's starting to roll over to her side from her back.
• She coos and smiles a lot.
• She makes me smile.

Stu has started classes to become an EMT, so he's gone every Monday night and soon will add Thursday nights as well.  I'm proud of him.  Love that man.

Sweet Princess's prayer for the Pea(nut)

Sunday drive to church this past weekend--we were running late, as usual.  While we were driving, I could hear the Princess talking behind me.  At first I thought she was talking to me.  Then I realized she was praying--"Dear God, please help my baby sister to learn about you and know you so that she can know that she does bad things.  And God help her know that she has to ask you to forgive her so she can see you someday. In Jesus' name, Amen."

I cried.

In the past few weeks, I have also heard her praying for me and my "high mones" (hormones), asking God to help them go away so that I wouldn't be sad or impatient anymore.

Thank you, God, for the gift of such an incredible little girl.

And next week she goes to K1.  I'll cry all day, quietly so she doesn't know.

In other parts of our world, the Pea(nut) is growing like crazy.  She was 6 weeks this past Saturday.  She consistently takes about 3 ounces per feeding, has recently decided that nursing might be OK, and has started wearing her cloth diapers full time.  I think she's well over 9 pounds, but not sure exactly.  She's also nearly out of her 0-3 month sleepers, partly because of the cloth nappies--they do make her bum look big!!

Bubba has mostly quit naps, except on the days I find him curled up somewhere, asleep.

Everything is changing.

When she came, she came quickly

Haven't had a chance to get on here and get things updated--life got busy.  After all the false alarms and the "maybe todays", baby finally decided to arrive on Saturday, July 2.  I started having contractions at 3:30 in the afternoon--and they were hard and I knew they were getting more intense.  They still weren't exactly regular, so I waited until about 4:30/4:40 to call Susan.  She arrived at 5:20, and I spent a few minutes telling her where things were and telling the kids goodbye.  I called the hospital on the way to Cherokee so they were expecting us.  I also called my parents on the way to let them know we were going.  We arrived at the hospital at about 5:50 or so--signed a few things downstairs and then one of the medics gave me a ride up in the wheelchair.  Came through the OB doors just before 6:00, right at shift change.  After I changed, they got me into bed and hooked up to monitors--checked me and thought I was at about a 7.  I told them right away that the baby had been transverse, so they were trying to confirm that they could feel the baby's head.  They called right away and put the surgical team on alert in case baby was still transverse.  They had called Dr. Veit, and by the time he got there and checked me he said I was at an 8.  They also called Mary in to do an ultrasound--she confirmed that baby was head down.  By this time the pain was so intense and Dr. Veit said I had a ways to go yet.  I thought he meant an hour or so--so I asked for pain relief.  By the time Ben Cox got up to the floor, Dr. Veit said I was ready to push!!!  Stu said I pushed for less than 6 minutes--and baby was really born all in one contraction.  7:03 I got to see our final baby slip into Dr. Veit's waiting hands--and I was the first to say "It's a girl!!" 

I would be remiss if I forgot to mention that Stu had called Amy Letsche when we got to the hospital and she has arrived just in time to take pictures before, during, and right after the birth--so she got to help us welcome our new little girl:  Eibhlin Mardell Hogg  6 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long.  She was so TINY!!!

Stu called Susan right away to let her know we'd had a baby girl--she was astounded at how quickly it had happened, as were my parents when we called them.  :)  I was astounded.  After everything was cleaned up and we were alone in the room with Eibhlin, we looked at each other and it was only about 8:00--we said "now what do we do??"  Was so strange.  Everything went so quickly and smoothly--just as I had hoped.  No complications.

Stu went home that night so he could get a good sleep.  He brought the kids in the next morning to meet their new sister--they loved her, even though Eoin wasn't thrilled that she was a girl.  I had called them the night before to tell them goodnight, and Eoin kept asking me if I was sure it was really a girl.  Poor boy.  He's gotten over it now, but he wasn't so sure then.  Stu took them home and fed them lunch, then Susan came after lunch so that Stu could come back.  We had a little time together in the afternoon, despite all the visitors we had.  We got to have supper together before we were interrupted with more visitors.  He went home and brought the kids back to tell me goodnight--then took them home for bed.

They all came back the next morning for a bit, left for lunch and to let Eoin nap, then came to pick Eibhlin and I up in the afternoon--Monday, July 4.  Her dismissal weight was 6 pounds, which wasn't too bad--but we had been giving her formula.  She was just enough smaller that she had trouble nursing at all and I didn't want to mess around with her.  As it was, when the nurse came out the next day, we only had a slight increase in her bilirubin--which was good.  We went in for a weight check on Wednesday and a bili check, and she had gone from 11.4 to 11.5, which wasn't alarming.  Weight check on Thursday and she was up to 6 pounds 4.5 ounces.  Friday she was 6 pounds 4 even.  Dr. Veit was pleased.  Elspeth tried to be very helpful all week--in fact, she tried to help get Eoin buckled into his car seat for me.  When I got into the car, she told me that she was able to get the top clip and one of the bottom ones, but wasn't able to get the other clip because "Eoin's penis came up and got in the way."  She then announced that sometimes a penis just goes up--I had to work hard not to laugh.

Over the weekend we did take Eibhlin out for her first real outing, to LeAnn Johnson's wedding.  Sunday we stayed home, then Monday morning we were at VBS at Oakdale.  Monday afternoon we ended up back at the Dr.'s because Elspeth poked Eoin in the eye with the pointed end of a paintbrush marker--had the girls checked also.  Eibhlin was up to 6 pounds 10 ounces (she had been on a more concentrated 24-calorie formula mixture). Elspeth was fine.  The rest of the week we took the kids to VBS each morning, then to the program on Friday night.  Thursday we had gone to the Pizza Ranch--where we had been exactly two weeks before to celebrate Elspeth's 5th birthday supper early (and it was good we had as she had the puking and dry heaves flu all day on her birthday on Friday).

We had an outing to WalMart yesterday (Saturday) and to church today.  Uneventful day.  Things are actually going quite well, and I'm just trying to really enjoy each change in Eibhlin as this is our last baby.  I want to rememember everything.