Week 26

This week's post could also be entitled, "Hippie Crap I Plan on Doing."

First, we went to a breast feeding class last night. (Or, as Bob calls it, my "I Don't Know Nothin' Bout Birthin Babies, Miss Scarlet," class.)

When I first told Eric we were going to this class he was a little confused as to why he had to go. Isn't that whole business in my department?? Come on, Eric, you mean you weren't looking forward to sitting in a class full of pregnant woman talking about their leaking breasts? But, he was a trooper and, in spite of being worried that he'd be the only dude there, he came along without complaint.

(I think Eric was worried he'd have to wear one of these during class...)

We were both a bit anxious that I'd have to practice bare-chested in front of a room full of strangers, but luckily it was nothing like that, and there were lots of other guys there. They basically just went over the benefits of breast feeding, different positions, (We got to hold creepy life-sized baby dummies! I named mine Carlos.) what your baby's poop should look like, and different strategies for going back to work.

I'll probably forget everything we learned by the time baby comes, but honestly, I think breast feeding must be one of those things that you just sort of figure out as you go along. After all, women have been doing this since the beginning of time without fancy breast feeding classes to teach them how.

Still, I learned a few valuable tidbits. Apparently, my newborn's poop will look like black tar for the first two to three days of her life; and babies lose about 7% of their birth weight in the first few weeks after being born. Good things to know because otherwise seeing tar leaking from my anorexic baby would completely freak me out.

My top three reasons to attempt breast feeding:
1. It's much less expensive than formula
2. There are a lot of great health benefits for the baby
3. It burns 500 calories a day!!!

Secondly, I really want to attempt cloth diapering, so I ordered a few brands to experiment with. If I like them, then I can order more after baby is born. I ordered some bumGenius, gDiapers, and I want to order some Fuzzi Bunz as well.



Most people I've mentioned my plans to think I'm nuts. I think people picture the old fashioned methods of pinning and folding when they think of cloth diapering...at least that's what I thought of before I started looking into it. But, now cloth diapers can have snaps, Velcro, and built in water-proof covers. They basically look exactly like a disposable diaper, but you can wash them. I realize it will take more work, and it may end up being a big yellow-poop-filled disaster, but I figure it's worth a shot.

Some benefits to cloth diapering:
1. It's cheaper in the long run
2. It's environmentally friendly
3. Less diaper rashes
4. I want to prove Eric wrong.

Thirdly, (although this doesn't fit in with my hippiness as much as it does with my yuppiness) we went to Ikea and bought an armoire for baby's room. Eric put it together, and it looks adorable!


Her room is really coming along now.

Remember when it looked like this?


Well, now it looks like this!


Progress!!!