Father's Day, Cloth Diapers, and TOO MUCH sleep?

I’ve been waiting to make this blog post simply because every time I sat down to write, I wanted to write about Father’s Day, and I couldn’t do that until FATHER’S DAY; after that, things got busy for a bit.

It was my husband's first Father’s Day, so I wanted to make it special.
I gave him a frame holding 3 pictures of our daughter holding the letters D, A, and D;

a video of Penny to the song “My Girl” by The Temptations;

a book called, “100 Reasons why Daughters need their Daddy;”

Three cards, one from me, one from Penny, and one from Milo;
AND of course, a coffee cup that says “World’s Greatest Dad.”

We also went to Adventure Landing and played mini golf and Dance Dance Revolution!

It was really nice and we had tons of fun.

Onto Cloth Diapers. 

I’ll admit, the first couple days, we were pretty baffled. I had no clue if I was doing anything right. I found a vlog on YouTube that pretty much explained everything to me, and I feel 99% more confident. I won’t say 100% because there is always that teeny tiny bit of doubt. Anyways, I feel really good about it.

The diapers we bought were Charlie Banana with button snaps. I think I am going to try and get some bumGenius next time with Velcro instead of buttons. I also want to try the Flip diapers and the Gpants. It will definitely have to wait until we get a little more money. As of right now, I’m having to do a load of laundry every day. If that’s what it takes, then I’ll do it.

I’m so excited right now. My husband doesn't understand why I’m getting so worked up over some diapers. Neither do I, honestly, but I feel like I’m finally doing something good and I’m doing it right. I really feel like being a mom is what I was meant to do.

Sleep has been the most confusing thing in my life lately.
Penny has been sleeping 6-8 hours every night. When she does and I sleep the entire time, I wake up with headaches. I don't know if my body isn't used to getting so much sleep anymore or what, but it's terrible to wake up to a crying baby and a headache.

When my husband works nights he doesn't get home until after 11. Our daughter usually goes to sleep around 8 or 9. The past few nights she has been staying awake until her daddy gets home. Even if I rock her to sleep, she wakes herself up every few minutes and if I lay down in the bed with her, she just screams and cries. When daddy gets home, she sits with him for a while and then passes out. It's kinda cute, except that between the hours of 9 and 11 I have to hold her and walk around or she gets pissed.

And this is where I will be ending this blog because my wonderful beautiful baby daughter just went down for a nap and I think I'll do the same. :)

Baby Bums and Daddy Time

Tomorrow is the day.
The day we will take a step that many parents before us have taken and quickly turned back.
The day I have been researching about and preparing for since I was 3 months pregnant.
The day that will determine how I will spend every day for the rest OF MY LIFE...at least until she's potty trained...
Tomorrow is the day we start cloth diapering.

Now...you would not believe how hard it is to find information on cloth diapering. I was so confused when I learned that there were liners, inserts, disposable, reusable, waterproof, nappys, all in one, covers, prefolds, etc. I said to myself, "WHAT IS ALL THIS?" I had no one to ask because barely anyone I knew had used cloth diapers, much less the fancy new fangled ones that we have today.
I found a few websites that helped me out, but it took me months to find them.
any moms looking for more information here are the links:
soeasybeinggreen
www.viewalongtheway.com
www.cottonbabies.com

I am steadily getting used to constantly having bodily fluids on me. Spit, pee, poop, spit up, breast milk, and whatever else. However, we are worried that these diapers won't be able to hold our daughters powerful poos. She has a tendency to have blow outs. She usually only has one poopy diaper a day, and when she does, she FILLS IT UP. I am also worried that I won't have enough liners or inserts. Of course, we will still have disposable diapers handy just incase we need them or for when we go somewhere. I suppose the whole experience will just be trial and error, so wish us luck.



For those of you who don't already know, Penny loves her Daddy Time. My husband works odd hours and doesn't have a set schedule, so it's hard for him to be around most of the time. He either needs to sleep for work or needs to go to work. Either way, Penny loves those precious few hours that she gets to spend with him. On the rare occasion that he is awake to feed her when she wakes up in the morning, she is all smiles and babbling. Tonight, he did almost her entire bedtime routine by himself, with just my company to help him. We both gave her a bath and he fed her. We Skyped with Uncle Josh and Aunt Leah for a while until she got tired. He took her in the nursery and read her the usual bedtime story


He then rocked her to sleep and put her in her crib without waking her up. For those of you who have never had to do that before, it is quite a feat.
Hopefully we can get on a better schedule so that Penny can have more Daddy Time and my husband can spend more of these precious moments with her.

Catching Up

Wow.

So, it’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything, much less blogged.

I started this blog several years ago, and wrote in it quite a bit over the next several years, including while I was deployed. However as things started to get more hectic, the blogs came less frequently. Eventually they stopped altogether. I have decided that I need an outlet now more than ever, if not simply for my own sanity, then for everyone else’s.

I am a newlywed. We were married on July 6th 2012. It was perfect. It was an outdoor wedding and the temperature was perfect, despite it being the middle of summer. It had sprinkled a little right before we were set to walk down the aisle, so it had cooled down. I remember that my best friend at the time was my “man of honor” and didn’t do anything to help with the wedding, so all of my other bridesmaids did everything they could and made it completely perfect.

March 31st 2013 I gave birth to the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. We named her Penelope Joy and we both fell completely in love. It was a hard labor to say the least. It was almost completely natural, with only a shot of pain medicine during active labor. I was in labor for 12 hours total, pushing for at least 2 of them. I was so exhausted that towards the end I started falling asleep DURING contractions. As I felt her crown, suddenly my husband and mother were pushed away and more doctors and nurses rushed into the room. Her shoulder was stuck behind my pelvic bone and they could not get her out. When they finally got her out, her collar bone was broken, but she was otherwise perfectly perfect. I wouldn’t trade a second of it.

My husband and I are currently living with my mother and stepfather in Jacksonville, FL. We were in an unfortunate situation and this was our only way out. Now we are staying here until we get back on our feet. My husband is working at Lowe’s and I am staying at home to take care of Penelope.

Penelope is wonderful. She is a very happy baby and she smiles all the time. I can’t wait until she can laugh. She loves when we stick our tongues out at her and make noises; she has recently started imitating us and I love it. She sleeps wonderfully on most nights. She is also sleeping in her crib now; she was sleeping in our bedroom either in the bassinet or in the bed with us. I am so excited to watch her grow, and now I’ll be able to share it with every one of you.