Our Family in October

My sister recently teased me by pointing out that I'm slacking on my monthly family blog update.  She knows me and understood that I've been "slacking" with the blog only because other things have taken greater priority.  Last week was a hectic week with commitments outside of the home, on top of the usual things that must be done around the house, so I apologize for the tardiness of this post. 

Isabelle
My sweet girl has been growing her vocabulary almost on a daily basis.  This morning she said kiss for the first time when I asked for a good morning kiss.  It's always something new with her. 

Isabelle at 22 months.  She'll turn 2 a few days before Christmas.

If you remember, I've been working with her on basic phonics.  She has nearly all of her letter sounds from A-Z now, although she only knows one sound per letter.  She has a Leap Frog phonics toy that magnetically sticks on the fridge.  She frequently plays with it while I'm cooking dinner or cleaning, and this works well to reinforce the things I've been teaching her.  Isabelle surprised me recently, however, by really showing off what she's been learning.  She and I were playing with her wooden alphabet blocks, and I discovered that inadvertently, she has managed to learn 1/4 of the alphabet, by sight.  Yep, she can recognize many of the letters already!  It's amazing to me the way that kids are like little sponges.  They soak up everything without you realizing it, and then when you squeeze the sponge, you get to see what they've been soaking up.

Getting Ready for Baby Brother

I'm trying to prepare her for her baby brother as much as possible.  We've been talking a lot about the baby for quite some time now.  A few months ago, while shopping with a friend, I held a friend's newborn little girl so that my friend could pay for her items.  The baby started crying, and as soon as Isabelle realized that I was holding this crying baby, Isabelle burst into tears.  Her tears really concerned me, since I'd taken it for granted that Isabelle would be thrilled about the new baby (and I still think she will be, eventually!).  Since then, I've been able to babysit for a few friends, including the same baby girl, and Isabelle has done incredibly well with them.  Sometimes she doesn't want much to do with them, but she doesn't get upset when I hold the babies, so that makes me feel a little bit better about her adjusting to the new baby.  Last week, I kept my friend's son, Ethan, for a couple of hours.  She handled that really well, but she's also known him since his birth nearly a year ago.    

Isabelle did so well with Ethan, in fact, that she wanted to help feed him.  She's going through a baby doll and mommy phase right now, which makes me quite happy.

As a Family

We're trying to get ready for this baby as much as possible.  Damian has continued working on projects outside of the house, but in addition to that, he's refinishing furniture for Isabelle's new room and for Christmas presents.  It's been hectic but fun to get ready for another baby.  We're really doing well.  We love our family and we have a God who loves us immensely, and both the Saints and LSU won this weekend, so there's not much else we could ask for.

Gabby, Personally

I'm feeling so great.  I've been taking Reglan for about a month now, and other than having a stomach virus, I've only had morning sickness once while on this medication.  It's so nice to feel so good during pregnancy.  I have started feeling pretty tired lately.  I'll be 27 weeks pregnant tomorrow, so I'm nearing the third trimester (which generally starts at 27 or 28 weeks, depending on which book you're reading).  I think most of the fatigue is either from entering the third trimester or simply a side affect from the medication.  I do notice some drowsiness after every dose.  Lately I've found that I need a nap a few times a week, so I've put off doing important projects in order to rest.  I am anemic as well, which can add to the fatigue, so I don't hesitate to place a high priority on rest, but it's a challenge when there are so many things to do in the next 13 weeks (or less!). 

We had a sewing weekend a few weeks ago.  Damian's aunt and grandmother came up for the weekend to help me sew the baby bedding.  When I say "help me sew," what I really mean is that Mona pieced it out, did all of the measuring and thinking through the process, and I helped cut and sew as much as I could.  She's the pro, and I'm the newbie, so I enjoyed getting to learn from her.  I still need to stuff and sew up the bottoms of the bumper pads, sew the quilt together (it's cut and ready to go), and hem the bedskirt.  I do think I could finish up much of the bedding in just a few naptimes, but currently, I have several commitments and small projects through church and other activities that are more urgent.  Additionally, I'm needing those naps frequently, so it's just hard to find the time to focus on sewing.  Next week, things should settle down quite a bit, and hopefully, I can finish up several aspects of the bedding.   

I hope you're enjoying your November!

Babies on a Budget: It's All About Perspective

A friend of mine commented once about an expensive baby boutique, saying "It's all about who you want to impress."  Her comment stuck with me as I thought about our shared values of thrifty living. 

If you're not out to impress anyone, then you're in great shape to save as much money as you'd like when it comes to having babies.  But if you're all about impressing, then you might want to give up the frugal fight now, because it's going to be an uphill battle. 

I think it's important to keep everything in perspective, and I love to think of short term and long term financial goals.  If you can keep your goals in mind, then it makes it easier to pass up that precious baby outfit at The Children's Place, when you know you've got adorable hand-me-downs at home.  You'll have to figure out what your financial goals are.  Maybe you want to be debt free, including your house note.  Maybe you want to be able to continue supporting missionaries, continue tithing to your local church family, and give extra when needs are presented.  Perhaps you want to help your children pay for college.  When I see things I want for my child now, I often think that $10 spent now is $100 down the road (or more) that could really benefit her.  I also try to ask myself the more important questions about finances and all of life:  Does this glorify God?  Is this a reflection of what I treasure?  Because I treasure Christ above all.  Having more stuff reflects that I value the temporary, not the eternal. 

And while financial goals are very important, money isn't more important than values.  My husband and I felt led that I should be a stay-at-home mom, and that was something impressed on us by the Lord 9 years ago, when we were still engaged.  I left a very good job to be at home with my daughter, and if saving money & paying our house off early were more important to us than anything else, then I would never have quit that job.

So keep it all in perspective.  Don't be a slave to saving, but don't be a slave to spending either. 

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  -Matthew 6:21     

This is the final post in the series Babies on a Budget.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject and I hope you've enjoyed reading mine.  -Gabby

Babies on a Budget: Consider Cloth

If you know me at all or have read my blog for any time period, then you're not surprised at all that I would end the subject of Babies on a Budget with a discussion on cloth diapers.  I love my cloth diapers, and not even last week's stomach virus and subsequent funky diapers could change that.

Isabelle at 9 months, making her way through our open pantry and wreaking havoc in the meantime.  She's wearing a sheep print Preston's Pants.  I can't believe she was once this little.  I love her little chubby baby legs!

I love that cute little face!  She's changed so much in a year.

 
I advise you to consider cloth because I know perfectly well that cloth diapers are not for everyone.  When I first switched to cloth, one older mom commented "Oh wow, I used cloth too...for my first three kids."  The last two or three of her little ones were not in cloth.  I'm sure having a huge family to keep up with had a little something to do with that!  Many of you will opt out of one or more (or all) of my suggestions for having babies on a budget, and I'm sure some of you will find cloth diapering to be the one thing you won't do.  But hear me out first before you make your decision.

Does It Really Save Money?
In a word, yes, although some well-intentioned thrifty mamas will tell you it doesn't, due to the cost of diapers and the cost of water.  First, you can always make your own cloth diapers, like one crafty friend of mine did.  Secondly, there's always the prefold option, the cheapest way to cloth diaper.  But if you want something easy, consider pocket diapers.  Confused on all the terminology?  I did a series on the subject earlier in 2010.  Read all about the various types, the stuffins, and my own cloth diapering journey. 

I love my pocket diapers, and when I ran the numbers well over a year ago, I discovered that if I purchased 10 cloth diapers at $20 each, I would recover my costs in about 4 months.  Any savings after that was just that: savings.  I currently have 13 one-size diapers in my diaper rotation (my daughter recently outgrew the sized ones I bought on clearance when I first started CDing).  I bought 2 of these diapers second hand ($12 each), 6 were purchased for me by my mother-in-law, I bought one full-priced ($16), and the others were given to me by a friend when her son outgrew his diapers.  That brings my total dollars spent to $40, with another $80 spent by my mother-in-law.  Now that's a cheap way to cloth diaper!  This gives me a two day supply, so that I'm only washing every other day.  My favorite brand?  Check out this post:  5 Kids, 4 Moms, 3 States, 1 Diaper.

If you use a cloth diaper calculator, you'll probably find that you easily spend $40-$60 a month on disposable diapers and wipes.  I spent $40.  My water bill has not increased noticably since starting to cloth diaper in August of 2009, but it's so hard to tell anyway, when you consider variables like having a vegetable garden, having guests in town, being out of town, or other usage issues.  For the sake of argument, if we spend an extra $5 a month washing cloth diapers, you can see how cloth diapering multiple children will save us quite a bit of money.  I also made my own cloth wipes using flannel fabric from friends or old baby towels.  My wipes work so much better than disposable wipes.  I love them.  If you don't really know how to sew, then this is a perfect first project for you.  Who cares if you mess them up?  They're just going to wipe your baby's tush! 

So if you really want to save a significant amount of money on a monthly basis, do your homework and look into cloth diapers.  I've seen a number of friends make the switch in this past year, and all of them are so happy with cloth.  I'd love to answer any questions or get feedback from you on the subject.