Mom in the vegetable patch
A new tomato planting technique
Watering thistles (all the easier to pull them out, apparently.)
Taking a break from forking weeds.
 |
| Hey, someone has to keep track of all these tools! |
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Meeting My Obstetrician
Yesterday my mom and I drove to the Walkerton Hospital, and had my first meeting with Dr. Schipper, the obstetrician recommended by my mom's family doctor. Aside from getting told to go to three completely different locations by three different people and therefore arriving for the appointment a bit late, everything went smoothly. I was asked the exact same questions as all my previous first-time appointments. I guess that happens when you go through three different doctors in one pregnancy. But seriously, all the answers are in my records sitting on your lap. Why do we have to go over all this again? The main difference this time was that Dr. Schipper's opening comment as she sat down was
"So, this baby was a bit of a surprise, wasn't it? How are you feeling about it now?"
That is something no doctor has asked me this entire time, and I appreciated it. She also wanted to know about Taz. Whether or not he was still in the picture, what he does for a living, what our future plans were, etc, etc. It was a pretty in-depth appointment, and she seemed much more interested in me and my concerns than anyone else I had encountered in the medical field along this journey.
I finally know where I'll be delivering Amelia, and was able to get a tour and ask all my pressing questions. Here are the main points:
1. The birthing centre has 6 private birthing rooms, where you labour, deliver, and recover. Your baby rooms in with you. Each room has a separate bathroom with a jacuzzi, a couch, a kitchenette and lots of windows.
2. Partners and grandparents have 24-hour access for visiting. Partners are encouraged to stay with mom and baby
3. Natural pain relief is encouraged, and currently there are no epidurals available at this location. The nurses I spoke with seemed very concerned with making sure mothers are relaxed and comfortable, and medical interventions, even as small as an IV are totally at the mother's discretion. Fetal heart rate monitering is not constant, nor does Dr. Schipper seem to push it. She said it can often appear to indicate distress even though the baby is perfectly fine, and this causes stress for everyone else, so it is best done intermittently only as required. I think this is great!
4. Mom and baby are often discharged after 24 hours if everything went smoothly, but if mom wants to stay longer to get more help with breastfeeding, etc. that's ok too.
As we were leaving after our tour, a newborn baby in one of the rooms began to cry. My mom smiled and said "I love that sound". I asked her why. She says I will learn to love it too. It's communicating.
We'll see.
Oh, one more thing: I haven't gained anything since my last doctor's appointment, three weeks ago. I don't know if this should concern me or not. The doctor said it isn't a big deal for now. I think its probably all the extra exercise I get from working outdoors and moving all day long. I just hope baby's ok. She is moving around tonnes, and giving great big belly morphing kicks, so for now I won't worry. I have another appointment in two week's time, and will see how things look from there.
We may even get another ultrasound next appointment, if Dr. Schipper can't determine what position the baby is in. She couldn't this time, and man, that probing is painful!
"So, this baby was a bit of a surprise, wasn't it? How are you feeling about it now?"
That is something no doctor has asked me this entire time, and I appreciated it. She also wanted to know about Taz. Whether or not he was still in the picture, what he does for a living, what our future plans were, etc, etc. It was a pretty in-depth appointment, and she seemed much more interested in me and my concerns than anyone else I had encountered in the medical field along this journey.
I finally know where I'll be delivering Amelia, and was able to get a tour and ask all my pressing questions. Here are the main points:
1. The birthing centre has 6 private birthing rooms, where you labour, deliver, and recover. Your baby rooms in with you. Each room has a separate bathroom with a jacuzzi, a couch, a kitchenette and lots of windows.
2. Partners and grandparents have 24-hour access for visiting. Partners are encouraged to stay with mom and baby
3. Natural pain relief is encouraged, and currently there are no epidurals available at this location. The nurses I spoke with seemed very concerned with making sure mothers are relaxed and comfortable, and medical interventions, even as small as an IV are totally at the mother's discretion. Fetal heart rate monitering is not constant, nor does Dr. Schipper seem to push it. She said it can often appear to indicate distress even though the baby is perfectly fine, and this causes stress for everyone else, so it is best done intermittently only as required. I think this is great!
 |
| Discussing my birth plan with Marilyn, a nurse at the birthing centre |
4. Mom and baby are often discharged after 24 hours if everything went smoothly, but if mom wants to stay longer to get more help with breastfeeding, etc. that's ok too.
As we were leaving after our tour, a newborn baby in one of the rooms began to cry. My mom smiled and said "I love that sound". I asked her why. She says I will learn to love it too. It's communicating.
We'll see.
Oh, one more thing: I haven't gained anything since my last doctor's appointment, three weeks ago. I don't know if this should concern me or not. The doctor said it isn't a big deal for now. I think its probably all the extra exercise I get from working outdoors and moving all day long. I just hope baby's ok. She is moving around tonnes, and giving great big belly morphing kicks, so for now I won't worry. I have another appointment in two week's time, and will see how things look from there.
We may even get another ultrasound next appointment, if Dr. Schipper can't determine what position the baby is in. She couldn't this time, and man, that probing is painful!
Milestone: 8 months!!
I haven't posted in awhile, for a number of reasons.
The first is that we lost my grandfather on May 14th. It was a hard blow to our entire family, my mom especially. She spent the week or so before he passed away travelling back and forth from marmora, and luckily she wasn't trucking with dad, so she was with him when he died. The week after that was full of funeral arrangements, and we all traveled to Marmora for the day of the funeral. I haven't seen some of those faces in 2 years. Funny how a funeral brings everyone together in a shared sense of closeness, despite the time apart. Everyone is rallying around my grandmother, which is nice to see, and makes me appreciate how strong our family connection really is. With the 5 hour drive there, 3 hours for the funeral, and the 5 hour drive back, it made for a long day.
The second reason is that with the week that was lost, there was a lot of farm work that needed to be caught up on. Mom calls it "going gangbusters" and that's what we have been doing ever since. I wish I could scan her daily chore lists and upload them to the blog. Every morning, a new updated list for mom, one for myself, and one for danny are posted on the fridge. I've been doing all kinds of new stuff! Yesterday, I learned how to rake and seed bare ground so that grass will grow. And I learned how to spread cedar mulch around the dozen or so new trees that were planted last week. Today was mostly maintenance, such as watering all the new vegetable gardens, but I also got to plant a bunch of annuals in the arbour garden. I've been hilling potatoes, laying out and planting vegetable plots, attacking twitch grass wherever it appears in the gardens, shoveling sod and rocks, the list goes on. All of it is WAY more physically demanding than I thought I would be capable of this far along in my pregnancy, but its actually making me stronger. Exhausted at the end of the day, but stronger overall.
Yesterday I took a run to town to pick up 15 bags of mulch mom had purchased. With no one readily available to help me, I loaded the 56L bags myself, plus two 70L bags of soil on top. Mom promises all this physical activity will make labour easier. I sure hope so! Right now, it makes eating easier, and getting to sleep a breeze!
However, it makes blogging really difficult. We work outside rain or shine, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., only stopping to grab a quick lunch. Then Taz comes home, and I make dinner and visit with him until he is too tired to stay awake anymore (around 9 p.m.) Then, because I get up at 5:30 to help him with breakfast and lunch, and sometimes drive him to work, I go to bed too. There is literally NO time to blog!
We reached the 8 month milestone, and I had every intention of blogging about it, but no dice. Now we are closer to 33 weeks.
8 months sounds so crazy!! In less than 8 weeks I will be holding my daughter! With all the wedding prep, I haven't had much time to reflect on this, and I haven't packed a hospital bag, or pre-washed any baby clothes. Diaper making has come to a complete halt. I hope this little one makes it to her due date, because any earlier and I won't be ready, I don't think!
The first is that we lost my grandfather on May 14th. It was a hard blow to our entire family, my mom especially. She spent the week or so before he passed away travelling back and forth from marmora, and luckily she wasn't trucking with dad, so she was with him when he died. The week after that was full of funeral arrangements, and we all traveled to Marmora for the day of the funeral. I haven't seen some of those faces in 2 years. Funny how a funeral brings everyone together in a shared sense of closeness, despite the time apart. Everyone is rallying around my grandmother, which is nice to see, and makes me appreciate how strong our family connection really is. With the 5 hour drive there, 3 hours for the funeral, and the 5 hour drive back, it made for a long day.
The second reason is that with the week that was lost, there was a lot of farm work that needed to be caught up on. Mom calls it "going gangbusters" and that's what we have been doing ever since. I wish I could scan her daily chore lists and upload them to the blog. Every morning, a new updated list for mom, one for myself, and one for danny are posted on the fridge. I've been doing all kinds of new stuff! Yesterday, I learned how to rake and seed bare ground so that grass will grow. And I learned how to spread cedar mulch around the dozen or so new trees that were planted last week. Today was mostly maintenance, such as watering all the new vegetable gardens, but I also got to plant a bunch of annuals in the arbour garden. I've been hilling potatoes, laying out and planting vegetable plots, attacking twitch grass wherever it appears in the gardens, shoveling sod and rocks, the list goes on. All of it is WAY more physically demanding than I thought I would be capable of this far along in my pregnancy, but its actually making me stronger. Exhausted at the end of the day, but stronger overall.
Yesterday I took a run to town to pick up 15 bags of mulch mom had purchased. With no one readily available to help me, I loaded the 56L bags myself, plus two 70L bags of soil on top. Mom promises all this physical activity will make labour easier. I sure hope so! Right now, it makes eating easier, and getting to sleep a breeze!
However, it makes blogging really difficult. We work outside rain or shine, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., only stopping to grab a quick lunch. Then Taz comes home, and I make dinner and visit with him until he is too tired to stay awake anymore (around 9 p.m.) Then, because I get up at 5:30 to help him with breakfast and lunch, and sometimes drive him to work, I go to bed too. There is literally NO time to blog!
We reached the 8 month milestone, and I had every intention of blogging about it, but no dice. Now we are closer to 33 weeks.
8 months sounds so crazy!! In less than 8 weeks I will be holding my daughter! With all the wedding prep, I haven't had much time to reflect on this, and I haven't packed a hospital bag, or pre-washed any baby clothes. Diaper making has come to a complete halt. I hope this little one makes it to her due date, because any earlier and I won't be ready, I don't think!
Friday, 11 May 2012
My Fertility Blanket
I was looking at the pictures of the prefolds in the last post, and I realized that I got a bit of my Bavarian blanket in the top left corner of the picture. I haven't posted about crocheting much, but it is a skill I learned from my mom when I was young, and it was a passion before knitting, before sewing, and before baby. I've made hats, full-sized blankets, baby blankets, and have more than a few half-finished projects lurking around.
But THIS particular blanket is special.
But THIS particular blanket is special.
This is Bavarian Crochet. Its a stitch sequence that takes a long long time, and there is not much gain on each row. But the finished project is beautiful, and in my opinion, well worth it.
When I started this blanket, I knew without a doubt that it was going to be a baby blanket. The colours, the little diamond pattern, everything about it said "baby". And with the amount of time and effort I was putting into it, I knew it wasn't going to anyone but me. I have seen too many handmade crochet baby blankets, hundreds of hours of work, for sale at Value Village, for less than $5. That wasn't going to happen to this one.
So for most of last spring and summer, if Taz drove the car, I was in the passenger seat, crocheting. Mornings when I woke up first, I would have a quiet half hour to myself to work on it, while he breathed quietly beside me, still deep asleep.
I used a lot (and I mean a LOT) of the time to daydream about what our future looked like. How many kids? What would they look like? What would it feel like to hold our child in my arms? Sometimes we would talk about it together, imagine where we would end up, and joke about the traits our children might inherit, but most of the time, it was just me and my thoughts. And most of those thoughts were about babies. About how this blanket would one day be wrapped around a baby of my very own. How it would be half me, and half the love of my life. I poured countless hours of love into that blanket, never knowing exactly when I would be using it.
And just like the blanket and I willed it to be so, with less than a row to go, I got pregnant. It is henceforth, and will forever be known as my very own fertility blanket.
Diaper Diary Woes Part IV
What $30 Can Get You:
1. One Bumgenius freetime, all-in-one, one-size cloth diaper, including taxes. (May run a bit over $30 for shipping
or...
2. 3 handmade newborn prefolds, plus 10 handmade, double sided matching wipes, in the flannel colour of my choosing, plus enough fabric and microfibre towels to make 3 more prefolds, and a dozen more wipes. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Behold, my very first adventure with a sewing machine and a serger!
The wipes are pieces of facecloths I bought as a pack of 6 and after much trial and error, cut into pieces and backed with the leftover flannel I had. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I want to do these, but today I broke the serger needle, so I will have to wait until mom and dad get back from wherever they are this week, and we get that sorted out. Changing the needle myself wouldn't be hard, but finding the needle in this house? Probably impossible. And I have more pressing issues to attend...
...Like blowing my nose. Holy shit, this cold has knocked me for a loop! I don't get sick very often, so when I do, it is usually a doozy. This is my first cold in twelve months, and its making up for all the little colds I didn't get. Today is another sunny beautiful day out, and I should be outside fighting the endless battle against weeds, but I keep getting the chills and then the sweats, and I have a sinus pressure headache that makes me think some serious tectonic shifting is going on up there. Its a day for indoors and self-pity.
On a more positive note, my wonderful mummy managed to find a store in tiny Campbelford (or something like that) that carried Babyville Boutique items, such as precut PUL and Fold Over Elastic!! She went on a bit of a shopping spree, and now there is a shopping bag full of goodies just waiting to be explored. She bought the "Cloth Diapering Made Easy" book with all the patterns too, and I've read it over a couple times and picked out what I want to make. I still think I'll go the practical route, and make covers with no liner (easier to keep clean, and you don't have to change them with each diaper change the way you would have to if they had a fleece or flannel liner that got wet). But I can see how some patterns could be modified, and I can't wait to get started!! I'm going to wait until she gets back though, because I have a million questions and would rather have someone experienced on hand to answer them.
This is my sewing station, all set up in our bedroom, with a view over the front gardens. I am beginning to understand why people really get into this. It is quite relaxing!
1. One Bumgenius freetime, all-in-one, one-size cloth diaper, including taxes. (May run a bit over $30 for shipping
or...
2. 3 handmade newborn prefolds, plus 10 handmade, double sided matching wipes, in the flannel colour of my choosing, plus enough fabric and microfibre towels to make 3 more prefolds, and a dozen more wipes. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Behold, my very first adventure with a sewing machine and a serger!
The top three pieces have microfibre towels folded into thirds in the middle, which are sewn together, and then sewn into the flannel liner. And in the middle of the microfibre, is a hefty piece....of SHAMWOW! I figure, since that nifty cloth is so good at absorbing pop spills out of carpet, it should work just as well with baby pee.
The wipes are pieces of facecloths I bought as a pack of 6 and after much trial and error, cut into pieces and backed with the leftover flannel I had. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I want to do these, but today I broke the serger needle, so I will have to wait until mom and dad get back from wherever they are this week, and we get that sorted out. Changing the needle myself wouldn't be hard, but finding the needle in this house? Probably impossible. And I have more pressing issues to attend...
...Like blowing my nose. Holy shit, this cold has knocked me for a loop! I don't get sick very often, so when I do, it is usually a doozy. This is my first cold in twelve months, and its making up for all the little colds I didn't get. Today is another sunny beautiful day out, and I should be outside fighting the endless battle against weeds, but I keep getting the chills and then the sweats, and I have a sinus pressure headache that makes me think some serious tectonic shifting is going on up there. Its a day for indoors and self-pity.
On a more positive note, my wonderful mummy managed to find a store in tiny Campbelford (or something like that) that carried Babyville Boutique items, such as precut PUL and Fold Over Elastic!! She went on a bit of a shopping spree, and now there is a shopping bag full of goodies just waiting to be explored. She bought the "Cloth Diapering Made Easy" book with all the patterns too, and I've read it over a couple times and picked out what I want to make. I still think I'll go the practical route, and make covers with no liner (easier to keep clean, and you don't have to change them with each diaper change the way you would have to if they had a fleece or flannel liner that got wet). But I can see how some patterns could be modified, and I can't wait to get started!! I'm going to wait until she gets back though, because I have a million questions and would rather have someone experienced on hand to answer them.
This is my sewing station, all set up in our bedroom, with a view over the front gardens. I am beginning to understand why people really get into this. It is quite relaxing!
Aaaand a stack of serged, finished flats. I have 18 now in total. This is the only type of diaper my mom used on 6 kids! Crazy! I love her for her practicality, but I want cuteness too...
That makes 21 diapers down, at least 15 to go. Next: Diaper covers. Woo!
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Irony is....
Catching a cold just as the weather starts to turn warm. Today was sunny and beautiful out, but I felt the cold getting worse and worse as the day progressed. By 2 p.m., I couldn't breathe through my nose, and by 4 I felt completely drained. Normally, I'm a big fan of cold medicine, especially to sleep at night. But now, I'm not sure what I can and can't take. Even if I did know, our medicine box is buried somewhere in the mound of boxes left over from the move that I can't work up the motivation to tackle. I'm cooking Taz a nice dinner for when he gets home from his 11-hour shift, but it might as well be wet cardboard for all I will be able to taste of it. :(
I can't feel too sorry for myself though. Taz has the same cold (I caught it from him) and he puts in a hard day of labouring. Tonight will probably be an 8 o-clock bedtime for both of us if he feels as shitty as I do.
On the baby front, Amelia appears completely unaffected by how shitty her mom feels, and has been doing great big uterus stretching summersaults that change the entire shape of my belly. Try weeding while that is going on!
I can't feel too sorry for myself though. Taz has the same cold (I caught it from him) and he puts in a hard day of labouring. Tonight will probably be an 8 o-clock bedtime for both of us if he feels as shitty as I do.
On the baby front, Amelia appears completely unaffected by how shitty her mom feels, and has been doing great big uterus stretching summersaults that change the entire shape of my belly. Try weeding while that is going on!
Monday, 7 May 2012
The Events of Week 29
1. Taz got and started his new job as a landscape labourer for a company in Walkerton. I didn't know landscaping was this messy!
2. I decided I was waaay behind on baby bump pictures, and asked Taz to take some for me. I discovered about 5 minutes later that yes, you can still have "feeling butt ugly" days when pregnant. This is the best picture of the bunch, and I still hate it. Mostly because my hair refused to stay out of my eyes! But hey, the bump looks cute....
3. Speaking of bumps, I discovered the BEST way to keep your pants up while doing yard work. Millions of beer drinking men can't be wrong....
Suspenders are the way to go!! I can do all the bending, shovelling, raking, and laundry hanging I want with these suckers on, no problem! Sure, I may look like I just fell off of the turnip truck, but I can kick your butt if you say so without flashing mine.
4. I had my first doctor's appointment out here in Zurich. The staff here (with the exception of the receptionist, who is rather crabby) are much nicer than in Kingston! The woman who filled in for Dr. Teeple today let me listen to Amelia's heartbeat for as long as I liked. I can't believe how much stronger its getting these days! I have to book in a tour of the Walkerton hospital soon. Apparently they have nice birthing suites with jacuzzi tubs. Sounds good to me!
5. Alot of headway has been made in the cloth diaper saga, but that is a whole other post, with its own pictures and everything. For now, however, the rain has started up again, and I am going upstairs to bed to fall asleep listening to it. There really is nothing better than raindrops on a tin roof for lulling yourself to sleep.
Friday, 4 May 2012
My new time waster
I could spend hours reading this blog:
www.icanteachmychild.com
Yesterday, while in London, we stopped in to visit my sister and her three kids. Her 3 year old, the youngest is smart, smart, smart for her age. Her vocabulary astounds me! She was better at putting a puzzle together than Taz was, for goodness sake! Jenny chalks it up to having older siblings, but I want to provide Amelia with the same stimulating environment even though she our firstborn. The blog link above has soooo many good ideas! I've been on it all day, when I should be weeding the garden. (But hey, its raining, and who wants to weed in the rain? Maybe my crazy mother, but not me!)
www.icanteachmychild.com
Yesterday, while in London, we stopped in to visit my sister and her three kids. Her 3 year old, the youngest is smart, smart, smart for her age. Her vocabulary astounds me! She was better at putting a puzzle together than Taz was, for goodness sake! Jenny chalks it up to having older siblings, but I want to provide Amelia with the same stimulating environment even though she our firstborn. The blog link above has soooo many good ideas! I've been on it all day, when I should be weeding the garden. (But hey, its raining, and who wants to weed in the rain? Maybe my crazy mother, but not me!)
Diaper Diary Woes Part III : Youtube, Fabricland, and the downside to being a Canadian
Thank god for "how-to" videos! Forums and written instructions, even those with pictures were making my head spin! In the end, it was just easier to watch someone else sew a diaper, and by watching a few different videos, I could match fabrics to lingos and sort out what I thought might work best for us.
I found this video, and its part two sister video very helpful for sewing diaper covers, except I plan to use velcro instead of snaps.
Yesterday, Taz and I took an impromptu trip to London in the afternoon. Mom had told me about a FabricLand, the biggest one she has ever seen, near London, and armed with my new knowledge, I wanted to go there, and buy a couple things. I wanted some:
1. Birdseye diaper fabric
2. Fold over elastic and regular elastic
3. PUL in fun colours
4. and maybe some snaps and a pair of snap pliers.
I planned on being at least an hour in the store, so I dropped Taz off at a nearby restaurant/pub where he could enjoy the patio weather while I browsed, unrushed. I was envisioning huge piles of endless choices in fabric and elastic, and helpful, knowledgeable salespeople to assist me. I imagined I would spend the bulk of my diaper budget in one fell swoop, and be ready to sew whem mom and dad got home on Saturday. What I got instead were a gaggle of elderly women who were more interested in gossiping amongst each other and greeting the customers they knew than helping (or even acknowledging) me, no PUL fabric, except in white, no fold over elastic, no snaps, and a storewide search for birdseye cotton, with no help whatsoever, until I located it in a far back corner, on the highest shelf. Boy, were the old women irritated that I had DARED to interrupt their afternoon gossip sesh when I asked if one of them could help me get it down! Instead of my envisioned purchases, I left with only ten metres of diaper fabric, some velcro, and binding material, which one of the women assured me would work just as well as fold over elastic. I hope so.... All of it is white.
Today, I thought I would find some online stores to buy the rest of the material. It might be more expensive, but I reasoned that it would be easier, and more convenient to use the whole web to find exactly what I wanted. After all, how hard could it be to find some PUL and some fold over elastic somewhere in Canada?
Turns out, it can be damn near impossible. The only two stores listed as Canadian were Celtic Cloths and Wazoodle. Well, turns out Celtic Cloths is actually located in California, and Wazoodle's website is no longer functional. I guessed that this is somehow related to the huge number of customer complaints that you get when you google Wazoodle.
So that left me with only one option: Buy it from the U.S. Grrrrr.!!!! My purchase of $24 cost $15 to ship, and I know I am going to get dinged with more duty costs when they deliver it as well. I spent $64 at FabricLand, and another $50 online easily, when this fabric.com purchase is all said and done. At the end of the day, I don't know how many diapers and covers that will make me. I'm hoping to get around 20 flats out of the fabric I bought, and then make a couple fitteds with some white flannel mom is picking up, and the extra flannel t-shirts and sheet sets that I won't be needing once we move to stinking hot humid Australia.
Aside from recycling fabric to make the fitted diapers, and sourcing super cheap microfibre towels for inserts (you can get them in autobody shops and the dollar store), another way I plan on saving money is by making my own laundry soap. I found a good recipe for it on this awesome blog. The only problem is, yet again, one of the main ingredients doesn't seem to exist in Canada. But that's why it is good to have two super awesome trucker parents who cross the border on a weekly basis. The next time they head down, I will send them with a request for Fels-Naptha soap, as much as they can get their hands on!
That's it for diapers I guess, until mom and dad get home from Florida and explain the scary sewing machine to me. (I have never used one before. This should be....interesting)
I found this video, and its part two sister video very helpful for sewing diaper covers, except I plan to use velcro instead of snaps.
Yesterday, Taz and I took an impromptu trip to London in the afternoon. Mom had told me about a FabricLand, the biggest one she has ever seen, near London, and armed with my new knowledge, I wanted to go there, and buy a couple things. I wanted some:
1. Birdseye diaper fabric
2. Fold over elastic and regular elastic
3. PUL in fun colours
4. and maybe some snaps and a pair of snap pliers.
I planned on being at least an hour in the store, so I dropped Taz off at a nearby restaurant/pub where he could enjoy the patio weather while I browsed, unrushed. I was envisioning huge piles of endless choices in fabric and elastic, and helpful, knowledgeable salespeople to assist me. I imagined I would spend the bulk of my diaper budget in one fell swoop, and be ready to sew whem mom and dad got home on Saturday. What I got instead were a gaggle of elderly women who were more interested in gossiping amongst each other and greeting the customers they knew than helping (or even acknowledging) me, no PUL fabric, except in white, no fold over elastic, no snaps, and a storewide search for birdseye cotton, with no help whatsoever, until I located it in a far back corner, on the highest shelf. Boy, were the old women irritated that I had DARED to interrupt their afternoon gossip sesh when I asked if one of them could help me get it down! Instead of my envisioned purchases, I left with only ten metres of diaper fabric, some velcro, and binding material, which one of the women assured me would work just as well as fold over elastic. I hope so.... All of it is white.
Today, I thought I would find some online stores to buy the rest of the material. It might be more expensive, but I reasoned that it would be easier, and more convenient to use the whole web to find exactly what I wanted. After all, how hard could it be to find some PUL and some fold over elastic somewhere in Canada?
Turns out, it can be damn near impossible. The only two stores listed as Canadian were Celtic Cloths and Wazoodle. Well, turns out Celtic Cloths is actually located in California, and Wazoodle's website is no longer functional. I guessed that this is somehow related to the huge number of customer complaints that you get when you google Wazoodle.
So that left me with only one option: Buy it from the U.S. Grrrrr.!!!! My purchase of $24 cost $15 to ship, and I know I am going to get dinged with more duty costs when they deliver it as well. I spent $64 at FabricLand, and another $50 online easily, when this fabric.com purchase is all said and done. At the end of the day, I don't know how many diapers and covers that will make me. I'm hoping to get around 20 flats out of the fabric I bought, and then make a couple fitteds with some white flannel mom is picking up, and the extra flannel t-shirts and sheet sets that I won't be needing once we move to stinking hot humid Australia.
Aside from recycling fabric to make the fitted diapers, and sourcing super cheap microfibre towels for inserts (you can get them in autobody shops and the dollar store), another way I plan on saving money is by making my own laundry soap. I found a good recipe for it on this awesome blog. The only problem is, yet again, one of the main ingredients doesn't seem to exist in Canada. But that's why it is good to have two super awesome trucker parents who cross the border on a weekly basis. The next time they head down, I will send them with a request for Fels-Naptha soap, as much as they can get their hands on!
That's it for diapers I guess, until mom and dad get home from Florida and explain the scary sewing machine to me. (I have never used one before. This should be....interesting)
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Diaper Diary Woes Part II
Kitchen Talk Tonight
Porsche (staring at computer screen): I don't know what "Minky" means...
Taz : There's minky whales.
Porsche: Yeah, but this is minky fabric
Taz: Fabric made out of minky whales?
Porsche (staring at computer screen): I don't know what "Minky" means...
Taz : There's minky whales.
Porsche: Yeah, but this is minky fabric
Taz: Fabric made out of minky whales?
Diaper Diary Woes Part I
Well, all the excuses have passed/vanished, and there is technically nothing stopping me from making baby diapers any more. No more school, no more moving, the baby shower is over, and I have ALL my nights free. So I figured I'd dive in today, plan my fabrics, maybe even buy a few online (the nearest fabric store, it turns out, is quite a drive.) That's ok though, because I want more selection of PUL colours anyway.
Why yes, in fact, I did Google PUL just this morning to teach myself about it, how'd you know?
So online I went. And I wasted a good two hours trying to decide what to buy, how much, from where, and ultimatly the day is drawing to a close, and I have figured out sweet bugger nothing at all. I have one store with a "checkout cart" with two items, and it seems like the more I learn about sewing cloth diapers, the more questions I have.
On Buying PUL How many diapers do I get per yard of PUL? Should be a fairly straight answer, no? Nope. I got the number 4 a couple times, and six, or even three (size dependent, I guess). I'm going to go with four...I think.
On Buying Diaper Fleece See above question, except it was a lot easier to learn that you get between one and two.
Soakers What type of fabric should I buy? Bamboo is oh-so-trendy, but some thrifty mamas out there are using old towels, and that seems much more economical. I've settled on something else, but I'm not saying what yet.
Elastic What type? How much? (This isn't as important. I bet mom has some kicking around somewhere anyway)
And finally....
Colour Is mom right that white is best because it is bleachable, whereas colours will just fade, or should I go with my gut and get some coloured fabrics? I'm leaning towards colours, but sweet jesus the decisions! And I thought choosing yarn colours was hard! (There! I officially revealed I'm actually 85 years old) $:-)
I'm gonna try one more crack at it tonight before I go to sleep. Maybe by tomorrow I'll actually have an order.
In other news: Today Taz went to the gym in Walkerton for the first time. He got a ride in, but I was supposed to meet him halfway back, so he could get a bike ride in after he did weights. He forgot the paper with our house phone number written on it, and the payphone wanted to charge him five dollars to call my cell phone. Instead of wasting the five dollars, Taz biked the 26 kilometers home. I love my thrifty, crazy athletic fiance!
Today was weeding, weeding and more weeding! Tomorrow : ......much of the same! Mom and dad are on a run to Florida, so besides my little brother, we have run of the farm. Getting to feel like a real farmer...today the cows got out and had to be herded back into the barn, even!
Why yes, in fact, I did Google PUL just this morning to teach myself about it, how'd you know?
So online I went. And I wasted a good two hours trying to decide what to buy, how much, from where, and ultimatly the day is drawing to a close, and I have figured out sweet bugger nothing at all. I have one store with a "checkout cart" with two items, and it seems like the more I learn about sewing cloth diapers, the more questions I have.
On Buying PUL How many diapers do I get per yard of PUL? Should be a fairly straight answer, no? Nope. I got the number 4 a couple times, and six, or even three (size dependent, I guess). I'm going to go with four...I think.
On Buying Diaper Fleece See above question, except it was a lot easier to learn that you get between one and two.
Soakers What type of fabric should I buy? Bamboo is oh-so-trendy, but some thrifty mamas out there are using old towels, and that seems much more economical. I've settled on something else, but I'm not saying what yet.
Elastic What type? How much? (This isn't as important. I bet mom has some kicking around somewhere anyway)
And finally....
Colour Is mom right that white is best because it is bleachable, whereas colours will just fade, or should I go with my gut and get some coloured fabrics? I'm leaning towards colours, but sweet jesus the decisions! And I thought choosing yarn colours was hard! (There! I officially revealed I'm actually 85 years old) $:-)
I'm gonna try one more crack at it tonight before I go to sleep. Maybe by tomorrow I'll actually have an order.
In other news: Today Taz went to the gym in Walkerton for the first time. He got a ride in, but I was supposed to meet him halfway back, so he could get a bike ride in after he did weights. He forgot the paper with our house phone number written on it, and the payphone wanted to charge him five dollars to call my cell phone. Instead of wasting the five dollars, Taz biked the 26 kilometers home. I love my thrifty, crazy athletic fiance!
 |
| Farmer boy in training :-) |
Today was weeding, weeding and more weeding! Tomorrow : ......much of the same! Mom and dad are on a run to Florida, so besides my little brother, we have run of the farm. Getting to feel like a real farmer...today the cows got out and had to be herded back into the barn, even!
My Little Baby Girl and the Big Wide World of Gender Performance
I have a small roster of baby and mommy blogs that I check through every day, and today I read something on one of them that made me a little miffed. A mother of one 11 month old baby girl is pregnant with her second child. A boy this time. She was answering a commenter's question about where she got her baby barrettes, and bemoaned the fact that her new baby boy wasn't going to be able to rock the fancy headgear that her daughter can.
My somewhat irked, immediate knee-jerk reaction was "why not?" Why can't your son wear head decorations that keep his hair out of his face. Is it the colour? The flowers attached? And why was this statement separated from the rest of the paragraph, and bolded? And as equally as important as the restrictions this meaning has for the unborn baby boy, what does it mean for her daughter? My mind was racing as I began imagining all of the boxes and guidelines her daughter would be placed in as well. Maybe there are clothes she can't wear, or sports she can't play. Its strange and sad to find such a restrictive statement on an otherwise modern and progressive blog.
Which of course made me think about Amelia. The toddler years, though still distant, terrify me. How am I going to manage mommyhood and safely raising a healthy young girl and instill my sense of gender equity at the same time? There are so many things I want to teach my daughter:
1. The arbitrariness of "girl" and "boy" specific clothes
2. The availability to her of all and any sports and activities she wants to try
3. The difference between sex differences and gender differences, and most importantly
4. How to feel confident in herself, no matter what she wears/does.
I'm sure the unnamed mommy on the blog I read would want all those things for her daughter as well, but I believe it starts with everything, and anything that comes up. Barrettes play an important role too! They have to, or else we get a snowball effect into everything else.
My somewhat irked, immediate knee-jerk reaction was "why not?" Why can't your son wear head decorations that keep his hair out of his face. Is it the colour? The flowers attached? And why was this statement separated from the rest of the paragraph, and bolded? And as equally as important as the restrictions this meaning has for the unborn baby boy, what does it mean for her daughter? My mind was racing as I began imagining all of the boxes and guidelines her daughter would be placed in as well. Maybe there are clothes she can't wear, or sports she can't play. Its strange and sad to find such a restrictive statement on an otherwise modern and progressive blog.
Which of course made me think about Amelia. The toddler years, though still distant, terrify me. How am I going to manage mommyhood and safely raising a healthy young girl and instill my sense of gender equity at the same time? There are so many things I want to teach my daughter:
1. The arbitrariness of "girl" and "boy" specific clothes
2. The availability to her of all and any sports and activities she wants to try
3. The difference between sex differences and gender differences, and most importantly
4. How to feel confident in herself, no matter what she wears/does.
I'm sure the unnamed mommy on the blog I read would want all those things for her daughter as well, but I believe it starts with everything, and anything that comes up. Barrettes play an important role too! They have to, or else we get a snowball effect into everything else.
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