More from Naturally Knocked Up!

A little while ago I shared a post about homemade oil face wash, which I found on the blog, Naturally Knocked Up. Well, it gets even better - if you follow this link to her 'recipe' page - you'll find posts about how to make all sorts of amazing things! And it's not just food related recipes (although who doesn't love those?). My favourites are the last two sections - Natural Living and Natural Health. You can learn to make your own deodorant, fabric softener, and even wood polish (and a handful of other awesome things)! Enjoy!

I Love the Library!

It's silly, but I go through phases where I forget about all the great books and dvds I can borrow from the library. I search through second hand stores, look on Amazon.ca for good deals, and often give up. Silly!!

Luckily, I somehow magically remembered the greatness that is the library borrowing system the other day. And to make things even easier - all I had to do was log in to their web site using our library card and request all the books and dvds I wanted. In a day or two, I'll go to our local branch and (most) of our items will be waiting on the pick up shelf for me! How easy is that?!

On my current request list are 5 dvds and 5 books. The topics cover birth, prenatal yoga, vaccines, caring for infants and a couple books about the Montessori way of teaching/raising kids. I can't wait to devour all of them!

Also, for those of you who are pregnant, or thinking about heading down that road someday, remember this: there are a million books about everything, but if you want your partner to get the information too - get the dvd! So many of the books have a dvd option and they cover the same material in a more user-friendly manner - genius!

Room Arrangement Update

Thanks to the great feedback I got from other mommas on facebook, I am going to leave the crib and chair where they are now. As much as I might think being able to see the baby will be comforting to me, I'll probably feel better if I just get up and peer over the crib ledge and check up close that she's breathing. Hopefully my nerves about this will calm down after a few weeks, but I'm okay with the idea that I might be doing this for a while.

Meanwhile, I found a home for our change table and hung a storage bin thing beside it. The storage bin thing is the type you get to put shoes in and it hangs in your closet. I've half filled it with cloth diapers and left room for cloth wipes, receiving blankets, etc. I think it's a lot more functional than having to open the cupboard doors on the change table and bending down to get out a diaper when the baby's lying on top of the table. Now I just need to figure out whether to hang the wet bag on the wall beside the change table, or in the adjacent bathroom where the diaper sprayer will be attached to the toilet.

Did I mention how much I love organizing things?

Room Arrangements

I am seeking the advice of all moms. In reading this post, I especially want you to think back to those first few weeks when you were a first time mom.

I am struggling with the placement of the crib in our bedroom. I have heard loud and clear the recommendations for a bassinet, but please, hear me loud and clear: we do not have the space and I do not want baby items that become useless after a month or two. We have zero storage space, so using something for a short time and then storing it until the next baby is simply not an option for us.

That being said, we have opted to put the baby into the crib straight away. This is not what I want your advice about. Actually, what I'm trying to figure out is the best way to arrange the rocking chair and crib. Currently, they are next to my side of the bed, with the chair closest to my bedside table and the crib beside the chair. I originally did this because I wanted the rocking chair to be my main nursing station. By placing it next to my bedside table I have access to a lamp for reading, my basket of books that sits under my bedside table, and a place to keep snacks and a glass of water.

Now the dilemma is this: I want to be able to see my baby in the crib as she's sleeping and I'm lying in bed supposed to be sleeping. The catch is that the crib ends are solid wood (I used a thick black line in the image above to illustrate this) and the sides are slatted (illustrated by the dotted line on the image). So, with the crib positioned as it is now, I can't really see that well into it from my spot in our bed.

So here is my question: Should I swap the crib and the chair so that I can see better into the crib, or is it more important to have the chair near a lamp and table?

*Keep in mind I cannot rearrange any other aspects of the room - the baseboard heater prevents any furniture from being placed against that wall, the cable outlet for the tv is precisely where the tv is located, and we have already played with other arrangements and they just don't work.
**Also keep in mind that I realize I won't always be nursing in that chair (I'm sure I'll nurse anywhere and everywhere), but for the times that I do use that chair, I'd like it to not be a hassle.

Thank you in advance for your advice!

Baby Belly and 3D Ultrasound!

Time for an update! Here are the photos from 22 weeks and 23 weeks, and a couple of the photos from the 3D ultrasound.

 

 

It's a girl!! ♥

Good Times With Chocolate!

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine seemed to need some cheering up (aka chocolate). Which inspired me to try a couple new recipes and see what I could whip up (and then ship off in the mail to said friend!).

First I whipped up the Chocolate Brittle Surprise recipe pictured above.I found it to be a little too sweet, but I'm guessing Adam didn't - since he ate all of it in a day or two!

Then I tried out a Hershey's recipe for Easy S'more Clusters. At first I wasn't a big fan of these, but they definitely grew on me and became my favourite pregnant lady midnight snack! Yum!

Both of them were reallllly easy! I definitely recommend trying them if you need a chocolate fix!

Dishwasher Woes

I've never been thrilled with the quality of our dishwasher. But we're renters and it's a built-in, so we put up with it. At least we did... until a couple days ago with the bowl pictured above came out of the dishwasher after a 'heavy duty' cycle. Most of the other dishes were clean. Glasses on the top shelf almost always come out with stuff baked into them. Gross. But none of the other dishes ever looked quite like this. Wow.

I've since gone on a googling rampage attempting to figure out what's going on with the dishwasher.  So now I've run a cycle with just citric acid in the dishwasher, I've added vinegar to the rinse agent thingy, and I've checked all the filters and stuff to make sure they're not clogged with food. It's improved slightly, but we still have the problem with the glasses.

Any dishwasher experts out there want to offer some tips?