Pregnancy Loss: My Story

This is the post I never thought I would be sharing.  Today is expected due date of the baby I will never know, 10/8/15.  Of course the irony that it falls during Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month is not lost on me. 

Earlier this year my husband and I decided to try for baby #3.  I was shocked and excited when that first month I got a positive pregnancy test.  I told my girls right away and we planned our announcement for daddy; pink and blue balloons that announced we would be a family of 5. 

  

Imagine our surprise a few weeks later when bleeding lead to a blank ultrasound, low HCG levels and eventually a miscarriage.  My first thought was disbelief, how could this happen when I had already carried two babies full term?  Over the next weeks and months I had many, many thoughts but here are some things that have stayed with me:

1. I am grateful

I know this sounds crazy but in the weeks following my miscarriage I was actually grateful.  I was grateful that my body is so amazing that it could identify that an embryo wasn't viable.  I was grateful that my body identified it early instead of waiting weeks or months more.  I rarely share that I felt this way with people but I am always surprised to find out that a lot of other people that experience miscarriages feel the same way.

2. Its ok to be private about it

I am a very private person.  Before this blog post, less than a dozen people in my real life even know I had a miscarriage.  For me healing would have been stalled by talking about it too much.  I am one of those people that the more I talk about it the more I obsess and unfortunately that would not help me in this situation.  I know there is a big push to be open about miscarriage to help others, and while I think that this works well for some people, there is no shame in healing privately either. 

3. Everyone feels different

I have seen friends go through miscarriages so I think one of the biggest surprises was that I felt different and handled it differently than any one else I know.  Sometimes I felt guilty for not feeling "bad enough" (see #1) or for trying again so soon but I learned that we all grieve differently and there is no wrong way to feel.

4. God's Plan is Greater

Ten weeks after my miscarriage I found out that I was pregnant again and I am now 27 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby.  To date I have experienced all of the major "types" of pregnancy you can have: pregnancy after infertility, surprise pregnancy, miscarriage and actually getting pregnant on the first try (I know I am missing a few like adoption and surrogacy, but I would say these are the main 4). What I have learned from these 4 pregnancies is that God's plan is a perfect plan.  My first daughter required the use of a fertility daughter and after she was born I remember looking at her face and thinking that she was worth it all.  Without my loss I would never have the baby growing right now that I know will bring so much joy to our lives. 

Everyone has a different story, I know that mine is nothing like my neighbors but I hope that by reading my story you see some similarities and it bring you comfort and peace.

  

Diaper Need Awareness Week 2015

As diaper need awareness week 2015 winds down I just wanted to share the status of what I have been doing.  In the past I have volunteered to provider repair services to Giving Diapers Giving Hope free of charge.  GDGH can not accept diapers that have small repairs like broken snaps, relaxed elastic, etc. but unfortunately it was not logistically feasible to get them to me for repairs.  A few weeks ago as I started planning for another post about repairing various diaper brands (stay tuned!) I had an idea to see if any of my readers had diapers that they wanted to donate but couldn't because they required basic repairs.  I was thrilled with the response from the Naturally Crafty Mom audience and I am excited to share what was received today. 

 

After sorting through everything received (some items had PUL that was not salvageable) the following diapers will be repaired and donated to GDGH over the coming weeks: 5 BumGenius 4.0s, 1 Tots Bots, 3 Rumparooz Pocket Diapers, and 3 GroVia Hybrid Shells (not shown 1 Charlie Banana pocket diaper).

 

 

 I also went through my own diapers and picked some out to donate.  These didn't require any work but I don't use them a lot and they will serve another family really well.  Included is: 1 Diaper Rite Bamboo Pocket, 1 Diaper Junction AIO, 1 gDiaper, 1 Sweet Pea Cover plus 6 extra inserts.

 

 

Other than needing a few extra inserts, this donation is enough diapers to get a family started with cloth diapering.  I also made a financial donation to cover shipping to a family.  The accumulation of all of this is that the Naturally Crafty Mom community has provided a full set of diapers for one family in need.  I can't thank the people that have donated their diapers enough.  Diaper need does not end tomorrow so if you have diapers that you want to donate that require small repairs, please use the e-mail me function or contact me on FaceBook! 

 

Four Non-Safety Related Reasons to Leave your Child's Carseat Rear Facing

I have long been a proponent of extended rear facing for my girls car seats.  There are lots of great resources online that support the benefits of extended rear facing and the American Academy of Pediatric recommends that you leave your child rear facing until at least 2 years old.  My goal for my girls was rear facing until 4 yeas old.  My oldest will be 4 later this month but a few weeks ago we noticed that she had hit the height limit for her seat so we decided to turn her around.  After a few weeks of having her rear facing I noticed that there are actually benefits to rear facing that are not safety related and so I wanted to share four of them today.

Seat Kicking

One of the first things I noticed when we turned my daughter around was that she can now easily kick the seat in front of her. This kicking can come from random feet wiggling, angry kicking or kicking just to annoy mommy.  While rear facing the only seat they can kick is their own :).

Seat Sharing

I have daughters that are only 17 months apart and very close in size so it has always been a benefit that they can use the car seats interchangeably.  Some days one wants the pink seat, some days they both want the cow seat so we play car seat roulette.  I also like that if I only have one child with me I can put them in either seat.  With one forward facing and one rear facing now we can't share seats :).

No More Sneaking Snacks

With both of my girls rear facing, as long as I eat quietly and don't slurp any drinks they are none the wiser to my snacking.  Now there is no way I can give them apple slices and eat a doughnut without my forward facing daughter noticing the inequality and announcing it to the whole car!  This bring ups the dilemma of no doughnuts for everyone or giving them a doughnut too (note that munchkins can be individually purchased, this has solved the problem so far).  It also really adds on to the guilt of everything I eat or drink in the car if you have someone always asking "what is that you are eating/drinking?".

Back Seat Driver

Now that my daughter can see where we are going instead of where we have been I have a mini back seat driver.  She knows that red means stop and green means go and will call me out if I sit at a green light for too long before advancing.  She also likes to announce to everyone else in the car (namely her sister that can't see) things that are going on or how I should be doing things.  She is pulling off the "three-nager" designation perfectly.

Well there you have four very good reasons to leave your child rear facing as long as possible.  If the safety reasons for rear facing don't have you convinced maybe a few more months of eating your doughnut in peace will :). 

 

Good News and Bad News

Today I am excited to share some of the exciting things going on for the Naturally Crafty Mom.  The title of course says good news and bad news but really they are both good news ;).  

The Bad News

I started this blog over 2 years ago when I was testing diapers for my newborn.  I am very analytical and just using the diapers wasn't enough for me so I decided to track how everything went so that I could decide which diapers we should buy.  Of course this lead to my obsession with trying out new diapers and creating this blog to share my results (see a full listing of my diaper trails here).  The "BAD NEWS" is that my "baby" has potty trained in the last month and therefore can't try out diapers for me!  I am so proud of her for learning to use the potty so well that I don't really consider it bad news but packing up my 80+ diapers was a little sad.  Thankfully I am still using diapers on her for naps and night time so diaper laundry isn't completely gone but it's not as much fun when you don't get to look at all of your pretty diapers all of the time.  The associated good news is that my sister has volunteered to take over the diaper testing for the time being so my 18 month old niece will be testing all of the diapers for a while.  

The Good News

The good news is that in just a few short months there will be another Naturally Crafty Baby to try out diapers!!!  We are so exciting to be expecting our third child in early January.  We had our 21 week sonogram last week and everything looks great so far, so we are thrilled.  Like our first two children we do not find out the gender before birth so we can't wait to see if #3 is a boy or girl.
I have already begun purchasing newborn diapers to try out and I look forward to sharing the results.  This will be my first baby that I have cloth diapered from birth so it will be exciting to see how that goes and share any tips and tricks I come across along the way.  

Smart Bottoms Diaper Trial Results

I have been a fan of Smart Bottoms for a while, I bought the older version (version 3.0) and really liked them but never published my results and then they released the new 3.1 version.  Thankfully I was able to borrow a very gently used 3.1 version from a friend to put through my diaper trial.  

 

 

Number times of uses: 12

Number of leaks: 1
Longest wear without a leak: 3.5 hours
Big Booty factor: 3
Best Use: out of the house, naps, babysitter

Pros:

·     The all in one design is convenient

·     Soaker is sewn in on one end making the absorbency easy to customize

·     Smart Bottoms has some of the most unique colors I have seen

  Cons:

·     Sewn in soaker can't be removed to customize laundering

·     More expensive than the average diaper  

As you can see from the results above the Smart Bottoms Diaper performed really well.  Smart Bottoms makes an all-in-one diaper which is my favorite style as it is so convenient to wash and put away.  This diaper has a snake like insert that is attached at the back of the diaper and therefore you can customize where you want the absorbency.  Even though I end up line drying the whole diaper, I didn't feel like the soaker got crunchy from the line drying.  My favorite thing about Smart Bottoms is that they have really fun colors (check out spicy tuna)!  I love the unique colors of PUL and the contrasting snaps.  As an avid diaper collector I appreciate unique colors and prints.  While this diaper is more than the average all-in-one diaper, it is organic and made in the USA.  Overall a really great diaper!   

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Diaper Trial Resutls: Lalabye Baby Diaper

For months now I have been hearing all about how amazing the Lalabye Baby diaper is so I finally had to buy one.  People raved about how trim it is (which is a major selling point for me) as well as how amazingly absorbent the inserts are.  When I got my Lalabye baby diaper I was so excited to put it through my diaper trial and share the results with you!!

 

 

 

Number times of uses: 14

Number of leaks: 0 (well one tiny one)
Longest wear without a leak: 3.5 hours
Big Booty factor: 2
Best Use: out of the house, naps, under dresses :)

Pros:

·     I love the vibrant colors and rainbow snaps

·     The inserts (even when you use both) are amazingly trim and absorbent

·     Can function as a pocket, AIO and cover

 

Cons:
·     Options are limited to mostly solid colors      

After all the hype around these diapers, I must say that they did not disappoint.  They were everything I expected and more!  The diaper is really well made and the TPU feels very sturdy.  I love the vibrant colors and the candy snaps just add that extra pop to the diapers.  Above and beyond the looks, these performed amazing.  The bamboo inserts are amazingly trim and I never had a leak, Not. Even. Once!  I love that the insert snaps into the front and the back and even has the option of going inside a pocket if you want the diaper to be stay dry for your baby.  I actually used both inserts every time because the additional insert didn't really add any bulk and added a lot of absorbency.  As for cons I spent the past week trying to think of a con and I honestly couldn't come up with one so I have a pseudo-con of only solid colors offered in the line up. I would also so that the only thing keeping the Lalabye baby diaper from being the most trim diaper I have tried is that it is average width in the crotch, but other than that super trim. These diapers definitely lived up to the hype and I will definitely be including these in any future gifts.

 

 

 

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Diaper Trial Results: GroVia O.N.E.

Back in the Fall of 2014 GroVia launched an exciting new project and an associated Kickstarter campaign to produce the O.N.E diaper by GroVia.  I was really excited to see this campaign because I thought that the use of Kickstarter was such a fun idea and of course the diaper promised to have a lot of interesting features.  A lot of those features were unique such as the diaper including both hook/loop and snaps, ability to add absorbency, no prep required and a trim fit.  Of course I signed up as a backer right away and anxiously awaited my O.N.E diaper. 

 

 

When I got my O.N.E diaper and shirt I was so excited to put it through my diaper trial and share the results with you!!

 

Number times of uses: 15

Number of leaks: 0
Longest wear without a leak: 3.5 hours
Big Booty factor: 4
Best Use: night, out of the house

Pros:

·     Has a lot of unique features

·     The TPU outer is really thick and sturdy feeling

·     I love the inserts, they are trim and have both the stay dry feature using natural fibers!  

 

Cons:
·     The Micro fleece on the inside is very thick making the diaper bulkier than I expected
·     I couldn't get the hook/loop option to work well, every time I took the diaper off it       would unsnap.

·     GroVia uses different snaps than other brands making it so that shells and inserts are not interchangeable.

 

Overall I really like this diaper, as you can see it performed well during the day and I even used it a few times at night.  My favorite part is the inserts, they are really trim, easy to use and I love that they are micro fleece topped so that they are stay dry.  For most of the uses recorded I used just one insert and it would frequently last 3+ hours.  Overnight I used both inserts on my older daughter who does not pee as much and it worked great.  Of course GroVia always offers unique and fun prints and my whale print did not disappoint. 

 

While in theory the combined hook/loop and snap feature sounds great, in practice for me it did not work as well.  Every time I would take the diaper off the hook/loop was so strong that it just unsnapped so I ended up removing and just using the snaps. 

 

Overall this diaper is great and in my opinion the versatility and quality of the inserts are the shining features. Originally these were only available to Kickstarter backers but are now available at retailers (although a lot are backordered or have waitlists).

 

 

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