Why and How we cloth diaper

People look at me like I am crazy when I say we cloth diaper our triplets I don't know why? Do you know the cost of diapering a baby from birth to potty training? Over $1500 per kid and that is if they potty train at 30 months so 2 1/2 if they are like N and don't train till 3 1/2 that puts the total over and that puts you over $2000. Now take that amount and times it by 3 we would be looking at spending $6000 or more ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(cost came from here)
Not to mention the waste we would be throwing away nearly 7000 diapers per kid so wow my kids alone could fill a trash dump with just there diapers.
I wish we would have started when the babies were born with cloth but trying to get used to having triplets and there size did not allow for that for us. We used disposables till they were 3 months old then started them in prefolds. Which is a flat piece like our grandmas used with a cute plastic cover. I am just not a fan of them plus they were not at all trim diapers on my kids but my whole stash of 12 covers and 100 prefolds cost me total of $200 yup so nothing almost. We went through almost $200 in disposables a month so it was a nice option. But I was not a fan of fit and R never quite figured it out so I was able to sell them and make my money back. Yup I sold them and made money! I took that money and put it towards buying a brand I know and love we are Bumgenius family we have close to 50 diapers and as long as we have no issues with them we will never have to buy more.

Now cloth is a little more work then using a sposie but come on anyone can see that cloth is 100 times cuter then a sposie

(picture is not mine)

My girls don't have to wear kick pants with there dresses cause there diapers are cute enough to show off. So now the work I have to wash there diapers every other day. Yes I have enough to go longer but then the machine will get to full and the diapers will not get clean. So we use pocket diapers which means the absorbent part can be taken out and put back in to make them more or less absorbent mine are also velcro not snaps I just like them better but they do wear out faster meaning might not last using it for 10 kids but will last as long as you wash and take care of them right. So all I do to wash my diapers is I take the insert out as soon as I change the kids and throw both the insert and the shell (what the outside cover is called) in to a pail liner which is a cloth and water prof bag I keep in a large trash can next to the changing table. When it is time to wash them I flip the bag inside out putting all the diapers in to the wash I never have to touch anything. If they babies have gone poop in there diapers I use a sprayer attached to my toilet to spray the poop off the diapers. Then yes I do 4 washes on the diapers with only 2 having soap in then to get the diapers clean the rest are just rinses cause you can get a build up even on your clothes over time. I then just put the inserts in to dryer and hang the shells to dry. After it is all dry and stuff the inserts in to the shell and we are ready to go. The time I spend doing all this is 30mins if that spread out over a night. Not that long but it is so worth it to us. Do we ever use spoises yes like when I had to have the babies do a clear out yes I had to make them have massive blow outs I did use sposies but in the months that we have only used cloth we have all ready saved what we spent on cloth. My total I think is around maybe $500 for diapers for 3 kids again that is a huge savings.
Yes I do a few more loads of laundry a week but the savings and the fact that we could only use some spoises anyways cause the babies have super sensitive skin. And really when you have 4 kids and 2 adults in a house you are doing so much laundry anyways you don't even notice the extra. One thing I have learned from all this is the fact that in my next house we MUST Have a bigger laundry room ours now is tiny and I hate it I dream of a day where I can move in there and not feel like I am a tiny box. So this is what we do and why we do am I crazy yes and no but the diapers are not one of the reasons I am.

The first 6 months

I am going to try my best to write as much as I can about there first 6 months to see if can get caught up and keep up to date on this blog now.

 E is such a silly little girl she has always been our smallest and shortest poor thing is the oldest but the smallest but boy does that girl have some thighs lol. We call her the joker cause she is one serious little girl she hardley smiles or laughs but when she does it is the best thing ever. She has silent reflux she arches her back and cries but she does not spit up. She has been a little behind her brother and sister developmentally but I think she is like her big brother and she wants to do it all perfect. E loves to sit she can only sit if she is supported but it is something at least and she loves to sit back and watch I think she will be one to watch her sister and brothers get in trouble and be quite about it all.

 A oh the little diva she is now called Thumper cause she always hitting her foot on things. She started out as our biggest but now not so much she came home on regular formula but the other 2 were on breast milk and neosure 24cal formula to help them grow. I did breastfeed A and she was only one to ever latch and get a full meal but I was only able to pump and breastfeed for 2 months it just got to hard with all of them, N and R was going to be leaving and I was going to be on my own. A was the first one put on meds for her Reflux she was also changed to neosure 22 at around 2 months cause she was just not growing well she was put on neosure 24 about a month later to help her catch up. She is VERY high needs she thinks the world is all about  A all the time she is so sweet and such a cuddles and smiles.

M is the best baby in the whole world he is always happy all you have to do is look and him and he laughs. He started out having some growing issues also and was also put on reflux meds and since then he has chucked up he has to cutest little chubby face and is just a joy to be around but has also been our worst when it comes to health.

 In February E started it off with a cold then she started wheezing so off to the ER I took all 4 kids for them to suck out her nose and tell me it is RSV. R came home a few days later and on a Thursday M started to seem a little sick since R had just got back we went out lunch and R told me when there M felt a little warm so we came home and when I took his temp it was 103.5 for a 2 1/2 month old that  is really high so I packed him up and off the ER we went to the hospital he was born at. We get there and we are checked him quickly and then taken back where there was several Dr's and nurses waiting for us. M was retracting and having trouble breathing along with being dehydrated. He earned us a admit to the hospital but upstairs was full so we spent the first night in the ER with him on O2 and IV. We ended up going upstairs the next day and were there till Monday afternoon. still no idea why it hit him so hard bug it was not fun. I stayed with him the whole time and daddy had the other 3 he did bring the other 3 down to see us so I got to see my other kiddos. A got RSV a few days later but it was not so bad for her.

 Other then that M was in the ER 3 other times all for breathing issues. We have now been told he has asthma which he seems way to young for but I guess not he is now on inhalers several times and day and I have to keep a close eye on him.

 All the babies have had some growth issues but seem to be doing a lot better now at 6 months they 13lbs for both girls and 16lbs for M. They started solids now and have so far had 3 foods E did not like sweet potatoes  at all. I was trying to make there food just like I did for N but it got to be to hard so I know using jar which makes me feel bad but I am on my own a lot so I have to do what I can when I can.

N has been doing very well keeping me very busy he went to preschool this last year well it was a moms morning out program but he got to be with other kids and play and learn a little he liked it a lot but will not be going back next year instead I will be home schooling him yikes. R was not really a fan of the school so we decided not to send him back along with the fact that with any luck we will be moving sometime in the near future we hope we did not want to start to pull him out. He growing and he loves to talk now if only we could get him to control his volume we would be set.

 IT is a challenge to be a mom to these 4 and they keep me very busy but I do it and I love it. I am hoping to do at least monthly updates on here but I am trying to decide if I should put picture on here? I need to figure out how to watermark them cause there are some crazy people out there who will try and steal picture of babies and more so multiples I don't know why. Hope you all enjoy reading all this.

D-Day & time in the hospital

November 29, 2011 Babies Birthday.
 We went to MUSC hospital in downtown at around 9am to check in for my scheduled c-section. Got in the room around 10am was supposed to start surgery at 11am but the nurse was more concerned with getting me hooked up to monitor the babies then starting all the meds I was supposed to get she also messed up other stuff I don't think the Dr's carried for her much either. It took forever to get in OR and I was starving. Not sure what time we got in the OR but it was freezing in there I got my spinal and hubby got to come in and they got started.

They went around the room and said who everyone was and why they were there. No joke there were 4 anthologist, 3 or more nurses, the dr and several residents I think there were at least 10 people in the OR and then each baby had a team of 3 people waiting for them in the next OR and the triage room between the OR's so all in all I think there were over 20 people there for my delivery.
At 12:11pm they pulled out Baby A little E she weighed in at 4lbs 5oz and I think 17in long they held her up said it is a girl and off she went I can't even remember if she cried I was to busy trying not to puke. At 12:12pm out came Baby B our big girl A she weighed in at 5lbs 2oz and 18in long they told us girl again, no idea if cried. Last out at 12:13pm was baby C the little man M was 4llbs 11oz and 17 1/2in  when they pulled him out they said girl R and I both looked at each other and said WHAT???? They then corrected and said "oh wait boy boy sorry" lol.

E had to go to the level 2 nursery just because of her size she was to small to go anywhere else they showed her to me and took her away. A got to come see me and she went right to the level 1 nursery cause she was and healthy. When I was on the table at this point being put back together I heard the Dr telling someone "no no you have to put it back in the way it came out" I was a little scared that I was going to be put back together wrong lol thankfully it appears I was put back together right. R was with the babies during all this and once I was taken to recovery he came in I asked why I had no seen M yet and he told me he was having some  trouble breathing and was being taken to the NICU. They wheeled him in the recovery room so I could see him before he went upstairs to the children's hospital. I had to stay on IVs for 12 hours I was taken to the postpartum unit and told to eat but I felt to sick from the meds and ended up getting sick and then just sleeping.

 They brought A to my room to see me and she nursed well and was helping me to get my milk in she had to wait till I saw her sister to get names. Around midnight I was able to get out of bed shower and then head to see E and M. As soon as I saw E I knew who was who and went ahead and named them. E had some issues with her blood sugar so she was on an IV which was in her head and heartbreaking to see. I got to cuddle her and get information about what was going on with her, we stopped in next door real quick  to see her sister and tell her what her name was. Then we went upstairs to see M if E having the IV was heartbreaking M ripped my heart out he had an IV in his head and a CPAP in his nose and he was so tiny and we were not allowed to hold him every time we touched him his heart rate would drop so we could not even touch him.
Two days after he was born M was moved down to the level 2 nursery with E they were in the same little unit it was great. I was pumping every 3 hours day and night for them to try and get my milk to come in for them. A was able to nurse and on day 4 her and I were discharged to go home. There is nothing harder then leaving the hospital after giving birth with out your child I was going to have to leave 2 there but was lucky enough to take 1 home with me.

M is a fiesty little boy he decided he did not want his IV any more on day 3 and tired to pull it out  he did pull out his tube for feedings and when he was in NICU he pulled out his CPAP. He pulled his feeding tube again on day 8 and they never put it back and he was home with us on the 10th day of his life which happened to be the day before his big brothers bday party.

E was a little slower on the whole coming home thing she would not take her feeds she did not care she would take like 1-2cc and be done and the rest of her feeds still had to be done by tube she had no other issues at this point aside from learning to eat. She was all set to go home on day 15 of life she was supposed to be on O2 for feeds it helped to keep her awake long enough to finish her feed. We went to N christmas show at school and came home to change and feed A&M before going down to pick up E when I got the call she would not be able to come home after all she had a Bradycardia and would have to stay for 3 extra days to make sure she was OK. So we waited and finally on day 18 we got to bring her home she still had to be on the O2 for feeds but that was it. We finally had all our kids together and then the fun really started.

Triplet Pregnancy

All right so now it is time to wright about the 8 months I was pregnant with the trio. This might be a little hard to due since I don't remember a lot.
I had a pretty easy pregnancy with the trio as easy as it can be when you carrying 3 babies in a 5ft 3in body. I did not start really showing until around 18 weeks I was the same way when I was pregnant with N. R deployed when I was around 13 weeks along so it was N and I till Sept that made for one very tired mommy.

I got 17P shots starting around 16 weeks till I was 32 weeks oh my word did those hurt i had to go in weekly to get shots in my butt very oil based shots that stung and left lumps in butt for weeks. The shots have not been proven to help when someone is pregnant with multiples but due to the fact that I went in to labor with N at 35 weeks they wanted the trio to bake as long as they could so they recommended we try the shots.

At 18 weeks I had the gender scan done and had them put the genders in an envelope since R was gone and wanted us to find out together it was TORTURE! He called me and when I opened the envelope there were 3 pieces of paper  which I read to him. Baby A Girl! Baby B Girl  (ok I admit I started to panic here that they would all be girls) Baby C Boy! (sigh of relief). We were very excited to know what they were and to start thinking about names.

Around 25 weeks I was told I had gestational diabetes it is very common with multiples and with my PCOS it is also very common I barley failed the 3 hour but none the less I was told had it and was told to start by going on diet of sorts with cutting out carbs well was not eating enough and I was starving all the time. I made the choice along with my Dr that the best option for me would be to take the pills to help control it I was able to eat a lot more and felt so much better.

At 27 my brother flew in to help around the house and to help with N when the babies came. R called me to tell me he was back from a trip and needed me to drive down to the base to get him. As I was driving down there I started to feel uncomfortable I got down to the base and went to bathroom thinking maybe my bladder was to full. I continued to have the pain when we were driving home I could not talk through the pain so I called the Dr and they told me to head in to labor and delivery. When I got there we found out I was contracting less then 5 mins apart and I was starting to dilate. So I got to be put on a mag drip and got the steroid shots for there lungs I was on the mag for about 12 hours and they were able to stop the contractions. I had to stay in the hospital from Thursday night till Saturday afternoon. I was then placed on bed rest till I was 33 weeks pregnant.

I was 33 weeks when we set my repeat c-section date for November 29th at 35 weeks 3 days. When I went to my appt on November 28th last appt before my c-section we found that my blood pressure was getting higher  and I had hypertension. All in all I gained a total of 40lbs during it all which is low for triplets but still good. I will post up delivery later at this rate I will have first year done by time they start school lol.

Can you count again? (finding out triplets)

WARNING Some bits are graphic about how they do selective reduction!

On April 20 2011 I got the best news ever a positive pregnancy test. I went on April 22 for a beta test to check my pregnancy hormones they were 238 kind of high for 13 days after ovulation but not to bad. I went back on April 25th 16 days after ovulation and my number was 1091. Ok for anyone who knows about this that is kind of a fast doubling time at about 33 hours they want it to double in 48 hours.

On May 12, 2011 6 weeks 5 days R and I took N to my RE's for our first ultrasound. Before the tech came out the nurse was asking Nate how many babies were in mommy's tummy N told then 8 we said ha ha very funny. I got undressed and on the table and the tech came in to do the unfun kind of ultrasound women you know what I am talking about lol. The tech was very quite when she started all I could think was that we lost another baby. The tech then asked me how many eggs I had, I told her 1 I know of why? I was thinking oh she found twins wow. She then told me cause there are 4 sacs in here. 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT??????????? At this point Robert asked that she please count again cause she must be wrong.

We were then told there were 4 sacs but only 3 of them had babies with heartbeats in them so far. So we had at least triplets maybe quads. The Dr wanted to sit down and talk to us about our options. R had to take a call from work when the Dr was talking to me but she told us about reduction. Basaclly we would have to go to NYC to have a Dr do genetic testing on our babies and then if one had a issue they would inject something in to that babies heart to stop it or if all were healthy they would pick the baby closet to the cervix. I knew right away there was no way in hell I could even think about doing this. I did how ever want to give R the chance to make a choice. After that the Dr told me to follow up with regular OB. We went out to lunch at this point to talk about our options I explained things to R and he said nope not an option for him either.

I called my OB before we even left Columbia and she had me set up with the high risk Dr for 2 week later to check on things and start my care. We also called our moms from where we were eating and told them they were soon having 3-4 more grand kids boy were they shocked and excited.

The next night I started bleeding and went to the hospital on Saturday they did not find the reason for bleed but figure that is when I lost baby D. When I went for next appt we found that the sac for D was almost completely gone and nothing left. We will never forgot our forth baby. I will give more info on the rest of the pregnancy in another post.

Infertility

I have what is called PCOS I do not ovulate on my own meaning there is no way for us to become pregnant with out the help of medication. To end up pregnant with N we tried for 4 months on our no medications I went to the Dr at that point and was given Clomid. I took Clomid for 4 cycles before becoming pregnant the night before R left on his first deployment, 8 months later we had N.

When N turned 1 I went off of birth control to start trying for baby number 2. We tried for one month on our own then R deployed again. When he returned we started on Clomid once a again on the 3rd cycle I found I was surprisingly pregnant again we did not think I had ovulated I was about 6 weeks when we found out I had a bleed right under the baby. I went back at 7 weeks to find we had lost our little angel. My body refused to let go of the pregnancy though so a week later I did had to take some meds to help me to pass everything and move on from that pregnancy. R was gone at school at that time and we had just moved in to our new house it was very hard time for me. I will never forget our baby Aug 10.

I started seeing a Reproductive Endocrinologist in Nov of 2010 she was a huge help we did a few more rounds of Clomid and then moved on to inject able medications fun times let me tell you. In April of 2011 I did another round on Menopur and Ovdril I think my 3-4 round at higher doses. I had one good follicle they told me a few tiny ones. I took a pregnancy test near the end of the month and low a behold my one egg got me pregnant little did we know what some of those tiny eggs also got me pregnant. The rest of that story will wait for my post about pregnancy. I will say that with this pregnancy we also lost our baby D another child I will never forget and as I look at your brother and sisters know we wish you were with them here with us.

I am one of the lucky ones I was able to get medical help and able to get pregnant with out having to go to some of the steps others have to take. I know I am very lucky there are many women out there who have can't get pregant at all or don't have the medical or money to get pregnant when they want to. I am one of the lucky ones who came out of infertility very easy. Yes I lost 2 of my children but I know many people who have lost many more children then I. I hope that one day everyone who wants kids is able to have them and not have to suffer the lose of any pregnancies.

Been very busy

I have not posted again in over a year oops. We have had a very very busy year.I will start from the beginning and try and write a few post to explain what has been going on. Well first of all our family doubled in size. We had 3 yes 3 babies I will go in to our infertility struggles and the pregnancy and birth and catch you up in few posts. I don't want to over whelm you in one post. I don't have a lot of followers and most of you know the story but want to keep all of this to print for the kiddo's one day.

So other then having the babies we are still living in Charleston, R is still doing the Load master thing, and me I am doing the mommy thing. N is 3 oh my word where did my tiny baby go? He is going to a moms morning out preschool 2 mornings a week and he is loving it. N is loving the babies and getting to do things the babies can't do. He does hate it that we can't spend as much time with him but we are working on it. The kids keep us busy as can be I feel like I go go go from sun up till way past sun down. I will save more for my other posts hoping it will keep me writing.