Gender Prediction Myths.

Is it true that there is no sure fire way of knowing the gender of your child without either getting testing or waiting the long haul for the ultrasound? Many mothers insist that they can tell based on a few old wives tales that have been passed down throughout history, although many seem to have nothing to do with a baby at all! Personally, I know that my mother is convinced she can tell by how high or low someone is carrying a baby. Is there any science to this? We shall see!

Sleeping Position
Well according to this wives tale you can guess the gender of your baby based on what side you sleep most on during your pregnancy. If you sleep mostly on your left you are having a boy, if you sleep on your right its a girl. The issue then arrises that it is the new recommendation to sleep on your left side while pregnant to avoid having the baby squish any vital organs or arteries that are supplying them with what the need. Personally, pregnancy and sleep don't mix well with me so I like to sleep in whatever way makes me comfortable which could be switching sides every 10 minutes! This pregnancy I have a pregnancy body pillow that helps a ton, and because of the shape of the pillow I sleep facing right. No science.

This predicts : GIRL

Morning Sickness
The rule of thumb is that if you are more sick you will be expecting a little lady rather than a little man. There seems to be a little more science behind this one, however of course I have heard of many woman being extremely sick with their little boys! There was a study that was conducted by the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington where they studied 2110 pregnant woman that were hospitalized for hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), and 9783 woman without HG. The study showed that woman who became severely ill did in fact have a 50% increase in the chance of having a girl. (Click for Source) Why this is? We have no clue, but unless you are hospitalized for morning sickness there is really probably no sure fire answer. However, with Carter I didn't experience a single day of feeling anywhere close to sick, this pregnancy I was sick as a dog for about 13 weeks.

This predicts : GIRL

Soft or Dry Hands
Easy. If your hands are soft expect a boy, if they go dry expect a girl. Why this makes no sense.. because I have never suffered dry hands in my lifetime. Unless they went dry for the very first time I will remain unconvinced this one holds any truth.

This predicts: BOY

Food Cravings
This one has ran deep in our history and this is probably what I get asked about most often. I would be interested to know if there is in fact science behind the theory itself however there's more science against the theory all together. If you are into sweets (sugars, fruits, candies) its a girl, if you crave more meats and salts it is a boy. With Carter all I ate (and this is everyday of his ENTIRE pregnancy) was deer sausage and deviled eggs. With this baby I couldn't look at meat or eggs if I wanted to, I have had to invest stock in fruit and learn to shop around my cravings, taking things that were once on my shopping list off in order to satisfy my deep deep desire for fruit. All day every day. The science here is that the body craves what it needs most to provide for the baby. If you are low on something it will crave it in order to get you back to a healthy place, why I need so much fruit, who knows?

This predicts: GIRL

Acne
The theory is "If you have an acne ridden face your little girl has stolen your beauty, if not its a little boy".. well.. I think I have a beautiful little boy so pish posh! However with Carters pregnancy I didn't get acne faced at all, this time I have.

This predicts: GIRL

Graceful or Clumsy
This is an interesting one.. I have no thoughts on how this could be accurate or not but this pregnancy I have fallen twice where as with Carter I never took a tumble. Maybe I was more cautious with him?

This predicts: BOY

Face Weight Gain
I think everyone is bound to gain a little in the cheeks with all this extra blood flow! I gained in the face the last 2 months of Carters pregnancy, which technically meant that I was having a little girl and he is all boy. I expect to gain in the face again towards the end however I have yet to gain any weight at all!

This predicts: BOY

Mood Swings
If you go by this theory, if you are one moody pregnant lady expect a little girl in your future. Now if you ask my husband (who thoroughly believed in this theory with every inch of his being) what he thought Carter was he would be quick to scream girl. I was SO moody and miserable that he was convinced on this myth alone that I MUST be having a girl. Extra estrogen.. extra moody? He has said many times over that this pregnancy has been a breeze (for him.. the one who isn't puking) because I have been so delightful and happy!

This predicts: BOY

High or Low
The idea is that if you carry high it is a girl, if its low it is a boy. Wouldn't this depend on body shape and current fitness status rather than the gender? Who knows. With carter I carried low, and sure enough he is a boy. This time around I am carrying much much higher.

This predicts: GIRL

Where is the Weight
It is said that if you carry the weight only in front it is a boy, and if it is all over than it is a girl. I gained so much with Carter (based on previous bad eating habits!) that I couldn't help but gain everywhere! This time I have yet to gain anything so I would assume that means that I am carrying in front?

This predicts: BOY

Toddler Advice
If your toddler shows interest in your growing belly expect a little girl, if not it must be a boy. Well.. Carter loves this belly and gives kisses and hugs all day long. He is now interested in his own belly and even sleeps with his finger in his belly button. I'm not sure that he could accurately predict the gender.

This predicts: GIRL

Chinese Calendar
A long long time ago people crated a calendar that could predict the gender of your baby with ease, lets face it they have a 50/50 chance of getting it right. It takes your age and month of conception to decide on a boy or a girl. They were wrong with Carter! This time around it says again that I am having a girl, however.. for the entire year of being 21 (which is how old I was when the baby was conceived) the only month I could have conceived a boy is Januray. The rest of the year I would be bound to be having a girl according to the charts, this baby was conceived in February.

This predicts: GIRL

Heart Rate
This theory has plenty of science to deny its legitimacy, however it's still a fun one to think of. If the babies heart rate is over 140 beats per minute it is a girl, if it is under than it is a boy. This baby? The heart rate is exactly 140. The science that ruins it is simple, when you first conceive the heart rate is likely in the 170's and stays high until about 10 weeks when it starts to drop to the more comfortable 120-140 range where it will remain throughout the rest of the pregnancy. So naturally the heart rate will slow down so the accuracy of this theory is unknown.

This predicts: EITHER WAY

What AJ and I "Did" about Gender
We found a theory called the "Shettle's Method" created by a Dr. Shettle himself and decided it was worth a shot. The idea behind the theory is all based off of when you do the deed in comparison to when you ovulate (when your body releases the egg each month). According to Shettle's, Y chromosome bearing male sperm are quicker than X chromosome bearing female sperm BUT female sperm can outlive the male sperm by a few days. Theoretically if you do the deed within 3-5 days prior to your known ovulation date than by the time ovulation occurs many of the male sperm have died off giving you a greater change of conceiving a girl. Likewise, if you do the deed on the day of ovulation the male sperm who are much quicker are more likely to reach the egg first and win the race. While AJ and I truly don't "prefer" one gender other the other we decided to swing for a boy thinking that boys are simply what we know. We love raising boys. I would love to be a boy mom and have two boys close in age to be buddies!

This predicts: BOY

If we sit back and tally all the results we get boys at 6 and girls at 7.. so truly there is no edge one way or the other. This only makes things even more fun for us as we wait until birth to find out, and while I knew in my heart that Carter was a boy I can say that this time around the block I truly have no idea. The unknown is fun for us and this baby will truly be a surprise to us all.

We have created a facebook page in regards to Social Media tips and tricks and would be honored if you would like our page! Click on the link to our page HERE and like away, we will be hosting giveaways as well as teaching those who wish to learn about all the in's and out's of the social networking world and how to make it change your life! Happy Tuesday everyone!

-T

| visit: facebook.com/dirtydiaperdiaries for more information |

Room Tours & Why Carter went to a Toddler Bed at 12 months!

After moving to Washington we decided to rent a beautiful yellow home with white window shutters, hard wood floors but carpet in the bedrooms and a yard worth bragging about, everything I have dreamed of! It was perfect, especially since we weren't sure exactly how long we would be here, considering we moved out here to follow my husbands job so there is always a chance we could up and move again! What we didn't think about is that our perfectly sized two bedroom could start to feel small after deciding to add a third member to our family. This weekend we were able to shop, move the rooms around and make our home feel large again! 

Our Room:

I am a huge fan of neutrals.. and Ikea. The key to making my space feel cozy was staying as utilitarian as possible, the less inside of a space the comfier it is to me. Clutter and unnecessary furniture stress me out! We got rid of two bed side tables, one dresser, our dogs kennel as he sleeps in our bed anyway and loads of wall decoration in order to organize the following into our tiny space:

White Bedside Table - Ikea
Down Comforter - Ikea
Grey Blanket + Matching pillow Shams - Ikea
Grey Throw Pillows - Target
Grey Sheets - Target
Einstein Bulb - Ikea
Shelf - Ikea
Baby Monitoring System - Motorola 7 in.
Oil Diffuser - Young Living
Sketched Family Portrait - @sketchedinmemories

(Unseen - Vintage Dresser, 21 in. TV for netflix!)

One important aspect of our room is where we will have the baby sleep, by switching rooms we lost loads of extra space but without a doubt we knew we wanted to keep baby in our room for those first few months of constant night nursing. After experimenting with seemingly every different kind of contraption in the world after Carter was born, we came across the rock - n - play and it worked like a charm. We got a new one for the new baby and snuck it in next to my side of the bed!

The last item that we HAD to have (in both our room and Carters room) was our ever so faithful Latchy Catchy! This tiny device attaches itself to your door knobs on either side of the door allowing you to push open the door without twisting the door knob and making noise that could potentially wake up your kiddos. We got one for Carters room when he was only a few months old and it has drastically changed our nighttime experience. Having the ability to go in and out of your children's bedrooms silently, rather than feeling the pressure not to check on them for the fear of waking them up, is more comforting than I can put into words.

The "Baby Corner"

Because we won't be finding out the gender until the baby is born we always try to stick to neutrals. The most frequently asked question when we tell people we are waiting is "How can you get anything ready without knowing??" Well.. this is how! I set up a nursery just for fun really, the baby will be with us in our room the first few months so if I truly desired loads of "gender specific colors" I could easily decorate after the baby decides to join us. If I am being honest, I am not a fan of using specific colors to associate gender in the first place! Something that hurt me after Carter was born was when we put him in red and went to the store, I was told that he needed more blue in order for people to recognize him as a boy otherwise they wouldn't feel comfortable congratulating me on my newborn.. what?? I shouldn't have to put my son in any color to be "adequate enough" for congratulations. Like wise I shouldn't have to put a little girl of mine in a bow every day for people to recognize her as a girl, if I decide to that should be just fine, if I decide against it I shouldn't feel like I am doing my child an injustice. Lets be honest here, babies look like babies. There simply is no sure fire way of knowing whether you are looking at a boy or a girl, asking what the person has had if you are unsure shouldn't come as a surprise or offend anyone. If I was ever asked, and I still am, whether Carter was a boy or a girl I answer with a smile. The person asking is not trying to ruin your day or say anything derogatory towards your little ones, be happy they have chosen to take an interest in them in the first place! After hearing this I knew that I would do my best to unassociate gender roles within our house hold as much as possible!

The "Carter Corner" and his Big Boy Bed!

Moving Carter from his crib is nothing new in his world. We decided to test the waters and get rid of his crib at 12 months and to our surprise, both AJ and I feel it is one of the better decisions we have made in the aspect of parenting thus far! Every time that he woke at night or during a nap he seemed to be immediately flustered and screamed for our attention, he was unable to wake up and put himself back to sleep and we had decided that letting him cry through this struggle was not what we wanted to do. We started by taking his crib mattress out of his crib and placing it on the floor during naps before cutting the crib cold turkey, and after it went so well we had the crib taken down within days!

Carter started sleeping in an Ikea extendable sized mattress (i.e. a mattress that can lengthen out to the size of a twin) on the floor from then on out! Like magic he would wake up, roll over and continue sleeping. Taking the bars away from around him brought him peace and made him feel less trapped! The floor bed was a great transitional tool as he learned to keep from falling out of bed without taking large falls. If he did fall from his bed he was all of maybe 2 inches off the floor and could pick himself up and fix himself easily. When we decided to change rooms this weekend we knew that he would be ready to make the transition into his "big boy bed" and just as we thought, he slept all night last night with ease!

If you are considering creating a floor mattress or switching your toddler to a toddler bed be sure to baby proof the room before doing anything, babies can get into so many things that we can't see that could be potentially dangerous to their curious selves. Get down on your hands and knees, at their eye level and crawl around the space and take note of everything that you see that you wish to make changes to. As an example I included the list of things that we did to baby proof Carters room before allowing him to roam around without our constant watch.

- cover all the open outlets, as an extra precaution (only if you are trained) turn the fuse off in the outlets to avoid any electricity reaching them at all
- purchase a tool that can keep your closet doors shut
- if you have any chemicals within reach remove them entirely from the room
- hook all furniture to the wall to keep if from falling on your children
- baby proof all dresser drawers
- take any toys with small pieces, and stuffed animals with plastic eyes out of the room and replace them with wooden toys and stuffed animals with sewn eyes
- invest in a high quality monitoring system, this was super important to us! If we were going to allow him free reign I wanted to be able to see what he was getting into at all times. We purchased a Motorola 7 inch monitor that allows us to see his entire room, speak to him, play music, see the temp, take photos and is NOT wifi capable. Getting a monitoring system that is NOT wifi capable will keep hackers out of hacking into your video feed and potentially talking to your children without you even knowing.

There is still so much more decorating to be had and work to be done but our start feels fresh and is making our pregnancy seem more and more real each and every day.

-T

| @skethedinmemories | http://www.latchycatchy.com/ & @latchycatchy |

Tips and Tricks to get Noticed on Social Media.

Social media now days is not only an amazing tool that we can use to keep up with those that we love, but many people create a lifestyle as well as businesses around the idea of good exposure. Photographers use social media in order to connect with prospective clients, bloggers connect with business owners to create a two way relationship to aid both in exposure to new audiences, and YouTube stars have made entire careers based off of sharing bits and pieces of their lives. Many people have tried to sneak into the world of social media in one way or another but have found it difficult to make a solid foot print or be noticed right away, and that is only to be expected. The world of social media, while it may come of as simply posting whenever you feel motivated and snapping photos of food or your babies, it is extremely complex. With all of the sheer talent and so many professional "instagrammers" out there already you are left with no choice but to work hard at getting noticed! It is not as easy as posting just any photo anymore, if you intend to put serious time and effort into your page it should be treated as a business adventure!

1. Create a Target Audience, then Create a Theme.

If you look at instagram pages of those who have found great success you will see that they all have a "flow". There is more or less a theme to their photos, whether they are all cropped in a special manner, some focus on bold and bright colors or maybe soft neutrals, maybe they take photos of only nature and want to appeal to that audience while others like myself attempt to appeal to the mothers of the social media world. Create a target audience and a feel for your page. While you feel you may be narrowing yourself, you are in fact creating room for greater success. My page without a doubt appeals to the category of parenthood, those who follow pages geared towards exploration and travel may not seek excitement in my page as much as a mom-to-be will. If I had no target audience and/or no theme or feel I may confuse my audience and lose followers of all backgrounds simply because they are confused as to what my purpose is. The goal is not to appeal to everyone, but to appeal to those who share the same passions as you do!

2. Clear, bright, properly edited photos!!

I cannot stress enough that having bright beautiful photos is a must in order to grab anyones attention! If your photos are dull, blurry, dark or pixilated people won't see the message that you are trying to relay. Having a professional camera is an added plus, but not entirely necessary to the path of success. If you have proper editing apps on your phone it can be done just as easily! I have included a photo from one of my previous blogs and wish to show you just what went into that photo before it was posted. The same amount of effort goes into each and every photo that I post!

The photo that was taken with my camera alone was far from pretty:

The first step I always take in my editing process is to crop and rotate as needed, in this photo specifically I have a knob that I want cropped out and my body is almost crooked. By cropping and rotating we came up with this:

Next, up your exposure (i.e. brightness) almost more than you think you should, if you have the tools to edit your "white balance" this is the time to boost the whites in your photo. As you can see above, the whites in my photo are nearly grey, however I desire a clean white background. For the purpose of this blog post I have not edited my "white balance" as not everyone will be able to have access to that tool!

As you can see, while the brightness was boosted, the photo becomes slightly "washed out" this is due to the fact that adding the artificial brightness can hurt the contrast of the photo. Boost the contrast up to gain back the defined colors that belonged in the photo, this will also aid in the whites that are in the photo:

Our next step is truly a two step process, and one that can go very wrong if not handled properly! There is nothing as great as a clear sharp image, and on nearly every editing device (including the instagram editor itself) you have the ability to add sharpness to a photo. Something that you may not know is that the more "sharpness" you add to a photo the more "noise" it created. The higher the sharpness the higher the little pixilations will boost sometimes making your photo that you worked so hard on look poor after the long process you just endured by editing it! There is a way to obtain a clean image with a highly boosted sharpness, you have to combat the sharpness you just added with a softening tool or noise reduction tool. If you notice pixilations as you will see in my first photo below, add a little noise reducer and see that they vanish yet the image is still sharp and clear:

(adding sharpness, notice the fuzziness you see in my arms)

☟

(after adding a softness/noise reduction)

After this point you are ready to post! While this process may have seemed difficult or time consuming, it took less than three minutes to finish and get posted to instagram. By taking these few minutes of my time I have been able to provide a much cleaner, more eye popping image that will receive more likes as well as more audience members to read my posts. Below is a before and after for you to view how important it can be to put in that little bit of added effort!

3. Participate and Remain Active

Followers who want to read your posts and stay involved in your life want you to interact with them! If they comment and ask you a question, there is nothing more insulting than ignoring them. Sometimes you may not see their comments at the time they are posted but it is important to go back through your photos often and see if there are any unanswered questions that you have yet to get to. They ask because they care, they want to know your recommendations and that is what we are here to accomplish as bloggers. If someone comments something super sweet, than thank them! Use this like you would with any conversation you would have face to face, if someone compliments your dress or asks where you purchased it while in public would you just ignore them? Absolutely not!

There is must more than simply gaining thousands of followers, but maintaining a relationship to the best of your abilities is necessary. I know that personally I wouldn't follow anyone who seemed that they could care less what is was I had to say to them. Give off a friendly vibe and let your followers know you appreciate that they take the time to keep up with you. Like all relationships this must be a 50/50 or you will see them start to disappear.

Something that I have noticed that followers enjoy is something they feel that they can participate in, little videos to get to know you where you answer their questions, blog posts that you want to feature them in, small games that you might host with the help of blogging peers. All of those keep people active as well as involved with your page! When I first started doing little activities like these, I believe that I maybe had 5 people who wanted to participate, however after time passed and I made them a regular attribution to my social media pages they grew into something that we all enjoy together!

4. Ways to Keep a Growing Audience

Don't view who unfollows you. Why? Because it truly doesn't matter! I have hundreds each and every day I am sure, but while I could easily get discouraged by that number it is important to realize that hundreds of your followers delete their instagrams each and every day. They probably didn't pick you out of a bunch and decide you weren't "interesting" enough for them, and then there are some who will! And again, this is okay! If they aren't interested in what you are posting then they are unlikely to be an active follower and theres no need to force them to stick around if they don't want to in the first place.

I do everything in my power to keep my opinions on hot topics out of my social media, because we are all human and we all disagree on the paths of life! Something that will help you from losing multitudes of followers is realizing that you are posting to a WIDE variety of men and woman who all think differently, and no one is right.. therefor no one is wrong. I would never in a million years post how I feel about something such as abortion or marijuana use during pregnancy. Why? Because those opinions are personal to myself, as well as those who are following me. My goal is never to make my followers feel uncomfortable or unwelcome by posts that I make, and knowing that in real life I would never judge or say hurtful things to those whose ideas differ from mine is carried over to my social media outlets. You will never be able to avoid all controversies, I have posted photos of myself feeding Carter a popsicle and had people tell me that I am sugaring him up too much, but while that may get some angry try approaching the situation with grace! Saying thank you for the information is always appropriate, then it is left up to you to decide as a parent what you will do from there. Most of the time people will say things such as this only because they care!

Participate in giveaways, mommy circles, follow fridays.. all of these are wonderful tools in gaining followers! If you are wanting to expand your page connect with those around you who share the same audience and interest as you will grow your followers as well as help you create life long friendships! It is important to try to stick to collaborating with people who have the same audience as yourself to avoid an unfollowing spree. If you do and "shout outs" or follow fridays with people who may not have hardly any people specific to your audience (such as my audience of mothers) you may see all of the people you gained slowly start to face away once they lose interest in your posts.

(photo of a previous giveaway featuring @SnapBibs )

Hashtag your little heart away! During my pregnancy I use common hashtags such as  #pregnant #pregnancy #18weeks and so forth because people viewing those hashtags are likely in the same situation that I am in and will enjoy seeing my feed after finding my through the hashtag! If you are a twin mom don't be afraid to hashtag your photos #twinmom, similarly if you have two kids under two a great hashtag would be #2under2. Draw people in using all of your resources!

(example of the most used/liked hashtags on Instagram)

No one likes drama... this is self explanatory. While connecting with so many woman is bound to bring up loads of estrogen, if you wish to grow and treat your page as a business adventure then act in a professional manner always. Bar none!

Do not be afraid to reach out to brands that you love and respect to collaborate a review or a giveaway. Small businesses love bloggers, they are a great way to get their product out there in the eyes of the public and gain more clients. Don't hesitate to reach out and see if someone is interested in a collaboration, because chances are they would love to in one way or another. And guess what? The worst things that could happen to you is that they say no! By collaborating on reviews and helping these wonderful small businesses they are likely to tell their clientele to come and view your review and through that you not only were able to grab some amazing hand made goodies but grow your audience as well. A collaborative relationship is a beautiful one, however you absolutely must, without a doubt keep up your end of the deal. If they take the time to send you a product you MUST take the time to write a thoughtful review. If you fail to keep up your end of the deal, word travels fast and people will share that you were unfaithful to your relationship and you will find yourself unable to collaborate again.

(photo of previous collaboration featuring +ReSqueeze LLC )


I hope that you were able to take out some insight from our post, and seek ways in which you can improve upon your pages and take the world of social media to a whole new level! Using it to your advantage can change your lives in ways you could have never imagine. We will soon be offering social media courses for those wishing to grow their pages that will include all of the above and more! Overall, enjoy yourself, enjoy what you do, and enjoy what you post!

-T

| email us at tdddiaries@gmail.com to find out more on our social media courses |

Pregnancy Purchases.

     Thus far I have been so shocked at the speed of this pregnancy that I feel like I have had little time to plan ahead for whats about to come, however I knew that specifically there were plenty of things on my mind that I wanted to do "differently". The beauty of your first born is the gift of learning, you would never call them the "guinea pig" of motherhood but there is no denying the fact that they teach us everything we do know! Even still, as I sit here and want to pretend that I have everything mapped out because I have been-there-done-that.. this new baby will require needs of their own that I am entirely unfamiliar with. The very best I can do is prepare, prepare for what I do know and be very open to the unknown. Periodically throughout this pregnancy I plan on sharing with you little things I find as must have purchases for our second little bundle, take them or leave them I hope you are able to find a few things on our lists that you yourself can indulge in and hopefully find great use of!

1. Natursutten Rounded Pacifier (as pictured above)
We never truly explored the world of pacifiers after Carter was born, we were given a few at birth and just felt that he would enjoy them like any other baby we knew. We were very wrong. I had no clue that breastfed babies often times wouldn't take a pacifier at all, yet I knew that for my own sake I wanted him to have one so badly. Unfortunately we spend way too much money store hopping and buying new, unheard-of brands only for him to decide against them and eventually we just gave up all together. When he was about 6 months old was the first time I had ever heard of the Natursutten pacifier series and knew from that moment on we would be investing in them whenever another child rolled around, and here we are creating a stash! We purchased the Rounded Pacifier which is said to be easier for breastfed babies to enjoy as it mimics the nipple of their mother, this being one added benefit of many:

• They are 100% natural, made from pure natural rubber from the tree Hevea Brasiliensis.
• The protein that can often times spike an allergy to latex is removed during production of the pacifiers to keep them safe.
• Made exclusively in Italy, all pacifiers adhere to the European Unions concerns for safety, health and environment.
• No artificial coloring.
•  No cancer causing substances.
• No hormone disturbing substances.
• No chemical Softeners.
• No parabens, PVC and phthalates. 
• They are molded as one piece to avoid any cracking or separating, allowing no room for dirt or germs to grow!

We purchased our Natursutten Pacifiers through Ryan and Rose, and plan on purchasing more after the little one arrives, I have only heard amazing things and cannot wait for our little one to enjoy them.

| http://www.natursutten.com/100-natural |

2. Ryan and Rose Binky Clips

Well this one is a given! Along with pacifiers we need a way to keep them attached to our little ones. This was one of my biggest frustrations in the binky process with Carter, they were always on the floor therefor I was always washing and re-sanitizing them all day long. Especially because he refused to keep them in his mouth. The older he got the more interesting they looked and he used them as a toy and our dog would find them shortly after.. I'm sure you can imagine what happened next. 

Ryan and Rose and ran by the super mom Lindsey Ferrell, who after having her own kids felt the need to create a binky clip of her own. The ones on the market were either unattractive or too long to serve their purpose, and she did it! She created insanely adorable, perfect length binky clips for little ones. One thing that drew my to Ryan and Rose was their wide variety of gender neutral clips. As most know we wait until birth to find out the gender of our baby and this proves to get harder and harder each time, not because we want to cave in and find out, but because there is progressively less and less gender neutral options available to us team green parents. All clothes, toys, accessories and decor seem to be strongly gender specific now days making shopping more stressful than necessary. Being able to search for fun things that will work for either gender certainly makes life easier!

• These clips are all handmade with loads of love.
• They range from 5.5-7 inches in length to aid with sanitation, i.e. keeping them off of the dirty floor!
• The clips themselves are universal and can be attached to anything.
• The metal on the clips are lead free!

The short length and long lives of these gems are why I will continue to build my stash (I have no shame in having one for every day of the week.. or month)

| http://ryanandrose.bigcartel.com/about |

3. Rock-N-Play Automatic Rocker

This item almost needs no explanation.. Carter lived in his rock and play for months, as well as slept in it nightly until he went to his own room. The incline of the rock-n-play is desirable to infants, and keeps them safe from harm of asphyxiation (choking on spit up). The sides of the rock-n-play are made from a mesh to ensure that it stays breathable and temperature sensitive, and it comes up on either side of your child almost mimicking being held in a parents arms. We truly didn't know what sleep meant until whipping out this device, and plan on using it again. 

     When I was scrolling the internet one day I saw an add for a rock-n-play that rocked itself and nearly cried. Our rock and play being the oldest model did nothing but sit there and had to be rocked manually. I cannot even begin to describe how many hours of my night were spent with my arm hanging from the side of the bed rocking and rocking the rock-n-play while Carter snoozed away. They then created a newer model that added a vibration and noise option. Adding a white noise at night helps an infant soothe as well as drown out other noises that could potentially wake him or her such as you turning around in bed or a dog barking off in the distance. The newest model that have created took ideas from all the previous models as well as added the automatic rocking technology.

• New rock-n-play auto rock comes with two rocking speed options.
• The vibration option was discontinued.
• There are 12 options of songs and 3 nature sounds to play while your little one sleeps.
• You can set a timer of 30 minutes or 6 hours of continuous rocking motion in order to avoid long nights of rocking it yourself.
• Comes with a attachable toy.
• Can be plugged into a wall or battery operated, this option to me is a huge one as we spent way too much money on batteries to sustain Carters devices!
• Easy to clean removable pad.

| http://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/brands/babygear/products/Auto-Rock-n-Play-Sleeper |

4. Newborn Cloth Diapers

We were given an amazing six months worth of disposable diapers for after Carter was born, and we used every last one of them! After reaching the point where we ran out we knew that we didn't want to have to spend the ridiculous amounts of money on disposables and wanted to try to save as much as possible. That is when we decided on cloth, I was nervous as I didn't want to have too much work on my plates being a stay-at-home-mom as well as a small business owner, however we were to pleasantly surprised with how easy it truly was. 

We were recommended to use pockets or all in ones, but decided to try prefolds first.. they are extremely intimidating and seem impossible to use as they are the old fashion versions of cloth diapers without any snaps. Just a big cloth square that you somehow had to get onto your baby. After using them and finding out that they were much easier to wash and maintain we LOVE prefolds! We plan on getting a variety of pockets and prefolds in all sizes, especially since we are lacking in any newborn sizes considering we waited 6 months to start Carter. Some of our favorite brands, and brands we have heard great reviews on are:

• Bummis
• BumGenius
• Apple Cheeks
• Charlie Banana
• Lalabye
• Econobum

Such a small list of accomplishments before baby, and such a long way to go with time just flying by. Cannot wait to share more of our Pregnancy Purchases with you, cheers to a happy, healthy nine months momma bears!

-T

18 Weeks.

We skipped a 17 week update because we were having far too much fun back in Boise to even realize we made it yet another beautiful week! The entire time we were in Idaho, both AJ and I were telling everyone that we were about 12 weeks along when they would ask and quickly have to correct ourselves to realize that we are nearly half way finished.. the fast pace of this pregnancy has blown our minds!

This weekend we will be moving all the rooms in the house around and starting on your nursery as well as spicing up Carters room with a big boy bed that he has been so excited for! I have too many ideas in my head, planning the nursery is one of my favorite parts of pregnancy.

If AJ is extremely patient he can feel the baby make teeny tiny little movements from the outside, I feel them all day long but only a few little kicks here and there are strong enough to be felt from the outside. We have yet to see them for ourselves, but I am enjoying these tiny little movements before they get so big they are almost painful! This next 10 weeks is by far the most enjoyable parts of pregnancy, we are busy soaking up the energy I have found and how great I am feeling before things like getting up from the couch become an olympic sporting event!

After 18 weeks of SHEER disagreement with names we have finally rounded them up and they are beautiful, elegant, strong and perfect for our little family. We love names that have meaning to the family lineage so when we found them they lit up our world! As some of you may know, Carter is named after his father AJ (Alexander James), who is named after his father and so forth, so it was natural to give the name Carter Alexander to our first born son! After falling in love with Carters name, falling in love with another one was super difficult. In case you don't know yet, we will be waiting until birth to find out the gender so we have to think of names for both a girl and a boy.

One thing that I found that was interesting is that the girl name we had picked for if Carter, which was Charlie, was no longer in my dreams. I feel as if that name belonged to a little girl that I didn't end up having and it didn't seem to sit right when we figured we would just use is again for this pregnancy. It was a new pregnancy, a new baby and a new time in our lives and I felt as if the name was already "taken" in a sense. I am so happy we went another direction!

If we give birth to another big strong boy he will be named:

Henry Brian Paslay

Henry, after his great grandfather and Brian after his grandfather and only uncle.

If we give birth to our first beautiful baby girl she will be named:

Penelope Mae Paslay

Mae after her great grandmother.

So little Henry or sweet Penelope, I cannot wait to see your face and kiss those tiny little fingers and toes. We see you one more time next week at the anatomy scan and then the next time will be at birth! Slow down time.. I am not quite ready!

-T