is weight loss common during pregnancy

This post is not about how to cloth diaper, but about the cost of cloth diapering. We have not cloth diapered before. I really wanted to cloth diaper with our third pregnancy, but when we found out we were having twins, I feel like I talked myself out of it. In some ways I wish we had (budget); in other ways, I think it all worked out (convenience of disposables). Regardless, this time, I am cloth diapering come hell or high water.

Realizing this morning that I am almost 36 weeks pregnant, I figured it was about time to get baby #4s things together. My sister and I set out this morning to get all the last minute supplies I need before we have a newborn in the house (nursing pads, breast milk storage bags, pacifiers, etc). We also went by my new favorite local baby store and picked up all the things we will need to start off cloth diapering.

Im pretty pleased when I look at the bottom line of cloth diapering compared to the bottom line of disposable diapering. As of right now, I have enough supplies to conservatively cloth diaper through the toddler years. I will most definitely be buying more cloth diapers (and possibly supplies) before our cloth diaper days are through, but this supply is a very good start. I know that some of these things (for instance, the hand-me-down prefolds) are not things that everyone has ready access to-- such as a first time mom-- but other things (like my used BumGenius Elementals) can be found if you keep an eye out.

So here are the numbers:

11 BumGenius Elemental All-in-One Diapers for $87.50

When I set out this time to cloth diaper, someone tipped me off to the BumGenius All-in-Ones. Since my husband is still somewhat skeptical about cloth diapering, I love that they work exactly like disposable diapers. The more I learned about them, the more I knew they would be the diapers for us. I firmly believe that chatting about these types of things with friends opens doors and in this case it definitely did. One of my mommy friends found a great deal on a local cloth diaper swap Facebook page and asked if I wanted to split the stash with her. Even better, they were the BumGenius Elemental All-in-Ones, the organic version of the All-in-One diapers I had decided upon. With that deal, I purchased 11 BumGenius Elemental All-in-One diapers for $87.50.

Estimated retail on (1) BumGenius Elemental All-in-One diaper: $24.99

Approximate price I paid per diaper: $8

 

6 Thirsties Duo Wraps for $81.00

I went to my local baby store to chat with the gal about cloth diapers. She tipped me off that the regular size BumGenius All-in-One diapers (as well as the Elementals) are not ideal for the newborn days. I asked her what she recommended and she said that she really liked using the prefold diapers with the Thirsties Duo Wraps. I was excited about this because we used Gerber prefold diapers with our first 3 boys as burp cloths. I have an entire bin of them. The gal at the baby store said that 6 Thirsties Duo Wraps would be enough to get started cloth diapering in the newborn days, which is what I went with. I did not buy any more prefold diapers because we have so many hand-me-downs.
Price I paid per diaper: $13.50

 

2 Planet Wise Pail Liners for $36.00

One of the most convenient aspects of cloth diapering is the wet bag. I love the idea of throwing it all in my washer instead of sorting through soaking buckets. Since Im setting up a diaper changing station for easier cloth diapering at home, I decided to go with 2 Planet Wise Pail Liners, one to use while the other is being washed.
Price I paid per pail liner: $18.00

 

1 medium Planet Wise Wet Bag for $17.00

The gal at the baby store told me that she uses just one wet bag for on the go. She said that when she gets home, shell often just dump the contents of her wet bag into her diaper pail instead of having to wash it every time. So, to start with, I only bought 1 medium Planet Wise Wet Bag to use on the go.

 

1 Planet Wise Wipe Pouch for $11.00

Well, I bought an adorable wet bag with a monster design on it... Then I saw the adorable matching wipe holder. And I knew I had to get that to. This was my only frivolous cloth diaper purchase. Yes, I could do without it. Yes, it is super cute.

 

1 6-pack of Thirsties Fab Reusable Baby Wipes for $13.00

For wipes, most of my friends make their own cloth wipes by cutting up old receiving blankets and the like. I also plan on doing this, but I did decide to buy a pack of Thirsties Fab Reusable Baby Wipes just to help get me started. That way, at least, I have "nice wipes" to try and I can always buy more if I just absolutely love them over the ones I make myself. I did remember the diaper budget and so I only bought 1 pack of wipes. ;)

 

4 bottles of BabyGanics Loads of Love detergent, unscented, for $33.98

One thing Ive been told about cloth diapers is that you need to be careful what you wash them in. I make my own detergent (read my blog post "Homemade Household Cleaners") and it has Borax in it. When I was talking to the gal at the baby store, she recommended using a detergent without Borax. Her store carries the Rockin Green Classic Rock Motley Clean detergent for around $20.00 a bag. I was planning on buying a bag to try out. However, when I was at BabiesRUs, they had the BabyGanics Loads of Love detergent at buy one get one free, $13.99 for 2. I couldnt pass up the deal and so I bought 4 bottles of it. Well see how I like it. Ive heard really good things about the Rockin Green detergent, so I can always fall back on that if the BabyGanics detergent doesnt work as well as I would like it to.

 

The total cost for all of this is $290.54.

According to the chart on Aware Beginnings Doula Services, you will need 8-10 diapers between the ages of 6-12 months, if you wash daily, with that number going down further after 12 months; I have 11 All-in-One diapers. For the newborn days, the Thirsties Duo Wraps are a diaper cover with the actual diaper being the prefold, which I have a surplus of. The gal at my baby store said the Thirsties do not need to be washed every time, but on an as needed basis. Going off of this chart, the diaper supply I have built up at just under $300 could last me until toddlerhood!

Talking to my friends who have started cloth diapering and who have been cloth diapering for a long time (second and third children in cloth diapers), I know that there will be additional expenses along the way. For instance, when we are moving, we will have to figure out the cloth diaper situation. We still have to install a diaper sprayer in the bathroom we plan on setting up our changing station; running between $40-$60 new, I plan on having my husband build one himself (check out this blog post: "DIY Tutorial: Make Your Own Diaper Sprayer"). We will probably end up buying more BumGenius All-in-Ones. But what Im most pleased about is that this is a great start. There is no rush to go buy anything else.

These are the diapers we bought for our children in the past:

Pampers Swaddlers Newborn Size: 88 count at $19.95 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.22 a diaper

Pampers Swaddlers Size 1: 148 count at $25.99 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.17 a diaper

Pampers Swaddlers Size 2: 132 count at $25.99 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.19 a diaper

Pampers Baby Dry Size 2: 160 count at $31.99 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.19 a diaper

Pampers Baby Dry Size 3: 180 count at $27.68 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.15 a diaper

Pampers Baby Dry Size 4: 180 count at $36.79 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.20 a diaper

Pampers Baby Dry Size 5: 160 count at $37.75 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.23 a diaper

Pampers Cruisers Size 3: 174 count at $36.70 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.21 a diaper

Pampers Cruisers Size 4: 136 count at $36.26 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.26 a diaper

Pampers Cruisers Size 5: 96 count at $28.46 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.29 a diaper

Target Brand Diapers (Up & Up) Size 5: 138 count at $28.99
$0.21 a diaper

With our oldest, we used Pampers Swaddlers from newborn size up to size 2, then we switched Pampers Cruisers (the Baby Dry diapers made him rash).

With our twins, we used Pampers Swaddlers from newborn to size 2, then we switched to Pampers Baby Dry before eventually switching to Target Brand. When we could, we bought biodegradable diapers, but, for the most part, we used Pampers.

For wipes:

Pampers Sensitive Wipes: 448 count at $8.78 with Amazon Subscribe and Save
$0.019 a wipe

The chart from Aware Beginnings Doula Services says you will change 10-12 diapers a day up to 6 months of age. Using their statistics and the prices of the diapers I bought for our kids in the past, here is the estimated cost of diapering one child for the first 4 months, about the time my girlfriends have been switching from Thirsties to All-in-Ones:

 

10 diapers a day x 28 days = 280 diapers / 88 diapers in Newborn Swaddlers = 3.18 boxes of diapers

 

4 boxes of Pampers Newborn Swaddlers = $79.80

 

+ 1 box of Pampers Sensitive Wipes = $88.58 for the first month of diapering

 

10 diapers a day x 28 days = 280 diapers / 148 diapers in Swaddlers Size 1 = 1.89 boxes of diapers

 

2 boxes of Pampers Size 1 Swaddlers = $51.98

 

+ 1 box of Pampers Sensitive Wipes = $60.78 for the second month

 

10 diapers a day x 28 days = 280 diapers / 132 diapers in Swaddlers Size 2 = 2.12 boxes of diapers

 

3 boxes of Pampers Size 2 Swaddlers = $77.97

 

+ 1 box of Pampers Sensitive Wipes = $86.75 for the third month

 

10 diapers a day x 28 days = 280 diapers / 160 Size 2 Baby Dry = 1.75 boxes of diapers

 

2 boxes of Pampers Baby Dry Size 2 diapers = $63.96

 

+ 1 box of Pampers Sensitive Wipes = $72.74 for the fourth month

 

For four months of conservative disposable diapering, the total cost of diapers and wipes is $300.07

Buying all of the supplies to cloth diaper cost me $290.54 and that number includes diapering from newborn to toddlerhood.

 

The $300.07 does not include Diaper Genie Refills, which we also use, and it also gave a conservative estimate on wipes. Some months we used a lot of wipes and some months not as much. We did use roughly a box a month.

 

I do also want to note that when you look at the price of the links I have for cloth diapering, most of the numbers on Amazon are slightly lower than the prices I listed from my local baby store, usually by about a $1 or $2. Shopping online is so convenient as a stay-at-home mom and I do it often. However, I love to support local businesses when I can (usually used book stores). Local baby stores are a great way to save money on items like these because most of them offer a customer loyalty program. When we bought our Baby Jogger City Select, that is how we saved money buying all of the accessories. That is why I made the choice to shop at a local store versus buying everything off of Amazon.
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baby losing weight in hospital

Picture taken by April McTaggart

Every time we move, I end up missing our last duty station. I really miss our last duty station right now. I keep thinking, "This is not my favorite place to live." Before we moved, everyone kept telling me how awesome it is in South Carolina and how much I will love it here. Now that we are here, I feel like, "Well, we cant do this or that with two two-year olds..." or "In North Carolina, I took all three boys all over the place..."

I think it is totally natural to feel this way. However, I have to keep it in check!

I hated our first duty station. I moved from California to New Hampshire, right on the Maine border, in January. By myself. My husbands submarine was a month late. And I didnt have his boat email address at the time or any idea what an FRG or ombudsman was. I was alone and it was cold. There was an ice storm and our Jeep was encased in literally an inch of ice. There was so much snow and my winter shoes consisted of Converse and stiletto leather boots from Nine West. I wasnt prepared. By the time we moved, I was so over the Noreasters and decked out in Columbia and Ugg Boots. Being from Northern California, I didnt think the summers were "hot," as my local neighbors kept telling me they would be. I was over all of it and ready to get the heck out of there and on our way to Hawaii.

When we arrived in Hawaii, I realized I missed this great coffee shop in New Hampshire. And that the hospital I gave birth to our first son in was really, really nice. And that I loved my midwife. I missed walking along the New Hampshire coast. I missed a lot of really delicious local restaurants. Even more so, I realized I had a really bad attitude the entire time we lived in New Hampshire. I didnt like it there and I didnt want to like it there. Things that were so annoying there at the time were funny after we moved. For instance, our apartment complex plowed the parking lots really early in the morning. This meant that by the time I was ready to leave, there would be a snow drift up to the back of our Jeeps rear window that had somehow iced over. My pregnant self would have to knock on our next door neighbors door to again ask to borrow their snow shovel ("When are you going to buy one of these, dearie?" "I dont know...") to chip the Jeep out so I could drive to my OB appointment. I hated doing that at the time, but it makes me laugh now thinking about it.

I vowed that I wouldnt be such a spoil sport at our next duty stations. They dont have to be my favorite places to live and maybe I wouldnt ever want to live there in "real life," you know, not sent-here-by-the-military life. I loved living in Hawaii, but that was easy. My family used to vacation there and I love the beach. I loved the food. I loved our house and where it was located. I loved my neighbors. I had a harder time when we first moved to North Carolina. I had a hard time making friends. We lived way out in the country when we first moved there and everything was a bit of a drive; we eventually outgrew our living arrangements and felt very cramped at home (read "Across town move"). Then we moved to a house with a great yard, a great playroom, and a great location. We thrived. We loved it there. We loved the grocery stores, how many things there were to do with the kids, how inexpensive everything was. We loved the food. We loved the friends we made and the playdates we had; I loved the twin group and their awesome twice yearly consignment sale. We talk about how we want to go back after my husband retires.

Then we moved to South Carolina. We had a rocky start here, a rough time unpacking. Perhaps that was the problem. But then we settled in and there are so many things that I keep comparing to North Carolina. The grocery store situation here is awful. Everything is a drive, like twenty or thirty minutes. I was nervous about moving our asthmatic toddler and the flu shot situation here really put a bad taste in my mouth (read "2013 flu shots"). There seems to be a lot of areas around here that you should avoid at night (not that we go out a lot at night, but we do like to go get ice cream after dinner). I miss our baby-sitters in North Carolina; we still dont have a regular baby-sitter here and Im nervous leaving our asthmatic toddler with someone new (read "0-2 years old: twin must-haves").

When we moved here, people who had been stationed here before gave us a list of areas that we should move to. We debated for awhile what we wanted to do. Do we want to live out in town near things to do with our kids? Or do we want to live near my husbands work? Since we are living in South Carolina for an undetermined amount of time-- could be six months, could be two years-- we decided that living near my husbands work was the priority (read "STA-21 officers program"). That has been the silver lining. He still hasnt classed up yet, but when he does go in for various jobs, he comes home at lunch, or pops in before his next brief. When he does start school, hell be able to come home for dinner or to help put the kids to bed. I really like that. We have both agreed that if we were ever stationed here for a significant amount of time that we would want to choose a different area to live. For now, being here for my husband to go to through school and with such a young family, I do think we made the right the decision. (It doesnt hurt that we absolutely love our house and our neighborhood!)

So Im going to hang in there. Maybe Im just really missing our old friends and our old list of activities. I really liked the childrens museum in North Carolina and the boys loved going there each week; our oldest loved the camps we sent him to there. Maybe Im missing our grocery stores (we lived near a lot of awesome grocery stores). Maybe Im still settling in here. Whatever it is, Im going to give it some time and look for the best here. I dont want to say that I only have to make it work for two years, maximum, but it is true. We only have a little time here and I want to enjoy it to the fullest. Im going to find activities for our kids and Im going to make friends with my neighbors. Im going to put my best foot forward and, when we move again, Ill have no regrets.

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weight loss during pregnancy hormones

Ive recently joined a book club. At the end of each monthly meeting, we vote on next months book. This got me thinking about some of my favorite books and books I would recommend others to read. I absolutely love chatting with my friends about our next must-read book. Also, the stack of books on my nightstand is dwindling and Im in need of a good book!

I thought this would be a great opportunity to host my first link-up! For those of you who do not know what a link-up is, let me explain. Fellow bloggers who participate in this link-up will write their own must-read book lists and use the widget at the bottom of this post to link their post to mine. So click on the thumbnails below! See what other people are recommending.

The link-up is open from Monday, November 4th, to Friday, November 8th. Bloggers can add their blog posts throughout the work week. Check out what is being added each day or come back next Saturday, November 9th, to see what books you need to put on your Amazon wish list! :)

If you do not have a blog but love reading, please leave a comment with your book recommendations!

Kimbers Recommendations

 

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This book is hitting a wave of popularity due to the upcoming movie release on November 8th, 2013. I havent seen the trailer for the movie yet, but I can tell you, you must read this book.

 

2. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

My friends are probably tired of me telling them to read this book. I dont care; they really need to read this book!

 

3. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

My copy of this book is dog-eared and missing the cover. I have probably read this book no less than 10 times.

 

4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

"Just because you are paranoid doesnt mean they arent after you."

 

5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
A must-read and then you can watch Pride and Prejudice and love it all the more. And I truly believe only people who have not read the book would tolerate the Kiera Knightley movie-- stick to Colin Firth. Since Im a huge Jane Austen fan, I actually recommend you read all her works.

 

6. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

"Man has a choice and it is his choice that makes him a man."

 

7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

You should probably read everything written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but start here.

 

8. The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I have not seen the movie for this book and Im not sure I want to. Something about this book can make me cry every time; I dont want the movie to ruin it.
 

 9. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

A book full of the depths of human emotions. (My family would not believe I wrote this list if it didnt include Russian literature.)

 

10. I want to end this list with a cult novel, since I love them (Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahnuik) or a book about sisters (The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown). Id really like to include a recommendation by my sister (Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet). I cant make up my mind. How could I recommend only 10 books? :)

 

 

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weight loss during pregnancy due to morning sickness

I hear this all the time lately, "Take it easy."

"Just be sure to take it easy."

"Take it as easy as you can."

"You just really need to take it easy."

I am just over 30 weeks pregnant. I stay at home with our 5 and a half year old, whom we homeschool in preschool, and our 3-year old toddler twins. We have a dog. My husband is in the Navy which, of course, means we live next door to my parents (not).

How do I take it easy?

We went through this when I was pregnant with our identical twins. I was on modified bedrest and had multiple ultrasound appointments and an OB appointment each week. It was exhausting. When I was pregnant with twins, we lived in a small apartment with one toddler; I left the housework to my hubby. It was a small amount of housework and got done whenever he got around to it. (Sometimes in a frustrating amount of time.) But it all worked out.

How did I stay at home and take care of a toddler by myself every day then?

1. Netflix Instant Queue
I never had to get up to change a DVD. I could add shows to our queue from my computer and either watch them on our laptop or from our Blu-Ray player.

2. Toddler Look and Find books
I know I say this all the time, but I seriously loved these. I could sit and do these with our toddlers while I was laid out on the couch and later when I was feeding 2 newborns. There is so much to talk about in these books, from finding his favorite Disney characters to making up stories about what they are doing. These were a huge source of entertainment to us.

3. Melissa and Doug box puzzles
I love these puzzles. There are 4 puzzles in one box. He would drag this puzzle over to me and we could sit and do 4 puzzles without having to get up. We could do the puzzle on the couch because you assemble the puzzle on the lid of the box. Fantastic. We bought several of these during my pregnancy and in the early "twinfant" stages.

Things are different this time around. I dont have one toddler bumming to go to the park when I need to be resting. I cant turn on a show and take a cat nap while he plays quietly on the family room floor. As I write this blog post, Im propped up on the couch enjoying Braxton Hicks while our 3 boys bounce wildly around the playroom. Our house is always loud. Someone is always getting hurt. One day of skipping tidying up and the toys start taking over all our living spaces (a bit hazardous for me since I can barely see my feet!). So what am I doing this time around?

First of all, we have a very different living situation this time around. We dont have a small, quiet apartment to take care of. My husband is working much longer hours and when hes home he takes care of the kids and does a few small chores. He doesnt have time to do all the housework. We dont have a housekeeper helping us out like we did in North Carolina. Instead, I rely a lot on doing small tasks each day. I dont have one big day of housecleaning. We tidy as we go and I accomplish one area of housecleaning earlier in the day when my energy is at its peak. (For our cleaning schedule, check out my blog post, "Domestic goddess.") I also prioritize our house chores. I dont waste my energy doing things that dont need to be done right then or dont need to be done by me. For instance, heavier kitchen appliances that go in awkward cabinets will sit on our kitchen counter all day until my husband gets home to put them away. When I make a huge Costco run, I stack things in my vehicle so when I get home I can unload the freezer/fridge items and leave the rest for when my husband gets home. There is no need to tire myself out doing things that dont have to get done right then. These are small examples, but they add up. Sometimes I look around the house and think, "Man, we need to sweep the floors!" But we dont have company coming over and I already cleaned the bathrooms that day, so I put it off until the following day. Or, lately, I ask our oldest son if he wants to do it. Surprisingly, 9 times out of 10 he enthusiastically says yes; he absolutely loves helping his momma, as he calls it. One of the hardest things for me to do, oddly enough, is pick up toys. The constant bending over to pick up toys from the floor really inflames my round ligaments, not to mention sometimes making me very lightheaded (the joys of pregnancy-- Im anemic too, of course). I never spend time picking up toys anymore. I have the boys pick up their toys throughout the day, but my husband has them clean everything up each night when he gets home. I posted as a Facebook status the other day, "How do you guys get it all done?" My favorite response: "I dont." That really is the answer. I dont get it all done; I dont try to and I dont pretend to. I do what I can.

The number and ages of our children are also different. I was pregnant with our twins when our oldest had just turned 2-years old and then was months shy of turning 3-years old when they were born. I have been pregnant this time with a 5-year old (now 5 and a half year old) and 2.5-years old, just turned 3-years old toddler twins-- 3 kids at busy ages! While we have to sometimes, our kids go nuts staying home all day. They want to ride bikes, play outside, run in circles, and experiment. Homeschooling has been a huge blessing because we are always looking for activities. As this pregnancy has progressed, Ive set guidelines for myself when scheduling our days. I dont do activities that require walking or standing around; I must be able to sit. I dont over schedule our days (well, I really try not to... I accidentally overbooked yesterday). I stick to one or two activities, including errands and bigger chores. I have fun things for our boys to do in our front and back yard. My husband makes sure our outdoor spaces are usable for us. Hes always picking up our back porch so I can sit out there with the boys and watch them play. He keeps our garage organized so all I have to do is open up the garage and pull out our nice, sturdy folding chairs and watch the boys play. I love being able to let them run wild right outside of our house. We have tons of outdoors toys-- a water table, bikes, chalk, hose, sprinkler, scooters, every ball and sport you can think of, bubbles... They love paint brushes and buckets of water; they "paint" everything in sight. This is nice too because they can run in the house and use the restroom and I can fill up my water without having to drag everyone off of play equipment while lugging around all our stuff, like when we go to the park. I do also utilize our neighborhood parks; we pack sand toys and picnic. Sometimes this is our days outing. For the days we have to stay at the house, we have lots of indoor toys and we make sure to pick them up between activities so they stay fun, even if they can reach a lot of these themselves. We have crayons, Play Doh, puzzles, crafts... I really try to do a couple focused activities with them a day, even just helping me make granola bars, so that they arent moving from down time to down time.

Here are some of the things I have loved so far during this pregnancy:

1. Finding a homeschool playdate group
Since we are homeschooling preschool this year and starting to homeschool kindergarten next year, finding a playdate group with fellow homeschoolers has been awesome! (If you arent a homeschooling family, maybe just a mommy playdate group?) Instead of me trying to fill our calendar with things to do, I have this group of moms who are always planning something. They are always posting park meet ups, picnics, bubble playdates, information on local happenings... I love it and my kids love it. I dont go to all the playdates and Ive had to leave early a couple times, but it sure is nice to have low-key playdates outside of our house to take the kids to on our calendar!

2. Brain Quest workbooks
This is for our 5-year old. For our 3-year olds, I am using a lot of the same things I used with their older brother when I was pregnant with them. We do Look and Finds; we watch Netflix. And they are entertained. For our 5-year old... he gets bored. He wants to do something. These have been a recent purchase and Im sooooo glad we got them. We have our homeschool activities (read "Homeschooling 5-year old preschool"), but this is not for homeschool. This is just for the times that he is bumming to play a game and I want to lay on the couch because his brothers are finally quiet. He sits next to me on the couch and works on his workbook. He loves the puzzles and games. These have been very entertaining for him.

3. Well-stocked pantry
While running out of groceries wasnt a huge deal when it was my husband and I feeding a toddler,  now that we are a family of 5, I cant feed our kids just by splitting my meal with them. Eating out gets expensive, not to mention it is very inconvenient at our current duty station. It is exceedingly convenient to be able to make our meals at home (read "Family diet and family budget"). For breakfast we had English muffins, strawberries, and hard boiled eggs. We spent some time outside, came home for lunch, and I let the boys play on the back porch while they ate sandwiches, pickles, and apples. For snack we turned on a movie and picnicked on our family room floor where they had chips, almonds, and dried apricots. Since today has been such a rough pregnant day for me, I threw some tortellini in boiling water and steamed a bag of frozen veggies for dinner. Not fancy, but super easy.

4. Games
Games have been ah-maze-ing this pregnancy. We play so many games. With our 5-year old, we play the obvious preschool games: Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land. We also enjoy playing with him:

• Share a Berry
• SpongeBob Square Pants Yahtzee Junior
• Farkle
• Sorry and Sorry Sliders
• Battleship
• ThinkFun Math Dice Jr
• Uno
• 3-in-1 Jumbo Checkers

We dont play as many games with our 3-year olds. We didnt really start playing a lot of games with our oldest, like seriously play games, until he was around 3.5/4-years old. Playing with all 3 of our kids is a little crazy. We usually can get in 2, maybe 3, rounds before the toddlers are bored and our 5-year old is frustrated. With them, we recently have started playing Uno Moo-- which is actually a lot of fun and our oldest will play with his brothers, even without an adult-- and Cooties. Cooties has been more fun for us to play with the age groups, either with our 5-year old or with our 3-year olds. Our oldest wants to follow every rule and our toddlers just want to build Cooties and make them dance. A game our 3-year olds really like is when we take out their deck of cards and shuffle and deal and pass cards around. There is no rhyme or reason to this game, just holding real playing cards (one of our old decks that is now missing many cards).

5. Let it be
To quote the Beatles, "There will be an answer; let it be." Sometimes I just let it be. The kids are behaving too wildly-- but happily-- in the playroom and Im having horrible round ligament pain? Let it be. Husband called to say he was on his way home when I made steamed veggies and tortellini for dinner? Let it be. Someone knocked on the front door when Im wearing my husbands PT gear and our kitchen counter is covered in dishes? Let it be. Some of this stuff just really doesnt matter that much in the scheme of things. My house is not going to look like how it did before I got pregnant with baby #4 (which isnt how it looked before I got pregnant with babies #2 and #3... which isnt how it looked before I got pregnant with baby #1... notice a trend?). Pregnancy is a temporary state; Im not going to be pregnant forever. Yes, I will be busy when baby #4 gets here and there will be sleepless nights, but I wont be dealing with all the wonderful side effects of pregnancy (note the sarcasm). I cant do it all right now and there is no reason to do it all right now. Our house is operating under a Priority Policy-- if it must get done it will; if not, it wont. The harder side of letting it be has really been saying no. Sometimes there are things I want to do, but I know that after a day with the kids and my hubbys schedule being what it is, that it would be too much for me to go, that I wouldnt have any energy or that I would really pay for it that night with Braxton Hicks. The biggest reason I say no to things is that I know would just be exhausting for me and not fun, like if I would have to spend too much time wrangling the kids. It is what it is. I cant change whats on my plate-- my husbands schedule, our active kids, the point Im at in this pregnancy-- and so I just need to put some thought into what I say yes and no to.

6. Sisters
Ah-- gotta love family. Since we dont live anywhere near family, my sister is going to fly down and stay with us for a month, during an especially busy time in my husbands schedule, when Im even further in the third trimester and having a hard time dealing with his long hours. Im so excited to have her come down and help with the kids and make us dinner and pick up around the house-- er, I mean, Im really looking forward to her company. ;) On some of these really busy days, it is so comforting to think, "Only a couple more weeks and my sister will be here!"

So that is how Ive been taking it easy so far this pregnancy. My definition of taking it easy has evolved with each pregnancy and again this pregnancy with each trimester. Now that Im 30 weeks (home stretch!), Ive really had to put more thought into how I can take it easy with 3 kids.

What are your tips for taking it easy when pregnant, especially if you have other children?

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My husband and I recently adjusted our family budget and we are really sticking to it. I like our open conversations about our finances and how we work together as a team. I just dont like budgets (but who does?). Anyways, we went to Costco today. Our grocery budget is not as flexible as it was with our past family budgets so my husband was tallying our purchases as we added things to our cart.

Ive written before about our family diet and how we are trying to eat healthier (read "The first step"). We have kicked out a lot of bad ingredients and brought down the ingredient count on each of the items we purchase. I really try to make as much home made foods as I can and narrow down our processed foods. However, Im not one to spend all day in the kitchen, so we do have some processed foods in our house. (Im hoping organic cereal with no artificial ingredients is better than GMO artificial cereal-- lol!)

So here we are at Costco, shopping the aisles. I am always so disappointed at how expensive it is to buy organic items, especially things that I really want to get organic, like dairy and meat. I do buy the organic ground beef because my family likes it so much better. Even my husband notices when I buy low quality beef. But the organic whole chickens were nowhere near price comparable. I bought two whole regular chickens for $8.65 combined (ranging from $8-$10). The 2-pack of organic whole chickens ranged in price from $27 to $30. The refrigerated chicken breasts were again the same price difference. I absolutely hate cheap chicken breasts, injected with fillers. They just taste weird. I just cannot afford to buy the much smaller, much more expensive packs of organic chicken breasts; one of those packs would last our family one dinner. I buy the frozen Coleman All-Natural chicken breasts. I hate that vague term, all-natural, especially since companies like Tyson claim "all-natural." It makes me feel better buying the frozen Coleman All-Natural chicken breasts than buying the yellow, salt-water injected packs of regular refrigerated chicken breasts, next to the organic chicken breasts. In North Carolina, when I lived near a Harris Teeter, I would watch the sales at Harris Teeter and buy the organic chicken breasts up every time they went on sale, stocking my freezer up.

The same thing works for other staples in our family diet. I cannot find room in our grocery budget to buy organic milk, even in bulk at Costco. Today we bought 2 gallons because we already had 2 gallons in our garage fridge. We use so much milk! And the 18-pack of organic eggs is almost $8. We buy a box of 7 and a half dozen eggs (90 eggs!) $9.99. A 2-pound bag of organic sugar is $10.99; the 2-pound bag of regular sugar is $3.99. Frown face.

I feel like I do the next best thing. I do our best to buy raw foods, cook home cooked meals from scratch. I make the best processed food choices that I can (thank you places like Costco and Trader Joes for carrying a lot of organic options); I read all the ingredients lists, avoiding "fake" organic items (how is something "organic" if it only contains one organic ingredient and has artificial flavors? My favorite is the organic Costco tortilla chips-- organic corn and hydrogenated oils.).

My husband doesnt share all my thoughts on organic food. I think he believes Im a hippie. Maybe I am. I dont think everything has to be labeled organic. Here is what I wish: that we didnt have artificial ingredients in the first place. What the heck is fractionated palm oil? Also, if you Google search, palm oil, the origin of a lot of palm oil is really sad... What is wrong with olive oil and canola oil? Why do we need to add all the food colorings? Im sure there are answers out there. I am sure there is a reason that companies headed down the path they chose-- like why Betty Crocker cake mixes have all those artificial ingredients-- and Im hoping that it isnt just because it was the cheapest way to go. And GMOs really do just feel wrong.

All this ranting about affording organic and real foods and tonight is Halloween. We have three Costco bags of candy waiting and our kids basically ate chocolate for lunch. Oh, the irony.

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As a larger family, our grocery budget can be a little intense, especially as we have really tried to cut the crap out of our diet. Ive written before about how we cut out hydrogenated oils and aspartame ("The first step") and how we really try to eat at home ("Dinnertime"). Over two years has passed since I wrote those blog posts and I wanted to do a follow up. How are we doing now that we have two busy toddlers, a homeschooling preschooler, and another on the way? And, since I wrote those original posts, weve moved twice ("Across town move" and "PCS to South Carolina") and my hubby started power school--a lot has changed since we decided to undertake a new family diet!

Im happy to report that our family diet is going even better than we had anticipated! Not only have we cut out hydrogenated oils and aspartame, but weve also cut out food coloring and fast food. We stick to foods that have ingredients we can pronounce or that we know the origin/purpose of. For the processed foods we buy, we try to stick to under 10 ingredients, preferably under 5, bonus points if they are made out of ingredients we have in our own pantry (take, for instance, Cape Cod chips).

Getting to this point has required a significant shift in how we do things. I pack a lunch or snack almost every time I leave the house with the boys. This has many added bonuses. My husband would say that first and foremost this saves us money. Im not driving through Chick Fil A to pick up 3 kids meals at just over $3 each plus my meal, equaling about $20 for one meal that wont even be finished by the kids. I like it because I can control what is in the lunches I pack for our boys. I can also pack more of what I know theyll eat (fruits and veggies) and pick a protein I know theyll like more than chicken nuggets (like yogurt or peanut butter). It has been a shift because it does require preparation before we leave the house. If we are going to be out of the house for a longer amount of time, I need lunch and a snack. If I think well only be out of the house for a short while, but home for lunch, I often pack a snack anyways that keeps well (apple slices and string cheese with an ice pack). This works great because if it takes me longer than expected to get home, I have something on hand and Im not tempted to drive through anywhere on our way home. Plus, when we do get home the boys have something on their tummies so they arent fussing and whining while I pull together lunch. In my blog post "Toddler twin must haves (2yo to 3yo)," I list what we use to pack the boys lunches and my favorite lunch pail to use for me and the boys.

Packing lunches has also required that we have more food on hand at home which means staying on top of our grocery shopping. I miss how convenient it was for us to do online grocery shopping at Harris Teeter in North Carolina, but we live here in South Carolina now and dont have that luxury close by. Instead I do the bulk of our shopping at Costco and a real life grocery store. That has been another big shift for us because the entire time we lived in North Carolina, I did the bulk of our shopping online. Suddenly I find myself in South Carolina with a preschooler and toddler twins and Im figuring out how to make grocery shopping work with our hoard! We are in the groove of it now. (Though it has really made me appreciate the convenience of online grocery shopping and made me miss our old Harris Teeter even more.) To accommodate our family and cut down on the frequency of our grocery trips, the extra side-by-side fridge/freezer in our garage has really come in handy. With the aid of our extra fridge/freezer, I can pretty much limit our grocery shopping to every 2 weeks. That means that when we run to Costco, I buy the 7.5 dozen box of eggs, 3-4 gallons of milk, and 2-3 cartons of heavy cream every 2 weeks. I missed my last Costco run so my hubby actually had to pick up a carton of 18 eggs at the commissary and we have been rationing them over the past couple days. (Yes, eggs are our favorite protein!)

 

Costco is an integral part in our family grocery shopping. There are so many things that I buy there that would cost a fortune buying in smaller portions at a grocery store, even the commissary, such as nuts, dried fruits, tubs of yogurt (we buy the large tubs and then portion out from there), eggs, milk, butter, organic ground beef, fancy cheeses, and a lot of the fresh produce we buy there. I wrote before about how Costco has a lot of great organic options for a better price than grocery stores, but, even there, a lot of times I still cant squeeze it into our family budget (read "Organics vs family budget"). Ive found that the longer we stick with our family diet, the more we have been able to make room for things, like insisting on real maple syrup and not table syrup (we buy Costcos organic maple syrup).

 

And to make more room in our family grocery budget, Ive started making a lot more things from scratch. I thought that I made a lot of things before, but weve really started incorporating homemade items into our regular day to day family life. This has been a slow shift because it puts a lot more on my plate that Ive had to make room for. Yet, it all fits in, especially since we are homeschooling. We are home and I can talk to the boys while I make granola bars or have them help cook, especially our oldest who is very interested in the happenings of our kitchen. My husband and I love that we are controlling what goes into our food. Some things I started making homemade out of necessity. The cost of granola bars was becoming a substantial portion of our grocery budget. Because we cut so much of the junk out of our family diet, buying granola bars that made the grade was a much larger expense. If you read the back of the boxes of granola bars, most of them are essentially candy bars. My husband loves to bring a granola bar in his lunch for power school and I love having them as snacks for our boys or myself when Im feeling like I need a boost (oh, the joys of pregnancy!). The granola bar recipe I used to make granola bars for the kids wasnt filling enough for my hubby and Clif Bars were becoming too expensive. I found this Hearty, Homemade Granola Bar Recipe posted by Mens Health that I modify based on what is my cupboard, usually switching up what nuts I use or the dried fruits I mix in, which also gives them variety.

 

But Ive taken over making a lot of things from scratch, like pasta sauce. I have a food processor that I love (shout out to Cuisinart!) and make the Best Marinara Sauce Yet courtesy of AllRecipes.com. Ive also been making our pie crusts more and more instead of using the Trader Joe frozen pie crust like I did almost the entire first 2-years of our twins lives. Putting that food processor to use again, Ive loved Pams Pie Crust from the Pioneer Woman. We also love the Pioneer Womans Applesauce Recipe, another food processor favorite. My family is absolutely crazed for Alton Browns "Instant" Pancake Mix Recipe. Weve used a variety of mix-ins for the pancake mix; well never be buying pancake mix from the store again with a recipe that tasty (and easy)! The Pioneer Woman has so many amazing recipes on her website that whipping something up from scratch isnt intimidating anymore. For instance, this is one of my favorite oh-crap-it-is-dinnertime recipes, her Bowtie Chicken Alfredo. The other night I threw a couple frozen chicken breasts in warm water for a few minutes before dicing the mostly frozen breasts and tossing them in pan for that recipe--easy and homemade in under half an hour. I cannot recommend her cookbooks or her 16-minute meals tab on her blog enough. Her cookbooks are totally worth the money and her 16-minute meals tab is well worth the time to peruse. I own The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl and The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from my Frontier. Tonight I made her Mini Meatball Sandwiches. However, Ive made the recipe many times before and my pregnant self knew all I wanted was meatballs in sauce. I whipped up the meatballs in my Kitchen Aid mixer and made my marinara sauce in my food processor to pour over the top of them. We ate them with broccoli sprinkled with Parmesan. Hands down, my favorite Pioneer Woman recipe is her Comfort Meatballs. I dont know what it is about these meatballs that I just love.They really do just taste comforting. My husbands favorite recipe is her Chicken Pot Pie. We havent bought store bought chicken pot pies or meatballs in over 3 years because of the Pioneer Woman.

 

We eat the majority of our meals at home. Much like packing lunches, this takes preparation as well. I freeze most of our meat. I stock up on meat at Costco and freeze it in portions that work for most of our recipes. It is so convenient having a well-stocked meat freezer. I can flip open my cookbook and decide what sounds good-- flank steak? pork chops? chicken? I try to cook portions that will last for a family dinner and lunch the next day, both for my husband and for myself and the kids. Right now for our family of five-- a 5-year old and 2 3-year olds-- that means cooking for 6-8 people. Because buying organic, free-range meat is so expensive, I try to do several meatless recipes a week or really cut down on the amount of meat in a recipe I cook. My family never notices when I almost cut the meat in half in a lot of our regular recipes. Another one of my favorite tricks from the Pioneer Woman is to cook a large portion of meat-- like a brisket-- and then break it up into several different dishes, like what she did on her "Bulk Buys" episode of The Pioneer Woman.

 

I also utilize tricks to make things quicker for me, especially breakfast. For instance, when we make pancakes, we make big batches that will have plenty of leftovers. The last batch of pancakes we made lasted us 2 days after we made them. I just microwaved pancakes in the morning. Most mornings we have eggs or oatmeal for breakfast. I make the eggs fresh each morning, throwing some toast in and giving the boys a banana while the eggs cook. Since we dont buy instant oatmeal, I give them a banana and a glass of milk while I cook their oatmeal. When I make oatmeal, I make a huge pot. I get the water boiling first thing when I wake up (well, second after my cup of coffee). I store the leftovers in a container in the fridge. The following mornings I scoop the boys portions into their bowls, splash a little water on top, and microwave the bowls 1 or 2 at a time. I stir it up before mixing in their toppings. I either do a little sugar and milk or brown sugar and mashed banana. Sometimes Ill do strawberry spread with chopped nuts or granola on top. We also like doing "pizza toast." I toast some bread and spread yogurt on top. I chop up strawberries or bananas and lay them like "pepperonis" on the pizza. Sometimes Ill sprinkle some sort of spice on this, like ginger or cinnamon, or drizzle honey over the top. Sometimes I drop berries over the top of this. I buy the big tubs of plain Greek yogurt at Costco instead of individual cups; I use this for the yogurt I spread on their toast and to eat with mix-ins. Of all the fancy ways I mix up my yogurt, our kids prefer it drizzled with honey. And as much as they love fruit, they dont like when I drop fruit in their yogurt, just on the side of their bowls.

 

 

For us, eating healthy is not about a calorie count; it is about balance. We eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. I use my Pampered Chef Apple Wedger almost everyday. We snack on fruits and veggies; we eat them raw with breakfast and lunch everyday. I actually cut them up for dinner a lot too, especially if the one dish meal I made isnt heavy in veggies. I care much more about the ingredients list than the calories to fat. We believe in moderation, portion size, and a healthy, active lifestyle. We spend a lot of time playing outside-- a lot of time. We like going to the park, taking walks, and playing around our house. When I say our family diet is much more a lifestyle, I really mean that it seeps into all aspects of our life. We dont believe in a life dependent on technology for ourselves or our kids (read "Toddler technology"). Our kids are often bored and we like it that way. Today while they were bored, our oldest took it upon himself to pull out our large coloring sheets and teach his brothers their colors. They spent 45 minutes coloring together and working together as a team; they also spent a large portion of the day playing on our back patio in costumes and doing various imaginative play throughout our house. We read them books-- real life, bound books. We try to make the best choices that we can for our family.

 

Part of that has also been shifting to making our household cleaners (read "Homemade household cleaners"). This has also been one of those decisions that has really been a blessing both to our lifestyle and our family budget. I love being able to mix up refill cleaners in my laundry room instead of having to make a trip to the store. I love that they are non-toxic. My husband absolutely loves how affordable they are. Our kids can help us clean house without worry about the chemicals they are handling.

 

We are really happy with the changes we have made as a family. When we first made this shift, I never would have believed all the things that slowly would have made their way onto my plate, like making household cleaners or all these different things from scratch all the time. There are other staples in our family diet that I would like to shift to homemade, like our bread. I have a bread maker, but every time I make bread in there, my son calls it "ugly bread." I think I may try having the bread maker knead it up and let it rise, then pour it into a bread pan and bake it in the oven. Maybe that will help make it more attractive. Id love to get rid of store bought bread. We consume so much bread and there are so many ingredients in store bought bread that I would like to cut out.

 

Something that I touched on in my blog post "Organics vs family budget" is that sometimes what we want to buy doesnt always line up with what we can afford to buy each month. I feel that we are taking steps in the right direction and that we are much further towards that right direction than I would have expected us to be when we originally started down this path. I would love for us to buy all organic, free-range meat, but that doesnt mean that we can suddenly afford that. So we buy the next best thing. I would love if we could afford to buy all organic dairy products, but, man, we cannot afford that. I would love if we could afford organic eggs again, but we are buying the 7.5 dozen box practically every 2 weeks. We would either need to cut down drastically on our egg consumption or start a special egg savings account. I do my best to avoid GMOs, but, honestly, my attempt is spotty at best. I have found that trying to buy products with recognizable ingredients has cut out a lot of the red-flag GMO products (bye-bye processed cereal!).

 

When I look at where we are now compared with when I wrote my first blog post on our family diet in October 2011, it is night and day. In another 2 years, where will be then? My mom called me the other day and told me that someone gave her a bunch of eggs from the chickens they raise. She said it reminded her of me. I would seriously love if we had fresh eggs-- not sure how military housing at each of our duty stations would feel about us throwing a chicken coup out back. (Maybe when my hubby retires...) Tonight my hubby and I were looking up peanut butter recipes for our food processor. My love of cooking has grown. I love that my husband loves the granola bars I make him and that my kids get excited when I tell them what Im making for dinner. I love when Ive had a really stressful day and I make Clodagh McKennas risotto to unwind. I cannot even begin to describe how much I love watching our oldest help his daddy make pancakes for breakfast; they are such an adorable pair! We absolutely love when our kids get excited over "real" food. We like the direction this is going in. We like the food weve been making. We like turning raw ingredients into something delicious and we love gathering together as a family to enjoy them. It was a scary first step to take, but we havent ever looked back.

 

END NOTE:

 

I do want to make a note here that we have made a very conscious effort to not be confrontational about any of our changes in our family diet. We never turn down what is offered us when we go to dinner somewhere. We do not judge other peoples choices for their family diets. We do not expect our families to conform to our diet or buy anything special for us. We have eaten the candy given to us at holidays and never make it a big deal to our kids; we even have a sweets bin in our pantry. We have tried to be very practical about these changes. I wish that it was more mainstream to eat this way; Im totally on board with Jamie Olivers Food Revolution. But we understand that not everyone feels this way or eats this way and so we have been very careful and thoughtful in our friendships and day to day life to make sure we dont isolate people with our diet changes. Im writing this blog post on something that has been a big shift for us as a family and how we made those steps.?

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I am 38 weeks pregnant with our fourth child. We live in South Carolina and it is hot and humid. We also have three boys and are expecting our fourth boy. Apparently all of this put together has left people rather flummoxed when trying to make small talk with me. In order to fight off the Im-beyond-hot-and-exceedingly-pregnant bitterness that accompanies the late third trimester while pregnant in the South, Im putting together a list of polite things to say to other gals in my situation, should you choose to start making personal remarks to strangers.

 

10 APPROPRIATE COMMENTS TO MAKE TO A PREGNANT WOMAN

 

1. "When are you due?"

This comment takes the place of these inappropriate comments that I hear all.the.time regarding how far along I look:
"Wow! You are about to POP! Holy cow! I saw you walking up and I thought WHOA!"
"Goodness, any day now, right?" (Why is this rude? Because I started hearing this a little before 30 weeks. And obviously I didnt want my baby born any day around 30 weeks.)

 

2. "You look beautiful."

 

This can take the place of just about any other comment you want to make regarding my general appearance. Because I can tell you, the awkward "You look (pause) great" when Im hot and chasing toddlers does not make me feel like I look great. Also, any other comment regarding my size probably should be avoided totally.

 

3. "Do you know what you are having?"

 

I dont mind this question at all, though the follow up response is really what starts bothering me. "NO! ANOTHER BOY?" The next point will help you get through my answer of, "Another boy."

 

4. "What a blessing."

 

This is all you have to say when I tell you Im having another boy. Thats it. I dont need to hear how having all boys is your worst nightmare or that you know a mom to all boys and her kids pee in their family room. I really dont even care about your friend who had 6 boys before they finally had their girl or how you and I are in the same boat because you had 2 boys before you finally had your girl. Even worse, dont start female bashing to me. I myself am a female and do not want to hear about "female hormones" or my luck at missing the teenage years of raising a daughter. In fact, just read my blog post: "Mom to all boys."

 

5. {Smile}

 

Im putting the smile in here because if you are the type of person that would holler, "WHOA! DELIVERY ROOM IS CLOSED! HAHA!" as I approach the dressing room in Old Navy, you probably should just refrain from making a comment at all. Actually, just about any joke you want make-- unless we are friends-- should probably be avoided. Just smile. Or dont even acknowledge me. I dont know you; you dont know me. Lets not make this awkward.

 

Aaaaargh! Im really trying to keep this positive. I suppose my Costco trip in the heat has done me in for a positive list of things to say to a pregnant woman. Resisting the third trimester bitterness... failing...

 

6. {Wave and smile}

 

This is for people who are far away, as in across the street or on the other side of the playground, even across the restaurant or grocery store. If you arent close enough to use an indoor voice when speaking to me, do not feel obligated to "open mouth, insert foot" as you shout across a public place to me. I have not been waiting all day to hear you tell me, "I HOPE IT IS A GIRL!" or "YOU LOOK LIKE YOU ARE ABOUT TO POP!" or "ARE THOSE ALL YOURS? AND YOU ARE PREGNANT?" or "ANY DAY NOW, EH?" Your wave and smile will be enough and instead of me feeling like a circus act, I may walk away thinking, "Wow, that person must like pregnant women to wave and smile at me."

 

7. "Where are you delivering?"

 

This comment is in place of just about any other comment a stranger can make to me in regards to my birth experience. The following are a list of comments that you should never even think about asking a pregnant stranger who you are making small talk with in a public place:

"I bet you had a C-section with your twins, so youll need a c-section this time, right?"

"I bet youll be able to just pop this one right out."

"Did you have all your other ones naturally?"

"Are you scared to give birth? I mean, it, like, hurts, right?"
Basically, just dont go there. Dont talk about it. I dont want to talk about it with you, truly. And it isnt your business if I had c-sections or not and I really dont want to talk about my lady bits with you. Ever. At all. You wont get a nice response from me.

 

8. "Best of luck to you."

 

This comment sends good tidings to someone instead of any other comment you want to make regarding breastfeeding. Why should you avoid making breastfeeding comments to strangers? Because it isnt your business.
Yeah, I said it. It isnt your business.
Especially to a first time mom.

Especially to a mom with older kids.

If a mom chooses not to breastfeed, that is her business and your comments may add guilt to a decision that she wrestled with or she may feel you are attempting to put feelings of guilt on a decision that she is comfortable with. If she cant breastfeed for whatever reason, she may remember your comments about the importance of breastfeeding and breast is best and yadda yadda and feel even more like a failure-- WHEN SHE ISNT.
When people make comments to me about breastfeeding, I really want to tell them it isnt their business. Instead I say, "Thats the plan!" and smile. I cant believe that some people pry further and ask which of my other kids I breastfed and for how long. Rude.

And TRULY it is a moms choice how she wants to feed her baby. And that decision should not be surrounded by guilt or feelings of failure.
Now, this is NOT to say that I do not discuss my experience breastfeeding. This is in regards to the comments you receive from strangers making small talk at the store, randomly, not actually seeking breastfeeding advice or camaraderie, just shooting the breeze.

Read my post on breastfeeding twins: "Breastfeeding."

 

9. "Congratulations!"

 

This comment covers the comments that people want to make regarding how many children we have. I hear, "You are brave!" all the time. Brave for having four? Brave for having another when we already have three boys? Brave for leaving the house?
The other comment I hear is, "Better you than me!" What a philosophical statement... Is this person trying to say that a curse was hovering somewhere over our town and that it happened to land on my house instead of theirs? The curse of four children? Or is this person saying that if they were in my shoes and lived my life and married my husband and had my kids, they would not have chosen to have a fourth child?

However you look at it, just dont say it. Say congratulations and then later, in the privacy of your home, tell your family, "Man! Saw this lady at the store today! Pregnant with her fourth kid! Can you believe it?" And they will all say, "What a crazy lady!" Your family will agree with you because, clearly, my family does not or we wouldnt be having our fourth blessing.

 

10. {Silence}

 

Best kind of comment when a comment eludes you. No need to scrounge around in your mind trying to think of something witty when you see me waddling around Target with my hoard of kids. No need to tell me to find a hobby (found one!) or about how astronomical our food bill we be (as if we hadnt thought of that) or that pretty soon well need a 12-passenger van (already researching them, thank you). No need to remind me how hot and humid it is outside when you see my puffing along with swollen ankles, "Man! You look sweltering!" No need to jokingly accuse me of going into labor when I stop to catch my breath or rest my feet a moment. Best just avoid any one of those comments.

 

 

Well, I tried to make this a friendly list of things to say to a pregnant woman. I think the 10 comments themselves are polite, perhaps my explanations could be a little less bitter sounding... I think the heat has finally gotten to me. So now I will answer the most common questions I hear when I go out:
 

"Man, are you READY to have this baby? You look ready!"

Yes, I am ready. I am hot. I am tired. I already have three kids and, yes, they do keep me busy.

 

"Are you trying to pop this baby out?"
Most commonly asked question when I do anything-- run errands, take a walk, take the kids out... Apparently what people want me to say is yes, that that is the only reason I would be doing any of my daily activities.

 

"Are you done?"

I dont know. I dont want to be done having kids. I would love to have five or seven kids, seriously. My husband is leaning more towards being done. When I met him he wanted two kids and this will be our fourth. So one day in the next couple years we will have to have a conversation about it. At this point, Im not sure our life could get any crazier.

 

"Are you going to go for that girl?"
Yeah, I would love to have a daughter. I love my relationship with my mom. Read my blog post: "Four boys." Obviously God has a different plan for me and my husband and I trust him. Maybe one day we will have a daughter and I would absolutely love that. For now, I absolutely love being the momma to each one of my boys.

For the record, I have heard all the above statements and questions from strangers this pregnancy.

Pregnant mommas, what would you add to this list?


****Just to reinforce the point, this post is NOT in regards to having conversations with my family, friends, or acquaintances. This is about complete strangers stopping me in public-- such as at the cash register or as Im walking through Costco or at the park. I am always happy to discuss with my friends or fellow mommas my breastfeeding experience, especially in an appropriate environment or when there is a genuinely curious momma (like fellow multiple moms asking me about my experience with twin newborns).?

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Before you even read the rest of this, you should know that today is not my best mommy day. I was up half the night with Braxton Hicks. Our asthmatic toddler is having a small flare up, not too bad but enough to put him out of sorts. I woke up exhausted; he woke up whining. Then I served the boys breakfast, crock pot oatmeal with apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar simmered in it all night, topped with walnuts and heavy cream this morning. There was an absolute boycott at breakfast, "What is this? This not how you make oatmeal!" Our oldest said, "I like oatmeal how Marmie makes it, not like this." (Marmie is my momma.) By 9 am, I was exhausted and ready for either a re-do of the day or bedtime. I would like to note that the oatmeal was really good and tasted almost exactly like the instant packets of Quaker Oats Apple and Cinnamon, plus it was ready as soon as we got up!

So this blog post is brought to you by my pleasant weve-made-it-to-mid-afternoon attitude. With that said, I thought this would be the perfect afternoon to give you a follow-up on potty training toddler twins.

How has potty training been going? Im going to say, "Good..."

Why such a tentative answer? You would think that getting 2 toddlers out of diapers would be a hands down relief. I certainly thought it would be (read "Potty training 2.5 year old twin boys?"). In a lot of ways, it is. I dont have to change their poopy diapers; every parent knows that by the time your children are reaching 3-years old, their stinky diapers are horrendous. Not changing those is nice. It is also nice not to worry about buying diapers. While we werent flying through diapers with twin toddlers like we were with twin infants, we still needed a diaper stash. Even better, I havent bought baby wipes in months.

But there is a downside. I read this post by "30 Fingers, 30 Toes: Potty Training & Avoiding Public Restrooms." I couldnt agree more. It is a nightmare. When I go out with the boys by myself, most of the time I have to drag all our stuff into the bathroom with us (reason number 1 that I still push a stroller, as mentioned in "Toddler twin must haves (2yo to 3yo)"). Once I get us all in there, I have 3 boys exploring a public bathroom with their hands. Our 5-year old really is very good in the bathroom, but he starts trying to help wrangle his brothers and it just becomes this whole hands on experience. In the public bathroom. The toddlers are pretty good. As in, grabbing hand rails, trying to help lift the toilet lids, wanting to help lock and unlock the bathroom stalls... Washing their hands is a struggle. After I wash one set of hands, hes off trying to man-handle the trash can to throw his paper towel away while Im stuck at the sink trying to wash the other set of hands, while their older brother is opening the bathroom door to "help" hold the door for me (which, in action, is really just letting his brothers escape before Im done). It is non-stop stress for me from the moment we enter the bathroom to when we finally leave it. One of the few pluses, which really is a plus whether they are potty trained or not, is that I can have them all stand next to the stroller outside of the bathroom stall where I can see their feet so I dont have to have them all in the bathroom stall with me; our 5-year old is very good at bossing his brothers around and enjoys when I tell him to make sure no one moves an inch.

Then you have the constant, "I have to go potty!" When we go out as a family, well be sitting at the restaurant table and our oldest will say he has to use the restroom. Since we are sitting close to the restroom and can see him go in and out, we say, "Go ahead." We watch him leave the table and head into the bathroom. Then one of the toddlers says he has to go. We ask the other toddler if he also needs to use the restroom. He says no. So my husband takes the first toddler to the bathroom. Our oldest comes out of the bathroom and says he saw Daddy in the bathroom with his brother to which the second toddler declares that he, in fact, does have to go potty. I wait until my husband comes out of the bathroom with the first toddler before getting the second toddler out of his high chair to go meet his daddy. My husband takes the second toddler to the bathroom and then we will all settle back at the table before one of the toddlers exclaims, "I have to go poop!" Right now it is very hard to tell if this is a game or real. Our oldest, when potty training, often would use the restroom and then need to go back for the larger functions. Our toddlers have followed that trend. However, when all 3 of them are rotating through the restroom our entire meal, our understanding of, "Hes still learning what his body is telling him," is lost. It just becomes tiring. We can tell our oldest, "Well, you are going to wait." We started potty training our toddlers in February and it is now April... thats not a ton of potty training experience under their belt and the consequences of making a toddler wait that really does need to use the bathroom does not yet outweigh the benefit of making said toddler wait. Sometimes we make all of them go to the bathroom when we get up with one, especially if out by ourselves with all 3 of the boys. This often helps eliminate the "Oh, I really do want to go" after the other boys come back from the bathroom. However, we still get the "I have to go poop!" after we settle back into our table or out at the park.

Speaking of the larger functions, it is difficult when both toddlers really do need to go poop. If you have ever been in a public bathroom, you are probably familiar with the fact that they are equipped with one toilet in each stall. My husband felt bad one day when both toddlers were occupying the only 2 stalls in the mens bathroom and a gentleman came in wanting to use a stall. I often will take both into the handicap stall and make the other wait, but that can be hard when you can tell looking at the toddlers face who is waiting that he really does need to use the restroom. Again, not really one of those times where the consequence of making him wait outweighs the benefit. Logistically, it is quite difficult when one toddler is finished in one stall and the other toddler is finished in the other stall, especially when you hear the waiting toddler start touching things in the other, out of sight, stall. I dont know how many times I have hollered over a stall, "DONT TOUCH ANYTHING."

Then there are the other joys of potty training boys. A common problem we are having now is not pulling their shirts up enough when standing to tinkle. This means changing shirts because the bottom of the shirt gets wet. Or they dont pull their pants down enough so the top band gets wet. My husband has jokingly said, "Its just a little pee." But as every momma knows, there is no such thing as a "little pee." We still havent tackled nights yet. We do pull-ups at night (the Target brand pull-ups have submarines on them!). We do have them nap in underwear. Their mattress are zipped into waterproof mattress covers. We have 2 sets of spare sheets always clean in the linen closet. We switched from diapers at night to pull-ups because they were not able to take their diapers off in the night or in the morning to use the restroom; they are able to pull the pull-ups up and down by themselves without requiring us to change them (yay for more sleep in the morning and not having to get up in the night!). One of our toddlers has started getting up in the night to use the restroom. Hes even had a couple days this week of waking up dry. If I wasnt 31-weeks pregnant, I would seriously consider potty training him for overnight. Even with this progress, we are still having issues during naptime, especially when they are over tired or sick. If we have a super busy morning and they are beat tired, they will pass out and sleep for 3 hours straight-- like rocks. Rocks that have the risk of wetting the bed. When we first started potty training them, we held our breath every naptime-- will they make it through nap without having an accident? It was a risk we were willing to take. We knew we didnt want to do pull-ups for naptime and we wanted them to learn, so we just kind of threw them into it. Now it isnt so stressful when they go down to nap, save for the above mentioned times. They really dont nap too often or too long anymore anyways and, if they do start to wet the bed, it usually wakes them up. They will wet a small amount and wake up angry like cats in a bathtub, "My bed is wet!" We really dont have many naptime accidents anymore. The accidents we have are usually attire related (they cant get their jeans down fast enough which leads to panicked accidents next to the toilet) or logistic accidents (sitting down to use the restroom and not getting everything squared away before tinkling).  I think our toddlers are more prone to these little accidents because they dont have an adult shadowing them every time they use the bathroom; our oldest was also a little taller and so I think some of this was much easier for him to handle logistically.

The last joy of potty training is the potty training rebellion. We experienced this with our oldest, having accidents after he mastered potty training. We felt like he did this to see what his boundaries were. "Okay, I wanted to potty train and now Ive done it; what are my rules now?" Potty training twins was potty training rebellion times two. Maybe times a million because taking care of 3 kids and being in my third trimester really made the potty training rebellion super frustrating. Our oldest didnt host a rebellion with me and then another one with my hubby; one of our toddlers didnt do it that way either. The other toddler, after rebelling with me, starting a potty training rebellion every night when Daddy got home. Oh, it was just a frustrating time. I felt that between potty training at naptime and the little accidents that happened during the day, I was doing laundry all the time! I also kept thinking, "Surely it wasnt like this with our oldest?" In a lot of ways it was and wasnt. While one of our toddlers decided he wanted to potty train at 2.5-years old and did-- contrary to our oldest who we told to potty train after he turned 3-years old-- the rest of his potty training path has been very similar to our oldest. It just all fell into place and he did a great job with it. Our other toddler has been a wild card. Sometimes we felt like he really did want to potty train and sailed through it; other times we felt like it was all a big charade. Sometimes we wondered if we needed to go back to diapers with him, but then we felt we had come too far in potty training him and that he would learn bad behavior had no consequence, that we would concede and put him back in diapers... It was confusing. So it was hard on the frustrating days with the one toddler who treated potty training like a joke on occasion not to feel super frustrated when the other toddler, the one who wanted to do this, had a legitimate accident. I would feel like, "I have done nothing but change sheets and change clothes all day long and here we go! Another accident!" When really I had changed his twin brothers sheets and clothes and this was his first accident that day and, on top of that, was a real accident, compared to his brother who had "on purposes," as my hubby and I have come to call them. It was very important to pay attention to who was having accidents and what type of accidents they were and not just heap all of the accidents together. It wasnt fair to either of the toddlers, the one in the right or the one in the wrong. Why should the one in the right be punished for his brothers crime? And why should the one in the wrong not have to bear his own punishment?

The last frustrating point of having potty trained twins is the laundry. I know that we arent alone in having kids who love clothes. Even our oldest is always wanting to change his clothes for his activity. This morning he wore an outfit to rocknroll in (pulling out all our Rock Band accessories) and then put on an outfit to exercise in; now hes outback wearing play clothes. Now we have 2 toddlers with an underwear bin. They want to wear Superman, then Spiderman, then Mickey Mouse, then  Monsters Inc... It is crazy! We do everything we can to stop them from changing. They literally have a lock on their closet where we keep all their clothes, including their underwear, but we still find them sneaking into the dryer and pulling out clean underwear and a clean change of clothes. We find them changing into clothes from the dirty clothes hamper... The amount of clothes they go through in a day is insane. I dont even know how Im going to feel when baby #4 gets here this summer and we are adding newborn laundry into the mix. Will I ever be able to escape our laundry room then??? Our kids change their clothes unnecessarily, but then we have the aforementioned accidents and it all just piles up. Plus my husband who today will 3 different outfits to wash: his uniform, his civilian clothes, and then his t-ball coaching outfit. This is why I stick to pajamas. I can wear them all day and then sleep in them. Easy and completely cuts down on laundry. (Totally kidding! Kind of...)

All in all, potty training our twin toddlers has not been the huge sigh of relief that it was when we potty trained our oldest. I think once we are through with pull-ups and done with these accidents-- small, large, accidental, on purpose-- Ill love potty training more. I think when they are old enough to go into the boys room together and Im not dealing with them touching everything in the public restroom, Ill love potty training more. I think once their bathroom doesnt smell faintly of urine no matter how often I clean it, Ill love potty training more.

Each of our kids has potty trained differently. Two of our boys have been very easy to potty train, the third a little more challenging. I think we were quite spoiled the first time we potty trained, accomplishing days and nights so close together, throwing diapers out all together. I liked how we did it then, but Im reminding myself that it is different now. Even though we potty trained him when we had 3 children, we were only potty training one child. Now we are potty training 2 children and our family is much busier with twin toddlers than when we had twin babies (read "Follow-up on potty training" for the blog post on potty training our oldest).

To quote Monty Python, "Always look at the bright side of life..."

Posts on our potty training journey:

Potty training our oldest son?
"Try to see it my way"

"Why not?"
"Follow-up on potty training"

 

Potty training our identical twin boys

"Potty training 2.5 year old twin boys?"

"Potty training twins: Part 1 {No plan}"
"Potty training twins: Part 2 {The next step}"

"Potty training twins: Part 3 {Treats}"

"Potty training twins: Part 4 {The process}"

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Using our Baby Jogger City Select with our 3-year old twins

When my husband and I found out that I was pregnant with twins, we knew that we needed to buy a new stroller (among many other things!). Stroller shopping was overwhelming! There were so many different types of strollers on the market in all different price ranges. I talked to my dad about it and he reminded me of his system when making a large purchase.

I touched on his system in my blog post, "I love my stroller," but after a recent conversation with one of my girlfriends regarding stroller shopping, I thought it warranted its own post. Large purchases are often hard to make, especially when you start tying a lot of expectations to that purchase. It is easy to become paralyzed by the thought of buyers remorse. Here is how my dad has always advised me to approach a large purchase and how I applied that to stroller shopping.

1. Take out a piece of paper and draw three columns. The first column is "Must Haves," the second "Would like to haves," and the third is "Deal breakers."

This is where you put some serious thought into how you will actually use your stroller. This is more of a reflection on your familys lifestyle and the types of things you actually do in your day to day life. This is not where you listen to anyones nay-saying comments, "You wont be leaving the house for months! Why even buy a stroller?" or where you try to convince yourself that after the baby is born you are going to pick up jogging... This is where you realistically examine how you intend to use your stroller, how long you plan on keeping your stroller, if you want to buy one stroller to last from infancy to preschool or a stroller that works with infancy and then another stroller later once your little ones reach the toddler years. When and how are you actually going to use your stroller?

2. "Must Haves"

 

In this column write down all of the things that you must have in your stroller. This is your list and so these can be anything that you require for your own personal life. Here were a couple must haves for me:

• My husband and I are both tall and so it had to be comfortable for us to push (no short strollers).
• I wanted a stroller that would last from infancy to preschool (and will now work for our next baby after our twins!).
• It had to be functional in our life. I wanted it to fit through doorways, to be able to be pushed over grass or gravel. I dont jog with our stroller, but I do go to the mall, do our family shopping, and take our kids outside a lot (parks, pumpkin patches, etc.).

3. "Would like to haves"

In this column write down all the things that would really be nice to have in your stroller, but that you are flexible on. This is where you really need to be honest with yourself because sometimes it is easy to get held up on these things, things that really dont matter in the long run and that often end up costing you more money because you classify them as "must haves," when really they arent. Again, this is very subjective to you. This is your list. Here were some of my would like to haves:

• For me, budget ended up in this category (not for my husband, but I was making the list!). I really wanted the stroller to stay under or around $1000. After doing some preliminary stroller shopping before writing my list, I could tell that a stroller that hit my checklist would cost about this much. (You can find the Baby Jogger City Select with a double seat for less than this now! Check out Amazon.)
• I really did not want a side-by-side stroller. I felt that it would be too restricting. I liked the idea of the strollers that had removable seats; I felt they were more versatile. However, if we found the perfect stroller and it happened to be a side-by-side, I was open to it. When I made my list, I did not immediately eliminate any of the types of strollers (side-by-side, over/under, in-line strollers, stadium seats).
• Maneuverability really mattered to me, but I was willing to compromise how this happened. I needed a solution for all three of our kids, since our oldest was 2.5 years old when our twins were born. I wanted to be able to push it with one hand. I didnt want it to be a really heavy or hard to manage stroller since heading out with infant twins and toddler was going to be enough of a challenge in itself, but I was open to how it happened, whether with a glider board or with some sort of hold-on handle. 
• Another surprising thing that fell into this category for me was how easy it was to assemble, disassemble, and put in my vehicle. This was really important to me when I was shopping for a single stroller for our first child. After doing some research into the world of double strollers, especially double strollers that could accommodate 3 children (such as with a glider board), I realized that all double strollers are slightly awkward. I really wanted one that wasnt ridiculously heavy and that was slightly less awkward. For instance, taking the seats off my Baby Jogger City Select and then folding up the frame is a lot less cumbersome than folding up an entire in-line stroller and lifting that-- seats and all-- into the back of my van. I also realized, after putting some thought into it, that whatever stroller we decided on would eventually fall into our routine. After the first couple times of using our stroller, I was right. I have a bit of a system for assembling and disassembling the stroller in the back of our vehicle.

4. "Deal breakers"

This is the negative category. The must have category is also a deal breaker category, but it is about things that you really have to have in a stroller. This category is about things that will make you not want a stroller, if you have anything on that list. I didnt have a lot on this list because all I had really done was some small Google searching before I wrote down these categories and really wanted to approach stroller shopping with an open mind. Here were my only deal breakers:

• Cup holders. From looking online, I could tell that the world of double strollers was very different than the world of simple single strollers. A lot of strollers dont come with the basic accessories you think of when you think of a stroller. For instance, my Baby Jogger City Select stroller didnt even come with the second seat; we bought it separately. All the accessories for our stroller were bought separately and this isnt uncommon at all for strollers like this. I noticed most of the strollers we were looking at only came with a stroller frame and one seat. I am a caffeine addict and my stroller had to at least have the option for me to buy a cup holder for it. No way Im leaving the house with 3 kids with nowhere to put my coffee.
• Somewhere to put my things. I needed room for my diaper bag, purse, and shopping. The basket really mattered to me. I didnt like the storage room in a lot of over/under strollers and I didnt want to have to hang my diaper bag from the handle of my stroller.

With this list in hand, I went about stroller shopping. It helped to have them actually written down because when my husband jumped on the stroller research with me, I could decisively tell him what I wanted/needed out of a stroller. Making this list requires serious thought. It is good to keep the points as open as possible and to approach them with an open mind. The solutions for the must-haves or the deal breakers may not be exactly what you were thinking and the would like to haves may work out in a surprising way as well.

Once you have your list assembled, you move on to the next steps:

5. Research

Spend a lot of time researching. Research online. If you are out and see someone with a stroller that you really like or havent seen before, ask them about it. You will hear the best reviews from someone who actually uses the product, not from the sales people who can tell you all the good points about any of the strollers on their sales floor. If you have a stroller that you think might work for you and happen to bump into someone pushing that stroller in public, ask them specific questions. "Do you like how it handles? Is it easy to push at the park? Do you have a hard time disassembling it? Is there room for a diaper bag underneath?" Whatever specific questions you can think of, ask them! Most people are quite open to discussing theses things, especially when you ask nicely. Moms get how hard it is to decide on a stroller and love helping other moms out. I discovered the Baby Jogger City Select after a trip to Target where I saw someone pushing the Kolcraft Contours stroller. I didnt know there were strollers like that on the market. That mom told me the things she liked about her stroller which led me to more Google searching which led me to the City Select.

6. Try it out!

This is very important. Something can read really well on paper, but not work out at all like you think it will when you actually handle the product. I didnt like how long the Kolcraft Contours stroller was when I actually tried pushing it, but I did like that it had more options than, say, the Chicco Cortina Together stroller. I also learned that a lot of the over/under strollers were irritating for me to push, that I didnt like how the seats got in the way of my stride. This step is all about you, the person who will be dealing with this stroller every day. How comfortable is it for you to push this stroller? How do you like how it feels? How easy is it for you to navigate? The other thing to remember when pushing a double stroller, especially if you plan on using it from infancy to preschool, is that eventually you will have a lot of added weight in there. How easy will this be to navigate with 30 lbs of children added? 50 lbs? 90 lbs?

The one thing I will caution on this step is that assembly and disassembly of a stroller is confusing the first couple times. Some strollers you can tell will not be the right stroller at all for you. For instance, I have a very petite friend and many of the strollers they shopped for were literally taller than her when she folded them and far too heavy for her to lift into the back of a van. There were strollers that I found very heavy to lift when disassembled, especially the double strollers that the seats were not removable, but when I took my husband with me to the store he initially complained that there was a lot to take apart with the strollers that have removable seats. I hear often from people that it must be obnoxious for me to take the seats off and on each time I take our stroller in and out of the van. My husband and I are both in agreement that it is not cumbersome; 3 years later we have done it so many times it is literally second nature to us. We also love that our stroller completely disassembles-- you can take off the wheels, seats, accessories, everything-- which makes it very compact for travel. So be cautious when judging the double strollers on how easy or difficult they are to assemble and disassemble when you are trying them out the first time in the store. Try folding a wide variety of double strollers for comparison. Double strollers are not single strollers and will not fold like a single stroller, so try not to compare them to folding single strollers.

Note: A lot of the big box stores will only have popular models of best selling strollers. If you are looking for a specific stroller or want to go somewhere to compare strollers side by side, often times a local baby boutique will be your best option. They tend to carry more of the European/high end/fashionable strollers over the standard double strollers. Call around and ask if there are floor models available to handle if you have a specific stroller in mind. It is very informative to find somewhere that has several of the models in store that you can actually compare side by side instead of driving from one store to the next to view different strollers. Also, if you find a stroller that you think you would like that isnt available in the United States, such as the ABC Adventure Buggy, contact your local twin group/mommy group. There is a good chance someone there has your stroller and wouldnt mind you stopping by to check it out!

7. Shop around

This last step is how we found the best deal on our Baby Jogger City Select. While the big box stores run sales, name brands, such as Baby Jogger, are often left out of promotions, coupons, and sales. I did some shopping around and found a local baby boutique that sold our stroller for the same price as the big box store. However, the baby boutique offered a customer loyalty program where if we spent x-amount we received x-amount of store credit. We bought our stroller and all the accessories through them and received a sizable discount from them where we would have been paying full price at a big box store. Also, check for last years models. Unbeknownst to us, our stroller was at the tail end of the year and about to be marked down by Baby Jogger. Weeks after we bought the stroller, the baby boutique contacted us and refunded us the difference in the sale price (gotta love local stores!). There are also deals on websites like Amazon. Doing some shopping around before running out and buying the stroller can help save some money when investing in a stroller.

For us, a functional stroller was a must-have item. My husband is in the Navy and not always available. I needed the stroller so that I would be able to leave the house by myself with the kids. When we found out we were pregnant with twins, our families wanted to buy us all sorts of things and we told them a stroller was what we wanted. We registered for it and sometimes they bought us things that we had registered for and sometimes they just sent us a contribution. It was great that they got us a gift that we needed and still use and that made our lives so much easier!


So there is my best advice to keep in mind while stroller shopping. Why am I so passionate about stroller shopping? For me our stroller did exactly what I just said: it made my life easier. There is no way that I would have been able to take our oldest to his park and rec classes at the lake if we had a stroller that couldnt handle forest trails. We were able to continue our park trips, our long walks, our trips to local farms. I was able to take our twin infants to the doctors office by myself. I was able to do our grocery shopping, get us out of the house, travel, because I had a stroller that was easy to use. The stroller gave me freedom and flexibility. I was so nervous about how I would manage a toddler and twins and having a stroller that suited our lifestyle helped make that much easier for me to handle on my own. I know that sounds really corny, but as a Navy family, it is difficult to live so far away from friends and family. When our twins were born, I did not have a large support network and was trying to figure out how I would manage everything on my own. I truly feel that for us, picking the right stroller made those first couple years with twins-- a busy time by all accounts-- easier.

Im also excited that the stroller we bought for our twins will be the stroller we use with baby #4; I love that we arent having to buy yet another stroller as so many people do! We plan on using a stroller seat for one of our twin toddlers, the infant carrier drop in for baby #4, and the glider board for our other twin toddler; our oldest will walk next to the stroller.

Here are the links to my other blog posts on our Baby Jogger City Select:

 

"I love my stroller"

"Cant buy me love"

"0-2 years old: twin must haves"

"Resources" page

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