The Beach

We went to the beach last weekend and it was gorgeous. Cool enough that you could lie in the sun and not sweat. Which was a very good thing, I might add, since the water was arctic. Daddy P dared to go in a bit, but we all watched and deemed him nuts. I discovered that lying at the beach is much trickier when you are pregnant since you can't lie on your back or your stomach. And now that the tummy is getting bigger lying on my side without support is getting less fun. So, the boys took care of me and rented me a chair to sit on for the day. Here is a scary picture for you, and possible foreshadowing. We all four sat there (four expectant parents) watching the families pack and unpack as they came and went, and marveling in all the supplies needed to take a child to the beach. Particularly impressive were the large tents that were popped open to protect the little ones from the sun.

Block Island

So we journeyed across the waters to Block Island (in Rhode Island) last weekend with the 'rents for a restful and relaxing weekend. It's teeny (10 square miles) but cute, relaxing, and very "I'm in New England and at the beach"-ish.



We walked almost everywhere and ate at some yummy local places, and sat at the beach. It was very very relaxing and a wonderful break from reality! I would definitely recommend spending a couple nights there to anyone looking to just get away a bit.

New Belly Pics

Added a couple new belly pictures... :)

Photos from our block island trip to come... Daddy P goes to the specialist today to help figure out the cast vs. surgery question. We shall see when I get a husband back!

TKO

Things are a little inbalanced in our house in the gender arena. With a female partner, a female dog, and now a female offspring, Daddy P has to try to defend himself. And he's failing...

Last night, Cletusella (Grandma suggests "Little Lulu" as a pseudonym which seems kinder but less funny) kicked him. She'd been rocking and rolling while I was lying in bed, and so he put his cheek to my belly to listen. He heard her swimming around and then &#$*! POW *#*@! she kicked him in the cheek.

She's going to give us a run for our money I think...

Crunching the numbers

Wow, baby budgeting is not only crazy expensive, but hard to do. If you google baby budget, you will get estimates on price ranges like this one I found:

Crib and Mattress: $250 - 250+
Stroller: $100 - 800

It just gets worse, trust me... So obviously a frugal parent can make this happen without breaking the bank... I just have to make sure I budget us for my amazing high chair that I cannot live without that will be more expensive than the crib... You guys aren't even curious about it are you? Man, you have no sense of suspense...

But, my main goal in this was to figure out how much it would cost us to use gDiapers. It'll be more, but I think Daddy P and I have decided to try it out and try to spend less in other areas to compensate. My super duper rough estimates (for 3600 diapers for the first year only) put disposables around $900 and gDiapers around $1200. So, that's a lot, but it's distributed over the course of the year, and I think since we can probably handle it financially then I will happily do it for our baby girl's future world.

Plus, they sell gDiapers in Austin supermarkets, whereas out here on the East Coast you can't find them to save your life and we'd have to have them shipped. (No thanks.)

Plus, with an estimate of $2000/yr of formula costs, if we can convince my body and this baby to breast feed we can figure we're offsetting that cost as much as possible.

Oh, the idealistic talk of a first time pregnant woman.

We will, of course, use disposables for when relatives and babysitters have the baby since there is no reason to subject others to our diaper changing madness if they don't have to be. :)

As for Daddy P... he saw the specialist and is in a cast. The plan is for him to have a catscan to confirm what things look like. Then, the doc will x-ray his wrist every 6 weeks or so to see how it is healing. They don't take the cast off until they see in the x-ray that it's totally healed. They are estimating 2-3 months...