April 2008 - Sponsored by Allie from Scrunchkins

[clothmama]

The April Article Competition is sponsored by Allie from Scrunchkins. She makes a range of nappies including fitteds, night and AIO nappies. The prize is YOUR choice of any size and any fabric of the basic nappy. For more details of the lovely prize that could be yours please visit her site :

http://www.freewebs.com/scrunchkins/index.htm

Thanks Allie, I'm sure the winner will love choosing from your gorgeous prints!

Please read the rules before posting - they can be found here:

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=627

Good luck and have fun writing!

I'm guessing this is where we put our essays! So here goes ...

The story of how Benjamin was made

Friday 22nd December 2006 – AF starts
Mon 25th Dec – Christmas day and Day 1 of taking the pill
Sun 14th Jan – my 29th birthday and last day of taking the pill and first day of sniffing Nafarelin morning and evening. Extra strong mints at the ready to take away the nasty taste in mouth.
Notes – why oh why do I always seem to have a blocked nose every time I start sniffing. It turned out to be blocked sinuses this time and needed Sudafed to clear after a week of pain.
Fri 19th Jan – start bleeding
Mon 23rd Jan – stopped bleeding
Fri 26th Jan – The new bumgenius 2.0 pocket nappy arrived.
Mon 29th Jan – new sniff (Nafarelin) bottle started
Tue 30th Jan – first down regulation scan at 10.45. Saw a doctor, had met before but can’t remember name. Womb lining around the 5mm mark not the important 4mm or less. A course of Norethisterone to follow starting tonight. Robert and I also had to sign a new consent form for ICSI treatment but all other documentation still seems valid.
Notes – noticed some grumpiness over the last couple of weeks, also feeling warmer than Robert most of the time so putting that down to the side effects too.
Tues 6th feb – last Norethisterone tablet am
Sat 10th feb – Started bleeding in the mid morning with no spotting first.
Mon 12th feb – stopped bleeding
Tues 13th feb – new sniff bottle
Wed 14th feb – second down regulation scan at 10.30. Scan showed womb lining of 3.7mm so perfect to start follicle stimulating hormone (fsh) injections tonight. Had early injection of 150 gonal f as we were going out to the cinema.
Thurs 15th – very tired all day. Feeling brave about injection 225 fsh today.
Mon 19th – scan to check how things were going – some of the biggest follicles were measuring 13mm, lots as usual about 80 in total but fingers crossed they keep growing.
Wed 21st – scan showed the big ones are still growing about 15mm the biggest. Fingers crossed for next scan on Friday.
Fri 23rd – Roberts 38th birthday. Day 10 of cycle – the time first scan normally happens. The scan showed the big ones are 15mm in 3d but there seems to be so many they are overlapping a lot.
Mon 26th – cycle day 13 scan showed 5 big ones on right, 3 big ones on left. Ovaries now touching called ‘kissing ovaries’. Lots of deciding about what to do next including what I thought. In the end gone with blood test today and 225 fsh today and tomorrow and egg collection on Friday. Perhaps having a blastocyst transfer next wed or normal transfer on Monday.
Wed 28th – just a quick blood test, then HCG injection of Pregnyl at 11pm (to ripen the eggs)
Friday 2nd march – EGG COLLECTION DAY! Got to hospital far too early, about 8.30 for 9ish to 9.30 in theatre. Had to read lots of paperwork and sign for permission for egg collection. They tried to get a needle (canula) for painkiller in my hand but it hurt and the vein collapsed before they could inject so it had to go in my elbow. I remember the whole process hurting and Robert said I turned his hand blue! The tv screen linked to the microscope was on so we could see what they had found. I only remember imagining shapes. Under sedation Robert said I told him the light looked like modern art, my egg on the TV screen looked like a fried egg and the ceiling was moving. After I was able to walk back to recovery and felt fine, although sleepy with various semi-awake dreams. They got a total of 11 eggs. Then I threw up just water 3 times, so had to have an anti sickness injection in my bum – had another cup of water but threw up again. Lots of talk about admission for the night for IV fluids. After a bourbon biscuit and a cup of water which I managed to keep down I was finally allowed to go home around 4.30 – a very long day in hospital.
Sat 3rd March – THE PHONE CALL – I was told only 10 eggs were mature enough for ICSI fertilisation and 9 had fertilised over night.
Mon 5th March – Can’t remember much about the phone call this morning apart from 2 embryos have stayed very good quality a grade 1 and a grade 1-, which rather than risk waiting for a blastocyst transfer on Wednesday, they are being put back in today at 3.30. I started drinking at 2.30, by 3.10 I had drunk the whole 1 litre and was waiting and waiting. After a while I felt like I was really bursting and got to go into the theatre at 4.40. Went through the paperwork (names / dob etc) and told about embryos – a total of 7 were still there with the top 2, (1 and 1-) going to be used. The others were all grade 2 or 3’s. The grade 1 was 8 cells and the grade 1- was slightly ‘older’ as it had grown more and the cells had started to squash together. Inserting the ‘torture instruments’ (think smear but they go up further and wider) and clamping them to the correct place was a little painful as was the whole pushing down on the bladder with the probe. We had the embryologist scanning, a ‘new’ doctor and consultant supervising and double checking. It also turns out I have a long cervix which apparently is good for pregnancy, but not great for getting the eggs in or giving birth. As soon as the bed was down I ran with a only a sheet around my lower half to the toilet. (Also the cotton bottoms order arrived so have more nappies and wraps to use)
Wed 7th – Today would have been blastocyst transfer – hopefully the 2 little eggs have grown and will keep growing.
Thur 8th – A little worried about OHSS as I am feeling ’fat’ around my tummy and can’t sleep on my front as normal, but as I am weeing enough I am sure I am fine. (OHSS can be life threatening and causes clots – I had to measure my urine output and keep records!)
Fri 9th – it’s a whole week since egg collection, in some respects it seems ages ago. Really want to attend the baby show at Excel, but think it wouldn’t be necessary and what if it doesn’t work.
Tues 13th – Booked flights to NJ for just over 2 months time as a treat to look forward to.
Thur 15th – Robert seems to be more stressed about the outcome and waiting until Sunday than I do. He just wants it to work so much. I do as well, but quite ready for either result.
Sat 17th – sore nipples today!
Sun 18th – TEST DAY. 7am after some weird dreams I got a positive test! So shocked and happy about it, sent lots of text messages to let people know. Ended up going out shopping and bought 3 sleep suits and body vests.
Mon 19th – Got my scan booked for 2 weeks time so I can see what is happening and how many, right place etc.
Tues 20th – didn’t tell anyone in person of our news
Thur 22nd – I was exhausted by the evening after a trip to the farm and went to bed at 7.15. Just managed to stay awake to watch to watch the previous nights episode of desperate housewives before falling asleep.
Fri 23rd – Ordered some bamboo squares and a bimble and a bambeasy for the new baby / babies. Feeling less tired at night and had to have a snack of cheese and crackers before I went to sleep at 10.20
Notes – Been craving cheese a lot and a little carrots and humous. Robert’s not told anyone at work even though they keep asking questions.
Mon 26th – For the last couple of days been thinking it is only 1 baby. Hardly any symptoms except sensitive / sore nipples. This time next week we should know.
Tues 27th – Felt quite sick on the walk to school. Baby is 25 days old today and the expected rate of growth would be looking like a seahorse with a beating heart.
Wed 28th – last night I had a dream I was scanned and it was twins.
Sun 1st April – 6 weeks pregnant today.
Mon 2nd – SCANNED TODAY! There is 1 baby and it measures 4mm and a heart rate of 220 beats per minute. Was strangely relieved to find it was only 1 baby and not twins, but also sad about the baby who didn’t make it. Bought some maternity clothes.
Sat 7th – Went shopping – various places had horrible smells. Bought some more clothes which should stretch enough!
Mon 9th – Had a fairly early night – not making it past about 9.30pm. Had a strange dream and then couldn’t get back to sleep for an hour through the night and ended up having half a large pot of yogurt, a small cream egg and a drink before eventually falling back to sleep.
Tues 10th – SCAN TODAY 7 weeks and 2 days the baby is now 9mm long, still got a beating heart. Discharged from assisted conception unit and have been told to take every scan and test going due to ICSI conception.

Wednesday 24th October 2007 our miracle baby Benjamin arrived, albeit a month early!

For those of you who have got this far and haven’t previously seen my GTKY answers here is some background if you wanted to see it.

I had to have IVF as I don’t ovulate at all – don’t think I have once since we started trying in Nov 2000. Oh and my other problems include PCOS – basically hormone imbalance, blocked tubes, more hormone probs – they think I only do the first part of the monthly cycle which is making lots of little eggies and womb lining, but then no hormones to make the 1 egg grow enough to then pop out, either fertilise or cause af, so I have af when womb lining can’t hold on any longer – which is constantly as when it reaches 40mm it can’t hold on (most people get to 8mm for af, heavy bleeders with long cycles no more than 12mm) We had to have ICSI as dh had poor swimmers as well (double blow) – the ICSI part is the bit shown on TV every time they talk about IVF on the news – the bit where there is an egg being held, then a needle is used to prod the sperm head into the egg.

I started 5 cycles of IVF to get Ben, the first was funded by NHS, drugs by gp, got about 2 weeks into making eggies with injections wasn’t working properly, told to go away and loose some weight over the summer, came back and they still used NHS funding for the hospital bit of treatment and we paid for drugs. Got all the way through to egg collection and preg testing and bleeding to prove it hadn’t worked (those babies due date was 4th July but I can’t actually remember what year now I think 06).

3rd – not making eggies quick enough / too risky to continue(paid for treatment ourselves and drugs)
4th – not making eggies quick enough / too risky to continue (luckily just paid for drugs as they kept treatment money and didn’t charge us anymore even though paperwork said we should have paid)
5th – This is the treatment cycle written about which conceived Benjamin!

Okay here is my contribution. Hope you like it!!

Parenting on the cheap

Now I don’t think I’m alone in this, many of my new mum friends have mentioned to me they’re not going on holiday this year and our clothes seem to get re-worn a lot, but being a parent is damned expensive!! Call me naive but I never really factored in the huge increase in spending at Boots on top of the decrease in my wage (more than halved) and the nursery fees (more than 2/3 of what I actually get to take home every month) leaving us with a grand total of £400 every month on top of my lovely hubby’s wages (which are minimal, he’s a creative sort), not to mention the increased consumption of coffee and cake with my new mum friends.

Luckily I was born and bred in Yorkshire, and have put my genetic talents in scrimping and saving to good use since the little one was born. However expensive the wonderful nursery is where my daughter causes mayhem for half of every day the staff are really down to earth and have given this rookie mum lots of good tips on saving money too so it’s not all money down the drain. (Actually I ‘did the math’ and it amazes me we manage to get childcare for this price once you’ve factored in premises costs, food, equipment etc. I suspect the staff get paid very little, and still do an amazing and loving job, but that’s food for another article).

So I thought I’d pass on my money saving tips to others out there who might be reeling from the shock of childbirth and its attendant drain on the purse strings:

Now this might be a step too far but personally I’m a bit of a tomboy and hardly ever wear dresses, so I dress my little daughter in whatever we get given, including boy’s clothes. She has a rather fetching pair of combat pants that I team with a girly t-shirt and she looks just fine. Equally, coats can be expensive and boy’s ones seem to be better quality. (This doesn’t apply if you’d get really annoyed at old ladies going “oh isn’t he lovely!” at your baby girl on the bus; I think it’s funny.) But my point is make the most of clothes donations and don’t be precious about what they wear, especially under one, if they’re warm and dry that’s all that matters. If you want to be really sneaky make friends with the parent of a slightly older child (about 6 months will do) of the same gender as your little one at one of those Bounce and Rhyme things and then go on about how poor you are until a bag of clothes come your way.

I’ve noticed a lot of money seems to be made by the makers of premium priced ‘healthy’ branded kiddie snack food. Now as a trained marketer I know that a lot of the time this is exactly the same stuff as is being sold on the same shelf but without the ‘wholegrain goodness’ type blurb on the pack so I look for plain snacks that aren’t aimed at kids. My little one has digestive biscuits, oat cakes, Italian breadsticks and fig rolls, as well as dried fruit cut into small pieces into a lidded snackpot (make sure apricots are unsulphured), sticks of celery or grapes cut into two or four (new recommendations say not to give whole grapes to toddlers).

Now of course there’s cloth nappies which as we all know are a great money saver, but even here we can cut corners. I don’t buy expensive fabric softeners but put a couple of drops of lavender oil in the wash to sweeten it, as well as putting those dryer balls in during the wash (probably knackers my machine though) to give the material a bit more of a pummelling.

Once they’ve grown out of their clothes and nappies you can sell them on through ebay and places like cloth nappy tree to make a little extra. Anything I can’t sell, or that seems too much of a faff to post I get rid of through freecycle, which is a great resource for parents and a good way to meet likeminded eco-dudes in your locality. As well as clearing out my clutter I’ve received free to date: one travel cot/playpen, some garden toys and some really good quality metal stair gates.

Other good sources of stuff are NCT sales, jumble sales, charity shops and children’s second hand agencies, which are opening up everywhere now and will sell on your used stuff for a percentage fee.

Our other money saving wheeze this year is having a ‘holiday at home’. Not everyone might want to do this but we live by the seaside in a beautiful part of the country and we never find the time to visit all the wonderful places close to home so this year we’re saving on expensive foreign travel and we’re going to take two weeks of to have picnics, visit art galleries, go to the petting farm, maybe go camping up the coast and eat nice food.

So hopefully by the time you’ve ploughed through all this waffle you’re dead set to get your bank balance slowly edging back into the black without that elusive lottery win (yes that’s actually one of my money management techniques, born of desperation) so what are you going to spend your hard won savings on .. that’s right, more coffee and a bigger slice of cake!!!!

[clothmama]

And here was I thinking you were taking your hols at home to see us

ah well of course .. and also so we can start saving up for our air fares to oz ..

god it's been so long since i posted here loads has happened, mainly starting back at (new) job and flo starting at nursery .. the main thing that's happened since then is flo has brought me back every virus doing the rounds of tyneside so we've both been ill to some extent since we started back .. i threw up on my first day and had to go pick flo up early then threw up again on the metro at rush hour .. i'd drunk some ribena earlier in the day to try settle my stomach so it was all purple and i'm sure everyone thought i'd been drinking .. so that was nice ..

flo is so big now, crawling around and standing on her own but not quite ready to walk without support .. we stopped using cloth for a bit when i started work but now we're a bit more settled plus i'm not so tired and ade is helping more with housework we've started again ..

ooh we've got an allotment .. had been on the list since we got here 2 years ago so of course one comes up just as we're least able to tend to it .. it's huge and was just rough ground when we got it .. ade turned eveything over and we've put some garlic, currants, raspberries, rhubarb and blueberries in so far .. nothing too onerous .. ade went to drop some wood chips off yesterday and apparently it's almost back to its wild state though, no time to weed .. oh well net year maybe .. x

TPFP - Too Posh for Pampers - yes me dears, I certainly am

I have just come across this new term for us cloth nappy users - Too Posh for Pampers (TPFP). I think to be honest it is meant to be a derogatory term, describing us parents who decide not to go with the ‘norm’ of disposable nappies, but I for one am quite happy to be described this way. Its probably the only time in my life that I can be described as Posh (well, since Secondary School when I was sent to elocution lessons and spoke with a posh twang for a while - thank you for that Mother ).

Why am I TPFP, or any other disposable nappy for that matter? Well, for me there are loads of reasons, not least the fact that I know what is in my daughters cloth nappies, I have complete control over what is actually put beside my daughters skin and it certainly isn’t a chemical gel filled pair of plastic and paper pants.

Does anyone actually know what is in a disposable nappy? Why have they became the norm without parents even wondering what is in a nappy that is about an inch thick that can catch babies wee and turn it into a mushy mess that reaches their babies knees? And why do parents think their babies are more comfortable in a pair of paper pants? Why? Well, because its become the norm, the TV advert tells us they are great, fantastic invention that makes our lives easier, and are great for our babies and who are we to argue? Well, being TPFP I can argue because I have a fair idea of what should be beside my daughters little butt and what shouldn’t be.

Another reason for being TPFP - well, there is the environmental issue, and for many this is a biggie. it’s the initial reason I started to use cloth nappies - I didn’t want 140 smelly disposable nappies rotting away in my bin every fortnight. Selfish I know, I didn’t plan to ‘save the earth’ I just didn’t want my back yard smelling. Now of course, I realise that by the time my daughter is out of nappies there will be 4000 less disposables sitting in a landfill site - 4000 less little parcels of human wee and excrement that wont rot away for at least 500 years - now that is a great reason to be TPFP.

Want more reasons - I can save money, despite being a complete cloth nappy addict I am saving money when compared to using disposables - honestly I have went through an impressive number of different nappies since my daughter was born, but being able to sell them on for at least half of what I have paid for them means that I can recoup half of what I spend. When my daughter decides to pt I know I will be able to sell on her current stash and have a couple of hundred pounds in my pocket - you cant say that with disposables can you! Selling your nappies also helps environmentally as it means the nappies are being used by more than one child, and buying preloved nappies means you can save even more money.

And you know what I like the best about being TPFP is? The shock factor Yes, although it really used to bother me, the fact that people are genuinely shocked when they learn Im using cloth nappies on my daughter does make me more determined to use them. I enjoy telling people now about modern cloth nappies - no, I don’t have to spend my life sweating over a twin tub to boil my nappies, I don’t fiddle with nappy pins and terry squares and my daughter doesn’t wear plastic pull up pants. People are genuinely shocked and then surprised when they see her nappies, when they think of cloth they don’t envisage a red furry Itti Bitti D’Lish or a crushed velvet Weenotions do they

So, yes, I am TPFP and very proud of the fact too - I think its a title all of us clothies should relish

Sadie xx