Mom on the Run: It's Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

What the hell is John Cena doing on this image? Not that I don't like me some John Cena, but this is silly.

Lucas is out of town for work today, so we had a nice Valentine's Day dinner last night at Porter's Steakhouse. We started with a wine and cheese plate, Lucas had Surf n' Turf, I had a spicy seafood plate and Delano brown-bagged some apples and a bottle of breastmilk. It was yummy.

Do you ever have any of those moments where you feel like your brain became pure mush and just stopped working? It happens to me ALL the time. For example, the other night, in the middle of the night, my throat was a bit scratchy from who-knows-what. So I popped in a throat lozenge that I had sitting on my nightstand (for just this occasion). I fell asleep with the lozenge in my cheek, which is typical. Not the safest thing in the world, but I feel like EVERYBODY does it. I know I've been doing it since I was little. Not a just-opened-full-size lozenge (that's probably quite dangerous), but after it's been sucked on for awhile and is down to a thin sliver. Like it's going to keep on "working" after I fall asleep, even though it usually just ends up glued to the inside of my cheek. ANYWAY. This particular night, when I woke up a few hours later, I had a total brain fart as to what was in my mouth. So I spit it out. And I don't mean that I spit it into my hand, or even into the floor. I turned my head to the right and just spit it out. Into the bed. And directly into my hair. It took all of about five seconds for me to fully wake up and realize what I had done. So I spent the next couple of minutes digging through my hair in the dark attempting to located the sliver of throat lozenge. I did, but not before I ended up with a gross sticky spot in my hair that a brush wouldn't even pass through.

Nice going, April. But stories like that tend to include me a LOT lately. The only reason the milk jug didn't go into the cupboard a few weeks ago is because I couldn't get it to fit. And Delano almost wore a onesie snapped OVER his pants even more recently, and it took me more than a minute to figure out why his outfit looked weird. And those are only a couple of incidences. There are loads more.

I can't chalk it up to being overtired, because I'd just be making excuses. I'm not tired. Just DUMBER.

So you're saying there's a chance.....

I feel like I should have some "mom" stuff to talk about, because I haven't had any major mom blogs in a while. But there just haven't been any big revelations lately.

In my cloth diaper world, not much is new. I haven't bought any new ones lately to show off, though I am buying a diaper cover and a pocket diaper from my friend Leza here in the next day or two, as she is selling off her stash. Other than that....well.....Delano was leaking through his "nighttime diapers" (his Happy Heinys) at least once - sometimes twice - a night for several nights in a row, which would of course wake him up. His diapers were never heavy and full, so I guessed that it was time they needed to be stripped. I spent all day Monday stripping them, so hopefully they're good to go now. In the meantime, I've been sending him to bed in these Dream Eze diapers I bought from a lady on Lookout Mountain right after he was born, and they have been amazing.

They're super thick and super absorbent, But you can't use them without a cover (like the babies in the above pic), because there's nothing waterproof about them. But luckily I hung onto a few waterproof diaper covers that were included in a lot of diapers that I bought and they work PERFECTLY over the Dream Eze diapers. Delano has had ZERO leaks the past week in these. So A+, Dream Eze. But I'm also hoping that the diapers I spent all of Monday stripping (aka rinsing over and over again in hot water) will go back to being amazing as well. Delano goes 12 hours at night without a diaper change, so what he wears needs to work!

I managed to get almost all of my pocket diapers and All-In-One diapers stuffed, folded and ready to go before the baby got bored and fussy!

As you notice in the above photo, there are no gdiapers. Well, technically, the red thing along the top is a gdiaper cover that's a size small and too small for Delano. So there IS a gdiaper in the photo. But I meant that there weren't any gdiapers currently being used and washed. That's because Delano, due to his shape and size, is right smack inbetween the size small and size medium gdiaper. The small is too small, so it leaks......but the medium is too big, so it leaks. It's such a shame, because I have some CUTE medium gdiaper covers waiting for him!!

I've shown this one before, but he has two of these.


He also has this Earth Day one.

And this g camper one....

And this g university one....

And this gallant stripes one.

And he has some solid color ones, too. Navy blue, aqua blue, yellow, black, green, etc. And I actually have a bag of about fifteen more gdiaper covers that need the velcro strips redone. Once I sew on new velcro, I can sell those extra covers and make some money back (to make up for all those cute design covers I bought). But once Delano can fit nicely into the mediums, we'll be circulating those through the stash as well. I'm a huge fan of gdiapers.

What else is mom-discussion-worthy? Hmm.......well, I had two friends recently ask me about car seat checks. For those who have never looked into it, car seat checks are FREE and totally worth it. Even if your baby is already a toddler. Before Delano was born, I went to a car seat check downtown and basically learned the following:

Your car seat (or car seat base) is supposed to be locked into your back seat so tight that it leaves a permanent indention in the seat.

Ok, they don't actually say that. But that's basically what happens. The car seat check guy literally crawled into my back seat to weigh down the seat and strap it in as tight as possible. And he showed me how he was doing it for future reference. It was a great eye opener, because I had no idea it was supposed to be that tight. Here's a video showing a car seat installation, if you're interested.

Car seat check point.

P.S. If your car seat is expired (they all have expiration dates on them....another thing I learned at my car seat check), they may offer to replace it for free. This is an awesome service, BUT they may want to replace your seat with a convertible seat if they don't have any infant seats. A pro to a convertible seat is that it grows with your child and so you may never need another car seat until your kid is old/big enough for a booster seat. A con is that it doesn't have the removable infant carrier, which is a big plus for smaller babies.

The convertible car seat can face both rear and front, for newborns to toddlers. Just no infant carrier. The one they might offer you probably won't be as fancy as this one.

P.P.S. I don't think the car seat people can MAKE you replace an outdated car seat. I think they are just required by law to "highly recommend" it. So if you go for a car seat check and want to keep your current (expired) car seat, just say that you understand the risks but really want to keep the infant carrier for now. You just want to make sure it's installed safely.

For those who want to participate in a free car seat check, here's a link for upcoming area checks. Another link is this one, which may have sooner events. A few other contacts you can call to find out if there's anything sooner (or works better time-wise for you) are:

Safe and Sound/TC Children's Hospital
910 Blackford St.
Chattanooga, TN 37403
Phone: 423-778-6691
Contact: Becky Campbell

Hamilton County Health Department
921 East Third St.
Chattanooga, TN 37403
Phone: 423-209-8204
Contact: Christy Smith

Safe Journey / Hamilton Co. Sheriff's Office
8395 Hickory Valley Rd
Chattanooga, TN 37416
Phone: 423-893-3503 x 247
Contact: Becky Campbell

Tennessee Highway Patrol
4120 Cummings Hwy.
Chattanooga, TN 37419
Phone: 423-643-6898
Contact: Jeffrey Mosley

Of course, I can always have Lucas put your seat (or seat base) in for you. We're not certified experts by any means, but he's pretty good at doing it (and quite strong), so all you have to do is ask!

What else is mom-discussion-worthy? Consignment sales!!! YAY CONSIGNMENT SALES I'M SO EXCITED!!!

I LOVE consignment sales. First of all, I'm all about reusing and recycling, which makes me super pro-consignment. Second of all, you can find just about anything you want for super cheap, from baby socks to bathtubs to nursery decor to bouncy seats to maternity clothes to breast pumps. And third of all, if you thought things were cheap during the week, just wait until the last day where most of the items left are 50% off!!!

There are several consignment sales coming up back-to-back here in Chattanooga for the Spring. They include (links with dates):

Sweet WeePeets
Chattanooga Moms of Multiples
Jack and Jill
Just Between Friends
Duck Duck Goose

P.S. Sweet WeePeets starts this Saturday!

P.P.S. The primo days for consignment sales are the first and last days. On these days there's usually a line to get in. However, with JBF (Just Between Friends), Wednesday is also a good day, since they restock a lot of stuff on Tuesday evening. And if you can consign your own stuff or volunteer your time, you can usually shop before the sale is open to the public, putting you even more ahead of the game. Some sales even give expecting mothers the chance to shop before the public if you register in time!

P.P.P.S. Find out what determines that items will be 50% off on the last day. Not everyone who consigns their stuff wants it to drop down to 50% off on the last day. Different sales have different ways of marking their items. For example, at the JBF sale, any item with a star on the tag will be 50% off on the last day, if it hasn't sold by then. Anything without a star will not be discounted on the last day. I mention this because it may determine what you decide to buy -- if you decide whether to go ahead and buy something right away or if you decide to risk it and see if it will still be around on the 50% off day.

P.P.P.P.S. Prepare to be spoiled after shopping consignment. After that, everything else just seems expensive. "That shirt's $5? Rubbish!!"