Olivia Grace Bush - due 09/08/11

We announced the name of our second daughter a few weeks ago. Olivia will be so loved by all as much as Ava is!

We are registered at Target and www.nickisdiapers.com - Best Bottom Diapers.

I just want to take a minute to talk about these diapers I have come across.

I bought one for Ava after reading the reviews about no leaks and leg gussets to keep the mess in. I recreated one to model it and it holds up pretty good for a couple of hours but nothing compaired to the real deal. I put Ava in this diaper for 5 hours and no leaks. I usually do not keep her in a diaper that long but I wanted to see if it held up to the test with her walking and plopping down when she stumbled. I haven't tried the diaper at night and this will be the true test! I plan on ordering the overnight inserts and more of the stay dry inserts (which are great and they are dry when you take them out after they've been soiled) to see if it works at night. I have had every diaper you could possibly try leak when she sleeps at night. The solution so far has been huggies overnights size 4 (she wears a size 3) and for the most part she leaks a little but it's the best solution so far. Every cloth diaper leaks that I have tried. I have a friend who sews fitted diapers and diaper covers and they do not leak during the day but at night is where I have a problem. Fuzibunz leaks regardless, Bumgenius leaks, any all-in-one leaks on her day or night. So when I came across the best bottom diaper system I was blown away by how trim it is and how "daddy friendly" it is. You snap an insert in and it's time for a change you snap dirty one out and snap a clean one in! How easy!!!

I have used prefolds on her (which I really like) but when someone else watches her it's just easier to put her in disposables because trying to explain how to use the snappi is not the easiest thing in the world. If you don't stretch it tight enough you have a droopy diaper and if you don't pull down on the middle tab hard enough you have problems with that catching on the PUL cover. It's sort of a pain if you're not used to it. I had trouble the first couple of diaper changes. ANYWAY, I think this would be a money saver to have the whole system be best bottoms. It's easy to do and not hard to explain, you really can't mess it up and I think my two kiddos would benefit from having cloth diapers full time even when someone is watching them!

Okay, enough about the diapers. I'm really excited though that I've found something that works!

I can not wait until September! I want to see what Olivia looks like and be able to snuggle with her! I miss that about Ava, she doesn't snuggle unless she's really sleepy and it's bedtime! She's so independent that way though, which is great!

I wonder about her personality and will it be anything like Ava's or will she be completely different? Who will she look like? Will she be a good baby like Ava was or will she have colic and reflux (all which I think I'm prepared to handle)? How will the sleep routine go for the first three months, how will Ava's routine be effected, will Ava like having a baby sister or will she want to give her away? I have about a billion more questions on adding a new addition to our family but I am thrilled about having another little girl!

I plan on breastfeeding again with Olivia, I hope I'm a little more successful (and less stressed because I know what to do now) and can go a little longer with her than I did with Ava. It was such a bonding experience that I really miss but on the downside (if I had to pick a negative thing to say about breastfeeding) you're very limited on getting "me time". You have a very short window to go out of the house without the baby. I hardly went anywhere without Ava the first six months because I was afraid she'd get hungry and I wasn't there to feed her. It was very sad for me to wean her (she didn't even notice a change) but also a huge relief that someone else could provide her with food other than her momma! So that's my only complaint (if you call it a complaint) about breastfeeding.

I think with breastfeeding, cloth diapering and making my own baby food this go around we will be a "green family"! I bought a grinder at HEB the other day that grinds anything you want into a mush for the baby. I plan on doing broccoli, green beans, potatoes, corn, squash, beets (just so she has variety not because they are delicious yuck!!!!), ect... any fruit and veggie that I can think of she's getting because I do not want a picky eater like someone we all know... ME and Ava too, she's starting to have her own preferences on what she will eat.

Ava and whole milk - the battle begins!

I tried to slowly add whole milk into her bottle about a month ago and she didn't tollerate it very well, she threw up a few times so I backed off. Well this week I have tried to add it back into her diet. She actually drank about 2 oz. of whole milk without spitting it out or making a face. So I've been adding it into her bottles and she hasn't gotten sick at all. So this morning I decided that it would be nice to have some milk with her breakfast and she took a huge swig of milk from her sippy cup and spit it out and had this horrible look on her face like it was poisioned or something. The look on her face was, "Momma, why would you give me such a vile tasting beverage!" so I added a tiny bit of chocolate syrup to it and she drank a little more but wasn't pleased. If I have chocolate milk in a glass (for me) she will drink a good bit of it so I've switched to whole milk from 2% so she can drink some in the morning with me. I'm thinking about either next week or the week after to start doing instead of 4 scoops of formula to 8 oz of milk to 3 scoops of formula and 8 oz of milk so it has more of a milk taste to it. I'm not sure how this is going to go but wish me luck!!!