For those of you Instagram, Youtube and newsletter followers in the know, this is old news. But I've been saving it as a surprise for those of you who just read the blog. I've tried to avoid discussing baby stuff here for a variety of reasons (avoiding mommy wars and family privacy being high on the list) but it has been SO HARD to hide some of my best frugal accomplishments this year. Once baby is born I might post a couple of pictures and/or new discoveries on my FA posts, but this won't become a "mommy blog" for reasons I just mentioned. That being said, I thought I'd answer some questions that I'm sure every new mom-to-be gets asked.
1. When are you due? We're expecting baby at the end of September/early October.
2. Do you know what you're having? Nope! We've decided to keep it a surprise.
3. How are you feeling/how has your pregnancy been? I'm feeling pretty good. I was a little bit nauseous during the first trimester and obviously feeling more tired and sore now that I'm close to the end. But there were only a few minor discomforts for a majority of the pregnancy.
4. How is the baby doing? Good, as far as I can tell! Baby is very active with lots of squirms, stretching and rolling. Especially at night when I'm trying to sleep.
Those are the typical normal-people questions that I've already been asked probably 1000 times. Now we'll move on to the hot-button mommy wars topics for those of you who are curious.
5. Are you going to work or stay home? I've been a housewife since we got married, so obviously I plan on staying home. That being said, I hope to continue writing books as time allows and earn a bit of money that way.
6. Will you use cloth or disposable diapers? I hope to use cloth diapers, but my motives are more financial than ethical. I plan on using disposable diapers for trips, nights with the babysitter and other times when cloth diapering would be inconvenient.
7. Are you going to circumcise your baby? I had no idea that this was SUCH a big deal to some people until a few weeks ago. Obviously if we have a girl, circumcision won't be an issue. We have made a decision on this point if we do have a boy, but I'm not going to share it here because... private parts can just stay private.
8. Will you be nursing or bottle-feeding? It's my wish to breastfeed for all of the obvious reasons. But again, I have no ethical issue with formula feeding if nursing becomes not an option.
There are a lot of other baby topics we could get into, but we'll stop there. I'm no baby-raising expert, but I thought I'd put my plans out there for those who may be wondering.
Goals For September
So my biggest reason for sharing this post is to let you know that blog posts, Youtube videos, newsletters and other stuff will probably hit-or-miss from mid-September to... I'm not sure when, but at least for the entire month of October. As I've mentioned in the last few Frugal Accomplishments posts, I've been doing a lot of cleaning, organizing, reading and other baby preparations in the last month especially. My recycle-able can collection has also been growing steadily, thanks to so many afternoon walks.
During the month of September, my main goal is to tie up loose ends on the hobby farm/garden and stock up on pantry items (cheese and peanut butter high on the list!) and toiletries. There are also a few house projects that I'd like to finish up before baby arrives. Remember the cute little stuffed elephant I made a few weeks ago? I want to make the other two stuffed animals if I get time to do so in the next few weeks.
All that being said, blogging and writing are not high on the priority list this month. In addition, at the end of September Youtube is retiring their video editor, so it may take a while for me to figure out how to edit my videos again. :( Instagram might be your best bet if you want to stay updated until we get back into the swing of things.
Til next time,
-Bethany