24 weeks (baby #2 FAQ #4)
Who will be at your birth?
Similar to last time, if all goes according to plan, it will be me, Eric, my midwife, a few hospital nurses, my sister and a photographer.
What is placenta encapsulation?
Placenta encapsulation is the process of turning a placenta into pills that you can take after the baby is born. As soon as I heard about it and its benefits, I knew in my gut that I needed to do it. And then I told Eric about it and he confirmed it by saying, "I feel like you have to do that." You may be scoffing at the idea, and if so, I will dare to guess you have never suffered from postpartum depression before. We are willing to try almost anything to avoid it this time around! The pills can also help boost milk supply, gently wean the mom off pregnancy hormones, and speed up healing. There are a few different businesses around here who provide this service, but I personally am using Pleasant Postpartums. To be honest, it does sort of gross me out and I plan to just tell myself it's a vitamin and not something I grew inside of me :-P
Will you be able to reuse any of Rooney's baby items?
We will reuse as much as we can! Our infant car seat and stroller are gender neutral and not expired, so we'll use those for sure. I'm not sure yet whether we'll get a double stroller or not. We can also reuse our high chair, pack n play, activity gym and swing. We are getting a crib and dresser (that I used when I was a baby!) from my parents and spray-painting them black (any tips on this?). We need a new changing pad cover and maybe crib sheets (Roo's are just plain white, but she's still using them). I would really like to get a glider and a bassinet (this would be ideal). Our video monitor also broke recently so we need to get a new one. As far as clothes go, some of Roo's are boy-friendly! I also got a bunch of hand-me-downs from a friend, which was a huge help. I guess we also need to get a blackout shade for his room. Gosh, now I'm kind of stressed out with all the things we still need to do/buy!
Are you cloth diapering this go around to save money?
We're not. I know it works great for some people, but we're planning to just stick with what we know and use disposable again. Plus, our daycare does not do cloth. And Rooney is showing great interest in potty-training (!!!) so hopefully we won't have two in diapers at the same time!
Are you going to stick with R names?
We are not planning to stick with R names. Our girl name was Wren, which sounds like an R but isn't, and I liked that. We've chosen our boy name (we're 99.9% sure anyway), and it does not start with R.
I think I've answered all the questions now! Leave a comment here if you have a question you'd like answered in a future post, or shoot me an email!