Drink to that

As many people may know...or don’t know but are now finding out...my dear youngest sister, Emily, is pregnant with her first baby due early October. YEAH FOR EMILY!

(Here she is at 16 weeks pregnant)

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She couldn’t possibly be more excited and is relishing every moment of pregnancy and planning for a baby. She – by nature – is a major planner. I sit around and then one day go, “oh my gosh, we’re having a baby tomorrow, do you think we should get the crib set up or maybe buy a few outfits or diapers?” I think her nursery is most likely stocked and ready to go. Sometimes I wish I could be that way and plan a little better. But then how would I possibly ever know the stressful rushed feeling of preparing on a second’s notice?

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Really, Emily has no idea what she’s signed herself up for and what’s about to hit her. I would NEVER EVER in a million billion years, not for any amount of money (unless that amount had at least 7 zero’s behind it) go back and be a first time mother again.

It's not because my baby was hard, because I know for a fact I scored big time with how easy Brielle was. Of course I didn’t realize this until after I had already taken it for granted and thought it was the hardest year of my life. But now looking back, she was super easy.

But the reason I wouldn’t want to go back is because there is so much that changes all at once. You go from working a job, living a fun little “party” life with your husband one day to the next you’re holding this crying, squirming, slimy little body that you have no idea how to calm, no idea how to feed, and no idea how to dress.

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You no longer go in to a job where you are socializing with adults, you sit in your pajamas and cry for weeks on end wondering how your baby is ever going to make it to their first birthday, because you’re SURE you gave them too much to eat and they’re going to explode or you put their diaper on so tight you’re worried the blood circulation to their legs is going to be cut off and they’ll have to walk on their knees when they’re older.

So, for those reasons I would have to say I will never envy a first time mom for the rest of my life. Maybe a second time mom...because at that point it’s just fun having a baby.

Anyway, Emily is one of those amazing people who has been brainwashed...I mean has decided, that she wants to have a natural labor and delivery and wants to probably use cloth diapers.

Don’t worry, we told her if she went on to drive a Subaru, started wearing dread locks, started making her clothes out of her own home grown cotton, bought a goat for milk, moved to the mountains of Colorado and bought a golden retriever that we’d disown her.

KIDDING, I really think more power to her! If I could have had my babies naturally I think I might have at least tried (of course until I felt the first contraction then I would have cried and cried until someone got me an epidural). If I didn’t hate having to clean babies’ poo more than wrapping it quickly in a diaper and tossing it, I’m sure I’d try cloth diapers as well. But I didn’t.

The natural labor I am more understanding of than the cloth diapers. Please, nobody be offended, if you use them then AWESOME! You’re the coolest person I know! However, I do not understand wanting to wash and reuse a diaper after another human being's poo has been sitting in it, soiling it and smooshing in all the crevices of said diaper.

We (me and my older sister who like to bug her) have been told by Emily that disposable diapers basically never break down and they sit in landfills forever. I have heard that before, so I let that tidbit go un-teased.

I was also informed that you’re not supposed to put “human feces” in the garbage can. That even if you use disposable diapers you should be dumping the poo in the toilet and then throwing away the diaper.

Obviously I couldn’t let THAT go without a little teasing, I mean educated questioning. So I had to ask why no poo in the trash. Emily researches everything, I’m sure because she knows we are going to have a lot of “questions” for her. So, apparently the poo can seep out of the diapers and get in to water sources or something.

I told her that the last time I checked, we weren’t getting our drinking water from the landfill. Unless there are things that “the man” is doing that I’m not aware of, I think we’ll be okay.

My dear mom, always trying to be the peacemaker in our home (a.k.a. Emily’s personal body guard/cheerleader, because Emily is the one we like to gang up on) said to me, “Well, it can seep in to the ground which can then get in to the water source.”

So....wouldn’t the poo we flush down the toilet ALSO end up in our water sources? Aren’t we drinking the poo we just flushed this morning in our nice cup of water the next day? So what are we to do with all this poo just floating around? Are we to keep it and turn it in to our own fertilizer in our gardens? But won’t THAT then seep in to the ground contaminating our water sources???

I really don’t see how there is any “correct” way to dispose of the waste produced from any person, adult or baby, that I couldn’t somehow link to being in our drinking water...just because I’m mean like that and like to tease my sister. What would I be if I didn’t tease her? Not a good older sister, that’s for sure!

I for one am a big fan of bottled/purified water. I don’t like to waste all those water bottles though, so I either get the milk jug sized ones and refill them at the store or just reuse the water bottles with *gasp* tap water.

I also don’t spend a lot of time at landfills, so call me ignorant, rude, or an earth hater but I’m not too concerned about my poopy diapers at the landfill...I mean not MY poopy diapers, but the ones that I change off of little bums.

I for one think I will just laugh every time I wrap up a poopy diaper and throw it in the trash.

Ha, ha, ha, Emily, drink this!


*I had Emily’s full knowledge and consent to write this post. She knows that we like to make fun of her but that in all reality we think it’s great that she wants to be kinder to the earth as well as try to go without drugs that could cause possible side effects. She’s not crazy or die hard about any of it, just wants to do these things if she can. I do like my sister...she just makes for comical conversations. :)