Fall Bucket List

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! October-December are truly magical and I patiently (unpatiently) wait all year for this season to get here! Thankfully it’s finally cool outside! Caroline is 15 months old and just getting to the age of going out and doing fun things so I have lots on things on the family calendar! Can’t wait for Caleb to get a little older to experience fall fun next year…all in good time I guess.

So what’s on our fall bucket list?

1. Pumpkin patch

   I mean this one’s a given, but I can’t wait to pick out our pumpkins!

2. Backyard movie night

   This will be the first time we do this and I’m so excited! We have the perfect backyard setup for a big blowup movie screen and smores over outdoor fireplace. We’re having a few friends over and we’ll have a bunch of blankets and pillows and chairs on the lawn to watch the big screen. Lots of lanterns and candles too. Not sure what movie we’re going to play yet, but definitely a scary one!

   3. Get back to working out!

3. I recently signed up for a gym membership and I’ve been longing to get back to regularly working out! Once wedding season winds down, I plan on being back!

4. Mama and Caroline date!

   I bought tickets to Disney on Ice and yeah, she may be a bit young for something like this, but tickets were cheap so if we only make it half way, that’s ok with me!

5. Girl’s nights!

   making new mom friends! Terrifying but so needed in my life! So definitely getting so girl’s nights on the books! Hooray!

6. Halloween costume contest!

   This Saturday is Caroline’s Preschool’s Fall Festival and they are doing costume contests! Since Chris’ beard is long and “beast”-ly (insert eye roll emoji here) Caroline and him are going as Beauty and the Beast! Hilarious. I’ll be sure to post pics on Instagram stories!

7. Carter Mountain

   This one’s a given. It’s our favorite Charlottesville spot. The best apple cider donuts and beautiful views.

8. Trick or Treating

   Another given! Can’t wait to dress Caroline up and go the the neighbor’s houses.

9. Bake a pie.

   Like an actual pie. From a recipe. Yikes.

10. Continuing making our house a home

If you follow me on IG stories you’ll know I’ve been behind on decorating our home that we’ve lived in for a full year. I’ve been slowly doing things here and there, but have lots on this list this Fall. Slowly but surely it will come together.

Happy fall y’all!

Warmly,

Michelle

DIAPERS, DIAPERS, DIAPERS.

If you've been following along on Instagram Stories the last week or so you'll know I'm on a diaper search! 

To recap quickly- My most favorite diapers are Pampers Swaddlers- LOVE them. Literally never had one issue with them for the 14 months that we've been using them. But are the cost of them worth it? We have 2 in diapers and will for the next 2 plus years. So looking to save on diapers has been a mission of mine the last 2 weeks or so. 

For the record, I know there a many other brand of diapers out there so my search after this post may not be over. This blog post is comparing Pampers Swaddlers, Target's Up&Up brand, and Mama Bear from Amazon. 

I am mainly looking for a well made diaper, great coverage, no skin irritation, and a great fit. I'm looking for diapers that I can easily pick up or order which is why I've only experimented thus far with Amazon's brand and Target brand. I have heard great things about Costco brand and Aldi, but those places aren't too convenient for us. So I started with what makes sense for our family. 

PAMPERS SWADDLERS & Pampers overnights

What do I like? 

The softness

The fit

The leak protection

Honestly? Everything.

Ability to buy from multiple places 

What don't I like?

The cost!

Regular diaper cost- $.26 per diaper/$48 per month per child 

Overnight Cost- $.43 per diaper/$13 per month per child 

Total Cost using exclusively pampers per month for 2 children- $122 ($1,464 per year)

UP&UP BY TARGET OVERNIGHT

The first day I put her in an overnight from their Up&Up line. Disaster. Caroline completely leaked through everything. Such a disaster that I sold them on our local marketplace page the very next day- so it's safe to say they are a no go with us. I wish we had better luck as I know they work for a lot of people. 

What did I like?

The cost! 

What didn't I like?

Pretty much everything else about them. (Insert crying face emoji here)

I can only buy from Target- duh 

Up&Up Overnights cost- $.21 per diaper- $7 per month for one child

UP&UP BY TARGET REGULAR

The next day I tried the regular Up&Up brand diapers. After 2 hours wearing her first one Caroline leaked through it- GAH. What a mess. We went back to Swaddlers for a couple of days after this

I tried them again, however. Not bad the second time around. No leaks, no skin irritation, and overall they were fine. We tried them for 2 days while using Pampers Swaddlers at night. 

What did I like?

The cost! 

No leaks 

No skin irritation 

Good overall fit when dry

What didn't I like?

The plastic feeling of the material 

Very saggy when wet- I feel like I may have to change them more frequently.

I can only buy from Target 

Up&Up cost- $.13 per diaper/$22 per month for 1 child 

Using Up&Up brand exclusively for 2 children would cost the following

$58 per month ($700 per year)- Half of what Pampers cost. 

Using Target regular diapers with Pampers Overnights for 2 children would cost $70 per month ($840 per year) 

MAMA BEAR BY AMAZON

Then we moved on to Mama Bear diapers from Amazon. Amazon released their diaper line last Fall and I have heard nothing but great things! Caroline has been wearing them during the day since Monday and I really really like them! No leaks, no sagging, a great fit on her too. 

What did I like?

The fit

The leak protection

softer than Target 

What didn't I like? 

plastic feeling of material 

No overnight diaper available 

Mama Bear Cost- $.21 per diaper/ $31.50 per child per month

For 2 children Mama Bear would cost- $63 per month ($756 per year) 

Using Mama Bear with Pampers overnights for 2 children would cost $89 per month ($1,068 per year) This is $228 more expensive per year (Or about $20 more per month than using Target with Pampers overnights.

HOnestly, I think that's worth it. 

The cost difference between using exclusively Pampers vs. Mama bear and pampers overnights is $396 per year or $33 per month. 

So the question is, is that worth it? $400 a year, that's quite a bit if you ask me.  I think our game plan right now is to use the Mama Bear with the Pampers overnights. Caroline is a champ at sleeping through the night so I would be crazy to mess with that. Chris thinks we should try the Mama Bear brand at night-but I'm not too sure about that-stay tuned! 

I'll keep you updated, friends! Thanks for all the feedback on Instagram! 

Warmly,

Michelle

CALEB ALEXANDER SCHMIDT

He's 2 months old today, so it's about time I formally introduce you to our sweet sweet boy. 

But let's backtrack a little bit. Last October Caroline was 3 months old. I had been to my 6 week postpartum check up and I denied birth control because of everything we went through to conceive Caroline. One miscarriage and months of fertility treatments-birth control was not on my to do list thanks to PCOS. My doctor reminded me that anything could happen and I kinda sorta laughed at him. 

I was exclusively breastfeeding every 2 hours during the day which typically means your period takes forever to come back-and well I never get them so I wasn't even thinking about that. I had read that your cycle could come back earlier if your baby was sleeping through the night-and well, Caroline was so I'm guessing that triggered a cycle. On October 20th, I woke up and had this feeling that I was pregnant. (I had found out the year before on October 26th that I was pregnant with Caroline.) In fact I probably didn't even need to take a pregnancy test- I knew. We were packing up the car to head to Lexington VA to help out my brother and sister-in-law with watching my nephew while they were in town for a reunion. I quickly grabbed a test from CVS because I just had to know. I had told Chris that morning I thought I might be pregnant so when I walked out of the bathroom holding that little stick he wasn't totally surprised. I wanted to look at it in natural light so I headed to the deck.- Because us girls are crazy when it comes to pink lines on pregnancy tests, but before I got there that little pink line popped right up. It was overwhelming, I'm not going to lie. Caroline was 3 months old and it was like real life repeating itself. I knew they would have similar due dates and possibly the same birthday. (They ended up with birthdays 6 days apart) Could my body handle this again so soon? First trimester sickness again so soon? 2 babies under one year old? Oh goodness- what a day that was. 

Then those dreaded feelings of something being wrong came creeping back because after you go through a miscarriage it steals all joy from future pregnancies. You don't want to get excited because if something is wrong somehow you think that if you don't get excited or hold back on starting to love that baby it will be easier. Not true, but that's what our brains do. 

My pregnancy with Caleb was totally normal. A quick preeclampsia scare that turned into nothing and high blood pressure which I had with Caroline was monitored throughout. Otherwise a wonderful 9 months. 

Caleb was born on June 21st, 2018 at 4:30 pm and weighed a chunky 8lbs 2oz. He is healthy, smiley, and just the perfect addition to our family. 

I went in to be induced on Wednesday, June 20th for high blood pressure. Nothing crazy, just a little high as it was with Caroline and my doctor wanted to be on the safe side. I know there are many horror stories about being induced and a lot of women prefer not to be, I loved being induced both times. I loved the step by step process, the relaxed environment, and the gradual lead up. I was a bit more nervous with Caleb than I was Caroline just because with Caroline I had no clue what was really going on-I was just going with the flow. With Caleb we were doing the same steps and procedures and, I guess I'm just better when I don't know all the details. So I was more nervous the second time, but all was ok. 

So we started induction at about 3:30 pm on Wednesday and 25 hours later and pushing for about 30 min, he was here. Chris was surprised for the gender just as he wanted to be. Our doctor lifted Caleb into the air and asked Chris to say out loud what it is. Such a sweet moment. 

Since Chris was being surprised-we didn't talk about names very much while I was pregnant. Boy names are hard for me so I felt if I brought them up I would give away the gender. We had "Claire" picked out for a girl, but really nothing for a boy. We both had names the other hated so those were vetoed and it was stressful trying to decide on a name. If I did it again, I would have had a boy name and a girl name picked out before I found out the gender. So many opinions came at us from family and friends I couldn't really focus on what WE wanted to name him. If someone loved one name, someone else hated it. Again, stressful. In the end, we had the name Cameron but knew at some point it would become "Cam" and I don't think we were 100% ok with that and all I could think was Modern Family. So there we were thinking "well, are we going to do a C name?" Caleb was just on a "C" baby name list that I was reading and we both liked it- a rarity. It stuck and we decided on Alexander as a middle name because Chris has always liked that name and it's a small nod to our first pregnancy that ended in miscarriage at 9 weeks. We gave that baby the name Alexander because we thought it had been a boy. I have a necklace with a bible verse on the front and a tiny A on the back.  So about 5 minutes before discharge we finally had a name. 

Caroline meeting Caleb will forever be one of my favorite moments of all time. I wanted to share the video with you all today. I'm so glad I recorded the moment. 

You can find it here 

So I'm an Irish twin mama. And for 6 days every year Caleb and Caroline will be the same age. Hilarious. Life is so funny. For those still in the wait with baby shaped holes in their hearts, I see you. You are loved and I just know your story is not over, it's still be written and one day it will all make sense, I promise. 

Warmly,

Michelle