eBook Review: Unbound Birth

Pregnancy, labor, and childbirth... women love to talk about it, whether it's comparing notes on aches and pains, reflecting on our deliveries, sharing hospital horror stories (have you ever noticed when someone announces they are pregnant, the nearby women start topping each others' crazy childbirth stories?!), or just plain amazing stories (like my friend who had her baby in the car).  Or maybe it's the great debate between proponents of unmedicated childbirth and those who love their epidurals.  In fact, I can't count the number of times I have been conversing on this very subject and someone says something along the lines of "Well, you don't hear of too many unmedicated births in hospitals, and I would never have a home birth, so I guess "natural" childbirth isn't for me."  In some ways, I have to agree with them, in spite of myself.  Let me give a little background... with my first son, I had planned to have an unmedicated birth, but complications arose and plans changed.  I had a very difficult and painful recovery and felt sad for quite a while about how things went.  With my second son, I knew I wanted to try for an unmedicated birth again, but I knew how easily things could change.  I prepared myself as best as I could, hoped for the best, and felt blessed to be able to deliver a nine pound boy (I'm just over 5 feet) without an epidural.  There was a huge- positive- difference in my recovery afterwards, and although it was one of the hardest things I have ever done, I felt strongly that doing it that way gave amazing benefits to both me and my baby (My doctor agreed, but that's another post).  I was pretty convinced that this was the best way for me personally to birth my children, but I also knew from my four months as a nurse working on a labor and delivery floor (it was my nursing residency, right before I graduated) that things pretty much have to go perfectly for a mother to be allowed to deliver without many interventions pushed on them (that's also another post entirely...).  I considered home birth, but felt unsure about it given some of the complications my babies and I had experienced.

Maybe those of you who are mamas or anticipate having children someday have been in a similar boat- having the seemingly impossible goal of an unmedicated childbirth- in the hospital.

Enter Jennifer Yarbrough and her new eBook: Unbound Birth: How to Have a Natural Birth in the Hospital. This is an awesome resource for expectant moms, first time or sixth time, who would love some support in achieving that now-not-so-impossible goal of natural childbirth in the hospital!  I was able to review Unbound Birth, and I was happy to discover valuable pregnancy and childbirth information in an easy-to-read format- as if I were just listening to another mom talk.  Jennifer (who also happens to contribute to the crafty blogosphere over at The Southern Institute) shares her own natural birth stories, and she details information that is really good on a variety of subjects, including childbirth education, using a doula, tips on relaxation and pain relief during labor, and how to help your baby stay in the optimal position for birth (anyone who has had a breech or posterior baby knows how difficult and sometimes impossible it is to go through labor normally).  Jenny also covers creating your own birth plan, and gives tips for good prenatal nutrition and exercise.  Unbound Birth is all about empowering you to be able to have the experience you want, and it is packed with great information to know if you want to give yourself the best chance possible to birth naturally in the hospital!

In case you're wondering, the eBook is about 60 pages (it is a quick read) and it costs under $5- not bad!  If you're thinking of buying it, it is available as of today, and you can get your own copy by clicking here.  (Also check out the Unbound Birth website or follow Unbound birth on Facebook and Twitter.)

I learned long ago that everyone has the right to choose what kind of experience they want while giving birth- and there is no right or wrong way to do it as long as everyone ends up healthy.  If you decide that unmedicated childbirth is right for you, and you have concerns, then I suggest checking this book out, and best of luck to you!


Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this eBook in return for reading it and posting my review; however the opinions expressed here are my honest feelings and reactions to the eBook.

Car Seat Protector Pads

A while back I posted about some projects I was finishing up, and one of them was this car seat protector pad.  It really has been one of the most useful things I have made recently.  I made it because I was potty training my son, but believe me, I wish I had made it long before.

Let me tell you a story.  This is not for the faint of heart (or stomach).  One day when I was pregnant with my second child, we were driving Marissa and her husband Richard up to the airport.  I was sitting in the back seat- in the middle, next to my one year old in his car seat.  That alone was uncomfortable.  When we got to the airport, we found out that not only was their flight cancelled, but my son was... really sick to his stomach.  I'll spare you the really nasty details and only share the fairly nasty ones.  I'm considerate like that.  :P  His car seat was a mess, and after dumping it, we really had no way of cleaning it.  He had to sit, practically naked at that point, in a nasty car seat all the way home.  Remember who was sitting next to him?  That was 5 months pregnant me.  Enough said.  Once we got home, we had to figure out a way of getting the car seat clean.  This seems crazy to me now, but I think the tag on the car seat cover said you couldn't machine wash it.  What?!  Or at least I was convinced of that.  So guess who ended up washing that dang seat cover in the bathtub?  My husband, of course. ;)  I helped.  Most of the mess was right in the bottom of the seat.

This whole nasty scenario could have been largely avoided if we had been using a removable pad.  That said, you never know where kids are going to be... um... aiming... when they get sick, but this is a pretty good start.  In fact, that same son tossed his cookies in the car last week, and I was able to keep his seat cookie-free, thank goodness.  This pad has also kept his seat easy-cheese and chocolate- free on a road trip, and kept it dry when he fell asleep and we forgot to put a pullup on him first.  I know some of you have been in that same boat!

Ok, I promise I'm getting to a point here.  Last time I posted about this, some of you asked for a pattern for such a pad, but I just kind of "winged it" ("wung it"?) when I made it and didn't have dimensions or directions.  This week I made another one for my youngest son's car seat, and  partway into it, I realized I should pay attention to what I was doing so I could share it here.  You'll have to forgive the lack of pictures on the first few steps until I made that realization.

My sons both have the same-ish car seat- I believe it is the Alpha Omega Elite.  I think this tutorial will work for most similar car seats, but you can definitely tweak it to meet your needs.  It will at least be a starting place.

Car Seat Protector Pad {Tutorial}

Materials Needed:
Cotton flannel for the top layer, or any other absorbent material you choose (all fabric should be prewashed)
Rubberized flannel, PUL, or other waterproof material for the bottom layer
Batting or high quality fleece for the middle layer
Serger or sewing machine
2 small pieces of velcro (optional)
Thread

Cut one rectangle about 18"x 20" from all three pieces of fabric. (These dimensions can be easily altered based on your car seat.  These are the dimensions I used, but you can make it square if you want- customize it for the perfect fit!)

If you have a serger, layer the fabrics with the batting in the middle, and the flannel and PUL on either side, right sides facing out.  Serge around the whole thing, rounding out the front two corners.  Cut straight slits (these are for the car seat straps to go through) that are 4 1/2" long, 5" from the back (the longer side).  Serge those edges too.

If you are using a sewing machine, you'll have to do this a little differently.  Layer the fabric with the flannel and the PUL right sides together, and the batting on top.  Pin it all together, and cut each of the slits the same as described above, 4 1/2" long and 5" from the back.  Now sew all around the whole thing, leaving an opening on the back edge about 6" wide to turn the whole thing right side out.  Round out the front two corners to make it look nicer.  Clip corners, and turn it all right side out, and topstitch the back side.

Now you should have something that looks, more or less, like this:

In order to contour the pad to the car seat's shape, we need to add two darts.  Make a small mark 3" from the edge, and another 7" from the edge.  Repeat this on the other side.

Fold the flaps in, matching up the little marks you just made.  Pin in place.  Draw a straight line from the mark at the top to the edge of the fold.

Sew along the lines you just drew.  If you want, serge along the lines to reinforce and remove excess fabric.

So far so good!

To make the buckle opening, draw a line which is 2 1/2"- 3 1/4" wide depending on the size of your car seat buckle.  This line should be positioned in the center, 9" from the back.  Now, depending on your car seat, you might just want to ignore my measurements and lay the pad down on top of it, and mark where the buckle actually is to get a custom fit.

Use the buttonhole setting on your sewing machine to go over the line, then open it up with your seam ripper.

Check to make sure the buckle fits through the slit; if not, just make the slit longer by adding length to the buttonhole on each side, again with your buttonhole setting and seam ripper.

You can be done now if you want, or you can add velcro which will help keep the pad in place.  You don't need much- just two small square-ish pairs.

Sew the pieces of velcro on the corners as shown.  The lower corners should be the loop velcro (soft), with the velcro on the top of the fabric.  The top (angled) corners have the hook (rough) velcro, with the velcro on the underside of the fabric.

Here's another view of what the velcro should look like once sewn on:

Slap those pads on the car seat, stick the velcro together around the straps, pull the buckle up through the slit, and you're in business!

Here's crossing my fingers that we can just avoid any more cookie tossing in the car from here on out! (But now you're prepared, just in case!)

Any crazy car- mess stories out there?!

Toilet Paper Roll Saver

Got small children? Got pets?

Source: http://imgfave.com/view/1637210

If you just can't stand the toilet paper being completely unwound one more time, then this project just might be for you!  >Insert crazy laugh here<

My three year old and 20 month old are usually pretty good about leaving the toilet paper alone, but they have each independently unrolled entire rolls of TP, shredded quite a bit of TP all over the floor together, and even dropped whole rolls in the toilet.  I was going nuts one day... well, ok, not just one day, but eventually I just had to come up with a quick solution or completely lose it.  I have seen contraptions like this online, which I'm sure are awesome but I didn't want to spend $10 or wait a week for it to arrive.  So, I came up with my own version.  It was fast, and cheap (even if you count the whole pack of dowels and beads, which I don't).

This TP Saver is easy for adults to unfasten, and not so easy for little fingers and paws to undo.  The elastic enables you to use this solution for any size TP roll, whether it is a full or partial roll.  Ready?  Go!

Toilet Paper Roll Saver

Materials needed:

• Button hole elastic (white is best, and in a pinch, just use regular elastic and cut your own slits)
• Sewing machine and thread
• 1 Wooden dowel (3/8" works well)
• 2 Wooden beads with a hole the same diameter as the dowel (I found these at Hobby Lobby)
• Miter saw or something to cut the dowel down to size with
• Hot glue gun
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Paint (optional)

First, prepare the elastic.
Measure the elastic and cut it to 8 1/2 inches long.  Make sure to leave extra elastic beyond the button holes on each end (meaning: don't make your cuts right in the middle of a button hole).

 On one end, carefully cut straight down the middle of the elastic to join two button holes. 

 Repeat this for the next two button holes so your elastic looks like the picture below.

Fold the end of the elastic over onto itself so that the two large button holes you just made are lined up.  Pin the elastic in place.  The two purple lines below show where the stitches will need to go in the next step- they aren't necessary for you to draw if you don't want to. 

 Sew a zig- zag stitch on either side of the large buttonhole, as marked in purple.

Next, prepare the dowel.
Cut the wooden dowel to 6 1/4 inches long.  If you want to paint it to match your bathroom fixtures or colors, now is the time.  Remember to also paint the beads.  You'll have to add dry time- or just skip painting it and go au naturel.

 Grab your elastic band...

 ...and poke the dowel through the small hole in the elastic at the opposite end from the large button hole.  Make sure that later on, when you glue this end of the elastic down, the side of the large button hole with the raw edge will be facing in towards the TP.  It's not a huge deal, but it will look better.

 Put some hot glue on the end of the dowel and slide a bead on.

Dab a little glue on the bead and glue the end of the elastic in place.

You're done!  Really, that's it.  The only thing left to do is "install" it!

"Installation"
You can leave the toilet paper in the holder- no need to take it all apart.

Just push your TP Saver through the tube, with the glued- on elastic- end furthest away from the toilet.

Pull the elastic out and wrap it around the outside of the toilet paper.  You want the side that fastens to be facing the toilet- trust me.

Hook the large button hole over the bead.  Done!  (This is what I meant before about it looking nicer if the raw edge of the elastic isn't showing on this side- you really can't tell it's there.)

Let's not have any more crazy toilet paper messes, alright?!

What is the worst thing your kids/ pets have ever done with toilet paper?!