Catcher's Diaper Company

The diaper business is finally up and running.  It's been a very slow process.  I've done A LOT of research.  There are so many regulations to conform to when selling children's products!

I have a Website, which has answers to some diapering FAQ's, diaper sewing supplies,a section for custom orders, and a link to my Etsy Shop.  Most recently I started writing Blog posts!

Sewing diapers is a slow process.  Kamrynn requires a great deal of attention, so I can only "work" while she is sleeping, this limits me to about 4 hours a day, minus time I spend doing dishes, laundry, cooking, groceries, etc., and if we go somewhere for the day I don't get anything done!  My goal is five diapers a week, which I think has happened maybe once!  November I'm starting fresh with my goal!

Happy diapering!

PS:  Kamrynn is now in "Absorbent Panties," and only wet two pairs today, with some dribbles in the third pair!  I'm SO excited for her!

A New Adventure

Kamrynn is finally napping, and I should be folding laundry and cleaning out the closet, but I need to get some thoughts down:

After trying several different types of diapers, I decided I wasn't going to pay $20 a diaper for something I didn't TOTALLY LOVE, and ordered about $35 in fabric to sew my own cloth diapers.  I can handle a sewing machine, making quilts is super easy, but patterns are lost on me... zippers too now that I think about it.  (Paula - that woombie I'm making for you might take several tries!)  I decided I would design the Perfect Diaper, and sell it because it would be better than all the other dipers out there and everyone would want it.  It would have velcro closures, be super easy to wash, not need stuffed, contain leaks and blowouts, keep her bottom dry, be trim, and inexpensive.  I've made two so far.  The first one was actually just a repair of one of the cheapies I bought that failed.  The second one the leg holes are too big and did not contain poo.  :(  We even had a name for our diapers - Catchers.  Trevor wanted them to be named Poo Catchers and our logo be a baseball mitt with a pile of poo in it.  I figured out if I could sew one per hour and sell them for about $12 each I'd make just under minimum wage for our state.  Could be worse...I could also have to pay for a sitter!  Six dollars an hour to sew diapers and take care of my kid.  Sounded good to me.

Unfortunately, it takes me an entire day to make one diaper.  Yes.  One.  I did not realize exactly how much time is actually spent taking care of Kamrynn.  So, scratch that idea.

Fast forward about 5 weeks: 

Still thinking and wanting to create the Perfect Diaper.  I finally have a pattern that I'm hoping will work.  Waiting for some velcro fabric I ordered to get here so I can finish it.

As I was drafting my pattern, I was still thinking about selling diapers... and how expensive they are and that Kamrynn is going to be needing Mediums soon and it sure does take a long time for me to sew them and how can I get more diapers for less money.  My solution:  Wholesale!  I sold Mary Kay for a while, and know there is a 50% mark up so I figure there's atleast a 20% markup on diapers.  I talked to Trevor about it and we're currently looking into opening an online baby store.  I know there are lots of those out there, but ours will be better.

We're going to start small.  We have $400 to invest.  I know it's not much, but I think it will be enough.  I found a WAHM (Work At Home Mom) webhosting/eCommerce place that is reasonable, have emails in to Fuzzi Bunz, BumGenius and GroVia and have a list of other companies to talk to.  Once I know how much the mark-up is, I can do the math and see if our $400 is going to be enough to get this started and if this is even going to be worth while on such a small scale.  We'll write up a business plan, purchase a federal business number, open a PayPal business account, order the diapers, pick up some flat rate shipping boxes, set up the website, and wait for the first order to come in.

I'm still going to design the Perfect Diaper.  Kamrynn may be the only baby who will wear the Perfect Diaper, but it WILL exist.  ;)

OK, off to the laundry and closet!

Time is Flying

Wow.  I cant beleive we're over halfway through August already and I haven't posted anything.  We just got internet in our new place today.  It is still a mess or I'd take and post some pictures.  It is pretty nice, even Trevor agrees, and he is hard to please... housing-wise atleast!  ;)

We ended up signing a 6 month lease on a one bedroom that comes with a garage.  We're not planning on staying long.... we're ready to buy a house.  Hopefully by the end of our lease agreement, we'll have saved the other half of our house fund (we're anticipating whatever we buy to need immediate repairs...roof, flooring, etc).  Moving was a little crazy.  My poor little car was packed to the brim (suprising how much it can haul) for many trips to Portland.  Thankfully moving expenses are tax deductible, because our gas bill for the month was outrageous.  Our next move we're renting a giant U-Haul and making one trip!

Gotta get some dinner going, but here's a quick update on the baby.
She weighs aprox. 5.5lbs, and is over 20" long (this is average of all babies born at this time, not necessarily OUR baby).  She's just sitting in there developing her brain and lungs and putting on the ounces!  Her favorite thing to do is get up under my ribs and make it so I can hardly breath.  Her second favorite thing is to lodge her heel at my rib and push.  Not a pleasant feeling! 

More later!

32 Weeks!

Baby:  YAY!  We've finally reached the point where we will make efforts to save the baby if she is born early.  Before this point, we didn't feel that she would have a "life" if we attempted to saved her and were successful.  Now, she may or may not be able to breath on her own, but would probably have difficulties and require oxygen as she is just starting to get surfactant in her lungs.  She would probably be able to suck, meaning she could nurse rather than having a feeding tube.  Because her liver is so under developed at this point, she would need to be under special lights to help her body process the Bilirubin (Jaundice) to prevent mental retardation.  She has a minimum of 5 more weeks before she can make her entrance and most likely be OK.  At this time, she weighs over 4lbs and measures about 18 inches.
Moving:  Trevor got a new job in Hillsboro a couple of weeks ago.  He gave over two weeks notice at his current job, and we gave our 30 days notice on our duplex.    He has worked up there three days so far, and I hunted for a place for us to live.  The first two days I had ZERO for luck.  Everywhere was either full and only had 2 bedrooms for super expensive and required a 12 month lease, or had rather expensive 1 bedrooms and charged $50-100/month extra to do anything shorter than a 12 month lease.  Yesterday, however, I widened my search radius to include Beaverton, and found two places with rent in the $600 range and 1 month free if we sign a 12 month lease!  To break the lease, they charge 1.5 times one month's rent, so really, we'd only have to pay an extra $300 or so to move out if we couldn't find someone to take over the lease.  Also, both of these places have pools!  Sunday, I'll show Trevor and let him decide!  We will be moving in the morning of the 7th because Trevor works the following three days in a row, but we dont have to be out of our duplex until the 12th, giving me plenty of time to put the non-essentials in a storage unit and clean so we get our deposit back.

Update

Lets see....

N. Umpqua Fishing Trip
We went fishing up the North Umpqua.  Trevor had never been fly fishing and got a bite on his very first cast.  The second cast he caught this fish:

And a few casts later he caught this fish:

He fished the remainder of the day, at three different spots along the river but didn't catch anything else.

Job Hunt

Trevor got the job with Metro West Ambulance in Hillsboro.  He has decided he is not going to work both jobs, so I have been packing our house.  We plan to put everything in storage except the essentials, and find something cheap to rent in Hillsboro or Beaverton until we can find something more permanant.  Right now, there is only one house on the Good Neighbor Next Door Program list and it would take Trevor over 40 minutes to get to work....  So, we wait.  So far, Trevor really likes the job, and LOVES getting EMERGENCY calls!  He will continue his current job through the end of the month, then is on the schedule for August with Metro West.

Baby

The baby has been moving around a lot.  Not many kicks but TONS of stretching and buldging.  Her heart beat was 140bpm (138bpm last month), and she is still measuring about two weeks ahead.  Her fingernails have reached the end of her fingers now, and it's possible for her to scratch herself... poor thing!  We have one more week until she is developed enough that we will try to save her if she is born early, but she really, really, needs to wait annother month and a half to have no problems.  She is about 17" long and weighs about 3.5lbs.

Here are some bump pictures:

30 Weeks

And I finally figured out how to set the self timmer on my camera, so these should be much clearer from now on!

31 Weeks

Here is the Belly Map from today:

And here is the interpretation of it:

If the interpretation is correct, she is Left Occiput Posterior.  She has flipped, but is not in the best position for birth.  There some exercises I will do to help her face backwards closer to birth.

3 WEEKS!!!!!!!

WOW!  I cannot beleive it has been three weeks since I posted on here!  Time sure does fly when stuff's a happen'.

Lets see....

Briana's Graduation party went well, we had pizza and of course cake (dont worry I didn't eat the frosting...it had High Fructose Corn Syrup - why does everything have to have that stuff in it?).  She got her quilt finally.  :) which she was pretty happy over...unfortunately, I forgot my camer and dont have any pictures of it finished to post.  Today is my Mom's Birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!) so I'll be going over and will take a picture then.

We took a trip to Roseburg for Trevor's Job Hunt.  Eighty-one people were invited to take the Physical Agility Test, 60 showed up for it and only 30 passed.  Those 30, including Trevor, then went and took the Written Test, which Trevor did awesome on and now has an interview!  We also stopped at the Umpqua Dam.  Trevor had never been there and enjoyed seeing the fish!

We went to the lake this past weekend, and I ended up sewing a swim suit top because all the "Tankini" style ones are waaaaaay to short to cover the bump.  It worked well, but I think it will be too tight across my belly in about 3 weeks, so I'll have to make annother, or break down and pay $35 for a "Maternity" swim suit top.  Old Navy has them a little cheaper than that online, but I like to try things on and they're conveiniently NOT available in the store!  Ugh.  To the left is a picture of the ONLY fish Trevor has caught this summer.  Mom was also the first person to ski, but I only have a video and cant figure out how to put that on here (which I"m sure she doesn't mind!).

We went fishing the other day to Cottage Grove Lake.  Trevor caught Nothing.  He wasn't a very happy fisherman.  Plus the wind came up and blew the boat into shore after each cast.  Next time we think we'll go in the evening.  We know there are fish in there because we saw a huge dead bass.  It was huge.  And just floating there with its eyeballs all puffed out.  Yuck!  We finally left the lake, and got some very late lunch at Arby's where I had a Ruben (YUM), and we lucked out with the DMV being right across the parkinglot (Trevor needed a copy of his driving record for a job he's applying for).  Never again will I go to a Eugene or Springfield DMV.  I'll spend less time driving down to Cottage Grove, having our number called before we even have a chance to sit down, and driving back home, than I would if I just went to the DMV up here!  WOW!

Yesterday, we went to Hillsboro for an interview with an Ambulance Company.  They're hiring 1-6 of the six they interviewed...depending on who they like.  Trevor HATES Portland, and would be getting paid less if he takes the job, so I'm not sure what will happen with that.  However, it is EMERGENCY, which is the issue with where he's at now (not emergency), and he really wants emergency, so the draw to it is pretty strong.  He thinks he can continue to work where he is and drive up there to work that job too.  I dont want that because he already works 48 or 72 hours every week, add to that annother 40 hours in Hillsboro and 12-16 of driving every week and we will literally NEVER see each other.  I told him we could put everything in storage and get a studio apt. or something and just "stay" up there rather than "live" up there....  The traffic was pretty bad (I thought the closer you got to California the worse they drove, apparently, Portland is the exception), and the rodes are so close together we turned several times where the GPS told us to turn then it ended up being the wrong rode and had to "Recalculate" us with it's attitude it gets (both Trevor and I think it has an attitude with it says "Recalculating!"), didn't help that we ended up getting on the high way instead of taking the rode NEXT to the highway, where we proceeded to sit while we waited for the all the cars in front of us to get the green light to get off the on ramp and onto the high way...  I really dont like those things, but I think maybe River Road and Delta Highway in Eugene need them!  Might keep Beltline flowing a little better!

Baby Update:

And here's what you've all been waiting for!  :)

Our baby will start to vary now from the average as the average is just that.  A computation of all babies' statistics at this point in pregnancy, some weight less and/or are shorter, and some more and/or longer.  But, she now weighs about a little under 3lbs, and is nearly 17" long!  She'll continue to put on the pounds for about 7 more weeks (when she is more than welcome to come out), then she'll slow down considerably (and we try to wait with patience for her to come out).

She blinks her eyes, and can see lightness and darkness (I put my tummy in the sun while we were fishing and she squirmed all over the place!).  She knows my voice and most likely knows Trevor's voice.  Funny thing is, when we're (baby and I) are around other people, she hardly moves at all... maybe she is listening?!!??!  She is still giving Trevor a hard time.  Everytime I tell him she is moving so he can feel, she stops moving when he has his hand on my stomach, then as soon as he gives up, she starts moving again.  However, if he lays his head on my stomach, she has no problem kicking him in the face!  Poor Daddy!  He says it's ok, she wont be able to avoid him much longer, but I still feel bad for him.

Also, this past week I've been noticing some Braxton Hicks.  They're really strange.  I think I've been getting them for a while (you're supposed to start getting them some time in the 2nd semester, but some people dont notice them), but didn't realize that's what it was.  Some times my tummy just felt uncomfy and "tired."  Now that my tummy is bigger, I've noticed it gets very hard when it feels uncomfortable.  I've also noticed they go away much faster if I sit down and rub it.

Found the cord to connect my camer to the computer...it was in my camera case... so here's the bumb @ 29 Weeks!

Onions!

At the beginning of the week Trevor and I had a nice Trip to Walla Walla, Washington.  Trevor has been applying for 911-System jobs (he currently works as a paramedic for a non-emergency transport company), and was accepted to test with Walla Walla Fire District.  It was a 5.5hr trip that we made in about 7hrs.  We stopped to eat as well as several potty breaks.

I really enjoyed seeing the Columbia River Flood Basalts along the gorge (above), and Trevor enjoyed the rolling hills once we got out of the gorge (below).

We had planned to stay in a Budget Inn, but on the way up there we had drove by one and decided there was no way we were staying in one of those.  We ended up staying in the next cheapest hotel...the Travel Lodge.  The sign outside said it was recently renovated, but I think all they did was put tile flooring in the bathroom.  It was clean though and we had a HUGE king bed - apparently I hog the entire Full we have at home, so Trevor was pleased.  He quickly learned that it doesn't matter what size bed we have, I still like to snuggle up next to him... and he didn't have any more room than he does at home!  ;)

Check-in for his test was at 7:15.  I dropped him off, and drove back down the road to Milton-Freewater, Oregon for gas.  Washington gas prices dont make sense.  It was $3.15 in Walla Walla at the cheapie stations.  I drove less than 5 miles south and paid $2.85.  I had a nice guy come out and pump the gas for me, and there was no sales tax!  Not sure why anyone would pay $3.15 for gas, when they can just drive across the border and save  $0.30/gallon... 10 gallons and you save $3!  I can think of alot of things I can buy for $3!

Anyway, on the way back from getting gas, I drove around and looked for houses for sale.  They have decent prices, and nice sized back yards... however, their floorplans are a little off...but maybe that was just the architec?

As I sat in the parkinglot at the Test, I was suprised at how many people were finished in less than an hour.  Trevor said the test normally takes him about 2hrs, and these people were done in 45 minutes!  To pass the test, they had to score 75%, and only the top 20 scores were to move on to the Physical Ability Test and Interview.  Some of the people were comming out and driving away, while others came out and sat in their cars.  I assumed the tests were scored as they left the building, and those who sat in their cars were waiting to see if they were in the top 20.  Trevor came out at the 1hr mark.  When he got in the car he gave me the bad news.  They weren't hiring.  I was shocked.  Why would they have all those people drive all the way there to go through the hiring process if they didn't have any positions open!  Apparently, they're required to have a "List" of hires incase something happens and they have to hire immediately.

We waited around until 12:30 for the test scores to be posted.  They ended up only posting the top 20, which Trevor wasn't in, so we headed for Oregon with the intent of doing some sight seeing and fishing.  We were 40 minutes from Walla Walla when Trevor received a phone call.  I was just about to get on the freeway when I heard it was someone from the City of Walla Walla.  I went past the onramp and pulled over.  They had moved Trevor to the #20 position because one of the top 20 hadn't showed up for the Physical Ability Test and Trevor had been #21 (out of about 100 people)!  We turned around and drove back to Walla Walla.

Trevor went through the Physical Abilities Test with one of the fastest times.  Afterwards they told him how many points they earned for certain times...  Everyone else knew this ahead of time, prior to completeing the course.  The time limit is 10 minutes, and normally you just have to be within that time.  Trevor said he could have gone way faster had he known ahead of time that it was scored based on time.  I timmed him at just under 2min. 30sec. and they timmed him at just over, well within the 10 minute time limit.  Trevor did awesome! 

We ended up having to stay the night because interviews were scheduled for the following day.  The night before, after we had checked into our hotel, we had gone for a walk and found the Budget Inn.  It looked super nice and brand new!  We opted to stay there the second night, and were really impressed with it.  BRAND NEW... even smelled a little like paint still... really nice... AND we had a huge bed agian! AND it was a few dollars cheaper than the run down Travel Lodge!

The next morning, Trevor interviewed at 8:40, which went really well, then we went back to the hotel, he changed, and we checked out.  We decided to head home through bend.  We went past a HUGE lake (Lake Walula, I beleive, below).  This way took us a considerable amount of time because we made a few long stops and a detour.  Leaving around 10am, we finally made it home around 7pm.

Overall we feel the trip was a success.  Trevor is now on a list, and if they hire in the next year and a half, he will be called.  We do have to wait a couple of weeks to find out where he is ranked in the list though. 

Crooked River Stop (Near Bend):

He Did this to scare me.... :(

Columnar Basalts

Closeup

Trevor's Prairie Dog (can you see it?)