Chlorine Shower Filter

Back when we bought our Berkey water filter, we also got a chlorine shower filter. We weren't able to put it up right away, but with all my nesting and "to do" lists in preparation for the baby coming, it is finally up. Installation was easy enough. The only slight drawback is that we had a detachable hand held shower head and it didn't work with this filter. It was also a low flow shower head to conserve water, whereas this one is not. Otherwise the shower filter works great and we can tell a difference in the water. The chlorine smell is gone, and although it hasn't been up very long, I think it may be helping our skin not to be so dry.

I decided that we needed a chlorine shower filter after all of my research on water filtration. You can read the What's In My Water series part 1, part 2, and part 3 for more information. Chlorine is added to water in order to clean it, but is actually a toxic chemical. While I'm thankful for chlorine and its role in preventing diseases and providing clean water, I do think its worth removing the chlorine before drinking or showering with the water. You can receive 6 to 100 times more chlorine by breathing the air around a shower or bath than by drinking the water. Big Berkey Water Filters has an informative article here on their blog about chlorine.

The shower filter lasts about a year and removes or reduces chlorine, hydrogen sulfide, microorganisms, scale and water soluble heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and iron. It also kills bacteria and inhibits the growth of mold, algae, and fungi. In an enclosed area like a shower, the chlorine in water can vaporize and be inhaled. The shower filter works by converting chlorine into a water soluble chloride. The chloride behaves differently than chlorine in that it cannot evaporate or be absorbed by the skin. More is explained about the process here.

I highly recommend Big Berkey Water Filters - they have great customer service. The first shower filter that we received ended up leaking from the silver band once we put it up. After an email to Big Berkey Water Filters about the problem, I had a new shower filter shipped to me right away along with a postage paid label to return the old one. If you're interested in purchasing a shower filter or Berkey water filtration system, we have a code good for 5% off of your order "oneword5".

New Cloth Diaper Store! (Review and Giveaway)

EcoBuns is a brand new cloth diaper store not far from my home! I first discovered EcoBuns through a friend, and then when I met Kellie in person we realized that we had worked together at a daycare 5 years ago. She is now a stay at home mom to two boys age 4 and 15 months and is just starting her cloth diapering website. If you live in the area, she has a great display set up right in her home where you can come and shop (give her a call or email first). She also does free cloth diaper classes at various places - you can check her calendar here. Kellie loves to chat and is great at helping her customers find what they need whether they are just getting started in cloth or have specific questions about something.

We received a Fuzzi Bunz One Size diaper from Kellie to try out and review. I was excited to try this for a few different reasons - for one thing, I can use this with Julia and simply adjust it to fit the newborn baby in January (or whenever Julia eventually potty trains...). I also like that it comes with extra elastic and it looks simple enough to replace. I still haven't tackled replacing the elastic on all of my old BumGenius and Fuzzi Bunz diapers, ugh. The velcro on my older diapers has worn out as well, so I like that the Fuzzi Bunz diapers close with snaps that won't wear out.

The diaper comes with two inserts, one slightly smaller than the other. The small insert seems a bit big for the small setting - I'll have to try it out with the new baby and see how it works. In this photo, I have both of the inserts in the diaper which makes it a bit puffy, but it still fits well around the legs and waist. Both inserts are nice and thick and we haven't had any leaks with this diaper. I do wish the inserts for all my pocket diapers were labeled though so that others could help me stuff diapers. Grandma and Daddy can never tell which insert to put in which diaper, although I suppose that doesn't matter much.

The elastic is easy enough to adjust - it is just like the adjustable waistband pants for kids with the button that fits through the elastic in several places. There is a chart that explains which numbered slots in the elastic correspond to which sizes, and thats a bit confusing at first. Once you figure out the sizing though, you just set it and leave it which is nice. Other one size diapers that we've used have snaps on the front of the diaper and these sometimes end up pressing into Julia's legs and leaving a mark so this hidden elastic adjustment is a good option for us.

Overall we like this diaper and use it often. Aqua is Julia's favorite color, so she chooses this diaper just for that reason. You can get these in a wide variety of fun colors. If you'd like to try one out, you're in luck! EcoBuns is offering one reader a Fuzzi Bunz One Size diaper. To enter the giveaway, check out their website and leave a comment letting me know another item that they sell. Be sure to leave your email address in the comment so that I can contact a winner. For an extra entry, become a fan of EcoBuns on facebook - just follow the link on their home page and leave a separate comment letting me know that you became a fan. The giveaway will close on January 12th at midnight. (as long as I'm not having a baby that day)

EcoBuns has a great selection of products and even a "try cloth for $25" program that is worth checking out. There are also some great info pages with cost comparisons, differences between the different types of diapers, how to wash cloth diapers and more. If you'd like to go shopping right away, Kellie is offering a discount code "ecobuns10" good for 10% off of any order. This expires 1/30/10. Thanks Kellie, and welcome to the neighborhood EcoBuns!

**The giveaway is closed, thanks for your interest. Random.org chose Heidi as the winner!**

Thoughts on Home Birth

I'm 37 weeks and 3 days today. Lucy came the day after her due date and Julia was born at 37 weeks and 5 days, so we're just playing the waiting game now. Either way, baby will be here very soon! I'm mostly ready, there are just a few little projects around the house that I'm trying to finish up. My midwife did her home visit here the other day and we have the birth supplies all ready to go. If you read Story Number One and Story Number Two, you know that with my other two labors my water broke (and gushed out of me), so I'm of course wondering if and when that will happen. At the wedding shower I have to go to on Tuesday? At church? In the car? Of course this labor could be completely different...

So why on earth am I planning a home birth? The idea was completely foreign to me with my first pregnancy. By the second time through, even though I knew several people who had home births, I still wasn't even close to considering it. Of course I haven't actually had a home birth yet, but thought I would share some of my thoughts about it with you.

My second birth went a long way toward helping me see that birth is a natural event. Preparing for the birth with Bradley classes and succeeding in my goal of a drug free birth were both great confidence builders. With Julia's birth, we denied almost everything the hospital had to offer - no vitamin K, no eye ointment, no drugs or IVs, no vaccination for baby, waited to cut the cord, waited to bathe her until the next day, and kept her next to me in my bed the whole time. While I understand that each of these are personal choices, at some point it occurred to me to wonder why I went to the hospital just to deny everything. The hospital was great about respecting my wishes, but even so, I felt a bit on guard and Ross had strict instructions to watch Julia like a hawk any time a nurse entered the room just to be sure nothing was done to her that wasn't in our plan.

Around the time I was newly pregnant with Julia, I had a friend who had just given birth in a hospital. She picked up an infection and ended up very sick (diarrhea, etc) for almost three months while trying to care for her newborn baby and toddler. Hospital germs come from such a "clean" environment that they are often super bugs that are hard to get rid of. I'm not a germaphobe by any means, but having a baby at the same place sick people go started to seem a bit odd to me.

I used to say that my pregnancies were very normal and uncomplicated so that's why I birthed in a hospital. I realized that is the exact reason I should have my babies at home! Interventions can happen so quickly in a hospital, even with an otherwise healthy pregnancy - if you're in labor "too long" or otherwise hit hospital protocol you may be subject to a cascade of unnecessary procedures. Example: Your labor isn't progressing quickly enough, so they break your water. Once the water is broken the clock starts ticking again. If you're still not progressing fast enough you'll need Pitocin, which will require an IV and restrict you to bed. Once you have the IV you end up with an epidural, catheter, and maybe even suction assist to help the baby come out. It seems like these stories happen in one way or another all too often.

I'm not against hospital interventions when necessary, and am thankful that these things exist. It just seems that Pitocin, IVs, epidurals and more have simply become too routine and a doctor wouldn't think twice about using these even during a normal birth. I'm also not saying anything negative about women who choose to use pain relief measures in labor. I'm more talking about those who enter the hospital hoping for a natural birth and are pressured into this series of events because they somehow or another don't fit hospital protocol. In a normal birth, I don't want to end up pressured into anything and it seems like that can quickly happen. On the flip side, if I were in a situation where medical intervention seemed necessary, I would rather have someone who is natural minded helping me consider all of my options.

I learned that midwives are actually prepared to deal with emergency situations and can stabilize both mom and baby while transport is arranged to a hospital if the need arose. The midwife that I am seeing has been in practice for 28 years and has delivered close to 2,000 babies. In my prenatal visits with her she has focused on me and my pregnancy as an individual case. I feel like a normal healthy person, not a medical case to be helped. Yolanda (my midwife) explains what she is doing and why. From checking urine samples to explaining what blood pressure means and why good nutrition is important, I feel like I've learned quite a bit.

When Ross and I first met with Yolanda, I was still a bit nervous about a home birth and thought that Ross would have to be convinced. After we left that meeting I asked him what his reaction was and he simply said "It seems like what we want." I wasn't prepared for him to react like that and it took me a week or so before I actually called Yolanda and told her yes. I've worked through some nervousness along the way, but overall am confident that this is what we want. Ross is very supportive and at this point we are both excited about the home birth.

Some of the things I am looking forward to include:

- No rushing to the hospital while in labor, not having to be lay down and be monitored, no need to strip down and wear an ugly hospital gown, no packing a hospital bag and trying to bring everything along with me.

- Yolanda comes to my house, all I have to do is make the call and then I can hop into the shower or do whatever I want to. I can use my birth ball, stand, sit, use the tub for pain relief, and give birth in any position I choose.

- Having Yolanda there for the birth to guide me a bit rather than a doctor who rushes in just to catch the baby.

- Snuggling in bed with Ross and the baby after the birth. In the hospital, Ross always stayed with me, but he ended up across the room in an uncomfortable chair trying to sleep. I'm looking forward to having him next to me in our own bed.

- No interruptions with doctors and nurses coming in all night long to wake us up. (Although Yolanda does stay and make sure that mom and baby are stable and doing well before she leaves.)

- Not having to be on guard against nurses that might give a bottle or otherwise do something we aren't planning on.

- Welcoming the new baby right into our home rather than bringing it home from the hospital. On a similar note, I don't have to expose my girls to all of the hospital germs in order to visit the new baby. They can meet the baby in the comfort of our home.

Having friends share their home birth experiences with me helped me see that a home birth can be a normal, natural, safe event. I don't intend to say that everyone should have a home birth, but rather just enjoy sharing my experience and thoughts along the way. Hopefully very soon I will be able to share my home birth story with you as well. If anything, let it inspire you and encourage you towards believing that birth is a natural event. If you're interested in reading more about birthing naturally, one of my friends has a great website that includes her birth story and lots of articles she's written on the topic. Check it out here.

On a funny note, Ross' Grandma came over the other day and jokingly said "I thought you might be in the hospital by now." implying that I should be giving birth. The first thought that went through my head was "Hospital? I'm not sick." and then "Oh, yeah, that's where most people go to have babies." Funny how thoughts can change.

Merry Christmas

...from our family to yours.