100 Interview Questions for Nannies

When it comes to nannies/au pairs, you want to have a pretty good picture of whom you're dealing with to make sure the nanny is (1) Safe, (2) Honest, and (3) The Right Fit.  You need to plan on asking many questions to your candidate until you are comfortable making an informed decision.  

The thing I've learned with interviewing several nannies is this: If you are happy with the candidate's answers to questions you feel are most important to you, then that is a good thing.  


If you are not super certain after the interview, my suggestion is to keep looking because that feeling of uncertainty will not go away once the nanny is hired.  You want to have a feeling of certainty and need to have this to base you childcare decision on.  It may take time, and may have to interview more than one person but getting that feeling of certainty is so worth it because the parents who have it are so, so much happier when their kids are at home with someone they trust. 

Here are the ones I've come up with and used pretty much all of them in interviews. 


BACKGROUND QUESTIONS

• Tell me about yourself.  Where are you from?  What languages do you speak?  How long have you studied/practiced English?
• Tell me more about your childhood, what you studied, jobs you did, places you've worked?
• Have you lived anywhere else besides Utah? (If yes) Where? How long?  
• How long have you been in Utah? 
• Have you been to the United States before? (If yes) What year and how old were you?
• Why do/did you want to come to the USA?  Why Utah? 
• Do you have family here in Utah? Do you know anyone else here in the United States?  (If yes) Who, relationship, how long and where?
• (If your au pair needs to enter the US on a visa): Have you already applied for your visa?  When could you arrive?

FAMILY HISTORY QUESTIONS

• Tell us a little more about your parents.  How old are they and what do they do?  Married/divorced/widowed?
• What values did your parents teach you as being most important in life?
• In what ways are you like your mother?  Father? 
• What type of relationship do you have with your parents?
• Do you have siblings? (If yes) How many? What are their ages?  Do you get along well with them? 
• Have you ever lived away from your family before? 
• How does your family feel about you coming to the United States?  How do they feel about you being a nanny/au pair? 

QUESTIONS THAT RELATE TO A CANDIDATE'S PERSONALITY, MATURITY LEVEL, AND INTERESTS

• Why did you choose to become a nanny/au pair?
• Are you currently working for a family? (If yes) How much notice you will need to give them should you decide to leave for another job opportunity? 
• Why are you looking for a new position?
• Why are you interested in this position? 
• What are your plans for the future, school, life, travel etc?
• What are you looking for in an employer/host family?
• If hired, what will your priorities be during your employment with our family?
• What do you like to do in your free time by yourself? What about with friends? With family? 

PERSONAL HISTORY

• Do you have children?  (If yes) How many? What are their ages? What did you like to do with them when they were the ages of our children?  (If no) Is becoming a parent in your life plans in the near future? 
• Do you have a boyfriend?  (If yes) How long have you been together?  (For live-ins) Is he supportive during your stay as an au pair?  Do you think you will both be able to cope with the situation of being separated for a longer period of time? 
• What are your favorite foods?  Do you have a specific diet or open to trying out different food? 
• What we are paying a nanny to do is taking care of and being responsible for little children for an extended period of time.  It requires a lot of physical energy and also a lot of inner calm.  That being said, have you had any prior lengthy illnesses, physical or mental? (If yes) What? When? For how long? Are you in treatment? How long in recovery? What are you doing to stay healthy and be able to do the job? 
• Did any of your employers require you to have immunizations? 
• Do you practice a religion? 

QUESTIONS ABOUT A CANDIDATE'S GENERAL CHILDCARE EXPERIENCE

• What is your general child care experience?  Babysitting? Worked in a camp or daycare?  Have you ever worked with children the same ages as ours? 
• How many families have you worked for?  (For each family) Full time or part-time nanny? 
• How long have you been with each family you cared for?  What was the reason for you leaving?  Would you be able to provide references?  (Name and phone number of family worked for)
• How many children have you watched with each family and their ages during care? 
• What were your specific responsibilities with each family? 
• What was the most difficult part of that job with each family?  What did you like most about that job with each family? 
• Did you ever encounter an emergency while working for any of those families?  (If yes) What happened and how did you handle that emergency?

QUESTIONS ABOUT A CANDIDATE'S CARETAKING BELIEFS

• What do you like most about taking care of children? 
• What do you find the most challenging about caring for children?
• What kind of activities do you like to do with children who are the ages of ours?
• When a child becomes hard to control or our of control, screaming for no apparent reason or throwing tantrums - because all children do that at one point or another - How or what do you think is the best approach? 
• How long do you think should a child be left to cry? 
• Did any of your previous employers/relatives permit you to discipline their children? (If yes) What form of discipline?  (NOTE: if you do not want the nanny to discipline your children other than you the parent, you state this before asking this question so that they know this is the expectation in your family)
• What qualities do you think are important in a nanny? 
• What are, in your opinion the most important aspects of caring for a child? 
• What type of nanny would you want for your baby? 
• What are you most proud of when it comes to your job? 
• Would you pay a nanny according to her quality of service provided to her employer or based on her level of experience? 

OTHER QUESTIONS

• If we were to hire you, when would you be able to start? 
• Do you know how to prepare breastmilk/formula? 
• (If an au pair) What did the agency in your home country tell you about what to expect as an au pair? 
• (Explain all of your expectations of the job duties you will pay the nanny to do) Do you have any questions about the job duties or something we didn't address? 
• (Explain about Time Off/Holidays/Sick Days and whether those are paid or unpaid for the nanny).  Do you see any possible vacation plans that we should be aware about now during our interview?
• (Explain house rules if she is to live in your home)  Do you have any questions about house rules or something we didn't address about living in our home?
• (Explain your expectations about honesty and safety in the home) Is there anyone in your family or friendships that is dangerous that we need to know about?  Is there anyone in your family or friendships that have been arrested by the police? 

Last but not least:

• Do you have any questions for us?

The Best Priced Diapers to Buy

If disposable diaper brand isn't important to you (and why should they be -- they all end up in the trash after use!) but PRICE is, the best priced diapers that I've found that get the job done is...

Comforts by Baby*.  They are carried by any store that sells Kroger products.  
They are far better priced than buying diapers at Costco or Amazon Mom any day.  

They're the ones in the green box with the firefly that is mistaken for a bee.  I think they are good diapers, soft and thick.  Like any diaper, including cloth, as long as you change often and practice good hygiene, your baby won't get rashes.  

The best thing about these diapers is that if you have a Smith's app (or Kroger app), you can download Comforts for Baby coupons to your rewards card keychain.  The coupons range $2-3 dollars and you get one every month.  

Usually they retail at 18.99 for their biggest box. For Size 5 diapers, it is 20 cents a diaper.  With a $2 off coupon, they are $16.99, 18 cents a diaper. 

Sometimes though, when a good Comforts for Baby coupon is circulating, the price of a box goes up to $20.99, which is still pretty good for Size 5 diapers at 22 cents a diaper.  But most of the time, they sell for $18.99.

Compare this with the Costco brand, Kirkland Signature. At $38.99, for a box of 150 Size 5 diapers, 26 cents a piece.  Sometimes Costco has a $6 coupon, making it 22 cents a diaper.  
Guys, that is still more expensive per diaper than buying Kroger diapers WITHOUT a coupon!  

The Southern Savers couponing blog has a terrific and helpful chart reference on best diaper price for a variety of sizes.  I recommend reviewing it before you start price booking on diapers.

Boxes for Comforts for Baby start selling at Size 2.  I only buy small packs if it's $4.99 or less.  Once in a while, I manage to get a pack of Pampers for $4.99 but not often, it's only possible with a $3 coupon combined with a store promotion.  There is another Kroger diaper brand however, called p$$t! that has Size 1 diapers retailing for $4.99.  They are just like Comforts for Baby but thinner.  

Here are the quantities for boxes retailing at $18.99 as of 4/13/2015 with the exception of Size 1.  Comforts for Baby at Size 1 sells for $5.99 a pack.  I bought them only when I had a coupon (making it less than $4.99 a pack)


- Many times, I've managed to pay $16.99 for a box.  
- Boxes last a little over 3 weeks of diaper changes.  

COMFORTS FOR BABY
Size 1   44 ct = 14 cents
Size 2 148 ct = 13 cents
Size 3 128 ct = 15 cents
Size 4 112 ct = 17 cents
Size 5   96 ct = 20 cents

At the beginning of this month I bought a box selling at $18.99 with a $2 coupon.  
On 7/22/2015 we bought another box at $20.99 with a $3 coupon.  
That made it buying a total of 192 diapers at Size 5 for $34.98 at 18 cents a piece.  

From my last two purchases with coupons, I got about a week and a half worth of diapers than if I were to buy the store brand at Costco at retail for $38.99.  Another way to look at it is that instead of paying $4 more at Costco, I got an additional 42 diapers by buying Comforts for Baby.  That's like paying 10 cents a piece for 42 diapers of Size 5!!!!

Which leads to the next thing in mind: are cloth diapers worth the money?  

This will largely depend on whom you talk to, but in this case you are talking to me, a person that is very objective on price, and tells it like it is with how money is made.  The thing I'll point out about with what I see with cloth diapering that most people do not is that cloth diapers have become a huge business where one can easily sell diapers to parents willing to pay $800 to $1500 upfront and never come back again.  Kind of like wedding vendors and used car salesmen, the price for a good elsewhere is usually inflated a lot more when you attach "wedding", "used" or in this case, "cloth"  

I do not know how cloth diaper advocates come up with such high costs for disposables because in a year, we spend under $330 on disposables for one child.  The low cost is driven by the coupons and also the cash back for groceries swiping our credit card.   

If you are apprehensive about cloth diapering and worried about paying for disposable diapers, the good news is that you can still save just as much, or even more money using disposables instead of cloth.  Again, Comforts for Baby are the best priced diapers I've seen to date.  




*disclamer I receive no incentives promoting this product. 

Utah Moms Prefer Plastic Surgery over Vaccinating their Babies

I was surprised upon discovering that a lot of families in Utah do not vaccinate their children.

This came about after wondering why there were several billboards about vaccine advocacy while driving on I-15.  Isn't the majority of the population in Utah all about being healthy, up to the point of abstaining from tobacco, alcohol, and even coffee and tea?

Utah does have one of the highest rates for autism prevalence.  However, I don't believe that this alone is the reason many mothers in Utah opt out of vaccinating their children.

I think the low Utah vaccination rates are more due to a narcissistic mentality that is so prevalent in this state.

Jenny McCarthy has led a lot of moms to believe in her claims because she is a mommy just like them but to some Utah moms they want to look just as good as her, cuz she's a mommy too.

Any mom living in Utah can admit that they've seen this with women they know through their social circles.  This obsession with looking "perfect"

At church or in your neighborhood, it's all about looking better than the other moms and their imperfect kids.

Think about it:

• The majority of women that opt for plastic surgery are white, married, and college educated.
• The majority of mothers that refuse vaccinations are white, married, and college educated.   
• The majority of the female population in Utah consist of white, married, and college educated women.  
• Utah is notorious for plastic surgery because of white, married, and college educated women done with having lots of kids at an earlier age.   

To a "perfect" mom, her children would not be targeted by dangerous viruses or toxins because the children are her children.  Along with posting daily selfies on social media of what she wore, how she did her hair or how she looked at the gym, to enhance her "perfect/hot mom" image, she would never in her life create defective children.

To a "perfect" mom, needing to vaccinate suggests that she runs the risk of creating imperfect/defective children, or heaven forbid, they become autistic children, or have toxins in their perfect little bodies.

Not vaccinating her children is just a way for a Utah mommy with ridiculously flexible morals to feel superior to the rest of the Utah mommies and their imperfect children.

Price Booking on Diapers

Before Baby's arrival, I did price booking on diapers.  Meaning, I wrote the price down to get an idea what diapers cost in general before cracking the coupon craziness.

I went around several stores:

Walmart
RiteAid
Walgreens
Target
Costco
Smith's
Family Dollar
Babies R Us
buybuyBaby


Quick information on what I collected for size 1 diapers

The cheapest of cheap: Kroger Value diapers at an everyday price of $5.49 at Smith's.

The ones in the yellow pack.  

Most expensive place to buy diapers: Babies R Us.  Even their store brand is expensive.  But if you want to use your gift cards for diapers, go for it!

Pampers and Huggies small packs cost the same until Sept 2013.  Pampers used a dirty old trick in the book called "desheeting"  Meaning instead of 40 diapers, there are now 35 diapers in a pack of Swaddlers.  It is due to the company expanding their Swaddler line to bigger sizes.The toilet paper, Kleenex, and notebook paper industries do this too; reducing the size or removing a couple of sheets here and there to cut their expenses on their bottom line.

Back when there were 40 in a pack.  This is at Rite Aid.
This sale wasn't the best that week for Swaddlers.

What about Costco?  If you are indifferent to brands, there are PLENTY of generic brands that are cheaper like the Target Up & Up, and Family Dollar Kidgets.  Even with the Costco $6 off coupon there are other brands that beat the Costco price.

If you are looking for a name brand, the Huggies Snug N Dry is cheaper than at other places but you have to determine if the cost of membership, the insane amount of time you spend finding parking at Costco and waiting in line to pay is worth the savings buying diapers there.  I prefer going to Costco for baby wipes but not so much for diapers.  Which brings me to the next point:

What if you don't like Huggies, or just want the Huggies Snugglers or don't have access to a Costco membership?

Great news, you can get Pampers or Huggies as cheap or even cheaper than at Costco with proper planning and concentration.   This isn't for everyone, but I do this and I love it.

First thing:  the diaper coupon itself doesn't do much.  To get name brand diapers at 11 cents or less per diaper (for size 1), you have to stack the manufacturer coupon, store coupon, percentage off, and store bucks back.  You also have to buy small packs.  Per diaper, they cost less than the ones in the big box.

Where to get the the most savings for name brand diapers:  Rite Aid or Target.  I review their ads on Sundays (always available online).  Rite Aid will run a promo that usually involves store bucks to use on your next purchase so if their promo is on diapers then I run my numbers, see if it's a good deal and grab them.  I sometimes make two trips in the week because I want to use my store bucks to apply it to my diaper purchases.  With Target, you use the manufacturer coupon, the store's coupon, and if you're lucky, then Target's Cartwheel promo.  And if you have a RedCard, get 5% off.

There are NO LINES at Rite Aid but their shopping carts are itty-bitty!

Additional advantage of small packs: as long as the packs aren't opened and you have the receipt, you can exchange it for a different size.  If you open the huge mega box of diapers and see that your baby has gotten too big to wear them, you can't return the opened box to exchange for a different size.  That being said, whatever size box diapers you purchase, TAPE your receipts to the box ASAP.  It is so helpful if you do find yourself needing to exchange them.

So yeah, this is pretty much what I've gotten from price booking.  Hope this helps anyone that's curious.

Postpartum

I'm in awe that she could have still been in my tummy as of today.

Bummer that I didn't take a belly photo right before birth, I never thought the pregnancy would be cut short almost 4 weeks.

Last preggo photo, at 35 weeks

I recovered really well belly-wise though.

Taken one week postpartum

I probably scared a lot of girls about my labor and childbirth story.


I say...giving birth was EASY compared to raising a baby.

I was on an endorphin high after birth but close to the end of the 3rd week, I was so exhausted and sleep deprived due to the constant demands of this sweet little human.

My mom arrived from out of town in the nick of time before Dave and I collapsed to the ground.   She's been teaching me the ropes of being a mom, being organized, and setting up a routine with a baby now in the picture.

Man what have I done to deserve a child so beautiful????
Some photos taken today...

Aww

*Sigh*

Stop taking photos of me, Mommy!

A Surprise Delivery and 6 Hour Labor

My goodness where to begin? We had a baby!!

She took us by surprise by arriving 3 weeks and 4 days early.  My labor and delivery lasted only 6 hours.


I loved my birth experience!! It's long but I tried to remember everything and not leave anything out. 


Sadie the dog had been acting so WEIRD around me starting Wednesday evening 10/16/2013. We were dog sitting for my in-laws for almost a week and were flying back to town that Sunday. Before leaving for their trip:

MIL: Don't have the baby until I come back!
Me: We won't!

This dog is old. She usually sleeps or putters around.  Her change in behavior was that every time I wasn't lying down on the couch or in bed, she would keep barking, and sniffing my feet and calves.

On Thursday morning I started showing slight signs of effacement, but figured it wasn't anything alarming because I wasn't contracting. At least I knew my body was getting ready for labor.  After all, I read that for first time deliveries it would probably take a couple of weeks before true labor began.

Dave wanted to grow his hair out until the baby was born. However he was getting tired of his long hair and decided to get his haircut on Thursday evening from my good family friend Rosalia.  

She and her husband and boys are family to me. While living with them, I met Dave and stayed with them until we got married.  We went over to their house (they live very close to Dave's parents), had dinner with them, Dave got his haircut, then we went back to the house, let the dog out (she was still weird), and we went to bed around 10PM.  I was completely fine, I didn't feel anything other than my back was a bit achey and I wanted to go to bed.

I woke up around 1AM feeling some mild contractions.  I thought they were Braxton Hicks but decided to time them. I was using some iPhone app to time them and took a while to figure out how to use it. In the meantime I decided to text my mom about it.  I started writing some notes for my blog.  I texted my mom again and my sisters around 2:30 about my mild contractions to see if they could come later that day.

At 3AM I decided to take a warm bath to see if the contractions would go away. I woke up Dave to let him know why I was in the tub that early. The water relieved some of the back pain. However, pregnant women really need a BIG tub to move around and find the best position to best relieve the contractions.

I woke up Dave again and said "I'm contracting but they're consistent. I'm also seeing blood when I wipe"

Dave went ahead and called triage. The nurse told him that we could come and have myself checked but they would only admit me if I was effaced 5cm or more. I didn't want to go only to be turned away!

I was still contracting and was desperate for some extra support.  My mom had three more weeks left before flying out to see me and prepare for baby.  My MIL was out of town until Sunday. My sisters were 45 min away and my doula even further.

Notice the timing and how things progressed.
Can you imagine my mom's reaction reading all of this when she woke up?

Instantly I decided to call Rosi.  We were at her place about 8 hours prior. It was 4:20AM. I knew she usually got up at 5AM but hoping she pick up.

She did!  I explained I was contracting a lot and asked if she could come over because I didn't know what to do. Rosi asked about my water breaking and I said I didn't know, I didn't think it had broken. She then replied she would come over and see what was going on.

Around this time my contractions became closer and stronger together. I could NOT concentrate on timing the contractions on that iPhone app and said "Forget this!" I just knew they were coming less than 5 min apart lasting around a minute.

About 20 minutes later, Rosi came and I was already on the toilet.

It is SO TRUE that contractions come and go. They're manageable to deal at the beginning but when the baby is close, it hurts. I was feeling a lot of labor pain on my lower back.  Rosi asked how I was feeling and I said I felt like going poo and just didn't know what to do and just hugged her for relief and motherly support. She rubbed my back and forehead a bit.

As I got up from the toilet there was more reddish discharge, Rosi took a look down there and said "Um, yeah we should go, it's time to go"

Dave quickly packed whatever we had left for our dog visit. Basic toiletries and some clothes. I had not prepared a bag yet for the hospital with any baby stuff, a cute robe, Boppy pillow or whatever your friends tell you to bring to the hospital.  We survived just fine although id definitely say bring body wash!!

Dave also had to let out Sadie one more time to go potty and tie her up. She was barking so much and along with my contractions, drove me nuts, and I let out "Shut up Sadie!!!!!"

Dave drove while Rosi and I were in the back.  I rested my head on her lap. The drive from my in-laws to the hospital and being wheel chaired in to triage was the worst I felt with contractions. I must have began transition on the drive because I was moaning and agonizing a lot in the car.

From my in-laws to the hospital was a 30 minute drive.  Ooooowwwwweeeeee! I couldn't get myself to move until the contraction was over.

The security guy tried to wheel me into triage as fast as he could but it hurt so bad when I had another contraction.  "Stooooopppp!!!! It hurts!!! Go slower!!!!"

It was about 5:45AM when we arrived in triage.  It was a good thing that Dave called triage earlier because by the time we arrived we had a room set up for evaluation because it hurt.   Aaaaagghhh it hurt. But when it stopped it was relief and when it began then aaaaaaagggghh.

I hired a photographer that Wednesday to document the birth. We were planning to meet up the following Wednesday assuming that the birth would happen in November...not the end of the week! While in triage, Dave called her and explained what was going on so she rushed on her way to photograph the birth! 

After a few minutes lying on the bed, the nurse came to check on me!

I was dead set on natural/ zero intervention birth.  I had no idea how dilated I was but at the moment I decided to eff natural birth, if I was at a 5cm I'd take the pain relief.

The nurse checked me and said:

"Honey, you are at a NINE.  I can feel the baby's head!  You better start pushing!!"  
I was so happy to hear that, happy enough to where the contractions didn't seem as bad.

I changed clothes to deliver, lied in a gurney and wheeled across the hall to labor and delivery.

So many things happened at once!!!  Such a complete blur when I delivered and the rest of the day went by so so fast.  Faster than our wedding day.  

At L&D, the nurses and doctors tried to insert IVs for fluids and a pit drip to contract the uterus after delivery.  However I was so shaky and sweaty enough that my veins were too flat and couldn't insert anything. Got minor bruising from that. But they put some warm blankets on me.

My water hadn't broken so the attending physician broke it for me. It was a lot of relief but then it was a lot of pressure pushing.

The L&D nurses were THE BOMB!!!  They were like fans, cheerleaders, and football coaches all at once.  
One had a fabulous method of doing a tug of war with a bath towel.  So when I'd contract, she'd grab one end of the towel, I'd pull on the towel, chin down and push!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmpppppphhhhh!!!!!!!!!

That way I wouldn't concentrate on contracting my legs. I was sweating and shivering a lot too!!! I was getting so exhausted and so nervous to push. I didn't want to push because it felt like someone made a consistent nasty pinch to the top of my opening with pliers. I wanted to take things slower but I couldn't slow down!!

Rosi was at my side the entire time.  At some point I said I didn't want to push but she gave me THE LOOK and said 
"You GOT to push!!!"
So I pushed.

Then the baby popped from my piñata.  Aaaaaahhhh relief!

Rosi with Baby that just arrived!
The best labor coach on the planet.  

I did feel great but down there... I felt like I got raped by a horse and kicked in the back once they lifted me off the bed to use the restroom.  I was hobbling around but I could move and use the bathroom instantly!!

The labor felt completely natural, like my body was meant to do it and I should just let it happen.

There was pain involved, but it was a different pain...I look back now and say man it really wasn't bad at all. I'd definitely will attempt natural again if the pregnancy is routine and uncomplicated. It was pain with a great purpose. I think I've experienced worse things than childbirth. Childbirth is WONDERFUL not awful.

Emotionally, it was amazing.

Us three.
Photo by J Taylor Photography

I have recovered so well physically and feel so energized.  I don't feel or look like I've given birth!  

The baby is beautiful!!

We left the hospital on Sunday, the same day Dave's parents came back.

Things are more settled now from that fast paced weekend.

Sadie is a lot calmer now.

Dave is Home Makeover and Upcoming GIVEAWAY

Dave is Home has a new look!  

I finally figured out how to add links below my blog title thanks to some online reading and help from one of Dave's friends.  I learned that this is called a "menu bar"

I also made some cosmetic updates.  I don't know anything about coding or graphics.  Only enough to know that I can view the source code of a couple blogs I liked and copied and pasted some cosmetic coding in CSS and played around with it.  

It's still a work in progress, there are still some things I want to tweak on.  

I wanted to improve the look of the blog since I'm doing a legit book review and wanted to make the blog look nice for the FREE book giveaway so...keep your eyes out for it.  

Other stuff, I'm becoming more physically similar to Humpty Dumpty and getting ready for the baby that's coming soon.  Weekly visits to the doctor now.  She's getting bigger and my bladder has become her punching bag.  

Five Ways to Prevent Stretch Marks

The first piece of advice I got upon announcing my pregnancy was...stretch marks!

Some tips to prevent the tiger stripes on the belly.  No guarantees but this is what I do.

#1  "Don't scratch your belly! You will get stretch marks!!"

I heard this A LOT.  But only from Latinas.  I have yet to hear this piece of advice from a white chick.

I haven't scratched my belly.  I don't know if scratching is really the root cause of stretch marks but I'm prone to get them.  I have some old ones on the back of my thighs to rapid weight gain and loss waaay before pregnancy.  Meh.  That being said....

#2 Watch your weight!

You DO gain stretch marks by gaining weight too fast.  Exercise and diet are optimal but what you eat is key!  There are many days in pregnancy where you'll feel like a beached whale and not move, much less exercise.

Therefore, do your best to monitor your cravings, watch your portions, and eliminate foods and drinks that guarantee fatty status.
   

#3 Exfoliate your belly

Once a day when I shower, I exfoliate my belly by using a homemade scrub made of salt, olive oil, and essential fragrance.  The oil helps to minimize the itching.  The salt helps to remove dead skin cells.  I also noticed that it slowly faded my old stretch marks.  

#4 Apply lotion and ointments.  

I have more than plenty of bottles and samples of lotions so I'm trying to use up what I have already.  I don't have a preference for lotion for pregnancy, other than that the fragrance can't bother me.  Lotion is lotion, and it feels good.  I try to generously apply lotion around twice a day, all over my body after I shower and right before I go to bed.



Ointments are fabulous for itch relief!  Especially in this dry weather.   I tried both and they have the same results.  They feel the same but mum + bub is organic and has a pleasant fragrance.

If you still feel itchy in bed, wash your sheets and use softener.... 

#5 Drink lots of water!!!

Aside from keeping skin elastic, drinking water prevents a ton of preggo problems like: protein and sugar in urine, kidney stones, back aches, leg cramps, and edema.  In addition, drinking water helps mothers stay energized during labor and nourishes breast milk supply after birth.

Nothing yet.  But we'll see.  They can come anytime.  

Any other tips or lore you know of to prevent stretch marks?  

Pregnancy Musing #6 It's Getting Closer

One of my friends' baby was sneaky and my friend delivered almost a month away from her due date!  

That was an eye opener for me to get the ball rolling on a couple of things just in case it happens to me.  

Things I've gotten out of way after that...

Pre-authorization from insurance for the delivery: 

I didn't know that was required but it's out of the way now.

Dental exam and cleaning: 

Done. No new cavities! 

Thank you notes: 

I've finished writing  one for every single gift I received so far. 

I just. need. to. mail. them. 

Car seat: 

We picked up our infant car seat yesterday. 

Stroller: 

Just getting a snap and go for now. 

I don't know how much I'll be using an actual stroller in winter and figured when the time comes, try some strollers with the baby in it. 

Crib:

 Getting one from a good friend!

Diaper bag: 

My backpack will work for now. It has plenty of room and pockets. 

Diapers: 

got some hopefully to last the first 3 months. And wipes. 

Childbirth class: 

We're going to one at the hospital all day instead of once a night for 6 weeks. 

Just get it done and over with! 

Hospital bag: 

Haven't packed yet but got great advice from mothers as to what to bring.  

Hopefully the class will help. 

Nursery: 

Not much expect for her closet, which is pretty much what she needs. 

Just need to rearrange the room for a crib. 

Baby name: 

Agreed to a wonderful and beautiful first name!!  

Still up in the air for a middle name. 

Baby moon: 

Went away for a night in Midway. 

Great weather,  swimming, fine dining, 

and then relaxing in our hotel room to watch the BYU vs Utah football game.  

This salad was very delicious!!

Dave and I are are Utah alumni so...yay for the UTES!!  

University of Utah
Great place to work and/or study at.

Some BYU fans are crazy enough to believe that losing to the U is like losing to Satan so...

I was happy for a 4th straight win against BYU.  ^_^ 

I liked that we didn't travel far for the baby moon because...

 you never know if you'll have a pregnancy scare.  

Tada...

Right before check out, I used the restroom and saw blood before flushing the toilet.

That was weird because I felt no pain. 

Dave and I went straight to the hospital after leaving Midway. 

After 4 hours of waiting and monitoring, they concluded it was a kidney stone. 

At my follow-up visit yesterday, I asked my OB why I felt NO PAIN because I heard passing a stone is more painful than labor...

do I have a magical pain tolerance for kidney stones and possibly birth??

  The OB said "No" 

and explained that the uterer dilates more during pregnancy.  

 Depending on the size, the stone was easier to pass and not experience pain. 

I was lucky!  

Also very pleased with the excellent follow-up care I'm receiving. 

Pregnancy related, no signs of preterm labor. 

She is healthy, happy and cozy in my tummy. 

Just drinking more water now.

What else do I need to get done before the baby arrives?