The latest project I’ve been working on has been getting a shallow point well installed with a solar powered water pump so we can start watering the gravel pit to get some grass to grow. I just added 330 gallons of storage to it on Saturday.
Target Vs. Walmart: Baby Registries and Boxes
When I went to Motherhood for clothes they signed me up for a baby box for only $2. I figured $2 did not seem like a bad price and the women at the counter promised it was worth it. It was! There were coupons worth 100’s of dollars, a free baby bottle, free subscriptions to magazines like Parents and much more. I was intrigued! Who else offered these wonderful boxes? So I started researching and reading blogs about baby boxes. I found out about Babylist, which turned out to be a great site! You can link certain registries to it and they send you fun weekly emails about the stages your baby is at. I have everything set up through it for my baby shower. It was about $10 for the box, but was worth it! Check out our video blog to see what was inside! Amazon also as a baby box, but you need to spend $10 on your registry first to get it. I think that seems fair. We have not spent $10 yet, but I know we will soon. When we get the box we will post a video when it arrives.
So, on to Target and Walmart. This blog post is about my experience with both companies in signing up for a baby registry and getting the baby boxes. I first went to Walmart. According to a blog I read and Walmart’s website you go to customer service first. So Joe and I went straight to customer service. They looked at us like we were idiots and stated matter of factually that everything is online and then turned away. Perplexed I asked about the baby box. The women next to the counter turned to me with a raised eye brow and said “I have never heard of that.” I let her know that I read about the box on their website. The man by the counter said with his head bobbing very dismissively, “Well you read it on the internet so it has to be true.” Honestly, I almost walked out of the store then, but I knew a lot of my relatives shopped at Walmart and would likely go there for buying a baby gift. Experiences like this is why I choose to order off of Amazon instead and why I go to more expensive grocery stores. I still go to Walmart when I have to, but only when I am using their grocery app (which can be very faulty) or they are the only store that has the product I need.
After the interaction I pulled up the Walmart app and found the baby registry on there. It was actually very simple to use. Your phone is the scanner. You go to the baby section and scan the barcode of the items you want. It does automatically put items on when you sign up…all of which I removed. This was an annoying step to me. I guess Walmart assumes this will be the only place you register, but not this girl. After you complete your baby registry you go to https://walmart.cesampling.com/babybox/order and follow the instructions. Supposedly a free baby box is shipped to you. We have yet to receive our box. I did receive an email from customer service asking for a review on items in the box. I replied to the email that we have yet to receive the box. They promptly replied to please allow 4-6 weeks for the box to arrive. Then why are they sending the email so soon? Suffice it to say my experience with Walmart baby registry and baby box was terrible. Unless the box has untold wonders in it I do not recommend even going through the trouble. When and if the box arrives Joe and I will post a video blog about it.
So after my Walmart experience I felt very discouraged about baby boxes, but earlier this week Joe and I had an opportunity to stop at Target. I knew that they also had a baby box available and per their website you stop by the customer service desk. Joe dropped me off by the door while he parked the car and I went straight to customer service. I nervously approached the desk prepared to feel like an idiot. A woman greeted me very nicely and I asked about signing up for a baby registry. She excitedly told me congratulations and that she would be happy to help me. She asked if my phone was fully charged. I said yes. She asked me to pull up my app store and showed me how to set up a registry. Meanwhile Joe came in and joined the conversation. After everything was set up and explained she pulled out a green folder with information about baby registries and handed it to us. She said with a smile, “When you are all done come back and will give you a free baby bag filled with coupons and free items.” She then handed us two coupons for free drinks at Starbucks and again told us congratulations. The baby section at Target was amazing! They had everything. To be honest I could see someone completely registering at Target and not needing to go anywhere else. It was so organized. They even had a postpartum section for mothers. The app was a little glitchy, but that might have been my phone. It had a hard time reading some of the barcodes, but we managed to make it work.
After, we went back to customer service. The woman was gone, but there was a young man who greeted us nicely. We let him know we completed our baby registry. He immediately went and got the baby bag and asked if we could go to the Target website so he could get the code he needed. He handed us the bag and told us to have a nice day. Starbucks was next to customer service so we went there and each got a free drink. I told them I was pregnant and diabetic and they helped me figure out a drink I could get. They made me a sugar-free Mexican hot chocolate latte that was caffeine-free, half milk, and half heavy whipping cream with whipped cream on top. Oh my god was it delicious! Joe picked something from the menu. On our cups they wrote congratulations!
So my overall experience at Target was amazing! Please go there and register for a baby registry. We have not opened the bag yet, but I peeked inside a little and looks like some cool stuff. We will be doing a video blog about it soon, so keep your eyes peeled! If you are deciding between Walmart or Target for registering for baby things I 100% recommend Target over Walmart. Target had wonderful customer service and the infant section was wonderfully maintained. Most importantly…THEY DID NOT MAKE ME FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT. Sorry Walmart, but Target has you beat.
Week 22 and Rocking it!
I cannot believe we are already to week 22. We are past the halfway point! When did that happen? I am proud to announce my A1C is down to 5.8 and I am determined to get it lower. In the meanwhile I am trying my hardest to keep my blood sugar below 120 within the two hour mark. When you are pregnant and just wanting to eat everything around you this is extremely difficult. I do not always succeed, but I take comfort in my husband who reminds me that I am doing good with my levels and that high blood sugar will happen sometimes. I had recently a higher level and I did nothing different. I had the same breakfast all week long, but on this day I cannot explain it. I went almost to 300. I was not happy. I kept giving myself more insulin and I was not going down. It took over 3 hours for my levels to drop below 200. The only thing I can think of is hormones from my pregnancy affecting me randomly or it is the cold I am currently experiencing. I have increased my basal rate on my pump and that does appear to be helping. I might need to increase it more, but I am watching closely! I am so happy to be on a pump and CGM. I’m not how women handle pregnancy without a pump and CGM.
I have begun to feel what many women call flutters. It is such an amazing feeling. Joe cannot wait until the baby starts kicking so he can feel the baby too.
My latest appointments showed our baby to progressing nicely. Its the size it is supposed to be and its heart rate it spot on! It’s an active little one too. Doc said she could hear it flipping and rolling around in there. I just need to keep my levels good.
Joe and I are so excited for this little one. We cannot wait to hold him in our owns.
Superior State of Mind : Placing the House
Today Katherine and I snowshoed into the property and figured out where we’ll end up placing the house. Much talk of what trees to keep and which ones had to go occurred.
The Daddening.
Yikes!
Unboxing the Babylist.com Hello Baby Box and Discussion about the Motherhood Maternity Welcome Bag
Today we cracked open our Hello Baby Box that we received when we signed up at babylist.com . We go through its contents and also talk about the Welcome Bag we received when we signed up at Motherhood Maternity.
Adding FPV video to a MJX Bugs 3 Drone and using UV cutting epoxy to repair a broken motor mount
Guess What!!??
Joe and I are happy to announce we are finally pregnant!! We are currently 17 weeks and baby is very healthy! Heartbeat is at 138 and baby is growing at a healthy rate. We waited to tell until the second trimester because it felt right to keep it for us the first trimester.
The first trimester went great. I was thankful I did not get any morning sickness. The unfortunate thing is I was incredibly hungry all the time. Being a diabetic, this was problematic. Per my dietitian I am to have my glucose levels back at 120 within 2 hours of eating food. This is so hard when you only want to eat very bad for you food all the time…like french fries. I want french fries so bad!
But I have been doing very good. I still allow myself the occasional treats while maintaining a lower A1C. According the Clarity app my A1C is at a 5.8, but I will know for sure in January.
The one nice thing about being a pregnant diabetic is seeing the doctor every 3 to 4 weeks. Joe and I get to experience more ultrasounds than most couples. We already got to see 2 ultrasounds and hear the baby heartbeat twice. It was amazing! I may have cried more than once. I can’t wait until our next appointment in January.
Oh…and we are already working on the nursery in our tiny house. We are completely reorganizing the house to make room. It is a long process! And a tiring process for someone pregnant. I keep needing to take breaks…it is so annoying!! I am going to be happy that we did it early vs later in the pregnancy. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who is also going into overdrive getting everything ready. I am so happy to have such an amazing husband.
Solar Suitcase
I’ve been watching lots of videos about solar power lately. One YouTube channel I’ve found super informative is DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse. He has forums which people post their setups and I found this slick idea.
http://www.diysolarforum.com/threads/solar-suitcase.24/
Obviously it folds with the panels facing outward, which I’d like to reverse to protect the panels. Shouldn’t be too hard to do. Putting it on my winter projects list.
In other news it sounds like we will be purchasing and installing a large solar array at my dad’s house with an all in one grid connect with battery bank for power outages. I’ll be sure to document that when we get firmer plans.
Dexcom G6
I’ve worn the Dexcom G6 for about 4 months and I can tell you it has been a game changer. I went on the Omnipod pump first due to working at a school and not being able to give myself insulin when I needed to. Unfortunately that also meant I could not check my blood sugar when I needed either. With switching to only Novalog this proved problematic. My blood sugar was going higher and staying higher for longer than I was used to. I was not happy. My A1C was raising. However, once I was able to get started with the G6 I was able to see what my blood sugar was in real time. I had control and it felt great.
Now, here is the thing no one told me. Your blood sugar will still go high. You don’t see your levels during the first two hours after eating without a continuous meter so you don’t know. You bolus correctly, but as you watch your sugar goes higher and higher. You will want to correct it, but don’t! I made that mistake. It ended with my eating a lot of candy to pull myself back up. Wait the 2 hours before correcting.
I still find it incredibly hard not to correct and I catch myself correcting at the hour and half mark. I do find if I correct around this time it does not cause my sugar to drop hard, but I would not recommend this for anyone else.
Along with the Dexcom G6 comes what is called the Clarity app, which is a cool app! You set your time in range and it will give you a percentage of your time in range. I set mine to between 70 and 180. My goal is to be at least 70% in range. Thus far I have almost succeeded. I only have 3 days where I was at 65% in range. It will estimate your A1C and it is very accurate. It also creates charts and other cool things you can forward to your doctor.
So far I love the G6!! My A1C is trending back down and I have control over my blood sugar. The one thing I will recommend is a patch to go over the G6. The G6 does not stay on well. I use grifgrips and they work pretty well.
Love. Marriage. Diabetes. 