sick again

Yep...we got the crud again. This time round I was a little more aggressive with getting treatment for all of us. When Xaris had to change antibiotic again this time I had words with her pediatrician about not letting her illnesses linger, at least while I'm pregnant and have very little options for treating it when I get it. I can totally understand why it's important to not go to the strongest drugs first unless it's absolutely necessary--but this is twice in a row that Cephalexin hasn't worked for her. If she gets sick again, I'm refusing it for another antibiotic so hopefully she'll get healthy and we'll stay healthy.

When Ric and I got sick, we went to CareNow instead of our own Dr. SOO much better. I was in and out in less than an hour, instead of the long waits and 2 visits that my Dr. seemed to require in order to take care of my bug. Ricardo left CareNow with an antibiotic, cough meds, and steroids, and within a day he was feeling better--instead of the 3 days of missed work last time around.

Now--it could be that this is a lesser infection than what we got last time around? But sick feels like sick, and I'm not being very gracious anymore--I think it's time to change Drs!

We're back on the road to health...X is sleeping well again and obviously feeling better by her amount of energy and her playing. Ric's been at work all week, and I have too, although I'm still lagging behind in my recovery. I was the last to get sick though, so the last to start the antibiotics.

Anyway...Hopefully we'll be back to good FOR GOOD soon. I'd like to post pictures from a dinner we had with our friends John, Debra (and Marshall and Lucy!) and Mark, Leslie (and Jack), but we left our camera at Mark and Leslie's house, so it'll have to wait.

Instead, I'll put up a poll--it looks like I'll have an ultrasound around the end of April, so you can post your votes now about gender. I'm not giving you any hints yet :) Maybe I'll post some later on!

on the condition of cloth diapers

So here's a question:

for all of you using cloth diapers, how are they holding up?

Now that we're approaching the 2 year birthday of several of our bumgenius 3.0, I'm starting to notice their age and wear, particularly in the velcro. So I started wondering about how everyone else's are holding up? And what routines do you follow for the cleaning, laundering, care of these diapers?

Now that Boo-Rod 2 is on the way, the plan is have X totally out of diapers before baby's arrival. And most of the diapers are holding up pretty well, but the laundry tabs (where you fasten the velcro to wash the diapers) are shot, so each load I do I end up pulling diapers apart from each other, making the velcro fuzzier and fuzzier. There are a couple that I'll probably replace. Or if there's something totally revolutionary and new out there that you have discovered, please share!!

Here's our diaper care routine:

Wet, dirty diapers go in pail in bathroom (if it's dirty, we spray it off with diaper sprayer, then spray on a little bac-out).

Every other day, all diapers get washed, first in a cold soaker wash with bleach and either All Free, or Charlie's soap, and lots of water.

Second round: hot water + a little more soap.

Third round: hot water rinse. Sometimes I do this twice.

Dry on low heat (in summer, they dry on the line).

Then I pull out a tangled, velcro-y mess of diapers and begin to pull them all apart and fold them together.

Any suggestions or variations in your results??