Review: Hampton Inn Northwood

We went to San Antonio for Thanksgiving to see my in-laws, and have Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, who have a brand new baby only 1 week old! Obviously, we would not want to have 2 screaming infants in the same house for 3 nights so Christian and I made reservations at a Hampton Inn right down the road from their house.

First of all, let me say that I really like Hampton Inns because they have great continental breakfasts, meaning that you do not have to leave the hotel super early. This was also important to us because Little Sir HATES riding in the car, and hates the car seat. So if we could eat breakfast without having to take an additional trip in the car, that would be great. Also, Hampton Inns are typically clean and well run.

Well, Thanksgiving Day night, after a heinous 6 hours in the car with a screaming baby and some time with family, Christian drove to the Hampton Inn Northwood from his sister's house to check in to the hotel and set up the pack n' play for me, then he would come back to her house and pick Little Sir and I and bring us back, everything would all be set up for us.

In theory.
It turns out that, although we prepaid for the room using Orbitz, the Hampton Inn Northwood completely forgot to have the room cleaned from the previous guest, so it was not ready. He asked if they could just put us in another room, and they said, no we are completely full!! They offered to put us in a Comfort Suites down the road, which of course does not have the breakfast. Meaning we'd have to pay for breakfast and also go through the ordeal of driving Little Sir in the car some more and dealing with him in a restaurant. I said no way.

So instead they sent us to another Hampton Inn really far away. The staff at the new place were very nice, but at 11 PM I was exhausted and driving across town was not what we wanted to do. Plus having to set up the baby's stuff and put him to bed, we weren't in bed before 1 AM.

What is the deal, Hampton Inn Northwood? It's not like we paid less for the room because we went through Orbitz - it was exactly the same rate as the rate listed on the Hampton Inn web site, we just used Orbitz so that we could have the Price Guarantee. Ironically, Hampton Inn also has a Guarantee of Satisfaction, and I would say that we were not satisfied. However, Christian felt like we shouldn't ask for anything in compensation so we didn't. But I do wish that last night had been free, at least.

So if you're staying in San Antonio and choose this hotel, I would recommend calling ahead to make sure the room has actually been reserved and CLEANED.

Happy Thanksgiving

I started this post from my iPhone at 2AM while waiting to see if
Little Sir was actually asleep so I could go back to my bed and sleep
too. I thought it would be fun to list 10 things I am thankful for.
Wow, so much has changed since this time last year...

1) We are both thankful for Little Sir! That he is healthy and that we
had such a great birth experience.

2) For all the new friends I met this year! We met a few fabulous
couples when going through this pregnancy. And I have met some great
ladies (& men) through participating in DFW Blogger meetup events.

3) Security in spite of the current economy. Not job security really,
although at the moment it appears we might have that too, but I am
thankful that we have had people who have encouraged us to live out
our faith in financial matters throughout our marriage so that we have
no debt and feel prepared if something unexpected happens.

4) Wow, am I only at #4? I feel like the first 3 were such big things.
I am thankful for little things too, like the library! Which has saved
us a ton of money this year.

5) Family, always. Although ours are several hours away, we get to see
everyone pretty frequently, which is nice.

6) That we are still employed!

7) The Birth & Womens Center and their staff!

8) Our community group/church

9) This neighborhood and our neighbors here, they are so nice! Also we
love being so close to the lake.

10) My husband - he is a very patient man and a great father! We will
be celebrating our fourth anniversary in a little less than a month,
and we've had all kinds of fun, crazy, difficult and new experiences
so far, I look forward to many more!

Review: gDiapers

I'm excited to say that we've been using BumGenius cloth diapers now for several weeks with Little Sir, and it is going well. I've discovered I do need to use extra inserts during the night to avoid leaks, and that I really shouldn't go more than 2-3 hours without changing to prevent diaper rash and leaks, but those things are do-able.

We did have to use gel-free, chlorine-free disposables for the first 2-3 weeks when Little Sir was still too small for cloth. During this time, I had several people ask me if I had considered gDiapers as an alternative. I had heard about gDiapers, but I have to admit that I was put off by the price. Just this week, I was given a leftover starter kit from Chirky, whose daughter outgrew the small size before she was able to use them. With the price barrier removed, I was excited to try them!

gDiapers are a hybrid of cloth and disposable, they are similar to prefolds in that they have a vinyl washable cover, but the insert is flushable or compostable (compostable with pee only - never compost human waste). The starter kit comes with 2 covers and some inserts, plus a stick that is used for stirring the insert in your toilet so that it disintegrates completely. I would recommend visiting their site for more information on their environmental impact.

There is a lot of controversy out there regarding where gDiapers fall on the scale of environmental impact, though. I first read about it in this excellent post, which points out that although the inserts are flushable or biodegradeable it is also important to consider the manufacturing cost of the covers and the amount of water used to flush. What's interesting is that the owner/creator of gDiapers chimes in on the post in the Comments. I think it's a great discussion.

So far, I rate the gDiapers as "fun". They work a lot like pocket cloth diapers, operationally. I haven't had any leaks. The fun part is that you rip the liner in half and stick it into the toilet - I think it is fun to watch it completely dissolve into nothing! One disclaimer: Little Sir's room is what was originally the guest room in our house, so it actually has its own private bathroom. Therefore, the changing table is about 2 steps from a toilet, making it really easy for me to flush the liners. I could see how this might be more problematic for someone who might need to walk a ways to get to a toilet.

As for how it looks, I like that the gDiapers are less bulky than BumGenius (no offense, BumGenius, I still love you). I think they look nice and streamlined. I hear you can get gDiapers in various patterns, but I am not that picky about those.

For us, we have already invested in cloth so we will definitely keep using cloth for the majority of our diapering. But, I think the gDiapers are fun and I might consider using them when I am waiting for my cloth diapers to dry or when we are going out somewhere or traveling. I wouldn't say they would be 100% great for traveling because you'd still have to carry them around with you until you found a toilet, which I imagine would still require carrying a wet bag. But I carry a wet bag anyway for cloth diapering, so that's no trouble.

I give them a thumbs up! And gDiapers people...if you happen to read this...I can always use coupons!! Or samples. Or would host a giveaway!

Confusion: working/staying home

There are always a lot of great discussions on BlogHer about stay-at-home moms versus working moms, those that have a choice and those that don't...today Miss Elaine linked to a great post by a blogger named Erin, with whom I was not familiar, about this choice and her exasperation with the attitudes she has encountered.
Here is the post.

I know I am not really qualified to chime in, since I haven't gone back to work yet. But I will be going back in a few weeks and I do feel the pain of both sides. I'm currently trying to figure out a work schedule and a child care schedule that will work for our family. Both Christian and I were blessed to have moms that stayed at home with us when we were small and went back to work when we got older. I wish I could say I have that option, but we simply don't. Maybe by the time Little Sir is 2 years old that will change, but for the next 2 years I will just need to work and find a balance.

It's a tough topic, and I appreciate Erin addressing the frustrations!

Mommy blogging

When I first found out I was pregnant, I told my (15) loyal Conscientious Confusion readers that I would not be turning this into a mommy blog. I know you didn't sign up for that, and besides, I would like to have something that would require me to think outside the context of being a new mom.

I have a strong desire to avoid being one of those women who can't talk about anything but their kids. I have always been interested in reading, yoga, living healthfully, getting out socially, finding ways to be more "green", Christian and I enjoy going out to new places and traveling, and talking amongst ourselves about politics and world events...ya'll know this if you know me or you've read the blog long.

However.

I've been at home all day long, every day, with a newborn for the last 3+ weeks. Yes, I am still keeping up with world events and politics from TV and my iPhone, and we have started going out to new restaurants again together (with Little Sir). We even went to White Rock Local Market this weekend - I wore Little Sir in my Maya sling.

But none of this is great non-mommy-blog fodder. The traffic for our family blog is waaaaay up and this blog is down, down, down. I know I haven't done a great job of updating. The fact that I get only 1-3 hours of sleep at a time, ever, has a great deal to do with my writing incompetence. It takes me days to answer simple emails, my brain pretty much falters and stops at the thought of typing anything longer. And even if I could handle it mentally, I can rarely leave my newborn long enough to type anything substantially long. It took me 7 hours to right this post.

Due to the aforementioned lack of sleep, when he sleeps I do try to sleep as well. Or clean the house or do laundry. We are cloth diapering already, by the way - it's going great. I really want to do a post on that, but, well....IT TOOK ME 7 HOURS TO WRITE THIS POST.
And it isn't even as well organized as a post about cloth diapering would/should be.

So what am I trying to say?
I ask myself that a lot right in the middle of sentences these days.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I am sorry for not posting more.
But I do plan to keep trying the best I can.
The compromise might be that I might need to write about things related to being a new mom. I promise it won't be all about Little Sir (that is what the family blog is for, I promise).
But maybe just some stuff about myself?

What would you think of that, readers?
Would you stop reading?
Or are you even still there??

* crickets chirping *