Just bragging on my stash…

This is about half of our diapers, gloriously organized in the drawer of the changing table. I find we don’t need more space than this, because half are always dirty. By the time diapers get washed, hang to dry, stuffed, and put back in the drawer he has dirtied enough to make room for all the freshly cleaned ones. The far left row contains the Daddy-friendly all-in-ones and a few disposables that haven’t been touched in weeks. The middle 2 rows are the “night time” diapers which have a hemp insert. The final row are the rest of the pocket diapers with regular microfiber inserts. for some reason the skull covered Goodmama AIO is in that row. We hate it so I guess it just got stuck where ever.

I officially decided I don’t like fitted diapers, which require a cover over them. I’ve sold all our fitted diapers and covers on eBay and will be purchasing more one-size pocket diapers and all-in-ones. Currently we have 15 one-sized pocket diapers, 2 one-size all-in-one diapers, and 6 small sized all-in-ones diapers. I’ve fallen in love with diapers made with organic bamboo, so I’m about to spend the money I earned on eBay on several more of that kind… Bamboo Baby One-size All-in-One diaper and Baby Kicks One-size Pocket Diaper.

As I continue my quest to educate people (who read this blog, haha) about cloth diapering, I will now explain briefly what these weird terms “fitted” “all-in-one” etc mean.

A Fitted cloth diaper is when material is already sewn in to the shape of a diaper and has some type of snap or velcro closure. No more folding old school big white cloths or using pins, but they still require a cover.

A Pocket diaper has a water proof outer layer and a soft lining that has a pocket which you stuff with absorbent material (called an insert). I prefer using a thin cotton insert on top of a hemp insert. Hemp is super super absorbent & thinner than cotton inserts, but absorbs slower than cotton. Combine the two and its perfect.

An all-in-one (or AIO) is a diaper that already has the absorbent material sewn into it. No cover needed. No stuffing needed. Basically it is just like a disposable diaper, but reusable. Often AIO diapers still have a pocket space behind their absorbent layer in case you want to add more (such as adding a hemp insert to keep the diaper from leaking overnight).

Finally, the other term I often use is “one-size”. You can buy cloth diapers by size, just like disposables but it is more economical to buy one-size diapers which can be adjusted at the waist, rise, and/or thighs. Very clever, very fabulous.

Here is a pretty good info video about 2 of my favorite brands…

Big boy Sawyer had his 8 week/2 month check up today. It was a bit funny when I undressed him and put him on the scales, because the nurse couldn’t resist asking “Umm, what is that?” as she looked at his cloth diaper. I told her it was a cloth diaper, and she asked, “That’s the cover?”. Oh… LOL, no that’s the whole diaper and this adorable blue you see is the waterproof outer layer. Anyway, our little baby who was down to almost 6 pounds before we left the hospital is now a whopping 12 pounds, 11.6 ounces and 23.5″ long. After a long wait for the doctor, during which time Mommy made a fool of herself with entertaining sounds, songs, and other hilarious things (see pics above for the result of my stupidity), Sawyer was given a clean bill of health. I can’t help but mention the doctor was amazed the diaper and said several times how he wished he had known about such high-tech cloth diapers when his kids were infants. Again…

That’s pretty much where the good times stopped. Next step, immunizations. In the form of the dreaded big needles punching into my baby’s thighs. He was not happy at all, and continues to be a bit fussy. It was sad to see blood on both his legs after the shots, but overall he did good and so did I.

My goodness look at our big baby! He’s 8 weeks old now and changing so quickly. Now our silly voices, cooing, and singing everything are rewarded with smiles. It’s the best. Smiles & poop. That’s what we get excited about. Lol! He goes a few days between poops, which sounds uncomfortable, so we honestly get excited. Plus it gives me a chance to brag about his awesome diapers. I love them so much.

We are in week 3 of my mom watching him and she got to change a poopy diaper for the first time today. The fabulous bumGenius 3.0 was full from front to back but no blow out. She is kind enough to rinse the diapers before putting them in the pretty Planet Wise wet bag, and she couldn’t believe how much the diapers absorb. That’s right! Poo is exciting!

In case anyone reads this and cares or is interested in cloth diapers I try to mention brands. Still loving the BG obviously. I think the Fuzzi Bunz one-size pocket is great too but I am too lazy to love snaps. i’m really impressed by the Rocky Mountain one-size pocket, which was recommended to me by a shop owner who carries it instead of Fuzzi Bunz. I like the fit and the suade lining washes really well, even after those exciting poops. Plus as an added bonus they make a super cute monkey print. I wish more cloth diapers were in prints. Just simple stripes & dots would be cool. I splurged on a Goodmana The Skully One (pic above) because of the print and reputation. From everything I’ve read online, GM is like the ultimate cloth diaper. People love them and they’re frequently sold out. I was excited to see the diaper in person & give it a try. The one size adjustment is different from others and the number of snaps is overwhelming. Despite all the snaps I couldn’t get a good fit on Sawyer and his clothes were soaked in just a bit over an hour. Super disappointing considering what I read and that it’s the most expensive diaper I’ve bought. Hopefully a few more washes will increase the absorbancy. It is made of organic bamboo. I bought another bamboo diaper, the brand is Bamboo Baby. I love it so far. It is super super soft and fits great. My next purchase will be BabyKicks’ new diaper which also has bamboo. I’ll combine super soft, super absorbant bamboo diapers with super trim, super absorbant, mold/mildew/bacteria resistant hemp inserts and will form the geatest cloth diapers, fit for royalty… and then Sawyer will poop in them =)

I began this blog a few weeks ago like this: Its something I’m writing on my phone so I’ll stay awake and not let Sawyer fall asleep on me. I envy mothers I see who put their infants in a crib then get to sleep or do housework. (I watch the Birth Day show on TLC a lot). I am not that Mom. Sawyer has dictated another lifestyle for us. For me. Like so many others I’ve talked to, our little man isn’t too interested in Daddy right now. That makes things even harder. Dan wants to help but Sawyer just cries. But crying is just what he does. That’s what I’m trying to write about. Our precious little man isn’t happy. He’s miserable. Generally if he’s awake he’s unhappy, fussy, gassy. Then at 4 or 5 he switches to total misery mode. Red faced, high pitched, ear drum busting, headache
causing, HEARTBREAKING screaming and crying. At first I could eventually calm him down and that made me feel good. I am the Mom. He loves me and is comforted by me. A few days later I found myself sitting on the cold bathroom floor, sobbing, holding my baby. Mommy wasn’t enough. A noisy exhaust fan was comforting him.

That’s when I knew. He has colic.

The evenings became progressively worse over a week. I was reading everything I could find online that might help. The theory that colic means baby cries for no reason just doesn’t work for me. I stumbled upon some new research being done on treating the big “C” with probiotics. I had taken a course of antibiotics, so it seemed even more likely that his digestive tract didn’t have the “good” bacteria it needs. I talked to Dan about it & we agreed it made sense and wanted to try it.

Today I declare we have a new child. We’ve had about 12 scream free evenings in a row… ok, there was one a couple nights ago but he was trying to poop, got mad, too mad to nurse, so he was hungry, then kept himself up so long he was tired. Anyway, I guess there could be other reasons he’s suddenly better but I’m giving credit to the probiotics. He still gets them every day or every other day.

So that is the “C” word part. We’ve had that battle and also the sleep without Mommy battle. Sawyer just wants me to hold him. Simple as that. We’ve worked on having him sleep anywhere else, but mainly trying to get him in his crib. There have been moments of success. An hour or two here and there, but never a whole night. The past few nights I’ve just given in to exhaustion and accepted co-sleeping for now. Then last night I put him in the bouncy seat while trying to finally eat my dinner at 8pm. He slept in it almost all night, with only 2 very brief breaks to nurse. I guess we’ll see how things progress. I’m sure by the time he’s 18 or so he won’t be sleeping with me

Aside from those 2 issues, our little man is fabulous. He continues to gain weight so he’s nice and chunky now. LOL. I love his chins, cheeks, and rolly thighs. Seriously, look at this cuteness…

In the lives of Mommy & Daddy, things have been pretty good too. I went back to work on Feb 8. I cried at some point every day of the week before. Random moments when I’d be playing with him, nursing, etc and would realize that our special time was almost over… tears. When my first day back arrived I actually didn’t cry at all. I’ve done really well adjusting, and I think he has too. I hope, although he hasn’t said much about it. It helps me that he is with my Mom (thanks Mom!). It is sad in the evening because our time with him is so short. It seems like we’re barely home before he is sleeping. Dan has been enjoying his new job and adjusting to the different time frame (he goes in much earlier at this job).

As a family we’ve enjoyed a couple outings. We’ve been going to my parents’ house every Sunday as usual since Sawyer was born, but now we’ve ventured out a bit more. We went to Becca’s house on Saturday, my aunt Monica’s 50th birthday party, and my Mom’s retirement party. Sawyer did really well each time, mostly just sleeping in his car seat. Hehe. Sawyer and I have also been walking at the mall a couple times with our friends (my friend who has a baby boy 3 weeks older than Sawyer). That has been good for us both mentally and physically.

The only big negative since the colic weeks has been my last adventure out with Sawyer. Most everyone has heard by now, but I went grocery shopping at Walmart for the first time with him this past weekend. Really we mainly needed dog food, but groceries too. When we were leaving, I hurried to get Sawyer out of the cold and in the car. That’s when some scum bag grabbed my purse and jumped in a getaway vehicle. I was thankful I at least got the license plate number, only to find out the plate was off a really old model truck that wasn’t what they were driving. They managed to spend a little money on one of my credit cards before I got them shut off. Overall the worst part was that my iPhone was in the purse. The cost of replacing it was very depressing. The good news, aside from the fact that neither Sawyer or I was hurt, is that some wonderful couple saw my purse dumped beside the road and returned it. The idiot thieves only took the cards and phone. My driver’s license, social security card, check book, etc was all there. How wonderful is that?

Hopefully now that we’re past the colic stage I’ll have more time to blog in the evenings.. if I can get the little man out of my arms

You have a story similar to this:

6:06 am and the gruntings I’ve been hearing for several minutes break into a full cry, which signals that it is time to start the day and feed Sawyer. I say start the day even though I feel like the last one never ended. We had just went back to sleep around 4:30 and I had really hoped he would sleep longer. So we nurse and he falls back to sleep. I hold him and rock him a few more minutes, then put him down so we can both sleep. He wakes up within 2 minutes, grunting, crying, kicking. Gas. Our enemy. I pick him up, we go to the living room so I can walk, bounce, pat, etc. He falls back asleep, so I put him in his bouncy seat and go to fix a bowl of cereal. The sink is full of dishes, including every bowl we own (thanks to all the cereal and soup I eat). I wash a bowl. The crying and screaming starts. Didn’t even get the cereal poured. Pick him up, bounce, pat, sooth, give him Mylicon, etc. Eventually he is calm and back to sleep. I am able to eat before he wakes again. He acts like he wants to nurse again, so we give it a try. His belly is clearly upset and a couple times I think he is going to puke all over me. I get a burp cloth in place. He gets the hiccups. So now we are battling gas and hiccups. I am helpless, but it has been nearly 2 hours since he had the Mylicon so I try the gripe water. He settles down and is just looking around the living room hiccuping.

Explosion! He pooped. Finally. He had clearly been working on it for a couple hours. Poor guy. Explosion! More poop. Explosion! The remaining poop. I wait a moment in case there is more. Sawyer starts crying and I feel something warm on my arm. Poop. It is all down his leg, covering his baby blue pants and getting on my arm. To the changing table we go. Oh my. He has never pooped like this before. I wanted to take pictures. It was amazing. The huge cloth diaper was completely full. The outside was covered on one side. It is everywhere. So I get him changed and clearly a bath is a good idea. I put him in a diaper in his crib while I wash out the clothes, wipes, diaper.

Bath time. This went great. He seemed to be enjoying it. Fantastic. I wrap him in a towel and take him from the kitchen sink to stand under the heater in the bathroom. Something wet hits my feet. Pee. He is peeing and it is running down my shirt and puddling on my foot and in the floor. I wipe my foot on the rug and take him to his room, where I strip & throw on my robe which is thankfully in there. I wipe him off, then do the lotion & get dressed routine. The socks I laid out were a darker blue than in his outfit, so I walk over to get baby blue socks. I step in something. Dog pee. A puddle a dog pee compliments of Stewie (Lucy never pees inside). I wipe my foot on my already peed on clothes that were piled in the floor as I scream at the dog. Sawyer is content, so I gather my clothes and then clean up both puddles of pee.

Now I need a bath. I sit Sawyer in his bouncy seat in the bathroom floor. He loves all the lights and the sound of the fan. I shower and get ready while he falls asleep.

10 am and we’re both fed, bathed, and he’s finally sleeping.

So if you ever arrive at my house and see a bathroom that looks like this, with wet rug, towels, baby clothes soaking on the sink, and a baby in the bathroom floor… well now you know why.

For the record, he came through all the mess pretty well. Look how adorable our little guy is

Thanks to Aunt Becca for the outfit. And let’s not talk about Sawyer’s balding, he is very sensitive about it. LOL>

Any other Moms, or Dads, have a gross or hilarious story you would like share? =)

I’ll probably do one of these later on too, but after gathering everyone’s opinions during my pregnancy I wanted to share my thoughts now that we’re using some things. Here is the list of things I thought we needed and my thoughts now:

Car Seat – LOVE LOVE LOVE our Graco Snugridge. So glad I asked opinions about this, because I hadn’t paid attention to the weight. Katherine pointed out not to get anything too heavy, and I’m glad we listened. The Snugride is light, super easy to get in and out of the car, and the Broadstreet color pattern is really cute.

Stroller – we haven’t used it yet, but have played around with the Graco Snugride Car Seat Stroller Frame and love it too. It is also very easy to use. Folding and unfolding is very easy. We’ve wheeled it around the house and it is easy to maneuver, turns easily, etc. I’m excited to pick out a bigger, jogging stroller when Sawyer outgrows this one.

Crib – we didn’t have good luck with the Graco Lauren crib, which splintered in a few places when we were installing screws. We ended up with the Emi Natural 4-in-1 Convertible Crib and we really love it.

Changing table/pad – those who said you never used your changing table, well I think you’re just crazy. LOL. Seriously though, I haven’t changed a single diaper anywhere else in the house. Why would I want to go gather up wipes, butt cream, trash bag, fresh diaper, etc to carry to where ever Sawyer is. I prefer to carry him there and have a quick routine of getting a new diaper on him. We do need more changing pad covers. I would recommend 3, but for now we’re using hospital receiving blankets when our 1 cover gets soaked in pee (which happens way too often).

Crib Mattress – Sawyer doesn’t sleep in the crib yet, so not much to say. We have a mattress & it looks lovely

Crib Sheets – we have several, but again haven’t changed the sheets yet. Dan’s mom got us some soft knit sheets, so we ended up returning most of the cute Circa sheets because they weren’t as soft

Receiving Blankets – I returned several, but we still have about 15. Still thought that was too many, but I was wrong. I like to have a variety to match with his outfits, plus when diapers leak the blanket tends to get wet too.

Clothing including socks/booties, cap, mittens – socks don’t stay on, so I doubt mittens would either. I love sleepers that have mittens built in. I also LOVE the sleep sacks, but most we have our too big. I love them because it makes diaper changes during the night quick & easy… which means he doesn’t fully wake up and gets back to sleep quicker. That is good for a sleepy Mommy. Clothing was a battle because we had nothing to fit him, since he turned out to be so tiny. My Mom, actually Stephanie, found some cheap Premie sized stuff on sale at Walmart. Then he grew so much that he only wore that stuff for a little over a week. The next challenge is fitting stuff over the cloth diapers, which definitely are “fluffier” than a disposable.

Diapers (cloth) & Inserts – I could write and write and write about how much I love the cloth diapers. I’m super impressed with the bumGenius 3.0, both the all-in-ones and the pocket diapers. They fit great and we’ve had no leaks with the pocket diapers using hemp inserts with a small cotton doubler on top. The Fuzzi Bunz one-size pocket diapers are also great. Their lining is the softest of all the diapers. Again, I use the hemp inserts and this diaper doesn’t leak. I guess it is really the BabyKicks Joey-Bunz hemp inserts that I love so much. I don’t like the Fuzzi Bunz “Perfect Size” diaper as well as the one-size, because the small size seems huge and doesn’t fit around Sawyer’s legs well. Maybe as he gets chunkier thighs they will. I also don’t like fitted diapers that well because it seems that the whole diaper absorbs pee, so Sawyer has wetness against all skin covered by the diaper. Dan really likes the Thirsties All-In-Ones because they are super easy to use and the leg gussets are nice. As for disposables, we started off with Pampers from the hospital but had lots & lots of leaks. Huggies have seemed to work best for us, but I honestly hate them all. I hate seeing a Walmart bag (our diaper “pail” for disposables) fill up in a matter of hours. I can’t believe how many disposables we’ve used already.

Trash can/Diaper pail – I bought a plain trash can at Target which works great and 2 pail liners, both work great. I got a Planet Wise and a Swaddlebees/Blueberry pail liner. I probably prefer the Swaddlesbees because it seems a little better made and really holds a lot of wetness inside.

Wipes (disposable and some cloth) – I tried to be cool and we bought the chlorine free Seventh Generation wipes, only to discover that they suck. They are little dry smelly cloths. Not moist at all. We’ve been using Huggies Natural and of course, we LOVE them. Haha. We LOVE everything. The Huggies are really thick & moist, so it makes clean up great. Starting 2 days ago I have been using the cloth wipes and guess what? LOVE them too. I dumped the remaining Seventh Generation wipes out and using that container, I mixed up my own wipe solution (squirt of his California Baby body wash with water). Add the flannel wipes and there ya go. I feel like I’m giving his bum a mini-bath every time I use them. His bottom was really red from multiple explosive poos, and when I used the Huggies he screamed like it hurt. He doesn’t mind the cloth wipes on the irritated butt as much.

Wipe warmer (supposedly work great with cloth wipes) – we had one but didn’t open it and ended up returning it.

Ointment (has to be cloth diaper friendly) – we use the California Baby diaper rash cream. Works well and isn’t causing problems with the cloth diapers.

Wet Bag for diaper bag – I have a gorgeous Planet Wise bag that is doing great during our few trips out of the house

Diaper Sprayer – haven’t needed it so far so I’m glad we held off. I rinse the poop diapers in the bathroom sink. Eww

Bibs – the more the merrier, soured milk is gross so I found you can’t really use the same bib multiple times

Breastpump – I bought a used Medella Pump in Style with Backpack. It works great using one pump, but I think it goes too slow when I try to double pump. Probably because it was used.

Nursing Pillow/Boppy – we didn’t get one, but then Katherine let us borrow hers and OMG. Due to my fear of him choking on sipt up and his tendency to get hiccups every time he lays flat, Sawyer lives in the thing. He hangs out it when we’re sitting on the couches, sleeps in it, I use it for breastfeeding. We’re wearing the thing out. I honestly can’t imagine what we would’ve done without it.

Burp clothes – we go through these like crazy. I really should buy more. We use them to cover things up so we don’t get peed on during diaper changes, so they frequently get pee & poo on them

Bottles (BPA free or glass) & Nipples – we have Dr. Brown’s 4oz glass bottles. No complaints.

Cleaner/Sterilizer – don’t have, don’t need, not even sure what this is. What we do have is The First Years Spin Store Dry Rack Organizer. Another great item, which lets all the bottle parts air dry and stores them neatly.

Pacifiers – we got Avent ones, but haven’t used them. We don’t like how high they come up above his mouth (touching his nose), plus he doesn’t like them as well as the plain old Nuk from the hospital.
Washclothes & towels – we only do baths twice a week at this point, so we didn’t need very many

Soap – using California Baby Sensitive Skin Body Wash

Lotions – using both Aveno Baby and Cetaphil but nothing stops the peeling & flaking of his head

Baby monitor -we have the Sony 900MHz BabyCall Nursery Monitor and think they are awesome. I can hear Sawyer clearly when I’m in the back yard with the dogs

Thermometer – we have both the kind that can do oral, underarm, rectal and also a pacifier one. I like having the pacifier one to get an idea of what his temperature is without annoying him.

Nail Cliippers – haven’t touched his nails yet, even though they are like mini daggers. We have a vibrating nail file so I’ll have to see how it works

Nasal aspirator – as everyone recommended to us, we didn’t buy one and use the thing from the hospital. Currently not for his nose of course, but to suck stuff out of his mouth when he chokes. So scary! To “aspirate” the nose, Mommy use Q-tips to get those boogies

Laundry Detergent – Dreft of course for his clothes, and Charlie’s Soap for his diapers. Love the smell of Dreft, love that Charlie’s Soap leaves behind no smells

Sling/Carrier & Infant insert – The Ergo Carrier and Infant Insert are great. I put Sawyer in sometimes when I’m going outside with the dogs and we took a nice long family walk one day. Can’t wait for warmer weather to do that more often.

Diaper Bag – I haven’t used the one I bought yet because I use the cute sock monkey bag Stephanie got us. As we leave the house more I’m sure I’ll have to use the other one sometimes because it is bigger. Cloth diapers take up more space, plus I find that when I leave the house Sawyer usually manages to pee on everything so I need several changes of clothes.

Swing – The Fisher Price Little Lamb Cradle N’ Swing is great. My only complaint is that its hard to get him in and out without the animals of the mobile tickling across his face. Also the swing is really loud, but thankfully he likes & needs sounds to sleep

Sleep positioner (inclined wedge) – didn’t get after I read new reports that the flame resistant materials they are made of are toxic

So here are some things I didn’t know we needed or didn’t realize we needed ASAP…
Bouncer Seat – we have a swing, I thought that was enough. I didn’t know we needed both. The bouncy seat hasn’t been life changing or anything, but has been helpful because it is smaller & more mobile than the swing. So when I shower, Sawyer bounces & vibrates in the bathroom floor until I’m done.

Mobile – I knew I wanted one, and was planning to get or make one eventually. I didn’t expect Sawyer to be sleeping downstairs in his crib, but since I couldn’t walk up the stairs for over a week… well we both slept in his room and it seems crazy to switch him upstairs now. Since he doesn’t like his crib, we need a mobile to make him LOVE the crib

Play Gym – Another thing I planned to borrow but didn’t think about him arriving early and not having one, etc etc. He seems to have fun trying to grab toys already when he is “in” the gym. He also gets mad but in a funny way

Mirror for car – we had one, but didn’t like it so we returned it. We hadn’t found a good one and then suddenly we had a baby. I found the Sunshine Kids Easy View Back Seat Mirror and I think it is awesome. We don’t have a head rest in the center of the back seat, so the others didn’t work well. I can see him perfectly with this mirror.

Head Support – the car seat came with an infant head support, but it is too big. After realizing that stuffing blankets around his head wasn’t working well enough (I drove home one day with one hand holding his head steady while I drove with the other), we bought another product that had been suggested to us. Summer Infant Cradler Head Support. Life changing. I can drive safely again and his head doesn’t move.

Diaper Caddy – The SaraBear Diaper Caddy was a gift we didn’t know we needed. Turns out the thing holds all Sawyer’s “hygiene” stuff and sits nicely on the changing table. Without it I’m sure his “stuff” would be falling off all the time and of course looking like an unorganized mess. PLUS if we ever did have him sleeping upstairs with us or want to change him someplace else in the house or when giving him baths, we just take the whole caddy with us.