I have been meaning to write up this post for some time now, especially since the #1 response from anyone who heard I’d be cloth diapering was, “Yea, we’ll see how long that lasts.” WELL, IT’S LASTING. K?
I had no real experience with cloth diapers, nor did I know anyone irl who used them. I had read about them online (mainly here & here) and thought the idea of not using traditional, disposable diapers was interesting. Nathan was not difficult to convince since #1 he is the most frugal person I know and #2 he had never changed a diaper in his life — so it made no real difference to him. The eco-friendly aspect was really just another perk.
BUILDING A STASH
The upfront cost of cloth diapering can be pricey. But, if you spread your purchases out it really isn’t all that bad. Also, the fact that I have purchased 3 packages of diapers since we started cloth (when she was 1 month) — and one of those packages was because we were in Oregon for a week with no access to a washer/dryer — it’s so totally worth it.
Based on what I had researched I decided we would use pocket-style one-size diapers. This means the diapers are constructed with an inner pocket for the cloth insert. Each diaper and insert is used once before washing — there are types of diapers where the outer shell is used multiple times and only the cloth insert is replaced. And there are, I’m sure, other kinds as well that I am not familiar with. One-size just means that the diaper can be adjusted in size and theoretically fit from newborn to potty training.
There are constantly deals online for cloth diapers, I ended up getting a handful of Fuzzibunz, Bum Genius, and Rumparooz brands. Each in different shipments, spread out over a few months. We spent ~$300 on our entire supply of 18 diapers. I bought most of ours at kellyscloset.com, but they’re available all over the internet, including Amazon. Don’t ever pay full price. Please.
Pro Tip: When I first started buying I was all “I MUST HAVE ALL THE COLORS” but really, there is nothing more precious than a baby tushie in a fresh white diap-y. I do have 4 or 5 white ones but I honestly wish I had more like.. 10.
DIAPER CARE
We work with 18 total diapers and do laundry on the 3rd day. (I don’t know who “we” is here.. Nathan has never done laundry, let alone diaper laundry). We have a sprayer installed on the toilet to take care of any “solid” mess and I store dirties in the bathroom in a lidded bin. I do a hot rinse-cold wash-cold rinse with our regular, dye- and fragrance-free laundry detergent (so yes, I run the washer 3 times).
I do have diaper-specific detergent that I use every few weeks if things start getting dingy. Now that the weather is nice I’ve been hanging the inserts and covers outside on the line to dry and it has made a very noticeable difference in the whiteness factor.
I’ll be back tomorrow with more on the actual diapers and other info. Until then, is there anything specific you’d like to know more about? Diaper-wise?
It’s been a long couple of days. A long week, really. Between visiting with family friends who are here from France and long work nights for Nathan and still finding time to see friends we have just been on the move. Constantly.
For some time now our bedtime routine has begun at 8pm — starting with a story read by daddy, nursing, lullabies, then sleep. It isn’t unusual to hear some fussing around 11, but nothing a back rub can’t fix. Then around 3am she wakes. And I pick her up and bring her in our bed.
And for a long time that worked for us.
But now she is quite literally too big. She tosses and turns and kicks me in the face and keeps Nathan awake which just isn’t fair because he has to wake up for work. So I told myself that was enough. When she wakes at 3 I must get her back to sleep in her crib.
I started by making sure she is full to the gills before going to bed. Starting at 6 we have dinner. At 7 a snack — cheerios or yogurts or half a leftover chicken nugget. At 7:30 a bowl of oatmeal or baby cereals mixed with fruit. 8:00 we nurse. Then she sleeps.
Night 1: She slept an hour longer than usual. Then fought me for an hour while I tried to soothe her back to sleep in her own bed. That puts us at 5am. At 5am I gave up. She came in bed with us.
Night 2: What a nightmare getting her to STAY asleep. Which is unusual. She was fussing every half hour until about 11. Sometimes I could just pat her back, sometimes she needed to be rocked. Eventually she passed completely out and slept UNTIL 5:45AM. It was glorious. I swear she only woke up because she heard Nathan and I whispering thru the wall excitedly “SHE’S STILL IN THERE! ASLEEP!”
Night 3: Which was last night. Nathan worked a really late night, not coming home until about 2am. Which means I couldn’t sleep until about 2am. But, oh! She did so good going to bed and she stayed asleep — until it started thundering. At 2:30am. Then she fought and fought and fought me until about 4 when I gave up and brought her in bed so I could at least try to close my eyes for an hour.
So this is how we’ve been spending today. In jammies with lots of caffeine (for me). And knitting. And naps (for her, and the cats).
baby lunchtime
Even on a very strict, not-allowed-to-buy-anything budget, somehow my husband has still yet to roll his eyes at me when I bring home a bag and say, “But it’s for the baby.”
Our friends from France are visiting and I’ll be hosting dinner here on Tuesday. I picked up a few options for CB’s entertaining wardrobe:
For some reason asking Nathan to participate in taking pictures of/for me equates to him receiving a root canal. So not only are all the pictures blurry but he either doesn’t pay attention to what he’s photographing or purposely takes pictures highlighting my cleavage.
Looking at these is making me realize I’ve been wearing the same clothes since Saturday. In my defense I’ve been cleaning like a mad-lady and these are my “cleaning clothes” but, boy, am I smelly.
So, what do we think? Clown-Romper or Green & Cherries Sundress?
There are a lot of milestones between 1 day to 1 week to 1 month and on and on and on, but one that always seemed so very far away was 9 months.
When people would say to me, “Oh, she’s getting so big! Time flies!” I would reply — Well, she was still in longer than she’s been out.
But now she’s out longer than she was in.
1. Where are you taking me?
2. I’m not so sure about this.
3. Okay, this is weird.
4. Wait, it’s over?
5. I LOVE THIS.
I knew it was going to downpour today (it’s been a pretty sad showing of rain so far, tbh) so yesterday we had a picnic in the back yard and drove to the lake and walked around the boardwalk until we got to the PRIVATE Members Only park, where we are not members, and we swung on the swing and slid on the slide and it was warm and wonderful. But we did not get icecream because I had $102 in cash on me in the form of a hundy and 2 singles. An icecream is $3. Wah.
presented with no further comment.
yes. this is the best of all three of us. in case you were wondering.
Baby lunch, momma lunch.
I cannot wait to be rid of baby food and moved on to she-eats-what-we-eat. I do make some of her smushed-up food, but she does eat a lot of jarred as well. We’ve been trying chunks of bananas and avocado and strawberries (she spits out the skins) and blueberries (which come out exactly as they go in, if you must know).
Related note: why don’t they make divided plates for grown ups?
I am way ahead of schedule but Easter is early this year and I wanted to make sure I had time to make her dress(es).
I’m also getting adventurous and am going to try to make her a spring jacket to match the purple dress. ALSO I’m going to try to make myself a dress.
This is what happens. I get really excited and obsessed and I want to do all the things right now then the enthusiasm fizzles. But goodness is this more satisfying than knitting.
* Pink dress was made with the Coraline pattern by Craftiness is not Optional
* Purple dress was made with the Easter Sunday Dress by Shwin&Shwin
