Cloth diapering.

I’ve been holding off on posting this, even though I’ve had my cloth diapers for months now, just because I wanted to try them out before sharing information about them. My sister used cloth diapers for my niece, and she did a bunch of research on the topic which made my choice to cloth diaper simple. Here’s the few reasons I chose to go this route:

• Costs – just google cloth diaper costs versus disposables and you’ll find a bunch of webpages that all say the same thing: cloth diapering is way cheaper. We hope to have more than just one little one, so there’s an added benefit of reusing the cloth diapers for all your children {multiply the savings.}

{source http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/07/09/cloth-diapers/}

• Environment – this is pretty self-explanatory. Less disposables equals less trash. Makes me feel better not throwing away a bajillion diapers
• Comfort – if it were me, I wouldn’t want to wear a scratchy, tough, paper diaper. I’d much prefer soft fabric. I’m guessing the little one feels the same.
• Style – I mean, come on. The cloth diapers they have out now are ah-dorable. She looks darling in all the different bright colors. {I’m a sucker for bright, bold colors.}

• Safety – the disposables have chemicals, dyes, and other materials {that moisture-stopping gel stuff?!} in them that I really don’t know much about. Less toxins on my baby’s bum makes for a happy momma.
• Ease – in some ways cloth diapering is actually easier than disposables. Eugene & I will use disposables on occasion, mainly when we travel or have someone else watching her {church nursery}, but other than keeping a package on hand, we don’t have to worry about running to the store at 3:00 am because we ran out of diapers. We have our stash of cloth diapers and we won’t need to buy more. While we have more laundry to do, we have less trash to take out. {And I actually don’t hate doing laundry.} Plus, now that cloth diapers have evolved since our parents’ time, there’s no pins or multiple steps to put your baby in a cloth diapers. Just snap or Velcro and you’re on your way.
• Potty training – there’s quite a bit of research out there that says parents have a much easier time potty training their wee ones if they go the cloth diaper route. Babies can feel the wetness with a cloth diaper, whereas the disposables pull moisture from the babies skin so there’s very little wet sensation. I can attest to this already; my little one lets me know as soon as she has a wet diaper. I like that because it keeps her fresh & clean. ;) Oh, and she hasn’t had diaper rash since we started using the cloth diapers.

Alright, so those are my reasons, now on for the nitty-gritty. I ordered three different diapers, all because I found them discounted. I get emails from zulily.com, babysteals.com, and totsy.com that show daily/weekly deals and every now and then you can find a steal on cloth diapers. Each time I bought the diapers, I got better and better prices. First, I bought 10 bonnibuns diapers {http://www.bonnibuns.com.au/}. The diapers are from Australia {they call them “nappies” – how cute is that!}

These are a bit different than the typical all-in-one {AIO} cloth diaper because their insert is a tri fold and snaps onto the back inside of the diaper, rather than being inserted into a pocket.

I like these. The insert’s thick and absorbent, but I actually like the other types I bought a little better. The little one’s still a little too skinny for these; she’s tinkled on me twice because the leg holes are too big. The shipping was quick, and the quality is great. I got these for about $15 each.

The second type of diapers is Awesome Blossom {http://www.awesomeblossomclothdiapers.com/}. I bought seven of these for just $10 each, and these are the more traditional AIO with microfiber inserts that you stuff into the back of the diaper. These fit our string bean a little better, maybe because of the snap that’s close to the leg hole. Unlike the other diapers, these can be adjusted to be shorter too.

I really like these a lot. They dry much quicker than the bonnibuns, and they’re very absorbent.  These aren’t quite as bulky either. Again, they fulfilled my order perfectly and shipping was quick. No complaints here.

The third type I bought just recently, so I don’t have a review for them yet. They’re from Assunta Store {http://www.assuntastore.com/}. They were the least expensive – just $6.50 each. These are the same style as the Awesome Blossom diapers. If you read the background on this company, you’ll see that they’re based in China and the profits go to a great cause. I’m in. I bought ten one size pocket diapers with microfiber inserts.

They received great reviews on the internet, with the only complaint being the slow shipping {to be expected since it comes from China.} My order was confirmed and completed within hours. I’ll update you on how I like them once I get the chance to test ‘em out.

The other purchase that’s absolutely necessary {in my opinion} is a diaper sprayer. Eugene installed this one:

You use this to spray the “dirty” diapers {not the wet ones}. It’s not nearly as bad as it sounds, just a quick spray so that the mess goes into the toilet and gets a short rinse before going in the hamper.

Right now, we only have 17 diapers and we have to wash them about every other day, sometimes every day with a 7 week old baby. I think when we get the next shipment of 10, we’ll be able to go every other day, possibly every 3 days between washing. I wouldn’t go longer than that anyway because I wouldn’t want the diapers to sit dirty that long.

You can read many different methods for washing, and both types had different recommendations on their website, but what we do right now is to rinse the dirty ones immediately, wash all the diapers {inserts and covers} in warm water with 1/2 to 1/4 of the amount of free & clear detergent, and then we run an extra rinse. We then hang the diapers out to dry on the line outside. It’s been super nice to be able to hang them outside with the Summer weather – cuts the drying time a ton by doing them outside. They recommend not using the dryer because it cuts down on the life of the diapers.

So far, so good! We had to wait until the little one was over 9 lbs. before they fit her, but since then we haven’t gone back! I’ve spent less than $350.00 total on cloth diapering {not including washing machine costs, which are minimal}, and I bet we spent well over $150 on disposables just in the first few weeks before she was big enough to wear cloth. Needless to say, we’re fans of cloth diapering. :)

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t post some pics of the little one modeling her pretty diapers…

Questions? Send ‘em my way. I’m still a cloth diapering rookie, but I’m happy to help if I can!

Instagram overload.

I should probably have blogged some of these photos as I took them, but – well – I have an infant and I don’t really have time {or two hands free} to blog all the time! So, here’s a massive photo dump of all my Instagrams in order of when they were taken over the last 7 weeks. {If you’re tired of seeing my little one, I suggest you skip today’s post!}

My brand new baby…

Just an hour or so old…

She looks so peaceful {and so much like her daddy}…

Lots of sleepy pics…

Happy Fourth of July, little one!…

Sleeping on daddy’s chest…

Always has her hands by her face when she sleeps…

My babies napping on the couch…

Finally, wide-eyed {and a bit unsure!}…

Tummy time isn’t very successful because she loves to fall asleep on her belly…

Hey, beautiful eyes!…

She scrunches herself in the most uncomfortable-looking positions…

After a bath. Ribbitt…

Long fingers like her momma…

Loves being swaddled…

Best smile ever…

My answered prayer…

I think it’s obvious with my crazy amount of photos, I love this little lady.

Dorm dud to office official.

Now that the little one is 6 weeks old, I’ve began working again this week. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to split my time working from home and working in the office. I’m not certain I will be able to make it all work {working from home & taking care of an infant & maintaining my workload}, but Eugene & I both agreed after much prayer that this was a God-sized opportunity that we at least needed to give a chance.

We’ve been working to create an office space for me, and we picked our third bedroom as the spot. This bedroom is now the guest bedroom/office, and is very much still in the works. Here’s what it looked like when we moved in…

I wanted a bright desk, but we’ve had some huge costs for the house & family lately, so I knew I wanted to keep my budget as low as possible. My plan of attack was to hit up the same Salvation Army warehouse sale where I picked up my $1 coffee table. I hit the jackpot again, and drove away with this $5 dorm desk…

And to keep you from any suspense, here’s the before & after…

I’ll give ya the quick run-down of my process. I first removed the desk’s hardware…

I spray painted these with ORB {same paint I used to transform my bathroom faucet.} I then sanded the desk & gave it an unofficial priming coat with Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Coverage Satin Heirloom White {just because it was only a $1.60 at a local store. Why buy real primer; remember, I’m on a budget!} It’s dark out because I painted it super late while the little one slept. It only took one can to cover it for priming…

My next step was a couple coats of Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Coverage Satin Aqua. I used two cans with a little bit to spare, which was a good thing because the store only had 2 cans of this color in stock {also just $1.60 each!}

I used some sand paper to take a bit of paint off the edges to give it more of an antique/worn look. When I put the hardware back on & moved the desk into the room, I just wasn’t happy with it. It was too bright, too harsh…

So I decided to try to white wash it with a light gray paint {is it gray wash then?}. Basically, you water down your paint with a ratio of 1/3 paint to 2/3 water and use a brush to apply even long streaks and a cloth to wipe off the excess…

It worked perfectly – just enough gray to dull the bold color to a nice soft hazy turquoise…

Oh, and I had some extra scrapbook paper left over from my curbside changing table re-do, so I mod-podge’d it in the drawers as a liner…

And here’s the final version…

The legs are my favorite part…

You can see the gray wash & the corners where I sanded off some paint here…

So that’s my office desk. Not bad for a total of $11.40! Now I just have to figure out how to type with one hand so my other’s free for napping…

{So perfect.}

Oh dear.

I asked Eugene’s sisters to stop by the house to watch the little one while I attempted to quickly paint a bedroom. They were there about five minutes before I heard lots and lots of giggles. When I finished painting, I asked them what was so funny and this is what they showed me…

Oh dear. Looks like this girl is in for some crazy times with her aunties!

One month.

It’s been a month since our little one made her grand appearance into our lives. In some ways, it feels like just yesterday that Eugene was driving me to the hospital and we were praying for a safe delivery, but in most ways it seems like she’s been a part of us for far more than a month. I know most moms say how “time flies” when you have kids, and I agree, it’s flown, but it’s also crawled {but not necessarily in a bad way, just in a slow way.}

{I absolutely love when the little one raises both hands above her head to stretch like this…she does it every time she wakes up. Cutest thing.}

{Her hands always have to be by her face when she’s sleeping. She looks so peaceful.}

I try to keep things real here, so to be honest, this has been an incredibly hard and challenging month. I think the one reason it seems like it’s crawled rather than flown is because I haven’t had clearly defined days & nights. When you wake up the little one every 2-3 hours to feed her, your days and nights blur completely. I’ve been surprisingly impressed with my  body/brain’s ability to deal with little sleep the past month, but my hormones are a completely different story. Sheesh, I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster with some seriously low dips. I know it’s normal for many women to have postpartum depression, and I fully expected to experience it a bit more severely just because of my past experiences, but it’s been rough. To be fair though, I had a few other contributing factors to the severity of my rollercoaster ride:

• The little one went 8 days early on without a bowel movement {super scary} – we found out eventually it was because she wasn’t getting enough milk
• I was a diagnosed with condition that prohibits me from making enough breast milk for the little one {this was heartbreaking because breastfeeding was super important to me}
• I tried numerous methods of supplementation and different {exhausting} ways to increase my supply to no avail
• A few days after we finally got the little one’s feeding improved through bottle supplementation, she began to have awful diarrhea {again, scary & sad}
• Three or four days later, we found out it’s because she has an allergy to milk protein. Many babies develop this, and most outgrow it by 2 or 3 years of age, but in the mean time, they need special hypoallergenic formula, and if you’re breastfeeding it requires a strict diet of nothing with milk in it {that’s way more food than you’d imagine – butter on a baked potato, cream in your coffee, dehydrated milk in ranch Doritos, cheese in just about every casserole, etc!}

All these things caused me to struggle with anxiety and sadness as I worried about my little one’s health and mourned the loss of my breastfeeding ability. I’ve recently decided to quit breastfeeding all together {I was breastfeeding first and following it up with formula.} It was/is a hard thing for me to decide, but some times she would have breast milk and then get sick again. It breaks my heart to feel like I may be causing her stomach pain, and constantly worrying if I ate something wrong is just not healthy for either of us. So we’re sticking with formula and lots of cuddling instead. :) I’m happier with what feels like a ton of pressure lifted off of me, and she’s happier with a happier momma & hypoallergenic formula.

Okay, now to the lighter stuff. Here’s my growing sweet pea at a month old…

Yes, we’re keeping the chalkboard theme. ;)

Amazingly, despite all the feeding challenges, her weight gain is wonderful – right where it’s supposed to be. She is a fantastic sleeper between night feedings {knock on wood}, and I think part of this is because she loves to be swaddled at night. You probably already know this from my list of sanity-saving items, but the little one loves water sounds too. She’s just under 9 lbs, and still looks like a miniature version of her daddy {only cuter, ha!} She has delicate small features, and still looks tiny to me…my long & lean beauty. Even with her tummy aches, she’s been a happy baby, and we’re beyond thankful to have our perfect family of 3 together for a month now. What a blessing!