Catching Crap

This post is about diapers.  Specifically, cloth diapers (dun dun duuunnnn!).  I know, I know...you probably didn't think I was that kind of mom. And I'm not. At least, not really.  I'm not a crunchy, granola type, I promise. I am, however, the type who tries to save a little cash here and there.  I kind of have one foot on the whole cloth-diaper-make-your-own-baby-food-extended-breastfeeding-cosleeping bandwagon.  On the other hand...er, foot...I am all about making each day as easy as possible, for me, my husband AND our baby.  That means we use some disposable diapers, jarred baby food, and bottles when we need to. 

The totally great thing about modern cloth diapers is that they are SOOOO EASY!  And I don't even have any of the fancy schmancy diapers...yet.  That's right.  I splurged today.  Weird that I am excited to splurge on diapers.  Poop catchers. Baby britches. But I''ll get to that.  First...a rundown of our current diapering situation:

1.  Green Mountain Diaper prefolds. 

We have a few dozen of these, in the yellow edge and the red edge sizes.  They're fantastic.  You can fold them up and put them in a cover, you can pin or snappy them on under plastic or wool pants. Either way works really well and is very economical. They wash up really easily with the rest of our laundry. You can double them up for overnight or heavy wetters. They make fantastic burp cloths, dust wipes, and changing pads.  They are kind of all-purpose and I always have a few in my diaper bag.

2.  Thirsties diaper covers

This is not a picture of my son...but it shows off the cover really well.  It's just a simple cover that uses velcro.  You pop a pre-fold diaper inside - folded in thirds and just set in the cover - and you're done.  No pins or snappy.  Nothing fancy.  They are also very economical at about $12 each.  We have 4 right now, I think.  I only change the cover if the edging gets wet or if it gets dirty with a dirty diaper, otherwise, we rotate through and I just hang it up to dry and use it again.

3.  Wool shorties, from smallwonderwoolies on Etsy

It took me awhile to think that this would actually work.  See, Mitch has slept consistently through the night since he was 5 weeks old.  Lucky, I know...please don't hate me...I had nothing to do with it!!! We had to use disposables at night since Lord knows I wasn't about to wake him up just to change his drawers.  Amy at Amalah.com pointed me in the direction of wool, and I'll never turn back.  This is the one we have and it's made from recycled wool sweaters.  I lanolized ours with some leftover lanolin nipple cream and it's awesomesauce. I pin a prefold on him stuffed with a couple of Green Mountain doublers and we're set for like, 12 hours.

So that's the rundown.  We use disposables when we go shopping, or go to church, or out for dinner.  So we really use quite a few right now...and Mitch is outgrowing his prefolds, so they're getting harder and harder to pin on him...so we use more and more disposables at night until I have the time/funds to order a new batch of prefolds for him.

And then!  Amy recently tried gDiapers.  I had seen them in the stores and wasn't sure about them.  The liners are disposable, so I didn't think that would be much of a cost saver for us.  Well, I did some research and read Amy's posts about them (including her most recent one) and realized that I can use them like a normal cover, stuffing them with a prefold and some doublers, but ALSO use the disposable liners when we're out and about or at grandma's house...or when mom is feeling lazy. 

 And they are so darn cute!  I love the fancy stripes...and I really wish they still carried the cute chevron print.  I love that one.  So I ordered the Starter Kit that includes two gPants (the cover and what they call the pouch - which is a plastic snap in liner) and a pack of disposable liners.  We'll see how they go, and I'll let you all know!  I can't wait to take some cute pictures of Mitch's cute little cloth bum!



Babies and Animals

Before Mitch, our animals were our babies.  I know lots of people say they love their pets like children, and I thought I did, too.  But then I had a baby and I realized that my love for my son is NOTHING like what I had for our pets. Totally different. Not better or worse, just different.

I gets this human...baby thing gets that human...

Apparently, our human kids and our fur kids will get along just fine.  Greta likes to french kiss the baby (she does not have permission to do so, but sneaks it in anyway).

At least buy me dinner first, dog!

As you can see from the look on Mitch's face, he does not enjoy this display of affection. Just wait until the boy starts pulling on her ears.  That'll teach her!

It didn't start that way - Greta was wary of the little guy at first.

The cats, on the other had, are completely different.  I don't even have any pictures of Scotch with the baby.  He stays far, far away from the little grabby hands. We do have another cat in the house (for now).  His name is Paul.  He was my Father-in-Law's cat before he passed away last month.  While FIL was sick, we offered to take Paul.  Paul will be living out his 9 lives with my Sister-in-Law when they close on their new house (!) later next month. 

Paul LOOOOOVES Mitch.  He can't get enough of the little guy.  He just sits by the baby and lets him run his fingers through his fur, over and over again.  When Mitch grabs a handful of fur, Paul gets up, walks in a circle around the baby, and lays back down for more.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

Mmmm...free rubbins. Can't beat that!

On a different note - baby toys and dog toys are ridiculously similar.  Seriously.  I could mix up the toy bins and both baby and dog would be completely happy with anything they pull out.  Except the dog bones.  Although, they would probably make great teethers (Mom of the Year, here I come!).

The Munchkin

So, we recently had to switch daycares.  It was very traumatic, at least for me.  I didn't think Mitch really cared that much. That is, until I started reading the notes the lady sent home every day.  Mitch isn't napping at daycare.  I'm not talking little, short crappy naps. I mean he's NOT NAPPING AT ALL.  Yesterday, he slept a total of 30 minutes all day. 30 minutes, people. So of course he's a crabby mess for Mike when he gets picked up. And of course he wants to go to bed at 6pm.  Which then leads to GOOD MORNING! at 4. AM.  This is crazy talk.  This is insane.  This does not do good things for Mommy. 

Don't let this face fool you.  I'm pretty sure he was looking at apps to play with at 4 am when he can't sleep.

I still have no idea what to do about it.  I talked to our daycare lady (I suppose I can give her a name, since she'll probably pop up on the ol' blog every once in a while - she's Jill) and it's not for lack of trying.  She rocks him with his Nuk and when he falls asleep, she goes to put him in the crib.  That's where he wakes up and wails.  We do the exact same thing at home, so I don't know what the malfunction is. Same Nuk. Same blankie. Same routine.

I suppose I'm grateful that this has been our only hiccup so far.  Oh, but what a hiccup it is.  He comes home hoarse because he cries, and there really isn't anything I can do about it.  I have to trust that Jill is really trying her best to put him down for his naps, and I do.  Jill is amazing.  I could tell the first time I met her that she was a no nonsense kind of care provider.  She doesn't mess around.  The kids are on a great schedule that includes outside time, walks around the neighborhood, healthy meals and naps with a little tiny bit of TV mixed in for fun.  She doesn't really let the kids set their own schedule, but still follows their leads and gives them exactly what they need.  I also have to trust that if Mitch is really tired, he will sleep no matter what.