Still Rockin The Cloth!

My extreme exhaustion & all-day morning sickness have subsided a bit, making cloth diapering not seem like such a daunting task. I really honestly still think that cloth diapering is the best option for us.

Which leads me to believe that if I'm able to do it, so can you!!!! :-D I mean, what would it hurt to at least give it a try for a couple of weeks? A month? Just take it day-by-day.... That's how I find things to be easiest, when I'm not feeling cornered & pressured to do something.

If I know I have an "out", the option to quit, that makes me feel more open to giving things a chance.

We spent around $100 on our cloth diaper stash. That will last us for years, no problem, for one child. It could probably last me for years with two little ones, but I'd probably end up having to wash diapers every day that way. Right now I'm washing them every other day.

Each week I go to the store & just can't possibly justify spending money on disposable diapers anymore. It just feels like flushing precious money down the drain.

So what's stopping you from giving them a try?

Beware Of The Hormone-o-Saurus Rex!

I have made the transformation from being a loving, caring, thoughtful & giving wife and mommy into a ravenous, hormonal, (dare I say) raging bitch.

I hate this. I really do. I feel like I'm one of those Pull My String & I Can Talk dolls. Only my phrases are "I'm so friggen hungry", "What the hell are you doing/talking about" & "Baby, I am so, so, so sorry. I really am. I love you so much". Oh. And "Turn on a fan! I'm burning up in here!"

The extreme exhaustion seems to have diminished a great deal. I'm still tired, don't get me wrong, but at least I'm not too tired to run to the bathroom to pee anymore. Every five minutes.

I am, however, hungry at almost any given time during the day. My cravings are....fickle & all over the place. Yesterday I had a bowl of Golden Puffs cereal. Along with a bowl of Ramen noodles. Usually, after ranting & raving about how hungry I am, I eat about 3.5 bites & am stuffed. It's a mystery to my family. But they have learned to NEVER EVER EVER eat any of the food that "I couldn't possibly eat another bite of."

Because, like a deranged hyena, I will be back.

And I will be hungry.

My threshold of tolerance for idiots has also been severely lowered.

I am in no mood to entertain your stupidity, so please don't push your luck.

So....yeah. LOL That's how I've been. ;-)

What's new with you?

No Rest For The Weary

Being a mommy is a hard enough job, but add to that the woes of having 3 sick babies & its enough to bring tears to your eyes.

Especially when she's sick, too.

And in that bone-weary, energy-sucking butt dragging time of pregnancy called "The First Trimester".

So far, one of my chicks has gotten better (after missing a week of football practice & his game!) but I've still got two that are still suffering through.

The baby is the worst. He's super congested plus has a bad runny nose. He is having trouble sucking on his pacifier and nursing. He spends hours crying and basically being miserable.

I'm hoping that he's about over it, because my nerves are frayed & my body and mind are wiped out.

I've even given up on cloth diapers for the time being. I don't have the energy in me to do anything extra. Just the basics.

I'm too wore out to even consider myself a sell-out. LOL

We'll go back to cloth really soon. Just let me catch my breath. ;-)

Oh! I looked up the Chinese Gender Predicting Chart today. It is reported to be 93% accurate. It just needed my age at time of conception along with the month I conceived. It said that my baby is a.....girl! I've been feeling that its a girl, but only time will tell.....

****UPDATE****

This morning we had a HORRIBLE blowout with a disposable. Soooo we're back to the awesome wonders of cloth! Woohoo!

Laundry, Morphine, Wanting To Poo & Other Exciting Adventures

Sorry I've been MIA lately. It seems like its been one thing after another & I'm finally able to come up for a gulp of air! But that's life with kids, right? ;-)

First I was sick with a nasty cold & then each of my chicks came down with it. Then back on Thursday night around midnight, I woke up with a horrible pain in my stomach & back. By 7 am & no sleep & unrelenting pain, I told my husband that we should probably go to the ER.

I figured it'd be an in & out trip. I was so embarrassed that they may send me home with a mere diagnosis of a bad case if gas. I've known several pregnant women who've gone to the ER thinking there was something wrong & turned out they just had a big ol' air bubble that needed turned loose.

Heck, I know at least one woman who went to Labor & Delivery when her water broke but it turned out that she had merely peed her pants.

I did not want to be one of these women.

I took 5 Gas-X tablets hoping to free some hidden beast within, but it was to no avail. We woke the kids & headed towards the hospital.

Along the way, stuck in rush hour/going to work & school traffic, wedged between a Lexus, a full school bus & a Suburban, I puked in a wonton soup take-out container.

Have I mentioned how glamorous my life is?

Now, for the sake of your boredom & my fear of losing half my followers, I will skip over the boring trivial parts.

Basically all's they found was a UTI (urinary tract infection). But they did a quick ultrasound to check on my little bean baby! I had no clue how small they can be! But there, in black & white, was my 6 wk 2 day old baby with a strong heartbeat! No sign of distress, thank God!

The Dr put me on an IV because I was slightly dehydrated, along with something for the nausea and MORPHINE for the pain!

I have never had morphine before but mainly worried about the safety of my Baby Bean and my little nursling. They reassured me that it was fine to have the morphine, so they added that to the IV.

All was fine. I thought. I was pain-free & relaxed. But I was totally unprepared for what happened next. The morphine high. I had fallen asleep & when I woke up, I was g-o-n-e. I could see everyone & hear everyone but they sounded a million miles away. I could barely move. I thought I was dying.

But my responsibilities as a breastfeeding momma did not cease just because I was high as a kite in a hospital bed. Austin was hungry. Bored. And pissed. Very pissed. I was slacking on the job & he let everyone know how unacceptable that was.

I drunkenly tried to roll to one side & push one side of my bra down, while Antonio tried to position Austin next to me. Austin latched right on. His eyes rolled back in his head in ecstasy. I had to smile.

As the nurse came in to check my vitals for the last time & get me ready to leave, she discovered that my blood pressure had dropped. Low. Really low.

Luckily they were able to get it back up by hooking me up to another bag of fluids, but what I thought was going to be an in-and-out trip to the ER, ended up being an 11 hour ordeal!

But I'm home now & fine.

*******************************

Cloth diapers. We have transitioned to pretty much full time cloth diapering. And we are loving it! I've found that I mainly prefer prefolds (the unbleached Indian ones). They are much more absorbant than my flats & the poop seems to shake off easier in the toilet. We have not had any leaks yet! And we've had some messy diapers. I mean, loose, filled-to-the-brim full poopy diapers! LOL The worst that's happened was the poop got into the leg gussets of the cover, but the cover held it all in! It was amazing! I can definitely say that had he been wearing disposables at those times, we definitely would've been cleaning up some nasty blow-outs!

The only downside, really, is that we only have 4 covers, so that when the poop gets on the cover, we have to rinse the cover then toss it in the diaper pail. Because of those few messy diapers, I had to wash a couple of extra loads of diapers this week. But it really was no trouble at all. I just wash them once in hot & do an extra rinse. I hang the covers to dry but toss the diapers in the dryer for 90 minutes. Done!

For nighttime diapers, though, I have found that a tri-folded flannel receiving blanket with a washcloth folded inside of it works great. It's super soft, not bulky & very absorbant!

**************************

Shampoo. I believe its been 3 wks since I last shampooed.

I admit: I miss it. I miss the sweet fragrance. I miss the bubbly feeling of sudsing up in the shower. I miss using styling products.

But I have made a commitment to do this for at least six weeks.

My hair isn't looking worse than usual, in terms of cleanliness. I have faith that this is the healthier option for my locks.

But I do think that I'm going to start using styling products, at least on weekends. I miss my curly hair.

Here We Go.....Again! Woohoo!

So the puzzle pieces have been assembled & a blessing has been revealed!

I should have known when my clothes started getting tight on me.

But I chalked it up to my cooking more pasta lately.

I cried to my husband that I looked pregnant in my nightgowns.

I chalked my late period up to stress.

But the heartburn? There is only one occasion when I get heartburn...but....no...couldn't be that...

My juice cravings? Hmmmm...... I had those not too long ago....

But deep down, I knew.

And I was excited.

I mentioned my suspicions to my husband & he smiled.

We decided to wait to buy a test on the weekend. At night, we lay in bed & fantasized about the possibility of having another baby.

Were we crazy? Austin is only 8 months old!! He's still breastfeeding & isn't sleeping through the night yet. We had to be crazy to be this excited.

By Friday night, the suspense was killing us. I bought a twin pack of pregnancy tests. I figured I'd take one that night & if it turned out "negative", I would take the other one in the morning.

Turns out that it took just one test. 10 seconds & I had my two beautiful pink lines!

We're having a baby!!

Baby #4!!!

So add "tandem nursing" & pregnancy anecdotes to Hippy Chic Momma's roster!

Back To Co-Sleeping...With A Twist!

As you all know, (by "all", I mean the one bored person that happens to read my blog. When they have nothing better to do. LOL) we recently put together Austin's crib.

We had good nights (sleeping through the night...with only one middle-of-the-night nursing session) and we had bad nights (wanting to nurse every 2 hours plus crying bouts due to teething).

The "bad nights" outweighed the good.

And I was getting tired. Exhausted. Slightly angry.

I prayed for an answer.

I know God heard my prayers, but I swear I heard Him chuckle a few times ("hahaha! She *said* she wanted a baby! Hahaha! Wonder if she'll still be wanting more after a few more weeks of this...").

Yesterday, I had an epiphany.

Okay, so it was really a blog post that I read on FaceBook.

But epiphany sounds so much more grand, doesn't it?!

It was instructions on how to convert your crib into a co-sleeper! Basically, you just remove the side if the crib that slides up & down, secure the crib to your bed (they used heavy duty bungee straps) & (after a few more slight adjustments) there you have it!

A co-sleeping crib!

Out of sheer desperation, we rigged ours up last night. We still need to do a few tweaks, but it worked like a dream!

Now my husband, I and Austin each have enough space to stretch out PLUS we're still co-sleeping!

I love the internet! LOL

Here's the co-sleeping crib tutorial & info page, if ya want it: http://www.drmomma.org/2010/01/turn-your-crib-into-cosleeper.html

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Lovin' My Pad (fold)!

A million fluffy thanks to Tara West for her suggestion to go with a pad fold!!

You, my dear Tara, have saved me from a mountain of stress & fingers full of needle pricks! LOL

See, I had been doing some basic folds with my flat diapers. I loved how they looked, fitted & old fashioned, but Austin was refusing to lie still.

He had places to go, things to gnaw on & a very limited capacity for my artistic ways.

Most of yesterday's diaper changes ended in blood (mine), sweat & tears (those latter two came from both he & I).

Til Tara suggested that my newbie ass should look up the pad fold. Granted, Tara is kind & refrained from either calling me a "newbie" or mentioning "ass", but I read her loud and clear! ;-)

The "pad fold" is super easy:

a.) Fold the diaper in half & then in half again, so the diaper is a square shape.

b.) Fold both the right & left sides into the middle, so its tri-folded.

c.) Fan the back out slightly more (to catch poo) & place seam-side down in a diaper cover.

d.) Snap (or velcro) the cover onto baby!

Voilá! No pins or Snappis are necessary!

You can even put an insert inside the diaper's fold, for a few extra layers of absorption! I might buy some terry cloth this weekend & make a few inserts.

Today's thoughts on cloth diapering? It freaking rocks!!!

Oh! By the way, those cloth wipes I was making? They work beautifully! I just wet one down with water (like a washcloth) & use it like a regular wipe. Then, just toss it in the diaper pail with the dirty cloth diapers!

If I end up buying some terry cloth, I might sew some onto the back of some of my wipes, that way they are really great for really messy diaper changes!

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Two Diaper Changes Later...

I've done 2 diaper changes so far!

One just peepee & the other one had poopy, too.

I have come to a few conclusions:

a.) Snappis don't work so well with flat diapers. In fact, the little grippy teeth went THROUGH the material & was poking him. And it hurt him!

b.) Diaper pins, though they fasten it better & more efficiently, hurt like a MOTHER when you jam it into your finger!

Which brings me to.....

c.) Diaper changes are a lot easier, neater & painless when the baby isn't trying to roll everywhere!

d.) Poop is not so hard to get off of a diaper! A few little shakes & PLOP! LOL

I just wish I could get Austin's diapers to look as cute as the ones I see in pictures and tutorials!

Ultimately it doesn't really matter how cute it is since its under a diaper cover anyway. All that really matters is that it absorbs & holds in what its supposed to.

But I am a perfectionist & want it to look good, inside and out.

Lucky for me, I'll be getting lots of practice! ;-)

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It's Our First Fluff Day!

It's official: my fluff days have begun!

Technically, yesterday should have been Fluff Day.

UPS brought my diapers & pins yesterday.

I washed & prepped them all yesterday.

They were ready by the afternoon.

Like I said, yesterday should have been Fluff Day.

Except that Austin didn't think it should have been.

As I was trying to put the diaper on him, while trying to keep the flat diaper in the RosiePosie fold, Austin was screaming & kicking me with all his might.

By the end of that episode, we were both screaming & crying & sweating.

So I decided to post-pone Fluff Day.

Today was a bit better.

I decided against the RosiePosie fold & went with the Origami fold. It seemed more difficult to do, but looked like it would fit him better.

The online pics I found for the Origami fold were way too difficult for me to figure out. LOL I got to Step 3 and was stumped.

So I found a YouTube tutorial & it made it SO much easier!

Austin was still wary of this strange softness on his nether regions & commenced his kicking strategy again. I decided to pass up the diaper pins for now & just use the Snappi.

And now...we wait.

But I gotta tell you, this is getting fun! LOL

I also gotta tell you that I understand the reasoning behind other cloth diapering mommas' decision to go with all-in-one diapers or pocket diapers. They would probably be a heck of a lot simpler to start out on!

But considering those start out at around $20 per diaper, I'm glad I chose this route.

I paid $19 for 12 flat diapers & just $9 for each Flip diaper cover. The cover, as long as he doesn't get poop on it can just be quickly wiped out & reused with the next diaper change!

Check out the pics (above) of my Origami fold & the cloth wipes I've been sewing! Pretty good, huh? ;-)

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One Week...No Poo!

So I have finished one poo-less week.

So far, I'm pretty happy about the condition of my hair.

I've noticed that my hair *may* be getting a tad more oily. Nothing severe & a quick baking soda wash cleans it beautifully!

This is a completely normal part of the "no poo" transformation. It normally takes 2-6 weeks to get my scalp adjusted to not being harshly stripped by shampoo. It's so used to producing oil to replace the oils removed by the shampoo & now it needs to learn to regulate the amount of oils it produces.

I've also noticed that the slight dandruff problem that I had seems to be clearing up! Bonus! LOL

The only thing that I'm worried about, is what to do about styling products.

I have completely eliminated all of them from my beauty routine so far, as most no-pooers do.

I've heard from other curly-haired no-pooers that their hair began to look better than ever, sans products, once they got through the initial oil-regulating-process.

So, for now, the ponytail will continue to be my best friend!

And I will continue to keep shampoo & conditioner away from my tresses. ;-)

Oh! And on a pleasant side note: I was told that my hair smelled really good yesterday. Double bonus! (Last night, when I took out my ponytail, I took a whiff, just to see if it was true. You know what? It *did* smell great! Kind of a fresh clean smell!)

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No More Gerber Baby!

My little guy almost never gets diaper rashes. He's always got the cutesy little blemish-free tushie.

Until recently.

See, a few weeks ago we switched him from Gerber baby food to organic baby food, after reading reports of how many chemicals were found in the major non-organic baby foods (Gerber, Beech Nut & Heinz were in this group).

Side note: 16 pesticides/herbicides were found! Most of them are well-known carcinogens!!!

So we switched to Earth's Best organic baby food, despite the substantial price difference. We are not, by ANYONE'S standards, rich but we felt that this extra spending was more than worth it!

But then this past week two things happened: my husband's work hours got cut AND our rent was due.

So we had to (temporarily) switch back to Gerber.

(Let me take a minute here to acknowledge that Gerber also makes organic baby food, however, I figure if they are horrid enough to put carcinogens into BABY food to begin with, then screw 'em. I'm taking my organic-food-buying-money elsewhere.)

So, yes, here I was once again feeding him toxins. :-(

I figured that it was just for a week or two. No big deal.

But now Austin has been getting diaper rashes.

At first I chalked it up to the heat. The poor kiddo was stuck in a diaper all day & it was causing the rash.... But that didn't seem too plausible. I mean, he sits in air conditioning all day PLUS I have a couple of fans blowing in the living room & bedroom, which is where he spends most of his day.

Then I started thinking that it was the baby food, as in what type of fruit/veggie he was eating.

But that didn't make sense, because he's never had a reaction to any of the foods before. Besides, Earth's Best baby food, in addition to being organic, they also have awesome food combinations & use flavorful spices, such as cinnamon.

He had no problem with those.

Which led me to the *Eureka!* moment. I had reintroduced the toxins back into his system!

Sure, he had been fine when he used to eat Gerber, but I had detoxed his body, in a way by going organic.

And NOW I am finally able to see just one of the adverse reactions of these toxins.

And I am pissed.

We will be going back to organic next week.

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I Hate New Moms

I don't know about you, but new parents annoy the heck out of me.

Oh, come on. You know what I'm talking about. Every sentence out of their mouth is "My baby this" & "My baby that" and on and on it goes.

When I had my kiddos, I did the public a favor....and hid! LOL I did not want to become a caricature of mommyhood.

Now don't get me wrong. I love babies. I love to hear about my friends' babies. But not 24/7.

Another aspect of "New Parents On The Block" that gets me are the newborn photos. Those "adorable" ones that they take with your baby swaddled in their hospital-issued receiving blanket and donning the gender-neutral pink & blue hat.

Yes, I'm sure that just aged me right there. But all parents from my generation know what pictures I'm talking about.

The thing is, every baby is beautiful. To its MOMMY & DADDY. But to the average Joe, most new under-a-week old babies look like teeny tiny aliens.

But these photos get shoved in our faces &....what? We have to say, "Oh! What a cutie!" Or something equally vague. What am I supposed to say? "Hey...maybe he'll grow into that nose!" or even "Oh geez. I guess what they say about 2 great looking parents having ugly kids is true, eh?"

Actually, recently a friend of mine had a baby. And I was blown away by how absolutely gorgeous her baby was. And I told her that her baby was so beautiful. But then I was afraid that SHE thought that I thought that her baby was just another alien-baby. But what could I say?! "Hey, for real! Your baby is just amazingly gorgeously beautiful! And I'm not just saying that like I did when so-and-so had her baby!"

So I had to just leave it at my original comment & send her my TRUE FEELINGS via telepathy.

Hope you got my telepathic messages, friend!

Well, yeah, so back to my point.

New parents & their incessant new baby talk annoy me.

But here's the truth: I am being an annoying new parent in a whole different way.

You see, cloth diapering, natural parenting, attachment parenting, trying to cut out a lot of chemicals from my & my family's lives....THAT'S my new baby.

And I know I have to be annoying the buttercream out of some of you. Most of you? ............. ALL of you?!!! Oh man, I hope its not all of you..... LOL

So, let me just say that I am sorry. I never meant to get this into it. But I have.

My trying to convince you all to *at the utmost very least* try cloth diapers & toxin-free baby wash isn't me trying to force my hippy ideals on you. I am HONESTLY concerned for your baby's health. I have been reading of the horrible things these chemicals are doing to our babies (things that we may not be able to see) & it just scares me.

So the next time you hear me start in on going chem-free, before you roll your eyes & think "Oh, that stupid hippy & her annoying ranting", just bear in mind that I'm a...."new mommy". ;-)

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Don't Rattle Baby's Cage

I feel like I have betrayed my 8-month old son. And what's worse, he doesn't mind!

The betrayal: I got him a crib. And I put him to sleep in it at nap time & bedtime.

My motivation: I'm selfish. He is the cutest little bed hog, but a bed hog all the same. If he feels that I am encroaching into his nocturnal domain, he gently lets me know. With a punch to the face and repeated kicks to the stomach.

I'll be honest. Though my goal was to exclusively bed share with him for at least a year, I cheated a bit.

(haha, I say this like my husband had no choice in the matter. But he was all for bed sharing from the get-go. He backs me up 110% on almost all of my parenting choices. Though my telling him that if he so much as grumbled a complaint, raised an eyebrow or even thought of questioning my decisions would result in my taking the children & escaping in the dead of night may have had some bearing on his everlasting approval. Especially since he's a deep sleeper. Heeheehee)

Anyway, like I said, I cheated. I set Austin's bassinet up right next to my side of the bed. That way, I would put him in it at bedtime & would usually bring him to sleep with me after his 5 am nursing session.

But here's the thing. Babies grow. They're not like fish who stop their own growth according to however big their aquarium is, so as to live comfortably inside. Nope. Babies grow. Quickly. Once my little guy started propping his feet up on the side of the bassinet to sleep, I knew the inevitable would have to take place.

We found a beautiful crib. It was cherry, like our bed. I already had the crib bedding. It was all fitting in nicely.

So we brought it home & propped the pieces up against our bedroom wall. And left it like that. For almost a month. I'd love to say that we were so adamantly opposed to this baby-proofed monstrosity that we couldn't bear assembling it a minute sooner than we did.

But the truth is we are just lazy.

But the moment of reckoning came this past weekend. By "moment of reckoning", I mean that Austin pushed the pillow "wall" down from my bed on Friday & fell onto the floor during nap time.

After he was rescued & sent me subliminal "you are the world's crappiest mother" messages, I called my husband, sobbing, and declared that the crib either got put together that night or else I would be forced to find better parents for little Austin.

By "better parents" I mean "highest bidder on ebay". Hey! I couldn't let the whole ordeal be a total loss. ;-) (I am so totally kidding! I would NEVER do that! ......Ebay has changed their seller's policy & would want too big of a percentage of my sale...)

So now the crib is up. We hooked up the mobile that goes with the bedding PLUS his mobile from his bassinet. We thought the familiar touch would help him to hate us a little less.

I'm happy--and sad--to announce that he has spent every night in his crib with nary a complaint.

I think its harder on me than it is on him. He feels so far away. I miss him snuggling up next to me. Sort of. I don't miss his fist in my eye at 2 am. I enjoy being able to stretch out without worrying that I'm going to fling him across the bedroom.

And he is sure taking advantage of all the space he has now. He's all spread eagle in there.

But then I just saw this baby shirt that said "Cage Free Baby" & I wanted to strangle myself with a crib sheet.....

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Not Gonna Poo!

So, I've just heard of the "no 'poo" thing. Have you heard of it? No 'poo means "no shampoo". But not exactly. Most people, when they hear "no shampoo", they conjure nasty images of greasy hair, head lice, dirty....a whole plethora of grody-ness.

In fact, going no shampoo means no store-bought shampoo. Instead, you use natural every day household products & make your own shampoo/hair rinse.

Some people do this for the ecological benefit: no more plastic bottles filling up garbage landfills, no more hazardous chemicals being washed down the drain.

This is a wonderful reason for adopting the "no poo" lifestyle.

Alas, its not my reason for wanting to go poo-less.

I am apparently more self-centered.

I'm going to attempt going "no poo" to score myself some healthy, shiny locks! There is a vast assortment of information you can get about the benefits of "no poo", so I'm not going to get into it. But from the various unrelated accounts that I've read, eliminating shampoo from your routine can give you a head full of gorgeous hair!

There are a few different ways to go "no poo".

One way is to cut out shampoo but just wash your hair with conditioner.

I'm not going that route.

I am instead using an initial rinse of baking soda & water. Followed by an apple-cider-vinegar & water rinse.

Today was my first day implementing this process.

Here are my thoughts about my first time using this method:

a.) Baking soda tastes nasty. Then again, so does shampoo. So, I guess I'd rather it be all-natural & safe. And I'll close my mouth tighter next time.

b.) The baking soda rinsed out easily. My hair was "squeaky" while rinsing it out, which made me feel that it was accomplishing something. It wasn't sudsy & bubbly (like shampoo) but that's because its not filled with bubbley gel-like chemicals. The main component to effectively using this method, is to be sure to vigorously massage the scalp to remove dirt & oil.

c.) Holy shower head! Vinegar stinks!!! Luckily, the vinegar smell rinsed out with the vinegar.

d.) Once out of the shower & I had towel dried my hair a bit, I combed it out. It wasn't slippery smooth like my hair tends to be after I use my regular conditioner & that worried me a bit. But my hair wasn't tangled (thanks to the vinegar), which is awesome since my curly hair tends to get tangled in the shower.

e.) As my hair dried, I was very happy with how shiny it was! I am also not using products in my hair (curl spray, mousse, hair spray, etc), not until I determine if I can eliminate their use from my life, like so many "no poo"ers have been able to do. I did pull my hair back into a ponytail (my signature weekday hair style). I was really happy to see my hair had a nice wavy curl to it & wasn't anywhere as frizzy as it is when I shampoo, condition & then not apply styling products. Plus, my hair feels really soft.

Bottom line: I'm going to continue going "no poo"!

By the way, it has been 3 days since I last used shampoo & conditioner.

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I Got Bit By The Fabric Bug!

I just went into Jo-Ann Fabrics & went fabric window-shopping. They have such cute prints.

I'm really thinking of making my own pocket inserts & contour diapers.

And if all goes well with that, meaning they are:

a.) Functional. Superbly functional.

b.) Cute. Your baby deserves it!

c.) Fun to make. Let's face it, my attention span is short. If its not a rewarding experience, then....oooh! Look! A bunny!!

Then I may sell them to other cloth diapering mommas!

But first things first, I need to buy some inserts & contours so that I can see how they work & what works best. I'm also buying prefolds because they are more economical.

Every step of this process has me sooo stoked!

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Death By Diaper Bag: a warning to would-be kidnappers

I have been having these horrible nightmares all week that my babies are kidnapped.

Any parent who has had this nightmare knows how scary it is. I've been waking up, crying.

So now, I'm afraid that I'm going into Mommy Vigilante mode. Don't come too close or I will...what?...probably take a swing at you with my 654,765,867 lb diaper bag.

That's right. You've been warned, potential kidnappers. You've been warned.

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I Have A Dream!

Cloth diaper vocabulary word of the day: "fluff". Fluff is just a cutesy word for cloth diapers.

I left ya'll hanging with my last blog entry & my not knowing if I was still excited about cloth diapering.

Here's the thing: Last night, all night long, I dreamt about Kissaluvs Contour diapers. Colored ones, unbleached ones....all heavenly soft and cuddly. This dream marathon did not come unprovoked. Earlier in the day, I had put an eBay bid on a set of 5. There was less than 24 hrs in the auction when I went to bed & I was the highest & only bidder. I could almost feel them, they were that close to being mine. Anyone with a budget who has used eBay before can surely predict what happened while I was in Kissaluvs dreamland. Yep, some jackwagon (TY Becky for the vocab update) outbid me. I got the update as I was nursing the baby early in the morning.

So I lost out on one great deal, but I will not be deterred! I spent any free moment I had searching for low-priced Kissaluvs contours. And decided that I will also order a dozen prefolds to start out with, too, to see which works best or if they both rock.

So all you nay-sayers can bite it cuz there's no stopping me!!!!! (except when it comes to finances...that can stop me...until I convince myself that I am doing what any mother would do by turning tricks for fluff...)

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Buyer's Remorse?

My Flip covers came yesterday! While they are cute, colorful, soft & everything I knew they would be when I ordered them, I have to admit that I don't feel as excited as I thought I would be. But this could be due to a few different things:

a.) My husband watched as I ripped open the package. No lie, my face probably looked like my kids do on Christmas morning. And he just looks so...so...so serious. Then he shakes his head & says, "My gosh. Do you know how much *work* you are making for yourself?" He followed that little gem with a "But I'm so proud of you." But I got his message loud & clear. As a homeschooling mom of 3 more "work" is not met with enthusiasm, exactly.

b.) I only ordered the covers. No inserts, doublers, soakers, prefolds, flats...nada but covers. Translated that means: I can't even use them yet. Where's the fun in that?!

c.) While Flip covers are cute and all, they weren't what I *really* wanted. I wanted Blueberry coveralls. Preferably the Giraffes, Owls & Stars. But being ever-so-practical, my husband & I decided to go with the more economic Flips. At least until I know if cloth diapering is the way I really want to go. (note to self: sometimes practicality SUCKS)

So these are just a few of the reasons that I may not be feeling so yippy-skippy about my first cloth diapering purchase.

But considering how much horrific information I've been uncovering about disposables & how I keep finding myself toying with the idea of using a cut up hand towel in the covers, I'm thinking that I'm on the right track after all. And that I'm quite happy with my purchase!

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Not Your Average Hippy

I am a well-educated woman. I am a voracious reader and (as dorky as it is to admit) I adore researching, for the most part. I am also a devoted mother.

What irritates me is when people just assume that I am making some parenting & lifestyle choices out of ignorance. That I am just following some trends or whatnot instead of actually making informed decisions about the wellness & safety of my children.

I wasn't always the way I am now. I wasn't always brave enough to step out and do something "different". But as more & more articles falls into my lap and research is more readily available via the internet, I would be remissed if I just ignored it & continued putting my children in harm's way.

I've heard MANY times over about how plenty of people from my generation were raised up on Gerber baby food, formula and spent their days tumbling around in disposable diapers while getting vaccinated & that despite all that, we turned out just fine.

First of all, define "fine" for me. Cancer rates are skyrocketing. Autism, ADD, ADHD, depression, obesity, mental & neurological disorders are affecting millions of people today.

Is that what you meant by "fine"? If so, awesome! You're right. We turned out perfectly fine! ;-)

Call me crazy, weird, a hippy (LOL), lazy, misinformed, ignorant, stupid, paranoid.....call me whatever the hell you'd like.

But the people that matter the most to me in this world call me "Mommy" & I will do everything that I can to protect them.

They are the reason that I am so passionate about the choices I make. They are the driving force behind my homeschooling, babywearing, co-sleeping, using natural remedies, questioning the safety of vaccinations, buying organic baby food and getting ready to start cloth diapering.

What's YOUR passion?

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I Did It!! (And You're Not Going To Believe What I Might Be Doing Next....)

Quick! Look out your window!! Do you see them? Look again because they must be there. Hurry! Do you see the flying pigs?! Hahahaha! Ok, yeah, that was lame. But what do you expect? It's late, I'm tired but my brain is running full speed ahead...with only half of the cylinders working... LOL

Anyway, do you know what I just did?? Come on, give it a guess! Okay, I guess I'll just tell you because you're probably thinking I'm the biggest dork imaginable right now. (oh why did I drink that 2nd glass of Pepsi before bed? Now I can't just shut the heck up...) Let's just cut to the point...err...make that *let's just get to the point*...damn you caffeine & adrenaline & sleep deprivation!!! I miss thinking clearly!!

Anyhooo....I ordered cloth diapers!!!! YES!! Well, sort-of. LOL I ordered the cloth diaper covers. Which is a ginormous step in the right direction! I ordered 4 Flip covers: Butternut (yellow), Moonbeam (blue), Ribbit (green) & Clementine (orange). I only had the funds to buy 4 covers....nothing to go inside them yet.

I was planning on using them with prefolds but then I got a great idea. One that will possibly, more-than-likely save me money! What if I make my own inserts?! Inserts are just like what they sound like: you *insert* them into the cover to absorb....stuff. ;-) On cloth diaper websites, these inserts cost a couple dollars each (minimum) but making my own, I imagine, would save me some major dough. I have been researching how to make inserts & it seems really easy. It would probably be even easier if my husband hadn't thrown out my sewing machine when we moved. ::sigh::

I can also make "socks", which are basically these mini pillow case looking things made out of suedecloth. You then put your microfleece or hemp (very absorbant stuff, hemp) inserts into the sock, place the whole little bundle into your diaper cover & voilá! You have a stay-dry diaper!! (baby's bum stays dry due to the suedecloth while liquids are absorbed into the insert! How awesome is that?!!) You can even put a prefold diaper in the sock for extra absorbancy!

I am so very excited about all of this, I gotta tell you.

But now I am getting tired at the prospect of Austin waking up to nurse multiple times tonight & still managing to wake up all chipper at 6 am. ::groan::

So what about you all? What kind of fluff do you use on your baby's bum? :-)

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Slowly but surely....

Okay, okay, so I am not exactly where I was hoping to be right now. Austin is still in disposable diapers & I haven't made any of my own baby food since that avocado fiasco.

But I have made *some* progress! We have made the transition to organic baby food! Our local Walmart where we do our regular shopping carries a super limited amount of organic baby food & the variety is paltry. So I went to Babies R Us this past weekend to check out their selection & was really impressed! We bought a week's worth of Earth's Best, which comes out to 4 jars a day. It was pricier than Walmart's offerings of Earth's Best, but we feel that the extra spending is more than worth it! The flavors sound awesome, too: Carrot Tomato, Sweet Potato & Apricot, Sweet Peas & Brown Rice, Green Bean Casserole....the list goes on & on! They use onion & garlic in their foods, too, to add enriched flavors. This stuff rocks!

I have also been stalking Craigslist to find great diaper deals, but haven't had much luck. There is a company called Just Simply Baby which sells really cute diapers at reasonable prices ($11-$12/each) & each diaper comes with 2 inserts. Compare that to Fuzzibunz's or Blueberry diapers which are closer to $20 & it looks like you've found yourself a great deal! Plus JSB has a 30 Day Return Policy where you can return the USED diapers if you don't absolutely love them!

I was also considering becoming a Diaper Party consultant, in which I help moms have a diaper party (similar to a Mary Kay party or Pampered Chef), where I either go to the party myself with a variety of different brands of cloth diapers & show other moms what options there are available & find the perfect one(s) for her little one!

Well, so that's what I've been up to lately. What've you been up to?

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Mission Impossible? Am I failing?

**Caution! This contains booby talk of a non-sexual nature! It may be considered TMI to some of you!**

Austin is 7 and a half months old & we are still breastfeeding. I have no clue when I want to stop. I don't see myself still nursing him when he's, say, 5, but as of right now, I have no plans of stopping anytime soon. Originally, I thought it'd be difficult to "stick with it" for a year, but his first birthday is rapidly approaching & I'm still as gung-ho about it as I was when we first started. Maybe more so now that my milk supply is established (for the most part, but I'll get to that in a minute), my breasts are no longer super engorged, my nipples are no longer constantly cracked & I don't have the problems with leaking that I used to.

Sure, I miss my sleep. I had completely forgotten how a breastfed baby doesn't really start sleeping through the night like a formula-fed baby. At least not consistently. I might have a reprieve every so often, but so far it hasn't been a regular occurance. It would also be nice to be able to just give him a bottle when we're driving down the road, instead of having to find a parking spot & get him out of his carseat so I can nurse him. (I have pretty much been a breastfeeding "purist" so far, and have never pumped a bottle for him)

On the other hand, I have never had to wake up to his cry in the middle of the night & have to stumble blindly down the hallway to the kitchen to fix him a bottle. For the most part, once I nurse him in the middle of the night, he goes right back to sleep without an issue. As for feedings on the go, I don't have to worry about giving him a cold bottle to drink, worry about warming up a bottle, worry about forgetting the formula at home. Nothing. No worries. Just perfectly warmed super healthy milk ready for him instantly! Woohoo! LOL

But I do have a problem. See, about 10 years ago I had to have a lumpectomy on one of my breasts. What that means, is I had a very large lump in my breast & given my family history of breast cancer, they wanted it (the lump) removed immediately. I quit breastfeeding my daughter at this time. She was 6 months old. When I was pregnant with my first son, that breast got an abcess on it, right on the scar from the surgery. The doctor said that what might have happened was that the scar tissue could be blocking some of my milk ducts. Anyone who has ever breastfed knows that milk doesn't come out of just one hole in your nipple, but rather from out of a multitude of tiny holes. Apparently some of my holes are out-of-service, so to speak. This angers my little guy. (I did not breastfeed my older son) So he has always favored my other breast. The land of milk & honey ;-). Who can blame him? I'm gonna always choose the shower head with the awesome strong water pressure, ya know? Who wants a piddly drizzle?

That's where my trouble begins. Because he hates the "slow flow" one, he fusses whenever I settle him down to nurse on that side. He won't do it. You can lead a baby to the nipple, but you can't make him drink! But now that breast has realized that it's....less desirable. (to the baby! My husband & I like it just fine!) But the milk supply in that side has dropped considerably. I need to boost the milk production in it, despite what I have been told that it will be a fruitless effort. I've been told that this is the beginning of the end (& that breast will soon just stop producing milk). Apparently, when a breast's milk supply starts to go down, the sodium level rises, making the milk taste saltier. And who wants to drink salty milk? So the baby really starts to hate that breast, which in turn leads to the milk drying up completely.

But I refuse to give up. Here is my plan: I have begun drinking Milkmaid tea (by Earth Mama Angel Baby), which has been proven to raise milk levels. After just a couple of days of drinking it, I have noticed that Austin has been nursing on that side longer! I am thinking that if I began also pumping on that side, in addition to drinking the tea, I could bring milk production in that breast back up to normal! Wouldn't that be great?!

What do you think? Does it sound like an impossible feat? What about your little breastfeeder? Does he or she prefer one breast over the other?

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Avocado? More like Avo-crap-o! (My First Try At Making Baby Food)

Today I attempted to make Austin homemade baby food for lunch. I had bought two avocados at the Farmers Market for the specific purpose to mash it up for one of his first homemade baby foods. After all, the avocado farmers are raving about how it makes a great first food for babies. I figured, hey, let's give it a go!

Well, first off, I have NO CLUE if I was supposed to steam it first. I just thought that steaming fruits & veggies for baby food was just to make it soft enough to mash up. This avo was just perfect to mash without needing steamed. So I just scooped it out of its.....shell?....into a bowl & went to town on smooshing it. It was of the consistency of guacamole, more or less, so I figured it was go time!

With great ceremony, I brought Austin into the kitchen & got him all settled into his high chair. I made a big show of continuing to moosh the avocado in front of him. Hey, I wanted him to know that THIS was the start of something special: a great culinary journey that I would deliciously guide him on. I had visions of being the Julia Childs of baby gourmet. Every baby would beg to eat my offerings of pureed goodness.

I looked Austin in the eye & told him what the Lunch du Jour was. His eyes grew wide. I'd like to think he was extremely impressed at my dedication to being World's Best Mommy.

The rest was like a scene from a horror movie. In what I can only describe as cinematic slow motion, he opened his tiny mouth. He trusted me completely. And what did Mommy of the Year do? I VIOLATED his teeny taste buds with the most vile substance known to man! I mean, this kid thinks its hilarious when our Rat Terrier sticks her nasty tongue in his mouth. He's not picky, ya know?

But this?!

He made the most horrified face & promptly started gagging. It was like his stomach was trying to escape via his mouth. He was gagging & had smooshed avocado running down his chin. I dropped the spoon & began wiping his mouth out with a paper towel. I felt horrible! What had I done?!

So I did the only thing any normal parent would do: I put another spoonful into his mouth. I figured that first bite was a fluke. It couldn't be that horrid. Let's give it another shot.

And you know what?

Apparently it WAS that horrid because he did the same horrified-face-gaggy-mouth thing all over again.

So I dumped the contents of the bowl into the trash. I opened my cupboard door, defeated, and took out a jar of Sweet Corn Casserole baby food & settled down on the chair next to him.

God bless my little chick: he opened his mouth right up. No suspicions or grudges. My transgression had been, not only forgiven, but also forgotten.

Moral of the story: I think that I'm going to research this whole homemade baby food thing a bit more before trying it again! LOL

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Amber Teething Necklace?

I stumbled across a little something last week talking about amber teething necklaces & how awesome they are. Apparently they've been using them over in Europe for....a long time. (yes, that's an accurate description of time LOL)

Amber is thought to have beneficial healing oils within itself that can be released when heated. The child does NOT chew on the necklace (oh, come on! You were thinking the same thing I was! LOL), but instead wears it around his neck. His (her) body heat warms the necklace enough to release the healing oils into baby's skin, causing the pain of teething to subside enough to help calm your baby down naturally, without using any of the chemical-containing teething gels! This leads to less crying, fussing, drooling & helps your baby sleep better (because he's not in as much pain). Your baby doesn't sleep with the necklace on, for safety reasons.

So.... Have you ever heard of or used an amber teething necklace? If not, what do you think about its claims?

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And the Thunder Rolls....

I live in the glorious South, marked by tanned bodies, beautiful women, red dirt, sweet tea and....storms.

I don't know about you, but I, for one, am terrified of storms. I wish I wasn't, but the cold hard truth is that when the thunder rolls, I try not to piddle on the floor like a Beagle pup. I am hoping that this unfortunate trait has not been passed on to my children, but I think the sight of me curled into fetal position on the couch & murmuring prayers & whispered obscenities like a nun with Tourettes hasn't helped instill much bravery in my kids.

My biggest fear is that with my now having more children than I have hands, that should an emergency arise, how can I safely hold onto my sweet angels?

Hello, Moby Wrap!

That's right, my fears have been semi-abated by my putting on my Moby Wrap whenever a storm starts a brewin'. That way should we need to seek shelter, I'll just pop my youngest into this miracle wrap & wrap my arms around my other two. Like a mother hen, I am not above sitting/laying on top of them, either! LOL

But I have been toying with the idea of creating the SUPER DUPER family wrap out of a bedsheet. Yep. You read that right. I will wrap my children a lá mummy-style & if one of us blows away, hello Dorothy!, we're all gonna get blown to Oz!

After all....who's gonna protect them there from the evil apple-throwing forest, if not me?!

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Fear of Commitment

Okay, so confession time. I am afraid to commit to things. I don't know why, I mean, I'm a pretty responsible girl. But just the act of tying myself to something (excluding bed posts hehehe) just freaks me out. Not to digress, but I am not big on cuddling, either. I am one Y-chromosome away from being a guy! ;-)

Anyway, back to point. I have been researching the heck out of cloth diapers. I have investigated all of my CDing (ahem: cloth diapering) options & weighing the pros & cons. I have concluded that the best option for us right now will be to start with old-fashioned Indian prefolds with some adorable covers. I sat down last Friday evening & made a detailed itemized list of exactly what diapers & covers I am going to buy to start my diaper stash. I even went so far as to set up an account for myself with an online cloth diaper store & filled up my virtual shopping cart.

And then I froze. I couldn't do it. I could not *commit* myself to finalize my order. That's right. I could not check myself out. ;-) ...... Get it? 'Check myself out', virtual cart, online store.... Oh, nevermind. (at least I made myself giggle LOL)

So there you have it. As much as I want to start cloth diapering, despite my knowing full well just how horrible disposables are on my little guy's tush, even though I am so excited to start this journey, I cannot bring myself to commit. ::sigh:: Now I have to wait til our rent is paid before I will have the cash to give it a go...again.

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Show Some Support!

Us girls must always look our best! Seriously. Sometimes it's easy to forget that, what with changing diapers & chauffeuring our kids around all week. But taking the time to try & look beautiful (even just for yourself!) can boostyour self-esteem & confidence!

One way to look your best: make sure you are wearing the right size bra! I mean, for real, who can feel good about herself when she's practically tucking her ta-tas into her socks, cuz they're bra offers very little support?!

Here is a little tutorial from our sexy girlfriends at Victoria Secret to show you how to measure yourself for a bra: http://www.victoriassecret.com/bras/how-to-measure

And while you're at it, go buy yourself a new bra today! Even if you're only going to be potty-training a toddler tomorrow, at least you'll feel like the sexiest Potty Teacher ever!

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Do Me A Solid...

So apparently there's this thing called "baby-led weaning" or some sort of name like that. Have you heard of it?
It appears to be the new (or maybe not so "new", cuz let's face it: I've always been a dork & behind when it comes to trends LOL) best way to get babies to start on solid foods.
You're not to start it before your baby is 6 months old.
Anyway, you don't use traditional jarred baby food. Instead, you just steam veggies & mush them up or cut them into teeny tiny pieces & just lay them on your baby's high chair tray. Then your baby just feeds itself! The theory behind this is that your baby will learn how to choose the food containing the nutrients he/she needs.
This way does sound really neat, but call me old-fashioned, but I've always just started my little ones out on Gerber baby food & cereal at around 4.5 months. I really wanted to start making Austin's baby food myself, but now I feel guilty. Is this "new" way better? Have I irrevocably screwed up my children by starting them on pureed food?!
Eh. Whatever. My kids are happy & healthy. I do wish I would have heard about this method before I started Austin on "traditional" baby food, but he's loving his infant oatmeal & various pureed veggies & fruits. And as soon as I start making his baby food myself, he's gonna love that too! :-)
What about you? How did you start your little one(s) on solids??

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Daddy & His Hoes

I should probably pay better attention when my daughter talks to me......

Mahri: Daddy keeps forgetting to bring home hoes.

Me: What?!

Mahri: I said (with that tone of voice that lets me know that my half-assed listening habits have been detected), "Daddy keeps forgetting to bring home a hose!" You know, to hook up a sprinkler.

Ahhhhhh. Gotcha. ;-)

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The Sunburn Blues

Is it possible to go through "pool withdrawal"? I think so.

See, Austin's sunscreen didn't work so well yesterday & his little arms got a bit sunburned, so we had to skip our almost-daily trip to the pool. Everyone was extremely upset by this. I think I even heard the kids discussing bringing a lawsuit against the makers of the sunscreen. LOL

So now we're all cooped up in the house & getting on each others' nerves.

Even Austin has been grumpy. Considering that playing in the pool is his all-time favorite activity, I don't blame him.

I'm half-scared to tell the kids that there is a slight chance of rain tomorrow. They may riot....

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A Hidden Summer Danger

With summer quickly approaching, I wanted to take a few minutes to warn you about a common & dangerous health hazard that could affect your little ones this summer. Dehydration. Most of you, like me, probably think that when your child is thirsty, you give them a drink to prevent them from becoming dehydration, right? WRONG. By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated! I learned that the hard way this past weekend.

I had taken my kids swimming on Saturday morning for a few hours. It was around 90-degrees & sunny (though it can even happen in the shade). We had forgotten our water bottles back at the house, but I figured they'd be okay for 2 or 3 hours until we got back home. My husband ended up getting off of work & showing up at the pool & reminded me that we had a few errands to run. So the kids and I ran back to the house to get ready to go. I have no idea if Mahri got herself anything to drink when we returned. She & Christian are both old enough to get their own drinks, so I figured that if they were thirty, they'd grab some water while I busied myself getting the baby ready.

Once we started driving, both Mahri & I started to feel sick. Similar to being car sick: headache & nausea. Since we were driving down some winding back country roads, I just chalked it up to exactly that: we were car sick.

Now during this time, I know that my kids had drinks, but since I had no clue that Mahri & I were both suffering from mild dehydration, I wasn't making sure that Mahri drank any certain amount. Basically, my mindset was still "if she's thirsty, she'll drink".

The next morning, I was feeling much better. Mahri had a glass of juice with her breakfast and appeared to be doing better. But an hour or so later, she began complaining that her headache had returned. Then her belly hurt again. But this time we weren't in the car. I told her to get a couple of Tums for her belly & that she'd feel better. Wrong again. Soon her muscles started aching along with her headache and nausea.

Because we had gotten so "car sick" the night before, we had not finished our errand-running and some of the errands were important and time sensitive, so we asked Mahri if she'd be okay to go. She said that she'd be fine, so we all headed out again. The kids took a water bottle to share in the car. About an hour into the trip, Mahri really took a turn for the worse. Her body was just aching all over, especially her legs, her head was hurting even more and her nausea was almost unbearable. In fact, she had to run into the bathroom at one of our stops....and the poor thing got stung by a bee in there! My poor baby! Then she started getting head rushes.

I started thinking that maybe she had the flu.

When we got home, I put her in bed. She started complaining that she was so cold. It was 90 degrees out. This only reaffirmed my belief that she had the flu. She fell asleep in bed & I sat in the living room outside of her bedroom door and worried about her.

My mom ended up calling me, just to chitchat. We talked a few minutes but then I told her that I wanted to get off the phone because Mahri had the flu and I wanted to be ready in case she needed me. My mom immediately got concerned. What were her symptoms? How long has she been feeling that way? Had she been spent a lot of time in the sun? She suggested that maybe it was dehydration. I brushed it off. No, Mahri has the flu, easy peasy. But m mom was adamant. She told me to have Antonio pick her up some Pedialyte right away. She was so insistent that I began to think that she could be right. I got off the phone & relayed the message to him. While he ran to the store, I figured, why not Google it? Wouldn't you know it, every symptom that Mahri had was a symptom of dehydration!

Once Mahri started drinking the Pedialyte, within a few minutes she began feeling better! I gave her a few glasses of it to drink (this was all last night) before letting her go back to sleep.

This morning she is doing much better. She had a slight headache but I had her drink another glass if Pedialyte and it went away. Now we will be focusing on making sure she drinks plenty, not only to get her re-hydrated but to also keep her from ever getting dehydrated again. And the same with the boys.

Make sure your little ones (and even your not-so-little ones!) are drinking plenty of water & staying hydrated this summer. Our dehydration happened in just a few hours but left untended, it progressed quickly.

For the signs and symptoms of dehydration, visit this website: http://www.symptomsofdehydration.com/

American Cancer Society: Just In It For The Money?

I think it's time to worry when one of this country's greatest organizations, whose main goal is to help in the prevention of such a killer, cancer, may be purposely giving us deadly advice. All for financial kickbacks.

Is It Time To Boycott The American Cancer Society

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Who Knew?

So, in my quest for self-enlightenment in regards to natural parenting, I have picked up some interesting tidbits. I want to share a couple with you today....
Okay, so those of us who use 'sposies (that is cloth diaper lingo for disposables), how when our little one makes a nasty poo in his diaper, we are only too eager to wrap that sucker up & throw it away, kind of like your Aunt Trudy's meatloaf? Did you know that its actually against the law to toss the poo?! I had no clue! I mean, yeah, it makes sense, but I never really thought about it before. Can't you imagine that arrest? LOL
Another thing: not all CDs (cloth diapers) are created equal. I had it in my mind that I would just trot on down to my local Walmart, Target or Babies R Us & pick up a few of those Gerber diapers & be on my merry way. Little did I know that those actually absorb about as well as a 2-ply layer of toilet paper. You actually have to put a medium amount of effort into your purchase. Apparently, in the world of prefolds, Indian ones are the best. As you can see from the pic I am posting of unbleached Indian prefolds, they contain numerous absorbant pockets, with the thickest layer being in the middle. (the pic shows them under a stack of cloth wipes. which I also intend to use.)
So if any of you had the horrific experience of putting a Gerber cloth diaper on your little one, only to have him promptly pee right through it, now you (& I!) know why.

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The Diaper Dilemma

Everyone has tried to talk me out of it. They've tried reasoning, teasing & outright telling me that I wouldn't be able to deal with it. But if there's one thing my friends & family have yet to understand, its that the more someone tells me that I can't do something, the more determined I'm going to be to do it.

That's why I tried to go "natural" for my first labor. For 12 hrs. My mom was begging me to just get the epidural...however, she's the one who said that I wasn't strong enough to do it to begin with. And then the nurse walked in & caught me on my hands & knees on the linoleum, trying to birth my young National Geographic-style. She immediately took up my mom's "Say Yes To Drugs" chorus. Yeah. I buckled like a belt & was singing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" with my legs in stirrups less than an hour later.

Breastfeeding? Another little gem that I was told I wouldn't be able to do. I am happy to announce that I exclusively breastfed my daughter for 6 months & am breastfeeding my second son right now. Well, not "right now" right now, but you know what I mean. He will be 6 months old in a few days & I have no plans of stopping anytime soon! (What about my first son, you ask? Due to a breast abcess that I got during my 2nd pregnancy & had to have operated on, I am sad to say that I opted not to breastfeed my first son.)

Oh! But back to topic! I have decided to switch to cloth diapers! Due to finances (or lack thereof), I am not starting out using the new fancy "cloth" diapers that bear no resemblance to cloth diapers of old, but instead I will be using prefolds. AKA: almost the twin of aforementioned "cloth diapers of old". I was even going to go really old school & use diaper pins, but I'm not so sure about that anymore. I do not wish to use my beautiful baby boy as a pin cushion while learning how to use them. Maybe they're not too hard to get the hang of during daylight hours, but all it'll take is one middle-of-the-night diaper change to require a trip to the ER for a punctured organ....

Now the tricky part is finding quality prefolds. I could order them online, but I am very impatient & want instant gratification. I have located a store an hour from my house that sells them, so I may be heading that way tomorrow. I also found an awesome deal for a bunch on Craigslist, but I have yet to hear back from the seller. Hopefully I hear back from her soon because I am so excited to get started.
Remember this excitement. I am sure it will be short-lived once I have to shake a few poos in the potty.