Our Experience with Cloth Diapers

Many of my friends ask me about our experience with cloth diapers. I have general answers and specific answers.

In general:
We LOVE our cloth diapers. Our main reason for choosing cloth was a financial one- you spend WAY less on cloth diapers than with disposables over the course of the baby's diaper-wearing. Click here to read about saving $$ by using cloth diapers. The whole idea of saving the landfills from stinky dispoables is a great big bonus, as well, but mainly, I'm cheap. When you own your own business, you don't have a choice.

Specifically:
Lily has only had diaper rash a handful of times, mainly when she's eaten something that she's allergic to (you have to find out food allergies the HARD way!). Supposedly cloth babies have much less diaper rash than 'sposie babies. I don't mind dealing with washing & folding the diapers every other day. It feels good when I do it- like I'm being a responsible parent. Sounds hokey, but it's true.

The only downsides we've experienced are having to "scoop the poop" and the occasional diaper leaks that develop when I need to strip the diapers (of detergent build-up). Oh, and that the cloth diapers are physically bulkier than 'sposies, so sometimes we have to sacrifice wearing cute pants for stretchy pants. That's not a bad lesson for a girl to learn anyhow.

Brand Specifics:
We tried the Fuzzi Buns and some other locally-made pocket diapers when Lily was too small for the Bum Genius. I'm a fan of the pocket diaper style in general, but we really like the BG 3.0 because they fit virtually any size and we don't have to keep buying bigger and bigger sizes as she grows. They've held up really well for the 14 months we've been using them. At first we were undoing the sizing snaps everytime we washed them and learned that was too much stress on the fabric around the snaps, but Cottonbabies.com replaced all of those so it was no problem. the only other issue we've had is with the velcro tabs losing their "sticky" but I've fixed that by adding another velcro strip over the top of the tabs after putting on the diaper. Brian calls it the "30 cent solution."

So I hope this helps those of you out there trying to decide on cloth vs. disposables. If not, maybe this will help you decide: choose cloth. (-:

Hand-me-downs: A Cautionary Tale

I. Love. Hand-me-downs. We've gotten hand-me-downs (HMDs) from friends, family, even customers at my business brought me HMDs when they saw I was pregnant. Clothes, toys, bottles, spoons, cups, car seats- you name it, we've probably gotten it as a HMD.

We received a new car seat at one of Lily's baby showers that we use in my car. We also have 2 HMD car seats- one that resides in Ms. Deedee's car, and another that's been in the attic for a while that someone gave us before Lily was even a twinkle in our eyes. Since Miss Lori would like a car seat in her car so she can take Lily to the park on her days off, I decided to "dust off" the cobwebs (literally) from the old one in the attic. I brought it in the house yesterday and proceeded to remove all of the fabric so I could wash it. I always assume that what's been given as a HMD will need a wash or wipe down, so I expect to find a stain here or a bit of something there, but I was not prepared for the treasure trove that I found when I took apart this car seat. Here's what I found:

1 melted red crayon (stuck to the underside of the armrest fabric)
2 raisins
1 goldfish cracker
1 french fry
some bits of what I'll call dried pineapple
1 pink hair bow
1 tortoise shell metal hair clip
1 brown plastic hair clip
2 red stretchy hair bands
1 Tigger magnet
1 quarter (I wasn't sure what it was until I flipped it over)
assorted stickers
assorted other "bits" of food, etc.

I was so amazed with what I found, that I found myself getting out of bed at 10:30 last night to write it all down before I forgot. So there's a chance I found even more than what I remembered in my sleep stupor. I share this because, well, it's funny. Also, as a cautionary tale: be sure to wash your HMDs. (-;

Thoughts on Motherhood

I was watching 48 Hours Mystery on CBS tonight and it was the story of this 17 year old girl who was convicted along with her boyfriend of killing her mother. They kept showing pictures of her as a baby and toddler and I just cried because it reminded me so much of Lily and of the potential each of us has for causing joy or misery. I PLEDGE to do my absolute best to raise my daughter to be a person of value, but I will love her forever regardless of what she chooses to do with her life.

"Never squander the miracle of another human being."

Trippin' the Lubbock Fantastic

We took a little road trip this past weekend to Lubbock to see family & friends, and lots of them! Lily spent the weekend at Gran-Gran & Grandaddy's house & Mommy & Daddy spent the weekend at The Bear Den. It was nice little mini-break from the punkin since Gran-Gran took care of evenings & mornings and Mommy & Daddy got some much-needed together time.

On Friday Lily got to hang with Parker, Gran-Gran's unofficial grandbaby. Here they are plotting their grand escape. He was mostly interested in a Barney video during his visit, and to my relief, Lily didn't care a lick about Barney. She doesn't get much tv exposure just yet and we like it that way. (-:

She also got to meet baby Daniel, of The Shirley Adventures. He was so little! He slept through the mini-baby shower that we threw for him and his Mommy. It was so nice to spend a little time with him, his Mommy, and Grandmommy, and we hope to see them all again very soon. We will keep their whole family in our thoughts and prayers through the difficult time ahead for them.

Friday night we had a backyard cookout and got to visit with family we hadn't seen in a long time! It was great remembering old times and catching up on new experiences.

Saturday was Aunt June Day and we went to the Lubbock Arts Festival. Lily had a BALL walking around with Daddy & Aunt June. She also loved hearing the live music of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra "sound bites" program. She be-bopped her little head, clapped her hands, and stomped her feet. She was also a big hit with the vendors at the Comic Book Expo upstairs at the festival. She got to build her own toolbox in the Home Depot kid's area. She showed Daddy how to properly read the directions and then how to use a hammer. She's a construction prodigy!

She had a GREAT time with everyone she saw- aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents.

On the long trip back home, she took off her socks and relaxed. We even stopped for dinner at the famous Smokestack Restaurant and had her first real grilled cheese sandwich after she and Daddy checked out the historical marker on the smokestack.

Lily Today

age: 13 months
weight: 25 1/2 lbs or so
height: 30 1/2" or so
sleeping: 7:30pm-ish to 8:30am-ish, morning/afternoon naps
vocabulary: dadda (applies to Mommy, Daddy, and Lori), up, out, cheese, no, hi/hey, oops, whuzzat (what/who's that?), kitty cat (kee-keh), bottle (bah-bah), diaper (bop-pa, although occasionally she'll get the "d" and it's di-pah), bath (baa), uh-oh, applesauce (appa-saw- she said this one today!!)
fave foods: cheese slices (the individually wrapped kind), toast, cheese-toast, PB-toast, anything on toast, crackers, peas, pinto beans, sweet potatoes (if properly prepared with brown sugar & cinnamon), milk in a bottle (only at breakfast since we're trying to oust the bottle), sippy cup of water (she will NOT drink milk or juice from her sippy cup)
least fave foods: carrots, eggs
skills: walking (still mastering this skill), waving bye, clicking pens, shaking head "no," sitting cross-legged (a customer told me "she's such a little lady"), drinking from a cup, being cute
notes: she's getting over her first cold (still a bit sniffly and I can hear her coughing in her room as I type this, but it's a lot less now), she still goes to work with Mommy almost everyday, she LOVES story time at the library, Wednesdays with Deedee, and is great at entertaining herself in her superyard at work (assuming she's fed, diapered, and not sleepy)

Home, Sick

WARNING: The following post contains talk of snot, so if you're sensitive to that particular subject, skip this post or get over it, quick.

Sadly, we are not homesick. We are at home, sick. At least Lily is sick. Those snot bubbles I mentioned yesterday? They've blossomed into a very croupy cough overnight. It was getting croupy yesterday, but today it's pretty bad and she keeps getting choked on whatever is going down the back of her throat. I read on Babycenter that the classic croup cough sounds like a barking seal- excellent description. It would be cute if it wasn't so awful! We are waiting on a call from the Nurse Advice line at her doctor's office, although I'm getting pretty impatient.

Any advice on teaching a one-year-old how to blow her nose? That would be a handy skill right about now! It's gonna look like it snowed kleenex in here by the end of the day.

On the upside, she doesn't act like she feels bad except when she is coughing and choking with tears running down her face. At least we made it 13 WHOLE MONTHS before we had any illnesses to deal with. That's got to be a record. I'm guessing it's because she really doesn't hang out with other babies all too often since she doesn't go to daycare. Oh well, it had to happen sooner or later, right?

Walkin' Talkin' Lily

13 months and she's off: Lily took her first solo steps today! She was across the room from me and was holding out her arms to me, so I told her to "come here" and she took four or five steps before she plopped down & crawled the rest of the way. I saw it coming from her look and already had tears pouring out before she even took the first step. Then I scooped her up and ran outside to find Daddy and tell him the news (he was doing yardwork all afternoon). Daddy helped her practice all day yesterday- she was doing laps around the house with her blue hippo push toy for a good portion of the day. So today she decided to try it solo. See for yourself in this video I shot of her post-bath/pre-dinner.

Other firsts for the day include saying "cheese" and blowing snot bubbles (oh yeah- she has her first cold, too).