Smile.

We are so blessed.

Cloth Diapers

So many people have expressed surprise when we mention that we're using cloth diapers. There have been a lot of questions, so I decided to do dedicate a blog post to the topic.

I kind of feel like we're cheating when we say we're using cloth diapers. I think for a lot of people the words "cloth diaper" conjure up images of the saggy, leaky, smelly diapers held up with safety pins and wrapped in plastic pants. I don't think we'd be cloth diapering if that's what cloth diapers were like today.

We're using Bum Genuis diapers, and we find them incredibly easy to use. We used disposables the first few weeks of Lila's life and I can say with confidence that Bum Genius diapers are every bit as easy - if not easier - to use. For one, they very rarely leak for us. Second, Lila has not had even a spot of diaper rash since she was born. Third, if we're lucky, the diapers we bought before Lila was born will last her right up through potty training.

Lastly, our total out - of - pocket cost for 20 Bum Genius diapers was about $325. We got about $100 in diapers as a gift, and then we bought the rest of the diapers on sale at a local green store. I am certain that we would spend several times this amount on disposable diapers throughout Lila's diaper - wearing lifetime. So for us, it's definitely a cost saver as well.

So how do the cloth diapers work?

Let me show you how it works at our house.

There are two parts to the diapers. The shell...

And the insert. The shell keeps the mess in, if you will, and the inserts absorb the mess. The inserts get stuffed into the shell.

There are also inserts called "doublers" for times when you need some extra absorbency, like at night, for example. Doublers are stuffed into the diaper shell along with the regular inserts.

The finished product looks like this...


Here's Miss Lila modeling what the cloth diapers look like once they're on...

As you can see, they are put on quite like a disposable diaper. The velcro tabs adhere to the front of the diaper just like disposable diapers. In this picture you can see the snaps just below the velcro strips. When Lila gets bigger, we'll unsnap those snaps and re-snap them to the set of snaps just below the top set. We'll also re-snap the inserts to make them longer. There are three levels of snaps on both the shells and the inserts, creating three sizes in just one diaper, thereby allowing Lila to wear her diapers (hopefully) until she is potty training.

Now comes the "fun" part. What happens once the diapers are dirty? I can tell you honestly after using disposable diapers, I don't think there is really any more contact with the diaper contents when using cloth diapers. To be fair, this very well may change once Lila gets older and her poops are more solid and substantial. For now, we take off the diaper, remove the inserts, and drop the diaper and the insert into our diaper pail.

We use a regular, stainless steel trash can with a waterproof diaper pail liner.

At our house, we also use cloth wipes instead of disposable wipes. The wipes are inexpensive wash cloths purchased from Target.

The wash cloths are also great at taking care of big messes. I feel like it's much less aggravating to Lila to have us wipe her with a washcloth than a diaper wipe. She's less grumpy during diaper changes since we've started using cloth wipes, too.

We use a solution of aloe gel, tea tree oil, and water to wash Lila's tush.

Sometimes I squirt the solution directly on Lila's tush, and other times I squirt it on the washcloth before wiping her.

The wipes go in the diaper pail with the diapers.

When the diaper pail is full, we take it down to the washing machine and dump the contents directly into the washer and then throw the bag right in as well. No poop handling!

When we're out and about and Lila has a dirty diaper, we change her as usual and put the dirty diaper in a wet bag. You can get a set of wet bags on Amazon for pretty cheap. They're also great for any other wet mess you don't want leaking all over your diaper bag.

When we get home the wet bag and its contents go in the diaper pail or straight in the wash.

So...washing the diapers. Cloth diapers do take a bit of extra work in that they need to be laundered and reassembled after washing. Here are the washing instructions from Bum Genius's website:

1. Wash once in cold water with no more than 1/4 (high efficiency machines) to 1/2 (top loading, regular machines) of the detergent's recommended amount per load.
2. Wash once in hot (up to 120 degrees) water with no more than 1/4 (high efficiency machines) to 1/2 (top loading, regular machines) of the detergent's recommended amount per load. Optionally (and only occasionally), add 1/4 cup of bleach to this cycle.
3. Add an extra rinse to remove any lingering detergent in the diapers.
4. Line dry.

We are very lucky to have a programmable, front loading washing machine. We program our washer to run both cycles and the extra rinse concurrently so that we don't need to run back and forth to the basement to re-start the washer for each cycle. Also, with a high efficiency washer, we are using very, very little water and soap with each cycle, thereby making cloth diapering both cost and environmentally efficient.

Some people prefer to use laundry detergent made especially for cloth diapers. We use Seventh Generation Free and Clear detergent and have been very happy so far. We use this detergent for all of our and Lila's clothes. ** EDITED 11/1/10... We have switched to Charlie's Soap for diapers. We started getting some build-up on Lila's diapers and they never smelled quite clean, so at the recommendation of the interwebs, we switched. Much better! **

Once the diapers are washed, we dry the inserts and hang the shells to dry. Now that it's warmer outside we'll be hanging the shells outside instead of on the line in our basement, though the indoor drying has worked just fine. One benefit of hanging the diapers outside is that the sunshine will help to bleach the poopy stains on the shells. The poopy stains look funky, but they don't smell and aren't a problem at all. They're just a bit unsightly. Once everything is dry, we spend about 15 minutes reassembling the diapers and then we take them back up to Lila's nursery for use.


So, there you have it! Easy peasy. :)

9 weeks!

Lila rang in her 9th week with her Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. She is one very loved little girl! Mom and Dad even got a date in yesterday while she spent time with her grandparents.

Here's our little 9 week old beauty!


Lila is wonderful as always. She is chatting up a storm and starting to giggle more and more. The giggles are mostly open-mouthed, breathy smiles, but we can tell that she's trying to laugh. It is enough to make your heart melt! She loves her mobile and she loves having her cheeks and her chin stroked. Both will send her into a fit of giggles and smiles. She also found her hands this week and can't keep them out of her mouth. The slurping sounds she makes are so funny!

She is sleeping more and more at night which makes me quite happy. She slept 8.5 hours straight last night! I would like to say that I slept that long, too, but I kept waking up wondering when she was going to wake up, so I didn't sleep very soundly. I kept getting up to check on her and of course she was fine each time. I think she just got worn out from all of the activity and attention she got this weekend! She's been napping well today, too.

All of the sleep she got yesterday pretty much made up for our early morning on Saturday. I brought her in to our room and chatted with her in our bed while we waited for Dad to wake up for the day. They are two peas in a pod!

Today Lila got not one by two packages in the mail! This one from our friend Cindy made me smile. What pretty, creative packaging!


The second package is an Ergo baby carrier that I ordered online last week. We're looking forward to trying it out soon - it's supposed to be in the 70's this week! Carrying her instead of putting her in the stroller is really great exercise. An extra 10 or 12 pounds on my front while I walk definitely burns more calories!

Looks like the baby girl is awake and wanting some attention. A happy Monday to you all!

2 months

Lila is two months old today!

It was a rough day for our little girl. Normally she is an easy-going, happy baby, but today she was anything but. We met up with friends for lunch and the moment we arrived at the restaurant, Lila became very displeased. She eventually fell asleep in my arms but the moment we got back into the car, she screamed. Crying in the car is very unusual for her. She usually either sleeps or coos the entire ride.

The rest of the day she was either asleep or angry. She is not one to just scream, and we started to worry that she might be sick or hurt. I decided to start her bedtime routine early tonight, and she calmed down considerably after about an hour. I got her to sleep and set her in her crib at 8:30, figuring she'd do what she always does and wake up five or ten minutes later, repeating the pattern several times before settling down for the night. It has been almost an hour and she's still asleep! She must have just been really tired today. Poor baby girl. I hope that she wakes tomorrow in better spirits.

We had the best intentions for taking really fun two month pictures today, but Lila wasn't having any of it. Instead we did the best we could and snapped a quick picture in her crib before swaddling her up for the night.

Happy two months, Baby Girl!

She let us snap the one picture and then...

It makes me so sad when she cries. I just wish that I knew what to do to make her feel better. Usually we can figure something out pretty quickly, so it's extra sad when nothing seems to soothe her.

Despite today's tears, Lila has been sleeping much better the past few days. I moved her bedtime routine up a few hours in the hopes that she'd learn to sleep better in her crib, and for the past three nights he has had at least one 5-7 hour stretch of sleep, followed by another 3-4 hours. It's amazing! She still eats furiously in the late evening hours, which is probably her effort to fill her tummy for a long stretch of sleep. I've heard that eight weeks is when babies really start sleeping for longer stretches, so I hope that this is the beginning of more sleep for all of us.

I definitely feel like we're coming out of the fog a bit as far as the whole new parent/sleep deprivation thing goes. I know that I'm getting more sleep now because when she's asleep, I miss her. I think about her sweet little smile and her happy coos and I look forward to when she's awake so that I can enjoy her again.

She is smiling more and more these days, and she even giggled last week. She is growing so fast!

For as much as she smiles, I've had a really hard time capturing her smiles in pictures. It's mostly our camera - and my lack of real photography skills. Our camera takes so long to flash that by the time the photo actually snaps, the smile is over. I did catch a pretty good smile on Sunday...

She loves laying on her back and talking to us. She's not really a fan of tummy time yet, but put her on her back and talk to her and she'll smile and talk back to you all day long.

The last two months have definitely been the most amazing, exhausting, fulfilling, confusing, phenomenal months of my life. I look at Lila's little face and can't imagine not having her in my life. It sounds so cliche, but I never, ever knew that I could love someone so completely as I love her.

I can't wait to see what the next months have in store for us!

8 weeks!

Our baby girl is 8 weeks old today!

She's also asleep and I'm not. There's something seriously wrong with this situation! Expect a more extensive update of Lila's goings on in her 2 month entry this Wednesday.

G'night!

Monkeys and a seahorse

Lila and I had a long, long night last night. She decided that sleep wasn't really of interest to her, so we were up together from 2:00 on. Dad took the morning shift and I took a nap but Lila, for the most part, stayed awake.

What do you do when you're deliriously tired and your baby has no interest in sleep? Well, you play dress-up, of course! Lila has the most adorable newborn-sized jeans and matching jean jacket that her grandma gave her. They just barely still fit her. I love them and put her in them every chance I get. Dad's not such a big fan - he doesn't understand why they make pants for babies. He thinks they make diaper changes a pain in the rear - which they do, but the cuteness makes it worth it!

So you might wonder what one should wear with jeans and a jean jacket. Monkey slippers, of course! (Duh.)

A few days ago I ordered a Fisher Price Soothe and Glow Seahorse for Lila after reading over and over about how much babies love it and how it helps them go to sleep and stay asleep. The universe must have known that we need something to help Lila sleep, because the seahorse came in the mail today! I propped it next to Lila in her swing and guess what?

Not more than a few minutes after this picture was taken, Lila fell asleep! Victory!! The seahorse plays music and water sounds and fades out gradually so as not to wake up the baby. Maybe Lila just fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion, but this is the longest she's stayed asleep for over 12 hours, sooooo....I'll take it!

Anyway, enough product endorsement. I'm going to take this opportunity to settle down with some coffee and a movie.

Happy Saturday!

Spring Break!

Yesterday was a beautiful day and we spent it outdoors together as a family. We walked around the lake, we sat on a park bench and soaked up the sunshine, and we ran the dogs until they were exhausted.

Lila loved spending the day in the sun. By the time the clouds rolled in in the afternoon, she was exhausted, too.

Of course Lila was wide awake at 10 pm last night, so we decided on some tummy time in her nursery. Lila is still not a fan of being set down directly on her tummy, so we prop her up on the Boppy and provide her with some visual stimulation. She enjoys herself quite a bit whenever her black and white drawings are involved.

Look at that hair! I had just given her a little sponge bath before this picture, so her hair was still a bit wet. Try as I might, I can never get that last little lick of hair to sit down on the top of her head. People keep asking if she has lost any hair since birth, and the answer is definitely no. As a matter of fact, her hair has gotten longer, especially in the back. At this rate she's going to have a baby mullet in a matter of months! I hope this means that she's going to have a full head of her dad's thick, dark hair.

Today the weather is not quite so nice, so we're going to stay home. Depending on how Lila naps, I might make some cookies. Or not - we might just snuggle up on the couch together. There's nothing I'd rather do.

7 weeks

Lila is 7 weeks old today!

This week was off to a rough start (see last entry.) I'm happy to report that the last two nights have been sooo much better. On Friday night Lila slept for six straight hours, and last night she slept for almost five. It is amazing how good I felt after so much sleep!

The new bedtime routine hasn't really worked too well. It seems that Lila isn't really into having a routine yet, so we're just trying to read her cues and let her sleep when she's tired and eat when she's hungry. When she does get ready to go down for the night, we've been changing, feeding, rocking, and reading to her, even if it's not the same time every night.

This weekend Lila and I got some girl time with our good friends Jill, Anne, and Alex. The four of us met while training for our first marathon six years ago and have remained friends ever since. Here's a picture of all of "The Running Girls" - with the newest little Running Girl!

Lila is becoming so much more alert and awake these days, and it's really a lot of fun to interact with her. She has started enjoying things that she never really enjoyed before - like baths! Here she is luxuriating in her tub on Tuesday.

Quite a far cry (ha) from her very first bath...

Oh, she's getting so big! Here she is just a few minutes ago.
We're off on a walk around the lake to enjoy this beautiful, spring-y day!

It's a party!

Well, at least Lila seems to think so. She has been awake for the better part of last night and this morning. We put her down last night and the moment she was set down, she woke up. This is the game we played all. Night. Long. She isn't grumpy unless I set her down and stop paying attention to her.

I decided to put her in her crib for a few minutes while I took a shower. She enjoyed that for a little bit.



She's on my lap right now, wide awake and happy as a clam. No sleep in sight...for either of us.

6 weeks

Lila turned 6 weeks old yesterday! All day yesterday I meant to capture her 6 week photo but I just never got around to it. I usually remember to take the photo at night right before bed, but that seems to be when Lila least likes to be photographed.

So instead here's Miss Lila today... six whole weeks old!

We're enjoying a lazy day today. It is cloudy outside and Lila is nap-y, so we're just hanging out. As you see in the photo above, I haven't even really gotten around to dressing Lila today. I took her out of her swaddle this morning and couldn't decide what she should wear, so she's wearing the baby equivalent of sweatpants - a sleep sack! Lila loves her sleep sacks. They're kind of big on her, and if you look closely you'll notice that she doesn't always keep her arms in the sleeves. It's the wild, one-armed baby! Silly girl.

Here she is relaxing on her Boppy, where she has spent most of the day napping today. BIG YAWN!


Still rockin' the one arm look. :)

I think it's time that we start a bedtime routine with Lila. Up to this point we kind of just let her sleep wherever she falls asleep until I/we go to bed for the night. Then we change her, feed her, and put her down to sleep in her crib. The past two nights she has been really fussy starting at about 6:30 in the evening. It's not a full-on cry fest, but rather a tired, over stimulated cry. She fights sleep but surrenders after nursing and swaddling followed by some cuddling. Starting tonight we're going to try preempting the sleepy meltdown and try a bedtime routine. Hopefully it works for Lila, and hopefully it means that our evenings will start to feel a little bit less chaotic as well.

This weekend Lila and I are looking forward to some serious girl time. A good friend of ours will be in town visiting and we'll be spending quality time with some of the greatest girls in the world. I'm so excited! Lila doesn't even know the fun that's in store for her.

Happy Saturday!

Lila wishes you a relaxing Saturday.

She hopes that you have some time today to "chill out" in your bunny slippers, too!

Peaceful.

Lila and I are enjoying a peaceful Thursday at home.



(The video makes it look like the sun's shining in her eyes...I assure you it's not.)

When she wakes I think we'll head out for a walk around the neighborhood with the pups.

Days like today are the stuff that life is all about.

Big booty, big booty!

Today was Lila's first full day wearing cloth diapers. So far, so good! If anything, the diapers work a little bit too well. Lila had a very messy explosion today and I couldn't smell a thing! Heaven knows how long she sat in it before I found it during a routine post-feeding diaper change. Woops. :(

Here's Miss Lila in her freshly clean cloth diaper. She's pretty happy!

Our neighbor brought Lila the black and white drawings you see above her changing table. Lila loves them! She has begun focusing her eyes on things more and more this past week, and these drawings are her favorite. Over the past few days she has even begun reaching for them while she's on her changing pad.

As you can see in this picture, the cloth diapers make Lila's tush a bit more...voluptuous. From here on out she'll be sporting pants and Onesies one size larger than normal. We made the cloth transition just in time, it seems. Lila has officially outgrown her newborn clothes. It doesn't seem like quite as big of a deal to move her up to bigger bottoms when she's moving out of her newborn clothes.

Now that our girl is starting to not be such a teeny tiny baby anymore, she's also starting to form some habits. For the past three days at the same time in the early evening, Lila has been restless and fussy. It has been right after feedings and changing, so the first time this happened I swaddled her up and snuggled her against my chest. She fell sound asleep! The same thing happened yesterday and again today, and I must admit that this new sleepy snuggle time has become my favorite part of the day. I really hope that this is the start of a routine!