Happy Thanksgiving!

Um, I Thought This Was, Like, Yesterday

I found this photo collage that I made when my little mouse was a week old.  Which she just was, I swear.

Except that was almost two months ago.  And you know what’s even stranger?  SHE DOESN’T EVEN LOOK LIKE THIS ANYMORE.

It would break my heart, except for the fact that if it were possible?  Yeah, I’d love her even more today than I did two months ago.

Bath Time

Cloth Diapering Update

Just in case any of you care how we are catching our daughter’s poop…

So, I imagined, pre-baby, that by now we would be 100% cloth, or, you know, 99.9% cloth.  But I also imagined I would have, you know, a front porch accessed by steps rather than a ladder.  Things turn out differently than we imagine, right?

Cloth or disposable? Hazel prefers neither.

First, let me share some of the challenges we’ve faced in our cloth diaper experience…

Challenge 1: we live in a tall, narrow house, which means that to get from where baby is napping down to the washing machine, I turn a half dozen corners on three flights of steps and cross the garage.  Assuming she naps.  And with the number of diapers we have, this means 6 trips up and down each day just for diaper laundry.

Challenge 2: I am still adjusting to rural living, which means bringing in wood and keeping the stove going constantly (that is where ladder-to-the-front-door gets in my way).  Also, there was that 6 hour stand off with the mouse.  Who left a trail of poop through our drawers, which I am still cleaning up.

Challenge 3: we’ve spent a total of nearly 3 weeks traveling since the baby was born.  Not enough cloth for a multi-day trip.

Challenge 4: some residual health concerns from Hazel’s birth have doubled the number of appointments we have to attend (the concerns were minor and have been addressed).

Challenge 5: severe reflux has made our days long and, at times, trying (as in, “No thank you, I don’t want to nap all day, and if you put me down I will scream myself into convulsions.  Or I might scream myself into convulsions anyway, just for a change of pace”), which needs a post all on its own.  Also, the cloth diapers are super bulky, and compress her tummy when she sits in them, possibly exacerbating the reflux.

And Challenge 6: our house in under construction, so to get to the washing machine, I have to take all those stairs and turns through an obstacle course of tools and detritus.  Also, due to the dust and noise, I have spent some of the time at my mom’s house, which means packing up all the baby necessities and my own stuff and wrestling a screaming, arching, wriggling baby into a car seat.  And a nail in my tire.

This seems to happen occasionally NO MATTER WHAT DIAPER she is wearing.

Which brings me to the lesson I have learned in cloth diapering: FORGIVE YOURSELF EVERYTHING, including that package of disposables you just bought.

Seriously, my mantra has been just doing a little bit still counts for something.  If I continued to hold my standard at the pre-baby 100% through all these challenges, I would have given up weeks ago.  Instead, I just remind myself that 6 cloth diaper changes reduces my waste by 6 disposables, and that’s making a difference.  My goal is still to get nearly 100%, but for now, I’m probably 75% at home and not at all on trips.  Maybe 50% overall?  Which feels significant to me.  Cutting our impact in half feels good.

As for the diapers themselves, Hazel is mostly in Fuzzibuns Perfect Size diapers.  It’s hard to get a good fit (I truly hope that she is enjoying her skinny thighs now, in case they don’t last), but we haven’t had any more blowouts with the cloth than with disposables – just lots of pee leaks if the diaper isn’t adjusted correctly.  My favorite diaper is our one Thirsties Duo.  It just fits her legs better than the FBs, and is a little trimmer.  The cotton prefolds with covers hold the least and are very bulky, but I use them to get through a whole day of diapering.

I have to say, the disposables are nice in that they are thin; Hazel is in a different size of clothing with her cloth diapers than in disposables, and her carseat has to be adjusted when she goes from one to the other.  They also are so absorbent that she can go a criminally long time between changes (only at night, and only when I am so exhausted that I fall asleep during her nighttime feedings).  They also pack nicely in the diaper bag – bulky cloth diapers are more challenging to fit if we are going to be out for a whole day.  I will probably always keep one in the glove compartment of the car for emergencies, and probably one in the diaper bag as well.

So that is our diapering adventure so far… With a year or two left to go…

Totally unrelated pic of Hazel practicing her brand new motor skills