The Great Cloth Experiment - Day One

As of yesterday, we've gone cloth. I had pledged to cloth diaper MJ even before she was born. I could pat myself on the back for my environmentalism (disposables sit in landfills pretty much forever, so like styrofoam, they are the devil), but really, it's all about the money. Some estimates place the cost of diapering a child to potty training at near $1,200. This, for something that gets tossed out with the garbage! Yikes.

I know what you're thinking. Gross. Those things get poopy and then have to be hand-rinsed. Yeah, true. When I told my cousin, Hilary, that I was going to cloth diaper, she almost threw up on the dinner table. But cloth diapers have really come a long way. They have inserts that don't have to be folded, and with the advent of snaps and velcro, there are no pins to wrestle with. The covers come in all kinds of adorable colors and patterns, and some brands even have one-size covers that grow with your child.

Admittedly, cloth diapers are more expensive up front; our first set of gDiapers, purchased on Saturday, hit up our checking account for $53.98, plus tax. This included two diaper covers and six cloth inserts. I bought them at Babies R Us for convenience; I'm sure they're cheaper somewhere online. The great thing about cloth is that even if you end up spending as much as $400 to diaper a child to potty training, you can reuse all of those diapers for future children. Let's say we end up having four children (permit my insanity for a moment, just to illustrate the point). Through disposable diapers, we'd spend approximately $4,800 to collect their waste until they were all potty trained. Through the use of the cloth, we'd only spend about . . . $400. That's a generous estimate which even includes the energy costs of machine washing up to age 18 months. Let's even throw in another $100, to replace a few that got lost or ripped or stained beyond repair. That's still a savings of $4,300 over the diapering lives of all four children.

Unless we suddenly win the lottery, a little extra cleaning work on my part is worth it.

Last night was our first cloth diapering experience. gDiapers are easy to load. The diaper inserts don't have to be folded; they already come sized properly for the diaper. Made of a highly absorbent blend of hemp and cotton, they are soft as those sweet little cheeks! I kind of wish I had some sleep pants made out of them. Anyway, the diaper covers are cotton, and the nylon liners simply snap in. Then the inserts rest inside the liner. The covers velcro-close in the back, which apparently keep little hands from ripping the diaper off, but we don't really have to worry about that yet, since she's only recently even discovered that she HAS hands. Ha.

After a battle over fit (I wanted to make sure they were tight enough to stay on, but not so tight they squished her fat little tummy), she seemed not to notice a difference. I certainly noticed that they are a bit bulkier than their disposable counterparts, but what is cuter than a padded baby bottom? As she begins to sit on her own, and eventually takes a tumble or two, she'll probably appreciate a little extra padding.

She woke up twice in the night. We're not sure if she's always done this, and she only wakes us up because we're in the same room with her, or if she's just begun reverting back to newborn sleep patterns, but she didn't seem to need a change or feeding, so she went back to sleep. Waking up for good at 7:30 this morning, I scooped her up and placed her on her changing pad. I patted her little bottom, and noticed a slight dampness.

Darn.

She'd leaked through her left leg opening a little. Really, she was only slightly damp on the outside of the diaper cover, and it seemed not to get on her sleeper at all since the diaper covers are cotton, and therefore also absorbent. Disposables can't boast that! You leak in a disposable and end up having to change everything. Unfortunately, as I was pulling off the old diaper, I realized I didn't have anything in which to put her wet cloth insert. The diaper pail is still home to soiled disposables.

Darn again.

As I went to replace the cloth diaper with a new Huggies Little Snugglers Size 2 (I left the other loaded diaper cover downstairs - oops), she suddenly began peeing.

Sigh. Well, that's not unique to cloth diapering. That's just fresh air hitting the pee-pee parts.

Overall, I'm pleased with the first attempt. I think I will check out the website and see if I can figure out what's up with the leg opening fit. Do they adjust somehow? I also need to get something to put the dirty inserts in. Today, I had enough laundry to simply run a load of baby things, so I just threw in the wet insert, but I'm sure that won't be the case every time I change her.

So far, happy baby, happy mommy. We'll see how it goes.

Brand New Tricks, and New Sizes Too

Ahh. This has been a big week for the little one. I think she is finally beginning to get back to her old Babywise schedule. Right after we moved, she abandoned her wonderful through-the-night sleeps and two-hour naps and reverted to her freshly newborn every two-hour wake-ups.

It was a dark time.

The last two nights in a row she slept for seven and six hours, respectively, before awaking in the middle of the night. It's so bizarre, because she's not even hungry. She gets that pacifier back into her mouth and off she drifts again. What is the deal with this? Is she frustrated because she doesn't have her own room anymore? Do things smell different in Virginia? Has she begun a new love affair with 2am? I don't know, but it's frustrating. Her naps have not been great, but they're getting better. She was napping for two hours at a time during nap time, but after we moved, they suddenly became 30-45 minute naps.

How to get anything done?

Now they're about an hour apiece, so that's a little better.

On to the good stuff.

On Tuesday night, we were all sitting around the dining room table. We were just finishing dinner, so I lifted MJ out of her bouncy seat and set her on my lap to "see stuff" (aka, let everyone gaze upon her chubby face). Mike held her hand, shook it up and down, and told her "hi," about sixty times until suddenly, the most amazing sound graced our ears: MJ laughed out loud for the first time ever. It was this throaty, guffaw-like chuckle, and she kept laughing for a few seconds as we all cheered. Just as quickly, all five of us were all over her, shaking her arms, bouncing her, blinking wildly and grinning like maniacs in a vain attempt to recreate the precise conditions which resulted in that sweet sound.

She decided we were no longer funny, and suddenly became her serious, observant self again. We continued to pursue The Laugh over and over every day, and Mike keeps greeting her by shaking her arm and telling her "hi," but it stopped working. Finally, tonight, Mike & I took her on a stroll through the neighborhood. She was in an amazing mood, grinning all over herself and checking out the scenery. When we got back inside, I started talking to her as I pulled her out of her carrier, and it happened again! She laughed, and laughed, and laughed. I kept repeating whatever I was saying ("You're making my face hurt," I think) over and over, and she kept thinking it was the most hilarious thing I'd ever told her. It was great! Again, it was over as suddenly as it had begun, but Mike got part of it on video on his cell phone.

Treasure.

She has another new trick as well. Today, I left her on the floor on her gym mat to swat at her hanging animals while I ran upstairs to replace her diaper bag's supply of Mylicon. When I returned, she was lying on her side with her fingers shoved halfway down her throat. I shrieked cheerfully and told her what a brilliant baby she is, and in one swift motion, she rolled onto her back and over to her other side! I think she would have made it all the way, but because she had those fingers in her mouth her elbows were sticking out at an angle that made it impossible for her to get over them. I tried to get her to replicate this trick for Granny that afternoon, and then again for Mom & Dad, and finally again for Mike, but I think she's trying to make everyone think I'm nuts. She refuses to perform for other people! I swear, I'm really not lying. She really does these things! She just seems to only do them when there are no other witnesses.

I'm going to spend the weekend rolling her manually from side to side to jog her memory.

Also, guess who is wearing her 6-month clothes already? Caroline put her in a 6-9 month outfit on Thursday, and it fit her, so today she wore a 6-month outfit, and it fit. It's kind of disgusting how fast she is growing.

Sigh.

MJ at Three Months

I can't believe MJ is three months old today. It seems like I was just packing up her newborn outfits; I must have blinked, because already it's time to pack away her three months size outfits. It's really been time for about a week, and yet they still hang in her armoire. Maybe I'm just putting off the inevitable, which is laundry, because I need to wash all of her new 6-9 month clothes and have them ready to hang next to the 3-6 month size she is currently wearing, so when she soon outgrows this size the bigger ones are already waiting.

It's sneaky how she does this growing thing when I'm not looking.

She has all kinds of new tricks, and they're much better than the early vomity variety.

Things she can do:

1. Grab. She is really reaching out for her hanging "friends" on her little activity center mat. She has been batting at them for some time now, and she's always been a good stare-er, but now she's grabbing onto "Polly Parrot's" (mom picked out the friends' names, FYI. As my uncle Brad will tell you, I just called that one "Bird.") crunchy wings and holding on for dear life. Also, she sweetly grips her blanket as she sleeps, and yanks out clumps of my hair. Adorable.

2. Respond. Okay, she's been responsive for a long time. She used to follow us around the room with her eyes, and if we made faces at her, she would grin as though we told her the funniest joke ever. But now she follows directions. For example, if I "direct" her to blow a raspberry with her lips by blowing one at her, she will comply, scrunch up her lips, and hum as she blows through them. It's the cutest thing ever. Guess what else? She blows kisses. This is her newest trick, and as my mother as my witness, she will make a kissing sound at you if you make one first. What a little copy-cat!

3. Sucks her fingers. She's been trying to get this one down for about three months. She used to just whack herself in the head trying to get those hands to hang out anywhere near her mouth, but now she can get them up and the fingers curled over her lip in sucking glory!

4. Holds her head up. She is getting SO good at this one. I was worried about it, mostly because they say babies are supposed to spend Tummy Time practicing raising their heads to strengthen their little neck, arm, and chest muscles, and our little MJ absolutely HATES spending time on her tummy. She will tolerate it for a few seconds, then begin to whine and complain until Tummy Time turns into Scream Fest. Needless to say, I doubt she got as much as she was supposed to, and yet, she is somehow developing the ability to support her giant head.

5. Stands. I know - you don't believe me. That's okay. I wouldn't believe me either. But yesterday, we were sitting on the floor, and she had her little bottom parked on my crossed leg. I held onto her hands with mine, and she extended her arms as I pulled her forward slightly. She then straightened her legs, and just like that, my little girl was standing, supporting all of her 16ish pounds on her chubby little legs. I cheered, amazed, and praised her for this outstanding feat, and after only half a minute, she had plopped back down onto my leg. She even held up her head.

Three months old, and completely brilliant.

I've maybe said that before; now you know it's true.

Happy 3-Month Birthday, little one. Don't grow up so fast.