Installed Diaper Sprayer

When I started the cloth diaper adventure I ordered a diaper sprayer (mentioned in previous post). It came in Saturday but I didn't get it installed until this morning. The listing on ebay said that it only took 5 minutes to install. And that would have been true IF I had bought the right size crescent wrench to begin with. In the first 2 minutes I got one end of the hose connected to the toilet off and when I started to disconnect the bigger end I discovered that the crescent wrench that I had was not big enough. So at 5 this morning I made an emergency run to wal-mart to get a bigger crescent wrench. The rest of the installation was uneventful and the sprayer works wonderfully. If anyone buys a sprayer, either the one that I bought (you can find that here) or another brand make sure that you have all the correct tools on hand!

Spiky- future guitarist

Spiky decided today that he wanted to try to play the guitar. I think we should figure out what he was playing and name it Spiky's song. AFTER CAREFUL CONSIDERATION WE HAVE NAMED THE SONG "IF I COULD ONLY REACH MY PACI"

My Other Addiction...

Now that I am addicted to cloth diapers, I can also admit that I am addicted to baby wearing. My addiction started with a moby wrap, and I now have 1 mobys and 2 woven wraps. I am so thankful that I was told about baby wearing before the Spike got here! Since I had a c-section carrying him in the carseat was painful, but wearing him was not. My midwife is totally in love with baby wearing and since she has seen me wear Spike to appointments, she has started suggesting it to all of her ob patients. I still don’t know all there is to know about wraps and can’t do more than the simple beginner wraps I think that it is something that most everyone needs to at least give a try.

Spiky in the moby 10 days old

 

Spiky in the woven wrap from lil peeper keepers

So Far…

I am in LOVE with cloth diapers! Even though I was the one who wanted to try it I was a still a bit skeptical about what it would actually be like. But so far so good; I’ll admit that “dirty” diapers are worse than wet diapers. The plus side Spiky is a breast man and only poops every few days. I did not order enough prefolds. My initial order was for 20, and I guess I underestimated how much the boy really does pee because just today he went through 13 dipes so I had to do laundry tonight. But you know it was still totally worth it! My only real complaint is that it takes forever to dry the prefolds in my dryer, its not the dryer because it is brand new and has no problems drying clothes, I really think that it has something to do with the size and density of prefolds. I’m open to suggestions other than hanging them outside, I have trees in my small back yard and I think the pollen would be counterproductive. I did see online where you can buy wool dryer balls and that is supposed to cut drying time, but I can’t see myself spending $8 for one ball of yarn. I think tomorrow (or later today) I might go to a craft store, buy some felting wool, and make my own just to try it out.

Spiky in his econobum and baby legs!! 

Wool Dryer balls

Today is the day….

The cloth diapers I ordered should be in today according to UPS. I did go on cottonbabies.com last night and ordered a few more covers and prefolds. After doing more reading, I found out that what I had ordered would barely be enough for 2 days. And in order to not have to wash diapers every day I decided to buy enough so that I have 3 days worth of diapers then I only have to do laundry every 2 days.

I worked last night and left Spiky with his dad and our nephew. I have (had) 2 unopened boxes of pampers that I was going to take back to Wal-Mart, they were gifts but still the extra $50 would have put a huge dent in what I have spent on cloth. But of course the guys couldn’t find the already opened box of diapers and chose to open one of the boxes that was going back. This was not something I expected to come home to. I know it’s only $25 and as my husband says “won’t bankrupt us” but it still ticks me off that they couldn’t look or call me since they call me for everything else, and my husband KNOWS that I just spent money on cloth diapers that are going to be in today.

I plan to post some pictures after the cloth gets in and I get it washed the 3 times that they have to be washed before they can be used. But with my new washer and dryer that should only take a few hours. By tonight I should be a full fledged cloth diapering mama!

The cloth diaper experiment

I have wanted to cloth diaper since Spiky was born, but we had a craptastic washer and dryer. Finally got a new washer and dryer a few days ago and they work spectacular. After much debate, research and such I have convinced my husband to let me give it a try. This morning I went on cottonbabies.com and ordered some ‘seconds’ econobums , prefolds,diaper totes, and diaper detergent and a few other odds and ends. What is amazing is I placed my order at 7am on January 26^th and got the email saying that it had shipped 6:30pm the SAME DAY!! According to UPS my order should be in Friday afternoon. I am defiantly recommending cottonbabies.com to anybody who wants to cloth diaper. I also went on ebay and bought a diaper sprayer. I also got the confirmation tonight that it has shipped as well. So it seems in a few days I can go into cloth diaper mode and give this a fair shot. My husband is still disturbed by the whole concept. But I am hoping that after a week he will be used to the idea. I spent $120 this morning on all of this diaper stuff and it should be the majority of what we need to last the whole time Spiky is in diapers. The $120 one time investment totally beats the $100 we spend on diapers a month. Well that is a rough estimate, Spiky goes through at LEAST 10 diapers a day, and if you figure diapers cost between .20 and.30 cents a piece that is $60-$90 dollars a month at a minimum. Either way even if we only use cloth for 2 months it will be the same as diapers for 2 months. If all goes well I will have the same diapers for my next child. Unfortunately the only ‘seconds’ they had were blue so if the next child is a girl I will have to buy new covers but other than that we will be set. I did only buy the minimum for what we will ultimately need so I figure I will spend maybe another $100 but still it will be cheaper than disposables in the long run.

Spiky 3 months old

2 days before Spiky turned 3 months old I had to return to work. It was extremely hard, and it’s been 3 weeks and it’s still extremely hard. I’ve been told multiple times that it will get easier but so far it hasn’t but that could always change. I am thankful that I do not have to put Spiky in day care he is either at home with my husband or at my mom’s house. I work night shift so he is sleeping most of the time we are separated anyway. I still breastfeed so I spend about an hour at work pumping, which is awkward for me. But totally worth it! My supervisor is super supportive of the pumping but I think by law she has to be.

The week I went back to work Spiky started teething, which was not something I was ready for. The tooth has almost broken through but not quite and he seems to be not in as much pain so I don’t know if the process has hit the snooze button or what.

Spiky 2 months old

Just before Spiky’s 2 month well baby check he started rolling over. Which I wasn’t expecting until he was closer to 4 months old but he goes out of his way to prove he isn’t a baby. He also enjoys dancing to old country and the blues.

Intro to Spiky

Spiky is a boy with red-spiky hair. He doesn’t think he is a baby and gets very frustrated when he is treated like a baby or when he can’t do what he wants to do.

When I was pregnant I had certain things that I KNEW were going to go a certain way. Of course like most first time moms I was wrong. I thought that breastfeeding would be easy, that my child would be perfect, never cry, and always be pleasant. In all honesty it hasn’t been that bad. The first few weeks of breastfeeding was hard; I know that some people don’t believe in nipple confusion but I personally think it’s a real problem.

I had a c-section so we were in the hospital for longer than “normal” births but those extra days really let me get used to taking care of the new little being that is Spiky. While in the hospital he was the “perfect” child, he took to nursing right away only woke up once during the night to eat. (Yes while still in the hospital) With going home everything changed. My sister thought that paci’s were the cutest thing ever and anytime she was around she would put a paci in his mouth even if he wasn’t crying. The whole pacifiers are to PACIFY argument didn’t work with her and she would actually sneak around to give him a paci. Well after a few days of that mess he stopped latching. He would scream until I leaked and then eat like a hamster. We started calling him Hamster Boy. After 3 days or so of him not really eating and just screaming at me and then getting fed by syringe I talked to a lactation consultant and was told to nurse or try to nurse for 20 minutes, pump and then get someone else to feed him from a bottle with the slowest flow nipple possible. It took him 2 days to figure out it was going to be faster to get his food straight from the tap and he quit screaming at the boob. But it took a couple of weeks paci free to correct the latch issues. I got so much grief because I refused to let him have a paci until after he was 4 weeks old. The nay-sayers were quickly told that once his habits affected their boobs they could tell me what to do.  After the 4 week mark I did let him have a paci but it took some research to find a paci he could use that wouldn’t affect his latch. I’m sure that its different for every baby but for Spiky Avent was the only one we tried that didn’t mess up his ability to latch. The worst was Soothie ; which is the one he was given in the hospital. I have heard a few other people say that their babies also had problems latching after using the soothie. But of course it could just be a few random occurrences and there is nothing wrong with the design of the soothie pacifier.

A Short Intro to us

I have 3 step kids and one of my own. Even though the older kids don’t live with us I still think of them as my own. Spiky was born October 9, 2010; He was born after many years of infertility, tears, and frustration. Of course it was all totally worth it. Now even though I have had my step kids since they were little having a Spiky is a whole new adventure.