The Payne Family: May 2012

I NEVER thought I would even consider cloth diapering. Like, I NEVER NEVER NEVER would have considered it before becoming a mom. I thought it was gross and definitely not for me! Just add that to the list of "I never...."s that happened anyway. :)

Lawson sleeps 11-12 hours at night. Which is AWESOME!! But because he sleeps for so long, he pees through every single disposable diaper we have tried, which makes him wake up sooner and more often because he is wet and cold. After some coaxing from some great friends, I decided to give cloth diapering at night a go! Apparently they are more absorbent and I was willing to try anything! In general, I don't like to put chemicals on my baby, and I like to feed him natural or organic things. While it was definitely not my first reason for trying cloth, it makes me feel good that I'm keeping the chemicals off my baby and putting more natural things on him. Just another plus, although I'm not opposed to disposables either. We are avid Pampers users around here, and will continue to be while Lawson is in daycare and when we leave the house. Cloth diapering is kind of complicated outside of the house, and I'm not ready to try it yet. Maybe one day I will be. :)

Here's what I purchased (I figured if I was going to really try it, I had to give it a fair chance. The good thing about cloth diapers is that they hold their value, so if we hated it, we weren't going to be out much money).

Cloth diapers (duh, right?!?):

This one is a sustainablebabyish (sbish)

Here's Lawson's mini-stash (before three more have been purchased, ha!) ALL of Lawson's diapers are blue or have some sort of blue in them. We like blue here. :) These are:

Top row: Lotus Bumz, Sbish; Bottom row: Etsy seller Turtle Love, Bagshot Row Bamboo (BSRB). All of these are fitteds and are the most absorbent cloth diaper (which we need for night), but require a cover to be water proof. I bought covers too (you'll see that in a below picture). :)

This one is Bububebe and is an All In 2 diaper (doesn't require a cover because the outer is already wetproof)

Cloth wipes, and I make my own solution with just water and baby shampoo.

Detergent. I ordered the Rockin' Green online, but it took too long to get here and I got impatient, so I bought the All at the grocery store. All is not as good as Rockin' Green, but I was anxious to get started and I figured it wouldn't hurt to use it just once. :)

A wet bag (this is where the used diapers go until I wash them). And it's washable too! I just throw the whole thing in the washer. :)

So far....I REALLY like it! I didn't think I would, but I really do! I have plans to buy more diapers and hopefully work up to full time cloth diapering in the summer time. It's so easy, and I love that Lawson has a cute booty! :) Plus, cloth diapers are a one time purchase unlike disposables, and I can resell them after baby/ies, so in the long run it saves us money, although I admit that wasn't one of my first reasons for doing it. I just wanted a night time solution that kept us all asleep and happy, and that has turned into a whole new world of cloth diapering! :)

A few things:

1) Yes, I put poopy diapers in my washer (or I will, I haven't had a poopy cloth diaper yet since we are only cloth part time until we build our stash, but I know it's coming). No, it's not gross. Well, it is gross, but not any grosser than putting poopy clothes in my washer which has happened on more than one occasion after a blow out. Blow outs are not common at all in cloth diapers. So, yes, I put poopy diapers in my washer, but poopy clothes have been in there before, so this isn't new. It sounded WAY gross to me before becoming a mom, but I've been pooped on, peed on, spit up on, etc, so it's just part of motherhood now, lol! Throwing poopy diapers into the wash is WAY more appealing than cleaning up a baby after a disposable blow out, haha!

2) Yes, I have to do laundry more often now. Diaper laundry actually isn't that bad because there's nothing to fold and folding is my least favorite part.

3) I'm still learning about cloth diapering and all that comes with it. So far I really enjoy it, but I reserve the right to change my mind. :)

Now some WAY CUTE booty pictures of my little man! :)

Monkey butt!

Lawson with a fitted diaper on and a cover. The covers are the waterproof that keeps the wetness from getting on his clothes. How cute is this owl cover???

Lawson with his fitted BSRB diaper. *A note about fitteds. They require a cover to be waterproof, but it takes a WHILE to soak a cloth diaper (like overnight). When we first put his diaper on, we let him go coverless for a while until bed time, which is good for baby's skin because it allows it to breathe, plus it's just so stinkin' cute! ;)

Lawson in his Goodmama fitted, which may be my favorite fitted so far.

I would love to answer any questions you have about cloth diapering. It's so overwhelming at first, but so far it works so well for our family! Chris is even on board if it means less night time wake ups. :)

I guess we can add cloth diapering to the list of "I will never..."s that I had before becoming a mom that I do now that I am a mom. Actually BEING a parent changes a lot about my views pre-parenthood. :)

Lawson, you are EIGHT months old (and one week!). This post is super late because on his 8th Monthday, Lawson woke up with a fever. He had strep :(. Then, just as the antibiotic was starting to kick in for that, BOTH of his top two teeth started to come in. He pretty much cried 24-7 from Monday- Thursday. My boy is normally so independent and happy, and he was a clingy screaming mess this week. It was so sad. I am so glad those teeth are finally broken through and he is almost back to himself. I will get an 8 month photo this weekend. There was no point even trying this week. :)

Here is some of what you are up to at 8 months:

You weigh 18.5 pounds, which is the 32nd percentile for your age.
You wear 6-9 months clothes, but most things are almost too short for you. We may be moving up a size soon, even though the waist will swallow you!
You wear a size 3 diaper, and we are venturing into cloth diapering this next week, so there will definitely be a post coming on that! :)
You have FOUR teeth now. Bottom two and top two.
You are SO independent. I can't even really call you a baby. You don't act like a baby. You don't care to be rocked or held like a baby, and you like to do things for yourself. You love to be held, but only sitting up like a big boy. :)
You say "dada", "mama", and we are working on "bite" and "up." You are getting close with those.
You repeat lots of things we say, but you don't connect them to words yet.
You mimic us like CRAZY! Mommy has had a terrible cough for almost two weeks now, and you like to mimic her coughing sounds. It's funny...for the first five minutes, ha!
You are still a great eater. You don't do so great with solid finger foods, unless it's puffs, but you will pretty much eat anything pureed.
You are crawling everywhere. You pull up on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. You think it's super cool. You especially like to crawl to places you aren't supposed to go and then speed crawl away from us when we catch you, ha! We really love it when you crawl to us and pat our feet or pull up on us to be held. It's heart melting.
I could say you still sleep great, but that's up in the air. This past week, sleep was for the birds in our house! You slept ok last night after you started feeling better, so we're hoping you get back to your normal sleep routine now. We will see...
You are so happy (when you're not teething, hahah!), and we love seeing your sweet smile every day and hearing you laugh.
You are so BUSY and practically never still. When you do get still, we know it's bedtime, ha!