Jack is laughing!!

Jack would not stop laughing tonight on his bouncer!! He's laughed here and there, but really short, and at odd times...he definitely was laughing at the parrot on the top of his bouncer. It's a long video, and it's all of him laughing!

He's NAPPING!!!

Jack is currently napping in his swing. He never naps. Let me rephrase that. He only naps on me, or with me. Never by himself. He is napping in his swing!! This is wonderful! So, that is my photo of the day for today!

I was going to post photos of the nursery, but I left my point and shoot and my mom's house, which is where the pitures are. So, you will have to settle for cute photos of my son.

Oh, here is something people have been wanting to see. The quilt that my sister in law Rachel made from the squares that everyone at my shower did. It turned out great! We love it!




Jack has been loving grabbing and holding onto his keys that his cousin Marcel got him for Christmas. They are so easy to hold!





And here he is having fun with Nana! He loves the ABC song!




Nursery pictures soon!

Cloth diapering 101

OK. Here it is. I LOVE my cloth diapers. How could you not love this fluffy butt?

Why cloth diaper?
I addressed this a while back before Jack was born, but here they are again. It is far cheaper than having to buy disposables. Cloth diapers do not contain the chemicals found in disposables, chemicals that I don't want on my baby's skin. Cloth diapers are so much better for the environment. And, finally, cloth diapers are MUCH cuter! See the fluffy butt above.

Cloth diaper options

Prefolds--Prefolds are big cotton rectangles. They are pre-folded, hence the name, so the center portion is thicker than the sides. Before prefolds, people used flat diapers and had to fold them to make the center thicker. Prefolds are fastened with pins, or a much nicer, safer snappi fastener. Prefolds need a waterproof cover over them.



Prefolds are the cheapest cloth diaper option. They are also the most versatile. Prefolds can be used as burp cloths, changing pads or to wipe up baby messes. If you use pocket diapers, prefolds can be used as inserts. Prefolds can be used as cleaning rags years after baby has been potty trained. I will confirm that they make great burp cloths, they are so abosorbant. We are using Jack's newborn prefolds now as burp cloths.

Here is a prefold fastened with a snappi.



Fitteds--Like prefolds, fitted diapers require a waterproof cover. However they do not need to be folded or fastened; fitted diapers are already shaped to fit your baby. They snap or velcro. We have a few fitteds.

Here is one that snaps, this is a Kissaluvs, these are really nice for newborns, because they snap down in the center for the bellybutton.



And here is a Thirsties Fab Fitted, with velcro.


Diaper covers--diaper covers are waterproof covers that go over a prefold or fitted diaper. Covers come in many cute colors and patterns.

The most popular cover and our favorite are Thirsties:



Pocket Diapers--pocket diapers look like disposables, except made of fabric. They contain a pocket. In the pocket, a cloth insert is used to make the diaper absorbant. Inserts can be doubled up for increased absorbancy. They do not need a cover, the outside of them is waterproof. What is nice about pockets, is that they wick away the moisture into the insert inside the diaper, so the baby isn't sitting in wetness like with the prefolds and fitteds.



Here is Jack modeling his new Bum Genius pocket diapers. We just started using them because they really are too big for babies under 10 lbs. The Bum Genius are one size, which means they can unsnap to get larger, as the baby gets larger. They are supposed to last until potty training, but I know some people grow out of them. You can also get sized pockets, and buy them as your baby grows.




All in Ones--these are the easiest diapers and the most like disposables. Like their name suggests, they are all in one piece--no covers or inserts required. AIO's are the most expensive cloth diapers. These are great for dads, babysitters and daycares.



Choosing a diaper--when choosing a diaper, think about your needs. Are you willing to do a little extra work to save money? Prefolds or fitteds may be a good choice. Are you willing to spend more money for diapers that require less work? You may want pockets or AIOs. If you are not sure, you can buy a few of each or buy some used diapers to try--that way, you don't spend a lot of money on diapers you may end up disliking. We started with mostly prefolds and a few fitteds for the newborn stage. I'm really glad we did, since the newborn stage lasted over 2 months for us! Now that he's bigger, we are using the Bum Genius pockets. I'd like to try some other types of pockets, but we just haven't bought them yet. We are still using prefolds as well, because we only have 5 pockets. He still fits into his small fitteds so we have those for a little while longer too.

How many should I buy? You should start with 25-30 diapers. This will be a load of laundry about every other day. If you are diapering with prefolds or fitted diapers, you will also need 4 or 5 covers. We started with 24 prefolds and 4 fitteds, which was PLENTY. Now that he's bigger and using fewer diapers, we have 12 prefolds, 4 fitteds, and 5 (soon to be 7) Bum Genius pockets. That is plenty as well, for doing laundry every other day.

Washing diapers--diapers should be washed first with a cold rinse and then washed in hot water with an extra rinse cycle. You should use a detergent with few or no additives--i.e. dyes, perfumes, enzymes or brighteners. These additives may interfere with the diaper's absorbancy or irritate your baby's skin.

What about the poop? If your baby is exclusively breastfed, their poop is water soluble. That means you can throw dirty diapers right in the wash. If your baby is formula fed or eating solids, you will need to rinse or scrape the diapers first. You can buy a sprayer to remove poop, or use rice paper liners in the diaper that can be easily removed and flushed down the toilet. Keep in mind you should be flushing poop off disposables too, so this isn't an extra step.

Other things you will need:
Diaper pail--a trashcan with a foot pedal makes a great cloth diaper pail, or you can buy a pail specifically made for diapers. You would need some sort of liner (some people use pillow cases) that would get washed with the diapers. We don't use a diaper pail.

Wetbags--Our diaper pail is a wetbag. A wetbag is a bag with a waterproof lining that zips, or has a drawstring. You throw the diapers and wipes in the bag and toss all of it in the laundry. You also need small wetbags for cloth diapering on the go. Throw the dirty diaper/wipe in the wetbag, zip it up and take it home. Again, throw the diaper and the bag in the wash.

Wipes--if you're cloth diapering, you may also want to use cloth wipes instead of disposable wipes. These can be thrown right in the wash with the diapers. You can buy specially made cloth wipes, use washcloths or make your own out of prefolds or fabric. It's so easy to use cloth wipes with cloth diapers, they go right in the same place. If you were to use disposable wipes, you'd have to take the wipe to the trash and the diaper to the pail. You can wet the wipes with water, or a premade wipe solution, that is usually mostly water and a bit of baby wash.

You can also use a diaper service, and they will wash and deliver your diapers to you, but I don't know a lot about them. This would make cloth diapering closer to the cost of disposables.

Where to find cloth diapers--you may have a local boutique that sells cloth diapers. Bum Genius brand diapers are now sold in some Target stores. Most likely you will have to buy them online. Ok, I edited this post on 6/29/09 because I don't need to be advertising any other cloth diaper stores. If you need cloth diapers, you can get them here:
We LOVE our diapers. We never have leaks, and I hear about leaks all the time with disposables. We never have to run to the store to buy diapers, we just to a load of laundry. Heck, between breastfeeding and cloth diapering, we don't spend any money on this child!

I hope I didn't forget anything.

3 Months Old!

The change in this baby the past 3 months is unbelievable!

1 month


2 months


3 Months


Doesn't he look so grown up?!? I can't believe that is our baby! He's still a little guy, weighing in at 10 lbs, 10 oz. He talks a lot, smiles a lot and even laughs once in a while. It's crazy sounding, but we love it! He's really grabbing things a lot better now too! He doesn't do much with them, just grabs. He sleeps through the night. Yes, seriously, and he's been doing it for a long time! He goes to bed between 10 and 12, and sleeps til 8 or 9. He makes up for that though because he doesn't nap during the day. At all. I think he doesn't want to miss out on anything.

Cloth diapering 101 coming up soon by request.

I'm a scrapping machine!

Well, ok, not really, but I have done 8 pages in the past 2 weeks, which is more than I have done in MONTHS! I'm so glad to be back scrapbooking again! I can't wait to get to Jack's pictures. It won't be long at this rate! Here's what I've done recently. Some of the colors scanned funny.









Grandma Kathy (John's mom) turned 60 this week, and Kelly hosted a party. I got some good photos of Jack with Aunt Kelly.

FINALLY!

I don't know why I consider 10 lbs such a milestone, but, Jack has been SO slow to gain weight we were very excited to see this on the scale. He's finally gaining at a consistent pace now. It's really been since he started breastfeeding like a champ at 6 weeks, but now that it's gone on for a while we are really seeing the pounds pile on! Now, most babies his age are well above 10 lbs, but he's catching up!

He also laughed while he was on the scale today! I was taking the picture, and he started to laugh! It was crazy sounding, like he was trying really hard to do it, but it was oh so cute!

Another milestone, on Saturday, Jack grabbed hold of one of the toys on his playmat!

And, this picture is just cute.

Jack is playing!

Jack started actively playing with his toys! Today he was on his bouncer and was batting the toy for about 10 minutes!

Milestones

Wow, this is my 4th post in less than a week!

This is a short one. I took my photo of the day, and it's kind of sad...my baby has grown out of his newborn clothes. I was putting them away tonight. He wore them for 2 months...he's just now wearing 0-3.

Project 365

I'm going to attempt to take a photo a day in 2009, inspired by Becky Higgins, who has created a kit for an album to put 365 photos in. I have a link on my sidebar to the right titled "Project 365" with my photos in a calendar. Just click on the day with the snippet of the photo and you can see the full picture!

This picture didn't make it in to Project 365, so here it is...the lip, it gets us every time!

Happy New Year/ Best of 2008

(I just added to this post at 9:00 pm Jan 1, if you read this earlier)

Resolution #1 Pay more attention to our child.

haha.

John and I were discussing how 2008 has been our best year yet. We got pregnant, we had a beautiful baby, we got rid of our credit card debt, John was promoted twice, and I no longer have to work full time. 2008 was not so kind to many others, especially in Michigan, so we feel very fortunate. We look forward to 2009 being even better for us!



I saw my old friend Sara posted a "best of 2008" with her favorite posts from each month last year I liked that idea, so I'm stealing it! Who knows if anyone cares, but here they are!

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December