Monday, September 6, 2010

Day ???????

Summer came and went in the blink of an eye. For a Mom who is not a big fan of cold weather or snow I am missing the days of our 90 degree heat! I guess it's better for Annie to be in the cool beautiful fall air.
EC is a S L O W process these days. I am forgetting my pizazz that I had 9 months ago and chalking it up to being busy. In the grand scheme of things we are ALL busy. Busy is life for all of us and I am SO thankful for that! God has provided me with many opportunities to be busy and enjoy life with Annie and Joe!
We are continuing to EC a little and use cloth diapers as we see fit. Alright alright... as I see fit. Joe still refuses to use them as he doesn't want his hands getting dirty. :( I have grown to LOVE them! Yup that's right: LOVE! This week I am going to order the liners so Annie can be in cloth diapers most of the time without my fear of cleaning the poop out of them.
Last Thursday she was in cloth all day even while running errands (I'm getting brave), well she stayed dry for 5 hours! It was amazing and boy oh boy did she have to use her potty when we got home!!! WOW! I look at that day and smile as she signaled many times while we were out but she was every patient with her mommy and waited until I got it.

I learned this week that I need to listen to my daughter better and SLOW down to enjoy these precious moments!

School starts tomorrow and that means a schedule must be put in place for me...so I will continue to EC and write about my adventures in the "new" EC year!

Stay tuned...

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Day_____

I can't believe that my little angel is 10 months old! Where did time go? I feel like it was yesterday we were driving to the hospital to find out who this tiny miracle would be. Yet, as I think back on the past 10 months I can't imagine what I did without my sunshine around to make me smile, laugh and yes... even cry at times.
Well we have been using EC with Annie since she was 11 weeks. Do I think it's working? SURE! I continue to use cloth diapers off and on throughout the weeks and am still trying to convince Joe to use them too. (I think I'll still be convincing him in 10 years). Annie seems VERY active in EC while in her cloth covers. She whines and crawls up to me so I take her to the potty. AMAZING!!!
As I've always said time will tell.... I guess in 8 months we'll know if EC was the way to go. Once she's 18 months I think we'll focus on getting her fully potty trained/learned then we'll know if EC was worth our time (and yours).
I'll try to write more, but with a busy busy little girl needing my attention I can't promise much! Stay tuned and check in periodically, perhaps there will be an EC breakthrough!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Day 204

Another day in disposables. BUMMER! With working all day I couldn't hardly ask family to take care of Annie AND cloth diapers. Joe is home tonight with Annie and I KNOW for a FACT that there will NOT be any cloth diapering going on while I'm gone. Can I blame him? The other night I was washing out a poopy diaper in the toilet thinking I really need to get some liners to flush for the poopy days. So here I am again thinking to myself how wonderful the cloth idea was at first...could it still be wonderful? Or is it only wonderful in theory not practicality?! We shall find out in the days to come... stay tuned!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Day 203

WOW... we made it... over 200 days of EC. Okay okay perhaps it wasn't constant EC but a valiant effort for sure. Today was our first adventure out of the house in cloth diapers. We went to Nana and Grandpa's for a play date with cousins. I know what you're thinking, that was hardly an adventure but being anywhere away from home and the comfort of our diaper pail IS an adventure! Annie did GREAT... no leaks, no poops, and no pee... in her cloth diaper.
Me on the other hand TOTALLY SCREWED UP... I went to take her cloth diaper and switch to a disposable for nap time (she wakes up the minute she wets her cloth one and doesn't get a good nap in)...Well she was dry. SO I proceeded to place her in the disposable diaper and forgot/neglected to take her potty. I should have taken the time to take her to pee. When she woke up from her 2 hour nap Annie was soaked through to her clothes with Pee. Poor thing was holding it in her cloth and trying to get me to take her potty. Sorry Annie... next time I'll actually be on top of it and take you!
Next step... an adventure out and about... not at a house!
Stay tuned...

Monday, July 12, 2010

Day 195

Boy oh Boy... I haven't blogged in a VERY long time. I'm so sorry for those of you who keep checking this and... nothing new.
Summer seems to take over at our house these days. We are loving every HOT day and trying to keep Annie cool and shaded.
Cloth diapers are slowly being integrated into our lifestyle although Joe is NOT thrilled about them. To tell you the truth, I don't even know if I'm that thrilled about them... but I bought them and I'm determined to get thrilled about them! Hindsight is always 20/20 right?!
After weeks and weeks of having the cloth diapers I have only used them a handful of times. Which to me seems like a waste, but I keep telling myself that I'm easing into them. Annie does a LOT better with EC while having a cloth diaper on. If I know we aren't leaving the house I try and keep Annie in cloth ALL day.
I guess I'm learning a lot and could write a couple pages, but since I've been out of this for over a month I'll write more tomorrow!
Stay tuned... this will get more consistent... I PROMISE!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Day 163

Washed, dried, folded... ready to go! The cloth diapers that is. YUP...this afternoon around 12:20 I began to use the cloth diapers on Annie. No more disposables for today. (I hope) It was quite the ordeal to begin with:
I had NO idea how to fold the prefolds so here I was with a naked baby on my lap googling how to fold a prefold diaper. I guess I thought it was going to just come to me... as most mothering things have. BUT God did not give me the cloth diaper folding gene so I began to do research all the while praying that Annie didn't pee (or poop) on me. It was quite the deal. After minutes (which seemed like hours) I found a few websites with multiple ways to fold a prefold and use a snappi.
For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about you're probably saying "now why in the world does this lady need to learn how to fold a prefold and what the heck is a snappi." Let me explain a little cloth diaper lingo for you:
Prefold = a type of cloth diaper that is pre-folded in the center up to 8 layers and sewn to keep the center more absorbent. You've probably seen these as great dust cloths or burp cloths.
Snappi = in place of a diaper pin. I describe it similar to a metal fastener that one would use on an ACE bandage but in a T shape and larger. Make sense?

I decided to do the old fashioned fold first also called the newspaper fold. Needless to say that this whole process took me over a half an hour. The whole time I was thinking.. boy this may have been the dumbest thing I've been thrilled about trying. Of course I HAVE to follow through with it because we spent a good chunk of money upfront! So follow through I did.

Annie needed to use the bathroom during lunch and peed a little in her cloth diaper. SO.. I changed it now using the bikini roll or twist fold. I feel like this type of fold is easier but I'm still learning. And to answer your question it did not take me thirty minutes to change her diaper this time. YIKES!
Stay tuned because this is going to get VERY interesting!!!

Today I learned: This whole cloth thing is a LOT tougher than I thought it was goin to be
Diapers saved today =don't know how to do this anymore with the cloth... but about 12
Money saved today = $2.40
Money saved to date = $153.60

Monday, June 7, 2010

Day 160

THE CLOTH DIAPERS HAVE ARRIVED!!!! As soon as Annie wakes from her nap we are off to buy detergent to wash them a few times to gain maximum capacity! Hopefully by Wednesday evening we will have started cloth diapering!!! I am SOOO excited to being this new adventure in our lives!
Over the weekend Annie started signing to us when she needs to use the bathroom. Pretty impressive!! I couldn't believe it and I'm SO glad that I'm seeing progress.
Stay tuned because I will be writing a LOT more now that the cloth diapers are in our possession and we will be using them very SOON!

Today I learned: Who knew diapers could make me this excited!!!!
Diapers saved today =10 (since last post)
Money saved today = $2.00
Money saved to date = $151.20