Reflection of 2011 and Coming of 2012

Happy New Year! 2012 is finally here! We started the day doing a few local errands and heading home for lunch. After lunch, both RaeRae and I took an almost 2 hour nap, while hubby only napped half an hour (didn't want to sleep too much, he said). 


We spent the afternoon walking along the San Leandro Pier and eating some good food at a restaurant called Horatio's since DH had a gift certificate for there. The food was quite good and the service was excellent. I got Smoked Chicken Tortellini, DH got some crab cakes, and RaeRae munched on bread. She sat in a high-chair and did so well. 


In all, we had a nice family day...a great way to start the new year.

As we start 2012, I stop to think about the past year. A reflection of the sort.


2011:


A lot of things happened this past year:

• I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
• I became a cloth diaper consultant.
• I became 26 years old. 
• Made new friends and visited with old friends.
• Traveled a bit within the state. 
• Moved!
• Playdates with other mama friends and their kiddos.
• And more...

I told my hubby earlier today that I believe my greatest accomplishment for last year was giving birth. "Such pain for such love," were my words and ain't that the truth. One year ago today, I was in my last trimester and four weeks away from giving birth to the greatest joy of my life. 

When she finally arrived, I remember feeling such awe and yet overwhelmed at the neediness of a little being who depended on me 24/7 for her survival. I could barely walk the first week or two from the labor and delivery pains. Second degree tears. Post-delivery contractions as my uterus shrunk back to its normal size. The mother-load of all periods. A baby who would not latch on right for the first month. Ouch. Breastmilk coming in. And at 3 weeks postpartum, oral thrush which made my nipples itch like crazy and where we had to boil my breastpump parts and wash my bras after each wear. We got through it all. I was also thankful my hubby could stay home the first month with paid paternal leave. And still so thankful he is a great husband and wonderful daddy to RaeRae. 


RaeRae continued to grow and charm us with her dazzling smile, beauty, and personality. We fell in love and the over-whelmingness feelings started to go away. I became a stay-at-home-mama and loved it. I still do. I felt such responsibility to taking care of my daughter, especially for her first year where she nursed and napped on demand. We are grateful we are able to make do for me to stay at home for her. I am happy to say that as she is almost 11 months old, I am still exclusively breast-feeding. 


What else happened last year...

When RaeRae was about 3 months old, I became a cloth diaper consultant for a wonderful business called Diaper Parties by Everything Birth, Inc. I mostly did personal consultations for friends and acquaintances. I went into this business because I loved all the cute cloth diaper options out there and wanted to help educate others about the modern easiness of cloth diapers. In addition to the cuteness factor, it was important for us to use cloth diapers on RaeRae because they were healthier for her bum, better for the environment, and saved us a lot of money (well, sort of--I got addicted and spent more than I really needed at some point, but that got better). 

Diaper Parties was a way for me to soothe my addiction and make a little extra income each month. I love teaching people about cloth diapers and how much easier they are to use than ever before. Using cloth diapers also helped us to evaluate how we could be more eco-conscious with our other daily habits. I learned how to use the sewing machine so I could make some cloth napkins in our kitchen colors for our everyday use. Very proud of myself for that.


Last summer, we traveled a bit. 
We drove to one of my favorite places in the world: Irish Beach near Mendocino.  All my family was there--parents, sisters, nephew, etc. It was good quality family time. The three of us flew to San Diego for the 4th of July holiday and RaeRae got to meet her other grandparents for the first time. They couldn't get enough of her.  They came back with us for a week to help with packing and visit more with their granddaughter. 

A few weeks later, we moved to a bigger place! Goodbye 600 square feet 1-bedroom apartment, and hello to 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom 1000 square-feet condo, across street from a cute park. Moving with a baby was not easy, but we did it! And the space is so much better for us. RaeRae currently crawls a storm from room to room, chasing the kitties and playing with her toys. Sometimes she will chase us or crawl away from us as if she's trying to run away. Lol. 

At least once a month, we drove for overnight trips to Sacramento to stay with my parents and visit friends. 


In the fall, RaeRae and I flew alone to San Diego for a good friend's baby shower. That was quite an experience--flying alone with a baby. For the most part, she did well. It was a bit of a challenge with the luggage because not only is there the suitcase, but there was the stroller, carseat, and diaper bag. And...carrying the baby too. The flight home was more eventful because RaeRae pooped on the plane, right before take-off. Luckily, there was a bit of time and the flight attendant helped with setting up the small plane bathroom with the changing table so I could change her. She hadn't pooped in 3 days so it was um...massive. But overall, the flight was fine. I wouldn't want to fly alone with her again though. 


The fall holidays were also fun: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. RaeRae dressed up as a ladybug for Halloween and was sooooo stinking cute! We visited a couple of pumpkin patches and celebrated hubby's birthday, as well as my grandma's. We took RaeRae to the snow for the day. Thanksgiving and Christmas were more fun with all the food since RaeRae finally took an interest into table food at about 8 months old. She was also definitely spoiled at Christmas with toys and clothes.

2011 was a good year for us overall. Financially, we took some strain since I stayed at home to take care of Isabelle, but we made it work. We grew as parents, and still continue to seek balance each day for ourselves. I think that's just life though. You do what you can do, to the best of your own effort. 

As of 2012, I hope you will be another good year for us. My goals for this year are to:

1. Write more.
2. Come up with an exercise plan and stick to it! 
3. Meal-plan each week with healthier foods so we can eat better and save money.
4. Do one photo-book each month or every 3 months (see how it goes with pictures). 
5. Continue breast-feeding until RaeRae weans herself. 
6. At least one day a week, take a couple of hours for "me-time."

 That's it for now. I look forward to writing more about this year about our lives and just enjoying each day at a time.

Happy Holidays!

Just stopping in to say...

Happy Holidays from the Cole-Regis family!

Rae-Rae is now 10 months old! And crawling everywhere. Hope you and your family have nice winter holidays. 

Check out Everything Birth’s end of the year bonus Freebies.

Check out Everything Birth’s end of the year bonus Freebies.

We took RaeRae to the snow!

We took RaeRae to the snow on Friday instead of shopping. It was her first time there and she seemed to have liked it but was cautious about the cold snow. Hubby took this pic--thought it was too cute and wanted to share. 
 

The Fluffy Itch

When I first entered the world of cloth diapering, there were all these abbreviations, slang, and code words for different brands of diapers (i.e. BG=bumgenius), certain family members (i.e. DD=dear daughter, or darling daugåter), or whatnot. In the beginning of my cloth diaper journey, I swore it was all part of a secret language that I would never completely understand. It was, in a word, overwhelming!



As I dug deeper into the world of cloth diapering, the terms and codes started to become more familiar and I started to get a feel of the danger of fluff.
Fluff...aka cloth diapers...can be addicting. You want to try everything, and even after getting some fluffy mail, you still want more. You are constantly thinking about cloth diapers and browsing shops for sales, deals, and new products. You might be a Hyena cart stalker (for those custom made diapers). You might stalk Facebook pages for diaper brands for any upcoming announcements or cute pictures of other babes in fluff.


I think some people are confused on why someone may be a fluff addict. Then one of my friends came up with an analogy: it's like shoes for moms. 

Like Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex in the City" type of shoe addiction.


Just when you think you are good on fluff for a while, the itch comes back up again. Lately I've been having the itch. I have my eyes on some of the new prints coming out for a few diapers. I want to try the Freetime diaper by BumGenius and also the new Grovia Prints.


Do you get the fluffy itch? What helps you get over it? What diapers are on your list? It's safe to share here. I won't tell anyone ;-)

Cloth wipes

Lately I've been thinking about our cloth wipes. We started using cloth wipes a couple of months after we started cloth-diapering--when we were comfortable with cloth-diapering full time and starting to wash our own diapers (See here for previous blog about finding our cloth style).


Our cloth wipes system is simple. We use flannel wipes, sized 8 by 8, and fold them in a certain way that resembles disposable wipes in a box. These are the wipes we use. We have about 40-50 of them, and about 3/4 of them will fill up one box. I like these because they get wet fast and do the job quickly. They are a bit thin. So if you are looking for something more thicker, there are other wipes you can find here. Kissaluvs or Thirsties have a bit thicker wipes. The flannel ones work well for us, and are cheaper too.


After prepping them (one hot wash worked for us), I sought out to learn how to fold them. There are video tutorials on the web and pictures as well. To share with my readers, I have pictures with steps to show you how you can fold cloth wipes in a way that will be easy to pull out of the box.


You will need an empty disposable wipes box. It needs to be dry. 

Basic steps:
1. Lay one cloth wipe open and flat as shown in picture below. I will call this Wipe A.

2. Lay another cloth wipe (Wipe B) on top of the first one but only covering half of Wipe A. Wipe A is on the bottom and Wipe B is on top.

3. Fold the outer half of Wipe A over Wipe B.

4. Grab a new wipe. Lay Wipe C on top of the folded part of Wipe A. (Sorry the picture turned out a little crooked).

5. Fold the half of Wipe B (the second wipe) up and cover half of Wipe C (the wipe currently on top).

6. Continue process of steps 2-5 until you have enough wipes to put inside of your box. For me, this is usually about 30 or so wipes. I fold the top wipe over and pull it through the slit in the top of the box so it is ready to use!

Ta-da! You could decorate the outer part to say "Cloth Wipes" if you wanted.

It takes me about 5 minutes to fold all the wipes once I got the routine down. Sometimes RaeRae likes to help me. 

As for the wipes solution, we keep ours in a peribottle. I wait until I need my wipes wet to use it. Some mamas will use a wipes warmer for cloth wipes and have wet wipes all ready for next diaper change. In my opinion, it depends on your preference for whether the wipes are warm or not. Your baby will tell you if they are adversely sensitive to the cold, wet wipes and prefer warm ones. RaeRae seems indifferent so I don't spend my money on a wipes warmer. I also like to keep my wipes dry until time of diaper change to avoid mildew or other bacteria growth.


I have heard that you can generally spend about $300 on disposable wipes from birth to potty training. That's a lot! I think I have spent about a total of $40 on my cloth wipes and wipes solution.


For my wipes solution, I use Ruby Moon's wipes bit.  You boil a cup or two of water, add one to two cubes, let it dissolve, stir, and after it cools off, you can pour it into a spray bottle or a peribottle like I use. I like the peribottle because it's faster to squeeze out into the wipes. We happen to sell peribottles on the site. I just used mine that I received from the hospital when RaeRae was born. But you can buy them here for just one dollar. One cube or "bit" will typically last us about a month. Each bag has about 5 oz of bits. I haven't counted exactly how many cubes are in the bag, but it looks like there are between 30-50 pieces. It is made out of Goat's milk soap and fragrance. I like to add a few drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract because of our recent yeast battle. I also add a bit more water than usual to the solution so it lasts a bit longer. I keep the extra "solution" in another spray bottle and just pour that into the peribottle when I need more.


Here's a picture of our basic set-up for diapering. It was from earlier in the summer, but the set-up is still the same. In the picture, you see our pocket diapers in our first dresser drawer, peribottle with wipes solution, and wipes box nearby. What's not shown in the picture is CJ's butter, one of our must-haves! Like I said, this picture was from earlier in the summer and I think it was pre-CJ's butter time. Now we have CJ's butter there at all times.

So there you have it. Our basic set up for cloth wipes, and a few other things. Are you using cloth wipes? If so, what's your set-up like? If you're still using disposables, what questions or concerns do you have trying cloth wipes?

Dealing with yeast...ugh

I've wanted to write a blog post about a successful war with yeast but we're not over it. Seriously, it has been a month. It started with a yeast diaper rash. Then I got a yeast infection that wouldn't go away with home remedy or a 1-day treatment. I should have done the 7-day monistat treatment in the beginning since that's what works for me. 


I think what happened was I didn't get my diapers clean enough or the yeast out. It has been confusing. Do I put Oil of Oregano or Grapefruit Seed Extract in the wash or the rinse cycle? I was putting it in the wash cycle then I learned it's supposed to go in the rinse cycle. So I just did that. And I also bleached everything. I know you're not really supposed to do that for all of your diapers since it pretty much voids a lot of warranties but I was desperate. However, bumGenius actually recommends bleaching at least once a month for maintenance and most of our stash is of that brand. Anything for my baby's bum. She's more important than my diapers. It was diluted too so it's not like it affected the colors. 


Currently RaeRae is only in cloth for night-time, and those are prefolds. Prefolds are easy to boil so I don't mind using them. But during the day, she is in Grovia Bio-soakers or Flip biodegradable soakers. We haven't resorted to using disposables yet because I really don't want to. At one point, I ran out of the soakers. And I also ran out of disposable liners. So I cut out cotton liners from old t-shirts. 


I think I also didn't get my wipes clean enough or forgot to add the Grapefruit seed extract. And that may have been part of the problem.


And just this past Monday, I saw white spots in RaeRae's mouth. Oral thrush. I was just mad. Then I made the connection with my nipple pain I was sort of having. And after a week of no rash, it came back after a day of no treatment (that was on Saturday night). Then Monday...the white spots. Sigh. So she is getting Nystatin. 

I've seriously used about 4 tubes of Lotrimin over the past month. It works but apparently the diapers reinfected her and the cycle began again. 


So I've been feeling discouraged to write about anything. I will be writing about it again when it's all said and done and the war has been won, by me...and not the yeast.



On the bright side, I will write about some very special milestones RaeRae has hit recently!