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.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
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.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
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 ;-)
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 ;-)
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
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!
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?
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.
 |
| Ta-da! You could decorate the outer part to say "Cloth Wipes" if you wanted. |
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.
Friday, October 14, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
What this week brings...
We just got back from another busy weekend out of town--just RaeRae and me. We went to visit my parents in Sacramento. Over the weekend, RaeRae finally started scooting!! Not quite crawling, but scooting! She works hard to push against her knees and uses her hands/arms to pull. I was soo proud and caught it on video! Now a new world of adventure has opened for all of us. Just a matter of time before she is pretty much everywhere.
I had another dentist appointment on Friday so RaeRae stayed with my mom, sister, and my nephew for a few hours. 3 hours! 3 hours, no tears! She also took a bottle with no problem! This is big for us because since she was 3 months old, she refused the bottle and would just scream. I felt so relieved to know she did so well. It was good practice for what tomorrow brings:
Tomorrow I am going back to work for a trial day. I work as a substitute teacher at my local Deaf school so work is flexible. I arranged to go in a sub in advance for a teacher training day so I am able to have childcare.
I'm going to give it at least one day a week every other week or so. My mom is coming from Sacramento tonight (2 hours away from us) with my grandma and nephew and they will spend all day with her tomorrow! I'm a bit nervous. I've been trying hard to pump and save some milk for her. Knowing that she is taking a bottle better helps A LOT. Pumping is just hard work but it will be good for me to at least go back for one day and good for RaeRae to spend time with her Nana, Nama, and cousin.
I already have a room where I can pump in private. I just need to arrive tomorrow morning and figure out when I can do it. I've only worked one day since RaeRae was born, back in May. That day was a minimum day and an awful day. I had a plugged duct, spilled at least an ounce of milk all over my pants, got paint on my shirt, and that was also the day RaeRae decided she wouldn't have anything to do with a bottle. My mom was able to bring me her during my lunch break since I only lived 2 miles away.
But tomorrow will be a better day! Things are more settled in our new home, I have milk pumped, she has more practice with the bottle, and I have a lot of support.
Today I am just lounging a bit at home. Cleaning, vacuuming, and doing some laundry. We are dealing with a cat that has been pooping in the baby's room so I vacuumed once again. That's another story for another time.
I had another dentist appointment on Friday so RaeRae stayed with my mom, sister, and my nephew for a few hours. 3 hours! 3 hours, no tears! She also took a bottle with no problem! This is big for us because since she was 3 months old, she refused the bottle and would just scream. I felt so relieved to know she did so well. It was good practice for what tomorrow brings:
Tomorrow I am going back to work for a trial day. I work as a substitute teacher at my local Deaf school so work is flexible. I arranged to go in a sub in advance for a teacher training day so I am able to have childcare.
I'm going to give it at least one day a week every other week or so. My mom is coming from Sacramento tonight (2 hours away from us) with my grandma and nephew and they will spend all day with her tomorrow! I'm a bit nervous. I've been trying hard to pump and save some milk for her. Knowing that she is taking a bottle better helps A LOT. Pumping is just hard work but it will be good for me to at least go back for one day and good for RaeRae to spend time with her Nana, Nama, and cousin.
I already have a room where I can pump in private. I just need to arrive tomorrow morning and figure out when I can do it. I've only worked one day since RaeRae was born, back in May. That day was a minimum day and an awful day. I had a plugged duct, spilled at least an ounce of milk all over my pants, got paint on my shirt, and that was also the day RaeRae decided she wouldn't have anything to do with a bottle. My mom was able to bring me her during my lunch break since I only lived 2 miles away.
But tomorrow will be a better day! Things are more settled in our new home, I have milk pumped, she has more practice with the bottle, and I have a lot of support.
Today I am just lounging a bit at home. Cleaning, vacuuming, and doing some laundry. We are dealing with a cat that has been pooping in the baby's room so I vacuumed once again. That's another story for another time.
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