February? Man, I'm bad at this blog thing anymore.

February? I haven't posted since FEBRUARY? Oh my, I'm not very good at this, am I?

Well, today is Sara's 16th birthday. It's not as scary as it sounds. Sara is a good girl. The filter between her brain and her mouth is a bit too thin sometimes, but she has one of the kindest hearts I've ever had the honor of meeting.

Happy Birthday Sara!

Here she is circa 2003, and about a month ago. Yes, that is Connors beanie on her head.

As for Connor, he is growing in leaps and bounds. He is 21.5 lbs (63rd percentile) and 29.75 inches long (86th percentile). He is army crawling all over the house, and just started pulling up a few days ago. He's not too good at the whole getting down part yet, but he's getting really tired of falling, so I'm sure he'll figure it out soon enough.

He has also officially gone on a baby food strike. He will only eat finger foods for a bit over a month now. It's fun, but frustrating also. It was so much easier to get a balanced diet inside of him when I could feed him with a spoon now and then. I'm having to get much more creative now. Mealtime is also MUCH messier now, as you'll see in the pictures I'm about to upload!

Oh, and of course I have more pictures of my fancy cloth diapers and his very first head bonk, as well as a few shots of those first teeth!

Bathtime!

Mmmm... Carrots!

We love Mr. Bubbles!

Big toothy grin!

Eli Monster All In One Punk Rock diaper

Yay for kitties!

Oh yeah, I'm that cool.

I love to brush my teeth! I even give Mommy a turn once in a while.

Pat-a-cake is my favorite game.

I feed myself... sort of.

Hanging out with Daddy

The first bonk.

Watch out world, I'm crawling!

Mommy wanted a photo shoot for Earth Day, but I didn't think that was a good idea.

Where's Connor?

Peek-a-Boo!

Almost there...

And I'm standing!!!

Teeth!!!

Connor went through another milestone spurt these past couple weeks. He can sit up on his own for longer and longer now. He's still not to the point where I can just leave him sitting up (if I let him fall he gets VERY angry with me) but he's really getting the hang of it. He is also rolling all over the house now, and trying very hard to crawl.

And and and? He cut TWO teeth this weekend! The first, bottom right, showed up Valentines Day morning, and the one right next to it was there the next day! Wow!

His favorite game is still peek-a-boo, but gimme-five is very popular as well.

This is my favorite shirt EVER.

And here is a pair of pants I made all by myself! They are fleece too, so they double as a diaper cover! Woot!

And here is the newest diaper to our stash. This is a dyed Drybees Gone Natural. The woman who makes and sells these was trying out a new method of dyeing them, and needed testers, and we got on the list early enough! Yay! It is made from Organic Bamboo Velour and Organic Bamboo Fleece and is absolutely the softest thing I have ever put my hands on.

And no, part of the deal for testing was not advertising. I just LOVE this diaper!

Another theory

Connor's rash is almost all gone again. I came up with another theory on what is causing it. I really don't think it's regular diaper rash just because of where it is and how it looks. Plus switching to disposables gets rid of it. I really think it's his pee reacting with the soap because it's happening right where his diapers get the most wet. We change him at MOST every three hours because that's as long as he sleeps.

But like I said, I came up with another theory. We use cold water in our washing machine. That's it, just cold, no hot at all because it's not even hooked up. Well, cold water doesn't rinse as well as hot water, which means that no matter how many times I rinse, there could still be soap on them. Chris has extremely sensitive skin and I have a mild allergy to soap just like my mom, so this makes sense.

In any case, two women offered to send me some all-in-one and pocket diapers that their babies have grown out of. These are better because they have a layer in them that pulls the moisture away from the skin and they aren't as bulky so no wet fabric is touching his thighs. So we'll try these for a while and see what happens, and Chris will hook up hot water to the washer. In the meantime, I'll be going to the laundry mat to do an extra hot rinse with all of the diapers. We have a big enough stash so I only have to do laundry every 3 or 4 days, so this won't be a huge deal. They have a front loader there that will hold as much as I can carry. In a pinch I can even rinse them myself in the sink or shower, plus we still have disposables on hand.

Yes, I am insanely dedicated to cloth diapering. I know you all think I'm crazy, but these bumps in the road are worth it to me. Besides, you love me anyway. ;)

One more thing. I'm going to be selling the rest of his newborn clothes on craigslist probably tomorrow sometime. If anyone wants first dibs, I think I'm going to ask $25 for the whole lot. It's a Target bag full of boy stuff (onesies, rompers, sleepers, and sleep sacks), most of it was never even worn. I would just give it away, but I already gave away all of the gender neutral stuff and I really need a few more things in 3-6 month size for him. I have enough to get by until laundry day, but I really do need a few more pieces. So that's the only reason I'm selling them instead of just passing them down. If you want them or know someone with a newborn boy, these are some seriously great clothes.

Another bathtime picture:

One of his new cloth diapers:

One problem gone, another arises

Well, his runny nose is all cleared up. Call it first time mommy paranoia because it lasted about 3 whole hours and I was panicking!

The diaper rash has come back though. I'm at a total loss for what to do. Cloth diapers are supposed to prevent rashes, not cause them. At first I thought it was his urine reacting with the soap we make, since it has some harsh chemicals in it. (Borax, washing soda, and Ivory soap) So I stripped them to make sure all of the soap was out and I used a soap that's free of dyes and perfumes and that is recommended for cloth diapers by several websites and hundreds of moms. But yesterday it came back. The thing is, it doesn't even look like a rash. Rashes, whether diaper rash or a yeast rash, have bumps or spots, but this looks like a burn! I just can't make sense of it.

So, we're back to disposable diapers and I am so frustrated. I'm still looking for a cause, but unless someone comes up to me and has been through it and solved it with their own baby, I just can't bring myself to put him back in the cloth diapers. I'm really disappointed because, cost aside, there are so many reasons that cloth is better. Of course the cost is bothering me too, because the investment we made in the covers was fairly big considering they haven't even paid for themselves yet. In a month or so, if I still don't have any answers, at least I can resell them and make most of my money back. I was just really looking forward to cloth diapering him. But if he's getting a rash when he's never in a diaper for longer than a 3 hour nap, what are we going to do when he starts sleeping through the night?

Chris says this shouldn't bother me so much, and he's probably right. But something is hurting my baby and I can't figure out what it is. I've always relied on research to solve so many problems, and none of my research is telling me what's wrong here. I have a doctor's appointment for myself tomorrow, so if it's still there I'll bring him in to see if she can identify it. I also have a WIC appointment this morning, so maybe she'll have a clue. I am just ripping my hair out over this!

In the meantime, here's a picture I snapped of him in my arms yesterday. I was trying to catch a smile because he is REALLY smiling at me now when I catch him in the right mood, but every time the little green light came on to focus, he stopped.

Edited to add: I just checked my email (why didn't I do that first? I have no idea) and I have TWO moms from one of my message board offering to send me new diapers! Well, they're used, but cloth diapers are constantly being sold used because they're so easy to sanitize. So if it's my soap or something in the diapers, I'll know! Between the two of them, I'll have almost enough diapers to throw away the prefolds I've been using if they happen to be the problem! Of course, I'll be doing laundry every day, but it would be do-able! Yay!!!!

The 411 on our diapering system

So I get a lot of funny looks when people find out we're using cloth diapers. I thought I would go ahead and take this opportunity to educate the masses on just how easy it is. Presenting: my cloth diaper tutorial. Featuring Snuggle Bear, Aunt Carolyn's afghan, a prefold cloth diaper, a Thirsties brand cover, and a Snappi.

First, I'll show you the tools:

This is a prefold diaper. It's the kind that your grandma (and my mom) used, and many mom's still use today as burp cloths.

This is a cover. This particular cover is Thirsties brand. Note the Velcro. Velcro is your friend:

This is a Thirsties cover open. Notice that the inside is shiny? It's Polyurethane Laminate, which is a highly breathable, yet water proof material. This means that after a wet diaper, I can simply wipe out the inside of the cover and lay it out to dry for the next diaper change. I have three different covers, but I didn't want this to last forever so I just used the one.

This is a Snappi. Snappi's have taken the place of pins.

This is the back of a Snappi. See the teeth? You'll understand how it works better in a bit.

Now to the fun part. Grab your prefold diaper and fold it in thirds. (Note, this fold is for boys. If you were diapering a girl, you would turn it sideways and then fold it in to thirds so that there is more fabric in the middle. With a boy I want more fabric up front.)

Fold the front up so it fits and pull the tops out a bit:

Lay down your baby. (I thought about using Connor for this, but first, he wiggles a lot. And second I'd have to go back and edit the pictures to retain his privacy, and that's a lot of work.)

Pull the front up and attach the Snappi. To attach a Snappi, you just hook it on to one side of the diaper, hold it tight, attach it to the other side, and then stretch it down toward the bottom. Now you have a diapered baby. You could really stop here, but since there is no waterproof layer, things get a bit messy as soon as the baby wets.

So, you add in the cover. This part is just like a disposable.

The only trick is you have to make sure all of the cloth is inside the cover. If any cloth is peeking through, the moisture will "wick" up through the cloth and get on your baby's clothes.

Ta-da! See how easy cloth is! If you are breastfeeding, all you have to do is throw the diaper in the diaper pail and wash every 2-3 days, depending on how many diapers you have. If you are using formula or if the baby is eating solids, then you need to get the poop off of the diaper before you wash it. (Breast milk poop is water soluble, so it washes away just like anything else. Formula poop will just smear and make a huge mess in the washer. Not cool)

To get the poop off of the diaper, you have two basic options. You can swish it in the toilet until the solids come off, or you can buy a diaper sprayer. A diaper sprayer is just like a sprayer that you have on your kitchen sink, but it's designed to attach to your toilet. I don't have one yet, but it's totally on my Christmas list.

Once your diapers are poop free, you just throw it in the wash with no more than half of the normal amount of detergent you usually use. You'll want to be picky about your detergent though. Some detergents are bad for diapers because they clog the fibers of the material and make them less absorbent. Click here for a list of safe detergents. You want to do a cold rinse (for stain removal), a hot wash, and an extra rinse to make sure all of the detergent is rinsed away. Fabric softeners are also bad for the absorbency of the cloth, so you'll want to skip those. Since I don't have hot water hooked up to my washing machine, I add a few drops of Tea Tree Oil as an antiseptic to make sure no ickies are lingering around, waiting to give my baby a rash.

Another stain fighting technique is the sun. If you hang your diapers to dry in the sun you are almost guaranteed to stay stain free. The only down side is that the sun can make the diapers less than silky smooth, so I always toss them in the dryer for 10 minutes to soften them up. Dryer sheets are also bad for diapers, so you'll want to skip those as well.

For more reasons to cloth diaper, click here or here or even here.

And just because I can't make a post without a Connor picture in it, here he is, very angry, after a bath in a Prowrap brand cover. He really does love the bath, he just hates to get out and get dressed.