Adventures in Cloth Diapering, Part I

Another thing no one ever tells you before becoming a parent is just how obsessed you become both with what goes in your baby and what comes out, not to mention how to best deal with the latter!  Before getting pregnant, I thought it was a simple matter of disposable diapers.  Period.  Of course, as a new parent, I wanted to get the best I could for baby Shay.  We ended up going with Huggies Pure & Natural diapers made with organic cotton (and a higher price tag!) until Shay out grew the newborn size.  Next came the diaper cake and package of Nature Babycare disposable diapers courtesy of friends from baby showers. 

At this point, my mom bought us a big Sam's Club size box of Huggies Little Snugglers.  No organic anything and I worried about whether these would irritate baby's sensitive skin.  However, with the price of diapers, I wasn't about to let these go to waste and Shay did just fine with them.  I attribute no diaper rash or irritation due to the fact that we started practicing elimination communication or E.C. with Shay when she was 5 weeks old.  Check out the book Diaper Free Baby and this blog posting from Angela at healthnutforlife.org for info. on the premise of E.C (which makes perfect sense to us!).  That and we make sure that, after wiping baby clean, we use the new clean diaper first as a fan to dry any moisture on the skin before putting it on her. 

Now, the whole time we've been putting Shay in disposable diapers, I had every intention of trying to go the cloth route.  Jeff & I have gotten big into recycling over the last year, making runs to the local recyle drop off near our home on a weekly basis.  So part of my wanting to try cloth is for environmental reasons.  While I definitely don't consider myself in the hippie tree-hugger category, I do try to make small differences wherever I can whether it's recycling, using more natural cleaning products (my favorite lately being bi-o-kleen), buying organic/local, etc.  I figure trying cloth diapers will be another way we can try to live "greener."   Not gonna lie...another big reason is, while cloth diapers are an investment initially, they are defintiely a cost savings over disposable diapers in the long run.

So with those reasons in mind, why has it taken me so long to finally order cloth diapers?  I started researching, got confused with the sheer amount of choices out there, then got overwhelmed.  BumGenius, Fuzzibuns, Smartipants, Tiny Tush, Gro Baby.  These are just a handful of names of different makers of cloth diapers.  While they certainly sound cute, it was overload for an indecisive individual like myself.  All-in-ones, pocket diapers, flats, pre-folds, fitteds, hemp, jersey, cotton, snaps, velcro...Ahhhhhhh!

Enter another diaper cake, this time from Jeff's parents and this time filled with Pampers.  I gotta admit...I was a little relieved that diaper cake #2 would buy me a little more time to figure out the whole cloth diaper situation. 

So what's an inexperienced new mom to do?  Make like the Beatles and "get by with a little help from my friends" (minus the drug reference!).  Big thanks to Angela (see blog link above), who took the time to message me a whole bunch of info. on her experiences with cloth diapers and even bring a few samples to CMT for us to try. 

Armed with a better understanding of some of the choices and an aresenal of websites, I started price hunting which is a force of habit before ordering anything online.  I ended up purchasing covers from Abby's Lane and birdseye weave flats from Cotton Babies.  Both have free shipping and I ordered everything on Friday morning and already got an email from Cotton Babies with shipment tracking that shows the flats are supposed to arrive tomorrow (Monday).  Pretty impressed with the speed from this company!  I got a couple each of extra small Thirsties covers,  size 1 Thirsties duo wraps, and size 1 Thirsties duo diapers.  They come in a bunch of pretty colors so Shay will have a pretty baby bum :)  That and I won't have Sesame Street characters on her diapers anymore like the ones from aforementioned diaper cake!  I'm hoping Jeff likes the flats because they seem pretty easy to fold and are by far the cheapest liner to pair with the covers.  If not, we'll try some other options.  I'm a little nervous about how this is going to go, but let the experimentation begin!  I'll have more on our cloth diaper adventures in a future blog.  Wish us luck!

Perspective

Again, it's been awhile since I've posted an update as life has been keeping me rather busy. My dad and his significant other, Maureen, came out to visit over Memorial Day weekend and got to meet Shay in person for the first time. I don't know if I've ever really seen my dad hold a baby so it was really sweet to see him with Shay. Darn, never did get him to change a diaper while he was here (more for my own amusement than anything)! Here are a couple of photos of their visit:
 

Grandpa Dennis holding Shay for the first time

At Jeff's parent's house

The biggest adjustment for our little family has been me returning to work. I started back on June 1st and it has been bittersweet. It was so, so hard to leave Shay that first week and I cried every morning. This week has proven easier because I'm totally more at ease after seeing just how well Jeff did with Shay on his own. Not only is he so patient and loving with her, but he's even taken on more household chores than ever before. He told me he wants me to be able to come home from work and just be able to relax and spend time with our baby. He's even been planning meals, cooking & taken Shay grocery shopping with him on a couple of occasions! Which, incidently, causes the women at the grocery store to flock. Apparently a man with a cute puppy isn't the only thing that causes women to coo...a man grocery shopping with a baby seems to have the same effect!

Not gonna lie...it is sometimes very hard for me to be in a position where I have to be the financial provider, especially now that I feel like I'm going to be missing out on so much with Shay . I've even outright resented it at times. And I'm already experiencing "working mom guilt" which is that nagging bugger that comes along uninvited and tugs at your heart way more often than anyone would like. When I'm at work and any moment that I'm not spending with Shay when I'm not working brings with it a pang of guilt. That's one of the things no one tells you when you get pregnant...how much guilt comes along with becoming a parent!

Why am I choosing to share this brutal honesty? Because "perspective" has become my word of the day. And I hope I can encourage anyone who might be struggling with some of the same feelings with this:

I really can't (and truly don't want to) complain because I know I am so very blessed. When I feel overwhelmed with bearing the weight of being the financial provider and missing out on time with my baby, I just have to focus on how blessed I am to have a good job working with so many good people that affords us to have our home, pay our bills, provides great medical benefits, allows one of us to be at home with Shay instead of having to put her in daycare, etc. I'm so grateful that I know she is at home with her daddy who is taking care of her and raising her the way we both want her to be raised. I give major props to single parents who manage it all. They are to be commended for the amazing amount of hard work that goes into raising and providing for a child on their own. I don't ever want to take for granted that I have a wonderful husband by my side who is my partner in parenting and in life, who loves me, our daughter and, most importantly, God. I am so grateful that Shay is a healthy, beautiful, bright-eyed baby who brings so much joy into our lives. So many people have loved and lost or never loved at all but I get to come home every night to my two favorite people in the world.

No, I cannot complain. My life is so full of blessings. It's more than I deserve.

11 weeks old