Liam's (Cloth) Diaper Bag at 4 months

Liam's Diaper Bag at 4 Months

I got this bag at Target about 5 years ago. It is supposed to be used for a laptop/briefcase. It has the two pockets that you see on the outside, and the one pocket on the inside you see below. It also had a cell phone holder and a place to clip my keys.

Everything really does fit in here! And I love how it keeps its shape. It does have a zipper closure and when I dont add the extra blanket, I can zip it closed.

Here is the overview, I cant believe all this really goes in here!

Top left going right... at least 2 burp rags, Liam spits up and drools a lot. My nursing cover--which I rarely use. My wallet and keys. A thicker blanket, an aden + ansi  blanket. I made that green and brown bag for his extra outfit and a few other items. Toys. Extra wet bag, nipple cream (just incase), sun screen. Boogie wipes, extra nuk, first aid kit, tide stick, mini notebook, and pens.

Extra outfit, extra hat, mittens, and my mittens. In that little black clutch I have tissues, pads, and nursing pads. The brown polka dot bag is a wet/dry bag, wipes, diaper cream, the green and brown thing is a changing pad I made. And two diapers. 

This is what I would pack if we were going away for a few hours. If we are just running to the store, I usually dont bring so much. I might just grab the wet/dry bag with the diapers, blankets, toys, burp rag, nuk, and my wallet.

Our Cloth Diapering Set Up

Cloth diapering has quickly become an obsession of mine! There are so many fantastic reason to cloth diaper. The biggest one in my book is the savings! You buy cloth once. That's it. Not to mention, they are so incredibly cute!! They are, of course, way better for the environment--no waste in landfills, sitting for years and years. No harmful chemicals on your baby's bottom! No drymax gel causing chemical burns. This can be a controversial topic, but I would rather error on the side of caution with this one.
Here's another comparison from Apple Cheeks Diapers.

So, for those of you who care, here's our current set up.

This is an old desk we had. it works well for a diaper station. There are three drawers on the right, the first holds his diapers, the last two hold clothes he currently fits into. I have his baby book, extra change pad covers, and his grooming kit on the shelves. On the right hand side of the top I have my Himalayan Salt Lamp as a night light. And a basket of cloth wipes I made from scrap flannel, as well as wipe solution and other diapering odds and ends. Underneath you can almost see the laundry basket and that red bin holds his dirty diapers when we are doing diaper laundry since I only have one pail liner for now. You can also see a cute red chevron pocket diaper in that bin. :)

Here we have most of his diapers we are currently using. Left top going down: The first 5 are Thirsties Duo Wrap Size 1. The next three are Flip Covers. Middle Row Top: You can see some extra inserts in the way back, our favorites are hemp. 1 Weehuggerz cover size 1. 4 lotus bumz pockets. Right top: Dippee Dypee Skellington Jack cover with bamboo inserts. Kawaii baby, 2 Imagine pockets, and 2 Fancy Pants Pockets.

Top Left: Rockin' Green Shake It Up deodorizer (got as a gift), California Baby lotion, Homemade Wipe Solution. Bottom Left: homemade cloth wipes--2-ply cotton flannel.

Green Mountain Diaper Prefolds. Orange edge-newborn size, Yellow edge-infant size.

I will eventually do a more indepth post on what has worked for us so far. And a sort of review on the diapers we currently own. Our set up could always be more efficient, but for now, this is what works. Liam loves to be on his changing table, I'm not really sure why, but its a good place to get him to smile. :)
N.

4 Weeks Old

Today marks Liam's 4th week! I cant believe it!! I feel like the first week doesnt even count--after 4 days in the hospital and 2 days stuck on the bili-blanket at home, we didnt have our baby home and off machines until the 7th day. Anyways, I wanted to write a bit about what my son is doing these days so I can remember.

4 Weeks today!!

Dear Liam,
Today you are 4 weeks old! Everyday with you is so amazing! Breastfeeding is going pretty well. You love to eat! We are still using the nipple shield, which bums Momma out. We are trying to nurse without it, but you only latch for a few sucks, then get frustrated. You currently like to nurse for about 10 minutes and fall deep asleep before you've had your fill. And of course, you wake up within an hour and want more. At night before Mom and Dad go to bed (around 11:30), you get a 4-5 ounce bottle of breast milk, your nighttime cloth diaper (lotus bumz pocket with hemp soaker), and you get rocked to sleep by Momma. You usually wake again to eat around 4am, and again at 7. Lately, Daddy has been getting up with you around 8 when you fuss, and rocks you back to sleep. Dad goes to work, and you and I wake up for the day around 9:30.

Proud Daddy :)

You love the swing! Anything with constant motion you are digging right now. Many times while Momma is cooking, you  hang out in your swing in the kitchen. You also love your rocker chair to sleep in when you are gassy at night. Momma can reach you from her bed to sooth you if needed. You also enjoy your play mat. You love looking at the patterns and colors! You unintentionally hit the toys which surprises you  and makes Momma laugh.

SMILES!!

You smile when we play with you and even laugh in your sleep. You are so expressive it's unreal! Daddy says you get his looks, but Mama's expressions! Momma's favorite is when you purse your lips together as if to whistle. You can melt Mama's heart in a second when you push out your bottom lip as if to pout. Hopefully you don't realize the effect this has on Mama, or you will probably get your way an awful lot! You love to snuggle and fall asleep on Momma. You especially love being tummy to tummy with her! You even lift your head to look around and look at the windows or other light sources.

I just cant handle this lip!! Agh! So precious!

You are growing so fast! You already are out of all newborn clothing, and with your cloth diapers, some 0-3 month are hard to snap. You seem to have a long torso, and short legs--maybe the diapers make it look that way? We haven't been to the doctor yet to know your stats, but Daddy weighed you at home, and you are a whoppin' 11 lbs 4 oz! That's up almost 2lbs from birth! You are beginning to lose your baby hair, and Momma hopes it grows back quick. She was didn't have hair for along time! Everyone comments on how adorable you are! And Daddy's family thinks you are the spitting image of him! We cant wait to see what the next few weeks bring!

Love,
Momma

Pregnancy Week 16

I can't believe I'm already at week 17! I remember being 5 weeks pregnant and wishing I was this far along so I could relax and enjoy pregnancy! Wahoo!!! So obviously you have seen that we had our ultrasound and 16 week midwife appointment this past week. We are so excited to be having a baby boy!! I bought some fabric a few weeks ago that I absolutely fell in love with at Joanne Fabrics. It is brown flannel with fun bright smiley monsters. I also bought some super soft brown minky type of fabric to back a blanket. Teal satin binding too! So I plan on working on that this week. I would have still made it if we were having a girl, but I'm glad it turned out this way. :) Anyways, onto week 16...

How far: 16 weeks

Total weight gain: ZERO! still at my pp weight during my midwife appointment :)

Maternity clothes: I cant stand anything tight on my belly, so its fleece pants, yoga pants, pjs, and my maternity jeans/work pants. Still rockin the larger t shirts since my maternity shirts are too big yet.


Sleep: Hasn't been great this week. Just a lot of tossing and turning.

Best Moment: obviously seeing my little boy at our ultrasound!!! He is just perfect!!

Miss anything: coffee, headache medicine.

Food cravings: still mustard, pickles and oj

Anything make you queasy or sick: nothing really

Gender: BOY!! :) 

Movement: still waiting...its hard to tell, but until I'm positive I wont post it.

Wedding ring: On

Symptoms: headaches!! They are pretty mild, but really annoying! Sinus pain, tired, peeing a lot more during the day. I cry easily, and over silly things.

Mood: Good, sometimes emotional

Looking forward to: sewing my sweet little boy his blanket! 

I also finally ordered my prefold cloth diapers. I have them prepped and stored away with the rest of his covers and fun baby stuff! I did buy the Moby wrap as well as a sweet maternity coat at Target! 

Oh! I also found a very local place that does placenta encapsulation! I am super thrilled! She is very reasonably priced and her father is actually my next door neighbor! Small world...anyways, she posted the process on her website and I realized how easy it is to do it yourself. I contemplated doing it ourselves, but after thinking about it, I realized that I probably wont want to mess around with it after the birth. I know I will want to enjoy Liam and our family time. :) 

Hope you all stay warm! 

Nikky

Pregnancy Week 11

We put up our Christmas Light outside of our house. Looks so nice! Old fashioned multicolored C9 lights! Now if only we could get inspected so we could start moving and decorating downstairs! This week I did get my fluff mail! And I love all the covers I bought. I can't wait to buy the prefolds and prep it all.

Took the intelligender test Sunday morning, swirled and waited...prediction was a BOY! :) Scott was happy, now we'll have to wait a few weeks til we can really find out. 

 


How far along? 11 Weeks

Total weight gain: the same--between 0-5lbs fluctuating.

Maternity Clothes: Just pants.

Stretch Marks: nope

Sleep: Getting better and better!

Best moment this week: getting my fluff mail!

Miss anything? coffee

Food cravings: Orange Juice! Peach and blueberry smoothies (made with oj, of course)

Anything make you queasy/sick? nothing in particular.

Gender prediction: if the Intelligender test was right, that would mean I have been right all along! :)

Wedding ring: On

Symptoms: pretty sparse, dizzy spells but I think it was from fighting off an illness.

Mood: Great!

Looking forward to: My midwife appointment next Wednesday when I'll hear the heartbeat! :)

Have a wonderfully festive day!!!
Nikky

Crunchy Momma

 Here's to all the Crunchy Momma's out there...

 1. Cloth Diapers! While the photos here shows BumGenius, there are so many different kinds that your head could explode! Nothing screams natural crunchy momma than cloth diapers!! Here's the link to the ones shown.

2. Cloth Wipes! Again, the photo shows the BumGenius brand, and I will be making mine from flannel scraps, and the receiving blanket overload I'm sure I'll get. At first it didn't occur to me to do cloth wipes, but the more I thought about changing my child's diaper. I'd have to have a cloth diaper pail and a regular diaper pail for the wipes?! Wait...no way, it's way to easy to just have one and throw them in the wash with the rest of the diapers.

3. Reusable Cloth Nursing Pads. well...duh! why wouldn't I use these? Breast milk is water soluble so it's not like these little guys wouldn't get clean. The ones shown are some organic kind, but you can find them all over etsy and other sites from WAHMs. I will more than likely make my own. (sensing a trend here?)

4. Nursing Cover. Clearly I plan on breastfeeding, and while in public, I really don't want/need gawkers, so these little covers will definitely help. They have a wire in the upper hem that you can bend outward to see your beautiful baby. Here's the one shown.

5. Boppy or any other breastfeeding helper. I used to work in a daycare in the infant room. I know how hard it is to keep that sweet little baby up to give him/her their bottles. I always propped a pillow under my arm. I love this cover from Boppy.

6. Breast pump. Again with the breast feeding. I definitely want to go BPA free, and I've heard nothing but great things about Medela. This model seems pretty mid-range. It's a scary thing to spend so much money on something your not even sure you will be able to use. If that is your main concern, there are smaller hand pump models as well. It wouldn't be a bad idea to start off with a hand pump, and then move up to a larger model if needed.

7. Beaba Babycook or any type of food processor really. I will most definitely be making my child's baby food. There really is no reason not to. You will be aware of what is going in to your child as well as saving you TONS of money! The Beaba freezer containers are amazing! They have a soft silicone bottom so you can easily pop one out.

8. Think Baby BPA free dishes. These are amazing! Nuff said.

9. Ergo Carrier. This is the sport version. Out of all the carriers I've heard about, the Ergo is the most talked about, and the most raved about. This would be nice to be fitted for my husband, and I could have the wrap that I talk about in #10.

10. Baby K'tan. I really love the two shoulder sling wraps. This one can be worn so many ways, and can also be used for breastfeeding covertly in public. Sneaky sneaky!