ultimate mommy blogger post: diaper talk

Today was our first day using cloth diapers, not counting a brief stint during the meconium days when we soon realized that the prefolds we had were just too big for a tiny newborn.  Oh, and meconium is gross.

I decided I wanted to try wool soakers for diaper covers.  These are what people used before plastic pants were invented.  They are knitted or felted wool pants worn over a cotton diaper.  Because of the properties of wool (waterproof, antibacterial) they don’t get damp even when the diaper is soaked, and they don’t smell bad either.  You only have to wash them every couple weeks, the rest of the time you can just air dry them if they do get a little damp.  Plus wool is very breatheable, especially compared to plastic pants.  So all this seems too good to be true, right?

I really wanted to believe in wool’s superpowers, but I was skeptical.  So I made some wool soakers to try out.  There are many patterns out there for knitted or crocheted soakers, as well as soakers made out of old cut up sweaters.  I don’t enjoy knitting and never really learned how to crochet, plus yarn is so expensive, especially wool yarn,  so I hightailed it to my local thrift shop and bought three wool sweaters for a buck seventy-five a piece.  After looking at so many patterns I knew kind of what I wanted to do, so I winged it and made two wool soakers out of one of the sweaters.  The pattern I made up was nice and simple, just a triangle, with the three corners meeting in the front of the diaper, leaving holes for the legs.  The ribbing of the sweater makes the waistband of the diaper, and I used the neck ribbing around the leg holes for one of them, but nothing for the other one.  I think I like the other one better- it’s simpler.  But we’ll see how well it stops leaks.  I somehow doubled up the fabric in the front of the diaper for extra absorbency -can’t remember how I did it, so next time maybe I will take pictures.

This is the first one I made, with the neck ribbing around the leg holes.

So today was troubleshooting day, and really, there were no problems, except I need to make a drawstring around the waistband because it’s a little loose.  Also unfortunately his onesies don’t really work with this, or cloth diapers in general, because they’re so bulky.  Some of his onesies are stained around the leg holes (already!) and so I might cut them into t-shirts.  His footie pjs and sleep sacks work well though, and that’s most of his wardrobe.  For the other wool soakers I’m going to make “longies,” or a long-legged version that look like pants.  Oh, and I’m going to make some kimono shirts.

So, I’m really happy.  The wool covers seem to be working very well.  The cotton prefold can come out soaked and stinky, but the wool cover is dry and smells like wool.  I really, really like them!  Why did they ever go with plastic pants in the first place?

moby wrap

I tried out the moby wrap and I like it better than the sling!  Abraham can be upright in it, so it is especially nice when he has gas in his tummy, because I can hold him and comfort him without his body being squished or folded, which makes his tummy hurt more.  Also I like it because he doesn’t fall away from my body when I lean over.  He feels more securely attatched.  And it is nice to see his face.

Here’s a picture from to day.  He’s fast asleep

Today I made some pants for Abraham out of an old fleece blanket.  We got so many beautiful blankets as gifts, both homemade and not.  So I decided to use some of the hand-me-down fleece blankets to make pants for him, since he only has one pair that actually fit him and he seriously needs more.

I used this tutorial.  It’s super easy and took me about ten minutes!  These days, that’s my kind of project!

mommy blogging

Here’s what happened:

Abraham turned yellow and obviously had jaundice last week.  Since jaundice isn’t very serious and usually goes away on its own, I decided to hang out in the sunny bedroom all week and then bring it up at Abraham’s doctor appointment on Friday.  But on Thursday and Friday he wouldn’t eat and he kept falling asleep.  He would sleep for hours if I let him.  After much experimentation, the only way we could get him to eat was by putting a cold cloth on his back or belly every time he stopped sucking.  It took an hour or more to feed him each time.  At the doctor they did a blood test to see how bad the jaundice was.  It was really high so the doctor said to do it again tomorrow (Saturday) morning, in case it would come down on its own.  We did and it was still the same, so the doctor proscribed lying under the “bili lights” for 24 hours in the hospital.  Bili lights are blue lights that break down bilirubin, the stuff that builds up and causes jaundice.  It’s like sunlight only more concentrated and it doesn’t cause sunburn.

So Abraham and I were taken to a hospital room with an incubater with the bili lights over it.  He had to lie in it for 24 hours, wearing only a diaper and some protective eye covers.  I could only take him out to feed him and change his diaper every two hours.

his peeling skin isn't sunburn or anything -it's just peeling because his skin is still getting used to the outside world. it doesn't bother him at all

Because bilirubin is flushed out of the body via poop, and because Abraham was so lethargic and not eating (jaundice often makes babies lethargic) he had to be bottle fed formula.  Bottles are a lot easier to suck on.  Doctor said the formula would give him slightly more fluid than breastmilk.  So I pumped out a ton and now I have a pretty good stash in the freezer.  I don’t really understand why I couldn’t feed him the breastmilk in a bottle, but oh well.  Formula smells AWFUL, I discovered.  It is so nasty.  But Abraham ate it and by the next day his jaundice was gone, so we got to go home!

It was  really hard to keep putting him in the incubator.  One time he got hiccups in there and his whole body would convulse, and it made him cry, but I couldn’t do anything but talk to him.  It was cool though, after the hiccups were gone and he was still crying, I talked to him and he turned his head toward me and stopped crying.   Most of the time he just slept in there.  They kept it pretty warm and he seemed content.

Now we are working on breastfeeding again.  It is difficult because he liked not having to suck very hard on the bottle.  Breastfeeding is tiring work for a baby. With a LOT of coaxing, he will latch on and suck for 2 or 3 minutes and then want to go to sleep.  But I have been able to get him to suck for at least 10 minutes every two hours since yesterday at 4:00, except for one session a couple hours ago.  I hope that is enough.  He seems to make plenty of messy diapers.  Hopefully he will build up his stamina quickly and be able to eat more.  We’ve already come a long way since yesterday, when he couldn’t seem to remember to latch on at first.

It was a rough weekend, plus on Sunday Samuel woke up with a fever and flu symptoms, so he has to wear a mask and not touch either of us.    So I’m kind of doing a single mom thing, but he can still help out in other ways.  We are all really lame around here.  I probably feel most energetic of all of us, and I’m 9 days postpartum.  blah!

But mostly I am so glad that the little guy didn’t have to have open-heart surgery or something.  He is perfectly healthy, thank goodness.

feeling frugal

I just made some homemade laundry detergent using grated ivory soap, borax, washing soda, and baking soda. I wanted some detergent that has no dyes or perfumes for the baby’s diapers, but laundry detergent is really expensive, and for some reason the less stuff they put in it, the more expensive it is.  ???  Also, the Dreft brand “baby” detergent they sell is not only ridiculously expensive, but also has perfume in it!  It might have dye too, I’m not sure.  Two completely unnecessary ingredients that many people find irritates their skin.

I’ve been wanting to try making this for a while and finally got around to it.  When I run out of regular detergent I will use this stuff for our clothes too. Well, provided that it works -I haven’t tried it yet. But the recipe has good reviews.

It’s so cheap: I just made a gallon ice cream bucket full of it for about $4, and you’re only supposed to use 1/8 cup per full load, so this batch I made is 72 loads. That is about $0.06 per load.
Compare that to Tide powdered detergent at about $0.25 per load, or All liquid detergent at about $0.20 per load, or Dreft liquid detergent at about $0.30 per load.

It doesn’t seem like much when we’re just comparing pennies but when you compare the price of 72 loads worth, it’s really obvious how much cheaper it is:

homemade: $4.32
Tide: $18.00
All: $14.40
Dreft: $21.60

So, if you use homemade detergent instead of Tide, for example, and you do two loads of laundry every week, you will be saving about $20 in a year!

lol, maybe that’s not really that much, but I think it’s cool.  And I have always been kind of annoyed whenever I’ve had to buy laundry detergent because if you look at the recipt it is like four times as expensive as most of the other grocery items you bought, so it seems really expensive.

This is the recipe:

3 c borax (found at Walmart or Dillon’s in the detergent aisle)
2 c washing soda (the only place I found it was Dillon’s detergent aisle)
2 c baking soda
2 c grated bar soap (two bars of Ivory soap)

Technically it has perfume in it from the Ivory soap.  Next time I think I might try Fells-Naptha bar soap.  It is supposed to be good for laundry.  Also, if you make this detergent, use a food processor thing to grate the soap.  It is really easy and fast!

The other frugal thing I did today was make some cloth baby wipes.  I figured if I’m going to do cloth diapers I might as well do cloth wipes too, and just throw them in the diaper pail with the diapers.  I cut out wipe-sized squares from a couple white t-shirts (knit fabric so I didn’t have to hem the edges).  As soon as I buy a little squirt bottle I will make the soap part (water, castile soap, and tea tree oil) to squirt onto the wipes when they are used.  Or you can just use water from the sink, but I like the idea of having a squirt bottle handy.

Other news:

Samuel spent aproximately 10,000,000 hours stooping over some pieces of wood and some nasty chemicals so he could strip, sand, stain, and varnish a headboard and footboard for (me) our bed.  The headboard and footboard look FANTASTIC, just like I wanted, but when we put the bed together, the side rails were too short for our mattress by about three inches!!!!!!  Boy, I am surprised one or both of us did not have a nervous breakdown.  I felt so bad for Samuel, who really, truly hated the project (the bed has those fiddly little turned spindles on it, which were ridiculously hard to strip and sand) and I know he was really worried that I was going to break down crying, because this was truly a nesting disaster.  The baby is coming any day now, and my mattress is on the floor, and there are pieces of a bed lying around my house.

So we went to the thrift store, and they had dozens of bed rails, but none that were the right type and length (hook-on rails, 80-82″ long).   But today I did some online research and found some that will cost about $50 including shipping, so I think I will use some birthday money that I got, and buy those.

UNLESS SOMEONE HAPPENS TO HAVE SOME TO GIVE US????

I just thought I’d throw that out there because you never know.

Ready or not?

Things are getting really crowded in utero but I am starting to worry that I am really going to miss being pregnant.  The baby has been in the same basic position for days now (getting too crowded to flip around much!) so I am 99% sure where basic body parts are positioned.  He/she keeps kicking me on my left side, or just pressing there, constantly, and it makes a bump that feels like a knot or something.  It’s weird, I love feeling that little foot with my hand, and someday it won’t be there anymore.  I know where his/her back is, and I keep putting my hand there, as if it were a baby sleeping on my chest (well, except my baby is upside-down in there).  I feel so close to this baby, and soon he/she will be outside and I will have to share!

Of course, I am excited about sharing, especially with Samuel.  I’m excited to give birth.  And I am excited to be able to see the baby.  Hmm, and have a more varied wardrobe.  And be able to sleep on my stomach.

forgive me this one whiney post

samuel just got paid for the first time today.  the school district pays once a month.  and, judging by the amount on the paycheck, he is only getting paid for the first two weeks or so on this paycheck, because of how the dates and payroll work out.

so now we have to figure out how to survive for another month without buying anything.  gaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

it is really crazy how this summer money has seemed to magically appear in the perfect amounts (just barely enough).  each month when it has come time to pay the bills, i have worked the books and there is magically just enough to pay it all.  and only one of those times was it a loan of money we have to pay back eventually.  the rest of the time it was just magical hidden money showing up just for us.  I’m serious.  i just finished figuring out how we were going to survive this month with a tiny paycheck, the first paycheck in five months, and i think it’s actually going to work, just barely.  and just in time for the baby to come.

at least the baby won’t cost much.  free breastmilk, free healthcare (i have NO idea what we would do without medicaid) and cloth diapers.  we’ve got the essentials.  a loving mom and dad, a doctor, food, and diapers.  hehehe.  plus more thanks to generous friends and family.  i think i have spent a total of about $3 for this baby, on some snaps for the clothes i made.  I guess if you count the rocking chair and lambskin that is about $100.  plus maybe $25 on used maternity clothes.

the only thing that will cost more than usual is laundry for all those diapers.  lol.

Oh my gosh i will be SO happy when i can buy stuff again….next month samuel should get a nice fat paycheck.  and a new baby!  wish us luck surviving until then.

quilted baby kimono

This weekend I made this aDORable quilted baby kimono.  It was really fast and easy -the fabric was already quilted.  It’s lined in cozy white flannel, and I trimmed it in dark grey bias tape.  It’s not technically finished because I still need to sew snaps on it, but the snaps would be invisible from the outside anyway.  I was thinking of using buttons (since I don’t actually have any snaps) but 1; buttons can be frustrating to fasten on baby clothes and 2; I didn’t like how the buttons took attention away from the grey line of the trim.  So this is how it will stay.  I just need to go buy some snaps.

I was kind of afraid that the pastel bunnies would be a little too feminine and not neutral enough for my taste.  But I think the dark grey trim brings it back from fluffy femininity to something more neutral.  I am happy with it.

The jacket is really thick and warm-looking.  I think it will suffice as a winter coat for car rides when worn over a warm outfit, with a hat and a blanket or two.

Baby clothes are so small.  I have a lot of this fabric left over.  I could make a blanket but I already have a few that people have given me.  What else can I make out of fluffy bunny fabric?  A matching jacket for me? 

Today is  my 34 week appointment and also birth class.  I absolutely love going to my appointments.  Norla and Emily (the two midwives) are so nice and take time to just chat with us.  They remember who we are and what’s going on in our lives.  I feel really comfortable trusting them to help me through labor and everything.

On the way home we are stopping at my grandparents’ to pick up a changing table with four drawers that my grandma bought at her neighbor’s yard sale.  She says it is really nice and in perfect condition.  I’m sure it will be since they live in a wealthy neighborhood and in all likelihood the changing table was only used for one child, maybe two.

I’m really excited to get the changing table because it means I can finally set up the “nursery” the way it’s going to be when the baby gets here.  For the past little while all the baby clothes have been piled in the bassinett, because there was no dresser or anything to put them in.  This has really been bothering me and my nesting instincts, funnily enough.  So I am excited to put all the clothes in drawers.     I feel like after that is done, the nursery will be ready.

pain relief soapbox

maybe you’ve noticed that i rarely get on a soapbox, on this blog or in real life.  the fact is that i actually do have strong opinions.  i just don’t tend to tell people about them unless i think they will agree or at least not argue with me too much.  call me wimpy, but i just don’t see any point in arguing when both parties are set in their opinions.  plus arguing makes me feel like crying.

but today i am going to write about this opinion of mine regarding pain relief in childbirth.  i don’t care if you think i’m crazy or wrong, as long as you don’t tell me and please, please don’t feel like i am criticizing anyone about the way they have chosen to give birth.  i don’t want anyone to feel bad about that.  if you really think the way you gave/will give birth was/is right for you, and it is different from my opinion, then just don’t listen to me, ok? ok.

so here’s my soapbox speech.

70%, 85% and 90% are all numbers i’ve seen showing the percentage of women in the u.s.a. who use an epidural for pain relief during labor.  go to any baby shower and, when the conversation turns to labor and pain, which it almost inevitably will,  you will notice that about the same percentage of guests will advocate the epidural.

epidurals, when administered properly, completely numb you from the waist down for several hours, providing complete pain relief from labor contractions.  contractions hurt a lot, i hear.  a LOT.  women have been seeking pain remedies for labor since the beginning of time.  why would anyone want to feel that much pain for that long if they could help it?  epidurals, though they can have complications and very bad side effects, are considered very safe.  so why not get one?

things that i’ve heard or read that people say when they advocate epidurals or criticize those who want a natural childbirth:

“Trust me, you don’t want to feel that pain.”
“You numb the pain during dental work, why wouldn’t you for labor?”
“You don’t have to be a martyr, you know.”
“You don’t get a medal for enduring the pain, you know.”
“YOU ARE CRAZY.”
“Are you trying to be some kind of macho woman?  What are you trying to prove?  Whatever it is, it’s not necessary.”

so i’ve gathered from these comments that pain is a very bad thing.  people who are willing to endure the pain of childbirth are crazy or trying to prove they’re better and stronger than others.  then why do we praise to high heaven the olympic athletes who devote their lives to the pain of athletic training and competition?  or the people who climb mt. everest and suffer from frostbite and severe altitude headaches for weeks?  the dancers whose toes are constantly bloody and scabby?  the marathon runners who go through all that pain just to run a race and say they did it?

i’ve heard people say that purposely giving birth naturally without pain medication is like running a marathon.  for months you prepare physically and mentally for the pain, and then you endure the pain and feel very acomplished at the end, and all of this even though you don’t have to.

of course, not everyone wants to run a marathon.  i certainly don’t.  i have never been an athlete and i feel no competitive urge to do that kind of thing just to prove i can, or whatever.  i have no desire to inflict pain on myself.  but from all the women i’ve heard talking about their planned natural births, the pain, though painful, is totally bearable, especially if you have a good support person at your side (husband, doula, midwife) helping you through each and every contraction.  this means you have to do some planning and practicing.  you can’t just say, “I’ll wait and see how I feel during labor, and decide about the epidural then.”  you can’t just run a marathon without any physical and mental training.  it would be too painful.  your body would force you to make the pain stop before long.

i get upset at the “macho woman” accusation.  giving birth is one of the most important acts in a woman’s life.  it is very personal, and the way she chooses to do it should not be up for scrutiny.  if getting an epidural is not wimpy, to be fair, wanting a natural birth shouldn’t be seen as macho.  no one should criticize the way a woman chooses to give birth.  even if her decision is uninformed, or might possibly be unsafe (and both medicated and non-medicated births are potentially unsafe), it is her choice and should not be criticized, especially after the fact.  it does no good.

so why do i want a non-medicated birth?  actually my initial decision had nothing to do with wanting to run a marathon.  it had to do with two things:

first, my mother gave birth to seven children without any pain medication.  it hurt a lot, but it was totally bearable.  she never said things like i quoted above.  her attitude was something like, “It hurts, but it’s nothing to be afraid of.”  and she is not a macho “pain is weakness leaving the body!” sort of person.  so i knew if she could do it (and all the billions of women before her) i could too.  i grew up with the idea that pain relief is not necessary for childbirth. my sister-in-law Thora also had a similar attitude about natural childbirth, having two young daughters birthed without pain meds.  her birth stories and opinions solidified mine.

second, shortly before i got pregnant i learned that the national c-section rate was 30%.  i suddenly realized that one in three pregnant women will have c-sections.  i was shocked, and really scared!  i did NOT want to be sliced open, and have to deal with all the pain of healing the several-inch incision in the weeks after birth.  somehow i learned that natural childbirth significantly reduces the chance that the mom will have a c-section.  so i said, SIGN ME UP!  it’s kind of funny, one of the main reasons i don’t want an epidural is to avoid pain.  see, i am a wimp after all!

those were the initial reasons why i got on the natural birth train.  after i got pregnant, i started reading and researching more about it (remember the “training physically and mentally for the marathon” idea?) in the past several months i have read HUNDREDS of natural birth stories and watched a handful of videos.  i learned that, in most natural births, immediately after the baby is born the mom’s body is flooded with endorphins and hormones that stop all the pain and replace it with intense and overwhelming joy.  it is literally like, “painpainpainpainpainpainpainhoursandhoursofpain – EXPLOSION OF JOY AND AWESOMENESS! ADRENALINE! OXYTOCIN! LOVE! HAPPINESS!”  when labor is medicated, whether with pitocin (drug for inducing labor) or an epidural, or any other drug, these endorphins and hormones don’t show up nearly as strongly, if at all.  of course, the mom is very happy and excited to have her baby out, but it just isn’t as intense as in a natural birth.  so i decided that i wanted that intense feeling.  i know that not everyone wants it or thinks it is that big of a deal, but i really want it.

so that’s the end of my soapbox.  in short: don’t criticize women for the way they give birth, and, i want a natural birth and i am not crazy.

here’s a little disclaimer: i believe that sometimes epidurals are necessary and wonderful.  sometimes, when a woman has been in labor for days and hasn’t gotten any sleep because of the pain, her body will simply stop laboring.  this can be very dangerous for the mom and the unborn baby.  so, getting an epidural so that the mom can finally sleep will often let the body rest enough to pick labor back up and finish the job.  also, when c-sections are necessary (and thank goodness we have them for those times) many women prefer to be awake for the surgery so they can see their baby as soon as it’s born, so as not to feel completely detatched from the birth.  without an epidural numbing them from the waist down, this would not be possible.

flannel sleeper

I just finished my first baby outfit ever!  I guess I did make a baby kimono for someone once.  But this is the first thing I’ve made for my own baby.

It’s a flannel sleeper, with snap closures.  It’s supposed to be size 0-3 months but it seems really big.  Oh well, we’ll see.

Next in line is another sleeper just like this one (I cut them both out at the same time) only in mint green fuzzy fabric.  Then I’m planning on making a quilted kimono (the fabric is already quilted -it came from my Grandma like that).

This sleeper took much longer than it should have because the directions were wrong!  There was a diagram/picture about sewing the booties that showed completely the wrong thing to do.  It took me forever to figure it out because I’ve never made booties or anything remotely shaped like them, so I was trying to follow the directions really carefully.  I kept thinking, “It seems like it would work so much better this way….” but it took me a while to finally ignore the directions and actually do what made sense.  Then it worked perfectly!  Gah!

I also finished the nursing top, but I can’t really model it because it doesn’t fit my belly right now.  But I used this tutorial.  It was a bit frustrating because it ended up being too low-cut at first, but I think I fixed it well enough.

30 weeks

Here’s a picture of me 30 weeks pregnant, or 3/4 done cookin’!

I feel really good.   Seriously, pregnancy is awesome.

We’re going to a weekly birth class now, so my mind can learn to deal with what my body already knows how to do.

We just made a gift registery tonight.  I’m kind of getting tired of the green and yellow everything in the stores.  Seriously, there are lots more colors in the world!  I guess at least I’m not restricted to only pink or blue.