Our Baby is Here!

Our sweet #4 was born January 1, 2014. She was the first baby born at our hospital! Labor was natural (and I won't lie, very painful) and took about 6 hours total. She was 7pounds 7ounces at birth. She is as sweet as can be, loves to sleep and everyone just adores her!

We've been home for a few days now and started cloth diapering yesterday (the 6th). I'm still using sposies at night, because we got several from the hospital, and she's got a touch of jaundice so I've really been trying to track every wet and poopy diaper. But I did put her in cloth and we did 6 cloth diapers yesterday. I started with the tiniest diapers I have, Lil' Joeys and nb THX. They are almost identical, with an umbilical cord snap down. The only real difference is Lil' Joeys have gussets, and THX do not (anymore), because LJ are patented and it was a patent infringement. I noticed the THX are a tad bigger in the leg holes. Which does matter if you've got an under 7 pound baby with major chicken legs!
Overall, they are super tiny diapers and fit #4 well. I recommend buying used, since they will be grown out of fast and can be spendy. Although THX are less than half the cost of the LJ. LJ are also an American born company, made both in the USA and overseas, and THX are considered a China knockoff.

Here she is in a Lil' Joeys newborn diaper

I'm really glad I got these AIO diapers. They were easy to use and the perfect diaper to start cloth diapering a newborn with, because no matter how seasoned you are at diapering, cloth diapering a newborn can be intimidating! 

Softbums Iced Giraffes BNIP going up for sale!

Preparing For a New Baby- Diaper Wise

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged! Life is so busy with an almost 8, almost 6, and almost 3 year olds. I almost didn't remember how to write a new post!
I have good news! We are expecting again. I am 27 weeks today. We seem to be over the scary hump and into just waiting for baby mode. We haven't announced publicly, our close friends and family know, but that is about it. I never did a facebook announcement. We are waiting till baby is born to do so. Losing a baby in the second trimester (in November 2012) has really put life into perspective for me. Nothing is certain in life, and while we are rejoicing with those closest to us about our impending arrival, we have kept it pretty private. This baby is so much wanted and already loved by his or her big brothers and sister, myself and my husband. We cannot wait for the big day!

 I sure have had fun preparing for baby by buying a newborn diaper stash! And the wool longies. Oh the wool longies! They are so tiny and small! Diapers are the only thing I need for this baby, so it's been my only thing I have gotten to buy so far.

What makes up my stash for the newborn diapering? Well, variety, lots of variety! I'll add links to the certain brands websites.
I have about 16 preemie prefolds of varying brands (unknown, I bought used). We probably won't need them for long, if we need the preemie sized at all, but if we do need them for a real itty bitty, we have them. Plus they will always come in handy for doublers, spit catchers, etc. I have I think 18 newborn sized prefolds as well, 2 GMD nb prefolds, and the rest unknown, as I bought used.
I've got an assortment of fitteds, Geffen Fitteds, Thirsties fitteds (their old style was sized, so I have a couple xs and small, but I also have a few of their size 1 as well), a Goodmama fitted, just got two BuggaBuggaBoutique fitteds in the mail today (so cute!!! And this wahm is awesome!), a Sbish mini snapless fitted , and I think that is it for the fitteds!
Covers, I have a few wool covers, but I'll talk about that later. For PUL covers, of course I will use my first love of Softbums (That I am using on my 30 pound almost 3 year old still!). I will use the Softbums Echo, these are narrower in the crotch than the Omni, and fit on a newborn much better. I will also use Thirsties newborn covers, Sweet Pea newborn cover, Rumparooz newborn cover.
I've got some All In Ones (AIO) as well. I am typically not an AIO fan, I love AI2s so much more, but AIOs are really nice for late night diaper changes, and on the go with a newborn. Which, let's face it, we will be a lot with 3 older kids. My AIOs that I have, and am excited to try, Blueberry Simplex AIO (I got this as a gift from a friend!),  Rumparooz Lil Joeys AIOs, a newborn Gro-Via AIO, and these came from a co-op, THX newborn AIO.
I think this is it, minus Softbums mini pods, which are just newborn sized microfiber inserts to use in my Softbums covers. I've got lots of these as well!

Wool. I love me some wool! Most are handmade from friends, or I bought used, but I also have a pair of xs Sbish longies. I am excited to use all the wool I have, and a couple that haven't come yet. Wool is breathable, adorable, and really not that hard to care for! It can be intimidatingat first, but once you try, you discover it's really easy! And did I mention cute!?!

I always suggest buying used. It saves money, the diapers are already prepped for use, and the investment doesn't seem so scary when purchasing things at a deal. Plus if a certain diaper doesn't work out for you, buying used means you can probably sell it for what you paid. Most everything I have purchased has been bought used. This has saved me a couple hundred dollars!

If you want to buy from a retailer though, and many of the things I have linked to can be purchased from online stores like MySweetPickles ( there are a few things I listed about that I bought from them!). This is a local online store to me, they have great customer service, lightning fast shipping,  often have deals and sales, and I really like supporting local businesses, even if they are an online one! They are mom run, and who doesn't like supporting fellow moms?

So there you have it. This is what I will be using on my newborn, God willing. I won't post pictures of my stash yet. We are keeping the baby's gender a surprise, and posting pics would let the cat out of the bag!  I guess you will just have to wait till our little one is born and I start reviewing all these diapers to see them!


(I in no way am endorsing or get paid by any of the companies I have mentioned above.)

Christmas

Christmas is upon us. And again, it's been months since I posted! So much has gone on in the past few months, a very rough few months. This isn't cloth related, but important non the less and explains the long absence from posting. We lost another baby, this time at 16 weeks, a boy we named Liam Noah, last month in November. It was a somewhat complicated pregnancy, and some issues with the placenta not being able to attach correctly due to a sub-chorionic hemorrhage is what we think ultimately caused Liam to pass away. It's been hard, we were all so excited for #4. But it wasn't God's plan, so we are working through the pain and seeing some sunshine again. The 3 beautiful children I have helps me immensely, it's never a dull moment here! To memoralize our little Liam, I got a tattoo in his honor. The butterfly is in memory of the baby we lost this summer. What do you think? This photo was taken right after I had it done. It took 2 hours! Painful but so worth it! I hope you like it! I sure do!

And today is a very special day! Today is #3's 2nd Birthday!!! Happy Birthday #3!!! You are such a little ball of energy and make us oh so happy! You have been the perfect adddition to our family and couldn't imagine life without you! I cannot believe it's been 2 years already. My how the time has flown.

This is such a true picture of you. Bumps, bruises and all! My rough and tumble boy.

Minimalism

Ok. Really? You think... On a cloth diaper blog? Yep. On a cloth diaper blog. I know I for one have way. to. much. STUFF. And cloth diapers is a part of it. Yes, I actually said it! I have too many cloth diapers! But, I am so not ready to go to the minimum number of diapers I can get away with. Not yet, and probably not ever. I did though, start with getting rid of some random pocket diapers, some way too big prefolds, the gDiapers I don't use, some wool that doesn't fit, etc. Not all of it has sold yet, but I am trying! Its a start right? I think so.

But anyways this brings me back to the rest of the STUFF. My house is over run with it. What is it you ask? Well its just that, its STUFF! Small appliances we rarely use, too much clothing, WAY too many toys, knick knacks stored away in boxes, shoes, extra dishes and those plastic cups from restaurants. Yes, we have those, they make great bath time cups for rinsing out shampooed hair, but do we need all of them? Naw.... So I have challenged myself. Get rid of all the excess STUFF! It's going really well so far! I have been moving slowly, because I have to do it during nap times, and still run a household, but I have gained perspective on life. While I have been cleaning, reorganizing, cleaning and reorganizing again and again, of the same old stuff, I could have been spending more time with my family! Some one out in the internet world calls it the Sh** Shuffle. Yes, you read that right, the Sh** Shuffle. And it's so true! So as I go through my house, I think about each item I go through, Do I NEED this, will I USE this? Or is it something that I may use, or that I may need somewhere down the line? This has greatly helped me, in letting go of things.
My hang up though, is the sentimental stuff. Toys I had as a kid, old birthday/holiday cards. Someone had the great idea, of keeping those things for a year. Then the following year, toss the old ones, and keep the new ones. That way (now this is especially true from the cards from older relatives and friends), if someone happens to pass away, you have the last card they sent you, and that card can become something you treasure. Another idea was to keep those cards that had a special note written in them, because its not the card itself you will treasure, its that note that means something to you, because it was from someone you loved and cared about.
This goes for all places in your home, why are  you hanging on to all that stuff? For me, its because we could need it somewhere down the road, and I don't want to have to buy another of it. But chances are, I got a good deal on it, picked it up at a garage sale of thrift store, and it is replaceable. Getting that mentality down has significantly helped me to see that we do not need all these things taking up space, and our time, in our home.
So I challenge you, to do the same. Start small. go through your DVD collection, because chances are there are a couple DVDs in there you have no interest in watching, and are just taking up valuable space. Then move on, do your closet, look at each piece, does this fit? Will I really ever wear it again? If those answers are no, get rid of it!
Now you ask, ok, I have all this stuff, what do I do with it now? Well, the volume of things I am getting rid of is so large, that we are going to have a garage sale. With that money, I am going to buy a really nice stroller, that will serve as a double, or a single, so I can get rid of all my other strollers, because right now, I have 4 in my garage! EEK! yep, 4 strollers. I would rather just get rid of all of them, and get 1 stroller that I really like.  So you see, there is a reward for me at the end of all of this. And whatever does not sell, I am doing to donate. There are many charities around me, always looking for donations, so that's where everything else will go.
I want to feel liberated from all my STUFF. Don't you?

Gifted

Warning, sad post.

So very recently I experienced an early miscarriage. The baby passed away at 7 weeks, and I didn't find out until 12 weeks. I don't need to go into any more details than that, but its been rough and we are all very sad at our house because we were looking forward to a new baby.

Anyway, a friend of mine in another state was selling some Goodmama fitteds for a super steal of a deal, and I asked her about 2 of them because I loved the prints! Sadly she said she had mailed those two out an hour earlier. I was bummed. Well lo and behold, I received a package 2 days later with those 2 diapers in it! So I messaged her and told her I had gotten those two diapers in the mail, and was it a mistake and does she want me to forward them on... I had recently bought some other diapers from her, so my address would have been fresh in her paypal queu. She said no, they were a gift and she hoped that they would bring a smile to my face. I cried instantly. Here was a mom who had lots of littles herself with her own struggles, paying a kindness forward, to a friend who was down in the dumps. Those diapers DID indeed bring a smile to my face, and while they won't bring my baby back, it gave me a renewal in humanity, and a refresher in kindness. 

So I encourage you to pay it forward. You never know how a small little something you do for someone else will affect them. Hopefully they will continue the chain and pay it forward. God bless people like my friend, for they are truly special.

Not a great pic, I used my iPod, but #3 looks so cute in his Goodmama cd diaper!

MIA

So I know I have been MIA for awhile. We have been incredibly busy and have a lot going on. We went on vacation the whole 4th of July week and it was HOT HOT HOT! And super miserable unless we were at the lake! So you want to know, did I bring my cloth?! Kinda! I used covers and disposable Flip inserts the whole week. At night, I used my Super old fuzzibunz fitteds with flats inside. And I handwashed. It sucked. I only had cold water, unless I wanted to wait to fill up my bucket in the bathroom, but I didn't and washing in cold seemed to work ok. I just brought my bucket and plunger with. Thankfully the kids helped me with plunging :) I used about 2 packs of 18 inserts for the whole week. Mind you, we spent ALOT of time at the lake, so #3 was in a swim diaper half the day. And we also cheated and went home 1 night because it was so hot and we were all so miserable, so I used cloth that one day we were home. So does cloth work while camping? Sure. Would I want to do that whole experience again for an entire week? No, not when its that hot out. The disposable inserts were absorbant enough and they are super trim. My consenus is that they work great for vacations and long day trips away from home.