Cloth Diapers

Since Jack was born, we’ve been using a cloth diaper service.  Overall I’m still happy with cloth diapers, but they do have some disadvantages.

I don’t think I’d use cloth if we didn’t have a service; there’s enough laundry without washing all those diapers as well.  In the first few weeks we were using 90 a week!  Now I think we’re around 60.  (We also put a clean diaper on the changing pad to save having to wash that as often, though not for every diaper change.)  If I’m going out for the day or overnight, I’ll still use cloth, but if I were traveling for longer I’d use disposable.

We had been having a lot of problems with leaks, but that’s gotten better since we switched to the next size up, and now at night we put an extra diaper down the middle.

Anyway, the cons:

• Bulk:  they are much bigger than disposables, so they take up a lot more room in the diaper bag.  If you wanted to travel for a week you’d need a big bag to lug them around in!
• Diaper covers:  we finally found some that seem to work pretty well and contain the diaper adequately:  Bummis Super Whisper Wrap.  The problem is that when they get dirty, they stain.  (We own these, and wash them ourselves.)  I wash them in the machine with a small amount of a very mild detergent, and line dry them.  Anyone have any suggestions for getting out poop stains?
• Travel:  if you use them when you go out, you gotta haul them back home.  No big deal when you’re just out for the afternoon, but a day’s worth of diapers starts to take up a lot of room, and stink.  I would not want to haul back a week’s worth on the plane.  Right now I use whatever plastic bags we have around the house to put them in, but it’s not a very reusable solution.  Anyone have suggestions for something that can contain dirty diapers and used multiple times?

We’ll continue to use them for the foreseeable future.

Something Besides Sleep

Sleep is still the biggest thing going on (or not going on) around here, but I’m tired (ha ha) of talking about it.  So let’s talk about something else!

We’ve been going on lots of hikes/walks with Jack, usually with him in the Bjorn.  I’ve been putting him front-facing when we’re around the house or in the yard, but for bigger trips he’s still facing in.  On Sunday we went to the Yahoo! picnic at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds, where the theme was dinosaurs.  Chris had Jack in the Bjorn and he slept through a lot of it.

Jack is still pretty sociable; if someone else is holding him and walking him around he’s pretty happy.  He likes to be out and about.  When I take him to the grocery store, I put him in the sling and he’s a happy camper.  He used to sleep in there but now he sits up and looks at everything.

He gets excited when we put him in the car seat because he knows he’s going somewhere.  He used to always sleep in the car, but now he stays awake sometimes and looks out the window.  When he sees me looking at him in the mirror (we have one in the back so we can see him in the rearview mirror) he gives me a big smile.

He’s rolling from front to back like a champ, and will roll to his side if you hold his hand or if he grabs a toy.  He is reaching out to books when I read to him, and sometimes ends up turning the pages (an accident no doubt, but still fun).

He’s started to outgrow some of his clothes (including my favorite outfit, sob!) but that means he’s wearing some of his 3-6 month clothes, which are also very cute.

He’s full of smiles.

Exercise

I’m slowly starting to exercise again.  When I got pregnant, my doctor advised me not to run, hike, or walk on hills.  Given my neighborhood is hills in all directions, that was a bummer.  When I went for walks I had to drive somewhere.  I should’ve done things like swimming and yoga but I never got around to finding places to do them.

Anyway, recently I’ve been hiking on the trails near our house with Jack in the Bjorn, which I really enjoy.  I have also begun my return to running, very very slowly.  Since it’s been so long and I’m so out of shape I decided to try the Couch to 5K program, which alternates walking and running as you build up endurance.  It feels funny to only run for a minute at a time, but I definitely want to take it easy. I’ve only done two rounds so far; once on the weekend and once when Chris got home from work.  Yesterday I saw a rattlesnake.

And Now I’m 36

What did I do for my birthday today?  Cleaned the cat boxes!

Actually that made me happy.  Not cleaning the cat boxes, that is not particularly fun (doing a thorough dump-everything-out-and-scrub cleaning).  But what it represents.

When we were first trying to get pregnant at the start of 2005, Chris took over cleaning the litter boxes.  I figured it would only be a matter of time before it became my job again; instead, it’s been his job for 3.5 years.  Cleaning the cat boxes means I am no longer trying to get pregnant, and it means I no longer am pregnant:  it means I have a baby!  So yeah, cleaning the cat boxes made me happy.

It also felt like a more normal kind of day.  Some days I don’t get anything done besides taking care of Jack.  Which is fine, obviously that’s important, but I also want to ease back into my normal routine, and be able to do chores during the week so that when Chris is home it can just be family time.

I even vacuumed with Jack in the Bjorn.  Very productive day!

Whoa

Our doula just sent us the photos she took during the birth.  They’re at the business end of things right when Jack is born.

At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to look at them, but of course I did in the end.  After my initial moment of squickiness, I actually found them pretty fascinating.  It’s still hard to believe that a baby could come out of there, y’know?  Seeing his head out and the rest of his body still inside me is just amazing.

So I posted them on Flickr.. just kidding.  The first thing I did was tag them to NOT appear in the slideshow on my laptop.  (Vista automatically includes all the photos it finds.)  Cause I’m pretty sure not everyone wants to see that.

SIDS

Recently I’ve been thinking about SIDS and sleep.  About 3,000 babies a year die of SIDS in the US, and with the US birthrate at about 4 million a year, it puts the chances at about .00075.

That’s pretty small, but new parents are terrified of SIDS.  Since the early 1990s, there has been a huge “back to sleep” campaign to make sure babies are put to sleep on their backs, something that’s been shown to reduce the risk.  REDUCE the risk:  babies can still die of SIDS on their backs.  It’s still a mystery.

A lot of people I know have parents who say their kids slept through the night no problem from a very young age, and I think (if it’s true) much of it is due to the fact their babies slept on their stomachs.

Some babies don’t have a problem sleeping on their back, but many do:  the startle reflex keeps waking them up, and they thrash around and can’t go back to sleep.  I am convinced if Jack could sleep on his stomach (or even his side) he’d sleep much better.  We used to swaddle him, which helps some, but at this age he busts out and also he now sucks on his hands for comfort so I don’t want to keep his hands hidden.  The swaddle doesn’t help with his leg thrashing, either.

I’ve been reading some bulletin boards and find that a lot of people still put their babies to sleep on their stomachs, and people act like it’s like a dirty little secret.

I’m still pretty afraid of it, but I have to admit I am hoping Jack will start sleeping on his side on his own.  He can roll from front to back, and I’ve seen him go almost all the way from back to front, so I’m sure he’ll be able to do it soon.  Most of what I’ve read says if your baby is turning him or herself over, not to do anything about it; don’t restrain them or wake up to move them.

The risk is so small, but it’s just one of those mental mindgames.  “What if it happened, I’d never forgive myself,” “A few months of sleep deprivation is better than risking it,” etc.  But if we applied that kind of logic to the rest of our lives, we’d never step into a car, or go near a swimming pool.

I’d like to see some stats that compare the rates of babies sleeping through the night since the “back to sleep” campaign started, and prior.  I bet there were a lot more well-rested parents before then!

Nope

Sadly, the sleeping-through-the-night thing was a one-off, and he’s back to his 3-4 hour schedule.  I have been trying to push it to 4.5 hours minimum between night feedings so sometimes when he wakes up before then I take him into the nursery and calm him down in there.  He’ll doze while I rock him, but forget trying to put him back down in the co-sleeper.

It seems like he’s having more trouble going to sleep, too.  Last night he didn’t go down for good until 11:45.  Woke up at 2, fed him, then he slept until 5:30.  I was too tired to bring him into the nursery so I just fed him and went back to sleep.  He started thrashing around at 6 or 6:30 and I brought him into bed to get another hour of sleep.

Luckily, he is still cute.

Then Again, Maybe I Will

haaaaaaaaaallelujah!  haaaaaaaaaaallelujah!  hallelujah, hallelujah, halleeeeluuuuuujah….!

Last night Jack did the unthinkable and slept through the night!  He slept from about 11:45 to 7:15.  Of course, I woke up every hour or so, saw him thrashing around in the cosleeper, and thought “This is it, he’s waking up..” but he didn’t.

I am trying not to get my hopes up that this is a trend, but at least he’s demonstrated it’s possible.  He has had a very busy couple of days, so maybe he was just plain worn out.  Wednesday morning we went to the new mom’s group we always go to, then did some errands, then went to my parents’ in Walnut Creek.  Wednesday night we took him over to a family friend’s for a visit.

I tried to have him sleep in the Pak N Play at my parents but he was having none of it.  I was BOUND AND DETERMINED, he was going to sleep in there, darn it, but I lost that battle after a couple of hours and brought him into bed with me.  Thursday morning I took him over to my aunt’s to see her and a friend.  Then we drove back home and met up with a friend and her son.  Busy busy busy.

Stay tuned…

I Will Never Sleep Again

That pretty much sums it up these days.

As Always, Sleep

Still my favorite topic.  We have not made much progress.  Last night he went down at 10 PM, then woke at 11 for his feeding.  Woke up again at 2 and I took him into the nursery an hour to stretch it out to 4 hours between feedings.  Fed him at 3, back to sleep, he woke up at 5:30.  I didn’t feel like getting up again for an hour and a half so I brought him into bed and he slept til 7:00, when I fed him again.  After that he was WIIIIIIDEEE AWAKE!!!  and happy.  I’ve just put him down for his morning nap and am crossing my fingers it’ll be a long one so I can nap too.

I know he doesn’t need to eat every 4 hours at night.  But I’m not sure how to stretch it out any more other than rocking him (or bringing him into bed, which I don’t want to do).