Cloth Diapers

People keep asking me how the cloth diapers are going,so I figured I might as well let you all know that we're still loving them! We had to use disposable for the first few weeks until her umbilical stump fell off, but we've been 100% cloth since then. It's actually kind of fun! Most of the time we use prefolds and covers, but at night we use pockets.

Does that sound like Greek to you? Basically, a "prefold" is a big square piece of fabric that's been prefolded and sewn together so it's super absorbent. Then it's held together with a plastic thing called a "snappi," so you don't have to use pins (like in the old days). Here's a photo of a prefold and snappi that I found online:

Since a prefold is just 100% unbleached cotton, you then have to put a cover over it so it's waterproof. We've been using the Thirsties Duo Wrap covers, which have worked *great.* (FWIW, I much prefer the covers with the snaps, as the Thirsties velcro/aplix seems really weak to me.)  This website shows how to fold a prefold and put on the cover.

At night, however, we've been using pockets. The prefolds work great during the day, but they get soaked through in about 3 hours. And since I don't want to be getting up every 3 hours to change Rose each night, we've been using a double-stuffed pocket. What that means is we take a pocket diaper and then add an extra layer to the pocket to make it super absorbent. Here's an image explaining the pocket diaper:

We've been using the bumGenius 4.0 pocket diapers, and they've been great! I actually bought a few other brands (Oh Katy, FuzziBunz, RumpaRooz) before Rose was born because I heard that not all pockets fit every baby well. All the other ones that I bought have leaked, but we've never had a problem with the BGs. (I'm still holding on to the other ones though, just in case we have problems with the BGs down the road.) So now we've been slowly adding to our stock of BGs, especially since those are the diapers we'll be use during the day once Rose is in daycare. (Oh, and FWIW, I've been enjoying the BG velco/aplix because it's easy to get the fit right on our tall lady, although about half our stash is snaps since I hear that toddlers can rip the velcro off easily but they stay "stuck" in the snaps. Just thinking ahead for the days when her dexterity is more advanced...)


Well what about the laundry element, you ask? Well, I'm lucky to have an awesome husband who does all of our laundry - his clothes, my clothes, sheets and towels, and now Rose's clothes and diapers. He's awesome. But since he's going to be out of town for several days next week (more on that in an upcoming post), I had to learn how to do the diaper laundry. Uh oh.

But actually it's not that bad! Everything gets tossed in to the washer with an extra rinse cycle, we use special cloth diaper laundry detergent, and then the covers get hung up to dry while the prefolds go in the drier.  They even look pretty while they're being dried.  :) So if you're thinking about using cloth, I'd be happy to talk your ear off about how much we love it!

Rose's first Twins game!

Last night Rose went to her first Twins game at Target Field! We made it through the 7th inning stretch - lots of fun, but just a bit overstimulating for such a little girl. Thanks, Elaine, for the wonderful gift!

shoulda seen it comin'

Note to self: Don't brag about Rose's sleep or you just might jinx it!

Remember two nights ago when she slept in her crib and only woke up once in 11 hours? Yeah, that was a good night.

Well, last night she woke me at 11:30, 2 and 4. BUT, I only had to feed her at the first and last wakenings because she had lulled herself back to sleep by the time I got to her crib at 2:01am. AND, having had to get up at 2am made me realize that Mike wasn't in bed.

Missing husband alert!

He was, in fact, lying in agony on the couch. Apparently he's had a sore throat for the past 3 days but didn't want to tell me about it in case I'd limit his time with Rose. (Awwww.) But last night things came to a head and he was miserable! Poor guy!

Maybe it was a good thing that Rose woke me at 2am, because then I could get Mike some acetominophen and some Throat Coat tea. And maybe it was a good thing that she woke me again at 4 so I could get him some water and take his temperature again.  Yeah, that's right. A good thing.

So I still think we have a wonderful baby, even if I did get woken up three times last night.

A banner day!

We did it... We finally got up the nerve to have Rose try sleeping her crib at night. We figured we've been making good progress at having her nap on flat surfaces (i.e., not in our arms), so last night we took the plunge. She went to bed around 7:30pm, as usual, and basically* didn't wake up again until.... (are you ready for this?)....3:15am!!!! That's a new record. Wow. Then she fell back asleep again until about 6:30, her typical wake-up time.  I am so impressed with her! We have such a great sleeper!!! (Knock on wood that I didn't jinx anything by typing that!) Three cheers for Rose! Let's see how it goes tonight...


*I say "basically" because she usually fusses for about 30-60 minutes at bedtime, so Mike and I are used to intermittently reassuring her during that time.

In other news, Rose and I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art today and she *loved* it! I kept showing high-contrast paintings and she would look for a minute and then get a *huge* grin. It was great!

Finally, Rose's other favorite thing is bath time! She just "graduated" to sitting in her tub without the infant sling - she's getting so grown up! I think we're going to have to start looking into swimming lessons soon. :)

She loves being splashed...

...even in ways that I would not tolerate!

We have such a wonderful daughter! :)

Two-month pediatric appointment

Rose had her two-month appointment today! I was super anxious about it since I knew she would be getting several shots. (See the CDC's recommended immunization schedule, which Mike and I feel very strongly about following, here.) Thankfully we were able to work it out so all three of us could go, which was great because then we all got to meet her pediatrician, since our previous pediatric appointments were with the nurse practitioner.  Luckily we both really liked Rose's doctor, and I think she also liked Rose. :) 

We did find out, however, that Rose has a little reflux going on. We debated the pros and cons of various treatment options, including doing nothing, continuing with gripe water, eliminating dairy from my diet, or giving her baby zantac. After weighing the different choices, we decided to go with a month-long trial of the zantac - let's hope this helps her tummy feel better!  Speaking of meds, we also found out that we should be giving her a vitamin D supplement. Between all my meds, Lucy's kitty Prozac, and now Rose's two meds, our house is a veritable pharmacy!

In addition, we also got Rose's official measurements today! She is 12# 6.4oz (85th percentile) and 23.5 inches (86th percentile). Her head circumference is 15.5" (66th percentile).  Her weight was at the 50th percentile (or so) at birth, so she is definitely a little milk monster, even despite the discomfort caused by the reflux.  Finally, our pediatrician said she seems to be hitting all her early milestones on time, and is all-in-all a very happy and healthy baby!


Oh, and all those shots I was so worried about? They were over in about 3 seconds. Rose let out a god-awful howl, but she calmed down very quickly - we had her swaddled during the shots and she started to breastfeed as soon as they were over - and Mike and I also calmed down pretty quickly.  :) Whew! Let's hope her 4-month appointment goes as well!


And since I can't "publish" a post without including a picture, here she was getting her bath last night.  She loves bathtime so much that she cries crocodile tears whenever she has to get out of the tub! :(

Updates -- and Nine Weeks Old!

I realized that I haven't been keeping you, my loyal blog readers, as updated as I would like. I'm sure you've all just been dying to know how the breastfeeding and sleep situations have been going recently...

Breastfeeding
No news is good news! We seem to have turned the corner around six weeks. (Looking back, I can't believe it was "only" six weeks of feeding hell! It felt like forever!) The past three weeks have been pretty much pain-free, and I no longer dread the next feeding - in fact, now I have to be careful not to rely on breastfeeding as my main comforting tactic!! Good thing she still loves to "comfort suck" on her penguin pacifier. :)

I've also started pumping once per day to try to build up a back-up supply of milk for when I return to work. So far we have about 20 3-oz bags in the freezer, which is nice peace of mind in case my milk supply starts to dwindle once I get back to work.  In an ideal world I'd like to give her breastmilk for the first year, but we'll see how the transition to daycare/work goes. I'm definitely not opposed to supplementing with formula, or even switching to formula if we need to - I'm just proud that we've gotten this far with the breastfeeding!


Sleep
This is another area where we're continuing to make progress. Rose has had 3 nights in the past week or so  where she only got up once!! Each night she went to sleep around 7:30 or 8, then woke up around 1:30 or 2, then got up for the day around 6ish. Not bad! And even on the other nights when she wakes up twice (around midnight and 3am), I decided it's "doable" and I'm not going to stress about it any more.  Such an improvement over the 3+ times she was getting up, even just two weeks ago!

We're also working on getting her to sleep in her crib, since I'm pretty sure our daycare won't be able to hold her for the entirety of her naps each day and I don't think their regulations allow for naps in a bouncy seat. (We're still keeping her in the bouncy seat at night - I don't want to mess with a good thing! Once she's regularly waking only once or regularly sleeping through the night, then we'll work on nighttime sleep in the crib!)  Over the past week or two I've been trying to give her the "opportunity" to nap in her bassinet or in her crib. It seems to be going well, as long as she's swaddled. Fingers crossed that this all continues to go well!

 

Daycare
And speaking of daycare, Rose starts on July 23. (I go back to work on July 16 and my mom will be watching her that week. Thanks, Mom!!!) We got a huge packet of information to read and forms to fill out before she can start. As I was filling out the forms, it really hit me that we have a daughter and we are responsible for her!! All of the sudden everything became another level of "real."


Weekly Photos
Finally, Rose turned nine weeks old today!  Here are my favorite pictures from her weekly photo shoot this morning:

Have a great week, everyone!

Oh the places she'll go!

Rose got mail from the president and first lady!