Mama bootcamp

Forget the dog and baby bootcamp, I am the one doing bootcamp. Really the two of them are just doing their own thing, it is me that has to run around and work it out. Last night the bee slept all the way through to 6:20am. That is a rare and beautiful thing. She even slept through occasional barks. Montana did not sleep through the night. She was sick so I was up three times with her. It took from the time we woke up to the first nap to get us all fed, pump, the Bee diapered and dressed, the dog walked and me showered and dressed. Tana also had to go outside multiple times all the morning and puked twice on the floor. It was hardcore.

I then decided to put both the dog and baby on the same nap schedule. They both went into separate bedrooms with the door, window and curtains shut. The Bee listened to ocean and Tana listed to the CBC. Worked perfectly except that darn it, it turned out to be a short nap day, only 45 minutes.

The next plan was to leave the house. Tana is closely related to chicken little and believes the sky is falling and the earth is ending when she is left. We have done all kinds of training and it is better, but there is no just walk out the door and leave the dog. Plus she is mostly at my sister’s so it takes her a day to settle in here. Tana needs to be set up in the bathroom so that she doesn’t panic. Getting Tana ready and the stroller loaded combined with Mc Fussypanties who only had half a nap was a feat. At one point I told the dog she would have to “bark it out” and the baby she would have to “cry it out” while I got us ready. They both did exactly that.

Getting out of the house is always good. I love strollering. We went to mom and baby yoga in the park and it was fabulous and relaxing. I love doing yoga with the Bee and she loves it too. It is just so much fun to roll around and play together on the mat. After that we had a picnic and then I ate icecream and did errands while she stroller napped.

I think the dog and baby are on a good path together. Putting them on the same nap schedule really helped. I am also hopeful that the bee will learn to sleep through more noise again. She did in Cuba. Would a white noise machine be better than crashing ocean waves?

Dog and baby boot camp

Montana is barky and the Bee is a light sleeper. Montana has ended more naps than I can count. Montana is usually at my sisters but she is spending the next three nights with us. This is it people. The Bee has to learn to sleep through noise. To help her we have crashing ocean waves playing on the ipod loudly on repeat. I considered playing Montana barking on repeat while she slept so that when the dog really did bark it would just blend in. We are starting out tonight with a bang. There is a block party with live music and drumming. Any other tips for helping a baby sleep through noise?

What kind of parents will we be?

The Bee is almost eight months and we have learned so much and still have so much ahead that we will figure out. Lately I have been so inspired by Boombakids posts. I love how they are finding what works for them as a family. I gotta warn you, this post starts deep and ends in my kitchen

What is our family going to look like? My family was a disaster growing up. I can’t take much from there. F grew up in another country where family life is really different from here. Each family had a room at Grandma’s house. They slept there and also ran family business from it as well. There were chickens in the backyard and a garden. There are lots of great things about where she grew up and some of it we can take forward here and some of it we can’t. We don’t have packs of cousins, aunties and uncles all under one roof.

Parenting is also such a spectator sport. Sometimes I feel on display and that everyone around me can pass judgment on whether or not I am overprotective, not protective enough or have just let the girl eat too much watermelon. I am sure that sometimes people are passing judgment, but really it is more about my confidence. Do I have the guts to follow my what I am thinking is right for us?

Boobakids has been inspiring me to find my groove. She also been writing about free range kids. I had never heard of that before. Thanks to google and the public library, I got caught up on the topic. I feel like I have gotten vaccinated against becoming a paranoid parent. I feel huge piles of stress pour off me. I don’t know how free range I will be, but I feel better and more free. In the end, I think I will be mishmash of a whole bunch of parenting styles and go with what feels right. (I also like to do budgets based on what feels right which drives F a bit nuts.)

I know adventure will be a part of our family. It already has been. Traveling to Cuba, a ski trip, canoeing and hopefully lots of biking once she is a little bit older. Today we were following the Reggio Emmila philosophy. A couple of years ago I got to work in a program that was training people to work in early childhood education programs. What an incredible experience. I thought they were going to compare fisher price to lego and tell everyone which was better. I completely underestimated early childhood educators. Instead I got introduced to the Reggio Emmila philosophy and the concept of observing children and building curriculum from their interests. I worked with some very gifted instructors who were very passionate about their work.

This morning I built a new place space for the Bee. She is really into plastics and bowls right now. I set up an area beside the kitchen with a whole bunch of kitchen supplies. I followed a bunch of the concepts from Reggio Emmila. I used real kitchen tools, I included things she already likes and added other similar things, I used a see through container to hold things and I made it look nice. I also included her Yum Yum Dim Sum book. Not quite a recipe book but close enough so that literacy was a part of her kitchen. She is loving her new play space. She is all about plastic right now.

I heart our cloth diapers

Here is my adventures with cloth diapers in the daytime. Actually there aren’t a lot of adventures, just a lot of good non-leaking diapers. We went to a workshop on cloth diapering while I was pregnant which was excellent. We learned a few tips that I will include here I wouldn’t have known other wise. There are so many cloth diapering options as well has hybrids and other products related to diapers that when I go into stores I feel bamboozled. I still feel this way even though I have changed and washed 50 million diapers. Really it isn’t hard and the trick is not getting caught up in the cloth diaper baby product consumer hoopala. Just think something absorbent, something so that it doesn’t leak all over you and then the whole thing should be cute and easy to put on. Babies have worn them since the beginning of time.

The best advice I got was to buy a couple kinds and see what you like. Don’t spend a lot of money in the beginning. New Green and Baby Co has a test cloth diaper kit and a newborn rental kit that they will ship anywhere in Canada. We ended up liking the AMP pocket diaper. It is less bulky than most, and versatile. We can pre-stuff the outer pant so it is all in one piece and easier for grandma’s to put on a squirmy baby or just add the absorbency on top of the shell and then we can reuse the outer cover until it is wet or soiled. This means that we don’t need to have tons of outer covers.

Having a trim diaper is important if you want your baby to wear pants. Most clothes are designed for disposable butt babies. The first time I made her laugh was when I told her she had a great big cloth diaper butt. We both thought that was hysterically funny. The truth is, I love her cloth diaper butt, but it is harder to get pants over it. The AMP diaper is very trim fitting.

For the insides we are using cotton rectangles that my sister in law sewed. There are a lot of fancy fabrics out there for diapers, and I am sure they all work. This is where I get start to feel overwhelmed with the many options in stores and have to remind myself it is just pee and we just need something to absorb it. Night is a whole other story and I am planning to buy something more technical and absorbent. If we didn’t stuff the diaper and just put the cotton on top, we add a bummis fleece liner. It gives that stay dry feeling. Another tip we learned at the workshop is to make sure any diaper rash cream you use is safe for cloth diapers. All those thick zincy creams stick to diapers even in the wash and make them repel liquid.

We decided to try washing our diapers. I was really unsure if it would be too much work, but it turned out to be easy. We throw it all into a bin that is lined with a cloth diaper bag. Every three days we dump the diapers out of the bag into the wash and then throw the bag in with them. No touching dirty diapers. We do a cycle that is basically a rinse and soak and then hot wash extra rinse cycle with a small amount of detergent designed for washing diapers . If you want more detail go here.

I recommend getting a laundry assistant. Ideally someone who is interested in colours and textures to help put them away.

Those first 6 months of breast milk only diapers are beautiful. I really think starting with newborns is the easiest time and they go through so many diapers with their constant poopy pant business. No rinsing or messing around with breastmilk poopy diapers. Just toss them in the bin. (Sorry I don’t have any data on babies that are drinking formula). Now with feeding her solids, poo is a whole new ball game. I tried rinsing the diapers in the toilet, but I am just not that hardcore. I may be a go natural mama, but that is way too much for me. We use the bummis flushible liner, but mostly we just get her to poo on the toilet. It is much easier. I highly recommend it

For wipes we have a bunch of those tiny washcloths and a squirt bottle of water. They clean up messes way better than commercial wipes. For when we go out I put a few damp cloth wipes in a huggies box to take with us. I bring a wet bag for cloth diapers to put everything in and throw that into the wash when we get home. I don’t find it any easier to use disposables.

If you are thinking about it, try it! I am so happy that we did. We have saved money, have a happy baby with no rash and aren’t chucking out tons of diapers. If you have any questions about what we are doing, leave me a comment. I am starting up the night time experiments again. I am also thinking ahead to toddler days and toilet training. Has anyone found a good kind of cloth pull-ups?

Protected: Canoeing- not a lot of paddling, but still fun

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Ground to a halt

She’s got two teeth coming. Teething babies are not good for scientific experiments. They are wildly unpredictable. Although to her credit she is taking it quite well.

My initial testing also had some serious flaws. I carefully figured out how much she peed on one night. That was a trick night. She actually is a racehorse and pees two to three to four times that much depending on the night. Everyone’s cloth diaper success stories are pointing to one thing, lots of highly absorbent materials. I loved everyone’s comments. I am sure that this can work with a good diaper combination, but right now I don’t know if she is waking up in the night because she just does that, she is teething, or the diaper is wet and bugging her. That is too many variables. Now we are on hold until at least the teething one is taken out. Then we will start testing again.

More results

Babies are unreliable. That is a fact. All my scientific calculations and planning were thrown out the window when she peed like a race horse last night. I do not know if race horses are unreliable. Perhaps I should cloth diaper one of those. I might have better results.

Preliminary Results

One success and one failure. Our first night was a total success. She slept the same as normal, no leakage and we were all happy. I think what were using was a motherease all in one with an extra absorbency liner. I got it off craigslist that is why I am not totally sure what it is. Tonight was a diaper disaster. She had been asleep two hours and a half hours and woke up crying. The diaper had leaked all over and her clothes and her bed was wet. There was even more crying while we stripped her down and redressed her, but nothing that a little nursing couldn’t soothe. That leaky diaper was the AMP duo with an extra absorbency pad. Those are our main diapers and they rock in the day time. I don’t know why it was such a disaster tonight. I will do some more problem solving in the morning.

Thanks so much for all your comments. I love hearing about what people are doing. Thanks for the suggestions! If you haven’t commented, but are are using cloth at night and love your diaper what kind are you using? The experiment will continue a few more times, but right now she is tucked back in with her disposable diaper and of course monkey who keeps her company while she sleeps.

Science project time

Daytime diapers at our house are cloth. They are fantastic, but we use one disposable for night-time. I have been too chicken to try cloth at night in case she didn’t sleep as well. I am less chicken now. I must be getting more sleep or something, but it is time to test cloth at night. After all, lots of babies, including me when I was baby, had cloth diapers at night. It can’t be that risky of a notion, right? Also the number eight hundred keeps running through my head as a rough estimate of how many disposables we will throw away if we keep using one each night. It would probably be even more than that if I actually did the math, but my tree hugging cloth diapering mama brain doesn’t need the exact number to tell me it is a lot.

While I am willing to risk potential nighttime stirrings due to a change of diapers, I am not willing to throwing caution to the wind. This morning I set up a highly scientific diaper experiment. First I needed to know how much she is peeing in the night. I weighed a clean diaper and her wet diaper and calculated how much liquid was in there. Turns out to be half a cup. I set up a few different cloth combos and poured water on them to see how they stood up. Basically it looks like she needs just a little more absorbency than during the day. I also called the diaper store that sells the diapers that we have and love and ordered a bamboo insert which I am also going to test out. They also told me that she is not a heavy wetter and what I am planning should work.

Fingers crossed that she sleeps well tonight. So far the only problem has been Montana barking and waking her up. Darn dog. I haven’t figured out a scientific way to manage her. She is seriously stressing me out.

Notes from a long weekend

Ours
A twelve year anniversary

Hers
A poo in the toilet. Miss Poopypants is now called Miss Toilet Pooper. Which doesn’t sound as good, but actually is an improvement.
She can push herself backwards across the kitchen floor.
She drinks from a straw. No sippy cup and no bottle. The answer is a straw.