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Sunday, June 30, 2013

A Break from Cloth Diapers.

(Disclaimer: I/we impose no judgement on others based on how you catch your kiddo's bowel movements. This post is about our kid and our preferences, nothing more!)

There is no such thing as a "break from cloth diapers." Myra had a yeast infection (happens to lots of babies, yeast/bacteria balance on skin gets a tad out of whack and off you go...) so we had to bleach her cloth diapers and treat her with a topical ointment for a week. Rather than bleaching the cloth at every wash dying treatment, we just switched to disposables for a week. Most people think the "break" from that laundry would be nice. Honestly, I didn't even notice the lack of laundry. Cloth diaper laundry is easy. There's no folding, hardly any "putting away;" it's just easy. I cringed paying for disposable diapers. They smell funny. They smell even worse after Myra pees in them. She had three blow outs in one week. She had one tiny blow out once in cloth and I think that was because she just happened to be propped up on someone's knee at the time. Three big ones in one week! She messed with the diapers-I'm sure she didn't like the feel of them as much. I know I hate wearing pads and those don't even cover my whole butt! And so.much.garbage. We started cloth diapering to save money, mostly, but holy cow the waste! I think Trevor is more excited to get back into cloth than I am! Basically, the break from cloth is hardly a break.

Also, in Myra's 5 month update I mentioned the yeast...we took her in to the doctor and he confirmed the yeast and also diagnosed her with chicken pox!  They are clearing up nicely and she's been a real trooper. She had red dots that were spreading but neither of us thought of chicken pox. We thought it was from the yeast, then thought maybe spider bites, heat rash, even checked Rowdy for fleas! 

That is all. Cloth diapers again tomorrow, woo hoo!!






Sunday, June 23, 2013

5 months old.

Sorry for being terrible with the blog lately!! Truth: Myra is so entertaining and fun I just haven't gotten around to it. The first couple of months it was my "holy-cow-I-need-a-break" thing, but that's really not necessary anymore. 

I still have her 3 month 24 hour post ready but have to import photos. I will eventually put that up, too. Beyond that, I'm going to do those "quarterly" now, so the next one will be at 6 months. It's fun to see but a long day of tracking!

What's going on with Myra at 5 months? (Technically yesterday but, like I said, terrible with the blog!)

Sleep: awesome! Never thought I would say that, woah. My how things can change in a month!! She goes to bed right around 7 every night and sleeps until 6-7am, rarely a wake up (once a week if that, and if she does it's only once)! She usually naps really well, too. Two 1.5-2.5 hour naps and a shorter nap later. There's a little more variability with the naps, but really no big deal especially since she sleeps so great at night. When we put her in her crib, we just give her a kiss and say good night. She sucks her thumb then puts herself to sleep. 

Eating: Myra is still doing great with nursing. She nurses before and after every nap/when she wakes up/bedtime. She will take a bottle if necessary, too. She gets distracted very easily, though. I'm comfortable nursing in public uncovered, but she gets too distracted I usually have to find a private place anyway. Even at home if I'm not looking at her she will often give me the stink eye or turn to look see where I'm looking.  My appetite is unreal and I'm already below my pre-pregnancy weight thanks to breast feeding.  I actually make it a point to eat high calorie foods like avocados. I imagine we'll start some first foods in the next month once she shows signs of being ready. We'll be skipping purées and cereals and just giving her regular foods (www.babyledweaning.com for details if you're interested). Food before one is just for fun! (And learning about tastes, textures, the social aspect of eating, etc.) Her main source of nutrients and calories will be breast milk until she's at least one. It will be fun to watch her eat and make messes haha

Milestones: Myra can roll over both ways. She rolls onto her belly to sleep and is pretty mobile by rolling around. In fact, she is always moving! She's given us some belly laughs, always cooing/singing/whispering and sometimes it sounds like actual words which is adorable (mama, yeah, no, dada-even though she is obviously not saying them on purpose). She has found her toes and is in love! That's what helped her roll over from back to belly I think...she grabs her toes then rolls. She has excellent head control. We put up breathable bumpers in her crib after a couple melt downs from getting her legs stuck all the way up to her thigh! She's got great coordination-everything in her hands is easily brought to her mouth. Tummy time is a breeze now that she can roll both ways it just happens naturally.  She's been mimicking us for a long time now by sticking out her tongue. She still does it daily. It's adorable when she starts to do it because she's kind of timid and seems like she's thinking "I kind of want to play that tongue game...maybe you'll play with me? Please?" It's adorable.

Temperament: Myra is always happy. Always. She doesn't cry. Ever. She will fuss when she's starting to get tired and when she wakes up, but it's definitely not crying. Well...she cried when she got her legs stuck in the crib, but that's seriously it. We can easily get her to smile. She has a lot of similarities to both of us so far. When Trevor is tired or stressed, he rubs his head...Myra too. The always moving thing comes from him, too.

Health: no check up this month but at 4 months she was perfectly healthy! No teeth yet. We just started treating her for a yeast infection (just on her body, no thrush as far as we can tell). She doesn't really seem too bothered by it really, she'll just lightly scratch at it from time to time.

Other: cloth diapering is still going great! I bought disposables for the first time yesterday to use while we treat her for yeast and I can't believe how much people must spend on diapers!! I'm a big believer in "you do it your way, we'll do it ours" so I mean no disrespect, but Trevor and I agreed we feel icky every time we put a diaper in the garbage haha. And that's not even why we started with cloth...we just wanted to save money!  We've had a babysitter twice now. Once for a night out with friends and once for an all day music festival. Both times went great! In May we wrapped up our first ECFE class, Baby & Me, and met some awesome mamas! Also, I've become quite close to the mamas in our due date club (online cloth diapering forum type group of moms who were also due in January). It's fun to see our babies grow together! Myra and I (and sometimes Trevor) are doing lots of babywearing. I have a few woven wraps and a soft structured carrier (a Beco Gemini) and it's so fun to be able to snuggle her while getting stuff done, going for a walk, etc. and be hands free! Myra loves being able to look around and see what we're doing. We haven't touched our stroller yet, thankfully it was a hand me down. It makes walking Rowdy easier, too, since I'm not trying to hold his leash and a stroller. And they wraps/carriers are pretty ;) I've had years of my "fun money" saved up because I rarely buy myself anything - seems like a great thing on which to spend it! Plus they hold their value incredibly well. Ah, I digress.

I really can't think of much else for this update. You get the idea, our kid rocks! Trevor is absolutely in love and hardly remembers the time he was hoping for a boy...he frequently says how glad he is we have a girl; she's perfect for us!