Cloth Diaper Update Part 1

EC has been in cloth for about 5-6 weeks now and honestly I love them. I wish I could say that they have been nothing but smooth sailing but as with any new journey there are bumps in the road. Over the next few weeks I want to share with you some of the bumps we have encountered and the lessons learned so hopefully if you use cloth or are interested can learn from them and avoid them!

When we got EC home I was so excited to put her in cloth but the one size covers I bought swallowed her and irritated her belly button. Her newborn clothes did not fit because of her diapers not her size! So we used Pampers until her belly button fell off. Once it fell off and I ran out of pampers I invested in 4 newborn covers and 2 All-in-1s. I already had 4 newborn fitted diapers and 12 prefolds so I was ready to start our diaper journey. I had 4 all-in-2's with 8 inserts and 2 pocket diapers that were just way to big so I put those in the back of the drawer with her one size covers. I started out using the prefolds with a cover because they were the least bulky. My first few attempts were not successful due to operator error. We had a poop explosion in public because I put the cover on wrong and a few leaks because I folded the prefold wrong. So I went into Green Bambino and they showed me a new way to fold. Once I had the fold down and remembered that the cover actually has to cover all of whatever is inserted inside it we were good to go. The fitteds were ok at first but once we switched to formula with some cereal in it the fitteds were great. The all-in-1s I hated from the beginning. They fit for about 2 weeks, took forever to dry, and leaked out the side. As EC's stomach was adjusting to the change in feeding she was not pooping everyday. When she finally  poops it is massive. The fitted just does a better job handling the massive amount! The prefolds with a cover do keep it contained but when cleaning it up it is just messier. With the prefolds I did run into her bottom being irritated. I figured it was because her bottom was not getting air and the material does not wick away the moisture. I asked my fav diaper store and my instincts were right. My solution was to alternate the prefolds with the fitteds and then when her other diapers fit I used those in the rotation as well. And of course I changed her more often and used a cloth diaper friendly cream. So.....the morale of this story is don't just buy all one sized diapers or all of one kind. I will get into the all of one kind in another post but trust me on this one for now. My All-in-1s may not fit but my newborn covers and fitteds still fit and will continue to fit for a good while. They just extend my stash!

Stay tuned for Laundry and why buy multiple styles. I know you are on the edge of your seats for it!!!

Just ask already

I can't sleep! Tonight is the first night that Jay is traveling and I am all alone with both girls! My heart is heavy with many things so why not share them with the internet! I put pictures up of my loves to lighten the heavy.

My pastor posed a question recently about what breaks your heart. What makes you stop and cry? I tried to think about all the Sunday School answers. . . you know hunger, poverty, the orphans and honestly they do not break my heart! What breaks my heart is the thought that my kids will make my mistakes and that they will never come to be passionately in love with Jesus. I want so much more for my girls than just being good people. I want to raise girls that go against the grain, that are not afraid to be weird and stand out because they refuse to just do what the world says is normal! 

Here is the kicker, I am scared to death to lay my heart open before God and share with Him my fears and desires for my family. I know that when I FINALLY lay it all out there God will say it is about time and get busy stirring up all kinds of change. I keep trying to plan my life and I know God will come right on in and change all my carefully crafted plans.

I know the end result will be so beautiful. I mean 2 years ago I laid open my heart to God and my world changed dramatically. I am now staying home with my girls and actually loving it. My carefully crafted plan did not involve day care drama or full-time mommyhood but O looking back what God had planned was so much better in every way possible. So I guess I write all this to remind myself that yes opening yourself up to God wrecking your plans can be painful but from that pain and fear comes this beautiful outcome that you can not recreate with all the careful planning in the world. . . just not possible.

Been a little busy

Introducing Ella Clair Beth Dunks aka EC! She made her arrival on Aug 21st! She was 9 lbs and 21 inches long! No wonder my ribs were hurting! She has beautiful RED hair and long fingers and toes. I think she is pretty darn cute!

Lindsey thinks that Ella Clair is pretty awesome! She is a great big sister! I am so proud of her. 

Thank you to all who prayed boldly that we could have this baby naturally. I was suppose to have a C-Section since Lindsey's birth was so traumatic. However as the time got closer my heart knew that God could deliver this baby safely and naturally. So I put all my trust in God and began to pray that God would allow us to have her naturally. Our Dr. agreed that it would be safe and so we went in for a natural delivery! Please don't read this as anti C-section. I just knew in my heart that it was not the delivery we were suppose to have! 

So on Aug 20th we went into the hospital at 2:00pm to be induced and at 5:00 am on Aug 21st a beautiful little ginger was born with NO complications. The delivery was pretty close to perfect the way I knew God could provide. God is so amazing. I was so relaxed I fell asleep between contractions when I was pushing. 

From the moment she was born I was able to hold and love on her. No having to sneak out of the room to the NICU to see my little girl. It was just my little family all together from the beginning! I feel incredibly blessed!

She is so long! 

So pretty. She is my little snuggle bunny! If I sleep with her in the recliner she will sleep for hours on end! She just wants to be close! She is the opposite of big sister!

I have so many posts to share with ya'll! Eventually I will get caught up! o and cloth diapering is going great!

Hmmm. . . .

Well still pregnant! We go to the Dr. Fri. and will have a baby no later than Sat! Not much longer! We had some fun Sat night though! I could have sworn we were in labor so we rushed Lindsey to a friend's house and headed to the hospital in cautious anticipation that this was the day! Well after 3 hours, 4 miles of walking, and 5 flights of stairs later we were sent home! Dang! What was really frustrating was as soon as we got settled into "our" room everything calmed down! Well stink! Our sweet friends kept Lindsey over night so Jay and I drowned our sorrows in cheez-its and 4 episodes of Breaking Bad! Not a horrible way to end the evening! As Jay and I were taking our labor inducing walk we had a mini date! Jay and mine's best dates are always the nontraditional dates. Dinner and a movie is great but give me hours of uninterrupted time with that man and I am in HEAVEN!!! As we were walking and talking we both came to the happy conclusion that hopefully E-C came at the end of the week so we had a few extra days with Linds! We remembered that our sweet little fam of 3 is coming to an end. A small part of me is sad! For 3 years it has been just the 3 of us on an adventure now we are welcoming a 4th member and it will never be the same! Don't get me wrong I am excited but Linds is pretty awesome!! Hopefully the next post will be pics of baby E!!! Can't wait!!! 

Keeping my mind off this growing belly!

I could write 8 billion posts about how miserable I am or how many days I have left. The last thing I need however is to wallow in my own discomfort! What I really need is to remember that this is a short season and I have way more things to write about than this pregnancy!

For the last hundred and some odd days I have been reading my Bible through in chronological order. I am in the middle of the Old Testament right now. This has been a big challenge. Lets just say Chronicles and Job are not my favorite! I am actually loving reading it all together. The story is so beautifully woven together and points to our amazing Savior. I love the stories of hope and redemption. I love seeing how angry God was with their sin but yet he loved His people so much He continued to deliver them when they certainly did not deserve it! I wish I would have read the Bible like this years ago. I am seeing a more complete picture of my Heavenly Father and oh how He loves us!!! Some days when I read I am just overwhelmed by the love He has for us!!! O if I can only love my husband and children with just a fraction of that love!!! I encourage each of ya'll to read the Bible this way and see His love unfold! Yes some days it is all I can do to make it through but I have to remember those words are important to My Father and He has all kinds of treasures for me to find!

P.S. 10 days!

For my memory!

Today the sweetest thing happened with Lindsey and I had to write it down so I will not forget it! Ya'll are just lucky to get a sneak peak! 

I was picking up my room and Lindsey was in the room with me "helping!" She found a small green book and climbed up in her daddy's work chair and started flipping through it. She was quickly frustrated because there were no pictures and the words were really small. She looked up at me and asked what kid of book this was. I told her that was momma's Bible. She got really excited and said I read it to you mom! I said o really what does it say. She started singing Jesus Loves Me and then transitioned to My God is so Big and ended with Jesus Loves the Little Children. After she finished I asked her is that what it really said and she very seriously said yes mom! I love it! We stopped picking up and climbed up in bed together and she read the Bible to me for a good 15 mins! Such a sweet evening with my little love!

Cloth Diaper. . . Laundry

Sooooooo I got all my diapers washed (or so I thought)! I followed the directions that the diaper store gave me and it took 2 days! The natural fiber diapers took all day! They were supposed to be washed 3-4 times so that for the first use all the natural oils would be gone and they would have maximum absorbency from the start. That was a little annoying but will be worth it when they don't leak! The synthetic fibers took one load. The bad thing was that they took forever to dry. I was instructed to dry on low for 30 mins and that was not near enough time. So I dried for 20-30 more mins on low then laid them out in the baby room to air dry. I can see this being an issue when we start using them because I do not have a good place to air dry things! The one thing I did that made it take longer was wash each type of diaper separately. There was no need to do that, I just did for me as I was putting them away.

The only problem I really ran into was not reading the label clearly enough to see if it was natural or synthetic fibers. So when I went to buy the last needed inserts for my All-in-2's the sweet girl reminded me to wash multiple times! I had a slight panic attack because I thought I was all done. So now I have to go wash 4 inserts on top of the ones I bought again. I am glad I found out now instead of after baby E gets here!

My advice for washing is 1.read the labels for the fabric type and remember cotton is natural, 2. be ready to be patient but don't run small loads just cause you are anal, and 3. have a space to air dry some of the more stubborn one's!

I was really pleased with washing. After all was said and done I felt very confident that this is totally doable once we start using them.

Next time I will let you in on the choice of cloth wipes! I am still working through that idea!