Cloth Diaper Update #2

Okay. . . We are now 6 months into this cloth diapering journey and it has really been a journey. I have been so blessed with a sweet little girl that has the most sensitive skin EVER!!!! Cloth and disposable break her out! Oh and there is the ear infection she got which was treated with a good healthy dose of antibiotics that gave massive diarrhea oh and a yeasty rash!! (she is gonna love reading this one day) After many trips to the cloth diaper store, a venture into wool covers, and multiple combinations we are now in pampers until I can get her rash cleared up! So what I have learned is that when all is clear all is good! When all is not clear all is not good!

Washing is really not that hard! If you are like me and hate folding and putting away well the laundry is a pain. I have had an issue with them stinking and come to find out I was not using enough soap. To get rid of the stink a little overnight soak and problem solved. Now for the yeast I have to bleach them and rinse and bleach and rinse and so on and so on! A little more work.

I read a blog not too long ago about how easy cloth diapers are. Easy is not what I would call this. I still think cloth is worth it but I did not know that having a sensitive skined child could make this journey so . . . interesting!

6 Months Old!!

Happy 6 month birthday to my sweet EC!!! What is so cool is her aunt Amy and Uncle Cody's birthday was on the same day as her 6 month milestone! Love that she got to share that with her sweet aunt and uncle. I want to capture for myself and my family a few milestones she has hit these past 6 months, because, well I am horrible at keeping a baby book.

Look at this sweet brand new face!!! From the get go she was a great sleeper!!! I could lay her in bed with Jay and I and she would sleep until I woke her up. 12 hours and more!!! I had to quickly snap out of that and put her in her own bed before I had a co-sleeping baby!! After that she only would wake up once a night eat and go right back to sleep! PRAISE JESUS!!! I prayed for a calm baby and oh how He answered my prayers! Linds had colic and the first few months was just so angry. I was so terrified of going through that again but God heard my prayers and sent me EC who is so chill! 

EC and her boyfriend. They are 4 days apart. I was so thankful to have a friend to go through this pregnancy with! Made the record breaking summer bearable. At the month mark I stopped breast feeding. When it comes to breast feeding mama's are so opinionated. Holy cow! I am all about do what is best for you and your family. However, when I made that decision some women decided to step in and tell me how wrong I was. Oh please!!! Somewhere around 1 month old EC was sleeping through the night and eating roughly 4 oz every 3 hours. I had to go buy some NB cloth diapers since she was so long. She may have been 9 lbs but those 9 lbs were evenly distributed. Contrary to this picture she is an extremely happy baby. I had not gotten her nap schedule down but she napped often. We were always on the go so she rarely took a nap in her crib.

2 months old brought drama. I had noticed that she was real pukey. No big deal Linds did the same thing so no biggie. Well the big difference was Linds gained weight. EC was not gaining weight. By 2 months she had only gained a few ounces since birth. Her puking got worse and she was so angry after she would throw up. She would throw up whole bottles. So we lived at the Dr's office for the next 2 months. I was a nervous wreck. Oct brought her first road trip to AR. She loved all the attention my family gave her and Linds got to have her first sleep over with her cousin Hope. Big month in the Dunks house hold. 

By the end of month 3 her puking leveled off. She was gaining weight just slowly. However, she was developing beautifully. Toward the end of month 3 she was rolling over front to back and back to front. O geeze! I got a mover! She began to let me know that being on the go all the time was no longer bueno!! So I was forced to sit down and figure out a schedule. She now wakes at 8 am eats, nap from 930-1130, eat, play, nap from 230-5, eat, play, bed at 8! She is her momma's girl she loves her sleep. Even better she puts herself to sleep! 

4 months old and so smart and beautiful. She loves her sister. She just watches her and laughs at her! Linds is such a great big sister. She is so sweet with her. Lots of kisses and hugs. Month 4 brought her first trip to Texas to see Jay's family. She did great on the car ride down there. The car ride back not so much but hey a week sleeping in a pack and play then a 9 hr car ride would make me cranky too! She began to get on her knees and rock and could scoot on her belly. If she really wanted something she would just roll her way to it. At her 4 month check up the Dr. gave us the all clear for cereal. Since I was putting it in her bottles I just put off feeding her with a spoon. I was in no rush. She was still slowly gaining weight even though she puked like non other. We had to give her Reglan and that seemed to help along with changing to Soy formula. Oh and giggles appeared this month! 

Finally, when she turned 5 months old I gave her cereal by a spoon. She loved it!!! We tried green beans at the end and she broke out with some rash so I stopped them. Not sure that it was the GB but hey why rush things. She got her 1st ear infection and 1st round of antibiotics. The diarrhea was a nightmare!!! She is crawling all over the place now and nothing is safe any more. Month 5 was boring!!!! Boring is good in this house. She is just so easy. She eats 6 ounces. I lied she learned to crawl out of the Bumbo. I thought those things could suction any baby yeah not this string bean! 

Now we are just a day into 6 months but I love it. I gave her peas and she thought they were great. We went on a walk in the stroller and she tolerated it better that when she was a month old. Why my girls do not like to stroller or the car seat is beyond me! She loves to jump and crawl and just plain move. Everything goes in her mouth. She can sort of sit up but just for a second and it is still very tri podish. Her favorite thing to do is stand in a downward dog yoga pose. The cutest thing ever. When she is really tired she will suck her 1st 2 fingers and lay her head down no matter if she is sitting up or laying down. She does not do being tired well. I just love my little ginger! 

For my girls

One night as I was perusing through Pinterset I ran across this pin that put a few things into perspective for me! You see when I was pregnant and had Lindsey I was 24 years old. Little did I know I was in the process of a complete makeover on the inside! Faster than I would have liked I was growing out of college girl and becoming a wife and a mom. The wife thing was not too hard but becoming a mom was a whole different story. I was not ready! I was still selfish. I was just out of school, I just started a job, I was still young, I just got married! So when the first stretch mark appeared at around 30 weeks I was devastated. I was too young to have stretch marks. I mean I had bikinis to wear!!! It seemed like overnight my abdomen was covered in these silvery marks. To make matters worse after I lost all the baby weight and then some they were still there but now my abdomen just hung and was saggy! I was 24 years old with a abdomen of an old lady! I allowed my view of beauty to be all wrapped up in the way my belly appeared. I have spent the past 3 years shedding that selfish self and becoming a mom my girls deserve. Any who, as I saw that pin my perspective changed almost instantly.  Here is what I am coming to know as truth:

Each mark reminds me of each month God allowed me to carry my girls. Every line is a reminder of each breath you took, each kick you kicked, and even each punch to my bladder. Each mark is a reminder of the nights I prayed for your healthy arrival. Each line reminds me of God's love for me and you. Each mark reminds me of the love your father and I share that created you! Each line is proof of God's grace and mercy. The belly that now hangs and sags was your home that kept you safe and nourished you until the time came that I could hold you in my arms and make you feel safe and warm.

No longer will I allow myself to look in the mirror and be disgusted. I will now stand in the mirror with pride knowing that each stretch mark and the saggy skin is a reminder that God allowed me to be a mother to 2 beautiful girls. Those marks are an outward sign of the inner change my sweet Jesus has been doing in me.

***A special thanks to my sweet friend Cheryl for taking this picture for me! She is by far the best photographer and friend I could ever ask for!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . .

In case you have not noticed Christmas is approaching at record speeds this year! Traditionally we put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and this year is no exception! We have spent 5 Christmas' together now and our tree is not exactly showing it! I don't have enough ornaments to decorate the back and I refuse to spend any more money on ugly balls to fill the spaces! Classy I know! 

This year to try and save money, add a personal touch, and most importantly keep my 3yo busy I decided homemade ornaments were the way to go!!!! Some of my favorite ornaments from growing up are the ones that were made by me or my great grandmother! My great grandmother made for my mom ornaments out of egg shells and they are so beautiful! I love pulling an ornament out of the box to hang on the tree and all these sweet memories come flooding in. Trimming the tree becomes this precious time of recalling the past.  

Since I do not have a creative bone in my body I turned to Pinterest and searched for ideas. I ran across a pin for Salt Dough and thought this would be great opportunity to create new memories with my favorite toddler that she can pull up each Christmas! (Side note a 3yo has a hard time understanding that these are not cookies to be eaten had many hard conversations with her about that one) So recently we spent the morning making memories! I decided to show you through pictures how easy and fun these ornaments are to make. 

Ingredients:

1/2 c. Salt

1 c. Flour

1/2 c. Water

Bake in 250 degree oven for 2 hours (Should be hard all the way through)

Combine salt, water, and flour and stir. 

This is the perfect dough for Lindsey to stir up as it is not too heavy!

Knead the dough a few times and the flour you surface and rolling pin and roll out to 1/4 in thickness.

 

 Lil miss EC loved watching Linds roll out the dough! I happened to have a ruler out so Linds made me measure every time we rolled out the dough!

 

Once the dough is rolled out cut with cookie cutters and placed on a parchment lined cookie sheet. (to reinforce colors I had Linds sort all the cookie cutters by color while I fed EC)

Make sure that your dough surface is smooth and even as those cracks will show in the final product.

Once the cutout is placed on the cookie sheet poke a large whole at the top for ribbon when done. A straw works great.

 Once you pull your ornaments out of the oven let them cool and then decorate! We used homemade glitter made from food coloring and salt (tutorial coming soon) and then coated them in modge podge and glitter. You could paint with acrylic paint or dye the dough before you cut them out. There are so many ways!!!!

Umm love plastic wrap and duck tape mats. I can throw away the mess at the end of the project!

 

Once dry I would coat with some form of spray on clear coat to protect the glitter for a long lasting ornament. 

Tie a ribbon on the end an you are ready to go! I do not recommend curling ribbon but it was what I had on hand at the time.

Okay now it is your turn to make sweet memories!!!

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!