Okay so the little baby stayed up late again last night... until one a.m. (went to sleep not long after I published the last entry). She is so happy right now...
Oh yes! Amber Lee for the win! I just snuggled her after her last feeding (around 4:30) and then slipped her into the bassinet from the stroller. She's been sleeping for over an hour!! And my mom came over today to play with the little bird for a while (and help me with the Ribbon Jar) so I got to take an hour long nap as well. We are both quite happy today. I think we are going to get most of the baby pictures on the changing table because Tuesday loves hanging out there:
She loves looking at the mirrors. I dangle other things in front of her, but she likes the mirrors best. Bj picked this up at Ikea, we'll put it together tomorrow. I'm thinking she'll like it since she seems to love that kind of thing. She likes looking at her little bird too:
I'm obsessed with her smallness and her very small parts, like her tiny cute belly button:
Bj loves these little Zutano booties:
Okay I did have a real point to this post. I wanted to talk about cloth diapering, as so many thought it would be so hard, and it one of the easiest things about having a new little baby, for sure!
(that's a photomerge so it looks a little like the changing table is whacked out, but it's not). My neighbor gave me this awesome changing table and my mom painted it white to match Tuesday's cradle. The metal bins are from various antique stores, and thrifting adventures. The top shelf holds the things we use the most. On the left are kissaluvs size 0 and thirsties XS covers. These are the "daytime" diapers now that her stub has fallen off (they have a fold down for that so we were using them exclusively until the umbilical cord was gone). Observe:
The cloth diaper part (I do put a little powder on her bum before I put this on).
The waterproof cover. This does make her bottom a little big:
But she loves it, hehehe. She really doesn't mind them, but can get a little frustrated if you take longer than five seconds to get the diaper on. The cloth part you wash after every change, but the waterproof covers just need to be dried if wet, and washed occasionally. For night time we have the diapers on the right Thirsties XS AIO (all-in-ones). These have a fleece type material inside and wick the wetness away a little better so she can sleep a bit longer in the night, plus one step for 3 a.m. changes make it way easy. In the middle of those two things we have the wipes that Sciarrino made. Fleece and terry cloth, though we mainly use the softer fleece side now for her sensitive bottom. We have a spray bottle with water and a drop of lavender oil that we clean her with (usually just spraying the wipe, occasionally her if it's really bad).We haven't had a blow out yet... go cloth diapers!
The bin holds the dirty diapers, and we have two. Now we have enough diapers that I do them only every other day (I think 14 of the kissaluvs, 5 covers (we really only need two), and 12 thirsties AIO). To wash it's so easy. Because we're exclusively breastfeeding I won't need to pre-clean off poo until she starts on solid food. So I don't even touch them, just turn the bag inside out into the washing machine. I do a quick load in my front loader since I can't soak them, with little or no soap on cold to get everything off and prevent stains from setting. Then I keep the door closed and do a heavy duty load on warm/cold with Country Save detergent. The wipes, covers, AIO, cloth diapers, and changing table pads all go in together. Then I pop it all in the dryer. This part takes a long time, and in the warmer months I will hang these to dry outside. It takes about 75 minutes to dry.
The bottom shelf has bigger diapers, we're going to try some different types when she outgrows her current selection (I'm thinking 4-6 months, depending on how she grows). I also have a roll of liners that I use when we put diaper cream on her so it doesn't ruin the diapers. We also have extra inserts for the diapers and burp rags down there.
Okay so once again this post has taken me most of the day to write. It's ten o'clock. I've read all the advice and I do swaddle her tight (she will not sleep unless she is bundled). My mom and Bill went and picked me up this fun toy. She's in her bassinet with it right now. So I'm hoping for an early than one a.m. bedtime tonight!