My New Adventure: Cloth Diapering

Holy Hannah. I can't believe we made the jump. I purchased our first cloth diapers on Black Friday. It was a great deal, we were strongly leaning towards it anyway, so we did it.

Let me backtrack a little. I quit my job. Yep, my good paying, many hours, weekend working job. I'm still working full time, but at a much easier, less demanding, more mom-friendly job. This will be a painful change for our family. We're used to having extra spending money. We've done 'rice and beans' before, but that was for saving purposes not because we were too tight. Well with this change it was much easier to convince my husband to cloth diaper (I also had to mention that the money we would save could buy a turbo for his car), but in the end the money savings won. I didn't think it would happen but it did.

It was fairly quick from that point. I talked to a few of my friends who CD, went to a class to look at all the options, left completely overwhelmed, and now I'm here. Black Friday came and there were so many great deals-I got 14 diapers for only $180. WOW! They weren't all the cheap ones either. Here's my stash so far:

1. 6 Fuzzibunz
2. 2 Econobums with 3 prefolds
3. 2 Flips with 3 stay dry inserts
4. 4 BumGenius FreeTime all-in-ones (AIO).

Now I am COMPLETELY new to this so I have no idea if this is a good starter stash, but it will work for now. I figure I can try out these, see which we like and then go from there. I also bid on EBAY for a diaper sprayer. We'll see if I get it though. I'm currently on a hunt for a PlanetWise Wet Bag, but I'm trying to figure out which kind I want. I have no idea what to do about a pail...should I use a wet bag?

As for everything else I'm completely overwhelmed. The idea of the laundry problems that can arise scare me. I'm not 100% familiar with the process of cloth diapering but I figure I'll learn it as I go. I feel completely unprepared-usually I'm much better researched and educated, but the sales got to me!

Any advice or encouragement is appreciated on our new journey. Maybe I should change my blog to A Little MORE Granola??

A Deficient Body & Fertility

Sometimes God puts people in your life that give you a whole new perspective on things. For us, God put a lot of couples around us that had a hard time conceiving a child. I've known at least 4 really close friends that had to go to extreme fertility measures before they were blessed with their sweet child(ren). With these people around me it gave me (at least) two things. One-complete respect and awe for these couples that surpassed these trials, and two-a strong case of paranoia that we could have difficulties conceiving as well.

When we finally decided to have a baby, I was worried that we would have a hard time. I heard that 6 months to a year is completely normal. As we approached the 6 month mark however I started to get a little panicked. I spoke to other friends who took at least 6 months and I kept reminding myself that this is normal. Now I know some of you reading this probably gaff at my 6 months. I know that's barely any time. I have close friend-couple that took over 6 years so I understand that's nothing to some of you. Even with these reminders I decided that I could at least research as much as possible to increase our chances of conceiving and conceiving quickly.

One thing that I found while researching was in regards to the vitamins, minerals, and herbs that can help your body be in optimum condition for conceiving a child. Your body can be deficient in different vitamins and minerals that are needed to the best fertile conditions! I am by no means a scientist or biologist, but I figured I could at least pass this information along or at least document for myself!

For me (women) this is what I took:
-I continued taking my prenatal supplements to get Folic Acid and other good vitamins and minerals. Folic Acid is important to prevent birth defects.
-Vitamin B12 (Deficiency causes anemia which has been known to create fertility problems)
-Zinc (Deficiency disrupts the normal menstrual cycle)
-Vitamin C (helps with proper hormone production)

For my hubby (men) this is what he took:
-Vitamin C (helps with proper hormone production)
-Maca Root
-X Action from Nature's Sunshine
-Zinc (can help increase sperm count)

I found this information on an Nature's Sunshine Products forum. A lot of the comments talk about NSP products, however you can find most of these products anywhere. Here's the link if you want more info: http://www.nspforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=499.

The first month of us taking these supplements religiously, we got pregnant. I can't say for sure that these vitamins helped us conceive, it could have been a coincidence. What's the harm though? If you take the recommended doses and it helps your body get it the best possible condition, you may as well. It also gives you baby the best start possible!

Tiger's Milk

I've been trying to increase my milk supply to help with my baby's growth. One of my friends who happens to be a doula introduced me to Tiger's Milk. It's milk loaded with lots of good stuff your body needs to make good quality milk!

Tiger's Milk
-1 cup warm milk (organic if possible)
-1 tablespoon coconut oil
-1 teaspoon of BLACKSTRAP Molasses (it has to be blackstrap!)

So how should this help? Well to begin with warm milk helps the rest go down! It actually turns out quite yummy. The coconut oil helps supply the medium-chain fatty acids found naturally in mother's milk, making it rich in these health improving nutrients. Blackstrap molasses is an iron-rich leaving from the refining process of sugar and a traditional remedy for low milk supply. It is important to choose a high quality product because cheaper brands may be diluted with corn syrup.

To be honest it's hard to tell if it's helping. I'm only pumping before bed and in the MOTN. It seems like I'm starting to get a little more milk. I started drinking this twice a day to really kick in the nutrients. We'll see how it goes!

9 Month Baby Wise Update

Yay an update that is practically 'on time'. I had the choice between spending this time updating our family blog or doing this update. I figured this was more time sensitive, so here I am.

The changes we implemented about 3 weeks ago have gone awesome. We made the changes I planned (lengthening the time between the morning and afternoon nap) on to help with our morning wake time and they pretty much fixed it. Occasionally he'll still wake up 20 minutes early and play, but rarely does he cry the whole time. Here's his 9 month schedule:

7:30 Wake, Nurse
8:30 Solids
9:30 Nap
11:30 Wake, Nurse
12:30 Soilds
2:30 Nap
4:00 Wake, Nurse
6:00 Solids
7:00 Nurse
7:30 Bed

We also moved bedtime up half hour. Since putting him down later wasn't helping his morning wake time we brought him back to his 7:30 bed time.

One thing that has come up this week was at his 9 month appointment he didn't gain too much the past 1.5 months. His total gain since 6 month as been good, but all of it was up until 7.5 months. I think this may be in part to dropping his 5th & 6th feeding rather abruptly. I still feel he's healthy and gaining weight, but just at a slower rate than before. His pediatrician wants us to come back in 6 weeks to check his growth. Our plan is to start adding more fattening foods to his diet like coconut oil, avocado, cheese, etc. I'm also going to try to add in a feeding after I get home from work. I don't think he'll eat a lot, but hopefully get a few extra calories in.

I just finished reading BW II. It's a great book. The best part may be the fact that we shouldn't have to change Elijah's schedule until at LEAST 15 months; most likely 18 months. This will be wonderful-that's seriously 9 months of consistency!!! I LOVE IT. We'll see of course, but it should be nice.

The other parts that I'm really enjoying is talking about training and obedience. Balancing between baby-proofing the house and house-proofing the baby. Elijah is already really good at understanding what NOT to touch. He still tests and pushes boundaries-he's going to be a mischievous one, but I can tell he knows.  It also focuses on purposing play time. Using it as a learning opportunity. Eljiah is already learning so quick. He knows bye bye, milk, all done, eat, and starting please. He can also clap!

I'm not sure how often I'll do BW updates now. If anything changes, I'll be sure to come back!