Wordless Wednesday

too many flashes

A Day in cloth diapers

One day, I photographed Taylor each time I changed her diaper. 14 times I photographed a fresh diaper. 13 of those were cute cloth diapers. 1 was a disposable diaper that I used just to give a comparison photo for those not in the world of cloth diapering-bottom row, 3rd pic. The “sposie” is a pampers sensitive, size newborn (yes, she can still wear a nb sized diaper). Taylor is a pooping and peeing queen and she doesn’t like to be wet or poopy so she gets changed... a lot. She also has a sensitivity/allergy to something in disposable diapers and if she wears one, even for 30-45 minutes, her butt turns bright red and it takes days to heal. Needless to say, I took the sposie off of her after I snapped the picture. Thankfully, we were familiar with cloth before we discovered this sensitivity! Anyway, back to the cuteness... Miss Taylor. There are several different brands pictured below, including:

• Soft bums Echo One size fits all
• Bum Genius All in One size small
• Rainshine Designs pocket diaper size small
• Swaddlebees All in One size small
• Happy Heiny pocket diaper size small
• Happy Heiny Mini pocket diaper
• Very Baby pocket diaper size small
• Nana’s Bottoms All in One size small
• Fuzzibunz pocket diaper size XS
• OBB Marathon pocket size small
• Bottombumpers AIO size small
• Totsbots Tiny fit AIO

I’m so thankful that we are using cloth, and saving so much money in the process! It’s also so much healthier for our little girls bum! Not to mention, it’s so much more fun than plain old white swaddlers!

Cloth diapering is addicting! If you cloth diaper, you know what I mean. If you don’t use cloth, you probably think I’m crazy! :) Well I’m certainly crazy, but man, these things are so cute! Taylor is such a little peanut and that has posed some unique diapering challenges! In her first few weeks, she was even too small for preemie diapers, but we made them work. Our stash then consisted of Nana’s Bottoms AIO preemie, Wonderworks XS, 2 kushies preemie, and a few tiny diapers I made.

These photos (above) were taken when she was about 10 days old. You can see how the tiny diaper is still a bit big on her, yet not too bulky. At this point, preemie pampers were also too big for her!

As she grew, we were able to find more diapers that fit her. We kept on using the Nana’s Bottoms in preemie and bought more in size newborn. We got a few more wonderworks xs diapers, about 10 Bum Genius XS diapers, 4 Fuzzibuns XS, a few Little Joeys, and some preemie prefolds and XS covers.

We have bought most of her diapers used! I know, it sounds a bit gross at first, but you are able to disinfect them with each wash and it’s a great way to save even more money. As she’s grown out of her diapers, I’ve listed them for sale at www.diaperswappers.com or on craigslist and have made money to but the next size up. Once she moved out of the “newborn diapers”, we moved her into our current stash of Bum Genius smalls, Fuzzibuns XS (they still fit), Fuzzibuns OS perfect size, Soft Bums OS, Nana’s Bottoms small, Swaddlebees small, Totsbots tiny fit, Tots Bots easy fit, Happy Heiny minis, xs, and small, Blueberry small, wonderworks small, OBB Marathon’s in small, very baby smalls, bugga bugga boutique, thirsties duo size 1, dreameze small, drybees small, grovia OS, and so many more. Our current stash is working perfectly for us! My favorites right now are Tots Bots tiny fit and easy fit, fuzzibuns, bumgenius smalls, and happy heiny minis. As you can see from the bottom left photo, cloth diapers don't have to be bulky! They are just about as thin as the Huggies Pure and Natural on the bottom of the pile! :)

He LOVES his sister!!!

Wordless Wednesday

what next?

Although I've not been posting tot school posts... there's certainly been some learning going on at our house! Nathan taught himself how to write all his lowercase letters over Christmas break and has learned to read as well. This is not something we have pushed, or really worked on... he just got it. He realized the letters had sounds and when put together they make words. With that we were off and running! He's writing words constantly and this one amazed me... One morning I came downstairs to find that he'd written rocketship spelled phonetically "rokitship" as well as "log" and "hog" which he informed me were rhyming words. Then he asked me how to spell boat so I wrote it. He insisted that it was "bot"... and when Nathan's mind is made up, there's no stopping him. :) Wonder how he will feel about the silent e?

Any guesses?

Any guesses as to what Taylor and I have been battling for almost 7 weeks?

Visit with Yaya and Papa

Wordless Wednesday

Angry Birds

Nathan LOVES angry birds and he's quite good at it. If you've never played this incredibly addicting game on an ipod or ipad, go by the apple store one day and give it a whirl. It's so much fun and although it's a little stretch, it's educational too! Using a sling shot, you shoot birds at pigs and their houses to knock them down. It teaches a bit about tragectory, aim, and cause and effect. It also builds hand and eye coordination! :) Well, whatever it does, Nathan LOVES it and Chad and I love to watch him play it! Thank you apple for this app!

Taylor - 13 weeks old

Oh how I love these two!!!! Their bond strengthens daily. Nathan is so quick to care for Taylor and he is amazingly gentle with her. She loves to watch him and knows his voice quite well. He can make her smile bigger than anyone! One of his favorite things to do is get in her crib with her when she’s just hanging out. He talks to her, sings to her, brings her cars and teaches her their names, he snuggles her and holds her, and just spends some quality time with her. It’s absolutely precious!

Taylor is wearing 0-3 month clothing, size small diapers (and some xs), smaller than a newborn sized shoe. She weighs 11 pounds 7 ounces! She continues to become more vocal and conversational! Still hanging on to the 11pm feeding, but no worries, I love that sweet time with her! She goes to bed around 8pm each night and while we do a "dream feed" at 11pm, she happily sleeps until 8am or later. When she wakes up, she talks in her crib, happy as a lark. She's super content and so affectionate already! She is a nuzzler and a snuggler. I love the way she nuzzles into her blankies when she's tired and how she loves to have a blankie over face when she sleeps. Happy 13 weeks baby girl!

Wordless Wednesday

 

2007                                                                                2010

MELT MY HEART!

so tender

so precious

so loving

so gentle

12 weeks old

12 weeks!!! We say this all the time, but Taylor is SUCH AN EASY BABY! When her tummy isn’t crampy and her diaper is dry, she’s good to go! There are days that pass by without so much as a cry from Taylor! Don’t get me wrong, she’s certainly vocal, both when happy and when tired or frustrated, she just doesn’t usually cry. She’s got the cutest little whine though and it works to tell us she’s tired. She is laughing much more this week and she’s started to giggle when tickled too. She’s super ticklish on her collar bones. She smiles readily at those she knows, yet intently studies strangers before offering up a smile. She LOVES to be talked to and she will talk back each time there is a “pause in the conversation”. She can mimic a few sounds and mouth shapes and will stick out her tongue when we do.

The battle with yeast continues for both Taylor and me. We continue to pass it back and forth and it’s not been nice to either of us. Here’s the warning... I’m gonna talk about boobs for a minute. I have yeast in my nipples and in my milk ducts. Oh my goodness, I thought it was just me and that I was just a wuss at breast feeding. I couldn’t imagine that breastfeeding could hurt so bad, when so many people do it. I felt like (and feel like) I have glass shards in my nipples! They ache and burn non stop. Forget wearing clothes at home, it’s just too painful. While Taylor’s yeast diaper rash comes and goes, she’s not had it in her mouth (thrush) at all. Where she does have it is in her gut. Poor baby girl! When her gut starts churning you can tell its so painful for her! We met with a lactation consultant this week and she has me starting a hard core regimin... taking yeast fighting supplements like “yeast defense”, pau de arco tea, garlic, 2 probiotics, grapefruit seed extract, 200mg of diflucan daily (I’ve been on 100mg daily for 5 weeks), gentian violet (great guesses girls!) and fenugreek just to make sure my milk supply isn’t affected too much by all this... oh and the toughest part? The yeast diet. Seriously people, this is a crazy diet, but I’m told it’s much like the Atkins diet. No carbs, dairy, or sugar. Candy is hard enough for me to give up, but cheese? milk? yogurt? fruit? bread? chips? cereal? juice? chocolate? for real? Yep. For real. I can eat vegetables, meat, and nuts. I might starve but if this works, my nipples sure will feel better and Taylor won’t be in so much pain! It’s so worth it!

This girl is getting more and more mobile! She rolls quite well from her tummy to her back in either direction. She can hold her head and upper body up for long periods of time and has no trouble hanging out on her belly for tummy time (unless she’s tired). She can almost roll from her back to her belly and has done it 2x, though they were probably flukes. Her main mode of “transportation” is when laying on her back, she scoots her feet and somehow can turn herself all the way around scooting those feet. Gone are the days of laying her on the couch, bed, or ottoman thinking she’ll stay put!

This kiddo is a sleeper! She’s starting to keep herself awake when there are things to see unless you “turn off” the world around her. When she gets tired, we give her a paci, swaddle her, put a soft lovey beside her face (or over part of it) and she turns her head into the blankie as far as she can and goes to sleep. If we’re holding her (as you would if you were nursing) she’ll turn her face into your body to block out the world around her. She can be laid down awake or asleep, and when she wakes up in the morning, she’s super happy. One night, I gave her a bath and then took her downstairs for some naked time in front of the fire. I was folding diaper laundry and she actually went to sleep in the middle of the floor! TV on, Nathan playing in the same room, all kinds of chaos! I snapped these pictures because I couldn’t believe it! She’s such a little snoozer! At night, by about 830, she’s ready to be in her bed (but will fall asleep wherever) and 5 out of 7 nights we do a “dream feed” where she stays asleep but eats and has a diaper change between 11-12. She’s usually still in bed at 8am and often sleeps till 830 or later. When she wakes up, she wants a dry diaper, but is super content to wait for breakfast. Amazing. I tell you what, she’s teaching all of us about patience! We love you sweet girl!

Wordless Wednesday

Little Sis

Taylor Grace - 11 weeks old

This baby girl is quite a treasure! She's really starting to show her personality and her desire to socialize with those she knows is growing. Taylor "talks" to people she is familiar with and studies those she's not. She's incredibly laid back and quite easily goes with the flow. All she asks is that you change her poopy diapers promptly, keep a snuggly blankey near her face or over her face when she's tired, only offer her a paci when she's tired, feed her at least every 4 hours during the day, snuggle her close in new places.
This week she had a few firsts! Taylor loves to sit in the bumbo seat while we eat meals! She's just the right height to interact with us and can sit up to see everything. We don't often put her in it other than meals but for that specific time it's a huge blessing! Taylor also started riding front facing in the moby and bjorn from time to time... especially around the house.
She's holding her head up so well when on her tummy! She'll stay on her tummy for long stretches and occasionally she will roll over. Totally unrelated but funny... she smiles so big until I get the camera out and then she just studies it. It's so funny to try and coax big grins out of her when the camera is nearby!
Taylor has learned to bat at things in her view. She's growing more and more accurate with her aim. It's so sweet to see her reach out to "touch" our faces when we're close to her.
This baby girl LOVES her brother and she lights up when he's nearby. Thankfully, the feeling is mutual!
She's begun to enjoy (well, that might be a bit of a stretch) her carseat a bit more. She's happy in it as long as she's not tired. If she's tired then she wants the car moving! Needless to say, sometimes I plan the route of my trip (highway vs thru town) based on if she's tired or not!
We love you Taylor Gracie - Nathan's new name for her!

Wordless Wednesday

Fun in the snow

We love our neighbors and our culdesac is a pretty tight knit community. Of course when it snowed 7 inches, typical of this area of the south, the whole city basically shut down, and everyone came together to play. Here are the pictures of some of our snow adventures... snowboarding, tubing, sledding, pile ups, wind, sledding down a HUGE hill right off the highway, igloos, so much fun!!

Nathan will do just about anything that Mitchell and Savannah will do... thankfully they are awesome kiddos and great examples for him to look up to. Sledding with this crew, Nathan's fearless attitude was in high gear. He was sledding like a pro all day. Chad and I were shocked he did the BIG hill by himself, and that he was able to walk back up the big hill. He did it so many times! This kiddo loves an adrenaline rush!