Filed under: Baby

Last week I bought my first cloth diaper. I brought it home and used it on Lauralei and was very impressed with how well it held together, even after Lauralei soaked it! So, I went back to my friend’s store and bought a couple more. Well skip to today. I am the proud owner of about 10 cloth diapers with 4 more on the way that I ordered! Some of them are so adorable that I want to take some shots of Lauralei modeling them. Maybe I will…

When she was born I contemplated going the cloth route, but I had absolutely NO support from anyone. Even my own mother and MIL! I wanted the best choice for Lauralei and I knew that going the natural route was better for her AND for the landfills, but everyone was telling me no, and so I listened. Usually I will just ignore what people say and do what I want. I am a Taurus after all. But with all that negativity swirling around me I began to think negatively too and thought hell, I don’t want more laundry to do. And so it was settled. I would stick to disposables.

Now of course I look back and realize I was an idiot. We could have saved a lot of money!

Cloth diapering isn’t as gross or tedious as I once thought and the new diapers that are made today are so much easier to use than back in my grandma’s day. We put together our own diaper sprayer with parts from Home Depot. Its hooked up to our toilet and whenever Lauralei has a soiled diaper, I go in (with gloves) and spray it off. Then it goes into my ‘dry bag’ (a trash bag for now (until I get my diaper shipment - it includes a waterproof liner for my “future” trash can lol)) which is the bag the soiled diapers go in, but there is no water in it. Some people do ‘wet bags’, but I think that would be too smelly.

I leave for Orlando the second week of December to visit my mom and I’m thinking of bringing my stash, but on the plane Lauralei will be wearing disposables. My mom thinks I’m a little kooky, as does Matt and I’m sure everyone else who knows me (except my cloth diapering friends), but I feel like I’m doing something special for Lauralei. Besides, she looks adorable in them.

Filed under: Baby, Humor, Kids

Dear Future Mamas of The World, Mothers of High Maintenance Babies and/or Toddlers, or Mothers who need some reassurance,

I am just writing this to let you know that Yes - there is light at the end of that long dark miserable tunnel. I know you are in hell right now getting up every hour, trudging sleepily to your baby’s (or toddler’s) room, cursing in every imagineable tongue, wishing you’d fall into an accidental coma…but just know, it will end. Eventually all those tireless nights will stop, your baby (or toddler) will stop needing you to rock them back to sleep, they will fall into slumber on their own, and they won’t need that nightly feeding. 

My husband and I (and our poor older two who had to endure the crying - mostly mine not the baby) are living proof! It took over a year for our little Lauralei (who turns 16 months old tomorrow) to “get it”, but I say better late than never.

We swaddled Lauralei the moment she was born. We did it every single night and even bought a Miracle Blanket  because she squirmed out of her Kiddopotomous swaddle. Eventually it became something she needed to have each night because she would flail her arms and scratch at her face. And then there was the nursing. I loved having her near me through out the day and would nurse her while I sat near my laptop. She would nurse herself right to sleep and I let her stay there. She got so used to being on my warm lap that we couldn’t put her to sleep by just laying her down. She had to be swaddled, nursed, and rocked to sleep. Every. Single. Night. It was horrible. And the worst part was that she didn’t take pacifiers because she had me.

So we had to take baby steps (haha) and take away one thing at a time. We stopped swaddling her in April and put her in a Halo sleep sack. Then in May we stopped using that because she was getting too big. She still scratched her face so we kept socks on her hands. We still had to rock her and pat her back, but things were looking up. Finally around June/July she didn’t need the socks. And we stopped rocking her. That led to many sleepless nights. She got up about 4 times each night and we I lost a lot of sleep and was at my wit’s end. I was so unbalanced that I had thoughts of checking myself into the psych hospital. 

So, we tried letting her cry-it-out (I don’t believe in that method, but I needed the sleep and I know if I had kept going to her, I may have done something rash) each night. We did it for naps too. The first week was a nightmare because she cried for so long (and I’m still baffled at how a very sleepy toddler can scream at the top of her lungs for so many hours) but after 2 more weeks she stopped. 

Her bottle is gone too. She gave that up last week. Or I guess I should say that I made her give it up. She now uses her toddler cups full-time. We put all 3 of the kids to bed together. Leilani and Forrest brush their teeth and get into their beds to read books and Lauralei gets her teeth brushed and her pjs on. Then its lights out. One of us volunteers to put Lauralei to bed. We sing to her, while her head is on our shoulder, and then lay her down on her tummy. Then we cover her and say good night and walk out the door. Some nights she will whine, or cry for a few seconds, but for the most part she sleeps. She does stir sometimes at night and I’ll have to rub her back every now and then or change a diaper. 

Eventually she won’t need 6 ounces of formula before bed and she won’t need to have her back rubbed, or be sung to…

And the silliest thing about all of this? When I look back a year from now, or many years from now, I am going to miss all the crazy stuff I went through. And so will you.

Filed under: Baby, Rants

Lauralei had a couple immunizations today and started throwing up about 4 hours after. She began in the car and freaked us out so bad. We heard her gasp and then I turned and saw she was throwing up, so we turned into a parking lot and ran to the backseat and got her out. She couldn’t breath! Everything just came out all at once. I think it scared Matt a lot more than it did me. We had to re-dress her there in the parking lot. Thank goodness we had shopped at Babies R Us moments before!

On our way back home we stopped at McD’s and bought her a Happy Meal. She usually never eats them but we thought we’d try. She hadn’t had lunch and had thrown up breakfast so she was starving. But when we got home and fed her some more, she did it again. And once more she did that not breathing thing. Matt grabbed her out of the high chair and leaned her forward on his lap so she wouldn’t choke on the vomit. All those french fries she ate came right out.

She was a mess so I took her upstairs and gave her a quick bath. Then I put her over my shoulder and sang her to sleep. She’s still asleep, so I’ll be checking on her in a few. So far she hasn’t shown any signs of an allergic reactio and there is no fever or hives, so we are ok. I sure hate immunizations and if I didn’t have to give them, I wouldn’t. They make me paranoid as hell.

I asked the nurse at the clinic if there were anymore to get after age 10 (for Leilani) and she said 2 more and added that I may want to give her the new one for young women - the HPV vaccine - but I told her I wasn’t so sure. Its too new for me to trust something like that. I don’t care what any doctor tells me either (I have a hard enough time trusting doctors as it is, because I’ve seen what they have put my mom through - probably for a quick buck). 20 years from now they might say it causes cancer instead of preventing it. You just never know and I’m not willing to take chances with something so new.

Filed under: Baby

And she wasn’t very happy about it. Or at least the hat being on top of her head. Lauralei turned 11 months old on the 19th. The same day her sister turned 10. Isn’t that interesting?

Next month we’ll be celebrating one full year. It makes me sad, but also happy, because maybe she’ll out grow this waking up at night thing she is so good at. lol