Husband showing Lexi things in the pantry and labeling them for her (per my request, helps with speech development in the future):

- “This is bread!” (point at a stale French baguette) “It’s rock hard…. You could fend off a thief with it….”

- “This is macaroni. It’s good. You can spread it on the floor and the thief would crunch on them as he walks and you’ll know he is coming…”

- “These are potato chips.” {pauses as he’s thinking} “…You can feed them to the thief and he will die from obesity?”

{while changing the diaper}

- “Clean up on aisle one. Clean up on aisle one. And by aisle one I mean the crack of your ass.”

Lexi has been full on laughing for over a month and a half now but I had not been able to catch it on video, because the laughs were always spur of the moment and it would just ruin it to go run for the camera. This time, we were in the bathroom and just happened to have the camera and hubby nearby.

The quality sucks, because Andrew isn’t so good at focusing the camera well while shooting, so the first part is out of focus. I had just gotten out of the shower and was brushing my hair when the Muppets song came on, so I started singing it to Lexi. For some strange reason the words “Mannah Mannah” caused her laugh hard and long and we were able to get it on video.
{Don’t mind her glossy cheeks covered with petroleum jelly to prevent the drool rash, my wet hair, bra top, and legs in the frame}

Dear Baby Girl!

I’ve been searching for ways to talk to you and tell you the story of how you grew up and nothing I come up with seems significant or important enough. While this blog is a mix of my journey to parenthood, our life events and discoveries, I still feel there’s something missing. Something that is coming from deep within my heart, that makes it so easy to write and express my feelings about being your mommy. And what I realized is that what’s missing is me talking directly to you, so that some day when I am not even there, you could read these words and know your mommy loved you and did everything to ensure the best life for you.

So I’d like to start Letters to Lexi, as a way of talking to you through time. Maybe you will be able to go back to these when you have children of your own, when you’d be able to relate better.

4 months…

I feel like an eternity has passed since you came along. An eternity of knowing you, being with you, kissing your chubby cheeks, enjoying your smiles and struggling to put you to sleep. So much has changed in these 4 months. You’re a different baby, you’re a PERSON.

You light up every morning when you see mommy. You’ve developed a clear preference for me, something I tried to avoid by including your dad as much as possible, but secretly enjoy and am happy for. I know that in just a few short months, you’ll become a daddy’s girl, so I savor these moments of being the favorite.

From the moment you wake up till the second you go to sleep, I crave to be around you. My most miserable days are the days when I have to be working and your daddy is with you. I walk over to you every few minutes, I listen for your cries and squeals, I long to hug you and rock you to sleep. I hate my work days and I wish that all I could do is just spend time with you.We both still can’t believe we have a daughter, that YOU are our daughter. Honestly, I feel it’s such a HUGE privilege to be your parents. You’re an extraordinary little girl and you show that daily. The processes and thoughts that go on in your brain are fascinating to me. I see you looking everywhere, trying to make sense of the world, searching out our faces for emotions, waiting for a smile so that you could squeal in delight. It takes but a second for us to meet your eyes when you light up, as if you’ve been waiting for us to look at you for centuries.

Like all blogger,s I really hate doing it, but it’s sort of maybe possibly a necessity. Top baby Blogs reset their numbers and we need your votes. I’ve gotten a ton of great readers that I love interacting with through that website, so I would love for it to continue, because I feel this more of a community than just my blog.

So if you can, click here to vote ( and then hit the brown Owl to submit the vote)

We thank you!

And give you this adorable bikini girl!

 

P.S. Votes can be cast once every 24 hours. I  don’t expect any of you to have the kind of dedication to do it every 24 hours, but if you remember the button is going to be on the sidebar, give it a hit once in a while. If not, then no biggie.

 

{Written on 5/25/2012}

If you hate getting up a few times a night to soothe/feed your baby, take heart in this: someone has it worse (and also the obvious: your baby NEEDS YOU). The night log below is surely going to make you count your lucky stars. And this post will serve me as a reminder to keep things in perspective!

{Play suit by Polarn O Pyret}

Just when I thought we were doing better with night sleep, the 4 months wakeful hit. I remember saying that we had hit the wakeful period at 2.5 months because she went from 1-2 wakings to 4-5 and someone commented “Just wait till 4 months, it’ll be like having a newborn” They were right. She soon started waking up EVERY HOUR. But it was nothing we weren’t used to. So I managed that just fine.

And then it hit: TEETHING. For the past 3 days I’m pretty sure my little girl has been teething based on all her symptoms (pulling on ear, chewing everything in sight, grabs our knuckles and rubs them on her gums side to side, drooling like a mad woman, chin rash from drool, refuses boob until really hungry, bites, all the usuals). She’s miserable at night, she’s miserable during the day. All we can do is manage her pain/symptoms and give her as much love as possible, even in light of her new night “schedule”. But then again maybe I am wrong. I don’t see any teeth or swollen gums, but I hear it takes a while to see those. I’ll give it a few more nights to find out, but so far we’re going under the assumption it’s her gums.
Update: she seems to have calmed down a bit and doesn’t appear in pain. Nights are still iffy (4-5 wakings) but that’s normal for 4 months regression. So still exhibiting symptoms of teething but she’s not in so much discomfort. And I’m loving having this log to show her when she’s ready to have her own babies (to scare her off haha)

It was the worst night from the “number of wakings” standpoint since Lexi’s birth. And it will serve me as a reminder for when Alexis goes back to waking up a mere 2-3 times a night that I should be happy, that it could be worse, that IT WILL PASS and most importantly that what will matter years from now is HOW WELL and lovingly we handled it (because any sleep deprived parent can tell you – it’s easy to build up resentment on little sleep)

So Self, come back to this post often, every time you feel like Lexi should be sleeping, every time you get upset she isn’t.

And everyone else, feel free to bookmark/pin this if you feel it will help you keep things in perspective.

{This is written purely for entertainment purposes. I’m not looking for sleep advice. It is simply a stage we have to go through and keep Alexis as comfy as possible.
I WOULD, however, love to hear about your first teething experience- age, what helped, how it manifested, how long it lasted, how you knew she/he was teething, etc…
Teething isn’t something a lot is written about, as it’s individual so I’d appreciate any insight. }

Have fun reading the log! This is how it has been for the past 3 days give or take a few wakes.
*Crying in this case means constant whimpering. We try to never give her the need to outright cry.

{This is taken from my nighttime log as part of Pantley sleep system}

Nighttime routine:
Bath, massage, say good night to items in room, read 2 books, swing in the swing a bit, rock a bit.
7:19 Asleep in bed ( we co-sleep)
7:49 Up nursing (this is normal. She treats anything before 10pm as a nap and wakes up every 40 minutes)
7:55 Removed nipple, falling asleep…
In and out of sleep, rooting, with and without nipple
8:13 Awake, rocking.
Put down in bed
8:25 Awake, won’t nurse, rocking
8:33 Asleep
10:23 up, crying. I nurse.
10:32 asleep
Fidgety
Calmed her down a few times by putting my hand on her belly
10:45 Up crying, rocking
10:50 asleep
11:00 crying/whining, rocking
11:11 Asleep
12:00 Up crying, nursing
12:10 asleep
12:16 Up fully awake, change, rock for 29 min until asleep
12:45 put her down
12:50 awake crying, rocking
1:05 asleep
1:10 Up again, whimpering for 5 min, rocking, nursing
1:30 still rocking
1:50 down, asleep
1:55 awake crying, changed again, tried rocking, tried putting in a swing, let her chew on a chilled teether, rocking again
3:00 Finally asleep
3:30 Up crying, nursing
3:31 asleep
5:38 up crying, rocking
5:45 asleep
6:37 fully awake for the day, won’t got to sleep, won’t nurse, smile central.

Total snooze time for mommy and daddy: 4 hours 40 minutes with a million interruptions.

Now she spent all morning whimpering on and off (more on than off) unless she’s chewing on something or being bounced and thrown up in the air at which point she is as happy as a clam as long as it continues.

So what’s keeping me going even though I am running on 4 hours of sleep today and less than 6 each night for the last 2 days?

This little face! How could you not!?

{a little preview of her 3-6 months video. I know I still have to do the 0-3 months one too}

Comment: Tell me about your child’s first teething experience.

Oh how the time flies! It seems like I took the photos for this post just a few weeks ago and while I was getting ready to write it and post it, Alexis almost turned 4 months. Oh well! A lot has changed since then. What she looks like, what she does, our routine and our days. But in general it IS all the same: it’s a life with a young baby. Nowadays, we go outside more often, visit the community pool, play with toys and enjoy lots of tummy time. And as of May 23rd, we no longer have grandma here :( That’s the saddest part. But I cannot wait till she visits again next year when Alexis is already walking ( wow! Mind blowing!).

So here we go: what our days with Lexi look(ed) like. I chose to take photos rather than write descriptions of every activity that day. It is exactly what happened and this is what we usually look like/do at home ( except for most of the time I don’t wear make up, though I should). The photos aren’t staged or posed, except for the ones where it’s obvious we’re looking at the camera. But it’s a pretty accurate account of our days at that point. Most of them were taken by me, with a remote/tripod or by my hubby or by my mom – basically whoever had free hands to snap a picture. Times are approximate. I based them off of the time stamp on the picture which could have been taken mid-acitivity. Somewhere in between all those pictures there were nursing sessions but I wasn’t able to take a picture of them except for one.

Note: It is photo heavy so I hid most of the post under the “READ MORE” link.

For some reason I am missing all the photos from the morning till her 2nd nap, so here’s the breakdown in writing.

7:00 AM- This is her usual wake up time, give or take 30 minutes. We nurse, smile, talk, kick legs on the bed and snuggle, while daddy tries to wake himself up and go down to bring us some fruit for breaskfast.

7:20 AM – Going for a walk in the neighborhood if it’s not too sunny. This is usually done together as a family or if there’s laundry to do or things to clean up one of us stays behind.

8:00AM – By then we usually come back home with some fussiness because it’s time to eat. We nurse.

8:05AM – We have breakfast while playing with Lexi on the mat (or take turns having breakfast while the other person is holding Lexi)

8:20AM – The breakfast tends to get interrupted by increasing fussiness when it becomes clear it’s nap time. I go upstairs to put her to sleep, hubby starts working.

9:00AM – Lexi wakes up from the nap ( obviously these times vary greatly, but based on the time the other photos were taken, this is what must have happened) and we have some post-nap smiles, open the blinds, play and stretch on the bed.

9:15 AM – We go downstairs to see grandma who is usually up by now and she takes Alexis and spends some quality grandma time while I finish/catch up on my breakfast while talking to hubby who comes down to eat as well

9:45AM – About this time we nurse again and go upstairs to slowly start the naptime routine.

10:30 AM- I rock her to sleep and since she is having a very fitful sleep, I am unable to put her down ( I usually try twice and if she wakes up every time, I just hold her while she sleeps), so she’s sleeping in my arms.

10:55AM – She starts waking up and I have to rock her back to sleep.

11:21 AM Alexis wakes up and I feed her half asleep. (obviously some of the first photos below are supposed to say AM not PM (oops)

Then it’s time to change and I call daddy over. We make sure that dad changes her and comes to give her kisses after every nap whenever he can, so that, even though he has to work, he still sees her and interacts her throughout the day. Same thing happens on the days that I work, but my thing is breastfeeding, obviously. I’ll write about how we split our parenting and working duties more in the future.

Once Lexi is changed, we head downstairs to say Hi to grandma. I usually put her in her bouncy chair or her new Kicking Coaster and we all talk to her.

A few minutes after, I pick her up and we walk around the house looking at pictures and talking while grandma makes some lunch.

Once lunch is ready, I leave Lexi in her bouncer to be entertained by grandma while I try to eat as fast as possible.

Then we walk over to my mom’s room and play on the Tiny Love Gym on the bed. She loves that thing and supposedly, Tiny Love doesn’t use any flame retardants on the cloth pieces, and is free of BPA, PVC and pthalates which is very different from most manufacturers

TO CONTINUE READING CLICK HERE:

Welcome to Alexis’ Nursery Final Reveal

To view the progress, follow the links below:

Nursery Part I
Nursery Part II- bits and pieces

All the items in the room and where you can find them will be listed at the bottom of the post.

Overall, I am happy with how it turned out. The room we had for her is the smallest in the house and I was concerned that we wouldn’t be able to decorate it the way I wanted. I am not great with styling or design, I am not crafty and we didn’t have a huge budget. But I feel that we were able to do exactly what I had envisioned with minor concessions. There will be some changes to the room in the future and it’s not 100% complete, but it is as complete as it will be until Alexis starts sleeping in it ( which she currently isn’t and probably won’t be for a long time). I am planning on adding pom-poms in the ceiling corner and a bookshelf, but this is as final as it’s going to get for a while.

So let’s start:

The chair is the only thing that doesn’t completely match, but in order to get a white chair I would have had to either sacrifice my comfort or price. So this was a good middle of the road rocker/recliner that is insanely comfortable. The rug is temporary, as well. I haven’t been able to find a rug that fit the room perfectly, so this cheap Target rug will do for now until I find something more appropriate.

The blinds will get cord winders soon (if you know of good ones, please share)
The crib skirt and bows were made by my sister who lives in Russia. She did an amazing job, considering she’s not a seamstress and went off of our measurements. We opted for no bumpers (even though I had a very cute one in mind) and an organic muslin crib sheet and a Naturepedic mattress.

I debated buying children’s canvas art for the room or framing my own photography. I am glad I went with frames, because that means I can switch out photos once in a while when we get bored of them.

The dresser was a old craigslist dresser that we had refinished. And yes, I am aware the handles are upside down. No, it wasn’t on purpose :). Since the dresser is old, the only crafty thing I managed to accomplish was lining the drawers with pretty purple and white fabric that I ordered online.

We have two mobiles over the crib. Wispy soft and cute one for looks and for when Alexis is a bit older to be interested in such delicate things (see how to win one), and another developmental crib mobile made out of black, white and red plastic shapes that encourage baby’s visual development. Needless to say, Alexis loves it as much as she does her black and white board.

It took nearly to my due date to find a chandelier that we both liked. I didn’t want it to look cheap with plastic crystals and anything with real crystals was either too big or over the top. This one came in black and was exactly what we needed after some spray paint action.

The butterflies offer some entertainment for Lexi while she gets her diaper change ( that is when we use that area to change her diapers). The beautiful owl and birdie mobile is courtesy of Denise from my favorite Magical Whimsy Etsy shop

The closet dividers are courtesy of Erica from Fifi’s closet on Etsy and can be made in a variety of color schemes

Nursery Details:

Paint: Zero VOC Olympic Paint in Iris Isle

Mirror: Rooms To Go Disney Princess Mirror

Lamp: Shade from Layla Grace, base from Ebay painted white.

Owl: Red Envelope

Cloth Doll: Haba Organic Doll

Flower vase: vase and flowers from Michael’s, cut and arranged by me.

Frame: a gift from ex-neighbors. They framed Alexis’ announcement which I thought was so creative.

Dresser: an old craigslist dresser and night stand refinished. (bought for $150, refinished for $500)

Drawer Liners: Made using foam board from Michael’s, cut to size. Fabric ordered online.

Chandalier: Overstock.com

Butterly mobile over the changing table: Amazon

Owl & Bird Mobile: Magical Whimsy Etsy shop (WIN IT! see below)

Black and White Mobile: Manhattan Toy

Black and White Board: on Amazon from Manhattan Toy

Canvas: Easy Canvas Print

Crown: HomeDecorators.com

Sparkle statue: Zulily

Framed Photos: Frames from Michael’s, photos taken by me printed at Bay Photo Lab

Recliner/Rocker: Matter Brothers

Crib Skirt and Bows: handmade by my sister in Russia

Rug: Target

Shades: JCPenney (super cheap solution, but not cordless)

Shelves: HomeDecorators.com (painted white)

Organic Changing Pad: Naturepedic

Organic mattress: Naturepedic

Ugly Dolls: Amazon

ABC Nightlight: Pottery Barn Kids

Closet Door Handles: Pottery Barn Kids

Closet Organisers: Fifi’s closet

Closet cubes: Homedecorators.com Martha Stewart Collection

Closet canvas totes: Homedecorators.com Martha Stewart Collection

Flag Banner: Etsy

And that’s pretty much it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

Denise from Magical Whimsy Etsy shop would like to offer my readers a chance to win $100 to her Etsy shop.
So if you have a little one on the way or just need a nursery revamp, feel free to enter.

Magical Whimsy $100 Credit

BELOW ARE THE GIVEAWAYS RULES
and Mandatory Entries: {read carefully}

There are two mandatory entries for each giveaway, after which you will have additional entries available,
and daily entries for which you can come back to enter daily. This giveaway is open internationally.
The winning entry will be verified and the winner disqualified if the action is not found or if the mandatory items are not fullfilled.
Make sure to notate how you’re following the blog in the extra info field (entry #1). The entry won’t count if that information is missing.
Each giveaway is open has specific rules, so read them on the widget (including which countries are eligible). See the rafflecopter widget for additional terms and conditions.

UPDATE: You can now log into the Rafflecopter through Facebook or just by using your name/email.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{I would like to say a huge THANKS to Isabella Oliver for supplying clothes for this photoshoot. IO is and has been one of my favorite maternity and womenswear stores. Their clothes are the perfect mix of classy and sexy.  From maternity styles that take you from pregnancy to postpartum to a classy womenswear collection, they have the best styles and great quality. Check out my maternity dress from Isabella Oliver here and don’t miss out on an awesome giveaway of this Jersey Drape Dress  in honor of all the Mothers out there at the end of this post. If you’re pregnant, check out their amazing resource, Isabella Oliver World: Pregnancy in Style}

Elena’s outfit:

Top: Cool Cotton Shirt in Blue and Sequin Jacket

Bottom: The Skinny Jeans

Jewelry: Luna Wrap Bracelet

Mom’s outfit:

Top: The Perfect Tee

Bottom: Zip Pencil Skirt

Jewelry: Chelsey Necklace

Alexis’ Dress:

Alphabet

Growing up in Russia, we didn’t have Mother’s Day. There was an International Woman’s Day on March 8th, which was pretty big and celebrated all over. But somehow mothers were never singled out. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. I think all the women deserve to be celebrated (and so are men), but our Moms do hold a special place in our hearts.

Being new to this, the identity of a “Mother” hasn’t synced in with me yet. I don’t feel like a MOM. I feel like I have this precious little baby that I love more than life and want to spend every second with and take care of and help in life and put on the right path. If that’s what it feels like to be a mom, then I am it.

So Mother’s Day this year for me is a Day dedicated to My Mother, as well as my own emerging identity of a mother, as well as the future possibility of Alexis being a mother if she chooses to.

It has been incredibly rewarding to have my mom here with us for the last 3.5 months, witnessing the first weeks of Alexis’ life. It’s special for her and it was special for me. I know Alexis will forget her grandma was here with her, but  it meant a ton for my mom, as well as me. Having support of a mother during your own transition into motherhood is incredible. Yes, it’s challenging, because being “seasoned”, my mom had her own ideas of what’s right and what’s wrong. But what makes my mom so great is that those ideas were never set in stone and absolute.

Yes, I did have to tell her about a million times why Alexis’ newborn acne isn’t a heat rash from bundling her too warm but from my hormones, or that it’s ok to assist a baby in sitting up without “bending her spine permanently”, or that the reason why she can’t lie on her back is reflux (“What? You and your sister didn’t have that!” Yes, mom and she does!).

Yes, she did hover and second guess me and herself 5 times a minute.  But all of it was CLEARLY done with the best intentions possible, with the care and concern in her eyes. It was never said in a mean or judgmental way, neither did she ever get offended when I would tell her she was wrong.

My mom has always put her kids first. That might have destroyed her marriage, but she doesn’t know how to be any other way. I want to be like my mom but find a balance in taking care of my kids while sustaining my relationship with my husband.

I’ve always said she was selfless. She’d do anything and everything for us. Growing up, I ALWAYS knew that my mom will do whatever it takes to help me succeed. I was brought up with an unspoken “you can come to me with everything” rule. She trusted me to make my own decisions, yet always worried about my safety. {she’s a worrier}

I’ve never been afraid to ask her for something or feel like I am inconveniencing her, because she’s always let me know that nothing that I would need is an inconvenience. It’s truly a blessing to have a mom that will never think of herself  first, even though I wish sometimes she would. And I, in turn, would do anything for her as well.

I believe we have kids to give them all that we can in terms of love, support and attention. We don’t have kids for ourselves, because we’re bored or because we need someone to love us.  We have them to add a hopefully better human to this world, arm them with all the best and let them live their life.

I am new to motherhood. I have a lot to learn. I have to learn patience and tolerance, which is not one of my virtues. I have to learn to be nurturing, more than I already am. I have to learn how to be the best example for Alexis. I have to learn how to foster her identity without losing my own. I have to learn how to most beneficially work with Alexis’ personality and bring out the best in her.

Alexis brought change, a lot of it . Not only in our lives but in our thinking. I welcome change. I thrive on changes. Motherhood has been “different” but oh so rewarding. It has been hard but oh so easy and natural. It has been EVERYTHING and NOTHING I expected. I have worked hard to stay flexible and fluid in my doing and thinking. A baby is so unpredictable and changes happen so fast that sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s all good, it’s all normal, it will all pass and unfortunately it will go by too fast.

As I am sitting here writing this post, Alexis is in her swing with my husband in front of her. They are talking and she’s cooing and squealing and laughing even though she didn’t sleep much last night (was awake from 12am to 4 am). And even though I didn’t sleep along with her and I am so tired that all I want is for her to fall asleep so that I could nap too, I absolutely adore hearing her laugh and suddenly I DON’T want her  to sleep. Suddenly I’d rather hear those wonderful sounds of my daughter being happy.  And that’s what motherhood is all about.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY from OUR FAMILY to YOURS!

In honor of Mother’s Day, in conjunction with Isabella Oliver 365 Womenswear Collection, we’d like to offer a giveaway of a dress that would make ANY mom feel like a million bucks. Please read the rules and enter below.

And until Monday, May 14th, you can get 20% off on their Mothers and Daughters In Style collection.

Isabella Oliver Jersey Wrap Dress

BELOW ARE THE GIVEAWAYS RULES
and Mandatory Entries: {read carefully}

There are two mandatory entries for each giveaway, after which you will have additional entries available,
and 2 daily entries for which you can come back to enter daily. This giveaway is open to US residents only.
The winning entry will be verified and the winner disqualified if the action is not found or if the mandatory items are not fullfilled.
Make sure to notate how you’re following the blog in the extra info field (entry #1). The entry won’t count if that information is missing.
Each giveaway is open has specific rules, so read them on the widget (including which countries are eligible). See the rafflecopter widget for additional terms and conditions.

UPDATE: You can now log into the Rafflecopter through Facebook or just by using your name/email.

If you have a blog, there’re 2 entries each worth 10 points ( post our button on your blog’s sidebar and blog about the giveaway)

{If you’re not sure how to use to enter, feel free to watch this video tutorial or email me at contact {at} prebabyblog {dot} com
Otherwise, make sure to read everything carefully. Click the DO IT link first, then I’VE DONE IT once the action is completed}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Trying to get the Cloth Diapering post out before Lexi woke up, I completely forgot to mention what we’re doing for wipes.

Even before I decided to try cloth diapers, I wanted to use cloth wipes. And they turned out to be easier than I thought. While I plan on trying cloth diapers again in a few months, I know I’ll continue using cloth wipes regadless of our experience with cloth diapers.

For one, it’s really easy to make them. It takes a few minutes each morning to stack up the wipes warmer with rolled up wipes. I make my own solution, recipe for which I found online and it goes something like this:

2 cups of hot water
1 tbs of vinegar (to cut down on yeast)
1tbs of olive oil (for easy clean up)
1-2 drops of tea tree oil ( anti-fungal and anti bacterial)
1/4 of a cup of Aloe (soothing)

You can make a ton of different variations for whatever you need. Like, I had to add vinegar, when Alexis seemed to have gotten a yeasty diaper rash.

I’ve read about people using paper towels pre-soaked in a solution as well, but so far cloth wipes work.

I bought 3 dozen wipes from Etsy and they have been working great. Might need to stock up on more.

Just wanted to throw it out there in case someone is looking to try.

{This is not an example of how a CD should  fit. It was simply fastened to take a picture}It’s funny for me to be writing this post now versus a few weeks ago, because it would be VERY VERY different.

Let’s start from the beginning…

My reasons for cloth diapering were pretty much the same as most people who decide to do it, except for financial reasons. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the idea of saving money, but health was the primary aspect of it. Plus, somehow it seemed fun to me. Rather than having Alexis wear these boring white paper diapers, she’d get to wear colorful fun ones.

I was not intimidated by the idea of having to do laundry once a day or dealing with poop. I figured I’ll do what I have to do for the sake of the healthier option.

When Alexis was born, based on people’s recommendations coupled with sleepless nights, we went with disposables for the first week or two. Honestly, I wasn’t very happy about that and feel that we should have just started with the cloth. Alexis was a big baby and most of my cloth diapers would have fit. What I DID like about using disposables in the very beginning was that little pee stripe that would let us know the diaper was soiled. It was invaluable in the first few weeks when we were trying to make sure Alexis ate and peed enough. Looking at it now, it’s not like it’s impossible to tell if a cloth diaper has been peed in. It’s usually pretty obvious. Again, a rookie mistake brought in by the overwhelming responsibility and newness.

So after some time we switched to cloth diapers during the day and used chlorine free disposables at night. My husband ABHORED using cloth diapers!
He’s the diaper guy, I’m the boobie girl- that’s how it works here.
So if he hated putting cloth diapers on, there was little I could do without expending too much energy on arguing with him and making sure he puts on a cloth diaper every time and doesn’t take the easy way out. The energy I didn’t have at the time. So I’d do my best to remind him to use cloth and ask him why he hadn’t each time he’d put a disposable on.

I found it funny how every time something was more difficult than he expected, he’d do a complete 180 on all our plans. “Cloth Diapers? Awesome idea! Oh, it’s not as easy as I thought? Let’s ditch them!” However when it was something I had to do for the sake of Alexis’ health, he was vigilant about it. Men!

Anyways, after a month or so of constant reminders from me to use cloth diapers, he seemed to have gotten used to them and would put them on without complaining.

That’s where I started analyzing the whole cloth diaper situation.

There were TWO things that bothered me about using cloth diapers. Neither one of those I had heard about or anticipated (not that I read too much on cloth diapering, I was sort of winging it) before I started using them.

1. Being as bulky as they are, Alexis had trouble moving around when we’d put her on the floor. The diaper would weigh her down.
The last thing I want is for something to delay her development and I was starting to feel that the extra weight around her tushy was preventing her from moving they way she’d normally do. I saw her trying to roll and move around and the gravity of the diaper would definitely be pulling her down.

2. Being a big girl as it is, she started growing out her 3-6 months clothes around her 3rd month, and add a cloth diaper to it and all my zulily purchases in 3-6 months were bagged upon receipt for the next baby. No good! I didn’t just spend hundreds of dollars in clothes only to have the cloth diapers prevent her from wearing them. Most of the clothes aren’t cut for a pillow between her legs, so that was a little bit frustrating.

So while the clothes issue isn’t really a biggie, I didn’t want Alexis to keep trying to roll over and move and get frustrated over her inability to do that due to the heavy diaper. So since we had a pack of #2 disposable diapers that she was almost too big for, I decided to spend a week using them up and see how it goes.

To be completely honest, I still don’t like the idea of using disposables. I just don’t.
I had a little bit of a mommy guilt over that one.
BUT… and that’s a huge BUT! The week that she’s been using disposables, she started moving around on the floor, attempting to roll over from back to front. As a matter of fact, today was the first time she scooted over to the picture she wanted to see on the play mat.

So I am a little bit torn. On one hand, I like the idea of chemical free, reusable diapers, but on the other hand, with the chlorine/dye/perfume/latex free diapers, how much safer are they really? It’s not like cotton and fleece are all that “clean” and chem free either. The things that initially drew me to cloth diapering are still there. I knew about the extra laundry and extra work and the yuck factor (it’s really not that bad) and they don’t bother me. But I just can’t get over the bulkiness of the diapers and how uncomfortable that seems to make Alexis.

So I have decided (tentatively) to use the chlorine free safer disposables for the time being and come back to cloth diapers when Alexis is crawling. They look cuter on older babies anyways. That way the diaper won’t be bigger than herself and she’ll be able to handle it better.

All that being said, I really do like using cloth diapers. It makes me feel good about doing something beneficial for Alexis and the environment. But at the end of the day, I gotta figure out whether it’s just another “trendy” thing to do or has the actual measurable benefit to Alexis vs using “green” disposables.

If I decide to continue with cloth diapers, I have a few favorite that I will probably buy a whole set in. Initially I bought about 10 cloth diapers, all of different brands and received three from companies to try out. My goal was to use them for a while to determine which brand works best for us and Alexis. I will have to write about them in the next post, but my favorites were Fuzzibuns and Oh Katy. Gro-via were interesting and my husband liked Kawaii Baby.

UPDATE: There are a few more things I’d like to say since it seems some people are reading things in a certain way.

• I have NOT read any studies that say CD delays development, I am not saying it does or doesn’t, nor do I think it does. I didn’t even know it’s a common misconception until this post. It was my fear based on my observations of how Alexis moves with a diaper versus without one. She is perfectly on time with her milestones, so I wasn’t overly concerned, but it WAS something that played with my mind. ( If you read the post carefully, that’s exactly what I say). I am saying that in Alexis’ case, every time she’d be moving around, the gravity of the diaper would pull her down and I didn’t like that. It’s my personal experience with her and has nothing to do with scientific reality.
  The truth of the matter is right now the CD doesn’t work for us for many reasons, those two being some of them. 

  Before I decided to give in and try using disposables exclusively, I tried to find any studies or information that would tell me that the difference is really significant. I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t just someone’s opinion. If you have links to STUDIES about either way of diapering, I’d be very grateful if you could email/post them/. If anything, it’ll be a great way to convince my husband to give me more support in cloth diapering since he’s the one who does most of the diaper changes.

   I do plan on resuming cloth diapering when Alexis starts sitting up unassisted and seeing how it goes then, most likely using either Fuzzibuns, OhKaty or Grovia. By then I think the one size diapers will be more proportionate to Alexis’ size and will feel more natural to both me and her.
• Someone asked about prefolds and  unfortunately, that’s not something I ever wanted to get into.

  I am still all for cloth diapering. I think it’s great and would commend any woman on doing it as well as encourage every new and “old” mom to try. I’m not down on the whole CD thing, I just don’t think I want to do it right now until Alexis is a few months older.

For those who asked, for disposables we use WF chlorine free diapers, but I want to compare ingredients of Honest.com and Earth Best  ( they are on Subscribe and save + Amazon mom discounts on amazon).