Wandering Goats

Trying out the new clothesline

Sheep — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:59:28 +0000

It’s Christmas in July! The clothesline I got for Christmas is finally up and drying it’s first load of cloth diapers. It’s so much more convenient than dragging our patio chairs all over trying to catch the sun not to mention worrying about them flying off in the wind. And you can’t beat the sun (even on a cool overcast day) when it comes to removing organic stains (like baby poo!) After washing a few diapers are usually left with some stains, a few hours in the sun and they’re super bright white and fresh smelling.

Milk supply issues?

Sheep — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 04:03:08 +0000

It appears I may have jinxed myself when I posted earlier that I wasn’t suffering from milk supply issues. I returned to work 2 weeks ago and even though I’m only working 3 days a week and manage to pump at least as much as she eats while I’m away, I’ve noticed that my breasts constantly feel empty and it’s getting harder and harder to get more than an ounce or two out of each pumping session. I remember times when I could pump 4 ounces out of each side!

Little one still appears to be getting enough to eat going by the number of wet and poopy diapers but today she was ultra fussy and seemed to really fight to get milk out. Of course one day can always just be a fluke or a growth spurt or any number of things but let’s just say my spidy sense is tingling and warning me that I need to increase production and soon.

I’ve read that oatmeal can help boost production so I’m trying to have a bowl each morning. Before I left work on maternity leave I was having a bowl everyday so it shouldn’t be too hard to get back into that routine.

I also picked up a box of Yogi Woman’s Nursing Support, Herbal Tea Supplement and have been trying to drink the recommended 3 cups a day. The taste is better than expected considering I hate the taste of 3 of it’s main ingredients (fennel, anise and fenugreek). I just started yesterday so it’s much to early to tell, but hopefully I’ll see an increase soon.

Trying out cloth diapers

Sheep — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:57:53 +0000

Before Lizzie arrived I purchased a few used cloth diapers off eBay, 4 gently used FuzziBunz size small and 2 Happy Heinys one size. It took nearly 3 months before I was ready to try them and like so many cloth diapering mammas before me I found myself saying I wish I would have tried these sooner!!

The reason I waited so long was because I thought they would just complicate things so much more. The truth is they do add to the laundry and they take a few more minutes to stuff before use but it’s time I’m willing to spend. Call me odd but there’s something satisfying about taking off a full wet and poopy diaper (with no leaks) and watching it come out sparkling clean and fresh smelling from the laundry and sun.

Yes you read right, the sun! Many helpful mammas have raved about how putting a clean but stained diaper or liner out in the sun for a few hours gets them sparkling white and stain free. I was a bit skeptical because it sounded too good to be true but it really does work.

I’m still quite a newbie when it comes to cloth diapering but let me share a few tips I’ve learned along the way. And I’d love to hear some of yours as well.

-Don’t be afraid to start using them! Buy a few gently used from reputable sellers, borrow from a friend or buy 1 or 2 new during a sale. The up front investment is higher but you’ll quickly realize how much you’ll save over the 2+ years your child will be in diapers.
-Try different kinds. I currently am loving pocket diapers, both FuzziBunz and BumGenius. But there are so many other options out there that are worth exploring.
-Leaks will happen. I’ve suffered pee and poop blow outs in disposables and pee leaks in cloth (so far no poop blowouts in cloth but I know it will happen). With cloth it’s all about getting the right fit and knowing when to change them. Which when you think about it is really the same for disposables as well.
-Don’t be afraid of the laundry. Lizzie is breastfeed and not yet on solids so her poop is watery yellow and smells like cheesy popcorn (seriously). Breast milk poop is water soluble and doesn’t need to be rinsed off prior to putting in the wash. That being said I still find myself rinsing off both pee and poop diapers in the laundry tub before storing in the wet bag. It really isn’t bad at all and no worse than dealing with disposable diaper trash.
-Don’t spend too much time stressing over what detergent you use. Every cloth diapering family has their favorite detergent and every diaper brand has their list of recommended products. Do a bit of research on what not to use on diapers and give one of the recommended products a go. We use Tide Free and Clear powder and Allen’s Naturally liquid. I don’t have a favorite yet and haven’t been using long enough to be able to say how they work but so far so good. No stink after wash and all stains that aren’t removed in the wash come out in the sun.
-Yes cloth diapers are bulkier than disposables, there’s really no way around it. You either absorb with chemicals or layers of cloth. One size diapers (diapers that should fit your baby from birth to potty training) are usually bulkier, especially on the smallest settings. So far both the sized and one size diapers have fit under her outfits but I think once she starts wearing pants more often I may have to size up for them to fit. Personally I love all the colorful cloth diapers and use them under dresses instead of the diaper covers that come with the dress.

I really do find myself quite enjoying cloth diapering and plan to continue to build up my stash so I can keep little one in cloth all day long. I just ordered 7 BumGenius 4.0 one size pocket seconds for $10/piece ($13 when you add the cost of the inserts which you have to buy separately with seconds). That gives me 14 pocket diapers and should allow me to wash every other day.

So far my favorites are FuzziBunz Perfect Size and BumGenius 4.0. The Happy Heinys one size pocket diaper is a bit harder to fit on her and perhaps because it’s used, doesn’t seem to absorb as well. I’ll do another post reviewing the brands I use after I have a few weeks under my belt.

An update on the nursery

Sheep — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:18:01 +0000

I posted earlier that we were getting several of the pieces for the nursery at IKEA. Just wanted to update that I could not be happier with how everything turned out. IKEA surprised me with quite a few pieces that I truly loved. The quality is top notch and assembly really wasn’t bad at all.

Here are a few pictures of the finished nursery. It’s not currently getting much use since the baby has slept in our room since she was born, but now that she’s almost sleeping through the night we may begin to transition her to sleeping in her crib (I hope!).

Bumps in the mommy road

Sheep — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:03:52 +0000

Over the past 3 months as I’ve adapted to being a Mom there have been quite a few things that surprised me. I knew having a baby wouldn’t be easy and expected there to be meltdowns, sleepless nights, and spit up. There were a few thigs however that I didn’t expect.

Like the fact that getting my baby to breastfeed would be easier than getting her to take a bottle, or a pacifier for that matter. You hear all these stories about babies not having proper latch on when breastfeeding, not getting enough milk, Mom not producing enough milk, cracked nipples, the list goes on. We didn’t have a single one of those problems, in fact the only time I experienced sore nipples was about a month in when she took to chewing on my nipples as she strained to have a bowel movement (we later found out she is sensitive to dairy in my diet, but more on that another time). And even then they were just tender, not cracked or agonizingly painful. This little one latched right on the very first time and was back to birth weight at her 3 day appointment and had gained 5 lbs by the time her 2 month checkup rolled around. There’s no doubt she’s thriving with breastfeeding.

Mom however, isn’t always doing quite so well. The actual physical act of breastfeeding doesn’t give me any problems, and I LOVE the special bond that we’ve developed. What isn’t so easy for me is handling feeding her in public. As mentioned earlier this little one does not like to take a bottle! Right around 2 weeks I had my husband start introducing a bottle and it’s been a constant struggle ever since. Books and friends will warn you that introducing a bottle too soon can lead to all kinds of latch on and nipple confusion problems. Definitely not the case here. She’s not confused at all, she’s very clear that she HATES anything other than the breast.

And this fact makes it very stressful for me when we take her out, which is often. I need to plan to either feed her right before we head out the door, or make sure I leave time to feed her in the car when we arrive wherever we’re going and often have to feed her again in the car before we head home. I would love nothing more than to tuck a bottle away in the diaper bag and feed her without being hidden away, but so far she isn’t allowing it. In the early days we did sometimes have luck with her taking a bottle from my husband at a restaurant, but more often than not she would protest loudly leading to me running off to the car with her (and even the restroom one time at Olive Garden, not an ideal situation and let me just say that their toilets are crazy loud when they flush which caused her to jump off my breast every time one went off!)

The one good thing is that she normally allows my parents to give her a bottle with minimal fussing. This means we can still get away for a night or even a weekend knowing that she won’t starve. It also means I was able to return to work as planned, something my husband and our bank account appreciate.

I know this behavior isn’t out of the ordinary for exclusively breastfed babies, but it definitely wasn’t something I was expecting to happen to our baby, especially when we tried so hard to introduce the bottle early on. We tried several different brands of bottles, wide mouth, standard mouth, latex nipples, silicone nipples, slow flow, medium flow, you name it! In the end we seemed to have the best luck with Born Free due to the wide nipple base. Really any wide mouth bottle probably would have worked.

So nearly three months in and the struggle continues. I’m hoping now that I’m back to work 3 days a week and she’ll be getting bottles on a very consistant basis that maybe we’ll see some progress. Definitely not holding my breath though!

If anyone has tips or advice I’m all ears!

Baby Elizabeth is here!

Sheep — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:39:31 +0000

Well, more like she’s been here for nearly 3 months. I’ve kind of gotten behind with the updates, having a baby will do that to you I guess!

She was born on April 11 weighing 6 lbs 13 oz and is the absolute joy of our lives.

IKEA that’s good!

Sheep — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:53:37 +0000

Sorry, bad Friends reference. Whenever I think about IKEA it’s the first thing that pops into my head though.

Last night the hubby and I made a trip out to IKEA to look at a dresser and chair for the nursery. Normally IKEA isn’t quite my style, I’m more traditional Pottery Barn and they’re well, very Swedish modern. Imagine my surprise when I walked around the showroom and found a ton of classically styled bedroom and living room collections. Consider me an official IKEA convert. Lucky me it’s less than 20 minutes from our house, unlucky husband and wallet.

We had a blast browsing through the closet organization and wall unit bookcase sections then finally found the dresser that we were looking for. It’s perfect, white to match the crib, modern yet classic, sturdy and well built, and best of all under $300!! We don’t think we’ll have any problem re-using this piece outside of the nursery.

We also picked up one of their Poang chairs, not what most would consider classic, but it such a fresh addition to the nursery and I love the color and print of the cover.

Now we just need to find out the gender, pick a bedding set (I think I’ve got it narrowed down to two), and then decorate and embellish like crazy. Good thing IKEA is so close.

Cloth diapers and club crackers

Sheep — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:08:24 +0000

So I was expecting my package of 2 gently used Fuzzi Bunz pocket cloth diapers in the mail today, what I wasn’t expecting was to get such a kick out of the packaging they arrived in.

With our little bean on the way in April I’ve started browsing eBay to try and snag some deals on cloth diapers. I went a bit bid crazy the other day and bid on something like 5 different auctions. So far I’ve won a total of 6 diapers and the first set arrived today.

I opened the package and found that the crafty seller used a box of club crackers, turned inside out, to send the diapers in. I LOVE this idea for so many reasons. First of all it’s just cool to see an item reused in such a way, second, it saved a box from the landfill, and third, I love club crackers!

Oh yeah, and the diapers themselves are pretty cool too. They’re white Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers in size small. White is a bit boring when compared to the other cool colors that are on their way to my mailbox, but I think they’ll actually work out better under light clothing and look like the regular disposables.

Trapper Afghan (Crochet)

Sheep — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:20:40 +0000

Trapper Afghan

I was so excited to get home and find out if my package from yarn.com had been delivered, and it had!! Ripped that sucker open and instantly fell in love with the super soft Berroco Comfort yarn. I’m normally not a fan of synthetic yarns but this stuff is so buttery soft it could be made of arsenic and I’d still be more than happy to wrap myself from head to toe with it.

Did a small gauge swatch and decided to go one size larger to a G hook. Added a few extra chains (217 instead of 203) which I think may have been a bit too much, but oh well, the afghan will just be a bit wider than 50”.

The yarn is splity, but after the first several double crochets (dc) I seem to have found a way of working with it that minimizes catching the split strands.

So far I am super happy with the way this is turning out. I’m using Megan Mills’ Tidy Ends technique to prevent a gap at the end of a dc row. Very simple to pick up and makes a really nice even row end.

Can’t wait to get home and work on this some more. Next challenge, changing colors!

Follow my progress on Ravelry.

Y.S. Organic Bee Farms Raw Honey

Sheep — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:31:01 +0000

I confess that I am totally addicted to this stuff. It’s unlike any other honey I’ve ever had. It’s creamy, doesn’t cyrstalize, and basically has the wonderful texture and taste of a good cream cheese icing. Best of all it’s good for you too!!

My current favorite way of enjoying is to put a good dollop on a plate, sprinkle some cinnamon on top, mix it all up, and eat it with fresh crispy apples.

Life doesn’t get much better than this!

(sorry for the poor picture quality, I took them at work with my phone)