My cousin, Kelly, and her boyfriend, Murray, are world travelers. They’ve lived in Asia (mostly South Korea) for a handful of years now. Most recently, they lived for a year in Taiwan. We’re lucky that each summer, Kelly usually makes it home to the States to visit everyone. And although her “home” is really California, we get a week or so when she comes out to New York to see us.
Last year, my mom hosted a BBQ for my family so all of the cousins could get together to see each other. This year, she did the same.
Unfortunately, we were missing Trevor, Kara, and Hunter this year, but this is everyone else! (Minus a few stray significant others.)
It’s always so nice to see everyone. I can’t wait until we have a new little one to add into the photo for next year! :)
I think I’ve mentioned in passing how we’re planning to cloth diaper our baby. But I know I haven’t gone into much detail, and since there are at least a few of you who are curious about it, I figured I’d post about our choice and, eventually, our experience. So, this is just the first in what is sure to be a series of posts about cloth diapering.
The Decision
In the past, I never, ever would have thought that I would cloth diaper. But enter the internet, and well… you end up finding out and researching things that you never would have considered on your own. Even before we got pregnant, I saw cloth diapers discussed on numerous blogs and message boards. Once I learned about all of the different types of cloth diapers available these days, I was intrigued. However, I brushed it off as something that I would love to do if I were a stay-at-home mom, but not something I would be able to handle as a working mother.
Then, I kept reading about all these working mothers who were successfully cloth diapering–all of these “CDing” parents who swore that it’s really not that much work. So when we found out we were pregnant, I started slowly doing some more research to see if it was something we should consider. The biggest thing, however, was approaching the subject with Michael. I was sure that he would immediately tell me how ridiculous I was being and I’d be knocked back into my sensible world where disposables were the only option.
But then I mentioned it. I told him about the pros and the cons, and my reasons for wanting to do it (money savings, less waste in the landfill, and more natural materials on baby’s bum). And to my surprise, he was 100% behind the idea. That meant getting serious about my research and figuring out a plan that was going to work best for us.
The Plan and Our Starter Stash
Although I did a lot of research, I was still largely non-committal to any one method or style of cloth diapering. I figured that before we made any decisions and started buying anything, we needed to make sure that one more very important person would be on board with us–our daycare provider.
When we started meeting and interviewing potential daycares, we made sure to add the cloth diapering discussion to the list of questions. I knew that if these daycare providers knew how many of today’s cloth diapers work, they’d probably say yes, but I feared that they would say no based on assumptions of complicated folding and pinning and rubber pants. Surprisingly, no one seemed to really bat an eye–even the daycare center that we interviewed. And thankfully, our perfect daycare provider was cool with it, too. It was a relief!
With baby in daycare, one thing was for sure: By the time the baby is in daycare, we need to be using an all-in-one or pocket diaper to make it as easy as possible on this woman. We don’t want to burden her when she has other children to care for; we figured the easier we can make it, the more successful we’ll be with cloth diapering. Although we know we’re most likely going with a pocket diaper, and we definitely want to go with the “one-size” versions, we’re not making any final decisions on brands until our baby is here and we can try out a few different ones. It seems like everyone has differing opinions on BumGenius, Happy Heinys, FuzziBunz and Blueberry, so we don’t want to make an investment in anything until we know what works best on our particular baby.
The problem with the “one-size” versions of these diapers is that, although they claim to fit babies between 7-35 lbs. (so, yes… you can use the same diapers until they are potty-trained!), they don’t actually fit well on teeny little skinny newborns. It seems that most parents aren’t successful with getting them to fit properly until babies are about 2-3 months old.
Soooo… although the one-size, pocket diapers are our long-term solution, we needed to decide what to do for the newborn stage. At first, I thought maybe we’d use disposable diapers for the first 2-3 months. But then, I actually got some disposables at my first baby shower, and quite frankly, I was kind of grossed out by them. Don’t get me wrong–I am in no way “against” disposable diapers. Literally everyone I know uses them, and I’ve changed many a disposable diaper in my day (have I ever told you guys how I was an all-star babysitter?). But after doing so much research on cloth diapers and making the decision to use them for our baby, it was like I just really didn’t want to use disposables. Sure, we’ll use them in the hospital while the baby is still passing his/her meconium, but after that, we plan to switch to cloth as soon as we can.
What’s our system of choice for the newborn stage? Well, let me show you our “starter stash.” These are the things that we have purchased to get us started:
Two dozen newborn-sized, unbleached pre-fold diapers from Green Mountain Diapers, along with a 3-pack of Snappis
4 Thirsties Duo Size 1 diaper covers, 1 Planet Wise medium wet bag, 1 Planet Wise pail liner
As you can see, we plan to use pre-folds and covers. This seemed like the best solution for the newborn days, and it appears that many parents are successful with this system. In fact, many parents end up preferring the pre-folds/covers over the all-in-one/pocket systems, even though the pre-folds seem like more work.
All of the newborn CDing supply lists I’ve seen for the pre-fold system include 24-36 pre-folds, 4-6 covers, Snappis, two wet bags, and two pail liners. So keep in mind that the above is our starter stash. We plan to add at least another pail liner and wet bag. Once the baby is here and we get a better idea of how long four covers and 24 pre-folds last us before we need to wash, we may decide to order another dozen pre-folds and 1-2 more covers.
But that’s the plan! We’ll use the pre-folds/covers for the first 2-3 months, until the baby can fit into the one-size pocket diaper options, and go from there. Also, we figure that this newborn system will allow us to really try out cloth diapering and get a feel for it. If we can do it with the pre-folds/covers, we figure it’ll be even easier to do the pockets when it’s time. And if, for some reason, we change our minds on cloth diapering as a whole, we only invested a little bit of money upfront for the newborn stash.
Other People
Let’s get one thing on the record: Our friends and family think we’re crazy. I actually try to avoid talking about cloth diapering with anyone at this point, because I feel like everyone is thinking, “They’re so naive. Just wait until the baby is here; they’ll realize cloth diapering is not realistic.” Once the baby is here and we are (hopefully) successful with cloth diapering, I feel like I’ll have some clout and be able to tell everyone about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, so I’m sure I’ll talk about it a lot more. But for now, I’m keeping quiet. When people ask, I’m generally very vague about my answers and I casually say, “We’re just trying it. We’ll see how it goes.”
Oh, how I would love to prove them all wrong. I really hope cloth diapering works for us!
Anyway, I feel like my thoughts on the subject are a little bit disorganized and there’s a lot to say, but I’ll wrap this first post up and plan to post about different aspects of CDing when it occurs to me.
Questions? Interested in researching for yourself? Feel free to ask away in the comments, although I am most definitely not an expert, especially given that my baby is not here yet.
Some suggested websites to check out for cloth diaper information:
The Eco-Friendly Family Blog
Jillian’s Drawers
Green Mountain Diapers
Abby’s Lane
Cotton Babies
And a couple of cloth diapering moms who have posted about their experiences:
My Life in Transition
The Lewallens
(I’m sure I’m forgetting some helpful sites and blogs, so I’ll add more if I think of them.)
Given that I follow a lot of photographers’ blogs and am somewhat immersed into the world of professional photography, I’ve been seeing maternity photos on a regular basis for years now. I’ve always loved how they capture a moment in time–a snippet of that nine months when mommy and baby are still “one.” As I’ve said before, I think there is much to cherish about pregnancy, and photos are an excellent way to remember what the time was like, even long after the pregnancy is over.
My problem is that I’ve never wanted to pay for maternity photos. It’s not that I’m decidedly against doing so, it’s just that I can’t see myself forking over a few hundred dollars for photos of every pregnancy, and I’d feel badly having maternity photos for the first child and not for any subsequent children. I think half of the reason to do maternity photos is for the child to be able to look back at someday, knowing how his/her parents were anxiously and happily awaiting his/her arrival.
So, if not pay for them… what’s a girl to do? Well, I started to think… I have a really nice camera, and perhaps a teensy bit of skill–and why pay for what you can get for free? The only issue was figuring out how I was going to be both in front of and behind the camera. At the same time.
Enter my husband into the picture. I told him that I was going to try to DIY some maternity photos with a tripod and the timer. He suggested that it would be even better if we went out together, and I could coach him to take the photos. Good call, Honey.
Last week, we went out on a couple of really nice evenings and snapped some pics. Here are our results:
I know six weeks is not a long time. And, realistically, I keep telling myself–I should prepare myself to have a baby anywhere between three weeks and seven weeks from now.
When I tell people the due date, they keep saying “Wow, getting close!”
At work, we’re starting to seriously discuss the preparation and transition to my maternity leave–well, as much as we can plan for it, since I plan to work right up until D-Day. Meetings are being scheduled for September, and I accept them on my calendar, not really knowing whether or not I’ll actually be there.
So I know… six weeks is not a long time.
It sure feels like it is, though.
34 Weeks Pregnant
I’ve been “nesting” on and off throughout my entire pregnancy. I’ll get something in my head and have to do it pretty much immediately; I won’t be satisfied until it’s done. Whether it’s repainting/remodeling, cleaning, organizing, purchasing, washing, assembling–it doesn’t matter. I want it done.
In terms of a lot of the baby’s belongings, I’ve been able to hold out because I knew we had another baby shower to get through. I was hesitant to open a lot of things simply because I wasn’t ready to commit to them until after the second shower. I didn’t know–maybe I’d research and find a better option, or maybe we’d receive duplicates. I played it safe and kept everything in its packaging or with tags still attached.
But as soon as we got home from our shower on Saturday, I immediately started sorting. I took inventory, figuring out what we had, what we didn’t have, what we had too much of, what needed to be returned/exchanged. I made piles for keeping, piles for returning, piles for simple exchanges.
Yesterday, we went on a baby shopping spree. We returned all of the things we didn’t need (for instance, I had received 20 receiving blankets… we cut that down to 8) for store credit, then bought pretty much everything we hadn’t yet received as gifts. We used gift cards. I placed online orders for cloth diapering supplies and things that weren’t available in-store at Babies R Us, Target, and Walmart.
It didn’t end there. As soon as we got home from our shopping, I did more organizing. Except this time, I opened a lot of things. I got rid of cardboard boxes. I clipped tags off of blankets and the newborn clothing. I took baby toys out of their packages. I did two big loads of baby laundry–blankets, towels, sleepers, onesies, socks, burp cloths, wash cloths.
And it felt good.
I’m pretty sure I had Braxton Hicks contractions on Saturday when we got back from the shower. They were pretty uncomfortable, but nothing too serious. I also keep getting these random, sharp pains in different areas of my belly. Not really sure what’s going on, but I figure it’s all par for the course at this point in pregnancy.
The baby’s level of movement, and the way it can be seen from the outside, has reached alien-like proportions. I frequently find myself staring at its activity, and saying, “Oh my gosh!” because I can’t believe the shapes into which my stomach is contorting at any given moment. It’s crazy, y’all.
Last week, we went out and made an attempt to take some DIY maternity photos. I haven’t had a chance to do much editing yet, so we’ll see how they turned out–I’ll likely share the results here soon. We figured, why spend the money on them when we can take some snaps of our own? It’s been fun.
I have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m sure it’ll be routine, as usual (which is obviously a GOOD thing!). We’re taking a breastfeeding class on Saturday. My birthday is next Monday.
Things are good. Life is good.
I just can’t wait to have a baby in it. :)
This afternoon, Michael logged onto our bank account website. He didn’t do it for any particular reason; just a routine check of things. Next thing I know, he’s standing beside me asking for clarification on a $9 charge that was appearing on the account.
I went to the computer to check it out, but I did not recognize the charge, or the name of the merchant it was from. After combing our memories for a minute or two, Michael plugged the name into Google, and it came up as some obscure charity in Southern California.
RED FLAG.
I’ve read numerous times about how, when your credit card number is stolen, the criminal will charge a small amount (between $1 and $10) to your card to “test” it–and often times, they make a donation to a charity in order to do so. How nice of them, right? After they are successful in putting a small charge on the card, they then hit you with the “real” fraud, and charge whatever the heck they want to your card. In other words, the mystery charity transaction is a sign of bad things to come.
After checking and double checking to make sure it could not possibly be a transaction we were forgetting about, I immediately called our bank. They were able to tell me that 1) the transaction was made using my card number (as opposed to Michael’s), and 2) the charge had been made today. That right there confirmed that something was not right, as I knew for a fact I had not made any $9 charges today. She asked if I would like to cancel the card, and I said yes.
The card number is void, so we don’t have to worry about any further fraudulent charges. Now we just have to wait for the $9 charity charge to officially post to the account, and then I’ll have to call to dispute it. It’s next to impossible to track down who used my card number, so this bastard will likely never be caught.
All in all, we’re feeling really lucky that Michael happened to go on the account and spot it right away. In terms of fraud, this is pretty much the best case scenario. However, it’s still a pain in the butt.
Worst of all, I am feeling slightly uneasy about everything. I have been watching my other accounts to make sure nothing suspicious happens on any of those. I have been trying to figure out who could have gotten a hold of my card number and used it in this way, but it’s just impossible to know. I have suspicions, but they’re recent (within the last week)–and for all I know, someone could’ve copied my card number down weeks or months ago.
I guess I should feel grateful that I’ve been using credit cards for 10 years and this is the first time anything like this has happened to me, since apparently it’s really common. But MAN would I love to know who did this…
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
