Oh, you guys. Reality is setting in that this is my last week of maternity leave, and I am getting really sad about it. All I want to do is snuggle this little girl all day long.
But I’m also trying to cross things off of the mental list of things I told myself I’d do during my maternity leave (not that long of a list—I gave myself realistic expectations, ha!), and one of them is to post about our experience with newborn cloth diapers.
Now, if you’ve been following my cloth diapering “story” over the past couple of years, you may remember that with Nora, we used prefolds and covers for her newborn days. It was a fine system, but they were never my favorite and this time around, we decided to give AIOs (all-in-ones) a try. I did a lot of research and shopping around with the different brands, but as with all things cloth diapering, there are never any concrete answers. So many options, and so many opinions about which of those options is best.
My approach was to order a couple of a bunch of different brands—literally 2-3 diapers of each—and wait until the baby was born. Once she was here, I got her into cloth diapers pretty much right away (she was 4 days old), and after a few days of use, decided to order more of the ones we liked—which were pretty much all of them, for different reasons.
I had grand plans to take photos of Vivienne in each brand of cloth diaper, multiple times over the course of time so that I could show you what each diaper looked like on a 4-week-old baby vs. an 8-week-old baby, or whatever. But um… sorry. Didn’t happen. Still, I did eventually get around to getting pics of her in each diaper, and I’ll indicate how old she was in each pic as we get into it. So, here goes.
First up… the Blissful Booty AIO Diaper (Size XS/Newborn).
{Vivienne is 4.5 weeks old}
Well, first things first. Unfortunately, you can’t buy these diapers new anymore. SAD. These were made by a woman who started her own business doing this and late this summer, she announced that she was having health problems and had to close down. I saw rumblings on her Facebook page that she was possibly selling the company, but haven’t seen any update on that. So whether or not these will become available again, I don’t know. But if you’re interested in these diapers, your best bet is to hit up the online diaper swaps and find them used.
These were an early favorite. In fact, out of the 19 diapers that we ended up with in our newborn stash, six of them were these guys. They were great right off the bat. The fit on our teeny newborn (Vivienne was 6 lbs. 11 oz. at birth) was great, and I loved the convenient notch for her healing cord stump. Also gotta say that I loved that they were aplix closure. For the long-term, we’ve always been fans of snap closures with our one-size diapers, but with newborn ones? Aplix is cool.
Colors? Totally boring, but I was willing to look past it. They only came in the cream color (pictured above) and a celery color (light green).
The problem? These were the first diapers she “outgrew” (meaning she began to out-wet them….every.single.time. she wore them). Vivienne was only about 5 weeks old when this began to happen, so it was a bummer. However, we were able to use cloth wipes/baby wash cloths (tri-folded) as doublers inside to stretch these for a few more weeks, which was fine. Not ideal, but fine.
All in all, the Blissful Booty diapers were great newborn dipes, but our little one outwetting them so soon was definitely a negative. I do think Vivienne is a heavier wetter than a lot of babies, for what it’s worth.
Next up… the Bumgenius Newborn All-in-One.
{Vivienne is 4.5 weeks old}
These were another favorite early on. Loved the aplix, although the “laundry tab” was annoying on these since it’s in the middle of the back of the diaper and both sides adhere to the same “tab.” I’d rather each piece of aplix have their own laundry tab on each side. Easier for wash, easier for storage once they’re clean.
Good fit again with these. Like the Blissful Booty diapers, I liked how trim these were underneath her clothes.
These were diapers that I trusted to contain everything, even outside of the house. So if we were going somewhere? I often turned to the trusty ol’ Bumgenius.
I loved that these were available in the bright colors and a couple prints for variety. I’m a sucker for bright colors and prints, so that was a plus for these. One disadvantage of the Bumgenius is that there is not a notch or a snap-down to avoid the cord stump. We were still able to make do with these in the beginning by folding down the top part a bit before fastening the diaper, but it’s worth noting since that’s an extra step.
Vivienne did eventually start outwetting these, too, at around 7 weeks old. (For reference, Vivi weighed in at 10 lbs., 4 oz. at 6.5 weeks old.) At that point, we started rotating these out.
We had five of the Bumgenius diapers in our 19-diaper stash. These are really affordable at $12.95 each, even less if you buy from somewhere like Abby’s Lane and can use the coupon code. Or, of course, if you can find them used!
That brings us to the GroVia Newborn All-in-One.
{Vivienne is 4.5 weeks old}
I really wanted to love these, because hello, they’re adorable. But it wasn’t meant to be, at least not for us.
The first time I ever put one of these on Vivienne, she leaked like crazy. So I was annoyed right away. I tweeted about it, though, and GroVia got in touch with me and told me to stick it out. They said that these are diapers that REALLY have to be prepped—meaning they have to be washed (COMPLETE wash cycles!) five or six times before they’re absorbent. OK, fine, but really? What a pain. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like to run things through long wash cycles using lots of water… for no reason. I had already washed these twice before ever putting them on her butt, but it was not enough.
Sure enough, after going through the monstrous prepping process, I did notice improvement. However, there is what I believe to be a fundamental design flaw in these diapers that immediately sent them to the bottom of my list of favorites. In other words, these were by far our least favorite newborn diaper. And the design flaw? See for yourself…
Those little ruffled leg gussets that look adorable? Well, take a closer look. You can see the inside lining of the diaper, right?
There you go. That there is the problem, at least in my experience. When the inside lining part of that cute little ruffle is in contact with your baby’s clothes, you’re likely to experience some wicking. Vivienne’s clothes always ended up at least a little bit wet around the leg openings because the moisture was being wicked out the leg through those ruffles. So annoying.
With that said, some people absolutely love these. The fit was fine. Like the Blissful Booty and Bumgenius diapers, these were trim under her clothes. And the prints? To die for. And they just came out with some new prints that are even more cute. I just wish they would make adjustments to the darn leg gusset design!
These have a snap-down for the cord stump, so that’s helpful. Also, the “tongue” design that they have on the inside makes them faster drying than a lot of AIO diapers.
Fit-wise, we could’ve probably used these for a while, but honestly, they became “emergency only” diapers very early on. I only reached for them if all of the other diapers were already dirty or were in the wash. We had two of these in our stash. These are also affordable, costing right around $12 each.
And up next… Lil Joey by Rumparooz.
{Vivienne is 4.5 weeks old}
I ordered two of these (they come in twin packs) when I was still pregnant, and when they came in the mail, I almost died from the cuteness. These are the tiniest, most adorable little newborn diapers. And a Lil Joey was the very first cloth diaper I put on Vivienne at four days old. It fit perfectly. With the snap options on this diaper, you can REALLY snap these down so that they are REALLY tiny. If you have a preemie? These are the diapers for you, no question. I found that we were able to achieve a good fit with these at any time because of the number of snaps available.
The Lil Joeys have a snap-down on the front for the umbilical cord stump. They also have inner-leg gussets to help contain newborn, breastfed baby poo. They are thicker/puffier than some of the other diapers, which I found made them seemingly more absorbent than some of the other brands. However, that extra absorbency also meant that these weren’t as trim under clothes as the others, and it also meant that they took FOREVER to dry after washing.
Size-wise, these got very small on Vivienne very quickly. We used them until she was about 7 weeks (roughly 10 lbs.) and then rotated them out of our diaper stash.
We had four Lil Joeys total. They are available in a variety of bright colors and cute prints—it was so hard to choose! These retail for $29.95 for a twin pack (two diapers), making them roughly $15 each. More expensive than the others I’ve reviewed so far, but still not too bad.
Finally, our last diaper… the Swaddlebees Newborn Simplex All-in-One.
{Vivienne is 8.5 weeks old}
I liked these from the beginning, but I grew to LOVE them. At the end of the day, these were my absolute FAVORITE diapers. Why? Well, because they fit from the beginning… and they still fit now. Vivienne is currently 11 weeks old and weighs 11.5 lbs., and they still fit. They were a bit “fluffy” on her when she was tiny, but they were absolutely doable and if I had to do the newborn cloth diaper thing all over again, I would probably make these the majority—if not the whole—of my stash. Sadly, we only have two of them.
These are by far the most expensive diapers we had in our stash—they’re $18.95 each, though you can find some of the prints/colors a bit cheaper on Amazon—but from what I’ve seen, the resale value on them is pretty high because people love these diapers. And for good reason. Hey, they should fit longer than other newborn diapers, too, making them useful for longer, and therefore justifying the extra money.
These also have the snap-down for the umbilical cord stump. Good fit from the beginning, even if they do give tiny babies a bit of a fluffy butt. More adorable prints and colors, I would’ve had no trouble picking out a bunch of these to fill a stash. We had the giraffe print pictured here, and also the owls print, which I LOVE.
Aside from the long-lasting fit and the prints, the big thing that made these a favorite was how the inside of them is designed. There is a “tongue” of sorts—which I guess is really an “insert,” but attached on one end—that comes out for washing and drying, making these the fastest drying AIO we had. Once these are dry, you can tuck the insert back inside the little pocket. I found that this design made this diaper more absorbent than the others, too, which is why this one is still usable to us, even now.
Vivienne did have a poop blowout in this diaper for the first time this past week, which I think means that she is probably beginning to outgrow them. Still, though… FAVORITE. And cute, cute, cute.
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I hope this helps those of you who are looking to build newborn stashes. Again, there are so many opinions out there—and this is just another one! If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll get back to you.
Also, I’m de-stashing our newborn stash, meaning I’m getting rid of everything. I’ve already sold the Blissful Bootys, but the others—5 Bumgenius, 2 GroVia, 4 Lil Joey, and 2 Swaddlebees—are all still available, so if you’re interested, let me know. I’d love to sell them in larger lots instead of piecemeal, so keep that in mind. I’m thinking if I could at least sell all of the Bumgenius together, all of the Lil Joeys together, etc., that would be nice. Or, if you want a variety of brands, I’d be willing to break apart the different brands if you’d still be willing to take 3-4 diapers at least. Let me know!
I’ve never done a TRUE “day in the life” post, but I did one last year during which I took a photo at the top of every hour that represented what I was doing. But I’ve seen a few Day in the Life blog posts recently and it has inspired me to tackle a thorough one… especially since I am on maternity leave and won’t be for much longer. :( It’s worth documenting while I still can!
Truthfully, my maternity leave days have varied. What I’m up to now—with only a week and a half left to go—is different than what I was up to back in August when I was just getting this leave started. Right now, I’m really of the mindset “SOAK IT IN, SOAK IT IN!!” so I’m giving myself a lot more leeway and doing a lot more baby holding and snuggling. My expectations of myself and what “needs” to get done are lower now than they have been all along.
Anyway, let’s get this started, eh? Here’s a day in my life on maternity leave. It is Wednesday, October 16, 2013.
7:10 a.m. | I wake up and look at the clock. I know Michael is up—I hear him taking Tessa downstairs to go outside—but in my state between sleep and awake, I’m not sure if it’s a CrossFit day for him. If it is, he’s up at 5:30, but if not, it’s later. How early is it? I wonder. But the clock reads 7:10, so… normal day. I hear Vivienne stirring a bit in the pack ‘n’ play next to me and I think to myself how I will grab her any minute and feed her right there in bed.
7:45 a.m. | I wake up again, look at the clock… whoa. Vivienne had settled right back down and I guess I fell asleep again. I can hear Nora downstairs with Michael. I lie there for only a moment before I decide I better get up and shower. This has been my approach the last few weeks. Earlier in my maternity leave, I was waiting to shower until later, but it was sometimes stressful to try to get Vivienne into a good sleep and then have a mad rush to get things done. Some days, if things were rough, I didn’t even GET a shower.
Anyway, after peeking in the pack ‘n’ play, into the bathroom I go. I weigh myself. I’ve become a daily weigher again as I try to shed these last few pregnancy pounds. Weight is consistent with where it’s been the last week or so. After weeks at the same weight, I finally saw the scale move down 2-3 pounds in the last 10 days or so, but now it’s holding pretty steady again. I still have 6-7 lbs. to go before I’m back at pre-pregnancy weight. Not complaining too much, although by this point after Nora, I had already bounced back. Whatever.
We actually could use a new scale, since this one throws fluctuating numbers at me sometimes. I can get on, get one number, then get back on a minute later and get a number that swings up to 1-2 lbs. either way. Annoying. Sometimes it’s consistent, though, and this morning, it is.
7:49 a.m. | I hop into the shower.
8:04 a.m. | I’m out of the shower and dressed. I check in on Vivienne again and see she’s still sleeping. I get ready to head downstairs to see Michael and Nora.
8:07 a.m. | I make a pit stop in Nora’s room to pick out an outfit for her to wear to Mary’s today. I quickly check the weather. Given how dark it looks outside this morning, I was expecting a gloomy/rainy day… and it looks like I’m right. Blah.
8:11 a.m. | I come downstairs to find Nora sitting at the kitchen table, browsing through a couple of toy catalogs we received in the mail yesterday. Last night, Michael was going through the pile of mail and asked if he should recycle them. I told him to hold onto them because they would probably buy us some good chunks of quiet time. So true! She has apparently already been looking at these for a while. She starts telling me all of the things she wants from them (which is basically everything). I make Nora take a momentary break from her catalogs to get her dressed, right there in the chair.
8:15 a.m. | I fill up my water bottle for the first time of the day. I always wake up dying of thirst, plus I’m really trying to up my daily water intake lately since I’ve been noticing what seems to be a “shortage” of breast milk supply by the end of the day. Vivienne is sometimes getting really pissed at the breast during her last feeding before bedtime. I want to make sure I’m well hydrated throughout the day so that hopefully I’ll be able to boost supply a bit.
From there I decide to eat some breakfast while I have the chance, since Vivienne is STILL sleeping. Bowl of cereal and half a small glass of apple cider. Yum. I sit down at the table with Nora and talk to her while I eat. (She already ate earlier with Michael.) She starts showing me things in the catalogs again. “I have these!” she tells me about the Little People Disney Princesses. She tells me how she wants the purple backpack from Dora, and the Little People dollhouse. I tell her that she will have to make a list for Santa. “Oh, pickles!” she sighs. This is her new thing, from some TV show she’s seen on Disney Junior. It’s hysterically cute.
The outfit Nora ended up with for the day is her Halloween shirt with black skinny jeans. I am pissed off at Carter’s at the moment because the black cat on this shirt bled onto the edges of the sleeves (the orange part) after just one wash, despite following directions and washing in cold. At least it’s a shirt she’ll only wear for a few weeks anyway, but what the hell? I hate when clothes get “ruined,” particularly now that I have another girl and there is ample opportunity for hand-me-downs!
8:32 a.m. | I tell Nora that I’m going upstairs to check on Vivienne. She insists on coming with me. We get up to our bedroom and Nora runs over to the pack ‘n’ play and whispers, “Vivienne still sleeping,” immediately followed by a loud, “Vivienne AWAKE, Mommy!” I take a look for myself, and sure enough, she’s lying there awake. Nora starts talking to the baby in her typical high-pitched voice and starts ordering me to take Vivienne out of the crib. “My sister wants out, Mommy! Get her out!”
Nora wants to help me change Vivienne’s diaper but Michael says it’s late and they have to get going. I delay the diaper change for a few minutes to take Vivienne and go downstairs with Michael and Nora to help them get out the door. I put Vivienne in the Mamaroo and Nora turns it on for her. I then help Nora get her shoes and sweatshirt on, and make sure her bag is packed for Mary’s. She doesn’t need to bring much these days, except a few “comfort objects.” She likes to bring her two Hello Kitty dolls and, of course, her white blankie. A clean sippy cup full of water, and she’s good to go. This morning, she says she also wants to bring Pinkie Pie (a My Little Pony), so I tell her she can bring it in Daddy’s car, but not into Mary’s because we don’t want to lose it. This is almost always an acceptable compromise for her (and for us).
We all exchange goodbye kisses. Nora always makes sure to kiss Vivienne, too, without us ever prompting her. This girl loves her baby sister.
8:45 a.m. | Off go Michael and Nora for the day.
I immediately grab Vivienne and carry her back upstairs for a diaper change. She’s a little bit fussy since she’s obviously hungry. Once on the changing table, she perks up a bit.
After unsnapping her jammies and removing her Snuza alarm, I give her Zantac for her reflux. She’s not a huge fan of the medicine but she’s been doing a better job taking it now that I’ve had the pharmacy flavor it grape. The “default” flavor—and our first bottle—was peppermint. Freaking gross. I don’t even like peppermint flavored stuff, so I didn’t blame Vivienne one bit when she was clearly hating it. I asked at the pharmacy when we got our refill and they said they could make it grape flavored for an extra buck. No brainer. She still doesn’t love it, but it’s an improvement for sure.
I change her diaper, putting her in cloth (a Charlie Banana, for all you cloth diaper moms). We’ve been using disposables overnight since I have been avoiding middle-of-the-night diaper changes. Vivienne rarely wakes up all of the way even when she eats in the middle of the night, so I don’t like to wake her (and myself!) up completely with a diaper change. 12-13 hours for one diaper? Disposables do the job well, I have to say.
Vivienne is smiley now that she’s got clean drawers and likely knows that up next for her is BREAKFAST!
8:56 a.m. | Back downstairs, I settle in on the couch with the Boppy pillow and a few burp cloths. I latch Vivienne on and start the feeding timer on my Total Baby app (love). In front of me, I open the laptop and turn on the TV. I take a few minutes to scroll through Facebook and read a couple of blogs through Feedly.
9:07 a.m. | After an 11-minute feed, Vivienne is done. I burp her and then out of nowhere, she gives me the BIGGEST.SMILES.EVER. Unprompted. My heart bursts. I try to capture the BIGGEST.SMILES.EVER on camera but without much success. Bummer. But I still get some pretty damn cute ones. I text one of them to Michael.
I play with Vivienne for a little while, talking and singing to her a bit. Eventually, I turn her around to face forward sitting in my lap and snuggling, and I open up WordPress and get started mapping out this post, jotting down some time stamps and notes.
9:46 a.m. | For several minutes, I’ve been feeling action in Vivienne’s diaper. I sit tight for a few minutes to make sure she’s finished, but soon take her upstairs for another diaper change.
During the course of being on the changing table, Vivienne manages to both spit up AND get a little bit of poop on her sleeper. I decide to keep her in pajamas since it’s chilly and we don’t have anywhere to be this morning. A few hours from now, she’ll probably need another outfit change anyway (tales of a reflux baby!) so we’ll wait for real clothes later. I put her in a fresh, cozy pair of jammies.
9:57 a.m. | Back downstairs, I plop Vivienne on her playmat. I prop her up in her Boppy so that she’s somewhat upright, since lying flat—really at anytime, but especially this soon after a feeding—can mean a lot of spit up for this girl. She sits happily and uses her hands to bat at the toys within her reach.
10:08 a.m. | Vivienne is acting tired. I give her the pacifier and see her eyes drooping. I move her from her playmat to the Mamaroo to see what happens.
10:14 a.m. | Vivienne is asleep in the Mamaroo. So cute and peaceful. I sit down again to work on this post since these things are so much work!
10:33 a.m. | *sigh* Vivienne is already awake, no joke. I hope this is not an indication of how the day is going to go. We’ve had a couple of days of good sleep/napping going on, so we’re probably due for an “I’m-not-going-to-sleep-for-longer-than-20-minutes-at-a-time” day. Those days are generally awful because after a while she’s a huge CRANK, so I’m still crossing my fingers this isn’t the case. Maybe she just wants to snuggle with me? I pick her up and see if I can settle her back down on the couch with me.
10:38 a.m. | Sure enough, she just wants to snuggle me. As soon as I picked her up, she turned her face into my chest and closed her eyes again. I lie down on the couch with her, happy to oblige in some cuddling.
I browse the DVR and see that I have new episodes of The Voice and The Biggest Loser (new season!) available to me. I start with The Voice since I already watched the first installment of the battle rounds on Monday, and want to see more. In general, I’m not as entertained or as impressed as I was with the first night of performances. But it’s only an hour this time, so I get through it pretty quickly thanks to skipping commercials and repetitive parts of the show.
After The Voice is over, Vivienne is still sleeping and appears to be happy that way, so onto The Biggest Loser I go. I’m not sure if I’ll watch the whole season or not, but it’s always nice to see how they all start off so that the end results are put into perspective.
12:08 p.m. | Honestly, I could stay in this position all day, but my need to pee and my hunger has now gotten to the point where it trumps my desire to stay lying down on the couch with my babe. Plus, it’s time for her to eat—I try to keep her on a good schedule throughout the day because I think it helps her sleep well at night!—so I peel myself off of the couch and plop Vivienne into the Mamaroo while I go to the bathroom.
When I come out a minute later, she’s awake, and she doesn’t look too happy about it, either!
12:18 p.m. | I nurse Vivienne. She’s still so clearly sleepy, but she eats a good meal for me. By the time she’s done, she passes out again. It officially looks like I didn’t have to worry about this being a poor sleep day. Girlfriend is TIRED. I burp her in her sleep, then decide to put her in the Mamaroo so I can eat some lunch myself.
12:26 p.m. | I raid the refrigerator and make myself a plate of leftovers from Vivienne’s post-Baptism party on Sunday. I eat it, but by this point, it’s all kind of gross. Everything’s a little soggy and has seen better days. I decide this is the last I’m eating of the leftovers… the rest (not very much) is going in the trash!
12:47 p.m. | I’m done with lunch and Vivienne is still sleeping away. I treat myself to a piece of candy—Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin (a miniature one)—yum! I’m one of those people that almost always has to have a little something sweet after a meal. Sugar addict? Probably.
I see that I have a few bottles of pumped milk that I still need to move to the freezer for storage so I get that done quickly. I label freezer bags and divide the milk into them. I then add the milk to my inventory in my Total Baby app (another reason why I love this app!) and discover that these additions have officially put me over the 500 oz. mark. More than 500 oz. in storage!! I don’t think I ever had that much with Nora (maybe 300+ oz. at the most?) so I’m pretty pleased. My freezer stash definitely played a huge part in getting me to 13 months with Nora, and I hope to be as successful this time around, too.
1:06 p.m. | I sit down on the couch again, and make a few notes within this post to keep things up to date. I contemplate staying in the house all day since I’m chilly even sitting here and it’s even chillier and not at all nice outside. BUT that would make a mighty boring “day in the life” post and I do have things to do so I tell myself I should get out for a bit.
1:11 p.m. | I head upstairs to get myself dressed in real clothes so that I’m at least somewhat presentable for the public. But first, I finally tackle my half basket of clean laundry that has been sitting around for the better part of a week. Time to finally get that put away, folks.
I throw on a pair of jeans and a flannel button-up shirt. No makeup, which has been the story of my life for most of the days during my maternity leave. It will be weird when I go back to wearing it every day in a few weeks. At this point, I’m used to being able to rub my eyes freely! I wonder how many times I will smear my makeup before I learn not to do that anymore. :)
1:26 p.m. | I run downstairs quick to check on Vivienne, who is still sleeping. I head back up to take care of the remaining laundry in HER room as well. The amount of laundry happening in this house these days is astounding. I don’t know how people do it when they have 3+ kids. Holy moly. I can’t keep up, and I have a lot of “free time” (I use that loosely) on my hands. It’ll be even harder once I’m back at work again, I know.
While I’m at it, I pick out an outfit for Viv to wear today. My sister-in-law, Marie, gave this onesie to her this weekend and it’s adorable so I want to get it on her. I have to take advantage of her crazy amount of Halloween outfits while I can! She has some hand-me-downs from Nora, and then was given a couple of her own.
1:37 p.m. | I’m done with Vivienne’s laundry, so I head back downstairs. She’s STILL sleeping, so I again take advantage by pulling out the clean diaper laundry! I stuff pocket diapers while I half-watch part of an episode of Grey’s Anatomy that’s airing on Lifetime.
1:50 p.m. | Diapers are done and I’m getting antsy so I go ahead and wake up Vivienne by picking her up and giving her a lot of kisses. I change her diaper and get her dressed right there on the living room floor, then feed her again. While she’s eating, I check out Facebook and see that BumGenius has unveiled two new diaper prints today. Too cute! I have some Abby’s Lane rewards dollars that are burning a hole in my pocket so now I know what they’ll be used for. :)
2:35 p.m. | Vivienne’s done eating and burping so I stick her into her car seat, run upstairs to go grab both of us some socks, then pack up to leave the house. We’re outta here!
2:53 p.m. | My first stop is at Wegmans. I’m on a mission. For the past six weeks or so, there has been a killer coupon available for Wegmans diapers. $5 off per pack, and they can be used for the smallest packs available. The price of those is regularly $6.79, so with the coupon, it drops down to $1.79 + tax = $1.86 per pack. There are like 30-40 diapers in each pack (depending on size) so it’s a steal! The diapers have been difficult to get at times because everyone keeps snatching them up and they go out of stock as quickly as they come in. I’ve had pretty good luck over time and have been stockpiling them in different sizes. Yes, we cloth diaper, but disposables are easier for daycare, and I’d be willing to use them more often for that purpose if I’m getting them so cheaply!
Yesterday, I scored four packs of size 3s at this Wegmans, so I’m back and trying again. Sure enough, they have more of them, so I swipe two packs, grab a couple of other miscellaneous items and head toward the checkout. Unfortunately, the cashier today is a stickler and tells me I can only use one coupon at a time. Blah. So I take one pack of diapers and call it a day. :) We’re back in the car on our way to our next errand.
3:18 p.m. | Now we’re at the bank for a quick stop, since we have a stack of checks and cash to deposit into Vivienne’s account from her Baptism on Sunday. Lucky girl has quite the healthy start to her bank account!
3:25 p.m. | From the bank, we head to the mall. I just need to run into Macy’s. Nora has a Hello Kitty shirt that she got for her birthday. She wore it once, I washed it, and when I was hanging it up, I noticed that one of the seams on the shoulders had literally fallen apart. Huge hole in the shirt. I’m bringing it back to see if they can swap it out for a new one.
When we arrive there, I realize I don’t have the stroller. It’s in the garage, since we took a walk with it the other day and never put it back into my car. Oops. My back hurts just thinking about lugging the car seat all the way through Macy’s and up to their second floor (where the kids’ department is) so I opt to put Vivienne in the Ergo instead. She’s big enough to go in it without the newborn insert now!
Throughout our errands, Vivienne has been sleeping on and off, and of course she’s sleeping again now. She snoozes away while I make my way into the store and find a new Hello Kitty shirt to replace the ripped one. In the kids’ department, I look around… it looks like Hello Kitty threw up in here. Gross.
The ladies at the checkout are really nice and exchange the shirt for me without any issues. Nora will be a happy girl.
We leave the store, and I put Vivienne back into her car seat for the short ride over to Old Navy. I need to make a couple of returns there as well.
3:54 p.m. | I arrive at Old Navy. I again choose to go through the trouble of getting Vivienne into the Ergo in order to save my back. I hate lugging the infant seat around. She’s awake now, but thankfully content. I take a quick spin through the store to do a once-over of everything before heading up to the checkout to make my returns. I don’t actually buy anything, go me!
4:08 p.m. | I am standing at the checkout in Old Navy, waiting for the cashier to finish making my returns (it’s taking a while for some reason), when I suddenly feel a wet gush down the front of me. It is immediately obvious to me that Vivienne has just peed all over me. Diaper fail. She’s wearing a BumGenius and I consider that maybe she is starting to outgrow (well, outwet) the newborn insert. I remember this happened with Nora at Thanksgiving time, so she would’ve been almost this same exact age. Might be time to step it up in the absorbancy department but I will see what happens with a few more diapers first.
We’re done at Old Navy and I walk out to the car. I had been planning to go pick up Nora on my way home, but upon realizing how wet I am (and Vivienne, too!), I text Michael to make sure he can get her on the way home from work instead. Of course, this is the ONE time I decided not to bother bringing a diaper bag and this happens. Oops. So we make our way home, both soaked.
4:35 p.m. | We’re home and Vivienne is back on the changing table, getting a diaper and outfit change. Before I take her onesie off, though, I snap a few photos for “Aunt Ree.” Happy girl. She’s rocking her BumGenius.
While I’m in here… check out my Wegmans diaper stash. I told you I’m on a mission to stockpile with this coupon! So cheap, I can’t help myself.
4:45 p.m. | Vivienne has a dry, clean outfit so now it’s my turn. I take her into our room and plop her in the rock ‘n’ play while I change. I discover that I not only have to change my shirt and jeans, I have to change my underwear, too! Lots of pee. We’re in for the night now, so I get back into my “staying home uniform”—pajamas. Don’t judge. :) And yeah, the vast majority of my pajama pants are Christmas themed. I get them as Christmas gifts a lot, and well, that means I wear them pretty much year-round. *shrug*
4:52 p.m. | Back downstairs, it’s time for Vivienne to eat again. I nurse her while we wait for Michael and Nora to get home.
5:02 p.m. | Here come Michael and Nora. As usual, Nora is more happy to see Vivienne than anything else. She starts saying, “I want to hold her!” so I get her to sit on the couch and I let her hold her. After a minute or so, Nora starts to say “But Mommy, I can’t see her eyes!” So stinking cute. I take Vivienne back from her and turn her around so she can see her face and talk to her. Love these girls.
5:15 p.m. | Michael and I discuss options for dinner. We decide to make some ravioli that we picked up at Wegmans last week—the sampling station got us! We tried their basil and ricotta ravioli and bought it on the spot. I heat up some olive oil and garlic in a pan and start to sautee them.
I’m also texting with a friend (who I also work with) about my return in just a week and a half. Crazy.
Meanwhile, Michael has Vivienne and she is FREAKING OUT. She is acting exhausted but really shouldn’t be after all the sleeping she did today, right? Wrong. She eventually passes out, thank goodness.
5:50 p.m. | We all sit down for dinner, also finishing up some leftover pasta and meatballs we still have in the fridge from last week. Nora tells me not to take her picture. When I ask why, she says “Because I don’t want you to.” Alrighty then.
6:27 p.m. | Dinner is done, and I have loaded up the dishwasher to capacity and started it up. We run it nearly every day these days. So thankful for a dishwasher. I know it’s not a necessity, but I still can’t imagine living without one.
Vivienne is hanging out in the Mamaroo at the moment, and while she is content, she is also acting tired. (And yeah, Nora definitely put the My Little Pony in there with her. Cute.) She has really been making strides in the bedtime department the last week or so. Her bedtime—which I had begun to fear would never move up from 9:30-10:00—has naturally been moving up since last Saturday. It seems every night, she’s been ready to go down a little earlier than the night before. I’m hoping she can hang in there until 7:30 or so without being too miserable.
Nora is back to looking at the toy catalogs. Obsessed!
6:39 p.m. | It’s time for bath, so we get Nora upstairs and get that started. Nora seems to need one every night from playing outside and stuff—plus, she just sees it as part of her bedtime routine and is out of sorts when we skip it—but with Vivienne, we’ve been trying to stick to an every-other-day schedule since her skin is still so new and sensitive. So tonight is a Nora-only bath night.
Michael gives Nora her bath while I take Vivienne into her nursery to change her diaper and put on her pajamas. She’s really acting tired.
6:50 p.m. | My mom and grandma arrive. My mom had knee surgery today, so my grandma is dropping her off here so she can stay the night (she’s not supposed to be alone for like 24 hours after surgery). My grandma is going over paperwork and post-op instructions with my mom.
Nora comes downstairs to see her grammy and great-grandma. We all hang out in the family room for a bit. Nora and Michael are playing a Sesame Street Memory game. Once the game is over, we tell her it’s time to go upstairs to bed. Michael takes her up and I’m not far behind with Vivienne.
7:14 p.m. | Nora is in bed with Michael, they are reading a bedtime story. I drop in to give her kisses and let her kiss Vivienne. I take Vivi into our room and change her diaper again—switching from cloth to disposable—and get her all set for bedtime. She needs another dose of reflux meds. I get her all swaddled up and she looks adorable when she’s a little burrito like that.
7:26 p.m. | Michael has finished up with Nora and left her, closing the door. “See you in the morning!” she had said to him. So cute, our big girl. I’m now nursing Vivienne in our bed, in the side-lying position. Michael is putting away his laundry in the mostly dark bedroom.
Once Vivienne is done nursing, I burp her. Then I hold/rock her for a few minutes, saying a prayer, giving her the pacifier, and then lay her down (awake but drowsy) in the pack ‘n’ play. I leave the room.
7:57 p.m. | By the time I get downstairs, it looks as though Vivi is already asleep. Nora is sleeping, too, and probably has been for a while now. She apparently didn’t nap at Mary’s today so she was exhausted.
But alas, a minute later, Vivienne is awake and crying. I run back up to do a pacifier recovery and head back down. Rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat. She’s not going to make this easy tonight! Since she’s been going to bed before us, we’ve typically only had to go back up to do a pacifier recovery 2-3 times per evening, but tonight, I’ve done that in five minutes time.
I pick her up, make sure she’s burped. I cuddle and rock her for a few minutes and it is so obvious she is tired. So I put her back down, try again. She again ends up crying.
Eventually, I ended up bringing the computer upstairs and I lounged on the bed while I waited for her to fall asleep. She didn’t know I was in the room, I don’t think, but I was right there if needed. Soon enough—within 10 minutes—she is sound asleep, and I’m thankful that she once again got there on her own. I remember having nights like these with Nora at this age, too, when she just needed a little extra help—or rather, extra “visits”—before she was asleep for the night.
I go back downstairs, have a small bowl of ice cream, and Michael and I talk for a bit. My mom is asleep on the couch, still drowsy from her anesthesia.
8:51 p.m. | Michael and I settle in for a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad. We’re in the middle of Season 4. We watch episodes 7 and 8.
10:34 p.m. | Our Breaking Bad viewing is done for the night and we want to get ready to head upstairs to bed. I decide to pump quickly. Since Vivienne has been going to bed earlier, I want to get in the habit of pumping before bed so I’m not going so long between feedings. I flip through channels while I’m pumping and end up watching a few minutes of some Lifetime movie about Anna Nicole Smith.
10:52 p.m. | I’m done pumping so I quickly wash the parts and head upstairs. Brush teeth, kiss my babies, and get into bed. I turn on the TV for a few minutes but ultimately end up turning it off around 11:15 p.m. My mind is racing a bit—I’m thinking about going back to work, mostly—and I toss and turn for a little bit, but soon drift off.
5:23 a.m. | Vivienne wakes me up for the first time. I’m shocked when I see the clock. As she’s been going to bed earlier this week, she’s been typically waking up between 2-3 a.m. to eat. I can’t believe she made it all the way to almost 5:30. Good girl!
As I’m feeding her (again, in our bed, in side-lying position), Michael’s alarm goes off and he gets up to go to CrossFit. And so begins another day… :)
Wow, this “day in the life” stuff is a lot of work!
Things might look a little hairy around here. I’m trying to fix some underlying/behind the scenes problems I’ve been having with WordPress. Hopefully it won’t last long, but if it does, please excuse the “mess.” :) I hope to be back up and running—and looking—like normal very soon!
You may also see several “test posts” come through from me if you subscribe to my feed through a reader. Many apologies in advance.
UPDATE: I think we’re good! Thanks for your patience.
The past week flew by in a flash. I realized this morning that I haven’t blogged at all. Whoops!
So here’s a hodge podge of things that have been going on:
* Vivienne is being Baptized on Sunday, so we are planning that. Ordering food, ordering a cake (YES! I’m ordering a cake instead of making one… freedom!). Also, it’s Friday now, and I still don’t know what the heck I’m going to wear. Better get on that. I have some tops, but pants are still an issue since I’m 6-7 lbs. above pre-pregnancy weight and am just a weird shape still. Things are not back to normal, therefore a lot of my pants are still unwearable. I can zip and button them for the most part, but most of them are too uncomfortable to actually WEAR. I have to get myself to a store, STAT.
* Vivienne is 10 weeks old today, and that means I only have two more weeks left of maternity leave. I’m going back to work on Monday, 10/28. I have very, very mixed feelings about it. I don’t know if it’ll be as hard as when I went back to work after Nora—I anticipate it won’t be because I’ve been there, done that and now I know that no, I won’t actually die and yes, my baby will remember that I’m her mommy—but it’s still not FUN, you know? I’ve enjoyed my time off with her about 97% of the time so it’s tough to imagine giving up this cushy baby-bonding lifestyle to go back to being a working mom. Blah.
* I got an iPhone 5S. This happened a few weeks ago, actually, but it’s worth noting because I love the camera. The HD video? Amazing. I’m also rather enjoying the fingerprint reader to unlock the phone. I mean, I don’t even have to “swipe to unlock” now. Sounds stupid and such a minor thing, but I swear to you… being able to easily unlock the phone one-handed while holding a baby in the other? Priceless.
* Still going strong with our Breaking Bad addiction, which is one of the reasons why I haven’t been blogging. Our evenings are full of Breaking Bad episodes and baby wrangling (after Nora is in bed). We’ve been keeping pace with watching 2-3 episodes a night. Last night, we got through Season 3, Episode 8. It’s still so good and just keeps getting better. Loving this show.
* Nora is still hysterical. At bedtime, part of our routine is that I ask her what her favorite part of the day was (have I mentioned this already?). After answering, she always turns the question back around on me. My answers usually include her (“My favorite part was picking you up from Mary’s” or “My favorite part was playing My Little Ponies with you”) but one night earlier this week, she asked and I answered honestly, saying “My favorite part was taking a walk in the sunshine.” It had been a BEAUTIFUL day and it was seriously the highlight. Nora immediately asked, “A walk? Where?” I told her I went for a walk outside. “With me?” she asked. “No, honey, you were at Mary’s,” I answered. “MOMMY! Pick something ELSE!” she ordered. I bust out laughing and just laughed and laughed. Gave myself the hiccups, actually. I didn’t realize that my answer had to satisfy HER! :)
* I’m starting to wonder when Vivienne is going to adopt a real schedule. Some days, she still sleeps ALL DAY (like Tuesday), and other days, she won’t sleep for longer than 20 minutes at a time (like yesterday… almost lost my mind). And as horrible as it probably sounds, I’d really love to have my evenings back to relax and/or get stuff done, so I’m anxious for her to naturally move up to the early bedtime—between 7 and 8 p.m. Currently, she’s going to bed between 9:30-10 still. I know we need to experiment with it a bit, but it’s hard. As with all things like this, I remind myself to try to enjoy the extra time with her since it won’t last forever. I don’t want to wish away time, and she’s still so young and little.
Anyway, that about sums up what I’ve got going on in my mind right now. Hopefully next week I’ll have some time to get posts up—I’ve got a number that I’m hoping to do, including a newborn cloth diaper post and a “reveal” of sorts of Nora’s “big girl” room.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
We don’t watch a lot of TV shows in our house.
Don’t get me wrong, we watch TV… but we don’t “follow” shows. We are channel flippers by nature, looking every evening for something interesting—or at least acceptable—to watch.
I used to watch several series regularly, but at that time, I felt “at capacity” and didn’t want to take on any new ones. CSI, Survivor, Desperate Housewives, The Biggest Loser. Then those series gradually started ending, or I guess with most of them, the problem was that I just began to lose interest. I was left with only a couple—Grey’s Anatomy and Modern Family. I’ll occasionally have something else to add to the mix—Top Chef, for instance.
I usually have trouble picking up new shows because I’m overwhelmed by all of the stuff that’s out there. When you look at all the new shows that come out every fall, it’s hard to know what to watch. What’s going to be good? It’s impossible to know. It’s just hard to “get into” stuff. And then once the crap has been weeded out and the good shows shine… I’m at least a season, if not more, behind. So we just don’t watch at all.
But over the last five years, we’ve kept hearing about Breaking Bad. I mean, you basically have to have been living under a rock to NOT hear about Breaking Bad, right? Seemed that over the course of five years, EVERYONE started watching it. Michael and I occasionally, casually, had conversations about it. “Everyone keeps talking about Breaking Bad. The premise sounds interesting… high school chemistry teacher starts cooking meth. Hmm. Might be worth watching.”
And then there was a frenzy of talk about Breaking Bad as it approached the series finale, so the discussion was renewed. Finally, last Saturday night—the night before Breaking Bad’s final episode ever—we decided to bite the bullet and see what the fuss was about. We may have even signed up for Netflix… just so we can watch Breaking Bad. We have Amazon Prime already, but unfortunately, they don’t have Breaking Bad!
We were hooked after just one episode. So we watched another right away.
I mean, how can you not get hooked when the very first episode starts with a middle-aged teacher crashing a camper with bodies sliding around in the back, then scrambling around the desert in his tightie whities, haphazardly wielding a gun??
Since then, we’ve watched anywhere from 1-3 episodes per day, and we can’t get enough of it. It’s so suspenseful! It’s like watching a really good movie, but in episodic format. At the end of every episode, we’re left wondering WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?! In fact, I’m actually really glad I didn’t watch this show as it was airing, because holy crap. To have to go a week—or MONTHS?!—between episodes would have been torture. TORTURE, I tell you.
Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Skyler and Walter Jr. Hank and Marie. Hell, even Crazy 8 and that scary-ass lunatic Tuco. I love it all.
Up next for us is Season 2, Episode 4. And we hear that it only keeps getting better. I can’t even imagine how all of this is going to go down for so many more episodes. I can’t wait to see. After the finale on Sunday night, one of our friends posted on Facebook, “Breaking Bad was hands down the best story ever told on television from beginning to end.” That’s some pretty high praise, damn! Now I just want to zip through and get to the finale. I hope the last eight episodes are available on Netflix by the time we get there!
Has anyone else jumped onto the Breaking Bad bandwagon… five years too late? Or have you been with the show since the beginning? Or maybe you’ve had your curiosity piqued but haven’t officially made the leap?
Oh, and if you post any spoilers… I’m gonna kill ya. So don’t. :)
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.
