That's just my baby daddy

This guy:

He was apprehensive about entering fatherhood again when we got married. He was terrified when he found out we were having a daughter. But he fell so in love that he couldn't wait to have another.

He is the primary in project potty training of that same daughter.

He is known as the baby whisperer.

When I thought I couldn't make it through those painful, frustrating early breastfeeding days, he is the one that encouraged me and kept me going. One more feeding. Just till Sunday. Even though, he loves the chance to get to feed a baby. 

He thought I had lost my frickin' mind when I brought cloth diapers into the equation. Today he has his own diaper washing system, is sunning all the diapers and can fasten a mean angel wing fold.

He supports me in every crazy thing I come up with and goes with the flow. He is the master of living in the moment. He plays with the kids without worrying about what needs to be done. OK, I do wish he would occasionally worry about what needs to be done (laundry!!!) but I wish I could be more like him.

He's not afraid to get silly. He's right there on the playground with them. He plays princess when he needs to.

He is a babywearing MoFo.


He's come a long way and I am so glad to have him by my side as we raise these remarkable, wonderful, exasperating children. I am so glad he is the father of my children. They are lucky kids indeed.

Happy Father's Day!

Summer Vacation

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!

That, my friends, is the sound of summer vacation starting. Not for me. I still have to get up every morning and drive nearly 40 miles to work. But for my husband, a teacher, it is the start of 8 weeks off.

I used to be jealous. Before we had kids, he would just hang out all summer- going to the pool, lazing around the house, occasionally, but not nearly often enough, doing something useful.

But now in the summers, he is a stay at home dad. Not an easy job to be sure, but one I would trade him for any day of the week.

Since the first summer after our daughter was born, I have come to realize just how wonderful it is for one part of a married couple not to work. Now, instead of rushing every morning to get lunches and diapers packed and kids up, dressed and fed before trying to get everyone out the door on time, I just had to get myself ready. I just had to pack my lunch. When I left the house this morning everyone was still in their pajamas and it wasn't my problem. It wasn't a problem at all.

For the next 8 weeks, all errands are to be done by my husband. Midweek trips to the grocery store, cooking dinner, trips to the library, all his job. All I have to do in the evenings is take the kids off his hands. OK!!!! I don't have to get bottles ready for the next day, he can fill them as he goes during the day. I don't have to make sure diapers go through the whole diaper routine, if they aren't clean and dry by morning no biggie, he can finish them during the day. Cooking dinner- for some reason, I still have to plan all the meals but he will cook them!

You have no idea how much time all of this frees up. To be able to come home and just focus on playing with my kids rather than worrying about getting everything in motion to be ready for the next day. To get up in the morning with only myself to worry about. To have all the errands taken care of so that weekends can be about relaxation and fun!!!!!! It makes all of our lives better.

Unfortunately, we are not in a position for one of us to stay home full time, all the time (I'm looking for the right work at home opportunity but it has to make us at least break even). This is why I am in the market for a sister-wife. An independently wealthy, OCD cleaning, asexual, unattractive sister-wife.

My diaper spraying trick

This trick will demonstrated on a clean diaper because, ya know, eww.

Spraying poop off diapers is hardly the highlight of my day. It is a labor of love, I guess. I love my cloth diapers so I do what I have to do. But touching poopy diapers and manipulating them so that every part is accessible is frankly just gross. Sometimes I can't believe I do it. A while back I came up with a way to make it a bit easier and I want to share.

How many of these do you have?

Can you see where I am going with this?

That's it! It is awesome because it hold diaper open and flat so that the whole interior is accessible with the sprayer. And if you need soak the diaper, just hook it onto the seat and soak aways. This would also work if you are a dunk and swisher.

You are welcome. ;-)

My Cloth Diaper Story: Part 2

As I wrote in my last post, cloth diapering my daughter was easy peasy and we didn't really have any problems. Oh, there was the occasional leak when a diaper got left on too long (what? i never did that!) but really cloth diapers were a piece of cake.

So when I found out I was pregnant in 2011, I was excited to cloth diaper our next child. Really excited, because you know what is cuter than cloth diapers? Teeny, tiny, newborn cloth diapers. I couldn't wait to put those little cuties on a tiny butt.

My newborn stash

After researching, I decided to do a newborn cloth diaper rental* Kissaluv size 0's with Thirsties covers, as well as a few newborn purchases that I couldn't resist. When they arrived, I nearly died from the cute. So tiny!! So when I gave birth to an almost 11 pound baby boy, my first thought (after, "thank god I had a c-section) was "oh no, my diapers won't fit".

They did actually fit and on the day we took him on from the hospital he had his first fluffy butt. He hasn't worn a disposable since.

First Fluffy Butt

The didn't fit for long though. After a month I was finding myself needing to move on from the bullet proof combo of the KL0 plus Thirsties (seriously not one blowout or leak with this combo). He was big enough for my one size pockets but guess what? Boys are different than girls!! All there pee is up front and they pee a lot! My easy peasy pockets weren't so invincible anymore.

Suddenly I found myself in love with the diapers that I had previously had no use for, prefolds. My previous attempts with prefolds were cumbersome and they were so bulky. Why would anyone use those when pockets and AIO's were available? I'll tell you why, they absorb like a MoFo. Also, with a cover they are blowout and  leak proof. I haven't perfected my folds enough that I don't get poop on the inside of the covers but I'm getting there. One more great thing about prefolds, they can take the abuse of washing and drying frequently. This is crucial during the poop constantly phase.

My only problem with prefolds is that Landry will be starting daycare soon and they just aren't an option there. Luckily, I have found that Thirsties Duo All-In-Ones are also blowout and leak proof for us. With the velcro closure they are just like a disposable which makes life easy for my daycare provider.

What works for diapering one child doesn't always work for another. I thought I had cloth diapering figured out but my big boy taught me that there is always more to learn. I'm sure that 6 months from now, things will have changed again.

*I got my rental from Nell's Natural Baby.

My Cloth Diaper Story

In honor of Real Diaper Week, April 16-21, and inspired by the call to cloth diaper advocacy I am telling my cloth diaper story.

There a lots of blogs and websites dedicated to educating readers about cloth diapering so I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of that, this is purely my story.

When I was pregnant with my daughter in 2009, I did a little research on cloth diapers and knew that cloth diapers weren't the old prefolds with diaper pins but I didn't do enough research to know the difference between a fitted and an AIO. I was intrigued but not really interested. It wasn't that I thought they would be gross or difficult. It was the prospect of more laundry that drove me away. I mean, I was going to be a mom who worked full-time outside the home, I didn't have time to wash diapers. Besides, my baby was going to be in daycare so I was going to be buying disposables anyway. Finally, I knew there was absolutely no chance in the world my husband would be on board with cloth diapers. Boy they were cute though.

So I had my baby and like everyone else, I diapered here in disposable diapers for almost a year. I did lots of laundry to deal with those awesome baby blowouts.

But.....but, but, but I knew the truth about disposables. I knew how awful there are for the environment. I knew the chemicals in them were scary. I couldn't stand taking the most biodegradable thing on earth (I'm talking about poop, in case you didn't get that) and wrapping it up in one of the least biodegradable things.

So I researched cloth diapers some more and finally found the fact that put me over the edge. Cloth diapered babies potty train earlier than those in disposables. Well, sign me up.

I wasn't planning to go completely to cloth but I decided to get a couple of cloth diapers for my daughter to wear on the weekends. I excitedly ordered 3 BumGenius 4.0's and the next Saturday I diapered her adorable butt in cloth. And that started the snowball rolling downhill. By that afternoon, I had driven 30 miles to buy more cloth diapers so that I could cloth diaper more. Within a month, I had built a respectable stash and I knew all about pockets and prefolds and inserts and snappis. It was insanely addictive and I was amazed and excited that there was a whole community of women who were just as addicted as me.

Amazingly, the husband I thought would never get on board with cloth, embraced it. He even does diaper laundry without complaint. He still gets a little confused by all the different types and really wishes I would pick a brand and have only that kind in our stash, but that would take away the fun.

Caroline was happily cloth diapered anytime she wasn't at daycare. But at daycare, cloth was not an option. But in October of 2011, we had the opportunity to change to a less expensive home daycare run by a friend and jumped on it. When we went for a visit, I very tentatively pulled out an Aplix BumGenius 4.0 and a PlanetWise wet bag and made my case. Much to my delight, she agreed to use the diapers and my daughter has not had a disposable diaper on since.

Next: Cloth diapering round two

For more info on cloth diapering check out:

www.dirtydiaperlaundry.com
www.allaboutclothdiapers.com
www.change-diapers.com