We Cloth Diaper

Not sure if you remember the post, but while I was pregnant I started looking into Cloth diapers.  It was a random question that I received from my father that got me interested in researching.  He simply asked me "So do you plan to use cloth or disposables?"  I had immediately answered "disposables" and he said "Oh good, because those cloth diapers sure can stink like ammonia."

Huh. Go figure.  I know that first hand now, but it has in no way discouraged me!

 Ok, truth be told diapers are diapers and they stink.  I am in no way going to disguise the grossness that is diapers.  This post will mainly focus on our "stash" of diapers.

When Liam was itty bitty he had a few things going on that made me want to use disposables (his umbilical cord and his healing circumcision).  Luckily, I had a bunch of sposies that were gifts from my baby showers.  So he was wearing sposies for the first week and a half and I HATED them.  Maybe it was inexperience but it seemed every time I put him in a diaper it would leak the minute he peed.  Out the leg, out the back, up the front.  Huggies leaked worse than the Pampers, but the Pampers left little globules of diaper jell on his body all the time.  I was not a fan of little chemicals filled with pee attached to his body, especially since they were really hard to wipe off of him.  So once I felt he was all healed I slapped his first cloth diaper on him.

Ok, I thought he kinda looked a bit funny those first few times.  With his big fluffy bum, and I got a few comments on facebook on how big the diaper looked on him.  But I had no leaks and Matt even mentioned how he seemed much happier in them, didn't cry the minute he peed to get his diaper changed.  Here is a picture of him wearing the diapers that I got him for his newborn stage.

Its a thirsties XS cover with a prefold trifolded inside.  These were Matt's favorite diaper because it has the velco and were super absorbent and had double gussets in the legs to catch his newborn poops if any escaped the first gusset.  Plus it had elastic in both the front and back of the diaper providing even more protection.  

Unfortunately, Liam has grown out of these covers (I only bought 3 of them because I knew they wouldn't last long but they were the only ones that fit him for the first few weeks) 

These are the newborn covers.  You can kind of see the double gussets on the one that is laying on top.  I paid $7 bucks a cover for these and made them my Christmas present from Santa (yeah... I'm that nerdy about my diapers that they were my Christmas present). 

Since the Thirsties are only covers inside I have what we call in the cloth diaper world "inserts." 

These are a whole bunch of the "inserts" we have 12 cotton prefolds and 10 flip stay dry inserts. Which makes 22 diapers total with the Cover/insert system. 

Surprisingly, this my Matt's favorite system.  I thought he would like the pocket diapers we got instead because they are just like disposables.  If he ever does a diaper change Liam ends up in the cover/insert.  Once he outgrew the thirsties covers we started using our One-Size Flip covers.  These covers should last until he is potty trained because they adjust as he grows.  

We have 5 of these covers, which is plenty with the 22 inserts and is probably all we really need (I shouldn't let my husband read that). 

Here Liam is in a Flip cover with Flip insert sleeping next to all of his diapers. 

And this is how the inserts look in both the Thirsties and the Flip covers. 

Flip cover with trifolded Prefold. 

Thirsties cover with a Flip staydry insert.

Man.  Am I boring you yet? 

Anyways... since Liam will be at daycare for almost 40 hours each week I wanted to have daycare friendly diapers as well.  So... I introduce our pocket diapers.  These work just like disposables.  You just slap it on the kid with either velcro or snaps.  We have 22 of these as well.  14 Bumgenius One-Size diapers (will last till potty training) and 8 sunbaby one-size diapers.  They are called pockets because they have a little pocket that you stuff absorbent inserts in.  For daycare I will have them all prestuffed so all they have to do is use them like they would a disposable.  

Here are the Sunbaby diapers.  They are my favorite because they come in such cute designs and I like the snaps (Matt doesn't). 

These are the bumgenius diapers.  They are velcro and have pastel colors.. and yes.. we have a pink one.  I bought these all used because I couldn't afford the $18 retail value per diaper brand new and one of the sellers included a pink diaper (oh well.. he's a baby he will get over it).  

All 22 of our pocket diapers.  

This is how the One-Size system works with the pockets.  Growing from fitting 8lbs to 36 pounds. 

Here is all of our different "kinds" of diapers on the inside.  Starting on the left we have the Flip, Thirsties, Sunbaby, and Bumgenius. 

Inside of the Sunbaby (it has a micro fleece lining that wicks away the moisture so Liam feels dry when he pees)

Inside of the Bumgenius.  This has a microsuede lining that keeps Liam dry the same way the sunbaby diaper does. 

Liam doing his "starfish" sleeping pose in his Flip diaper. 

That pretty much sums up all of our Cloth diapers... but that really isn't the end.  Thats just our "stash." 

Finished Nursery

There isn't a better way to explain the finished nursery than a ton of pictures! 

Enjoy. 

William's Birth Story

Lets just say that the first time you go into labor you have no clue what to expect or what it feels like.  Matt and I had a bunch of "almosts" a few weeks leading to Liam's birth.  Two weeks prior at about 37 1/2 weeks pregnant Matt and I decided to drive down to Moab for free National Park weekend.  I had some bad heartburn that morning so I took some pepto and we went on our merry way.  Well... about halfway to Green River I started feeling... pain in my back and contractions coming about every 7-10 minutes.  It varied a lot.  I told myself that we will stop and eat at Ray's in Green River and if I don't feel better then we would turn around.  Once I got out of the car I felt better and it went away.  So we continued on down to Moab... but after a few minutes it came back..  even worse.  I felt so bad that once we got to Moab and I walked around a bit and when it wouldn't go away we headed back to price.  I thought it was it until I got home and took a bath and it went completely away.  Darn. 

The next week we had another false alarm where I woke up with contractions coming 5 minutes apart that were not very painful but were consistent so we headed to the hospital.  Needless to say they sent us home telling us that they expected us back that night since my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart while they were monitoring me.  Once home it continued until I fell asleep that night and they went away.  But the whole rest of that week I would have a really strong contraction once an hour.  It was frustrating, not sure when it would kick up a notch.  

But on Sunday morning January 29th I woke up to go to the bathroom at about 5:15am.  As I walked out of the bedroom Matt asked me how I was doing (he was just as eager and waiting for signs as I was).  I told him that I just felt "pain" since I had some cramping.  I proceeded to empty my bladder, then I gave a little "push" (sorry if this is tmi) for a bowel movement and i heard a bunch of water trickle out of me.  Know I knew that I had just emptied my bladder all the way so there was no way it was urine.  My water had broken in the Toilet!  How lucky is that?  At this point I yell at Matt to get up and get ready because we are headed to the hospital.  Literally leaking everywhere I decided to take a shower and eat something since I felt gross already and I knew that by the end of the day I would only feel worse so might as well get cleaned up while I can.  

Once at the hospital (1.5 hours after my water broke) I still hadn't started contracting.  I was just having cramping.  I had a "mild" freakout while changing into the hospital gown when I saw the blood on my pad and I started crying thinking my placenta was tearing away.  The nurse ran in and calmed me down by telling me that that amount of blood was perfectly normal.  

Since I was leaking everywhere I felt like I had to sit in bed the whole time (I would not recommend this) and sitting in bed got worse once they started me on pitocin since I hadn't started contracting on my own.  Luckily I didn't have to endure too many contractions.  Once they started getting really bad I got the wonderful epidural.  At this point I just relaxed and read the Hunger Games the rest of the time.  

At about 5:00pm I was fully dilated and ready to push.  They called my doctor to come and lifted my limp legs up on the stirrups.  It took probably 5 or so contractions (about 30 minutes of pushing) and my little Liam entered this world.  

He weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was absolutely perfect.  I cried when they gave me his slimy little body and was so surprised at how big this baby that just came out of me was.  (even though he was so tiny) 

This is me right after pushing and they are taking the stats on Liam

My little Liam in the bassinet screaming at the top of his lungs

Me watching them take care of my baby

Being held by grandparents

Sleeping all swaddled up.  

Unfortunately, we didn't get too many pictures and I look terrible in the ones we do have, but what lady that just gave birth looks good anyways?  

Matt and I are so blessed to have this sweet little baby in our family.  We love our Liam.  

3rd Trimester

Okay... It is March 14th and my last update was all the way back in November... I think I really suck at updating and blogging.  Oh well.. this is my attempt to catch up.

3rd trimester started on my 23rd birthday and ended on January 29th with the birth of my son... but I am getting ahead of my self.  Its a little too late to really talk about this but a few things that went on were my baby showers, maternity pictures, and lots of pictures of my sister and I sporting our bellies.

I had 3 baby showers.  One that was thrown in Spanish Fork by my Step mother, one that was thrown in Price by my older sister Chauntelle, and one thrown in Spanish fork by my Mother in law.  With all the gifts we received we were more than ready for our baby to show up!  Unfortunately, we only got pictures at one of the baby showers.  Here are a few of those pictures.

I was lucky enough to be pregnant with my older sister Chauntelle both of us expecting boys.  On thanksgiving we took a few photos of our bellies together.  

Chauntelle was 36 weeks and I was 32 weeks pregnant in this picture. 

Matt and I showing off our "baby bumps"

Me and all of my sisters

Also on the "to do" list of the 3rd trimester was the maternity pictures.  We had these done at Matt's grandparents Farm.  They turned out really cute.  Here are some of my favorites.  

While taking this photo Liam gave Matt a big kick in the forehead.  

Next post will be the birth story.