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January 1, 2013

2013 - Happy New Year!!!


Happy New Year to my online family!

2012 was great (Our family moved across the country for a new West Coast adventure!), but 2013 has some great things going for it - and a few of them I already know about, but I am sure there are more to come!!

First, the blog will be getting a little makeover as a birthday gift from my wonderful husband. I can't wait to see what SevenThirtyThree has in store for us! Stay tuned for the results!

Also, several weeks ago I was accepted as a guest blogger for Kanga Care! If you cloth diaper you will know them for their Rumparooz pocket diapers and EcoPosh one-size fitteds (both of which we liked using with M as overnight diapers), or even their Lil Joey newborn diapers. But they also offer a lot of other green kid products, in addition to cloth diapers. As always I will need your help and valuable feedback to make sure I get the whole truth!! My first post for them will be coming up in February, re: "What about the Poop?" (a big fear of future/potential cloth diaper-ers). I'd love to know if you (moms and dads) were surprised that it was a big deal or not!

I am already reviewing (and enjoying!) three fabulous products that I can't wait to share with you all! Check out Amalou Skin care, the guide to getting YOU back after baby: One Hot Mama (by Erin Cox), and Elabloom facial oil!

But the biggest - and best - thing for our for our family in 2013 is the new Baby Sister we are expecting at the end of February! It will be an adventure juggling a toddler (a big boy, really!) and a new baby (and a job and everything else!) :) I can't wait.

Thank you all again - and let me know what else we should discuss in 2013!!
j

10 comments:

  1. Happy new year! How do you want to receive poop thoughts? Email, post here in comments?

    Can't wait to read your reviews in 2013. I hope that you continue the food posts. We are starting finger foods here so I don't think that real meals will be too far off for us.

    Have a safe trip home to CA.

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    1. You can post your 'poop thoughts' right here on the blog - thanks!!

      I am working on an IE-type food post now, but I am not sure Liam will be quite ready for these recipes (sounds like soon!)! Feel free to ask here or on Facebook if you have questions about needing ideas for new foods or preparating techniques. I know it can be hard to be creative when you feel so responsible for developing well-rounded tastebuds! And the mommy community has great ideas. :) Here's to your growing boy in 2013!

      Thanks for the well-wishes. We were very lucky with travel this trip! No big delays, and very nice, family-friendly, Southwest Crew!

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  2. Part 1

    Well, you asked for them... so here are my 'poop thoughts'. Hope that I am not too late and that you havent finished your post yet. Feel free to use any info that may be helpful.

    1. Very Newborn Poop (Birth to 1 Week): The meconium poop is gross. I knew from the beginning that I did not want meconium on my cloth diapers (even if using liners). So, I planned to do disposable at least until that was done (depends on baby but that can be up to a week I think). This was a good idea and I would recommend it.

    2. Breastmilk Only Poop (1 Week to 6 Months - or whenever you start solids): (I have no insight on formula poop, but I think that it is the same.) I originally planned to use prefolds once the meconium was gone, but I found that I needed more time to adjust to being a mom and that baby was too big for the newborn prefolds that I bought, so I stuck with the disposables until baby fit into OS at 3 weeks. By 3 weeks, I felt that I could tackle the next obstacle and started full-time CD. Dealing with the poop for the first 6 months was EASY! I am still surprised at how easy it was. You just throw it in the washer do a cold wash, then normal wash etc and done. Could not be easier. I remember thinking, "why would anyone not want to CD?!" Then, we started solids...

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    1. I think we will stick with disposable until Baby Sister can wear one-size dipes, too. We do have a few teeny tiny prefolds and a couple of loaner tiny diapers, plus the SoftBum Echo's are supposed to be able to fit a newborn, so maybe we will dabble (of course, M was born at 9lb. 4oz, so if she's the same it won't be long before she's in the one-size. But agreed: after the first week so we don't get the yucky stuff on them.

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  3. Part 2

    3. Transitional Poop (Beginning Solids Stage - Varies Depending on Child): Since I practically grew up in a barn shoveling poop from various animals (mostly horses), I didnt think that this would be an issue. However, the transitional poop is something else. I did a lot of research on the whole CD thing before baby was born. I looked into the diaper sprayers and what to do with the poop. As you know, everyone has their opinion and the opinions vary greatly! I decided against a diaper sprayer initially mostly because of the cost. One of the reasons I CD is to save money, so I had a hard time buying a $60 thing to spray poop. Also, I do not like clutter and I could not get over the idea of where was I going to put this sprayer when not in use. I guess it just sits by the toilet? Also, I could see it making a big mess with spraying water (and maybe poop too) everywhere. So, I decided against it. Then, the transitional poops started... I researched diaper sprayers again and decided that I would make my own (because I just couldnt imagine doing the dunking thing for too many reasons to list), but then decided against DIY because so many people (even handy people) said that it was more trouble than it was worth to make them. In that research, I saw a post on the "poop spatula" concept. I had heard of the dunk and swish methods and the diaper sprayer, but not the spatula. Initially, it sounded very gross but then I decided maybe not so much and no one would have to know (except now I am posting it here, so I guess other people now know). So I tried it. I figured "what the heck" 99 cent spatula versus $60 sprayer. The spatula concept is that you have a poop only spatula (I paid 99 cents for cheap hard spatula at big box store). You put a piece of toilet paper in toilet and then use spatula to get sticky poop off diaper and into toilet. You can use spatula to put water onto the diaper, but you do not usually need much - just sometimes for the really tough ones. Then, if particles are on the spatula, you can rub on the toilet paper to help get off. Then you put the spatula in a container of your choice (I use the tub that came from the hospital) with a little water (enough to cover dirty spatula end) with a little cleaning product of your choice. I hide my tub under my bathtub (we have a clawfoot tub). Unless you know it is there or you are looking for it, you cannot see it. I thought that it would smell or grow stuff, but it doesnt. I change the water and clean the spatula as needed. It works for me. I think that the BEST part is that my hands never get wet or have to touch wet or poop. I imagine that they would get wet with both the diaper sprayer and the dunk/swish methods (neither of which have I used, so I do not know for sure). The second BEST part is that the diaper is not soaking wet! In fact the diaper is almost always the same wetness that it was prior to the process. With the other methods, I never could quite figure out how you would get a soaking wet diaper from the bathroom to the laundry room without dripping water everywhere. I know that some people carry them in their pail to the bathroom, then carry the pail to the laundry room. Or they have multiple pails. That also does not seem like a good option to me. Overall, this method has worked for me.

    On a side note, I think that your ability to get the poop off the diaper is a combination of your method (dunking, spraying, spatula, etc - described above) and the type of diaper. I only have two types of diapers, BG Elemental and BG 4.0 (plus 1 easy fit but it is flat like a 4.0). I always hope that #2 comes in a 4.0. The elementals are infinitely worse for getting out the poop. It sticks in every crack and cranny, unless it is a solid poop (see below).

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    1. i tried the spatula for a while, but didn't find it helped all that much.

      I love that you broke this into 3 stages - I did the same for my post - so I think you will like it!

      We also never made the leap to a sprayer, but several people commented that they would have given up cloth diapering without it. I guess I should mention that you gotta find your groove in stage 2 if you are going to stick with it. no pun intended...

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    2. Yes, I agree. If you are going to give up, it will be when they start solids. If you can make it through that short time, it gets easier again.

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  4. Part 3

    4. Solid Poop (Once solids are established - except when a transitional-like poop sneaks in anyways): These are easy, they just plop in the toilet. If they stick a little then just use the spatula to help it. Nothing on your hands, no doing a dance to get it off. Done - easy.

    Summary:

    Overall, CD and poop is not bad or as gross as people say that it is. There are some times that are more difficult (transitional, illness, etc) but they do not occur frequency enough for sufficient cause to not CD (in my opinion). In fact, I have had more "blowouts" with disposables than with CD (we have to use disposables when traveling on vacation sometimes and we always have leakage issues. with our CD we rarely to never have blowout issues). Ultimately, you have to find out what works best for you and you have to be flexible. Keep tweaking until you find what works best for your setup as your baby's eating (and ultimately pooping) changes.


    Well, I didnt mean to write this much but I guess I had a lot to say on the subject! hahaha! what motherhood does to ya I guess....

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    1. I could not agree more with your entire assessment!! Thanks! Hubby doesn't agree with me, so it makes me feel better that someone else does! I got on my soapbox saying I didn't know what the big deal was so voila - I was selected to write on it.

      Totally agree about blowouts. I can't wait to get Baby Sister into cloth sooner than M got into them, to save myself from wearing so much poo. :)

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    2. Can't wait to read your post!!

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