It's so easy to get stuck in one schedule and just keep on going like the "stop" or "pause" buttons are broken. This has been my life recently. With all of the holiday happenings: Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, cookie parties, play group parties, work parties, decorating the house, more Christmas parties, etc. etc. etc., I've barely had a chance to have life as I know it. Then, when you toss in a child, the fast forward button seems to be pushed. Days fly by and before I know it, it's less than two weeks until Christmas!
I don't really have a way to stop this, but thought I'd share that this is what I'm going through right now. While it is a blast, it is also a little bit crazy. Hopefully you're finding ways to stop and smell the pine of the Christmas trees. Let me know how you do it!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Bummis' Bio Soft Liners
Changes happen all the time. I loved the change when my darling daughter went from crying all the time to smiling, giggling, and sleeping 12, long, joyous hours at night. These are the good changes that every mother looks forward to. I loved the excitement of teaching my baby how to say "ma ma" (even though the "D" word came first), watching her little fingers learn how to grasp objects, and eventually learning to eat solid foods and drink water. Oh, how some changes can be wonderful!
But, even the wonderful changes have their downfalls. The excitement of introducing solid food to babies inevitably brings with it the change of the not-so-smelly (especially if breastfed) poops to the ever-poignant aroma of digested peaches, apples, chicken, green beans, carrots, mangoes, rice cereal...you get the picture (dare I need to show you one?!). And, when you add cloth diapers to this ever-expanding picture, things really do get a bit sticky.
Here's where Bummis' Bio Soft liners come in. The liners come in two different sizes. I didn't even bother with the small, but went straight to the large. It worked just fine. You simply add the liner to the top of the diaper in order to keep that sticky, peanut butter consistency off the cloth diaper so that it can simply be flushed down the toilet. Then, you wash the diaper as normal: no scrubbing at all!
Now, all of this sounds a lot easier said than done. While I am now a huge fan of Bummis' liners, there are some tricks to using them. First, because Baby is now on solid food, that probably also means that Baby is big enough to squirm, kick, roll, and do everything else in his/her power to not have a proper diaper change. When you add prefolds into this mix, doing an angel fold becomes a bit more complex. You cannot pre-arrange the diaper and expect that Baby will stay nice and still while you add the liner to the top in just the right manner so that it stays in place and the diaper is covered. It may take a while to experiment with the best way to arrange the prefold - it took me about a week. When using pocket or AIO diapers, the liners would be a lot easier.
This may sound like a lot of work, but I still think it's worth it in the end. Not only are you still saving money by using cloth diapers, but you're also saving time by not having to stand over the toilet scrubbing diapers. Plus, you can still travel out and about with Baby in cloth diapers - just needing to visit a restroom for #2 and simply disposing of those #1 liners in the waste.
The only other downfall to these liners is that they are not reusable. While the packaging doesn't say that they're resuable, I attempted washing the #1 liners. After all, why waste the liner if it's not been used for its purpose? Well, the liners disintegrated in the wash...which made me feel better about flushing those #2 liners down the drain - knowing they disintegrate easily.
The last note I have regarding Bummis' Bio Soft liners is that they truly are soft. Compared to the other disposable liners I bought, these had the best feel to them. I have been impressed and will continue to use these.
If you're interested in purchasing Bummis' Bio Soft Liners...
But, even the wonderful changes have their downfalls. The excitement of introducing solid food to babies inevitably brings with it the change of the not-so-smelly (especially if breastfed) poops to the ever-poignant aroma of digested peaches, apples, chicken, green beans, carrots, mangoes, rice cereal...you get the picture (dare I need to show you one?!). And, when you add cloth diapers to this ever-expanding picture, things really do get a bit sticky.
Here's where Bummis' Bio Soft liners come in. The liners come in two different sizes. I didn't even bother with the small, but went straight to the large. It worked just fine. You simply add the liner to the top of the diaper in order to keep that sticky, peanut butter consistency off the cloth diaper so that it can simply be flushed down the toilet. Then, you wash the diaper as normal: no scrubbing at all!
Now, all of this sounds a lot easier said than done. While I am now a huge fan of Bummis' liners, there are some tricks to using them. First, because Baby is now on solid food, that probably also means that Baby is big enough to squirm, kick, roll, and do everything else in his/her power to not have a proper diaper change. When you add prefolds into this mix, doing an angel fold becomes a bit more complex. You cannot pre-arrange the diaper and expect that Baby will stay nice and still while you add the liner to the top in just the right manner so that it stays in place and the diaper is covered. It may take a while to experiment with the best way to arrange the prefold - it took me about a week. When using pocket or AIO diapers, the liners would be a lot easier.
This may sound like a lot of work, but I still think it's worth it in the end. Not only are you still saving money by using cloth diapers, but you're also saving time by not having to stand over the toilet scrubbing diapers. Plus, you can still travel out and about with Baby in cloth diapers - just needing to visit a restroom for #2 and simply disposing of those #1 liners in the waste.
The only other downfall to these liners is that they are not reusable. While the packaging doesn't say that they're resuable, I attempted washing the #1 liners. After all, why waste the liner if it's not been used for its purpose? Well, the liners disintegrated in the wash...which made me feel better about flushing those #2 liners down the drain - knowing they disintegrate easily.
The last note I have regarding Bummis' Bio Soft liners is that they truly are soft. Compared to the other disposable liners I bought, these had the best feel to them. I have been impressed and will continue to use these.
If you're interested in purchasing Bummis' Bio Soft Liners...
Saturday, November 13, 2010
I am smarter than a baby...right?
I have to admit, the idea of starting my daughter off on solid foods both excited me and made me nervous. There are so many theories about how to get your child started on his or her first foods, which foods to avoid, how to start them off, whether or not to make your own food or buy baby food, and so on and so on. How was I ever going to manage everything and make all of the right decisions so that my daughter would continue to thrive?
Thankfully, I quickly learned that, no matter what theory I used to approach solid foods, my daughter was going to do or want the opposite. Trying to introduce solid foods became so difficult and time-consuming for me that I finally just gave in and found the one method that my daughter would eat, with the one food she would eat: chicken with brown rice on a gigantic wooden spoon.
Now, most manuals and baby food books say not to introduce meats as a first food. This wasn't the first food that I tried to introduce. We started with avocados, then carrots, apples, rice cereal, peas, and green beans. She didn't like anything. I tried feeding her from a the plastic-lined spoons, wider baby spoons, regular spoons, and as finger food. She wanted nothing to do with any of it. Finally, I realized that she loves to play with my wooden spoons. She also loves to put these in her mouth. She also likes extremely bland food. So, we tried the chicken on the wooden spoon and...IT WORKED!
For one month, the only way I could introduce any food to my daughter was on the wooden spoon. Eventually, she began to like other foods and she began to eat on the regular baby spoons. But, I learned a very important thing. No matter what you read or what you know, your baby is going to have something else planned for you. You have to think creatively in order to resolve the challenges that Baby tries to give you. After all, we are smarter than our babies...right?
Thankfully, I quickly learned that, no matter what theory I used to approach solid foods, my daughter was going to do or want the opposite. Trying to introduce solid foods became so difficult and time-consuming for me that I finally just gave in and found the one method that my daughter would eat, with the one food she would eat: chicken with brown rice on a gigantic wooden spoon.
Now, most manuals and baby food books say not to introduce meats as a first food. This wasn't the first food that I tried to introduce. We started with avocados, then carrots, apples, rice cereal, peas, and green beans. She didn't like anything. I tried feeding her from a the plastic-lined spoons, wider baby spoons, regular spoons, and as finger food. She wanted nothing to do with any of it. Finally, I realized that she loves to play with my wooden spoons. She also loves to put these in her mouth. She also likes extremely bland food. So, we tried the chicken on the wooden spoon and...IT WORKED!
For one month, the only way I could introduce any food to my daughter was on the wooden spoon. Eventually, she began to like other foods and she began to eat on the regular baby spoons. But, I learned a very important thing. No matter what you read or what you know, your baby is going to have something else planned for you. You have to think creatively in order to resolve the challenges that Baby tries to give you. After all, we are smarter than our babies...right?
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