She's Here!

Our sweet baby girl Meredith arrived last Saturday morning at 37 wk 2 days gestation!  I went into labor unexpectantly early Sat. morning and barely made it to the hospital before my water broke (the hospital is one hour away, husband driving 95 miles an hour with flashers on!).  Even though I probably could have pushed her out,  at the time I just wanted her O-U-Tof me and c-section was the fastest, safest way to accomplish that (and husband was never on board with VBAC).  I was sad my OB was not on call and left on a spring break ski vacation on Sunday and we had a doctor I had never met and she was very impersonal about the delivery.   I totally thought I had until my scheduled c-section date (Mar 25th) to get things prepared and packed up to go.  The thing that has been the hardest is not being able to pick up and play with my toddler.  Thank god, I have a great babysitter for him, but it's still been hard because he is too little to understand what is going on.  I have survived the first week and according to my aunt who is a nurse, after a major surgery you get 4% better each day, so right now I am 28% better.  I am down to 1 percocet every 4 hours and 2 advil every 6 hours.  Breastfeeding is going so so so much better than last time around.  She is nursing like a champ! My milk came in before we left the hospital.  Her birthweight was 6 lb 11 oz and discharge was 6-2 and then 2 days later she was back up to 6-6.  She is such a good baby- just wakes to eat, looks around for a minute and then goes back to sleep.  She was sleeping skin to skin on my chest all week, but last night she slept in the swing and I got 4 hours of unbroken delicious deep sleep.  I love her so much and I never thought I would have 2 beautiful babies in 3 short years after 3 long years of yearning to start a family.

Cloth diapers revisited

Before Winn was born, I became obsessed with the idea of using cloth diapers because they seemed great for the environment and my pocketbook.  I did a ton of research on-line about the best diapering system, best detergents, etc and eventually took the plunge and ordered about $300 of cloth diapers and accessories.  I did not use them during the newborn stage, but once he was about 2 months I started using them and discovered the following drawbacks:  I had to change him constantly.  You cannot let a baby sit in a cloth diaper especially after you have been using the cloth diapers for a little while.  My diapers quickly built up ammonia in them which is extremely irritating to sensitive tissue down there.  Winn was circumcised and he started developing penile skin adhesions which totally freaked out my husband and me.  This was around 5-6 months when we discovered this problem.  The solution to this problem required much application of vaseline to to loosen the skin and protect it.  Vaseline and lots of other good diaper creams are contraindicated with cloth diapers.   It was extremely frustrating to me to have to give up on the idea of cloth, but like many things I've learned with being a new mom, you just have to go with the flow and be flexible.

This Fall after I got over the hump of the first trimester, I decided to pull out the cloth again and give it another go.  This time went much better for several reasons:

1) I finally figured out the KEY to avoiding ammonia build-up in the diaper is throughly rinsing each diaper insert in the sink after changing him.  When the diaper sits in the bin un-rinsed it dries out the and ammonia crystals get locked into the insert.   I will occasionally boil the insert if I notice it is strong smelling after I take it off of him.

2) I use cloth only during the day. Definitely disposables at night and sometimes during naps.  If I know I am going to be running around town doing a bunch of errands, I use disposables.

3) I used to like the Flip covers and prefolds because he was going through the diapers so quickly, but now I like the convenience of the Bum Genius with the inserts.  The velcro are also easier to get on him, but I have to make sure he has pants on or he will take them off.  I think about 12 cloth diapers is about the perfect of amount for part-time cloth diapering.  I was them about every other day because I don't like the idea of them fermenting in the bin.  My husband is not really on board with cloth because it's not as convenient as disposable and has the potential for more skin irritation, so I do all the washing and prepping.  I use cloth wipes sometimes for cleaning during changing him and cloth wipes are great for wiping him down after meals.  I throw these cloth wipes and bibs in with the cloth diapers to wash.

3)  Cloth diapering is so much better now that he is not tee-teeing every 30 minutes.  Winn also poops in the potty about 75% of the time now.  I hardly ever have to clean poopy cloth diapers which leads me to my next point.

4)  The Bum Genius Diaper Sprayer is an absolute must for cloth diapering moms and toilet training moms.  It is a sprayer that you attach to your toilet.  I use it all the time now to clean out the little potty bowl after poops.

I know that cloth diapering will probably go to the wayside once baby #2 arrives, but I do feel like I am finally getting my money's worth out of the cloth diapers by using them during the day and maybe lessening my carbon footprint.  Even though washing/drying them probably adds alot to my utility bill.   It feels good to no longer be cursing the cloth and Winn seems to like the cloth - he does look so damn cute in them.

I am now a day shy of 37 weeks, so in the homestetch!  I had a cervical check yesterday - nothing happening down there, but made me so sore and crampy afterwards.  I think I will go all the way to my C-section date which is in 20 days!