Adventures in Cloth

Lately, my life revolves around, not only the baby, but doing laundry. Literally every day. I am not complaining, well sort of, but honestly I love it and it is not difficult.

I want to share our cloth adventure because as I was deciding to go cloth and researching it on the internet I couldn't find and exact routine of how someone would cloth. There are many ways to do it so I figure I would share ours and hopefully it might help someone.

To start, we acquired about 25 Bumgenius 4.0 diapers. We also have 2 Bumgenius Elemental diapers that I bought just to try one of the other cloth diapers they offered.

Because we don't have an extremely large amount of the diapers I find myself doing laundry just about every day. The only way this is works out for us is (1) I am not working and (2) Our utilities are included in our rent because we have solar, one of the many perks of living in the sunshine year round. If we were living somewhere that we had to pay our utilities I would probably go ahead and buy more cloth diapers so that we wouldnt be doing laundry every day and more like every other day.

 I didn't do anything fancy to come up with my diaper pail. We went to the store and picked up one of these buckets with a lid and voila! I originally started out with filling the bucket 3/4 of the way with water (wet pail). This became to heavy for me and honestly too messy when I am loading them into the washer. Though wet pailing does help with the stink.

For now, we dry pail. I just pull out the inserts and fold over the shell of the diaper and finished! No fuss, no muss. I know it is time to launder them once my pail fills up. This being about 19 diapers leaving me with 6 or so fresh ones to use while cleaning and air drying them. If she has a wild day and is going like crazy and I run out while they are still drying then I always have a few disposables on hand just in case.

I do want to point out that I am breastfeeding and because breastfed baby poo is water soluble I do not use my sprayer to rinse off her doodie. No need. But we do have the Bumgenius Sprayer for once she starts incorporating solids and we most likely will go back to using a wet pail because solid poops are real stinky.

Since I have already taken out my inserts I literally just dump the pail into the washer and do my first load. Cloth diapers take about 3 loads to wash. I know, that is a lot of water!

The first load is just cold water on the largest setting- no detergent. The second load is hot water and I add 2 scoops of detergent. I have been using Rock'n Green Detergent. So far, so good! Then for the third,  I just do a rinse/spin cycle and finally finished. Once a month I do add 1/4 cup of bleach to the hot load to help with smell and stains. I feel like the sun does this but it is suggested by Bumgenius.


 I put the inserts in the dryer on low heat and hang the shells outside in the sun and air to dry. It is truly amazing the power the sun has to fight stains and even odor. After being in the sun, stains are gone!

Once they are all clean, I bring them inside and Alex helps me set them up for the next use. Stuffing and folding, stuffing and folding.

Shots

Going into the doctors I felt that I was going to be leaving mortified with an out of control screaming baby. I had been a little nervous and quite frankly scared about Alex starting her shots mainly for this reason. Of course, not to brag, she was amazing! But here are some tips that helped us while getting her shots:

Bring a support person.
It is not easy seeing your baby scream and cry in pain. Honestly, I started to tear up just watching her cry.

Hold the baby.
Alex's wonderful grandma Glo held her and I think it helped her to feel like she wasn't alone and then she went to her Momma for comforting after it was all done.

Feed baby right away.
I know it probably isn't what some would suggest giving the boob when the baby cries but come on. That calmed her down instantly so we were able to leave the doctors with a calm, content baby.  By the time we got to the car she had forgotten all about it.

2 months

Alex Marie is two months old today! She has been sleeping in her crib. She has out grown her co- sleeper (similar to a bassinet). It is sad moving her into her own room but good because she is healthy and growing like a weed. Outgrew it in length of course (Long, tall Sally just like her Momma).  She is still sleeping good at night, waking up once for a feeding normally around 3 or 4am. I cant wait for her to sleep through the night, every night...

She has begun to smile a lot more. When I feed her, sometimes, I will notice her stop nursing. I look down and see this big, gummy grin looking back up at me. That sweet face of hers just melts my heart. I am so in love.

We were having some issues with her taking a bottle. She is now taking one everyday (so when I go back to work she doesn't get "nipple confusion" - real thing). It has taken weeks but she has finally taken a bottle from her Daddy!

Losing the Baby Weight- Exercise

I have never been a runner, nor will I ever be, but I don't mind walking. For my exercise this week, I will be walking at least 4 miles every other day. Hopefully. With the little one in tow it is just about impossible to plan out my week let alone my day. But it is a goal.

My Dad told me about this app for your iphone called Endomondo. I had never heard of it (not really up with the apps and such) so figured I would give it a try. I find it very motivating because it times and it measures the distance you are going. When I think I am ready to turn around I open up my phone and try to push myself for another mile or so. Here is what the app looks like and our walk from today.







I love how it gives you a map of your exercise route. I like how you can change what activity you do from running to windsurfing they have everything!

 

My little Hawaiian Babe loving walks that put her to sleep and sun to keep her warm.

Losing the Baby Weight- The First Step

The first step for me was to sit down and write out things I want to change and I know I need to change. My list looks like this:

1. Stop using butter excessively- I cook everything with butter, and though it tastes amazing it is just not healthy and I know it.
2. Spend more time on the floor- By this I mean I need to stretch more, I feel like most of my day I spend on the couch and my back constantly aches.
3. Replace sweets with healthier options- I have and always will have a sweet tooth. I can't help it, I crave something sweet after just about every meal (except breakfast- cereal is pretty sweet).
4. Stop eating so much cereal!
5. Eat less rice- I dont know if it is because we live in Hawaii and white rice is a staple out here but we eat rice just about every other day and I want to knock that habit.
6. Exercise everyday- this one will be hardest for me but even if I just do some floor workouts for a half hour or lift some weights in the garage.
7. Find new fruits and veggies- I feel like I am stuck in habit, when I go to the market I always get the same stuff. Change is good, right!? Maybe even start juicing for snacks.

I started by going to the farmers market this week. Picked up some bananas, onions (I always get white or yellow so I got a red this week too), mango, papaya, carrots, celery, green beans (never really buy out here), bok choy (which I really dont even know how to cook, but the start to a new adventure) and kale.

Losing the Baby Weight

As a breastfeeding mother I have heard so many stories about when you breastfeed the baby weight comes off very quickly. Maybe it is because I am jonesing to get back in my bikinis and hit the beach or maybe just because I am sick of wearing loose fitting clothes to hide my belly or maybe after 9 months I just want my body back and to be able to fit in my old clothes. But whatever it is (all those reasons) I am going to document my, hopefully, weight loss.

I got the courage to do this from one of the other blogs I have followed a lot through my pregnancy and still find very great postpartum. This blog author is totally on point with me and I couldn't have put the reasons any better myself.

The Plan:
Document weekly my activity from healthy meals to exercise routines.
Sit down and write out what I want to change.
Do it!

Image courtesy of Social Moms.

Life, Loves, and a little bit of Aloha

I spend most of my time indoors. This is because (1) I have a newborn (2) it is flu season and (3) I have a newborn.  I find myself dressing Alex all cute for the day. She has so many cute outfits and dresses that I want to at least put her in everything once before she out grows it, which is happening very fast.  Come dinner time I am still in my pjs and most likely still haven't showered. Motherhood.

I have fallen in love with Tori Praver Swimwear. My old fling has been re-kindled Swedish Hasbeens.  Watching my daughter sleep has become a favorite too.

I would like to use the "Aloha" portion to spotlight something or someone that brings a little bit more aloha into my life. This week I would like to showcase one of my favorite photographers on island Brooklyn Dombrowski.  I have been following her work for years now and watched it really grow. She has a wonderful Hawaiian style to her photography and her muses.

Happy Valentines Day!

So what is pink, red, and cute all over?!

Happy Valentine's Day!