January 27, 2013

Matthew @ 6 months

Getting into trouble

I thought I would be writing one of these things every month, but obviously, I haven't. I still mostly feel as though I'm on survival mode, and just when I think I'm getting the hang of it, he goes and switches things up on me. So maybe sometime in the next 5 years I'll get the hang of it. IF I don't go and get knocked up again (topic for another day).

Anywho... my Bubba is 6 months old! It's hard to believe, as it's gone by super quick. I know that's cliched and everything, but it's true.

And he is such a good, sweet baby. Of course he's difficult sometimes, too, but mostly not. I count myself lucky that he hasn't had any health problems, reflux, colic, milk intolerance, etc. Just a normal little boy.

For his 6 month birthday, we started him on solid foods. At this point it's just to get him used to eating non-liquids, and not for nutrition. And that's a good thing, because it appears he's not too fond of bananas. Then he had some oat cereal & pureed sweet potatoes, separately of course, neither of which he likes. So wanting him to like something, anything, I sucked it up and bought baby food. But I bought the ones that I know are good... like apricots (yummy). And apricots are a success! I even mixed a baby spoonful of it into the oat cereal, and he tolerated that better. DH also gave him a stalk of celery to nom on, and he likes that as well, but I'm not sure if it's the flavor he likes, or the fact that it feels good on his gums.

He's not crawling yet, but I think it'll be soon. He's trying to get up on his knees, but hasn't yet figured out that it works better if he doesn't mash his face on the floor. :)

He LOVES to walk around with us holding him up, which is super cute, but uncomfortable for us, as he's still small and we have to bend over. We'll walk around the living room, down the hall and into different rooms. It takes a while, as he's still a little unsure about his feet and balance. But he's 6 months old, so for where he is right now, I think he's actually ahead of the game. Do I think he'll walk before 1? Probably. But I don't think he'll be a super early walker either. Maybe 9 months. Maybe.

He also graduated to the bath tub for baths. Up until that point, we'd been bathing him in the kitchen sink. But he learned how to splash and he was getting grabby. He LOVES it! Well, he loved it until he turned over onto his tummy and swallowed some water. Now he's kind of over water.

And lastly, he's started to reach out for me, which makes me feel all warm and gooey inside. :D He's my favoritest person in the world. And today I get to subject my favoritest person to pain in the form of more shots. Sorry dude. You'll thank me when you don't get polio or diphtheria.

January 3, 2013

Cloth diaper review: Swaddlebees OS AIO

Swaddlebees Simplex OS AIO
Monster print
When buying more diapers this year, I wanted to include a couple AIO's (all-in-ones). About 85% of my current stash is made up of pockets, and once he grew out of his Ragababe AIO, he didn't have any AIO's that fit. So after going over reviews, I decided upon 2 different AIO's... Peachy Green and Swaddlebees. I'll review the Peachy Green in another post.

Most of the reviews given loved the fact that the soaker part wasn't completely sewn in and that it had a stay-dry side to it, as well as just a regular cotton side, which is the same cotton the inner fabric is made of. I was drawn to the cotton inner, because I really believe that when babies can't feel when they're wet, it takes longer to potty train later on. And all of my pocket diapers have stay-dry inners, much to my dismay. So while I won't be replacing all my pocket diapers, I at least wanted to add a few diapers that don't have a stay-dry inner.

Anyway, the soaker. I had wondered how one would take out this soaker to be washed, and saw that there was no need to fish it out... that it would agitate out in the wash cycle. Score. Anyway, these diapers got great reviews on function as well.

I loved the prints, too. My favorite was the Dino, as we have a burp cloth made from the same print, but in flannel. I wanted to match. Alas, on Black Friday, that print sold out pretty quickly. I settled on a new print, Monsters, which is cute, too.

So once it arrived, I quickly prepped it (as quick as diaper prepping can go, anyway). The feel of it is a little different than I expected. The inner cotton is thick and kinda stiff. The outer layer is more plastic-y than fabric-y. It feels cheap. But at the same time, it feels substantial... if that makes sense? Anyway, point being, it doesn't feel like any of my other diapers.

Once it was done prepping, I noticed something... the soaker didn't agitate out. I'd intentionally left it in on a clean load, just in case it didn't come out (then I wouldn't worry that it didn't get clean). I figure it would agitate out in a top loader with lots of water, but not a front loader with far less water per load. So I'm a little disappointed that I have yet another thing to fish out of a dirty diaper. Yeah, I could leave the soaker out and have the stay-dry side facing up, but I like the fact that he feels wet, and I like the fact that he doesn't like feeling wet. And I can live with it seeing as though I have to fish inserts out of the pocket diapers all the time anyway.

As far as functionality, it works just fine. He's worn it a handful of times and pooped in it a few times as well. No leaks or blowouts. Due to the nature of a OS diaper, it's kinda bulky on the small setting for the rise, which is where it is on Bubba. We'll see how it holds up the older and bigger he gets.

Hmmmm... I dunno.
Matthew @ 5.5 months, about 17 pounds

Sorry it's blurry. Wiggly babies make getting clear pictures difficult.

All in all, I can't say it's my favorite diaper, but it serves its purpose. I can't help but feel that this will be resold at some point though.

January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!



It's been a momentous 2012. Hope 2013 is just as awesome!