"Children reinvent your world for you"

My Beautiful Friend Mrs. Mabry gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! Mom and baby were healthy and happy. I was so glad to get a chance to meet him in the hospital.

Weeks ago, we attended the Mabry's sports themed baby shower. Mini Corn Dogs, Hot Dogs, Nachos and Churros! Yum!

Mrs M and I have been friends since forever. It's wonderful to witness such beautiful milestones in the lives of those we love.

I embellished cloth diapers/burpee cloths as one of our shower gifts. Though I forgot to take a picture, I also made hooded towels for baby and his big sister!

So happy for the Mabry Fam and their new addition <3

And We've Made the Switch

May 2009
Well we've made the switch to cloth! I decided to buy 21 bumgenius 3.0's in an assortment of super cute colors. They're a little bulkier than disposables but not nearly as bulky as the prefold and cover diapers we used for a little while with Jack. Nohea doesn't seem to mind the change. Everyone has taken an active roll in the big switch and that makes it easier. It's a nice feeling to be doing something that benefits the environment and saves us money :) That's a definite plus. We have to use a detergent that has no added fragrances, brighteners, enzymes or whiteners in order to keep the diapers in the best and most effective condition. We finally found a soap at Whole Foods called Eco Sense. It's made with coconut oil... who knew?! We're happily on our path to a greener lifestyle!

To cloth? or not to cloth?

So recently (as in this last week) I've been giving more thought to cloth diapering. When Jack was first born, my mother in law Kate, got us a diaper service for 3 months. The diapers were your standard prefolds and covers, the service would come and pick the dirty ones up, launder them and drop clean ones off. Sadly, we gave up quickly (without much effort on my part even *sigh*). We were younger then and both preparing to go back to work outside the home and gave in to Pampers Swaddlers (which I LOVED with Jack)

But since then, a mere four years ago, there have been so many innovations in the world of cloth diapering that makes it easier for your average family to do it. I've decided to give it a try with our little Nohea (No-Hay-Uh). I'm fed up with blow outs (yes, I'm talking good ole breastfed baby poo) and would rather constantly throw diapers in the wash, that are supposed to be that dirty, than continue risking all her cute clothes. We've tried several society trusted brands and have still been pretty dissapointed. They say no two babies are the same and boy do "they" mean it!
So I've purchased three Bumgenius 3.0 pocket diapers...
in blossom, grasshopper and moonbeam (aren't the colors SOO cute?) to try it out and see how it goes. I'm dreaming of what to do with the money that we'll save in the long run not having to buy disposables. Please let this work, for the sake of the environment and for the sake of my pocket book ;)

Looking at our situation now, with Nohea (No-Hay-Uh [ya heard me... it's just that some don't know how it's pronounced]) we've really developed our own parenting style that works for us. We both are able to mostly work from home, we both get to spend a lot of quality time with each of our children and with eachother, we both know that many things (especially when it comes to baby) are beyond our direct control and have learned how to go with the flow, something that was really difficult when we had our first baby. My mom says I'm a lot more relaxed with her than I was with Jack even though she's more high maintenance at times, but hey what girl isn't? LOL... We're pretty attachment style if someone really needed to classify it.
We exclusively breastfeed, semi co-sleep (she's in her crib for the first 4 or 5 hours and then snuggles up next to mom where she enjoys unrestricted night time nursing... thank goodness i finally figured out how to nurse lying down, it really helps with the daytime zombie look that i was sporting before) babywear, she LOVES her sling...
especially with daddy (yes, he's my perfect man and will laugh that this pic is on the internet)

don't believe in letting little babies CIO (cry it out) and see her crying as a form of communication, not manipulation...("Mama, I am hungry!")

seems cloth diapering would naturally fit in . Who'd have thought we'd turn out so tree huggin' and crunchy? I like it. We'll see how it all works out. Here's hoping!