Happy Half Birthday Ladies!

Can you freaking belIEve it???

It's been six months.

I'm lamenting the loss of babyhood.

I know they're certainly still babies.

But they're not really that squishy newborn baby-ness anymore.

LuLu wore HARD SOLED SHOES today for Pete's Sake!

(Thanks Linds, for pointing that out...because I wasn't feeling all nostalgic this morning already...).

After reminding Andy that today was their six month birthday...

"...sooooo...when's the next one coming on board?..."

Just commit me now.

I'm certifiable.

What on earth am I thinking???!!!

And now for your viewing pleasure, a parade of photos:

What can $4 buy you?
2 pairs of BabyLegs (Carter's brand from the 99cent Store!) and little dresses on clearance for a buck a piece at Walmart!

Holding hands now...

...and then.

Brother doesn't want to be left out!

Picture won't rotate. Mea culpa.

We pulled out the jumper doo-hicky. It's a hit.

Even Jill loves it...although she gets tired quickly.

The house is getting louder. Both girls are starting to "talk" a lot. LuLu isn't crawling, but she can get where she wants by either scooting or rolling. Long gone are the days where she stays put when I lay her down. Jill is doing well. She has a big assessment with her physical therapist on Thursday, so I should know more then. Well, at least have a better sense of where she officially scores for her age and abilities.

Okay, baby parade is over. :)

Twin Girl Nursery

Finally!

Remember this sneak peek way back in the day?

Yeah, well...that's how long it took me to get the room done.

Actually, let me be more specific: the room has been 99% done for MONTHS...it was my hair brained idea for crib skirts that kept me from being 100% done.

I'm not really into pink.

It's not that I hate pink so much...just that I'm not a pink kind of girl, you know?

I'm also not into teddy bears, butterflies, princess castles, unicorns, flowers, or...

Pretty much all things that a little girl's room is.

Originally, I was going to go with some funky color combos like turqouise and orange. Still fun and girly but not overtly...well...girly.

And then I realized that this was likely my only chance at having baby girls...so I should probably just embrace it.

Naturally, I added black to offset the frou-frou.

Think Parisian Glam without the Eiffel Towers or Poodles.

In the end, I love, love, love the result.

IfIdosaysomyself.


Chandelier from Craigslist spray painted black.
Pale pink walls, black stripe, bubblegum pink stripe, white. Painting courtesy of Unci Dunci.
By the way, painting black on a wall is stressful.
It just seems wrong.

I made the bedding myself and my mother-in-law took over the debacle that was my "hey, I know! let's make the crib skirts out of tulle and they can look like giant ballerina tutus!" Cute idea, but if I never see a piece of tulle again it will be too soon.
Lucy's crib used to be Henry's. She gets the black/white bedding and pale pink tutu.

Coordinating, but not matching crib sets.
My brattiness about this is why I had to actually MAKE all this myself. It's impossible to find something un-lame for twin girls.
This crib was given to us...it used to be wood colored. Nothing 6 cans of black spray paint can't fix!
Jill gets the pink/white bedding and bright pink tutu.

Used some leftover fabric and the stuffing from an old pillow to make these little bird mobiles.
(The "hardware" was a re-use of Henry's old mobile and a second mobile I bought on clearance and threw away the hideous courdoroy sailboats from.)

The changing table from Henry's room (that is from Pottery Barn Kids but I bought used). Toss on a pink cover and swap the ribbons to a matching color.
Easy.

A *fabulous* armoire given to us by a friend. I didn't have to do a thing to this.

Little "vases" from my ever gorgeous baby shower.
(They're really just tin cans covered with wrapping paper and ribbon).
I kinda hate the silk flowers but I can't think of anything else to put in there.

An old dresser I painted black and added glass pulls to match the armoire knobs. I got these on ebay for $2 each.

Little lamps that used to be in my room (that I originally got on massive clearance at Pottery Barn about 7 years ago), frames from the $1 bins at Michaels (that were already the perfect colors!), and a tiny ceramic bird that was tied to a baby shower gift from Lisa. (I really need to step up my wrapping...I just toss stuff into a bag and call it a day!)

Vinyl wall decals from FiggyandWink.


So there you have it.

Girly.

Pink.

But not too girly.

The Great Sleep Experiment: Part 452

For those of you who have babies the normal way...you know, ONE at a time...

Let me take you on an adventure of epic proportions.

It's called:

PLEASE EVERYONE JUST SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT
co-starring No Waking Up at Un-Holy Hours

In the beginning, I was pretty much spoiled. Lucy could be screaming at the top of her little lungs, and Jill would be deep in SlumberLand completely oblivious to the injustices being done to her sister.

And vice-versa.

For the first few months, we would always and I mean *always*...wake up the second baby whenever the first baby woke up, and I would tandem nurse them during the night. That way, I was only getting woken up three times...you know, instead of six.

That whole "never wake a sleeping baby" thing? Twin mamas smile at that.

Cute.

So, after a while, we realized that Jill was always the first baby...and we realized that Lucy was always pretty annoyed that we were disturbing her. After a few false starts and Lucy basically waking up 20 minutes after her sister, we got to the point where Lu was sleeping through the night.

Awe.some.

And then it happened. That moment I had read about in my twin books:

They wake eachother up.

Ugh.

Before we knew it, Lucy was waking up at the slightest peep from her sister. Worse, as Jill was on her (slow) way to sleeping through the night and as she was (slowly) stretching out the time she woke up...Lucy was now USED to be woken up at 2 every night. So, even though Jill was going until 3 and then 3:30 and then 4...Lucy was up at 2. Because, you know, she was pretty sure she was hungry, right?

And we couldn't let Lu cry it out because...then Jill would get woken up. And I WAS NOT about to mess with that and go backwards with that girl. Her sleeping has been a constant struggle so I didn't want for a *millisecond* to undo any of the progress she had made.

Our solution? Set up a pack and play in the hallway for Jill. Sure, she has a fabulously decorated nursery (if I do say so myself)...but she's relegated to the hallway.

So sad.

Not.

Okay, so now Lu can scream it out and not wake up Jill. Great. Luckily, because she wasn't *really* hungry to begin with, she only cried for a few minutes...for two nights. She's back to drooling on herself until morning again.


Love that girl.

The catch????

4:45 a.m.: Jill wakes up to eat (for the first time all night....cue the angels singing)

As I am getting out of bed...I see Henry's bedroom light flip on.

You. Have. GOT. To. Be. Kidding. Me.

"Mommy!!!! I wake up!!!"

At 4 (insert bad word here) 45.

Jill has now moved on to waking up her BROTHER instead of her sister.

Fan.tas.tic.

Before anyone suggests it...yes, we bought him a little alarm clock. yes, it is set to go off at 7. yes, we've explained to him that he's not allowed to call for us or get out until it goes off.

oh yeah...he's TWO.

And it takes over 2 HOURS to get to 7 when you wake up at 4:45. So that's a really long time for a 2 year old.

And before you ask...no, he didn't ever go back to sleep. He just layed by his door asking to be let out (we took his doorknob off so he's imprisoned until we let him out).

Our next attempt will be to move Jill to our room. I really tried to avoid this because I'm a super light sleeper and every little movement tends to wake me up. If that happens too much she may end up downstairs in the kitchen.

And don't think I'm kidding.

A full night's sleep is coming.

I can taste it.

I can feel it in my bones.

I may die of happiness.

(update: this morning Henry woke up...on his own...at 4:30. When I *finally* let him out at 6:30 he told me "Mommy, my alarm can't go off. It's broken. You have to go to the store to buy a new one." "No honey, it's just that IT'S STILL NOT 7.")

Twins are hard.

There.

I said it.

I love my girls.

Even knowing what I know today...I wouldn't change it for the world.

I wouldn't even ask for them to come one at a time.

That being said:

Twin pregancy?

Awful. Honestly. Really, really, really trying on your body. It's nothing like being pregnant with one. I can't explain it...it just isn't. And until you've done it, you won't understand. I don't want a cookie for it...I'm just sayin'.

Twins are awesome. Wonderful. Fun.

But they are hard too.

Really hard.

It's just a lot.

Two babies is just a lot of work.

Babies. Little ones. Ones who cry and want to snuggle and be held.

Who need to be strapped into car seats and carried around everywhere.

Who can't sit up or walk or even crawl.

Who can't entertain themselves.

Or even sleep through the night.

You can't really go anywhere alone with them...because they can't sit up, you have to keep them in their infant carriers...and unless you only plan on buying dental floss, you won't have any room in the back of your cart to actually put any of your purchases.

Not to mention how do you chase after your 2 year old who refuses to leave the toy aisle??? And once you *catch* him, what exactly do you DO with him??? It's not like there's room in the cart.

Because, you know, it's taken up by 2 infant carriers.

And what happens when they start crying? Your cart is full of seats. So, you can't just pick one up...because then you don't have any extra arms to keep track of that 2 year old...and you have nowhere IN the cart to actually put him anyway...

Because, you know, it's taken up by 2 infant carriers.

And even though Baby #2 is quiet for now...you start sweating bullets at the mere THOUGHT of that one deciding to cry too. Because then you're REALLY in for it.

Why is it so hot all of a sudden? Stripping layers of clothing...

In the meantime, you suddenly feel a great deal of empathy for Britney Spears. You can't walk all of three steps without someone stopping you.

Twins???!!!!

My sisters-brother in laws-cousins-neighbors-friends has twins...a boy and a girl.
Great. Fantastic. Happy for them. Really.

How do you do it?
I have no idea. I just do.

Boy, you have your arms full!
Better full than empty!

Wow!
[Polite smile.]

Aw, how cute!
Thanks.

How far apart are they?
1 minute.

Are they identical?
Not even a little bit.

A boy and a girl?
Um, yeah. Because I regularly dress my boys in pink dresses and bows, but that's cool.

But that one's so much bigger...
Yeah, amazing that whole fraternal thing...

Was it a surprise?
You betcha.

Are those all YOURS???
Every last one.

You feel like a freak show some days.

So you quickly buy your dental floss...and everyone else who wants to coo at your babies probably thinks you are a complete B*&%H because you hurry past them hoping to make it through the trip without a meltdown of your own...load everyone back up into the car...drive home with 2 out of 3 screaming bloody murder...try to turn the volume up on the stereo...notice your harried reflection in the mirror and grimace at the sight...

And wonder why on EARTH you needed dental floss so damn bad to begin with...

because you are now EXHAUSTED, need a nap, are sweating like a hog, have hysterical kids who need calmed down, and your hair looks like Hurricane Katrina Re-Visited.

Wondering and hoping that you remembered to put your ATM card back into your purse and didn't just leave it on the counter with the pimply-faced cashier.

Inevitably, the phone will ring at this point.

You'll find your phone (on the last ring) at the bottom of the diaper bag...nestled snugly among the cracker crumbs and that rogue baby sock you were looking for last week. It will be your husband wondering what is for dinner tonight...and if you can please call Comcast about the latest bill increase...and "why are the babies crying?"

Because I had the dire need for dental floss, that's why.

But then that crazy two year old of yours decides to start making googly faces at his sisters...

and the crying magically stops.

and turns into full-on, uncontrollable belly laughs.

Mommy! Jilly's laughing!

And you know what is sweeter than a baby laughing?

TWO babies laughing.

And you tear up because even though your blood pressure is probably through.the.roof...it is all worth it for moments like these.





And you make a mental note to just ask your husband to pick up dental floss on his way home next time.

Woop Woop!

JILLY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!

She didn't wake up until almost 5:30 and then fell back asleep until 7.




Don't cheer too loudly.




Lucy, however, decided that this was the *perfect* time to start waking up at 1:30...and 4:30....

Such is the life with twins.

Just when you think you got it figured out...you don't.

I'm optimistic though...it IS getting better, right?

Cloth Diapers: Final Verdict

Now that I've been using cloth diapers for a while, and since a couple of my pregnant friends have asked my official opinion, I thought I would give you an update on what I think of this whole cloth thing.

• I see a substantial cost savings. However, keep in mind that I have TWO babies in diapers...I'm not sure that the cost savings are quite so significant if you only have one babe. Also, keep in mind that I bought the bulk of my diaper stash used via Craigslist. The retail price on cloth diapers is quite high...which would still be worth it for multiples, but definately less of a savings for a singleton.
• No diaper rashes. Neither of the girls has ever had a diaper rash and I have had no issues with them reacting to the diapers. While Henry never seemed sensitive to any of the disposable brands, there are many children who react to certain brands (apparently I had a perpetual diaper rash as a baby until my mom switched me from Pampers to Huggies!).
• They're cute. I know this is lame, but I like them better than the Sesame Street characters. :)
• If you are concerned about the environment, they save landfills. Apparently no one knows how long it takes for a disposable diaper to biodegrade...but estimates range from 250-500 years. I don't think you have to be a hippie to find that worrisome.

BUT:

• They are bulky...both underneath clothes and in your diaper bag. In fact, I've taken to just packing disposable diapers when we go out. I have a wet bag so I'm not concerned about having to carry around a dirty cloth diaper...but when you have to pack a minimum of 4 diapers...and they don't fold down as compactly as the disposables...they take up a HUGE amount of space in my bag. Again, if you have a singleton this may not be a big deal since you don't have to pack as many diapers to begin with...
  
• They leak at nighttime. I was supposed to buy hemp inserts a while back to see if that solved the problem of the regular inserts not holding 12 hours of pee...but I was lazy and we just put the girls in a disposable for nighttime. Remember, my major motivation is financial...so using 2 disposables per day is fine by us...and I just didn't want to fiddle with it to be honest.
• They leak if you keep them on baby longer than 2 hours. Here's my biggest issue with cloth: if you don't stay ahead of it, you'll find yourself changing baby clothes and crib sheets a lot. The cloth diapers hold just fine...but you know how in disposables they get all mushy when they are overfull and you go "oops! you need a new diaper!"...yeah, well, there's no grace period with cloth. You really have to stay on top of things and be sure to give the baby a fresh diaper about every two hours. If you lose track of time, you'll have a leak on your hands. As long as you can keep track of time and not end up totally side tracked...you are fine. I have a harder time with this...not sure if it's because I have three kids 2 and under or what, but I find myself swapping clothes a lot. Maybe if I only had one baby at a time this would be less of an issue. But for now, losing track of time is the story of my life. Which is a bit of a bummer. Incidentally, the fact that they can't stay on too long is probably why you end up with no diaper rashes...

A few weeks ago, I stayed at my grandma's for 4 days. I used disposables while I was down there so that I wouldn't have to lug laundry soap and deal with it at someone else's house. At one point I thought: "Gee, this whole throw it away and never have to see this diaper again thing is kinda nice..." And then I realized that I went through about 65 diapers in 4 days. Not counting Henry.

Eh, it's not THAT nice.

Notice how none of my cons have anything to do with laundry? HONESTLY, truly...the laundry thing is NO BIG DEAL. I end up doing about 2 extra loads of laundry per week. And really, my washing machine does 90% of the work. I just have to push a few buttons and then stuff inserts in about 10 minutes' time. The laundry thing is a complete non-issue...so if that's your worry...don't let it be. I *hate* laundry and this doesn't phase me so you should be fine.

Oh, and it's not gross...not much of an icky factor either. But I'm a mom...it takes a lot to gross me out by now.

Summary: I highly recommend cloth for moms of multiples. Just be sure to change frequently. If you do that and use disposables at night, you are golden. If you are only baking one baby??? Well, I'm not sure it's entirely worth it. The cost savings is definately less...especially if you have to buy the diapers at full retail price. And if you are a first time mom...you might not need another "project", you know?

IF we have a fourth baby (and it comes without a mate) would I use cloth? Um...probably not. It is more work...not a TON of work...but it is more work than just tossing things away. I guess it all ends up being just one. more. thing. Not a big thing or a difficult thing, but another THNG. So, you either have to really need to save that money or you have to really want to be "green".

It's not awful, it's not terrible, it's not difficult. The laundry is a non-issue. It's not gross. It's just an extra thing to keep track of...which can be a pain.

Craigslist Ad

So, this is the ad I'm dying to post on Craigslist.

Feedback is welcome.

"Free to good home. Three children. Two girls, one boy. Must be taken as a group. They are adorably cute. They will make you laugh. Insomniacs preferrable. The girls will wake up 3-4 times a night. EACH. That means that you get to enjoy their adorable cuteness 6-8 times per night. The boy will wake up at 5:20 a.m. so you get a maximum amount of his cuteness too. It is probably best if you are lactose intolerant, because the girls have a dairy sensitivity, so you won't be able to eat any. In addition to that, you will also have to cut out Dr. Pepper and flavored coffee. Little Lu thinks it makes your milk taste like mud and will refuse to eat as a result. But, she will be starving so you'll also get to enjoy her innate ability to scream at a unfathomable volume. Jill loves being held and protests if you *ever* set her down. Often, these two things happen in unison. So, if you are also deaf, that would be great too. Please contact Jeannett for more information."

Basically, I've decided that the best person for my kids is a deaf, lactose intolerant insomniac.

Any takers?

I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids....breathe....

(oh, and in case you were wondering, no it's not the caffeine in the Dr. Pepper or the coffee...it's the flavoring...really...the kid is a freak...)

4 month check up

Lucy: 50% for both height and weight.

Jill: 10% for weight, 25% for height.

I can't remember how much they actually weigh. And I can't find the little paper where they wrote it down...but it was like 10.5 pounds and 12.5 pounds...

Poop.

Can you tell I'm still sleep deprived????

Jill's tremors and shakes are long gone. She hasn't done it in a while. That, or I've gotten used to it and don't notice anymore...

But, she's really wobbly. She can't hold her head up for very long, and when she does, it's not steady. She doesn't reach up for toys and she's just....kinda floppy...

Doc said that because she could smile, track with her eyes, and roll from her belly to her back she was on track and in the normal range for her age. He admitted that she was on the low end of normal, but that she passed the three big tests. If she doesn't gain more strength in the coming months, we'll have something to worry about, but for now, there are no major red flags...but we have to start keeping a close eye on it...

Lucy on the other hand falls in the very high end of normal in terms of her strength. The kid is ready to take off crawling any day now (a bit of an exaggeration, but she does scoot and push off with her legs if on her belly). So, the doctor pointed out that because I have two babies...and they are both on opposite ends of the spectrum, it makes Jill's progress look worse than it is.

Anyway, that was pretty boring, but that's what I got for today.

Later sk8er.

Lucy is my favorite

I'm not gonna lie.

It's totally true.

You're shocked, huh?

Maybe even gasped aloud at my title.

HOW COULD SHE?

Yeah, well, I'll tell you EXACTLY how:

LuLu goes to bed at 5:30 p.m.

Yes, 5:30.

Sleeps and sleeps and sleeps.

Wakes up at 7:30 a.m.

Yes, 7:30.

That's 14 hours people.

Straight.

And when she does finally wake up...she doesn't cry.

She just lays in her crib making little noises until I come get her.

And when I peer over her crib, she lights up, grins the biggest toothless grin and starts flailing in excitement.

Precious.

***

Jilly.

Oh Jilly.

Last few nights she's been waking up EVERY HOUR ON THE HOUR from about 11:00 p.m. until...well, until I finally roll my tired body out of bed at 6.

All. night. long.

Every. Hour.

She wants to use me as a giant human pacifier.

Last night I broke down and let her cry it out for a while.

A long while.

I wanted to tear my hair out listening to her cry.

Awful.

And it didn't work.

I finally had to go in and rescue her.

And you know what?

An hour later...

...she woke up screaming again.

I have no idea what her deal is.

But I'm tired.

Grumpy.

It's a good thing God makes babies cute.

It's a good thing that Jilly has the most darling smile.

She flashes it when I pick her up.

Even at 3 a.m.

So, I can't stay too mad.

But for now at least, Lucy's my favorite.

Today anyway.

I'm pretty petty.

It'll change often.

My game of favorites is easily won.

Sleep is a good start.

(Henry has yet to get the memo about daylight savings time...he still thinks 5:30 is a perfectly acceptable time to get up...so he's not in the running for favorite either...)

Walking By Faith...or trying to anyway

Our Pastor is doing a series of interviews at the front of church showing how different people are walking by faith. So, he asked us if we would mind answering a few questions about some of the stuff going on in our lives lately.

I was a bit hesitant.

Not because I have stage fright. Nah, I did presentations for work.

Not because I didn't want to "air" our families' challenges...I do that on my blog regularly.

But, I was afraid that talking about my kids in front of a bunch of people would turn me into a blubbering mess.

And I really don't like being a blubbering mess in front of people.

I'm not nearly as tough as the characters I play on TV.

Besides, I'm not sure how well we walk by faith anyway. In fact, I think I kinda suck at it.

But, I knew it was the right thing to do.

If you can encourage someone else, let them know that "hey...your walk may look different, but you're not the only one who doesn't have it all together!"...well, I think that's important sometimes.

Anyway, it's torture for me to watch this video clip.

Fidgeting, swaying, looking at my feet, playing with my hair.

My voice even cracks at one point.

Terrible, terrible, terrible.

NOT the kind of composure I had for work meetings.

Not one bit.

But this was different.

This was about my family.

And I was vulnerable.

So I apologize in advance for the horrific speech composure (or lack thereof).

(In fact, I was so mortified by my delivery that I seriously debated posting this...there's that vanity again...!)

Brotherly Love

I spent some of my afternoon pulling Henry and one of the girls in a little plastic wagon around the yard.

"Mama I want two sisters!"

Sadly his wagon won't accomodate the whole clan so they had to take turns.

Heck, his little wagon can hardly hold him and LUCY!

Glimpses

Thought I'd share with you a glimpse into my morning and in general, a typical day in my life lately.

For background, the girls got their first vaccine shots yesterday. Both are running fevers and otherwise feeling puny. Jill moreso than Lucy (I would guess that is due to the size difference...10 pounds vs. 13 pounds!).

These photos were taken at 11:30 a.m.


If there were sound to the photos, you would hear Henry:

Row, row, row da Boooooaaaat!

Down the STREEEEEEET!

Mary, mary, mary, mary....

(long pause)

DREEEEEAAAAM!!!!

Before I know it, he is jumping on the bed.

RIGHT next to Lucy's head.


"HENRY! Don't JUMP..."


Before I can finish my sentence, I realize that she is CRACK.ING up.


Not just smiling, but full on belly laughing.


She's loving the bouncing.

Why do I suddenly fear my future...?

You might be wondering: "why are her kids only half dressed?"

Distraction is my life.

I started changing Lucy...only to have Jill wake up hysterical. So, I left Lu as is and dealt with Jill.


At this exact moment, Henry decided he wanted to get dressed and "ME DO IT MOMMY!"

Fine.

Except that he only got so far as his pants before he decided he would rather jump on the bed.

And apparently entertain his little sister.

What you can't see in the photo is that during all of this, I am still in my pajamas.

Yeah, at 11:30...because you know, I've been distracted by one of my three kids all morning. And while snapping photos, and in my stinky pj's, I am desperately trying to nurse a whimpering Jill who has a hot little feverish head.

So I stink, but I have one sad baby and two giggling at each other.



So yeah, that's my day.

Distractions.

One after the other.

Over and over again.

And I love it.

Truly.

Mommy Time

I've found that Henry's behavior for the entire day is largely dependent upon whether or not he gets some one on one time with Mommy. I try to get that in during the girls' morning nap.

Some days we prep for dinner, one day we baked pumpkin mini muffins, or trim the flowers in the garden, or play puzzles, or paint...washable, of course...


It's so funny...I was so neurotic at first about him not mixing the colors and tainting the jars with the "wrong" paintbrush. And then I remembered...oh yeah...he's TWO...and this should be FUN. So I backed off and let him do whatever. No matter how badly it pained me to see those perfect little jars slowly turn to that caca brown...they're not there yet, but they will be...soon, I'm sure. Sigh...

Because why WOULDN'T you paint ON your hands???

This kid kills me.

I'm such a sucker for those baby blues.

When he's 16...I'm toast.

Adventures in Cloth - Part 2

So, remember how I was having trouble with leaking and I had to strip my diapers?

Well, it worked. No more leaks!

Oh wait.

Except at nighttime.

No matter what I did...doubled the inserts...etc...the girls still woke up SOAKED. PJ's...blankets...crib sheets. Ick.

I don't change diapers at night unless they are poopy. So they have to hold 12 hours worth of baby pee. That's a lot.

Reading around online, I found that hemp inserts tend to be the key to this problem.

Hemp, I know. Seriously, could it GET more granola?!

Watch out, we might start smelling like patchouli pretty soon. Not.

But apparently, all "green"-ery aside, hemp is super absorbent and not bulky, so it works great for overnight. I'm gonna order a couple and try it out. If it works, great...I'll order more. If not, we'll just stick to disposables for nighttime. (Which is what we are doing now).

I have no problem doing disposables at night. It's easy and cheap to only be using 2 diapers per day. I'll try out the hemp, but I'm not going to fiddle with it too much.

Otherwise, I am LOVING cloth diapers! Seriously. They are easy, the laundry is no. big. deal., and let's face it, the fun colors are waaaayyy cuter than Elmo. I highly recommend cloth to anyone. Truly.

As for laundry, I'm only really having to wash dipes about once a week. Adding one load of laundry per week is negligible in my book. Plus, there's no real "folding" of laundry with it...just stuff the inserts in about 10 minutes, and you have a nice fresh stack of diapers!

Easy peasy.


I've dried the diapers out in the sun a couple of times. Something about the sun bleaches any stains and it keeps your diapers/elastic lasting longer. It's a bit of a pain to haul them downstairs and out into the backyard, rather than pop them into the dryer...so I don't think this will be my regular routine. But I figured we live in California, it's a nice day...why not? It borders on more work than it's worth, so this will be hit or miss depending on my mood.

All that said, I think that the cloth diaper experiment is a success! It seemed kinda overwhelming when I was first researching, but in the actual implementation...it's super easy!

Two Month Check Up Stats

Two months.

I know. I know.

I don't know how it happened either.

Crazy.

Lucy: 9/14: 11 lb. 5 oz. 75% (8/10: 8 lb. 15 oz. )

Jill: 9/14: 8 lb. 16 oz. 25% (8/10: 7 lb. 9 oz.)

Lucy: 9/14: 23.5 inches 90% (8/10: 20.5 inches)

Jill: 9/14: 21 inches 10% (8/10: 20 inches)

So, you can see that Lucy is gaining and growing quickly...while Jill is a slow poke in the growth department. The doctor is mildly concerned about Jill. We were supposed to get our first set of vaccines today, but he specifically wanted to wait another month to "give her a chance to see if she catches up and grows a little more...and we want to have a better idea if she is little because that is who she is as a person, or if it's a problem because of her brain injury."

Um, okay. So if it's not just "her"...what could be wrong?

Well, a whole bunch of things...but he did drop the CP word. Cerebral Palsy. Ugh.

He made it clear that I wasn't supposed to worry or get freaked out. It is just a possibility and that we had this same worry with Henry (growing slowly and being really low on growth charts) and he turned out fine and healthy. So, Jill could be the same. But because of her history, he is a little concerned and wants to take every precaution and keep a close eye on her.

Against his orders, the first thing I did when I got home: I googled it.

I see why he might be concerned. Particularly because of her involuntary movements/twitches. They are SIGNIFICANTLY better than when she was younger, but they are still there. He did say that her muscle tone looked really good...which is a big indicator for CP.

I'm not too worried...yet. Why? Well, for starters, we've been through this before. Henry worried me sick because he was such a munchkin. I never knew if it was because of his heart, or just because he was a little dude.

Secondly, I've learned that worrying doesn't change the outcome.

Thirdly, I know that God has a plan and I better just hang on for the ride rather than try and alter it in some way. We will know soon enough if she has any kind of disability. All we can do is wait...we should definately be able to tell by the time she is six months old.

In the meantime, she is still getting her therapy sessions twice a week and we have a phenomenal pediatrician who is watching her closely. Oh yeah, and we have an awesome God that I know will carry us through this, regardless of what "this" ends up being.

And with that, two out of three are wailing. Peace out.

Adventures in Cloth - Part 1

I finished doing a simple strip of my diapers, and got the inserts re-stuffed into the covers. (I was interuppted about 400 times, but I think the stuffing took all of 10 minutes to do all 42 diapers).

Got the girls into their diapers and...

Jill is NOT in the mood for a photo shoot.

Mom! I do NOT get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day!!!

Fine. Just get it over with.

There's my little Slim.

...about five minutes later, Jill pooped.

Nice.

It leaked out a little...and I was disappointed...but then I remembered...my girls have blow outs in Pampers regularly, so this isn't exclusive to the cloth. We'll see how it goes next time. (They only poo about every few days...hence the blow outs...so it'll be a bit before I get to see again).

I hosed off the solids (that's code for poop) with the special cloth diaper hose that attaches to the plumbing on your toilet and put it in the lidded container until laundry day.

(I told you this wasn't your grandma's cloth! We're high tech around here!)

Girls slept through the night and no leaks. Yay!

And then...the next diaper change...they leaked through everything.

Everywhere. Pee. Soaked. Crib sheets. PJ's. Everywhere.

What happened???

Last night...same thing. I even used double the inserts and everything was still soaked.

Ugh.

I put a fresh diaper on Jill, set her on my bed, and ten seconds later my bed was soaked in pee.

Huh??? THAT WAS A FRESH DIAPER! There's no way it was full!

And then...an epiphany. (Whew! Big words. Watch out.)

The first diapers I put on them were the brand new ones I had gotten as gifts. After I had run out of those, I started using my stash from Craigslist...I ran a fresh one of the Craigslist diapers under the sink...and the water beaded up and ran right off the diaper...like rain on a freshly waxed car.

A-HA!

Apparently, my simple strip didn't do the trick! The "old" diapers have a residue build up of detergent on them (still) that is keeping the liquid from absorbing! (The guy said they had been in the attic...I wonder if the heat up there had something to do with it?)

The good news is that my experiment isn't a lost cause. The bad news is that I have to figure out a harsher stripping method...and actually DO it. Oh well, still worth the cost savings.

So far.

Oops...snapped Lu's diaper too tight!

A smile from Jilly. Scowls all around from Lucy....

Aaahhh...much better!

Gonna do some looking around online and then try again. Once I get them stripped sufficiently I think this whole thing is gonna work...the new diapers proved to be absorbent, easy, and even CUTE!

(P.S. this is my 500th post!!!! Holy moly!)

(P.P.S. You have NO IDEA how many photos I took to get these few...gotta love digital cameras!)

Okay, gotta hop in the shower...we have a doc appointment this afternoon. Gonna take ALL. THREE. KIDS.

Alone.

Wish me luck.