Precious Sleep

So, have I talked to you guys about the fact that Stephen is not a good sleeper anymore?

No?  

That's unfortunate.  Let's rectify it.

When he first came home, he did the newborn thing waking every couple of hours.  When he was about 6 weeks old, that settled down and he started sleeping for four hours straight at least once a night.  It was glorious.

Those were the good ole days.

For the last month or so, he's gone back to his newborn sleep schedule.  Keep in mind, baby boy will be FOUR MONTHS OLD on November 11.  That's right.  And he's a whopping 18.5 pounds so it's not like there's some kind of eating issue.

We have tried all kinds of things to help him sleep better.

Cluster feedings

Bedtime rituals

Rice cereal

Full tummy before bed

Napping schedule

Warmer Sleepwear

Swaddling

Nothing helps.

Except for one thing.

Sleeping on the couch with me.

So he might get a good stretch of sleep in but I have a super sore body.

I still haven't decided if it's a good deal or not.

BumGenius!

I have several friends who either recently got pregnant or will be giving birth soon.  Several of them have sent me messages via FB on the cloth diapers we use and what I think.

Here are the ones that we use:

from here

These are the bumGenius Elemental One-Size Cloth Diapers.

Yup.  A bit of a mouthful.

Here's where we bought ours.

We bought 12 to start out with and got several different colors.  We might be able to do with a few more but 12 isn't terrible.  When they are in the washer, dryer, or drying in the sun, we use disposable diapers.

So, what do I think?

Here's the lowdown:

• 
  Financially, I love these.  In the long run, they save us a bundle!
• They are CUTE CUTE CUTE.  Period.
• Some people (who shall remain nameless) pretty much laughed at me when I told them we were going to do cloth.  They assumed that it's a huge workload.  Is it more of a workload than disposables?  Not really.  Because I have to do laundry anyway so what's a little more to the pile?  Is it grosser?  No, not to me.  But I'm a mommy.  Poo on my face doesn't gross me out so cleaning it out of a diaper shouldn't bother me either.  However, my feelings on this may change when Stephen starts eating solids but I can't imagine it'll be enough to deter me from cloth.
• A lot of people think this would increase our energy and water bills.  And it has.  But not dramatically at all because I dry these puppies in the sun often.  Which is great because the sun bleaches them and gets out most of the stains (although...what do I care about stains anyway?  THEY ARE DIAPERS!).
• Are they leak proof?  Yes.  Do they leak?  Yes.  It's the same thing as a disposable.  If too much is in it, it'll leak.  Plain and simple.  However, Stephen's poops can somehow defy gravity sometimes.  So if he's wearing a disposable, you can bet it's going all over his back even if he's upright.  When he's wearing his cloth diapers, that never happens.

That being said, I know some people who aren't as happy with their cloth diapers.  So reader be warned.  They are not for everyone.  

But we love them!

Readers: do you use cloth diapers?  Do you love or hate them?  Or, if you are preparing to have a baby, are you thinking about doing cloth diapering?  Share share share!!

Stephen's mobile: Link Up Party

So I mentioned here that I completed Stephen's mobile.  For the new readers, here's a look at it again:

 I used this tutorial from photojojo to create the mobile.  All in all, I spent roughly 10 bucks on the paper because I didn't have it on hand (plus it was on sale!!  SCORE).  Although the picture shows our temporary set up for the mobile, we do have plans to make it a bit more secure.


I wrote a guest post for Charlotte's Living Well on the Cheap when she was out of town.  You can see my guest post here!


And as I mentioned in my title, I'm linking up with the Link Up Party at Carolyn's Homework.  Check her out!

 

Completed Mobile

I FINALLY finished Stephen's mobile.


Seriously, it should not have taken this long and I realize that. 


I'm really good at procrastinating.

You may be able to tell but if not, on the ball that is hanging the lowest, there are pictures of our family members in the center of some of those pieces.  


And the way it's hanging?  That's a temporary fix until we get the pieces we need to create the arm to hold it up.  But it works for now.