I haven't been very good at blogging these past couple months. This blog was intended for health and beauty related things, but these days I don't feel like there is much beauty related anything in my life! Everything these days is all about the baby.
I do think I've finally figured out what I am going to do regarding nursing clothing. I thought those nursing tanks looked nice, especially for nights. However they don't make them in my size, not that I was all that surprised. Apparently 34K isn't a common enough size to bother making clothing for, not even sleep bras. I did discover a nursing "tank" that will work for me though. It isn't actually a tank because it has no straps. It clips onto a regular nursing bra, so when you unclip the bra the tank comes down with it. It is meant to wear under other shirts, so when you pull them up to nurse you aren't exposing your entire midsection. It is made by a company called "Undercover Mama" and they sell for about $25 on Amazon.com. It is a little pricier than what I would like to spend, but so far looks like my best (maybe only) option for nursing clothing that would work well for me.
So I've found a shirt that I think will work for me, only problem is it MUST be used with a nursing bra. Of course I need bras too. Fortunately years ago I found a website based in the UK that sells quality bras in a huge range of sizes. I've been buying exclusively from Figleaves.com for several years now, and will be buying more bras from them here soon. I had recently bought a nursing bra, only to discover it was too small once I got it. I didn't send it back though, because I literally had no bras that fit right and while it is small it fits better than what I had, plus it was cheap. I need to find a bra that is comfortable enough to wear during the nights is my issue. I am hoping I end up lucky and find a couple that will work well for me. Nursing wasn't successful with my first daughter at all, and I didn't get to my goal of at least one year with my second either. I plan on nursing this baby and making it work no matter what I have to do. Having comfortable support seems like an important part of that goal.
Something I've been spending hours upon hours researching lately besides nursing clothing, is diapers. Each time I decide how I want to cloth diaper, I find something better or something different that I have to consider as well. I do think perhaps I've narrowed it down to my final selections now. Once the baby is older we will use pocket diapers, something I was initially very much against. I hated the idea of diapers that you had to change the whole thing at every diaper change instead of just putting a new absorbent part in the cover. That was until I found out about sunbaby diapers and how cheap they are. I am planning on buying them with 2 bamboo inserts each, and it will only be $7.50 per diaper. I plan on buying a couple other diapers of other brands here and there just to try them, but plan on the bulk of the stash being sunbaby. I will get the ones with 2 bamboo inserts, simply because I can then use them as doublers with prefolds and other diapers.
For newborn diapering, I decided wool soakers were the way to go. I can make a wool soaker for $5, that's pretty cheap. It took me a long time to decide what to use inside the soakers though. Everybody says that fitted diapers are better than prefolds, only fitted diapers are about 10X the price of prefolds...I gotta say, that price turns me off a bit. I've read of people being very successful using prefolds with hemp and/or bamboo doublers/inserts though, so I think I've decided on that route. I settled on Green Mountain Diaper (affectionately known as GMD) prefolds because of their very high user ratings. They are more expensive that some other brands of prefolds, but are supposed to be softer, more absorbent, and last longer too. With shipping, 24 prefolds will set us back about $63. I decided to go with size small and skip the newborn size altogether. I figure the smalls work from 10-15 lb, which should be fine for this baby. My two girls were both pretty tall, and they were in the mid 8 lb range even with being taken out 2-3 weeks early. If this baby goes until 40-42 weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if birth weight is at or very close to 9 lbs. Worst case scenario would be having to fold the prefold over some for a couple weeks. I will be able to use the prefold later on as well. After the baby outgrows them, I can tri-fold them and use them in inserts in the pocket diapers.
I will probably keep using prefolds and wool for overnight use until the baby is potty trained. Like I said, the wool soakers are really cheap for me to make and knit up pretty fast. The wool soakers are actually "free" right now, because I have a bunch of wool yarn that I can use. The only problem is that it is all the same color, lol It should work great, but I might want one or two in a different color. For only overnight use, I wouldn't need many prefolds either, and they can be used for many things besides just cloth diapering. I don't plan to only use wool during the first couple months either. I plan to buy a couple covers to try out, mainly Flip and Thirsties brand covers. Wool will be what I mainly use though, in fact I've already made two newborn sized soakers :)
I plan to spend around $200 for all my cloth diapering supplies. That is quite a lot to me, and it seems crazy that other people can easily spend $800 or more on cloth diapers. Our goal is to save money and hopefully greatly reduce the number of blowouts and leaks. Of course we will be buying NOTHING for the baby until we get our tax return, which should be around the middle of next month. The idea is to order everything at once, then have a mini "baby party" and open everything and put stuff together (the crib mainly). I thought a little party would be fun for the girls, and they can make a couple crafts for the baby.
We are going a bit of a different approach with this baby. We will be trying something that has been labeled "Attachment Parenting." Basically you make your child so emotionally dependent on you that they can't even comprehend the idea of offending you, lol Okay, not quite. The idea is to build a strong relationship and bond with the child so they feel more secure in their world. You do things like babywear, co-sleep, nurse on demand, use gentle discipline, things like that. It does not mean that you don't discipline the child at all, just that you rely more on reasoning and redirecting instead of punishment methods like time outs. It makes sense to me, and I don't think it would hurt anything to try it.
My husband was a little worried about the co-sleeping. I was a bit too, since he could sleep through an earthquake! We've decided to "side car" a crib. All that means is you take a side off the crib and attach it next to your own bed so the mattresses can't wiggle apart. The main benefit I see in this is that nighttime nursing will be way easier. I like the idea of the baby being right there, but having his/her own space and not actually being in our bed. I think we would have this setup for quite a while actually, probably until 18 months or so. The great thing is that we can just detach it and move it, and presto! toddler bed! lol
As far as babywearing goes, that sounds like the best part to me. I have never been a fan of strollers. With our first we bought one of those "travel systems" that has a huge stroller that the infant seat clips into. We used it maybe twice, and it was a huge pain in the rear end. I don't like strollers. We will probably end up buying 3 baby carriers in total. I want a Moby wrap for the first few months and around the house. I have my sights set on a chocolate brown one with a butterfly on it and the words "Born Free." I am doing a completely unmediated home birth after all, might as well have some little badge saying "I did it, yay for me" lol Obviously if I end up transferring or having interventions/drugs I will buy a different design, ;) I want to get a soft structured carrier for later on and for trips shopping and walks. I have tall babies, so decided to go with a Boba G3 carrier. It has a lot of cool features on it, but the back is higher to stop toddlers from hurting their backs (main reason why I want it). I also want to get the all popular Ergo carrier, mostly for my husband.
For all three carriers we are looking at a price tag of around $260. I wouldn't even consider spending that much if it weren't for a couple points. I don't plan on buying almost any baby gear. Besides the crib, car seat, and carriers, we won't be getting any of the other stuff. No swings, bouncy seats, play mats, nothing like that (maybe a Boppy for tummy time and nursing). We are saving a bunch of money on diapers, and won't be buying formula or special baby food (plan to do "baby lead weaning" and only give baby real food, not that overpriced mush in a jar). Then there is the final thing; we will eventually need two carriers. The plan is to try for a 4th (and final) child once this baby is a little over a year old. I would carry the new baby in the Moby or Boba (unlike the Ergo, it can be used for newborns without having to buy a pricey insert) while my husband would carry the toddler in the Ergo (unless he ends up liking the Boba better, lol). This also factored into our decision to cloth diaper and to go ahead with the GMD prefolds instead of a cheaper brand. Ideally the only things we would need to buy for the fourth baby would be a car seat and some clothes.
So that's what I've been up to, obsessing about getting ready for the baby, lol I had been obsessing about the birth, but looking at baby things is more fun :) I did create a baby registry on Amazon.com. I don't really intend it for people to buy me stuff, but as a way to organize what I need and want to get for the baby from Amazon.
On a last note, my midwife appointment is tomorrow. I will be 23 weeks and 4 days (the 1st of February is the first day of my third trimester!) Even bigger news is that my husband just sent me a text saying he made an ultrasound appointment for tomorrow at 1 in the afternoon! The ultrasound will be to find out the gender only, and instead of setting us back $300 like an anatomy scan, it will only be $75! I say only, but it is actually a strain on our budget right now. I can deal with budget strain to finally find out if baby is a boy or a girl though! Hopefully I'll have a lot of calls to make tomorrow afternoon!
