cloth diapering for baby #2

check out Our Nest In The City for my most recent post about the downside (finally some balance, you're probably thinking!) of my favourite thing - cloth diapers! I've been really one-sided, because honestly, my experience had been one-sided until now. But they don't last forever as I thought they did (naive?), so they won't be saving me as many thousands as I'd thought.... $500-$1000 is still a lot of savings, but less than I thought, so I may buy more, and a different kind....

Check it out for deets!

a little behind...

For many reasons (i.e. traveling for 2 months this summer, visiting family in Ontario for weeks after that, not knowing if we were staying or moving apartments, etc) I am feeling very BEHIND.

I know the baby won't notice if her room is finished or not (but I will) but it's more than that... tonight we're starting our FIRST labour and delivery class of four, the last being precisely two days after our due date... The reason being, the class we should have taken was happening while we were in Africa this June. Apparently the last class should be exactly 1 month before your due date... Oops. Dropped the ball on that one!

I need to sit back and RELAX and enjoy these last few days/weeks before a baby infiltrates me and Brad's tight knit home and becomes our never-moving-out roommate that we love so much, we barely have time to think... I am so excited for her to come though that all I want to do is prepare FOR her instead of enjoy this time without her while it's here.

In reality, the things we have still to do aren't urgent (which is probably why they're not done) but to me they are because I want everything done and done right before she's born...

* we still need to buy between 6-10 more cloth diapers, but we're not starting cloth diapering until a month AFTER she's born

* we still need to get her correct crib in our nursery and assemble it, but she won't be sleeping in the crib until a month or even two AFTER she's born (bassinet will take care of that)

*we still need to take these labour and delivery classes, though my doctor's assured me that she knows what to do (duh) and the nurses and doctors are there to HELP me, so I won't be up a river with no paddle if I don't watch some terrifying video in the local health clinic with a bunch of strangers who are far less pregnant than me...

So really the things I'm behind on aren't something to stress about... I'm just stressing needlessly. But it's so hard not to! Stress is sometimes the easiest response when things don't go my way... Faith being the hardest and the most necessary.

"let's get you a diaper bag"

Music to my ears yesterday morning.

Bradford asked,
"is there anything you didn't get for your shower or we haven't bought that you'll need the first few months of MM's life?"

{as I'm having another baby shower from his dad's side of the family, but not until October}

"I guess a diaper bag is something I wanted but haven't yet got", I replied.

"let's get you a diaper bag", he beamed, knowing he's made my day

indeed he did.

CLOTH DIAPERS!!!

I'm so excited, I feel like the baby's actually coming the more prepared I become {as if she would wait for me to get it together?!}

We're still lacking a baby's room but everything else is in place, including as of yesterday, her cloth diapers! We decided it would probably be suicide to start cloth diapering from day one - you know in those weeks/month + when babies poop every 30 seconds? SO we're going with disposables for the first month+ and switching to cloth shortly after that - but we HAVE them, and that's what makes me feel less like the crazed, irresponsible mom who forgot to book prenatal classes, and more like, well a MOM.

I was going with the AppleCheeks system for several reasons including but not limited to:

• They're a Montreal company
• They're less bulky and probably the cutest one's I've seen
• They have rave reviews

However last night I had a slight change in plans when I was at the Bummis 15% off everything in our store (plus 80% off other things!!) sale on the Plateau with my girlfriend Amy. Bummis doesn't carry Applecheeks for starters, but the main deal was they carry another product called Easy Fits made by Tots Bots (a Scottish company).

The Easy Fits lacked some things AppleCheeks do have:

• not as cute colour selection and a tad more bulky
• not local

But what they lacked they made up for in spades:

• They're one-size fits-all, so with the AppleCheeks I'd have to buy size 1 and size 2 for the baby as she grows, but Easy Fit will last her the.whole.time. YES!
• They're prestuffed {AppleCheeks and most other cloth diapering systems come in 2 parts: an envelope cover/outside shell and the actual absorbent lining which you fold and insert each time, and hence must also remove each time...when it's poopy and urine-soaked... yum!}
• So with the Easy Fit I don't have to ever unstuff a soiled inner-part because it's all attached. **see clip here
• They're cheaper {AppleCheeks were $20 for the outer part and $9 for the inner part, Easy Fits are $23 even, but last night even 15% off of that ;)

Now that I think about it I should have bought way more than I did... It's suggested you have 8-14 diapers {brilliant because the AppleCheeks you would have needed as many for EACH SIZE!} and I only bought 5... I guess I'm holding out because it always chokes me up to spend so much at one time... but looking back that was a bad call since they were 15% off last night and may not ever be again...

Oh well, I'll just think about how much money I'm saving both from switching from the AppleCheeks system, but most of all, from not using disposable :)