1st father's day

Yeah for Ken's first father's day! Now, we're silly rookies over here. Ken was in VA with Avery on Mother's Day, so we didn't get to be together till later that evening, and then on Father's day, Ken was flying home from another wedding that he was in over in VA. Two things: first, we're clueless about these holidays because we normally are at church those days and we then call our parents and grandparents that afternoon to tell them we love them, etc. But as far as plans, when we were getting his plane tickets, and I'm sure when his buddies were planning their weddings, they weren't thinking about these special days. second, I guess Ken is just too good of a friend that people can't but help to ask him to be in their wedding? Either way, it was kinda perfect because on Mother's day, I got to see them walk through the gate at the airport and I felt a new level of longing while they were gone, and then a new joy to see them return. I'm sure Ken felt the same way we he saw his baby girl the next morning. And clearly, if you look here you'll see just how happy she was to have him back. But on the real, Ken is an amazing father, he loves his girl so much and I love him even more as I watch him become a father. Even though I think every day I acknowledge his natural taking to fatherhood, having a day to shout it out more is always nice. So, Ken: YOU ARE THE BEST!!

the one about cloth diapering

I have to give all credit here to Ken. It was his idea that we do cloth diapers for Avery's tushy. I was hesitant, probably because it's different, but I have to say, I love it. Since being a temporary stay at home mom, I have come to enjoy the simple things in life. I enjoy doing laundry, washing bottles, folding baby clothes- it's as if it has a greater purpose than before. So I really don't mind cleaning her diapers. It's real simple, and cleaning a poopy diaper is NOT that big of a deal. To be totally honest, it's good to make sure that what's coming out is all good, so when I'm cleaning a poopy diaper, I get to "analyze" if you will how Avery's processing things. :)

This is what we do:
We use the pre-folds which means we form the diaper to her body. At her age and size, the diaper is about the size of a piece of paper. The center of the diaper is 6-8 layers thick while the sides are about 2 layers thick. Plenty of absorption.
Our station: From L to R we have the shells that go over the diaper, the pre-fold diapers, the liners for the night diaper, flannel wipes and in the basket some diaper cream, baby lotion, etc.
This snappy is what holds the diaper on her. So much better than pins, in my opinion. And not once has this come off while she's been wearing it. It's not Velcro; it's these claws that grab onto the cotton really well and stay in place.
The shells are not only really cute, they go over the diaper and keep all the moisture and other things contained. Someone said they looked like American Apparel diapers. I'm pretty sure these were not nearly as expensive as anything sold at that store! This one is attached by Velcro at the top.
This one is attached with snaps that provide a lot of size adjustment for our growing baby. At night, she sleeps in a much bigger diaper with a liner so that a wet diaper doesn't wake her up. When we do that, we open the snaps more to make more room.
THE GUSSETS! This is an important piece to the type of diapers we use. The little white line closest to the leg is the gusset. This keeps every thing in the shell and not out on the clothes and mom's pants. I have made the mistake of not checking to see if the diaper was in the gussets and ended up with poop on my leg. Fool me once...
The cleaning. I am going to NOT post a picture of a poopy diaper. We all know what it looks like! But when that happens, we take the diaper to the toilet and rinse it off with:
this sprayer that Ken hooked up to the water line of the toilet. It's just like a sprayer you have attached to your kitchen sink. We'll just hold the diaper over the toilet and rinse it off. Then we ring it out and put it in:
our diaper bag. This bag is great and it holds about two days worth of diapers and dirty wipes. You only have to rinse off the poopy diapers, and the wipes we just put in there without rinsing. So every other morning, I take the bag and put the whole thing in the washer. At the bottom of this bag is a zipper that I unzip and in the wash, the diapers escape and get good and clean. You don't have to reach in a pull out the dirty diaps which is nice. We pre-wash and then wash the load on heavy soil level with warm water.
Now is the weather is right, we hang the diapers out to dry. The sun bleaches them and drys them quickly. Ken is a bigger fan of this than I am, but I'm learning to love it. They have a tendency of coming out a little crispy when we hang them to dry, so we'll throw them in the dryer for a few minutes to soften them.
She seems to enjoy them! Way to save the world, Avery!

We also made a video because people don't believe how easy it is to diaper this way. Enjoy!

Watch us cloth diaper!

Websites that we love about cloth diapering:
Green Mountain Diapers
Zuka Baby, New Orleans

8 weeks

Things that Avery does that make me smile:

1. any time she smiles
2. sometimes when she needs to sneeze and doesn't, she makes this beautiful sound of cooing contentment.
3. the way she moves her arms when she's hungry
4. how she tries to talk
5. when she rolled over in her crib yesterday and didn't cry, but more was in shock at this new thing she could do
6. when i put pants on her, she looks like an old man
7. her face when she's making a big poopy
8. how she will stare at her daddy for the longest time
9. when she looks at herself in the mirror
10. how she calms down when i hold her tight and pat her back

what a difference a week makes

Babywise, Happiest Baby on the Block, Bringing Home your Newborn, Healthy Sleep Habits: Happy Child, and the Google search on my computer.

The above resources ALL SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT about what to do with your fussy 6 week old baby. Growth spurt? Colic? Reflux? Sleep deprived?

How about this: she's a baby.

Pardon the all caps frustration, but for a first time mother, all you want to know is why your baby is upset. Is she hurt? These books do offer good advice, but it's hard when they say completely different things. One says to wake your baby up to feed her, and another will say, never wake a sleeping baby. What to do? And as of yet, I'm not trusting my maternal instinct like I should.

But, after this 6th week passed, Avery decided that she was done with the 24/7 fussiness and that she would nap during the day and sleep 7 hours at night. My girl is an independent woman already and was insulted that we would use a book to understand her! In honor of her decision, she decided to smile all the time. So what else am I to do but... PHOTO SHOOT!