Baby's Coming Home Outfit keepsake.

I wanted a pretty way to keep my daughter's coming home outfit. I thought a shadow box would be pretty. 

 

So I got a 11x14 shadow box, and I gathered my supplies. I got the first shirt she wore in the hospital, her first hat, and her coming home outfit. As well as one of 

 her hospital photos and her hospital bracelet. 

 

 

I stashed the baby next to me in her bouncer. 

 

I pinned the clothes on. Then used a dot of hot glue on the bracelet, and used scrapbooking glue dots on the picture. 

 

Then I hung it up in her bedroom. I love how it turned out. It really is one of my favorite  keepsakes.

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Things that I Love

My bright purple front door. Makes me smile every time I open it.

My entry way, with my giant purple mirror and pretty desk.

These are just two things that make me smile every day.

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Whats in my Diaper bag

My cloth diaper bag, and what I drag around with me. 

My diaper bag, its a Coach diaper bag. Nice big and functional. It has shoulder straps, and a longer cross body strap. Makes it easy to carry. (I have my cell phone case strapped to the front there) I do not carry a purse any more so this has stuff for me in there as well. 

Here is the inside, all packed. It does zip shut, but I normally leave it open. Easier to grab stuff as I need it. I find nothing falls out any way. 

I carry four diaper changes with me at all times, no matter where I am going. I'm a worry wart. I like to be over prepared. 

So here is what I have with me at all times. 

3 prefold diapers and one cover. 

1 Pocket diaper, mostly for my husbands benefit, and its easier if we are going to the Doctors. 

A lint roller, with four cats, this is a must! 

A receiving blanket, for spit up, or to put down under baby. 

A small Planet Wise wet bag, I think it is actually the wipe size, but it holds two dirty dipes and I like it. 

A plastic baggy with pre-moistened cloth wipes 

An extra outfit!! Just in case, babies pee or poop or spit up a lot! 

Hand sanitizer, I use it after diaper changes, or for other people. 

A Benedryl stick, that one is for me. I have sensitive skin!  

Sunblock, for me, but when baby is allowed to use it it will be for her too. Being a red head this is a must. 

And the last one, Desitin, that one is for both of us. I used it after my episiotomy. (once the stitches were gone but it was still sore.) IF I use it on Tempe, I put in a fleece liner over the cloth diapers. Desitin can ruin cloth dipes. But I havent found a rash cream I like. 

There is mine, share yours!  

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Top Five Things for the Newborn stage

Lets be real, what do you really need for a baby?

1. Arms, got em? good. You may want to grow about 6 more arms. You will be holding baby a LOT! 

2. Boobs, if you're a man you're gonna need bottles. If you're going to breast feed you will need these. Your baby may seem to be attached at first. You go from an umbilical cord to a boob. It gets better.

3. A car seat, you don't automatically come equipped with this one. This is something I agonized over! I have no tips for you. 

So to sum up, a baby needs love, some where to sleep, something to eat. And of course a way to get to and from all of those Doctor check ups! 

But there are things that make those first few weeks easier. 

A good sleep sack (or ten) I have five. They are great in place of blankets. Tempe hates being swaddled so this is something we still use. 

A Boppy. Not just for nursing! though really its a life saver when feeding a tiny floppy baby. 

I toss a blanket over our boppy and use it like this. 

A bouncer! To be honest I kept mine in the bathroom most the time. So I could shower or you know pee without holding a screaming baby! 

Now my bouncer lives in my laundry room. You know so we can all have clean clothes!

A Moby Wrap, may seem daunting the first time you tie it. But really its easy, and I loved it! 

Sadly I dont have a picture of us using it. 

The last thing I find myself always using, and still do. Would be a glider rocker. Its great for putting that grumpy baby to sleep. Or for breastfeeding. I might as well live in this chair.

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You Mean You Wash your Diapers

You mean you wash your diapers in the same washer you wash your clothes!? How gross! 

Lets get real here. Its really not gross. Isn't it just as gross to toss diapers full of poop in a trash can? Or how about when those disposable diapers leak onto your baby's clothes. Do you throw the pooped or peed on clothes in the trash?

No. You throw it where? You mean in the washer you wash your clothes in!? 

Why yes, yes you would do that. No big deal. 

Cloth diapers really are no different. In the big scheme of things. Now I'm not bashing disposable diaper users. All diapers have there place in the world. But don't say you couldn't do cloth because its gross. It really isn't. 

When my wet bag looks full like this, it gets hauled down to the laundry room

With a baby that is exclusively breastfed, you can take that diaper, pop it in your "wet bag" (or where ever you choose) and then dump it into your washer. If you do a cold soak, rinse and spin. All that yuck will rinse right off and be gone. Then do a hot wash with your preferred cloth diaper detergent. Mine happens to be  Eco Sprout

Some people go all out and make a wash routine super complicated. I try not to make things more trouble than they really are. I do a cold soak/rinse/spin. Then a hot wash, with an extra cold rinse. See not really much work. 

Have stains? Put that diaper out in the sun! I line dry all of my pocket covers as often as I can. (you know if its raining I pop them in the dryer on low heat) And if any of my prefolds or inserts get gross I line dry them too! I've heard you can even put lemon juice on there to help the sun out. 

See don't make things more complicated or gross than they really are! 

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I'm a Cloth Diapering Mama

When I was pregnant with Tempe, I thought about how I wanted to raise her. I thought about all sorts of things! And one of the things I thought about was, how to use all natural diapers and not break the bank. I knew I didnt want to use your typical chemical filled disposable, but found that the all natural disposables are fairly expensive. Not only that, its a lot of waste! Too much trash to lug out daily. Or if not daily, disgusting! I decided to go with one size pocket style diapers. 

Now I knew one size is a little deceptive, they do not fit until baby is about 10 pounds. So unless you have a whopper of a baby, dont expect one size to fit the day you bring baby home from the hospital. Not going to happen. I saw it this way, I just had a baby, I was exhausted. Who needs to do laundry with a 2 day old baby? Some do, Im not that crazy. I did use disposables until she was about seven weeks old. 

I used these 

I got them here

They worked great during that tiny newborn phase. When you think they will never stop pooping! My goodness I would never have wanted to do that much laundry! You would never guess a baby could go through so many diapers. So after spending her future college fund on diapers, we moved to cloth diapers! 

Tempe in her very first cloth diaper. A Sunbaby Diaper 

I love them!!! 

My stash consists of 

4 Bumgenius one size pockets

4 Sunbaby one size pockets

2 Fuzzibunz one size pockets (one is an elite)

1  Rumparooz one size pocket

1 Happy Heinys one size pocket

1 Bumkins one size pocket

I got my storage at Ikea

All of these diapers are snaps. I love the snaps, only downside to this is husbands doing diaper changes. Turns out to many snaps can be rather confusing for the poor guy.

I also found prefold love, I have one Thirsties size one cover, a one size Flip cover, as well as a SweetPea onesize cover. I prefer these for night time, though sometimes for night time I use a Thirsties fitted diaper. Depending on what is clean. I love prefolds for when we go out. I find pockets make my diaper bag a massive thing to contend with. I use cotton prefolds, I have a few brands. I now have a stash to last two days between washing. Its all about preference!

well there you have it, an introduction to my cloth diapering. I will post more later!

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Mama Trust Your Gut

Trust your gut. No one knows your baby as well as you do. Even when they are newborns, you know them best. That little baby was living inside you for 9 months. I am a first time mom, I had my little princess in July.

 She had a very simple feeding issue that was ignored. Or at least not noticed. The first time she breastfed was easy, she latched on and ate easily. But hours later was another story. I couldn't get her to latch and when I did, she would just get tired and fall off without eating. I told the first nurse I had, she said "Oh that's normal" I didn't buy it but ok. I kept trying. The next nurse again "She is a newborn, they always have trouble" and that's true, some babies do have trouble. The next nurse told me if I had so much trouble I should give up and she would bring me a bottle. No way. By my fourth nurse I was skeptical. I asked again about her feeding. This nurse ended up being a God send. I wish I could remember her name and thank her, she was wonderful! She looked in Tempe's mouth for the first time, no other nurse had thought of that for some reason. Turns out tongue tied! Aha! Solved, something simple to work with. Though at this point she was Jaundice and tired. So instead of trying to get Tempe to latch, since she was exhausted. This Nurse brought me a pump, and a syringe. That Nurse sat with me for an hour helping me feed my little baby with a syringe. I was lucky, Tempe didn't need to go under any lights, and we left the hospital right on schedule. Though for the feeding issue we had to use a Madela Nipple shield for two weeks. We slowly broke away from using it for every feeding. Never be afraid to use one if that is what your baby needs. 

So glad I trusted my gut, and had a wonderful nurse that actually listened to me. Repeat your concerns! Even if you sound like a broken record! 

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Owl Themed Nursery

I have a 9 week old baby girl, and from the time I found out we were expecting I started thinking about the nursery. What theme? When we found out we were having our little princess Tempe (T), I knew I wanted owl theme! And purple of course. I am not a pink girl. (Though some how all of her clothes are pink!) So here is the finished product of my idea.

You may ask, why isn't there a crib? Well for now she sleeps in our room. I do use her nursery a lot though. All of her clothes and toys are neatly stored.

This is my favorite part of her room, I sit there for hours nursing T. (I'm sitting there now)

My mother got these owls at a yard sale, and I repainted them to match her room. I love how it turned out.  

Typical girl closet, bursting with clothes! Like I said, a lot of pink! 

And of course, here is a picture of T playing. 

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