Friday, February 28, 2014

Levi: 15 Months


Our little man will be 15 months old tomorrow! This past month, we definitely saw him learn several new things as well as display that stubborn little personality of his a bit more. Here is a recap of Levi's 14th month:

EATING
Levi is still drinking 5-6 oz per milk from his sippy cup, 4 times throughout the day. I had been slightly warming it in the microwave, but this month, I only did that for his first sippy cup of the day. Now, he drinks it cold from the fridge, usually alongside his lunch, snack or dinner.

He has been pretty adventurous with his solids this month! Some things he tried for the first time:

Collard greens (He could not get enough! Yuck!)
Meatloaf (Not a fan at all)
Waffles
Broccoli and cauliflower stuffed shells
Sauteed squash and zucchini (first time having these not-pureed)

This month, Levi started refusing his oatmeal in the morning. It was kind of frustrating, but I kind of get it. He had had oatmeal every morning for almost 8 months straight--so the dude just wanted a change. I don't blame him. So now I've been making him a real breakfast each morning, but the extent of my "making" is scrambling an egg on the stove top. I've been rotating frozen waffles, Cheerios with fruit, and scrambled eggs throughout the week. He seems to enjoy the variety much more!


Another change this month is Levi's independence concerning his food. He really does not like me to feed him from a spoon anymore--instead he wants to use his hands or attempt using his own utensils. The other night, he did actually use his own fork, and while he was haphazardly stabbing at his tray, he did manage to pick up a few pieces of food and eat them off the fork.

Levi also loves to feed Brian and I now. He'll just hold up whatever he is eating and expect us to just eat it from his hand. He thinks it is hilarious when we actually do. This happens A LOT when he doesn't really care for what he is eating. Surprise, surprise! Unfortunately, he isn't really into the dried mango anymore. He got sick of it after several days in a row and it got to the point where I would find sticky, slobbery mango pieces on the floor because he stopped sucking on it. So we're taking a break from that.

SLEEPING
Not really anything new here! Little man goes to bed around 7 PM each night and he has actually been waking at 7:30-7:45 AM each morning. His first nap of the day has gotten a bit shorter because of that (only 1 hour instead of 1.5), but it's nice to be able to sleep in a bit on these cold winter mornings!

Every once in a while, he will take his 3rd nap of the day (usually between 4 and 5 PM), but it's pretty rare these days. Once he wakes from his second nap around 2:30, he can usually make it to his bedtime without a problem.

WAKE TIME 
Since starting to sleep in most mornings, his wake time has actually shortened before his first nap of the day. Most days, he is ready to go back to bed by 8:30 AM, meaning that he is only awake for 45-60 minutes. Kind of weird to me, considering his age, but I can't complain. Before his second nap of the day, he is usually awake for 2 hours.



Some of Levi's favorite toys at this time are trucks, puzzles, his soccer ball and BOOKS. He will sit and look through his books all day long. It's so fun to see how much he loves them. He has also learned how trucks "work" and he will push them along the floor on their wheels.


MOTOR SKILLS
Levi has learned to "cruise" around furniture, but he is still not walking. He is actually the only one in his nursery class that can't walk yet :( He just seems so content with crawling still--and believe me, he is fast! Time will tell.

VOCABULARY
Levi's favorite syllable is "Da." He'll crawl around the house all day saying it--whether he is looking for Brian or not. He also says some other things on occasion:

"Da-da," or something that sounds very close to "Daddy"
"Hi"
"Buh-bye"
"Brush"
"Sock"

He knows a lot of other words and gets really excited when we say them (book, bath, let's go out, church), but he still hasn't quite figured out how to say them. Oh, and still no "ma-ma" either. Sigh...


SICKNESS
Of course, little man and I both developed colds again this month. Story of my life! So we've both been congested and having sleep troubles throughout the night. Brian and I will occasionally hear Levi coughing late into the night, but luckily, it hasn't been to the point where it keeps him up or where he needs my comfort.

DIAPERING
One change in this area for Levi's 14th month is his nighttime diapering. After many consecutive mornings of me finding him wet in his crib, I knew we needed to make a change. I'm not sure why all of the sudden he started peeing more at night (since he is still drinking the same amount each day), but it was becoming an issue. He was nearing the maximum weight for the current rise of his cloth diapers, so I expanded them to the highest rise setting. Then, instead of using 1 large and 1 small insert in his nighttime diapers, I added 1 extra small one. Since doing this, I haven't found a wet baby in the morning, yet his diapers have been completely full. Success!

OUTINGS/EVENTS
We finally had some pretty "warm" days this month--as in 40's and 50's! That really inspired us to get out to the park just a block over. Levi loves the swings and he was happy to be reunited with them after 4 long months!


Brian and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary this month, so Levi went to his Tia's house for the evening. Tia (Auntie) Angelica is Brian's manager at work, which seems like the weirdest situation, but she is so so sweet to Levi. She has three teenage daughters, so they all love to babysit him together and basically dote on him for a few hours straight. In Angelica's eyes, Levi can do no wrong--we always get a report that he was "perfect the entire time." She is currently teaching him how to say Ciao, which means goodbye in her native country of Chile.


Our baby boy's 2nd Valentine's Day was this month as well! Since our wedding anniversary is on February 13th, I consider Levi to be my valentine on the 14th. However, he had another valentine this year as well...


Lastly, we did go to the zoo this month as well! First time in 2014...and it was still pretty chilly. But we had a fun time with friends, Carly and Peter, looking at the few animals that were out in their habitats. And look at these two cuties below!




Overall, this month had it's challenges, but it was rewarding. We are very blessed by Levi and we sure can't wait for some Spring weather to enjoy the outdoors with him in this new phase of his life!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Cloth Life.

Here we are, almost 15 months into this adventure called parenting and 9 months into the wonderful world of cloth diapering. We were so, so blessed by the generosity of our friends and family when Levi was born--we had enough disposable diapers stockpiled to last until he turned 6 months old. I kid you not, we did not have to buy a single diaper for that dude for 6 months. Such a blessing!

Levi at 6 months old, sporting his very first cloth diaper!
Around the time he turned 5 months, we realized our nice little "diaper closet" was dwindling in supplies and we needed to make a decision about continuing to buy disposables or take the leap and purchase a stash of cloth diapers. I've mentioned on here before that we had considered cloth diapers when I was pregnant--but after seeing how many disposables he received at our showers, we put a hold on that thought.

I researched for hours and hours and I was just overwhelmed with all of the options. The world of cloth diapering has, what seems like, an entirely different lingo. Snappis, prefolds, fitteds, 2-in-1's, pockets, blah, blah, blah. It was confusing! I just wanted something simple to use, simple to wash, and reliable when it came to catching his pee and poo.

One thing I found super helpful when researching diapers is watching reviews on YouTube for each kind. Real-life cloth diapering mamas give their pros and cons of their experiences with each diaper. They can also point out features of the diapers in the videos that you often can't see a picture of before you purchase the diapers--which can help you make an informed decision. Because you can do that, I'll refrain from listing all of my pros and cons here for the diapers we use.

A few friends recommended the BumGenius brand very enthusiastically--so I decided to buy two 4.0 pocket diapers with some Babies-R-Us gift cards. I mean, I hadn't spent a dime from my own pocket (no pun intended), so it was worth a shot! Around the same time, we also considered gDiapers again (we had when I was pregnant)--Brian liked them solely for their "look." He is such a sucker for that kind of thing. gDiapers are not one-size, meaning they do not expand and grow with the baby, so I wasn't loving that idea. This was supposed to help save us money after all--and buying a new set of cloth diapers every 6 months defeated that purpose. But we had a few more gift cards, so we also decided to give those a try (with some of their disposable inserts at first, since the cloth inserts are not included).

BumGenius 4.0's
gDiapers
Overall, after trying both types, I really liked the BumGenius 4.0's much more than the gDiapers (for various reasons), but they still weren't quite what I was hoping for. I didn't love that, because the 4.0's were pocket diapers, I had to wash both the covers and the inserts every time he dirtied a diaper. At $18 per diaper, multiplied by 12-16 diapers needed for a 2-day span, that was a pretty high start-up cost. More than we cared to spend.

And then I found the Flip system. Made by Cotton Babies (just like BumGenius) Flip diapers are the exact same exterior as the 4.0's, but instead of having a pocket that you stuff the insert into, they are simply a waterproof shell that you lay the insert inside of. This allows you to reuse the unsoiled cover multiple times, with clean inserts, before washing. We purchased two of these combo packs, which is just enough to get Levi through 2 days of diapering before I need to wash. $100 for all the diapers he will need until he is potty trained! Quite the bargain.

Flip Diapers (also shown below)


I have only recently found one downside to the Flip diapers as opposed to the 4.0's. Since Levi is so active now, it is a bit more of a pain to make sure the insert is positioned correctly in the diaper when putting it on him. This isn't a problem with the 4.0's because the insert stuffs inside, so it is all in one piece when diapering. But, with a bit more of a conscious effort to always double check the fit of the diaper and position of the insert before letting him crawl away, any potential leaks can be easily avoided.

Here is a look at our small, but more than sufficient diaper stash (we've added a few items since we first started with cloth):


  • 3 -   BumGenius 4.0 One-Size Pocket Diapers with inserts (I mainly use these for nighttime diapering)
  • 5 -   Flip One-Size Diaper Covers 
  • 12 - Flip Stay-Dry Inserts 
  • 9 -   Flip Stay-Dry Newborn Inserts (I have started using these as doublers with the large inserts, since Levi is now drinking larger quantities between changes)
  • 1 -   Miscellaneous diaper cover (very similar to a Flip diaper, gift from a friend)
  • 2 -   gDiapers, size medium (I use these with the Flip inserts, usually just on wash day)
  • 1 -   Econobum Diaper with 3 prefolds (I bought this in the very beginning of exploring cloth diapers, because it was super cheap. The prefolds were just way too bulky for my liking though.)
  • 1 -   gDiaper wetbag with $10 pail from Target
  • 1 -   gDiaper mini-wetbag for on the go
Diaper cover (brand unknown)
Econobum Diaper with Pre-fold
Mini-wetbag that I keep in Levi's bag for on-the-go changes
The diaper pail, which stays in Levi's closet (so that little hands can't get into it...)
So 9 months into cloth diapering and we (I) love it! Well, as much as you can love something that comes in contact with human feces. Brian doesn't change Levi often, but when he does, even he can handle the cloth diapers with ease! While there are a few (rare) exceptional days, it is not at all as gross as it seems. As a mom, you become pretty accustomed to handling human waste, so I find it is really not a huge deal to flip a poopy diaper over the toilet instead of rolling it up for the trash can. 

What I love most about cloth diapering--besides the obvious cute factor--is the savings! In the last 9 months, we have saved nearly $350 because we use cloth.* 

Now, I am by no means saying that disposable diapers are a terrible option. We all know they are super convenient! And we still buy a small pack every two or three months for when Levi is in the church nursery or with a babysitter. But, personally, I just can't get past the savings of using cloth diapers, especially when they require very little effort on my part. Every other evening, I just dump the diapers into the washer (wetbag and all), transfer them to the dryer before heading to bed, and they are fresh and ready to go by the next morning.

So this is my experience with cloth diapers thus far! Once we have another baby, I'll be anxious to try them for the 6 months and younger age range, since I never did with Levi. I would definitely recommend giving them a try!


*Based on an average of 6 diapers per day, using Pampers brand. Price of laundry detergent, water, and energy taken into account.