Hi, my name is Sterling, and I'm a cloth diapering momma...

Or...
 The post where I talk about poop.

We cloth diaper. We are not hippies, green-freaks, or trying to save the whales.
(I like whales)... But we really like to save money where we can without being "cheap", and now that we DO cloth diaper, it makes me happy that I'm not putting plastic and chemicals on Miss V's adorable little tush.

For us, doing two extra loads of laundry per week was worth the savings.  I researched for MONTHS during my pregnancy on different options for cloth diapering, brands, and especially what would be "daddy-friendly".

I loved the look and reviews of FuzziBunz, but we really couldn't afford $300-$400 for a full stash right away, and I knew that if I had to buy two diapers at a time I wouldn't do it. I'm an all-or-nothing gal. I found a few knock-offs, but reviews weren't great. Then, I stumbled upon found my diapers. Definitely NOT knock-offs!  I LOVE them!


We use Green Bees One-Size Pocket Diapers. They are very similar to the FuzziBunz one-size diapers, but for LITERALLY 1/3 the price per diaper and built a little differently. They are cute, easy to use, adjust to fit kiddos 8 - 30 lbs, and very daddy- and baby-sitter (hi, Grandma!) friendly. Oh, and customer service is PHENOMENAL! We ordered the "Everything But The Baby" package which was 24 diapers of our choice. When I sent my color requests, I got an almost immediate response telling me we could choose 5 more diapers because we had only ordered solid colors. Woot! The best part? We didn't have to spend a ton of money! I questioned if spending less would be a waste of money, but so far (5 months in, plenty of time to make the $180 we spent on 29 diapers worth it!) we haven't had any issues with major leaks (when she started sleeping through the night, we had to start double-stuffing, but we haven't noticed anything that wouldn't happen with a 'sposie), and the diapers still look brand new!

See?! Look how cute!!!











What do I mean by pocket diaper?

                                                                     This...










                     Gets stuffed into this...

                                         

                                                 

                                                        and put on this!





                                   (say it with me.. awwww!!!)


So, how does it work? Here is the basic use cycle of one of our pocket diapers.

Diaper is stuffed and ready to use.

Miss V needs her bum changed, so we put the clean diaper on her cute clean bum.

Three-ish hours later, Miss V needs her bum changed.
 

Uh oh! It's poop! Close the used diaper and set to the side while wiping cute little cheeks. (And might I add, newborn poop does NOT gross me out. At. All.   ... Daddy on the other hand? Usually I come to the rescue when there is poop.)

Depending on where we are, the soiled diaper goes into either a wetbag to be taken care of at home, or taken into the bathroom where the insert is removed from the diaper, we put a bucket with holes in the bottom into the toilet bowl, and use our handy-dandy diaper-sprayer (think the sprayer on the kitchen sink) (we built ours for about $15 with supplies from Lowe's) to spray off the poop. Easy. Never have to touch it unless I accidentally put my hand in it while wringing it out. In which case, I'll already be washing my hands, so.... ?

Then, the diaper and insert go into our "diaper pail" (a $12 garbage can with self-closing lid from Wal*Mart) until washing time. (If the diaper had been just wet, not poopy, then the diaper would just go straight into the diaper pail).

The diaper pail, by the way, is about halfway full of water with 1/2 cup Borax to help keep the stinkies at bay.

Washing time! I dump the contents of our diaper pail into our top-loading washer and set a rinse cycle. Then I do a hot wash using Arm & Hammer Free (no dyes or perfumes) with an extra rinse , and one more rinse just to be sure everything is out.

When it is warm outside (unless I am lazy in a hurry), I line-dry the diapers in my backyard. It looks so pretty having all my colorful diapers and pretty white inserts hanging on the line! Drying in the sun also helps with staining... natural bleaching. Ah. If I dry them in the energy hog dryer, I do two low-heat cycles.

I have stripped my diapers and inserts twice. The first time, I used 1 cup of white distilled vinegar and let my diapers soak in the wash for about an hour. Then I washed them as normal. It helped. A few weeks later, (that is, two weeks ago) I noticed the absorbency wasn't so great, so I researched other ways to strip diapers (stripping is removing all of the gunk buildup from washing, ammonia, etc.). This time, I used three squirts of original blue Dawn dishsoap in the wash AFTER washing with my regular detergent, and did three rinse cycles to be sure all the dawn was out. The diapers are like new! If I only have to strip my diapers twice per year, I will be one happy momma!

                                       (Neither of our phones have covers on them anymore... )

Does anyone else cloth diaper? What kind do you use? Do you have any special tricks or ways to make the process easier? Please share with me!

Newborn photos

Photos by LaBuervenich Photography, LLC.

Valerie Bo - Our unmedicated birth story!

Our sweet Valerie Bo arrived on April 13 at 3:05 am! She weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz, and was 20 inches long. Labor "officially" started somewhere between 9 and 9:30 pm on Thursday night. Brad and I were watching "That 70's Show" and I was bouncing on the exercise ball. I noticed a few stronger-than-usual contractions before 10 pm, then we went to bed. They were about 10-12 minutes apart by that point, and since I couldn't sleep I used my awesome contraction timer app on my phone (because the stopwatch just wouldn't have cut it... haha). Between 10 pm and 11 pm, they went from 10 minutes apart to 8, then 5... and by 11:15 pm I had to move. I stood up out of bed, and headed to the bathroom. Brad asked where I was going and I said, "I'm going to pee, then call my mom, then we should probably go to the hospital. My contractions are 3 minutes apart." Boy, he was up and awake FAST! 

While Brad was in the bathroom, I was rocking on all fours while talking to my mom (she is a labor and delivery nurse) confirming this was it. Then within twenty minutes, we had said a prayer, grabbed our bags, camera, and way too many socks. I even put mascara on. (So, I'm a little vain...)

On our way to the hospital we called Brad's mom and dad, and my dad. We assured them we did NOT want/need them there, and that we would call when she was here. By the time we got to the hospital, my contractions were about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes apart, and we were admitted at 5+ cm and 90% effaced. She was definitely coming!

It was very calm in L&D, and we decided to walk the halls for a little while. It lasted about 30 minutes before we decided to stay in the room. I intended to use the birthing ball, but as soon as I sat on it the contractions were all but taking the wind out of me. We watched a tiny bit of "That 70's Show", then decided we just needed to concentrate. Brad coached me through every contraction, and by 2:15 am we were 7 cm dilated.

My contractions became more like waves, ebbing and flowing and giving me only moments of rest between. My nurse and Brad kept me calm and under control (poor Brad almost lost his hand a couple times!) and at 2:45 am I was an 8, my water hadn't broken yet (yay), and they called Dr. Bierer because I was in transition. That was when I hit the "wall". I no longer believed I could do it unmedicated. I asked what my options were. Janeen, my incredible nurse, said we could do an epidural but my little girl would be there before it had any effect. She told me what a great job we were doing, and assured me I was strong enough. With every contraction I hummed loudly, anchored myself to Brad, and tried not to fight my body against the contractions.

Dr. Bierer came in (glasses, uncombed hair, and looking only half-awake), checked me at 8 cm still and not quite fully effaced. He broke my water to move things along, and WOW!!! I was SO grateful we had waited to do that!!! No more cushion for the contractions! Dr. Bierer walked out to go to the bathroom, and as the next contraction hit, I HAD to push. I said so to Janeen, as I fought the urge (NOT easy to do!) who checked me, told the other nurse to get Dr. Bierer (still on his way to the bathroom), and suddenly the room was busy. Brad and I were suddenly in our own bubble, and when he looked down he said, "uh, I can see her head..." while the nurses were taking apart the bed (we are pretty sure they broke it, I heard an "oops"...), Dr. Bierer was trying to throw his smock, gloves, and mask on (the smock wasn't all the way on) and saying, "Don't push! Don't push!" (Ha!) so I literally crossed my legs to hold her in. My body was taking over. Finally he said, "Okay, push!" .. I went silent, I stopped feeling pain, instead felt incredible pressure, and within seconds her head was out. He said I could rest for a second, but my body was in control, and the rest of her body flew out.

Instant. Relief. It was the most incredible feeling. 3:05 am, and our little girl was here. On Friday the 13th, of course. She was put on my chest, and I began to cry. She was here! Finally! Brad was crying too, and when they took her over to measure and weigh he stared at her in quiet reverence. It was the most sacred experience of my life. He brought her back to me, and we cried and stared at her. Sometime during those first few minutes, I delivered the placenta and asked to see it (it really is very cool), got one stitch, and was congratulated by Dr. Bierer. We were in our own world, though. Just our little family. We were taken to postpartum, I stood and walked between the bed and wheelchair. I felt so light. It was such a high! We called parents, snuggled up together, and watched the sun come up over the pond and fountain our window overlooked. It was a perfect night.

Even though I still remember how awful the pain was, I know I will go unmedicated again. I have recovered so easily, I feel so good. I am so grateful to Brad and his reassurance the whole time that I was strong and could do it. I am also grateful to my nurse Janeen... She was constantly assuring me that I was doing great and coaching my breathing.

So here I am, holding my beautiful daughter in my arms. I am a mother. Finally. It is an incredible, humbling feeling. I have no idea how to do this, or how I will survive the next 18+ years. But I am so grateful.

Breastfeeding is going really well, and Valerie has such a sweet disposition. She rarely cries, wakes up 1-2 times during the night just to eat, and seems to be taking in the entire world when she is awake. She stares at open windows, and locks eyes with Brad and me. She loves to snuggle up on her daddy's chest and go for walks. We are sure it is Heavenly Father's way of assuring we have more children! (It will be a while before #2, though!)

Oh, and we are cloth diapering and LOVING it! I'll blog more about that later. Now, pictures!

Breathing through a contraction

She's here! 7 lbs, 10 oz, 20 inches!

First family picture!

Daddy holding Valerie

Mommy snuggling Valerie

One tired dad

Diaper change! (We came home the day after)

First bath at home!

Daddy's favorite part of bath time...

Picture updates!

 Baby girl's room - so far!

 Her first stuffed puppy - from daddy! A Utes shirt and hair bows (can't see 'em) from Aunt Amber, Uncle Dave, and cousin Jacob, white hat from Meme`, hooded towels and washcloths from Grandma Lloyd, and of course, the cutest little pink socks! (Also from daddy... guess who's gonna be a daddy's girl??)

 Our Christmas card photo. Yes, you can see the bump. :-)

Woohoo! We had a VERY Merry Christmas!

Children roasting on an open fire...

To explain the subject, my mom and her brother came up with a seriously demented version of "The Christmas Song" years ago, and to this day I can't listen to the song without giggling.

SO much has happened in the past couple of months! We are definitely having a girl, she already has a lot of pink stuff, and she is going to be sooooo spoiled... in a good way, of course. 

The second week of December, we moved into a house! No more little apartment.  It was stressful moving in, but it is so nice to have so much space! We've had a lot of fun putting our home together.

When we moved from our little apartment, we only had one set of couches. We figured we would just have one empty room for a while. Then Bradley, bless his heart, was on the KSL classifieds the night before we moved and says, "Hey, hon, here's a free couch!"... Oh yes, you'd better believe we totally went and picked up a free couch out of someone's driveway.

Our first Christmas together was perfect! I worked Christmas Eve, but was off in time to still spend time with Brad's family that night. Christmas day we went up to Gramps and Grandma Lloyd's house in Brigham.  We had a lot of fun with family!

Time seems to be flying by lately. I'll update again soon!

It's a...

GIRL!  Bring on the pink!

Oh, Baby!

So we've been married just over 4 months now. Guess what else? That's right, we're having a baby!

The little one is due April 22, 2012!  So far, we have a crib and... not much else. We find out baby's gender on Thursday (two days awayyyyyy!!!) so I'm sure we will be adding to our baby-stuff stash soon. We are so excited and feel so blessed to be parents! We know it's soon, but we feel like it's right.

I felt baby move for the first time yesterday, which means Daddy should feel baby in the next couple of months!