Cloth Freedom

Can I just tell you friends, that I absolutely LOVE, love, love, love cloth diapering!  I know that I shared that I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my cloth diapers and I have not been let down.  I have been using cloth for a couple months now and a couple key things that I have discovered:

1.  It is great!
2.  The poop is not as bad as I thought (especially when you use a paper liner for the older baby poops)
3.  Cloth wipes are ACTUALLY easier with cloth diapers than disposable wipes.
4.  The laundry doesn't really make a difference to my day-to-day activites
5.  It is slightly addicting!  I want more.  They are so cute and fun!  :)

Enjoying a lazy morning in pj's and diaper! 

Bug #3's first cloth diaper experience!  Cute little fluffy bum!

Milking the Milk

So, I am ALL about little tricks to save money.  This one I got from a great website www.healthyoates.com.  Basically you buy 1 gallon ORGANIC WHOLE milk, which is the same price as skim, 1 percent or 2 percent, and divide.  Separate the milk into two half gallon portions and then add a half gallon of purified water (I use a Brita) to each and voila! you have the consistency of about 2 percent milk for HALF THE COST!!!  That my friends is SWEETNESS!  You can check out their article here.

I also get my milk from Trader Joe's.  They have great organic milk and it is regularly cheaper than Horizon's (unless it is on sale) and better tasting than the other store brands available here (Meijer or Kroger).  Happy Milking!

Living Life...or at least trying too!

Phew!  Life has been crazy!  As I said in my last post (I know, this one is LONG overdue), we recently moved. ugh!  Moving is stinky.  I am surrounded my chaos and clutter and boxes galore!  Things ARE starting to settle down a bit, but not as much as I had hoped.  We have 2 functioning living spaces downstairs (kitchen and living room), well two and a half if you count the office, which is barely functioning.  The upstairs is coming along, except for the fact that my 3 year old stuck her finger through the bathroom sink!!!  It had a rust spot on it and she pushed it and bam! through the sink went her little finger!  Can you believe it?!  I couldn't!  So redoing the guest bath just moved up in priority (which says a lot since it was pretty high up there!)

I guess that in all this chaos and transitions I am just trying to make it through, to survive.  I am not sure what I am trying to make it through too.  I mean, life will always be happening and I am just trying to get to the next point as opposed to enjoying or even tolerating my phase of life right now.  I guess that I had assumed my of my discontentment was related to not having a home, but I am discovering it is more a state of mind, or state of heart that I have been living in.  It is funny how getting exactly what you want and have been asking for is not at ALL what you expected.  Neither is what you learn from it!

A lot on our plate

So as if having a newborn isn't enough we decided to add a bit more to our life.  We bought a house and are moving!  Okay so the timing isn't perfect and wasn't our choice...we put the offer on the house in June and closed in October.  It was a short sale, which is why it took so long.  Honestly I think that we should really look into changing the name, I mean there was nothing short about this process (except of course the money!)

We are really excited about our house and very grateful to be getting out of our small rental.  Especially since the rental is on the 2nd floor!  Phew, no more Costco trips up the stairs!!!  YAY!!!

We are painting, replacing carpet, removing wallpaper etc.  all before we move.  It all seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I am feeling a little overly ambitious.  Hopefully it will all get done and I won't go insane!

Making the switch to Cloth

So I am making the switch to cloth diapers for bug number 3!  Honestly, I really just can't handle paying for diapers anymore.  It seems like such a waste of money to me.  I know that you need something on your baby's cute little bottom, but seriously disposables are like throwing money away.  At least that is the point that I have come too.  Maybe part of it is that my older 2 are only 15 months apart, which means I was going through a ton of diapers a month for a while.   So to save money, mostly and to cut back on our waste and be a little more eco-friendly, I decided to switch to cloth.

While starting to look at all the cloth options and what the cloth diapering world was all about, I about gave up, and I hadn't even started yet!!  It was so stinking overwhelming.  There are so many options to choose from and all the places to buy and what do you need to do.  AHHH!  Please make it stop!  Phew, okay I survived.  Thanks to a great website that I stumbled upon:

www.allaboutclothdiapers.com

This website I found really helpful mainly because it broke down the types of cloth diapers and introduces newbies into the cloth diaper world in a not-so-overwhelming-kind-of-way.  A couple of the posts that really helped me were:

New to Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diaper System

Diapering on a Budget

Recommendations

Once I figured out which system was the way to go, the next step was to figure out where to buy.  That is where this site comes into play:  www.bananapeelsdiapers.com  I was able to purchase everything I needed to get started and the great thing about it that she offers free shipping with orders over $50.  I am a big fan of free shipping.  

So what did I decide to get?  

Flip with Stay Dry Inserts

Econobum

Thirsties Duo-Wrap Covers (I picked one with snaps and one with out, just to see what I like best)

Mainly I am starting with the stay dry inserts and prefolds.  They seemed like the easiest route to start.  I was also given some BumGenius to try as well.  

My order is placed and I am waiting for them to arrive.  Hopefully I will transition well into the cloth diapering world.  

More fun Goodies from Grammy

So on top of the adorable pumpkin hats my mom made Bear Bag and Puppy Purse.  :)  The bugs absoultely love their little bags and shove everything they can in them and cart them around.  Check it out: 

Welcome Bug #3

Welcome bug number 3!!  Our little munchkin was born today at 1:32 am, he weighed in at 9lbs 10ozs and was 20 inches long.  So maybe I should say welcome to our BIG little munchkin!  We are doing well and looking forward to heading home!