I think it was Friday morning, or perhaps the evening before, when Hubby and I decided to "do something" on Saturday. We've been kind of house bound on the weekend as of late...on Monday we had managed to take a nice little hike/walk that got us to feeling like we should do that more often...so my suggestion for the weekend: "Let's hike/walk on Saturday!" thinking we'd come to the same place. His suggestion: "Let's fly to Columbia, have breakfast and hike/walk around there all day!" The winner: His suggestion.
We've also been woefully neglecting the coolness of having a small plane to day trip in. It's not something everyone gets to do, and once the kid gets here we won't be able to pop in and zip around for a day. I don't think they make baby-sized headphones...and who knows if the baby seat will fit in the back of the plane. In any case, the last time I went up in the plane was for a camping trip right before we conceived. So, it's been about six months since I've been flying, and baby never has. ;) Well, at least not with Dad at the controls.
The day dawned beautifully. We were both worried that the Central Valley might be fogged over, and then it would have been a no-go for us. Columbia is a 49'er gold rush town that has a neat historical park with the old buildings and costumed folks and gold panning and all that jazz. The park is a short walk from the airport. Geographically, it's nestled into the Sierra Foothills, a short (less than one hour) flight from San Jose. John checked the weather from home while I cleaned myself up...all clear. He then called around looking for a breakfast spot. The recommendation he received was for a local place called Billy Whisker's. I was feeling skeptical about the name, but decided to look the place over before nixing it. After all...breakfast was the treat, and not the entire reason to go.
Off to the airport we went to get the plane ready. Well, that's John's job; I stand and try to help by untying stuff: like the wings and tail of the plane and putting other stuff away. Once we took off, we could see the air was very hazy below us. Kind of yucky and we weren't able to see much on the ground which is one of the neatest things about small plane flying. You're closer than when flying commercial and the ground looks, well...it's a bird's eye view...I really enjoy looking at the map and picking points out. I like to follow our course and see what's beneath us. The hazy conditions made that much harder.
The flight was really smooth and pleasant, despite the haze. Once we touched down in Columbia, one of four small planes jostling for landing strip space, we were ready for breakfast. It was around 10:30 or 11:00 when we started the short walk into town. Billy Whisker's turned out to be a charming, small, family run breakfast and lunch spot with a bakery. There were about 6 tables, all full, when we got there. One cleared out quickly, the lady speaking to the owner..."I'm leaving now, they can have my table"...as a regular would. Small menu, but when my omelett came out I was in heaven. Everything was fresh and tasty!
Then on to the historic old town. We walked down main street, drooled in the candy store, and then looked for a more hike kind of walk. John pointed out the "trail" to the old schoolhouse and away we went. Columbia is not the place for a serious day hiker. The "trail" was a nice wide dirt path adjacent to the road and running past people's homes. Not wild at all. But still, a nice walk. The schoolhouse has been beautifully restored to it's 1860 glory. It was the first two-story brick schoolhouse in the state. It was also attached to some seamy local politics. Graft and waste are not new to school board trustees, apparently. The building was closed in 1937 because it did not meet the new earthquake standards for school buildings in the state. Children went to school in tents for two years while a more modern school was built across town. Things really don't change much in local politics, do they?
Right next to the schoolhouse was the local cemetery. And I mean right next to. We could see the grave markers from the window behind the teacher's desk. I love old cemeteries and haven't been to one in a long while. I was sorry we didn't get to poke around any while we were in New Orleans...but the state of the city left much to be wondered about, and I didn't want to poke into old bones in a literal way...Columbia's cemetery was begun as a Mason and Odd Fellow plot, then opened to the public as the need for a larger cemetery grew. That happened right as gold prospecting and mining grew in the area. The sheer number of men aged 25-32 in the cemetery is sobering. Many came out to the the Mother Lode to make a fortune and ended up giving their lives in purist of a dream. It was a hard life, no matter how romantic it may sound now. In later years, you'll find the graves of wives who died, in child labor, most likely, and the small graves of children caught by disease. Pioneering is never easy; a fact that the old stones bear witness to.
Columbia is a source of beautiful, almost pure white, marble. That's part of its history. This cemetery has some impressively carved stone, because of the local source. Everyone has a nice marble headstone...either a simple slab or a small monument. I commented how much I loved the old stones, and if I were to have a plot, that's what I'd want to mark it. John was intrigued by the iron fences some chose to mark their resting plots with. He liked the feeling of "this space is mine" the fencing invoked. We also checked out names to see if one would jump out at us. Hearing different combinations of first-middle-last is always fun. Nothing changed our minds concerning baby names, but looking was fun.
We decided to head back into town for one last stroll and a Sarsaparilla soda. MMM...pregnancy has rekindled my love for exotic soda flavors. The Sarsaparilla was a local brew, and we felt good about that. We people watched and drank soda and chatted. It was just very nice to be out in the sunshine and enjoying each other's company. We also popped into the candy store-again-and bought horehound, clove, and sassafras flavored hard candies. Then I drooled over the production area in back. More large copper pots than I've ever seen in one place. If we moved there, I'd have to get a job in the candy store. Sugar work is so much fun!
The flight back was as smooth as the one there, but the haze was made worse by the setting sun. Oh well, it could have been a prettier day to fly, but it couldn't have been nicer. I love the mini-adventures we manage to have. Nothing beats spending time together outside of our "normal" schedules. My goal is to instill a love of mini-adventures into our kids and have loads of fun family time in the not so distant future. It shouldn't take much to have a good day.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Lemon Meringue Day...
...sounds like a nice day? Nope. Tuesday was awful for everyone living in my house. Little sis had her car break down, I was late for class because of a bike race downtown, hubby had work problems. No one was happy. Small frustrations lead up to a general grumpy feeling in the house and that is never good.
My solution? Lemon meringue pie. Sometimes you just have to let go of doctors orders and live life. By ten PM we were full of soft polenta (comfort food if ever there was one) and digging into large slices of fresh pie.
Life was good again.
My solution? Lemon meringue pie. Sometimes you just have to let go of doctors orders and live life. By ten PM we were full of soft polenta (comfort food if ever there was one) and digging into large slices of fresh pie.
Life was good again.
Friday, February 17, 2006
La League of Extraordinary Women
I went on an adventure this past Wednesday evening. I attended my very first La Leche League meeting. I have been reading "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" and felt that it might do me some good to get out and meet real women who subscribe to the philosophy of La Leche.
I was a bit frightened by my recent reading. Like any group that is dedicated to a goal, the rhetoric used can be...umm...off-putting. I'm a convert to their camp, I believe in what they're saying but I am no evangelist and tent revivals don't do it for me. I like calm facts, studies and proven methods. I'm not very new-age when it comes to health and nutrition. Overwrought messages and a thousand plugs for their group and products make me want to dismiss them altogether. I'm guessing I might not be the totally typical reader for this book for a couple of reasons:
First off, there has never been a question on my mind of whether or not to breastfeed. I started practicing on my dolls at the age of five...'cause that's what mommies did with babies. Being little in the Mid-West in a church culture of stay-at-home-moms makes breastfeeding really normal. Everyone did it. I didn't even know there were other options until I hit high school health. So the debate portion of baby feeding has, for the most part, passed me by.
Second, all of my mommy friends in the past 2 years have chosen to breastfeed. I have a huge support group, it's very normal with all the moms I hang with. There is no fear of being looked at weird when we get together for Saturday BBQ's and the kid gets hungry. In fact, I'll be one of two currently breastfeeding moms when our little one makes the scene. Peer pressure to feed otherwise has been left out.
Or perhaps I am the correct reader, but they are also trying to attract a wider audience; attract those women who might be on the fence. Knowing that often it takes a bold statement of purpose to get to folks who otherwise wouldn't listen to the message at all, and knowing that what actually happens with real women vs. what the ideal presented in the book is, I decided that attending a meeting was a good idea for me. After all, the women at the meeting would be real moms, from the area and I could gauge what the group was actually about.
I have the list of meetings being held in the greater South Bay area and decided upon the evening meeting. The day meetings all clashed with my school schedule. I also figured that the evening meetings would bring working moms, and I thought that they might be even more practical in their approach to La Leche and breastfeeding in general. I was nervous at first. The meetings are held in someones home and I didn't call ahead or anything, I just showed up. That was fine. I was also the only one there who didn't actually have a kid breastfeeding. That was also fine. The children there that night ranged from age one month to four years. The moms were a mix across the South Bay ethnicity scale, which I thought was great, and they ranged in age across the childbearing board as well...but the mid thirties was a good median.
The first thing the leader said was that the group was not dedicated to one standard practice, and that not all methods or suggestions worked for all moms. They were there to help you in all you breastfeeding decisions, because the ultimate goal was to raise happy, healthy breastfed children. That put me at ease right away. There have been some suggestions in the book that I was not completely comfortable with, and I was wondering how much I'd have to buy into the philosophy to participate. Why go at all, the astute reader might ask. It has to do with my "learning style". I don't take advice from people I know very well, as well meaning and experienced as they are. I like to figure things out on my own, and I hate to admit ignorance. I really hate to admit ignorance and *gasp* ask questions about subjects I should just KNOW...like breastfeeding. It's a hang up, I deal with it by reading obsessively and having conversations (not inquisitions...my emphasis) with my friends. I thought that in a group of strangers I would be more comfortable sharing my lack of knowledge, and I would gain tips aimed at everyone there and not just suggestions aimed at me.
Wow. Are you guys learning a lot about me or what?
So, I ended up enjoying my experience a great deal. It was nice to hear about problems the moms of younger babies were having and the solutions offered by the group. Everyone helps out with suggestions and shares similar stories. It's nice to know that the process of bonding and feeding the baby is not always an automatic one, and that there can be problems, but those problems can be overcome. I also tend to push my self to be perfect,and if there are problems with my endeavors I crumble and want to just give up. I've gotten way better with this personality glitch over the course of the last couple of years...but my competitive side and my perfectionism side come out at the worst of times. I can just imagine what would happen if I didn't "get" breastfeeding right away. Without the knowledge I gained at that meeting, I would feel like a really bad mom.
I'm going back next month. There are usually four meetings in a series that cover a wide range of breastfeeding topics. I have about three more meetings before the little one arrives so I should be able to hit all the topics by his/her birth. Really, it was a good way to connect with some very nice, very supportive moms out in the community. I could see myself actually calling one of the leaders if problems come up, and heeding her advice.
I am also going to finish the book. Now that I have a better understanding of the women behind it, at least in my area, the tone and direction make more sense. They were all surprised when I shared that all my mommy friends breastfed. I guess it's not a common as I assumed it was. Which surprises me...I know it's good for the baby, but deep down in my darkest heart I'm really looking forward to that extra 500-600 calorie burn a day. Woo-hoo, I hope I have a hungry baby.
I was a bit frightened by my recent reading. Like any group that is dedicated to a goal, the rhetoric used can be...umm...off-putting. I'm a convert to their camp, I believe in what they're saying but I am no evangelist and tent revivals don't do it for me. I like calm facts, studies and proven methods. I'm not very new-age when it comes to health and nutrition. Overwrought messages and a thousand plugs for their group and products make me want to dismiss them altogether. I'm guessing I might not be the totally typical reader for this book for a couple of reasons:
First off, there has never been a question on my mind of whether or not to breastfeed. I started practicing on my dolls at the age of five...'cause that's what mommies did with babies. Being little in the Mid-West in a church culture of stay-at-home-moms makes breastfeeding really normal. Everyone did it. I didn't even know there were other options until I hit high school health. So the debate portion of baby feeding has, for the most part, passed me by.
Second, all of my mommy friends in the past 2 years have chosen to breastfeed. I have a huge support group, it's very normal with all the moms I hang with. There is no fear of being looked at weird when we get together for Saturday BBQ's and the kid gets hungry. In fact, I'll be one of two currently breastfeeding moms when our little one makes the scene. Peer pressure to feed otherwise has been left out.
Or perhaps I am the correct reader, but they are also trying to attract a wider audience; attract those women who might be on the fence. Knowing that often it takes a bold statement of purpose to get to folks who otherwise wouldn't listen to the message at all, and knowing that what actually happens with real women vs. what the ideal presented in the book is, I decided that attending a meeting was a good idea for me. After all, the women at the meeting would be real moms, from the area and I could gauge what the group was actually about.
I have the list of meetings being held in the greater South Bay area and decided upon the evening meeting. The day meetings all clashed with my school schedule. I also figured that the evening meetings would bring working moms, and I thought that they might be even more practical in their approach to La Leche and breastfeeding in general. I was nervous at first. The meetings are held in someones home and I didn't call ahead or anything, I just showed up. That was fine. I was also the only one there who didn't actually have a kid breastfeeding. That was also fine. The children there that night ranged from age one month to four years. The moms were a mix across the South Bay ethnicity scale, which I thought was great, and they ranged in age across the childbearing board as well...but the mid thirties was a good median.
The first thing the leader said was that the group was not dedicated to one standard practice, and that not all methods or suggestions worked for all moms. They were there to help you in all you breastfeeding decisions, because the ultimate goal was to raise happy, healthy breastfed children. That put me at ease right away. There have been some suggestions in the book that I was not completely comfortable with, and I was wondering how much I'd have to buy into the philosophy to participate. Why go at all, the astute reader might ask. It has to do with my "learning style". I don't take advice from people I know very well, as well meaning and experienced as they are. I like to figure things out on my own, and I hate to admit ignorance. I really hate to admit ignorance and *gasp* ask questions about subjects I should just KNOW...like breastfeeding. It's a hang up, I deal with it by reading obsessively and having conversations (not inquisitions...my emphasis) with my friends. I thought that in a group of strangers I would be more comfortable sharing my lack of knowledge, and I would gain tips aimed at everyone there and not just suggestions aimed at me.
Wow. Are you guys learning a lot about me or what?
So, I ended up enjoying my experience a great deal. It was nice to hear about problems the moms of younger babies were having and the solutions offered by the group. Everyone helps out with suggestions and shares similar stories. It's nice to know that the process of bonding and feeding the baby is not always an automatic one, and that there can be problems, but those problems can be overcome. I also tend to push my self to be perfect,and if there are problems with my endeavors I crumble and want to just give up. I've gotten way better with this personality glitch over the course of the last couple of years...but my competitive side and my perfectionism side come out at the worst of times. I can just imagine what would happen if I didn't "get" breastfeeding right away. Without the knowledge I gained at that meeting, I would feel like a really bad mom.
I'm going back next month. There are usually four meetings in a series that cover a wide range of breastfeeding topics. I have about three more meetings before the little one arrives so I should be able to hit all the topics by his/her birth. Really, it was a good way to connect with some very nice, very supportive moms out in the community. I could see myself actually calling one of the leaders if problems come up, and heeding her advice.
I am also going to finish the book. Now that I have a better understanding of the women behind it, at least in my area, the tone and direction make more sense. They were all surprised when I shared that all my mommy friends breastfed. I guess it's not a common as I assumed it was. Which surprises me...I know it's good for the baby, but deep down in my darkest heart I'm really looking forward to that extra 500-600 calorie burn a day. Woo-hoo, I hope I have a hungry baby.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
How Do Woking Mom's Do It?
I am tired. Bone dead, yawing in class, nodding off tired. I only have about three hours of scheduled time a day, and yet this seems like way too much. I am tired, and I can not sleep. I am tired, and I can not get housework done, I can barely keep my eyes open to read my assignments. I doze on the couch, but when bedtime rolls around, I can not get comfortable and I dream so very strangely that it is not refreshing.
Last night I was dreaming that I needed Hubby to buy a new hard drive for the Myth Box (our television/entertainment system) so that he could download more television for me, so I'd have something to watch when the baby arrives. Well, in my dream, he was on a business trip to Australia, and the only way we had to communicate was through a tele-text type of e-mail that was painfully slow and I had hard time typing on and reading. The situation was getting desperate...I had to have this hard drive. It then dawned on me that I was sleeping, and Hubby was right beside me. I just had to wake up and tell him to buy the hard drive, and all would well and I could sleep again. I woke up enough to debate whether or not I should wake up all the way and then wake up hubby to tell him about making this purchase for me. I ended up waking up all the way, and wondering why television had suddenly become so important to me, before going back to my toss-y turn-y state of "sleep". I did ask Hubby about the hard drive this morning, but the urgency was gone...and I don't think dreams translate as well for those IN them as for those EXPERIENCING them.
So, I'm tired, the dishwasher needs to be run, the living room is slowly moving toward its natural state of chaos and I...I am goofing off on the Internet. Because I can't sleep. At least I did finish my homework. That just required my computer and a bit of will power.
I really don't know how working mom's get through pregnancy. I could in no way handle a 9-5 job right now. My brain seems to miss-fire at every other moment and honestly, I don't know what's happening around me 70% of the time. If my second semester, the so called golden semester, is so trying...the next one is going to be all kinds of feet dragging. Yikes. Maybe I should worry less about going into labor during finals, and concentrate on simply being awake for them.
Yawn.
Last night I was dreaming that I needed Hubby to buy a new hard drive for the Myth Box (our television/entertainment system) so that he could download more television for me, so I'd have something to watch when the baby arrives. Well, in my dream, he was on a business trip to Australia, and the only way we had to communicate was through a tele-text type of e-mail that was painfully slow and I had hard time typing on and reading. The situation was getting desperate...I had to have this hard drive. It then dawned on me that I was sleeping, and Hubby was right beside me. I just had to wake up and tell him to buy the hard drive, and all would well and I could sleep again. I woke up enough to debate whether or not I should wake up all the way and then wake up hubby to tell him about making this purchase for me. I ended up waking up all the way, and wondering why television had suddenly become so important to me, before going back to my toss-y turn-y state of "sleep". I did ask Hubby about the hard drive this morning, but the urgency was gone...and I don't think dreams translate as well for those IN them as for those EXPERIENCING them.
So, I'm tired, the dishwasher needs to be run, the living room is slowly moving toward its natural state of chaos and I...I am goofing off on the Internet. Because I can't sleep. At least I did finish my homework. That just required my computer and a bit of will power.
I really don't know how working mom's get through pregnancy. I could in no way handle a 9-5 job right now. My brain seems to miss-fire at every other moment and honestly, I don't know what's happening around me 70% of the time. If my second semester, the so called golden semester, is so trying...the next one is going to be all kinds of feet dragging. Yikes. Maybe I should worry less about going into labor during finals, and concentrate on simply being awake for them.
Yawn.
Friday, February 10, 2006
New Discoveries
for Ari-Belle and Steph
Stepping out of the shower yesterday morning:
I noted my roadmap has changed
Faint silver streams
Long ago formed
End in new reddish rivers
And pools
My gentle slopes, my hills and my valleys
Once soft curves and flat plains
Rise up Mountain like
Bold firm and proud, newly formed
From beneath
The stars of my belly-once bright taunt
And spinning-stretch now to
The point of explosion
Across the dome of my new sky
Supernovas
Waiting for the birth of my new world
for Ari-Belle and Steph
Stepping out of the shower yesterday morning:
I noted my roadmap has changed
Faint silver streams
Long ago formed
End in new reddish rivers
And pools
My gentle slopes, my hills and my valleys
Once soft curves and flat plains
Rise up Mountain like
Bold firm and proud, newly formed
From beneath
The stars of my belly-once bright taunt
And spinning-stretch now to
The point of explosion
Across the dome of my new sky
Supernovas
Waiting for the birth of my new world
Sunday, February 5, 2006
New Obsessions
I have extracted a new promise from Hubby. He is to tell me the point I become too "baby weird"...I have the feeling that time is near. I am fluxing between cool and calm and an urgent need to GET STUFF DONE even though I have almost four more months to get said stuff done. Right now I have solved the diaper dilemma. Yes, it was a serious problem. The diaper discussions began before conception (I'm an early planner, usually about stuff that doesn't REALLY matter) when I just needed to know if we were going to go cloth or disposable. Well, it should be no surprise to those who know me that we came down on the cloth side of the equation. Cloth had many advantages: cost effectiveness for the husband and the old-fashioned buck the trend-ness for me. There was also a level of difficulty involved that intrigued me. Not to mention the skin and health benefits for the little one, who is sure to inherit the sensitive skin of both his/her parents.
The next step, and the one that has been interrupting my sleep as of late, is to decide on which cloth diapers to purchase. Yes, there are choices...all-in-ones, fitted, pre-folds with covers, pinned 'traditional' style, covers with snaps or Velcro, polyester, organic cotton, cotton flannel, fleece, wool...each with its own set of pros and cons and ardent followers. Then the sizing problem kicks in. Just how big will the baby be at birth? Do I need "newborn" size...good to 7 lbs, or should I start out with small? The brands don't help much; one brand’s small runs through another brand’s medium. Oh, and when does a kid hit the magical 35 lbs? I had to do some looking at average growth charts, guess how big the kid will be at birth and go from there.
After my size/weight research (if the baby weighs around 8 lbs at birth one can expect him/her to weigh about 16 lbs at six months with steady, predictable amounts between those two points) I have now made a chart of everything I will be buying sometime within the next two months. My chart started out in Word as a simple list and grew into a table and by the time Hubby spied it, he asked why I hadn’t done a spreadsheet in Excel. Yeah…I should have. My chart has the uses for each piece of my “system” (as cloth diaper choices are called once they are combined to the users liking), it lists the sizes, the amounts to buy and the prices from the website I have decided to order this lot from. Hopefully my list will get us through at least the first six months of life. Hopefully, because the upfront cost of cloth can be intimidating. I’m not going for the most expensive all-in-one system that is the closest to using disposables, but neither am I going for the least expensive one-giant-piece-of-cloth diapers either. I’ve chosen a happy medium combination of fitted (shaped diapers with closures, I’m going with Velcro) and pre-folds (pre-folded and sized squares of absorbent cloth to be used with a cover that has self closures) with various cover options for day, night and babysitters.
After the first six months, it should be easier to adjust for the size and shape of the baby and by then the diapers fit for a larger pound range. I am concerned now that I might not have ordered enough…but I am controlling my urge to over-shop until I know exactly what I am getting into. Plus…one of the reasons we’re going cloth is that they are washable. I shouldn’t need to have a stockpile large enough for a baby army.
Now for the first crazy part. Because newborns outgrow some cloth sizes so fast, I have decided to sew my own newborn/small diapers to save on some money. I’m going to sew my own fitted, padded and self-closing diapers. With some help from my mom, of course. I have a pattern, I have a website with suggestions and pictures, I have yards of cute flannel. I now need an afternoon to cut, serge and stitch a cache of about 20 tiny diapers. I have this need to sew diapers. It’s driving me mad. To control the itch until I can get on mom’s Serger, I am contenting myself by making deluxe baby wipes.
This is crazed mom part two. After looking at the actual diapers, it was time to look at the accessories. Why use disposable wipes if you’re using cloth diapers? They all wash together. So, I’m poking around and find the deluxe wipes. Yeah baby. One side is workhorse terry cloth and the other is soft, smooth flannel. The terry side of the wipe is for scrubbing pooh and the flannel side for smoothing the baby bum and quick pee clean-ups. Sounds good to me. Only if I purchased the recommended amount, I’d be dropping another $55.00 on wipes. That didn’t make sense. I can sew. I can sew squares. I can sew squares cheaper than $1.60 a piece. Off to the fabric store I go again to purchase two yards of terry and two of flannel. This is after I did the yield calculations to find out how many wipes I’d get from each yard of fabric. My original thought was I’d need about four yards each. I’m glad I did the numbers, because yesterday I cut 64 beautiful squares of each fabric. I’m getting 1/3 more wipes for half the price. And some work. I am now feeling a bit daunted by the large stack of squares that need to be sewn. But at this point, I am committed. I figure if I can sew 10-15 a night, I’ll be done in a week. That’s fine with me. It should, if nothing else, keep me from starting in on yet another crazed mommy project.
Or I just might find out all about the alternate meaning of “committed”.
I have extracted a new promise from Hubby. He is to tell me the point I become too "baby weird"...I have the feeling that time is near. I am fluxing between cool and calm and an urgent need to GET STUFF DONE even though I have almost four more months to get said stuff done. Right now I have solved the diaper dilemma. Yes, it was a serious problem. The diaper discussions began before conception (I'm an early planner, usually about stuff that doesn't REALLY matter) when I just needed to know if we were going to go cloth or disposable. Well, it should be no surprise to those who know me that we came down on the cloth side of the equation. Cloth had many advantages: cost effectiveness for the husband and the old-fashioned buck the trend-ness for me. There was also a level of difficulty involved that intrigued me. Not to mention the skin and health benefits for the little one, who is sure to inherit the sensitive skin of both his/her parents.
The next step, and the one that has been interrupting my sleep as of late, is to decide on which cloth diapers to purchase. Yes, there are choices...all-in-ones, fitted, pre-folds with covers, pinned 'traditional' style, covers with snaps or Velcro, polyester, organic cotton, cotton flannel, fleece, wool...each with its own set of pros and cons and ardent followers. Then the sizing problem kicks in. Just how big will the baby be at birth? Do I need "newborn" size...good to 7 lbs, or should I start out with small? The brands don't help much; one brand’s small runs through another brand’s medium. Oh, and when does a kid hit the magical 35 lbs? I had to do some looking at average growth charts, guess how big the kid will be at birth and go from there.
After my size/weight research (if the baby weighs around 8 lbs at birth one can expect him/her to weigh about 16 lbs at six months with steady, predictable amounts between those two points) I have now made a chart of everything I will be buying sometime within the next two months. My chart started out in Word as a simple list and grew into a table and by the time Hubby spied it, he asked why I hadn’t done a spreadsheet in Excel. Yeah…I should have. My chart has the uses for each piece of my “system” (as cloth diaper choices are called once they are combined to the users liking), it lists the sizes, the amounts to buy and the prices from the website I have decided to order this lot from. Hopefully my list will get us through at least the first six months of life. Hopefully, because the upfront cost of cloth can be intimidating. I’m not going for the most expensive all-in-one system that is the closest to using disposables, but neither am I going for the least expensive one-giant-piece-of-cloth diapers either. I’ve chosen a happy medium combination of fitted (shaped diapers with closures, I’m going with Velcro) and pre-folds (pre-folded and sized squares of absorbent cloth to be used with a cover that has self closures) with various cover options for day, night and babysitters.
After the first six months, it should be easier to adjust for the size and shape of the baby and by then the diapers fit for a larger pound range. I am concerned now that I might not have ordered enough…but I am controlling my urge to over-shop until I know exactly what I am getting into. Plus…one of the reasons we’re going cloth is that they are washable. I shouldn’t need to have a stockpile large enough for a baby army.
Now for the first crazy part. Because newborns outgrow some cloth sizes so fast, I have decided to sew my own newborn/small diapers to save on some money. I’m going to sew my own fitted, padded and self-closing diapers. With some help from my mom, of course. I have a pattern, I have a website with suggestions and pictures, I have yards of cute flannel. I now need an afternoon to cut, serge and stitch a cache of about 20 tiny diapers. I have this need to sew diapers. It’s driving me mad. To control the itch until I can get on mom’s Serger, I am contenting myself by making deluxe baby wipes.
This is crazed mom part two. After looking at the actual diapers, it was time to look at the accessories. Why use disposable wipes if you’re using cloth diapers? They all wash together. So, I’m poking around and find the deluxe wipes. Yeah baby. One side is workhorse terry cloth and the other is soft, smooth flannel. The terry side of the wipe is for scrubbing pooh and the flannel side for smoothing the baby bum and quick pee clean-ups. Sounds good to me. Only if I purchased the recommended amount, I’d be dropping another $55.00 on wipes. That didn’t make sense. I can sew. I can sew squares. I can sew squares cheaper than $1.60 a piece. Off to the fabric store I go again to purchase two yards of terry and two of flannel. This is after I did the yield calculations to find out how many wipes I’d get from each yard of fabric. My original thought was I’d need about four yards each. I’m glad I did the numbers, because yesterday I cut 64 beautiful squares of each fabric. I’m getting 1/3 more wipes for half the price. And some work. I am now feeling a bit daunted by the large stack of squares that need to be sewn. But at this point, I am committed. I figure if I can sew 10-15 a night, I’ll be done in a week. That’s fine with me. It should, if nothing else, keep me from starting in on yet another crazed mommy project.
Or I just might find out all about the alternate meaning of “committed”.
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