Getting Into a Routine

I am so happy to say that my son, N., and I have finally gotten into a routine.  We have had lots of company over the past few weeks, and I have enjoyed visiting with everyone, but because of that, we have been unable to establish a routine.  I know now how to get N. to go to sleep, and what time to try to start getting him to go to bed.  That has been so great! We had been getting into bed REALLY late on those busy days; he stayed up until 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning!  But in the past couple of days, we've actually managed to get him into bed right before 11:00.  I am so glad to finally be getting some rest! (And my husband is, too!)

The main thing that has helped has been establishing a consistent feeding schedule.  N. eats every two hours (give or take a little) during the day, and every four hours at night.  Also, I have learned that I need to sleep when he sleeps, so I have to put the housework off for a bit.  Before, after I fed him around 6:30 or 7:00 a.m., I would go ahead and get up in order to get stuff done.  Now, I am sleeping in until around 9:30 a.m. or so in order to make up sleep from waking up in the middle of the night.  N. is taking naps in the afternoon, now, so I can do all that stuff then. (And I can blog!)  I had no idea how wonderful it would be to get into a routine!!

We also just finished up using all of the disposable diapers that we received at our baby showers and have now moved on to cloth.  My wonderful SIL let us use all of the diapers she had from our niece, and she even gave us some diapers that were completely new from her old store inventory. (She used to own a super cool baby shop that sold cloth diapers and all sorts of organic things.)  We were planning on using cloth diapers as soon as we brought him home from the hospital, but it was just easier to use disposables until N.'s circumcision healed.  And then after it healed, I figured we may as well use the rest of what we had.  They were all size 1's, and so I knew I wouldn't be able to save them for very long.  I put several in my diaper bag so that we can use disposables when we go out, but that's it.  Anyway, I'm finding that cloth diapers are very easy! We are using a brand called Kissaluvs right now, and I am loving them! I thought it might be hard to get the snaps snapped on a wriggling baby, but it's no harder than the sticky closures on the disposable diapers.  Actually, I'm finding it easier!

We bought a wipe warmer so that I could also make a batch of cloth wipes to keep ready and moist, and I made the first batch this afternoon.  I used water, tea tree oil, and Dr. Bronner's castille soap for babies.  (Note: If you decide to use Dr. Bronner's, that is great.  Just ignore all the writing on the outside.  That company is obviously confused about their spirituality, and there is a bunch of hippy-dippy stuff about their "god", not my God. I wouldn't even support the company, but the soap is really good.  And unfortunately, we can't boycott everything and every company that doesn't believe the same way we do.  Although I would if I could.) Okay, off my soapbox and back to the cloth wipes.  I poured 2 cups of water in a container, and added 1/4 cup of the castille soap and about 15 drops of tea tree oil.  Then I soaked the cloths in the solution, wrung them out, folded them in half, and placed them in the wipe warmer.  I only did 12, so I'm hoping that lasts a couple of days.  The rest of the solution I poured in a spray bottle, just in case I need a little bit more to clean my sweet baby with.  

So far, cloth diapering has been great! I did encounter one big poopy diaper that I ended up having to spray down in the toilet.  My husband made up our own diaper sprayer that attaches to our toilet with supplies from Lowe's.  (We only spent $16 on a diaper sprayer, as opposed to $35, which was the average price of one you could buy.  Maybe I'll ask him to write a guest post on how to engineer your own diaper sprayer!)  Anyway, spraying down the diaper wasn't too bad.  I was able to squeeze out all the water by gripping the front of the diaper, so I never actually had to touch the poo.  I'm sure I'll get it on me sometime, though.  I mean, even disposable diapers can't protect you completely! Sometimes there is just too much mess! ;)

To store all the dirty diapers, I  bought a diaper pail from Amazon that had an opening big enough to put cloth diapers in, and I lined it with a large wet bag.  The wet bag, the cloth wipes, the cloth diapers, and the diaper covers can all be washed together.  I figure I will probably do a load of laundry every night; at most I will only let it go a day before washing a load.  I don't want them to mold or mildew.  This is the most awesome part about being a stay-at-home mom.  I have time to do all of this!  I think it would be pretty challenging, otherwise.  But not impossible. :)

Well, it's about time N. woke up from his afternoon nap to eat.  Tonight will be my first night back at praise band practice, and I can't wait! My fingers are itching to play the keys and to see everyone!  Until next time!