Maybe I will pick this back up...

I stumbled upon my old blog tonight and saw how many pageviews its gotten. Apparently people want to read more about EC and parenting :)

So maybe if I can find time in my busy life I will pick this back up.

A quick update since it is my bedtime...

Sammy is now 2 1/2!! So hard to believe! She is fully potty trained during the day and has been for over a year now. She does wet the bed at night but it started happening when her sister was born.

Which leads me to announcing that Samantha now has a little sister, Dakota who is currently 10 months old! As far as EC is going for Dakota...its good but not going as well as with Sammy for multiple reasons. We have had a few transitions during her younger months like moving. And I wasn't a diligent to potty her as a was with Sammy. My thoughts were that it wasn't necessarily quantity of catches with Sammy as it was quality but that isn't always true. I depended on diapers a lot more with D especially during the move which the whole process took about 2 months. We are working at it but now he cloth diapers have severe amonia build up from the well water so we have been using disposables for night and outings which really hinder us. But she is still on ly 10 months and she knows to go, just need her to cue to me :) I hopefully can post more on this later.

Another transition that hindered D's pottying was my first trimester for our 3rd baby! That's right I am now 14 weeks into my 3rd pregnancy :) Planning on another homebirth. We are in the process of moving yet again a couple of hours away to where my husband has been relocated for work. It is a crazy time right now but we are making the most of it.

This next babe I am planning on keeping it diaper free the vast majority of the time including out and about. Having depended on diapers so much with D it really makes me not want to this time especially after going back and reading how well we did with Sammy from such an early age.

So there is the quick update of it all. We shall see if I can find the time to come back later and add more!!

Dakota 10 months

Sammy being silly- 2 1/2 yrs

Its been a while...

Wow! Our life has been pretty busy the last few months and so much has happened! To catch us up:

Samantha showing her friend how to crawl.

We officially are moved into the intern house and have been for a few months now.

Samantha started crawling two days after we moved in!

She finally got over her diarrhea after having it for 6 long weeks!

So as of today Samantha is 9 months and 6 days old!!! Not only is she crawling but she is also pulling herself up on the furniture. She can bend down to pick something off the floor as long as she is supporting herself and she will sometimes walk along the furniture. She loves following me all around the house and loves to see what I am doing! Having her be mobile has been so awesome so far because the whole crying when I leave the room thing has finally ended since she can just go wherever I go!



Crawling and pulling up has also allowed her to reach many other things she couldn't before and since we also have a much larger house there is even more to get into. But we have been training her as you have probably read and she is very good at understanding what we say (although she doesn't always like it!) She now knows "Don't touch" "Don't eat it" "Let go" "no"  and "come here". Eighty percent of the time she obeys right away but occasionally with something she really wants she will give us a little fight, but we always make sure to win so that she doesn't lose.


As I mentioned earlier she finally got over her diarrhea. Pottying was going great for short time there afterwards but as she started getting more efficient at crawling she began cuing to us less. I have heard from other moms who EC that it is pretty common for babies to sort of "pause" when they hit a new major milestone like crawling or walking. Some mom's think that they literally stop caring and others see it from a more logical perspective. They are able to do and see so much more than they used to and just like we will wait until the last minute sometimes to go to the bathroom when we are preoccupied they will as well. The difference is that you and I know our breaking point and can accurately judge so as not to hit the point of no return. But an infant who is learning their body and gaining self control doesn't know that point yet. So I have had to start going off of timing again.

But she was so dang cute sitting like a big girl!

Another issue we have had was what potty I was putting her on. I bought a travel seat that lays inside the adult potty before she was born to use in public. But once she was big enough to use it I liked it so much I started putting her on it at home every time except in the middle of the night when I still use the Baby Bjorn. She was so cute sitting on the big potty like a big girl! And she was good at it too! I became comfortable enough with her on it that I would step away from her to get her diaper together or leave the room for a second which was a big mistake.

 One night I sat her on the potty right as we got home from being out. I left her side to take off my boots only a few feet away. I was talking to her and she was turning around to face me when she misjudged her balance and toppled right onto her forehead with her body collapsing on top of her face. She barely hit the floor before I swooped her up into my arms. My heart was racing and she was SCREAMING! It was the second most scary moment of her life! After a couple of minutes she finally calmed down and we assessed the damage. Just a bump on the forehead and broken capillaries on her little nose. She looked like Rudolph for a couple of days! I felt so bad that I ever got comfortable leaving her. I obviously stopped after that.

 But I also started noticing that she was pretty consistently not pooping on the big toilet and would instead wait until she was in a diaper (which you can imagine how frustrating that is given how far we have come). She would poop in her little potty but not the big one. Then I had a "duh" moment. Her little feet dangle off the big potty so she has no ground to bear down against when she has to poop. Imaging trying to poop sitting on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. so we started sitting her on the little potty again in the bathroom and voila we've got poop in potty again!!! So maybe her falling off wasn't such a bad thing after all...just kidding!!!!!!



So Chris was laid off in November for the rainy season as expected and money is a little tight, also as expected. And I have been sewing things for Samantha and as gifts and everyone kept telling me I should sell them so I decided to start my own business! I am still working on all the details so currently I only have a facebook page but soon I hope to get my etsy page up and running. It has been so much fun so far deciding the name and creating the design. And I had my first two clients, my mom and a very close friend! But her you got to start somewhere right?! If you are interested please check out my page here and please like it also!

 So due to being so busy the last couple of months I failed to take Samantha's 7 and 8 month pictures. But I was sure to take her 9 month ones so at least I will have 1, 3,6, 9 and 12 month shots for her birthday (which I am so excited about!!) Here are other random pictures from the past months and her 9 month shots. Hope you enjoy!!!

A Christmas Eve nap

I found her sleeping in her crib like this today!

My baby is 5 months old!

5 days old

Wow! I cannot believe how fast time has gone. She was just a tiny puddle laying on my chest just yesterday and now she is so big sitting up on her own and interested in everything around her! This is the fastest she will ever grow in her life and it makes me sad. It is so hard to remember every detail because one day she is looking and acting completely different!

5 months old!

So this month has been great! It has gone by the fastest! Like I said she is sitting up on her own now. She can grab things that she wants, she found her feet and loves to play with them, and she found her voice again. She was really talkative a while back and then went through a pretty quiet phase. But the past 2 weeks she likes to talk to anyone and everyone. She is very curious about EVERYTHING. She always has her eyes on what Chris and I are doing. It is so fun to watch her learning things. I still think she is teething which means she probably isn't lol. I dont know... sometimes I think I can feel them and then other days I don't anymore. She likes to chew on frozen things anyways so I keep letting her. Today I froze my orange peels and she really loved gnawing on those!

We have been going through sleep training this month. She will be so tired but will fight taking naps or going to bed so we started putting her to bed or nap after nursing and singing to her and then letting her cry until she falls asleep. It has been so hard on me! It is really hard to hear your baby crying like that especially when they start crying harder and harder. But we have to be consistent. The only thing with that is that she isn't consistent. Usually she falls asleep while nursing and all i have to do is lay her down and we are good so I don't have very many opportunities to let her cry it out and learn that she needs to go to sleep. So she is still crying almost every time it happens. This past week however she has been fighting sleep more and more. So we have been having a crying session at least once a day and they are getting shorter each time. Like tonight she cried 5 minutes then fell asleep : )

Another icky part of the napping situation is that we live in a studio so it is hard to keep a quiet house while she is falling asleep which can make it harder since she can hear us talking or moving around. But hopefully we will be moving soon and that will be changing. Part of me wants to make it silent for her but then I think about people before us or the millions now who live in one room homes do it. There is no way they were silent for hours everyday just to let the baby sleep. The baby would just get used to sleeping with noise. And so will Sammy. She can sleep through noise pretty well already; its just the falling asleep when she wants to be involved that's not settling well with her at the moment.

ECing is still going great. I am not sure if I have said this before but it is just part of our life. I don't think about it any more than I think of any of her other needs and we don't spend gobs of time doing it. I think about the same way other parents think about changing their babes. She loves being dry and I love her being dry and so that is what we aim for but sometimes we have misses and we clean her up give her a new diaper and move on. Easy Peasy!

Actually I have noticed this past month that we are getting better at our catch rate. We only have a 1 or 2 misses on an average day and have been dry most nights since coming back from kids camp! I am at the point where I need to wash our diapers because they can't sit that long without being washed not because I am running out. This last time our stash of diapers lasted us 2 and 1/2 weeks and we had a couple extra misses due to traveling mishaps. Those diapers really needed to be washed at that point!!!

I really want to become more dependent on training pants instead of diapers but i only have 4 and for some reason Sammy really likes to pee in them. It may just be coincidence but she pees in them pretty quickly after I put them on and since i have 4 I usually do diapers after that. So I am hoping to find some time to make some homemade ones so that she can get used to them. They are so stinking cute in her little bum!!!

Chris' new job required us to go to the bay area last week which was awesome!!! Our first mini trip as a family. We stayed in a hotel within walking distance to the ocean! Woo hoo! Saw a beautiful sunset and got to find some neat geocaches.

Oh and not sure if I ever followed up with my back wrapping issue but we finally figured it out. Just needed a good wrap! A very kind lady from the Sacramento Baby Wearers group is letting me borrow one of hers until I can buy one of my own and once I had that I got it down. We have been LOVING the back wrap since!

Here are the 5 month shots...so cute!

Daddy is home!!!

Our Family bed is complete again. He was so sleepy!

I woke up Tuesday morning and had a quick thought wondering if Chris would ever just come home one day and surprise me. Nothing made me think that; I just did. Then later that afternoon he text me saying that he was busy right then but would call me later. I was planning on going to a community group that night at 6 so I was hoping we wouldn't call then so I asked him when. He said he probably wasn't going to work that night and would prob call around 8-9. I thought that was a little odd since he had worked 2 weeks straight with no time off but then again maybe they were giving him time to rest or something. But because I had the thought of him coming him everything he said made me suspicious! So then I asked him what he was doing and he said he was driving. They were sending him all over the place for Union stuff. I reasoned in my mind that that could be true because he had been having some issues with the union earlier that week where he did in fact have to drive all over. But my heart was still hoping. I went to community group and was hanging out with everyone when he asked me when the group would be over. It hadn't even really started yet. Then he sent me a picture of inside our house with a glass of wine and our white lights lit. I immediately knew he was home and I announced to everyone that I had to leave because my husband was home. They were all excited for me and helped me get all Sammy's stuff in the car to rush home to my beloved husband who was waiting for me with M&M's!

She nestled into his armpit and fell asleep. She missed her Daddy!

Needless to say I was very excited and we both cried a lot that night! So I  have my Baby Love home with me at last!

Since he has been home EC has not been going so great haha! I have been a little preoccupied with spending time with Chris that we have just not been paying attention to the potty cues. Oops...sorry Baby Girl! So we ran out of cloth diapers really fast this last week which means yesterday and today she has been in disposables : ( Which by the way are horrible for trying to catch! They have made our catch ratio plummet!  We are probably catching about 20% these last couple of days!! But today is laundry day and I think our family is back on course so this week should get better.

I do have a funny story to tell about parenting. We saw a little boy this week that a family member was baby sitting who was 10 months old. He crawled into the bathroom and when he was pulled out he cried. Not a long cry which he dried up pretty quickly when he saw there were people he didn't know in the room. A comment was made and everyone started "aww" ing to him and he started crying again which was even funnier to everyone else not realizing they were why he was crying. But not because he had been offended; he couldn't even understand what was said. He was crying because he was getting attention for doing so. So after he stopped and was happy again I said, "Watch this" and for absolutely no reason I looked at him and began saying with a sympathetic face, "Aw, poor baby. That is so sad poor baby..." and immediately he started bawling again right on cue. Sometimes I don't think people realize how much children's emotions aren't true emotions but just a reaction to the emotion that is being given to them. Like a hurt child for instance will scream uncontrollably when people are around and especially if they are focusing on their "pain". But when no one is there or even just paying attention, they usually might cry for a second then keep playing. Unless they know someone is nearby who will give them the show they want. Just an interesting observation. Try it at home... for fun of course. Wouldn't want to make it a habit ; )


On another note... I finally made Sammy's 4 month onesie and took pictures today! It a little over a week overdue but better now than never! She is currently 29 inches long and 16.8 pounds! Thanks to Granny for the adorable new flower headbands and tutu!!! Enjoy!

My 3 Month Old!!!

Sammy is 3 months old now!! I can't believe how fast she is growing up! She has changed so much this past month and I've been too busy to post about it so this might be a long post!


On the EC front, things are still going great! We have been having a lot more diaper free time and Sammy loves the freedom to move her legs around without any hindrance from a diaper. She is cuing a little different now. It used to be  mostly grunts but now she gives a quick fuss and waits for me to place her on the potty. If I miss the first fuss (or just am not paying attention) she will usually give another as long as she is not maxing out her holding capacity. When she first starting transitioning to this cuing instead of grunting it took me a couple of days to realize and we missed a few more time than normal. But now its usually very easy to tell because she's not a fussy baby. When I hear a fuss I know something is up and its usually that she has to pee!

Her holding capacity has gotten longer. I haven't timed exactly how long she will go but it is definitely longer than before. Sometimes when we are out running errands I am usually quite surprised to find a dry baby! And pottying in public is becoming easier for that reason. I did notice however that she stopped responding to the "psst" cue. I think its because at home we don't really say it anymore because she goes once we set her on the potty. But in public she doesn't sit on the potty so it takes her a little longer to realize she can release. So to remedy that I started using the cue again at home and it seems to be working. I just started this this week so not too opportunities to test have come up yet.

Night time is still the same. Still missing most of the pees. I just can't wake up fast enough and I am even making myself get up the first time i hear her but it apparently isn't the first time she fusses. Occasionally I wake up to a dry baby but not as often as I would like. Nights are when we use most of our diapers. As she gets older and her bladder gets bigger I am sure we will have more success.

I think I figured out nap times though! During naps she stirs but doesn't actually wake up (just like at night). Well I used to just let her stay down and sleep but she would just keep stirring and eventually wake up wet and upset. But one day I tested something new. I gently and quietly got her up to potty and then laid her back down and to my surprise she stayed asleep the entire time! Once she started looking for the boob after I laid her down so I fed her and then back to sleep she went! She had a 3 hour nap which was one of the longest she had ever had! It was awesome! So since doing that she has been napping much better and it hasn't affected her night sleeping. (She still sleeps around 6 hours straight at night!)

She has just gotten so big this month! She just turned 3 months but is about to outgrow her 3 months clothes. So sad! I am not sure how much she weighs because she hasn't been to a doctor. The last time we weighed her on the wii she was 13.8 pounds and that was a few weeks ago right before a growth spurt! She is so much more aware now and she was super aware before! Her face look older and she laughs at things now. She is so curious about what going on around her and she found her voice! Oh boy she loves to talk! But we think she might be shy because she talks almost constantly at home but when we around a lot of people or noise she is pretty quiet and just takes everything in.

 And she is rolling over! It is so much fun, I love it! Here are some pics of her first roll. Enjoy!

And she begins

Lifts her legs

Now to Roll

Bottom is turned.

But my arm is stuck!

Got to get that bag!

SUCCESS!!!

Woo Hoo!

And then she peed from all the belly pressure!

Cost Break Down

So I thought I'd give you all a cost break down of EC (with cloth diapers) vs. Exclusive Cloth Diapering vs. Disposables. Obviously everyone does diapering differently especially in the cloth diapering realm where there are so many different types of diapers. And even with disposables some people buy organic diapers that are probably the most expensive vs. store brand which are probably the cheapest, so keep in mind this is just a general estimate of costs. ( I got these estimates from http://www.diaperdecisions.com/pages/cost_of_cloth_diapers.php)

Disposables:
Average cost of diapers per child up to size 6 training pants costs $2,577.35 not including the cost of wipes, or diaper pail.


Cloth Diapering: (all not including the cost of wipes or diaper pails/wet bags)
Average cost using all sizes of prefolds, diaper covers, and the energy costs from washing $381.00

Average cost using all sizes of fitted diapers, diaper covers, and the energy costs from washing $1264.84

Average cost using all sizes of All-in-one (AIO) diapers and the energy costs from washing $1413.48

Average cost using all sizes of Pocket diapers and the energy costs from washing $1677.66

Average cost using combination of all sizes of prefolds, diaper covers, fitted diapers, AIO's and Pocket diapers and energy costs from washing $1468.74

Elimination Communication (for us):
Prefold package from https://www.sweetbottomsbaby.com/ (given as a gift) $255.00      
Included:

• 36 infant 4x8x4 unbleached OsoCozy prefolds, 12" x 16", up to 15 lbs
• 24 regular 4x6x4 unbleached OsoCozy prefolds, 14" x 21", 12-30 lbs
• 4 size small Bummis Super Brite or Super Whisper Wrap Covers, 8-16 lbs
• 4 size medium Bummis Super Brite or Super Whisper Wrap Covers, 15-30 lbs
• 1 roll OsoCozy Flushable Diaper Liners (which I don't use)

 Baby Bjorn Smart Potty (from Target) $14.99

Disposable wipes: Seventh Generation refill packages $3.99 (using one package a week) X 52 (weeks in a year, which is when I am guessing we won't need them anymore.) = $207.48

Large wet bag $9.99 (from Babies R' Us)

Small Travel size Wet Bag from https://www.sweetbottomsbaby.com/ $9.50

Laundry Mat Washing Costs (We don't have a washer or dryer so our washing costs are more expensive than  most) Average $5 once a week X  78 (a year and a half, I am suspecting that I probably won't be done doing laundry at exactly a year so I am giving a year and half for accidents) = $390.00 (This is an overestimate because we have been line drying a lot lately and don't always go once a week since we catch a lot of pees in the potty and we will gradually catch more and more)

Grand Total: $886.96

Keeping in mind that are laundry bill is pretty expensive at the moment and that I included a lot more into my cost analysis that the prefold diaper costs, Elimination Communication for us is WAY cheaper than just using cloth diapers or disposables. I am not sure if i said this before but the first reason we decided to go ahead and start Potty Training was because we can't afford not to. We needed the most cost effective option. Of course I had always wanted to anyways but the big deciding factor was the cost.

Just for kicks and giggles let's see how much we would have spent using even the cheapest cloth diapering method of prefolds.

Cost of the same prefold package we got as a gift: $255.00
Cost of Large Wet bag: $9.99
Cost of 3 Small Wet bags (Because we would need more without EC): $28.50
Cost of Wipes for up to 3 years using 3 per week (We would use WAY more wipes without EC...are you kidding me! Have you seen the poop smear!): $622.44
Cost of Laundry for 3 years washing 3 times a week due to all potty going in the diapers (the 3 years is the average age American children are potty trained): $2340.00

Total Cost: $3255.93!!! And that is just using prefolds!!!

So doing this price comparison has made me realize that our laundry is stinking expensive!!! I really hope we can move soon to a place with a washer and dryer! Which by the way, Chris just got a new job and it requires him to move to different job sites so we are going to become a gypsy family lol! Yay for getting to experience a bunch of new places!!! Sad for having to be all alone in a strange city with no friends or family. But yay that Chris got a new job!!!

Also I thought I would throw in another picture for you of another poop explosion miss : ( And this was done while sitting in my lap! I was clearly not paying attention to my fussy wiggly baby!!!

The Good, The Bad, and the Not so Pretty...

Her 2 month picture!!!

Sammy is now 2 months!!! I can't believe it. Technically she will be 10 weeks tomorrow! She is growing so stinking fast! Her little personality is blooming a little more each day and I love watching it.

The Good...
Sammy's bladder is getting bigger. She isn't going pee nearly as much anymore which is lovely since I am Infant Potty Training! I didn't realize how often she went until she slowed down! She is also not having poop farts like she up until a few weeks ago. Almost every time I would check her diaper she would have little skid marks from farting. But now she is better able to control her sphincter so poop only comes out when she lets it. And she is getting so good at cuing and holding it until i can get her on the potty! A couple of times she has even stopped mid-stream when I say "stop, wait!!!" and will finish once I get her on the potty. She definitely knows that pee and poop go in the potty. I don't even really cue her anymore to go unless we are out in public and on a toilet that isn't normal for her. She just knows to go by the position she is in I guess. All this is good news for me and our laundry bill! When I am home all day with her, we usually can use the same diaper the whole day!

It's still hard when we go out. We started using G-diapers for going out because they wick away the moisture so she isn't sitting in urine! Usually you don't want this when potty training because you want the baby or child to feel the uncomfortableness of being wet. But when we go out I am not always able to potty or change her right away when she needs it and I would hate for her to get a rash because of it. Unfortunately, Samantha is growing so fast the G-diapers just aren't really fitting anymore and we don't have the next size up.But thanks to her growing bladder she may not need the G-diapers soon anyways.

My goal is to have her out of diapers by 9 months and into trainers. A lot of babes that are EC'd full time can be. Actually I have heard that it makes it easier because you can't depend on the diapers anymore. So we shall see where we are at at that point, but that is where we are heading.

Finally got her in the back carry in our woven wrap.

This isn't about EC, but recently I have been learning how to put her in a back wrap. I usually wear her at least once a day while I do chores around the house or go walking but until now I have been wearing her in the front. This makes some chores somewhat difficult since she can be in my way. I have been afraid to try to carry her on my back but I finally tried it out. It was very frustrating at first! I almost quit a couple of times but I have succeeded a few times as well which gives me confidence to keep trying. If you baby wear I highly recommend getting or making a woven wrap and/or a mei tai. I have a Moby which is awesome as well but it gets so hot that I can't keep her in too long. Also, stretchy wraps can only be worn until the baby is big enough to wiggle around a lot because at that point they could flip themselves out. Woven wraps are much stronger for older children and are cooler. I'm not sure how long you can wear with a Mei Tai but they are even cooler than the woven wrap. I will try to take a picture of her in the Mei Tai. I actually made it from the instructions on http://www.grumblesandgrunts.com/2010/10/how-to-sew-mei-tai-baby-carrier.html.

The Bad...
We still are missing almost every time at night. I am just not waking up fast enough either by accident or on purpose. What can I say I really like to sleep! And when I hear her start to wake up I know if I shush her back to sleep I can get at least another half hour before she really wakes up. But then that means I miss her pees! Its actually pretty silly that I do that because if I just got up right away and peed her she would have a dry diaper so I wouldn't have to try and fumble my way through changing out the prefold. And I could then feed her and get back to sleep. But instead I chose to sort of wake up, shush her, kind of sleep for another half hour then have to get up anyways, really wake up to change out the prefold, then feed and go back to sleep. But try knocking some sense into my half conscious self! So I keep trying!!!

The not so pretty....         Warning*** if you don't want to see breast fed baby poop don't scroll down!***



Now that Sammy is getting older she isn't pooping everyday anymore. So every other day I am waiting for a poop bomb to arrive and hoping to catch it! But the first couple of times I missed! This is one of the reasons i am potty training her! Because I really really really did not like cleaning this off her! Blah! The first time it happened she was sitting in her Bumbo while I was sewing the Mei Tai. She gave a cue but I was concentrating and didn't react right away. OOPS! Then i heard deployment...Yuck! I quickly pulled her out in hoped that I could catch some of it but this is what I found!!!

I was so shocked and didn't know what to do! Then she wiggled her feet and hands into it! I wiped her hands then ran to the bath, and sprayed her down! You would have thought that was the end of the poop for the day but it wasn't! Later we went to my brother-in-law's softball game and she had another blow out! All over her pajamas!!! That was a nightmare to clean up because I couldn't just throw her in the bath that time! Needless to say I am trying much harder to listen for the poo cue because I really hate wiping poo out of all those cracks and crevices she has!!! It is music to my ears to hear the sound of those poop bombs going off in the potty! Never thought I'd be so excited about someone pooping in the potty!

Please dont Deify me!

**So I want to preface this post by saying I genuinely don't want to sound 

 like I secretly want your praises by saying that I don't want them. 

Also I am not saying that everyone should do exactly everything that I do or the way I do it.

 I am saying to figure out what really is best for you and your family and do it.

Many have said many great things to me recently about what I am doing with Samantha, and while I appreciate the encouragement I want to also make clear that I don't want to appear as though I have everything figured out and I am somehow a supermom. Our pastor and good friend Brion recently just said that when people see you doing something "extraordinary" they will deify you in order to justify themselves for not doing what you are doing. People will say or think things like, "Well your baby is just extra sweet." or "I couldn't do that because I have this kind of child or these things to do or these problems with my husband". And while I honestly don't think that everyone is doing this I do want to confront those who  might be and tell you that what I am doing is completely possible for you to do... its even pretty easy once you can get over your fleshly self.

While I have always wanted to be a mom I didn't come to do what I do naturally. The Lord has been showing so many truths to me for the past few years, biblical truths and practical. Once I got one revelation I wanted more. I want to know what is true and right and best for my family, AND I wont make excuses to not do what is best. I realized during my first trimester when I was exhausted and I just want to sleep all day that I would rather die young and exhausted having poured my life out for the Lord, my husband, and my children than to die old, complacent, boring and with no good fruit of my labors. So I CHOSE to pursue truth and then follow it. I researched and still do about tons of things. Food, drugs, vaccines, EC, birth, pregnancy, child training, marriage, etc. Once I learn about something I try to apply it. It isn't always an automatic switch but I purpose myself to change.

I am no different than anyone else. God didn't give me extra grace to do these things. At least none that I didn't ask for. I made purposeful decisions to figure out what was and is good for my family and then I followed through. My point in this post is to tell everyone that you can do and have what I have. Work on your character so that you aren't lazy and complacent and do it! If you want to potty train your baby, awesome do it. Research it. Learn about it. Ask questions. If you want an amazing birth, do it! You want an awesome marriage read the word and obey it! You want to know how to parent, read the word and obey it! And watch people who have great kids! Learn from them. Ask them questions!!!

I am sinful! So sinful! I am lazy and apathetic. I was not born with a propensity to go out of my way to learn things. If I followed my flesh I would have an average American life, marriage, family. Probably even worse. The point of this blog is to be an information source to someone who is searching, like other blogs were to me. Not to be the entertainment for people who will read this and do nothing.Therefore, please do not deify me. Please please please do not say that I am different and somehow better than you because of what I do. I need the same amount of Jesus' blood to cover my sins as you do.

Cloth Wipes

Here are my flannel wipes. Super easy to make!

I wanted to mention cloth wipes to anyone interested in cloth diapering or ECing. Originally I intended to use cloth wipes in our cloth/EC usage but it turned out not to be too practical for us. I know other people who EC that use them and love them but they just didn't work for us. And here's why:

Because we potty Sammy we usually don't have too much to wipe since most of everything goes into the toilet and not all over her bum and in her deep rolls! So when I started using our cloth wipes I realized that they were almost a waste of laundry. And then I would have a dry diaper but would have to get up to put the wipe in the wet bag. If the diaper was dirty I wouldn't be making any extra trips but its annoying to get up to put one barely used wipe in a bag across the room many many times a day if I don't have to.

However I love the idea of using cloth wipes along with the diapers. I'm cheap! I made my wipes and I think they are pretty cute! Honestly I would probably try to find a way to make the wipes work if my husband really wanted me to but he likes our system the way it is and doesn't mind spending the little extra money for disposable wipes every week.

To make them I just cut out flannel squares of fabric and hemmed the edges. Then for a wipe solution I made my own out of water, tiny bit of tea tree oil, Aloe Vera, and Castile soap. I just looked up the recipe for it. But I actually like using just water best. I didn't like having the smell of the solution on my hands after using the wipes. Then I saved on old wipes container but about a cup in there and let the wipes soak in the solution. I have heard of some people actually utilizing a wipe warmer so its not so cold on baby's bum. Then for traveling I used my peri bottle from birth to spritz the wipe before using.

So now with our disposable wipes we keep an old wipes container with no lid near her baby potty to throw the used ones in and empty it when we empty her potty. This system works great for us! If anyone wants my cloth wipes that lives near me let me know!