Simply Baby Diapers

So I recently purchased a new cloth diaper from Just Simply Baby. They had a clearance sale for Halloween, so I felt I could sneak this purchase past my dear husband! It's of course orange and a pocket type diaper. I'm not a huge fan of a pocket diaper, but nonetheless, I did try it out. I was pleasantly surprised with the trimness of it. It was not big and bulky like my minky Kawaii diaper is. It has a decent construction and I think it will last us a while. It has cross over tabs for newborn babies which would work well. The inside covering is very soft and comfortable for Shaley, and I didn't see any complaints from her!

I like the feature of the elastic bunch on the back side to help with blow out protection. I haven't had any blow out issues in this diaper yet, but I have had one leaking incident. It seems to fit well though so I will monitor that for any future leaks. I was overall pleasantly surprised and feel confident purchasing another in the future, especially for the price. The only issue I potentially see from this diaper is that the lower snaps near the hips make the fabric fold over and then you see the liner, this is shown a little in the picture above. This may be just my little girl, and may fit better on others.

I would purchase from Just Simply Baby again. The shipping was fast as well.

Also, if you're curious, I also bought baby legs from their sale and they were of quality construction and look good on my little girl. They are quite long though so they will fit for quite some time, which makes my money well worth it.

Night Time Sleep Patterns

I'm sorry it's been a while since my last post, but we've been going through a rough patch with Shaley, and we've had a lot of company!

It seems that a lot of my fellow August mom's have become frustrated with their little one's lately! We're hitting the last big growth spurt for a while and that may mean less sleep for both us and our cute little babies! Shaley finally slept good for two nights in a row so I'm getting fairly confident that we're going to keep with it. It feels so good to sleep again! She had a hard time going to bed at night and would wake up every hour (sometimes twice an hour!) to every couple hours. I've had to break out my pump again to relieve my poor breasts. The good news with that means that I will have milk in the fridgerator for when I take my driving test.

Driving test? Yes, I understand that this is a Stay at Home Mom blog, but even I need to get out of the house occasionally. I will be working VERY part time for the post office in town. That means every two weeks I will work one Saturday. This comes at a great time for us since the holidays are coming up and that means more spending! More toys, more trips to the parents, and more baking!!

Prioritizing

Some days I wonder how I got anything done. No, I guess I meant to say most days. My husband comes home from work and he asks about my day. That is the moment when I look back and decide that, yes, I actually got something done. Behind the chaos of my day I do usually get laundry washed and dishes done. Not everyday may have them neatly folded and put in place, but at least they are clean and ready to be used again. This is how I prioritize my housework. With a new baby in the house some things just come first! With that being said, I am personally the farthest down on my list until the man comes home. Usually I'm still stuck in my pajamas and unbrushed teeth with my hair pulled back in some strange, messy way. Although this may be a horrible sight to envision, my fellow mom's know what I'm talking about!

So, even though I may not look great, at least we have clean clothes (if I choose to get dressed that day) and clean dishes to eat from. I may not have dinner made all the time, but we still have a happy baby and that's all that really matters.

Then, when my husband comes home, I finally have time to brush my teeth and maybe even go to the gym! As soon as this happens it's off to bed for the baby and time to do it all over again tomorrow. Priorities are so important to my every day!

Failed Attempt at Candy *Updated*

I tried to make honey candy the other day. Let me just say it was a complete disaster. I'm only glad the only harm done was loosing a piece of wax paper. I felt like we may loose a pan or two from the incident also, but they cleaned up nicely. I guess we learn from our mistakes and I may attempt at making some again today, wish me luck! The recipe I followed was not the greatest but I'll include it below so you do not make the mistake I did!

2 C sugar
1/2 C water
1/2 C honey
1/4 C butter

The directions for this recipe are very vague. They state that you should cook in a heavy pan over heat till it reaches a "hard crack" stage. First, the recipe does not tell you what the "hard crack" stage is. I was still fairly confident on what this meant though, because growing up around my mother meant lots f different recipes and cooking techniques. Secondly, they do not tell you wether or not to add the butter to the pan, or just to the baking pan you add the mixture to later. So I decided to just add the butter to the baking pan and not to the honey mixture. I'm still not sure if that was my downfall or not. The problem I ran into was with it sticking to the baking pan and still being too hot to handle. I found this recipe on cooks.com if anyone is interested.

As I have a surplus of honey at my home (due to my parents owning bees) I may try this again with a few changes. I'm going to try to dump the honey into the buttered baking pan and letting it sit till cool and just breaking it into chunks. The other option would be to get candy molds which I don't have the finances or the location to buy them at. Perhaps at a later time.

My ultimate goal is to make this with rosemary into a Honey Rosemary candy to sell. Don't steal my idea, it's not nice! Wish me luck!



* I made this recipe again and it turned out pretty good! With some tweaking it will make a great candy!

To pump, or not to pump?

I find myself wondering if I should still pump now that I'm not working anymore. The answer I mostly find myself leading to is yes. I still wake up at about 2 am with an uncomfortably full feeling. Sure, she could sleep longer, but my chest says no more. So as a compromise I decide to dream feed her and pump afterwards. It won't hurt, as I don't have as large of a freezer supply as others I know.

I don't know about other's significant others, but mine seems to complain about the need to warm up such food for their child. I find this funny, as he has the least amount of work between the two of us. I could go on further and complain but I won't. I do love the man and his silly, but sometimes nasty, habits. Men should be thankful for those of us who do decide to continue to breastfeed! It's not only good for the child, but they have less work to do. Isn't that every man's goal, to have less work to do? Or women's for that matter, but we always like to take the hard way it seems. Perhaps this is my own findings and not true for others.

Kawaii Diapers

I'm really loving the one Kawaii diaper I have. The husband put it on tonight and I got reminded of how thick and absorbant it feels. Now I need to purchase a regular Kawaii diaper to see if they work just as well (we have an overnight/heavy wetter version). They seem even more durable than the Happy Heinies we own. It seems funny since the Kawaii is a cheaper, China made diaper. I would go as far as to compare it in quality to that of the Best Bottoms cover. Best Bottoms have a whole other world of issues I can discuss later. Now I'm looking at purchasing more Kawaii diapers in fun colors. Minky seems to be the way to go. Who would want to go with a sposie when you can have the softness of a minky diaper on their bum instead?! The difference is incredible, those of you in doubt of cloth diapers should try it.

My main goal in writing about cloth diapers in this blog is to convert all of you questioning their simplicity! Talk to me, and I will do my best to convert you. I'm sure I can win you over. If my dear husband can do it, you can too!

Baby Proof Baking

I found the easiest recipe that I could make in about 2 minutes the other day. While Shaley was content in the swing, I made Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. It's simply:

2 C baking mix
3 medium bananas
1/3 C sugar
1 egg
3 T vegetable oil
1/3 C chocolate chips

I might add in a teaspoon of vanilla just to be special, and always more chocolate chips than it calls for! Basically, you smash the bananas and add all the other ingrediants and bake at 400 degrees till they're just golden on top (about 15 min).

Everyone loved them, and I even had time to make a second batch for the husband to take to work. I love baking! I'm so glad I'm starting to have more time to do it again.

To give credit where it's due, I found the recipe on the Betty Crocker website if you want to check it out.

Breakfast

My dear husband made me breakfast the other day. He didn't even warn me (his cooking is interesting to say the least!). He called his item a Breakfast Muffin, which consisted of bread, eggs, cheese, and ham. He proceeded to smash pieces of bread into each spot of the muffin pan. Then, after mixing together the eggs, milk, cheese, and ham, he poured it into the breaded muffin pan. He then baked it for a while (he'd be lost if I didn't help him with this part!) and had me come check to see if it was done. He is so sweet sometimes! It turned out pretty good, I was almost impressed with his cooking ability. The best part of breakfast that morning was eating the eggs that didn't fit into the muffin pan, which he added rosemary to and scrambled. So, although his Breakfast Muffin was edible, his leftovers were even better. I love you dear!

Breastfeeding Updates

Breastfeeding is going well, although it was extremely painful to start out with. No one ever tells you that it will hurt, they say it shouldn't hurt, but for some women that isn't the case. For me it was toe curling pain every time that little girl would get hungry. The latch was determined good by my lactation consultant, so there was nothing to do but sit through the pain till the girls toughened up. We're finally at the point where it's comfortable. Now if she would space out her feedings to every 3 hours I would be extremely thankful. I'm always willing to help other FTM's (first time mom's) with what I've learned. Honestly, if I wasn't such a frugal person I probably wouldn't have continued breastfeeding due to the pain I experienced. Now that we've got through the hard part, the first 6-8 weeks, things are going better. My advice to others trying to BF, keep going through the pain and do not supplement like we did! The pain will end, and supplementing will not help even though it may seem like it does. Kellymom.com is a life saver.

Cloth Updates

Shaley is 2 months and 5 days old today. Cloth diapering has went well so far. We mainly use Flips which seem to work well. She does get a few blow outs occasionally, but nothing that has got out of the cover. I went with the AI2 hybrid systems because it may mean less laundry and less work. They don't come in the cute girly prints, but they get the job done. When you're on a budget things such as designs get left in the dust. The covers seem to be well constructed and stretch just enough for a good fit for my little one. I also like using the covers with a prefold instead of the stay dry insert that comes with them for extra blow out protection! The newest color we purchased was Ribbit. I mainly went for gender neutral colors that weren't so bright, but this color looks really nice. I like it more than I thought I would.