Pregnancy and Motherhood Archive

In case you didn’t notice, in my apparently shocking baby squeezins diaper post, the great cloth verses disposable diaper war is over and Kurt won out. The issues I brought up in favor of cloth diapers were less diaper rash, faster potty training, and the use of Sodium polyacrylate in disposables. Kurt wanted the ease diapering that comes with disposables and he was thoroughly disgusted with the idea of washing dirty diapers in the washing machine.

The non-issues were:

Environmental - I’m not at all convinced that cloth is anymore environmentally friendly than disposables. Yes, you can use it repeatedly for multiple children but it still has to be manufactured, often using bleached cotton. Polyesters are also used in newer brands of cloth diapers to wick the wetness away from baby, and water and detergent is consumed to wash them. No matter what brand is used detergents are not as friendly to the environment and soap, but soap cannot be used on diapers as it reduces absorbency because it leaves a film that overtime can also cause odors to linger. Cloth diapers also require a cover – usually plastic.

Disposable diapers, obviously manufactured, use wood pulp from trees specifically grown for diaper purposes. So toss aside the deforestation argument. They have a plastic outer layer and collect in landfills. But landfills are changing and they aren’t all as evil as they once were.

Waste Management to tap landfill methane
Garbage hauler to spend $400 million to turn greenhouse gas into power
updated 8:26 a.m. PT, Wed., June. 27, 2007

Waste Management Inc., the nation’s largest garbage hauler and landfill operator, plans to spend roughly $400 million over the next five years building facilities at 60 landfills to convert methane gas to electricity, its most ambitious renewable energy project to date.

Financial – We are not in a financially strapped type of situation. If we were, I would not have been looking at Fuzzi Bunz and Kissaluvs as my main cloth diapering choices. While I did want to do cloth diapers, I also wanted it to be just as easy to change as disposables. For the true economic diapering, the prefold cloth diapers are the award winners. They cost about $1.50 to $2.50 depending on size and fabric type. About 36 diapers and 6 to 8 pairs of plastic pants in three sizes and you’re pretty much all set. Unfortunately, they leak on a much more regular basis than then disposable “blow out”. Depending on how I ultimately went about things my totals would have been somewhere between $750 and $950 and that doesn’t include cloth wipes, and washable dirty diaper bags. The brand of disposables that we chose would cost about $1100 over the course of two and a half years ($29.99 for a box of 234 – rounds up to thirteen cents a diaper, twelve diapers a day for two and a half years). We don’t use twelve a day and the bigger she gets the fewer she uses per day. Fewer diapers come in the box as she goes up in size though so it may even out my padded number.

The Issues I had for cloth/against disposable diapers:

Faster potty training – I don’t have any valid evidence that cloth diapers would lead to faster potty training, but because cloth doesn’t have the wetness wicking powers that the super absorbent disposable diapers do I added faster potty training to my list of benefits with the assumption that most babies wouldn’t want to sit in their own filth. I have heard of many toddlers that could really care less if their pants are wet and/or poopy and will continue happily playing until someone tells them they stink and wrestles them to the ground for a diaper change, so going cloth might simply be adding more work without any benefit in that arena. I hope that my kiddo isn’t one of those.

Diaper rash – Cloth or disposable, no matter how a baby is diapered they’re going to get diaper rash sometime during their diapered years simply because they’re in a diaper. I know this, and I have not found a single piece of credible information that can say for certain that one type of diaper will without a doubt cause fewer rashes on my baby. I was just hoping that with cloth, maybe we would have less rash problems than with disposable. Based on my scouring of the internet I’ve found that the best ways to avoid diaper rash aside from letting the little one run around nekkid (it is good to let them air out a bit, but I prefer not to clean urine and feces off the couch, floor, etc.) is to change her right after she goes. This is the problem I have because there are times that she lets out one more little fart. It’s so little it hardly justifies another change regardless of the type of diaper. The other thing is nighttime. She sleeps for four hours at a time and I’m not about to wake her up to do a diaper check every hour just to make sure it’s dry. At least in disposables it’s wicked away from her skin.

Many sites say that if cloth diapers are used that it’s best to use a cover made of a breathable material and not plastic to “let air circulate”. That’s fine, there are also waterproof pants that are made of “pul” (polyurethane laminate) that are very popular in the cloth diapering community. Seems odd to me to have a community based on the way one diapers their baby but oh well. I also think it’s funny that pul seems to be regarded as a better choice than plastic when both are waterproof and I don’t think either is a breathable material. There are also wool covers, but that seems like it would be too bulky for daytime use, and too hot for indoor summertime use.

Sodium polyacrylate - Up to this point, all issues and non-issues either come to a draw or lean a little more towards the disposable diaper. The one thing that hands down leans towards cloth is the fact that ALL disposable diapers use sodium polyacrylate for super absorbency. sodium polyacrylate is the same stuff that causes Toxic Shock Syndrome in women that wear tampons and don’t change them frequently enough. As I’ve said before, I know there is a difference between the internal use of tampons and the external use of diapers. I have not found incidents where a baby has died or become sick due to the sodium polycrylate in disposable diapers. I know it’s an unrealistic fear, but I still don’t like the idea of sodium polyacrylate in my baby’s diapers. So why are we using disposable diapers despite my fear? Number one, because I know it’s an unrealistic fear and number two, because Kurt said, “I want you to be able to spend time with your daughter instead of cleaning diapers all the time.” He really hits below the belt doesn’t he?

So we are using Costco’s Kirkland brand diapers and their wipes. We went with a store brand diaper not because it’s cheaper but because they don’t add all the dyes and perfumes. I’m really happy with their wipes too because they’re thick, made with cotton, and alcohol-free.

We did use cloth wipes for the first month because in the class we took about newborn care said not to use commercial wipes for the first month. They said that for the first month that the baby’s skin is adjusting to the new waterless environment and to simply use a damp cloth for wiping. I’ve heard that it’s good to go back to damp cloth wipes during diaper rashes as well.

A couple good links for further diaper debate reading…
Among the Earth Baby Set, Disposable Diapers Are Back, By MICHAEL SPECTER, Published: October 23, 1992.
Revisiting the Diaper Debate

Last year on December 25th I received my monthly sign that I was not pregnant. Merry frickin’ Christmas to me after trying to concieve for a year and a half! I gave up. The next day I bought tickets so Kurt and I could celebrate our eighth anniversary in Vegas. I gave up on the, “but what if I get pregnant and I won’t be able to enjoy it cause I’ll be so tired” crap. When our anniversary rolled around I was pregnant. I was so tired I took a nap in our room in the pyramid at the Luxor immediately after we arrived. That same night we had tickets to see Penn & Teller. I was still so sleepy that people must have thought I was stoned. I did eat really well while we were there. I just had to avoid certain areas of the buffet tables.

This year December 25th can’t be ruined, monthly cycle or not. This year December 25th will be Sophia’s third month birthday and Kurt’s mom, sister, and niece will be coming from Michigan to see her.

The only two wishes I’ve ever had have both finally come true. In 2005 I went to Europe and in 2007 I have a baby. This year (just recently really) I have a third wish (aside from the obvious wanting to talk Kurt into doing the baby thing one more time in a couple years), but I haven’t decided the details on this wish. I have a friend that recently had her heart crushed. I know she felt like this one was “THE ONE”, so I’m not sure if I should wish that he come to his senses and tell her what she wants to hear (Not because it is what she wants to hear, but because he means it and finally knows it) or that she finds someone else soon and when they fall in love he will recognize it.

This morning Sophia sat on my lap facing me with her feet up kicking at my chest stopping momentarily to let out a wet squishy fart. Her farts usually come in twos or threes so I waited for - yep there it went right on cue. I waited ten more minutes to make sure. Ok time to change the baby. Lift her up and…oh crap looks like I get to change my pants too. I guess white onesies aren’t the only ones susceptible to blowouts. Pink Elmo onesies may also be shit on.

I changed the baby and figured since I have to change my clothes I may as well take a shower at that time, but first I’ll let the dogs outside. Now from time to time I feel guilty that we only allow the dogs in our tiled basement. Today turned out to not be one of those days. I went downstairs to find that one of the dogs left me a wonderfully smelly surprise, and it wasn’t very easy to clean up because it wasn’t horribly solid.

Everyone that is able to get pregnant should do it at least once. The third trimester of pregnancy is the only time in your life that you’ll ever be able to thoroughly clean out your belly button.

Sophia went in for her two-month check up today. She is now eleven pounds and one ounce and she is twenty-three and three quarters tall/long. Her weight and head circumference, which I didn’t get numbers for, are in the fiftieth percentile and her height/length is in the ninetieth percentile. She’s going to be tall and skinny - go figure. The only question I had for the doctor was about her toes. The little toe on both of her feet lay hidden under the toe next to it. The nurse that took her footprints at the hospital made us aware of this right away. She handed us a copy of the footprints saying, “I swear she really does have five toes on each foot, but I couldn’t get them all flat on the paper.” The doctor says that it’s fine and won’t cause any problems with her walking because it’s not “fixed” in that place, as in he can move it out. I have noticed that when she flexes her toes that little one does come out from under its hiding place, but I was still concerned.

Sophia got her first round of shots today (second for Hepatitis B). She shrieked with each shot. Actually, she wasn’t too thrilled laid out on the paper covered doctor chair either, even though she was on top of her blanket. After the three pokes, she got a band-aid on each thigh and I picked her up and hugged her. She stopped crying immediately. According to the nurse, Sophia shot her a look that said, “You can’t hurt me now, I have my mommy!” Sophia was a little fussier than usual tonight, but that’s understandable.

Before Sophia was born Kurt and I joked about posting a diaper of the month. I intended to post the first one on Sophia’s one-month birthday, but when the first month came and went, I gave up on the idea. Kurt however never forgot about it. He has been bugging me about it and won’t let it die.

So without further adieu, I present to you the baby squeezins diaper of the month for last month. Day three of her meconium diapers. Taken 9/28/07.

This month’s diaper of the month had poo front to back and a little seeping out the edge. Taken 11/17/07.

I got married when I was nineteen and a half and after tying the knot I assumed that children would be the next step. I wasn’t in a hurry for children necessarily, but I did want something to baby, so in the mean time I got a dog instead. My ex and I didn’t last long together and despite a lack of birth control children never happened in that relationship. In my next relationship we had an “oops” that became a miscarriage. Despite the fact that relationship was on the rocks when the “oops” happened and the absolutely horrible timing of it all, there wasn’t anything I ever wanted more. After that relationship, I dated for a while and then met Kurt who after four months told me he didn’t want children. I stuck with him anyway. I got another dog, then a cat, and a parrot. It took six years of nagging the man before he finally broke down and then it took another year and a half to actually conceive our little pumpkin. It took so long to get to motherhood that I thought I’d never ever get a chance to leave a love note for Kurt outside the bedroom door of our daughter like the one I left today…

Unfortunately she woke up AGAIN before he got home.

• Sophia responded to sounds right from birth as her father can attest. As they carried her to me for the first time Kurt said something and she very clearly recognized her daddy’s voice and seemed to be trying to find him. It must have been all his yelling into my belly while I was pregnant.
• At two to three weeks of age I swear she had authentic smiles, not just the gas induced type.
• Somewhere between three and four weeks Sophia could hold her head up for quite a while. We never timed it but it seemed like a long time for a baby that age. She could also turn her head from side to side when on her belly or back.
• Five to six weeks she “discovered her hands”. She will now suck on her fist, wrist, and thumb (I think that one time I saw her with her thumb stuck out was probably just coincidence that her thumb was sticking out).
• Around six weeks she began spinning around in her bed. No, I’m not talking Exorcist like spinning. I mean that if I lay her parallel to the long side of the crib she will migrate and might be parallel to the short side of the crib. She also learned to push herself up from a sitting to a standing position, lock her knees and hold her weight in a standing position for a few seconds while we hold her by the armpits to keep her upright. She’s a strong little girl!
• At seven weeks she began her baby babel with, “ngun” and “agah”. She smiles a lot more (she’s awake more) and will smile when playing peek-a-boo. I have also heard her laugh in her sleep on two occasions. She has yet to laugh while awake though, so I’m not sure that she’s actually laughing.