I wanted to report in about what we're planning to do in the diapering world once Baby Magnolia Bud arrives.
Mr. MB and I feel like "average" but "eco-conscious" people within the world we live in. So we recycle whatever can go into our bin, have switched to CFL bulbs, set our heat and air very conservatively, buy organic when we can, shop at the farmer's market, and use eco-friendly cleaning products. We still use paper towels, water our lawn, flush the toilet, and don't compost...so that gives you an idea of where we fall on the spectrum. That said, I feel very strongly that because Baby MB is going to be using a LOT of diapers, we shouldn't be throwing them out every time. That would add up to a lot of consumer waste that's really pretty unnecessary--about 2100 the first year, according to answers.com.
We've also done some reading about the chemicals used in disposables, and have spoken with moms (and dads) who use cloth or disposables, and it seems like the babies in disposables have FAR more blowouts than babies in cloth. Those same babies also seem to get diaper rash more frequently.
Let's talk about costs. The average first year in disposables costs about $1100 (also thanks to answers.com). I figured out that by doing a combination of prefolds, AIO's (all-in-ones), and AI2's (pocket diapers), plus cloth wipes, we would spend somewhere in the $350-$400 range for a lifetime supply of diapers.
Once that calculation was made, our minds were made up! Mr. MB and I are very frugal people--we live below our means so that we can pay down our student loans (not very quickly, but at least we're making a dent!)
So, the question then became: How do I find a great deal on cloth? I love looking for deals, so for a few months, I just did my research. I learned about the different types of diapers, learned about the benefits/drawbacks to each, learned how to wash and dry the diapers, learned about cloth wipes, etc.
I've been buying diapers for about five months, and so far, our stash consists of:
12 newborn AIO (bum genius 3.0's, got them on seconds for $6 each).
15 one-size pockets (bum genius 4.0's, got them on seconds for $9 each), plus 9 newborn inserts and 12 one-size inserts (need a few more inserts, but might go with hemp or bamboo).
24 newborn prefolds plus six thirsties duo wrap snap covers (prefolds on sale, covers were a gift or bought with coupon).
12 infant prefolds plus two thirsties duo wrap snap covers (prefolds on sale, covers were a gift).
12 econobum prefolds plus covers (buy one get one free).
1 extra econobums cover (free).
1 baby funky butts fitted diaper (paid full price, it's adorable and made locally).
1 wet bag (still need two for home, and one for each of our diaper bags)
24 cloth wipes (still need 12 more)
We've spent about $340 so far, and expect that we'll end up right under $400.
There you have it...what we're doing for a diapering solution!
Hope you all have a great week.
-Magnolia Bud
Showing posts with label cloth diapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cloth diapers. Show all posts
July 22, 2011
June 19, 2011
Holy Crap 19 weeks!
First things first - I'm done with school for a few weeks! Yay! I'll be teaching summer school in July, which part of me thinks I'm crazy for, but until then, I have time for baby things (oh yeah, and planning a new class!)
Starting in mid-May, Mr. Teacher Bud was working like crazy (we're talking 95 hrs in one week at it's worst) and since then has been out of town for work a lot. So I've been itching to get going on daycares, registering, etc. but we haven't done much yet, because obviously I want his input. He's almost done with his last trip, and then we will be diving in head first. My goal is to have a daycare selected, a registry most of the way complete, and furniture ordered by the time I start summer school on July 6th. Wow, now that I write that out it seems like a lot! *Gulp*
We have looked at 2 daycares, already, and I have a list of other ones to look at, so that is a step in the right direction. We also want to cloth diaper, and I have a small but growing diaper stash. We have so far 2 newborn fitteds, 3 small covers, 2 adjustable size pockets, and 3 newborn pockets. I know we need a lot more, so we need to get on that too! So far, I've just been buying CDs when they show up on babysteals or zulily. I also found the 3 covers at a garage sale! I was surprised, but so happy to get them for only $2 each! I've also been uying some clothes at garage sales too. Here's a picture of my haul one day - only $12 for all of it!
I'm still buying mostly gender neutral stuff, because we don't know the gender yet. But we have scheduled our ultrasound! Our ultrasound is at 8am a week from tomorrow! I am so impatient and can't wait!
Belly Measurement/Weight: Still not really up to pre-pregnancy weight. It has me a little worried, but I'm trying to think it's just my thyroid medicine doing it's job. My belly is definitely getting bigger! I had my 1st stranger ask when I was due this past week. At my appointment they said that my uterus is now up to my belly button.
Physical Progress: We're up to Mango! It's pretty strange though, I bought a doppler from a woman on a pregnancy message board that I frequent, and baby is always, always on my right side. It seems strange.
How I am feeling about my body: I am mostly done puking!!!! I hardly ever vomit anymore, smells still get to me, but I'm off the zofran, and doing soooo much better. I'm using a pregnancy pillow most of the time, and do have some lower back pain.
Cravings/Aversions: Tomatoes - I love them, but I just cannot eat raw tomatoes. It's sad.
Energy Level: The same. My mom walked me all over the earth yesterday running errand, and I was so exhausted afterwards that I almost went to sleep at 8:30!
Baby Movement: I think so. Not from the outside yet though.
Starting in mid-May, Mr. Teacher Bud was working like crazy (we're talking 95 hrs in one week at it's worst) and since then has been out of town for work a lot. So I've been itching to get going on daycares, registering, etc. but we haven't done much yet, because obviously I want his input. He's almost done with his last trip, and then we will be diving in head first. My goal is to have a daycare selected, a registry most of the way complete, and furniture ordered by the time I start summer school on July 6th. Wow, now that I write that out it seems like a lot! *Gulp*
We have looked at 2 daycares, already, and I have a list of other ones to look at, so that is a step in the right direction. We also want to cloth diaper, and I have a small but growing diaper stash. We have so far 2 newborn fitteds, 3 small covers, 2 adjustable size pockets, and 3 newborn pockets. I know we need a lot more, so we need to get on that too! So far, I've just been buying CDs when they show up on babysteals or zulily. I also found the 3 covers at a garage sale! I was surprised, but so happy to get them for only $2 each! I've also been uying some clothes at garage sales too. Here's a picture of my haul one day - only $12 for all of it!
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| credit: me |
Belly Measurement/Weight: Still not really up to pre-pregnancy weight. It has me a little worried, but I'm trying to think it's just my thyroid medicine doing it's job. My belly is definitely getting bigger! I had my 1st stranger ask when I was due this past week. At my appointment they said that my uterus is now up to my belly button.
Physical Progress: We're up to Mango! It's pretty strange though, I bought a doppler from a woman on a pregnancy message board that I frequent, and baby is always, always on my right side. It seems strange.
How I am feeling about my body: I am mostly done puking!!!! I hardly ever vomit anymore, smells still get to me, but I'm off the zofran, and doing soooo much better. I'm using a pregnancy pillow most of the time, and do have some lower back pain.
Cravings/Aversions: Tomatoes - I love them, but I just cannot eat raw tomatoes. It's sad.
Energy Level: The same. My mom walked me all over the earth yesterday running errand, and I was so exhausted afterwards that I almost went to sleep at 8:30!
Baby Movement: I think so. Not from the outside yet though.
April 3, 2011
Made it Halfway & other baby things
This Wednesday I will be 22 weeks!
Baby Sassy Bud is the size of a banana this week.
I have been feeling movement regularly for a while now. I think I can feel it from the outside but Mr. Sassy Bud hasn't gotten his hand there in time to feel it yet. Her kicks are definitely getting stronger now.
We have also made some baby purchases over the past few weeks. We got our nursery set. It's the Nursery Smart Chelsea collection:
We got a great deal on it from cribs.com. I have also started my cloth diaper stash. I'll save that for another later post but I got a ton of hand me downs along with some great sales on a few different CD sites.
Things have been crazy lately due to my law school semester ending (finals!!) and tax season but I'm sure I'll have lots of fun stuff to share in the near future. Stay tuned!
February 15, 2011
We have a Fetus!
Yesterday marked week 9 of pregnancy. That means the baby is officially a fetus! We're thrilled to have made it this far, and have gotten really hopeful since hitting that milestone.
Over the weekend, I noticed I was more energetic during the day. That continued into yesterday too, though I'm still not sleeping well, and am still bloated. Apparently I got a little too cocky, since last night about 7:30 (thankfully after Jeopardy was over!), I started to feel more sick than I've felt in weeks. Lying on the bathroom floor, dizzy with the sweats, groaning about how terrible I felt, sick. Thankfully Mr. Magnolia Bud was out with his best friend for the night, so I didn't worry him more than usual. About 10:30, I felt well enough to sit up and scoot into our room and lay in the bed. The nausea continued all night long, which meant no sleep for Magnolia Bud last night...which means I'm a bit of a zombie today.
This week, the baby is the size of a small strawberry (or an olive/grape, depending on which site I read). He/she is about an inch long, and the tail is completely gone! Touch pads on the fingers are starting to form, and the eyelids and ears are fully formed.
We're starting to tell a few people--just our best friends and bosses at this point. We're planning to tell our families the weekend after next, since our first doctor's appointment is the 25th.
We've been pulling out our Doppler every few days to see if we can hear a heartbeat, but because I have a retroverted uterus, we're not expecting to hear it for another 2-3 weeks at home. It's still neat to try, and since we know it's still early, we're not worrying about not hearing it.
We also bought our first "big" baby item last weekend. I met a woman who was selling her (used for less than a month) Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper, the one we wanted to get. She was selling it for half price, so we bought it. Mr. MB set it up when we got home, and it looks great! (And I know this may be controversial)--we covered the mattress and sheet with a blanket, and the cats have been loving it! They play in it, lounge in it, look out the window from their co-sleeper perch, and are having a really great time with it. For now, we don't see the harm in letting them explore, since baby's still not coming for 7+ more months.
Aside from a few (SO CUTE) little sleepers (gender neutral, of course), we've only been buying cloth diapers. So far, we have 9 Bum Genius 4.0's, 14 econobums, 24 newborn prefolds, and 12 infant prefolds. Over the next 1-2 months, we'll be buying several thirsties duo covers in both size 1 and size 2, to complete (for now) our CD stash. I know it's early, but so far I haven't paid more than 50% of list price for anything! I'm a sucker for deals!
On that note, I'll sign off and try to get some work done.
Sending healing thoughts to Diva Bud, labor thoughts to Flora Bud, and well wishes to everyone else.
-Magnolia Bud
Over the weekend, I noticed I was more energetic during the day. That continued into yesterday too, though I'm still not sleeping well, and am still bloated. Apparently I got a little too cocky, since last night about 7:30 (thankfully after Jeopardy was over!), I started to feel more sick than I've felt in weeks. Lying on the bathroom floor, dizzy with the sweats, groaning about how terrible I felt, sick. Thankfully Mr. Magnolia Bud was out with his best friend for the night, so I didn't worry him more than usual. About 10:30, I felt well enough to sit up and scoot into our room and lay in the bed. The nausea continued all night long, which meant no sleep for Magnolia Bud last night...which means I'm a bit of a zombie today.
This week, the baby is the size of a small strawberry (or an olive/grape, depending on which site I read). He/she is about an inch long, and the tail is completely gone! Touch pads on the fingers are starting to form, and the eyelids and ears are fully formed.
We're starting to tell a few people--just our best friends and bosses at this point. We're planning to tell our families the weekend after next, since our first doctor's appointment is the 25th.
We've been pulling out our Doppler every few days to see if we can hear a heartbeat, but because I have a retroverted uterus, we're not expecting to hear it for another 2-3 weeks at home. It's still neat to try, and since we know it's still early, we're not worrying about not hearing it.
We also bought our first "big" baby item last weekend. I met a woman who was selling her (used for less than a month) Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper, the one we wanted to get. She was selling it for half price, so we bought it. Mr. MB set it up when we got home, and it looks great! (And I know this may be controversial)--we covered the mattress and sheet with a blanket, and the cats have been loving it! They play in it, lounge in it, look out the window from their co-sleeper perch, and are having a really great time with it. For now, we don't see the harm in letting them explore, since baby's still not coming for 7+ more months.
Aside from a few (SO CUTE) little sleepers (gender neutral, of course), we've only been buying cloth diapers. So far, we have 9 Bum Genius 4.0's, 14 econobums, 24 newborn prefolds, and 12 infant prefolds. Over the next 1-2 months, we'll be buying several thirsties duo covers in both size 1 and size 2, to complete (for now) our CD stash. I know it's early, but so far I haven't paid more than 50% of list price for anything! I'm a sucker for deals!
On that note, I'll sign off and try to get some work done.
Sending healing thoughts to Diva Bud, labor thoughts to Flora Bud, and well wishes to everyone else.
-Magnolia Bud
February 9, 2011
O Machine says...
Max Fertile Day is CD 12! I seriously love this thing. Right now I am CD 7 so it looks like I will be O'ing on Valentines Day. I seem to have a knack for O'ing on holidays, I O'd on Christmas too. Hopefully Valentines Day is the day that brings us a BFP.
I have been drinking POM and Green Tea like it is my job this cycle. I have also been staying away from Fertility Friend since I spent a lot of time staring at my chart last cycle. I have been trying to relax more this cycle too. I also plan on eating Pineapple core starting on the 15th and through the 20th. It can't hurt right?
My friends mom is a midwife and I have gotten in contact with her for advice on conceiving. I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about birth, mostly natural birth. The midwife said she had some more books for me (my Kindle is full of a page worth of Birth books!) and that she would give Mr. Buttercup Bud and I a private tour of the birth center. I definitely want the tour but I don't want to do it until we are pregnant. I suppose I might be getting a little ahead of myself researching birth when I am not pregnant yet, oh well.
Awhile back I bought a Skip Hop Duo Deluxe Messenger Diaper Bag, that looks like this:
from my local cloth diaper store and one cloth diaper. Yes, just one! I wanted to start building my stash. Since I bought those though, I have resisted buying anything else for future Baby Buttercup. It is so hard, I love baby stuff! Plus 2 of our really close friends are pregnant and due within a week of each other. Lots of babies going on around here. Hopefully I can join them soon. Until then my uterus and I will keep hoping.
-Buttercup Bud
I have been drinking POM and Green Tea like it is my job this cycle. I have also been staying away from Fertility Friend since I spent a lot of time staring at my chart last cycle. I have been trying to relax more this cycle too. I also plan on eating Pineapple core starting on the 15th and through the 20th. It can't hurt right?
My friends mom is a midwife and I have gotten in contact with her for advice on conceiving. I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about birth, mostly natural birth. The midwife said she had some more books for me (my Kindle is full of a page worth of Birth books!) and that she would give Mr. Buttercup Bud and I a private tour of the birth center. I definitely want the tour but I don't want to do it until we are pregnant. I suppose I might be getting a little ahead of myself researching birth when I am not pregnant yet, oh well.
Awhile back I bought a Skip Hop Duo Deluxe Messenger Diaper Bag, that looks like this:
from my local cloth diaper store and one cloth diaper. Yes, just one! I wanted to start building my stash. Since I bought those though, I have resisted buying anything else for future Baby Buttercup. It is so hard, I love baby stuff! Plus 2 of our really close friends are pregnant and due within a week of each other. Lots of babies going on around here. Hopefully I can join them soon. Until then my uterus and I will keep hoping.
-Buttercup Bud
January 29, 2011
First Ultrasound, Birth Center Tour, and First Fluff Mail!
I have to apologize in advance, this is going to get long! So grab a snack...
This was a week of firsts for us at the Magnolia Bud house. We had our birth center tour, had our first ultrasound with this pregnancy, saw that baby's heartbeat for the first time, scheduled our first prenatal appointment, and received our first piece of fluff mail!
In fact, there was a little Baby Magnolia Bud in there! S/he measures .78 cm, which correlates to 6w4d to 6w5d. His/her little heartbeat was strong at 145!!! As soon as the tech held the wand still for a second, we could see the little heart flicker on the screen. Mr. MB was speechless, and I teared up. I never thought something the size of a sweet pea could make me get teary...who knew!?
The doctor came in and looked at all of our measurements, and gave us a new EDD--September 19. The doctor also told us that I'm now down to a less than 5% chance of miscarriage. We were both really relieved to hear that, but we're now also filled with more worry now that we're sure there's a healthy baby in there (what if we're the 5%? what if we should really be getting the FIRST testing done? what if I'm not getting enough nutrients because all I want to eat are rice cakes and apples? etc, etc, etc.). When I told Mr. Magnolia Bud that I was still worried (now about other things than whether Baby MB had a heartbeat), he said I should man up and get used to it--being a parent is full of worry, but it's also going to be a lot of fun. I married a very smart man, who's going to make a great dad!
Next up--the birth center tour. I've been going to a midwife practice for about two years for well-woman care, and there is a free-standing birth center associated with the midwife practice. It's the only one in the state, and it has an awesome reputation (even with the MFM doctors we've been seeing at local hospitals for ultrasounds). The tour is required before any patient can make their first prenatal visit, because they have a limited number of birth slots available for any given month. During the two-hour tour, we discussed what happens during prenatal appointments and a normal birth process, what happens if an emergency-type situation occurs, what happens during postpartum care--both at the birth center and at home, and the midwife giving the tour answered lots of questions from all of us. We finished with a tour of the birth suites. Once we left, we both knew that attending had solidified our plans to give birth there. Feels great to have a plan!
I was able to schedule our first prenatal appointment for February 25--I'll be 10w4d, and we'll hopefully be able to hear the heartbeat on the doppler then. Our plan is to tell our families that weekend if the appointment goes well.
Finally, we got our first fluff package this week! About two weeks ago, cottonbabies was having a great sale on bum genius 4.0 seconds, so I ordered some. (I thought I ordered 12, but my invoice only showed 9...which means I probably only ordered 9). They came this week, and we love them! Can't wait to use them when Baby Magnolia Bud arrives!!!
That's it for now, I think. I'm still feeling pretty cruddy every day, but the sea bands continue to cull the dizziness and some of the nausea. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Love, Magnolia Bud
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