Ecologically sound
Well, duh. This has got to be the number 1 reason and the most obvious. I’m not even going to go into the finer points on the environmental impact of disposable diapers. Dig a little into the life cycle of a disposable diaper (from the resources used to create it, to the eternity that it will spend in a landfill) and prepare to be disgusted. There is still a bit of debate over the environmental impact of cloth vs. disposable, mostly because of the water & electricity used to wash cloth diapers. I am a big fan of the fact that his poop will be going into the toilet and not sitting in a pile in his room or leaching into our water source from a landfill. Although, right now he is on a breastmilk-only diet so his water-soluble poop goes straight into the wash. The environmental factor was the original driver behind my experimentation with cloth diapers, but after using them for five months, I’ve discovered so many other great reasons to use cloth.

Baby butt feel
Have you ever held a baby and felt like you had a Ziploc bag full of jelly in your hand? Cloth diapers are firm and more snug around the bum. It feels like your little one is wearing a pair of thick, cozy underwear instead of like he’s swaddled in a grocery bag. Try snuggling with a grocery bag. Not only does it not feel right, but you have that constant plastic crinkle sound!

Leakage
Every single disposable diaper I have ever used leaked. If this isn’t enough to drive you away from disposables, I don’t know what is. I have used about 5 different brands of disposables that were given to me at my shower. I thought “Hey, these will be good for travel and whatnot!” WRONG. I gave them all away because Archer was constantly wet everytime I used one. Wet babies = no fun

Cute factor
Every time I put a diaper on, I get to pick from a rainbow of colors and patterns. If you have a girl, you never need to bother with those cutesy little panty-like diaper covers because you will already have diapers that coordinate with all of her outfits. Even though you don’t see much of my son’s diapers under his onesies, I still try to coordinate his diapers and outfits because it’s fun and I’m a dork.

More polite
If you don’t have children in diapers, why would you want dirty diapers sitting in your trash? I know I would have been slightly disgusted to find stinky diapers in our trash before we had Archer. I always have a wet bag in my diaper bag that all of the dirties go into and get zipped up for stink-free transport into the hamper at home. It’s no less convenient than putting the dirty diaper in someones trash to be re-gifted when they least expect it. I even used all cloth when we traveled away for several days. I just took along the hamper-sized wet bag that we use at home and washed all the dirties when we got home. It didn’t smell in the car, I didn’t leave a smell at my Aunt’s house, and I continued to enjoy all the awesomeness of cloth diapers on the road!

Diaper rash? What’s that?
I know some babies are simply more prone to this than others, but Archer has not had one case of diaper rash since birth. Put yourself in baby’s shoes. Would you rather wear underwear made of plastic fiber or soft cotton and fleece?

Early potty training
We haven’t reached this stage yet, but I hear that cloth diapered children use the toilet earlier because the moisture is not wicked away as much as in a disposable. Because they can feel when they have wet themselves, they learn to control it more quickly.

I think many new parents still believe that cloth diapers will be a hassle, or too expensive, or inconvenient/gross to wash. My husband has two left hands and if he can learn to fold a cloth diaper, then anyone can. We prefer the traditional pre-fold diaper with waterproof cover over the all-in-one style or pocket diaper because it is such a workhorse. I can think of maybe one time that this combo has leaked on us. Pre-folds are also much less expensive than the all-in-one diapers and will last forever. We have spent about $500 on cloth diapers and cloth wipes, not including the diaper service that we used in the beginning. I know we could have spent even less, but now that we have gotten over that learning curve, we will be spending next to nothing on baby #2. And with regard to washing, I do about one and a half extra loads of laundry per week. We could easily purchase a handful more diapers and cut that back to one extra load. You’re already going to be doing more laundry with a baby in the house, and you can double that if you are using disposables because of the constant outfit and sheet changes due to major pee leakage!

And finally, a review…

Pre-folds
Hands-down my favorite. Yes, there is a slight learning curve to folding, but it’s easier than it looks. We started with a diaper service, but now we are using Bummis Organic Cotton pre-folds, bumGenius Flip covers, and a Snappi. I love that these prefolds are so affordable AND organic since cotton is a crop that is often heavily covered with pesticides. The Flip covers are super-adjustable and I prefer the snaps over Velcro both because of what Velcro picks up in the laundry and because Archer startles easily at the sound of the Velcro.

Pocket diapers
My other favorite has been Fuzzibunz One-size pocket diaper. These come in so many fun colors, they are super adjustable, and super soft. Again, I like that they do not use Velcro. They come with extra elastic that is super easy to replace with the use of buttons. I foresee these lasting us quite a long time. I also bought some used bumGenius one-size diapers with Velcro closure. Unfortunately, I have not gotten around to replacing the Velcro and I’m not sure that I ever will since it seems that the elastic needs replacing as well and I just don’t have the time. I’ve heard rave reviews about these and I would probably buy the version with the snap closure.

Hybrids
We’ve tried the G diapers and the bumGenius Flip system with the disposable inserts. Both of these options are almost worse than regular disposables. The G diaper covers are not even waterproof so when they leak, they really leak. I was disappointed that these didn’t work better because the covers are super soft and cute. The inserts are supposedly biodegradable, although I have heard from many people NOT to flush these down the toilet as the manufacturer suggests. The Flip system is slightly better because of the waterproof cover, but neither the cloth nor the disposable insert is enough to keep the cover clean and the disposable insert is not biodegradable. I would shy away from any diaper that has a pad only instead of a complete interior liner to wick away moisture and prevent explosions.

Cloth wipes
If you’re going to use cloth diapers, and I hope you will after reading this, you might as well use cloth wipes too! They don’t add much to your laundry, you save a bundle, and they can be re-purposed as cleaning rags. I have a handful of used ones which I purchased from a friend, a handful of Fuzzibunz double-sided wipes, which I  love, and we just purchased a handful of Grovia terry wipes which I haven’t washed yet, but they feel pretty soft. We have been using the following wipes solution recipe:

1 C. distilled water
1 Tbs. Vitamin E oil
1 Tbs. Dr. Bronner’s castille soap
1 drop tea tree oil

This seems to work well so far, but I’ve read that the oil could cause residue build-up on the diapers. I’m not terribly concerned because we use so little of it.

Last, but certainly not least, I recommend Kelly’s Closet for most of your cloth diaper needs. They have a wide selection, free shipping on orders over $50, a great customer rewards program, and helpful customer service. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, some of the best prices too!

• Motherhood is like a secret club. You don’t realize this until you become one, but there is no way to explain the many experiences of being a mother to someone who is not a mother.
• Everything is amazing.
• Sleep and showers are so overrated.
• Cloth diapers RULE! I never ever want to touch another disposable.
• I have a pretty f*!%$ing amazing husband.
• There can never be too many pictures.
• They DO grow up so fast.

And on that last note, here is a little visual timeline for you!

On Wednesday afternoon, June 2nd, lost my mucous plug or had my “bloody show” as some would call it. I would love to phrase this in a way that didn’t sound so disgusting, but I figure if you are reading a birth story, this is good preparation and/or warning for the squeamish. I was only 37 weeks and had convinced myself that I would be at least a week overdue, so I was  entirely certain that precursor to labor was premature. After all, the great wide web told me that some women have this happen 2 weeks before labor. However, I was not able to convince my uterus of it’s prematurity and I started having contractions at 2 am that night. They started out 2-3 minutes apart, but not extremely painful, so I was told to go back to bed by the midwife on call. They slowed to around 7 minutes apart and I was able to get a bit more rest before Cory was up and off to work.

I was still not convinced that this was really happening. I had heard stories of women having contractions for weeks or being dilated for long periods of time before ever actually giving birth. I think my persistent disbelief is what kept me calm most of the day. It was drizzling off and on that day, but I had developed a habit of walking my parents’ dogs over the past couple of weeks and I wasn’t about to let a bit of cramping slow me down. Mom and Dad had caught a ride to Austin from Longview 2 days before when our family friend Margaret took a spur-of-the-moment trip to visit her daughter in Round Rock. I thank my lucky stars they did, otherwise they wouldn’t have been here for the birth and I would have been laboring at home all alone all day! Instead, I had Mom helping do all the last minute things which I thought I had another week to do like pack my labor bag and put together the pack-n-play so that Archer had somewhere to sleep and be changed. Archer really tested our ability to cram as much as possible into the last minute. But, by the time we left, we had a little area set up for him in our room…and two hours later his carseat finally arrived.

Around 4, I messaged Cory to pick up a bottle of wine on the way home. A close friend had passed on advice from her midwife that an ibuprofen, a glass of wine, and a hot bath would allow me to get some sleep without slowing down labor if I needed it. Fortunately, I didn’t as a half hour later my contractions became noticeably stronger and closer together. By 6pm, we had decided it was time to pack it up and head out. Cory called to let them know we were coming and when he said “Oh, hi Annabelle!”, I started crying. There were several midwives working at the birthing center and she was my favorite. I think that’s when I knew I was really ready because up until that point I had managed to stay as cool as a cucumber.

Sitting down was the most uncomfortable thing in the world while I was having a contraction, so we decided to walk the 1/2 mile to the birthing center. Along the way, two girls passed us on the sidewalk to ask when I was due. When I told them “Right now!”, they looked at me as if I had just sprouted another head. Annabelle examined me and found that I was 4cm, fully effaced, and a station +1. When she was done with the exam, we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves, so we went for a walk on the nature trail behind the building. It had rained that day, so it was cool, quiet, peaceful and exactly what I needed to take my mind off the contractions for a little longer. When Annabelle examined me again at 10pm, I was 6 cm dilated and I thought “Oh, great! We are going to be here all night.” She drew a hot bath in the Jacuzzi tub and I was able to relax through each contraction a bit more.

Looking back I can clearly see the different stages of labor, but it was quite a blur while we were experiencing it. I went from fairly painful, but manageable contractions to involuntarily pushing in an instant. The other midwife on duty, Joan, came to examine me and had me move to the toilet to “void” before delivery. This was the absolute worst part of it all. The pressure on my low back and bottom were 10x worse in a sitting position. To add to that, Cory couldn’t really offer counter-pressure in that positions AND I was instructed to gradually raise my knees to my ears by placing my feet on higher and higher objects. For a couple of minutes I did succumb to the “I can’t do this!” fear, but moments later Joan told me we were ready to deliver and asked were I would like to be for it. Before she had a second to offer assistance, I was off and running back to the tub. Cory said I ran/waddled like an 80-year-old woman trying to get back to her walker. I’m sure it made them both nervous, but I was ready to get the show on the road!

Back in the tub, with Cory on the ledge behind me for support, Joan and Annabelle helped me begin pushing. It’s really amusing how on TV they yell at women “Push! Push!”, when in reality they give you very careful instructions on  how to bear down, how long, and how hard. I think it only took about 3 hard pushes and Archer’s head was out. I remember thinking, “That’s it? That wasn’t so bad at all!” However, my next contraction didn’t come for several more minutes. My legs were starting to tremble and I was told a couple of times “Don’t sit on the baby!” ” Don’t squash the baby’s head!” The rest of Archer came in one last push and the placenta in one more.

There are no words to describe the feeling that comes over you when they put this reddish-purple, slimy, screaming, little creature on your chest while it is still attached. It is surreal. Ok, so maybe there is a word to describe it, but I’m still not sure that does it justice. Cory cut the cord which he said was surprisingly gristly and required a bit more force than he expected. Before I knew it, we were out of the tub and snuggly and warm in bed. They didn’t take him for quite some time and I just laid there in my surreal haze, awe-struck at what just happened.

Probably the most notable aspect was that my water never broke, even during delivery, so the midwives had to peel away the bag of waters from his head as it came out. Apparently this happens in less than 1 in 1,000 births and one of the midwives hadn’t ever seen it in her 20 years of practice. Cory did a little online searching and found a slew of cultures with various myths surrounding this type of birth. So it seems that, among other things, Archer will be a great leader, with a spirit animal that follows him, and he may also be a vampire.

Archer was born at 11:24pm on June 3rd, 2010 weighing 6 lbs, 13oz, 21.25″ long with a head circumference of 14″. By 7am, I was feeling well-rested and ready to go home. We had to wait a bit to complete all of the discharge paperwork, but we were home by 8am and having visitors by lunchtime the next day. I had read so much about natural childbirth, but I was still amazed at how great I felt so quickly after delivery. I was also amazed at how my body seemed to know exactly what to do and the pain wasn’t as overwhelming as everyone wants you to believe…or maybe I was just well-prepared for it. Regardless, I wouldn’t have changed a thing and I would encourage every woman out there to really work towards having as natural a birth as possible because it was the most incredible experience of my life.

I’ll share photos of the baby shower soon. It was a pretty overwhelming testament to how many awesome friends and family I have. Archer is still moving around so much that sometimes it gets annoying and uncomfortable. I’m still feeling pretty good overall, but have started to be a little short of breath and have a bit more pelvic discomfort. I just keep telling myself that the next 7 or so weeks are going to fly by and I had better enjoy it while it lasts!

It really amazes me how our society encourages pregnant women to drop all concern for eating habits while pregnant. And, on top of that, treats them as if they are fragile little things who shouldn’t be engaged in even the slightest physical taxation.

First of all, pregnant women only need about 300 additional calories a day. If you consider that the vast majority of us already consume well over 300 more calories on a daily basis than we need, then logically you shouldn’t be changing the amount that you eat at all. It’s more important that those calories come from high protein whole foods. To be fair, I’m not perfect and I do enjoy the occasional burger, pizza, or piece of chocolate…occasional being the key word here. I’m just as concerned now with the amount of sugar and fat I’m consuming as I was before I was pregnant. Yet, every time I mention weight gain or eating too much, I hear someone come out with the pregnancy excuse. This is such backwards thinking! We concern ourselves with the alcohol, caffeine, mercury, and nicotine consumption of pregnant women, but when it comes to refined sugars, preservatives, and high-fat processed foods, go ahead and knock yourself out, mom! Would you ever think to make a comment to a pregnant woman (or anyone for that matter) eating a super-sized McDonald’s meal?

The reason I don’t feel guilty about my occasional indulgences is that I work my little butt off to counter balance them. My training sessions have been slightly modified since I became pregnant, but I still lift weights 2x a week, go to town on my elliptical 3x a week, and try to make it to yoga 2x a week. If anything, I’m probably exercising more now than I was before pregnancy. So, why would someone who doesn’t exercise regularly be telling me that I shouldn’t lift something heavy? Good question. It was really common in the past for pregnant women to be encouraged to take it easy and not exert themselves too much. We know now that it is even more important for pregnant women to exercise, even if they did not have a program in place pre-pregnancy. There is a lot of information out there on the benefits of exercise to mom, but I recently read an interesting study (which of course I can’t find now!) which discovered a very important benefit to baby. It was previously thought that pregnant women should limit exercise because it temporarily lowers blood flow to the baby. While this is still true, it is now believed to be a benefit because those temporary stresses better prepare the baby for the stress of labor and birth. And of course, aerobic exercise improves the entire function of mom’s cardiovascular system which helps baby get more oxygen-rich blood when she’s not exercising.

There is an infinite amount of research out there and I could have linked every single sentence in this post to some supporting article. But, I’m more concerned with the discussion of our societal perceptions of pregnant womens’ health.  As a proponent of natural childbirth, the cherry on top is that so many people are concerned with every little thing a pregnant woman does for the sake of the baby’s health, yet when it’s time to give birth, let’s pump her full of drugs regardless of how that affects baby! And why are we so overly concerned with pregnancy diet, but nobody comments on what a nursing mother eats or drinks? Babies in the womb have way more filtration barriers to mom’s diet than nursing babies.

My pregnancy has been so easy and wonderful and I believe it’s because I do so much to take good care of myself. Yet, everyone and their dog feels that they have the right to submit their opinion, whether good or bad, helpful or not. I’ve managed to take it all in stride and keep my rants to myself, but I’m not sure that I will be able to if/when we decide to go for baby #2. Of course, if I do allow myself to say what I really think on a regular basis, I’m sure I’ll just be accused of being a victim of hormones. If hormones are a valid excuse for punching someone, then I’ll play along.

Now little Archer can be exposed to some of our favorites without mom and dad feeling guilty for playing songs with lyrics about drugs, sex, and violence. However, momma still likes her hip hop and Archer will just have to learn what words we don’t say…unless we’re singing along.

It’s called “Little Tree” and it’s from the Bananafish sub-brand MiGi. I bought it after scouring Babies R Us AND Target and not finding anything I liked…well, come to find out, Target also sells it. Luckily I saved about $20 by ordering it off Amazon. Of course, now I have to go back and re-think all of these other decor pieces that I was considering which would have gone with the hippo bedding. Darn.  (Are you picking up on the sarcasm here?) So, nursery bedding, hamper, and wall art: check. Now, what colors should we pull from this bedding to paint the room?

I chose the Stone cover.

I chose the green owl.

One of the inside pages

Update:
I received our baby book from Edna Mae this weekend and I could not possibly be more happy with it. I went a little overboard with the extra pages that I ordered, so they all just barely fit in there. I wasn’t really thinking about how many extra journal pages she already includes in the regular package, so I have a lot of pages to fill! I hope she is still making baby books when we have our next child so I can order a matching one for Baby Berry #2…although probably not with quite so many pages.

I have one more week before we start the dreaded third trimester and I’m starting to feel it. It started on Tuesday with a dull headache that wouldn’t go away. All I wanted to do all day was eat and sleep. Meanwhile, Archer was practicing to be the next kickboxing champion of the world…all day…non-stop. Wednesday, Cory took a half-day and we ventured downtown for a SXSW day show. The music was great and I think Archer was soothed by the bass because he didn’t budge all afternoon. My back started to hurt a little from standing so long, but any more than usual. Thursday, I worked out with Kyle and had my last day doing massage at Emerson. Everyone knew it was my last day, so I was booked solid. Aside from a quick 5-minute bathroom break, I worked non-stop from 1 to 5. Afterwords, we went to the Hideout for Brian’s birthday. Word to the wise: ball squats at the gym + lunging for 4 hours + plus sitting on a wooden bench for a few hours = a pelvis that feels like it’s being ripped apart

Needless to say, I felt severely broken yesterday. Everything was either sore or aching. I have a feeling I’ll be sharing many more pity party stories in the months to come. More and more I have the feeling that I’m inching towards a precipice and the fear of what’s over the edge is mounting. Deep down I know that Cory and I will be good parents and everything will be great. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m preparing for the most physically painful experience of my life and that my life as I know it will never be the same! As much as I try to come to terms with that prior to the fact, I still don’t believe there is any way to fully realize what is about to happen until it does.

I the meantime, I am wearing nothing but stretchy skirts and summer dresses and proudly showing off my belly. I’m trying to find the perfect chair to live in for a while and I’m about to purchase the perfect book to start recording all of these once-in-a-lifetime memories. Cory, true to form, has purchased a mini digital video recorder and continues to try and train Archer to respond to my favorite James Taylor record. We have my glucose screening and my first Rhogam shot scheduled during the midwife appointment next week. We also start the Bradley Method birthing classes next week. We haven’t even begun to clean out the room that will someday be the nursery and we have so many other things that need to be, or should have already been, done…but full speed ahead!