A MUCH BETTER BLOG

We are pleased to now carry the Tiny Tush Elite One Size Pocket Diapers in our store. The Tiny Tush are truly one size, fitting babies from birth through potty training or 35 pounds. If cloth diapering saves money over disposables, one size diapering saves a FORTUNE. On top of the obvious benefit of only buying diapers once for your baby, you can also use the same diapers if you have more than one little one in diapers at the same time.

The Tiny Tush Elite features four rows of snaps which allows the rise of this diaper to be adjusted incrementally from newborn, infant, crawler, to toddler.The waist adjusts with either snaps or aplix depending on your preference. They feature super soft non piling polyester micro-fleece to keep the diaper looking like new wash after wash.

The Tiny Tush Elite is priced at $17.95 and available in 11 yummy colors and is available with either velcro closure or snap closure. Watch the video to see how the rise is adjusted and the pocket is stuffed, see them here in our store and use code BLOG at checkout to save 10%.

Has it been 9 months already???? Bianca has been on the outside almost as long as she was on the inside. I can hardly believe it. Time has flown but it has been good time. We are having a blast.

She continues to be a fabulous baby who is loved by all. She engages strangers and cashiers when we are out and seems to love all people, especially babies (she goes nuts when she sees other babies and usually tries to poke them in the eye).

She continues to be an alert, ridiculously happy, low maintenance baby. While I consider myself exceptionally lucky, I also attribute her demeanor in part to the fact that she is 100% natural with no vaccines, chemicals or other trauma from pregnancy, birth or beyond. Anecdotal I know…..

Here is the rundown of where she is at physically and developmentally.

Appearance
Naturally I think she is the most gorgeous baby in the world (and naturally I thought the same thing of Brielle when she was a baby). It is hard to be objective when talking about your kin. Her hair is coming in fast, brown and curly at the ears. Her eyes are still blue as can be. She is holding steady at eight teeth but I can feel the bumps on her upper gum so more are on the way. Her smile lights up the room.

On top of being gorgeous (there goes proud mommy again), she is BIG. She can easily wear 2T clothes and can wear almost all of Brielle’s summer clothes and pajamas in a pinch. She can’t wear Brielle’s jeans because of length but I am pretty sure her thighs and butt are bigger than Brielle’s are right now. Add a diaper of any kind to that butt and it can actually be difficult to dress her.

I think Bianca weighed about 21 or 22 pounds the last time I weighed her and Brielle is weighing in at 32 pounds (at 4 yrs 4 mo). I don’t think it is a matter of if Bianca catches up but when.

Eating/ Breastfeeding

The girl has an appetite. Holy moly. She didn’t get it from me that’s for sure. Daddy seems to be the generous donor of the appetite/growth gene.

Brielle and I tend to eat like birds and Bianca eats like a ravenous carnivore. She loves food and needs meals multiple times a day which is kind of tough for me since Brielle and I are grazers. Needless to say, we have learned to adapt and grandma bought Bianca a high chair a few months ago which she is very happy to spend time in.

She eats anything and everything. She eats Mexican, Indian, Chinese, sandwiches, meat, raw vegetables, fruit, you name it. Obviously I cut most food into bite sized portions but she is very good at taking bites of sandwich type foods and chewing them very well. She is great in restaurants and gets right down to business.

She is fairly proficient with a spoon and fork. She knows to spear food with the fork and holds it fairly well and can usually get the food to her mouth. The spoon is a messier proposition because it usually involves a liquidy type food like yogurt but she gets a fair amount of food in her mouth. I am impressed. She can also drink from a regular glass with help. I am hoping to skip sippy cups altogether.

She is breastfeeds a lot at night but rarely during the day. She has a tendency to attack me (when nursing) while she is awake by pinching my upper arm, digging her thumbnail into me or any other way of clawing, hitting etc. I have a lot less patience for diddling and picking than I did with Brielle so I pretty much stop it immediately. 99% of the time she is trying to tell me something like she needs to go to the bathroom or has to burp and I figure that out later but I am not willing to be a pin cushion in the meantime. That means that she gets probably 75% of her breastmilk at night.

Talking/signing
Bianca has been making noises that sound an awful lot like words for a few months now. She does it most frequently with her brother’s names and the dog’s names. It happens a little bit too frequently to be written off to coincidence but I would not call it talking quite yet. Pre-talking maybe. The other day I swear on my life that she said “chicken” after I asked her if she wanted chicken. She would not repeat it for anything but I about fell over when she said it.

The words that she is saying consistently and on purpose are “mom” “da-da” “uh-oh” and my personal favorite “ow” which she uses when she is meowing back at one of the cats or addressing the cats (she calls them “ow”. She is also starting to sign a little bit. She signed “more” a couple of times and I almost cried tears of happiness.

Walking
No, she is not walking quite yet but she is standing up unsupported for longer periods of time and cruising the furniture. I have seen her stand up unsupported once and squat down unsupported once. Walking is imminent.

Babywearing
We do it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. We simply cannot live without our slings.

EC/Diapers

The nighttime EC is not going as well as it was in the past. When she has to go she will stir, wake me up but not quite wake up herself. If I try to potty her she gets pissed (so to speak). In short, she has to go too badly to sleep, but is sleeping too soundly to go.

I either have to wake her up enough to go (which I think is really rude), let her lay there and fuss until she finally goes in a diaper (which I also think is really disrepectful) or try to cajole it out of her by nursing her while she is on a lap potty. Frankly, nothing is really effective so I am just biding time knowing that the times she can hold it through the night (which are few and far between at the moment) are growing more frequent.

On a much more positive note, the daytime EC took a tremendous turn for the better. I was having a lot of difficulty keeping her on the Baby Bjorn little potty after she started crawling. She just would not stay on it. She would crawl away and then do her business in her diaper or training pants. I was still catching the majority of poos but the percentage was going down (fast).

Then one glorious day I put her directly on the toilet with a seat insert and she stayed put! I am assuming she stays there because she cannot launch herself off the toilet and crawl away. I didn’t even bother ECing Brielle on the toilet at that age because she was so content to sit on the little potty and read or play with toys that I never saw the need to rush the toilet.

Now Bianca is doing a fair percentage of her business directly on the toilet which is so much more than I ever expected at this age. I still have to pay attention for the signs but I sense that she is getting close to communicating her need to ‘go’ either verbally or through sign language. I predict that she will be close to 100% trained by 12 months. Could be wishful thinking but time will tell.

As far as diapering goes, I still use prefolds and covers for outings although I am experimenting more with pocket diapers (Fuzzibunz) since I sell them in my store and I like to have personal experience with my products. They work great and they are a lot fuzzier on her bum.

I also relented and used sposies on a recent vacation to avoid doing frequent laundry and to also avoid having pee scented laundry smelling up the place. While the break from laundry was nice, I hated the sposies. I am totally hooked on cloth. I hated the feel on Bianca, I hated trying to pull them over her generous thighs and butt, I hated the crinkly noise they made and I just hated them. I pretty much stopped doing EC for the vacation because it was such a pain to take them down and back up again. I was very happy to get home and get natural fibers back on my baby again.

Motor skills
I don’t know where her skills are supposed to be at this age but she amazes me with her appropriate use of tools. She knows to point the remote at the TV and press the buttons, to hold the broom handle with both hands and push it along the floor and which end of the pen goes to the paper. Maybe I am just a proud mama….or maybe that is super cool for an 8 mo old to do.

She can also open the dog kennel and release the hounds.

Cosleeping

I still love sleeping with Bianca. Sometimes I look at her while she sleeps and I am just overwhelmed with emotion. I love holding her fat little body and snuggling her all night.

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that despite the fact that she sleeps with me every single night, she sometimes starts out the night in a carseat until she wakes to nurse. I feel guilty while doing it but….well… it works and sometimes we just have just gotta do what works, AP or not.

I expect the cosleeping relationship to carry on as long as she is night nursing but I also suspect she wont stay in bed with me quite as long as Brielle did since she will graduate to sharing a room with her big sister and she gets pretty excited to spend time with Brielle anywhere, anytime.

The first 9 months have been great and I can’t wait to see what the next 9 will bring.

We love the Bummis Diapering Kit at A Much Better Store because it is a constant favorite, a consistent best seller and it is an economical way to get started with cloth diapering in one easy kit.

The kit recently got an organic upgrade and now contains certified organic prefolds to put on your little one’s bum among many other goodies. The new kit also contains two varieties of diaper cover (the Super Brite and the Super Whisper Wrap), flushable liners, reusable liners and a wet bag which is essentially a “smell-free” diaper pail.

There are many styles and sizes of cloth diaper on the market and for someone new to cloth diapering, the choices can be intimidating. The fact remains that countless parents use the prefold/cover system because it is the simplest and most economical way of cloth diapering. It is the only system I use when I need to cloth diaper my little ones.

The Bummis Organic Cloth Diapering Kit comes in two sizes. The Infant size is for babies 8-15 lbs and retails for $169 and the Baby size will fit 15+lbs and is priced at $147. As always, use code BLOG at checkout for 10% off your entire order at A Much Better Store.

Of all the cloth diapering systems available (and there are LOTS), the most economical and perhaps the simplest, is using prefold (flat) diaper with a diaper cover. Many mothers, myself included, experiment with other types of cloth diapering systems like pocket diapers or all in one systems, but we inevitably fall back on the easy to use, inexpensive prefold system.

We are excited to announce the addition of organic prefolds by Bummis at A Much Better Store. These super absorbent diapers are thirsty, unbleached organic cotton twill. They are thick and soft and actually become softer with each wash. These diapers (and any prefold for that matter) fit wonderfully inside the Bummis diaper covers.

I use prefolds for EC backup around the clock but when I need to diaper Bianca for outings, I use the prefold and cover system. I routinely use the Bummis Super Whisper Wraps and Super Brite covers with prefolds but I actually prefer the plain, Bummis original for the most economical, trimmest fit. Whatever your choice of cover, you will love these luxurious prefolds and the matching carrying case that features the Bummis logo.

The Bummis prefolds are priced at $15.00 for 6 of the infant size (7-20 pounds) and $20.00 for six of the toddler size (15-40 pounds). As always, save 10% off your total order by using code: BLOG at checkout.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to post about our recent EC setbacks. Not a day after my last post which was chock full of our EC success, our elimination communication took a sharp turn. I have enjoyed six blissful weeks where Bianca was on a six day poo schedule. Seriously, how nice is that? She always held it and we had a 100% catch rate.

A few hours after I published the last post, her poo changed from a mustard or cake icing consistency to a Guinness beer consistency. (Oh come on! All parents know that you have to be able to compare poo to food!!) Anyway, we have had a number of misses. She went from a once every six days schedule to a 2-3 times a day schedule. (more…)