Week 9: new developments

So what else is new with Nathan? He’s now into his ninth week and is talking a bit more. There’s more variation to the coos and gabbles he makes which is very funny. He’s also smiling a lot more which is so terrific each time he does it.

Things that make him smile currently include:

1. Seeing mummy’s face pop above the crib in the morning

2. Listening to his musical toy in his baby gym

3. Mummy singing ‘I’m in the Lord’s Army’ and ‘Happy All the Time’ while helping him do the song actions with his arms

Nathan is a very good baby most of then time. He hardly ever cries and even his cries are not the typical wailing type cries. He mostly makes ‘ah-ah’ noises in short bursts, pause for a while, then let out a slightly longer ‘aaaah’, and pause again. He’ll repeat this until someone comes and see what he wants.

He’s presently having a ‘witching hour’ phase every night around 8 or 9pm until bedtime. Sometimes its not very convenient as it’s the time where I’m trying to clear up things in the kitchen after dinner, prepare lunch for tomorrow, or just trying to wind down at the end of the day. He just grizzles, wants to nurse, but pulls off the breast intermittently and just plain does not want to go to bed. I try to look at it as an opportunity for extra cuddle time before bed. Friends tell us that it could be a growth spurt. If so, that might help explain some exciting new developments wth his progress.

This week he managed to hold his head up very steadily for more than a minute at a time. Previously he used to flop it around a lot and need frequent breaks in between attempts to jerk his head up. Here are some shots of that strong neck in action…

    

Anecdotes

Some anecdotal updates…

Hubby did his first hands on cloth nappy change last week! I had a mini workshop session to run him through our cloth nappy stash and show him how to use them. He was a little overwhelmed at first at the variety of cloth nappies but in the end he was fully supportive and on board the system.

Nathan has grown. I know this for a fact because he can finally fit some of the clothes given to him which he was too small to wear at first. Here he is wearing his funky tie-dye onesie - pressie from his er-chiu.

He wore it out on Sunday. It was also the day I decided the road test my Itti Bitti D’lish cloth nappy for an extended session out. We put it on at 9.30am and left for church. He nursed at 10.00am and I put him down for a nap. He slept soundly in the creche room all throughout service with no problems at all. I intended to change him around his next feed before we left for lunch about 1.00pm but we got so caught up getting organised to leave that we forgot. He slept soundly through lunch at the restaurant. Didn’t get a chance to change him until we got home around 3.30pm and I was amazed that the nappy held up all this time with no leaks! I do not intend to let him go for this long again without a nappy change, but good to know that it holds up pretty well.

Nathan also experienced his first jab last Friday. It was his 8-week immunisation - one dose of oral medicine and two jabs, one on each leg. It was very distressing for him because he was also tired and hungry from the long wait at the clinic. I wanted to nurse him but you know how it is… you’re always the next one, but the minutes tick on and it’s never your turn. Sigh. The jabs were very upsetting for him but I nursed him straight after and he settled down ok. Here is the evidence of what he had to endure…

I’m loving my baby sling. I was blessed with two beautiful ring slings. One from my friend Connie in Singapore and one from my brother (Nathan’s ta-chiu). I haven’t really used it for extended sessions outside the house. Been mainly using it to carry Nathan around if he is having trouble settling. It works most of the time and he usually calms down and dozes off not long after a few minutes in the sling, unless he is still really hungry or is really awake and not ready to go to bed.

Here is a snapshot of Nathan and mummy - a rare case as most of the time, I’m the one holding the camera. A lot of people say Nathan looks more like me. Do you think so? When I look at his face I can see some features which reflect me, and some which reflect hubby. What do you think?

Often people ask me how I’m doing with motherhood. I can honestly say that I’m enjoying it. I used to worry so much about not ever having late morning sleep-ins and interrupted nights (yes sleep was very important to me) but having a baby really changes you. Sure it’s tiring and my eyes are still hurting from being forced to open at the sound of baby’s cry in the wee hours of the morning… but I just simply get up and do whatever I need to do. It’s also fun discovering new things not only about baby but about myself… I didn’t think I might turn into those granola-type mums - you know, with the breastfeeding, cloth diapering and baby-wearing… but like I said, having a baby does change you, or at least reveal things about yourself you might have never discovered otherwise.

Laundry day

How do you wash them? That’s the number one question surrounding the cloth nappy system. It was the number one question on my mind as well when I was first exploring this system.

I used to think I had to do a lot of pre-washing, scrubbing and soaking with the nappies. My initial idea was that I had to keep a bucket of soapy water nearby to chuck the dirty nappies in to soak until laundry day. Sounds so mafan right? My thoughts exactly. Imagine my surprise when I learnt that you don’t have to do this. In fact it’s recommended that you don’t.

They call it the dry pail method. Basically after removing a soiled nappy. It’s as simple as chucking it into a dry pail. Hence the name.

Apparently soaking actually wears down the elastic on the modern cloth nappies and possibly sets in some stains more - which makes sense really now that I think of it. And why would I want a bucket of smelly gooey water, filled with slimy pieces of cloth sitting around my house? Pretty disgusting actually if you think about it. It’s also a possible drowning hazard if you have other kids or toddlers in the house.

So the dry pail is my method of choice. I also put a cover over the pail just for hygiene purposes.

Next question: What about the poo? I was just coming to that. For newborn babies, especially breastfed ones, their poo will still be very watery and runny, so actually you can just chuck it straight into the pail. For older babies who have started solids, their excrement just needs to be tipped into the toilet. You can get flushable nappy liners for this if you’re icky about touching anything poo-related directly.

Come laundry day, all it takes is to empty the contents of the pail into the washing machine, add laundry detergent and hit the button. And get this, you only need to use half or even a quarter of the usual amount of detergent. Apparently all those extra cleaning agents and enzymes do more damage than good to clothes actually and might be rather harsh on babies' skin. In fact they sell special laundry detergent specially formulated for this sort of thing. Basically you want something that’s as natural and additive-free as possible - an article I read recommends ‘green’ detergents like Earth Choice. Better for the environment too.

On to the next question: What about the stains?

I think many people underestimate how wonderful this household appliance is: the washing machine. We just chuck in the clothes, hit the button and walk away. Sometimes we even question the effectiveness of the process and try to 'improve' things by using better detergent or more of it, or adding all sorts of other products like Oxyclean, Napisan, bleach etc. I realise now that all that other stuff was really undermining the wonder of this machine.

For those people who have nothing better to do (like me) you can meticulously bring the soiled nappy after each change to the sink to brush/scrub/wash out the stains. All unnecessary really. The washing machine alone is usually sufficient. I just do it to make myself feel better.

For really soiled nappies, there will be some stains. But allow me to reveal my other secret weapon: The Sun.

Sun actually has powerful bleaching and bacteria-removing powers. I never realised how powerful it was until now when I saw the effects with my own eyes. Allow me to illustrate:

Before: can you see a brown patch in the middle of the prefold?

After sun bleaching: voila! stain is gone!

It’s amazing I tell you. That alone is enough to make laundry day a lot more exciting.

After everything, I’m left with lovely, fluffy white, freshly dried laundry ready to fold.

As you can see, most of the cloth diapers used are the prefolds and muslins. I like them because they are easier to dry and because I’d like to prolong the life of my modern cloth diapers as much as possible.

During winter there will be undoubtedly less sunny days for sun bleaching power. But here is a very wise saying I read on another cloth diapering mum’s blog: “clean is not a colour”. I intend to make that my mantra come winter laundry days.

Cloth Nappies Part 2: The stash

So following the background story, here’s the overview of the cloth nappies I have and how I use them. I’m writing this mainly for the benefit of my hubby as a sort of pre-reading assignment prior to the hands-on workshop he will need to undergo soon!

I have six types of nappies/nappy systems:

1. Basic flat muslin and prefolds

The muslins you’re probably familiar with - there are different techniques of folding them to get them to fit well around baby’s bum. Prefolds are a step up - they are basically layers of cloth sewn together so you don’t need to go through any complicated steps to fold them.

Here is what a pre-fold looks like…

My favourite way of folding is the newspaper fold or angel wing fold and I secure the nappy with a snappi like this…

However it does take some practice and can be challenging to execute with a wriggly baby while having to balance handling the previous poopy diaper and simultaneously avoid getting shot in the face with pee from baby.

A couple of sites illustrated a no-snappi method where you just fold the prefold into thirds…

Then tuck it straight into the diaper cover…

I've road tested this method and it does work in holding in the poop as long as you ensure the leg and waist gussets are secure. I also add a reusable liner to protect the diaper from the poopy mess and to keep baby’s bum dry.

2. Nappy Cover

This is a necessary piece to have if you’re using flat muslin diapers or prefolds. It serves as a waterproof protection between the diaper and whatever surface baby is lying on. I have a few pieces of Bummis Super Whisper Wraps in plain white and some cute patterned ones like this…

3. All-In-One

This is the ultimate modern cloth diaper. It’s basically just like a disposable except that you wash and reuse it instead of throwing it away. The absorbent material + waterproof layer are sewn together in a single piece, so all you have to do it grab one and velcro/snap it on baby and you’re done.

These are generally the most expensive type of cloth diaper, take longer to dry and require more care. I only have a few pieces by Snazzipants, so I think I will try to save them for going out or as an emergency spare in the diaper bag. But I admit I’ve reached for them in desperate moments at home like a middle of the night nappy change as a quick fix.

4. All-In-Two

These function in a similar way as the All-In-One, but instead of a sewn in absorbent layer, the absorbent pads are removable. The advantages of this is that you can reuse the outer cover if it’s not soiled, and it’s quicker to wash and dry the inner pad separately from the cover.

I have a couple of Berryplush ones with removable hemp inserts. Hemp is super absorbent but takes a bit longer to dry.

And a couple of Itti Bitti D’lish ones, which have microfibre inserts.

I really like the Itti Bitt D’lish one becase of the soft minkee outer layer.

5. Pocket Nappy

This is a variation of the All-In-Two. The nappy cover has two layers - a waterproof outer layer and a soft fleecy inner layer which are sewn together to form a pocket. The opening at the back is where you can slip in the absorbent inserts.

I have two pieces of these - one by Blueberry Minky (dalmation spots, above) and one by Fuzzi Bunz (light satin green, below)

6. Fitted Nappy

These look like All-In-Ones but they are different. The main piece is only absorbent material and doesn’t have an attached waterproof cover. So when I use this, I’ll need to slip on a waterproof cover like the Bummis Super Whisper Wraps (pictured in #2 above) or Whisper Pants like the one pictured below.

I have five Snazzipants pieces made from cotton, and one Bubba J piece made from bamboo.

My model seems to be very amused with all the camera antics and multiple diaper changes. He must think it’s some kind of crazy new game by mummy!

I know it seems complicated - why so many different types of nappies? Well to keep it simple, majority of the time at home I’ll just use #1 and #2: the flat muslin and prefolds with a nappy cover.

#3, #4 and #5 are the more modern and grab and go pieces which I’ll probably use for going out. I just need to snap in or slip in the inserts before hand.

I’m currently trialling #6 as a night time nappy solution. I’ve had moderate success with this one… by moderate I mean that I’m not entirely sure that it’s 100% there yet as I’m also working on the sleeping through the night routine. So when he wakes up at night, I’m not always sure if it’s just because he’s hungry or because of a wet nappy. So I’ll probably mostly use disposables at night for now until we get things established in the feeding/sleeping department.

Hope this doesn’t scare you off but generates some interest instead. If I can covert at least one person either directly or indirectly to consider cloth diapering, it’ll be nice to know I’ve saved a few more trees and carbon footprints.

In my next post, I'll deal with the top question on everyone's minds... how do you deal with the dirty nappies?

Cloth Nappies Part 1: The story behind

After my last post on my foray into cloth diapering, I got few interested and curious comments. So I thought to expand a little bit more on what I’ve discovered about cloth diapering and how I’ve started applying it.

Also, I need to get hubby in on the game as well… he’s observed me doing a couple of nappy changes, but has not done a hands-on one himself. He’s currently away on a company trip and said he’ll learn how to do it when he gets back. There’s quite a bit of knowledge and info to transfer, so since I know he reads my blog, what better way than to start the process with a bit of Intro to Cloth Diapering 101! (hehehe…)

First of, how did I get into all this? Most of us are familiar with the muslin kain lampin type of nappies our parents used on us. They would fold it into the classic origami style and fasten it on us with a safety pin.

I had about of dozen of these in my stash which I had intended to use just as wraps and burp cloths and hadn’t thought of using them as nappies to begin with.

However when Nathan was just about a week old, he started to get rashes on his perfect satiny soft bum. I think the moisture trapped inside the disposable nappies was the main culprit. I was horrified to see it. I lathered lots of sudocream and meticulously dried his bum thoroughly at each nappy change but the rash still persisted for days. That was when my mum suggested wrapping him in muslin so he could get better air circulation and said she never used to have this problem with us when we were babies using the traditional muslin cloths. She showed me how to fold it in the origami style and we fastened it with an old brooch pin (obviously I was not at all geared up or prepared for cloth diapering). I think we had the right idea in mind, but due to the lack of adequate accessories it was short-lived as we experienced leaking with poor fastening of the brooch and lack of a waterproof cover.

Eventually his rash got better, but I was still concerned about him getting another rash. So I started reading up some articles on how to prevent and treat nappy rash. I found many tips and solutions, but one article mentioned that the use of cloth nappies is overall better for baby’s bum health and prevention of nappy rash.

Then a friend from church, Cindy, passed me three unused modern cloth nappies which she got from her sister-in-law and mutual friend, Rebecca.

The colours and designs were soooo adorable I decided to try them on Nathan. Unfortunately I ended up with leaks and poopy blowouts immediately. So once again I turned to the internet for answers… one link led me to another and soon I was lapping up heaps of articles on cloth diapering. Rebecca also had a lot of helpful advice and tips on cloth diapering on her website.

Slightly better informed, I learnt that sometimes breastfed newborn babies are better off in muslin or prefolds which can be folded more securely around their legs to contain their explosive poo (if you don’t know yet, breastfed newborn babies’ poo is ejected very explosively for some strange reason). With the aid of instructional videos on youtube, I learnt how to fold the muslin kain lampins to provide better pee absorbency and containment of poo. I also removed the inserts from the modern cloth nappies I received to use as waterproof covers (so the pee doesn’t soak through and wet the bedding).

It was a shaky beginning, but I got more and more confident and started thinking more seriously about the cost savings from using cloth nappies over disposables… and why not throw in saving the environment too! (which is very very true).

I did some more research on the different types of cloth nappies and the costs etc. Cloth nappies require a bit more upfront investment in order to build up a meaningful supply to work with. I was still convinced that they provide better cost savings in the long term (no need to buy so many disposables for the next 2 years). But I think the amount of upfront investment might be quite a bit for hubs to swallow.

And then I found the answer… Gumtree! With a few basic keywords typed into the search box, I was presented with heaps of options for pre-loved cloth nappies. After a few enquiries and back and forth emails, I managed to find an unbelievable bargain for a whole set of various types of cloth nappies.

Since then, I’ve been using cloth nappies 99% of the time. Night times are still a bit tricky so I’ve resorted to using disposables until I can stabilise his sleeping through the night pattern, as well as find a solution to provide good absorbency to last the whole night.

For Part 2, I’ll run through the different types and methods of cloth nappies I have and use.

New routines

I’m aware that my blog entries have become increasingly erratic. I have to resort to cluster blogging whenever I manage to find a spare hour or two in between nursing, cleaning and cooking.

Nathan is currently 7 weeks old and his routine is getting more established. He nurses about once every 3 hours during the day, and during the night is gradually increasing his sleeping hours to longer stretches.

He’s very alert during wake times. After a feed, he will either spend some time in his baby gym, have some tummy time, or sing or flip through a picture book with mummy.

Nathan is keeping mummy busy every day… although he is the smallest person in the house, he creates the most amount of laundry…

At this stage I don’t mind it, in fact I find it very satisfying and adorable to see all the teeny tiny outfits hanging out in a nice little row on the clothesline.

I decided to take advantage of my energy and enthusiasm for all this baby stuff to take on something new… cloth diapering! I’ve been toying with the idea for some time, however I wanted to ease myself into the process and started with disposables in the first few weeks while we got his routine more established.

I started with using some muslin folds a couple of times a day and a few pieces of modern cloth nappies (a gift from a friend)… admittedly there were some accidents and blowouts at first, but as I started to get the hang of it, I decided it was something I could take on. The savings from buying disposables was the main motivator for moving forward.

I managed to get a good deal online for a whole set of cotton prefolds, fitted nappies, nappy covers, some modern all-in-ones and snap-in nappies.

These are some of my favourite designs… especially the army one!

My little soldier boy!

There are a couple of extra steps needed at each nappy change, but I'm okay with it and am getting much better and faster with more practice. Although it's early days for me, I think I can safely say that I strongly recommend cloth diapering... if not just for the cost savings or the environment, but also it's better for baby's bottom and it's pretty fun too!

Family love

It’s been a whirlwind past few weeks. To sum up, it was all about family bonding time over food, conversation and Nathan.

Everyone wanted a turn to soak up all that lovely Nathan essence…

Nathan was given the princely treatment. If there was the slightest indication of discomfort, there was a whole team of people at his beck and call. Here’s jia-po and jia-gung working hard to keep Nathan cool in the hot summer weather…

We had a lot of trips and outings (images from Sam’s iPhone)…

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…Nathan was very good at sleeping in capsules and prams, so this was his view of everything for the most part…

It was good to have lots of people around to set a happy and loving atmosphere around the house.

CNY lou sang…

Family photo…

So happy that Nathan has so many people around to love and adore him.