Norah: Four Months

Size: A week ago she weighed just over 16 pounds. This was, of course, before she had eaten though-- so add in another half pound or so of milk at any given moment.

Sleep: Well, our little bean must be focused on growing moreso-- she has been up once a night about three in the morning every day, but it's really not bad. On another note-- we finally made the switch to the nursery! It was hard. Harder for me than for her though, I think. (Took me one time putting her in there to fall asleep... then me promptly taking her to bed with us again once it was time for us to tuck in. I can't resist that little face.) 

Social: You can officially glare and smile at her from across the room, and she will smile back! She definitely knows both Bryan and I, and smiles at Grandma whenever she sees her. She loves to sing songs with us, and loves when you dance with her-- she's also discovered how neat her voice is. Sometimes what started out as a fuss turns in to, "oh! That's neat. Let's draw on that note for a few minutes." Makes Bryan and I smile!

Diet: Still breast milk only-- I've been cleared by the doc to not start solids until 6 months, woohoo! (Not looking forward to that switch, for purely stinky reasons, if you catch my drift). And, you know, the longer I can breast feed her exclusively the better. She definitely doesn't have a problem with size!

Clothes: Fitting snugly in six month clothes, swims around in nine month a bit, but we're comfortable in those, too.

Likes: Singing, dancing, talking to you, and playing with all her new toys (especially the chewy ones)!

Milestones: Turning over! First time was officially last Friday. Hasn't happened since then, but she spends a lot of time flipping to her side these days. I feel like her puffy diapers might have a part of this; but I figure that makes her even stronger in the end. 

I had today off, which was amazing-- so much snuggle time! And I couldn't resist another little photoshoot, of course. Here are a few of my favorites:

Some random phone photos...

Just a few favs from my phone... thought I would share!

Having contractions in the waiting room of the hospital...

Cloth-tastic.

Aaah. Why yes, this is a post about cloth diapers! (Who gets excited about diapering?! I do, of course. Especially when diapering involves cuteness, softness, and saving money. Yes please.)

I first read about cloth diapers on younghouselove.com, where I was basically intrigued by the idea. I loved how cute they were, and overall, how much money I had the chance to save. And also, the whole 'hooray I'm not throwing away mounds of nastiness every day' was nice as well. (I know there are studies about how the creation/repeat washing of cloth diapers are just as bad for the environment... who knows. For now I'll just keep some extra poundage out of the landfill.)

And from my interest, came advice. It ranged from "oh, neat" to "holycrappleasedon't do that." In fact, Bryan's boss even bought us a month's worth of diaper service to deter me from my quest (which turned out to be really sweet, I spent the second month of Norah's life letting someone else do the washing-- thanks Judi!) What I learned? I'm not a huge fan of prefolds. Lots of steps. Pretty messy. Very bulky. Seemed to leak a lot, despite efforts of calling the service/asking advice/researching YouTube videos to help me out. And at $80 a month, I still figured I could do better and cheaper.

So starting out, I decided I was going to follow the footsteps of John and Sherry (from younghouselove), and go for the BumGenius Elementals. All in ones? Sounded like a great idea. Possibly even husband-friendly. But $25 each seemed a little steep. So I went about searching on the internet.

Holy crap (literally). SO MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT THESE THINGS ONLINE. Who would have know so many people obsessed over cloth diapers. I quickly became overwhelmed by the possibilities. Brands! Styles! Colors! Price! I decided to just go for one brand and stick with it. I took the advice of a friend, and ordered two styles-- the uber-expensive Elementals, and also the classic BumGenius 4.0's. 

(Elementals on the left, 4.0 on the right)

The verdict? I am totally sold on the 4.0's, but I'm happy with my choice. I ended up getting six Elementals, and 12 4.0's. Here's the breakdown:

BumGenius Elementals
Pros?

• One step
• One-size fits all (newborn/toddler)
• A little less bulky than 4.0's
• Can throw them in the dryer (I'm sure this isn't the best, but they would take three days to dry otherwise)
• No stuffing
• They are made with organic cotton, which feels nice

Cons?

• When they are on a smaller size, you have to fold them over in the back. The cotton is soft, but hard when you fold it up like that-- it makes a hard 'bar' on the back of her tush.
• Poo seems to fly right out of the absorbent area-- we've had a few blowouts.
• From what I've read, the old version was better-- more cloth by the PUL so you wouldn't get so much 'overflow.'

BumGenius 4.0's

Pros?

• Holds EVERYTHING. A few tinkles. Massive, earth-shaking poos. (Nice blog post, eh?) Overnight flooding. You name it.
• Covers dry overnight on their own, so I feel like they will last longer
• Super-ultra-mega-soft 
• Can stuff with whatever you like (Comes with one large microfiber stuffing-- which folds over with a snap, for my lady you can put the fold in the back, which gets the blunt end of the soaking-- and a small newborn stuffing, which I add at night)

Cons?

• A bit bulky, although still pretty adorable
• Have to take a few extra minutes to stuff them
• You have to 'unstuff' them after they've been used-- which doesn't bother me any, you wash your hands anyway after you change baby-- nothing crazy in my opinion.

Overall, I am super happy with my choice. Although I prefer the 4.0's, I love that my Elementals go in the dryer. Makes my life a bit easier. I love having a choice between the two. And for a few hundred bucks (roughly the cost of four months of disposables), I'm set for this baby, and the next. WOO. And I know this is a long post already, but here's the rundown on my routine:

• I wash every other day with Nellie's Laundry Soda. I love it. Considering switching all of my laundry to this. And, the tin is adorable. Not like that has anything to do with cleaning, but anything that makes laundry more adorable is alright by me. 
• I air-dry my 4.0 covers, and dry everything else. Takes about 1.5 rounds in the dryer to keep everything dry. I would recommend using Dryer Balls (Hedgehog edition!), as the seem to cut down on drying time a bit.
• I was everything in hot water, on the heavy setting (I have a simple washer, I'm sure you could do fancier things with another type-- but I work with what I have)
• I made cloth wipes-- and love them. $4 for a flannel sheet at the thrift store=30 or so wipes. I sewed two squares together, flipped them inside out, and sewed an 'x' in the middle so they wouldn't puff up in the wash. I love them. They go in the wash with everything else. I use a solution of water/a squirt of baby oil/baby soap in a squirt bottle, works great!

• I love my Wetbags from PlanetWise. I have a large one for the nursery, and a medium one for the diaper bag. More durable than the other wetbag I've used; seems like they will hold up over the long haul. 
• I invested in a diaper sprayer, which helps with staining now (breastfed poo is pretty water soluble, but pretty orange-- and figured it wouldn't be a bad thing to have for future messy-poos.)

I am oh-so-happy with my choice to cloth diaper. Seriously. I had some major concerns at first (will laundry take over my life? How hard is this going to be? What about being the road? Isn't having a newborn trouble enough?) but I'm super happy to announce that this is way easier than I thought. And, talk to me next month when I've made up the cost, but I'm already happy we don't have to run to the store to buy diapers last minute. I'm surprised more people don't do this. EASY. Do it. And ask me if you have any questions, I really do enjoy this stuff :)

A little article to share.

Every once in awhile I read something that makes me smile/feel better/think, and I feel the need to share. This one comes from an article called '10 True Things about the First 12 Months,' about advice:

Nobody is out to get you. Everyone wants you to succeed. And screw them all anyway, because you are raising a child, and that is awesome. Did your kid eat something today? Is she relatively hygienically sound? Smiles occasionally? You win all the things. You are awesome enough to absorb any and all commentary, keep the bits you like, and toss the bits you don't. How sweet of them to care.

Great little read! You can find the whole article here. I love it.

Halloween and other things (better late than never)!

So I know that Norah was only three months old on Halloween... but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to dress our gal up in a costume. I figure I only have a few years where we can choose her costume before she starts choosing ninja-space-warrior-princess-rockstar or something like that. So alas! Mouse it was! We got to go visit Kelly's Mom (it was also her birthday), and snap a few pics of Norah at my parent's house. It was a pretty good impromptu Halloween! (And, because we only had five trick-or-treaters, we were--oh no!-- overrun by candy. Oh. Darn. :) 

Also, here are the looks I get when I take too long getting her out of her car seat (AKA, I know I'm looking cute, mom, but please get me out of here.)