Cloth Diapers at 17 Months

This month's big announcement: our child no longer takes two naps.  About 2 weeks ago, she got really sick, and for days after she would not nap in the afternoon for anything.  I thought it was post-sickness-and-I-might-be-teething nonsense, but a friend of mine mentioned that our child might actually be done with two naps [since most kids are at this age].  I fought and fought and fought that our child still needs two naps .  She loves to sleep!  She is so happy when she's awake!  She usually goes down for naps perfectly! It's just teething!

Two nap-less afternoons later, Josh sweetly mentioned again that we should consider just trying one nap for the day.  If it doesn't work, so be it.

Turns out, Friend was right. Josh was also right.  We switched Kiddo to one nap and have never looked back.  This kid was so ready that it wasn't even a transition down to one.  For her, that is.  I've had to transition to early morning showers and actually getting up before my child wakes [terrible, I know].

In all seriousness, going down to one nap has been a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I was honestly terrified that I would lose what little time I used to have to myself in the mornings.  Instead, I've had to just shift it to before 7. And she still naps for a total of 4 hours in the day, its just now all in one chunk.  I think I can live with that.

Aaaaand...this actually does somewhat relate to our cloth diaper routine because the number we use in a day has changed.  We still use about 6 prefolds during the awake times, but now we only use 2 all-in-ones for 1 nap + 1 night. There has been some adjusting of the stash and all that and it has worked out pretty well.

Adelle - 17 Months 

# of Children: 1

Gender: female

Size: 20 lbs 12 oz, 31.25 inches tall

Average # of Diapers a day: 8

Laundry Schedule: Every three days.

Routine: pre-folds used during awake times [changed every 1.5 hours], all-in-ones during nap, all-in-ones with hemp insert at night

Diaper Size: One size diapers - middle settings, Thirsties covers - size 2, second smallest setting, Disposables - size  4

Leaking?: Two times - and it was really weird.  The covers were damp and stinky after being worn, like they had lost their waterproof-ness, and kiddo's pants got damp because of it.  Hasn't happened since, but I'm keeping a wary eye out.

How's the Poo?: Same, same. Gross and stinky and they always seem to show in the middle of nap.

Did you Use Disposables?: Yes, for a nasty rash that took a couple days to go away.

Any Changes: I feel like our child may be a weird size for some cloth diapers. A lot of her diapers wear low [like you can see things in front low] but still are loose-ish around the legs.  She is a pretty skinny kiddo, so it makes some sense why it happens.  Because of it, though, I do find myself messing with the snaps on a pretty regular basis now to try and find the right settings.

Any Issues: Last month I wrote that the laundry schedule was extending beyond what I was comfortable with [4 days of stink is tooooo much]. I did some re-organizing of diapers, and that along with the new sleep schedule has worked itself back into 3 days, on the dot. We now have a surplus of diapers, so the plan is to put our lesser favorites into storage.

Still Like Cloth?: Oh, sure.  You know I do.

The Week's Menu: Small Group Edition

This round of foodies is brought to you by: our church small group.  Read below to find out why.

Seven Layer Dip

The seven layer dip. Great for parties, the Super Bowl, and any night you're hoping to gain a few extra pounds.  We were the bringers of this delicious bowl for our small group a few weeks ago.  Easy, and gluten-free - all you need to do is layer guacamole, refried beans, sour cream, salsa, some tomatoes, olives, and cheese.  Don't forget the chips.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This dinner menu was inspired by [you guessed it] small group.  A turkey version was served for snack one week, and I like them enough I decided that I needed to give them another try.  After a weekend of family visiting [resulting in a full fridge!] I had just about everything to make my own lettuce wraps. I found the recipe linked above, which is supposed to be just like the wraps from P.F. Changs.  I don't know if its true, being that I've never had their wraps, but this stuff tastes pretty authentic restaurant. Josh claims its the secret ingredient in the sauce - ketchup. To make sure this recipe is gluten-free, use Tamari instead of soy sauce.  I also found that stir-frying the chicken/veggie mix in the special sauce worked better than spooning it over at the end.

To each their own, I suppose.

Enjoy!

Decoding Infant Clothing Sizes

For some strange reason, sizing on infant clothing is as bad as it is with women's clothes.

Why? I have no clue.

I have figured out a couple tricks to get an idea if an outfit is going to fit my kid.  This isn't fool-proof, mind you, but I've found it works better than just wildly guessing.

Here are the two places to look at when trying to figure out what size a onesie actually is:

- the length [shoulder to leg opening]

- the width [either at the shoulders or the middle]

Here's a few examples to show you what these differences actually look like in real life:

Example 1: Length. Both outfits are size 3 months.  However, when you line them up at the shoulders, the orange outfit is longer than the pink outfit. [In fact, the orange outfit is actually the size of a 6 month onesie - thanks, Circo.]

Example 2: Width. Both onesies are size 6 months.  When you line them up, they are the same length, but the yellow one is wider than the pink one around the middle [the shoulders are the same width].

[See? the 3 month orange onesie is actually the same size as the 6 month yellow onesie.]

Here's what all that means for a growing baby:

- Some onesies actually are wider in the shoulder area. Skinny babes won't need wide shouldered outfits - they usually just fall off the shoulder and look trashy [joke! ha ha].

-The way most babies grow is that they get taller, then gain the weight.  So the skinnier outfits are great for when kiddo first grows into a size, and then later the wider outfits can be worn without your child looking like a deflated balloon.

That being said, I found a pretty decent way to arrange all the baby clothes so that they would actually be sized correctly. Here's how I did the baby outfit organization [this is going to get super nerdy, so if you don't care, you can quit here]:

*Note: This is a great time waster for when you are in nesting mode.*

First, I organized my outfits in the sizes labelled on the outfits, like newborn, 3 months, etc.

Second, I organized each sizing group by length of torso [shortest to longest].

Third, I organized each length group by width of shoulders [skinniest to widest].

Organizing this way helped me optimize [gah, did I say nerdy?] the wear-ability of each outfit when Kiddo fit, instead of finding outfits she grew out of before I even got her in them. I usually put the big-for-their-labelled-size outfits in the size group they really belong in [like that orange one].

By the way, you can do the same thing with t-shirts when you hit the 12 month size and bigger - length of t-shirt [shoulder to bottom hem] and width of the shoulders.

[Here's an example of the variety of t-shirt sizes in the 12 month group.]

Pants are also similar, but I've found they generally are the same length in each size group.

So I totally recognize here that comparing the size of each outfit seems a little overboard.  It probably is.  But it is not time consuming [the organizing can be, though. Especially if you enjoy doing it]. I discovered this pattern simply by grabbing clothing out of my child's closet over the last 18 months. Hangers are great for seeing clothes at the same shoulder height, making it super easy to note that this-here onesie is actually longer than its neighbor. Same goes for the widths.

Looking for some cute and inexpensive ways to organize baby clothes?  Here' s a few fun finds from around the interwebs.

[1] Organize baby shoes with a tension rod and shower curtain clips. link

[2] Use cardboard boxes covered in paper or fabric to organize a dresser drawer [this tutorial is to desk organization with cereal boxes, but the idea is the same]. link

[3] Free downloadable printout of baby clothing dividers from newborn to 6T. link

[4] Make dividers using cereal boxes and paper. link

[5] This tutorial makes dividers with foam and ribbon. link

Do you have any tricks to understanding and organizing your kiddo's clothing?