I am somewhat scared to announce this to the world...but...
Grayson slept all nigh last night.
Did you get that?
No?
GRAYSON SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT LAST NIGHT!!!
Is that not the most fantastical and amazing thing you've ever heard?! Okay, I know everyone really doesn't care in the slightest. Probably. Seeing as how they don't have to nurse a vampire raccoon baby that lies awake all night. And to be honest, can I really complain when all he does is lay there? I mean, he only fusses a wee little bit. I was getting sleep. Just broken, light, and terribly unsatisfying sleep.
With the first day of school rapidly approaching {Um, speaking of which, where the hell did you disappear to Mr. Summer? Hm?} we decided this was the week to get the kiddo's back into school mode. 6:30 means bath, pajamas, teeth brushing, books, and finally bed. All by 7. We're working with Leah, trying to get her ready and used to the schedule for when she starts preschool next month. {*sobs* My baby girl is going to be a preschooler.} I decided if we're getting 3 out of 4 kids on a schedule we may as well throw Grayson in the mix and get him schedulized too. Not on the same schedule though. I'm going to do what works for me since I'm the all mighty provider of nutrition and nourishment. G man's schedule will be bath, lotion/massage, cuddle time and nursing, and then bed. Well, after the first night of said schedule he slept seven hours. SEVEN HOURS! Not just any seven hours though, we're talking SEVEN HOURS THROUGH THE NIGHT.
I woke up at 6:30 to his grunts and fusses and rooting and hand eating. He was starving I'm sure. {Kid probably didn't know what that hungry feeling was!} Do you want to know something amazing awesome to add to the already awesomeness?? The cloth diaper he wore? Didn't leak. Not even a little bit. Not even a hint of leakage. This diaper was holding, and holding STRONG. {For those that want to know? It was a bumGenius elemental, their awesome one size all-in-one.}
As if seven hours wasn't awesome enough, we woke, we ate, I feeding him, then the girls and myself, and then we went BACK to sleep until 9:30!!! It was too good to be true, yet it was. I'm not entirely sure if that would be considered sleeping in, or a nap. Because I mean I was up and eating and even did some dishes and our normal morning routine.
Either way, I felt awesome today. And I'm praying and dreaming and crossing my fingers that it wasn't some random fluke thing and that we will have a repeat of said events tonight. I feel like it's a lot to ask, and really having two nights in a row would feel like winning the lottery right now, but it's not going to stop me from hoping!
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Musical Monday #13
I wasn't planning on many posts over the next week or two, but this came on the radio yesterday and I knew immediately it would be my Musical Monday post. When it was introduced as Demi Lovato's new single I was waiting for a teeny boppy song. I was wrong. Not only was I wrong, but I was blown away.
What an incredible song. What incredible lyrics. And it's to beautiful music.
Good for you Demi, you broke the Disney kid mold with this one.
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What an incredible song. What incredible lyrics. And it's to beautiful music.
Good for you Demi, you broke the Disney kid mold with this one.
♫♪You can take everything I have
You can break everything I am
Like I'm made of glass
Like I'm made of paper
Go on and try to tear me down
I will be rising from the ground
Like a skyscraper, like a skyscraper♪♫
You can break everything I am
Like I'm made of glass
Like I'm made of paper
Go on and try to tear me down
I will be rising from the ground
Like a skyscraper, like a skyscraper♪♫
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The Cloth Diaper Experience- What's that Smell?
I was only 2 weeks in, the whole cloth diapering thing was going great! I was LOVING it. Then one day, as I pulled an insert from the washer to place in the dryer, I noticed a faint smell. {Yes, I have a habit of smelling all of the dipes as they come out of the washer to ensure they're clean.} It smelled like...like wet dog actually. That's the closest thing I really can compare it to. It wasn't overwhelming, or a knock you over kind of odor, it was faint, but it was there, and I was nervous.
I put the load in the dryer determined to hit the interwebs and do some detective work. I googled "cloth diaper wet dog smell". It brought me into a world of stink and build up and residue and stripping and I was suddenly soooo overwhelmed. And so terrified my love affair with cloth was over. I honestly didn't know what to do. Some sites said I wasn't using enough detergent, some sites said I was using too much. Some sites said I needed to rinse more, some said I needed to strip. Some said to use Tide soap, some said Tide ruined their diapers.
I didn't know what to do.
Honestly, because I didn't know WHAT was causing the smell, I didn't know what to DO to fix it.
Luckily, I have been blessed by finding the most awesome cloth diaper store ever and decided to email them. In their typical AMAZING customer service fashion one of the owners called me. I told her what was going on. We talked about all of the things it could be, what she feared it was, and what I could do to fix it.
My original wash routine was this:
Cold rinse, no detergent.
Add 2 scoops of Crunchy Clean, heavy wash cycle on hot, cold rinse, extra rinse.
Sometimes after the cold rinse, there was still poo in the gussets, and I noticed that the diapers always smelled like the "Pink Sugar" scent of the Crunchy Clean before going into the dryer. Both of these things aren't good! It means that they weren't rinsing well enough in the original rinse, and then weren't rinsing well enough, or I was using too much detergent in the main wash.
No wonder I was having some stink!
I tweaked my wash routine and I am now doing the following:
Cold wash with 1 scoop of Crunchy Clean, extra rinse.
Hot wash with 1 scoop of Crunchy Clean, extra rinse.
SUCCESS! I no longer have any faint wet dog smell, or any faint Crunchy Clean smell for that matter either!
Moral of the story? Don't freak out! And even though it's hard, try not to become overwhelmed. Start at the bottom with little changes, like tweaking a wash routine, and then move onto the bigger things if that doesn't help. Maybe changing detergents, or stripping your diapers.
My love affair has gone on to live another day!
I will say this though, in all of the googling I was doing I did discover that with really hard water you can, over time, have a mineral build up on your diapers that can cause some repelling and stink issues. So I am prepared to strip my diapers. Probably once every few months. And I'm also debating on getting some Calgon water softener to add to the wash routine. I'm going to have to google more on the Calgon though.
I will, of course, continue to keep everyone posted. I'm hoping to help other new cloth diapering mama's out there that are in the same boat as me! Learning as we go.
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I put the load in the dryer determined to hit the interwebs and do some detective work. I googled "cloth diaper wet dog smell". It brought me into a world of stink and build up and residue and stripping and I was suddenly soooo overwhelmed. And so terrified my love affair with cloth was over. I honestly didn't know what to do. Some sites said I wasn't using enough detergent, some sites said I was using too much. Some sites said I needed to rinse more, some said I needed to strip. Some said to use Tide soap, some said Tide ruined their diapers.
I didn't know what to do.
Honestly, because I didn't know WHAT was causing the smell, I didn't know what to DO to fix it.
Luckily, I have been blessed by finding the most awesome cloth diaper store ever and decided to email them. In their typical AMAZING customer service fashion one of the owners called me. I told her what was going on. We talked about all of the things it could be, what she feared it was, and what I could do to fix it.
My original wash routine was this:
Cold rinse, no detergent.
Add 2 scoops of Crunchy Clean, heavy wash cycle on hot, cold rinse, extra rinse.
Sometimes after the cold rinse, there was still poo in the gussets, and I noticed that the diapers always smelled like the "Pink Sugar" scent of the Crunchy Clean before going into the dryer. Both of these things aren't good! It means that they weren't rinsing well enough in the original rinse, and then weren't rinsing well enough, or I was using too much detergent in the main wash.
No wonder I was having some stink!
I tweaked my wash routine and I am now doing the following:
Cold wash with 1 scoop of Crunchy Clean, extra rinse.
Hot wash with 1 scoop of Crunchy Clean, extra rinse.
SUCCESS! I no longer have any faint wet dog smell, or any faint Crunchy Clean smell for that matter either!
Moral of the story? Don't freak out! And even though it's hard, try not to become overwhelmed. Start at the bottom with little changes, like tweaking a wash routine, and then move onto the bigger things if that doesn't help. Maybe changing detergents, or stripping your diapers.
My love affair has gone on to live another day!
I will say this though, in all of the googling I was doing I did discover that with really hard water you can, over time, have a mineral build up on your diapers that can cause some repelling and stink issues. So I am prepared to strip my diapers. Probably once every few months. And I'm also debating on getting some Calgon water softener to add to the wash routine. I'm going to have to google more on the Calgon though.
I will, of course, continue to keep everyone posted. I'm hoping to help other new cloth diapering mama's out there that are in the same boat as me! Learning as we go.
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5 Weeks
5 weeks? FIVE weeks?! How can it be?? It seems like it's a mistake, like I've lost a week {or two} in there somewhere.
The past two weeks especially have been a whirlwind of changing and growing and milestoning. Enjoy my new word and feel free to use it. {Okay, milestoning is a word, but not used in the context I am using it just FYI.} G's been milestoning like milestones are going out of STYLE. Actually in this house they are. I keep begging Gray man to slow his roll and just stay small for just a wee bit longer, but I swear the more I beg, the more he grows. This kid is already rebellious.
In the past two weeks Grayson James has rolled front to back, is this-close to rolling back to front, his belly button is officially a real life belly button and is no longer stumpy and gross which is a milestone in itself, but because of said achievement this means that a} he's a full-fledged cloth diaper baby (which you know) and b} he's taking "big boy" baths in his baby bathtub. No more sponge baths! We're getting real smiles in reaction to our goofy baby talk, coo's and communicative grunts, and real genuine laughs! In all their squeaky glory! This boy's taking a paci like a paci sucking pro, but we're still working on the whole bottle thing. {I'm fearing he's following his sisters "NO BOTTLE NO HOW" policy that made date nights impossible for a looooong time while she was a wee little baby.}
I am in utter disbelief that Grayson is a month old. A MONTH OLD. Actually a month and 4 days. Super sads. Super mega sads.
We're going for the one month well child check up tomorrow morning and I'm so excited to see how much my chunky monkey has grown the past month. {I really want to know my if my milk is doing it's job.} Of course I'll add the stats. And of then pics too. Sadly my camera decided it was awesome timing for it's battery to drain while I was doing G's 5 week pics tonight. But I caught some SMILES! Tee-hee! REAL SMILES! {Not promising good pics though, by the time I noticed my settings needed adjusted the battery was dead.}
I will say this, I am incredibly thankful and SO glad that Tommy got to meet his newest nephew! He even saw Grayson's brand new smile as he put it to use Saturday night. My sadness in all of this is that G won't know what an awesome man his uncle was. He'll hear stories, but he'll never know him. And that's a tragedy.
Okay, enough of the sads. Pics and stats tomorrow!!!!!! {Orrrrrrrr soon'ish.} And then I'm back on my bloggy break.
*UPDATED 8/7/11*
G's 1 Month Well Child Check Stats:
Weight: 11lb's 5.5oz's, he's gained amost 2.5lb's the past month!
Length: 22"
Head: 40cm {Grew 3 cm's since birth.}
He is in the 90-95th %tile for weight and the 70th %tile for length. {My chunky boy! ^_^}
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I'm taking a quick, short break from the blog for a bit. As you probably saw, we lost an awesome part of our family recently.
Sunday morning my brother-in-law passed away. It was very unexpected and a huge shock. He had been in the hospital over a month, battling some things, but he was coming home today. Today he would have come home. I just realized that as I typed it...anyhow, had he passed a few weeks ago when he first went into the hospital, it would have been a shock, but more expected. We knew he was sick then and we were worried and scared. When we visited with him Saturday night he was fine. He was great actually. He was proudly telling us how well he had done in physical therapy, talking about coming home Tuesday. The worry and fear was gone. Tom was better and coming home.
Finding out he was gone the next morning...it wasn't right. We had JUST seen him the night before. He was fine. HE WAS FINE.
And now he's gone.
Tom was an awesome Uncle. He loved his nieces and nephews a lot. He was an awesome brother, friend, and son. Just an overall great guy. The world is definitely missing out. It's just not as good of a place without him here.
We're all grieving right now. Life is going on around us like nothing significant has happened, while all of our world's have been turned upside down.
Sometimes I'm okay. A lot of times I'm not. But I know it's going to get easier. We'll learn that it is possible to live in a world without someone who was such a big part of it.
Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we learn to live without someone we love so much. We need peace right now. Can you ask that we're given that?
I'll be back eventually when things aren't so raw around the edges.
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Sunday morning my brother-in-law passed away. It was very unexpected and a huge shock. He had been in the hospital over a month, battling some things, but he was coming home today. Today he would have come home. I just realized that as I typed it...anyhow, had he passed a few weeks ago when he first went into the hospital, it would have been a shock, but more expected. We knew he was sick then and we were worried and scared. When we visited with him Saturday night he was fine. He was great actually. He was proudly telling us how well he had done in physical therapy, talking about coming home Tuesday. The worry and fear was gone. Tom was better and coming home.
Finding out he was gone the next morning...it wasn't right. We had JUST seen him the night before. He was fine. HE WAS FINE.
And now he's gone.
Tom was an awesome Uncle. He loved his nieces and nephews a lot. He was an awesome brother, friend, and son. Just an overall great guy. The world is definitely missing out. It's just not as good of a place without him here.
We're all grieving right now. Life is going on around us like nothing significant has happened, while all of our world's have been turned upside down.
Sometimes I'm okay. A lot of times I'm not. But I know it's going to get easier. We'll learn that it is possible to live in a world without someone who was such a big part of it.
Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we learn to live without someone we love so much. We need peace right now. Can you ask that we're given that?
I'll be back eventually when things aren't so raw around the edges.
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