27 Week Update

Yesterday Zane turned 27 weeks old. Seeing as my last blog update was when he was 8 weeks old, he has grown and advanced significantly! Our little man is now six months and six days old and is quite possibly the cutest he has ever been. Zac and I both agree that each new stage that Zane has gotten to has been even better than the last. Let's get up to date on how Zane is progressing!

Stats: On Monday we took Zane to the pediatrician for his six month checkup. I was really excited to be able to go to this appointment since the last one I had taken him to was his 4 week checkup. I really like the office we've chosen and it was nice seeing the doctor and nurses. Zane was born a tiny but long boy at 6lbs 11ozs and 20ins long. The pediatrician was concerned about his weight those first few weeks but those concerns were gone this visit. This visit Zane weighed in 19lbs and measured 28ins. For his age, he is in the 98th percentile for height and 90th percentile for weight. After getting weighed and measured Zane had a physical, and then it was time for vaccinations. Zane cried but he was easily soothed and before we knew it we were on our way home. 

Sleep: We consider ourselves to be pretty lucky with Zane's sleep habits. He started to sleep through the night shortly after I returned to work and hasn't had any issues since. We begin our bedtime routine at around 6:30. Zane has fun splashing around in the tub before we head to his room to get him changed into his pajamas. We are still going strong with cloth diapering and have found that Kawaai heavy wetter diapers work best for overnight. (We use mostly Bumgenius for daytime.) If Zac is home, he will lay down on Zane's floor with a book and read a bedtime story while I feed Zane in the rocking armchair. Most nights though it's just me and Zane. We have used a sound machine to help soothe Zane to sleep (and help prevent us from having to tip toe around the house during nap and bed times) since he was only a week old. Unless he is incredibly tired, Zane will still be awake when we lay him in the crib and he's very good about getting to sleep on his own. He is usually asleep by 7:00 and we don't normally hear a peep out of him until about 5:30 or 6:00am. The latest he has slept is 7:00. He goes done for a nap at around 10:00am and sleeps for about an hour. His second nap of the day is around 2:00pm and this nap can last up to two hours. Occasionally in the late afternoon Zane will take a ten to fifteen minute catnap after nursing. 

Diet: As I mentioned above, Zane will sometimes fall asleep after nursing. I am happy to say that we are still breastfeeding. Unfortunately, my supply has taken a big dive and I am not producing enough for Zane to be exclusively breastfed. We supplement with formula and I do my best to get as much breastmilk in him as possible. Now that I am on leave I am able to nurse him more often and I still pump four times a day. We have also recently begun baby led weaning to introduce solids into Zane's diet. It's only been a week and a half since we started so we are still in the beginning but we are hoping that he enjoys feeding himself and finds something that he likes. (So far we have tried avocado and butternut squash and he has made a funny face when nibbling on both.) 

Physical Miestones: Zane is pretty close to sitting up on his own. He can sit for a little while if he is focused on something but for the most part he needs assistance. Mostly he likes to stand. Obviously he isn't standing on his own yet but he likes to lean up against things or be held in the standing position. Often when we attempt to get him to sit he will stiffen his legs and push his body so that he can stand. 

He has just started to roll over though he only goes one direction at the moment. It makes for interesting viewing on the baby monitor as he wakes up from a nap and rolls continuously until he reaches one side of the crib. 

Events: During his sixth month, Zane celebrated his first Halloween and attended his first wedding. My older brother Albert had a Dia de Los Muertos wedding on November 2. We were definitely nervous about taking Zane to the wedding but my brother said that he really wanted his nephew to be there. Before Zane was even born, my mom had already purchased a little suit for him to wear. 

The wedding started at 5:00pm and we were  worried that Zane would not want to sit quietly. If he hasn't gotten a good nap at 2:00pm by 5:00pm he can get pretty cranky and tired and will sometimes randomly yell quite loudly. I was quite on edge not knowing how Zane would be feeling and not wanting the sounds of his screams to interrupt the wedding ceremony that was held in a very beautiful, very small, historic church. Instead of being cranky, Zane ended us being really happy and wanted to squeal with joy. He started babbling as the music introduced the beginning of the ceremony. Zac was sweet and took Zane out so that he couldn't be heard and I stayed to I watch my brother get married. Since the reception took place during what is normally Zane's bedtime we weren't sure how he would be. We brought the stroller and our carrier just in case. He fell asleep for a little while in the stroller but eventually the noise of all the fun taking place around him got to be too much and he woke up. I carried him in our carrier for the rest of the night and he fell asleep for a little while in my arms. 

His sleep schedule was a little messed up from the interrupted routine and the fact that the following day was day lights saving. This turned out to be okay though because the next day we were headed home (a six hour drive) and Zane slept comfortably in his car seat.

The sixth month has been a fun one and with the holidays coming up we can only imagine how fun the seventh month will be! 

Cloth Diapering Part 4: One Month Update

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. I've been trying to get this post (and a few other one month update posts) finished for the last five days now. Lots going on with a fussy little Zane. I've also been having issues with pumping and amping up my supply to create a stash so that we have enough milk on hand while I'm at work. But I'm sure that will be a completly different post.  

Zane is a month old and I thought that it was a good time for another cloth diapering update. In the last cloth diapering post we had just finished with week one. At that point we were only using the Lil' Joey diapers in our stash and loved the way they were working out. The last half of the first week, we had started to use the rest of the disposable diapers the hospital gave us when Zane was born, while we waited for him to heal from his circumcision. (We were applying a lot of Vaseline to help him heal and we didn't think that it was good for the cloth diapers.)

Zane healed pretty quickly and he was back in cloth diapers before we knew it. Since then, Zac and I have had some time to really get a routine going, try out all of the diapers in our newborn stash, and figure out what works for us and Zane.

Lil' Joey by Rumparooz: Right off the cuff, the Rumparooz Lil' Joey diapers were our favorite. The all in one diaper is super easy to put on him and we were able to get a great fit on him. These diapers are super absorbant and hold a lot of wetness. The best part about these diapers is that the pull the moisture away from his skin so he stays pretty dry even when he heavily wets the diaper.

For about a week, we were unable to get a great fit on our little guy. Zane is tall and skinny with thin little thighs. He had started to get a little belly on him so we adjusted the waist. Since the Lil' Joey diapers only have one snap to adjust the fit, extending the waist also extended the thigh holes and they were not as snug as they needed to be. He did leak a little onto his clothes as a result. This is when we really started trying out the other diapers in our stash.

Zane has grown a few inches and his belly is not as round so the fit is back to being just snug enough on both his waist and thighs. While we still love these diapers we have a few new favorites as well.

Prefolds: Surprisingly, these have turned out to be our favorite diapers to use throughout the day. At first we were a bit nervous to use them. The whole folding thing left us a little intimidated. After we looked up some Youtube videos (yes we are huge fans of Youtube) we realized that it was going to be a lot easier than we thought (much like cloth diapering in general). And look how cute the covers look with his clothes.

It is definitely easier to get a custom fit on Zane with a prefold since there are no snaps to worry about. (Well at least on the prefold.) We're using newborn covers by Rumparooz which have multiple snaps and allow us to get a better fit on him as well. We've never had any leaks or blowouts while he has been wearing a prefold. We have had some almost blowout moments where the mess has gotten out of the prefold, but the double gusset leg holes and the great fit of the covers have held everything in nicely. We also like that (permitted we don't have an almost blowout moment) we can use the covers several times a day before needing to wash them.

The one thing about using prefolds is that they are not super absorbant. Once they are wet, they are wet. The all in one diapers seem to pull the wetness away from Zane's skin and the prefolds don't have that quality. Zane gets very uncomfortable when he gets wet (as anyone would) and he will let us know when he needs a changing when he has a prefold on. We do find that we change more diapers when we use the prefold, but they take a lot less time to dry so we can replenish our stash pretty quickly.

Grovia: Initially we were not a fan of this Grovia all in one newborn diaper. This was because we used it as an overnight diaper one evening and it just wasn't meant for that. Zane is a bit of a heavy wetter and he filled this diaper up. The moisture wicked onto his pajamas and in the middle of the night we were left to change not only his diaper but his whole outfit as well. This is not fun when you are super tired and can hardly open your eyes.

Though this was not a good night time option we later found that it was a great day time diaper when we were changing him more frequently. We were able to get a great fit on him and it was trim enough to fit under his neworn clothes without a problem.

BumGenius Newborn: Not surprisingly, due to it's velcro closure, we can get the most custom fit on this diaper. It's the easiest diaper for other people to use because there is no guessing which snaps to close it on and no folding involved.

The inside of the diaper is flat with only a single gusset liner. We thought that this might cause problems with blowout and leakage however, due to the custom fit we haven't had any issues. The only problem we've had with this diaper is the velcro closure. While the velcro is great for getting a custom fit and makes it super easy to use, when you're changing a diaper in the middle of the night you don't always remember to tuck the closures on the velcro tab. On a few occasions we've opened up the dryer to find a few cloth wipes or a onesie stuck to the velcro on the diaper. Not cool.

Kissaluvs: This blue Kissaluvs newborn all in one diaper was not one that we originally had in our stash when we started to cloth diaper. A few weeks ago we decided to order Zane a sound machine from Amazon.com (one we eventually returned because we were not a fan...but more on that later). The item was just shy of hitting the free shipping minimum purchase price, so we decided that rather than pay for shipping we would add another item to our cart. It was only a few more dollars to add on an item and get free shipping than to just get the sound machine and pay the money for shopping anyway. We decided to add another diaper to our newborn stash and found this one from Kissaluvs.

We found that this diaper was a cross between the Lil' Joey's and the BumGenius newborn all in one diapers. The outer shell and fit is very much like the Lil' Joey diaper. It has a one snap adjustable fit. The sizing of this diaper is a little different than the Lil' Joey however and we are able to get a better fit around the thighs. The inside is more like the Bumgenius newborn diaper which is flat. It has pretty good absorbtion and keeps the moisture pulled away from Zane's skin. All in all it's a pretty good diaper and one of the first that I will reach for if we are putting him in an all in one.

BumGenius 4.0: Now that our little guy is over 8lbs, he has started to fit into the BumGenius 4.0 one size pocket diapers. These diapers are meant to go from newborn to toddler and can fit babies from 8-35lbs. Being born at 6lbs 11oz, Zane was a bit too tiny for these diapers at birth. These diapers fit when put on the smallest setting for both waist and rise. Since they are able to be set larger for a bigger baby or toddler, they are a bit bulky on our barely 8lb little man.

As you can see, he has quite the big booty in this diaper. This isn't one that we would put him in when dressing him in his newborn clothes, but when we're home and we don't care about how it looks, we think they work pretty good.

I made the mistake of putting him in this diaper a little too early when he had a little bit of a belly and super skinny thighs. The fit wasn't just right on his thighs and I learned this the hard way. I was holding Zane on my lap and suddenly smelled the unpleasant warning of a diaper change. I went to stand up and realized that my lap was covered in poop. Zane had a huge blowout through one of the leg holes and I had quite a clean up job to deal with. I'm pretty sure that he would have had a blowout in any diaper, cloth or disposable, because it was quite a sizeable mess. Still, I opted to avoid using this diaper on him again until we were able to get a better fit on him.

Now that he can fit in the diaper a bit better we've started to use this as a night time option. They are very absorbant and later if we need to increase the absorbancy we can add another insert into the pocket. Zane is a bit of a heavy wetter so it's possible that we'll have to do this soon. For now we love that we can put this on him at night and not have to worry about any leakage. Also, these do a really good job with wicking the moisture into the insert and keeping his skin very dry. This means that even though he soaks the diaper, he isn't waking up in the middle of the night uncomfortable or upset. We'd definitely recommend these diapers to anyone who decided to cloth diaper.

So there's where we stand with our cloth diapering. Or at least it's where we were a few weeks ago. Blogging has certainly gotten more difficult these past few weeks. I'm hoping to be able to keep up the pace but with my return to work quickly approaching we'll just have to see.

Changes

Hello blogger buddies! It's been far too long since I've written a blog post and I've really come to miss my regular posts. Recently I've looked at this blog and I have been quite grateful to have a record of all the wonderful things and events leading up to our wedding day. I'm disappointed that I haven't been able to keep up and that I haven't filled all of you in on how all of the details we worked so hard on came together on our big day.

As our one year anniversary quickly approaches (May 4th is just one week away!) Zac and I have reflected on our first year of marriage. It's amazing the things that can happen in just one year and we are unbelievably grateful for all of the wonderful things that we've experienced.

Just a few days after we said 'I do', Zac and I boarded a plane and spent 10 fantastic days in Maui. Our honeymoon was the best vacation we could have asked for. We were excited to be married and to have the opportunity to spend so much uninterrupted time together. The stress of the wedding was all over and we could finally relax.

Though we did venture out to restaurants and experienced some mini adventures like ziplining, we spent the majority of our days just laying out on the beach with a stack of books and bottles of booze. We had no worries, no responsibilities, and no itinerary. It was perfect.

We kept in touch with family and friends and even sent out a Happy Mother's Day message to all of the wonderful mamas in our lives.

After we returned home, our summer was filled with many more wedding celebrations....

On September 1st by sweet husband turned 31.... and just over a week later we celebrated the biggest life changing news ever....

We're having a baby!!!!

Yesterday was my last day of work and I am officially on maternity leave. With a due date of May 20th, it won't be long now until we are a family of three.

As you can probably guess, things have been a little crazy in our house over the last nine months! It's all super exciting and I think it's time to finally share all of our news in detail over the next few weeks. I'm hoping to be able to keep up with my blog again. It served as a great record of our wedding planning and I would love to have a similar record of our little bean!

More news to come :)