Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Trip to McKinney
Last weekend we took Megan on a road trip to visit our friends Eric and Mandy and their kids Finely and Samantha. It was a bout a 3.5 hr drive and Megan did great! I brought my pump and pumped while we driving and then gave her the milk in a bottle (so we didn't have to stop to nurse) and that worked great.
We had a great time with Eric, Mandy, Finely and Samantha! We went to their neighborhood pool, which is setup like a beach and grilled out - very fun! Megan had a great time in the water and then napped in her stroller. It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back and visit again!
We had a great time with Eric, Mandy, Finely and Samantha! We went to their neighborhood pool, which is setup like a beach and grilled out - very fun! Megan had a great time in the water and then napped in her stroller. It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back and visit again!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Megan already likes the computer!
She even managed to bookmark gmail with all her keystrokes :-)
And here's another one we took today, she's trying so hard to be mobile! She loves to stand and tries to pull herself up, but she's not quite there. She can sit in a tripod for a little bit and today she even lifted up one hand while in the tripod!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
Diapers - Part 2
So I'm guessing by this point (i.e. my last diaper post) I've already lost the interest of the few people who are actually reading this blog... but I'm going to continue anyway, even if it's just to document my current insanity ;-)
The First 8 weeks
The plan was to use the gdiapers, however the gdiapers said they were for 8lbs+ so we knew it was likely we'd be using disposables for awhile. So we picked up some pampers swaddlers in newborn size and that's what we used for the first 6 weeks. As a side note we preferred the Pampers Swaddlers to the Huggies (thanks to my cousin Emily for the tip!), Huggies seemed to have more blowouts for us.
8 weeks to 16 weeks
Around 8 weeks, Megan was bigger (she weighted 10lbs 2oz at 2 months). Her legs had beefed up a bit and I got brave and decided to try the gdiaper. At first we loved them! They contained breastfed poo better than the swaddlers! Almost every poo did get the covers and liners dirty though, so there was more washing than I expected... but they were working and I didn't mind the flushing. The routine became I would stuff all the covers with the flushable inserts at night (or while megan napped) so they were ready to go for diaper changes. Then after the diaper change I put Megan in her crib with her mobile on (which she loved to stare at) while I flushed the insert down the toilet and restuffed the cover/liner with a new insert. Since Russ was doing the nighttime diaper changes (I fed her on one side, Russ changed her, I fed her on the other side), he stuck with disposables for awhile because they were easier at night. Eventually he used gdiapers at night too, as long as they were pre-stuffed and ready to go, then he just left the dirty ones on the bathroom counter and I (or my Mom once she got here) took care of them in the morning.
At 11 weeks my Mom came out to Texas to stay with us for 4 weeks and watch Megan while I went back to work. This was so great because it was a much easier transition for both Megan and I and we were really glad we got to spend the 4 weeks with my Mom / Grandma :-) So I should mention that my Mom was so supportive of us using the gdiaper and even though it was a lot more work for her, she used them the entire time!
Megan at 2 months in her gdiaper
Megan at 3 months in her gdiaper - note it's usually tighter around her waist, we just loosened it for the photoshoot
gDiaper Conclusions
There were a couple things that bugged us about the gdiapers (1) the flushing is kinda a pain, it's not that big a deal and you get used to it, but it's more work than just throwing the diaper in a pail (2) With newborns you're doing a lot of laundry! Especially if they are breastfed; Megan was still pooping at most diaper changes, or at a min half of them and almost every poop got the liner dirty and a lot of them got the cover dirty too. So it was creating a lot of poopy laundry (3) The flushable inserts cost more than Pampers Swaddlers!!! This was the biggest complaint we have about the gdiaper, they are more expensive. And then if you add in the cost of covers and liners (although reusable, are not cheap) it's even more expensive. So with all these factors I started looking into cloth diapering....
The First 8 weeks
The plan was to use the gdiapers, however the gdiapers said they were for 8lbs+ so we knew it was likely we'd be using disposables for awhile. So we picked up some pampers swaddlers in newborn size and that's what we used for the first 6 weeks. As a side note we preferred the Pampers Swaddlers to the Huggies (thanks to my cousin Emily for the tip!), Huggies seemed to have more blowouts for us.
8 weeks to 16 weeks
Around 8 weeks, Megan was bigger (she weighted 10lbs 2oz at 2 months). Her legs had beefed up a bit and I got brave and decided to try the gdiaper. At first we loved them! They contained breastfed poo better than the swaddlers! Almost every poo did get the covers and liners dirty though, so there was more washing than I expected... but they were working and I didn't mind the flushing. The routine became I would stuff all the covers with the flushable inserts at night (or while megan napped) so they were ready to go for diaper changes. Then after the diaper change I put Megan in her crib with her mobile on (which she loved to stare at) while I flushed the insert down the toilet and restuffed the cover/liner with a new insert. Since Russ was doing the nighttime diaper changes (I fed her on one side, Russ changed her, I fed her on the other side), he stuck with disposables for awhile because they were easier at night. Eventually he used gdiapers at night too, as long as they were pre-stuffed and ready to go, then he just left the dirty ones on the bathroom counter and I (or my Mom once she got here) took care of them in the morning.
At 11 weeks my Mom came out to Texas to stay with us for 4 weeks and watch Megan while I went back to work. This was so great because it was a much easier transition for both Megan and I and we were really glad we got to spend the 4 weeks with my Mom / Grandma :-) So I should mention that my Mom was so supportive of us using the gdiaper and even though it was a lot more work for her, she used them the entire time!
Megan at 2 months in her gdiaper
Megan at 3 months in her gdiaper - note it's usually tighter around her waist, we just loosened it for the photoshoot
gDiaper Conclusions
There were a couple things that bugged us about the gdiapers (1) the flushing is kinda a pain, it's not that big a deal and you get used to it, but it's more work than just throwing the diaper in a pail (2) With newborns you're doing a lot of laundry! Especially if they are breastfed; Megan was still pooping at most diaper changes, or at a min half of them and almost every poop got the liner dirty and a lot of them got the cover dirty too. So it was creating a lot of poopy laundry (3) The flushable inserts cost more than Pampers Swaddlers!!! This was the biggest complaint we have about the gdiaper, they are more expensive. And then if you add in the cost of covers and liners (although reusable, are not cheap) it's even more expensive. So with all these factors I started looking into cloth diapering....
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Diapers - Part 1
So now that I got our catch up post up I wanted to post about my latest obsession. You might have heard the rumors... I'm obsessed with Diapers! I know what you're thinking, how could one possibily be obsessed with diapers, they hold pee and poo and they just not that interesting, right? Wrong! :-) First I should clarify, I'm talking about cloth diapers. And throw away that preconcieved picture in your head of the cloth diapers that our parents used (that I use for burp cloths), the new cloth diapers look like disposables, use velcro, and come in cool colors and patterns! Yep, I'm obsessed; I probably need to join Cloth Diapers Anonyomous!
Background
I think the first time Russ and I started talking about using cloth diapers was early on in our pregnancy. Towards the end of my first trimester we visited our friends who had just had their first baby and we're happily using cloth diapers from a diaper service.
Diaper Service
Our cloth diaper friends raved about the diapers, showed us how you don't have to use pins anymore because of the snappi (a 3 point, stretchy thing with teeth to grip the diaper, see pic).
The cost of the diaper service was comparable to disposables (maybe even a little cheaper) and the service dropped off clean diapers and picked up the dirty ones every week. This was probably our first introduction into modern CD'ing - that's short for cloth diapering - see I told you I was obsessed :-)
Russ and I were intriqued! We loved the idea of not using disposables and not creating all that trash. But the more we thought about it the more we realized it might not work for us. Since I was going back to work and Megan was going into daycare, we would have to do a combo of cloth and disposables (the daycares we found won't use cloth). Since the cost of the diaper service is the same no matter how many diapers you use, we'd be spending more money to do cloth (because we'd have to buy disposables for daycare). We were still intriqued and really interested in CD'ing but we're unsure how to make it work for us.
Cloth Diapers with no service
Next we were visiting with some other friends of ours, who also CD. The difference was they bought their own diapers and wash them themselves! Wow, huh? I remember being totally impressed! And they also both work and their son was in daycare, using disposables there and cloth at home. At the time (I was probably about 6 months pregnant or so) we just weren't committed enough for that. We weren't really up for washing diapers ourselves.
gDiapers
I think I read about gdiapers for the first time on a message board, or maybe it was on cnn.com saying how Julie Roberts loves them (yeah I know I shouldn't do things just because hollywood stars do...). gDiapers are a cross betweeb disposables and cloth; they are a cloth outer with a snap in waterproof liner that you stuff a flushable insert into. Confused yet? Here's a pic that maybe helps.
The insert part (the part that absorbs the pee and poo) is flushable so after each diaper change you tear it down the sides (to let the absorbant middle out so it doesn't bunch up and clog your tiolet) and flush the whole thing down the tiolet. You only need to wash the cloth covers and the snap in liners when they get dirty.
Eureka! Russ and I were sold that gDiapers were the answer! Of course we have since changed our minds... but at the time we thought these were the perfect solution! Easier than cloth diapers we'd have to wash (no washing diapers) and good for the environment - no garbage created, the disposable part just flushes down the tiolet and is biodegradeable! We purchased a couple starter kits at Whole Foods and some extra flushable refills for when Baby Denny (now known as Megan!) arrived.
Stay tuned for more! Next post I'll talk about when we started gDiapers, how they worked and what we've moved onto since then...
Background
I think the first time Russ and I started talking about using cloth diapers was early on in our pregnancy. Towards the end of my first trimester we visited our friends who had just had their first baby and we're happily using cloth diapers from a diaper service.
Diaper Service
Our cloth diaper friends raved about the diapers, showed us how you don't have to use pins anymore because of the snappi (a 3 point, stretchy thing with teeth to grip the diaper, see pic).
The cost of the diaper service was comparable to disposables (maybe even a little cheaper) and the service dropped off clean diapers and picked up the dirty ones every week. This was probably our first introduction into modern CD'ing - that's short for cloth diapering - see I told you I was obsessed :-)
Russ and I were intriqued! We loved the idea of not using disposables and not creating all that trash. But the more we thought about it the more we realized it might not work for us. Since I was going back to work and Megan was going into daycare, we would have to do a combo of cloth and disposables (the daycares we found won't use cloth). Since the cost of the diaper service is the same no matter how many diapers you use, we'd be spending more money to do cloth (because we'd have to buy disposables for daycare). We were still intriqued and really interested in CD'ing but we're unsure how to make it work for us.
Cloth Diapers with no service
Next we were visiting with some other friends of ours, who also CD. The difference was they bought their own diapers and wash them themselves! Wow, huh? I remember being totally impressed! And they also both work and their son was in daycare, using disposables there and cloth at home. At the time (I was probably about 6 months pregnant or so) we just weren't committed enough for that. We weren't really up for washing diapers ourselves.
gDiapers
I think I read about gdiapers for the first time on a message board, or maybe it was on cnn.com saying how Julie Roberts loves them (yeah I know I shouldn't do things just because hollywood stars do...). gDiapers are a cross betweeb disposables and cloth; they are a cloth outer with a snap in waterproof liner that you stuff a flushable insert into. Confused yet? Here's a pic that maybe helps.
The insert part (the part that absorbs the pee and poo) is flushable so after each diaper change you tear it down the sides (to let the absorbant middle out so it doesn't bunch up and clog your tiolet) and flush the whole thing down the tiolet. You only need to wash the cloth covers and the snap in liners when they get dirty.
Eureka! Russ and I were sold that gDiapers were the answer! Of course we have since changed our minds... but at the time we thought these were the perfect solution! Easier than cloth diapers we'd have to wash (no washing diapers) and good for the environment - no garbage created, the disposable part just flushes down the tiolet and is biodegradeable! We purchased a couple starter kits at Whole Foods and some extra flushable refills for when Baby Denny (now known as Megan!) arrived.
Stay tuned for more! Next post I'll talk about when we started gDiapers, how they worked and what we've moved onto since then...
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Catch Up!
Wow it's been awhile since we posted anything to our blog, I guess we've been preoccupied :-) So here's a quick catch up post since I have grand notions of starting to post blogs again... whether or not that will actually happen is anyones guess ;-)
So without further ado, here is the last ~4 months in pictures:
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One of the early smiles! Here's Megan at 6 weeks.
Megan and Dad at the MS150, Russ road from Houston to Austin (175 miles!) in two days to raise money for MS. Megan and I drove out to the half way point in La Grange. Megan was ~2 months
Pictures in the blue bonnetts! Megan is 2.5 months
At 12 weeks I was back at work
The following photos are from a photographer that came to our house when Megan was 3 months and took photos of her. They came out great and Megan had a blast being photographed!
For my first 4 weeks back at work my Mom stayed with us and watched Megan and helped around the house - it was great having her with us!
At the end of May we took our first plane ride with Megan and went to NY for Amy's baby shower and to show off Megan, here's Grandpa (i.e. my Dad) with during our trip
And here's Megan with her Great Grandparents during the same trip
Memorial Day weekend, Roger and Veronica came to visit! Here's the Denny fam!
Around 4 months Megan started standing assisted a lot more, and even can hold onto her play gym by herself for awhile!
Father's Day at the pool!
More standing! This one is a couple weeks after the other standing one - how cute is the skirt?
This one is from this past Sunday, she's just so cute!
So without further ado, here is the last ~4 months in pictures:
.JPG)
One of the early smiles! Here's Megan at 6 weeks.
Megan and Dad at the MS150, Russ road from Houston to Austin (175 miles!) in two days to raise money for MS. Megan and I drove out to the half way point in La Grange. Megan was ~2 months
Pictures in the blue bonnetts! Megan is 2.5 months
At 12 weeks I was back at work
The following photos are from a photographer that came to our house when Megan was 3 months and took photos of her. They came out great and Megan had a blast being photographed!
For my first 4 weeks back at work my Mom stayed with us and watched Megan and helped around the house - it was great having her with us!
At the end of May we took our first plane ride with Megan and went to NY for Amy's baby shower and to show off Megan, here's Grandpa (i.e. my Dad) with during our trip
And here's Megan with her Great Grandparents during the same trip
Memorial Day weekend, Roger and Veronica came to visit! Here's the Denny fam!
Around 4 months Megan started standing assisted a lot more, and even can hold onto her play gym by herself for awhile!
Father's Day at the pool!
More standing! This one is a couple weeks after the other standing one - how cute is the skirt?
This one is from this past Sunday, she's just so cute!
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