Tag Archives: cloth diapers

My Big Green Goal for 2009 – Greening Baby

I can’t believe I’m nearly 8 months pregnant. Where does the time go?

In terms of being green, there are a lot of things I like to do. But in 2009, my focus is pretty much going to be on greening my baby experience.

Some of it will be pretty easy. I already have the minimal driving habit, although we are going to need a second vehicle. Our current car won’t hold the entire family after the baby comes, and with all the doctor appointments babies need, calling on family for a ride just won’t cut it. It would be necessary too often.

But we are looking used, and fuel efficiency is a big consideration along with budget.

Clothes and many other supplies aren’t a big issue. We have tons of handmedowns coming. We still own our original cradle and crib.

A king size pillowcase makes for a wonderful sheet for a cradle mattress. They’re the perfect size. Just a little trick my mother taught me that saves trying to buy cradle sheets. Crib sheets, on the other hand, may need to be purchased, although I think we still have some in decent condition.

I still have to actually buy my cloth diapers. Time to just buckle down and get the research done so I can finalize my decision.

Then the fun part of explaining them to my mother-in-law. Oh, probably my side of the family too, but I know who tends to be the most vocal about when I do something out of the expected. But cloth diapers really aren’t what they were when she had kids, and I expect that by the time baby is 6 months to a year old, she’ll get it.

At least, that’s how long it took for her to quit complaining about me breastfeeding my first. She does understand the benefits now, though, and is a huge proponent of it. Just took a while.

We’re also looking at making baby food at home. We already own a VitaMix, although I will have to teach my husband to clean it really well. He’s rather trusting of a quick rinse on too many things. Soap and hot water, dear, especially when cleaning something to make it safe for making baby food! Better safe than really, really sorry.

It’s Amazing How Things Change Through the Years

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how differently my husband and I are talking about starting things out with this baby. First time around, there was no way he would even discuss cloth diapers. Now he’s all but insisting on them.

He’s also finally getting it about why I want to make our own baby food when the time comes. It’s more of a cost savings thing for him than anything else, but I’ll take what I can get. He’s always been a fan of my food mill for the second stage foods, but this time he understands about making it throughout.

At least he’s always understood my insistence on breast feeding.

It’s fun having an influence on someone, helping them to understand why they should make green choices. In addition to the changes for baby, he’s learned to appreciate composting and using natural fertilizers on the garden. No more chemicals.

What did it take?

Persistence, but not nagging.

Sharing information.

Making it easy for him to give it a try.

And of course, looking at the two children we have already and wanting it to be better for them. It’s hard for a good father to want anything else.

I Love Being Able to Spend Less on Baby Supplies

I still have a few months to go, but the more I talk to people, the more I realize how little I will need to buy for this baby at first. Cloth diapers, certainly, since no one in my family has taken that step before, but otherwise we’re looking to be in really good shape. New bottles and nipples for when she’s old enough that I can hand over some pumped breastmilk and let someone else feed her.

Oh yeah, did I ever mention it’s a girl? Or so we think. She wasn’t 100% cooperative with the ultrasound tech, but we got a fair view. Just not as clear as we had with our other two.

We hadn’t gotten rid of our old baby stuff, for one thing. That will save us a ton.

Baby clothes had been handed down, but we of course have offers of more clothes.

We were thinking we would have to buy a new baby car seat, as the old one was past the age they recommend using them for safety reasons, but my sister reminded me that she doesn’t need hers, and it’s well within the usable age range.

All in all, not a bad deal.

It’s getting to where I really need to pick out our cloth diapers, just to be sure they’re on hand when the time comes. I was also reminded by a reader, Diana, that cloth wipes are also a good idea. That makes a lot of sense to me. Why throw out wipes when you can just wash them together with the diapers?

My husband is also thinking he will install a hose and sprayer head for rinsing poopy cloth diapers into the toilet. Amazon sells a mini shower, but you can also get parts and make something similar on your own for less. I just can’t seem to find the tutorial I saw on that a couple months ago.

Now I just have to pick a brand to start out with. Anyone have a favorite?

Here Comes #3!

Whoops. I’ll admit it, getting pregnant again was definitely not on my to-do list. But this rascal had other ideas and decided to beat the odds to do so.

ultrasound

It’s kind of an awkward feeling. I’m delighted about having another baby, but at the same time, I’d meant to stick with just 2 kids. There’s some of that green guilt for adding yet another person to the world.

But it’s a baby. I really can’t stay upset about it for long.

Nice thing is that my green leanings have been steadily rubbing off on my husband. I wanted cloth diapers with our previous two, and he was flat out against it. He saw a show on National Geographic called Human Footprint about how much we consume throughout our lives, and the part that caught his attention most was on disposable diapers. He WANTS cloth diapers for this baby. So I’ve won that argument at last.

But there’s another impact for us. One car won’t cut it anymore soon. This is really rough because my husband is still looking for a new job. But our one car has a total of 4 seats. Won’t exactly work with this fifth person comes into our family. And with car seats we’re going to need something wide enough that all the kids will still fit. My oldest doesn’t legally need a car seat anymore, but I prefer her to be in one. She’s still small enough that it’s safer.

The second car is also needed because I just cannot visualize trying to take public transportation with 3 young children to handle all the doctor’s appointments a new baby requires. Beyond that I still want to live like we only have one car and keep unnecessary driving to the barest minimum we can manage.

There’s not much we’ll need to buy for baby right away. We have access to boy clothes and girl clothes from previous babies; just have to get them back from relatives. We were in the process of cleaning out the old baby toys from the garage, but hadn’t quite gotten rid of them yet. I have to see if the breast pump still works. I’ve never used formula and can’t imagine doing so with this baby. We still have our food mill for making baby food.

I can also admit to being some nervous about the pregnancy itself. I’m turning 36 soon, and my last pregnancy was not so easy as the first, ending in what could have quickly turned into a miscarriage. Fortunately an alert doctor caught the lack of amniotic fluid on an unscheduled ultrasound and sent me in for a C-section. Unfortunately, that means my new OB (we’ve moved since then) is determined to do a C-section at 38 weeks or earlier if necessary to avoid that problem this time. I was so hoping to avoid that, even knowing my odds were slim!

On the plus side, to be blunt about it, it means I can easily get tied off and make it even harder for an unplanned pregnancy to occur again. 3 kids is quite enough, and 2 C-sections is very much so my limit!