yes, its that easy.

paul said to me at breakfast today, i don't know what the big deal is. i was like hmm? and he said, parenting. i told him, well we've been lucky. you know there are babies that can't be put on the floor like that because they want to be carried? then he simply replied, then why don't they strap them to their chest (aka babywearing)?

hehe.

many people ask us if jake is sleeping through the night. he is not. he still wakes up during the night, sometimes three times a night. people are surprised by this, but i don't have the heart to tell them that i've been co-sleeping with jake since birth and getting quite of bit of good quality sleep. i can't imagine how it would have been if i had to physically wake up to tend to him. i would probably be a zombie right now.

this all could have gone a different path. when he was 2 days old we found out that jake did not like sleeping on a cold sheet, so he wouldn't even sleep in his cosleeper. i was disappointed. i wanted to cosleep with him but i wanted to do it safely of course... but he was happiest tucked in our arms. i could have let him cry it out and tire him to sleep, but my conscience didn't let me so. he has never cried it out. i get plenty of sleep.

guilty.

i am guilty of not posting. life has been grand lately. also i have some awesome pictures of jake but it is on paul's SD card and i just have to remember to upload them. jake has gotten bigger. he sometimes wears 12 month clothes. i think we are very overwhelmed by how fast he is growing. it blows our mind that he can even fit some 12 month stuff. we forget that he is not even 6 months yet. we went shopping at the outlets and we spent A LOT of money on the little guy, more than we even spend ourselves... and we probably get much more use from whatever we buy. HA. but still paul was captivated by gymboree's pirate dog line (so cute) and the osh kosh b'gosh 50% off sale. we did manage to pick up a pizza stone and a cool criscross cutter that chop carrots in the thai curries (SCORE!).

jake has bonded with dad wonderfully. paul even put him back to sleep when he woke up tonight. there was a little bit of crying, then there he was sleeping. i almost got up and went to nurse him but paull called out that everything is ok... and it was.

honestly? why i cloth diaper.

jake is 4 months old now. i've been exclusively using cloth for about 3 months now. i really love it. now i can reflect on WHY i love cloth diapering. so here i go.

is it the ecological benefits?

no, not really. i do worry about the amount of water i use to wash the diapers. how can that be resolved? just simply buy more diapers! there are ways that you can keep the stink away and take the stains off the diapers. what is the magic formula? baking soda + good ole sunshine! i can not believe how WELL hanging diapers in the sun gets the stain out... and believe it or not it DRIES the diaper at the same time as well (i know, hard to believe). also on another note, the energy i saved by not drying the diapers in the dryer was a whooping... 10 dollars. i was a little saddened by that but also reinforces the fact that it doesn't cost much to cloth (and i was drying a load every other day).

is it the rashless tooshie?

no, jake still gets rashes because i forget to drink water. :-( i've been trying to get better at it. jake spends a lot of his time nekkid on a towel in the living room. he likes it better that way, and his tooshie feels better too. he hardly fusses when he is naked. also its hard to use butt paste when you are cloth diapering. well, i can buy grandma el's but i have 4 tubes of butt paste i don't want to waste. i am using an old cut up gerber prefold as a liner. i guess that works pretty good. so.... yes jake still gets a rash sometimes but its not the diaper's fault.

is it the cute diaper covers?

maaaybe, but i did not buy the dr seuss bumkins when i sized up. so probably not.

so, what is it then?

in the end i'll have a mountain of cloth diapers and if you use disposables, you'll just have a mountain of trash.

i am totally selfish like that.

almost 4 months

i can't believe its been 4 months already. he is nicely growing out of his 0~3 months clothes and his diapers! i was not expecting it to be soon but last friday we weighted him in at 16 lbs and thats when his poopie blowouts started. lol. i bought the thirsties duo. i can't wait to try them out! next tuesday is his doctor's appointment and his second round of shots. not really looking forward to that.

he is cutting teeth!

jake is teething. he is a little fussy, but he is not drooling or anything like that.

Is it the end of august yet?

some firsts that jake has done the past few days:

rasperries! he had a whole lot of drool and he pfffffft at grandmas. we thought grandma tooted! i tried to get it on camera but he was busy talking to it. he's such a ham.

play date with joshua... the two boys were talking back and forth! lol. its funny because jake just falls asleep when he is around baby girls :D

mothering adventures at three months old

three months. i can't believe its already been a quarter of a year since jake was born. i must admit, i have it pretty easy. jake has been easy... but he is starting to show signs that it that all may change in a few months!

about two weeks ago he started to get very active, socially and physically. he started to notice the differences in people's faces. it was so funny because my dad was holding him when this happened. jake just stared at my dad and then within seconds he was crying. i think jake was the one most surprised of it all. i was worried that he had gotten separation anxiety or something like that but few hours later he was back to his normal self. my dad and i were awestruck. we felt like we just witnessed his cognitive skills developing. now he stares at me when someone else is holding him.... he has this 'hey if mommy is over there who is this holding me?' kind of look on his face.

so he rolled over tummy to back two weeks ago (right and left) and hasn't done it again since. :P thank goodness i got it on video! lol. it does seem like he was just showing off. haha. now his new thing is kicking, kicking, and more kicking. kicking during diaper changes (ugh), kicking while i hold him, kicking during tummy time. maybe thats why he doesn't roll over anymore. hm... interesting.

i think the biggest issue that has come to my attention is how socially unaccepted breastfeeding is!! its been so hard to nurse jake in public. i am lucky to have been blessed with a wonderful family (both sides) that accept breastfeeding (even my brother doesn't mind. yeah!) as being 'natural' but i've read that some families are not. yes, i've had to nurse him in a bathroom in a public sports venue. it was a 'family bathroom' but i had to sit on the toilet (yuck). another thing i thought, that it was a simple matter of choosing between the breastmik or formula but its not. a lot of mothers 'give up' for one reason or another even though they want to breastfeed. some doctors even advise patients to wean before the baby is 1 year old which is against the recommendation of the american association of pediatrics.

another thing i really realize until i actually started doing was how easy cloth diapering is... but i think some diaper companies are capitalizing on how scary diving into cloth diapering can be and selling all in ones when prefolds are so easy to use.