Top 5

I thought I would do a post on my top 5 favorite baby items right now.  These are the things Lydia and I are loving!! :)


5. Target Nursing Bras

You can find them here

I know I'm not nursing anymore, but in those beginning weeks when breastfeeding was horrible these bras were amazing.  They're supportive, but super comfortable.  My favorite thing about them is that you pull the fabric to the side when you want to nurse rather than having a snap to deal with. 

4. BabyLegs

Andrea let me borrow some of her BabyLegs and I am sooo in love!  They are so stinkin' adorable, but they also make diaper changes quick and easy.  Even better, if you cloth diaper you can show off your baby's dipes while still keeping baby's legs warm. :)  I can't wait to buy some really girly ones now that we know we love them!

 3. Video Monitor



We used our video monitor with Chloe and still love it for Lydia.  It's especially great for those times when you're not sure if baby is really awake or just squirming around trying to get comfy to go back to sleep.  You can check in on them without having to open the door (and for sure waking them up!) or even better, get out of bed in the middle of the night! (although Lydia is spoiled rotten and still in our room...haha).

 2. Miracle Blanket

www.miracleblanket.com

 We didn't have the miracle blanket for Chloe, but we could not live without it with Lydia!!  She is definitely a baby who needs to be swaddled and this is the only swaddle she can't Houdini her way out of (most of the time!).  At first I kind of felt bad for putting her in this straight jacket, but this thing really is a miracle because the minute she's all swaddled up her eyes start rolling back in her head and she's ready to sleep.

And my number 1 favorite baby item is.....

1. Cloth Diapers

Cottonbabies.com

I am so in love with cloth diapers I could go on and on about them!

I was extremely nervous to use cloth diapers because it felt very overwhelming at first, but all my friends were using them and loved them so I decided I would give it a shot.  I'm pretty sure my 5th grade teacher who had to give the whole class a lecture on peer pressure because of me would actually approve of me succumbing to this cloth diaper peer pressure. ;)

While I'm not a super "green" person, although I do get called crunchy or a hippie from time to time, I seriously HATED throwing out so many disposable diapers with Chloe.  I knew that those big bags of diapers were going to sit in a landfill somewhere and NEVER decompose.  Gross!  So, it was definitely a bonus to cloth diapers that I would be doing a small bit to help the environment.

Another great thing is the money we're saving!  By using cloth diapers we're saving about $1700!!

BUT the thing I love very most about using cloth diapers is how great of a diaper they are.  Let me explain.  When Lydia was a newborn we did a cloth diaper rental, but with me being a psycho crazy person the first few weeks we resorted to disposables most of the time.  I had forgotten how nasty those things really are.  Lydia leaked through pretty much EVERY diaper (and I was changing her regularly), she reeked of urine the moment she peed in them, and the things just aren't cute -- as if that's mandatory.  She has NEVER leaked or had a blow out in her cloth, they don't stink, AND they're SO cute!!

There are several different types of cloth diapers, but we use the bumGenius 4.0 pocket diapers and I would highly recommend them!  They are super easy and one of the cheaper pockets out there.  With a pocket diaper there is a pocket on the inside of the diaper that you stuff with absorbent inserts.  The nice thing about this is you can stuff as much or as little in there as you need.  Lydia is quite the little pee-er, so at night we definitely double up our inserts.

A lot of people think the laundry would be a lot of extra work, but it's really not.  I actually enjoy doing Lydia's diaper laundry.  With the bumGenius, it's super easy.  When I change Lydia's diaper, I throw the whole thing into the diaper pail (which is just a trash can with a water proof liner in it).  About every other day, I take out the pail liner and dump all the diapers *and* the pail liner into the washer.  Then I do a cold wash, a hot wash with detergent, and one more cold rinse.  During the first cold wash, all the diaper inserts agitate out of the diapers.  When the washing is done I throw the insertss into the dryer and hang the covers and pail liner up to dry.  Sometimes I hang the inserts too.  When they're all dry, I stuff the diapers and put them away ready to be used again.  It's really a very simple process and once you get the hang of it you just do it all without even thinking.

I honestly don't think cloth diapering is any harder than using disposables.  It may take a tiny bit more preparation and of course there's the laundry, but the benefits FAR outweigh those things for me.

Now that I've written a book!  If you have any questions about cloth diapers (or any of the other favorite things) let me know!!