Has it really been four years?

Today I get to celebrate four wonderful years with my amazing husband. Four years seems like such a long time to me and yet I feel like it has just flown by. I am so thankful to God for the gift
He gave me in Ben.

Thank you, Ben for being a great leader and an amazing representation of Christ to me. I am sharpened and encouraged daily by your integrity, strength, love, humility and sweet spirit. You are the best daddy little Ephram could hope for and I am glad he has a man like you to look up to. Here's to the next four years and the many adventures to come! I am so glad to walk this life with you by my side :)

Cloth Diapering Review: Part II

In case you missed it, you can read Part I here.

So, now that I've talked about our decision on which type & brand we went with--onto our day to day process of using cloth diapers! 

I mentioned briefly in the first post that I use Ruby Moon cloth diaper detergent.  I haven't had any experience with using any detergent beside this one, but I can say that I do enjoy my Ruby Moon.  For HE washers, the recommended amount per load is 2 TBSP and one package is supposed to last for 90 HE loads. In almost 2 months of use, I am about halfway through the bag which seems to coincide with what the package claims. One of my cloth diapering friends gave me this link to all the cloth diaper approved detergents on the market with their rating & cost per load--very helpful chart, I recommend taking a look! 

I have REALLY enjoyed cloth diapering.  I can honestly say that I do prefer it to using disposable, one because we are saving money & I am always on board for that, but also, I just genuinely enjoy the process of it all and don't find it to be a great burden.  Maybe I just hate going through so many trash bags, I don't know, but it makes me happy not to throw things away.  Also, have you noticed how cheery the colors are?  I love grabbing a new diaper each time & being surprised by which color he will wear next!  It's almost like an outfit change ;)  And sometimes the diaper is his full outfit (we like naked days!), so at least its a cute one, right?

A few things differ from disposable when changing a cloth diaper.  One is rash cream.  Just as there are special cloth diaper detergents, there are also rash creams that are made specifically for cloth diapering.  Using normal rash creams will stick to the cloth & ruin the absorbancy of the diaper.  So be careful when choosing a rash cream!  I have heard that just using straight olive oil or coconut oil on their little bums will work just fine with cloth.  I bought a Kansas City local's homemade hiney rub and we are liking it so far--it smells like lavender, which always makes me happy.

Target also sells a brand called California Baby that is safe for cloth. 

With cloth, you can also choose to use cloth wipes.  It's recommended to have somewhere between 25-50 cloth wipes if you choose to go this route.  In preparation for using cloth wipes (I haven't fully transitioned over yet), I made a cloth wipe spray consisting of water and a few drops of lavender added to a spray bottle, which I will spray on the wipes before cleaning his hiney.  Lavender has antibacterial properties & it also smells great.  Win win.

You also need a wetbag or a diaper pail with wetbag pail liner for storing dirty diapers after a changing.  With all in one diapers, you can just throw them in the pail after cleaning off the dirty diaper (a nice perk), but with pocket, you need  to remove the pocket insert from the diaper cover so that when you throw them in the wash, they are cleaned thoroughly. The pocket is not very difficult to remove though, just an extra step in the process.  I made two wetbags which I wrote about here.

I do love my wetbags.  When they are full & ready for a wash, I just dump the contents into the washing machine, along with the wetbag...super easy & minimal touching of dirty diapers ;)
I think, eventually, though I will invest in some sort of diaper pail with a foot press that lifts the lid.  It can be very difficult to supervise a baby on a changing table & unzip a wetbag at the same time.  I think a hands-free diaper pail would be much easier to use! 

Ben & I also invested in a diaper sprayer & have been very glad that we did so.  It's not quite as necessary to have with newborn poo, although we still use it, but I think it will really be needed when he starts on solids.

As far as the "hassle" of cloth diapering goes, I really haven't found it to be an extra burden.  I just have to be mindful of when my clean diaper count is getting low & throw the dirties into the wash.
It takes about 2 hours to wash the diapers as they need to run through a cold water quick wash cycle, as well as a hot water heavy duty cycle.  I usually throw the dirties in after E's early morning feeding and they are ready to hang out to dry by 9 am or so.  In my opinion, the washing machine really does all the work.  The extra laundry doesn't really bother me because having a baby creates plenty of extra laundry any way, so what's one more thing? ;)

On top of the two wetbags I made for the home, I also made a portable wetbag that fits 2-3 diapers in it.  When we go out for the afternoon, I take this wetbag with me, along with a couple of extra cloth dipes & when he needs a changing, store the dirty ones in the wetbag.  I haven't had any problems with odor (typically newborn poo is not too smelly), but there are odor sprays & pail powders that you can use to neutralize smells.  Also, Sassy sells a brand of disposable bags that are odor neutralizing, I've found these to be a good option as well.
Of course, if we are on a trip and will be gone more than just one afternoon, I do switch over to disposable. But for day errands  & trips, I've found that I can still use my cloth without any extra difficulty.

I am by no means an old pro at this cloth diapering thing, but this is what has worked for us so far!  I was intimidated by it all at first, but have been pleasantly surprised by how easily it has flowed into our daily routine!  Hopefully I covered most things, but if you have a question or something to add, please feel free to leave a comment!

Cloth Diapering Review: Part I

Cloth diapering has been one of the fun experiments of new mommyhood. I was very excited about the prospect of it & talked about how we prepped for cloth diapering here.

Now that we are almost 2 months into it, I thought I'd give a little update for those interested.  I am going to break it up into two parts, because apparently I have a lot to say on the subject. This post will cover the type, brand & number that I use, along with detergent. 

I've had many people ask me about cloth diapering...what we are doing, our experience with it so far, etc..hopefully this post will shed a little light on the subject, for those who are curious!

One of the first steps in cloth diapering research is choosing the type of cloth diapering you want to do.  There are several types including: pocket, All-in-One & prefold. 

After much research, we decided to go with the pocket option.  Basically, with pocket diapers you have a diaper cover (shown above on my man's cute little hiney) with a "pocket" inside and cloth insert that slips inside of the pocket.  The cloth insert does most of the absorbing, but the pocket cover acts as an additional absorbant layer.  The outer side of the diaper cover is water proof to help with leaking.  On the flip side, All-in-One's are just what they sound like, the cover & cloth inserts are one and the same, no assembly required.

I opted to go for the pocket over the All-in-Ones namely because they tend to be much faster drying than All-in-Ones. And believe me, I have learned that drying time really makes a difference when I'm running low on diapers.  Being that you can disassemble the layers of the pocket diapers when you lay them out to dry, they dry much faster!  In this crazy heat, they dry in about 30 minutes in full sun.  I have a couple of All-in-Ones and even in full sun they take at least a couple of hours to dry.

The next step for me was deciding which brand of pockets to go with.  After reading lots of mommy blogs I decided on BumGenius.  I know there are many great brands but this particular brand seemed to get the most positive reviews from the most mommies (less leakage, great warranty, good durability & longevity) so I took the leap & ordered all BumGenius.  I really have no other brand to compare them to as I haven't tried any of the others...but while I can't give an opinion on any other brands, I can say that I LOVE my BumGenius diapers.  As E was a chunky little monkey, we were able to start him on the diapers when he was about 2 weeks old.  BumGenius diapers are OneSize diapers, meaning they are adjustable for all baby sizes, but typically are too large for those little newborn legs. 

Even at 2 weeks old we had no leaking problems & although they did engulf his little body, they did the trick!

It is recommended to start with 24 diapers for one baby.  At the time that I purchased mine, there was a buy 5 get the 6th free sale, so I ended up buying 15 and getting 3 free for a total of 18. 

With 18, I do laundry about every other day, but sometimes I end up having to launder every day. Not the end of the world, but  I decided recently to invest in a few more (again I found a sale! yay!) and will now have 22 which should ensure that I only have to do laundry every other day. 

As for detergent, there are several great ones out there, you just need to make sure they are approved for cloth diapering.  I have been using Ruby Moon & love it-- no residue to speak of & gets out most stains!  If I do have a little stainage left, the sunshine usually bleaches it out!

TO BE CONTINUED...



Newborn Photos

I know, I'm a little behind in blogging these days...something about having a newborn, maybe?

Even though my little man is now a whole month old, I wanted to share some of his newborn photos, at 8 days old from Kari Wright Photography.  She was a great joy to work with & he was such a handsome little model, that the session couldn't help but be successful!   I loved that we were able to bring some of our own props & personality to the session.  The pepsi crate is an item from our home & the little tie is one that I made for him :)

Enjoy!

snapshot {1 month old}

I can't believe a month has already passed since this little guy entered our lives!  Its incredible how much he has grown & changed in this one month alone--and how much the daily routine of mine & Ben's lives have changed as well!  I don't think we've really taken time to stop & think about it much, we've just been in "survival" mode, if you will, learning how to take care of this little munchkin & resting when possible.

Noteworthy things in the first month:

Gained approx 2 lbs-- he is a big boy!

Found & sucked his thumb (once)

Introduced to the pacifier

Lifts & rotates head during tummy time

Slept 5 hours during the night

Smiled at his mommy on his 1 month b-day (heart melting!)

Loves car rides, walks in the stroller, running errands in his sling or Moby & nursing.

Happy 1st month of life, little man!

What's in a Name?

Since, Little E's birth, several people have asked us how we picked the name Ephram Fletcher for our son & I love sharing the story, so I thought I might as well share it here as well :)  

We both settled on his name separately from each other. His name was given to us by the Lord at different times & in different ways from each other, and it is a constant reminder of the Lord's faithfulness & sovereignty. 

Many of you know that we had a difficult season getting pregnant.  If you aren't familiar with our pregnancy story, you can read about it here. During that season, the Lord was teaching me a lot about waiting on & trusting in Him.  I really didn't know if we would ever get pregnant & was having to put that all in His hands. As I was reading in Genesis one day, I came across Genesis 41:50-52,

  

Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore them to him.  Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.”The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.

I wasn't reading the scripture that day, trying to hear a word from the Lord about our struggles with fertility, but it had been on my heart for such a long time & in that moment, as I read verse 52 (highlighted in bold), I felt the Lord was giving me a promise that one day we would be fruitful & have children.  Ephraim & Ephram (a variation of the name) mean fruitful in Hebrew & as I held onto this promise from God, that day, I thought what a neat name that would be for a little boy, if one day we had one.

Fast forward, to about 2 months later...we found out we were pregnant!  I casually shared with Ben one day, in early pregnancy that if we did have a son, I would like to name him Ephram.  At the time, I don't think I even told him about the promise the Lord gave me through that scripture.  When I told him the name, he looked at me with one of those "I don't know about that" looks & basically said he wasn't feeling it.  {Insert sad face here}.

A few weeks later, Ben left for his deployment.  At this time we still did not know the sex of the baby & were planning to Skype him into the ultrasound when we were to find out the gender.  A few days before the ultrasound, he shared with me that he had been going through a really rough time & was reading through Zechariah.  The Lord really ministered to him through this book & specifically through a set of verses in Ch. 9.  

"Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;

today I declare that I will restore to you double.

For I have bent Judah as my bow;

I have made Ephraim its arrow.

I will stir up your sons, O Zion,

against your sons, O Greece,

and wield you like a warrior's sword."

 God really gave him peace & hope in a difficult season through these verses, but also spoke to him about our son!  As he read this, he felt like the Lord was telling him that we were going to have a son AND that his name would be Ephram.  So of course, when he shared this with me over Skype that night, I was completely on board!  Sure enough, a few days later, at our ultrasound we found out we were having a B-O-Y.  

Since Ephram's birth, we have realized a few other neat connections between his name--just fun little God things--I love how He is in the details!  Fletcher was going to be the middle name of our first born son, no matter what.  It is a family tradition on Ben's side to use this middle name for the first born son.  I don't think we realized what it meant, until Ben looked it up one day.  Fletcher means "arrow maker"  & fletchings are what makes the arrow go straight.  This really stuck out to us in a neat way, particularly because of the verses that God gave Ben for our son, with Ephraim being the arrow.    And we do want, more than anything for our little arrow to be led down a straight path :) 

Another neat little connection, we discovered while my mom was here.  During our season of infertility, she was praying for us daily & had some specific scriptures that she prayed over us.  We were re-reading them this week & saw this in Psalm 127:3-4,

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
     the fruit of the womb a reward.
 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
    are the children of one's youth."

All of these little connections & the way that God brought Ben & I to the same conclusion on our little man's name, in such deeply personal & different ways, just serves as a constant reminder to us of God's faithfulness & sovereignty.  He is completely in control & knew our little man before he was born! What a great reminder.  Ephram, who he is & his name, will daily serve as a reminder to us of who God is.   

Our Little E Man

A week & a half ago, on May 24th at 2:40am, we welcomed our Little E Man, Ephram Fletcher into this world!   At 19.5" long & 8lbs 2 oz & with a full head of hair, he was just perfect.

The picture above is one of the first snapshots of his sweet life. 

And below, the first time being held in daddy's arms...I love the emotions in this picture :) 

He has a dad that is just smitten with him.

We could not have dreamt for a more beautiful, healthy baby boy & were above and beyond blessed by the smoothness of labor, the kindness & care of our nurses & the peaceful guidance of our midwife.

Ephram has had quite the eventful first week & a half of life.  Lollie & Pop came to see & cuddle him, along with visits from friends, a few outings, his newborn checkup, a newborn photo session & more!



Mom, dad & baby E are all doing well--recovery has been so smooth & we have had so much help from family & friends. 

We love our little Ephram & are just basking in & celebrating these first weeks of his life.