My Cloth Diapering Godsend

We made the decision to cloth diaper our daughter about six months or so before she was born... which was the minimum amount of time I needed to research and learn all I could about different kinds of cloth diapers, how they work and how to care for them.

(You can read about some of my cloth diaper findings here and here and here.)

Early on in my research, I was fortunate enough to happen upon this post, all about flushable liners like the ones pictured here by Bummis.

I love these liners because they are very soft against Ruby's skin, and they act as a little barrier between her bum and the diaper, so they end up keeping the diaper nearly spotless. My husband and I agree: they rock. They make life easy as pie.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Bummis liners are not available here in the Pioneer Valley (of course).

You can order them online, or look around locally for another brand. A Child's Garden and Cradle both carry liners, I believe, but I would make sure they are soft. (I got some liners a while back at A Child's Garden and I felt that although they were more substantial for holding poo, they felt way too rough!)

In addition to using the glory and wonder that is flushable liners, we also did this hook up of a DIY cloth diaper sprayer to our guest bathroom toilet.

We have used it plenty times, but as our daughter has gotten older (she's nearly 6 months old!) and since she has started solid foods, we have used disposable liners more and more, and the need for the sprayer has become less and less.

In fact, the liners protect the diapers so much that I haven't used the sprayer in at least a month. Amazing!
 

Finding a Community

Now that Ruby and I are finding our groove, I'm interested in branching out.

I have yet to explore the opportunities in the area for a new mother and baby. This is going to change now. My goal this week is to go to just one parent-oriented "thing" - whether it's a class, group, get together - whatever. 

So I started my research with Cradle, a pretty cool store/space in Northampton where they hold different classes and events. Judging by the calendar, the event that sounds like a good possibility for me this week is "Mom's Cafe: Open Play." The description is: Need a place to just hang out with baby, relax, socialize and meet other parents? This is an open studio time for moms or dads to come into the studio and enjoy our space and toys and hopefully make some new friends. This time is not facilitated but a Cradle staff member is always available to assist you.
Hm. This might be the one. And it's free! That's always good!

Next I looked at A Child's Garden, a neat children's store I've written about before (mainly because they sell cloth diapers, and this is where I got my awesome babywearing tutorial). But, alas, they have no events other than the babywearing clinic. Their site says they are starting a Cloth Diaper group, but there's no meeting time or anything. I'll have to look into that later.

Cooley Dickinson Hospital has a Beyond Birth class ("A Gathering of New Parents with Their Babies"), as well as Momma and Baby Yoga. I've heard good things about Beyond Birth, and I'd have to pay for the yoga, so I think BB is a likelier choice for me.    

Finally, I know that on Tuesday mornings there is a group of stroller people that meet at Mt Tom to walk around the pond there. I'll have to find a recent issue of The Summit to find the details, but that's a good possibility too (why not enjoy the glorious outdoors this summer?!).

So - which community event will I go to? Decisions, decisions.

I'll report back at the end of the week. If you are in the area and know of any ones I'm not aware of, please share!

The New Normal

Ruby is one month old today!

We are starting to get back to what I consider a "new normal"... it kind of looks like our old life, but, you know, it's different. There's a lot less sleep involved, and more planning around a baby's eating schedule.

Also, we get way more excited about poo than we ever did before.

We've been venturing out and running lots of errands and doing some shopping here and there in the area.

One visit we made was to A Child's Garden in Northampton for the babywearing drop-in hours (Wednesdays 4-6pm), to learn how to properly use our Moby wrap.

It was great! Meg Eisenhauer Barry, the Babywearing Educator, explained everything and showed us how to use our wrap, and we are completely set. And in love with it! What a great service this store offers.

We have so many other stops to make... I've got my eye on multiple groups at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, like Beyond Birth and their weekly Breastfeeding Clinic, as well as various baby and Mama (and Papa!) classes and meetup groups in the area.

Aside from baby stuff, we also have to get started on gardening... we are desperate to plant our own vegetable garden, so we need to research and start that ASAP. In the meantime, we begin our weekly pickups at Mountain View Farm CSA tomorrow, so that's a new and exciting experience for us, too!

Finally, we are looking forward to my in-laws, Ruby's grandparents, coming from the Czech Republic next week... they are staying with us for 3 months! Wow! We're very excited, as we get along splendidly, and I'm sure it will be a blast since I'll have help, and they'll spend the time with their first grandchild.

Off to run more errands now...

Cloth Diapering - Part II

After looking around at some cloth diapering resources here in Western Massachusetts - specifically in the Pioneer Valley - I found A Child's Garden in Northampton.

I haven't been there yet, but my understanding of A Child's Garden is that it is a toy store as well as a wonderful resource for parents in the area, as they offer workshops on a variety of parenting topics such as Breastfeeding, Babywearing and - yep, you guessed it! - Cloth Diapering!

They are also one of the few retailers in this area of bumGenius diapers and products, a company of which I am just hearing more and more wonderful things as I continue to research this whole thing.