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!
 

Baby Music Classes in the Pioneer Valley

Whether it's been me singing to her, her father's ipod playing Czech heavy metal (he's from Prague, so that's not as random as it sounds), or the music of her Seahorse, Ruby has always seemed to enjoy music of all kinds.

Because of this, I've had my eye out for baby music classes in Northampton, Easthampton, Amherst or anywhere in the Pioneer Valley.

After a slow summer, I'm suddenly seeing baby music classes everywhere!

The Jones Library in Amherst will offer "Sing with Your Baby" on Tuesdays at 10:30am, beginning September 14 until November 16, 2010.

Although it's not (yet) posted on their site, I *heard* the Lilly Library in Florence also offers a baby music class, also on Tuesdays (at 11am I think), starting up again in September.

Finally, I see on Cradle's calendar that they will have Kindermusik classes on Saturdays, starting September 25th and running for 6 weeks. The classes are broken down by age, and are not free. Check out their site for details.

Ruby and I will definitely be checking these classes out, and I hope you and your little one will too!

And please let me know if you find out about any others!

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!

32 Weeks, Baby Showers & Partner Massage

Yay for being 32 weeks and 5 days pregnant!

Thoughts for this week:
- Holy Cow are we getting close!

- My shower is in two days. I'll see great old friends (some of whom I haven't seen in nine years or more, since before my wedding!) who are all fabulous women with whom I can't wait to share my ginormous belly.

- I've got a new bottle of Purex Free & Clear just waiting for me to start my many, many loads of laundry once we return home from the shower. This detergent is supposed to be great for baby clothes, cloth diapers AND our adult clothes. (And it's affordable!) This also makes me happy that we're not falling for any ad campaigns that only one detergent can be used for baby stuff (you know which one I'm talking about!).

- After hearing raves from several other couples about a Partner Massage class for labor (not sure of the official name of this class) at Cradle in Northampton, AND after Andy saying he'd actually be interested in taking this class, I am desperately looking to find the next one scheduled. I don't see any on the calendar, so I'll stop by and ask. There must be one before May 2nd (my due date!)!

That's all on this pregnancy front, for now. Here's looking forward to 33 weeks!