Tag Archives: Baby

Diaper Fail

by Cedar Posted on May 24, 2011

Yesterday I had a huge disappointment occur. I decided to try the cloth diapers I made for Lucy on her (we had been using disposables until her chord fell off), and to my surprise they didn’t fit. They actually went around her okay, but the sides where it Velcros to stay on her don’t reach out far enough to keep it secure. I am so bummed!

Trying to sew more fabric (or a velcro tab) on to each side would be impossible with my machine. The machine was struggling as it was to get through all those layers of fabric (thread breaking every few inches). With baby here now I just don’t have the energy to make them work. I am throwing in the diaper making towel.

Looking back I should have bought some diapers and made my own pattern based on those rather than follow one someone linked to in a forum. They probably would have worked out a bit better, but how was I to know?

Anyhow, last night we went online and ordered a bunch of Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers, which quickly made my day better. I have heard so many great things about them, they just seemed like the best thing to do in our situation.

Posted in Baby | Tagged | 10 Comments

In which Baby Eliminates

by Cedar Posted on May 17, 2011

Before we ever tried getting pregnant I had been doing some research online about natural parenting and had a long list of things I wanted to do for/with my child. One of the things I read about early on was Elimination Communication (or E.C.). For those who know nothing about it, Elimination Communication is pretty much the practice of training your baby from the beginning (or near beginning) to eliminate away from the body by getting to know your baby’s signs. For example, if I know that my baby goes poo every time she nurses, half way through I will remove her diaper and hold her over the toilet and make a noise to cue her to go.

I immediately knew it was something I wanted to practice with my baby, and purchased the book The Diaper-Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh. I read it during my pregnancy, and then pulled it out again a week ago and re-read the chapter on infant elimination. I can’t even begin to tell you what a helpful and informative book this has been already. Everything about it makes sense to me, and I love that I can keep Lucy happy by allowing her to go to the bathroom somewhere else other than in her diaper.

Anyway, I knew it would be difficult to juggle the new baby and start ECing from birth, so we decide that we would wait until we were comfortable with diaper changes and started to understand baby’s schedule a bit before trying. We started earlier this week, and already I am super excited about how it is going. After just a few days of cueing, Lucy started going to the bathroom in the little potty we hold her over. Every time I see she has to go pee or I catch her going pee I make a psss sound, and every time I know she has to go poo, I repeat poo-poo a few times to her. I haven’t been super on top of it really, but still it has been a big success. Every time I change her diaper I hold her over the potty and make the sound which I think she needs to do. We have ‘caught’ quite a few eliminations already, and each time I get super excited. It really feels like a major accomplishment–and it is one less dirty diaper!!

Has anyone else tried EC with their own babies? If so what was your experience?

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Baby Cedar + Baby Russ

by Cedar Posted on April 3, 2011

Last night after a long day of packing and getting things ready to move I lay down on the couch and began flipping through The Baby Book (which by the way if you haven’t seen it is excellent). After I put the book down Russ picked it up and pointed at the third baby and said ‘that is what our baby is going to look like’. I then of course had to make a joke about how there is a possibility she looks more like the second. I am so mean.

I thought that was cute, and will be honest, lately I have really been wondering what color her hair will be and what she will look like. Both Russ and I were little baldies when we were born. I had a small layer of red peach fuzz, but not much more than that. Most people are surprised to find out that Russ (because of his very dark hair) was very light blond until his early teenage years. All that considered, I think he could be right, our baby may be a light haired baldie when she is born.

Anyhow, here is baby me and baby Russ. It will be so fun to compare these pictures to our little baby after she arrives.

Posted in Pregnancy & kids | Tagged | 1 Comment

Baby Shower

by Cedar Posted on March 6, 2011

It is funny to think about how simple things just wipe me out nowadays. Yesterday I was thrown a lovely baby shower–and today I feel like an absolute zombie!

My own was the first baby shower I have ever been to. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I had a really great time and was so happy to be in the presence of so many wonderful friends and family members. Of course I took my camera out, but didn’t snap a single picture. My aunt e-mailed these to me, but I wish I had gotten some of the massive amounts of gifts and the wonderful decorations for baby before they were all opened. It was really beautiful, and we sure did get spoiled!

I plan on resting today, but hopefully tomorrow I will have a more substantial post. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Posted in Pregnancy & kids | Tagged | 1 Comment

Crib Quilt

by Cedar Posted on March 1, 2011

The quilt is finished! It feels so good to finally cross something off my baby to-do list.

Russ and I went and picked out this blue/green fabric for the back of the quilt over the weekend. It took a little more work to decide on the color of bias tape to use around the edge. Originally we chose yellow, I changed my mind and sewed on blue, and then this morning decided I liked pink best–so I ripped up all the blue and sewed on the pink. I am happy with pink. I can’t wait to see how it looks in baby’s crib when we get her nursery area set up, which I can hopefully start working on this weekend after my baby shower.

Posted in Pregnancy & kids, Sewing | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Sunshine Dress

by Cedar Posted on February 3, 2011

I had a doctors appointment this morning, where I was happy to find out that baby is measuring right on size. She isn’t a giant, yet, I am just being paranoid about the whole thing. It is hard not to though, especially since I just found out from my aunt that my grandpa was a 15 pound baby when he was born!

After going to the doctors I stopped by the thrift store where I picked up this darling little dress. It is 12 months size, so it is going into storage for a while, but how could I say no to this?!

Posted in Finds, Pregnancy & kids | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Baby Diapers

by Cedar Posted on January 12, 2011

I think I have mentioned several times, both here on the blog and on my Twitter about the baby diapers I am working on. Some time last month I got this crazy idea in my head that I was going to sew all my own diapers. I found several free patterns to print out and did quite a bit of research on what makes a good cloth diaper. I also ordered a bunch of this water proof fabric called PUL to use as the external layer of the diaper. After a lot of experimentation I figured out a pretty easy method of sewing the diapers.

I have about fifteen or so sewn already (of two different sizes), and have quite a long ways to go. Each diaper takes me about an hour and a half to sew, so I have been trying to do one a day–until I am up to my neck in diapers! I am doing mostly white and peach colored diapers, so we can reuse them in the future if we happen to have more babies. I did though buy a little bit of pale pink PUL fabric, and some pretty periwinkle just for the little lady.

I am not exactly sure how many diapers I aim to sew, as I have never had to provide diapers for a baby. I was thinking 30 or so in each size, though I may be seriously estimating wrong. Any other mamas cloth diaper, and if so about how many diapers did you have on hand?

Posted in Pregnancy & kids | Tagged | 10 Comments

Vintage Blue Baby Dress

by Cedar Posted on January 3, 2011

As soon as we found out we were having a baby girl the maternity sewing was forgotten. I picked up some darling baby patterns on sale at the fabric store and have been using vintage fabric to make our little girl some darling clothes. I sewed this little dress and bonnet the weekend after we found out the big news. I am trying really hard not to let pink take over our home, so this blue floral fabric was the perfect choice.

I have to admit, I think I like sewing baby clothes better than my clothes. This might be just because I can sew them so quickly, but I really need to get back to my maternity sewing and whip up a few more tops–it is just so hard now that we know we what we are having!

Posted in Sewing | Tagged , | 3 Comments