365 Days of Breastfeeding: FIN

I am both pleased and slightly wistful to announce the end of my 365 days of breastfeeding project. Thanks to everyone who supported me and contributed to guest spots. It was a great year of parenting and although the project is complete, my nursing relationship will continue indefinitely.

To see the whole project, please check out my Shuttercal page. Keep in mind this project started on 1-18-11. In the month of January the pictures from 1-1 to 1-17 are of my son nursing at 20 months old. The pictures from 1-18 on are of him nursing at 8 months old. Use the controls to scroll through all of the months of the year. 

My son is now 20 months old and nursing 4-10 times a day. He still wakes at least once a night to nurse, sometimes more, and I've made no efforts to discourage him of this.  I will continue to nurse him until at least his second birthday and likely much longer after.  We will practice child led weaning which means I will not implement any sort of weaning process. I will let him gradually choose when  he no longer needs my breast as a source of comfort and nourishment.  Breastfeeding a toddler is different from breastfeeding an infant or newborn in many ways and I am loving our ever changing relationship.

I have handed the photo project over to a good friend, Toni who is currently breastfeeding her second daughter. She is accepting guest posts, so if you missed your chance this year, there is still time :) Maybe you'll see me over there someday soon.

Thanks again to all who participated and followed along.

Cloth Diaper Addict

I cloth diaper.

I started thinking of using cloth diapers sometime after L turned 1 and I am not sure why. I think it was primarily an eco-friendly decision, but also financial and (for lack of better description) it just felt like the right thing to do. I researched and researched and finally decided on testing some Bum Genius 3.0.

My first impression of these was good. I did not like having to use special detergent and it was hard for me to tell if/when they were wet, but I felt good about using the diapers and soon decided to purchase more. I found some Motherease fitteds at a local consignment shop and soon began to like those more than the Bum Genius. L was adjusting very well to the new arrangement and I was soon cloth diapering full time.

L began to develop diaper rash almost immediately after we took up cloth full time. I decided it was due to nighttime use because she sleeps close to 14 hours and switched back to disposables at night. We continued this way (cloth all day and 1 disposable overnight) until she potty trained and her brother was born. Somewhere along the way, I picked up some Bum Genius 2.0 size M (because it turns out stuffing pocket diapers is not for me) and some Growing in Greens one size fitteds. And because I was feeling quite apt at diapering, I picked up some random diapers on craigslist as well as some prefolds with snappis.

When I was pregnant with H, I decided to start with cloth ASAP. I knew the pockets weren't for me and thought the one sized diapers would be big on a newborn. My daughter was 6 lb 14 oz at birth and wore premie clothes for the first month of her life, so I assumed (despite my belly telling my otherwise) that I'd have the same experience the second time around. I purchased 12 Bum Genius 2.o in the XS size and picked thru what I had that I thought could work early on.

H arrived almost 2 weeks late and weighing in at an astronomical 9 lb 6 oz! Those tiny (and expensive diapers) only lasted a few weeks. And I squeezed him into them at least a week past when he'd outgrown them just to try to recoup some of the wasted money. I cruised craigslist once again and found some Bum Genius bamboo fitteds for a reasonable price. H is still wearing those and I absolutely love them. They are super soft and cute. He's outgrowing those as well, so I picked up some homemade microfleece/PUL diapers at the local consignment shop.

Soon after I was cloth diapering H full time, I began to *hate* disposables. I hated the thought of wrapping my children's bottoms in paper. I hated seeing and smelling the disposables in the trash can. I hated thinking of them in the landfills for the next hundreds of years and decided to try to switch my daughter back to cloth at night. Rash ensued. I did some research and it turns out they just needed to be stripped. Thru the advice of some online mamas, I ran the entire lot thru the washer on hot with some vinegar instead of detergent.

Upon loading my washing machine with ALL my diapers, I realized 2 things:

I own no less than 100 diapers.

I am a cloth diaper addict.

Many of my diapers have been used for both kids and some have faired better than others. The Growing in Greens (while super cute and well fitted on a newborn) wore out fairly quickly and needed replacement elastic. The Bum Genius have held up, but I realize now that snaps are much better than Aplex for the long haul. The Motherease are nice, tho bulky and too big until about 13 lbs in my opinion. Prefolds are cheap and easy and are my go-to diapering in a pinch. Imse Vimse makes a great cover, but I'd steer clear of the Gerber covers sold at most department stores. I have also tried many other diapers, covers, and accessories. Any questions, just ask!

Long story short, I love cloth diapering. I recommend it to all my friends. It is increasing in popularity and with good reason. No more butts wrapped in paper for us. Hope you'll join me if you haven't already!