Frustrations and Praise

I wish I knew better how to deal with my infertility.  Even now as I'm on the brink of tears, I try to tell myself to get it together and it's not that big of a deal.  There are so many folks out there that want more children like we do and are not having the emotional break downs like I seem to have.  God knows that I'm frustrated as I seem to tell Him so daily now.  

An applicable quote I read today by a Kasey Van Norman on FB was, "Are you waiting on God? Don't worry, it's just a set-up for His greatness to explode in your life...stay focused. Stay faithful."  I am waiting on God for another baby but I can't forget that His greatness DID explode once already when he gave us Skittle.  And you know what?  He will STILL be great even if He doesn't allow us to have more babies. 

Psalm 43 was part of my Bible reading today. Verses 1-6 really hit home. "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." (verse 1) and "I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears." (verse 4)  Thank you Lord for Your word and for Your daily blessings.

Here are just a couple pictures of my sweet blessing playing with a bubble gun from her auntie. 

Cloth!

So apparently I just deleted my previous cloth post.  So sad!  I guess I'll try again.

I've had quite a few friends ask me about cloth diapers so I thought I'd do a post about it.  There are a TON of great resources out there (blogs, web sites) with oodles of info so I thought I'd just explain what we've done.  Feel free to ask any questions!

When I was preg with Skittle, I did a LOT of research on cloth.  It was overwhelming!  I ended up choosing a bunch of different types/styles in the newborn size so I could then decide what I liked from there. 

I bought three dozen prefolds with covers and I ended up not liking them much at all.  Prefolds are possibly what your parents used on you but with pins and plastic pants.  I ended up tri-folding my prefolds and putting them in a waterproof cover.  Skittle was a super soaker and her skin ended up feeling very wet and even with a fleece liner, we descided not to continue use.   

The above pic shows a Gerber prefold (one you can find at Wal-Mart) and one from Green Mountain Diapers.  The GMD's are UBER soft and squishy and have my vote if you go the prefold route. 

We also tried fitted diapers.  These also require a cover and basically are a glorified prefold but much fancier (and cuter!).  This pic isn't great but Skittle is wearing a orange Thirsties fitted diaper with a green cover in the below pic.

I still didn't love the fitted's so I moved on to all-in-one diapers and Bumgenius quickly became our favorites.  They are JUST like disposables but you don't throw them away!  They are awesome!  Here is Skittle modeling one in size x-small and then one in size medium.

Even at 21 months, she can still fit into the mediums.  Some people choose to do one size diapers.  We have a couple of those but I felt like they were super bulky on Skittle when she was young.  Here are some pics of her wearing a Lil' Boppers one size diaper at two weeks old and then at 20 months.

 Our current stash is made up of Bumgenius, Fuzzibunz, Lil' Boppers (All-in-Two's), and Peachy Green (our second fav since they are soooo trim!). Here are a couple pics of our newest Bumgenius FreeTime diapers, one with snaps and one with aplex (velcro). 

Here is our current setup.  Diapers go in the top drawer of the changing table. Extra wet bags, wipes, and the extra pail liner are stored in the cabinet.  All the dirty diapers and wipes go into the diaper pail (pictured with a pink liner).  

We just pull out the liner and throw everything (including the liner) in the washing machine.  It's that easy!!  I dry everything except diaper covers and pocket  shells on high heat in the dryer.  Seriously, I don't think it gets much easier than that!  Cloth is not as stinky as disposables and our household waste is reduced!  It's a win-win to us.  Now, we don't use cloth overnight or when we travel as again, I do what is easiest for our family. 

Hope that helps a little!