The Big Rollover

That's right, A started rolling over! I can't believe how fast he's developing. Hopefully, he slows down and let's me enjoy this incredibly fun age a little bit before he starts crawling, walking, and running.

Witness the rollover here. It took two weeks to get a good video, but I finally captured it.

We've gone vegetarian...

...twice a week. There's no way Nate and I could commit to a full vegetarian lifestyle. In my family alone I was raised on a wide range of wild game, and I think my family might disown me if I gave up meat.

However, we made the commitment last week to eat a vegetarian meal once a week, on top of our weekly meal of fish. Why would we ever want to do such a thing?

Well, for one thing, it's healthier. In addition, Nate is not quite the hunter my dad is (no offense Nate) so our rotation of meet tends to be limited to beef, pork, and lots of chicken, which gets quite boring after 3 years.

Of course, there are also environmental benefits. Animal waste is a major contributor to polluted rivers and streams. In addition, the grains made to feed animals are coated in pollutants, which makes its way into our waters and plants as well.

It's also a way to avoid ingesting toxic chemicals. "The EPA estimates that nearly 95 percent of the pesticide residue in the typical American diet comes from meat, fish, and dairy products (Vegetarian Times)."

Most of the grain farmed in the US is given to animals. If we could instead use that grain to feed people around the world, perhaps we could reduce famine. In addition, cattle are not even designed to consume grains; they are meant to eat grasses. The changes made to cattle in order to feed them grains (which is cheaper) have a large impact on the planet and on us as consumers of beef. (More details in a future  post).

Finally, animals we eat today are rarely treated humanely. People fall all over a continuum on this issue, but my personal opinion is that animals do have a right to humane living while they are alive. I won't apologize for eating meat, but I think while the animal is living they deserve a natural, healthy environment (which also makes them healthier food for us).

By cutting out one meal of meat a week, we decrease the global impact of meat eating. Everything about the production of meat--loss of cropland due to grazing, the inefficient process of feeding vast quantities of water and grain to cattle, factory farm pollution--is a major environmental issue with far reaching consequences (E Magazine).

Last week was our first vegetarian meal, and it was one of the best meals we've had lately! We didn't miss the meat at all.

What I've Learned about Cloth Diapers

There is a whole community online of cloth diapering parents, which is helpful but also a little overwhelming. I started looking into cloth diapers right when I got pregnant (an easy summer job gave me lots of time to research online). After all my research and no baby to test out the diapers on, I ordered a Bum Genius Flip. When A came along, I realized the Flip was not the diaper I wanted to use. It was way too big. So I went back to the blogs, forums, and shopping sites and started my research over.

We've had A exclusively in cloth diapers for the last 4 weeks, and here's what we've learned about all the brands we've tried.

Bum Genius Flip: This was the first diaper we tried and the one I wanted to make work because you have the option of putting in a disposable insert, but they are a one-size that grows with baby, and even for our 10 pounder it was too big-spreading his legs way far apart. We never even used it.

GroVia All-in-2: This was recommended by a friend. We had the same issue as the Flip- it was way too big. And it took forever to dry.

GDiaper: We bought these because they were the only cloth diaper Babies R Us carried, and I had a coupon for them. They leaked every time we used them. I liked the fit a lot though. GDiapers also have the option of a disposable insert, but they are made with the same gel in disposable diapers, which is bad for baby and the environment. 

Swaddlebees: We tried the old side snap model and the Simplex. I liked them both a lot, but couldn't find anyone who carried enough for me to have a full supply. I got frustrated trying to purchase them from different companies, so I gave up. I found out on a forum that the company just doesn't keep their supply meeting their demand. I just tried putting the Simplex on again yesterday, and it leaked. I'm happy we didn't wind up with these as our main diaper; the snaps are much more difficult and you have to put an insert in, which would be harder for grandparents and friends to use.

Picture Source: Bumgenius.com

Bum Genius All-in-One 3.0: This is what we settled on. The only thing I dislike about this one is it takes forever to dry. I was using them still a little damp, but yesterday my mom suggested turning them inside out before drying them. They've been coming out completely dry since I started doing this. We had a few leaks recently ,but we started putting inserts in at night, and haven't had a leak since.

I highly recommend cloth diapering. We find it as simple as using disposables-really! If you are thinking about getting started, you might want to try a diaper trial (I just heard about Jillian's Drawers). I wish I had known about this before we tried all these. You pay a deposit and get to try a bunch of varieties. I've also discovered the Diaper Swappers Forum that has been very helpful. I posted some concerns on there and got a bunch of responses that were helpful right away. 

Why did I do all this researching, trial and error, and suffering of some big leaks? The simple answer is the first two weeks that we used disposable diapers, we went through about 200 diapers, costing us about $100. In my opinion, it took just as much time to take out the trash of stinky disposables as it does to throw a load of laundry in every day.

The cloth diapers we've decided on are probably going to cost us about $1200 over A's lifetime, and we can  reuse them for future babies, or sell them or give them to friends.

The biggest reason I wanted to go with cloth is because the disposables are one of the worst pieces of garbage we have, taking up to 500 years to decompose. I don't know about you, but that's not how I want to leave my mark on the world. 

A's First Month

A is already 4 weeks old. It's unbelievable how fast 4 weeks has gone by, and how much he's grown! At 2 weeks old, I remember thinking this new parenting thing was really a challenge. But now I'm loving it. He's already sleeping longer at night and he's working at a smiling. He loves books; his favorites are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See" and "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."

Here are some pictures of the past month.

Dad cutting the umbilical cord

Sleeping in the hospital

Dad with A

Grandma and Grandpa with A

Nana and Papa with A

Uncle A, meet Little A

A's first moments home

Uncle T with A

Our Family Photo

Our first visitors: N...

and N

with a mohawk

sleeping like uncle T

Dad feeding A his first bottle

R playing copy-cat

38 Weeks and Still Growing

We've blown by the 37 week marker where it's safe to deliver and we're still growing strong.

The doctor says he thinks our boy will be about 7 1/2 lbs, but he hesitated when he said it so I think he's trying not to freak my out with a potentially bigger boy. This was especially concerning when I told him Nate and his brothers were all over 8 lbs, and all he said was, "huh."

I think we are finally ready for him to be born; Nate is getting us ready materially (we now have car seat bases installed in both cars, and he seems to be nesting more than I am, cleaning everything) and I'm finally psychologically prepared.

We'll keep you posted!