3 in 24 hours

Have I mentioned that we're cloth diapering now? For about 3 weeks. Yes, I know what you're thinking; WHAT? cloth, diaper pins, rubber pants, ewww. NO WAY! Cloth diapers have come a long way. We're using BumGenius! one-size cloth pocket diaper. And we are loving' them, even Mark! Yes, they are a committment, but I've got the fancy front-load washer with all kinds of settings; extra rinse, pre-wash, sanitize (!). They don't leak (was having poo-up-the back issues with the disposables), are soft on his bum, and pretty darned cute! Plus, I never have to buy diapers again. As my fellow cloth diapering mom Kirsten said 'I feel a little victory every time I don't throw one away' and I'm now right with her. It took me a while - I wasn't sure, I thought they might leak, I wasn't sure I could deal with washing them, Mark wasn't down with poo in the washer. But we tried some and I was convinced. They are a bit expensive, ~17.00 each, but that's it. We don't have to buy diapers again. The diapers we picked adjust, so you don't have to buy a different set of different sizes. I thought since we're having one child, I didn't want to invest too heavily. But even if we bought two sets, we'd still be ahead of the game. You'll probably spend $1500-$1800 on diapers until potty training is done. It's not for everybody, but I'm fully on-board!

Plus, they look good, and Mark can match them to his outfit. White, blue, green & yellow.

Technological attempt

Yes, I will probably blog in clusters....
Taken by our digial camera...having trouble getting the video camera uploaded to the PC.
Let's see if this works.....

5 months

Yes, another original title. Caden turns 5 months old today, and it's late and he's asleep and I've just realized that I didn't take his picture today. =\ Tomorrow will have to do.

Yes, he's asleep. He's been a pretty good sleeper, up to 6 hours, but for the last 2-3 weeks he'd regressed back to only 3 hours. I started to read the sleep book again and thought I'd try to put him to bed earlier. Holy cow, this worked like a charm. And I didn't use the binky! Almost all in one night! We did our normal night time thing - head upstairs, low lights, nurse, swaddle, turn on the heartbeat bear (makes heartbeat noise) and lay him down. But we started it at 8:30, in the crib around 9, rather than the 10 or 11 we'd been doing. He cried for a couple of minutes, then fussed for a minute and then fell asleep, without the binky. Slept till 4:30 the next morning. Yes, that's right, went from only 3 hours at a time to sleeping 7.5 hours in a row, overnight. Can you say WOO HOO??!?!?!?!?!?! or rather, zzzzzzzzzzz. I was stunned. Mark asked 'so if we put him to bed earlier, he sleeps longer? this makes no sense!' I'd wanted to stop using the binky overnight since he would fall asleep, it would fall out, and he'd wake up. The next night, we had a little 'cry it out' session, although I'd chosen to stay in the room with him and comfort him. He cried for a while that night, but eventually went to sleep. Slept till 3:30. The next night, around 7 he was yawning, rubbing his eyes, telling me he was tired, so I thought I'd do the process, just early. Yeah, no dice. The banshee cry came out. So, I gave up, brought him downstairs, held him and played with him, and then did it again at the right time, 9pm. He laid down, didn't even fuss, and went right to sleep. Slept till 3:30. Hallelujah!

Adrienne & Russ & Clara came and stayed over one night, Clara is the cute little blond thing in the pictures. She was feeding Caden her play 'sandwich.' I also have to point out his 'peas and carrots' binky holder. It's too cute. And yes, we are still using it during the day.

And now for some shameless cuteness overload: