My Diaper System

Question:
In reference to THIS
Do you have a cute way of storing your cloth diapers?

Answer:
As you'll read in that post the lady mentions that she had a system... but it got a little more lax over time. That's pretty much how it happened for me.

When I was first doing my research on diapers, I came across something that stressed how important it was to rotate regularly through your diapers. So, when I was laying out Jude's nursery, I decided to set up a system to make it easy to do this. We do not have a changing table, but instead used the top of his dresser as his changing station. So, the top drawer to the dresser was all of his changing supplies.

After washing his diapers, I would line them up nicely in his dresser drawer with the most recently clean diapers in the back so that we would use them all an equal number of times.

Over time I needed the top drawer for one thing or another and moved them into the side cabinet on the dresser. There is a convenient little shelf that I have a red canvas tote on. I would then line the diapers up in the tote regularly circulating through them.

Eventually I realized that, unlike some mothers, I didn't have a surplus of cloth diapers. The need to rotate was apparently for those women who had more money than they knew what to do with and so they bought a bajillion cloth diapers. I had just enough for 2 days and so I really didn't need to fret about equal usage. There are some families out there with more cloth diapers than I'd know what to do with. They have different sizes, styles, etc. We don't. We have 15 Bum Genius 3.0 pocket diapers. Period. There's no reason to worry about circulating. By the time the dirty diapers get through the wash and back into Jude's room, what was put away had already been used.

So, our current system consists of me pulling them out of the dryer, tossing them into the red canvas tote and putting them together as we use them. Sometimes... if I'm feeling really fancy, we'll go through a whole load of diapers straight from the dryer.

Short Answer: no.

Playing in his room...

I've been bringing a few of Jude's toys up to his room... having them there makes it much easier to get clothes put away, etc... Plus, not always having access to all of his toys allows us to rotate items ever so slightly. I've heard of other parents who will rotate toys by keeping some in their basement to keep their kids interested in their toys longer. By rotating some out, when you bring them back into their play space, it's like getting a new toy. We don't have an overwhelming number of toys for Jude, so this isn't something I've done, but it's something I would consider.

This was never in the living room, but is a 'special' toy from his Uncle Scott and Chad (my younger brothers). My grandmother had bought it for them when they were younger and since Jude's room is an airplane theme... it was only fitting.

Like just about any kid I'm imagining, Jude is interested in books. He likes to flip the pages, look at the pictures and in the case of his 'play' books... chew on them. I'm so glad Ryan made shelves for the wall to hold all the collection of books that I REALLY care about.

This is one of the two "jude sized" books that Uncle Bryan and Aunt Katy bought Jude.

see... without a doubt, Jude sized.

Toy box from Uncle Bryan...

Your Questions... Answered.

Question: possibly too early to really tell, but:How do you feel about your nursery furniture (aside from the rocking chair, as you reviewed it recently in a diff post)? What brand is it? Now that you have gotten some use out of everything, are you glad you purchased the pieces you chose? Would you tweek anything if you could (dimensions, etc)?

Answer: When picking out our nursery furniture, we again were thinking long term. I knew I wanted something that could transition to a full size bed. Being that this is the new trend (I’m sure it’s been an option for a while, but maybe it’s something that’s really catching on now), it wasn’t too difficult to find a number of options. Also thinking long-term I wanted something durable. Finally I knew that we would not be purchasing a changing table, so we needed the low/long dresser, not the tall chest of drawers.

I had looked online at a few retailers and was very undecided. We looked at pottery barn kids (for the quality) – they were just too expensive and really I couldn’t find any options that really stood out as something I HAD to have. Also, surprisingly not all of their cribs transitioned.

On one of my many pre-baby trips to BRU (babies r us) I happened to walk down an aisle and even though I wasn’t specifically looking for furniture at the time I saw the Baby Cache Manhattan bedroom set. I immediately fell in love. Ryan is not one for design, so he couldn’t care less about what set I picked (I remember when we actually went up to order it I contemplated getting one other set and he couldn’t figure out what the difference was between the two). It fit our requirements, transitional, durable and had the low dresser. Now that we have the furniture in the room, my opinion of it is still pretty much the same. I love the way it looks and it doesn’t look/feel cheap or un-sturdy.

Some things I might change:

1. Jude’s room is pretty large. We have so much extra space that part of me wishes we would have gotten the second dresser (tall chest of drawers). At the time it didn’t seem practical and being that he’s a boy, I doubt it will ever be practical, but it would have filled the room a little more. But I think the space issues will be solved when we finally get an area rug (I finally found one I love at Costco, I just have to get Ryan to approve!). I felt the same way about our living room, until we put a rug in there and now everything seems to come together more – so I could end up not even wanting to change this.
2. Again a dresser issue. The dresser has 3 large drawers and a cabinet door on the right. Currently the Cabinet is pretty handy and has some canvas totes ( for lotions, first aid type stuff, etc), but down the road, I’m not sure how useful it will be and so it might have been nice to have the extra drawer space instead, but visually it looks really nice.

But for the most part I’ve been very pleased with it. I would be more than willing to buy within that same brand in the future.

OH! And not issues for me, but perhaps for others:

The slots on the sides and the front of the crib are not your standard SLOT, SPACE, SLOT, SPACE set up. And the top rail is a wide rounded piece of wood.

Because of the wide panels it made it difficult to attach bumpers and the large top rail made it difficult to attach some toys. I ended up returning the toys as I didn’t think we really needed them anyway and we took the bumpers off in the long run – but for anyone considering toys, etc perhaps experiment with your crib first.
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Question: are there things you do, or products you use, that Ryan does not do/use? and visa versa.

Answer:

1. The pacifier:

I would say that the single item I can think of that Ryan and I seem to butt heads about most is the pacifier. In the first couple of days at the hospital, we never used it. When packing Jude up, setting him in his car seat, etc he went crazy! The nurse handed us his first pacifier as we were being wheeled out of our room and it calmed him right down. After that we have used it very sporadically, but Ryan is much more likely to use it.

Typically the only times Jude gets really fussy is at night. He’s getting tired and for some reason tries to fight falling asleep. Usually a little sucking will put him to sleep right away. Ryan personally doesn’t see anything wrong with it and if he’s fussy/tired in goes the pacifier. I on the other hand personally would rather sooth him some other way, light bouncing, walking him around the house/going for a walk around the neighborhood, etc. I just have this fear that I’ll have a five year old boy walking around with a pacifier in his mouth because he’s gotten so used to it being the one thing that calms him down.

Any more though, I’ve been less against it and Ryan seems to be relying on it less, so we’re finding that middle ground.

2. Changing Stations

Other than that, we seem to differ in opinion/use on is where we change Jude. I think I utilize his room (the top of the dresser with the changing pad, etc) more and Ryan steers more towards the pack ‘n play changing station. It just seems more logical to me to go upstairs because of the cloth diapers – since you have to rotate through them evenly, I keep them all upstairs in order (if I have some that were washed more recently than others, they go in the back, etc) so if he changes Jude downstairs, it usually requires a trip upstairs anyway. But both locations are stocked with wipes, so it really doesn’t matter.

3. Sling Carrier

The ONLY other thing I can think of that we have different opinions on is the sling carrier. I swear by my sling when carrying Jude (I carry him while walking, occasionally in the store, etc). Ryan on the other hand refuses to use any sort of carrier. His reason is pretty much because he thinks it looks lame… no matter how lame, it’s totally practical and makes my life easier. Currently Jude is kind of in between two stages. When they’re newborns, you put them in it like a cradle position – as they get older you can prop them on your hip and they almost sit in it. He’s more comfortable in the sitting position, but not quite ready to hold himself up, so he gets all bobble-head-like. But I’m sure this is something I will be using for quite some time.