Mother of Two

14 November 2013



What does one write when not much is happening on the daily? (I have a hard enough time figuring out what to write when a lot of things are happening.) I did just have a baby, and I can see her reflection in the computer screen as I type this. I suppose that's a pretty big thing, but what does one SAY about a newborn. I mean. I guess I could post pictures of her sleeping and talk about how she's a little gassy and grumpy at night, but otherwise she's kind of an angel compared to the hellion that her brother was at this age.



I could tell you that cloth diapering two little people with a washer that hooks up to my sink is hard. The activity of last week involved doing everything I could to get the ammonia out of my polyester inserts and finally just giving up, retiring them, and stuffing my pocket diapers with old prefolds.

But let's be real. How bloggable is ammonia? Like 5% bloggable?

Also, as a committed cloth diapering advocate, I must routinely sweep all cloth diapering negatives under the rug and portray the whole cloth diapering process as shiny and happy and full of fluffy owl-print baby bums.

So. Yeah. I'm Kate. I'm a stay at home mom. I wash a load of diapers everyday and drink wine.

>><< 

I've developed a mantra for mothers of little people everywhere - and CD moms especially. And this is it:

Urine is sterile.

When things get tough, just repeat that to yourself. It helps.

>><<

Mothering two. 



We've been back in Houston for two weeks now, and I've had grandmothers and other family in town for most of that time, so I don't think it really counts. Also, Jacob's work schedule is a little dialed down currently and he's been home more than usual. So mothering two has been relatively smooth sailing so far. There is of course the typical postpartumness: crying at the drop of a hat; raining milk whenever I look at either of my children and most of the time in between; rocking a newborn at all hours of the morning while glaring at my sleeping-soundly husband. (I'm great. GREAT, I tell you, at playing the martyr.) But overall this postpartum period has been ten times more manageable than my last which involved recuperating a broken tailbone and feeling massively incompetent as a mother to a baby who wouldn't stop crying. I didn't believe Jake knew me from Adam until he was eight months old. (I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. That's really how I felt. I suppose that's another story for another post blog.) I think Lucy June likes me already.

>><<

Jake is doing pretty well with the transition, especially since he's getting much more screen time as a result of it. He asks me to put the baby down sometimes and looks at her occasionally, and that's about the extent of it. 


Well the little man is trying (and failing) to put a "fuzzy shirt" on my head and the sleeping baby in my arms is quickly waking and deciding that her world is ending or something so...that's my cue...

14 comments :

  1. Somehow, subsequent babies after the first one just FEEL easier. I always attribute that to the fact that I think I actually know what I'm doing. With my first, despite my many years of "experience" with younger siblings and babysitting, I felt like I had never seen/held/fed/bathed a baby before in my life. I kept wondering to myself why anyone thought that I was actually capable of taking care of this helpless human. When my second came along, I just felt a whole lot more competent. I think that feeling also translates over to the baby, making for a more calm infant. She's precious!!

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  2. Glad the transition is going well ~ mostly!
    Great pictures!

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  3. I think Lucy June should start her own fashion blog. Girl is rockin' the stripes with stripes. It's a hard look to pull off, but she does.

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  4. Cute babies! Your CD comments got me out from under my rock: The only thing I've found that gets rid of ammonia bombs with my ecohappy frontloader is a 95 C run with baking soda in the soap drawer and vinegar in the rinse. It's worked for both microfiber and fleece for me.

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    1. Hmm. I'll have to try that as soon as I've healed from last week's completely-unnecessary-for-a-postpartum-woman-to-bother-with fiasco. I get squeamish about using vinegar because we supposedly have hard water, but I should just bite the bullet and give it a go. Thanks for the rec!!

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    2. Our water is famously hard (I live in Copenhagen and all of Denmark is chalk and lime) and vinegar is awesome. Just don't do it too much with your PUL.

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    3. You've given me such hope! :)

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  5. So here we go into cloth diapering questions buuuut did little Jake ever get some patches of rough skin on his little bum that looked kinda red but not really? I know you're probably thinking "diaper rash" but it doesn't appear to be quite like that. I heard horror things about the detergent staying in the diapers and then eating away at your baby's flesh…EEEK! Please no! I'm not using any special detergent. I confess we're using the biggest, cheapest bag. What do you use to clean? And did Jake ever get weird rashes?

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    1. I can't remember Jake having rough patches, but we've certainly run the gamut of weird diaper-y things.

      Have you ever stripped your diapers to get rid of detergent build up? (Stripping= running the diapers through several VERY HOT detergent-free cycles.) That's where I'd start. Then you might have to tweak your washing routine to make sure your diapers are really washing clean of detergent.

      If that doesn't do it, I'd probably switch to a different detergent and see if it makes any difference. We're currently using Country Save and I'm content with it.

      Ammonia is caused (I think) by a chemical reaction between urine and feces. You can't miss it once your diapers get it, it smells very strong and chemical-ly. It didn't become a problem for us until Jake was over two years old. We had a couple times where a diaper burned him and his skin got red and peeled. Talk about mommy-guilt! Toddler pee is a lot more concentrated so it's hard to avoid ammonia-stink, but I've found that I can keep ammonia out of natural fibers with semi-routine stripping. My synthetic fibers are MUCH harder to work with, so for now I've benched them.

      I hope this is helpful!!

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  6. oh the second baby is so much easier! and you will see she will (well at least in my case)be a lot more laid back! congrats!

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  7. I love that our kids are so similar in age so we can get each other and our happenings.

    Ammonia has been HORRIBLE the last few months. I just discovered that putting some blue Dawn in a cycle and then rinsing a bunch helps, but still. And what do you use for a diaper pail? I have always just used large wet bags, but they are not cutting it anymore.

    Oh and I haven't started Conor on cloth yet since we just have bumgenius 4.0s, and he is not plump enough yet for them. Do you wash all of diapers together? Breastfed and toddler?

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