Extended Rear Facing

Colorado state law allows babies to be turned forward facing in the car at 1 year old and 20 lbs. Most parents look forward to their child's next big milestones and getting a big boy or big girl car seat is one of those milestones. Not me. In fact I eagerly awaited the day that could take a picture of the fact that my 1 year old is still rear facing! (Please disregard her massive fit...she was pissed she couldn't play with the iphone).

The sad truth is, that our laws are do NOT have our children's best interest at heart. I am the momma and I DO have Selah's best interest at heart. I first learned of extended rear facing in Atlanta. There were billboards everywhere saying, "rear face until 2 years old". I thought it was crazy. I remember thinking, "What about their feet?" "Surely no one actually does this". Then a friend posted a picture of her 4 year old rear facing...so I read the article she linked too and the rest is history.

Look, do what you want with your kids in the car, but physics is on my side...Children 2 and under are 532% safer in a rear facing car seat. Bones do not ossify until between ages 4-6. http://www.joelsjourney.org/ContactUs.html This link is to the story of a little boy named Joel. He was 18 months and 33 lbs and forward facing in his carseat when he and his mother were in a car accident and Joel broke his neck. What amazed me was the picture on his website of a little girl name Theresa. Theresa was in a forward facing car seat at age 3 and sustained the same injuries as 18 month old Joel. At age 4 the risk of forward facing begins to drop significantly but continues to be a benefit. I will move heaven and earth to keep Selah and future "mooslings" rear facing until 4 years old, but if they still fit, they will still sit! I want maximum safety for my baby :)!

Prefold Diaper

This is a prefold diaper. Like the flat diaper, it is plain old natural cotton and they are my first love when it comes to cloth diapers. Unlike a flat diaper (re: a flat diaper is a single layer of fabric that you fold to fit your baby) a prefold diaper already has several layers. Typically 6 layers on the sides and 8 layers in the middle section. You can pin them on your baby, or you can fold them in thirds and lay them in your diaper cover. I do both ways and the only time I ever had a preference was when she was a newborn with super runny poos. Those days, pinning was necessary. But I don't use diaper pins!!! I use a snappi, like this:

This y shaped claw hook thing is super handy. I love prefolds for 5 reasons.

1) They are natural. Selah has extremely sensitive skin. Synthetic fibers give her a rash. I use a stay dry liner (a strip of fleece to lay on top of the prefold that keeps her skin feeling more dry) at night, but not during the day because too much exposure to the synthetic material and she gets a pimply rash. We keep it as natural as possible when it comes to our girl.

2) They are inexpensive. A prefold costs around 1.50-2.00 dollars a piece. Since we started cloth diapering for economical reasons, affordability was key. What makes them an even greater value, is that being cotton, they get softer, more absorbant and there for better over time. These will last for several little mooslings. And we want several little mooslings, so that is perfect.

3)I never have leaks with these. They are SOOOO reliable which is what you want in a diaper. I use them a night and never worry that she will leak and that I will have to change her sheets in the middle of the night.

4) They are easy to clean. People talk about stripping their diapers monthly (basically wash them and rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse until the suds are gone) but I have NEVER in 12 months of cloth diapering with prefolds needed to strip my diapers. That makes my life easier and my pile of laundry smaller.

5) I like matching her cover to her outfit. Silly? Yes. Do I care? NO WAY! The biggest perk of cloth diapering, aside from the health of my baby and the well being of our planet, and oh yeah the fact that a small pack of diapers is 13 dollars (Ouch!) is that they are cute! They are a fashion accessory of sorts, and as crazy as that sounds, if her dress is yellow I want her diaper to be as well! With other kinds of diapers you have to change the whole cute part of the diaper every time you change them. Not with these, you can reuse the cover over and over...unless there is poop or it stinks.

Well, there you have it, prefold diapers! Again, HOW CUTE IS THIS?!

Flat Diapers

My sister requested a series on the different kinds of cloth diapers. I like cloth diapers, so I am happy to oblige. I decided to start with my favorite newborn diaper, the flat diaper. A flat diaper is exactly what you are thinking. Or maybe not...I am not sure what you are thinking. It is a big square single layer of fabric. Plain Jane so to speak. You fold it to fit your baby in the way that provides the best fit and the most absorbency where your little one needs it. For instance, boys and belly sleepers need more layers on the front. Girls in the middle or back. When Selah was a newborn, I use the origami fold and rolled in the fabric around the legs to catch the poo. As of late, I have been using the kite fold with a doubler folded inside. They are super trim, which is nice for clothes that are not so forgiving of big cloth booty.



http://www.wikihow.com/Fold-a-Cloth-Diaper This website has tons of folds to choose from to give you an idea of just how versatile these diapers are.


The thing I love most about flat diapers is how easy they are to clean and take care of. If you are seriously considering cloth diapers, people will warn that you cannot put your everyday run of the mill diaper cream on cloth diapers. That is not the case with my flats. (Now, I NEVER advise desitin with cloth because the cod liver oil will make your diapers stink). These are just a single layer of fabric and I have used Vaseline, bag balm, butt paste, aquaphor, or whatever else is handy. It always washes out, and I have never had stinky, repelling, leaking diapers.



I have two kinds of flat diapers. Imagine flat diapers from nickisdiapers.com and flour sack towels that I bought at Sam's Club. The fst's are actually bigger and I like them better now that she isn't so little, but I still use my imagine diapers just the same.



If I built my intire stash with flats, I could easily cloth diaper through potty training for Under 100 dollars. Lots of people also use receiving blankets from thrift stores and they are super cheap as well.


Cloth diapering doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming or hard. And best of all it is adorable!

It's Past Your Bed Time

Let my baby girl stay up late because we were having a giggle fest. I stinkin' love that girl and her giggles. It is seriously like the most beautiful form of worship for me to enjoy my daughter's laughter and bask in the wonder and glory of her existence. God is so good and I am so blessed to be chosen as Selah's Mommy.

Sewing!

It all started with my love for cloth diapers and my desire to constantly buy all of the fluffy cuteness manufacturers make for my babies bum. We don't have money for me to spend on diapers. So I watched youtube video after youtube video and finally took a shot at making a fitted diaper. It was so much fun that I made a second! I bought the material at my local fabric shop for 8 dollars and had enough for 3 diapers Which comes to under 3 dollars a diaper.



Cloth diapering is extremely economical. My cloth diapers (and I have probably around 80 of them) paid for themselves by the time Selah was 6 months old, so since them they have saved me money. They can be used for all future children (we want three) which adds to the savings. And they were ALL given to me as gifts....except for the 8 dollars I spent on fabric, as mentioned above. So really, I have never had to buy diapers. I only do diaper laundry about 2-3 times a week, which is not a lot of extra laundry. Plus, NO POOP BLOWOUTS!!!! They don't exist with cloth diapers. My baby's poop stays in the diaper where it belongs. When I change her, I simply hold the diaper over the toilet, the poo plops in and I flush it down....Which by federal law you are supposed to rinse the poop off of your disposable diapers as well, so I am not doing anything I wouldn't be doing if I used disposable diapers.



To sum up, I love cloth diapering my baby!










P.s. Action shots to come once I get them washed and on my girl!

Standing and Climbing

Today was a blistering 98 degrees. We were hot and going stir crazy, so we decided to get out and go walk around the mall. We stopped in the little kids play place so Selah could crawl around and burn off some energy. She quickly found the slide and was determined to climb up it. She has never been much of a climber but today she climbed on everything. It took her a few times, but once she got up, she slid back down, backwards might I add, and did it again.





Then Later, we went to the park for a bbq with friends. Selah was in the grass and for the first time she stood up from a sitting position! We didn't have a camera handy, but my oh my was it amazing to see her finally conquer this quest. She has been working on it for a few weeks now. I think she will be walking any day now. She will just stand herself up and take off. It is so much fun to see her grow and learn new things. I am such a lucky mommy.

11 months

From Wikipedia: Selah (Hebrew: סֶלָה‎, also transliterated as selāh) is a word used 74 times in the Hebrew Bible that means GOD HAS SPOKEN. It is probably either a liturgico-musical mark or an instruction on the reading of the text, something like "stop and listen". The Amplified Bible translates selah as "pause, and think of that". It can also be interpreted as a form of underlining in preparation for the next paragraph.Selah notes a break in the song and as such is similar in purpose to Amen in that it stresses the importance of the preceding passage. My daughter, Selah made her intrance into my arms on July 11, 2012 at 6:58 pm after 39 long hours of labor. She is sweet, giggly, funny, silly, cuddly, and smiley. She loves the water and she hates shoes and socks. She is the very essence of the word beauty. She makes me whole. Some how in the last 11 months, I have not had very much time to "pause and think of that" or to think of anything, for that matter. Some how between the never ending pile of laundry, and the baby who never sleeps, I have forgotten to stop and reflect on all that my life is. I have forgotten to write down the special memories that are already escaping me. When did she first smile? When did she first roll over? It is getting hazy, and I don't want to forget everything. I don't want to forget anything. From now on, I want to document the joy that this child brings me as she grows and learns and changes. It is going by too fast.