July 2018 – On An Even Kiel

I know I’m one of those people who doesn’t think the first month goes by very quickly with a new baby, but the second month does. I can’t believe our Little B is 2 months old already!

Age: 2 months on 15 July 2018
Weight: about 12.5 lbs (12 lbs 14 oz on 25 July)
Height: about 24″ long (24.21″ long on 25 July)
Teeth: none
Clothing Size: 3-6 months & 6 months
Diaper Size: close to size 2 in disposable and newborn in cloth
Milestones: He can roll from tummy to back, his head control has improved a lot, he give big open mouth smiles, and he “talks” to us!

Likes: Nursing, pooping, staring out windows and at high contrast patterns, smiling at his family, standing on our laps, baths

Dislikes: Waking up, having gas, being overtired, not being fed immediately, his car seat

Sleeping: Berend is still sleeping swaddled in a bassinet in our room (or in the living room during the day). He usually takes a couple of good naps (about 2 hours) and several catnaps during the day. At night, bedtime is usually 10pm at the latest and sometimes as early as 8:30. He is still up every 2-3 hours until around 5am. That’s when he starts working on gas/poop and is too restless to sleep. I usually lay him on the bed to bicycle his legs or jiggle him back to sleep in between toots. Once he gets all of that out of his system, he usually goes back to sleep for a couple of hours. In a 24 hour period, he’s averaging about 16 hours of sleep a day.

Eating: Berend seems to be eating well based on weight gain. He normally nurses a very short amount of time (5 minutes or less) during the day. I wish he would nurse for longer since he still is eating every 1.5-2 hours unless he’s napping. At night he tends to nurse for longer because he’s calmer and sleepy. He’s been cluster feeding a bit in the evenings, although not to the extent that Gerrit did!

Mommy Update: I’m doing much better this month! But I can definitely feel this sense of hopelessness when I first wake up in the morning after a rough night. Just goes to show how much sleep deprivation can affect you. Normally I feel like myself again though. I feel much calmer and more patient, which definitely helps me get through my days. Andrew has commented more than once that I seem much happier with Berend at this stage of infancy than I did when Gerrit was this age, so I think I’m bouncing back more quickly emotionally this time. I believe a good part of this comes from knowing how quickly it goes by this time around too.

One thing I feel like I should mention since people probably think it’s a bit taboo to talk about: gender disappointment. I wouldn’t even say disappointment in my case, I guess. I had a gut feeling that Berend was a boy throughout my pregnancy, but a big part of me hoped I was having a girl, knowing this was our last baby. While I’m thrilled to have another little boy, I did go through what I would consider a “mourning” period for the daughter I’ll never have. I had and still have a great relationship with my own mom, and I really wanted to experience that with a daughter of my own. But Andrew pointed out that I could still have a close relationship with my sons as well, and that’s so true. Once I came to terms with that, combined with my depression and anxiety symptoms decreasing, I started feeling more connected to Berend. I’m excited to see what kind of kid Berend becomes and what things we’ll bond over.

This month I also got a little braver. We went out to the 4th of July festival on base as a family, despite me having anxiety about Berend being fussy. I also went out to lunch with a friend with the boys (without Andrew), followed by a trip to Walmart by myself with the boys. Berend did better than I thought he would for all of those outings, minus the car rides. He is not a fan of the car seat!

I lost a few more pounds, so I’m just a little under my pre-pregnancy weight. I’m hoping to stay at this weight until I decide to start working on losing weight again later this year. I definitely haven’t been eating great, resorting to quick meals most of the time. I know I’ll feel better once I start cooking healthier meals again.

Memorable Events: Berend’s 2nd month was pretty low-key. It was very hot, so he and I really didn’t get outside very much. It was way too hot and humid for him to tolerate being in the Moby wrap. He did spend some time out on the blanket a few days though!

Probably not super exciting for Berend, but he started wearing cloth diapers every day this month! I had a hard time getting into it at first, because he was so small, and I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. But as I started feeling less overwhelmed, I decided to get back into using cloth during the day.

Berend celebrated his first Father’s Day with Andrew! He didn’t give Dada anything this year (besides his presence haha) but Gerrit made him a cute card.

Another first holiday for Berend was 4th of July! We didn’t do anything on the 4th because it was very hot, and we weren’t going to stay out late enough for fireworks anyway. But I still took the opportunity to dress my boys in coordinating outfits!

Gerrit wasn’t ready, but Berend is smiling!

He also went to his first festival: Liberty Fest, the 4th of July event Little Rock AFB put on the weekend after Independence Day. He slept through the entire thing, but Gerrit had a lot of fun!

And Berend’s July photo of the month:

And a cute brother picture, because Gerrit insisted:

We love seeing Berend being more aware, especially when he gives us those big open-mouth smiles! We can’t wait to see his personality continue to develop next month. We love you, little bear!

When I was pregnant with Gerrit, I was interested in using cloth diapers. After doing some research, I felt pretty overwhelmed. I registered for a couple of different kinds and received them as gifts. But then when Gerrit was born, I was overwhelmed by so much that I decided to postpone using cloth diapers. It wasn’t until after he turned one that I decided to give cloth diapers a try. I ended up liking it, and I used cloth on Gerrit until he potty trained around his 3rd birthday.

When I got pregnant with Berend, I decided I wanted to try using cloth diapers right away this time. I did a lot of research to try to figure out what would be the cheapest way to diaper him, since I already had a solid stash of one size pocket diapers that I could use once he was big enough. I found out that using flats and covers was the way to go if I wanted to spend as little money as possible. So I bought 6 newborn covers and 6 one size covers as well as some flour sack towels, which were cheaper than flat diapers. By the time we were ready to move to Arkansas, I was set with my newborn diaper stash.

I didn’t plan to put cloth on Berend right away in the hospital, so we started out with disposables there. And when we came home, I kept using disposables. I was honestly scared to try the cloth on him despite how much I had been looking forward to it! Finally I gave it a try. It was a little challenging! Even the newborn diapers seemed so big on his tiny body and skinny legs.

I was also dealing with some postpartum depression & anxiety again, and for whatever reason, the thought of using cloth diapers just stressed me out so much. So after a few days of trying the cloth diapers, I told Andrew I was just going to use disposables for awhile. And by the way, Andrew has been 100% on board with using cloth diapers!

A couple of weeks later, when I was starting to feel better, I decided to give the cloth diapers another try. By then Berend was about a month old and had filled out quite a bit! I think the combination of him being bigger and me having had practice already from when he was smaller made me feel more confident in getting a good fit on him. From then we pretty much exclusively used cloth diapers on him during the daytime hours. The only reason I chose to keep using disposables at night is because of the lack of light (I try to keep the room as dark as possible when Berend wakes at night) and my sheer exhaustion: I wasn’t sure I’d be awake enough to get a cloth diaper on very well!

So how is it cloth diapering a newborn? Not so bad! The hardest part was learning how to fold the flour sack towels and get them securely on a wiggly baby. I already had a good wash routine, so that part wasn’t difficult. The fold we ended up liking the best was the mini kite fold:

At almost 2 months old, it is still a good fit for Berend, and I like the coverage it provides. Here he is with a cover over the towel:

That is my favorite cover! I loved the pattern so much that I ordered it in one size pocket diaper too. And don’t mind Berend’s face… he was not happy about having an outfit change haha.

Interested in using cloth diapers on your newborn? I would definitely recommend going the route we chose: covers and flats. It was very inexpensive, and I honestly bought more than I needed. The 6 newborn covers I got were Rumparooz brand, and those 6 covers were really all I needed. You can reuse the covers a few times as long as they don’t get poop on them, so it’s rare that I go through all the covers in 2 days, which is how often I wash diapers. I also have 6 one size covers of assorted brands that I’ve just started using as Berend has gotten bigger. I bought 20 flour sack towels (I already had some from cloth diapering Gerrit) and a pack of 3 Snappis (for securing the diapers). I wash every other day to prevent the diapers from sitting for too long (ew) and to make sure I have enough clean ones folded and ready to go. The only thing that I don’t have enough of is cloth wipes. I underestimated how many I would need compared to an older baby!

So for those who want to know why I choose to cloth diaper? My big one is to cut down on waste. I truly hate seeing all the diapers that go in the trash, especially in these early months when you’re changing diapers ALL the time. I also hate buying all those disposable diapers. They aren’t cheap! I’d much rather do a few extra loads of laundry each week and fold diapers before I go to bed at night. Granted I am one of those people that enjoys folding laundry… Another big reason I like using cloth? No poopy diaper blowouts! I am super impressed with how well the cloth diapers have contained huge pooplosions. We haven’t had a single poop leak with cloth, but we have had leaks (the big up-the-back kind) with disposables. And the most important reason to use cloth diapers? They’re so cute! I love all the prints to choose from, and they look adorable on little baby bums.

Month: July 2018

Berend: 2 Months

Cloth Diapering a Newborn