So i have been trying to work on projects that i have had on the back burner for a while. Its not an easy task. For one, my sewing room aka laundry room/piano room/junk filled room is not baby friendly nor is it in line of sight to a room that is baby friendly. Two, J Baby has been so clingy lately i can barely clean my house much less do anything else. Three, his sleep schedule has been crazy. He goes to sleep on time usually, around 8. His naps got out of whack when we had VBS at church and he couldn't get his morning nap in and it threw the whole week off, sleep wise, when he didn't get a nap until noon. Not good when he normally naps once at like 10am then again at 2pm or so. This makes for a grumpy baby. It also makes it super hard to get things done. So what have we been doing? playing, snuggling, and trying to get some baby play time in so mommy can at least get one chore a day done.

My projects that have been on the back burner include several things; Painting bulletin boards for AWANA, painting old ugly picture frames from ugly wood  & gold to beautiful renewed and white, sewing several wet-bags, making UnPaper Towels for my kitchen, making a gift for my mom...that was supposed to be done by mothers day....(don't worry, she got something else), finishing up my cloth wipes, and starting and finishing my nephews birthday present which is a growth chart for the wall (his birthday was in february, oh dear!). I am trying to catch up, one project at a time.

So... i started the other day. I got inspired by J Baby's Old white crib sheet. Its getting dingy on top and doesn't really pop in his room. My idea, a fresh new bright orange with white polka dots sheet! I pinned a post a while back about a crib sheet tutorial so i decided i would give it a try. I had a 40% off coupon and used it to get my orange/white dots fabric from the halloween fabric section+. I used this tutorial from Made, and it turned out beautiful!

Starting and finishing my project for J Baby's crib sheet inspired me. It feels good to make something and have the pride to say, "I did that!" So i started my sister-in-law's baby gift the other day, a wonderful wet/dry bag for all those cloth diapers we both love. I started and finished it but now i have to take the top zipper back off and re-do it. It looks good except for that, and I cannot leave it. It does not look up to par and I cannot send it that way. So my goal for tonight is to get that zipper off and try again with a longer more appropriate zipper. I somehow grabbed the wrong size the first time. This made for not enough zipper for the size opening i had. The picture of my wet-bag is below, her's is made exactly the same as this one, only with different fabric. I will post a pic of it when I'm finished.

I was able to get some painting done this afternoon while J Baby took a nap. I painted a few of my ugly yard sale picture frames. They went from ugly to very white and lovely. I think they're going to look really good with pics in them on my light gray walls in my bedroom. Yay! I feel kind of accomplished today. haha. I also painted the frame of one of the bulletin boards for AWANA. Getting things done feels good, but then i think of the list of things i still need to do, and its overwhelming. Oh well, one thing at a time :)

My little J Baby has turned 1! J Baby was taking steps on his birthday but only enough to get from one piece of furniture to another. About two weeks ago he started WALKING! My little man is getting so big. He takes the cutest high stepping steps, especially when he has on shoes. I have also taught him to sign “milk” when he wants to nurse. It’s the cutest thing; he often raises both hands above his head and uses both hands to sign. I love it! He can say, mama, mom, dada, bye, and hi. He also waves hello and goodbye. He’s so smart. He has started to grab books and sit and flip through the pages all on his own.  He loves to climb all over everything; I can’t ever turn my back to my little J Baby. If I did he would be on top of the table, the bookshelf, the entertainment center, who knows what else haha!  J Baby loves to snuggle. If I lie down in the floor he will come lay right on my face, or climb on my back and lay right on top of me. He’s so sweet. He’s a big helper too. When mommy does laundry he likes to help me. He pushes the basket from the laundry room to the wherever we plan on folding it. He then proceeds to empty the basket or put the clothes on his head and “hide” under it; His little way of playing peek-a-boo.  He babbles all the time.  I really think it won’t be long until he is saying all sorts of words or maybe even sentences. He loves to clap along to any music he hears, he also sways along to the beat.  He has almost all of his baby teeth, he’s teething right now about to pop his cuspids into place. He’s learning to use those little chompers too. He’s been a picky little boy only wanting crunchy or smooth pureed foods, but he’s starting to branch out to foods with more texture. Too cute! Love my little man!

gDiapers are a hybrid diaper. This means you can use them with gCloth inserts or their gRefills. I mostly use the gCloth inserts. gCloth inserts are a layered insert, they have micro fleece on top and a hemp/cotton blend backing. They are super absorbent and i love them. You can also use a gCloth Liner with the gCloth. This is a flushable liner that goes on top of the gCloth in gPant pouch. This will make cleaning up those poo diapers much easier on you. The gRefill is a disposable insert. It is flushable and compostable!

They are trim fitting on my little one, and the colors are super cute. I don't have any of the prints but they are super cute too! I do have a couple embroidered gPants from gs.by.Me, she does an excellent job.To the left is a picture of my custom g from gs.by.Me. At the bottom it says "Just dropped a load", LOL, that was my idea! I'm pretty proud of that one.

As i have mentioned in a previous post the only complaint i have with the gDiaper is that the snaps rub J Baby until there is a small scab. I can normally take care of this by putting lotion on him before i diaper him, but with a squirmy baby that's not always possible. I think they need to come up with a solution for this flaw. Maybe covering the snap on the gPouch with micro fleece, or at least that's what my solution for it is going to be when i make time to do this project. I have 12+ gPouches so it will take a bit of time.  It does not do this on all babies either, my sister used g's for quite a while too and never had this issue. Her babies were a bit more pudgy than J Baby though.

Below are pictures showing each part of a gDiaper and how you would put it together. You will also see the inserts and liner.

As you can clearly see above the gRefill is quite a bit larger than the gCloth. The gRefill is purposefully made larger. It is made to round out your gPant for a better fit on your little one, as you can see below it creates a "U" shape. The extra bit on each side helps keep your gPouch clean as well. I have found my pouch stays much cleaner with poo messes when using the gRefills than it does with the gCloth. The pouch does get poo on it sometimes no matter which insert you use, which does cause staining if it is not rinsed right away. Staining on the pouch does not affect the use of the pouch, its just not pretty. gCloth are easy to use and clean up easily. Below you can see that it also forms the gPant into a "U" shape for the perfect fit.

Dont forget to use your Laundry tabs! On all gPants they have hook & loop tabs. These tabs are used to fold over when doing laundry. This keeps your gPants from sticking to each other or anything else you may be washing with them. When not used they could stick to other parts of the gPant and cause fraying.

gLaundry isn't too bad either. You only have to wash the gPant when it gets soiled. The gPouch doesn't have to be changed after every diaper change either. It only needs wiped out after a pee diaper and only if it gets poo on it does it need to be washed. I rinse mine with my diaper sprayer, then toss in the wetbag with the gCloth.

Overall, I LOVE my g's! They're versatile and pretty darn cute. I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in cloth diapering but still wanting a disposable option for daycare or dads. Plus, gBum's are too cute!

Dirty diaper laundry was the one thing i dreaded about cloth diapering. Once i got started it was not nearly as terrible as i had imagined it to be. I'm going to go through my routine starting with a diaper change.

Once a diaper is soiled I place it in the wet-bag I keep hanging on the door knob. If its a poo diaper I swish it in the toilet then place it in the wet-bag. Hubby did just install a DIY diaper sprayer, the tutorial can be found on another blog by clicking (here). I have only used it once but it seems to be a great tool.  Of course with my gDiapers I only throw the gCloth in the wet-bag for pee diapers and for poo diapers the pouch and the gCloth usually go in the wet-bag. This will depend on if the pouch is soiled of course. gPants only get washed when they are soiled from a leak or just in need of a wash. I usually do diaper laundry every 2-3 days. I start with a cold rinse on the largest load size setting. Using Cloth Diaper safe detergent, which you can find rated (here), I start my Warm or Hot wash on the longest wash time followed by two cold rinses. I then either hang to dry or throw them in the dryer. I try to hang dry as much as I can. This of course will save your electricity bill but will also help your diapers last longer and keep your gPants from fading. Sunning your diapers and inserts will also help get rid of stains by naturally bleaching them with sunlight :) no chemicals for baby's bum!

When Baby J was about two months old we started cloth diapering. In the beginning it was only during the day. I had gotten plenty of diapers at the baby shower and didn't have to buy any for a very long time. I was actually able to return some of my disposable packages and with my store credit I bought the start of my gDiaper stash.  My stash started with KaWaii Newborn pockets and gDiapers. It wasn't until I started running out of disposables that I thought I might go for nighttime cloth diapering as well. I shuddered at the thought of paying full price for a pack of diapers, even with a coupon they're expensive.

My go to diapers are still my gDiapers but my stash has changed and fluctuated a lot in a year. I joined some swaps on FB and began trying different brands that way. I became addicted and tried quite a few, they're just so cute! My diaper stash now consists of several gDiapers, 12 Thirsties DUO AIO, a BabyBabu Pocket, theDiaperAddict AI2, 3 Flips, a Snuglibebe AI2, and a FuzziBunz OS Pocket. I have tried BumGenius 4.0 and Grovia AIO but did not like their fit on J Baby.

My gDiapers are my favorite. They make for an adorable little gBum. I have mostly mediums and they fit my 20 lb, 31" baby quite well. The only issue I've ever had is with the snap in pouch. Not a huge deal but every now and then the snaps will rub his hips until they leave little scabby marks :( usually if I keep him lotioned right there it's not a big deal. I think I may try adding fleece to the tops of the snaps to see if that solves that issue. I've only used the g's a few times at night and not had lots of issues. It seems that when I add inserts its too bulky and doesn't seal as well creating more of a leak issue.  I use my Thirties AIO at night mainly but have enough for daily use. I also have their hemp/cotton blend booster insert that I sometimes use at night as well.

I love fluff!

I wanted to share with you my Breastfeeding expierience. Starting straight out of the operating room. Yes, I said operating room, more on that in another post. J Baby and I began our breastfeeding journey with a LOT of help from my Midwife/Lacatation Consultant, Susan. She was there in the operating room and stayed with me to help get us started breastfeeding in the recovery room. She held J Baby so we could nurse. I had no strength, I couldn't even hold my arms up. She held him there as long as he wanted to nurse which was quite a while if my memory serves me right. He latched perfectly. He continued to nurse wonderfully the entire time we were in the hospital. We began having trouble once we got home though. I began to swell from having fluids from surgery and my milk was coming in so I was engorged as well. This combination was not good. J Baby began refusing the breast and we didn't know what to do. I was able to pump with my Medela Harmony Hand pump and J Baby got my milk from a dropper. We called Susan several times over the following weeks. She even made a house call to help us out. At each feeding I would offer my breast first and when he refused we would then feed J Baby from a small cup (aka the Medela Bottle Lid). Susan suggested to cup feed so J Baby wouldn't get used to a bottle nipple. It worked great! I kept offering breast first and finally after several days my swelling began to decrease. My breasts weren't as engorged and J Baby was staying latched longer when I would offer the breast. I would only have to give a partial feeding from a cup. We we're so excited when he finally latched and stayed that way for an entire feeding. Once he started he never stopped. Now at One year old J Baby is still nursing great! Breastfeeding in the beginning was the hardest thing I've had to do so far. I am so glad we stuck out the hard times and I am still able to give J Baby the best milk possible, Mothers milk :)