baby straitjackets and cloth diapers

a friend recommended the swaddle-me to me. "this saved our sanity," she said, "not to mention our marriage."


it looks like a medieval baby-torture device, or a restraint system for psychotic infants. the first time i tried putting bebe in this, a few nights ago, i felt awful. but -- she slept for FIVE HOURS STRAIGHT. and the past two mornings, i've put her in the swaddle-me and put her down in her crib wide awake. she talks to herself for about twenty minutes, then falls asleep for a nice long nap.


i am a swaddle-me convert.

i've also been meaning to write a post about cloth diapers. i originally decided to use cloth because it's so much cheaper. the estimates i've seen are $2000-$3000 for disposables over a child's diaper-wearing life, versus $300-$800 for cloth. (not to mention that cloth diapers can be used for multiple children -- not that we are planning on another, don't you dare even ask.) we certainly don't have any extra money, so using cloth diapers (and cloth wipes too) was one way to make having a baby affordable for us. even better, i set up a registry and my mother bought the entire thing for us! so, the only money we have spent on diapers and wipes so far is the $3 per load it costs us to wash them.

the environmental factor was really just a side benefit for me. i mean yeah, sure, i recycle and i get on josh's case for wasting water (the man takes the longest showers of anyone on earth), and i buy environmentally friendly cleaners and organic food whenever possible/affordable, but i don't usually go out of my way to do what's greener if it means making my life harder. once i read that the disposable diapers you take off your baby and throw away will still be sitting in a landfill when your baby's great-grandchildren are born, though, i felt even better about our decision. (disposable diapers are the third largest source of solid waste in landfills.)

now that bebe is here and cloth diapering has become a daily -- almost hourly -- reality, as opposed to a cost-benefit analysis about some abstract future situation, it's neither the financial nor environmental factors that make me most glad we made this choice. every time i change her diaper and i feel the incredible softness and absolute and total lack of chemicals of our diapers, i am just so glad that they are what is up against her bottom all day and night. (disposable diapers contain, among other things, the carcinogen dioxin and sodium polyacrylate, the super-absorbent substance that was removed from tampons in 1985 due to its links to toxic shock syndrome.)

not to mention how fun and cute the brightly-colored covers are, and how adorable her big baby booty is. there's a reason we call her missus lady bubble-bottom, you know.

i don't mean to preach and i certainly don't mean to come off as though i judge folks who use disposables. i totally get the convenience factor and if we could afford it, i might well have gone that route myself. i've gotten a lot of "why on earth would you use cloth?" type questions though, and just wanted to explain that i don't think we're crazy for doing so.


in other news, bebe marie has officially discovered her hand.

and at her one-month checkup today we learned that she has gained exactly two pounds since birth. thanks to nothing but this:

my little nursling.