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By Jen, on July 13th, 2008
I had tried the Mommy’s Touch diaper once already and we tried it again yesterday. I liked it – the tabs can velcro over each other to grow with the baby.
When I went to work, I had Chuck try the bumGenius diaper. Like many of the cloth pocket diapers, they come with two inserts: one smaller (for newborns or adding an extra layer at bedtime) and one larger (for bigger babies). I didn’t make myself clear and Chuck used the newborn insert only, so Nicky peed right through it, making a bit of a mess. Once I wash the diaper, we’ll give it another run; Chuck liked it otherwise.
This morning, I put him in the Happy Heinys:
So far, I like this one the best because of the tabs that can velcro over one another AND the snaps along the front that make this a useful diaper for a long time – it can get much bigger and much smaller, in case we need it again in the future. Plus, with the adorable cow design, who could resist, how cute!
He’s wearing the last of our samples right now, Haute Pockets One Size. It doesn’t seem that it could get as big as the Happy Heinys kind, but there’s still room to grow, so it’ll last us.
Now that I’ve tried the diapers, I’ve gone back to Nicki’s Diapers to see what’s the cheapest and compare it to our thoughts. They offer free stuffers on pocket diapers that don’t already come with them and free shipping on package deals. It turns out that the Happy Heinys are generally the cheapest, and they come in a ton of designs for fun. We’ll probably give each one another round before deciding which ones to purchase. We’ve got plenty of time – we’ve still got a ton of disposables to keep us going for a while, and we’ll still keep some around to use at bedtime for awhile.
I’m definitely sold on the idea of cloth diapers. It’s really not that much more work (especially with all of the laundry I do around here anyway!), and it’ll save us money and stinky diaper pail stuff. Good enough for me!
By Jen, on July 13th, 2008
We saw Dr. Shin, Nicky’s pediatrician, on Thursday. She referred us to Dr. Elizabeth Friedman, and allergy/immunology specialist who works with children lots. We have an appointment to see her on Wednesday, July 30th but might get in sooner if there’s a cancellation.
By Jen, on July 9th, 2008
We live on the best street, I have to say! Obviously, we caused quite a commotion with the ambulance and such last evening, and it was so reassuring to know that everyone’s looking out for us. Our three closest neighbors all checked on us today to make sure that everything is okay, which, of course, it is. I just wanted to let everyone know how blessed we are to have our “street family”! 
By Jen, on July 9th, 2008
Yesterday was completely insane. For starters, we were still trying to get back on schedule from all of the travelling we did this weekend. We went to a Fourth of July party at Aunt Patty’s in Rush on Friday and an engagement party for my sister and Jerry in Buffalo on Sunday. It usually takes him a day or so to get back into the swing of things after we do a lot of driving, and we also added into the mix swimming classes. He and Chuck go on Mondays while I work, and I’ll join them on Wednesdays for the month of July. Nicky had a blast – Chuck said he was the class clown and LOVED splashing in the water. Needless to say, he didn’t fall asleep until almost 10pm on Monday night, and then he woke up around 5am Tuesday morning.
First, Uncle Don and Aunt Ruby were coming to visit, so I wanted to get in a good vaccuum because Uncle Don is pretty allergic to dogs (he’s always tolerated Keanu well, but I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable). I had Nicky in the baby sling while I vacuumed, and he started to fall asleep (very cute!), so I took him to his crib. He woke up immediately, but I decided to leave him in there to play for a bit while I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, I noticed that he was whining in a different way than I’ve heard before, so I threw on a shirt and a towel over my hair and went in to check it out. Nicky was standing up in the crib, smiling away with something on his head. When I opened the window shade to shed some light on the subject, I noticed that my baby was naked. That’s right, his diaper, filled with poop, was resting on the floor in front of his crib and there was poop schmeared everywhere! ALL over the railing and bars and on his sheet. I did get a couple of photos, but they didn’t turn out great because Nicky got mad when I left to get the camera.
So, I thought my adventures for the day were over and I’d have a funny blog post and we could laugh about it. I wish that were the case.
Nicky had been fussy while eating his dinner, so I decided to give him something different to see if he’d do any better. I was making zucchini, so I mixed some of that with some baby brown rice cereal. He INSTANTLY started to cough and choke and wheeze and I thought he was choking, but I didn’t know on what, since the zucchini was pureed. I tried to smack his back upside down while Chuck called 911. They immediately asked about allergies, and I ran to check the box of rice cereal and IT HAD MILK IN IT. I got his Epi-Pen Jr., but by then he was getting air in and out and his tongue wasn’t swollen, and we didn’t see hives anywhere.
I started to give him Benadryl when the fireman arrived. I finished getting it down, but he threw it up immediately, along with the rest of his dinner. I’ve never been so happy to see him throw up before. By then, the ambulance had arrived, and we put his car seat on the stretcher and away he and I went while Chuck followed behind us. I wish we could say that we were just taking a trip down memory lane going back to the hospital where Nicky was born, but it was really only precautionary. The EMT gave Nicky a shot in the arm of Benadryl, and he immediately seemed better. He was very sleepy but fought it so that he could see all of the fun wires and things that he was being monitored with.
By the time we arrived at the emergency room, he was really so much better and really wanted to walk around and touch things. They took his weight (21 pounds!) and checked his heart, lungs, ears and throat. They said he had to stay for an hour to be monitored, but they left us alone for half an hour, came back to check him, then discharged us. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and woke up just enough to take a bath, read a book and nurse before falling back asleep. He woke up a little late this morning, and he took a short nap at his normal time, so he’s totally fine. I, on the other hand, am totally shaken up by everything and am burning anxiety calories like crazy.
We’ve just learned that NO MATTER WHAT, we always, always, ALWAYS have to look at the ingredients in everything that gets near him, even if we think that there’s no possible way for it to contain milk. We’ve got an appointment to see his regular pediatrician tomorrow, so I’m going to ask for referral to an allergist and see if there’s more testing and such that we can do. I’ll keep everyone posted…
By Jen, on July 6th, 2008
…Uncle Bob and Patty’s pet dinosaur. Bet that not something you ever thought you’d read! It’s a riot, and we’ll post more soon.
By Jen, on June 29th, 2008
I just posted some photos from the past few weeks here. Also, I added a few photos from Michelle and David’s wedding last week. Enjoy!
By Jen, on June 26th, 2008
Margaret started using cloth diapers for Parker a few months ago, and I became very intrigued by the whole thing. There are several pros to doing this:
- better for the environment
- cheaper than disposables (savings even over a few months)
- babies potty-train easier with cloth diapers
- less diaper rash (though we’ve never had a problem with this)
Chuck and I finally decided to try out pocket diapers; they’re really very modern. They look just like regular disposable diapers – some have snaps and some have velcro tabs. There are two layers that are sewn together all around except on the back, forming a pocket, and there’s a pad (like a thick, long washcloth) that goes in the pocket. This way, everything comes apart to clean better, versus an all-in-one diaper; those are notorius for taking forever to dry. We thought pocket diapers would be the way to go, so I placed an order with Nicki’s diapers, appropriately recommended by Margaret.
We got our diapers today, and I couldn’t wait to break into them and try one out, so I put on the Swaddlebees diaper right before Chuck got home from work. I figured that Nicky would pee a little bit and we could try it out to see what we think. I don’t know why I didn’t see it coming – he made a very big and messy poop! So, we just got right into the thick of things. I’m sure it’ll just take getting used to, having to empty the diaper into the toilet and rinse it out, but I’m optimistic that it’ll be a good thing. Also, the diaper pail shouldn’t stink as badly – it’s supposed to be a good one (the Diaper Champ, came highly recommended), but we cannot seem to get the smell out of Nicky’s room, so I’m looking forward to keeping less poop in there.
I’ll keep posting on the saga; I’ve got four more brands to try out before I decide how I feel about the whole thing. Bottoms up!
By Jen, on June 26th, 2008
Nicky has really shown in the past few days that he understands a LOT of things:
He says “done” when he’s done eating. He also says it lots of other times, so he might just say it because he can, just like he says “daddy”.
He loves to point the the photo of Chuck in the living room if I talk about Daddy. And, if I say baby, he points to a photo of himself.
When I’m feeding him breakfast and ask if he wants a banana, he looks over at the banana tree.
He LOVES to play with my belly, and if I ask him “where’s belly?” he comes over to me and lifts up my shirt. He even says “delly”, awww!
When we took a walk the other day, a beagle walked across the sidewalk a few houses down from us, and Nicky said “dog”.
Chuck is teaching him “in” and “out”, so he loves to put toys in his pitcher at bathtime and take them out, and he does it when we ask him to.
If we ask him, “can I have…”, he usually gives whatever it is we ask for.
If it’s time for sleeping, we ask him to get his blanket and he goes to his crib to get it.
I can’t believe he can already understand so much of what we say! This is truly incredible to watch our baby grow and learn!
By Jen, on June 26th, 2008
Very weird around here…seems like everything in the house is breaking. First, my hand blender and the wagon. My hair dryer’s been on the fritz for a while and Chuck rewired the plug to try to fix it, but it finally died completely on Monday (the day I have to work). I noticed a couple of days ago that Nicky’s Laugh & Learn Puppy‘s ear wasn’t working. I called the company yesterday and they told me to change the batteries, and if it didn’t work to call back. I changed the batteries and it didn’t work, so I called them back this morning, and they’re going to ship a new one to us for free! I totally didn’t expect that, so wow.
When I called Little Tikes about the wagon, I was on hold for about half an hour, so I wasn’t happy about things, but the woman who took care of me was so NICE and took such good care to rectify the problem that I didn’t care. They’re going to send us a new set of front wheels and the parts that go with them, also very nice.
The customer service was really great with both of those places; I was so impressed, especially after calling Cuisinart about my hand blender and the woman I spoke with was really rude. Their service policy was pretty dumb on top of that…the product was under warranty and they’re sending a new one, BUT we have to pay for the shipping there and back, which is about $15. It’s a good thing that I really love the product, because I’m not pleased with that service and will consider other brands in the future.
I’m hoping we’ve met our quota of broken things for a while. I’ve had enough of that. Unless the microwave were to break, then we could get an over-the-range model that I’ve been drooling over since we went over to the Jordan’s house on Memorial Day…
By Jen, on June 24th, 2008
June bugs were mating all over our bedroom windows tonight. Boom chicka-wow-wow.
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