The Cloth Nappy Set-Up

With baby Rae-Rae getting ever closer, I thought it would be fun to go through our current Set-Ups. We will look at the Nursery, Travel System (pram), Cloth Nappies, Changing Bag, and Baby Toys. Once Rae-Rae has arrived we'll do a look back and see just how under-prepared we really were.

So here is a not so fun fact for you all: It is estimated that it can take up to 500 years for a standard disposable nappy to degrade in a landfill. I am not going to pretend that I am super hot on recycling, and that I was automatically leaning toward cloth nappies because they just look awesome. But I mean, 500 years? At the rate that babies go through their nappies too. I just couldn't bring myself to add to that. Now I know that people use disposable nappies for a variety of reasons, and I am not here to moralise you on the subject, but I would ask you all to consider using reusable nappies for your children, especially if you are in a position to do so.

So the one draw back to using cloth nappies can be the upfront cost of getting everything you need. In the long run it costs less than disposables, but you do need to front most of that at the beginning. We knew that we were going to be using cloth nappies before we got pregnant, and we buying up everything we could as soon as we found out we were expecting. The joys of the cloth nappies market is that there are plenty of pre-loved nappies, and we got some of those, and some new ones to bring our stash together.

The majority of our pre-loved nappies are Tots Bots EasyFit Star all-in-one style nappies. Ours came in pretty good condition, and after a a couple of washes, and one evening spent cleaning the velcro, these are ready to go. As these are second-hand the style is no longer available from Tots Bots, but I have to say I am very happy that they are fairy-tale themed. These seem pretty thick, and absorbent so I am hoping that they will be good for the overnight stretch.

We also purchased a set of Little Lamb Onesize Pocket Nappies. These are mostly in bold block colours, but we've also bough a few Hawaiian shirt themed ones. These use poppers not just to adjust the size, but also to fasten them closed.

We have dithered on the subject of newborn cloth nappies. At first we thought we'd pick up some biodegradable ones and call it a day, but after doing a little more research we decided to take the plunge and buy some newborn reusables. When considering containment and seepage (something nobody wants to think about) we decided that two-pieces nappies were the best, with an absorbent centre and outer waterproof wrap. We've purchased a mixture of Little Lamb Bamboo and Microfibre nappies, Bamboo are extremely absorbent but slow to dry, while the Microfibre hold less but come out of the washing machine practically dry.

To cover the Little Lamb nappies we've bought some Motherease Rikki Wrap Covers which combine nicely with the Little Lambs to (supposedly) provide a leak-free experience. We liked these covers partly for the aesthetic but also the apparent ease of use, going on suggestions we found online. In the end we got a couple of these in different sizes so that we will be properly covered until she is big enough for the all-in-ones.

Bonus: So I am throwing this on the end here as I've got nowhere better to put it! We are going to be using reusable wipes too (at least in the house). After doing a bit of research we found that most people suggest using the Terrycloth wipes for bums instead of the microfibe ones (something which I think could be clearer). We've gone for Cheeky Wipes Terrycloths, coupled with their wet-box for clean wipes, and a lavender essential oil. The plan  is to just throw the used cloths in the pail along with the used nappy.

Well that's everything! I'll do a follow-up when she gets here, looking at whether everything went as we planned.

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The "We Spent the Afternoon in a Hospital" Update

Just a quick update today. We've spent the afternoon in hospital as Rae-Rae hasn't been moving much. Ultimately they were happy with everything and they let us go home. Unsurprisingly we are knackered.

I'm just so incredibly grateful that we have the NHS. It is quite simply amazing that we have access to this sort of health care, that's available whenever we need it.

So that's it, everything is okay, just tired. So I don't know about you guys but I am ready for the Great British Bake Off.

The 34 week aka the Quokka update (27.08.2017)

We here we are, another week closer to my little girl getting here! I'm definitely beginning to feel terrible impatient but there you go. We've spent the last week buying the last few bits that we needed, including some reusable wipes, some newborn reusable nappies and a rather soft and warm changing matt for our travel bag.

I've not got too much to add to the update this week, things are sort of plodding along at their own pace and we've not really been up to too much. One thing we are both looking forward to when Rae-Rae gets here is getting back on top of our diets and health. Sure, we've been eating pretty good since finding out we were pregnant but I know I've certainly let my exercise regime slip a little, and I think Ruthie is ready to feel less heavy and weighed down.

Knowing that I am going to have a chunk of time off when Rae-Rae gets here has inspired me to looking to doing more things around the house, simple stuff like painting our front door, to more complicate stuff like making our own lactation-boosting foods or creating our own home-made cleaning stuffs.

So I will see you guys next week for the 35 week update, which puts us close to what I am "affectionately" calling the danger zone!

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The 33 week aka the Ferret Update (19.08.2017)

Well it has been quite a week. I'll warn you all now, this update is mostly going to be me praising the NHS because they've just been absolutely amazing.

We've had reduced movements from Rae-Rae, starting last week, and culminating on Sunday when we decided to go into Hospital. Ruthie was hooked up to a fetal heart-monitor and we spent the next hour or so monitoring her heart-rate and her movements. I am thankful to say that they were happy with everything and we were discharged, but we were promised that we would be contacted about an additional scan as this is the second case of low movements.

On Monday Ruthie gets a call saying that she was booked in for a scan that afternoon. They say that everything appears normal, and that Rae-Rae is growing in the way that they would expect. While being perfectly fine, our little girl is apparently quite large already, weighing in at an estimated 5lb which is a whole extra pound more than most babies at this point. While I was glad that everything was okay with the scan, I was a little sad as this was the first scan that I've missed. Due to the last minute nature, and owing to other pre-birth obligations later in the week it would of been hard to get there. I do wish that I could have seen my nearly fully grown girl.

On Thursday we began our hypno-birthing classes (provided to us for free through the NHS). I wasn't sure what to expect before heading into this, I guess I imagined some New Age rubbish that was five minutes away from breaking out the healing crystals, but I wrong. The class focuses on getting the mother into the right frame of mind as they approach labour and birth. By teaching techniques that keep the mother calm, it helps to minimise the pain and trauma that some women experience in childbirth. Now obviously I am not the intended audience for the majority of the stuff that they are teaching, but I do believe that it will be great for Ruthie, especially is she is currently planning to have a more "natural" childbirth. After our second or third class I might post a little more about the whole thing.

Work has been tough this week, I've been doing extended hours on most days to cover the time that I will miss for the hypno-birthing classes, which has led me to feel like I've not been supporting Ruthie enough, especially when I am ratty and tired. Lots of people say "you think you're tired now" or "its getting you ready for when the baby here", and I have to admit that I tend to bite back a sarcastic or flippant comment. I know I will be tired when Rae-Rae is here, but I don't think there is an equivalence seeing as we both have time off at the beginning to look after her. I'm also feeling a little frustrated by not knowing when things are going to happen. I mean I know that if is born on time, or early, then anything can happen in the next 7 weeks. This has left me feeling caught in a sort of limbo, my birthday is in October and I am not sure about what to plan, I am not sure how far from home we could comfortable travel at weekends in case anything happens. I know it is my nerves nibbling at me but I am just beginning to feel impatient.

On the whole though it has been a good week. We've planned out our newborn nappy system, so I am looking forward to getting those, but more about that next week. This week you can look forward to our 8lb+ cloth nappy set-up!

Fun fact: Rae-Rae is now the size of a (fat) ferret!

 

The Nursery Set-Up

With baby Rae-Rae getting ever closer, I thought it would be fun to go through our current Set-Ups. We will look at the Nursery, Travel System (pram), Cloth Nappies, Changing Bag, and Baby Toys. Once Rae-Rae has arrived we'll do a look back and see just how under-prepared we really were.

We wanted a nice, light coloured room in a sort of Scandinavian style. As we started the nursery before we knew the gender we stuck with gender neutral colours, specifically going with light blue, white, and grey, as well as allowing for natural wood tones.

Not having a particularly large house we tried to be as conservative with our space as possible, making sure that we got our cot, changing table, and wardrobe in, and fitting anything in around those.

The first thing we bought was our Baby Box from the Baby Box Company. We knew that as long as we had then whatever else happened our little girl would have somewhere to sleep. Originally we were planning to move the box around the house as we needed it but since then someone from our church kindly donated a Moses basket which has been set up downstairs, so the Baby Box is now sitting in the cot.

The cot, changing table, and shelves are from Ikea. Reasonably priced and sturdy, we didn't fancy breaking the bank on these items. That said I am very happy about their appearance and think they suit the rooms colour. What I particularly like is that the changing table has lots of little hooks and trays to (hopefully) make the changing experience easier. We opted to use  the bottom shelf to display our Cloth Nappies. We'd toyed with the idea of placing them away but actually preferred the idea of being able to select what nappy you wanted, especially as our nappy stash is made up of different brands.

We spent a little more on the wardrobe. From the moment Ruthie spotted it she knew that we had to have it for the nursery. By Mama & Papas, it is from the Lawson range which blends together white and wood in the perfect rustic combination. Like with the changing table, what we liked about the clothes rail is that we are able to see of the different outfits that we could put on Rae-Rae. We spend so much time, and energy (and money) on picking out clothes for our baby, we just wanted to be able to see them. The flat bottom of the rail also gives you space for more storage, lots of people opt to use it for blankets, or shoes, but we decided that it was better suited for the small army of soft toys (shout out to Lotso, Rex, Elmer and Stitch).





So with the big set-pieces out of the way, we decided to pick up bits and bobs as we found them. As mentioned above we purchased our shelves from Ikea, and they have been perfect for displaying books and soft toys.

Hansel, Gretel, a snake, an owl, and a cow with some books

We also found a lovely small set of house-shaped shelves in a shop called The Range. These were absolutely perfect for filling in some empty wall space that we had above the changing table. We filled one with our Disney Tsum-Tsum collection, and the other houses Boris the Bear (I have been told the rainbow llama cannot live on-top of the house and he has since been moved).

Wanting to inject a little more colour into the room, I picked up lovely thick rug from Flying Tiger Copenhagen (which is sort of like Ikea, but for tat, and it has to be one of my favourite shops). As you can see from the picture below we also swapped out the cots handles for some brightly colour animals, also from Tiger.

Judy, an Alien, and the Cheshire cat sitting on the rug 

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The 32 Week aka Naked-Tailed Armadillo Update (12.08.2017)

The dogs were tired after the visit.

So today Ruthie is 32 weeks along. That is a bit weird to think about, that the time has absolutely flown by, and now we are closing in at 8 weeks left, it seems like it hasn't really been long enough. We've still got some things to be, we've been stocking up on bio-degradable nappies, but are now discussing the idea of stock up on some reusable ones too. We also want to buy some reusable wipes too, but are just waiting for the money to do so.

I know that Ruthie is beginning to feel fed up now, and who could blame her, Rae-Rae has got to be getting heavy. Personally I just cannot wait for her to be here. I don't think we are ever going to be more prepared for her, so whenever she comes I'll be happy enough.

One of the things that's been playing on my mind recently is how the dogs will be with a baby, and we were lucky enough to have a one year-old visit us recently. While I was a little nervous about it, the introduction was easy enough, and they were simply amazing. The whole time the baby was here they were patient and gentle. It left me knowing that Pixel and Dora will be good with Rae-Rae, they will be around her as she grows up, and she will learn their body language and cues. 

Fun fact: Rae-Rae is the size of a Naked-Tailed Armadillo!

So here it is then, the 8 week countdown.

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