Yeah. So. I got a sewing machine, courtesy of Darrin's mum's friend. Was only a couple weeks after Caleb was born, and I had plans for making stuff, but was too swamped under with the whole having a new baby thing. But once I got used to that, I got the machine out and started sewing nappies. Yes, nappies. The first couple I made were just a whole bunch of towelling & flannel and weren't very good. The next two were pocket nappies using the same pattern, and were better, but I still wasn't totally happy with them. But last week I did three like this one:
And then a day or so later, I was in Big W and found some polar fleece remnants and got one of them, thinking I could make some covers (6 of them) for the regular flat nappies we've been using since Caleb was born. They just need some hook & loop (think Velcro) to fasten the tabs down (which I don't have yet, at least not the right colour...they'd look pretty silly with bright green closures on pale yellow fleece):
But the flat nappies don't really hold that much moisture by themselves, so I decided to make some boosters for them with a cut-up nappy and some flannel (had enough fabric to do 7):
So that's what I've been up to. I'm getting better at it too, which is to be expected after lots of practice.
And how do these compare with flat nappies alone? Pretty good, actually. I'd say either option (a green one or a flat with a booster) lasts about as long as a disposable would. Which just about solves our nappies-while-out issue.
Who knew a sewing machine works better if it's oiled? I should've. I really should've. But it's been years since I did any serious sewing (like, more than half my life ago), and even then, I never oiled my machine. Never noticed any problems either. Maybe it was a better machine, or (more likely) maybe I just wasn't paying attention. My grandma used to ask me, if not every time she saw me, at least every second time, if I'd oiled my machine yet, and said "You should." But since I so rarely used it, I didn't see the point. I just thought she was sewing machine obsessed. Well...maybe she is. But that's okay.
Okay. I signed up on MySpace ONLY because some people I know have blogs there and they've set their blogs to private, so I can't see them anymore. I am NOT a MySpace junkie. If you know my IRC nick, you know my MySpace username.
EDIT: Or not. melvan was taken, as was tupperware_girl, as was melhatesmyspace. So I'm melreallyhatesmyspace. Sheesh. The things you gotta do to conform to peer pressure....
I mentioned Baby BeeHinds in my last post. I managed to find a couple on eBay (the bamboo/cotton ones), and won them, and they arrived on Wednesday. So I washed them on Wednesday evening, hung them up on Thursday, and they were dry by Friday night (last night) for us to try them out overnight.
Well. Normally I put a double flat nappy on him overnight and have to change it by about 3-4 am, depending on when he wakes up, because it's saturated most of the way around and he won't settle down and go back to sleep. This morning by that time he wasn't even wet on the outside. He was only just wet on the outside when I was ready (well, ready enough) to get up at 7:30. Each nappy comes with two boosters, one large, one small. I put one of each in the overnight nappy (the instructions say for a "small-medium" baby you should only need one or the other, but this boy is trying to singlehandedly save the Murray). And if I put two long ones in instead, it'd be even better.
So there you have another happy Baby BeeHinds customer. Who ever said cloth nappies have to be complicated?
I AM SICK TO DEATH OF BUYING DISPOSABLES! Okay, so we've only been using them when we're out of the house, or when we run out of cloth, but I HATE them. I HATE spending money on stuff I just throw away. And I'm not going to do it anymore (unless we're going away overnight to somewhere other than Darrin's mum's). They smell as soon as Caleb does anything in them, they give him a rash, they don't hold things in any better than cloth (actually worse in some cases), and I'd much rather spend the $17-20 per pack on something like food or clothes or bills than on big bits of paper that just go in the bin eventually.
So what are we gonna do instead when we're out of the house? Still working that out, but it's probably gonna involve some fitted cloth ones which we'll put a lot of padding in.
(Also, if there's anyone out there who hasn't yet bought us a baby gift and wants to, Baby Beehinds are the ones I like the look of, because everyone speaks VERY highly of them.)
And the second rant. HOW ON EARTH do you keep ALL of a baby's creases clean and not get all red and cheesy? Just when you think you've cleared up one area, another one turns red that you didn't even realise was there! Doesn't seem to matter how well I think I've done either, I always miss something.
I know ages ago I said we weren't going to use a dummy/pacifier for Caleb. And for ages we didn't. We did try it a few times, but he never wanted it. But when you've got a screaming baby in the back of the car and nothing else is working to keep him happy....
Took a few tries to get him to keep it in his mouth, but once he got the hang of it (about a kilometre from home, of course) he was okay. Quiet. And almost looked asleep.
So in an emergency, yeah, a dummy can be a useful thing.
What's the purpose or advantage of having a page on MySpace or FaceBook or Bebo or whatever when you already have a personal website with blog, picture gallery, and everything else?
As far as I can tell, it's only so you can add friends to show off how popular you are. Big fat hairy deal. If there's another reason, please let me know.