Old and New Stuff

James is a big boy all of a sudden!

This weekend we transferred him into his "big boy" car seat. He still fits in the old one but in some diapers he is within an inch of the seat back, so it was time for an upgrade. That means his snap-and-go stroller is also null and void! I can't believe it's time to store that stuff for the long term!

We registered for the Phil and Ted Classic Stroller but didn't get it--it was the one name-brand expensive thing I really wanted (besides the car seats but that's a safety issue). Anyway, my Mother-in-law said she would get it for us now which is super nice. Also, she gave us this old stroller of my sister-in-law to use in the meantime.

I picked the Phil and Ted's because I had heard great things about it--it was light-weight, easily maneuverable on many terrains, could hold a newborn car-seat, and was easily convertible to a double stroller. Most importantly, it has a high satisfaction rating among owners! So hopefully it's the only one we'll ever need!

Anyway, getting back to James and the fact that he is big? I also went through and put away his last few 0-3 month things. Clothing with him is a funny thing, for instance:

-Right now he is in 9-month sleepers and rompers (one-piece outfits). He is generally at least one size ahead in anything one-size because his legs and body are so long.
-He is in 9 month Carters Onesies WITHOUT a crotch extender (though def has some extra room around the middle, haha), BUT
he could still nearly fit in Carter's 3 month onesies WITH a crotch extender (he just barely outgrew for them good).
-He is STILL VERY COMFORTABLY in Carter's 3-month side-snap T's. His body is such a little thing that in T-shirts with short sleeves he can still fit fine in 3 month (however, with sleeves he needs 6 month for length).
-He is totally in 6 (or 9) month pants now--between the cloth diaper and long legs he needs it.
-He's at least in "12 month" for any hats, hahahah. Any outfit that comes with a hat you have to figure it will be too small when the outfit fits . . .

In lots of things, they are so wide and short on him that his shoulders pop out the top! We have lots of things that he just plain will never be able to wear because they are shaped like squares and he is shaped like a line, hahahah. He will have outgrown a lot of stuff lengthwise (even with a crotch extender) BEFORE he can EVEN FIT IN THEM width-wise without looking ridiculous.

Anyway, due to this funny shaped baby, the range of sizes he wears is extremely large, ;-). Sooo, I mostly put stuff away AS I notice him outgrowing them, but recently I took the plunge and put the last of the 3 months and 0-3 month stuff away (and almost all of the last of the 3-6 month stuff too). It's so strange that he is growing up so quickly.

We got a TON of clothes from my shower and now he's getting almost out of all of it! Crazy.

In terms of diapers, he's now in the largest size (setting) of the Bumgenius one-size diapers (which supposedly can be used to thirty pounds or something?). He's still in medium Happy Heinys and standard pre-folds, but the pre-folds are getting tight. I'm hoping that the way his body is growing will change so that we are able to stay in these same diapers for a while more. I REALLY don't want to invest in a whole new set of expensive diapers. I might just order bigger pre-folds though, I'm sure we will end up using them . . .

So that's where we are in gear, clothes and diapers at 5 1/2 weeks (man, time flies)!

Laundry Composition

One load of warm (colors) laundry contained:

6 sleepers for baby
13 onsies/outfits for baby
6 bibs for baby
4 shirts for baby
3 sweatshirts for baby
6 pairs of pants for baby
3 pairs of socks for baby

AND

ONE pair of sweatpants for Mommy
THREE shirts for Mommy (2 tanks, 1 T)
FOUR pairs of underwear for Mommy

TWO pairs of underwear for Daddy
TWO pairs of socks for Daddy

AND

2 boppy covers

. . .

Gee, who's the important one at our house?

Baby Laundry

So you always hear that babies make a lot of laundry and I never got it. I always thought that even if they wear a lot of clothes, that the clothes are small and that wouldn't be very much extra laundry.

What I didn't count on was the fact that any of the following things might suddenly get covered with baby pee, spitup, or breastmilk at any given time:
-our sheets and pillows
-our shirts (and pants)
-bibs
-his mattress sheets
-his swaddle blankets
-his clothes, obviously
-the boppy cover
-his towels
-our robes

And all these things smelling slightly of milk is unusual for our vegan household . . .which means we like to try to wash things fairly promptly.
So it's more than just the baby clothes--it is a LOT of extra laundry.

Plus we go through certain things quickly (like sleep sacks) and so we need to wash a load with them when we run out.

PLUS we are cloth diapering, which means we ALSO have an extra load every day of diapers. We can skip the occasional day, but mostly we wash diapers every day or day and a half.

So it's more than I anticipated. I'm so glad we got our washer fixed before the baby was born!

My Big Boy in and out of Clothes and Diapers

So this morning I went through James' clothes and put away the stuff that was too small--he is already out of most of his newborn sized clothes and into 0-3, 3 month, and 3-6 month clothes.

Plus he is already too big for the 12 newborn sized prefolds that I bought when he was born and the regular sized prefolds were WAY too big. Now I've taken those out again and I bet they will fit him just fine.

Also he is almost grown out of the three extra small size happy heiny pocket diapers, and fits really nicely in the three small sized ones I have. I really like these diapers more, though, and I bet small will fit him for awhile because he has a little butt, so I've been looking for more size small happy heinys on ebay . . .

It is crazy that he's already out of his smallest sized clothes--he is growing and changing so much, I can't believe it.

Baby Laundry

So a while back I bought a few baby clothes from Salvation Army (can't beat 99 cents apiece)! And so the things ended up in the laundry and got buried. I washed the load yesterday, hurriedly throwing things in the wash--and today I was folding.

I was standing there over my dryer, pulling out James' T-shirts and shorts, my tank tops, underwear, and suddenly, something so small--and I looked down to realize that it was one of the baby things I had bought a few weeks ago. The reality of the situation seemed to rush at me from all sides, as I stared at this tiny garment that will dress our child in just a few short months. "Wow--I thought, we're having a baby. His clothes are here, mixed in with ours." And . . . it just seemed so real, all of a sudden, as I rested the little onesie against my belly to fold it . . .

This little encounter motivated me to organize the rest of the clothes. Of course I had organized them once already, according to the size listed on the tag--but I had begun to look at these tags and then back at the clothes with much skepticism, as one brand seems to be quite different from another. I have heard too many stories of people pulling out their "3-6 month" clothes at 3 months only to find that half of the things are too small, and I didn't want to take any chances. Afterall, I think it is a necessity that I photograph James in every one of these little outfits during his first few months of life.

So today I got out the measuring tape and measured from neck to crotch, each of the little outfits and onesies, and I put them in piles according to how long they were, and then sealed each pile in a plastic zip bag. And now these clean and protected clothes sit in the drawer, just awaiting the birth of the wee one. I feel the same way!!

Only 3 weeks until the third trimester. :-)

Productivity

So over the weekend, and since Kate has been here, I've been trying to stay productive and work on (really) cleaning the house.

So we've cleaned the kitchen (a couple times), but we also planted the garden on Saturday, and James and I SERIOUSLY cleaned our room on Sunday. This included moving EVERYTHING out of it, and changing the bed to a different spot--getting rid of one dresser so we can fit the new dresser for the baby in our room, etc. Part of this was also picking up and sorting ALL the laundry (basically in the whole house) and getting a good start on washing some of it.

Today, I continued the cleaning by going through all the clothes in our room and sorting into: Winter stuff (and stuff that is too small for me) in storage, and stuff that fits is in season on the shelf--I took out a few things for Salvation Army/Fabric Pile.

And THEN I took out all the baby's stuff (I have been hoarding little items for years) and put it in the dresser. Now that I have it all in there, I realize I hadn't gotten as many things as I thought, LOL! which is good because I know a lot of people will get presents for it in terms of clothes.

One thing I still do want to get is a nice supply of newborn T-shirts and receiving blankets--I figure that will be the main clothing stuff we need for the first month or two (along with cloth diapers).

I also discovered a hoarde of "maternity" clothes I had been setting aside for a couple years--things that were too big for me, either that were my own old things or things other family had given me. So now I have plenty of pants and shirts (At least for another month or so)--a couple of skirts, some dresses--I'm going to try to get by without buying anything else but in the fall I might need to get some "real" maternity pants/skirts for when my belly is really big.

Anyway, now all there is left to do on the clothes is pull out the box of summer stuff, go through it in the same way, sorting things that fit and are in season from things that don't or are wintery--then I can put ALL the winter/ too small stuff away and be done.

Our room isn't completely arranged still--we have to rehang all our art and bring all our little things back into the room, but it is getting there, and it was nice to start completely fresh, and start setting things up for the baby. :-)

Goals for the next couple days:

-Finish stuff above
-Wash more laundry and also go through it
-Start arranging library/guest room (sort books)