Confidence, Colds, and Cloth Diapering

The one thing that I've found being a second time around parent is just how much confidence I have and how easy it is to parent a second baby. I remember being scared to death when all my help was finally gone after having Little man. Driving alone with him in the car caused me to just about break out in a cold sweat and hives. If he cried my heart started racing and I immediately got anxious. I constantly questioned my ability, even though I had so much experience with infants. It was so different when it was your own. (I babysat for a family in college where the mom had PPD and literally handed over her 3 day old baby to me and I took care of her and the two other kids several hours per week, so I actually had experience with a new infant) This time around I don't get worked up about anything, well maybe being up for most of the night, but even that is MUCH easier than it was the first time around. I think now I'm used to having interrupted sleep.

Little man has a cold right now that he got after attending preschool for a week and he has unfortunately passed it on to Baby M :o( We are keeping his nose clear with the bulb aspirator and hopefully he doesn't get it too bad. I think that's why he's been so fussy during the night. He did sleep through the night two nights in a row early this week but the past couple nights we haven't gotten much sleep. I think my eating is a culprit too because he seems to have had gas so I'm really going to have to watch what I eat and cut out gas causing foods (all my favorite foods pretty much) I said this last time around and I'll say it again, the breastfeeding diet is much stricter than what you can't eat while you are pregnant. R and I cook with a lot of green peppers, onions, garlic, and spices which all seem to cause Baby M gas and therefore fussiness. I also can't eat my favorite veggie, broccoli :o( Oh well I love breastfeeding because it's so easy and convenient. I can definitely fore go some foods for a year in order to give him the best source of food and save money.

Speaking of saving money we are using cloth diapers and I love them! My best friend K has been using them for over a year with her daughter and so she got them for me for my shower gift. I got a wide assortment of many different brands so we can figure out which kind we like best and work for Baby M. So far I'm a big fan of the all in ones and pocket diapers. They don't require any plastic pants (they have sure changed from what I remember, actually soft and easy to use) We still have yet to try some of the various brands that require the plastic cover because my covers were in the wash. I can't believe how much cheaper cloth diapers are and how well they wash up. We bought disposable diapers for the first 2 weeks because his circumcision was healing and K didn't have a chance to go buy them right away. In 2 weeks time we went through over 100 diapers and we spent way over $50. The biggest downfall is just that I have to be organized and get them washed. Once I figure out which brand that I like best I'm going to pick up a few more so we won't have to wash as much. We have to pay for our water and it's really expensive so I'm hoping to not rack up a huge water bill having to wash diapers everyday. I'm hoping to get enough to only have to wash every 2-3 days. The best part is that the lady K buys the diapers from gives half her money back when she has to change to the next size. There is a huge resale on cloth diapers.