For all you Back to School Shoppers!

Back to School Price Comparison for the Week of July 31

Back to school prices and coupons (at the bottom of the list)

Bumbo Seat

Here we go! The Bumbo baby seat. They each sat in it for a few brief minutes before their necks tired and they wanted to do something else, but it's a start. My bobble-headed babies are getting control of their necks!

I have several friends and family members whose kids have enjoyed their Bumbos. I read up on them and it seems that the biggest complaint/worry, other than having them tip over with active babies in them, is that the leg openings are too small for chubby-legged babies. I'm borrowing a friend's Bumbo. I don't think I would pay for one myself. Perhaps it's because I haven't had time to enjoy or respect it's full value. Only time will tell! What's your experience with the Bumbo?

Girlie Milestones and Cloth Diapering

The girls are growing up! We knew they would. That's what babies do. They're already smiling! Last week they found their voices and have been squealing in delight and even taking a few short laughs, putting their hands together. This week they have both become more adept at reaching for objects including my hair (ouch!), eachothers hands, my ear plugs, and their binkies. They are also enjoying playing with the toys on their playmats.

Alongside the twins, I have been becoming more comfortable with cloth diapering. With my BumGenious 4.0s, my Fuzzibunz and my generic dipes (that I can't remember the name of but I got as a present at my baby shower) from my girl Kallie B., (the dame who got me into cloth diapering in the first place), I am now on my way to a greener existence as a mom. I have a system! I forget how big my stash is, I expect it's around 60 diapers.

In case you non-cloth diaper moms are wondering, I do a rinse in cold water in my machine, then do a hot/cold wash with Rockin Green detergent with a double rinse. Then I throw everything into my dryer and tumble dry on low. I'm going to bring my drying rack upstairs so I can put my cleaned poopy dipes in the sun to bleach them (I understand from different blogs that this works quite handily). Oh, and just in case you were wondering...I put disposable liners in my dipes so I can remove the majority of a poop and throw it away, preventing massive poopage in the girls' dipes. Let me tell yah, I can't wait until they are large enough to have formed stools instead of liquid poo.

Let's talk diaper pails. I have three diaper pails downstairs, and one upstairs in the nursery for overnight changes. The first downstairs pail (in my dining room turned baby central) is my older model, Diaper Champ for disposable things like wipes or dirty liners or the occasional (shhhhh, don't tell......) disposable diaper. (This is an exact replica of the pail I keep upstairs for overnight changes. It holds all things disposable.) The second baby central pail is my cloth diaper pail by Diaper Decor, and it holds pee-pee diapers. I purchased two, reusable/washable liners from Kissaluvs that have this cute little cloth tab inside that you can douse with essential oil so that it helps keep odors away.

I know what you're thinking. If we have a place for number one, there must be a place for number two. When I change a poopy dipe, it goes into my third pail, which is an old bucket from a discount store with a handle on it. It's portable so I can take it down to the utility sink to thoroughly rinse poopy dipes in cold water. Then I wring them out and hang them over the side until after the girls are in bed, when I throw a load of dipes in the washing machine. I have just started researching cloth wipes and home-made spray so that I can do away with disposable wipes.

Now with my snap pliers via KamSnaps.com from my SIL Ru, I can snap the inserts to the cloth diapers and wash them together, keeping them together so that I don't have to pair them up everytime I do laundry. Now all I have to do is stuff the diapers. Yay! Timesaver. I just LOVE timesaving devices, don't you? Note: I haven't acutally attempted to use the snapper device yet. I plan on watching the YouTube video to try and figure it out.

And now duty calls...the twins are crying for their supper.

Nap When Ye May

One of the greatest bits of advice I've been given post-partum is to nap when the babies nap. It's very difficult to retrain your sleep habits around the ever changing sleep habits of your twin, infant girls, and they seldom nap at the same time. If I can get one asleep in her crib and the other in her swing, I'm doing well. But when I do get both to nap at the same time, all I can think about is what I want to get done that day or I want to check Facebook, or my blog.

There are always bottles to wash and sterilize, or another load of laundry to be thrown into the washer, but there isn't always another time to nap. Carpe napum if you will. Seize the nap. Don't mind if I do.

Postpartum Funk

I don't have anything to be sad about really. Compared to other people, I have it good. My babies are good. Then why do I feel so bad? Everything is relative.

I'm tempted to lose perspective when my whole world is babies, diapers, bottles, laundry and dishes, crying babies, RINSE, REPEAT. If I didn't have friends on the outside and a husband that loves me, I'd be off my rocker.

Why do we get the "baby blues"? I'll tell you why...

Because your body misses sleeping
Because you miss having time to yourself
Because you don't leave the house or see the light of day except through a window
Because you just spent a half hour trying to get your baby to sleep and with one little noise, she woke up again and you have to do a "reset" on her and start from square one and she's too young to sleep train, and you need to hold her even though you really want to sleep...remember sleep?
Because you just changed your baby and got her buttoned back up in her sleeper (matching the right buttons in the dark) and she fills her diaper AGAIN.
Because you get pooped/peed on before you got the third diaper on. Yup, it's a three dipe change, and a clothes change for you.
Because you miss being clean.
Because you're tired of wearing spit up for fragrance and using Desitin as a hand cream.
Did I mention, because you miss sleep?
Because your breast milk is drying up because you are too tired to adequately produce or eat properly, and all your baby wants is breast milk...in fact, she scoffs at the bottle with disdain...
Because you miss caffeine and eating things that make the baby gassy if they get into your breastmilk.
Because you miss wearing your old clothes and feeling thin and peppy because you were 40 lbs thinner and had more energy.
Because of hemroids.
Because you look in the mirror at your new post partum body and dislike your swollen saggy boobs, stretch marks, and sagging belly. You still have cellulite, you just have more of it, oh, and you can't forget the back rolls. They're yummy.
Because the last thing on your mind is sex and your poor spouse is starved for it.
Because you miss the old you and are having trouble embracing the new you and don't know what to do.
Because trial and error as a new mommy is at times, heartbreaking and rough. (I didn't mean to gag you with that nipple, or bounce your head off the door window because you have a giant bobble head.)

It's a huge life change. If you have a friend that just had a baby and you remember how rough it was...give them a break.

Offer to babysitt
Call them
Send them flowers or a card
Bring them chocolate or something from Dairy Queen
Offer to come over and sit with them and then do it
Pray with them
Let them comiserate with you