25 Weeks!

25 Weeks - 2.25.14

How has it already been 25 weeks! Time is going so quickly! Especially, now that I am back at work, the days just all run into one another. She is growing up so quickly, it is just amazing!

Sleep: Sleep has been all over the place. She was sick for the past week and that really messed with her sleep! I am hoping we get back to going down at 9:30 and waking at 6:30 soon!

Clothing Size: 6-9 month with a few 12 months thrown in now!

Favorite Toys/Activity: She just got a Sophie the Giraffe and seems to love that already! She also switched which toy she likes by the day. One day she loves her ball, and the next day wants nothing to do with it and wants to play with the zoo toy!

Milestones: She sits up by herself for a very long time now. She can even get from a sitting position to her tummy and then will start to crawl to whatever she wants. She is an expert army crawler and can make it across the room in no time! She loves to explore and look at everything. Her favorite is to be outside and take in the fresh air, but it is getting harder and harder to hold on to her as she is constantly trying to fling herself to the ground or towards something she wants to look at!

She has had a very bad cold :(. That was no fun at all. She was out of daycare for a whole week and I just wanted to do anything to make her better but sadly there is not much you can do at this age. We did have to do breathing treatments which she hated and I hated having to do them!

Favorite Mommy Moment: 
The past two weeks she has cried when I have dropped her off at daycare. It has made me really sad to drop her off as I hate to leave when she is crying but daycare shoos me away as she won't calm down if I am still there. So it makes me so happy, when I go pick her up, and she looks up and sees it is me and gives the biggest grin! It is so nice to see that she knows who I am now and is happy to see me! Even after the worst day at work, seeing that just makes me day!!  

Valentine's Day!

I failed at getting the weekly update out this week! Work has just been so crazy,  I barely have time to get cuddles and play time in with my little Valentine. She has been growing leaps and bounds again. She now army crawls like a champ and has started having her oatmeal at daycare as well. They kept saying she was starving so decided to add in a feeding at daycare and hope that makes the day a bit easier.

Not doing much for the holiday. We have a cute heart outfit for A and I did a mini photo shoot (not really any different than a normal day!). She is still to little for anything else so didn't really do anything else special for the day. Just lots of extra love and cuddles :)

Cloth Diapers at Daycare

So we have almost hit the month mark of A being at Daycare. There are a lot of things I could say about this topic but for now will focus on Cloth Diapers!

I wasn't sure if we would even be able to do our cloth at daycare as a few places we looked at flat out refused to even consider doing it! Luckily, we got into a great daycare and they were willing to try! I read a ton about diapering in daycare but was getting discouraged because everyone suggested taking AIO's or Pockets as they are easy and very similar to disposables. Well, I don't have any of those kind, so was starting to worry, that maybe I would not be able to cloth diaper at daycare because we use prefolds and covers.

So, we went the first day and brought our prefolds and covers. The teachers were so great about it and said, sure, we can do this! They had never done prefolds before but had such a great attitude about trying which really makes a difference. That first pick up day, they asked questions, and I asked if they preferred a particular diaper cover over another and slowly we found what worked best for us!

Their favorite covers are the GroVia hook and loop(velcro) as they are super easy to close and they liked the mesh material better (as they don't wipe and reuse covers anyways). GroVia was one of my favorites so I was happy for an excuse to buy more! They also use the Angel Wing Fold which they found the easiest for them to do. I had offered that they could padfold (basically just folding prefold in three and placing in cover) so they didn't have to worry about using a snappi or anything but they said they are fine with the Angel Wing Fold!

The only issues I have found is they tend to forget to tuck the diaper into the cover so she goes through clothes a bit faster as they get dirty. And a few times they have put her in disposable because they said they didn't have time to mess with getting the cloth on! Though, I had taken a few disposables the first week and never replenished them (and won't when they run out unless they request it) so don't see this being used that often.

We have gotten into a good system now where I drop off at the beginning of each week all the wetbags for the week. ( Originally we had less but I would forget them and just found it easier to buy enough for each day and take on Monday and know they were all there!). I drop off about 10 diapers which lasts about 2 days so usually bring diapers in Monday, Wednesday, and the Friday if we don't think we will make it that last day. Then at the end of the day, they leave the wetbag out for me to pick up with my used bottles from the day and I take this home and add to my diaper pail at home and do laundry on Wednesdays and Saturday or Sunday depending on what is going on during the weekend.

So, you CAN cloth diaper at daycare with prefolds and covers! Just takes some willing teachers but they got it down pretty quickly! We are now looking into getting some of the GroVia inserts to try those out and consider adding those to our rotation but for now the prefolds are working for us! Update 3.18.14 - We have now switched to the GroVia soaker pads and covers for daycare and the daycare is in LOVE! No more complaints and they were even trying to convince another mom to switch to cloth because her son gets really bad diaper rash! See full review of Grovia here End update

Here is a list of covers we use at daycare and the thoughts about them:

GroVia Hook and Loop - Both the daycare and our favorite at home. I love the fun prints and the hook and loop is nice and stong and easy to do!

BestBottoms Snap: This is one of my husband's favorites. This is my second favorite after GroVia. I like the double gussets and the trim fit. Daycare does not like this one though because they struggle with the snaps.

Flip Covers Snap: These are probably my least favorite (though still good covers). I wrote an earlier post about Flip so you can see my thoughts there. The daycare does prefer these ones even though they are snap, the larger size and stretchy sides do make them more disposable like and easier for them.

Thirsties Duo Size 1 Covers Hook and Loop: These were my favorite when A was first home until about a month ago. Once she hit 4 months they started to not fit as well. They still fit now at 5 months but these are probably the last ones I go for now versus being the first ones when she first got home. The daycare seems to use these ones after GroVia and Flip but before Best Bottoms. These ones also seem to be the ones she gets the most leaks with at Daycare as they don't always remember to stuff the prefold in and the other covers fit well over that if you forget to check, the prefold is still usually covered. Whereas now, with these you always have to check and stuff the prefold in.

5 Months and 22 Weeks!

So this week because her monthly and weekly dates are one day apart and I am super crazy busy, I am going to just do the letter :)

A,

Wow, the time is going so fast! I always would hear people say how fast time went, and I would feel this as well but until you joined us, I never really understood how quickly it goes! In this past month, you have amazed me so much! You can now sit up all by yourself! You can roll both ways, though it took awhile for you to decide to roll from tummy to back, you got there! I think you just liked to be on your tummy so didn't see the need to roll. But now, you see things you want to get to and realized rolling can get you there. You also just this past weekend so just squeezed it in before officially turning 5 months, started to army crawl! You are officially on the move! I love to watch you as you take in the world around you and see what is in front of you and if you want it you go after it. I hope you never lose this and that in life, you always go after the things you want. It is hard sometimes as you find now when you get yourself in a position and are unsure of how to get it, but know that mommy and daddy are right there and we are cheering you on, and giving help when needed. We let you do everything you can first and are so proud when you make it to that toy, or blanket, or my favorite towards me, but when we see you trying and need a little help, we jump in, too. You are such a quick learner and I look forward to watching as you learn more and more each day. We started oatmeal this month and you picked that up right away. After the first night, you realized the spoon brought you food and you opened your mouth right up and would even try and grab the spoon and feed yourself! Now, most nights we give you the spoon once we put food on it and you feed yourself pretty well! Of course, there is some mess with this but that just makes it more fun!

This past month has been a whirlwind of emotions for me as I had to go back to work and you had to go to daycare. It really makes me appreciate every second I get with you, even if it is the middle of the night! I am very lucky that we were able to get you into the daycare at my work, and so most days, I go visit and feed you at lunch time. That is my favorite time of day! You have been doing so well though and adjusted to being at daycare with no issues. It makes me so happy to know that you are having fun and able to enjoy yourself while I work. I wish I could be with you but seeing your smiling face at the end of the day just makes my days so much brighter!

I love you so much, more and more each day. These past 5 months have been the best months of my life because you are now here and you make each day just that much better!

Love always and forever,

Mommy