Working with Woodwork

I know we aren't the first people to ever tour a home that's full of the seller's stuff and not notice the imperfections in the details until you're moving into an empty house.  That's totally what happened to Robert and me.  There weren't any catastrophic surprises, but one bummer of a surprise was the awful condition of the woodwork.  I mean ALL of the woodwork.  The sellers had three children and two indoor dogs, and the woodwork had seen better days.  The three main areas of problems were dirt/grime, paint, and scratches.

For the dirt, I used Murphy Oil Soap.  The baseboards were very dusty and grimy from the dogs, the cabinet doors had a lot of grease on them, and the doors were just dusty.  This stuff did a great job of cleaning everything and making the house smell really nice.  It has sort of a citrus smell, and it's nice to know that it's derived from 98% natural ingredients.  It's also super cheap when you pay $6.50 for a two pack and only mix 1/4 cup of the soap with a gallon of water.  It goes a long way!  

The sellers were unbelievably sloppy painters.  There are globs, splatters, and streaks of paint everywhere!  Our realtor, a friend who is a painter, and a couple of other people recommended Goof Off.  Based off of the smell, I'd say it's basically paint thinner.  I wouldn't suggest using it around children or animals.  We had to open the windows and turn on fans when we used it, and the smell still lingered for quite some time.  I would say that the Goof Off worked well for getting paint off of the bath tubs, but it really didn't do much for the trim.  I think some of it had to do with the fact that the paint had been on there for quite some time.  Also, when we did it in a test area it took off some of the paint from the wall due to rubbing it, and it took away some of the finish on the trim.  I'm trying to make myself be at peace and tell myself to get over the paint on the trim because realistically it's going to be there for the rest of the time we live here.  We can't afford new trim, and we're not in a place in our lives where we have the time to paint it, especially when I think of the domino effect of painting the trim, then needing to paint the doors, and then the window sills, and then the cabinets.  Holy cow!

Lastly, the woodwork was horribly scratch.  See three children and two dogs from above.  Seriously.  Scratched beyond belief.  Sometimes I wonder how a family could treat stuff this poorly.  I just don't feel like I treat things like they did.  I don't know.  Anyway, everything was scratched.  Even the insides of the lower kitchen cabinets were scratched.  How does that even happen?  I like to imagine how.  My guess on this one is that they kept the dog food in this cabinet, and the dogs would get pumped when the owners were getting out there food.  Who knows.  Memaw provided me with some Old English Scratch Cover for dark wood.  It worked wonders!  I feel like I should be a spokesperson for Old English!  I don't feel like we have super dark wood.  I would call it medium, but the dark cover was a great match.  I give you the before and after of the inside of a kitchen cabinet door:

Tell me this doesn't look like a different door.  I can't say enough about it.  I feel a little crazy saying how much I love this, but it really restored our woodwork, and it looks  good as new now.

Sarah At Seven Months

Stats
Weight: 19lb 10oz (weighed when receiving the flu shot on 3/7)
Height: 27" (guess)
Head circumference: 16.75" (guess)

Sleeping
There's basically nothing new to share in the sleep department since Sarah's six month post.  She still sleeps through the night from 8:15-7:30 and takes three naps a day.  No complaints!  She sleeps in a sleep sack, and we're moving away from the pacifier a bit.  She doesn't have to have it to go to sleep at night now which is nice.  She uses the pacifier so little that it's really not a concern.  Do other people's babies like sleeping on their side like this?  It's new for Sarah this month.

Eating
We've entered into the exciting world of fruits and vegetables!  I've been making Sarah's baby food, and it's going really well.  The first food we gave her was acorn squash, and she really likes it.  Other favorites are butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and apples.  She loves those and even eats a double serving every once in awhile.  Servings are still just about an ounce.  She likes carrots and bananas.  She has warmed up to green beans and avocados.  She hated them at first, but I had success masking the flavor with formula and rice cereal until she liked that, and then I started serving them plain.  I've purchased peas to make for Sarah as well.  She still takes four 8oz bottles a day.  We bumped up to the size 3 nipple, and she guzzles up the formula!

Personality
Sarah is hilarious, and she knows it!  When she does something that makes us laugh she smiles and laughs.  When she cries and I give her the pacifier she will play with it in her mouth and start giggling and spit it out.  She's a happy baby and really goes with the flow.  She's very inquisitive and enjoys doing new things.

Health and Physical Ability
She has totally sitting mastered.  She's been rolling over from tummy to back and back to tummy more frequently but still not every day.  Sarah's becoming more and more interested in her body parts like feet, ears, wrists.  She also enjoys touching and eating other people's faces and hair.  She has started hitting and licking the mirror when looking at that cute baby in the mirror.

Superficial
Sarah's hair is getting a bit longer.  She has awesome chunk thighs and fairly slender arms.  Her teeth are getting bigger, so her smile is changing but it still totally adorable.

Highlights of the month
February 8 - First baby food

February 9 - MOPS play date at Burger King 

February 13 - Valentine's Banquet - Sarah spent a ton of time at the church while Robert and I did prep work

February 15 - Day with Grandma Beth - My mom had the day off for President's Day, and we had an awesome time together!

February 17 - Afternoon with Memaw and Pepaw - We always welcome daytime visits from them, and we're so thankful to live near family!

February 20 - First trip to the zoo - It was awesome!  Loud, pretty animals.  A huge nap.  What more could you need?

February 21 - First bonfire - Robert had a bonfire or two with the youth this fall, but I didn't take Sarah because she just seemed so tiny and fragile.  I took her to this one, and felt like we'd made a good decision.  The wind was blowing one direction the whole time, so we were able to sit where we didn't get any smoke.  We were bundled up.  It was cool but still warm considering it was February.  Sarah napped for most of it.

February 22 - Day with Dee Dee - My friend came to hang with us.  We went to story time at the library, and then just did the things I'd do with Sarah on a normal day.  Nice to have a companion around for it!

February 24 - MaMa sound - Okay, I know we can't exactly call this a first word, but Sarah is all about the MaMa sound.  It's still going down as a vocalization before DaDa!

February 25 - Stays on hands and knees for one minute after being placed in that position - Another step toward crawling!!!

February 26 - First trip to the pool - It was awesome!  No crying, lots of splashing, and a huge nap afterward.

March 1 - DaDa sound - Just a week after the MaMa sound!

March 2 - Donna's funeral, spent two nights with Grandma and Grandpa - Our family's dear friend Donna passed away, and it was Sarah's first funeral.  Sarah spent most of the service wandering the church with Robert, but she mingled before the service and afterward at the lunch.  She was really able to bring some smiles and happiness, and I was thankful again that children bring out the best in us and inspire us.  Sarah even met the quilting club at the church, and I think they wanted to adopt her as an honorary member!

March 4 - Infant See eye exam - We participated in the Infant See program and had Sarah receive a free eye exam.  It was great!  She passed with flying colors.  The optometrist checked for her reaction to light, reaching for an object, focusing on items as them moved around, and looking through some flashcards.  The doctor worked so well with Sarah!  

Dear Sarah
I'm so thankful for your physical health.  God has blessed you with such good health since birth, and it's important to not take it for granted.  Remember, even when you get sick, whether it's a cold, broken bone, or another sickness, God is taking care of you.  We can thank God for doctors and medicine to help keep us healthy.  Another name for a doctor is a physician, and another name for Jesus is The Great Physician.  Do you know why people call Jesus this?  We all sin which makes our lives spiritually sick, but God heals us from our sins.  It's hard to imagine now, but you aren't perfect, and one day you'll ask forgiveness from Dad and me for mistakes you've made, but most importantly, God wants you to repent and ask for forgiveness so He can heal you and make you well again.  You can always thank Jesus for being The Great Physician!

Cloth Diapering

When we found out I was pregnant, I knew right away that I wanted to use cloth diapers, but Robert took a bit of convincing.  The idea of dealing with poop and pee grossed him out - spraying off the poop, washing them, reusing them.  But then I reminded him that whether you use cloth or disposable diapers you'll be dealing with poop or pee so we might as well save some money in the process.  I know that cloth isn't for everyone.  Maybe you both have full-time jobs outside of the home and thinking about having to do any more laundry than you have to do just isn't tolerable.  Maybe you don't even own a washing machine and you couldn't dream of sitting at the laundromat for three hours while the diaps (diapers) spin away.  Maybe you're just uninterested in cloth and feel like using sposies (disposables) will fit into your budget with ease.  All of those reasons are a-okay, but if you're even the slightest bit interested in using cloth I'm here to say that you can absolutely do it and live to tell about it!

I would imagine that most people's reason for wanting to use cloth is either to save money, take care of the environment better, or to take care of your baby's health in a natural way.  I'd say our top reason was to save money, and the other two reasons are added benefits.  The current stat is that a lifetime of diapers (birth to potty training) costs an average of $2,160, and our cloth diapers cost $300 for Sarah's lifetime and will be free for future children.  Now, I realize that this stat is slightly skewed.  The $300 doesn't account for water, electricity, and detergent used to care for the diapers, but that's really hard to figure out.  I'd say that using disposable diapers also accrues the expenses of diaper genies, genie refills bags, and disposable wipes, so let's just say it evens out, okay?  I'm not going to try to convince you to use cloth diapers.  There are enough people sharing their opinions on it.  I'll let you read this article if you want, though.

Many moons ago, cloth diapers were majorly inconvenient, and that's exactly why disposable diapers were invented, but you don't have to deal with diaper services, safety pins, and leaky diapers nowadays.  When I was pregnant I did lots of research on cloth diapers.  Actually, Robert is the master researcher of the household.  He can become somewhat obsessive until he learns everything there is to know about a topic.  At times it can be a tad annoying, but when I need to become an expert on something I can definitely count on Robert to help me consume the information.  He found this awesome website called BabyGearLab.  It was our go-to for finding the best baby carrier, stroller, car seat, and diapers.  It does a good job of helping you get the best bang for you buck depending on your budget.  From Robert's research, we settled on Flip diapers.  Flip received BabyGearLab's best rating for best value, and it was just one point shy (88 out of 100 vs. 89 out of 100) of winning the editor's pick, so it was second place overall but also less than half the lifetime price at $300 vs. $720.  

You can learn everything you ever wanted to know about Flip diapers here, but I'll just give you the highlights.  You can pick different types of inserts.  We went with the organic cotton inserts.  You have to fold them to make them fit.  I have no idea what all the official terms are.  Honestly, I think that's part of what overwhelms people and turns them off from cloth diaps - all in one, all in two, one size fits all, snaps vs. hook and loop, inserts, pre-folds, liners, covers, hybrids, pockets, stripping, stash, wet bags.  The only words I use are cloth diapers, wet bag, inserts, and shells.  You don't need to know the official terms!  You just need to know what you actually do to take care of your baby's diaper needs.  With the Flip diapers I like that you can re-use the shell and just put in new inserts when they get wet.  You only need to get a new shell if it gets super wet or gets poop on it, so you don't need nearly as many shells as you have inserts which saves quite a bit of money.  We have 8 shells and 21 inserts. 

Okay, now for random thoughts and what's worked for us personally:

• Hands down biggest tip - Don't even try to mess with cloth until you feel ready for it.  For us, it was when Sarah was two months old.  When she was a week old and her daily diaper changes were in the double digits, I couldn't dream of ever cooking dinner again, I couldn't even go to the bathroom by myself, and Sarah needed to be fed every 2.5 hours I seriously thought I was insane for ever thinking I could do cloth diapers, but by the time Sarah was two months old I was cooking again, she had about 8 diaper changes a day, and she could go 3 hours before needing to be fed.  I started to think I could handle cloth.  So go with disposables until you feel ready for it.  We buy disposable diapers from diapers.com and have had great luck getting huge discounts and free shipping on diapers and other baby items.

First time sporting a cloth diaper

• Don't be ashamed to use disposables when you think it's the right thing to do.  We use disposables at night.  I just don't like the idea of her legs being spread apart that far all night.  Nighttime diapers practically make her do the splits (slight exaggeration).  We send disposables with her when she goes to the church nursery.  We used disposables for two weeks when we moved and didn't have our washing machine set up yet.  No shame in that game!
• Don't use ordinary diaper rash cream with cloth diapers.  You'll have to do some research to find one that's safe.  I just know you shouldn't use regular creams like Desitin with cloth due to it effecting the absorbency.  However, I can say that Sarah's only ever had diaper rash once in her life.  It was before we even started cloth, and it went away in less than a week.  That's one of the perks of cloth - less rashes!

Caring for the diapers

Here's our routine:

• Change Sarah's diaper.  If it's just wet we only replace the insert.  Wet and dirty diapers both go in the wet bag.  You can get official cloth diaper pails, but we just use a kitchen size trash can with the wet bag in it.  It's important that you not use a lid so air can circulate.  This prevents mold and mildew.
• I wash the diapers every three days.  Our process for washing:
• First time through - Quick wash, warm/cold water, half the amount of detergent that you'd usually use for that size of load.  For us, it's a medium load and halfway up to the first line of the detergent.  Powder detergent is KEY.  Don't use liquid!  It's up to you whether you want to use natural detergent (good for the environment and baby, not as good at getting out stink and stains) or heavy duty, traditional detergent like Gain (unnatural but gets out the ammonia, etc.).  We use Gain original powder.  Top loading washing machines are your friend, and the center agitator works hard for you!
• Second time - Heavy duty/longest wash, hot/cold water, full amount of detergent (all the way to the first line for us)
• Third time - Rinse and spin, cold/cold water, no detergent
• Line dry inserts and shells - With some you can dry them in the dryer.  You aren't supposed to for our shells, and for us I just like the fact that it saves us even more money not using the dryer.  I've been hanging them inside on a drying rack while it's been cold, but in the summer I'll hang them outside, and the sun works as a natural bleach and disinfectant.  
• If you want to get overwhelmed, just go to this website to read everything on washing cloth diapers. ;)
• We use the bumGenius Diaper Sprayer and it is the BEST!!!  I've heard that if you breastfeed you don't have to spray off the poop and you can just put it directly into the washing machine.  We use formula so that isn't an option for us, but I'm also not sure that I'd enjoy having poop sitting in my house for three days anyway.  This sprayer attached easily to our toilet without using any tools to assemble and attach it.  It sprays off the poop incredibly easily and gets the job done very well.
• We also got the Spray Pal, and I would not recommend it.  It was cumbersome and difficult to use and really unnecessary because we never get sprayed by the diaper spray anyway...except for that one time Robert sprayed himself in the eye and it ricocheted onto the ceiling.  
• You do NOT need to strip your diapers.  As long as you care for them appropriately they will not lose absorbency or have a horrific odor.  That's all I'm going to say on that topic.

Unfortunately, Flip diapers aren't sold in stores, so we had to buy ours on Amazon and Cotton Babies.  We got our inserts from Amazon as well as one super cute Einstein shell.  We got the rest of our shells from Cotton Babies on an awesome sale.  Every so often Cotton Babies has "Seconds" which are drastically reduced priced diapers that are slightly imperfect for reasons such as mis-printed fabric, less than perfect stitching, etc.  A friend told me about this the very day I was about to order diapers, and it seriously slashed our cost for shells in half.  I also bought one three-pack of light blue diapers which saved us money buying in bulk.

Okay, I fully realize that this post was probably super unappealing to those of you who are usually into this blog for the cute Sarah updates, but I just felt like if I could have gone onto one post and seen everything I needed to know about cloth diapers it would have been very helpful to me, so here's hoping that this post makes at least one person feel confident in cloth diapering.  Let me know if you have any questions!