A cloth diaper adventure for the Mauneys!

Last week, our family started something new. We started using cloth diapers on our little ones!

This is something I thought I'd never do. I only imagined cloth diapers as prefolds with pins and plastic covers. In fact, I'd babysat kids with cloth diapers like that and I'd decided at the ripe old age of twelve that I'd never use those on my kids. But, alas, I am now a cloth diapering Momma. Don't we always end up eating our words in some form or fashion?? But I'm not a cloth diapering Momma with prefolds, pins and plastic covers. Cloth diapers have come a long way since then! There are versions now that have features very much like what I'm used to with disposables (like stretchy velcro tabs, for example.) After reading my friend Erin's research on her blog, talking with my friend Laura who cloth diapers, and checking out some articles online, I decided to go for the cloth diapering adventure. And I love it! I should have been doing this all along!!! My main motivation to finally do it? I just got so tired of always buying diapers (and with two in diapers, I was buying a lot of diapers.) One episode particularly inspired me: I had found that the Target brand diapers were the best deal for disposables, but a few weeks ago, I made a special trip to Target to purchase dipes, and they were all out of the Up&Up brand. All out! The shelf was completely clear! I asked about it and was told that all Targets in Charlotte were out and they didn't know when more would be in. I think it was that afternoon that I just said, "Forget this! I'm getting some cloth diapers!" I, of course, talked with Steven to make sure he was on board, and then we moved forward in making our choices of which diapers to start out with.

Erin had introduced me to Diaper Junction, where you can try diapers out with a 30 day money-back trial. This means you can use the diapers and return them for full price if you're not happy. I am still under my 30 day trial period, but I love the ones I've chosen! They're BumGenius 3.0 One Size Pocket Diapers. Since they are one-size (meaning you can adjust them to fit babies to toddlers), I can use them for both Isaac and Elise!

Here's a few pictures of our cloth diapering journey so far:

Our first cloth diapers, right out of the UPS package:


After washing the diapers, here they are on the drying rack in the kids' bathroom:


While I was in the bathroom, I thought I'd take a picture of this sweet cross-stitch picture that Steven's mom made for his nursery. Steven's sister found it in her attic and gave it to us for Christmas this year!


The wet bag I got for Elise's room: (this is where the wet/soaked dirty diapers go while they are waiting to be washed)


Here's our little cloth diapered babe:



Do/did any of you cloth diaper? Or are you disposable diaper lover? Or if you don't have kids, what would you use/plan to use?

What a weekend!

Friday was a great day. Isaac, Elise and I had a wonderful lunch with my parents and sister. Then we all had naps. After our naps, Steven called and said he'd like for us all to go out to dinner on a family date when he got home. That sounded like a plan to me! So I got the kids ready to go, and Elise was already cozied up in her carseat when Steven walked in the door. He quickly changed out of his work clothes and came downstairs to help Isaac put shoes on. At that point Isaac started to whine a little and then he sat on Steven's lap and gave him a hug. Since Isaac isn't a frequent cuddler, Steven was a little surprised at this but he was glad to get some loving from his little boy. Five seconds later the loving was gone and out of nowhere Isaac vomited all over Steven's shirt, pants, and his own clothes. Steven stayed where he was, trying not to get sick himself, and I immediately went into action cleaning the guys up (along with a large portion of the carpet at the bottom of our stairs.) The vomiting had scared Isaac, so he was in tears and so pitiful. Once I got everyone cleaned up, clothes in the washer, and new clothes on everyone, Elise was fussy and hungry. I took her out of the carseat to feed her, and the boys sat on the couch to cuddle. Five minutes into the feeding, Isaac got sick again. Yet again, Steven was covered (along with some of our couch) and both of their clothes needed to be replaced. It was at this point we decided that we might better make alternate plans for dinner. We also decided that we would put PJ's on Isaac and keep him covered with a large towel in case he got sick again. Which turned out to be a good idea because he got sick again five more times before settling into his bed around midnight. My mom was kind enough to bring our pizza, which Steven and I scarfed down in the middle of cuddles and cleanup.

Whew. We left Isaac in his bed with a towel over his sheets and went to bed ourselves. Later that night, I woke up with incredibly sore muscles and nausea. Since I have never thrown up since becoming an adult and am kind of scared of it, I took some Pepto Bismol and went back to bed hoping I'd feel much better in a half hour. Well, I didn't. All day Saturday, I literally couldn't get out of bed. I didn't throw up, but my body was sore all over, I had a fever and chills, and I was nauseated. I was so sore that I needed help while nursing Elise. I didn't even have the strength in my arms to hold her up and burp her. Steven was Mr Mom that day and took great care of the kids and me. (And Isaac was much better. He didn't eat much at all, but he drank an entire quart of Pedialyte.) My mom helped out again by bringing Steven some yummy Bojangles and also bringing some saltines, ginger ale, and ice treats. Around 8 PM I was able to get out of the bed and walk around a bit. I put away some laundry (which is hard for me to resist, not because I love laundry but because I dislike it so much that I'm always trying to keep it manageable so it doesn't pile up.), but that was all I could do. Once Isaac and Elise were in bed, Steven and I sat on the couch for about an hour, but I was still sore enough that I needed to get back in the bed. So I crawled back in the bed and went to sleep, hoping for an easier day on Sunday.

Around 5 AM Sunday morning I heard Steven stirring. He informed me that he had started vomiting at 4 AM. This kept up off and on until about 11:30 AM. Thankfully I was feeling about 75% better, and my fever had broken, so I was able to take care of the kids and Steven for the day on Sunday. Steven ended up having a fever, chills, soreness, and vomiting. He was in the bed all day. (Talk about role reversal!) I was still feeling nauseated and too much housework seemed to make me feel worse, so Isaac, Elise and I camped out in our living room and watched Sesame Street's "Let's Make Music" video three times and "Elmosize" twice. (Maybe we need some variety in our kids' video collection??!) Isaac didn't complain, though! He rarely watches movies, so he thought it was a great treat. Also, since he wasn't completely back to normal, he didn't mind sitting with me on the couch most of the day.

After naptime, Isaac hopped wanted to check in on Daddy, so we went into our bedroom with Elise to cheer Steven up. We found that he was starting to feel a little better. He still had a fever, but he could sit up in the bed for the first time that day. We all sat together and talked for a few minutes, and Elise was all smiles as usual. But all of a sudden, she started vomiting too! We were completely shocked since she'd seemed so happy right before the yucky stuff shot out of her mouth. And she was just as happy right afterwards. And stayed happy through two more vomiting episodes within the hour. We immediately called her pediatrician and were advised to watch her through the night and decrease her intake of breastmilk by only nursing her for 5 minutes at a time every 1-2 hours. (This is supposed to help keep babies hydrated without upsetting their stomach with too much milk.) A couple hours later, Steven's fever spiked to almost 102 degrees. I called my aunt Donna, who is a nurse, and she advised me to watch him to make sure it didn't get any higher. He was miserable, and we prayed the end was near.

The rest of the night was actually uneventful. We put Isaac and Elise to bed and then went to bed early ourselves. Steven and I both were able to sleep well and Elise slept the longest stretch that she's slept in a while - from 10:30 PM to 3:30 AM. I actually felt like I was on vacation when I woke up after that much good sleep! Elise slept some more after that early feeding and then she woke at 6:30 AM for the day. She was so happy when she woke up! I fed her and then left her beside Steven on the bed while I washed my face. I also decided to go ahead and wipe down the bathrooms and throw a load of laundry in since she was so happy and Isaac was still asleep. Then I heard that awful sound. Elise was throwing up again, and this time it looked like more than humanly possible. Poor thing. I hated to see her sick again. We stripped the sheets off the bed (that ended up being the load of laundry that I started.) and called the doc. I was advised that I was doing an "excellent job of keeping her hydrated" since she'd been having wet diapers and her mouth was moist. The doc said to keep doing what we were doing and watch her. Whew.

By then, Isaac was stirring and it was time for the day to begin at full-force for our family. Steven ended up working from home and cancelling a business trip to Greensboro so that he wouldn't get his coworkers or clients sick (maybe the clients will appreciate that and it'll help him make the sale?!?) Today was filled, once again, with lots of videos and resting as much as possible. Thankfully no one vomited after Elise's episode at 7 AM... Steven and I still feel a bit nauseous and sore (and maybe Isaac and Elise do too - they just can't quite tell us!) but we're a lot better than we were this weekend!

We learned a lot through this experience: 1) When your child vomits, just take his/her clothes off and sit him/her on a towel until you're sure the vomiting is over. 2) Washing machines are gifts from God. 3) When one family member starts vomiting, the rest will most likely follow. 4) Pedialyte is always a great thing to have on hand. 5) As are Ginger Ale, saltines, and Tylenol. 5) Thermometers are worth their weight in gold. 6) Pediatrics on-call nurses are worth their weight in gold. 7) There's nobody like your Momma, even when you're a Momma. 8) The grace of God meets you wherever you are - even when you're catching your own child's vomit in your hand. Especially when you're catching your own child's vomit in your hand.

Thank you Jesus for being with our family this weekend and giving us the strength and energy we needed to press through this short season of sickness. You are our ever-present help in times of trouble!

Pink and brown, oh so sweet!

Here's Elise at four and half months old, sporting an adorable outfit that she received from my Granny Gurley at Christmas. Thank you Granny! We love the pink and brown and the kitty cat hat!

Lots of fun on the playmat!

Elise loves to have gym time on her playmat! Lately, she's been doing more grasping of toys and looking a herself in her toy mirror. She studies everything, and she's so cute when she flings her arms and legs in joy! Also, a couple weeks ago, she rolled over from back to tummy for the first time! (she's been rolling over from tummy to back since she was about a month old.) Here she is, our adorable girl:






Four and a half months old, and oh so much fun!

Isaac loves that snow!

During our last snow, Isaac really picked up on the idea of throwing snowballs. Until the snow was completely gone from our yard, Isaac would ask to "throw big snow balls" every time we got home from errands or family outings. I wasn't able to get too many good pictures of Isaac and Steven throwing snowballs since most of the time I was tending to Elise. However, here they are gathering up those "big snow balls":


Maybe, just maybe, it'll snow one more time so Isaac can have another opportunity to play in the snow and so I can get some pictures of those boys throwing snow balls!

Elise at the dinner table!

Thanks to our friends Donnie and Hallel, we have a very nice secondhand high chair for Elise to grow into! Elise had been sitting in the Bumbo seat during some of our meals recently so that she could be included in our family dinner time, but this week, we've let her try her new high chair out. She liked it! And she'll sit in it for about 15 minutes at a time before getting squirmy! Like I mentioned on her four month post, I don't plan to start solids until she's closer to six months, but until then, we plan to give her plenty of opportunity to get used to sitting with the family! Here are our two babes, sitting together at the dinner table together (Isaac loves having Elise beside him!):

Like Daddy, Like Son

Without any planning on our part, Steven and Isaac ended up in somewhat matching clothes this past Saturday. (We didn't even know they had matching shirts until they both ended up wearing them at the same time!) I had to get some pictures of them, of course, and in the process, I caught some special moments between a loving Daddy and an adoring son.

Well, not so much here...



But these are the sweet ones:






I love these guys! They rock my world!

Isaac's First Words Lexicon

After several months of recording Isaac's first words, I stopped adding to his online lexicon. He simply was saying way too many words for me to keep up with. Here, for safekeeping, I'm including the list of those first words and am removing them from the sidebar. (Keep looking at the sidebar, though, since I'll be posting some new things there!)

Dada
Mama
Baba (banana)
Juice
Shoe
Desitin
Ball
Block
Book
Truck
Oreo
Noel
Dog
Uh-Oh
Hallelujah
Bird
Jew-aa (Cheerios)
Baby
A-choo
Paw-paw
*Signs "Hi"
*Signs "More"
*Signs "Bye"
*Signs "Eating"
*Signs "Please"
Tree - 3/2009
Ewww - 3/15/09
Shadow - 3/24/09
Duck - 3/26/09
Goat - 3/26/09
Jesus - 3/31/09
Vacuum - 3/2009
Isaac - 4/10/09
Giraffe - 4/13/09
All Done - 4/15/09
Daddy (versus da-da) - 4/15/09
Toothbrush - 4/2009
Bread - 4/2009
Cheese - 4/22/09
Mommy (versus ma-ma) - 4/23/09
Te-tee (Granny) - 4/2009
Ba (Gramps) - 4/2009
*Signs "Daddy" - 4/2009
Pizza - 4/2009
Friends' names - Taylor, Dylan - 4/2009
Up there - 4/25/09
Amen - 4/29/09
Broom - 4/2009
Mop - 4/2009
Bread - 4/2009
Poopy - 4/2009
Burp - 4/2009
Turtle - 4/26/09
Hot - 4/20/09
Outside - 4/2009
Zebra - 5/1/2009
Ashton (neighbor) - 5/2/2009
Guitar - 5/3/2009
Chair - 5/8/09
High-chair - 5/9/09
Gi-gi (pronounced "G-G") - 5/9/09
Abby (grandparents' cat) - 5/8/09
Amy (neighbor) 5/9/09
Weston (neighbor) - 5/9/09
Outlet - 5/13/09
Apple - 5/2009
Ice - 5/17/09
Horse - 5/18/09
Elbow - 5/2009
Trash - 5/23/09
Boat - 5/26/09
Water - 5/25/09
Ray (Uncle Ray) - 6/1/09
Snack - 5/2009
Lawn Mower - 6/1/09
Ear - 5/2009
God - 5/2009
Beep-beep - 5/2009
DVD - 5/2009
Home - 5/2009
Belt - 6/2009
Elephant - 6/14/09
Loves - 6/16/09
Weed-eater - 6/2009
iPod - 6/26/09
Ostrich - 6/2009
That's Daddy's Guitar - 7/5/09
My Mommy - 7/5/09
Piano Home (Piano is at home) - 7/5/09
*Signs "Help" - 7/6/09
Green Bean - 7/6/09
Mommy's - 6/2009
Daddy's - 6/2009
Kati (Aunt Kati) - 5/2009
Work ("ooks") - 7/13/09
Mine - 7/13/09
Box - 7/20/09
Big Bed - 7/2009
Thank You - 7/2009
Aldi's - 7/2009
Night-night - 7/28/09
Hummus - 7/30/09
Man - 7/31/09
Elevator - 8/3/09
Peace - 8/3/09
Knee - 8/3/09
Rollup - 8/2009
Applesauce - 8/2/09
Eye - 8/2009
Hammer - 8/2009
Two, three, five - 8/2009
Teeth - 8/2009
Hat - 8/2009
Ernie - 9/6/09
Bert - 9/6/09
"Hello Mommy" - 9/7/09
Mall - 9/5/09
Cow - 9/2009
Poo-poo - 9/2009
Up there - 9/2009
Let's go! - 9/2009
Nose - 9/2009
Ear - 9/2009

First brother/sister bath!

Elise joined Isaac in the bath for the very first time on Wednesday night!

Here's a picture Steven got with his iPhone:



Fun times! They both loved it!!

Sweet Girl!

Elise - 4 months old, and a true sweetheart!

A tale of three vehicles

Last week was one of the busiest weeks of our lives.

To start my story off right, I'll say that the week before that I was delivering a meal to our friend Jill and Aaron who have a sweet new baby, John David. On the way there (they live 25 minutes away), our car started acting up. It seemed to be the transmission because the RPM's would go really high (like 5K) before changing gears. Then, after a few minutes, it wouldn't change gears. It just stayed stuck in 2nd gear, and I literally felt like the car was going to either blow up or just stop running at any given moment. I had Elise with me, so I was on-edge more than I would've been if it was just me. I started to pray for God to help my car make it to our friends' house. He is so good. He gave me an unexplainable peace, and I did actually make it to Jill and Aaron's. We ended up having AAA come out to tow the car to our local auto center. Whew. Steven came to pick me up a couple hours later. (During that time, Elise and I had some wonderful fellowship with our friends and their new little adorable baby.)

The next day we learned that the car would need a new transmission (do y'all know how much those cost??! A lot!). So we figured that we'd just sell the car as-is and buy a minivan. Seems logical, right? Well, after seeking some godly advice and praying about the situation, we decided to go a different route. (Which we wouldn't have thought of own our own. Thank you Lord for wise counsel!) This was our plan: fix the transmission in the car, sell our truck, and get a minivan. Since the truck is worth more than the car, we figured we could get more money to put toward a minivan...

So, we told the car guys to fix the transmission, and we listed our truck on craigslist.com on Friday.

Oh, and our friends Donnie and Hallel loaned us their minivan to use while we were short a car. Thank God for good friends!

This all happened week before last.

Then it snowed.

We were snowed in for a few days and life seemed to be simple for a few moments.

Then Monday came, and we got a call from someone who was interested in the truck. He lives in Tennessee and made us an offer over the phone. We told him we'd accept if he could come get the truck. So, he said it'd probably be a few days. That night, we started doing research on minivans. We determined that a 2003 or 2004 Honda Odyssey would fit our family and our budget well.

The next morning I got a call from our buyer. He was on his way to Charlotte. Yep, you read that right. We'd put the car up for sale Friday night and we had a serious buyer on the following Tuesday. At 9:30 AM, he said he'd just stopped at the bank to get the cash and that he'd be in Charlotte around lunchtime. So I quickly drafted a bill of sale for the deal, got the kids ready, dropped Isaac off with my dad, and headed for Steven's office (which is where the guy was meeting us). The guy (and his wife, daughter and mother) got there, looked the car over, took a test drive, paid us cash, and then we all got in our cars and headed to the bank to have the title transfer notarized. Just like that. We'd sold our truck and closed the deal over Steven's lunch hour. Seriously. I think he ended up being gone just a little longer than his allowed hour simply because we needed to get some food, too. Cookout hamburgers and fries made up our celebratory meal.

On the way back home, I got a message that the car was ready (with a fixed transmission). My dad helped us get it back home, and we all settled in for naps. Of course I couldn't sleep because I was too busy doing research for minivans! We'd already found several we were interested in, but most of those were in Raleigh. I had hoped that might allow for a trip to visit with our friends Erin and Mark! However, I did find one in Charlotte with good miles and a good price. It was at a dealership, and although we'd hoped to purchase from a private seller, we decided to give it a try. That night we all drove to the dealership (in the pouring down rain) to check the van out. We ended up liking the van. It wasn't our favorite color (beige), but when you're looking for a very specific make, model, mileage, and price, color tends to be less of a priority. This one fit the bill. It had good mileage, the price was right (we'd found it on Auto Trader for $3K less than their sticker price, so we went in with that as our baseline.) The only problem was that it didn't have leather seats. We really wanted leather (or, rather, Steven really wanted leather. I've never had leather, but he's driven vans with leather and got hooked. Leather is supposedly great for cleaning, but, more importantly for us, it's great for kids with allergies.) Well, apparently February is a bad month for car dealerships. And apparently you can ask for whatever you want and they might just give it to you. So we gave the salesman our budget and said we'd buy the van if he could give it to us for our budget, including all taxes, fees, and adding leather. He came back to us with a higher price, but we wouldn't budge. We were ready to walk out and thanked him for his time. But of course, God is so good, so you know the story doesn't end that way. The guy went to talk with his boss (again), came back, and said "Congratulations, the van is yours!" And honestly we were shocked. But as he explained it, they try to sell at least 5 vehicles a day to cover their costs and make a profit. That day (and it was closing time by then) they'd only sold two cars. So, thank you Lord! We got a rockin' awesome deal on a minivan, and it's at the leather place right now getting brand new leather seats! So although we purchased a six-year-old car, it'll feel completely new to us with those new seats. (And we were even given a loaner car to drive while this is being done! How cool is that?!)

I think that we can go in the Guinness book for the most car-related transactions in a day! We sold a car, picked up a fixed car, and bought a car - all in one day. We are so thankful for how quickly this all worked out. It could have been a lot longer and more drawn out, but you know what? When God's hand is in a situation, we've found that it is always a lot smoother than you'd ever expect.

We love our "new" minivan! With sliding doors and a DVD player! Road trips and family vacations, here we come!!!

Oh, and I must give kudos to my husband who is Mr Incredible to me. He loves the minivan too! He has truly embraced the whole family life thing that we have going on here and he couldn't be happier. He gave up his truck for us to have a family-friendly minivan for this season in our lives. Oh yeah, now that's hot!

Elise's 4 month doctor visit

Elise had her four month well visit last week, and it went great! Although she's battling a cold now (she'd just gotten over her bronchiolitis!), the doc thought she was doing great! Her heart and lungs sounded wonderful, and her muscle strength is excellent. Thank you Lord!

She weighed in at 12.5 pounds (25th percentile) and 25 inches (75th percentile). She is growing well according to her growth chart. YAY!

The doctor gave us the go-ahead to start solid foods if we'd like, but we'll probably wait a few weeks or even a couple more months before we begin that. She seems very content with my breastmilk as her only food, so we're taking advantage of that! I'm sure she'll let us know when she's ready to try solids. We tried rice cereal with Isaac at four months, took lots of pictures, and then realized he really wasn't ready for it. He picked back up around five and a half months. We do know this: when we start solids with Elise, we'll skip the rice cereal and go for something a little more nutritious and a lot more yummy like mashed banana or avocado. And I'll definitely be blogging about it.

Thank you Lord for our little twelve pound wonder!

Our new fence!

Back in the warmer months of 2009, Steven and I realized that a fenced in yard was a must-have for our little family. Chasing Isaac from the back yard to the front yard got old really fast. So, in December, we hired some guys to put a split rail wood fence up in our back yard. We love our fence and have already been able to take advantage of it on some of the warm days we've had this past month. Here are a couple pictures of our fence that were taken on some of the cooler days this past month:

Elise is four months old!

On Saturday, Elise turned four months old!

Over the past month, Elise has become even more social - grinning, cooing, squealing, and laughing when anyone spends time with her! She loves "talking" and has recently begun talking and squealing very loudly to get our attention. We have nicknamed her our "little firecracker" because she seems to have a very determined disposition. She knows what she wants and she'll do whatever it takes to get it! (Is she a girl or what?!)

Most of the past month, she's still had bronchiolitis (coughing, wheezing, and congestion). However, in the past week, she seems to have gotten much better with much less of those symptoms! We're hoping for a wonderful report at her four month doctor visit on February 4th and no need for oral steroids!

Elise seems to have started teething recently, too! She drools quite a lot and chews on her fingers most of the time. We haven't seen any teeth emerge yet, but they'll probably show up in the next few months!

Elise loves her big brother and has started smiling at him throughout the day in hopes that he'll come over and give her some attention! She loves when he snuggles with her or kisses her. She also loves to be held by anyone. She is definitely a snuggler.

She had started to sleep through the night about a month ago, but due to her sickness, she stopped that pretty quickly. She typically nurses every 2-3 hours round the clock, and sometimes she'll sleep a stretch of 4-5 hours when we put her down for bed at night. Hopefully the long stretches of sleep are going to be back soon!

Our girl is showing us her strength by letting us stand her up on her feet for a few seconds before she loosens her knees. She's also sitting up (when propped up with pillows or in the bumbo) very well these days. She's almost comfortable holding her head up most of the day. She still loves to play on the playmat and wiggles like crazy on that thing! We call it her "gym time"!

We love this little girl and are blessed to have her in our lives!

Monthly comparison shots:
Birth - 9.30.09


One month - 10.30.09


Two months - 11.30.09


Three months - 12.30.09


Four months - 1.30.10



Pictures from Saturday's photo shoot of our "little firecracker":




Happy four months Elise!