I’m now undeniably, obvious-to-strangers, pregnant. Here’s the twin bump at 15 weeks:
According to my app, this week the babies are the size of avocados! I’m feeling pretty good, less gagging, still tired, but feel like most of the yucky symptoms are on the wane. I’m in an annoying stage, clothes wise. I pretty much can’t wear my regular pants, because even with a rubber band looped through the buttonhole and around the button, they fall down (belly bands are no help in the falling down dept) and the zipper that won’t zip all the way digs into me. But all of my maternity pants fall down too. I can’t blame them– my hips probably have a smaller girth than my gut these days, and they’re just doing what stretchy things do– moving toward the smaller point. But sagging crotch is not a cute look, so I’m left hiking my pants back up every 4th step. Jon suggested a belt, but stretchy waistbands have no belt loops. I need maternity suspenders.
I’m starting to spend a lot of time thinking about stuff we’re going to do with these kids once they’re out and in the world, particularly with a lot of research on cloth diapers. It’s something that’s really important to us and our eco-friendly, less-waste, money-saving values, so I hope to make it work! There are zillions of options and figuring out what to buy is actually a little overwhelming. Luckily, I have several good friends who cloth diaper and are happy to pass on resources and encouragement. Most of the negativity I get about my plan to cloth diaper comes from people who have never even tried it, and I realized yesterday that not one of my good friends who has tried cloth diapering has said, “screw it, this sucks, I’m switching back to disposables.” So that’s encouraging!
Still counting down the days til the 16th when we have another appointment and another peek at the babies! Not sure if they’ll be able to tell genders or not at that point.
erniebufflo's south & west kitchen 
High five on the cloth diaper as a father who did it with his son 25 years ago. We had friends who bought diaper service for us for the first year, It was a real bleassing.
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Avocados! :-)
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Allow me, then, to be the first to say “I tried it, it sucks.”
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I laughed out loud at the thought of maternity suspenders. My body type is completely different from yours, and I had the same problem with pants sliding down while I was pregnant. If someone could solve that problem, they could probably make millions. (Maybe you should get a patent for those maternity suspenders?)
Like I said on Twitter, we love cloth diapering. Honestly, after having him in cloth and now temporarily having to use disposables thanks to our washing machine woes, I greatly prefer cloth. Disposables sort of gross me out.
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Oh, and you are looking great, by the way! I know it may be tough at times to feel that way, but you look very healthy and happy.
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We cloth diapered and I don’t regret a single moment–even with daycare, working, and really, really hard water. I was nervous at first but once we got a routine set, to me it was easier than disposibles. We used prefolds and covers in the beginning because I didn’t want to invest a lot of money in it and then change my mind (and newborn diapers were realy expensive) From 3 mos until 2 when he potty-trained, we used the same stash of 25ish diapers.
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I’m with Amy. Only, no, it didn’t really SUCK, I just didn’t care enough to keep doing it. You will probably totally love it.
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I just got back from our 10 day trip to California where we did disposables for the first extended time… he was back in cloth as soon as we walked in the door. I guess there are people in the world that find laundry hard, but I’m not one of them. I like laundry. I have machines that do all the hard work!
As for the wardrobe, I liked the maternity stuff with just the small stretchy band for the middle – I only wore the “over the whole belly” style at the bitter end.
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One thing babysitting taught me was how nasty baby poo can be. How can such a small organism create such a deadly dump!? But after reading these posts by the Petersiks, cloth diapering actually sounded like less of a nasty mess than toxic disposable diapers.
Check it out here:
http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/08/the-much-requested-cloth-diaper-post/
http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/05/dog-days-cloth-dipes/
http://blogs.babycenter.com/life_and_home/diaper-tins-out-wet-bags-in/
Can’t wait to poke your outie in a couple of weeks!
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Jessica– The Petersiks were one of my major inspirations for the cloth diaper thing (thanks to you for emailing me the link to their site like a year ago!), and several friends have used the same brand of diapers they have, so I’m probably going in that direction!
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We are cloth diapering and love it. I’ve tried 10 different kinds, and have 3 that I love. I love BumGenius Elementals and 4.0, and am excited for the Freetimes to come out in December. We also love Soft Bums and Apple Cheeks. I tried so many because I won a bunch on blog giveaways. Don’t be afraid to enter those things. Cloth diapering is totally doable, but I do strongly recommend a diaper sprayer to attach to your potty. A friend gave me great advice to give myself grace at the beginning and ease into it, as I came out of the fog. Now it is pretty much second nature, and I prefer the cloth to disposables 100x over. He doesn’t get diaper rash, they don’t leak (sposies blow out ALL THE TIME), and they seem so much more comfortable. That doesn’t even touch the surface of the chemicals and environmental impact of sposies. You can do it! But don’t beat yourself up if you have to use some disposables. :)
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We cloth diapered and it was awesome!
For us, it was true that cloth diapers made potty training easier. When kiddo was about 22 months old, she got tired of the feeling of the cloth diapers and literally potty trained herself one day. She ripped the diaper right off and sat on her potty, which had been sitting for months in the corner. From then on, every time we tried to put a diaper on (it helped that it was a hot summer,) she said “NO! I big girl. I wear underpants!”
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For the record, disposables do not leak and blow out all the time, unless you’re using them wrong or buying a crappy brand.
As with anything else, don’t listen to evangelicals on either side. The people who say cloth diapers are genius and perfect and super easy are just as suspicious as the people who say cloth diapers are always smelly and messy and inconvenient.
I’m not saying don’t use cloth diapers. Do whatever you want. To each his own. Both methods have pros, and both have cons. And as with anything else, the environmental impact goes both ways.
It’s perfectly fine to use a mix of cloth and disposable. Consider having both on hand so you can make the decision for yourself, not based on what friends or the trendy bloggers du jour or your families want you to do.
It’s more true with parenting than with anything else — never say never. The more sure you are that you will absolutely, positively diaper/birth/feed/raise a child a certain way, the more likely the universe is to laugh at you and show you who’s boss.
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Thanks, Amy. Like everything else, my goal is to be laid back and go with the flow. I don’t wanna beat myself up if I have to have a c-section, even though I’d rather not. I don’t want to beat myself if exclusive breastfeeding isn’t a possibility, but I hope it works out. And I don’t want to be angry with myself if the cloth diaper thing doesn’t happen, though I really hope it does. If there’s anything life’s taught me so far, it’s that if you want to see God laugh, make a plan.
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You look absolutely fabulous!
Okay, I didn’t have kids, but if I did I would have gone cloth. I just can’t stand how bad plastic is for the environment, not to mention it takes oil to make plastic.
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We used disposables for the first three weeks, since at 5 lbs, the baby couldn’t fit into the cloth yet. (And we weren’t about to run out and buy a stash of preemie sized diapers and covers.) When we started using the prefolds and covers, it was just as easy as disposables. My husband is withholding final judgement until she’s truly on solids, but six months in, it’s been a breeze. The environmental issues weighed heavily in my initial desicion, but there’s also no way we could afford the cost of disposables every month.
That said, no one should have to defend the choices they make. What works for one family might not work for another. Okay, deep down, I get judgemental, but I remind myself that’s based on my circumstances, not yours.
What I’m trying to say is don’t feel bad if it doesn’t work for you, but don’t feel bad if it does.
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The twin bump! I love it!
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We used disposables for the first month then switched to cloth and I loved cloth so much. We stayed in cloth until he was 9 months+. I think the key to successful cloth is a good detergent. We used Rockin Green, bought at the Green Corner Store in Soma but also on SOAP.com, and I only ever did 1 rinse cycle without soap, 1wash cycle with soap, no fabric softener. And with spring/summer babies, you can sun bleach them on a dry rack and it’s fast and the sun removes any stains or odors!
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