When people ask me if we've been busy getting things ready for baby, my response is, "Um . . . not really." I have a feeling that, once the holidays are past, I will suddenly realize how much there is to do and buy. Case in point: the crib that's been sitting, disassembled, in a spare bedroom for two months while it's space in the to-be nursery is still occupied by a computer desk and filing cabinet.
But there are some things that we've been slowly preparing for baby, like a starter stash of cloth diapers, a carseat, and a crib mattress.
Let's all admire the carseat first. It's a True Fit Premier, which I have been coveting for a long time, and I was so excited when I scored one from diapers.com for about $90 off. I have done a
lot of research on carseats, and this is one of the kings of the carseat world. It came to our doorstep last Tuesday and I was
so excited.
The True Fit is much-loved in the carseat world. It has fantastic safety ratings and is a great fit for newborns (which is important, since we're not planning to use an infant seat at all) all the way up to 65 pounds. All of my research convinced me of two things:
- It's really important to keep your child rear-facing until they outgrow the rear-facing weight limit of the carseat. Most people still believe that you should turn the carseat to forward-facing once a child is 1 year old and 20 pounds. This is the bare minimum to be legal, but that doesn't mean it's the safest way - children should ideally stay rear-facing as long as their carseat will safely allow. A child is 5 times safer riding rear-facing than forward-facing. For that matter, adults would be safer riding in a car rear-facing, too, but obviously that's just not going to work out!! Anyway, this carseat will rear-face to up to 35 pounds, which is good
- Once a child is turned forward-facing, they are safest if kept in a carseat with a 5-point harness until they have reached either the weight limit or the height limit of the seat (typically 1 inch below the top of the shell). This carseat has a weight limit of 65 pounds, which is fantastic.
The carseat we bought has a 2017 expiration date (Did you know that carseats expire? The date is printed on the back/bottom of the seat. The plastic and material can deteriorate over time, and you won't know until the carseat fails in a crash). So we should get a lot of good use out of it (provided we don't get into a crash with it and have to replace it). Plus, it's pretty and seems really comfy for baby. :)
Now, about cloth diapers . . .
I always planned on using cloth diapers, but I assumed they were still the old-fashioned kind. A few years ago (yes, years), I happened across a reference to modern cloth diapers, was intrigued, looked them up, and became obsessed. There are so many options for cloth diapering these days, and believe it or not, they are making a comeback as more and more people find out about them. (A lot of people still look at me like I'm nuts when I mention using cloth, though - they talk about diaper pins and plastic pants and leaks and other things that are completely irrelevant with modern cloth diapers.) Although I'm not against disposables and am sure we'll use those at times, too, I love the idea of not sending thousands of diapers full of my baby's waste to sit in a landfill until the end of time. I also think cloth diapers are better for baby (all the chemicals in disposables are kind of disturbing when you really think about it) and bound to be more comfortable (after all, I prefer cloth underwear to Depends - haha!). Also, disposable diapers get expensive! Cloth diapers are an up-front investment, but will end up saving money in the long run, even with the extra utility costs from washing them (as long as you don't go too cloth-diaper-crazy and break your budget buying every cute new diaper that comes along).
Plus, they are irresistibly cute and fluffy!
Here's the stash that I've built so far:
5 BumGenius 3.0 one-size
6 Tiny Tush Elite one-size
4 Thirsties Duo Diapers size 1
2 Wahmies one-size
1 Sposoeasy all-in-one, size XS
3 Thirsties Duo Wraps covers, size 1
12 orange-edge and 12 yellow-edge GMD Cloth-Eez prefolds
One-size diapers, for example, are nice because they have multiple snap-down rise settings and an adjustable snap or aplix (Velcro) closure, so you can use them for a long time - in some cases from birth all the way to potty-training. Here's an example of the Tiny Tush Elite at four different size settings so you can see the kind of range I'm talking about:
The prefolds and covers are really simple to use, too. Just adjust the cover to the size setting you want, trifold the prefolded diaper and lay it in the cover, and presto! The inside of the cover can be wiped clean, so you can use the same cover several times before it needs to be washed.
I also have a couple other styles of cloth diapers that I plan to try, so my stash is not quite complete, but I'm happy with what I have so far. I'll probably also use a newborn cloth diaper rental program to rent 24 fitted diapers that will fit from birth to about 3 months to help us get through that newborn stage without having to do diaper laundry every day.
If you keep reading my blog after the baby is here, I'm sure you'll see more posts about cloth diapering as I try them out and learn more. I'm really excited to get started . . . I love all this adorable fluff!
To wrap up this long (and probably boring) post, a little online shopping excitement. I had already picked out the crib mattress that I wanted. On Sunday, I found it online at amazon.com for $65, which is a really good price. (I checked the price history, and $70 is about as low as it goes - the list price is typically about $90.) But I decided not to buy it right then and there.
On Monday morning, I checked the price and it was $75. GRRR! I was so upset that I hadn't bought it the night before. There must be something wrong with me that I would let something like a $10 price difference ruin my morning.
Monday night around 9 p.m., I checked again - it was now available for $60! My joy could not be measured. (Plus, I had $20 in amazon.com gift cards from using Swagbucks, so I actually got it for only $40 with free shipping. Don't know about Swagbucks? I'll definitely write a post about that soon!)
Did I buy it? You'd better believe it!
Today the price is back at $75, so I really squeezed into that window of opportunity. Now I have to stop checking it because I'll be upset if the price goes lower than $60. :) But I feel pretty confident that I got a good deal, and I'm rather addicted to good deals. Could you tell?
I prefer to focus on the things that we have bought/done/accomplished rather than all the things that we still have to take care of. I don't dare make a to-do list for fear that seeing it all in writing will stress out this mama-to-be!
(If you made it to the end of this long and rambling post, you deserve an award!)
