Diapers anyone?

Prior to the birth of our little girl, my wife and I had great expectations for saving the Earth. We thought, so long as we used cloth diapers on our LG we'd never have to take responsibility for the mountains of trash filling up our nations landfills or that weird ever-growing island of waste out in the Pacific Ocean. Yes, cloth diapers would be a way for us to look down on all of you disposable diaper users from our high horse and scoff at your complete disregard for our environment. And then, our baby girl arrived and our world was turned upside down.

So what happened to all of those cloth diapers and our big plans for saving the world? Well, nothing. Sure we spent a small mint on a diapering kit and special detergents, but in the end we just couldn't bring ourselves to use them. Things were very stressful in those first few weeks, first the jaundice then the acid reflux, it was just too much to add cloth diapers to the mix...So in order to save face we quickly rationalized using the disposables as a means to keep our sanity, and gained a full drawer of very soft and very absorbent burp cloths.

Hey but wait, it turns out all is not completely lost. As of this week we've turned the tides on pollution and have finally found the strength within ourselves to use our expensive cloth diapers. What made us do it? Simple, we're cheap. Yep, we did the math and all the convenience of those disposables does not make up for the amount of money we'll save over the first year of our LG's life. Don't believe me check this out.

I believe everything I read on the Interwebs so I take this little nifty calculator as gospel. If that thing is right I'll save about $600 dollars this year on those cloth wonders. It's not the environment I'm worried about here, it's my wallet. I mean, sure I worry about the environment, I recycle, I don't drink bottled water, I spurn plastic bags whenever possible, and I throw out other people's trash when time and hand sanitizer allows, but let's be real, in this economy it's all about the bottom line.

In the end, we're not sure how this cloth experiment is going to work, but since we've realized that everything about parenting is a challenge we figured why not tackle this one head on for a change, rather than getting blind sided by all those wonderful little surprises a new baby provides. If you're interested we're using Bummi's brand cloth diapering system that we got in a kit. And as for that special detergent, we're using Charlie's Soap when we wash the diapers. So far (even though I don't actually do the wash, god bless my beautiful wife!) I'm very pleased with it.

Acid Reflux you fickle B*tch...

Well, here we are, 2 weeks since my last post and so much going on at work and at home that I nearly forgot about the blog entirely. Well, not entirely, but close to it. I may have mentioned before that our daughter is suffering from acid reflux. This makes feeding painful for her and her mama, and it makes our home just a touch more stressful as we try to figure out the best course of action to help our LG.

Our biggest problem is that every day is different. She'll have 2-3 great days and then on the 4th day she'll be back to the screaming uncomfortable girl she was before she was diagnosed. Before we discovered the source of her pain and found a medication that would sooth her little belly, it was non-stop crying at casa de baby. These cries were not little 'I'm Hungry' or 'I messed myself' cries, these were the cries of pain both blood curdling and heartbreaking.

And then we found medication. Prevacid to be exact and for a few days she was much better and we thought we'd cured her. Nope. 3 good days and then we started going back down that hill again not back to those ear piercing screams, but she was really fussy and agitated during her meals. It was then that I made a mistake. I assumed the Prevacid wasn't working at all so rather than medicate her aimlessly I suggested we skip a dose to see what happens. Wrong, wrong, wrong, idea. We didn't give her the evening dose and at her very next feeding those heartbreaking cries echoed through the house and down the street. It was like we were back to when she was 2-weeks old.

Back on the Prevacid she went, and improve she did...For the most part. It's not perfect, but it helps. I hope she out grows it eventually like all the doctor's say she will because no baby needs this.

If you're a constant reader you'll be happy to know that our LG, despite the reflux issues began smiling a couple weeks ago. She smiles more at mama, but I'm getting more and more everyday and she is beautiful.

Photographer's Choice this week...

Peony, originally uploaded by RSCDoug.

Ok, I know the rules state I should be running around with my camera and getting new pictures for each challenge...I did the best I could here because I got my camera the day before our LG was born. So that means that the only new pics I have are all of her, and I'm not keen on posting those...So you get a couple of the shots I've taken during her naps!

My father-in-law is a flower farmer, and his field of awesome flowers happens to back up to my yard so I grabbed this shot of an uncut Peony before the end of the season.

Through the Trees, originally uploaded by RSCDoug.

This second shot is of a Japanese Maple in my neighbors yard that leans over the driveway. I though it was cool the way the sun was going through the leaves so I tried to capture it the best I could. I think it turn out OK...What do you think?

Do you want to play along in the You Capture activity? Click the at the bottom for rules and links to more great pictures.