2016\2017 – Years in Review

It’s been a two year journey that I wish I could have been sharing here – but it wasn’t something I could find enough free time for to make a priority. Unfortunately! Because I’ve always really enjoyed blogging and sharing my passions with others.

But as 2018 really gets underway and big shifts are currently taking place in our lives, I’m hoping that we will have the opportunity to share more of the next adventure in our playbook. It’s going to be a wild and fun one. ✨🗝️

As you all know, in 2016 I had a baby! At home! And I ate my placenta 🙂

We traveled a bit that year – to Hawaii and Disneyland. Lots of joy was had on both!

In 2017 we really worked hard around the house and homestead. WE GOT CHICKENS! And put a lot of our time and energy into building them a coop and chicken yard. We only traveled once (a cruise) and it was rough and not as enjoyable as we would have liked. It set off a few months of shadow work, but we made it out the other side.

I also started hosting monthly women’s circles in fall of 2017: Sacred Sunday Sisterhood. It’s been a beautiful blossoming and the community has grown to such a fabulous group of women supporting women.

This year has been all about finding our freedom, sovereignty and passion. We left the corporate world to focus full time on our little homestead and family. We sold a rental property we owned and are funding our dreams this way!

I’m now pursuing a long held dream: to become a full time potter! I have so much more to say about this and I will – but for now you can follow along here: @misty.mountain.pottess

This is a short and mostly pictureless post, so I do apologize, but BIG THINGS BE A COMING, FRIENDS! More soooooon!!

I Ate My Placenta

Yep. I did. I gobbled it all up!

Well, I added it to smoothies immediately postpartum and then had my dear friend encapsulate the rest for me.

It was something I had planned to do when I was pregnant with bunkers, too, but his birth didn’t go as planned so that didn’t happen.

During my pregnancy with my baby girl I once again wished to consume my placenta and this time I was able to fulfill that wish! And what a difference it has made for me during this postpartum period!

The are many benefits to consuming your placenta, but for me my main interest was in helping postpartum depression.

You can read more about the “whys” here.

Now that I am 10 weeks postpartum I can tell you a few things I feel like eating my placenta has helped with:

– Milk production. It took four long days for my milk to come in after Bunker’s birth. This time it was just 36 hours! And my milk supply has been ample! I just barely made enough when I was pumping for Bunkers.

– Postpartum depression. I’m not even 3 months out from birth, so I realize things can change, but I have none of the intense ‘dread’ I had in the first six months or so after Bunkers was born. In fact, 90% of the time I feel really, really fabulous!

-Nutrition. Placentas have TONS of nutrients in them! It’s been like taking a perfectly formulated multivitamin and I have felt very healthy; I didn’t feel this great even a year after Bunkers was born.

Placenta Smoothie Recipe

I did lots of research on placenta smoothies when I was pregnant. I wanted a tasty smoothie but also something packed with nutrition. I picked ingredients from several different things I read and also added in some vitamins and nutrient dense foods to create a tasty and nutrition packed part birth recovery food!

Immediately following the birth, cut three 1.5-inch square pieces from the placenta for your three smoothies. Have your first one immediately postpartum and then the others every 24 hours. After you cut your three pieces you can place the remaining two pieces in the freezer for second and third smoothies. Save the rest of your placenta for encapsulation! Speak with the person doing your encapsulation and see if they want your placenta put in the fridge or freezer.

Blend together:
1 piece of placenta
1/2 can coconut milk (about 1.5 cups)
1/2 an avocado
1/2 cup salted cashews
1/2-1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 t magnesium powder
1/2 t vitamin c
2 T collagen hydrolysate (protein)
1/2 t Himalayan pink salt
1/2-1 T manuka honey, to desired sweetness
Water as needed for consistency

We used an immersion blender for this and it worked great; we put all of the ingredients into a quart jar and blended away! A strong standard blender will work, too.

I hope I have inspired you to give it a go!

Homebirth of our Girl

We did it! We had a homebirth!

When I last posted I was 37.5 weeks and I still had 2 weeks to go!

Wednesday I cleaned and organized for 8 hours. I was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I had such a strong urge to prepare!

I woke up on Thursday morning at 1am with what felt like period cramps and I was starting to lose my mucus plug. Nothing too intense but it felt different. I did my best to get more sleep.  At 7am I text my midwife to let her know that the contractions were very consistent. I had a midwife appointment scheduled for that day, so she said she would see me in a few hours.

I went about my morning breathing through the contractions and starting to use my hypnobirthing techniques. The drive to the midwife was interesting and took almost twice as long because of a crazy rainstorm. Once I arrived the midwife observed some contractions and did a vaginal exam and told me I was at 1-2cm. She said it could be today, or it could be next week, we would just have to see!

I drove home and B and I frantically worked on getting everything ready. I knew it was going to be soon. I text everyone who needed to know. I did more cleaning. I got out the birth box and we rearranged the living room for the pool.

At 3pm I felt what I thought was my water breaking. A small dribble. I called the midwife and she talked with me a bit and listened to my contractions and then WOOSH my waters fully released. She said she would be there by 6pm.

I went to the closet to change my pants and had such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and awe over my body and my baby. How amazing that my body was naturally doing its thing to get my baby out! What a cool experience this was going to be!

Everyone arrived about the same time. The midwife, student midwife, doula, my bff (and her 8 day old baby!) my aunt. Brandon made everyone dinner and I sat on the couch and chatted and breathed through contractions.

My wonderful doula started setting up the birth pool. When it was time to full it up the water coming out was rusty. We checked the other faucets and that water was rusty, too. Earlier in the day we had run several loads of laundry and dishes and the hot water tank had been nearly emptied. It’s an old tank and apparently has some rust on the bottom and that had been unsettled. The midwife said I couldn’t birth a baby in that water.

Thankfully it was still early. I was still managing my contractions just fine with breath and hypnobirthing techniques. I just rolled with it and the birth pool was packed back up and put away.

About this time it was evening and I was ready to lay down and just labor by myself in the bedroom. And that is what I did for many hours while my birth team hung out and slept in the living room.

Those hours are a blur of breathing and contracting and connecting with my body and my baby. It was a time of deep introspection and wonder for me. Things were getting stronger and more intense.

By 4am I was in the depths of it. I was starting to feel tired and like I couldn’t handle the intensity anymore. Thankfully I had such a great support team. B helped me take a shower. I sat on the toilet. I sat on the birth ball. I rolled around the bed. My contractions were one after another. I entered transition.

I remember saying things like “I can’t do this anymore!” and in the back of my mind my internal doula was saying, “Of course you can! You’re just in transition!” And I believed myself, but the pain was intense and the hypnobirthing wasn’t working for me anymore.

I believe I was in transition for about two hours. The midwife and doula were with me that while time, but I was still feeling very introspective and was still just rolling around the bed. I was frustrated about the birth pool.

The midwife suggested maybe I should take another shower with B. I didn’t really want to, but I started to get up out of bed anyway. As I did I had a gush of water. With the next contraction I felt pushy and I told the midwife. She rushed out to get the rest of the birth team and her supplies.

What an amazing feeling it is to feel pushing naturally! As soon as I realized I was feeling the urge to push I felt relief. It was going to be over soon and I was going to meet my baby! The room filled with my people and the birth supplies. I was standing at the end of my bed. During each contraction I would squat a bit and during each resting phase I would lean over the birth ball on my bed. Everyone was there offering support and encouragement and it was exactly what I needed, despite preferring to make on my own for the most part. It felt like a party, a celebration! And it was!

Just 7 minutes after I told the midwife I was feeling pushy my baby girl was born. The pushing felt really actually so relieving. I remember the pushing being so painful with Bunker’s birth, but I was on my back in a hospital bed pushing without the urge to do so. There must be something about a natural birth (and perhaps pushing while standing/squatting) that helped me have literally no ring of fire or any intense pain while birthing.

The midwife and my wonderful husband were behind me and together they caught my baby and helped to hand her to me so I could turn around and sit on the bed. Relief! I had done it! What a magical feeling!!

Everything is a bit of a blur after that. But I was instantly energized and in love with my baby! And everyone around me! It was as if a love bomb went off!

I birthed the placenta, my aunt cut the cord, I had a shower and got fresh clothes. A wonderful meal was made for me and my first placenta smoothie. My baby latched on. It was bliss!

The midwife and student midwife checked me over (no tears) and checked out our baby girl. She was 7 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long. Born at 7:08 am.

Bunkers was with my wonderful parents throughout my labor and they brought him over to meet the new baby about 10am. He was so proud!

What an amazing experience it all was. A truly once in a lifetime experience for me. I feel so blessed to have experienced a naturally starting and naturally occurring birth in my own home. What a gift! 🌹

Nesting

Happy New Year! 2016 is going to be fabulous!

We are settling in and getting ready for our baby girl to arrive! Currently I am 37.5 weeks and (as far as I am aware) not showing any signs of impending labor. But that’s just fine – I have some things I want to get done before she comes!

I’ve got all of her bitty clothes, diapers, blankets, and carriers washed and put away! I love this setup that I made for their clothes. All of Bunker’s stuff is on the left: shirts and sweaters hanging, pants in the bin below them. Then he has the bottom two drawers in the center: shallow one for socks and undies and the bottom one for pajamas and woolen undergarments. 

The way I made the wardrobe was by adding dowels to Ikea Trofast shelving. We bought some 1 inch dowels at the hardware store and B cut them to size and screwed them in. Easy! I just love the way it turned out. And the storage space on top for diapers is excellent, too.

This whole set up is in our master bedroom. We just rearranged the room (nesting!) And it’s so so fabulous. I truly believe in the energy flow of a space because it’s just 100x better, now!

In other news, we got kittens! We got them in November as a surprise for Rhyko. He really loves cats and had been asking for them one for a while. Previously we had attempted having one kitten and that did not work out. One kitten will play with you with claws as a litter mate stand in! Ouch! And it just didn’t work at the condo – there was nowhere for the cat box to go! Anyhow, we got a pair of older kittens from different litters and they have just been a joy! They are slightly naughty, but I suspect all kittens are!

We also went on our fun vacation that I talked about! It was really lovely. The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

I think that’s all for now! I have some ideas in the works for my blog so stay tuned, but don’t hold your breath! I am having a baby, afterall! 🙂

Warmly,
Christina

New House Before Pictures

So if you saw my last blog post you know that we moved – again! This time to more of our ‘dream’ home on an acre in a more rural area. We still have our condo and my sister in law and her fiance are renting it, so whenever they are ready to move on from the condo we will remodel that as well. But for now we are working on our new house!

Our new house is on a rural highway and sits overlooking a beautiful wetland valley where we have seen elk, deer, coyotes, bobcats, eagles, hawks, cranes, and lots of ducks and birds. It’s super lovely on the back porch in the summer time!

Our house was built in 1978 by the neighbor who still lives a stone’s throw away! He’s a sweet old guy with a sweet old wife and they are just the cutest, cutest couple! He’s been so helpful with questions we have. Our neighbor just between us is also great and has been helpful, too!

When we bought the house it was in near original condition. Original carpet, popcorn ceiling, original bathrooms and some groovy wallpaper that had been painted over (ugh).

The only thing that anyone had done was to put some stick down ‘wood’ floor over the original 70’s goovy orange and brown floral linoleum. Which was probably a good choice!

It needed a lot of work, but I could see the potential. The land is great and the layout of the house is really fabulous, it just needed a face-lift.

We were not at all in a place to buy a house when we did, but we made it happen. B was not super thrilled about moving again, but all the work we did when we moved to the condo with minimizing our stuff really helped. We didn’t even need to rent a moving truck!

So once we had the house we set to work. We knew it needed new carpet before we could move in. There was a disgusting perfume/cat pee smell that was overwhelming. So we tore up the carpet and found that the subfloor was covered in small water spill stains or pee stains. So we tore that up, too, and replaced it with new plywood. We had new carpet installed in the bedrooms and living room and left the tile in the entryway and the stick down wood floors in the kitchen/dining area.

I also set to work painting. I painted all of the interior walls and I painted the kitchen cabinets and countertops. I just could NOT live with the mustard yellow countertops! If I had known we would be tearing out the kitchen less than 6 months later I would not have bothered, but our original plan was to do the kitchen next year but we had a mouse/carpenter ant issue in the kitchen and had to tear it all out to fix things!

I will make some posts soon on our bathroom remodel and, once it’s complete, our kitchen remodel!

(All the pictures in this post except the last one are real estate pictures)

2015 Update!

Things have been a little crazy (in mostly a good way!) around here this year since my last posting!

Firstly, just shortly before my last posting we bought a house. I know, we have literally be renovating and moving the entire time I have been blogging! I really thought we would settle into the condo and be there a while – and that was the plan! We were not looking to move less than a year after buying and moving into our beloved condo! However, I happened to find a house for sale in an area we like with an acre and so we jumped on it. I’m so so glad we did! Things tend to happen for a reason and as the story unfolds I think you’ll see the serendipity, too!

We bought our new house at the end of January of this year and we had to do some work to it before we could move in, so we got started on that right away. It was built in 1979 and the owners had done next to nothing to the house, so it was in basically original condition! Original carpet, original bathrooms, original kitchen… all very, very 70s and very, very worn. We absolutely had to replace the carpet before we could move in, so our first task was to remove the old carpet and we found that we needed to replace the subfloors as well. Before we had new carpet installed we painted all the interior walls. We also gutted the hallway bathroom to the studs and remodeled that. I will share that in another post. I love the finished bathroom! It was about 6 weeks of work before we could move in, but it was great to have the time to get all of that done.

You can see why the carpet had to go…!

After we moved in we had a nice period of rest and relaxation to enjoy our house. In April we went to Hawaii and got to enjoy Kauai for a week. Bunkers just absolutely loved Hawaii and by more serendipity we get to go again next month! You’ll see why…

As soon as we got back from Kauai, B had to go to Finland for a work trip for a week and Bunkers and I had a really awesome bonding time while he was gone. I was nervous to parent alone for a week, but it went really smoothly!

That is, until a couple days before B was due home and something urged me to take a pregnancy test. It was faintly positive and I absolutely freaked. I bought more tests of different brands and they were all negative, so I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to forget about it.

B came home and another week came and went and my period was late. I tested again.

YUP. Pregnant. Ooops. Definitely not in the plan! We had literally just decided that we were more than happy with just one kiddo and were planning when B could get the snip.

Serendipitously, my close friend found out at the same time that she’s also pregnant and due 12 days before me. This is funny and ironic because we were actually planning to try and have our second children around the same time so that we could do the new baby thing together this time. Our plan was to have June babies so we were going to wait until about now to get pregnant, but I got cold feet. At a playdate just before I found out I was pregnant she told me she had just found out that she was pregnant already and I told her that was perfect because I had just found out that I didn’t want to have another baby, so I’d support her all the way! Little did I know I was already pregnant. The universe works in mysterious ways!

Initially, I was devastated. I felt like I had finally (finally!) made up my mind and was a peace with the decision to not have any more babies. I felt like my world had been turned upside down. And to top it off we already had a fabulous cruise booked and paid for scheduled for the end of October. You can’t be more than 24 weeks pregnant to board a cruise ship and I will be 28 by then.

Before I even had time to try and process everything I got sick. My midwife says that I was dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum. Starting at 6 weeks and lasting until 16 weeks I was bedridden. In the middle there I literally could only get out of bed to go pee once or twice a day (that’s all the pee I had!) and to puke (about 5-10 times a day) and I would sometimes black out trying to do that. I could hardly eat anything and what I did eat seldom stayed down, even water. I lost 15 pounds in the first few weeks of that and didn’t start regaining any of that weight until after 16 weeks. Here now at 20 weeks I am still 8 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight!

It was a really, really rough patch for all of us. B and Bunkers were so wonderful. It was stressful for them – B had to do all of his normal work AND all of the household work that I usually did. He had to make all the meals and watch over Bunkers. I was basically useless for the better part of two months. Things gradually started improving by 14 weeks and I could get up and do things in short stints. I finally did a grocery trip with Bunkers all on my own at about 16 weeks and that felt like such an accomplishment!

I don’t really feel like going into any more detail about all of that, other than to say that I was really, really sick. It just sucked big time and it honestly didn’t help the way I was feeling about being pregnant in general!

Thankfully the HG has lifted (some moms have it the whole pregnancy!) and I can eat full meals and take prenatals and supplements and go out and do things! I’m much more at peace with my pregnancy and am really looking forward to having a little girl!

I had the Panorama Maternity 21 test done at 13 weeks and we found out we are, in fact, having a healthy baby girl!

Needless to say, we had to cancel our cruise but we just recently booked a NEW vacation that I think will suffice just fine…

I can handle that!

We have some more interesting things going on right now (our kitchen is down to the studs currently, for example!) but I will save that for another post another day.

But now you’re up to date with me and why I haven’t been posting much at all this year!

Waldorf on a Budget (And the Fabulous Things I Find at Thrift Shops!)

We are a Waldorf family. Bunkers goes to a local Waldorf school and is part of the multi-age kindergarten there. At 3.5 years old he’s the youngest child; a role in which he really thrives. We have been using many Waldorf principles and philosophies since he was an infant and one of them has been to have our home be in a Waldorf ‘style’.

For us, this means that we choose warm, natural paint colors and soft, natural furniture.

We also tend towards this philosophy with regards to toys and playthings. We are not plastic free in our house, though – we have a fair amount of Playmobil toys but they get played with the most! The group of 3-5 year old boys in our natural mamas group just adores them and will play with them for hours!

However, all of the kids love our playstands (which I bought on Craigslist for $150) and the nice wooden toys inside, as well as the wooden kitchen and playfood.

Buying lovely wooden Waldorf toys and play things can be very expensive. I love to support the artisans who craft these things when I can (and we have purchased many truly wonderful hand crafted toys!), but I do like to save money when I can and I have found that there is a treasure trove of Waldorf toys to be found at local thrift or charity shops such as Goodwill, Value Village, Salvation Army, St. Vincent’s, etc. I will share with you some of the things I have found!

Some wonderful Waldorf finds!

A gorgeous wooden sewing machine found at Value Village for $2.99. I added string and a small scrap of fabric for ‘sewing’. A basket of felt veggies, both items found separately at Goodwill.

Bowls! Thrift shops are fabulous for wooden bowls, wooden trays (we use this one for snacks at playgroup, but it could be used for sorting), and even a wooden goblet. I found this little porcelain cooking pot and it’s used in the play kitchen. The lid went missing in our last move, though! Just out of frame here are a couple baskets I’ve found, as well. So.many.baskets to be found at thrift shops! The silks I made, but this gorgeous bowl is perfect to house them.

Another find in the ‘wood stuff’ section was this wooden tool box. It could be used for a child’s tools, but Bunkers has a different set. Instead, I use it to keep our candles and incense together. Also, I got a set of three of these adorable clay candle holders at Value Village in Wisconsin! They are precious and we use them at our table for beeswax candles lit during mealtimes.

This (well loved) rocking horse I found at Goodwill for $5. One of my best finds, I feel! Also, the little metal xylophone is a favorite and was just $1! I also found that sheepskin rug on the right of this picture at Goodwill for $7. I washed it and brushed it out and it’s fabulous! Better view of a couple baskets. The wooden ‘crate’ basket usually houses wooden animals.

Another great find! This I found at a local children’s consignment shop and paid $7 for it. I decorated a few of the gnomes myself. Another big hit at playgroup.

I’ve had lots of people ask me how I find these things – and the answer is that I go to these shops often. These finds are after years of checking Goodwill and Value Village several times a month. It’s fun for me and I like hunting for awesome things. I do my best to be a mindful shopper and only buy things that I truly need or will actually use.

I don’t just go to thrift shops looking for toys, though – I buy about 90% of Bunkers’ clothes there. I have found it’s been such a great deal. Not only do babies and children grow out of clothes so quickly, but they often don’t get to wear something much before it’s too small. A very good percent of the clothing I have found for children at thrift stores is in like new condition – some still with tags! I’ve found Hannah Andersson, North Face, Gap, Gymboree, Mini Boden, and Land’s End for great prices at thrift shops. I buy almost all of my clothes there as well.

Another thing I find at thrift shops are woolen blankets. We keep a stash of them in our cedar chest for winter time. Each person in our family has one and we keep one extra on hand as well. Woolen blankets can be used for things other than blankets, too. You can use that wool for fabric for sewing. I also purposefully felted one wool blanket and we use it as a wet pad under the sheet on our bed. It’s never failed us!!

Yet another thing I keep a look out for a thrift shops is small silverware. Silverware is HUGE these days! I much prefer the dainty silverware of years past, and, obviously, so does Bunkers. I buy ‘small’ silverware (as in, what was considered ‘normal size’ in the 50s and 60s but is now about toddler/young child size) for him to use.

Art is another thing I buy at thrift shops. I have some really adorable and really fabulous pieces that I adore that were just a few dollars at the thrift store! Art is very expensive to buy new!

I also buy some kids books at the thrift store. I have to be very particular and I read them all from cover to cover before I buy them as there is a lot of really awful writing for children out there. But, I have found some great books. A perfect example was this Laura Ingalls picture book. It’s simply adorable.

Do you thrift shop? What awesome things have you found?

Baby Topics: Cloth Diapers

This post has been in my drafts for over a year! I figured I’d spend just a few minutes and finish it up to share my thoughts!

I have had about a dozen people ask me about cloth diapers and every time I am so happy to share our experience; but that means I’ve basically typed up this post about… a dozen times!

I thought I’d just type up a post about cloth diapers and then when someone asks, I can simply give them a link to this post – which will invariably have MUCH more information than me just typing something up really quickly in reply to them.

So, we chose to cloth diaper for many reasons, but they are (in order of importance to me):

1. Much lower chemical exposure to baby than disposables. That is why we chose organic cotton prefolds (more on this later).
2. Environmental impact: (1) Less energy and resources in making cloth diapers (generally a 1 time purchase for use from newborn to potty learned) than disposables and (2) less waste generated in using cloth diapers than buying disposables every week.
3. Ease of use. Not that disposables aren’t easy and cloth diapers are easier. Not at all – but cloth diapers aren’t hard; they are quite easy to use and clean and that was a plus for me.

When I was pregnant (all 7 months!) I researched the heck out of cloth diapers. I wanted to be frugal, and I wanted to use prefolds and that was all I knew when I started out. I ultimately chose to buy Bummis covers and prefolds, both from people selling them used on Craigslist. I bought  Bummis Super Whisper Wraps from this super nice lady who had like six kids. She was knitting and they were all playing in the yard when I pulled up. “Oh, it’s going to be so much fun to be a mom!” I thought. From another woman I bought prefolds (she said they were organic, so hopefully they were). I had sizes newborn through medium all set! I was on the search for larger sizes and ended up buying a whole set of prefolds and Dappi diaper covers from another mom. Don’t do Dappi. Just don’t. They were awful.  The prefolds were useless, too… they were made with the type of cotton you might make a bed sheet from. No absorbency,  no quilting, nothing. I used neither of these things!

Anyway, when my little one ended up coming quite early, I knew I was going to have to buy MORE diapers, but being on hospital bedrest and then in the NICU for almost a month, I was in no place to scour Craigslist looking for diapers for my little preemie. I really like Bummis for their ethics, so I opted to get more of those. It so happens, too, that Bummis makes one of the smallest covers on the market – the newborn size Super Brite. It can fit babies from 4-9 pounds! And once our little one came home from the NICU he was about 6 pounds and they fit him great. He wore them until he was 9 pounds on the dot and then *POOF* they were too small.

So, before I get into all the things I bought – let me say this:

Don’t buy a full set of just one thing. Don’t buy 36 AIOs (all in ones) from the same brand and call it good. What if you hate them? What if they don’t fit *your* baby right? Sure, you can sell them, but you’ll still lose some money. Buy ONE of a few different brands of AIOs if that’s what you want. Buy a couple pockets if they interest you. Buy a couple different prefolds if that’s the route you want to take. Buy a few different brands of covers for them (either one size or newborn size).  Or whatever you want to try. Try them out on your newborn and see how you like them. I read advice like this and I didn’t listen; but I was pretty convinced I wanted to do prefolds and covers, and luckily I did end up liking them. However, what if I had not been happy with prefolds and then I’d be stuck with a whole bunch of them until I bought something else and sold those. Just something to keep in mind. You can re-sell your diapers; I have had luck on Craigslist or the Mothering.com Trading Post.

We did end up trying several different types of diapers (we tried AIOs and pockets in addition to prefolds and covers) but we ultimately ended up using prefolds and covers and I loved them. If we ever have another baby we will do prefolds (or flats) and covers again. So, because I don’t have a lot of experience with AIOs and pockets and because I prefer prefolds and covers for the following reasons:

1. Easy to use. Some would argue this, but I found them incredibly easy to put on both a newborn and a toddler. Velcro is easier than snaps, but by 8 months my son figured out how to rip the velcro open and take his diaper off! We switched to snaps at that time.
2. Easy to wash. AIOs tend to be hard to get clean and take a long time to dry. You need to pull dirty inserts out of pockets. With most covers you can hang them to dry if they didn’t get dirty and re-use them (until either they get soiled or it’s the next wash day, whatever comes first).
3. A natural fiber is touching baby’s skin. Most AIOs (not all!) and pockets have fleece touching baby’s skin and fleece is made entirely from plastic. Yes, you can get microfiber or fleece type inserts for covers, but for the most part covers are used with prefolds and flats and those tend to be cotton or hemp. I chose organic cotton because that is better both for the environment and for baby.
4. Cheaper. AIOs and even pockets are much more expensive than prefolds or flats and covers.
5. Durable. Prefolds and flats wash and wear much better than AIOs and pockets. And if one tears for some reason, it’s easily replaced for just a few dollars. If an AIO tears you’ll need to repair it or replace it for upwards of $15-30.

Ultimately, we used/tried:

• Bummis covers
• Bummis Prefolds in premie size
• Thirsties Duo Wrap Covers
• OsoCozy Prefolds
• OsoCozy Flats (when Bunkers was near done with diapers)
• Unknown brand organic cotton prefolds (I am guessing Green Mountain)
• Imagine Organic Prefolds
• Fuzzibunz pockets
• Flip Covers (used with prefolds)
• BumGenius AIO (Elemental style)
• Dappi covers
• Imagine AIOs

Anything I bought new was either from Amazon (get an Amazon rewards visa and use it for your regular grocery and gas purchases and you’ll be able to get a lot for free! But pay it off every month, please!) or Nicki’s Diapers. Nicki’s is a great company and they offer competitive prices and free shipping on most diapers.

Our experience and if I had it to do all over again:

I would use flats instead of prefolds. Flats get cleaner and dry faster. We had some stink issues with our prefolds and it was this (paired with Bunkers only wetting one or two diapers in a 24 hour period by 15 months – he was using the potty pretty well by then) that made us stop using cloth. I would only have four or five diapers in the pail after 48 hours and cloth diapers shouldn’t really sit any longer than that. It felt like a waste and a strain on water resources to wash that small of a load. So we switched to disposable diapers at that point. I felt bad about it, but we were only using 1 or 2 a day. After a while we switched to pull up style disposable diapers and then when Bunkers was about 22 months old I bought some cloth training pants. The week after his 2nd birthday he was not having any accidents anymore! And he’s been fully committed to using the potty since then. We used a couple different training pants and I really prefered the Imse Vimse organic cotton ones. They held in one pee very well.

Also if I had it to do over again, I would just stick with Bummis for the newborn stage up until they are sitting up and I would use velcro. Velcro is so easy to put on and when it’s the fifth diaper change of the night at 3am you really don’t want to try and do four (or more!) snaps. You just don’t. Thirsties offer velcro and we used those when Bunkers outgrew the newborn Bummis at about 4 months until about 12 months when we couldn’t keep the velcro ones on him anymore (trick: keep a onesie on them. It was a super hot summer, so that didn’t work for us and we were doing EC and needed quick access).

Once baby is ready to sit up, I feel like velcro is a bit of a hinderance. It’s stiff and kinda bulky and doesn’t bend well. And a lot of babies will figure out how to undo velcro around this time!

Once Bunkers outgrew the Bummis diapers I had bought on Craigslist and online and was ripping open the velcro on the Thirsties, I switched to snaps. I ended up buying Flip diaper covers by BumGenius and I am very glad I did! They have two snaps on each flap and an adjustable rise. We never once had a leak or blowout with these diapers and if there is a next time I will probably use these over the Thirsties.

See how the velcro seems to make it hard for him to sit straight?!

Here’s what my stash would look like if I were expecting another baby:

For the newborn size (4-8 weeks)

• Bummis Super Brite Newborn Covers – 6 total
• Organic Birdseye Flats – 36 total
• Snappi

For the infant size (2-8 months-ish)

• Bummis Super Brite in size Small – 6 total
• Organic Birdseye Flats – 36-48 total (Might need more by this age to double up for nighttime)
• Snappi

For the older infant/young toddler size (10 months to potty learned)

• Flip Diaper Covers – 6 total
• Organic Birdseye Flats – 36-48 total (Might need more by this age to double up for nighttime)
• Snappi (we were not using a snappi anymore, just doing a newspaper fold, but some people find them still helpful at this stage!)

Also, for all stages:

• Diaper pail (I don’t recommend the one I used, so research to find one that works well with cloth diapers and cloth diaper pail bags)
• Diaper pail bags (Get two so that you have one to put in the pail when the other gets taken to the wash)
• Wet bags for in the diaper bag

For diaper pail bags and wet bags I wholeheartedly recommend Planet Wise! They are available on Nicki’s Diapers or Amazon for amazing prices. We still use them for our family cloth in the bathroom!

That all looks so nice and simple, huh?! And it is, and that’s what I like about it.

Did you cloth diaper? What kinds did you use?

Pottery Class

I took a pottery class recently and really enjoyed it! It was actually a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be! Getting the clay centered on the wheel is the hardest part!

I ended up missing two classes because we were on vacation, so I didn’t get to make as many pieces as my classmates, but it was still a great learning experience.

The teacher is really neat. She’s been doing pottery for as long as I have been alive! She’s an amazing artist. And a great teacher!

I’m all signed up for the next set of classes and they start next week! I literally can’t wait! So excited.

My goals for this session are:

To make taller mugs (mine came out toddler sized, which worked out okay for my toddler…!)

To make more pieces (spend less time per piece and go to open studio practice hours)

Make at least 3 bowls

Make at least 6 mugs

Attempt making a plate

Try out a painting glaze

Breakfast

We eat the same breakfast everyday, DH and I. Bunkers has some sometimes, too, but he’s not as dedicated as we are and sometimes likes to have something else.

Anyway, we have been eating this breakfast for almost a year and it just never gets old! It’s SO good.

You might read through the ingredients and question some of them or think it might taste gross, but I urge you to try it with all the ingredients and see how it is! To us, it tastes like a delux burger…! I don’t know how that can be… but it does!

As always, I recommend getting local farm fresh eggs. They just taste so much better and you won’t believe me until you try! Every place we have lived I have found local families selling eggs on Craigslist. I go pick up the eggs, so I am able to see the living conditions for the chickens and check out what they are being fed. Usually they are about half the price of store bought organic eggs. Which, is an issue in and of itself! 

If you feel like mixing it up (which sometimes we do!) you can opt to cook up bacon and cut it up into this bowl instead of the sausage. Or pre-cooked chicken!

Egg Bowl

Ingredients

2-4 eggs (I eat 2, DH eats 4!)

1/3 pound ground pork made into breakfast sausage (click here for recipe!)

1/4 cup sauerkraut (Bubbies is great if you can find that. If not, look for raw organic kraut in the refrigerator section, not the stuff in jars by the ketchup)

1/4 avocado

1 oz cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon horseradish (we also buy Bubbies raw horseradish paste. This is optional, I suppose – but it’s so good! And really good for your immune system! I encourage you to give it a try. I don’t really like horseradish, but I just love these egg bowls!)

Salt and pepper to your liking

Method

Prepare your eggs how you like. Scrambled works great, or fried with runny yolks works great, too! You just cut it up in your bowl to mix with the other ingredients.

Prepare your sausage. We follow this recipe that I have posted here on my blog and just brown it into medium crumbles (larger than how you might prepare taco meat, for example) in a skillet.

Place all ingredients into a large enough bowl and give a good stir. I like to, while the eggs and sausage are cooking, put the rest of the ingredients into my bowl and then pour the hot eggs and sausage on top so the cream cheese melts and the remaining ingredients warm up.

As you can see in the picture, this breakfast goes very well with a nice mug of hot chicken broth, too!