Cloth Diapering your baby in 4,000 words or less...

You’re having a baby! Congratulations! Time to start making a lot of pie in the sky statements about what kind of parent you will be and pick out all organic cotton clothes and the most modern looking baby toys you can find and start reading baby sign language books!

While we didn’t end up sticking to our guns on all of those things (we did eventually break down and buy an exersaucer, play pen and some polyblend pajamas and I couldn’t tell you how to even sign the word “hi”), one thing we have stuck to is using cloth diapers vs. disposable. 

I know what you might be thinking. It’s so much work. It’s gross. It’s just as expensive in the long run.

Say what you will about cloth diapering—I know it isn’t for everyone—but if it is something that you are really interested in, I am here to tell you that YOU CAN DO IT! It’s really not that hard, it’s really not any grosser than using a disposable diaper, and you can do it quite affordably.

First a disclosure: With most subjects related to babies and parenting, lots of people will tell you that you are crazy for wanting to cloth diaper your child. Like they might want to hold an intervention for you. And they might buy you boxes of disposable diapers because they think you are too poor to afford the "luxury" of disposables. To those folks, just smile and say something like "bless your heart" and then brush that off your shoulder as you return those diapers for some store credit, because don't knock it until you've tried it, folks. I'm not that big of an evangelist for anything, but I do feel like if you want to do this, you shouldn't let anyone talk you out of it by scare tactics. So, the purpose of this post is to explain how we did it and maybe help make your decision a little easier!

And to those who have never wanted to use cloth, more power to ya! To each his own! God Bless America! and all that good stuff. I've never wanted to ride a horse and you won't catch me saddling up anytime soon!

And so we begin...

Is This Thing On?

Hello there reader and welcome to our little corner of the internet.

Urban dictionary—being the literary companion that it is—defines “it’s a wonder” as “it is surprising.” And well, we think that is pretty darn appropriate way to describe this thing we call being a mom.

To us, “It’s a Wonder” can mean many things. You may think to yourself “It’s a wonder we survived those first 3 (or 6, or 8) weeks after the baby was born!” or the more popular “It’s a wonder I haven’t fallen asleep in the shower, I haven’t slept in days!” (Kathryn WOULD NOT be able to say that, as she took many a shower nap in her first few weeks of motherhood). Or just simply “Wow, it’s a wonder my head is still attached to my body at this point.” Or maybe you are saying “I don’t agree with ANY of those statements!” and to you we say, bravo, friend. Please just do us a solid and let us know when we’ve put our shirt on inside out or maybe, you know, we’re wearing two different earrings. Deal?

With all the craziness of motherhood, at the complete opposite side of the spectrum is all the awesomeness that comes along with it. Anyone with a child can attest that there is so much wonder in the process of growing and raising a human. You are front and center to someone learning everything there is to know about being a person. How crazy is that? And while everyday might not be wonderful, it certainly is filled with some sort of wonder or wonderment.

The wonder in our lives is what we experience, create, think, feel and do. And so, here we are. Trying to capture that wonderment and share it with you.

Jenn and Kathryn

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DIY Cleaning Chart and Free Printable

My husband and I like a clean house. We’re not crazy everything has to be its place kind of people, but we’re not big fans of dirt, dust and clutter … or animal hair. And since we have two cats and a dog, that last one is sometimes kind of difficult to keep under control. On top of that, both of our parents have allergies to our animals so it is important for us to keep the house clean and somewhat free of dust and dander. After our son was born and I went back to work part-time my mom and mother-in-law watched him on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I would spend all day Monday cleaning in between nap time and play time. I hated Mondays. I always felt so exhausted and felt like I wasn’t able to devote enough time to my son and cleaning the house. I know what you’re thinking—why not just let the housework go?! Doesn’t your husband help?? Well, since our parents are allergic to the animals, I thought it was really, really important that I mop and steam every week to keep the dander down. And yes, Dennis does help. He helps a lot. (Although he doesn’t clean the bathrooms. Can’t he just clean one bathroom?? I mean, he’ll clean the whole house, but he won’t touch the toilet! ... but he does help). Also for some reason, I had it in my head that since I was staying home, it was my job, even though he told me repeatedly that I didn’t have to do anything but lay around with the baby. After a while, I just couldn’t keep up. It wasn’t just MY job. I was exhausted, I was angry, and my house wasn’t clean.

 

These guys are cute, but they sure do leave a lot of hair and vomit all over the place.

One of the ways we have been able to divvy up the chores, keep a clean house, and stay sane since our son was born was to develop a cleaning chart. I took some inspiration from Pinterest to come up with a cleaning list that suits our home and schedule. I divided the chores into daily, weekly, monthly, and semi-annual chores and designed the chart in Microsoft Publisher. This can be easily done in Word or any type of printing program as well. If you don’t have access to Word at home, your local library probably has a computer you can sign up to use. There are also a number of free and purchasable printables on the interwebs or feel free to download this printable and use it in your home. I printed ours out at Office Max (it’s the closest), framed it, and hung it in the kitchen. We use a wax pencil or wet-erase marker to check off the chores when they are done. So simple—anyone can do it!