Well...duh.

Me, now

Pre-third kid

For the last few months I have been kind of not caring about my baby weight, yet at the same time beating myself up inside every time I stepped on the scale. As some of my long term friends may remember I used to be very thin and in fairly good tone. A sedentary job, a miscarriage at 11 weeks, and then a successful pregnancy later I am not what I used to be either mentally or physically. This is good in some ways, but also sad in others. I'm OK with not being a size 2 anymore. But I'm not OK with only losing 15 of the 50 lb left to lose after the baby was born EIGHT MONTHS AGO. I expected to hold on to maybe 10 or 15 lb but not 35.

Today I got onto the scale. Ugh. I try to only do it once every couple of weeks so I don't get too depressed...ignorance being bliss in this case. Again my weight has not budged since March. I take my measurements once a month also because I am insane. Oh and my body fat percentage too. Did I mention I used to work in a gym? Yeah I got a little obsessive. I'm only slightly obsessive now. Plus way lazier.

I decided to stop blindly eating whatever I want and take stock in what I am doing to myself. I got out the measuring cups, the scale (the food scale, not the meanie scale) and went to the Daily Plate to find out exactly why I am not losing any weight despite breastfeeding like mad (500+ calories burned daily supposedly) and walking 3-4 days a week for an hour at a time.

This is where the "Well, duh" comes in.

My breakfast has for many years consisted of Maypo (if you haven't tried it...you are really missing out) which is high in vitamins, iron, and both kinds of fiber. A serving of Maypo has 180 calories. Not bad for a breakfast food. BUT in true Betsy fashion I can't just eat it plain. Even though its Maple flavored I still need more. SO I dump in chocolate chips. I used to use a 1/3 cup to measure. Hell I used to use my fists to measure but I figured I should tone down. After Autumn was born I started to cut down even more and used a 1/4 cup measure (heaping of course). Chocolate chips have 70 calories in 30 pieces. That's about 2-ish calories each. A 1/4 cup has about 164 calories. I know this because I counted them out individually and did MATH EEEEEEEW!!!! I also add about 1/4 cup of whatever percentage milk we have in the fridge to cool it down and make it extra yummy. So my breakfast is about 400 calories. Not great but its filling and I am not usually hungry until noon.

BUT I am also a daily cup a day coffee addict. And no, I don't drink that black. I like my coffee like I like my Maypo: Full of SUGAR!!! I just blindly dump in flavored creamer (Dulce de Leche mmmmmm) until it reaches the danger spill over zone. 1 tablespoon=35 calories. I figure that I must be dumping in what, 3 tablespoons? WRONG. I measured (using water) how much I am actually using. By my calculations (I wrote it out on paper and proved my work!) I am adding 220 calories to my 4 calorie coffee!! SIX tablespoons!!! SOOOO my breakfast in total is over 600 calories. How many of you out there take creamer with YOUR coffee? I'm going to keep my tablespoon measure next to the coffee pot from now on.

Just this small bit of measuring really opened my eyes to what is wrong with my diet and how my perception of serving size is way off. I really think that they should teach more in school about things like what a tablespoon, a cup, a gram, and an ounce look like. Obesity is now epidemic in several parts of the world, and I think we need Food Education just as badly as we need Sex Education. And also, just as we as parents should be talking to our kids about the birds and the bees we should be talking to them (and demonstrating) about the chips and the fries.

A Rash Decision

Don't you just love my pun titles. I get that from my mother ;)

My little darling is all growed up...she is getting her first teeth! At almost 8 months old she is the first of my three to get a tooth before 1 year! Her bottom two are coming up and out. So far the worst symptom is a horrible rash on her patootie!! At first I thought it was the solid food she has been hogging down (mostly carrots, sweet potatoes, and mixed veggies) but then I talked to someone who takes care of a baby almost her exact age getting the same exact teeth and they had the same problem!

After going through several days with minimal naptimes, an entire tube of Desitin, and seeing no improvement I decided to try a different cream. I feel that Desitin works well if you use it at the first signs of a rash (before it gets angry and bloody) but once it is really bad it doesn't seem to be able to heal it. So after standing in the grocery store for a good 10 minutes in the butt cream aisle I decided to give ol' A&D a try. Wow what a difference! Within the first use her rash was much less ugly, and this morning when I changed her she looked almost normal! You don't use as much of it either as its very creamy and not greasy at all. I combined using the A&D cream with a dose of infant's Ibuprofen every 6 hours and my angry, screaming baby turned back into my giggling goofball again. Phew!! I thought I lost her!

What I take away from this experience is: Don't be afraid to try new things if the standbys don't work. Imagine if your butt looked like you played slip n slide in the driveway without the slip n slide and you had to rely on someone who can't understand you to make it all better!! You would want them to try everything!!! ;-)

Cloth Diaper Update

WOW I promised to blog about this and I just haven't had the time to sit down and do it!!! Photography has taken priority over blogging and I have been taking pictures like mad.

SO I have been using the cloth for what, about 6 weeks now? Feels like forever. The bottom line: they are GREAT!! NOT like yo mama's cloth diapers that's for sure. I envisioned soggy bottoms and narsty stenches in the diaper pail and laundry room.

One of the best things was setting up my laundry room to double as a changing room. Now that we have front loaders (cue Hallelujiah chorus) I have a long, flat surface in which to lay down baby. My friend Becca has had front loaders for a while now and she is the one whose idea I used.

Basically I put down a soft, thick blanket on top of the dryer, then got little baskets to hold the diapers, wipes, and covers and a smaller one to hold the BumGenius diaper detergent and Ecover Chlorine free bleach powder. The dirty diaper pail is also in there and is lined with a waterproof, washable laundry bag. I have a tiny garbage can wedged between the edge of the dryer and the wall with a grocery bag in it to throw away wipes and the regular diapers I use at nighttime and naptime.

One tip I have learned is that you need to go against your instinct to throw the dirty ones (peed on) into the pail and shut the lid. DO NOT SHUT THE LID!!

If you can keep it somewhere that is not public, keep it open as this will inhibit the growth of bacteria which is the cause of the stink.

Now, what do you do with POOPIE diapers you may ask? Well one method is to shake the poo off into the toilet and then flush and then give the cloth prefold a swirly. GROSS!!! Sorry, I am not that hardcore. There is this GREAT invention that you can get online for about $40 (I got mine on Amazon) that is basically a hand held high pressure sprayer.



You attach it right to your toilet's plumbing:

ANYONE can do it!! My husband did it and it works! And you can adjust the spray pressure to shoot that poo right off into sewerland.



I highly suggest practicing with the pressure BEFORE you use it on poo as it can go very strong and make a nice Jackson Poo-llack painting all over your bathroom wall and your pants!!

Once you have removed the poo from the diaper, and the sprayer really does wonders with this, the diaper will be sopping wet. What I personally have been doing is either wringing them out and laying them over the edge of the pail to dry and then washing the heck out of my hands, or leaving them in the sink until its time to do a load of laundry. That's the lazy way. We have three bathrooms, and one is attached to the laundry room, so that is not really a big issue to have one out of commission.

How often do we do the diaper laundry? Well if I am home all day and use them exclusively I will do a load every day. I wash them on HOT using the Cotton/Normal setting and then dry them on HOT/Very Dry also using the Cotton setting. They are supposed to shrink down a bit from their original size. I DO NOT DRY THE BUMMIES WRAPS! They dry quickly on their own, and using the hot heat setting will destroy their water proof abilities over time. I just made sure I had enough so that if most of them were drying I still had enough for the time in between.

Also, I feel that using proper detergent and bleach is important. I use the bumGenius detergent which is a powder (bought online but can be found in stores)

and instead of using Oxiclean which is 30% product, 70% filler, I went right to the source and bought the 100% product that Ecover makes.

It is chlorine free and really does work, and you don't need a lot.

That being said, I do bleach them once a week with regular bleach. Part of this is for my washing machine's health and part to make sure that germs are dead. This was recommended by the company I purchased the diaper from. I do not use a lot, and if possible the Bummies should not be bleached as the bleach breaks down the elastic. I also spray down the glass on the inside of the washer with antibacterial all purpose cleaner to make sure that it doesn't stink!!!

Sounds like a lot of work eh? Well, it is and it isn't. I can see this not working for someone who is not home all day to attend to everything. I can see it being tough with a newborn (I didn't start using them back then so I can't testify to that experience) as they poo so much. BUT your baby is only going to be in them for so long, and they pay for themselves very quickly. I find that if I don't use a paper diaper for nighttime and naps she won't sleep as long since she feels wet faster. This may come in handy for toilet training days!!!

If you have any questions about cloth diapering please feel free to ask!!! Or if you have any tips or tricks please post them so we can all learn something!!