Friday, June 16, 2006

Long and random miscellany

I’m beginning to dig myself out from the sea of slime my body has been producing. Yuck. The cold has mostly vacated my head (except for my left ear which is almost completely clogged) and has taken up residence in my lungs, which is especially nice since there was just SO much room there already what with the babies pressing upward. So not fun.

I ordered a changing table online, and it arrived yesterday, followed a couple of hours later by an email telling us it had shipped. Not sure how they managed to deliver it before shipping it, but I’m not complaining. It’s still in the box, though, since the painting is ongoing (though the bulk of it is done, the room will stay empty and paint-masked so J can paint the chair rail we’re installing and a couple pieces of furniture/accessories that were other colors in their previous lives). So for now, there’s an unassembled changing table leaning on the wall in the living room.

What else?

Cloth diapers: I’m deep in the throes of researching cloth diapers. I’d originally thought we’d just wait to CD until the babes would fit in the normal “newborn” or “small” size diapers, but I’m starting to wonder if that’s too long to wait given that I expect them to be on the small side when they’re born (this notwithstanding, especially since I’m not much over 5 feet tall). But if they start off at 5ish pounds, then it seems it might be okay to invest in some of the preemie sized diapers that will carry them through for a while - even if we just do a combination of cloth and ‘sposies in the beginning. (Not the first couple of weeks, probably, but I’m not loving the idea of delaying for months, either.) So I’ve been looking at preemie cloth diapers - and the choices are limited. So far, I’ve found some decent looking Bummis (preemie size fits 4-8 pounds) that aren’t too expensive, or FuzziBunz (the preemie/XS size fits 4-10 pounds, which would last a while) but are more expensive. And since I’m not scared of the diaper+cover routine, it seems silly to buy a whole bunch of FB. Though I do rather covet them. And of course, all of this was taking into account that there was no diaper service in our city (ridiculous, no?) except that someone JUST started one. Just, like in the past two weeks. So that makes things more interesting. (Of course, I don’t think they stock the preemie sizes, either, so I’m not sure where that leaves us except waiting for them to return my call.)

Nursery: As I mentioned, the painting is so close to being done, and I’m thrilled. I came up with this whole plan while sitting here, and felt bad for concocting something fairly complicated to execute and being unable to help make it happen, but with the help of J’s fabulous cousin, things are looking good. Not that we have cribs, or anything. Really, we have not much. We registered, but no one has bought anything off the registries yet. I guess the problem with having no shower is having no impetus for people to go shopping. Not that I’m stuff-crazy or anything (oh, shut up) but there are some things we’ll need soon that I hadn’t just bought myself because my mom pushed hard for giving people a chance. Which is fine except that we have no onesies. Or receiving blankets. And I feel like maybe we need them. (We do have one package of the tiny side-snap shirts, because I ordered them at the same time as something for me, but t-shirts do not keep babies particularly warm.) So we’ll see how that all turns out. To her credit, my mother took it upon herself to notify many many people of our news, and to point them to our registry. Seems creepy, but on the other hand, it would be nice if people would start getting stuff, y’know? (Okay, so I’m a little bit stuff-crazy...)

Okay, enough miscellany for now. Going to drink more water now (since it’s too hot for tea).

5 comments:

  1. I'm so glad to hear that you're starting to feel better... and very impressed by the CD plans... and sorry to hear of the frustration of people waiting too long to buy gifts. We never had a shower either and people didn't ask if we had a registry, so we just got a bunch of (mostly ugly or wrong size for season or whatever) clothes well after the fact. Fortunately, my parents bought us the crib. I hope people step up to the plate considering that you have two babes to dress and bathe and feed and such! On the other hand, even though it would be stressful, you could just buy the tiniest and most essential things yourself and then wait for the other stuff to roll in after the babies arrive.

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  2. a random lurker here--the research that I have done points to getting a bunch of preemie prefolds and some wraps until they grow into newborn/smalls. Plus the prefolds can be used for tons of stuff.

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  3. I hope you'll let us know how the CD goes. I'm feeling guilty for not looking into it further, but there is no diaper service in our entire state that I can find, and I can't imagine the laundry.

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  4. I'm looking into CD too. Your two will likely need smaller sizes than mine (knock wood on about seven intrinsic assumptions) but have you been sold on any particular brand/method?

    I'm overwhelmed with the choices and am thinking I might just do one of those sampler starters.

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  5. Hi! I'm a very random lurker...poking my head into this comment box to say a bit about CDing. My daughter (3.5 months) wasn't small, but we have been using cloth ever since she was born. I'm sure you know more about preemie CD's than I do, so I won't get into that, but I will say that we do diaper + wrap and it's so easy. Sure, all-in-one is probably easier (don't know--never researched it b/c we get diaper service which is a GODSEND), and I've seen some very cute diapers, but the diaper + cover is no big deal. There's a learning curve that for me consumed only a few hours, for my husband a few days. Because w/newborns you change a lot of diapers. If you can get the service it's so nice and with ours? We don't have to rinse poopy diapers or anything (which I think you do if you wash at home?). And no smell, even with my combi breastmilk/formula feeding. They give us the diaper pail and a new filter thingy comes every month.

    My husband was VERY hesitant about CD before our daughter arrived, but now he can't imagine it otherwise. We use a disposable at night (rather than doubling up) to ease the night wakings and keep her comfortable, and every time I'm tempted to use an extra disposable (going out, etc.) he says, "Why? These are so easy, so cheap, and they're here!" We've only bought ONE pack of disposables per size ever since my daughter's birth. And she usually outgrows the diapers before we finish the pack.

    Bah! I'm rambling. But cloth diapering is pretty cool, and I covet cool diapers sometimes....but honestly? After a few short weeks? They're just the thing that your kids pee and poop on, so I'm not so sure I would go back and spend big $ on swanky cloth diapers. This way, when we need a bigger size, we just call up and they switch us out. Plus those diapers are great spit-up cloths, rags, face-cleaning cloths, etc. I'm never seen without at least one on me somewhere.

    Have fun!

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