My baby is 9 months old! How did that happen?

We had Carson's 9 month check up yesterday. He is 28.5" tall and 16lbs 1oz. He has fallen back off of the chart for weight, and that is a huge bummer. His doctor said that he thinks there is about a 75% chance that Carson just has a fast metabolism (he is Bryan's child afterall) and a 25% chance that there is a chrinic illness or other problem contributing to his lack of weight gain. He has been deemed failure to thrive based on his weight. Let the testing begin....

After his appointment we went to the hospital lab so he could get blood drawn and about a million blood screen/panels done. It was traumatic for us both for him to get his blood drawn, the poor thing has a bruise from it today, not that it slows him down any. His pediatricians office called this afternoon to let us know that one of the liver panels came back below the normal range, so he will be getting more testing done to figure out what that is about. We go in Monday morning for a VGUC, which is where they catheterize him and inject dye into his kindneys and to test for urine refluxing back into his kidneys from the urinary tract. Then we go back in to the pediatrician Thursday to go over all his test results and figure out where we go from there.

On the bright side, he is doing beautifully as far as development goes. He has hit all the milestones he should have so far and then some. He is finally sleeping a little better, he only wakes up 3-ish times a night now instead of every hour. He loves to explore and get into everything and he has the cutest laugh in the whole wide world!

Why we use cloth

I have had mixed reactions from people when they find out we cloth diaper. The reactions range from pure disgust to interest to excitement and everything in between. So why do we use cloth? There are lots of reasons!

• It is cheaper! Cloth diapers range in price from $20 for a dozen prefolds to $50 or $60 or even more for a single diaper, so I guess it isn't always cheaper, but for the most part it is. Our stash consists of roughly 25 BumGenius pockets, 5 or 6 pockets I have made myself, a random (but cute!) Happy Heiney pocket, 4 made by me fitteds, a dozen infant prefolds and 3 covers. In all I have spent about $200 on my stash. Now, that might sound like a lot of money for diapers, and all at once it was BUT I was spending $50-60 a MONTH on disposables, so in the 3 1/2 months we were using disposables, I spent the same amount as I spent on diapers for the rest of my child's diapered years, and I'll be keeping them for the next baby too.
  
• They don't go in a landfill! Disposable diapers take up to 500 YEARS to decompose in landfills, not to mention the fact that you are putting human waste into ladfills as well, blech!
• Earlier potty training! Babies who are cloth diapered tend to potty train sooner. It seems that disposables can make babies feel too dry, they don't learn to feel wet and learn to tell when they have to go as early as cloth diapered babies because well, they never feel wet. Along with the little bit of EC we do, I'm hoping Carson will be completely out of diapers day and night by 2, hopefully closer to 18-20 mos.
  
• No chemicals! Babies have sensitive skin, my little boy has allergies to a lot of disposables, so it is nice to have a solution to diapering that is chemical free.
  
• Cloth diapers are soft and squishy and comfy! Would you rather wear cloth undies or papery plasticy depends? I know I'd rather wear cotton panties, thank you very much!
• There is nothing cuter than a soft squishy cloth covered bum! For real, its just flat out cute, and there are so many prints and colors and patterns to choose from.

Cloth may not be right for everyone, and I get that, but it is right for us and it is SO vastly different than the traditional square flat diapers and rubber pants of the past (although those do still exist and people do use them) There are pockets and All in Ones that are completely comperable to disposables when it comes to ease of use!

Daycare

Putting your child in daycare can be one of the hardest decisions you make, and finding the right daycare is no small undertaking either. For the first 8 months of Carson's life, I was lucky enough to be able to take most of my classes online and bring him with me to those classes I had on campus. This coming term I will be taking all my classes on campus because nothing in my major is available online and I am virtually finished with all my general ed. classes. Carson is not going to be able to handle going to class for hours on end 4 days a week, and unfortunately Bryan and I have almost identical schedules, so there will be no option of passing the baby back and forth between us. So this Fall, Carson will officially be in the care of someone who isn't me 17 hours a week.

Finding the right daycare is tough though, I mean, you are entrusting this person (or people) with your child, the most precious little thing in the world. There are so many questions you have to ask and so many things that you are looking for in the right person. I have a lot of expectations for my daycare provider. They need to be willing to...

• Cloth diaper
• Be aware of my son's food allergies and dillgently watch him (like a hawk) when around food to make sure nothing goes in his mouth that may be harmful to him. They also need to understand that casien and whey are dairy products (and are in just about everything) and just because they aren't feeding him a string cheese and a glass of milk doesn't mean that he can have the graham crackers that everyone else gets.
• Their discipline methods and how long they let a baby cry (which better not be long if at all!) needs to fall in line with ours.
• They must not spank.
• They must have practices in place to make sure that my son only gets his bottle/sippy cup and not someone else's by mistake. For real, this could be detrimental to his health.
• They must give off the right vibe. Seriously. I know it sounds silly, but if I don't get the "totally comfortable with you" vibe from someone, there is NO WAY I am leaving my child in their care, Mama needs to be comfortable!

Here is a list of things that I have come across in ads that just scream at me "Not the right place for Carson" like there is a big neon sign right in my face. The include things like...

• Advertising you vast children's movie collection-Please don't do this, if I wanted somebody to plop my kid in front of a TV all day (not that he would cooperate) I would buy a portable DVD player and bring him with me to class, trust me, it would be way cheaper than paying for daycare.
• Charging more for in home care than nationally accredited childcare centers-If I am going to pay this much, I'm going somewhere that I know my child will be learning and flourishing and under excellent supervision for his allergies.
  
• Ads that have terrible spelling or text-speak-Don't get me wrong, I use my fair share of internet abbreviations and I have some terrible grammar when being lazy, but when in a professional setting (or a school setting) I do not type things like Gr8! Treat your childcare business like a business and maybe I might be willing to put my child in your care...maybe.
  

If you are looking for childcare, check into your state's registered childcare databse. This will give you a list of both childcare centers and in-home providers that are registered with the state (you want that) and are therefore insured and licensed. You want to put your child in an insured licensed facility because you never know what might come up and you are much less likely to run into problems with a licensed provider. Also, ask your friends/family/coworkers/etc for referrals, you never know where you might find the perfect provider for your family and your child. Also, try to make an unscheduled visit to centers once you have narrowed it down to just a few, you want to make sure everything runs the same when you come unannounced as it does when they knew you were coming.

My Mama Blog

After being inspired by my many wonderful Mama-blogging friends, I have decided to start my own mama blog. Hopefully this can be a place for other mamas to come enjoy some leisure time reading, maybe learn a thing or two (maybe teach me a thing or two) and hopefully at the very least be entertained.

A little about me...
I am Stephanie, 21 year old wife to the love of my life, Bryan, and mommy to my sweet Carson Christopher. I am also a full time student in the wonderful world of apparel design and a work-at-home-mom (WAHM) running an online store of infant and children's boutique clothing and soft soled shoes (and the occasional cloth diaper) named Carson's Closet Designs. In my spare time (because I'm sure you can imagine I have tons of that!) I like to draw and paint and take pictures or the outdoors, I also decided to teach myself to knit a few days ago, so that is my newest hobby, I'm currently making a blanket for Carson. My son is cloth diapered, breastfed, worn, and most importantly--LOVED.

Holy Poop!

This is Carson's new friend Bridget, he stole the cell phone from her...He likes her :)




No seriously, holy freaking poop! Carson wears mostly cloth diapers, although I do use disposables occasionally. Carson has never had a poop leak in cloth, and has only had wet leaks maybe 3 times, he has however, blown out of disposables PLENTY of times, but last night, oh it tops them all.

Carson was playing on the floor with his toys, I went into the other room where it was quiet to speak with a daycare provider, and Bryan was keeping an eye on the baby. Bryan thought Carson pooped, he checked his dipe and nothing, so he put him back down to play. Well he looked away for just a few seconds, then all of a sudden I hear "honey come here" followed by "oh my gosh Carson!!!" Thinking I may be missing some huge event (like perhaps first steps, we're thisclose to them) I ask the woman I am on the phone with to hold on a sec and go to see whats up. Carson is covered in poop! Thank goodness it was hot and he was playing in only a diaper, I can't imagine what the clothing would have looked like had he been wearing it...

There was poop on the floor that he had stepped in and smushed, poop all over the ottoman that he was PLAYING in! And the kid was covered! He had poop in his hands, poop on his tummy, poop on up and down his legs, thank goodness he didn't try to eat it! I quickly hung up the phone and we wiped of the big chunks and carried that baby straight to the bath to get hosed off and scrubbed (and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, blech!)

Oh the joys of parenthood....

We also went up to Tigard this week, it was a lot of fun seeing everyone and we took some cute pictures! Carson had his first experience in the big bathtub instead of the baby tub and he LOVED it, he also had fun playing with his pirate bath toys, so enjoy the pictures, they are my favorites!

Carson's Closet Designs, Stocking Friday!

I'm so so so excited to be stocking my store, Carson's Closet Designs, as part of the Simply Serendipity Congo this Friday. For those of you who don't know, a congo, short for conglomeration, is a grouping of multiple stores, which is great because not only do I get traffic from those looking for my stuff, I get traffic from those looking at my fellow congo members stuff! Some of the stuff I will have available is already up for preview here and the main page for the congo is here. This may or may not be all I will be stocking this time, it depends on how much more I get done by Friday morning. So go check it out, you know you want to :)

Carson has been teething (we think) so he has been extra clingy and cuddly, which aside from not getting any work done, I love because man do I love baby snuggles! He is finally chunking out a bit, which is a relief after all we have been through with his problems gaining weight. He's actually visibly getting bigger, which hasn't happened for some time. He is still quite skinny compare to the other babies we hang out with at playgroup, but he is starting to get little baby chub rolls on his thighs, and even though it takes a cloth diapered butt, his pants (generally) stay up now! He is cruising all over the furniture and his toys constantly. He is also starting to CLIMB! How did my baby get so big already? He's going to be quite the handful, not that we haven't known that since birth, but man this kid is fast! He is babbling all the time and we think he is on the verge of a first word, and every day its looking more and more like that word will be Dada, as he says it all the time while babbling (not knowing hes saying it of course) but never says that Mama syllables. He also sits on his knees to play with things now, which is pretty entertaining. He likes to be involved in everything we are doing, especially if what we are doing involves eating, using the phone, or using the computer. Even if he has just finished eating, if we are eating he looks at us like "Hey, I should be eating that, what do you think you're doing?" He also started doing the most pathetic, but cute, thing in the whole world, when he wakes up, he will roll on his tummy, crawl to the end of his crib that faces the door, grab onto the bars with both hands, and smush that little face as close to the bars as he can and whine, its really sad. I think is all thats new for now, ad even if it isn't, I need to go to bed!