Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Make Room for Baby

Now that Itty Bitty's arrival is just a few months away, baby prep is in full swing. We decided to convert what used to be our workout room into the nursery. Luckily, we painted the room a nice blue color a couple of years ago so it will work well as the baby's room with no repainting necessary. A couple of weeks ago, Patrick sold his weight machine (willingly I might add) and we moved the spinners for the bikes into the garage. With a little cleaning of the closet, the room was cleared in just a few hours. Here's how it looks now.
We're in the process of deciding on a crib and dresser/changing table and hope to have those set up in the next few weeks. As you can see from the picture, we already have the infant carseat (thanks to our great friends Amy and Chris) and a few books. 


We've also recently gotten our first shipment of cloth diapers in the mail (thanks to our great friends Desi and Ray). We've decided to give cloth diapering a try. After doing a lot of research, it seems they are both better for the environment and very cost effective. Who knew that disposable diapers cost several thousand dollars over the 2+ years the child uses them? Cloth diapers, while expensive upfront, will end up only costing a few hundred dollars (plus the cost of washing them at home). Plus, we found some cloth diapers that have adjustable sizing so they are supposed to fit the baby pretty much all the way through potty training. We'll see if they live up to their marketing. We're only going to get a few cloth diapers to start, see if we like them, and if not, it's not a huge investment. Here's what the cloth diapers look like. Harry the Bear kindly agreed to model them for us. 
They're sure not your grandma's cloth diapers. No pins or plastic pants needed. I think they're actually pretty cute.

2 comments:

Alison said...

Looks like you are getting all ready for your baby boy! So exciting. Ok, here's my dumb question about cloth diapers (which I love the idea of, by the way)...what do you do about washing them? How do you clean them?

Unknown said...

Not a dumb question at all! I had no idea about the world of cloth diapering until I started looking on the internet. There's so many brands, advice, etc. Basically, you can wash them in the washing machine just like anything else. Most have some special instructions like detergent with no additives or double rinse, but pretty much you can wash them like normal. Not to get into the gross details, but you do have to dispose of any "solids" before they go into washer. So it's a little more work but hopefully it will work out well.