Night Diapering Baby

Hi Baby,

The first forty days of your life, mommy couldn't sleep much. On top of feeding you every few hours also had to change your diaper. Back then you were exclusively using traditional lampin, and it was always soaking wet. In one night, about midnight onwards, I would changed you up to 4 times until 7 in the morning. So for forty nights that was how it was.

When you were forty one days old, we moved back home. That night, mommy used the modern CD on you for the first time, two inserts in a pocket diaper. For the first time since you were born, mommy had a full night sleep, you slept throughout the night too. And the bed was dry! Since we only owned a few of the CDs we reserved them for night use only as during day time it'll be the traditional ones.

When the first incident of leaking occurred at night, that was when mommy made a practice to change you at midnight and you'll be ok til the next morning. And you got older, mommy had to change you around dawn before you wake up a couple of hours later to avoid leaks on the bed. After a while, mommy had to change you before dawn just to make sure the diaper won't leak. It was when the pre dawn diaper change couldn't contain your flow and having to wash and change the bedsheet almost everyday was when mommy knew I had to look for a better night diapering solution for you.

Mommy had already been hunting before all that, reading up reviews and lurking on forums on what is a good night diaper. It was when waking up too often to change the diaper and changing the bed sheets almost daily was what prompted mommy to click the order button.

After much research and reading up and talking with the owner I decided to order the Bamboolite fitted premium diapers with the fleece cover. I was looking for a regional brand, material that can hold a lot of liquid - long lasting, breathable. So this brand was able to give me just that, bamboo material is known to have a high absorbancy, allergy free as it's a natural material and a fleece cover that is breathable for long hours for night time use.

Mommy added an extra microfibre insert into the fitted on top of the bamboo insert that came with the fitted. Put you in it, put on the fleece cover, and bed time. The next day we woke up with a dry bed and mommy well rested. Yay! By this time you were about 8-9 months old.

We only had two fitted and two covers at first. Usually mommy would do the diaper laundry every third day, but because we only have two diapers for nights, it meant mommy had to wash every other day. There were days when the diapers weren't dry enough to be used as bamboo takes a bit longer to dry compared to microfibre, and that's when mommy discovered another alternative.

Using what we have, on top of the fitted diapers mommy ordered other diapers from the same brand, and one of them had the same inserts with the fitted. So that means we have three of the bamboo premium inserts. With two hanging to dry, mommy laid one Bamboolite premium insert onto the fleece cover, then added on a Blueberry bamboo trifold insert on top of it, and just in case, a Blueberry bamboo booster at the back of the cover, and put it on you.

This morning when changing you mommy realised the booster doesn't get wet, so next time we won't have to add that in. So alternative night diapering solution is fleece cover + Bamboolite premium insert + Blueberry bamboo trifold insert and we're good.

During all this time as well, mommy read up about an Australian brand called BabyBeeHinds. The reviews were very positive, up to 23 layers in the wet zone. Wow, I thought that was fantastic! But shipping it from the site was not. It wasn't until mommy found out from Auntie Chin she decided to bring them in. Great, we can just get them from her!

So now, we have three BBH night nappy waiting to be prepped for use and on top of that daddy asked mommy to order more of Bamboolite fitted because he likes their performance. So by the time everything is prepped, you're going to have a total of 7 night diapers.

I think I'll wait for the Bamboolite to arrive so mommy can prep them all in one go.

Wow... all this talk on just diapering you for nights!

Love,
Mommy

Cloth Diapers Revisited!

Dear Baby,

Remember a while back mommy said something about, we'll just go for the solid colours and no need for the fancy printed ones and blah blah blah... Well, judging from your diaper drawers you had anything but just solid colours. The more mommy look and read up on other diaper brands the more I feel tickled to maybe just get one or two, you know, just to try and see if the performance is any better, you never know right until you tried. Starting off with the Blueberry and FuzziBunz mommy picked up from Auntie Chin because they were on sale, tempting they were. And next thing mommy knew, not only do you have printed diapers we have also expanded on brands! I have now become like all the other CD mommies out there. Your diaper collection have gone beyond the two dozen in rotation to double that amount. Almost 50 diapers and there is only one of you that's using them. Your collection consists of pocket diapers, All in Twos, prefolds, traditional lampin, covers, fitted, hybrids... It's a whole new world out there with cloth diapers...

Mommy is a member of the Brunei Breastfeeders Club and mommy started a topic on cloth diapering. Strangely enough, mommy have been posting on the different types of diapers, the terminologies, different systems and various things related to cloth diapering to share the knowledge to help mommies new to cloth diapering. I figured if we can help reduce the rubbish in the landfills we can help the environment, and mommy is doing my part to help with that cause. Plus, as the new mommies have now noticed, it can become an addiction... I'll take cute cloth diapered baby's bum over designer handbags and shoes any time! There are still alot to learn and by putting up posts mommy is increasing the knowledge and helping others in the process. You will learn this is one of the best method to learning.

As soon as mommy remembers where the camera is, will post up a complete picture of your diaper drawer for posterity sake, until it expanded some more... I'm not sure if that's a good thing... hahaha...

Love,

Mommy

Baby Led Weaning Part III

Dear Baby,

Food choices have been more adventurous now. And you also learned that mommy and daddy sometimes have more interesting stuff on the plate. And mommy can officially say I have finished reading the BLW book from cover to cover. The book has now been borrowed by one of daddy's cousin who got a baby who is two months or so younger than you because she saw you eat a chicken drumstick which you picked up off daddy's plate one night at a family function and happily eating away sitting next to daddy. She was intrigued and amazed as it was always a battle with her and her baby when it comes to meal times. She read the first chapter that night.

Mommy tries to make sure your diet is varied and have lots of taste and textures. We have ventured out to curry chicken, gave you the drumstick after mommy gave it a quick rinse so the curry taste won't hit you by surprise. You tried lettuce and cabbage, crunchy food! Nini Noi's homemade burger patty, dim sum and a whole bunch of others that mommy just can't remember anymore... Snack food now consists of cucumber sticks and tomato slices, once in a while mummy will let you have half a wholemeal bun, I'm still wary with the amount of salt present in bread, so mommy make a note not to give you bread daily. I'm still trying to get you to try as many types of fruits as possible, waiting for the persimmon to ripen up and soften a bit that we bought last weekend...

Nenek asked if she could feed you cornflakes, and for a 150g box it contained 10g of sugar I said no, I rather you get fresh fruits as snack then some processed manufactured stuff. We're still laying your foundation for healthy wholesome food and we can't slack now.

Mommy and daddy like to eat out with you, and the restaurants we head to are places we like in terms of food, service and baby friendly. And you like going there too because you get entertained by the staff a lot. We have relatives that complain you look so serious, and we have the wait staff whom you'd give a ready smile to. I think the difference is that sometimes relatives don't play with you as much as others, heheheh...

You don't drop your food purposely anymore, now it's more of it fell out of your hands as you bring the food to your mouth. There are times when you don't want to hold the food but wants to eat it so we have to hold the food for you, it could be you don't like the feel of the texture. Another one you do is you'll eat the food, chew and then spit it out. I think it's the 'yay, good girl for eating' part, you like the acknowledgement but not necessarily the food, your grandparents tend to do that, and it is wrong and I remind them not to because by praising you for eating, you will learn to associate to get a praise, you must eat. So wrong. Very very wrong. They may not think it will do no harm, so said your nenek but mommy have learned a lot and experienced a lot when it comes to eating disorders, and it is a cycle that shouldn't be allowed to start to begin with.

Mommy plan on introducing you to food you can learn to use your fork and spoon with, we tried a bit last night, you would have the spoon in one hand, and you'd tried to get the food to your mouth, and then use your free hand to get more food into your mouth.

When we eat at your grandparents places, Nini Noi has learned to lessen the use of salt in the cooking so you can eat what everyone else is eating, so you get to eat a wide and varied taste and textures. At nenek's place, since nenek doesn't do the cooking anymore, the amah have been making the same stuff for you over and over. Your menu over there seems to be boiled vegetables, pumpkin soup, chicken soup and beef soup. In order to make sure you get a varied diet mommy would have to start packing food for you to bring over it seems.

Today Auntie Choo is coming over and we're going to make onigiri, and mommy wants to make some for you to try as well and maybe we'll have a picnic.

Mommy wants to introduce you to blueberries but I have to wait for the signs that you are ready for them. So many taste, texture and flavours for you to try out there!

Love,

Mommy

Baby's Italian Dinner

Dear Baby,We went out for dinner one night to meet up with a couple of mommy and daddy's old friends and Auntie Choo. Auntie Choo was suppose to have DD therapy but she was sick and didn't want to pass it on to you so she had to content herself by looking at you instead. Poor Auntie Choo, so near yet so far....

Normally you love going to this Italian place, you'd be sitting in the high chair enjoying what food put in front of you and playing with the wait staff. But something must've happened when Chef Michele who was carrying you put you into the high chair. Your face turned sour and you cried and you didn't want to sit in the chair at all all evening. I guess you were upset you got put in the chair before you were ready. So you spent the evening on daddy's and mommy's lap as we took turn holding you.

It was when you were sitting on mommy's lap was when you decided you rather eat straight from mommy's plate instead of bits being passed to you. You ate away as mommy and daddy were having a conversation with our friends, and Auntie Choo decided to whip out her camera and starting taking pictures.

Clean up involves taking you to the bathroom and washing off the tomato-ey sauce from your hands and face. Then it was horsing around with daddy before we all called it a night...

Love,

Mommy

The Diaper Drawer...

"Lookie at all my pwetty diapers!"

Photo by Auntie Choo