The Great Cloth Diaper Change

{man selling affordable diaper sprayers, C and me, Leslie and A}

On April 21st my baby and I helped break a Guinness World Record by participating in The Great Cloth Diaper Change. The website says, 

The new world record shows 8,251 qualifying participants at 189 locations on 4 continents! This far exceeded our 2011 record of 5026 simultaneous cloth diaper changes!

The record is for "the most people changing cloth diapers simultaneously at multiple venues", but Guinness hasn't updated their page with the 2012 numbers yet. 


Each parent had to register (for free) to participate, and there were other things that we had to do just right. I had to give my ticket to one of the people in charge as we came through the entrance to the big diaper-changing area, sit in a rectangle, and of course put our clean reusable diaper on my kiddo when they said "Go."


It was fun to have all my girls at this event with me, but what I liked most of all was talking with Leslie, an old friend of mine. She grew up in the same neighborhood that I lived in from age seven to seventeen. I will always remember how fun my third year of girls' camp was because of her friendship. I'm glad she and her friend drove about an hour and a half just to come to The Great Cloth Diaper Change. Not only was I not expecting to see Leslie there, but I didn't even know she was a cloth diaper user. Her daughter needed cloth diapers because her skin turned bright red whenever she wore a disposable.


I also liked being with lots of cloth diapering parents in one place. I've only known ("in real life") a handful of people who have used cloth during the years that my family has.


After the waiting time and the diaper change, my daughters enjoyed looking at the stuff the vendors had for sale, and we found the corner that had a Signing Time DVD playing. I'm excited to do this again next year!

Dads.

some of the stuff that I resisted buying (also pictured: my kids posing for me) . . . 

Signing Time and cute child-size chairs

"Whoooooooooo loves the planet?"

baby blessings

I have not blogged about any of our children's blessing days. I think they deserve a post. I love how everyone honors the innocent child on this day (I'm saying "her" because we only have girls). She gets extra attention because this priesthood blessing is for her; the men form a circle around her. The baby herself is a precious blessing from heaven. A joy. A gift. Many blessings can come from having a child and being a parent. I believe that the experience of raising a child can help us to change and grow. I don't know what lies ahead as our children become adults, but I know that we are grateful for what we have experienced so far.

My husband gave First Girl her name and blessing when she was about two and a half months old. It was cold and snowing that day. After sacrament meeting we and a lot of our family members and friends hurried into our condo clubhouse to eat. (I wish we had better photos, but I'm glad we do have some.)

 

 

 

Second Girl received her baby blessing at an older age -- seven months (because she was only a few days old when my husband deployed to Afghanistan, so we waited for his leave). It was another winter blessing day, even though she had been born in the summer. We had the blessing and the gathering in our home, which was both wonderful and a little stressful for us.

My husband blessed Third Girl in April, when she was almost four months old. We had her wear the same dress that First Girl had worn, with a new white fabric flower and headband that my friend and I finished making literally at the last minute. (I actually had made Second Girl's hair clip at the last minute, too; I'm such a procrastinator!) This time I made a video of the blessing so I can transcribe the words. We invited just a couple of friends in addition to our immediate families and grandparents, because we had the meal at my mother-in-law's place and we didn't want a ton of people there. It was a beautiful day! We are so blessed.

 

My dad holding my younger sister's baby, not mine. 

 

 

 

C's fourth month

Third Girl turned four months old in April. Some of the simplest repetitive things we do make her laugh. One of her favorite activities is when make her hands clap as I recite Pat-a-Cake (no, she does not uncurl her fingers). She loves it when someone holds her, looks at her, and has a conversation with her. She makes the sweetest little "uh" sound. She looks like she's really concentrating on me whenever I slowly ask, "Can you say Mama?" She doesn't do an m, but she can say words like nn-guh and thih. 

I have nursed my babies on demand and after the first month or so I don't write down the start times. I don't really have them on a schedule. We've been really blessed that they've each slept about 7+ hours every night by the time they are two months old. As a four-month-old she typically sleeps more than 10 hours at night. She wakes up for the day after 8 a.m. Her first nap starts between about 10:00 a.m. and noon and it often lasts for at least two hours. She has probably a couple more naps, likes to cluster nurse (have a few feedings closer together) after 6 p.m., and is asleep for the night as early as 8:30 p.m. but usually after 9:30. Sometimes I put her to bed and she wakes up after 10 p.m. just to eat and be changed. I read the information our pediatrician gave me at the four month check-up, and C's temperament is definitely not Slow-to-warm-up or Difficult. It's Easy: "positive, happy, regular patterns to eating and sleeping." She's a little anxious around strangers now (she cried when she saw the pediatrician), but calms down quickly.

At this age she reaches out and grabs items, like the linkables or necklace that someone is wearing, without a person putting it in her hand. My favorite thing is that while she nurses she holds my hand or the top of my shirt. Also, she now brings the linkables and other things to her mouth. She sucks on her fingers or hand -- probably mainly when she is hungry.

I know her eyesight is more developed because she looks way up at light fixtures in our chapel. She's great at following at object with her eyes.

Over a month ago I started bathing her in the regular tub instead of the sink. She likes lying on her back in the shallow water with a washcloth over her torso to keep her warm. She also likes to have her diaper changed promptly; when she's fussy I check the diaper first.

Easter and her blessing (more on that later) took place during her fourth month. Here are the photos I took of her with her pink teddy bear:

14 weeks

15 weeks

16 weeks (I put a sponge curler in her wet hair before taking this picture. My dad bought the dress in Costa Rica, for Second Girl)

17 weeks

4 months!

Her four month stats: 13 pounds 2 ounces (more than double her birth weight, and 38th percentile), height 44th percentile, head 89th percentile. I love the collage below. I adjusted the photos to make the teddy bear the same size; does that mean she's really this much bigger? The head growth amazes me. She's been able to hold her head steady for a few weeks -- she probably could do it by age 3 months.

I was sad when she outgrew her newborn cloth diapers, which I'm guessing was after she turned two months. She wears the size small Very Baby diapers now, and prefolds and covers. We used a few disposable diapers because some were given to us; I think size two would fit her better than size one now. Most 0-3 month clothing still fits her, as well as the Carters 3 month size. Some outfits I remember our older daughter(s) wearing are missing and I want them! But I got out the 3-6 and 6-9 month clothing and there's a cute 6-9 size skirt she's already worn. The outfit shown below, worn by our younger girls, is size 0-3.

I'm glad C's daddy gets to experience her at this age, since he missed all but two and a half weeks of Second Girl's first ten months due to being deployed. It's also really fun to see how helpful and playful five-year-old First Girl is with her baby sister, and how Second Girl softly touches her. We love our chubby little girl so much.