2U2: Week Two

I'm kind of a pessimist.  If you know me at all, this isn't news to you.  I like to expect the worst and then be pleasantly surprised when life doesn't suck.  So when Casey went back to work last Monday, I did just that.  Fortunately, Parker still sleeps a ton (well, during the day at least...), so most of the time it's just me and Lu hanging out while he naps; it's those short intervals when they're both awake that things get interesting.

Here's a recap of our second week:

BREASTFEEDING
All signs of engorgement are gone.  Praise God!  Parker is still exclusively breastfed and latching well.  I think his 2 week growth spurt started on Friday, so he's been eating even more frequently.  He tends to be more alert and interested during his nighttime nursing sessions; I have to change his diaper before switching breasts during the daytime nursing sessions to make sure he's awake.

NAPS
Naps are Parker's strong suit, more so than nighttime sleep.  He extended his waketime over the last week and is now between 45-60 minutes.  Although there were several occasions that he surpassed his typical waketime and refused to sleep altogether...like on Friday...when he was up for 6 consecutive hours...and again on Saturday, when he was up for 3 consecutive hours (you know, during our newborn session).  He naps for 3 hours, and I wake him almost every time.  I put him down awake but drowsy, and swaddled.  He still doesn't seem to mind all the noise from Sissy. 

Lucy is still taking two naps a day, usually at 10:30 and 3:30, and sleeps for 1.5-2 hours each time.  She goes down with her Boppy, blankie, sippy, monkey, and a book.  I love naptime.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP
To put it simply, I dread going to bed each night.  (Maybe I jinxed our good luck with last week's update?)  Parker has his days and nights mixed up.  He sleeps like a rock all day and is drowsy during his waketime; but, come nighttime, he's wide awake, usually for 60 minutes, and sleeping in 1.5 hour intervals.  IT'S BRUTAL.  Everything I've read says to wait it out, and that it will resolve on it's own, but that can take up to one month.  We usually end up bed-sharing by the end of the night because I'm just so desperate for sleep...  I'm frustrated.  I don't want to fall into the same bad habits that I did with Lucy (nursing to soothe, bed-sharing out of desperation, yadda yadda yadda).

I wanted to start CIO, but Parker had (still has) the worst congestion AND two clogged tear ducts (which seem to be better now)...and he's in the middle of his 2 week growth spurt...so it didn't seem right.       

Lu has been going down at 8 pm, and sleeping in later and later!  Between 7:30-8:30!!!  Thank you, sweet girl!

DIAPERING
Both kiddos are in cloth.  (Except for Lu at bedtime.)  Parker is in prefolds and Thirsties covers - seriously, it's the only cover worth purchasing.  I use The Newspaper fold (a.k.a. Angel Wing fold), and Casey uses The Twist.  We haven't had any leaks and that makes me one happy, happy girl.  We were able to stop circumcision care after 10 days, which has saved us some time and mess during each change.

I've been laundering each day, and we've never run out of clean diapers.  ::knocks on wood::  Lu is usually in BumGenius 4.0 pockets or a Thirsties cover with a Flip insert.  (Trying to keep the prefolds set aside for Parker.)

SIBLING INTERACTION
Lu is still very much in love with her baby brother.  She loves to give him kisses and hugs.  Sometimes she's a little too rough; she wants to play with him like she plays with us...which involves hitting, kicking, licking, etc.  This morning she got really pissed when I used one of her blankets to cushion him; she tried to yank it out from under him.

She hasn't shown any signs of jealousy.  When I'm nursing Parker, she's usually walking around the bedroom or couch (wherever we're situated) making a mess playing with her toys.  Sometimes she'll stand behind me and gently tap my back as I'm burping Parker.

CONCLUSION

It was a good week overall.  Parker's nasty umbilical cord fell off and we're all still alive (just tired).  We may even attempt to venture out of the house during Week Three.  Stay tuned!  

Nighttime Diaper Solutions for Toddlers

Lucy started waking up earlier than normal a couple weeks ago, by about 30-60 minutes.  She had been waking between 6:30-7:00 for months, at which point she was content to play in her crib for another half an hour; but with this earlier wake time, she wanted to get up right away, and her usual half-hearted whine became a more persistent, unhappy cry.  At first I thought it was because the sun was rising earlier, but Casey quickly pointed out that the nursery faces west and does not receive any of the morning sunlight.  My next thought was that Lu's bedtime was too late (8:00 pm), and that she was overtired by the time we put her down.  So we moved her bedtime to 7:45, then 7:30, and finally 7:15...none of which delayed her morning wake time.  

Coincidentally, I noticed that Lu's diaper had leaked every morning that she woke up too early.  I immediately assumed Casey put her diaper on incorrectly and felt a little peeved.  (Until I put her nighttime diaper on, and she still had a leak the next morning...)  It finally occurred to me that we had an absorbency issue.  I tested our pocket diapers, and they were not repelling; the problem was with our inserts.  We have been using a BumGenius 4.0 pocket diaper with one microfiber insert and one hemp insert since Lu was 4 months old (the last time we thought to increase absorbency).  Unfortunately, a toddler's output is substantially higher than an infants - the two simply cannot be compared - and the same diaper cannot be expected to meet the needs of both.  

My focus suddenly shifted from Lucy's early waking to Lucy's leaky diaper problem.  We began using the disposables we had on hand at nighttime, while I researched various cloth solutions.  The first result in my Google search was this blog post, and that's when I learned the two problems were related.  Lu was waking up early because her diaper was so full and leaking onto her jams!  I continued scrolling through the results and found the following nighttime solutions to be the most commonly used:

1)  Increased number of inserts, natural fibers only - like bamboo and hemp (no microfiber).  

2)  Hemp fitted diaper with a wool cover.

3)  Knickernappies Superdo insert in a standard pocket diaper. 

And the fourth (most surprising and most popular) option...

The majority of participants in the cloth diaper forums used disposable diapers on their toddlers at nighttime.  And not the regular, daytime disposables...  (I had no idea any other kind of disposable existed.)  They were using Overnights or Extra Protection diapers.  It seemed many of the parents had tried to find a cloth solution first, none of which were able to stand up to the ridiculous volume of toddler pee, and ultimately opted to use disposables at nighttime. 

After weighing our options, we decided to forgo the spendy cloth solutions and went straight for Huggies Overnight disposable diapers (since the cheap-o generic disposables we had on hand were leaking too).  We did try the first option, adding a second hemp insert and replacing the microfiber insert with a prefold, but the result looked very bulky and uncomfortable for Lucy.  And since Lucy's comfort is my primary concern, I am more than happy to go whatever route necessary with our diapering.  Lucy has been in Huggies Overnights for the last week, she hasn't leaked once, and she's gone back to waking up at a decent hour!