We forgot the introductions!

Oh how rude of me.  I completely forgot the formal introductions to our littlesthead.

It was a pretty cold day on February 16th.  There was some snow left on the ground when we went to the hospital.  It was a planned c-section, so there was no rush to the hospital.  After all the pre-op and such, the littlesthead was officially born at 11:24 am.  What this mama remembers from the operating room... some super silly things.

When asked how I was feeling after getting epidural and whatever other fluids they were pumping into me, my response was "I'm actually hungry".  I was!  I wasn't allowed to eat anything for breakfast since my food/liquid intake had a midnight cutoff.

Right around that 11:24 mark, Dr. Gotzman, who was performing the procedure, says "What are you holding onto in there?" Apparently, the littlesthead was a grabby little guy and got a grip on something.  Good news, he did not bring any kind of souvenir out with him.  And, the presentation to mama and daddy over the blue curtain...littlesthead proceeds to show his love by spitting at his mama.  Yeah... love you too buddy.

Littlesthead weighed 6 lbs 5 ounces and was 18 inches long.

So, now, here we are...at the 3 month mark.

Wait?!  What?!?!  3 months already?!?!?  My how time flies. And look how impressed he must be to be 3 months old.

Littlehead and littlesthead are getting along well.  Big Brother is enjoying his promotion.  He loves holding his little bro, and entertaining him.  It's fun now that littlesthead smiles and laughs.  He is even starting to recognize familiar faces, including Big Bro.  I mean, look at the brotherly love.

And let's say, these two definitely look like brothers.  Don't believe me...see for yourself.

                        

The Cloth Diaper Chronicles - Lil Helpers

So, yes, we are in the midst of the Cloth Diaper adventure with the Littlesthead.  We are quickly approaching 3 months since the littlesthead was born.  We have been cloth diapering for a little over a month, well part-time.  I have a few different brands that I purchased to try out.  One of the brands that I came across thanks to Fluff Love University, is Lil Helper.  Lil Helper has been around since 2009.  The company was founded by Mohammed Gandhi and Nader Abu El Samid,  and it's sole mission is "to provide quality products and fantastic customer service".  "Apart from providing parents with a greener alternative to disposable diapers, Lil Helper also started the Baby Do Good program, which gives 1 brand new cloth diaper to a family in need for every 3 diapers they sell."

After finding out about Lil Helper, I decided to give them a try.  At the time, they were running a special, 50% off on 2 Diapers and FREE SHIPPING!!  Why would I not take advantage of that?  The catch, I had to select 5 of my favorite colors, and they would pick 2 to ship me.

Well, apparently word got around, and the good people at Lil Helper actually had to wait for their diapers to get restocked.  I received an email from Mohammed informing me of the delay and that this was "not business as usual".  Okay, so my order is delayed.  No problem, especially since they notified me.  A check mark in the great customer service column.

Before I knew it, I received my package from Lil Helper!  And it didn't just have my diapers!

I was surprised to see some extra goodies included.  They sent a cloth wipe, a hand-written thank you note, tea and some treats!  Another check mark in the great customer service column.

Next step, I prepped my new diapers for use, and was a little sad to discover (dun dun dunnnn) that one of the inside snaps that connects to the liner was missing!

So, I sent a nice email informing them of the missing snap, and even sent the picture.  Well, guess what?  Shortly after, I received a response that (1) they needed me to resend the picture b/c they were in the midst of migrating to a new help system and (2) they would send me a replacement  cover.  I asked if they'd like me to send the now defective one back and the answer was...No, go ahead and keep it.

After I got them all prepped, we gave them a test run.

 I do dig the Lil Helper diapers.  They fit pretty darn good, and are fairly trip.  Now, they came with two inserts, a large and a small that snap to the cover.  They are made to attach to each other and to the cover.  I have only been using one at a time.  If/when I decide to cloth at nighttime (we do disposables now) doubling the inserts would probably be a good idea.

What do I say about Lil Helper?  All good things.  The product is great.  The customer service is fantastic.  And the fact that have the Baby Do Good program is AMAZING!  Two thumbs up from this mama.  And if he could do it, another two thumbs from my littlesthead.

If you are thinking about trying Cloth Diapering, please consider Lil Helper.  They are always running specials it seems.  Go ahead.  Check them out!

Preparing for the littlest-head

It's the final countdown to the arrival of our littlest head.   Plenty to do in a little over a month.

Let's go back to July 4th weekend, where the Big news was revealed to the Big Brother (and everyone else for that matter).  We were attending a Maryland Blue Crabs baseball game, and thought it would be a fun way to let the Littlehead know that he wasn't going to be the only littlehead in the family anymore.

Obviously, it was a bit of a shocker.  But we had more people to share the news with.  How to do it?
Well, good thing Mommy designs shirts for such an occasion.  We had to improvise since it would have taken too long to order a real shirt from my Cafe Press shop, but it worked great.

Littlehead walked into Mimi and Poppy's with the shirt on, and didn't say a word until someone actually read the shirt (which says "Big Brother To-Be : Loading in Progress").  Lot's of excitement ensued.

When it was time to find out if it was a Baby Mickey or Baby Minnie, we decided to involve the Big Brother in the reveal! He was at school while mom and dad were at the doctor's getting the results.

It's another BOY for the Goldman family!

Good thing we've held on to all if little head's clothes and such.  We just have to supplement a few things since the littlest head will be born in the winter instead of the summer. 

Now it's January, and it's a little less than a month before the  little guy is due to arrive.  (Well, due is a little different in this case as it will be a scheduled C-Section).  And there's plenty to do.  The lists have started...so has the nesting it seems as I have just spent the past few days tackling some organization in the kitchen.

One big thing on my mind lately... Cloth diapers. Now, big brother was a solely disposable diaper baby, until the cloth training pants stage.  Now...I have quite a few friends who are experienced cloth diapers, and I have hit them up for suggestions and advice.  I've also done research via Pinterest.  I found a decent sale on Zulily on FuzziBunz,and ordered a few.  Just waiting for them to arrive.  I also found a local gal who runs a cloth diaper business from her home.  A shout out to Tiffany at FiggyFuzz for letting me stop by and explaining all things cloth diapering.  It was very helpful to see and touch all the varieties of cloth diapers.  From pre-folds, to pockets, to all-in-ones.... it actually really all started to make sense.

So, this is the beginning of this new endeavor.  I hope to keep sharing as I learn more about cloth diapers and how they work or don't work for us and the littlesthead.