Product Review: Sophie the Giraffe

I had my eyes on Sophie for awhile but I was holding off on purchasing her until I was ready to make my next big cloth diaper purchase. I showed her to my Mum (who lives in Australia) and talked about the chemicals in a lot of kids toys these days and how Sophie was made from natural rubber, etc... a few days later I was chatting with my friends from pregnancy.org about Sophie and how we were all thinking about buying one. That day I found her in the mail box! My Mum was nice enough to buy her for Desana. You can't imagine my surprise and confusion, going from thinking about buying it and finding her in the mailbox on the same day!

What's so great about Sophie? Basically she's a teething toy. She's made of natural rubber so there's no need to worried about your baby chewing on her all day long. I am worried about the chemicals in plastic and don't trust a lot of cheap plastic toys (how good is a $2 toy made in China really going to be for your baby?), so it's really nice to have something I know is safe.

I'm not going to talk too much about the chemical risks, etc. but you can read all about Sophie the Giraffe at By Nature (Yep, that site again).

Desana loves her. She took to her straight away and plays with and chews on her all the time.
Here she is on their first encounter.

And here she is a day or two ago... I think I had this shot in my previous blog post!

I've heard some concerns about the ears and knobbly bits on the head maybe being dangerous for the baby but they are actually part of what makes this such a great teething toy. I actually gave her a chew myself and there is no way a child could bite those off, I don't think I could!

Sophie is about $20 CND and well worth every dollar! I think she would make a great gift for any new or young baby. You know you are giving something that is SAFE, and that's what is most important.

Product Review: Fuzzibunz, BumGenius 3.0, Happy Heiny's OS & Sized

Before my daughter was born I had every intention of putting her in cloth diapers. What I didn't have was hundreds of dollars to make the initial investment. My Mum purchased some flats/prefolds for me, but I was too intimidated to use them. Then with the baby showers and gifts came literally hundreds of disposable diapers. I figured I might as well use them.

Now my daughter is 4 months old and I finally purchased some 'modern' cloth diapers to try out before deciding to invest more money. I bought the Dazed & Confused Pocket Package from bynature.ca for roughly $102 CND.

It came with a bumgenius 3.0 One-Size (8lbs-35lbs), happy heiny's size small (8lbs-16lbs), happy heiny's One-Size (8-35lbs) and a fuzzibunz size small (7lbs-18lbs). I decided to try pocket diapers after much research. With pockets you remove the inserts to wash and dry, and they dry fast. In addition they have the advantage of just being able to add an additional insert for nighttime or if your baby is a heavier wetter.

First I had to wash all the diapers and inserts before use. That is an adventure in and of itself. I personally find washing cloth diapers to be scary as I'm afraid of ruining them... But I'm slowly getting over it. That's a story for another time.

Baby is thrilled at the prospect of having a fluffy butt!

First I put her in the fuzzibunz.

It's a great diaper. Because it's sized it's very fitted. It is designed with a top and bottom row of snaps, so you can really adjust the fit according to your little one's shape. It is initially a bit fiddly but you figure it out soon enough. It's not at all bulky so baby isn't struggling to move while wearing it.. AND it is SO cute. I love it but will not be making it my primary diaper because it's expensive. The website estimates $1100 in spending costs if you use Fuzzibunz alone, which is much cheaper than disposables. And the advantage of a sized system is that it lasts longer and may very likely be of use for more than one baby. But the initial investment for 24 size small FBs is around $650 (that's with two inserts for each diaper included). Great if you can afford it, but I currently can not.

Next up I tried the sized Happy Heiny's. I didn't like it very much at all. After using the FBs I also found the large velrcro tabs at the front to be very bulky. I also discovered it leaked at the legs.

As you can see the elastic dug into her back even with the front loose. It left dark red marks that looked painful or at least like it would be uncomfortable.

After just one wash the stitching covering the elastic at the back came apart.

Perhaps needless to say I did not like this diaper very much at all.

Next up we tried the BumGenius 3.0. I don't have great pictures of her in this diaper, so I apologise in advance.

I love this diaper. It is a one-size so it has the potential to fit up through toddlerhood. It is very trim, not very bulky at all. The leg fit is nice and snug, the snaps on the rise make it so it's not hanging down to her knees, and the velcro at the waist makes for a snug fit. I have had her in this diaper three times for overnights. Usually if she is in a disposable when we wake up in the morning and I lift the blanket off her there is a horrible smell of urine and diaper chemicals. There is none of that with the BG, and with two inserts for night time there are no leaks.

I really love this diaper and I plan on purchasing another 12 in the next month. Because it will be washed regularly over the few years she is wearing them, it probably won't last for use on a second baby unless we have another one straight away. But an advantage of this system is that if you have two babies in diapers at the same time, you can use the same diaper on them both, just adjust the size. Pretty nifty! For about $500 you can have your baby in BumGenius diapers from birth through potty training.

Last up is the Happy Heiny's One Size. Now you might say I was just biased against it because of my experience with the sized variety, and having loved the Bumgenius OS. You might be right.

For some reason Desana decided to be smiley at the camera on this day! We haven't had any problems with it but I don't love it. It doesn't leak like the sized one did, but I do find it to be a bulker diaper than the BG. Also, again, the large velcro tabs are annoying.

Baby's movement is more restricted in this diaper than in the BG. Right now she has more trouble rolling around in this diaper. I'm not planning on purchasing any more of this brand. If you were interested in this system the overall cost in comparison to BG 3.0's is
only an additional $20-$30.

In conclusion, there are very many different kinds of pocket diapers (these are just a few), and even more varities of cloth diapers. It's really about what works for you. I took a lot of time researching my choice until I settled on pocket diapers. Once you try them you'll find they are easier than you think. They can be very cute, and every time you put your baby in a cloth diaper, that's one less disposable diaper in the landfill... or even more when you consider that cloth is reuseable, disposables are not! There are many different websites with the facts and figures of disposable versus cloth, I'm not going into that. This is just my personal experience. Hopefully you can benefit from it.

Introduction

My name is Amy and I am 23 years old. I was born, raised and married in Australia then I moved to Canada to my husband's hometown 2 months later. We met on the Internet.

The person I am today is all because of my daughter. I think being a parent makes me more aware of the world around me. I want it to be the best place for her and I want to give her the best start in life possible.

When I found out that I was pregnant I was fortunate enough to be able to find a midwife to have our care through. To be honest I don't entirely remember how I came to the decision that homebirth was what I wanted, I think as soon as I read about that being a viable option in this day and age something clicked into place and I knew it was what I wanted. Because I am an Immigrant and at the time had no medical coverage that was also further reason to pursue a homebirth. A standard hospital birth would have cost a minimum of $3000-$4500, however even if I had been covered homebirth would still have been my choice.

I went on to amuse my husband and impress my midwife by borrowing nearly every conceivable book on pregnancy and natural childbirth from the library and coming armed with long lists of questions at each prenatal apppointment. Believe it or not there did come a point where I ran out of questions because I seemed to know it all!

My husband and I attended only two prenatal classes when we made the joint decision to stop attending as neither of us were learning anything we didn't already know.

When labour came I was completely prepared for it. We were at a family friends house for our traditional yearly pre-Christmas dinner. We were watching slides from when the kids (including my husband) were young and I laughed so hard that my water broke! I was 39 weeks 5 days pregnant. We stayed for another hour or two because I wanted to play cards with everyone. I got a few strange/paniced looks because in this day and age when a woman's water breaks it is expected she will run off to a hospital. But unlike what you see on television the baby generally doesn't follow 15 minutes later. I knew early labour can last a long time and figured I might as well stay while I felt comfortable.

When we went home, my husband went to sleep for a few hours as he was still on night-shift hours. I laboured mostly on my own for 4-5 hours with my sister and midwife silently observing and occasionally coming to monitor the fetal heartbeat. I was leaning over my birthball for the first couple of hours, then I moved to leaning on the back of the couch. I retreated within myself and just focused on breathing calmly and swaying and 'singing' through contractions. I didn't feel panic or frightened, I knew exactly what was happening and I trusted in my bodies' ability to safely labour and deliver my baby. At about seven hours into labour I moved into the birthpool and laboured for the next three hours with my husband sitting behind me on the outside but holding my hands. He kept me grounded and I was able to stay calm and focused just by having his hands to hold. I vocalised through contractions (I did not practice breathing exercises previously) by making the most natural sounds as I breathed in and out. They were 'haaaaa hoooo' type noises, that is just what came out, at different pitches depending on what I was feeling. I had the first pushing urge at the end of a contraction about an hour before my baby was born. I never intentionally pushed other than when my body was pushing. It wasn't really something I could control, it knew what it was doing. My midwife advised I move on to my knees because that would make it easier for me. My husband had his arms around me supporting me and my daughter was born into the water about 15 minutes later. I was only in labour for 10 hours. I remember saying "I did it! I can't believe I did it!" and I said "That was easy!" I did not tear and only had minor abrasions. My midwives said that I gave birth as if it was my third baby, not my first, and that I should be teaching women how to birth like that. It was such an empowering experience and really one I wish more women could experience. I think that today too many women trust in medicine and machines rather than their own body and its ability to deliver a baby. People may think I am crazy but the experience of giving birth is one I wish I could have on a regular basis. Unfortunately our bodies are not designed that way!

So that is a somewhat summarised version of my birth story. I am open to questions if you have any.
Now that my little girl is here, my desire for knowledge (I think of it as 'informed consent/knowledge' of the world in general') has stuck around. I have an attachment parenting style, I co-sleep, breastfeed and wear my baby. I can't help but want to think green and want to be sure I am making the right choices for her health and best start in life.
That's what this is all about.