I wanted to co-sleep from the beginning, but Chad was afraid that he would roll over on the baby, so we got an 18x36 cradle for her to sleep in in our room. There is a lower risk for SIDS if the baby is in the same room as the caregiver during the time period when the risk is highest, which is between 2-4 months old. I also thought it would be easier with nursing during the night. That worked for the first couple of weeks, but then she started having trouble sleeping in the cradle, but when we would comfort her in our bed, she would go into a deep peaceful sleep, but awaken when she was placed back in the cradle, so she would end up sleeping in our bed either on one of our chests or in her boppy pillow. By this time, Chad had realized that he wasn't going to roll over on her, so we got a snuggle nest for our bed where she now sleeps quite safely and comfortably. I should note that we have a California King size bed, so there is plenty of room for the snuggle nest and both of us.
People who know me well, know that I care about the environment. I try to recycle everything that I can. I use reusable grocery bags and a reusable water bottle (I just got a Kleen Kanteen to replace my Nalgene bottle). We have done lots of things to our house to make it more energy efficient (new AC, new windows, new water heater, desert landscaping, insulating the garage, getting rid of all the carpet, etc.) and we would do a lot more if we thought we would stay in this house for a long time. We drive cars with good gas mileage . . . And I use cloth diapers. Originally, I wasn't sure that it would be better for the environment because I thought that the amount of water and detergent might offset the impact of manufacturing and disposing of disposables. Not true. Check out http://www.thenewparentsguide.com/diapers.htm for great info. For us it is cheaper as well, but that might not be the case for everyone in every circumstance. I will never use a regular diaper like a Pampers or Huggies because they are the absolute worse thing for the environment. When we do use a disposable, we use seventh generation diapers, which cost more (no coupons and sales). We spent $200 up front on enough diaper covers, pocket diapers and wet bags to last us until she is about 15-18 pounds and then I will spend another $150 on diaper covers that will last us until she is potty trained. We didn't purchase the diapers themselves because we are using a diaper service since I am going to continue working for the time being. Our diaper service is AWESOME and they charge us $60 a month. I don't have to worry about harsh or possibly harmful chemicals or plastic materials irritating my baby's skin. Cloth diaper babies rarely get diaper rash while something like half of all babies using disposables have rashes. The real savings come with the next baby and I will already have all my diaper covers. I tried a bunch of different brands at first. My brand recommendations are:
- Fuzzi Bunz for a pocket diaper and for double diapering at night (use a prefold from the service and the insert together). You can also take out the insert and use as just a cover during the day. This is an extremely high quality diaper that will last for as many babies as you can have and it comes in tons of fun colors.
- Imse Vimsie for an organic diaper cover. It is really soft and the entire top is velcro instead of using velcro tabs. The jungle print is really cute.
- Thirsties for a less expensive thin flexible velcro cover. This was is lined with PUL which is a plastic material, but the plastic doesn't come in contact with baby's skin. This one also comes in many different colors.
- Bummi's for a comfortable velcro cover. The material is thicker and comes in cute prints as well as white. Higher quality than thirsties in my opinion. They also make a line of swim diapers, but I haven't tried those yet.
