You may have noticed that posts on this blog have been rather sparse (or non existent) since mid March.  In April, I went back to work full time.  William, my husband, switched to a stay at home dad, doing web development and photography.  This switch came rather suddenly and I found spending time with my family a better use of my free time than blogging.  My son Aidan is now nearly 9 months old, babbling, crawling, eating semi solid foods, standing independently, and we’re greatly looking forward to his first Halloween.  Motherhood for Dummies still has big plans for the future, and will be sweeping away the cob webs and dust soon enough.

My husband is a pastor, in between churches at the moment.  We have great hopes that he will be back in full time ministry very soon, and I will be a stay at home wife and mother again.  You may notice the site going through some changes in the mean time, as I search for a new site design and a better direction for the site.  The “zombie” period as I’ve decided to call it.  Looks like there might be some movement, but there’s not much going on under the surface.  Before long we’ll be back sharing experiences, lessons, and tips with each other, not to mention all the adorable, funny, and sometimes gross stories that are sure to be shared where children are involved.  So put that shovel down, and don’t nail our coffin shut just yet.  MFD will rise again!

Here’s a great little tip for mommies on the go.  My hands are always dry now.  With winter wind, all my bodies water going toward milk production, and constantly using baby wipes on just about everything these days, my hands are more dry than normal.  If you’re out and about, and realize you didn’t pack lotion, I found a great solution is to wash your hands!  The soap in public restrooms usually have moisturizers in them.  I’ll wash my hands and I’ll be good for at least an hour or two, maybe more depending on how dry my hands are that day.  Really useful for when you’re on the go and don’t have time, or resources, to pick up some lotion or stop back home.

Back in my b5media days, I wrote a post over on Mother Earths Garden about a really great lotion for extreme dry skin, Skin MD.  You have to keep applying it the first day every couple of hours, then as needed after that.  Really great stuff.  It sold over the counter at some drugstores like CVS in their pharmacy department.  You can also order it online.

I’ve noticed, now that my son is three weeks old, his feeding habits have started to change.  He’s hungry more often, and will eat more in one feeding.  For the most part I’ve been sticking to the basic guidelines he had in his first week.  Feeding at the breast for at least 20 minutes on each side, or eating 3-4 oz in a bottle feeding.  Where it used to be a challenge to get him to feed the entire forty minutes, or to finish that last oz in the bottle, now he will go an hour or more at the breast, and will still seem hungry after gulping down the entire 4 oz from a bottle.  This is becoming a bit of  a hassle for me, since it means the time between feedings is less.  Some days around our house it seems like all I do is feed the baby.  I know he should be eating more as he is growing, but exactly how much should he be eating as he enters the 1 month stage?  2 Month?  3?  I think I can add this to the list of things that no one really seems to tell you as a new mom.  They look mostly at how much weight your baby is gaining, but if you’re in between doctors visits it’s a little hard to keep an accurate account of his weight gain.  The easiest way to make sure he’s getting enough is to keep tract of his diapers, as I mentioned in a previous post.  Babies should be maintaining at least 1 – 2 poops a day, and 6 or more wet diapers.  That should only lessen when he or she gets a few months older.  Again, a great way to tell after the fact.  But when you’re trying to measure out bottles and time feedings, it can still be a challenge.  After consulting with my son’s pediatrician, and researching different websites, I’ve come to the conclussion that no one really has an answer for this.  There’s no table that lays out how many oz a baby should eat based on his or her age.  It starts off with 3-4 oz every 3-4 hours or 40 minutes at the breast, then there is no new info until babies start eating solid foods.  The general consensis is to feed your baby as much as he or she will eat.  If your baby wants to eat 6 oz every 4 hours, or if they eat 2 oz every 2 hours then that’s fine.  If it takes them 30 minutes at the breast every 2 1/2 hours, or an hour every 4, that’s okay too.  Every baby is different.  The real trick is finding the right rythm for you and your baby.  It can be a hassle for you both in the beginning, but my pediatrician assures me that most babies fall into a regular schedule by about two months.  Then it will be much easier to tell when something is wrong.  If by 3 months you and your child are used feeding for 35 minutes every 3 hours, and he or she suddenly stops eating as much then you’ll know it’s time to call the doc.  Just keep track of those diapers, and as long as baby is having normal bowel movements and content between feedings (however long that may be) then he or she is getting enough to eat!

Okay, so lets recap a bit.  We reviewed four different brand of diapers over the past 36 hours.  The test subject being my 2 1/2 week old son, whom I might add bore the extra diaper changes, close observation, itchy bum like a trooper!  He wore each brand for at least 2 diaper changes each and we observed how each did in it’s absorbency, leakage, comfort level, fit, and cost.  Here are the brands we tested:

• White Cloud
• Huggies
• Luvs
• Pampers

We preformed a liquid pour test to see how well and how quickly each brand absorbed moisture.  Be sure to check the video if you haven’t seen it yet.

And the over all winner as far as value for your buck:

White Cloud!

While not the softest or most padded diaper in the bunch, it didn’t chafe or pinch.  It did the best out of all of them in keeping babies bum clean and dry.  It also held up to the other tests by staying in place, having a proper fit, and keeping what is suppose to be in the diaper, in the diaper!  It’s much cheaper than the name brands, so sacrificing a bit of comfort in the material seems worth the money you save in the long run.

If you’re wanting to go with comfort over cost, I’d recommend the Pampers. It covers more of babies bottom with out getting all bunched up or using lots of elastic.  It also seems to do better if your baby is like mine and has more sensitive skin.  I’ll probably be buying and using a bit of both brands.  In fact Aidan is wearing a White Cloud diaper as I’m writing this post.  We’ll probably switch to Pampers for bedtime since momma won’t be changing his diaper quite as frequently during the night.

I hope you have enjoyed this little experiment, and found it helpful.  I’d love to hear your opinions and experiences with different diapers.  Send them my way in an email or a comment!

First and foremost I have to warn you that I’m slightly partial to Pampers.  I have been from the beginning.  Not entirely sure why, but they seem to work best for me and my son.  So I will try to be as objective as possible when reviewing this brand!  Pampers is owned by Procter & Gamble, which manufactures a very wide range of products we use everyday, from toothpaste to dog food.  My first impression of Pampers was softness.  They used Pampers in the hospital when my son was born and they felt like cloth, inside and out.  This could be why I’m partial to them as well, since it was the first diaper I used with my son.  Though when stocking up while I was pregnant, I bought Pampers as well, so who knows!  For the sake of this experiment, he wore Pampers through two diaper changes.

• Absorbency – Didn’t do the best in the pour test, but wasn’t the worst either.  It does seem to be more absorbent in the front than the back, even when he is wearing them.  This may be an issue if he is sick, just like with the Luvs, but his bottom stays dry with out having dried out poop on his bum!
• Leakage – There was no leakage out the sides or back, but I do notice that his bowel movements go right up to the edge of the elastic around his legs.  This could be because the diaper doesn’t absorb moisture as quickly in the back as it does in the front, so it has time to travel out a little bit.  This makes clean up a little more of chore, but still much better than the Luvs in that department.  Bowel movements stay in the area of his bottom and don’t spread to other areas.
• Comfort – Very soft to the touch, feeling like fabric inside and out.  Not as much padding as Huggies, but enough to seem comfortable with out bunching up.  The elastic on the leg openings also feels like fabric and I notice no chaffing or pinching between diaper changes.  The fasteners are made of a stiffer material so some babies might not like the feel of rougher material on their tummies.  I’ve noticed that my son’s diaper rash is always better when wearing this brand, so it may be more hypoallergenic than other brands.  He also seems less “wiggly” when wearing them, so the material may feel  less scratchy or bunchy to him.
• Fit – This brand seems to fit my son the best, but all babies are a little different.  There is extra fabric on the front and back, so it covers him higher up his waist than the other brands.  It’s also wider so it covers more area.  It has some extra room in the bottom area, but not too much.  The side fasteners are wider than the other brands so it covers more on the sides as well.  It uses less elastic than the other brands in the legs and back but still fits snugly and doesn’t fall down due to the extra fabric on the front, back, and sides.
• Cost – Name brand diaper with the price that goes along with it.  Along the same lines as Huggies here, worth it if you can afford it, other wise you might want to start digging in the couch cushions!

That’s it for the results of the individual brands.  Stay tuned for my final conclusions of the experiment, as well as the winner for best value for your buck!