https://www.instagram.com/p/BIaYzRjhz-e/
Page 24 of 24
The last few days have been tough.. BabyT has been a decent night sleeper since his fourth month, I think. After both of us, that’s mommyT and daddyG are in bed beside him, he spreads his arms out, such that one hand touches me and the other his daddy and falls into the deepest slumber ever. It’s rare that he wakes for a middle of the night feed. But the past few days have been bad. He wakes up crying, almost every hour. Doesn’t fall asleep again, even after a feed, and generally very clingy and cranky all day. His solids intake was also wavering. I was going nuts on the other hand. Lack of sleep had made me super irritated, I was lashing out at everyone hubby, the cook, the Amazon courier guy, the society whatsapp group. *sigh* What was the cherry on top of this shit pile, was daddyG in the morning saying, “He woke up? Are you sure? I didn’t hear a thing.” Tear my hair out moment!
Just when I was about to throw the towel in and call my mom over to rescue me, this happens! BabyT comes up to sit independently the next morning. Shameful to say this, but I always have my smartphone in hand and when I realized what was happening I clicked away. So this is the very moment guys. How precious is that!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIacDIXhjLv/?taken-by=nayantara06
https://www.instagram.com/p/BINPRSDBzE1/
When I was pregnant, I had made several mental lists of how to care for the lil bundle that was to arrive. One of them was to avoid disposable diapers… I’d read of all the chemicals & processing used to make them and the perceived, but not fully researched papers on the health risks associated, and most of all, i just imagined myself, lying and living with a sanitary pad around my privates for like two years of my life and No!! I just couldn’t think of it for baby. I had not heard of modern cloth diapers then, but I did know of langots or flats which were folded into a triangle nappy and secured on with a pin, but it sounded too tedious and B.O.R.I.N.G. Soon I stumbled down the rabbit hole of baby care and with it arrived knowledge about modern cloth diapers. My world went into a tizzy, a happy one of course. This was it. I had found my alternative solution to disposies.
So like many cloth diapering moms, I did some basic maths and realised that cloth diapers save a ton of money. Yes!! Ok I will admit that in our early days after babyT arrived, we did use disposables and usually got through one pack of 24 nappies in about 2.5 days. This pack of 24 cost Rs 300 (+-10) So for a week I would need around 3 such packs and spend around Rs. 900. And that means in a month I would spend about Rs. 3600. So for 1 full year of disposable usage I would be spending Rs. 43,200 (or more, considering as baby grows the nappies are more expensive) Now assume baby potty trains at around 2 years (this is a very conservative estimate, considering that babies on disposables train much later.) and you have spent close to Rs. 86000 or more. Almost a lac.
Now coming to cloth diapers. Reusable cloth diapers range from Rs. 300 (what are referred to as China cheapies) to Rs. 2500+ (uber quality, American made) a piece. A very conservative mom would need around 10 cloth diapers, assuming she has a daily wash routine. Most moms prefer to have around 20 – 30 diapers in their stash. If she goes the China cheapie way she will have spent Rs. 9000 + a Rs. 1000 more for accessories like inserts. And if she chooses to splurge then she will have spent around Rs. 50,000 to 75,000. Now this is all she spends for the entire duration that baby is in diapers and till he is potty trained. Yes that is it. And you better take a seat, coz you may faint.. cloth diapers have resale value. So she gains back a portion of what she spent. Assume she sells them for a very generous 50% depreciated value, then her overall spending on diapers is .. do the maths, very, very minimal.
I am not even going to get into the adverse impact that Rs. 86,000 worth disposables have on the environment, versus the sustainability created even by Rs. 9000 worth of cloth diapers. I think that is plain to see.
What I really,really love about cloth diapers is the science behind them. Someone took a lot of effort to study fabrics, absorbency, comfort on skin, breathability, flexibility, durability and said that cotton, bamboo fibre, hemp, suede, fleece, microfibre, PUL/ TPU; et cetera are great for cloth diapers. They can be as good as a disposable diaper in terms of holding pee/ poo and yet keep baby completely dry. I spent most of the final trimester of my pregnancy researching on materials, brands of cloth diapers, what concept they used to hold pee/poo and reading up countless reviews. And I am super impressed with all the work that has gone into making cloth diapers a booming industry.
And oh the beauty of the cloth diapers.. there is something so yummy and beautiful, about a baby bottom clad in cloth. A myriad of styles, designs, prints and colours, to suit whatever theme floats your boat. Is your baby’s favourite book The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle? Well, we’ve got a diaper for that. Does your husband play the guitar and is already coaching your bub to pluck those strings? We’ve got a diaper for that. Did you spend countless hours watching Harry Potter re-runs while you were resting those swollen pregnant feet? No surprises, we have a diaper for that too.
But more than anything, I love cloth diapers for the satisfaction they provide. After almost 10 – 11 hours of an overnight cloth diaper, when I remove the diaper in the morning, I find baby soft and fresh skin. No angry redness or rashes or dryness. This is what is the win for me. We’ve been exclusively cloth diapering for about 5 months now and I assure you we have not had one single day of diaper rash. We don’t even own a tube of rash cream (more savings!!) I also do believe that effective night time cloth diapering has contributed a great deal to ensuring that babyT has a good and undisturbed sleep routine, which has become a habit for him now (we do have the odd crazy night, when he gets excited over some baby dream perhaps and wakes us up at 230 am for playtime.)
All this is what makes me so passionate about cloth diapering. One of the best decisions I made and one that I shall advocate forever more.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BICCkDnhgYZ/?taken-by=nayantara06
Tasmai shri guruwe namaha..
My baby has been and continues to be my biggest teacher this year.
I am learning (its a continuous process) immense patience, and the meaning of true love and absolute trust, you may doubt your own parenting skills, but your baby thinks you’re the bee’s knees, really!!
Also cool skills like surviving on two hours of sleep, lunch at 5 pm, a 2 minute bath once in two days, scoring baby gear at online auctions while putting a cranky baby at ease (my cloth diapering mama friends know this is hard core ?)
Most of all I’m trusting that nature knows it all, baby knows what he wants and when he wants it. I’ve learnt of the magic of breast milk, sustainable living with cloth diapers, environment friendly detergents, shampoos (no poo) and of other techniques, not just to do with baby care. A world I never knew existed. And one that I am glad to be a part of..
So on Guru Purnima today, I say thank you baby Tasmai, for being my inspiration.
~~My son’s name is Tasmai, inspired by a Sanskrit shloka that gives thanks & respects to one’s guru or teacher~~
The first toy that we bought babyT was a set of teethers by Chicco. This was on day 2 of his birth, when daddy was keen to gift his lil baby boy a little something. Of course we didn’t use that gift till much later. But after that one gift we didn’t see the need for buying any toys, as we were gifted so many by our friends and family. Until now that is..
Our first joint (mommy and daddy with babyT) shopping expedition took us to Hamley’s (Infinity II mall, Malad, Mumbai) where we were quite uninspired by what we saw or were a few years too early to buy him lego and superhero stuff. There we saw a little crowd of kids, young and on the threshold of teenage, surrounding a display unit with various creatures, cute and awkward who were walking, babbling, making animal noises.
We stopped for a peek too and fell in love with this little Alien friend. We bought this for lil babyT immediately and named it Mork (after Mork & Mindy naanuuu-naanuu.) So here’s what we love.
The toy is a walking, talking battery operated one. Its USP is that it repeats everything you say and in a funny cartoonish voice. What better do small babies and children love than someone to constantly talk to and blabber away in gibberish.
Pros:
- No loose parts.
- Suede lined, not fur. I’m not overly concerned about babyT chewing on the little alien’s antenna
- Keeps babyT engaged while I fix up a cup of tea
- Imitates babyT’s little heyys, oohs, squeals, screams (we’re doing a lot of that right now) and encourages babyT to talk more (big big plus mark)
- Keeps adults amused when they mouth dialogues of 90s Bollywood movies and sometimes some naughty words (read: the husband)
Cons:
- a little pricey at Rs. 1599
- Sometimes you forget to turn it off and you’re shouting out across the house to the cook, saying “6 rotis, bhindi sabji, dal fry” and trust me, it’s not cute in squeak language.
- Drains battery like crazy
Before you get pregnant, you really are clueless about the world that pregnancy, babies is all about. If you are lucky enough to have a friend, sister or someone in your close circle who is pregnant, you may be more aware of terms like susu count, poo colour, diapers, formula mixing etc. For me, I was the first person in my dad’s side of the family to be pregnant after a gap of almost 22 years and the last one from my husband’s side of the family, with all of the other pregnant ladies being based abroad. I had not seen a pregnancy up, close and personal. So naturally I had to rely on ‘What to expect when you’re expecting?’, babycenter and Social Media. Yes! Facebook, prepared me for having a baby.
So it all started with a friend recommending me to join a breastfeeding support group. I remember thinking, ‘eh, what’s the big deal with that? Just attach baby to boob and it’ll be fine from there on.’ I was so wrong, not only is breastfeeding not easy (at least initially), combine that with raging hormones, borderline PPDs, lack of sleep, emotional rollercoasters of joy, guilt, anger, pain etc. and you have a rather potent mix there. So I joined the breastfeeding group and my eyes popped in surprise at what all the new moms had to go through physically, how difficult and challenging it was and how their environment hampered, rather than encouraged them. I spent almost a good few weeks reading resources, cases on the facebook group and then began reading every query posted and responding to them in my mind, then checking the expert responses to see if I was right. This really prepared me for breastfeeding.
Enough digression, and back to cloth diapering. So the cloth diapering group was a sister group of the breastfeeding support group and I joined thinking what’s the big deal about ‘langots?’ Again, what I saw blew my mind. This was no ordinary white cloth, bound around in a triangle and held together by safety pins. This was a world of rainbows and unicorns, trucks and trains, owls and pandas, Minions and Mickey. I was astounded. I spent many a sleepless night thinking, yes, this is what I wanted for my child. No chemicals, no plastic, no bleached paper. I think I spent almost two months, scanning every post, pins, photos, reviews before I took the plunge and ordered my first set of CDs. I don’t think I got it perfectly right at the first shot but I did cloth diaper my child. I surely could have done things much more efficiently, but it has been a learning process and I am in a much better place today. 
I am very passionate about cloth diapering. It has conquered my very soul and being. After 6 months with babyT, of which 4 months were exclusively cloth diapered, I can vouch for the fact that this is the future and what we should be giving our little babies and planet Earth. I am not judging moms who do not cloth diaper, all mothers are the best in terms of how they raise their little ones. But i would urge them to gain awareness about cloth diapering and give it a shot. Your bub and this Earth will be grateful for it.
So here I will share my experiences, tips, tricks and reviews. This has been one of the best choices I’ve made with respect to my baby and I would love to share that joy with you. Feel free to ask me anything about cloth diapering. I love talking about it. Happy CDing.
BabyT turns 6 months today! It has been a great journey.. but not one without it’s own highs and low. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for these six months – some of my expectations were underplayed and some overwhelmed me.
I didn’t sleep well last night.. the last night of him being “not yet 6 months old.” The other time I felt like this was exactly 6 months ago, the night before we had him in our arms. I am so happy to see my lil babyT grow bigger, stronger, more expressive, responsive and all that, dont get me wrong there. But as with any other mom, I wish he would be an adorable baby for a bit longer.
We chose to exclusively breast feed our babyT. Its really not as simple as that.. breastfeeding is not easy. we have come this close to giving it up altogether, but we strived together, babyT and I, his daddy and our family too. But we sucked it up and stuck it out for these six months. Nothing but breast milk went in to that little tummy of his. But we are happy we made it. And now at six months, we begin solid food. This was what made me sad. Since the month of June dawned on us, it was there at the back of my mind and heart that babyT starts solid foods soon. This made me very emotional. All this while babyT was surviving on my milk – it healed him, nourished him, protected him and gave him all he is today. Now he will share that glory with someone or some’food’ else. I felt this would change equations between him and me. We still plan to breastfeed till a good time ahead, but now we add other foods to his intake. He won’t need mommy like he did before. 🙁 But i know I’ll probably have many such moments in my life.. when he goes to school, when he leaves home to study/ work/ marry (I hate that woman already! haha) Guys, if you thought women were complex creatures, don’t even go near a mother and don’t ever attempt to understand what goes on in her little heart.
Well so today we did start solids. We are going to be following ‘baby led weaning’ and there’ll be a lot here about that. We ate a big piece of mango, which is in season right now. And guess what, there was no one happier than mommy in that room, when babyT grabbed that slice and devoured it. I don’t understand myself sometimes. But my heart has swelled with renewed love and pride for little baby. And all’s well with the world.
So with this blog, I look forward to share our journey, what motherhood and babyhood means to us, our passions for things like cloth diapering, baby wearing and the current philosophies of raising baby. This blog and its post’s are by no means an expert’s opinion, but merely my experiences, my views and what works for us. Do share your comments and feedback, suggestion and recommendations are welcome.
Follow me on Social Media
Indiblogger
