Becoming a WAHM

One of the things that has always plagued me about being a SAHM (stay at home mom) is leaving all the financial burden on my husband's shouders. My being at home was his idea and he is not upset at all about our arrangement. I am the one with the problem. I have always been so independent and leaving everything in his hands is hard for me. At first I stayed on call at my old job for about a year and half. Then that dried up and I had to move on. Then I babysat my niece for a while. Then that also went away when my brother in law was laid off. I will be watching my sister's new baby in about a year, but I need to do something before then. I have been searching the internet and the classifieds for something I could do that would not affect my husband's schedule. I then came to the conclusion that there is really nothing that I can do. His schedule takes up so much of the day. He works eight hours at the prison five days a week. He often stays for an extra eight. So any job that fell within the hours of 1:30pm-6:30am was out of the question. Doesn't really leave much time for any potention employer to work with. I gave up for while. Then I saw that other moms like me were calling themselves WAHM's. I knew what SAHM mom meant, but had no idea what a WAHM was. Then I looked it up and a lightbulb went off in my head. WAHM means Work at home mom! Well I could definitely do that. Right? Maybe not. I had no skills or education that would alllow me to apply for a job that didn't care if I was in the office or not. Then I thought about all the pages I had become a fan of on Facebook. All those women were mothers and most seemed to sell handmade items as their sole income. It seems so easy. Post what you've made and take a custom order every once in a while. I can do that! I love to crochet and I am pretty darn good at it. So this last week I took the plunge and reserved the name "All 4 my 2 Creations" on Etsy and Facebook. I have already made a couple items to sell. I have also sold 4 changing pad covers that I sewed. Its a start and a happy one at that. I have definitely learned that I like seeing my projects being used by other people. I will not be sewing much more until I get a better machine though!!! I thought I was going to throw that thing out the window. Crocheting and knitting are my passions and I will definitely be staying with those. I am so happy to be taking this plunge. I hate not making any money. Maybe its me, but I just don't like being taken care of. I want to feel like a participant in the finances and now I get to feel that way again! And of course the business had to be named "All 4 my 2 Creations" because everything I do is about the little people that I have brought into the world.

Some things I do no like about motherhood

Today I had to take my almost one year old son to the ER. My daughter was being disobedient and didn't stop rocking the glider when I told her to. He got behind it and it hit him. He ended up with a laceraton by his eyebrow. I am so glad the damage wasn't worse. This is the part of motherhood I do not like. I can't stand to see one of my babies in pain. I wish I could just take it away. Another thing I do not like is the disobedience, whining and hard headedness that eventually all kids have to go through. There are days when I am at my wits end when it comes to my five year old. I just keep telling myself this to will pass.

Its been so long

Its been so long since I have updated this blog. Our little family has been through some trying times. We like all families out there are really starting to feel the pinch financially. We let the internet go, because it is one of those frivolous things we don't actually need. I dod most of my surfing on my phone anyways. I tried to blog on my phone, I even downloaded an app. It just was to hard to blog on my phone, so I gave it up for a while. I am now going to be able to pick it back up again. I also thing I will be able to do it more often then before. The internet is going to come back into this little home of ours. I have decided to go back to college. I am going to be taking online classes and well you need internet to succeed with that. I am just going for a two year degree. I want to do something a little more marketable, and my interests have changed greatly since I first went. I always thought it was stupid to ask an 18 year old to make such a huge decision about life. I still would do what I originally chose to do, but I would need more schooling to really be marketable in this tough job market. If I am going to pay for it, why not just go do something that suits my personality better? I have worked out a time daily just for myself. I expect that I will be able to blog, read, craft etc. during that time. At night I sit with my son until he falls asleep. Theres a glider in his room and I take the opportunity to do things I enjoy. I sit in that glider long after he falls asleep listening to his little soft snores as I take time to do things just for me. I have really come to appreciate this time. Its a nice way to wind down from a long day with a high needs infant and a chatty five year old. As much as I love spending time with my husband and children it is really nice to have solitude (well as close to it as I can come) every day. Maybe its starting a bad habit for the boy, but a part of me does not care. I cherish this time in his room. It started as a way for me to get him to go to sleep in a calmer manner. After I realized his howls carry well outside of the house I decided something had to change. He WAS falling sleep after only a few minutes of whining, then we moved him to his own room. BIG mistake. His room is so foreign to him and he refuses to sleep in it no matter how pretty the jungle animals on the wall may be. He cried for longer and longer stretches of time every night and started to actually wake a few time a night EVERY night. I really felt like he was regressing back to that scream all night and day newborn. I decided one night to just stay in his room and comfort him. The first few nights I do not think that it cut down on his crying to much and I was pretty discouraged. Eventually he became a lot calmer about sleeping in his room. He now only protests when initially laid down and then plays around a bit before drifting off to sleep in about five minutes time. As I type this right now he is talking in his sleep :) I am glad that we have both found a solution that works well for the both of us. He gets the comfort of having me near, and I get some time that is carved out just for mommy.

Pancakes and other firsts

My son tried pancakes for the first time today :)  Doesn't he look cute wearing them?  He also has had a few other firsts recently.  Yesterday he started crawling on all fours and mastered the pincer grip.  So my vacuum and I are going to become great friends!  I guess those two firsts weren't enough for him, because he decided to pull up today.  He's not quite eight months old he needs to SLOW DOWN!!!  He's my last baby and I really want to savor every precious moment of his infancy and it just seems like he's trying to speed through it.  My sweet baby will soon be walking at this rate.  I know part of being a good mom is being able to let go, but I'm finding it harder this time around.  I guess its time to dig out the gates and make an area in which he can explore his newfound freedom and abilities.

Sleep! Oh how I miss thee!

I do not do well with lack of sleep. I need to be able to sleep to be productive and keep my house clean. My son goes to sleep so late and my daughter wakes up so early. Not much time left for sleeping. I feel like I am burning the candle on both ends here. I thought that I would be getting pretty good sleep now that my son is eight months old. But having a high needs baby is a different game all together. He never slept much as a newborn and he's not a sleeper now. He has just recently started to sleep long stretches of time and I am eternally greatful for that. My problem is that I am now trained to not be able to sleep until about two in the morning. I am having a hard time going to sleep earlier. My husband is a nightowl and can easily stay up all night. He also can survive on barely any sleep at all. Being the exact opposite I just don't get how he does it. But in this case being so different works to our advantage. He is able to take the late shift and then sleep in while I take the early shift and go to bed earlier. The only kink in the system is when I am up with him doing the late shift and the baby is asleep! LOL. I need to be sleeping, but here I am blogging and entering giveaways. I will always be the one doing the early shift even on Mother's day, so I will definitely be a mess in the morning. Good thing my five year old only needs me to be able to hand her some cereal and then I can lay on the couch while she amuses herself. Days like that I remember what my husband's aunt always says to me when I look frazzled. "It will never be as hard as it right now". She's got a point. I notice that my children get easier as they grow and mature. During the survival mode newborn stage with my son, i thought I would never ever have a moment of quiet again. He screamed and screamed all day. Now he sits quietly by himself playing and trying to crawl. I would have never looked at that unhappy newborn and imagined that he would ever sit by himself giggling. So I am setting my eyes towards the future where both my children will go to sleep at a decent hour and my husband and I will follow them a couple hours later. Someday we will all get ourselves and our sleep schedules sorted out and this will be a distant fond memory. But while its here I don't want to forget how I felt about it. Every part of being a mom is great, even the parts that exhaust and frustrate me.

Lovely Pocket Diapers: A first impression review

I first came across Lovely Pocket Diapers (LPD) when I was entering diaper giveaways. I had never heard of the company, and was interested in checking them out. The owner started the company while her daughter was a NEWBORN! She was interested in cloth diapering her daughter but was to frugal to pay $15-$30 for one pocket diaper. So she launched a company early this year that makes cloth diapering an affordable option for families. This really means something to us because my husband is the sole provider for our family. I took advantage of the buy six get one free promo that is currently running. The diapers were really cute and truthfully I had a hard time picking out my seven favorites. My diapers arrived within three days of ordering. I was pretty impressed with the fast shipping. I ordered three of the "Rave" diapers and four of the "classic" diapers. I decided to use the diapers for twenty four hours straight so I could write a review as soon as possible. I have never used any diaper brand or style all day because my very chunky and "tender as a peach" son gets welts and bruises from diapers rubbing in the same place. I took a leap of faith that these diapers would be different. Since I knew I was going to be writing a review the first thing I did was take pictures and pick a diaper in my stash to compare my LPD diapers to. I picked the BumGenius 4.0 (BG). The BG seemed like the best choice because everyone I know seems to use this diaper as a gold standard for cloth diapers. I used a brand new BG so that the comparison will be as fair as possible. I need to state for the record that I have not been compensated in any way for this review. I bought my LPD diapers with my husband's hard earned money and my opinions on them are honest and not swayed in any way. I am writing this review because I have friends who are interested in purchasing LPD diapers and I wanted to give them a thorough and honest review of the LPD diapers.

Starting at $7.00 for a solid classic LPD the price on these diapers would be hard to beat. Solid colors for the Rave start at $12.00, which is an unbelievable deal. You would be very hardpressed to find a diaper with the features of the Rave that cheaply. Want a print? Prints only add $.50 to the total. The Rave and classic diapers are waterproof PUL pocket diapers. The inside of the diapers are lined with a stay dry lining to keep the baby from feeling any wetness. One microfiber insert is included with every diaper you purchase. If you need more inserts they are also sold seperately for $2.50 each. Want a more natural option? Bamboo inserts are also available and at $3.00 this is another amazing deal. I am really excited about this option. I really love bamboo in diapers.


The first diaper I opened was a classic style LPD. I really like the rings pattern and could not wait to get it out to play with. I noticed the patterned LPD is slicker than the BG. The solid color LPDs are very similar in texture to the BG. The slickness didn't bother me, but I imagine for some it will. For anyone who feels that way I would say stick to the solids or minky diapers.

The pocket of this diaper opens up in the back.


I found it to be roomy and easy to stuff with the included microfiber insert. In fact this diaper is easier to stuff than the BG. It is a little harder to unstuff. But in all fairness every diaper that has a pocket style like this takes a few extra shakes to unstuff. The only real complaint I read in the reviews before purchasing was that the LPD classic suffered from the dreaded wing droopage. This has now been solved with the addition of a hip snap.


The black diaper I recieved is an original classic. The red diaper is the new version. The classic now features crossover snaps which makes it great for newborns or skinny babies. With the hip snap and crossover snaps this diaper should fit well on most babies.

I was really excited to get out my Rave diaper in the cow print. I have been itching to have a cow printed diaper ever since I started to cloth diaper. The diaper being a nice soft minky was like the cherry on top. This diaper definitely falls under the "Mom wanted a really cute diaper to fuel her obsession" category.




The main features that sets the Rave apart from the Classic is the double row of waist snaps, an extra row of rise snaps, and the double gussets. Having a double row of snaps on the waist makes the tabs and the fit more secure around baby's belly. Adding the extra row of snaps to the rise widened the weight range of the diaper. So it will fit a little earlier and last a little longer than the Classic. The gussets are a really neat feature and should contain even runny newborn poo. I was a little apprehensive about the gussets because my son's thighs are very fat and bruise easily. The gussets on the LPD are snug yet gentle and fit very well. He did not have one red mark from the gussets.



No picture can do the gussets justice; you really have to see this in action for yourself. You will not be dissapointed.




The pocket on the Rave is a reinforced opening in the fabric of the diaper. This is the only real complaint I have about the Rave diapers. My problem with this style of pocket is that when the diaper is on the baby the microfiber insert can become exposed unless the diaper is on the largest size. Microfiber is so thirsty it can sometimes leave dry patches on baby's bum. You can fold the insert to make it fit if you want. I personally wouldn't. I put a fleece liner in the diaper to cover it. I use fleece liners with my prefolds and fitteds anyways so that extra step was really nothing to me. In comparing this to the BG the Rave fails here in my opinion. The BG has the same style opening, but it has a sham that overlaps so that the insert will not touch the baby. The LPD and BG are very similar in ease of stuffing. Both are also very easy to unstuff and the inserts come out within the first few shakes. Though I was dissapointed with the pocket opening it is not going to stop me from using the diaper. I imagine as the company grows and responds to feedback the pocket opening on the Rave diaper will change. My dislike of the opening aside I really like the Rave diaper.


Classic, BumGenius, and Rave diapers snapped down to the smallest setting.

The Rave gets even tinier than the BG diaper. The diaper is very tiny when you hold it. It appears like this diaper will truly fit a six pound newborn. The Classic is pretty large and I think a newborn would be to small for it.


classic, BumGenius, and Rave


Classic, BumGenius, and Rave fully unsnapped

When fully unsnapped the diapers are about the same size.


Classic, BumGenius, Rave

Compared side by side the BG is trimmer in the middle, but the extra width on the the LPDs did not seem to affect my son's ability to move or bother him at all. It does mean a slightly larger bum, but its truly negligable. Both LPD diapers are definitly a bit larger and longer. This might not matter for someone with petite skinny babies, but for someone like me with a tall and chunky baby it is very important. I feel confident that my son will be able to wear his LPD diapers comfortably until he potty trains.

The first night we got our LPDs we decided to go for broke and do the first test run overnight. I stuffed the diaper with its insert and a hemp one. I am happy to say that after ten hours of sleeping on his tummy my son was completely dry! I pushed the diaper a bit more and did a photo shoot shortly after he woke up. Still no leaks.







I am very pleased with the perfomance of the LPD. It held up even though I put it on very loose. I was very nervous about putting him in a LPD overnight because every PUL diaper he has ever worn overnight leaves deep red lines and bruises. Some of those marks have lasted two weeks. I usually use fleece or wool overnight so commiting to use LPD diapers for 24 hours to give them a full run was a HUGE commitment for me.


See how the diaper is snapped VERY loosely. I pretty much set this diaper up to fail and it performed wonderfully. I would feel comfortable setting this diaper to fit snugly overnight. It is very gentle on his thighs and that is something I cannot say about any of his PUL diapers, BG included.


LPD Rave in the Retro print.

Notice how the diaper is cut up higher than the pudgiest part of his thighs. A lot of his diapers are not cut this high and leave marks. I set one side of the snaps on the Rave offset of each other to get a looser fit on his thighs and a snugger fit on his belly. I have to do this with my BG and all his diapers with two rows of snaps.



He napped with his legs frogged and not one red line or mark on his hips or thighs.

Now for a little talk on fit. The LPD fits about as trim as a BG diaper and works well under clothes. It is snug in the back and legs so messes should stay in the diaper.





While both diapers fit well I think the classic style LPD fit better on my son. The rounded tabs allowed his thighs to push the diaper out of the way a little bit more. This is not a blow to the Rave at all. My chubby little man has always fit better in diapers with rounded tabs. I also thought the rise for my classic was slightly higher than the Rave which I like.

In terms of containment both LPD diapers performed as well as the BG or any other diaper in my stash. My son is both breastfed and formula fed and both types of poo were contained quite well! The insert was very thirsty and I did not have a leak. The second night my son fell asleep before I changed him and he slept eight hours with just one microfiber insert. He had no leaks when he woke up and his bum was dry to the touch also. My son is almost eight months and weighs over twenty four pounds. He has the potential to make a lot of pee and he sure did. The insert was so full and heavy I didn't even have to shake it out. It just plopped out when I turned the diaper over. How's that for performance!

I should mention a little on my experience with Lovely Pocket Diapers the company. When I ordered my six diapers I had to email the owner for the seventh per the promo directions. She responded fairly quickly. When my diapers arrived there was a handwritten note from her thanking me and using my name on my order reciept. I love little touches like that. I also mentioned in a post on Lovely Pocket Diaper's Facebook page that it was impossible to tell on a computer screen which diapers were fuzzy and which were not. Within two hours the diapers that were fuzzy were labeled on the site. I am truly impressed with the fast response to customer input.

This next paragraph is a little unfair, but I wanted to compare and contrast everything I could think of about the diapers. Keep in mind that the Lovely Pocket Diapers company is brand new and could not be expected to be as developed as Cotton Babies, the maker of the BG diaper.

I would like to see a newborn insert like BG has. It would be nice if it was sold either with the LPD diaper or as an extra accesory. I had to fold the insert to get it to fit as nicely as the newborn insert does in the BG. This created a lot of bulk and would be a problem when trying to put on pants. The larger size insert in the BG also has snaps which allow it to size down easily for babies that don't have the diaper unsnapped fully. The BG also has snaps that match its exterior. I really like that, but its not necessary. Other popular diaper brands have only white snaps. Another thing I noticed that is yet again no biggy is the tag. I don't think that the tag is as informative as the BG on how to launder the product. The tag also instructed you to close the diaper with hook and loop. All the diapers I saw on the site were snap. I prefer snap diapers, but it would be nice in the future to see hook and loop diapers for people who really like the adjustibility of that type of closure.

Bottom Line
I will definitely buy more diapers from Lovely Pocket Diapers. I am very impressed with the price, quality and customer service. The fit on my son was the best of any diaper that he has in his stash. It contains messes well and does not leak. This diaper performed for me as well as the pricier diapers when it came to being leak proof and containing messes. It outperformed the pricier diapers in the gentleness of the elastic on his thighs. The issues noted are truly negligable. The company already has a track record of listening to its customers and making improvements so I feel confident that the products sold will continue to improve.

I LOVE sleeping babies in cute diapers :)



I took more pictures of the Lovely Pocket Diapers in action than what will fit in a blog post and I will be continuing to upload throughout the week so come back often for more fluff action. To see the album please click the picture.

Lovely pocket diapers

A small victory!

Today I feel like I have gotten a small victory. I was able to put my baby down in his crib for a nap for the very first time! I know it doesn't seem like much to most people, but don't forget that my little boy is a very high needs baby. High needs babies are very sensitive and want things to be done a certain way and lustily resent change. He wants to be held and nursed to sleep. I don't mind doing that, but when he wakes up he has no skills to put himself back to sleep. I also think waking in different surroundings than what he fell asleep in has to be disconcerting and doesn't help him go back to sleep by himself. He is not hungry when he wakes up, but he nurses anyways because he needs that stimulation to go back to sleep. And if that doesn't happen he starts to throw such a huge fit that he pukes everwhere and it just escalates until I respond to him in the way he wants. Needless to say there is not much sleep going on for anyone. He doesn't fall asleep until after midnight and he wakes at least once every night. Believe it or not, we have fought for this sleeping pattern. Down by midnight and awakening once is a good sleep pattern for him! My husband and I are exhausted. We have been working on putting him to sleep by patting his back while he is laying down. Theres been mixed results with this. Today was definitely a success story. I put him down drowsy in his crib and patted for about five minutes and he fell asleep! That NEVER happens. It definitely never happens in his crib. At almost eight months old my baby has taken his first nap in his crib! Its the small things like this that make me grin ear to ear :D

And on a side note, my Lovely Pocket Diapers arrived today! Pics and a blog post reviewing them coming soon.