Cloth nappies or disposables?

So many good reasons to use cloth nappies, right? Well that is what I thought when I bought them anyway.... good for the environment, more affordable and easier to toilet train (what child wants to sit around in a wet cold nappy?). The one selling feature of the disposables that I totally underrated was CONVENIENCE. After using disposables for almost five months at NICU I am finding it a little hard to adjust to the cloth nappies. There is the mountain loads of laundry of course, but I also feel so mean every time I change the poor little guy... they just look so uncomfortable! And they are massive. His clothes are all tight around his bottom and he can hardly kick his legs!

I am really wondering why the bloody hell I bought the damn things. It would seem I like making a tonne of work for myself, because lets face it, I ain't no tree hugger. It might have had something to do with the little bird in my ear? The little bird is not going to appreciate me saying this as she already thinks I give her a public slating on this blog, but oh, what the hell.... that little bird would be my mother (wonderful, amazing mother!) who for many years has rabbited on at me about how revolting disposable nappies are and oh my god, don't even get her started on jarred baby food! It would seem parents these days are all so lazy... so of course I wasn't going to be one of those!

I don't know why I chose to start listening to my mum all of a sudden... and over something as demented as nappies...

One of the nurses at NICU had small children and was an advocate of cloth nappies. She told me she felt virtuous every time she changed a nappy. Hmmm... so far just feeling a tad resentful.

A few people have told me to shelve them and just use the disposables. However, I'm far too stubborn for that and determined to use them now that I have invested in them. Getting Cam to use them has been a little more challenging. We are not being complete eco warriors and are still using disposables at night... a bit of a compromise.

Nappies aside, Vinnie has been doing well this last week (5 months old on Wednesday, 2 1/2 months corrected age). Still trying hard to get him in to some sort of routine, other than the current 'baby-led' routine. Failing miserably on that front. Already Cam and I are forming some very bad parenting habits with Vinnie... rocking him to sleep in the lazyboy and letting him stay up at night with us (help - all the baby books say bed by 7pm... but he won't sleep and we are too soft!). He is going to be one spoilt little monkey....

Home sweet home.

After 5 long months in hospital we were finally able to take Vinnie home on Tuesday. I guess the day had to arrive eventually, but at times it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I had good intentions of updating the blog sooner, but what can I say... the little guy has been keeping us really busy! This full time parenting business is actually quite challenging (once upon a time I thought it was going to be such a breeze...), even without the extra issues Vinnie has (little things like feeding and breathing) it is hard work keeping up with nappies, laundry and housework. Tending to a crying baby throughout the night also has left me feeling a little frazzled...

But still extremely thankful and overjoyed to have him home.

Cam took most of last week off work so it was nice to spend some time together adjusting to the new routine of having Vinnie home. I have felt a lot more relaxed (big pat on the back) than I thought I would be. I had visions of sitting in the bedroom with him all day obsessively watching him 24/7... I think that the hospital environment can add to the levels of anxiety. On our first day home Cam went and bought a baby monitor and we were able to relax with a glass of wine and a nice home cooked dinner (by the fabulous Cam of course... my how I have missed his cooking) while Vinnie slept peacefully (mostly) down in our room.

We even ventured outside and took Vinnie for a couple of walks to local cafes for coffee. Normal activities are feeling somewhat abnormal and I am getting excited about the small stuff. (This must be what it feels like for prison inmates when they are released?)

Vinnie is doing amazing well. Quite a few staff at NICU had told me that he would thrive once we got him home and it really does seem to be the case. He is gaining heaps of weight and has been doing so well with his oxygen (confession - I do peek at the monitors occasionally).

Probably the most challenging aspect still is feeding Vinnie. He seems to be getting worse, not better, with his bottle. Lots of tantrums around feed time and 95% (5% bottle for dad. 0% for mum) of it is going down the naso gastric tube. I had been complaining to Mum about this so she offered to come down today to help. I pretty much told her not to expect him to take the bottle for her... but you know when parents know best and want to put in their two cents worth? Well, low and behold the little monkey wanted to take the bottle for her. Albeit, not much milk was taken but he still had a very reasonable attempt. One word for Mums reaction. Smarmy. Very smarmy indeed. (I probably would have been too.)

Today has been my first day at home (alone) with Vinnie. I was kind of dreading it, as feeding him sometimes feels like a two person job and he has been awake a lot during the day. But he has behaved like a model baby today! One that is about to awake any moment now to be feed so I'll leave off here for now...