Baby's first beach trip - Crissy Field

Met up with Peter after a particularly "what-a-day" workday. Watching the dog frolick in the surf is an effective way to get rid of stress. Funny that we have to come into the city to go to the closest beach. :)

Baby monitor is ON...

I am frittering away precious Jacob napping time, but had to announce that he is taking a very rare afternoon nap BY HIMSELF - like, not on my chest, or next to me, etc. I won't make too much of it b/c it might be an isolated thing, but MAN it feels like progress!!! 

We're in "sleep training" now, trying to get Jacob to sleep by himself. Starting out very easy by trying to get him to nap on his own during the day. It is fairly easy in the morning - afternoons are much more challenging, and sometimes it's tough for him to nap at all. Nighttime will still be the same bed-sharing routine probably until he's a year old or so. We'll see. For now, I'm celebrating this very small step - I probably should go before he wakes up.  Jeez, what to do next before he wakes up....laundry? pay bills?? Prepare dinner??! The possibilities are endless and ooh...so enticing! Uh oh, just heard a little cry....so much for that. :)

Napping & nappies

favorite napping position
Originally uploaded by js_hale

Peter is on a ride this morning, and so I put Jacob in the Didymos sling as I do every morning and took Teddy for a walk around the complex. He definitely prefers the Didy over the Ergo, and at this stage, it's more comfortable for me too. This is the next best thing to breastfeeding to get him down for a nap. 

I just remembered what I've been wanting to rant about! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE A CLOTH DIAPER THAT DOESN'T LEAK??  And if you, gentle reader, have been lucky enough to find one that works, PLEASE let me know. So far, the only thing that works is layering - I use 2 pre-fold cloth diapers, and a wool diaper cover, and that usually works. It's really funny to see how big you can make his butt look when you put a giant diaper ensemble on him! :)  Anyway, I've tried Thirsties, Bum Genius, Knicker Nappies (do you love these names??) and a few others and invariably, they leak when he urinates. So if anyone knows about a cloth diaper that works, I'm all ears! 

On the same subject, I am trying to figure out what is ultimately better for the environment -it would seem like a straightforward problem - disposables are made mostly of plastic and use up landfill space. But it takes a lot of water to rinse out & clean cloth diapers. But it's definitely cheaper to use cloth - right now I'm "hedging" and using a combination of both.  Thoughts?