This week is National Breastfeeding Week which is a celebration of nursing and its health benefits for mother and child. Completely unrelated to NBW, I had two separate conversations about breastfeeding yesterday with two friends who couldn’t be farther apart on the issue. It made me happy that I have such diverse friends who aren’t afraid to discuss hot topics.

Both of these people asked me how breastfeeding with Penny was going, and whether or not I liked it. Frankly, I went into motherhood pretty blase about breastfeeding, and I continue to be blase about it. I choose to breastfeed because A) Penny took to it really easily, B) I like the research behind breastmilk building a stronger immune system, and C) it’s cheaper (probably my most compelling reason, honestly)!

I’m all about people who are breastfeeding advocates, and completely understand why they are. I’m also all about women who choose to formula feed because of the many logical reasons they choose to. For me, it’s all about the cash money.

The more I started to think about it, the more I realized most of my mothering decisions so far have had to do with my thrifty New England spirit. For instance, I’m cloth diapering because I love how it is better for the environment, but I’m also doing it because the average home spends $50-75 a month on disposable diapers. Because of my very generous friends, all 16 of my cloth diapers were given to me, without me spending a dime on diapering. I’ve realized I need to pick up a few more, but with some giftcards that I’ve been given, I think I might only wind up shelling out $20 or so to round out my supply. Pretty incredible when you think that Penny can wear these same diapers until she’s potty trained. And then I can reuse them for future kids. When you add it up, that’s a hefty savings!

(I did have a higher water bill in July, probably from doing a load of diapers every day. Which is all the more reason for me to get more diapers since 14 dirty dipes is only a half load in my washing machine.)

Well if I’m not a hyper breastfeeding advocate, why am I a hyper natural childbirthing advocate? A lot of this, again, comes down to money. We just got the bills from my C-section and hospital stay which added up to a whopping $30,000. Fortunately, because of Matt’s fairly comprehensive employer-sponsored healthcare we only have to pay about 15% of the total bill for my care, Penny’s nursery stay and her EKGs. But $30,000 as opposed to $2,000 for a natural delivery? Why would anyone choose the former if they didn’t have to?

What it all comes down to is that Penny (who is currently wearing some cute, and free! hand-me-downs) won’t be carrying a cell phone in Elementary school not because I have issues with it (although I do), but because I’m too cheap to buy her one. And perhaps all the money that I’ll save by handling her poopy cloth diapers for all those years will make it possible to build that Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired house in the Tennessee countryside that I was sketching out earlier today.

What’s the driving factor behind your parenting decisions? Whatever will keep your kid from life behind bars? Whatever prevents you from being blamed in 10 years of therapy once they’re adults? Or are you just cheap like me?

I wonder how many kid-related posts I’ll need to write before my previous audience completely disappears into thin air? Sorry guys. But I guess you had nine months to prepare for this.

This week we decided to start Penny in cloth diapers. Her disgusting umbilical stump finally fell off late last week, which was one of the things we were waiting for. The other reason we waited was to use up as many of the disposables that we had been given as we possibly could. We have a small stash left for going out and traveling, but with that running low it was time to bite the bullet.

Yesterday was Penny’s first day exclusively in cloth. We started her in pre-folds with covers, but she quickly wet through those. Then we tried her in the BumGenius 3.0 pocket diapers which were a success! Today being the second day, we’ve figured out just how tightly to secure them as well as how to best position them to prevent leaks. And I gotta say, I’m pretty impressed. (I also will say that she developed a small diaper rash over the weekend which quickly disappeared as soon as we put her in cloth. Take THAT, disposables!)

I have a supply of about 14 or so BumGenius pocket dipes, and each day I go through about 10-11, which means doing a load of laundry every day. I think I might pick up another 4-6 which would allow me to do diaper wash every other day – you wouldn’t really want to push it longer than that. The other issue we need to solve is to find a suitable lidded trash can to keep my wetbag in. I searched high and low while pregnant and landed on one trash can that really is better as just a trash can. So I’m sending Matt on the search for a better container. This is a task that he will shine at.

Overall, I have to say that cloth diapers are really nice and seem very doable. Yesterday we ran a few errands (to the jeweler! to have my engagement ring reset! FINALLY!), and Penny was in cloth the whole time. I had my small wetbag with me and didn’t wind up needing to change her. I plan to keep her in cloth for most around-town errands and only put her in disposables while we’re doing major traveling. Even Matt is totally on board with these diapers and doesn’t find them to be any more challenging than the others.

Now I just need to go through her clothes to figure out what will fit over her huge butt! Goodbye newborn onesies.

I was blown away when I was selected to be a recipient of handmade Etsy gifts from the folks over at Etsy Baby Shower. Essentially what happens is that a bunch of generous shop owners gift expecting mamas with their hand-crafted baby wares as of way of congratulating them. My sister tipped me off to it, and my due date with Penny (as well as my obsessive love for all things Etsy) qualified me to be one of the lucky mamas!

I’ve had such a fun time emailing back and forth with the various shop owners who sent me beautiful gifts. Once again, I was thoroughly impressed with how many talented and crafty people are out there, and I love that Etsy gives them a wider audience and hopefully more business. So this week, I wanted to show you the beautiful new gifts for Penny and tell you a little more about the shops behind them.

From Daily Daguerreotype

Tessa from T & T Crafts sent over these adorable blue and green booties with fun non-skid soles. Of course I died when I saw the colors and the little green rosettes, but I also loved that Penelope will have a bit more traction while zipping around on our wood floors. As if I’ll even be able to put her down for a second. I can’t wait to see these babies on her wee little feet!

Tessa sells a wide variety of crafts including homemade soap, reusable produce bags, and dog collars, not to mention her sustainable baby wares – cloth dipes and wipes! You know that makes my green heart squee with joy!

Check out her shop if you’re looking for a fun and eco-friendly gift for that person in your life who loves all things hand-crafted! And thanks so much, Tessa (and Etsy Baby Shower!), for your generous gift!

I know Earth Day was last Thursday, but I was busy destroying the earth by polluting it with gas and driving across the nation. Obama claims he’s going to expand the rail system, and as soon as he does, you better believe that I will be purchasing train tickets willy nilly and singlehandedly keeping Tennessee on the map.

Regardless of where you stand on global warming and whether or not zoos are immoral, I certainly hope we can all come together to understand the need we have as stewards of this earth to take better care of it. If there is one group of people I cannot even put on a fake smile and BS for five minutes, it’s those who are careless with our resources and do not have a healthy respect for the environment. If that’s you, take this as my steely glare in your general direction.

On a more positive note, I’ve been excited by some of the changes we’ve made in our lifestyle over the past year to become more environmentally friendly. We’ve introduced plant-based cleaning products to our life, reusable microfiber cloths, recycling more than ever before, and are about to enter the phase of our life which revolves around cloth diapering, glass bottling, and rockin some sweet hand-me-downs. I’ll also admit that we have instituted an “if it’s yellow, let it mellow” flush policy during the nights because I’m just going to the bathroom so daggone much. I’d like to think that our water usage has gone down because of it.

In a week and a half I’ll be picking up our very first box of CSA produce from a local farm here in Tennessee. We’re excited to be supporting local farmers but also to be trying new veggies that we probably have never eaten before. I’m sure you’ll hear more about the CSA when I’m reaching out to you for radish recipes. We also have plans to start composting, and will enjoy lowered fuel costs this summer as Matt will be riding  his motorcycle in the nice weather instead of driving.

I have some goals for the upcoming year to continue living on fewer natural resources, including using our AC less, lowering our heat in the winter, and trying to cook using fewer pots and pans and running my dishwasher less frequently. We’re also excited about continuing to find great local vendors to support instead of always heading to the big box retailers, and little changes like these can make a big difference.

What greener goals do you have? If we all made just one little change this year, I think the world would be a much better place.

What is even cuter than a tiny baby bird trying to fly for the very first time? I’ll tell you what. CLOTH DIAPERS.

From Daily Daguerreotype

These arrived in the mail last week from Marissa and Deneese and I’ve been folding and refolding and stuffing and unstuffing them since then. Because I’m not going to get enough of that when Penelope arrives and is yellow slime pooing them twelve times daily.

Even Matt is smitten. When he held up the little orange diaper, unsnapped it and saw how small it adjusts for newborns he exclaimed, “I am SO HAPPY she’s being born in the summer time! Just think of how cute she’ll be squealing around in just this little orange diaper!”

Ok, I amend my previous statement. The only thing cuter than a tiny baby bird trying to fly for the first time, is going to be my daughter squealing around with a big ole cloth diaper on her booty. NOM NOM NOM!!!!!!!

I’m really excited about this giveaway, but I think Berlin is even MORE excited. See, we’re careful about what we feed our precious pup because an estimated 51% of American pets are obese. Most pups eat crappy food and don’t get enough exercise, and then when you start feeding them Doritos (which yes, I am sometimes guilty of) and standard dog treats, they’ll chunk up even faster.

Luckily, Berlin doesn’t seem to be an over-eater and she can casually graze all day without us having to measure her portion sizes. But it was hard to find a standard dog food that was actually good for her and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. After trying lots of different foods, we put her on Purina One’s Sensitive Systems diet, not because she has a sensitive system but because it’s the only food we could find regularly available at the grocery store with a meat as the first ingredient! You won’t believe how many foods are filled with fillers. Yuck. You have to pay extra for really healthy organic foods, but we figured her salmon diet with Purina One would be both convenient and healthy enough.

When it comes to dog treats though, I’m even pickier. She doesn’t get treats all the time, in fact she probably is rewarded with a treat only a few times a week. My guidelines for treats are that they MUST BE MADE IN THE USA (after all those pets died from Chinese food and treats a few years ago) and must not primarily contain fillers (ie: I have to recognize a few things in the ingredient list). It’s hard to find, frankly, so I wind up either buying treats with coupons or paying more for dehydrated organic chicken breasts and just give them to her less frequently.

But then we found Turtlebob’s!!! There is no going back. After her first bite of the peanut butter and banana treats, she was sold and will actually WORK for these tasty little bone-shaped biscuits. Recently we’ve been giving her solely Turtlebob’s treats, and when I tried to give her some generic Pedigree treat this weekend SHE REFUSED IT! Which is fine by me because the Turtlebob treats actually smell tasty to humans and don’t leave that gross meaty residual smell on your fingers.

So a little bit about our dear friends at Turtlebob’s Doggie Delights! Stacey, a mother of two, lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with Mt. Baker out back and Puget Sound out front. I know. I’m wicked jealous too! Their family pets include Misty Moo, a golden/lab mix, and Oliver, a black lab. And then there’s the infamous Bob, a Russian Tortoise and the inspiration for the name “Turtlebob’s Doggie Delights.”

Stacey’s been making treats for her own dogs since they were puppies. She recently started Turtlebob’s this January out of the love for making treats for her own dogs, and thinking it might be a good way to help pay for all the kids sports activities. She tries to buy local and get organic ingredients at the farmers co-op (hip hip hooray!!!), while her dad provides the BEST honey which helps act as a perservative and gives the treats a tad of sweetness dogs love. She gets help in the kitchen from her son who loves to help creating the little bone-shaped treats, and is working on some new recipes to add to the site soon!

This week’s awesome giveaway sponsored by Turtlebob’s Doggie Delights will have TWO WINNERS! Each winner will receive one 10oz package of Turtlebob’s Organic Peanut Butter Banana Treats. Remember, you don’t have to be a dog-owner to be the winner! These would make an awesome gift for your friend or relative who is a dog-lover.

Rules:

• Giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry Canada!)
• Two winners will be chosen at random
• Giveaway closes at 12:00 noon CT on Wednesday, March 24th
• You can enter more than once by sending me an email with a photo of your pup to be featured in the winners’ announcement post. Send your low-res image to priscilla at verbalintent.com.
• Bonus: Tell us about your favorite pup’s quirky personality traits, and what makes them the best doggie ever!

Good luck!