Reusable Cloth Nappies
I am a parent of one two year old who is just getting out of nappies. Which is something I never thought could be such an awesome thing a few years ago. The only dampener is that my wife is also having another baby in a few months so the cycle will then restart again. But this time we have decided to use modern cloth nappies, instead of the old style.
For us an environmentally friendly nappy is very important. We don’t want to use disposable nappies, except for the one our new baby will wear to bed when he or she is a little older.
With our first child we went through a lot of plastic pilchers and also the clips that hold the old style cloth nappy together. It was not such a problem of the cost of these things, as they are quite cheap, but the hassle. If the clip for example broke at a friends house, we didn’t have a spare. And they would always get lost amongst the other stuff on the change table and you would have to find them while holding a baby on the change tale too.
The modern cloth nappies seem to me to be the best solution. Washable nappies are way cheaper than disposable over the life of the child, aside from just be better for the environment. They also come in different colours such as red cloth nappies or blue modern cloth nappies.
I will let you know how it goes for us and our new reusable nappies later.
Choosing Baby Names
Of course one of the biggest moments in any persons life is the birth of their children. It is the culmination of many months of anticipation and excitement and also worry.
One of the main things you might worry about when you or your wife are pregnant is the baby names you are thinking about. There are so many different ways to come up with the right baby name for your child, whether it is the first or one of many. Will there be a special baby name meaning for your child? Will it be the name of a previous family member? One of the latest popular baby names?
There are lots of things that can influence the choice of the the baby name you finally settle on. At the end of the day too, it is usually a name that both you and your partner have to agree on, that is just a natural part of parenting.
There is a lot of research going on about names for kids too. There are lists about the most popular baby names 2011 already published for example. It is up to you however if you follow these trends. I for one have a name that is becoming more popular now, but it was cool that nobody else in my school had the same name as me. This wouldn’t have happened of course if my parents had chosen a popular name at the time. Unique baby names today, can easily turn into a popular name in the future.
It is the name your child has to carry with them for their whole life, so it makes sense that you choose something that rolls of the tongue for them and is easy to spell.
Many people will have a short list of either boys baby names or girls baby names, and then that gets cut in half ones they know if they are having a boy or a girl. Usually there is one name that stands out and my advice is to follow your heart and go for this name. It is usually the one you would most prefer.
Baby Clothes and Baby Toys
As a relatively new parent, i have entered the world of baby gift giving at the deep end. I never knew there was such a sub-culture based around little people being born and their birthdays and Xmas and so on. It is like a secret that all these married people with friends have been keeping from me before.
The most simple gift to give and one of the more common that you will receive are baby clothes. I have always been surprised at how organically our baby clothing has grown and evolved as my son has gotten older. Friends and family have come out of the woodwork to donate their no longer fitting boys clothes to us.
As gifts though baby clothes are always appreciated. Because of the endless stream of hand-me-downs, few of our sons clothes are new. So the new clothes which we sometimes buy, but more often come as gifts, are the ones that are usually worn on special occasions, like birthday parties and other social events.
The other sort of gifts we enjoy giving and receiving are baby toys. Even though we often complain about having too many toys for our son, the truth is you can never have too many. Babies seem to go through this process of growing in and out of toys, and then back in again. We always have a box of the not so favorite toys, while the flavour of the month toys are strewn around the house.
We prefer the quiet toys. Too many noisy ones can drive you mad after a while. It seems like every day I leave for work i have some jingle in my head, from the ‘ABC’ song to Thomas the Tank, there is always one.
Enjoy your baby shopping and if you have a baby, enjoy him or her too!
