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Here I go Again

So B is 8 months old now, as of yesterday. And I haven't done much in the way of trying to tone back up after having her. I can admit to myself that I wasn't that toned before I got pregnant, but it's even worse now, stuff jiggles, ewww.
Since I graduated highschool I've been on a downward spiral as far as my weight is concerned or should I say upward, cause that  is where the scale has been going. And I've tried lots of things in the past; joining a gym, doing weight watchers, it just hasn't worked long term. I really don't have the willpower to stick with it.
But now I have someone else to think about, my daughter. I need more energy she will be a toddler very soon and that means active. So I need to be able to keep up with her. So in that vein I scoured Pinterest for ideas.
I printed off some workouts to do with your baby, as well as some inspiration to stick on the fridge to motivate me to stick with my plan.
So my goal is a small one. I'd like to try and lose 30# by my birthday, which is in June. A modest goal but one I feel that I could do.
What do I plan to do? Well my goal right now is to incorporate exercise into my life. My poor Bandit has been neglected since B was born so I'm going to try and walk him more and incorporate strength training into my daily routine. I'd like to try and eat better, but I've had a hard time with that in the past, especially since I'm breastfeeding, cutting back on eating isn't going to work. I just get too hungry and then I overeat, so I'm just going to try and be more conscientious about what I eat and how much.

Wish me luck I've been down this road before and it hasn't worked but I hope it does this time. I'm going to really try. Motivation is the key!

How about you? Trying to get back into shape? Having a hard time? What worked? What didn't?

Sometimes you need some ME time

<p>Yesterday I did some shopping.....by myself. It was glorious!
I think sometimes as a mom you need some alone time. Yes, I work 3 days a week, but I work with other people, I'm not alone. B is breastfed so when I'm not working, I'm not away from her from.more than a couple of hours. And sometimes that's very tiring and you just need a break. So yesterday I left J with a bag of milk and said I'll see you later and headed off to the big town. I got some materials at Joann fabrics, shopped at Target, and took myself out to lunch. And by that time I had run out of money so I went home :). <br>
But just those few hours of alone time were refreshing. I felt more relaxed when I got back.I think as mothers to be the best moms we can, we need that time to decompress and just take stock of ourselves.
That is not being selfish, you are still a mom. All of my alone time shopping, was for B, so she's never far from my mind. But I also got to reconnect with the before baby me, and it was nice to have time with her again.
So make some time for yourself, have your significant other take the kids, and take a bath, lock yourself in the bedroom and read a book, go to the movies, shop, do whatever makes you feel good. You'll find that your a better parent because of it.

What do you do to have some Me time?


The picture below is my lunch, and a trashy magazine! And no worrying about a baby meltdown! :)

I can't believe I haven't talked about this yet!

Cloth Diapers! I love them. When I was pregnant with B I briefly thought about cloth diapers and did some research but a newborn goes through a lot of diapers in a day and lets be honest I didn't want to deal with the hassle. Fast forward to a couple weeks after B was born and I got into babywearing with my Moby and as I did more research on babywearing, Cloth Diapers popped up again. As I read more and more I thought, maybe this would work. I researched what I liked and what I could afford and decided to try. Well I'm telling you, they are awesome. Not only are we saving money but they are so cute!Who needs a picture outfit when you have a cute diaper to wear.
Cloth diapers are not what your mom or grandma may remember, they've changed a lot since then. You have many different types like pocket diapers (my favorite), All in Ones (J's favorite), prefolds, flats, etc.  Do your research and find out what works for you. I started out with prefolds and covers, because they are the cheapest. From there I bought some pocket diapers, and then some all in ones. A lot of the time I buy when they are on sale, or some that are preloved. The nice thing about cloth diapers is that when they are properly taken care of, they will last a long time. So whatever I buy now is going to last for the next baby.
Washing cloth diapers is not bad. When your child is breastfed only, you just throw it all in the wash, breastfed babies poop is water soluble. When your child starts solids or is fed with formula then you must rinse the poop into the toilet. We are just starting on that part of our journey. A diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet is a good investment and makes rinsing easy.
Everybody has a different wash routine, mine is a cold soak (usually overnight), then a hot wash-cold rinse with Country Save detergent, and then an extra rinse. I have been trying to do a splash of bleach at least every couple of weeks because I was having a problem with some ammonia smell sticking around, especially from the night time diapers. But with the bleach that has seemed to resolve itself. I then line dry anything with PUL and all the inserts and prefolds are thrown in the dryer (no dryer sheet).
Nighttime diapering has probably been our biggest hurdle with cloth diapering. Some people have problems with leaking, but that wasn't our issue. We had a problem with ammonia smell. But like I stated above the splash of bleach has been helping with that issue.
For me once we started cloth diapering I hated using disposables, I hate the feel of them and all I see when we use them is money going in the garbage. That said I send disposables to the sitter with B because it's just easier for the sitter and me. When I was home with B during Fair no disposables touched her cute little bum for 6 days! So B is cloth diapered probably 80% of the time, and that's OK because we're saving money. I buy disposable diapers quarterly and buy a new cloth diaper or two when I can, because really they're too cute to resist.
If your thinking about cloth diapering do your research there are a bunch of great sites out there and I'll list some below.
If you cloth diaper what do you love/hate about it? If you don't why didn't you think it was right for you? Post in the comments below. Any questions ask away?

Adventures in Fluff
I like Chana she has a lot of great advice and reviews.

All about Cloth Diapers
One of the first websites I visited

Diaper Pin
Great articles, great active forums

Diaper Junction
My favorite place to buy cloth diapers