and now for something completely different

thank you all for your advice re Anna's poo habits - she seems to have settled into a routine now of only going every few days which according to you all is normal. I guess it's a good thing because it means less really messy nappies to clean up, especially as now I have a laundry again I'm going to start using cloth nappies which was my intention from the start. While Anna is still relatively small I'm going to use terry towelling flats since I have a stack of them thanks to the lovely Raewyn who gave me a heap last year and they are a better fit on little bot bots.

But you know you've sewn almost everything when you've made one of these:

Ok, sewing your own menstrual pads may be much weirder, which plenty of people do I have discovered while researching nappies! Anyway I'm not going down that path, but I have made a pocket nappy, made from the Wee Weka pattern, and it's designed to convince lazy and recalcitrant husbands that using cloth nappies is no harder than using disposables! It's made from a PUL outer layer, which is some fancy schmancy waterproof but breathable laminated fabric, with a lovely soft microfleece inner against the skin, and in between those two layers (ie in the pocket) I've got some bamboo fleece which is ultra absorbent.

It even has leg gussets to contain leakages, and with the velcro across the front it's just the same as a disposable but won't contribute to landfill and huge energy costs required in it's production and transportation. I know, I know there's huge debate over whether the water and energy used in washing is less evil environmental issue than that of the disposables, but since I have a water efficient front loading machine and will dry in the sunshine since we have that in abundance, for me using cloth nappies makes environmental and financial sense. Rightio, I'll get off my high horse now......

It was pretty simple to make, thanks to the wonders of fold over elastic, but a bit fiddly. Given the cost of the fabrics and the time to make it I can see why these are selling for $20 - $30 a pop, although I would never pay that because I'm extremely thrifty (*cough* cheap). For anyone else who may be interested, I got my fabrics online from Green Beans which is a New Zealand company but have such good prices that even with postage it was the best value I could find, plus they posted really quickly. There's also a comparison of the three most popular free nappy patterns here, which helped me decide which to use.

So this week I had what could almost be called a social life! I went out to a restaurant with my parents and Anna slept most of the time in her pram until the end when she sat quietly in my lap, much to the visible relief of the other diners (it was a small restaurant). Then on Wednesday I watched a movie with my mothers club group in a cinema that has one of those crying rooms but none of the babies cried the whole time anyway! And then yesterday I met up with some friends for a walk in the park and yum cha for lunch, and since Anna was being so good I even took a walk around Ikea. That place is baby central during the weekdays, of which I am now one of those ladies of leisure with nothing better to do than shop during the day (ha ha just kidding, I wish!).

In response to Benes' question in the comments to the last post, half of the room has louvre windows, the other half is a big glass sliding door, and the triangle windows on top are fixed glass. They are fantastic in a temperate climate like here in Sydney because you can control how much the windows are open so you can get as much or as little breeze in the house as you want. Unfortunately though the new room is so bright during this summer sunshine we're having it practically burns my retina, so my mission this weekend is to find some fabrics to make some sheer curtains to filter. Looks like it's time to break the fabric fast......

Oh and a big congratulations to Carolyn over at diaryofasewingfanatic who welcomed a second grandson into the world this week! Also congratulations to my friend Jenny who just found out she is going to be a grandma for the second time, which is fantastic news since her daughter had a cervical cancer scare recently but thankfully was ok - go have pap smears ladies, it may save your life.