I need a few more sets of hands

I thought I had this mom-of-two thing in the bag.  I'm on maternity leave until September and we've made the financial sacrifice to keep Lily in daycare even during the unpaid portion of my leave, because she LOVES "school" and her friends and we don't want her routine being altered any more than it already is.   I had visions of being able to take nice brisk walks with the baby every day (working off that baby weight), really doing some wonderful cooking, and pulling out my knitting and sewing and having a chance to catch up on TV viewing - albeit with a newborn who wants me to stop and nurse every few hours.    And I have to admit, I really do have the time for some of that because Hannah is an easygoing baby much of the time and we're having almost none of the breastfeeding difficulties that I had with Lily.  

Mark is working a lot of afternoon/evening shifts at his new job.  This is good from the standpoint of income and is bad from the standpoint of me having to do the evening parenting solo with a 3 year old and a newborn.   As you might recall, Mark worked noon-8:30 PM or 3-11:30 PM basically for the first 2.5 years of Lily's life, so you'd think I'd be all right handling the evening routine again.  I was able to manage working full time PLUS 95% of the cooking and 5 nights a week of evening parenting, and that includes when I had severe nausea 24/7 in my first trimester.    Unfortunately I neglected to take into account the oft-competing needs of my children.

I'm OK going and picking Lily up.  Hannah stays in her infant carseat bucket and Lily is big enough to carry her own lunch box and backpack, and I've drilled her well on keeping a hand on me or the car for safety in a parking lot.  The drive home is pleasant, with Lily telling Hannah and me all about her exciting day.   Then we get home and all hell breaks loose:

1) Lily wants to watch TV.  Fine, we let her watch one TV show per day (either Signing Time on DVD or Sesame Street or Thomas the Tank Engine via streaming Netflix).  The problems arise if we reach the end of said program and I don't have dinner on the table yet.   And I often don't, because:

2) Hannah starts cluster feeding for the evening at 5:30 or 6 PM.  She usually doesn't want to stop until around 8:30 or 9 PM.  Awesome.  I can set her down for maybe a few minutes at a time which is not at all conducive to food preparation and cooking.

So Lily wants to watch another show, but because we limit TV I tell her no.  Weeping and whining ensue (the Threes have started slightly early with this one).   Then I manage to get dinner on the table for Lily if not both of us, we eat, and it's time for the tub.   Lily needs a bath every evening because she gets sweaty and dirty on the playground at daycare.  It means she's having fun and getting exercise, but at the same time it means we can't really skip a bath if we're running late.  

If Hannah will let me, I swaddle her in a muslin blanket and pop her into the bouncer so that I can give Lily her tub.  Lily is used to being able to spend 15-20 minutes playing with toys before I wash her, and now much to her dismay she's getting hosed down in record time like the prison inmates at the start of The Shawshank Redemption.    Then once my older child is reasonably clean all three of us head upstairs.  On a good night I can tuck Hannah into her bassinet in our room while I race through getting Lily in pajamas, teeth brushed, books read, and tucked in.   On a bad night I get to do all of that one-handed while holding Hannah as she nurses.  I'll let Hannah make a little bit of noise but if she loses it, I can't leave her alone to scream.

Some nights, all of this goes smoothly - others, all three of us end up in tears.  I can hear the voices now: "Just wear the baby!", you say.   Of course I've tried that, but when Hannah wants to nurse, screaming ensues if she's essentially on my chest but not latched on - I'm basically taunting her with the proximity of the fount of all that is good in her life.  It's so close, but yet so far.   She is not yet big enough or strong enough to get latched or stay latched herself if I try to nurse her in the sling or carrier.  Added degree of difficulty: she won't take a pacifier consistently!

I've decided I need a few extra sets of hands and arms or a private chef and a nanny between the hours of 5 and 8 PM every night.   Barring either of those outcomes, I'm going to have to find a way to get the baby to nurse properly while being worn.

Newborn cloth diapering

Mark and I decided around mid-pregnancy that we were going to use cloth diapers full time during my maternity leave.  We started using cloth at home (disposables at daycare) when Lily was 4.5 months old so virtually all of our diapers are of the one size variety.   Most one size diapers say that they fit from around 8 pounds and up but 10+ pounds is more realistic and even then they can be very bulky on a newborn, so we needed to get cloth diapers to fit a newborn.    

We purchased this newborn diaper package from Nicki's Diapers for $141.97 including free shipping.  This package includes 2 dozen prefolds in 2 sizes, four diaper covers, one each of a newborn bamboo fitted and a newborn All-In-One (AIO), and two one-size diapers for when the baby gets a little bigger.  I also purchased a 3-pack of Snappi diaper fasteners and we already had a pail liner and wet bags from when we cloth diapered Lily.   We already had three Thirsties Duo pocket diapers in size 1 that we'd used on Lily, and those will fit a newborn well.   We started using the diapers the day after we got home from the hospital.  Before her umbilical cord stump fell off, we just had to fold down the covers a bit to avoid getting the stump wet.  

I do a load of diaper laundry every day because Hannah's wearing mostly the XS prefolds (the Smalls are a bit too bulky still).   It's not difficult at all - a prewash with no detergent, a hot water wash with Rockin' Green Hard Rock, and a 2nd rinse.  Then everything goes in the dryer on high.   The bamboo prefold and the hemp halves of the Thirsties Duo inserts typically come out a bit damp but dry fully after a few hours of hanging on a rack or outside on the clothesline.   It takes around 2 hours total, with maybe 2-3 minutes of hands-on time on my part.   

We could have gone for a less-expensive "private label" Imagine newborn package at $88.16 which in retrospect would have been a perfectly-suitable choice.  The two packages have the same prefolds and bamboo fitted, but the cheaper package uses all Imagine brand for covers, AIO, etc.  We have been very pleased with the quality of Imagine diapers, so much so that I am now an Imagine Advocate.  

So how do they stack up on cost?   We have a BJ's membership and a 210-count box of size 1 Pampers Swaddlers is $41.99 at BJ's.   That works out to 20 cents per diaper without coupons.  Assuming the baby stays in size 1 for the first three months, and is changed on average 8 times a day, that works out to $144 in diapers for the first 90 days.   However since we'd need to round up to 4 boxes of diapers to get the 20 cents/diaper price, we'd be looking at $168.   The newborn cloth diaper package that we bought is $142, while the less-expensive Imagine package is $88.  For the full newborn package, the cost is reasonably close to disposables (especially if you add in a bag of the Rockin' Green detergent that we use) but the Imagine newborn package is roughly half the cost to diaper a baby.   There is some residual value in the cloth diapers (reselling the package or using the prefolds as inserts in one size pocket diapers), while disposables are literally throwing money away.  

I don't want to make it sound rosy and perfect - there are very valid reasons for families to choose to use disposable diapers.  Heck, we still use disposable diapers and once Hannah is in daycare in a few months she will be in disposables there!   But with cloth, we love the convenience of never running out of diapers and that we're filling the landfill a little less than we would with 100% disposable use.