If you know me, you know I like to plan things out. I make daily to-do lists, I have multiple calendar's through out my home where I'm always recording my husband's work schedule and making plans for his days off. And if you read this blog before my baby was born I had plans of being green and saving money. Plans like breastfeeding exclusively, using only cloth diapers, not using generic baby wipes, using only homemade laundry detergent, reusing cloth vs paper towels, using cloth postpartum pads vs generic plastic.
Planning is a wonderful tool, but it need only be a tool to attempt to live life that way. I have found in the last 2 weeks since my son was born that cloth diapers that I have don't yet fit my son, they are too big, so we are using Pamper's swaddlers and no they aren't biodegradable but entirely helpful with their wetness indicator. I tried out the Honest diapers we received as a free sample which are 98% biodegradable and they don't hold up to the task at hand. Urine leaks thru quite steadily and the size is too small for my son.
We are also using baby wipes as well for the poopy mess in the diapers because they simply work a lot better then my cloth wipes and home made spray. The home made spray works great for just wet diapers but not poopy. I researched baby wipes on the Skin Deep Database and the Walgreen's brand of baby wipes rate very low on the scale for not being harmful in any fashion for your baby, so that's what we use.
You realize that when you are a new mom and are at home most of the day with just your baby that quick is better then taking your time. I'm sure there is a time when you need to take the time, but when your son is feeding every 2 hours and you still have to burp in that amount of time, a paper towel vs cloth works a lot smoother. You also realize you don't have the time to do laundry like you thought was going to take care of all of these new cloth reusables you had planned on using. I'm not currently using family cloth because I found out the hard way that blood is a lot harder to get out of fabric vs just using toilet paper. So until my postpartum bleeding has stopped its toilet paper for me. I'm also not allowed to lift any more weight then the weight of my son, so doing laundry has to be done when my husband is home so he can carry it down to the basement, and either carry it out side to be hung or carry it back up stairs to be put away. And as much as I have bled in the last two weeks I wouldn't have had enough cloth post partum pads to hold me thru considering laundry isn't getting done as often as I would like. My doctor told me I had to change my pad every time I went to the bathroom due to the stitches from my episiotomy and so it wouldn't be come infected.
I'm also not producing enough breastmilk for my son. Maybe I would be if I wasn't diagnosed with pulminary embolisms a couple of days of being discharged from the hospital with my son and readmitted to the hospital. I'm currently on 2 blood thinners Lovonox shots and Coumadin. My milk came in the day I was readmitted to the hospital for this. But the stress of being hospitalized for pulminary embolisms and taking blood thinners that totally change what I am allowed to eat, still checking my blood sugars for my doctor (when I remember), making sure my son is fed every 2 hours as he was jaundiced, and still remembering to take care of myself I think the stress caused my milk production to decrease dramatically. We've had to start supplementing with formula. Instead of gaining weight he was losing weight. I pump now about half the time I breast feed but he gets most of his nourishment thru formula because I'm not producing. I've read that all the times you supplement with formula are taking away from your body producing more milk but I will start him on my breast and nothing comes out, or I start him on my breast, he gets what he can and we finish off with formula. Now he is gaining weight.
So as much as I loved to plan prior to having this amazing little boy, I have to let it go and realize that I can't plan everything. I pulled my acceptance to the Land of the Loon Art Festival here in Virginia a week before he was due thinking there was no way I would be able to sew enough inventory for a show in 1 month due to the fact that my downtown studio is in pieces because my tables are still being used in our garage, my machine is here. Though my home studio is 98% done for the portion my husband and my mother have been working on, its not ready for furniture yet. A wall and the floor still need to be finished with paint then moving furniture in, which I'm not allowed to do until 6 weeks postpartum.
I made the decision to dissolve my business, "That's Sew Jenni" December 1st of this year. I will still make crafts and maybe sell at shows, but they'll be smaller shows, more then likely 1 day shows that are affordable. My son is the most important person and he deserves all of my attention. I'm waiting till December because I do have shows I can't pull out of and get a full refund and I do want to sell out my inventory. I've stopped making a lot of my aprons and just selling what I have. I'm still making the smaller items because I can and have easily sold them wholesale to various shops.
So lesson learned, planning is great when its just you or you and your spouse, but bring children into the mix and ah, forget it, there are more important things in life then your to-do lists and perfect planning!
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