Cloth Diapering Made Easy – Types of cloth diapers explained

I decided to do a “Cloth Diapering Made Easy” series 😊. I remember when I was pregnant with LB and researching cloth diapers, I was overwhelmed. I felt like the pricing was crazy high, and they’d be hard to use – Did we have hard water? What’s a prefold? Wash routines? Etc. There was so much conflicting info and I was a first time mom who had to go back out to work in 12 weeks, so I decided to go with disposables.

This time with Viv I decided to just go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? And we are 2 months in! It’s been great. I’ve simplified my routine and my stash is much different now that I’ve found out what I like. I currently only own Mama Koala pockets ( shown in the pic above – use code VIVMKTHX to save 10%), Grovia AIOs (all in ones), Grovia hybrids, Thirsties pocket diapers and 3 sigazor AIOs that I’ll probably get rid of (they’re hubbys fave, not mine lol).

Anywho, enough blabbing. Today I want to go over the first thing that confused me while researching diapers years ago – all the types! Let me make this as easy as possible. Continue reading “Cloth Diapering Made Easy – Types of cloth diapers explained”

Cloth diapering on a 4 day trip

So there were a lot of odd responses to my plan to cloth diaper Viv. Most were just that I wouldn’t do it (I am doing it and loving it). The other was that I would do it – but use disposables sometimes. I agreed with that. Maybe at night (since disposables absorb more, typically). Maybe when we left the house. Etc.

However once I started cloth, I realized – it’s not that hard. The world isn’t set up as convenient for cloth diapering BUT it can be done anywhere for less stress than going out and figuring out what size/brand of disposables to buy and how many you need lol. When I leave the house for an errand, I just grab another diaper or 2. I carry disposable wipes only because I don’t have a case that will hold wet cloth wipes yet, and I don’t feel like carrying wipe solution. Anywho, I figured if that was easy enough – I could cloth on our trip!

We were headed to Mississippi to see my in laws for my sister in law’s graduation (she got her MBA, yall. Shout out to black excellence -dance-). So I thought, ok. We always book an airBNB when we travel (because I mean hello, why pay $100 for a hotel when you can get a whole house??). So I knew we would have a washer and dryer – which kept me from having to carry back home dirty diapers (one of my fears – BUT possible).

So, I just grabbed enough diapers for 2-3 days. I only grabbed my favorite prints because I was going to be showing Viv off of course and wanted her to look her best. Here is what I brought:

Plus a few extra diapers in the diaper bag. It came out to 12 Mama Koala’s Continue reading “Cloth diapering on a 4 day trip”

Postpartum fitness – the core

Yal I got diastasis recti. Bad. Again. Over 4 finger widths at my postpartum appointment. The midwife said PT or therapy and I knew I had to get my ish together.

I literally hadn’t been doing ANYTHING not wearing my binder not doing any exercises, nothing. I was bitter. It wasn’t fair I had to. I should enjoy this time. Blah blah blah all that ish sounds good on Instagram but the truth is I AINT TRYNA GET SURGERY. Continue reading “Postpartum fitness – the core”

Postpartum healing

Baybeeeee let me tell you what I forgot to prepare for.

I prepared for pregnancy. I was fit. I’d been running and my cardio was poppin. Viv wasn’t planned but I was in the best shape of my life prior to and during pregnancy. I ran a half marathon at 20 weeks, yal.

And i was prepared for labor. I did the hypnobirthing home study guide. I had two whole ass playlists. I had a YouTube list of ASMR videos. I was relaxed (up until transition 😂).

But I was NOT prepared for postpartum. I hadn’t even thought about it. I was so focused on achieving a vbac that I didn’t think of what it would be like after.

Healing from a vaginal birth, especially with a tear, is much different than healing from a C-section. Main difference is, after a c section they give you Percocet 😳😂

That’s enough rambling. Here are my tips to an easier vagina birth recovery:

Continue reading “Postpartum healing”

Managing pain during unmedicated labor/delivery

So Viv is now over 2 weeks old and I’ve had more time to reflect on our successful unmedicated vbac. Im going to eventually blog on tips for having a successful vagina birth after caesarean, but today I just want to blog from the standpoint of a “normal” labor and delivery. Since I labored at home and didn’t get to the hospital until pushing time, I was treated like any other laboring mom and other than wearing a monitor I didn’t have any weird requirements as a result of having a past c section.

So let’s talk about unmedicated child birth. First things first, no epidural doesn’t mean no pain management. You HAVE TO have a plan to deal with the intensity of contractions to make it through an unmedicated child birth. Continue reading “Managing pain during unmedicated labor/delivery”

Breastfeeding tips!

In honor of Viv beating her fight weight (she was born 7 lbs 5 oz, Left hospital at 6 lbs 8 oz, and 2 weeks later she’s 8 lbs 4 oz) I thought I’d give you alllll the breastfeeding tips I give my new mom friends when they ask me. I am no nursing pro but I nursed LB 14 months and plan to nurse V as long as she needs. My kids have never had formula.

I warn you though, it’s hard and time consuming at first. And there’s no shame on deciding “this is tew much”. These tips are just to help if you’re pushing through like I did. And im no doctor or lactation consultant so yeah – consult them too 😂

Continue reading “Breastfeeding tips!”

KGOAL? What’s that?

This is not what it looks like.

But it does go where you think it goes 😂

This is the KGOAL – and it’s designed to help you kegal properly haha (and to make it fun!). All of us mommas, especially those of us who run, know how important pelvic floor strength is.

How’s it work? Well, it’s a device and free app that makes pelvic floor exercise fun and interactive. It gives you visual and tactile feedback and even has a diagram to show you how to properly engage your pelvic floor.

And it’s totally comfortable. It’s designed like a balloon or pillow – you can “deflate” it to insert and “inflate” to get the perfect fit for your body!

It’s a cool little device and I definitely suggest you try it. I cant wait to get back to using it after I’m all healed from Vivs birth.

Wanna try KGOAL? Get yours here!