100 Days To Go

As of today, at 25 weeks and 5 days, we are 100 days away from Eggplant's due date.  I find this to be kind of incredible.  Only 3 more months til we become parents.  In many ways, it feels like we've already been waiting forever, because we've wanted to be parents for quite some time now.  But in other ways, it feels like just a few days ago that we told the family.  In fact, when I was just typing "25 weeks and 5 days", I accidentally typed "12 weeks".  As I've said previously, this second trimester has been flying by.  I don't know whether to hope the third goes as quickly or not.

In the next 100 days, a lot of baby-related things will happen.  Baby shower in Memphis, probably a baby shower at my work, painting and decorating the nursery, planting a tree (more on that to come), putting together the crib, interviewing a pediatrician, looking further into who is going to be providing child/nanny care for Eggplant once I have to go back to work, filling out all my maternity leave paperwork, pre-washing clothes and diapers, packing a hospital bag... I mean, the list is endless!  Or at least it feels that way.

Speaking of pre-washing diapers, we purchased a couple of our cloth diapers (as I mentioned in my previous post), so we could see what they are like in person and make sure they are what we really wanted.  And so far, they seem to be.  Obviously, Eggplant will be the ultimate test of their utility, but for now, they seem well-designed, and they're pretty adorable.  They have this snap system that lets you change the size of the diaper, so that it can only be 8 inches high (for a newborn) up to 16 inches for a toddler.  And they have 2 folding absorbent panels sewn in, one in the front and one in the back, so that you can adjust where the baby gets the most protection.  These are in addition to the built-in absorbent panel that's completely sewn into the bottom of the diaper.  I'm including a few pictures, because I really am that excited about this (which is just nuts...).

 

So, here is the diaper on it's smallest, newborn setting.

 And here it is on the largest, toddler setting.  I don't know if you can see the rows of snaps (not the ones that close it, but the ones that adjust the height), but there is another middle row of snaps for the in-between phase.

 Here is the inside of the diaper with the panels pulled out.  The bottom layer has a panel sewn in to absorb, and then the 2 "wings" you might call them, that are sewn in on each side.  Part of the genius of this design is that when we hang them to dry, they will dry much quicker than some of the diapers out there that don't unfold.  

 And here are the panels all folded in to the diaper, layered on top of each other.  So you get three, count them, three layers of protection.

 Also brilliant is the fact that you can change how the panels lay on each other so that you can double- or even triple-up on absorbency based on where you need it.

I cannot believe I'm sitting here typing a blog post, complete with pictures, on baby diapers.  If you'd told me a year ago, or especially 5 years ago, that I'd be doing this, I would have laughed at you.  Now, I'm just laughing at myself.