The weekend was filled with two things: space stuff and baby stuff. Or three things, if you want to get more technical: space stuff, baby stuff, and astronomy stuff.
SpaceX was scheduled to launch their Dragon spacecraft to the ISS early Saturday morning — and I mean early to the tune of 3:55 a.m. Jose is supporting this mission as part of NASA’s engineering team so he was up at 2 a.m. to get to Mission Control at 3 a.m., and then I got up at 3:45 to watch the launch itself. The countdown went swimming right along. 3…2…1…liftoff… Except it didn’t lift off. The rocket engines lit for a couple seconds and then shut down, with the rocket still sitting firmly attached to the ground. The launch window for this mission was instantaneous, meaning SpaceX had to launch at exactly the right second in order to get to ISS, so I immediately knew that they wouldn’t be going anywhere that day. Turns out one of the engines on the rocket was measuring high pressure, so the computers automatically shut everything down. Their next launch attempt is tonight/tomorrow morning at 2:44 a.m. Houston time.
Testing a stroller and a glider
Even though the launch was aborted, Jose still ended up having to work a bunch over the weekend. Still, we managed to head out on what I called a “reconnaissance mission” to Babies R Us on Saturday afternoon. Now, a couple months ago, I ended up in the baby section at Target to buy a gift for someone else and was completely overwhelmed thinking about how we would eventually need a lot of that stuff ourselves. Cribs, car seats, strollers, bottles, baby monitors…with so many options, how does anyone ever figure out the right thing to buy??? But now I’ve had a little more time to think about what we need, and I’ve gotten some advice from people I trust. This time around, looking at all the stuff was actually kind of fun! We identified a car seat/stroller combo that we want, a glider/ottoman pair that should work well in the baby room, and narrowed down what style of crib we want. I doubt we’ll buy all of it from Babies R Us since their prices seem to run higher than Amazon, but it was nice to have a place to actually mess around with stuff and see how it worked.
One of the big decisions we still need to make is whether we want to cloth diaper or not. Frankly, I have no idea, so I am soliciting advice on the matter (as long as it is non-judgmental). Feel free to comment below!
I also ordered a rug for the baby room! I saw it on Zulily a couple months ago but wasn’t ready to pull the trigger. But both Jose and I loved it, and I kept thinking about it when I mentally decorated the baby room. When it unexpectedly went on sale through Zulily again over the weekend, I couldn’t resist any longer and got a 4’x6′ version to go in the middle of the room. The light blue clouds are the same color we’re using to painting the walls, and it’s got light green in there to match the bedding color we’re planning to use. Plus, it has a FLYING PIG. Which is really all you need.
So hooray for the first official nursery purchase! Well, except for the paint we already bought. We’d planned to paint this weekend, but Jose ended up working so much that we didn’t have time.
We wrapped up the weekend with what little we could see of the annular solar eclipse last night. It started at 7:40 and the sun set just after 8, so we didn’t have a great view but what we could see what pretty awesome! We actually watched it from Freebird’s while eating our burrito dinner and that turned out to be a better spot than our house would have been, since we had a clearer view of the horizon as the sun was setting. We even took our solar sunglasses! We got those two years ago when we went to KSC to see the STS-130 launch — after the launch, we went to the KSC Visitor’s Center and there were some people who work on the Solar Dynamics Observatory giving these out. See? Sometimes it’s good to be a pack rat.
Which stroller did you decide to get?
We are using Pampers Sensitive disposable diapers, and I have been extremely happy with them. They are very cute and easy to use and not a big budget item compared to things like child care. It’s my understanding the environmental impact of cloth diapers is comparable to that of disposables due to all the washing required, so I can’t see a good reason to go with cloth. They can be cute, but I prefer to things that snap btw baby’s legs, so you can’t see the diaper anyway. With the challenge of having a new baby, going with the easiest option seemed like a no-brainer to me. I’m on Amazon Moms and have the Amazon subscription.
Have you looked at the Baby Bargains book? Great book that gives you lots of details on various brands of everything (bottles, cribs, carseats, strollers, etc.). Definitely came in handy when we were deciding what to purchase.
As for diapers, I have tried both. For a good environmentally friendly disposable we liked Kroger’s Comfort for Baby store brand. They make the regular diaper version and then an environmentally friendly one (so look at the packaging to check for sure). The environmentally friendly one has no chlorine, is manufactured with processes that leave less of an environmental impact, and is partly biodegradable.
I also know folks that used G diapers and they are a good combo of both worlds.
Good luck!
We’ve done a mix of cloth and disposables. Websites like cottonbabies.com and diaperpin.com have great resources to help you learn about the different options. I know that some child care providers require disposables, so that might be something to check into.
I know we didn’t break even on the diaper cost for a couple years. (Comparing the prefolds and covers we use to the Target brand diapers that we use.) We wash about twice a week in a high efficiency washer, so it isn’t that much more water.
Clothe seems like a bigger pain in the neck. Disposable is easy and convenient.
But I think as long as you launder the cloth yourself its better on the environment than disposable (I think the environmental impacts of cloth diapers are based on the industrial laundering services that many people use). And if they are what you primarily use, you probably won’t know the difference in terms of ease. I’ve also heard babies in cloth potty train faster.
Oh, love/heart the rug.
I wanted to share why we do like cloth – we like that we are reusing the cotton diapers instead of needing to throw each diaper and I like how my kids’ skin reacts to cloth better than the chemicals in disposables. It’s silly, but I also don’t like the disposable chemical smell when the diaper is wet.
We are reusing all of our diapers from our oldest, so they feel practically free at this point. For Catie we use cloth during the day and a disposable at night and it is a good balance for us.
But, I do think it is a parenting choice where you really can’t go wrong either way. 🙂
We use cloth at home and disposables at daycare, and that has worked well for us. I wash two loads of diapers a week now. I second the recommendation to look at cottonbabies.com, and you can occasionally find sale/clearance items. You can always buy a few different diapers to start with and see how it goes. I do appreciate that I’m not constantly lugging home big bundles from the store and fretting about how many I still have in the house. Also like that if we have another, we’ll already have this great stash bought & paid for.
I should also say, I was REALLY overwhelmed by all the options of cloth diapers first, but between websites and friends’ explanations, I got it all sorted out. It is NOT complicated. Happy to help with any questions.
We have clothed diaper both of ours. We have a bunch of fuzzibunz and love them. We used some kissaluvs in the first few months. Also used some pre-folds, but not that many. We have to do laundry, A LOT! However, it is simple and easy with a washer and dryer in our hose. It is expensive up front, but we rarely have to buy paper diapers (for trips mostly). Virginia has a long written explanation with details of different options and tricks to using cloth diapers. If you want a copy let me know and I can e-mail it to you.
Love love LOVE that rug!
Zeppelin! Awesome rug.
Isn’t it just amazing how much equipment/stuff it takes when you bring baby home? So are you do you think you could time the delivery with Curiosities landing? LOL