Ash at 5 months

A day after Halloween, my daughter turned 5 months old!
She's starting to grab anything within her reach and putting them in her mouth.

She can roll on her tummy and back but she prefers to lie down or stand up (while someone's holding her of course).
She makes a lot more noise now especially if no one's paying any attention to her.
She's such a smiler. =) But it's pretty hard to get her to laugh.

Ash at 4 months

I can't believe she's 4 months already! How time flies! They really do grow up so fast.

When we last visited her pedia, she has only gained 1.2lbs and that would make her 14lbs. She also grew a few centimeters. She's now about 69cm at only 4 months. Pretty long if you ask me. Good thing she didn't get her height from me =)

With all that height and weight, you would think everything else about her is big. Well, pretty much everything else (hands, feet, fingers and toes) are equally growing at the same rate, all except for her ears! Yes, her ears, which is why up until now, her ears remain without earrings. With someone who has 6 ear piercings (3 at each ear), you can imagine my excitement over getting my daughter's ear pierced as well (don't worry, she'll get just 2, one for each ear). I really wanted her to get her ears pierced already, but apparently, she has small ears. So her doctor advised waiting until December or until her ears get with the program and grow along with the rest of her body parts.

Ash at 3 months

My little one is now 3 months old and a lot have changed. It seems her neck and shoulder muscles have now strengthened  which means she can hold her head up for longer periods of time. She also makes more sounds like she's trying to talk especially when someone speaks to her. She's putting her fingers in her mouth more (and anything else she can grab). I'm hoping her hair grows out soon she's been losing her hair for few weeks now. The doctor said it was her baby hair that's falling off and soon her "real" hair will be growing out. I can't wait!

I try to develop her senses by reading to her and one of the books we use is this

it was a gift from one of her ninangs. It's great because it has different fabrics for her to touch and has music and a pop-up and it also has a mirror! I plan to get more books to read to her.

My eBay cloth diapers

I've purchased a couple of cloth diapers off eBay and they’re supposedly China-made ones and relatively cheap. They have advantages and disadvantages, advantage being that for a newbie to cloth diapering such as me, they would be a cheap way to try out cloth diapering so you wouldn't be paying as much if you decide not to do cloth.

Disadvantage of these diapers is that when one of them delaminates or one of the buttons fall out, you have no warranty to have them replaced.
One more thing I think that is a disadvantage is that some of these diapers are made with only one row of snaps and no hip snaps. There are those made with hip snaps that are sold on eBay but I have yet to try them out.

The advantage of having hip snaps, in my case, is that if you have a baby with skinny legs, this will help with the fit. I noticed that without the hip snaps, the diaper will leak around the leg holes.

So far, those are the only things I find wrong with the eBay diapers.

Stripping Cloth Diapers

I have been cloth diapering for over two months now and so far so good! I did have some leak issues the other day but that was because our laundry lady poured a lot of detergent right on the diaper. This caused some major build up. So I had to strip. Detergent build up will cause some major issues on your cloth diapers like stink, water repelling that will make your diapers leak, and of course diaper rash. So make sure to use the right detergent and the right amount. A little goes a long way. Some moms recommend stripping your diapers every now and then just for maintenance.

I started by washing my already clean cloth diapers in hot water with a little dishwashing soap (I use Joy with calamansi) but any other dishwashing soap would do that does not have any moisturizing lotion or any other additives. Then I let them soak for fifteen minutes before I rinse and rinse on hot or warm water until all the bubbles are out. If you're handwashing you can try warm water instead and protect your hands with rubber gloves! Then I line dry. The sun is great in getting stains and smells. I only stripped my pockets with microfleece inner and not the bamboo ones. I don’t think they need to be stripped. Only maybe when they start to smell really bad.

My Kawaii diapers are mostly bamboo and they tend to stain easily but if you lay them out in the sun while they’re still a bit damp, the stains come right off! Not to mention they smell great too!

By the way, I’m not a full-time cloth diapering mama. I still use disposables at night and when we travel but that’s only because I haven’t found a good nighttime diaper and I haven’t purchased a good wetbag to have when going out. I am striving to go full-time though.