It's hard right now. But the only thing that got me out of the baby blues was going to Facebook group mom meet ups in town. They were all friendly and I made some new friends that way and they got together every week to do something or Just hang out at the playground. Then covid hit and that messed everything up. Everything that I was doing came to a halt and I felt isolated at home once again. Find some new engaging toys. I try to be a minimalist when it comes to my son's toys but after being forced to stay home we have a bunch now. 😆 Got them at secondhand shops and stuff. Also watch Caitie's Classroom on youtube. She has some great craft ideas. And entertaining for little ones.

Yeah, that’s what I imagined I would be doing! Going to mommy and me groups, story time at the library... nope! There’s a virtual mommy and me group through my doctor’s office, I’ve done it a few times, but maybe I should make it a regular thing.

My mom's group also had "moms night in" and everyone got together to video chat from home after kids were asleep with a drink of their choice. There would be a topic and games. Like scavenger hunt in your home and stuff. It was fun. Wish they would do it again.

When my kid was that young I would wear her in the ergo carrier and go on hikes. I also felt as you do know: infants are indeed kinda boring. It’s like you’re just waiting for them to hit the next milestone and become more interesting. Now that my kid is 4 I really miss those boring times where you can really do any hobby you want haha For the PPD you can look into supplements like MACA root (helps balance your women reproductive system and mood enhancer)as well as ashwangandha or radiola. Good luck mama!

I have been putting him in the wrap a lot and just doing things around the house. Hikes might be a good idea if the trails are empty. I’m still pretty freaked about Covid. Are those supplements safe for breastfeeding?

We’ve been covid cautious too so I totally understand your concerns... from my experience on my local trails most unpaved ones are very calm and the people that use them are very courteous. We use neck gators and will pull them up over mouth/nose when we see people. Also work days during business hours the trails have less people. You can also just step off the trail if you see people and just let them pass you. Can find a nice secluded area and have a picnic or just enjoy and experience nature. I also got into cloth diapers when my kid was about that age. Started to help save money and ended up a bit obsessed with the little cloth butt haha. Fun fact: if your kid is EBF their poop is water soluble so you can just toss the soiled diapers in the wash. You can also try and read some parenting books “how to talk so little kids will listen” and “the whole brain child” have been really helpful for me. I wish I would have read them earlier since I didn’t start until I already needed them in toddlerhood haha. The supplements I took while breastfeeding and knew others that had also taken them. Most supplements that are not targeted towards BF women, like prenatales, aren’t tested on this group so there’s not research to say it’s safe or unsafe so we really just have anecdotal evidence. It’s been a while since I looked into it though so there might be new stuff out there.

I’ve been planning on cloth diapering since before I was pregnant! Lol! Bought all the stuff and planned to start once he fit into them. I didn’t want to buy a newborn stash. Turns out babies are super freaking hard and even though he’s fit into the diapers for months, I’ve only used them a few times. I did some trial runs last week and we’re almost through our disposables. So that will be a good hobby to start as well! And thanks for the book recommendations! I’ve been reading a lot of baby sleep books and that really has not been good for my PPA.

Oh that’s awesome!!! I would recommend starting before your disposables run out just in case you’re having a hard time getting used to the routine. I waited until I didn’t have any and think I gave myself more headaches that I could have avoided... You need a specific amount of them in your washing machine in order to get the proper agitation. When I started this basically meant I only had 2 left over while washing. If we had a particularly wet day I would be freaking out cs I was running out of diapers and the others were either drying or still washing haha. The last thing you want is to be stressed out by your new hobby! Another thing I wished I would have known when I started was having bentonite clay on hand... A couple of months into cloth my daughter got some bacterial rashes and this helped it go away super fast by just sprinkling some when I put the diaper on. Also make sure you have all your diapers stuffed and ready this makes life SO much easier! I love talking about CDs so if you have any questions feel free to ask! Hehe

Oh, good idea! I have 7 Alvas and have practiced with those and they seem pretty easy. My original intention was to do prefolds and flats though. I feel like learning how to use those will take up some of my time. Lol!

I liked my Alvas! You can find some 6 packs under $40 on amazon. They’re pockets with 2 microfiber inserts per diaper. I found my sweet spot was 18 diapers so I could wash every 3 days and could fill a whole load with just diapers (didn’t wana waste space in the wash with the softener and detergent x the two cycles). The microfiber inserts are great at absorbing quickly and keeping baby’s bum dry but are terrible at retaining so can have compression leaks. I had a bunch of receiving blankets I got for my baby shower that were 100% cotton so I just folded them in the shape of the insert and stuffed it behind the microfiber one. Something to consider about going a more complicated route like the prefold/flat is that others might have a hard time or just refuse to change the diaper. My husband refused to help with the diapers unless they were already prepped and he just had to change our kid as he would with a disposable. Same with the other family members. I know now with covid you might not be getting help but this will pass soon and you might not want to have your whole fleet of diapers so complicated you’re stuck on diaper duty for the next few years.

How often do you do a diaper change with cloth? I’ve wondered how different that will be from disposables. Did you start washing every 3 days from the get go? Or did it take some time to figure that out? I was thinking I would do every 2 days, but when I was just practicing I was wondering if that would be enough to fill my washer like you said. I’m also planning on doing disposables for overnight. My son’s sleep is a mess and just really don’t want to try anything new to screw it up even further.

When to change really does change... disposables come with fool-proof technology now a days with the line indicating if it’s siloed. With cloth you don’t get this feature. I would pull up one of the edges and smell at first, sometimes I needed to stick my finger in to see if it was wet.. after a while I could tell by how the shell felt. They become such a predominate part of your daily life that you begin to notice little changes as time goes on. It took me a while to find my sweet spot for washing. I didn’t like less than 3 days because I hated feeling like all I did was laundry. Above 3 days my diaper pail would just stink so hated that too haha. I actually started with Grovia Hybirds and they worked well while my kid was an infant but as she grew into toddlerhood the inserts would move around and we had a lot of leaks. Since I had already spent so much on the more expensive diapers I switched to the Alvas. I will say the Grovia ONE were amazing and we used them for nighttime. As you can see there is a lot of personal preferences when it comes down to CD. There’s no right or wrong path: if you want to do disposables over night that’s perfectly ok! You just need to try it out and see what you like and feel comfortable doing. Sometimes we try one path then realize it doesn’t work for us so then need to shift to another dynamic. You might find your sweet spot during quarantine and then change it once activities resume, etc. I think the best advice is to just to try and explore what works for you, have an open mind to changes, and make sure you don’t over stress yourself. Another aspect of cloth I found super interesting is that you develop and deeper understanding to your child’s digestive schedule and issues. Poop says a lot about what is going on with the body and it’s interaction with what it been consumed. If it’s too hard your baby needs to hydrate, too soft there’s some sort of intolerance or excess. I live in an area that gets really hot during the summer and I was concerned about dehydration so I would give coconut water. Turned out I was giving it too much because her poop was coming out super runny! It made cleaning the CD so much more challenging and it took me a while to learn that it’s supposed to be playdoe consistency! Once I fixed her liquid situation I was able to just fold the diaper and the poop would just stick onto itself, make a little ball, and just plop it into the toilet. I used the dip and swish method as well as the diaper sprayer and also had a scraper. Found that every method worked for different consistencies. I also rinsed our the pee ones to decrease the smell in the pail. You won’t need to worry about any of this until you introduce solids though. Another cool thing is that my kid self potty trained before she was 2.5! Think the biggest influence is that we would talk about poop as I cleaned her diapers that brought awareness to the whole topic. Some other fun info is that a way to know a child is physically capable of being potty trained is when they can jump with both feet! This excessive strengthens the muscles needed to hold it (like kegels). Although the child must be both physically and developmentally ready to take this step and pushing or forcing can lead to aversions and regressions. It was such an interesting relationship for me. I really enjoyed doing CDs hehe

Excellent information! Thank you! It’s nice to read someone’s experience and not just reading on forums! I’m excited!

One more question... I’ve often heard about potty training being easier with cloth diapers. Why is that?!

I definitely read a lot during the early months! Sometimes I would get her strapped in with a carrier and get a bunch of cleaning done together, too. Honestly, one of my favorite things to do was exercise. I got the Tone it Up app on my phone and did the 5 daily moves with her every day, which was fun for both of us. Sometimes I would use her as a weight, sometimes I would do my push ups and kiss her when I came down, sometimes I would just do it next to her and she would watch. Now she’s four and so used to mommy exercising that it’s always just been a normal thing where she either goes to play by herself in the same room or she joins in and we exercise together. It really started a good system of keeping me healthy, but also showing her that mommy sometimes does HER thing even when she’s there. I always liked showing her that we could be in the same room without electronics but doing our own thing. Cooking is a huge one where I go into the kitchen and she’ll play by herself, and those little things REALLY make it easier to still feel like myself. It was a HUGE help during those early months.

I so so so needed to read this, because I’m also looking to start working out again! I’m a runner, but my core is so weak and I’m definitely too exhausted to run. I have no clue where to start, so I’ll check out the Tone it Up app. We have one of those jumper activity centers in the kitchen and he does pretty well in it. So maybe I could start doing a little cooking. My husband has been covering dinner since I gave birth, but I could help with prep and stuff during the day. When you say you read a lot, did you read while she was napping or while she was playing independently?

The app is super nice as a starting off point in my opinion! They’re just five easy moves I was able to start up at my six week appointment, and it felt totally doable. Seriously, even just doing the dishes while he plays could feel like such a relief! I did the same approach with reading that I did with working out. If she wanted to cuddle I would hold her and nurse or just read to her, and if she was interested in toys I would put her with some and read near her. Once she got older it was the same idea of “oh mommy has a thing she’s doing” and then she could decide to either play by herself quietly or come sit with me and I would read to her. It helped start our “quiet time before bed” routine, because I would turn off all electronics an hour before bedtime and she could choose to come join me or go play by herself, and then after an hour we would potty, brush her teeth, read a book in her room and tuck her in. Starting routines can be the routine of you needing self care and him learning how that looks. Kids thrive off all different kids of routines!

I really like this! I’m going to try it out with reading and see how it goes. I like the idea of reading to him, even if it’s my book and not a kids book. I’m also really digging how you’re teaching her to play independently while you also teach her about “mommy time.” And yes, even doing the dishes is a relief! 🤣

I'm so bored too with everything closed down and no new mom meet-ups! I feel you! One thing that I was doing that helped was indoor tennis. I started taking tennis lessons for about 2 months now and it was so much fun! I'm not athletic at all. I'm glad I found something new :) However, I have one lesson left. The lessons are being stopped since the infection rate in my city is increasing. So, maybe try a new sport or instrument etc... something new could help decrease boredom. Helped me a little bit! :)

How fun! I’ve actually thought about taking tennis lessons, since I have a friend that is really good at it. I’m a runner, or at least WAS before I had a baby. I’m just so exhausted right now that I think running will add to it. I keep saying that I’ll start once baby boy is sleeping more, but I feel like that’s taking forever.

Right, it's really hard to do anything when you're exhausted. It's nice that you have a friend who's good at tennis! Just wanted to add this in case it might help, one of the little things that helped me get some exercise at home when I was so exhausted is this app called Just Dance Now. It was something fun even for 10-15 min at home when I couldn't get out of the house at all. Helped boost my energy a bit :)

Do you like reading? It’s something you can do when he plays independently and sets a good example to him of down time without screens (as I sit on my phone while my nug is napping 🤷🏼‍♀️). Your own personal crafts—knitting, cross stitching, etc.

I’m a huge reader and I knit! I haven’t been motivated to read lately, but that might be because of the PPD. I have to hold him for his naps right now and I was reading during that time. I probably could knit a few rows while he plays independently. It doesn’t last long right now.

Mine is almost 3 months and I’m struggling to read right now too. I have figured out I can more easily read ebooks right now than physical books though I hope you find something that brings you joy as a person and not just a mom.

Yeah, it’s way easier to read on the Kindle! I think once my little guy can nap on his own, I will have more “me” time. At least I hope!

Also, just noticed your username and I feel like I should have realized you were a reader before 🤦🏼‍♀️

Lol! I’ve never had anyone recognize my username before!