I’m an addict. I love cloth diapering.

1. I’m cheap. Have you seen the price of Pampers lately? I can’t even fathom how many we would have gone through by now – but rather than pick up a pack a week, I’ve bought diapers once and get to use them over and over again. There’s even a booming market for second (and third, and fourth) hand cloth diapers, so you can recoup cost when you’re done with them.

2. Disposables are wasteful. Yes, believe it or not, I do give a rip about the environment. Dumping disposables into a landfill – where they are estimated to take about 500 years to biodegrade – for the sake of ‘convenience’ is something I just can’t reconcile.

3. I couldn’t get behind the idea of putting chemical-laden junk against a baby’s most sensitive bits.

4. Babies that are in cloth spend less time in wet diapers because you really have to change them promptly. They also tend to be more aware of their elimination patterns because they can feel wetness. Cloth-diapered babies are often easier to potty train. Considering Abigail has one of these and uses it at least 50% of the time – at under six months – I’d say we’re going to do pretty well in that department. (Note: We’ve been doing part-time EC since she was six weeks old, and cloth diapers are the perfect complement.)

5. No diaper pins necessary.

One of the coolest products I’ve seen in a long time is the gDiaper. gDiapers are a reusable cloth cover you can put cloth inserts into, or flushable one-time-use inserts. For those who don’t want to worry about keeping track of cloth while out-and-about or traveling, or who would like to minimize their consumption while having at least part of the convenience of disposables, the flushables are really cool. I’ve also seen infant-sized prefolds used as gDiaper inserts (rather than the cloth inserts available from the company) and they work great.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up now: My best friend is a gDiaper devotee, and she mentioned that as part of their gMom program she has a sale code for $30 off the everyday g’s six-pack, which is six of the gPants (covers). You can then choose cloth, flushables, or order inserts elsewhere.

Shipping to my zip is $9.95, which I think is a flat rate. That means you’re getting each cover for about $8.33 shipped – a very good deal for any type of cover, and an especially good deal for covers as versatile as g’s.

It’s time to up-size Abigail into a new set of covers, anyway, so I’m definitely ordering a pack. I’ll probably keep using the infant prefolds we have as our inserts, so the total to upgrade our diapers to something that will fit her for another thirteen pounds is under $50. That’s less than about one month of Pampers.

If you’d like to order a pack, buy some for a baby shower, or just pass along the deal – the code to use at checkout is g1153Gates. Keep in mind it’s only good on the six-pack, so make sure you have this item in your cart to get the $30 discount. Deal expires July 31, 2009.

When I mention babyproofing, I’m talking about some basic ‘don’t leave small objects on the floor,’ ‘make a modest effort to make it so she can’t chew on power cords,’ ‘lock the cabinet under the sink so she doesn’t drink bleach’ kinda stuff. We have a very small house and limited storage space, so putting everything dangerous out of reach isn’t an option. The nice part about having a very small house, however, is that she’s never very far away, so I don’t think she can get in too much trouble without me catching on quickly.

On that note, did you guys know there are ‘professional babyproofers’ who do it as a JOB? Like, people PAY THEM to babyproof their houses? The hell?

So, never fear, PGB fans: the Girl Child will be allowed to bonk her head, eat all the dirt she wants, wrestle with the dog, shoot her .22, and probably tip over a chair or two backward because she won’t stop rocking back on the rear legs.

Some things, non-slip bath mats, make sense and are things I wouldn’t have thought of. Other stuff, like faucet covers so the Girl Child doesn’t bonk her head hard, seem excessive.

Anyway, I was skimming through a checklist on BabyCenter and came to a section labeled “Guns.” Their first piece of advice?

• Get rid of them — they’re not safe around children.

…………………..? Excuse me?

They go on to say,

• If you must have guns, store them, unloaded, in a locked and inaccessible spot.
• Store the ammunition in a separate locked and inaccessible spot.
• Use additional gun safety devices such as trigger locks.
• Start teaching your child that guns are weapons, not toys.

Oh gag me. I realize this website is designed for mass sheeple consumption, and all, but really? Suggestion number one is “Get rid of them” and suggestions two, three and four are “render them inoperable?”

Off to send an email…

Now, I already knew breastfeeding rocked, from personal experience:
- I don’t have to mix bottles in the middle of the night
- None of us even really wake up in the middle of the night, since we also co-sleep – no new-parent sleep-dep zombies here!
- I’m not worried about SIDS, because breastfeeding and co-sleeping all but eliminate it
- I don’t have to haul formula-feeding supplies along wherever we go
- It’s cheap
- My baby didn’t get the flu everyone else had (including me, though I’m convinced my comparatively short bout was also thanks to my breastfeeding immune system)
- Breastmilk almost instantly cleared up a slight eye infection (blocked tear duct?) she had
- I already weigh almost 10lbs less than when I got pregnant

What I did not know, at least not in such detail:

Research shows breastfeeding decreases the incidence and/or severity of the following illnesses in childhood (and in many cases also into adulthood):
- Ear infections
- Bacterial meningitis
- Respiratory infections and viruses
- Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
- Asthma
- Allergies (nasal and skin)
- Urinary tract infections
- Gastrointestinal infections
- Diarrhea
- Lymphomas, leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease
- Autoimmune thyroid disease
- Type 1 and type 2 diabetes
- Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease
- Necrotizing enterocolitis
- Multiple sclerosis
- Obesity
- Bacteremia
- Celiac disease
- Botulism
- Pneumonia
- Lung disease
- High blood pressure
- Anxiety/stress
- Bed-wetting
- Nearsightedness
- Increased intellectual, developmental, and cognitive aptitude

For the nursing mother, breastfeeding can help protect against the following diseases:
- Breast cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Uterine cancer
- Thyroid cancer
- Type 2 diabetes
- Osteoporosis
- Lupus
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Obesity

In fact, just having a baby has been shown to reduce my chances of breast cancer by an average of 7%, with a bonus 4.3% for each year of breastfeeding.

Furthermore:

In 2001, the USDA concluded that if breastfeeding rates were increased to 75 percent at birth and 50 percent at six months, it would lead to a national government savings of a minimum of $3.6 billion.

…

The AAP says each formula-fed infant costs the healthcare system between $331 and $475 more than a breastfed baby in its first year of life. The cost of treating respiratory viruses resulting from not breastfeeding is $225 million a year.

The multi-study report estimated that breast cancer rates could be cut by more than half if women increased their lifetime breastfeeding duration. The National Cancer Institute reported the national expenditure on breast cancer treatment in 2004 was $8.1 billion, meaning extended nursing could save upwards of $4 billion a year.

For each year of breastfeeding, a woman decreases her chances of getting type 2 diabetes by 15 percent, reported a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005. So if we consider the woman from the aforementioned example, in her six years of breastfeeding she’s earned a 90 percent reduction in her risk of developing diabetes.

The National Institute of Health estimates that between 10 and 11 million American women have type 2 diabetes. The estimated cost of their treatment and lost wages is roughly $78 billion a year. This expenditure could be cut drastically by increased extended nursing rates.

For the national Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), supporting a breastfeeding mother costs about 45 percent less than a formula-feeding mother. Every year, $578 million in federal funds buys formula for babies who could be breastfeeding.

A year of purchasing formula can cost a family between $700 and more than $3,000. Many women who go back to work soon after giving birth might think the expense of formula is worth the convenience. The extra medical issues of formula, for mother and child, make the cost more than monetary.

For employers, formula-feeding results in more health claims, more days off for sick children, and decreased productivity. It benefits employers in the long run to provide a time and place for mothers to pump breastmilk. A few minutes off the clock is more than made up for by the lifetime of health enjoyed by nursing babies and mommies.

So, let’s review: Breastfeeding is good for babies, good for moms, good for family finances, AND good for national finances. And, judging from my rapidly-shrinking pant size, it’s MILF-tastic. ;) What’s not to love?

Encourage the expecting moms you know to breastfeed, y’all.

Source for the info in this post: Nursing By The Numbers

She begrudgingly sat through one of my obnoxious photo shoots earlier (wow, I’m such a mom now) so I could show off her and her new acquisition.

Yep, today was her first trip to Cabela’s. (Believe it or not, it was mine too!) She slept through the whole thing, but scored her very first rifle (a Davey Crickett model 221, single-shot .22LR), a box of ammo, and a Cabela’s hat. The hat was courtesy of an associate who was totally stoked about her getting her first rifle, and told us to put the hat away for her with a little note saying it was from Sharon and telling about her first trip to the store.

She’s actually had the Carhartt for a little while – that was a gift from The Sister. It ought to fit her right around the same time the rifle does.

Which, as illustrated by this next picture, might be just a little while yet.

As an aside, I’d like to compliment the staff at the Cabela’s in Post Falls, Idaho. Everyone we interacted with was very friendly (that place is like Disneyland, except with lots of taxidermy instead of cartoon characters) and helpful. We even yacked with some of them about black rifles, and they didn’t run us out of the place or anything! *wink*

Boy stops pit bull attack with jujitsu choke hold

A 9-year-old Bakersfield boy is being called a hero after he saved a girl and her dog from a pit bull attack.

Drew Heredia said he and a friend were walking a small dog Dec. 30 when a pit bull jumped on the dog. The unidentified 12-year-old girl reportedly tried to save her dog, prompting the pit bull to turn on her.

Heredia said he jumped on the pit bull and applied a choke hold that he learned while taking classes at a Brazilian jujitsu studio in southwest Bakersfield.

“It was kind of a heart-pounding moment,” Heredia said. “It was very scary.”

He said he held the dog for 20 minutes until an animal control officer arrived.

“At first, I wanted to kick it, but then I thought it’s not a good idea, because it could get my leg,” Heredia said.

The girl was taken to Mercy Southwest Hospital where she was treated for puncture wounds.

The pit bull was quarantined at the animal control office, where it will be euthanized after 10 days. No one has claimed the dog.

The girl’s dog was injured, but it’s expected to survive. The dog ran away during the attack but returned home Friday afternoon.

Wow. Drew is way more of a man than many much older males I’ve encountered. He sounds like a smart cookie with some major huevos, and good instincts too. I propose Dana White go ahead and write up Drew’s six-figure UFC contract now, to go into effect upon his 18th birthday. :)

(P.S. No offspring for me yet, in case that wasn’t obvious.)

I mean, as long as you can afford $20,000 – $30,000 in annual tuition, he does.

Man, I’m sure glad we didn’t get evil old John “Seven Houses” McCain as POTUS. Really dodged a bullet there. It’ll be great to have One Of Us Folks in the White House!

Now, I’m off to look under the couch cushions for some quarters… I have about $390,000 to come up with so I can send my kid through K-12.

What do you think is the best way to deal with kids and guns in the same house?

We’ve been an adults-only household (both residents and visitors, 99% of the time) for as long as we’ve been a gun-owning household, so adjustments will have to be made. I cannot get behind the lock-’em-all-up mentality, as I think it’s just as irresponsible to deny the adults of the household speedy access to our means of self-defense as it is to leave the children of the household easy access to tools they do not properly understand. And I likewise think it is irresponsible (and against our ideology, anyway) to make guns a forbidden fruit, so I believe in exposing children to them while constantly reinforcing safety.

So, here’s where I’m at (with full recognition this may have to vary to respond to the particular personalities and maturity levels of our kids) -

Guns in the household must be in one of three states:
- Loaded and secured on our persons; i.e. holstered pistols
- Loaded (condition three?) and behind a locked door; i.e. home-defense shotgun secured in locked bedroom
- Unloaded and stored separately from ammo, both out-of-reach of kids (or locked up); i.e. extraneous guns and ammo high on a closet shelf, in a safe, etc.

Firearm theory will be approached as follows:
- Four safety rules drilled into kid’s brain… from birth ;)
- Eddie Eagle approach: STOP! Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult. …BUT…
- Guns aren’t bad. While there should always be adult supervision, all they have to do is ask and we will allow them to examine/handle firearms. (Hat-tip to an Arfcom dad for that one, who said it worked very well with his kids.)
- Proper adherence to the rules and demonstrated respect for firearms will earn the first BB gun… Responsible use of the BB gun will lead to the .22LR… and so forth.

Again, I recognize that this may totally vary from kid to kid. If we have a lock-picking monkey-child, we may have to rethink it. I don’t have arbitrary age limits in mind, either, so earning responsibility is going to be a big deal.

Here’s one I’m kind of hung up on, though: How do we approach toy guns? Philosophically, I’m not opposed to gunplay (a la cops and robbers) and I recognize kids will make a stick into a gun. I’m most concerned about mixed signals – don’t point a gun at anything you don’t intend to destroy… unless it’s pretend? Stop, don’t touch, etc…. unless it’s a toy? Do you disallow play with lookalike toy guns completely? Do you tell the kid they have to treat every gun like it’s real until they get an adult’s confirmation it’s a toy? How do you drill home that the cap gun that goes “SNAP!” is okay to “shoot” at their friend but the BB gun that goes “psst” isn’t okay to shoot at anything they don’t want to destroy?

Yeah, yeah, I realize I haven’t even birthed the kid yet, but I tend to plan (way) ahead. Plus, it’s a big deal to us to be good ambassadors for firearms – as always – so I’d like to have a gameplan in place that we can relay to others… both gun-owners and not.