Snappi's

A little shout out to our amazing virtual friends at diaperkind, who continue to not only shower us with lots of tips and words of encouragement that we're just about at the "sweet spot" for cloth diapers (just a few more ounces to gain - hopefully in the thighs...the baby's thighs...), but for also donating some used Snappi's. Okay - watch out world - we're going to do this! Thank you Liz and Sarah!

Diapers...

Well, the Everything Borrowed Baby is now 2.5 weeks old and our little experiment is really going well. The baby has more than enough clothes (he even has a pair of swim trunks - NB size!), blankets, hats, carriers. He has an awesome "travel system" and an adorable bassinet. Yeah, friends and family and even some "strangers" from the internet!

All that said, we haven't quite figured out the diaper thing...

We opted to use (diaperkind) diaper service and THEY have been incredible - amazing owners, great service, beautiful products. WE, on the other hand, have been...well, a little lazy/intimidated.

Week 1 we couldn't figure out how to fold the diapers such that they lay below the umbilical cord stump. Basically, we had ordered for an 8+ pound baby - and had a 7 pound baby - so we mostly just used the prefolds as burping clothes.

We then suspended service for Week 2 as the mohel - also a retired plastic surgeon - told us to use disposable for the first week to keep things extra dry (not something we wanted to mess up on).

And this week - with smaller diapers and a bigger baby - he peed and pooped through diapers and covers and outfits and sheets...numerous times a day and night.

We had opted to try to keep things simple and use the "simple fold" - that doesn't use any diaper fasteners - and we're not doing such a good job.

Today we actually took a little break and put on (chlorine free, Seventh Generation, from a half-full bag "borrowed" from a friend) disposable...but think we need to buy some Snappis asap if we're going to do this.

We'll keep you posted on how we're going to try to get those used...

New pictures - Days 9-17

Here's a picture of the Everything Borrowed Baby chilling/ zoning out on his borrowed aquarium bouncy thingie (thank you Josh, Elissa and Lexy).

And here are a bunch of new pictures we thought you'd enjoy. We've also put up some videos (see below) from the past few weeks (are we already up to "a few weeks"?) - see below or on our Shutterfly account, where we'll try to also post all pictures and videos.

My First Baby Teaser

Looks like the reality tv/internet show that Danny and I (and the baby) are in premieres June 15th on Better TV. Meanwhile - here's a little teaser video with a clip of us on it! Enjoy!

Happy One-Week Old Birthday

Bringing Baby Home - Days 2-7

Here are a few more pictures from week one.

First time out and about in the stroller...

Lest we be accused of not documenting EVERY thing the EVERYthing Borrowed Baby does (ahhh - such a first child!)....

First Sponge Bath

Notice how things start of calm and exciting (like birth) and then spiral out of control and in tears (like birth)

Feeling a sense of community

One of the motivations for trying this experiment was creating a sense of community - possibly a virtual community around this website - but more importantly a real community of friends and family, coming together, and literally providing for our child for a year. It seemed romantic and idealistic and the ultimate continuation of our relationship as a couple.

We met through mutual friends, we had a potluck picnic wedding, we host Friday night dinners at our home almost every week. And, as we met a little later in life, we both know the importance of and have relied on a larger community as an important source of support and love.

All that said, nothing could have prepared us for the gratefulness we have felt to our friends and family over the last week. It's awe-inspiring the love that has come via care packages and visits.

We're not sure if it would have felt the same to get all of these items as gifts vs. loaners/used-items, but we sense that this is different.

In a way this experiment connects us physically to our friends and their babies. In a way it feels like they're lending us - passing on - a piece of their happiness as a family. In a way, by being a bit more of a pain in the neck, our friends and family are going the extra mile and showing they love us and our little guy - despite of or maybe because of - our craziness.

We feel so blessed, humbled and thankful to all of you for welcoming our child into the world with so much love.

THANK YOU to everyone!

Day 4 - Waking up is hard to do

The everything borrowed baby continues to amaze us even though all he really does is sleep, nurse, poop, pee and burp - and then do them all again...and again, and again, and again.

Here's a little video we took this morning.

Day 2 - We didn't borrow this baby

Introducing the Everything Borrowed Baby!

Born 5/10/10 at 11:57pm, 7 pounds 3 ounces, 19.5 inches. Mexico Mother's Day in honor of Michelle's 3 years living in Mexico.

Mommy and Daddy and Baby are happy, healthy and madly in love.

Here are some pictures from his birthing day and here's a little video taken from the hospital, 30 hours old.

My First Baby

Amazingly enough, a few weeks ago we were selected - along with a group of other new parents/families across the country - to be a part of a little reality tv/internet program called "My First Baby," which will be aired weekly starting in June! It's pretty exciting stuff - and we're hoping to be able to talk a lot about our little experiment during the filming. We just submitted our first video to the project - a 30 second intro to us - and thought you might enjoy these outtakes. Stay tuned!