Link meets the Durbins

Lovable Link and Aunt Kate, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

Grandmother and Grandpa Durbin came from Ohio on Sunday evening. Aunt Kate, not having anything planned also came along as an added bonus. They were a joy to have. Jim and Betsy stayed at my parents the first night and Kate with us. They were full of updates and lots of positive supportive about breastfeeding and cloth diapers. The only lack of support (which also revealed itself in my own parents too) is choosing to only have one child. If Bryce and I do decide that Link in all we need we are going to have to cop some sort of physical excuse like "Bryce went in for a colonoscopy and they accidentally gave him a vasectomy." We also got loads of great gifts from them and friends and family who sent them with.
On Monday we went to Treats for lunch followed by a visit to the Buttery and Fennely's for dinner. That morning Trisha Finely took some pictures of Link, but he was really in a bad mood so after a few hours we took what we could get. In the evening we went to Grandma and Grandpa Dallenbach's for the first time with Link. Lots of conversation and some sad goodbyes. Bryce and I were really impressed with Jim's holding techniques which seemed to mesmerize Lincoln.
Betsy brought the photo album of Bryce's year of birth. It was great to see his baby pictures. There are definitely similarities but not exact replicas between the two. Betsy also reminded me that at Bryce's birth, even though it was a home birth, she did go to the hospital right away after he was delivered, which made me feel a little better about my own transfer. I also found out during that time Jean was like a wet nurse to Bryce, which is super cool. I never realized the length Betsy nursed nor thought about the fact that she used cloth diapers and had a diaper service. Man, I am so jealous of diaper services. We are struggling to keep going with cloth, basically because of a lack of supplies. Oddly enough every time we tell people we are using cloth diapers, the next time they visit they usually show up with a bag of disposables. I am not sure what these well meaning people are trying to say but it sounds a little like "give up." I just look at the package trying to transform it into the two nice all in one cloth diapers it could buy or the couple dozen prefolds. We have, however, had tremendous success with the flannel baby wipes and are no longer seeking out packages of throw aways. The flannel is so much better than the disposable in cleaning up. Even if we did go off cloth I don't think I will give up the wipes.