Aaaad...we're back!!

DD2 potty trained suddenly at 26 months, even night time diapering came to an abrupt halt. BUT We are expecting #4 in August and are excited that it's another little girl!

I would love ideas for blog posts, especially while we wait for little girl to arrive. Got questions? Need pictures of certain diapers? I have a LOT here to choose from, let me know how I can help!

Adventures in overnight...

Since Z. was born, we've used disposables overnight. It was just not something I could deal with after having 3 kids and trying every overnight "solution" under the sun with my other 2 I decided that I wasn't going to bother with her.

Now that she's 18 months old, the disposables are smelling something foul at night. I'm not sure if it's her urine, or if it's the diapers so we're going to try cloth tonight and see how it goes.


Wish me luck.

Flats and handwashing challenge: what I learned

Sorry I'm late with this post but I haven't been feeling well this week at all. In fact, I've taken it to the ultimate extreme from last week and we've been using Gdiaper flushies in the Flip covers. I just can't deal with more laundry right now.

Anyway...the FAHC was a good experience. It taught me that it IS possible to cloth diaper your baby for less than $100, it IS possible to hand wash, it IS possible to use only 5 covers...that said, I wouldn't WANT to do it full time. If I was in the situation where I had to choose between food and diapers, I'd find whatever I had around the house that would absorb and use that so my family could eat, but I can't say I'd be happy about it.

We didn't have any leaks, except the first day with the onesie over the weehugger that wicked. Even at night, we didn't have any problems. I did have to switch up the covers because DD figured out that velcro is super fun to undo, so I dug out the snapping covers we had.

Kim summed up my feelings in her post at www.dirtydiaperlaundry.com I am grateful for my husband's job that allows me to stay home with by babies. I am grateful for my washer and dryer. I am thankful that I don't have to hand wash.

But I could if I needed to. And that's what the challenge was for. To see if it was possible. And it is.

Day 7...the finish line!

I'll be back tomorrow with my "what I've learned from this experience". Yesterday's total was 9 diapers. I washed them as they came off her, which was actually even easier than the wonder washer. The wind dried everything very quickly.

I'm finishing up tonight. She'll sleep in our bullet proof night time solution of 1 little-lions flat (diaper bag folded) and 1 tiny birds flat padfolded inside it under an UNlanolized kissaluvs wool cover. The cover is thick enough that I have found she doesn't need it to be lanolized at all. Not a leak. Not even any dampness. It's spectacular!

I may do this again, just for the "green" aspect of it. It wasn't bad. There was a few times I wished I could grab a velcro AIO to slap on her, but in actuality, she's taking EVERYTHING with velcro off so quickly, I would have regretted that in an instant.

I am surprised how much I LOVE econobum covers for flats. I love flips too. I had fallen out of love with them, but found the love again :)

More tomorrow, hopefully with pictures too!

Flats challenge Day 6

So I have a very sad baby. I didn't wash last night, so I did it this morning. We had some funk. No sure why, but it took 2 washes (1 in tiny bubbles, 1 in tide then 1 rinse). They are fine now. Not sure which was the culprit.

Yesterday's total was 11 diapers.

Not much else to say LOL!

Flats challenge Day 5

Yesterday's total was 11 flats. I washed last night because I had to take all 3 kids to the doctor this morning. My kids are prone to ear infections/ruptured ear drums and they've all been congested and nasty. Sure enough, sinus and ear infections all around.

Anyway, last night we had a minor snafu, DD2 woke around 2:30 AM hysterical (her ears, I am assuming). I checked inside her wool soaker and she was wet and cold, so I changed her into a disposable. I couldn't get a flat on her in the dark.

We've taken the velcro covers out of rotation. She won't keep them on, and she rips them off faster than I can even get them on her.

Other than that, things are going fine.

Just for fun, here is a short video of my 5 year old origami folding a flat :)

Flats challenge Day 4...

Yesterday, baby girl went through 14+3 gerbers as doublers and 2 fleece topped microfiber doublers. I missed a poo, and that was a bummer. It took some scrubbing to get it off the fleece, but it's clean now. I made the mistake of waiting until this morning to wash. 17+3 doublers and several wipes was just too much for the wonder wash. It was full to the brim. Because of this, I ended up dumping them all out after 2, 2 minute washes and stepping on them in the bathtub to make sure all the detergent was out. Today's wash/wring/hang took 45 minutes, as opposed to about 25 for a smaller load. Needless to say, I may be washing more often if it looks like that might happen again.

First day of summer "vacation" starts today. My kids were up at 7 AM and I was done with the wash before 8. It's supposed to be windy today, so I may have to bring the rack inside, but hopefully by then the diapers will be done dripping.

It took us 3 days to get through our flats "stash" with the addition of the 8 flannel receiving blankets I purchased yesterday. I'll admit, I got bored. Gerber blankets are 5/$10 here so I bought a pack of them and a 3 pack of some other cute ones at Target.

No pictures today, because really...how many pictures of flat diapers do you REALLY want to see? *yawn*