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*

Flats challenge Day 3!

Yesterday went MUCH smoother than the first day. We were gone most of the morning and I planned for a leak, but that padfolded swaddlebees flat held for 2 1/2 hours no problem. In fact, I actually gave them all a better run and she only went through 7+1 gerber as a doubler. Now, I will admit she wore a disposable to bed last night. DH got her out of the bath and put it on her and I wasn't going to go switching it (he gets a little offended when I do that). Kim said we could use our regular night time set up... I did one load of laundry this morning. In the wonder wash, we can do a wash cycle (I rinse them all as they come off of her and put them straight into the washer) and a rinse cycle to get the bubbles out in about 7 minutes. DD1 actually did it all today, she likes turning the handle. Fine with me!!

Yesterday's poop was exactly the same as day #1. I got smart and used a FLUSHABLE liner (woohoo!) so that turd went down the toilet. Awesome. No rinsing required. Although the cover retained some of the poop smell, so I hand washed it in the sink w/ dish soap.

This it the only picture you get today. The 7 flats drying on our back porch. Because of super strict HOA covenants, we aren't allowed to have a line. I'm not sure THIS is even allowed, but I kind of hit it behind the trampoline, so unless someone is super nosey, I doubt anyone will notice.

Flat challenge Day 2!!

So yesterday went perfectly except for the 1 leak with the weehugger cover. Because of that, I've decided to swap it out with another econobum cover.

We did laundry last night at about 5 PM. At that count, there were 10 flats in the wonder wash. This morning, I decided to get caught up again and there were another 7 in rotation. 17 diapers in 24 hours. Granted, she was coverless most of the day and I double diapered her several times but 17 diapers! Wow!! I would suggest to anyone planning to do this full time to have at LEAST 2-3 dozen in rotation.

We had one poop. I have been using home made fleece liners and I will admit I threw that one away. DD's BM was the consistency of warm chunky peanut butter and I did not feel like dunking and swishing it off a liner that cost me $.02.

For night time last night, I double diapered her in 2 tinybirds colorgrown organic flats, an additional colorgrown organic cotton doubler and a HUGE fleece liner under a kissaluvs wool lover diaper cover. She woke up completely...........................dry??? Whaaaa?? Ok, I wasn't expecting that at all. Since the wool cover is not part of my 5 cover rotation, I changed her into a padfolded flat and econobum to take DS to school.

So here's a short video clip of my 5 year old helping wash the diapers in our wonder washer. I'm not sure how much more effective this is than washing them in the sink, but she thinks it's fun. Please excuse the color of my bathtub, I haven't bleached it after a dye project I completed...

Day 1-Flats challenge

DD usually wears a disposable at night. I tried for years with my other 2 to find an adequate solution that didn't smell like a barnyard or a hamster cage in the morning and decided that for this little one, I wasn't going to bother. I have not regretted it at all.

She woke up with a green runny nose this morning, thanks to her older brother, so that makes this even more challenging. Sick baby=extra nursing= wetter diapers.

Well, we changed her out of the last disposable of the week and into our first combo. A pad folded swaddlebees flat inside a FLIP cover. Trim, and the absorbency was where she needed it. She tends to wet a TON in the mornings.













Our second was a pad folded swaddlebees flat in a weehugger cover. This was a fail and I'm not sure why. We've used it before. The only thing I can think of was the onesie she was wearing wicked moisture out her leg because when she woke up from her nap she was SOAKED. Here she is, mid sneeze :( Poor bug.













So we're down 1 cover and needed a change of clothes.

Flat #3 is a "burp cloth" from Ikea, kite folded and the legs are jelly rolled. Trim but not super absorbent. I'll probably have to change her again in about 20 minutes. No cover. I'm letting her air out.












The stash and covers:

I've narrowed it down!

Ok, I've got myself down to 30 flats (some I have to double because DD2 is a heavy wetter) and 5 covers. The covers we'll be using are:
Grovia (for padfolding)
Flip w/ aplix
Thirsties duo size 2 w/ aplix
Econobum *second quality* from cottonbabies.com
Weehugger with snaps *second quality* from swaddlebees.com

I am fortunate enough to have a wonder washer handy (we bought it for our emergency supply stuff) and so I will be using it for the washing instead of a camp style washer. I need to learn how to work it anyway.

Stay tuned for some pictures as we get started!

Oh, and I just realized that we MIGHT be traveling the weekend of the 30th, so this really might end up being quite challenging...we'll see!

Flats and handwashing "challenge"

Kim from http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/ has called for a challenge to Cloth diapering moms. To use only flats and 5 covers for 1 week and *gulp* HANDWASH them.

There are many mothers out there struggling to diaper their babies because of difficult financial situations. They have resorted to drying out disposables and reusing, or keeping their baby in the same diaper until they have a bowel movement. As you can imagine, this practice is not only unsanitary, but also baby for baby! So Kim had an idea. Show moms out there that handwashing a small stash of flats is possible.

Or is it?

I'm still trying to decide which of my 5 covers to use. I also need to get a plunger to set up a camp style wash. I'm good on flats.

Wish me luck! I'll be blogging a lot in the next week!

Need your imput!

Hey out there! I need some ideas! What would you like to see here?

Diaper bag reviews? Cover reviews? How to fold a flat? Suggestions on inexpensive ways to start a stash?

Hit me with ideas! I want to cover what YOU want to know!

Disposable inserts in their non-intended covers...

This past week we took one last trip "home". I had several extras of each of the disposable inserts, and a few huggies natural disposables leftover from previous trips so I decided to use 'em all up before opening up any new packages.

Right now, DD is nearing 13 pounds. She has short, deliciously chubby legs that are prone to red marks. For her, the FLIP covers and Gpants work best. She gets wicked red marks with the grobaby, but they don't seem to bother her and disappear within 2 diaper changes. That said, they are the last I grab.

I took 6 FLIP covers and the disposable inserts, as well as 1 thirsties DUO size 1, 1 grobaby and 1 Gpant.
What works best are FLIP covers w/ Gflushies, FLIP w/ biosoakers (best poop containment) and thirsties w/ Gflushies. The FLIP disposables aren't very good, but I heard they are redesigning them to make them wider. I'm excited to try that out because they are very soft.
Biosoakers are the best disposable insert for poop containment because of the gussets. When DD pooped w/ the gflushies, it always got on the cover. While the inside of the FLIP is wipe-able, the leg casing is not and we had to either hand wash or throw in w/ another load of laundry because poop always got on that leg casing or the back flap. I air dried everything. Overall, it worked out well. The Biosoakers are an awkward fit in the Gpants, they worked well in the thirsties (in fact, all of them work well in the thirsties).

I'll try to get pictures. I'm sorry for the lack of them...3 kids home for the summer and blogging doesn't happen as often as I hoped.

Traveling with CLOTH- what I did and how it worked out :)

When DD was 4 weeks old, we traveled "home" (yes we go home a lot, all of our families are there). DD was about 8 pounds and wasn't quite fitting into our hybrids (she's short and they went up to her armpits) so I took all cloth. My brother and his pregnant wife are interested in cloth, so I took an assortment. I brought:
6 prefolds and 3 covers w/ 2 snappis
18 AIO's (bumgenius, thirsties)
6 OS pockets (Bumgenius 3.0)
4 fitteds w/ 1 wool cover
and a handful of disposables for night time.

Everything worked as well as it does at home. No problems there. There is just the logistics of actually "traveling" that need to be worked out. This is what I did:
DD wore a disposable w/ a cover for the first leg of the trip. This eliminated any 4 day old diapers in the batch when we returned. The oldest would be 3 days. If you have access to washing, this can be skipped, but my parents have well water and I didn't want to chance washing at their place and my in-laws have a front loader and I didn't want to deal with that either.
Pack the diaper bag w/ as many diapers as were needed for the time we'd be out. 1 for every hour is my rule. Pack a large wetbag. We use disposable wipes right now (lansinoh) so I brought a pack of them. When we returned to my mom's house in the evening, I emptied the wetbag into the pail liner I had at her place. (It's a zippered one, NO STINK!!) We were gone for 4 days. I had 1 disposable and 1 pocket leftover at the end of the trip. I found myself trying to decide what diapers would be best when...for example:
If we were going to be at the in-laws for 4 hours, I did prefolds w/ covers.
If we were going to be in the car for more than 15 minutes we did pockets etc. This was confusing to me and I decided that next time I needed to simplify things.

As soon as we walked in the door at our own house, I dumped the very full pail liner into the wash and ran the regular wash routine. They were VERY ripe after 3 days but washed totally clean and had no issues.

I used a vera bradley VERA tote for my diaper bag and it worked fine. I'm still looking for the "perfect" bag for me...

Traveling with hybrids- Gdiaper review

This past weekend we went "home" for 5 1/2 days. Each way in the car was 5 hours. I took nothing but Gdiapers and flushies. My family has a septic, so I didn't flush them, but the entire weekends worth was only enough to fill a small Target bag. (they don't have garbage collection either so I had to keep a bag available to throw away at the gas station on the way out of town).

I took 7 Gpants w/ snap in liners (loaded) and a full bag of flushies. We use disposables at night (she sleeps 7 hours at a time, I'm not messing with it thanks!). We returned with 7 flushies.

I aimed again, to change her every 2 hours. If we went more than 3, she felt slightly damp on the outside. Since it's hot, she wears dresses so it wasn't a clothing issue. We did use them in the car with no problems at all as long as I changed her every 2 hours (which I did since we had to do potty and nursing stops anyway). We had NO leaks at all.

Poo was a little more tricky than with the biosoakers, only because the flushies don't have the built in gussets, but the snap in liners held beautifully and we didn't end up with anything on the actual Gpants. I LOVE the gpants because the legs are super gentle (DD has little pudgy legs). We get very little by way of red marks with these (she has super sensitive skin, so this is wonderful!)

We did get poop on the snap in liners every time she pooped (which again, is only once a day so it's not a huge deal here). SO be aware if you are traveling and you have a breastfed baby that poops a lot...buy a few extra snap in liners. You don't really need more of the GPANTS- just liners. I rinsed them out in the sink then washed them by hand in the shower in the morning using baby shampoo. Easy and worked just fine. They dried SUPER fast.

These were great! Easy to travel with and worked well for us in the car and in the heat. The cotton outer allowed her buns to breathe and she didn't end up with heat rash. We'll use these again for sure!

Traveling with hybrids- Grobaby review!

We took a trip when DD was 6 weeks and took nothing but grobaby shells and biosoakers. At about 9 pounds, they fit her very well on the smallest setting. She's a once-a-day pooper, so I wasn't too worried about running out of shells if poo got on them, and it turns out that the biosoakers are freakin' AWESOME for containing breastfed explosiveness! In the 5 days we were gone (5 hours each way in the car too) we had ONE shell get poop on it, and it was totally MY fault when I changed her, I moved it and the wing fell into the mess. Not the biosoakers fault at all! Something I found when traveling is that you usually don't end up changing quite as often as you do at home. At home I change ASAP, sometimes every 20 minutes if I found she has wet. I shoot for every 2 hours at the most. But out and about, it wasn't always possible to change her ASAP. There were a couple times that she was in a diaper for 4 hours (someone else holding her, her sleep patterns were all off etc.). And once she was in one for 5. I felt SO bad, but she did not leak. The biosoakers hold a lot.

I like this system enough that we use them when out and about (sometimes we can be gone all day). I love not having a large wetbag to deal with. I bring a small one just in case, for the shells. The sticky stuff on the back of the biosoakers is too sticky to use in shells, BUT it works nicely if you want to roll up the diaper and stick it shut.

FWIW, I have also used biosoakers in Thirsties Duos, Gdiaper Gpants, and FLIP covers. All worked VERY well and are trim enough she can wear regular clothing, which is wonderful!

Sorry for the Hiatus! We're back!

My little one arrived 6 weeks ago and I've been taking a LOT of pictures! I hope to get them all organized so I can post. Look for a newborn diaper comparison, and a one-size comparison as well as a hybrid comparison.

We are off to pick up my 6 year old this weekend and we'll be using cloth the whole time. I'll report back how it goes!

Considering traveling with hybrids? Here's a peek at Grobaby!

So we're still waiting on baby girl to make an appearance. Thankfully she's still hanging out at almost 36 weeks. Of course, this makes it hard to do a cloth diapering blog since I have no one to try the diapers on, but I thought of something that might be helpful so here we go!

Are you traveling and considering a hybrid system? I really love the Grobaby biosoakers (I have tried them on my 4 year old). They have some elastic in them that seems like it would keep messes inside a bit better than the Gdiaper insert or FLIP (since both of them are flat).

SO what is there to consider when traveling. I think the #1 consideration is SPACE. Flying? Well, space and weight is going to be an issue, especially if you are flying one of the airlines that charges per bag. If you can order biosoakers and have them shipped directly to where you are traveling, I highly recommend doing so. Bring your shells and it won't take up any space.

If you are driving and space is your only concern (not weight) The biosoakers box is approx the size of a size 3 or 4 package of diapers, yet there are almost twice as many biosoakers than disposables per package. (50 vs. 35)

The shells themselves also take up very very little room. This is a stack of 10 shells.





















And here's one preloaded:

Mom's milk boutique is giving away diapers

When they reach 3000 on facebook!!
www.momsmilkboutique.com

Woohooo!!