For Amy, and well anyone

My friend is trying to decide what she wants to use and while lamenting on how if we live closer she could just come tryout mine I decided to do a photo tutorial.

You can find that

Here

However I don't use prefolds so I sought advice from other Mama's who linked me

this

and

It's no secret I can get overwhelmed when my husband goes away. My diaper laundry can suffer for this. While I've finally found and over night solution in Goodmama diapers, I've been fighting a smell in my PUL for about 2 months. I finally found a detergent solution that doesn't cause mad rashes in Tide Free. That's right, pretty easy to get because it's Tide and I end up trying it last. I was worried my search was still on with this smell thing but that's where the overwhelmed comes in. I Like to wash my diapers every second day, putting me at about 10 diapers a load. When my husband is away I end up waiting until I OMGHAVETO do the diaper laundry (4-5 days) which really is a big nono. I did a small load today and the smell is gone. I gotta stay on top of this stuff. Especially since I have enough diapers that it's easy to get behind.

Aislyn only wears diapers at night and going out. I'm going to pick up some training pants in January while we visit my parents. I just can't help stopping by Nurtured, I'll be stocking up on biodegradable liners [how did I ever live without these?!] and possibly getting some Allens soap to try.

Speaking of NS, my parents don't have a washer, and my aunt does not have a drier, so being winter I won't be able to use my cloth. Thanks to the awesomest lady on the internet I'm going to use gDiapers. I was really hating the idea of filling their trash with diapers, and having the diaper stink fill the kitchen every time the can is opened. So all I have to buy is the flushable inserts and my wicked awesome beautiful friend will be sending me her medium gpants. I will give a full report.

Onto the Goodmamas! I bought their AI2 and one of the OBV fitteds. GMs are one size diapers and fit is very versatile. My chubby legged skinny bellied two year old fits awesomely in the same diaper that fits my 10% 10 month old. I've also bought two packs of their Cloth Wipes. If you're considering cloth wipes, these are the ones I suggest getting. I am in love with them. I want to make a nest out of them and never leave.

Lets get diaper specific;
The [Hot] One:


I love this diaper, I selected the Good Front as my free extra, though more often or not I use it with the fitted diaper. Both are wonderfully absorbent on their own but I do plan to order a few more Good Fronts [one per diaper]. The is not as good overnight as the Fitted good mama I ordered but as a during the day or nap diaper it's fantastic. I plan to order at least one more of these to replace an out grown diaper.

Botany Bender OBV Fitted:


LOVE this diaper. I was very resistant to spending upwards of 30.00 on diaper. But so many Mama's brag these up. I have another print coming to me and I plan to order two more so that my Kissaluvs are replaced. Even without the Good front this is an awesome overnight diaper. With the good front, on a two bottle [20oz] night, the outer layer of the diaper was dry, I could have put her to bed without a cover, I was flabbergasted! The Skull Candy print is on it's way and I'm on the lookout for Berry Camo.

Action Shots:


Tune in next time for a photo journey through my wash routine and a diaper change.

The Winds of Change.

I'm been changing up my laundry routine, and am currently doing some hard water research. When we first moved in here I noticed that the grocery store [Moncians] sells Calgon, a laundry additive for hard water. To me that's a good indication that I live in a hard water area. But I didn't have any issues with my laundry. My soaped sudsed up fine, and I didn't have stink issues or anything else.

But in the last week that's changed, my diapers don't smell clean when they get out of the wash, though they smell fine out of the drier. I upped my detergent but I'm still playing around a bit to try and get the right amount.

My oldest is potty training now. I'm conflicted about training pants, in a way I don't think I need them but then I think one or two pairs would be handy for when we're out and about. She wears panties most of the day, unless she decides not to tell me she needs to go. I've been accepted into a Bummis training pant beta test but they had a draw back and the diapers won't be out for another month or so. I will update you all on my decision when I make it. Probably by the end of the month..

Setting up

When I started using Cloth I was living with my parents, my husband had just gotten into the Army and was away on base. I had what was for me the perfect set up. I'm hoping to work something up here in the PMQ that's just as handy. Curently I'm using the Linen Closet. I should have pictures of my new set up later tonight when I finish my laundry.











Diapers on the line:

Washing

We started out washing in Sunlight Sensitive, not my best moment but I was using what was available. My routine consists of a hot soak with vinegar or oxyclean, then a hot wash cycle with 1/4 scoop of Nature Clean detergent. If I have a lot of Poop diapers I do an extra rinse cycle. I use a top loading washer.

Shortly after I switched to Nature Clean I noticed a bad rash on Ace. I assumed it was yeast, I treated it as such but to no avail. Finally I figured it out. The starting detergent I'd used contains enzymes that mixed with the ammonia in her pee and gave her chemical burns. On top of that [literally] she got Impetigo.

We stripped, and stripped and stripped. Hot wash cycles, one with blue dawn dish soap, the rest with vinegar or baking soda. Finally I stopped seeing bubbles, the dreaded Sunlight was stripped out. I also line dried, the sun kills bacteria and also helps bleach out stains.

At the same time, L started loosing weight. Our small diapers were starting to leak because of it. I had to double stuff to get a good fit. Poor girl. I bought another perfect size diaper. I should have bought XS but I was optimistic and didn't want to buy diapers she'd grow out of in a month. It took two months to get her gaining again. I still wish I'd bought at least one XS.

She looked so tiny in them:

Bringing it all up to date:

Some of these have been updated from facebook you can see comments and more pictures in the actual album

The day after I bought my diapers it rained, and I couldn't prep them since I didn't have access to a dryer, just the clothes line. So I tried diapers on the girls because, well what else would I do.

L Looked quite happy. I put them on over disposables, without the insert since it seemed to be the same thickness. fuzzi bunz shown


I was worried about Ace taking to cloth, and she resisted at first, thinking they looked much better as a hat. I decided to start out by giving her a choice at every change. About once a day she would choose a cloth diaper, we did this until she had no more sposies to choose from. OS Happy Heiny shown


L started in full cloth a lot sooner then Ace, she was starting to get rashes from the 'sposies and cloth was really helping with that. This is her first full day in cloth:


Once Ace started using cloth without having 'sposies to fall back on she took to them quickly. I love how much nicer they look sticking out of her pants. No more baby butt crack!


L has gained a lot of weight, she still has more to gain but everything fits better now:

An introduction to me.

I started cloth diapering back in April, with 8 diapers between two kids, I've been told by a few Moms that without my recommendations they may not have considered cloth at all. I'm going to start out with some links to sites and blogs that I found helpful. I will also link some stores I recommend that I use personally or know people who do. The following entries will be brought over from my other blogs and journals until I've fully updated. Some post will be informative but mostly this is to keep track of our journey in cloth so not everything will be.

I was 23 when I gave birth to my oldest child; Ace, in 2007. We lived in a less then ideal apartment building with a single washer and dryer on each floor. We'd just gotten our finances in order and discussed cloth diapers. I knew nothing about them. My Mother in Law had used them and so had my own Mother and [not being involved with online parenting communities at the time] they were my only information source.

Remembering the flat pieces of flannel and rubber pants of the 80's both Mom's advised me against it. My Mother asking why with the availability of disposables would I ever put myself through that with a new baby. My Mother in Law telling me that with our current laundry facilities and the cost of diaper services she advised against it. We looked into start-up costs later that year when we rented a house with a washer and dryer, [though uninformed still] 200.00 sounded like a lot of money, I never even thought to consider what we'd be saving.

In 2009 I gave birth to my second daughter, L. I'd become a frequent commenter in a few different online parenting communities and had heard a lot more about cloth diapers. Money wasn't as tight but I was looking to cut costs anywhere I could. I added up the cost of diapers in the first year and we'd spent 1500.00, having at least 3 years of diapering left I made a more detailed look into cloth. I was overwhelmed by the options so I sought out the help of my fellow internet savvy Mom.

I was linked to two blogs straight off the bat. The first was written by a Mom I'd been acquainted with around that particular community: Raving-Libral the other was: Babyslime It was also suggested I join the livejournal Cloth Diaper Community though they are picky since members sell within the community, you need a person to vouch if you're livejournal account is new and unused. Diaper Swappers was also a wonderful resource when making my decision.

So with a 19 month old and a 4 month old I gradually made the switch to cloth. From my research I knew I'd want to stick to pocket diapers. There are a ton of different pocket diapers out there. Plenty of work at home moms [WAHM] make adorable ones, which are slightly more expensive but you get the benefit of knowing this Mom uses the diapers herself. I decided to use more mass produced diapers. I narrowed down my choices to Bum Genius 3.0 one size, Fuzzi Bunz perfect size, and Happy Heinys' diapers. I bought two HH, a FB for each girl, and four of the BGs to start. I wanted to know what fit best and I recommend to everyone that they start out like this with pockets.

BG 3.0 have the best versatility in my opinion. HH worked good on my chubbier toddler but they leaked around the legs on my skinny infant. The perfect size FBs are just that and I do recommend one or two perfect sized diapers per child. When I bought my starter diapers I also picked up 2 waterproof laundry bags for storing dirty diapers. One XL sized bag [I got a drawstring bag but I recommend a zipper closure] and a small bag that holds no more then three diapers, it stays in my diaper bag to store dirty diapers while we're out and about. At that time I didn't buy the liners, I had a EBF infant and a toddler so I didn't feel like I'd need them since I didn't have an issue with shaking poops. Now that we've started solids I have them, I also recommend them if you have a rash that require cream to save the diapers.

I've completed my stash with a total of 25 diapers, I added 4 Kissaluvs fitted diapers with two Bummis covers for my night time diapers. My start up cost, with all brand new diapers was around 500.00, diapers alone were around 400.00, they paid for themselves in 3 months and I'll save 3000-4000.00 I bought most of my diapers from Nurtured April had recently opened a store near where I lived, it was wonderful to deal with her and I recommend it to any Canadian women planning to purchase their diapers new.

The following entries will bring us up to date.