June 2010

Well I have to admit we still aren't doing cloth any more than 50% of the time. I have yet to really teach the hubby how to put one on... I wanted to take it slow with him since he is all for us using cloth as long as he doesn't have to be the one putting them on! lol

I have 13 diapers and it's taking me an average of 3-4 days to get through them all. I have one bumgenius pocket diaper that I am liking more for ease of use rather than the prefolds and covers. It goes on just like a regular diaper, the only downfall; cost I would like to invest in some more pocket, or all in one diapers now that I know we can stick with this for the long haul. It also tends to keep the moisture off of his skin better than the prefolds do. But still we haven't had any diaper rash issues since we started.

I do have a special diaper rash cream in case we ever need it. You can't use most commercial products because they will affect the absorbancy of the diapers so I have an all natural product I think it's called grandma el's? I will have to check on that one, but it smells amazing and is super soft on the skin!

here is a pick of little man sporting his thirsties diaper cover.

Cloth wipes?

I was thinking why get cloth wipes too they seem like extra work when wipes really aren't that expensive anyways and I don't go through a lot having a boy. And one that doesn't have a bm every day or even every 3 days.
But..... you typically wrap the wipe up in the disposable diaper and throw it all away right?
Where do you put it when you have a cloth diaper? I though of having a small trash can on the changing table but thats one more thing sitting out and one more thing i have to remember to empty.
I'm thinking of making my own cloth wipes so save even more money and then they can just go into the wetbag along with the diapers. I have to wash the diapers anyways so why not wash a couple of wipes too!


On another note I looked into a diaper sprayer and they are all around $44.00 if you want an actual "diaper" sprayer. I found a guy on ebay who makes them using a sink sprayer attatched to your clean water supply on the toilet just like the diaper sprayer would. The best part it was only $27.50 plus free shipping!!! Took less than 4 days to get here and less than 30mins to have my hubby hook it up and it works like a charm.
This week we had two major blow outs in one day following a 3 day poop strike ;)
one did get the inside of the diaper cover a bit but no leaks! I am loving these diapers!

My goal this week is to get up a short clothes line to hang the diapers to dry. It shouldn't take too long seeing how hot it is and the sun will help bleach out any stains that might occur. (haven't had any staining yet!) Plus saving on the energy of running the dryer :)

Poo!

So we finally had poo on friday... Haven't been on here in awhile....
The first dirty diaper I had used a biosoft liner which is supposed to "catch" everything so you can just pick it up and flush it. This didn't go so well though. I don't knowif I need to fold the diaper skinnier because it bunches up so bad and the liner bunched up and the poo got everywhere even on the diaper cover. But the gussets on the cover contained the blowout. So we just had to wash the cover this timearound.
The second dirty diaper went a little better still got some on the cover but it's to be expected I'm still learning how to fold and but the diapers on.
The diapers don't seem to bother little man so thats good.
We are dealing with some diaper rash today so we have been using disposables most of the day today. ( You aren't supposed to use diaper creams with the cloth diapers unless you have a special kind whichI don't yet have) Most diaper creams make the diapers less effective. Just like detergents, and fabric softeners can do.
On anoher note cleaning the dirty diaper was not so great. I haven't yet bought the diaper sprayer because it will put me back close to $50 dollars and I wanted to make sure I can stick with this before I spent too much money.
I did find some instructions onlie for making your own diaper sprayer using materials you can find at a lowes or home depot type store for a lot less money.
All in all it's still a good experience with cloth!

Lazy

So I must admit I'm having a lazy day today..... Still no BM we are going on 4 days here and i'm getting worried... I keep thinking he will have a major bm soon so I put a disposable on him this morning and no luck....

I will just have to suck it up and put a cloth on him and deal with the poo! lol

Look at that adorable diaper cover! There's another one in the background (the orange is a bummis super brite, and the one on him is a Thirsties)

Washing my first load of dapers today also.

Had 7 wet diapers yesterday So I washed them since we only started out with 12 I don't want to get too terribly low. (we will purchase more if we decide to keep upwith this long term)

This is how to wash them:

1 cold rinse cycle with no detergent

1 hot cycle with 1 tsp. all natural laundry detergent (I have a front loading machine

1 extra rinse cycle

dry on medium temp.

The diapers should come out smelling like water if they stink you need to wash them again.

My projectyesterday was a wetbag. I purchased one the other day and the more I looked at it I decided I could make my own with the fabric I have left over from his nursery bedding and curtains. It has PUL fabric inside which has a plastic liner. And I added some ribbons so that it could hang from an infant hanger on the closet door.

Well little love is waking from his nap and it's bath time so I should get going!

Happy Diapering!

Day 1 down.

it's 9:30pm on our first day in cloth diapers. And the day went great. I am finding that it's really not that much harder to diaper him than disposables! I have three diaper covers so I just put the prefold diaper into each one so that it's ready to go when I change him. You could just remove the diaper from the cover and add a new one to the same cover but...... I don't risk not having something under him at all times!
All in all it was a great day. I think i'm going to go with disposable for the night just because I'm not sure how absorbant the cloth are right now (they get better the more you wash them) and he is sleeping around 10 hours most nights.
The hubby is coming around to the idea of cloth diapering too! I really am surprised yet appreciate his willingness to try it for me!
Little man hasn't had a bm in 3 days now (the dr. says this is normal for breastfed babies) but I am afraid of the blowout he will have when he does as I don't have a diaper sprayer yet so cleaning the poo could prove problematic!
I was told that exclusively breastfed babies bm's are water soluble so there is no need to rinse the diapers they can go straight to the wash! He does get a few ounces of formula each day though so we have to rinse... bummer.
I plan on purchasing a sprayer(hooks into the clean water supply on your toilet so you can spray the poo straight into the toilet) once we have been on cloth for a few weeks to make sure we can stick with it before I shell out too much more money ;)