Cloth Diaper Report- 1

Once a month I plan on taking an evaluation of our current cloth diapering needs & issues.

Month One

How many diapers a day used? 4-6

How many wipes? 2 per change

Cloth Diapers used? Softbums AI2 Echo & Omni OS Aplix, Grovia AI2 OS Aplix, My homemade nb size diapers aplix

What brand/ style fit best? Softbums/ AI2 ECHO, the omni is just a bit big, my homemade nb sized diapers only fit him up till week 3, but fit great till then.

Were you able to reuse your AI2 shells during the same day? If so how many times? Yes 1-2 times on average

What fit problems did you have? figuring out the right leg elastic length, so its tight enough to contain the pee and not to tight that it leaves red marks on his legs.

What was the print/ color you grabbed the most? Nuclear Orange Softbum Echo, then Blueberry echo

What type of insert/ soakers worked the best? WAHM "FluffyRumps" prefits for the first 3 weeks, then Softbums Bamboo mini pods, at 4 weeks 2 bamboo mini pods works

The worst? Greenline nb size bamboo soaker, was just too wet feeling and soaked within 2 hours.

Did you have any blowouts? One time wearing a Grovia AI2 OS, I think they were just too big for him at 4 weeks. Came out the leg opening. We also had some pee up the top of the SB shells before we got the fit down.

What was your washing schedule like? hour cold soak, then reg wash 2x rinse, sun dry the stained shells and soakers, machine dry the rest. every other day. (update: dont soak anymore it breaks down the material much faster, now just do a extra rinse)

Love it or hate it? Love how soft the cloth diapers are against his little bum, Hate how his EBF poo stains so easily, Love how awsome the sun naturally bleaches the stains out!!

Things you learned? Make sure the soakers are stuffed in the shell around the legs otherwise the pee will leak out onto clothes, Make sure to keep 3 diapers in the diaper bag without a doubt he will poop more when we are out then at home. Always put him in your second favorite diaper first, bc guarentee he will poop in the first one within 5 mins of the diaper change. LOL

Some fit pictures:

1 Week old  8lbs

2 weeks old 9lbs

NB sized diaper, 3 weeks old

4 weeks old 11lbs

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Ways to be Green

The last couple years I have been becoming more and more "green". Why you might ask? Well my reasons are simple.

1. To save money.
2. To save time.
3. To help the enviroment.

You can save yourself alot of money by investing in reusable products. Things such as cloth diapers, unpaper towels, reusable water bottles, reusable snack bags and shopping bags. These products are made to be reused so they are crafted out of quality materials therefore are more money initially but in the long run will save you money.
You will also save money by using them. For instance at some grocery stores you will get a discount if you tell them at the checkout you are using your own shopping bags. By using reusable unpaper towels you will never run out (save time) or need to buy more towels for cleaning. Instead of wasting a ton of ziplock bags for snacks, buying a few reusable snack bags you can wash and reuse you wont run out, or have to buy anymore.
By reusing all of the following you will save the enviroment from wasted resources.

Here is a bunch of ways you can be green too:

Reusable Products:
Foldable water bottle:
http://vapur.us/
Reusable filtering bottle:
http://www.waterbobble.com/
Reusable grocery bags:
http://www.envirosax.com/
Unpaper towels:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/95598071/reusable-eco-friendly-snapping-paper?ref=v1_other_1
Reusable snack bags
http://www.etsy.com/listing/75937170/lemon-drop-mamamade-eco-friendly
Reusable Cloth Diapers:
www.softbums.com

Pinterest ways to be green:
Toilet Paper Roll Art
Reuse creamer containers for snack containers
Use old hanger clips for snack bag clips
Reuse salt pour top on a canning jar.
Rain water pour off into a garbage can, reuse water for watering plants/ yard.
Reuse plastic bags for trash bags
Reuse toliet paper rolls for seed germination
Reuse old laundry jugs to store nails & screws in the garage
Make a reusable swiffer duster with fleece fabric
Reuse wine corks to make art in your house
Reuse milk jugs to use as watering can.

I hope I have inspired you to make one step in becoming a "green" person. I think it cant hurt if everyone is more green in some way.

I'd like to hear how others try to be green. Post below if you want to share.

Thanks!

Preparing for a Newborn- adventures in cloth diaper making

Please let me note, this blog isn't going to be all about cloth diapers and babies.. That said it is a huge part of my life right now, and honestly probably due to the fact that I am all pumped up with hormones ready to have a baby, its all I really think about lately.. Trust me, I will write about other things soon enough! In fact I am drafting a blog post this week on Renewable Energy with an interview with the site manager of a local wind project.. LOL aka my hubs!

Anyways now onto what I have been up to.. It's been a short 9 months, they aren't kidding when they say the second one around goes two times as fast!
As you might have guessed we have been making alot of preparations for the new little guy. Cleaning all the baby clothes, rebuilding all the baby furniture, buying new stuff we didn't have the dough for from the first babe, and of course cleaning the house like a crazy person.. (ok that's just me and by now you would think I would see it is pointless) Silly hormones.

Another adventure I embarked on recently was, I decided the 12 onesize cloth diapers I already have wasnt enough, and that I needed to make this baby some newborn cloth diapers for him to wear in the month or so before he fits in the onesize diapers. You see onesize diapers are great and all but if you have a baby under 8lbs the onesize diapers can be too bulky. Not to mention I seriously love my cloth diaper stash and until the umbilical cord and circumscion is healed I dont really want to risk getting them ruined with vasoline. If you have no clue what I am talk about here, might just want to give up with this post now, I am up late writing this and I am too tired to go into further details.. Might want to refer to my blog post about why I use cloth diapers.

So on to the making of these newborn cloth diapers!!

I had been searching for a pattern forever that included aplix closure, **double leg gussets**, onesize or sized option and a pul outer, microfleece inner pocket design. Well I finally found it! Huge thanks to Krista at Rocket Bottoms!! She made the perfect pattern I had been searching for.. After reading over the pattern I wrote down the list of supplies I would need, and started researching.
Not going to lie, it took me a week and a half or so to track down all the materials I really needed to start this project. Sure I could have drivin to JoAnns and bought the materials all there but for one that is 45 min drive and with boo boo a huge headache! (men and craft stores just dont get along no matter what age they are) So I went with the online option hoping to get some better quality diaper supplies.

Heres what I found:
Loop fabric- ComfyCreations:.$0.55/yd 2"
Natures Fabrics $9/yd 6"
CDMF- (Cuddle Dry Microfleece) ComfyCreations, Sewit, KITG YG- yahoo groups
Diaper Sewing supplies- 6.29/yd

PUL Prints- RocketDiaper Ebay, Diaper Sewing supplies, Kids in the Garden, Wazoodle
Mint Zoo- 12.50/yd
Retro Owls
Grey Ice Giraffe

Notions: Diaper Sewing Supplies, Wazoodle
Elastic- .38/yd
hook tab-.78/yd

6 diapers from 1.5 yards
=$8/ diaper

After a week I got all my materials from 3 different people. I cut out my pattern and started on my sample diaper, that I was making with spare materials I already had on hand.

The pattern and instructions were very easy to follow for a novice sewer like myself. I did have to log on to her blog to see the video of her doing the welt pocket opening to figure that out but it was pretty simple once I saw her do it. The inner leg gussets could use a video instructional if you ask me but I figured it out and mine turned out fine.. It's just a little not clear about where to pin down in the right places..
The first one I thought didn't turn out half bad, and I didn't pull my hair out trying to figure it out so I considered that a good sign to proceed with making the rest. LOL

Once I got all my materials I was super pumped to start!! I cut out the PUL and CDMF for three newborn sized cloth diapers all at once.

At 34 weeks it was a hustle to maneuver the floor to cut those bad boys out (what was I thinking starting this now?) LOL

Next day I started on the first one, sewing the inner top & bottom, & welt pocket, then pinning to outer and sewing all around, adding back and leg elastic and then turn & topstitching. I found it is really hard to stop sewing one diaper once I got going and I planned to make one each day while Boo Boo was at preschool. That gives me 3 hours. I was so happy when I finished this one because it turned out a heck of alot better looking than the sample diaper I had made..
The next 2 diapers went smoothly and I am very satisfied with them, just hope they fit good, and we can get some used out of them. I will do a followup post on my review of the fit and sizing on the new baby, with pictures of course!

Why Cloth Diapers?

How I got into using Cloth Diapers..

When I was pregnant with Boo Boo, I never once thought about using cloth diapers, that was 3 years ago and I thought people who used cloth diapers were still doing the whole, prefolds, diaper cover and rubber pants thing. Like what our mothers & grandmothers had to do.

Well in August of 2010 I was at a playdate with some of my local Moms Like Me friends and their babies and two of them had their kids in "modern cloth diapers" and they of course were showing them off to all of us! I cant remember for sure what kind they were wearing but I was so impressed by how cute they were! But I still wasnt sold on the idea of cleaning them myself. I again thought of dunking diapers in the toilet and that grossed me out! Even though at this point I was a pro at cleaning poo from clothes and bedding (Boo Boo was a blowout baby from the beginning) So why would cleaning it from diapers be any different?

Well I continued to follow my friends on their cloth diapering expirence and kept the idea on the back burner.. In October of 2010 after Boo Boo had a horrible rash for a couple days that butt cream just wasnt getting rid of, I needed to do something quick, everytime I put a disposable on him he screamed! I had heard a new diaper store that just opened in my town and I thought I would just go and browse and see what they had available. I think I did ask my cloth diapering moms what they suggested beforehand and kept that in mind. When I got to the store I was a little overwhelmed, I had no idea there were that many kinds and styles of cloth diapers! (prefold & covers, all in ones, all in twos, pocket diapers, fitteds, one size, hybrids) I knew I wasnt interested in prefolds and covers, although they have come along way from the kind our parents used. The whole system seemed too much for me, I wanted something as easy to put on as a disposable. I was instantly attracted to SoftBums for that reason. I had no idea the shell could be used multiple times a day if just wet, I just knew I liked how it fit on the teddy bear they had available to try out diapers, haha. I bought one shell and 2 pods and one super pod. I thought it was alot of money up front but I was desperate for something this soft against my babies butt and All Things Diapers did have a return policy if the diaper didnt work out for us I could bring it back for something else.. I fell in love with the system and cloth diapering for that matter once I realized it wasn't any more work than disposables, and the extra laundry I didnt mind doing for him to wear such cute comfy diapers! Oh and his rash went away within the next day!

So why use cloth diapers vs disposables?

• For us we like the idea that they are a good investment. If you know my hubs than you will understand that one, he is a money man. If you take care of your cloth diapers and treat them well when you are done using them you can sell them. Thats right, and if your lucky and they are in really good shape you can get up to 40% of what you spent on them back! If your really lucky and the print is now retired and hard to find, people will buy them for the same price as new. Although if you dont take care of them and you dont use them enough to get your monies worth out of them, and you can find anyone to buy them.. then you lose. But when you buy a disposable and use it once you lose as well.

Lets look at logistics: a disposable diaper will cost you $.18-.43cents each, depending on sales and what size you are buying, (average is .22cents) times that by how many you use a day (4-8 average) times that by 365, thats $482 a year you just put on your kid, he pooped on and then you threw in the garbage. Now most kids wear diapers for 3 years, so thats $1,445 total spent on disposable diapers from birth to potty, thats not including disposable wipes! Now lets look at cloth diapers, average cost for one diaper is $18 a diaper + $5 for soakers, you would need about 6-8 to cloth diaper full time washing everyday, 12 if washing every other day & 24 soakers. So we wash every other so thats $336 for the 12 diapers & 24 soakers, add $20 for wet bags, $30 for cloth wipes, and $13 for detergent every 6 mos. Thats $444 for diapers from birth to potty. It would be less if you bought all your diapers used, but if your going to be using them for 3 years you might want to invest in them new so that they are in better condition when you are done with them. So you have a better shot at selling them. You could expect a return of $250 from your diaper stash. Guess what else is super nice about cloth diapers? You can use them on multiple kids, so that makes your money go even further!!

• Some people like the enviromental factor of cloth diapers, and in the business we are in (renewable energy) you would think that would be a big part for us too.. but like many people in this world, if you cant see the waste and harmful effects its hard to care about what you are throwing away. I know that it may take 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose but I dont see dumps piled high with diapers all over the place. If they are burning the waste and that is going into the atmosphere and destroying the earth that way, I can see how that is bad but I never hear news stories or articles about it.. So like I said, I understand and agree its hard to care about it when you cant see the damage that is being done.. Thats not to say I dont care, but it's just not my #1 reason we use cloth diapers, thats all.
• I do however care about chemicals on my babies skin, and if you have ever opened a clean disposable diaper and smell it, it smells like alot of chemicals! If you ever take off a soaked diaper after being worn for a couple hours it has increased in size 3x, have you ever wondered what chemicals can make that possible? and they are being soaked into your babies skin..?? That is kinda scary! I like that cloth diapers you dont have to worry about that, its cotton, just like your clothes. What we are supposed to have on our skin. not paper and chemicals.. right?
• Last reason, a baby a year old and older is for some odd reason very interested in taking off their diaper. It doesnt matter if its clean or dirty, they like to take it off.. Well cloth diapers can come in snaps or velcro closure and that is when the snaps come in handy, they are much more difficult for them to take off and that saves you a morning of having to clean their bed!

That said, I have spent alot of time with trial and error. Not every diaper works for everyone, and some diapers work better for babies at different stages.. I have tried several different brands and kinds of cloth diapers and I still go back to Softbums AI2 diapers. They are the only cloth diaper on the market that is a true one size diaper, with their slide2size (drawstring) leg elastic adjustment system you can customize the size of the diaper each diaper change or as they grow.. from birth to potty training. SoftBums also being an (all in two diaper system) you can just change out the soaker pod if wet and keep the same shell and use it 3 times a day, before washing. Once the new little one is here I will be taking lots of pictures of the way this system works for us.

If you are looking into using cloth diapers or just want some more factual information about them. Here are a few resources I have found useful!!

• SoftBums Reusable Diaper Booklet
• Real Diaper Association- Cloth Diaper Facts
• Cloth Diaper Calculator
• Cloth Diapering Info- Articles by Padded Tush Stats
• Video from Kelly Wels Author of "Changing Diapers"
• Intro to Cloth Diapering by Tara at Padded Tush Stats