It's a small interweb after all

Facebook is amazing. I've been able to reconnect with a lot of old friends, and do you know I have friends from high school who also cloth diaper?

One of them has an Etsy shop, and I just might be interested in these inserts. I bet they would be very trim in my bG's.

Speaking of bG's, I had to change my brand! new! baby! girl! yesterday in the babies' bedroom. Ironically, there were no open packs of disposables in there, so I just snapped down a bG and threw it on her. She slept for almost 4 hours in that, with no leaks. I'm not sure if the handclap of praise goes to bumGenius for creating such a fabulous product, or to me for making such chunky thighs to fill out the diaper.

HELP!

I am having a cloth diapering fit over here. I love my cloth diapers and I don't want to quit using them, but I am not sure what else I can do. Here's the story:

Daniel is still having major problems with his boy bits turning bright red, very painful he screams and cries. This is after wearing one cloth diaper. I have stripped them so much my water bill went up last month. I have changed detergents, multiple times. I even put a bumgenius wipe (the small thin ones) between him and the diaper. Nothing is working. After being in one diaper for about 2 hours he is screaming and crying. His little boy bits will be fire engine red. I pull out a 'sposie and at the next change the redness is completely gone.

Is there anything else I can do? I want to keep using them, I mean I just ordered 3 GroBaby's to try out, but I can't put them on him if this is going to keep happening.

Suggestions? Thanks.

Back in the saddle

Soooo, yeah.

I thought my cloth diaper days had come to an end. Mmmyeah. Notsomuch.

So here I am building a cloth diaper stash for a newborn again and let me tell you, it is WAY more fun than the first time around when I had no idea what I was buying, what would work, and would I even like them.

What I am doing differently this time:

1. More newborn prefolds, fewer fitteds

2. More wool covers because they are oh so soft and wonderful. I loooove wool covers.

3. Fewer "size specific" type diapers (such as fitteds, all-in-ones, etc.) until baby is at least a size medium and that speedy growth slows down a bit.

4. For the size specific diapers, make them myself unless I find a really super good deal on something. I have the pattern, ability, machines, and most of the materials on hand, kinda dumb to buy them new.

5. Stress a lot less about washing method, stains, and all that jazz. It's poop, it stains. So what.

I've revived my Diaper Swappers membership and have started scoping out what's new and cool and the prices of things. Good grief, I can't believe what people will pay PER DIAPER for some brands. It's outrageous. It also reminds me why I liked prefolds so much. And it makes me wish I enjoyed diaper sewing a bit more so that I could cash in on the custom diaper sewing business. Cha-ching.

That's all. More to come, I'm sure.

Since my couch is occupied by a napping husband, I think I'll blog

Today I give thanks for the caveman who invented fire to heat water, and the people who figured out how to get hot running water into people's houses, and Best Buy for selling me a washer a few years ago to circulate that hot running water throughout my diapers.

We finally got that stank out of my inserts. I have adjusted my wash routine to have an extra water only wash cycle for the inserts to hopefully avoid that ever happening again. I take the pocket diapers out and dry them separately on low during that fourth wash cycle, and then dry the inserts on high. Compromise is good, and stink is bad.


Has anyone seen the advertisements for the new Flip diaper system by Cotton Babies, the maker of bumGenius?

Looks like an expensive way of using the old standby cover+prefold=diaper system. I mean, the cover is one size - that's a good thing. But so is the Thirsties Duo Wrap.

The Flip just doesn't look any easier to use than cover+prefold. Except that there's a disposable insert - but isn't that the point of cloth diapering, to not use disposable chemical-filled diapers?

What do you think?

Mrs Lemon's Fables

I figured out what my stink problem was that I Facebooked about.

(and might I add, where I received the sage advice to "wash the diapers separate from other clothes." Thanks. I got that memo awhile ago.)

My wash routine changed when I bought my bumGenius stash back at tax-time. I had been using All Free & Clear for all my laundry, and just using 1/4 of the amount for my diapers. It worked fine, really. But when I bought the bG's, I decided to go ahead and switch to Dawn Original Blue for the diapers. I haven't had a problem with any leaking at all, or any stench.

But last month I bought my groceries at Kroger and they didn't have All Free & Clear. And I was out of laundry detergent. So I bought regular Purex, only I didn't realize it wasn't regular Purex. It was Purex with fabric softener in it.

The science experiment I've created in my washing machine has produced the most horrible ammonia smell in his diapers, along with a nasty blister on his wee little manbits. Also, just yesterday, we found a fresh outbreak of diaper rash, a rash on his neck, and skin peeling off his toes.

I thought it was because I used oxiclean in the load before that, but we've since realized that even after stripping the diapers, we still have the stench. I know I'm pregnant and smells are amplified, but it's not good when you change just a wet diaper and nearly throw up.

The moral of this story is to nevah evah EVAH use fabric softener with your cloth diapers.

I'd love to run out and buy the big 5-gallon bucket of Charlie's Soap for $149.99 to use on all of our household laundry, but until then we're back to the Free & Clear detergent.

Gotta Get my CD Groove Back!

I fell out of the groove. I still love my cloth diapers and wouldn't trade them for anything, but I have to say that while out of town at the beginning of August I used 'sposies and just lost my CD moves!

I got two free, huge packs of 'sposies. Since Hubs is not the greatest fan of the nappies, I took 'sposies on our trip away. I knew he'd be pulling lots of daddy duty, while I was finishing up the wedding stuff with the bride! Once we got back home, I put the 'sposies away and went right back to the cloth. Then Daniel broke out, so I decided to just use them 'sposies for a couple of days. That threw the wash routine all out of whack and then we I got them washed, they sat in the basket for awhile waiting to be stuffed and folded. Sat in the basket, for days. Like I said I lost my groove.

I think it's coming back, slowly though it seems. I guess I just needed a wash, rinse, dry, stuff, repeat break. I have tried out several new diapers that I really like (really loving the snap diapers), but my BG's are still my favorite. I won a Sammy's Cotton Sherpa OS diaper and I LOVE IT! It is so soft and so absorbent, I may have to invest in a couple more.

Well, I think that's all going on in our world of cloth diapers, how are you? I did finally make my own wipe solution and I posted the recipe over here today.

Happy Diapering!

**I actually typed this early in the day and forgot to hit publish. Obviously my blogging skills have also lost their groove.**

Valerie posted a great review about bumwear one size diapers. So CUTE! Except I'm on a cloth diaper purchase diet.

(this looks like a little portion of dessert though!)

She also noted a recipe for cloth wipe solution that I may just have to try out.

Just wanted to throw something up here - funny that we're all cloth diapering pros now and poop and diapers are just part of the daily routine. :)

Carry on ...

Yes, I am nesting

I'm sure glad I kept all my Thirsties AIOs that I quit using about 6 months ago. Just for kicks, I put one on Zesty since we were upstairs after a bath and the diapers were all downstairs. I stuffed it with one of the bumGenius newborn inserts since he was going down for a nap (blessed nap!), and it fit him just fine. I guess he got longer in the torso since the last time I tried them on him. And - no leaks! That tells me that possibly the old washcloths I was using to stuff them were not absorbant enough, hmmm?

This is great though, because that means I have 25 pocket diapers to use between two babies, plus all the prefolds and covers that I'm getting back from my sister next week. I think I'm going to use the money I just saved on having to expand my stash and get a few wet bags - one to use as a pail liner, one for upstairs, and a small one for the diaper bag.

I also loaned out one of my BSWW's in the Andy Pandy print when Z was newborn because I thought it was too girly for his manly bum, I gotta get that back.

Crazy to think that in 12 more weeks I'll be full term and in the "any day now" waiting period. Sometimes I look around at all the chaos that one little boy creates, and I think "DUMB. Dumb choice to have two under 2." But like one mom told me, I'll just push through it, and we'll make it. I hope.