So long for now CDs

Well it seems our little guy is getting bigger once again.  He's potty trained (both day and night).  This milestone comes with a little break in my chores-- no more Cloth Diaper laundry! Not that I minded it, but hey one or two less loads a week is nice.  Truthfully, I'd hoped I wouldn't have to pack them up for a long time because in my perfect world we'd be welcoming another baby into our home right about the time Josh was done with diapers.  Unfortunately, the path to baby #2 is proving to be a bit more difficult than expected.

But onto the real story here.  We attempted potty training over Christmas break, but Josh just was not ready.  He could hold it a long time but then he would release the flood.  At that point he was not using more than a few words together, so in my humble opinion communication was the biggest obstacle then.

So we thought we'd try again at spring break.  Then I got sick and Josh followed suit, so I just figured we'd save it for summer.  Then one fateful day, (the Thursday before Good Friday) at Target, Josh found the Gup X.  My husband was with me and it was way too expensive.  Then the words came out of my husband's mouth.  "You can have it if you go on the potty."  Ok--we had not discussed that one.  So I got down on eye level with Josh and clarified.  He could have the Gup X  if he gave up his diapers.  Boy, did we sucker him into that deal!

We got home and he immediately wanted to take the Gup-X out of the package.  I stuck to my guns and told him we had to put away his diapers first.  So he did it.  He took them all out of his diaper drawer and put them a bag that we put away in the closet.  We did keep out his Overnight diapers, but really we did not need to because he hadn't been wetting overnight for months, it's just that first go of the morning that got him.

If my son were a puppy up for adoption, you would see the phase "Reward Motivated" on his info sheet.  We started with a sticker chart for pee pee.  Once he got to 5 stickers he got a prize.  Poop was a bit more messy.  After a few accidents and grandma buying some pull ups (we used regular undies and gerber trainers), it was time for another incentive.  We made another star chart for poop.  We have now been a week without a #2 accident, and only one mess the previous week.  Tomorrow I will take him out to get his Bumble Bee Transformer.

We've cleared out two drawers in his dresser, eliminated 2 loads of laundry, and my son is potty trained before age three.  I'm a little sad to say goodbye for now to his cute little BG's and Charlie Bananas, but now we have Thomas the Train underpants.  Oh and a forewarning to other moms, the Thomas underpants do not include Emily.  Josh pointed that out and was quite upset after checking each pair to see if Emily was on them.

Laundry Closet Update

So I finally got my indoor retractable clothes line installed (we received it about a month before but life got in the way).  It was an impulse buy when I saw a friend had pinned it.

It was easy to install, however because the cheapie drywall anchors that came with it didn't seem to work and to my husband's dismay the directions did not say what size drill bit to use, we replaced them with these which just happened to be sitting on my washer from another project.

The hubbie was a little frustrated and uttered what my be my favorite quote of all time.  "Did you find this on Pinterest?  Don't go on there anymore!" 

But in the end, it was installed.  It's everything I imagined (once you get the hang of holding the plastic piece so all the lines get an even amount of tension when you pull it out for use).  Seriously though, it holds all my cloth diaper laundry and I no longer have to take up space in my son's room with a drying rack :)

Retracted

Ready to use

Holding about 20 cloth diapers.

Cloth Diapering

If you're like most people you may think I'm crazy for using cloth diapers on my son, and I understand where that comes from, but cloth diapers are not all pins and plastic pants anymore.

The most common objections I've heard are:

• Isn't it more work?--to which I say, a load or two of laundry per week is better than running to the store for diapers, and really that one or two loads is nothing
• EWW, you'll get poop in your washer.  Hate to break it to you, but having a baby means that at some point there's gonna be poo in your washer.  Take a moment and think of what's in dirt.  Also a good washer will not leave and poo.  Furthermore, as long as the baby is exclusively breast-fed (I believe its true for formula as well, but I don't have any experience) their poop actually completely dissolves in water. 
• Isn't it hard to pin it?  I would assume so--my diapers don't have pins, they have velcro or snaps and they're not any harder to use that a disposable. 

WHY?????

Here are my simplest answers.  For more info, see the websites linked below. 

1. It saves money. Even if you buy the cheapest diapers out there, you're still going to spend about $1000 a year on diapers alone.  It costs around $300 for a decent cloth system.  Now I'll be honest, I've spent about $200 more than that because I wanted some extra diapers.  I've still saved $500 at least this year.  When the next child comes around, it will be even more savings!!
2. It's good for J's sensitive skin.  There's a lot of chemical and potential irritants in disposables.  Children have even had chemical burns from diapers.  We decided to cloth diaper before my son was born.  I am so glad we did because he ended up with eczema. 
3. It's environmentally friendly.  Yeah, I hugs trees.  We need to be good stewards of our beautiful planet.

 

Diapers we LOVE



BumGenius 4.0 pocket diaper

Based on the experience of a friend of mine, we bought all BumGenius Diapers before J was even born.  We bought most of them from cottonbabies because they run a buy five get one free sale and always have fast free shipping.  We chose the 4.0 pocket diaper as our go to diaper. 

The BG newborn All in One diaper was great for those early days and fit J for 4 months. 

Just in the last two months, Josh has been sleeping longer and we experienced a little irritation from wetness.  Luckily Kelly's Closet sent us a free Kawaii Goodnight Heavy Wetter as a gift with one of our orders.  They have super amazing soft fleece inside and work wonders for our boy's skin.  We promptly ordered 4 more (so we always have one clean for his last diaper). 

 

Diapers we LIKE

Although they weren't our go to diaper, Fuzzibuns work great.  I loved their newborn size because they were SO SOFT, however, their velcro was not the best and tended to stick to other diapers in the laundry.  We also used the size small pocket diapers.  They were good but not as trim as the BumGenius.  My husband would never use them because they only had snaps and he will only use velcro.  We had one of the Fuzzibuns Elite.  The adjustable legs and waist are nice, but not necessary (BGs don't have that).  It was also a lot fluffier than a BG so we tended to use them at night if we used it at all. 

Kawaii One Size diapers were good.  The fit is very similar to BGs and the price is significantly less.  Of course the quality is not quite as high, but I do believe they will last.  It was one of our freebies with another order.

Diapers that DIDN'T WORK FOR US

KangaCare Lil'Joeys and GroVia newborns both leaked like crazy.  Josh had very skinny legs, I had it on the tightest setting but they still just didn't work for him.  The Lil Joeys were the worst, so I actually sold them (another advantage of cloth diapering is they have a good resale value).  I save the GroVias in case our next child is chunkier.  These were my faves before Josh was born because of the adorable prints :(

GroVia One Size All in One Cloth Diaper.  I know some people who love these, but they just don't work for our J.  Leaking is not the issues, so on that note they do their job.  However, we've found we really need that barrier between J's skin and the moisture or he rashs out.  Everytime we'd try them he'd end up with a red hiney.  Also they only come in snaps so they are not husband friendly.  I don't really care for the location of the straps either. 

AND THE ALL IMPORTANT ACCESSORIES

I can't believe it took me this long to discover Coconut Oil.  Besides smelling delicious, it's super moisturizing for the skin.  I put it on Josh whenever he's a little red and always with his last diaper.  Before this discover, we were aquaphor addicts.

In the last few months since Josh has been sleeping between 10 and 12 hours at night, his very sensitive skin had some issues with the moisture levels, so we purchased a few different types of hemp lines for our pocket diapers.  Hemps holds something like 8 times its weight in liquid.  We stuff his diaper with a micro-terry liner (this is what comes with BGs) closest to the skin to quickly pull away the moisture, then a hemp liner underneath to keep the wetness far away from his skin.  The ones we like best are BabyKicks Hemparoo Joey Bunz. 

 

You'll also need a diaper pail, a cheap trashcan with a lid will suffice.  You want one that will let air in to reduce any smells.  We use a Planet Wise pail liner inside the diaper pail and we also have a small wet bag to take with us if we're out and need to change him. 

 

In addition, a good detergent is key.  We use Rockin Green Barenaked Babies in our HE-Machine.  One bag is 90 loads.  In 15 months we've gone through 1.5 bags, but I started using it on other laundry as well this summer.  It softens the water which helps it clean more efficiently and the laundry comes out softer. 

 

BioKleen Bac out is also a great product.  It can be sprayed on soiled diapers to treat them before they are washed.  Be conservative in using this, a little goes a long way and if not completely rinsed out of laundry, it can be irritating to the skin (if you're hypersensitive like our little guy). 

 

When baby gets older and begins eating solids, it's helpful to have a diaper sprayer.  We had a really tough time finding something that worked for us.  We tried to build our own using internet directions--turns out the directions were no good and it leaked like crazy.  We tried ordering a hose that attaches to the plumbing specificly designed and marketed as a cloth diaper sprayer.  Again we had leaking problems.  In the mean time I purchased a dirt cheap utility sprayer from Walmart that simply attacher to a sink (this works for us because we have a sink that is one foot away from the toilet).  It worked until the parts broke.  Finally we tried this and it's great for us, Sink Rinser. 
 

FOR FURTHER READING

http://www.kellyscloset.com/Cloth-Diaper-Information_ep_34-1.html#newtocloth
http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/basics.htm
http://awesomeclothdiapers.blogspot.com/p/getting-started.html