What Goes In Must Come Out

It's just a shame that it doesn't come out a little quicker.  I feel like the only thing that I've wanted to blog about is baby poop lately, but it's surprising how baby poop impacts your life.  My poor baby has taken to going #2 every few days.  So, I spend a lot of time thinking about baby poop...did it happen at the babysitter, when is it coming, is all that grunting healthy, etc. 

She probably loses a pound when she goes, because when it comes out, boy, it comes out.  We've had 3 poop explosions in the past few weeks.  You may have seen the picture in a previous post-that wasn't even the worst of them either.  I'm wondering if the volcano eruption in Iceland inspired her to try to recreate it in Kansas.  I am really thankful that I got the diaper sprayer before all this fun started.  I plan to post a review of our sprayer soon.  However, this will be the basic premise: I can't imagine having to scrape or dunk that stuff, I'd get one if I were you. 


Instead of talking about food on the way out, let's talk about food on the way in.  Here's Baby A's first time in the high chair!  She's getting big so fast, I just can't believe it!

Here's the best part of my night though!  Look what my baby can do!

I am so proud!  I took manual dexterity for granted until I realized that it takes time to learn how to do this.  I've never seen her pick up a puff between her thumb and index finger before tonight.  She could grab several in her hand, but they ended up in her palm.  Then, they got stuck there and she couldn't get them into her mouth.  Maybe she just needed a high chair, because those little puffs made it into her mouth without any help from me!  YAY!!!  I'm such a proud mama!  Way to go!

Nifty Nappy OS Cloth Diaper Review

Basic Information:
This diaper is made by a WAHM in Utah.  They are available in 47 prints and solids!  Some of them are so super cute, you just can't resist them! It comes with an absorbent insert made of hemp and bamboo velour.  Click HERE to go to the Nifty Nappy website. 

How It Works:
It is a one-size diaper with has waist snaps.  There is no rise adjustment.  However, we have never needed one.  We started using this diaper when she was more than 10 lbs, so I do not know how this dipe would work on a small baby.  

You do need to use a diaper cover with it, because it is not waterproof.  The outer layer is cotton knit, the middle layer is organic hemp fleece and the inside layer is microfleece. You can lay the insert inside the diaper for extra absorbency.  

Price:
It is $22.00.  You can purchase from the Nifty Nappy website or from a limited number of retailers.  The first diaper that I purchased was several dollars cheaper because she did not sell diapers through other retailers at that time.  Unfortunately for customers, her prices went up after the diapers became available in retail stores.  However, I'm glad that business is good for her:)  It's nice to see businesses you like prosper.

Our Experience:
This diaper fits Baby A so well and I have to admit that I was surprised.  I was skeptical about the fit since there are no snaps to adjust the rise, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.  It is also the only snap diaper that I've really liked.  You can actually cross the flaps across the waist!

I really love this diaper for nighttime!  I alternate this diaper at night with another diaper since we only have one.  I usually add a second hemp doubler, just to make sure it doesn't leak.  I use it with a pair of wool longies from Nifty Nappy and it's perfect! 

Since it's hard to get them both washed to use every other night, I decided to buy another one yesterday.  So although, I'm sad the price went up, I still bought one.  Luckily, I found it on sale at one of the retailers and found a code for free shipping!  

Features We Love

• The only set of snaps on the waist that I've found to properly overlap!
• Excellent, sturdy construction
• Super Absorbent
• Adorable fabric selection

The Downside:

• Fabric is fading...I guess all the washing is taking its toll:( 
• Too bad the prints get covered up:(

We Vote:

• Go-To Nighttime Dipe
• Mom's Fav

Overall Rating: 10
Pictures in Use:

 

I've Been Officially Grossed Out

This morning was the first time that I've been officially grossed out by baby poop.  Before today, I've been shocked and awed by baby poop, sprayed with poop, and had a lapful of poop, but never exactly grossed out by it.  I guess today was my time though...I opened up a diaper to find it covering every inch of her and the diaper, and it was GROSS and SMELLY.  

I was doubly grossed out because the entire back (cover and snap in insert) were completely covered.  This just happens to be exactly where the snap is located that allows me to unsnap the insert and remove it from the cover.  

It was bound to happen and I think we have turned a corner when it comes to baby poop.  We've started feeding her solids everyday now, instead of just a few times a week.  From here on out, I expect the poop will only get grosser and smellier.  Good thing the diaper sprayer I ordered arrived two days ago! 

Here's to new adventures with baby poop.  I'm going to pour a little out for those easy to clean, not too smelly, breastmilk-only poops. 

P.S. (are these allowed in blog posts?) I'll let you know how the diaper sprayer works as soon as Sean gets it hooked up. 


P.P.S.  This is not a photo of me, just a free stock photo from stock.xchng

Kissaluvs Kissa’s Fitted Diaper Size 0 Review

Kissaluvs Kissa’s Fitted Diaper Size 0 Review

Basic Information:
This link is to the Version 2.0 of this diaper.  This is a fitted diaper (which means that it is not meant to fit all size babies).  It will fit most babies from 5 to 15 lbs.  This is made of cotton and the soaker is incorporated into the diaper, so there is no stuffing required.  However, a diaper cover is required.  It comes in unbleached or 5 colors. 

How it works:
This is a super easy diaper to use! The waist circumference adjusts with snaps. It has elasticized legs. You are able to snap down the waist to accomodate a newborn's umbilicus.  After you snap on baby, put on a cover and you're ready to go!

Price:
$12.95 for unbleached/$13.95 for colors.

Our Experience:
We have used this diaper since the newborn days and I really love it! The experience with this diaper is a great example of how I am becoming a much smarter cloth diaper user! This diaper has far exceeded my expectations, totally making it a great value in my mind.

First, Baby A did not grow out of it in as short a period of time as I expected. In fact, it still fits and she is 22 weeks old! I really only expected it to use it for about 3 months.

Second, you don’t need nearly as many covers as I thought you would using this fitted diaper. I purchased these when I was pregnant and really believed that I’d need covers in about a 1:2 ratio to diapers. No way! (at least not with this diaper, maybe another kind of diaper we have…but that’s another story!) No mess has ever leaked out of legs. That means no leaks all over clothes and no reason for multiple outfit changes, unless your baby is a fashionista.

Finally, if I were pregnant all over again I would buy more of these. We only bought two, because we didn’t want to spend a lot of money on diapers that we couldn’t use for a long time. We opted to buy mainly all-in-one diapers, but on a small baby, those diapers are really bulky. The great thing about these diapers is that they aren’t bulky. We’ve found that bulky bottoms make babies “grow out” of clothes quicker. If I’d had more of these, I could get have gotten more use out of baby clothes. Basically, my point is that these diapers were a much better value than I thought they would be and I wish that I would have purchased more of them.

Features We Love:

• Snap down waist to accommodate umbilicus
• Easy for the babysitter

The Downside:

• Not dry to the touch once it’s wet.
• The entire diaper gets soaked if you leave it on for a long period of time. I would not use this diaper if you will not be able to change a diaper for an extended period of time (like a long car ride).

We Vote:

• Excellent diaper for newborn
• Good price
• Convenient
• Good Value
• Easy to Use
• This diaper will make you fall in love with cloth diapering!

Overall Rating (out of 10): 10

Pictures in Use:  (she was about 13 lbs in this photo)

A SUPER GREAT GIVEAWAY

Hey Everyone!  
I seriously found THE MOST AWESOME giveaway for Thirsties!  It's at Hormonal Inbalances, a blog that I hadn't read before, but thoroughly enjoyed. 

The giveaway is worth about $170!  You get FIVE diapers and TWO packs of Thirsties Fab wipes (which I reviewed and love!).

You should enter!  If you win and don't like the diapers, I will gladly take them off your hands.  If you are my mom or mother-in-law or one of my brother's girlfriends, Adelaide really wants these dipes so you should enter :)

Organic Bum Genius AIO Review

Basic Information:

This diaper is made by Cottonbabies, Inc.  The absorbent pads are made of layered organic cotton. The soakers are sewn right into the diaper, so no stuffing is required. In order to minimize drying time, there are two separate absorbent pads (see picture). The diaper is designed to fit most babies between 7 and 35 lbs.

The diapers that we own have Velcro tabs, but the new version of these diapers have snaps. The waist tabs have two snaps and are made to stretch for a nice fit. It is available in 9 colors.

How it works:

There is no stuffing required, so this diaper is very easy to use.  They have an adjustable rise allowing you to make the diaper larger or smaller based on your child’s size. There are three settings, newborn, infant, and toddler, so you just snap the diaper up to make it smaller or leave it unsnapped for the largest setting.

Price:
I purchased for $24.95.

Our Experience:
I purchased this diaper because I thought it would be super easy for a childcare provider. I really like this diaper because there is no work required, it really is as easy as a disposable diaper.

Although it says that it should fit a 7 lb baby, I’m not sure that it really would fit a baby that small. We found that it was just too bulky when she was really small. I did not start using this diaper until she was about 10.5 lbs. This wasn’t a big problem for us, because I wasn’t counting on using this diaper right away. If you’re planning these diapers as your main system, you may want to consider purchasing a few of another type of diaper while baby is in newborn stage.

Features We Love:

• No stuffing!
• Super Absorbent
• Stretchy Waist Tabs
• Made by a St. Louis Company-I’m originally from St. Louis, so I am glad that I can support a hometown company

The Downside:

• Drying Time- I think that they did everything they could to minimize the dry time, but it is still longer than all of our other diapers.
• Bulkiness-gives small babies a large bottom. My daughter is only 15 weeks old, so this will improved as she grows.
• Price
• The velcro tabs are fraying a little on the edge.  Since we haven't been using them for very long, I'm a little concerned about those. (see the picture).  I think that the new snap waist is likely an improvement on the design.

We Vote:

• Super Absorbent
• Easy to Use
• Convenient for Travel
• Great for Babysitter

Overall Rating (out of 10): 9

PlanetWise Wet/Dry Hanging Bag

PlanetWise Hanging Wet/Dry Bag Review
Basic Information:
This 16.5 inch x 27 inch wetbag has a main pocket for wet/dirty items that is lined with waterproof layer. The front pocket holds clean/unused items safe. There are two handles for hanging or carrying.
How it works:
Hang it on the door and collect your dirty diapers. Toss bag into wash with diapers! Hang to dry.

Price:
I purchased bag for $29.99.
Our Experience:
We love these bags. I originally only purchased one, but we liked it so much that I bought another. We use one to collect diapers while the other is in the laundry. While we use these for diapers now, I could easily see a number of other things where these bags would serve you well, like swim bags or for holding wet laundry, etc.
In my opinion, these are very well made. We have never had any wicking or leaking issues (and we’ve put a lot of diapers in it before). We wash diapers every other day, so these bags get washed about twice a week and the fabric brightness is holding up very well. I usually hang it by only one handle so I was a little worry about straining the stitching too much, but have not had any indications that they are ripping out.  Look at the picture below, I weighed our bag (and it wasn't full yet!).

We have a front loading machine, so putting diapers in the machine isn’t a simple unzip and dump. I usually open the bag, put the top in the machine, then grab the handles and pull backwards turning the bag inside out as I go.
Features We Love:

• Great Construction!
• Large wet pocket- Holds two days worth of diapers!
• Easy to use
• Great for travel- Easy to pack or great to pack stuff in!

The Downside:

• Drying time- You can shorten the drying time by pulling out the lining and letting it hang with the “insides” out.
• Zipper- The zippers are very small and hard to grasp sometimes, especially when you have a dirty diaper in one hand. I plan to tie a ribbon on the zippers to make them easier to grab.

We Vote:

• Easy to Use
• Convenient for Everyday Use
• Convenient for Travel
• Cute Fabrics
• Excellent Quality
• Love it, Love it, Love it

Overall Rating (out of 10): 10
Pictures In Use

Softbums Review

Basic Information:
SoftBums are a one-size diaper system. This is an all-in-two diaper system, which means that they have a waterproof shell and snap-in inserts.  This allows you to reuse the shell after the insert has gotten dirty. The basic inserts are made of layers of micro-terry and one layer of micro-fleece. The outer shell is PUL and the inner part of the shell is micro-fleece. The basic pack includes a bamboo doubler which can also be used as the insert for newborns. It is elasticized across the back and along the thigh areas. It is currently available in 9 colors and 1 print (as of 01/2010). It has hook and tabs to easily adjust around baby’s waist. Before laundering, press the tabs to the inner laundry tabs. Snap waists are now available.

How it works:
They have adjustable leg elastic allowing you to make the diaper larger or smaller (from 2”-14”) based on your child’s size. There are snuggers on the elastic that allows you to adjust the leg area, stored between the outer PUL layer and the inner microfleece layer.

There is one snap on the inner part near the back of the diaper where you snap-in the insert. The insert is very long, so you fold it over when you are putting diaper on baby. When the diaper is wet, you simply unsnap the insert and snap-in a new one. The company recommends having 3 inserts per cover. In our experience, you need to let the cover dry out before using it again, the fleece lining gets damp. For extra absorbency, you can add a hemp doubler-we do this at night.

Price:
The basic pack is $36.95 for a single shell, 3 inserts, and a doubler. Bamboo inserts can be substituted for an additional cost. Packages are available which discounts the price per unit.

Our Experience:
We bought these diapers to be our main diapering system before our daughter was born. We bought the Perfect Fit Good Package which comes with 8 covers, 24 inserts, and 8 doublers. We didn’t start using the diapers until she was about 3 weeks old (about 8.5 lbs). She was 7 lbs at birth and using the regular insert made it just too bulky. I didn’t realize that the doubler could have been used as the insert or we would have started sooner.

We’ve had a few leak problems with these inserts, but I attribute it to our laundry routine. I believe that the main problem was that we used regular detergent and fabric softener to wash our clothes and it may have been “hanging out” after the wash cycle in our front loading machines. Although, this didn’t seem to affect the natural fiber (organic cotton) diapers we have, the Softbum inserts started leaking regularly. In the end, we washed them with Dawn detergent and that has eliminated the leak issues. My hypothesis is that the micro-fleece and micro-terry are more sensitive to detergent or fabric softener residue. We stopped using regular detergents and dryer sheets for our normal laundry and started using cloth diaper-safe detergent for everything. Since making the change, we haven’t had any leak problems.


Features We Love:

• Adjustable leg-easy to get the right leg fit for each baby
• Trim fit for an AIO diaper
• Can use the shell multiple times-reducing the laundry loads
• Micro-fleece layer wicks away moisture and almost always feels dry to touch.  The bottom layer holds moisture away from baby's skin. 
• Inserts dry pretty quickly (in one cycle in our machine)

The Downside:

• All-in-twos may not be a good choice for daycare, babysitters, etc.
• Inserts-because of the leak issues we had, if we had to do it over again, we’d pay the extra money for the organic bamboo inserts. 
• Snuggers-can be difficult to reach between the lining. Sometimes the snuggers move while you’re pulling up the front of the diaper during a change.
• Inserts-sometimes they are a little difficult to fold over for the best positioning.  As our baby gets a little older and moves around more, I see this being problematic. 

We Vote:

• Good price

Overall Rating (out of 10): 8
In-Use Photos

pull up the folded-over insert

 

Pull up the cover and velcro 

pictured on a 13 week-old (~12 lbs)

Disclosure:  I was not compensated for this review.  I purchased this product for use.

******UPDATE 3/1/10********

I feel that I should update my review of Softbums.  We have had some consistent leak issues.  They tend to leak out the legs while she is nursing.  I tried to improve this by making the leg tighter, but it doesn't help.

I think that I have to amend my overall rating to a 7.

We've totally altered our laundering methods since our first leaking problems. We do not use any type of fabric softener in our washing machine and use CD safe laundry detergent for all of our laundry.  I don't believe that this is a result of residue buildup.  

A Note for All My Pregnant Friends

Hello my pregnant friends (geez, there are a lot these days!).  I want to encourage you to check out cloth diapers!  Many of you thought that Sean and I were nuts when I explained that we'd be cloth diapering, but I want to tell you that it really is easy!  We've been doing it for almost three months and we feel so good about our decision! 
I really don't believe that it is any more difficult than using disposable diapers.  Yes, there is more laundry, but the only thing that you have to do is put the diapers in the washing machine...no dunking in the toilet, no soaking in a pail, nothing...just straight from your (dry) diaper pail to the washer!  Yes, it's safe for your washing machine.  Yes, you can put them in the dryer.  Yes, you'll feel good about your decision, because you will save money and help save the planet. 
There are many different types of cloth diapers out there today and some aren't that much different than a disposable.  If you're hesistant to try them, remember that you don't have to do it in an all or nothing manner!  Even if you just get a couple and use them when you're at home, you're still making a difference.  (Although, I'd guess that once you start, you'll love them.)  You might not even have to buy any to try them out either!  I have some buttons on the right-hand side of the screen featuring blogs that often have giveaways and special giveaway events.  Enter to win some dipes!  If you win and it turns out you don't like them, I'll be happy to take them off your hands:)
Plus, trust me, baby butts are much cuter in cloth!

If you have questions about cloth diapering, I'd be happy to talk with you about our experiences and help you find the answers! 

Gro Baby Review

Basic Information:

 Gro Baby is a one-size diaper system made by The Natural Baby Company. This is an all-in-two diaper system, which means that they have a waterproof shell and snap-in inserts which allows you to reuse the shell after the insert has gotten dirty. This diaper is also considered a hybrid because it offers biodegradeable, disposable inserts that can be used instead of the cloth inserts. The inserts are made of certified organic cotton and are elasticized on both sides of the long edge. The system comes with a booster for added absorbancy. The outer shell is PUL and the inner part of the shell is quick dry mesh. It is elasticized across the back and along the thigh areas. It is currently available in 4 colors and 4 prints (as of 01/2010). It has hook and loop (think Velcro) tabs to easily adjust around baby’s waist. Before laundering, press the tabs to the inner laundry tabs. A snap waist is available in one color, but they will convert the hook and loops to snaps on your shells at a cost of $3.50 per shell if you send them to the company.

How it works:

 They have an adjustable rise allowing you to make the diaper larger or smaller based on your child’s size. There are three settings, newborn, infant, and toddler, so you just snap the diaper up to make it smaller or leave it unsnapped for the largest setting.

  

There are two snaps on the inner part of the diaper where you snap-in the insert (front and back). When the diaper is wet, you simply unsnap the insert and snap-in a new one. There are sticky tabs on the disposable insert where the snaps would be.

*Note: this review is of the first run of GroBaby diapers.  From my understanding, they have been slightly revised and now have an additional 2cm of fabric on the front.  I personally think that this would be an improvement, but have no personal experience.

Price:

 With a price point of $24.95 for a single shell, pad, and booster, it's about the middle of the road. I feel that it is a good value. Packages are available which discounts the price per unit.
Features We Love:

 • Tabs-this Velcro is soft and unlike the Velcro we all think of! I never worry about rubbing baby with the “scratchy” side.

 • Organic Inserts-they are super absorbent and we like that they have 2 snaps to keep them in place. These are our preferred night-time diaper. We use the booster, but I’m not sure that we even need it. The insert is actually two separate pieces sewn together reducing drying time, which is helpful.

 • Mesh inner layer-dries quickly. Unlike another AI2 system we have with microfleece lining, this one we would actually snap in a fresh insert and use immediately. Unless (more like until) the shell gets soiled, we usually use one shell for at least a ½ day.

 • Elastic-I like that it has a small diameter. It doesn’t put big red marks on our baby’s legs.

The Downside:

•  Insert has a longer dry time than some of our other diapers
• At the smallest setting, you need to fold over the insert a tad bit or it may stick out.
• Not a wide variety of colors available.
•  Laundry tabs tend to come undone in the wash, but they don’t stick to everything, so it hasn’t created a problem for us.
• All-in-twos may not be a good choice for daycare, babysitters, etc.

 We Vote:

• Good price
• Good value
• Great for nighttime 
• Dad’s Favorite
• Easy AI2

Overall Rating (out of 10): 9

Pictures of Dipe in Use: (on an 11 week old baby; ~11.5 lbs)

Disclosure:  I was not compensated in any way for this review.  I purchased this product.

***UPDATE 3/1/10****

I want to update you on something that I think is very important.  Gro Baby has excellent customer service.  Recently, the elastic along the back of one of our covers completely came loose.  Basically, it isn't usable because you can't make it tight enough around the waist.  I contacted the company on a Sunday night and they sent me a return email first thing on Monday.  They are sending me a prepaid shipping envelope to return the cover and will repair or replace my cover.  I couldn't ask for anything more!  Thanks Gro Baby!

Overall Rating (out of 10): 9

Finally! We Fixed the Leak

If you've been reading this blog recently, you know that we've been having some problems with leaks.  The most logical culprit was repelling on our diapers and so we decided to strip them.  We just finished the stripping process, and thankfully, we had a successful eyedropper test.  After a bunch of research, we found a process that finally worked!  Our diapers are now absorbing water.  We can finally stop racing beads of water on them. 

I think that if we had known what to do from the start, this wouldn't have turned into such an arduous process.  We've also decided to change our regular laundry routine to try to prevent any residue build up.  Hopefully, we never have to do this again (or at least if we do, we'll get down to business right away and forget about the 7 prewashes).

Here's what we did:
1.  Washed all the inserts with 1 TABLESPOON of Dawn Dish Detergent on hot with an extra rinse.
2.  Rewashed the inserts with no detergent twice.
3.  Ran a rinse and wash cycle to make sure there were no more bubbles.
4.  Air dryed the inserts
5. Tested absorbancy using the eyedropper test.

We are also going to stop using any kind of fabric softener when we wash our "adult" clothes and eliminate dryer sheets. (Thank you husband for finally agreeing to give up your beloved softener!)  To make things simpler, we are also going to use cloth diaper safe detergent for all of our clothes, not use two separate detergents.

A quick note about washing cloth diapers (actually about trying to figure out how to wash them), there is a ton of information on the internet and much of it is contradictory.  I am going to post some links to information that I found helpful.  You'll be able to evaluate the recommendations and choose your routine. 
 
LINKS
http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html
http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm
http://www.diaperpin.com/howto.asp
http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/washing-diapers.htm
http://www.abbyslane.com/faqs.php#Q4
http://www.kellyscloset.com/Cloth-Diaper-Information_ep_34-1.html#washing
http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/troubleshooting-cloth-diaper-leaks/

New Trick for Stripping

Our attempts to strip our diapers haven't led to a successful eyedropper test yet. :( 

Luckily, another blog that I follow posted stripping tips.  Click on the title of this post and it will take you to the article to visit.  I found this extremely helpful and we plan to wash them with Dawn dish detergent.

Stripping!

No, it's not my new job, but I've been doing it to our cloth dipes for 2 days. Adelaide's diapers have been leaking an awful lot, so we decided to do some tests on our diapers. My husband took several of our inserts and ran them under the faucet. Sure enough, there was a lot of beading water with runoff. Definitely not a good feature for a diaper. This means that the diaper is not absorbing liquid as it should. This is usually because a buildup developed on the cotton, from detergents, minerals, etcetera. So, in order to get the absorbancy back, you have to get rid of the residue.

This leads to the stripping, it sounds pretty harsh, but it basically means that you have to wash, wash, wash your diapers. I did a lot of internet research on stripping diapers a few weeks ago after we had quite a bit of residue left on a few of our inserts when we did laundry in a different machine. The general consensus for stripping was hot water washes (4-6), NO detergent, and add vinegar to the rinse cycle if you want. Everything that I read says that stripping is required as regular maintenance for your diapers. I'm thinking that it's a little like getting the car's oil changed, only, I'm not sure how you tell when you hit the 3000 mile mark for diapers.

We have a front loading machine (Maytag 3000 series) and this is how I've done it.
Cycle One: Sanitary Cycle with extra rinse-no detergent, 1/4 cup vinegar (placed in the fabric softener opening)
Cycle Two: Whitest Whites Cycle with extra rinse-no detergent, no vinegar
Cycle Three: Quick Wash Cycle (hot) with extra rinse-no detergent, no vinegar
Took them out and hung to dry.

My husband retested several inserts and we still had beading and runoff, so washing more today.
Cycle Four: Quick Wash Cycle (hot) with extra rinse-no detergent, 1/4 c vinegar
Cycle Five: Quick Wash Cycle (hot) with extra rinse- no detergent, no vinegar

The diapers are currently drying, so stay tuned for news to see if this stripping strategy worked.

I think the thing to know about diapers and laundry is that it takes a little bit of experimentation to get the right routine, manageable, yet gets your diapers clean. Perhaps we need to alter our regular washing routine a bit to make sure that our diapers are getting clean.

Oh what fun it is to pack...

I am a chronic overpacker and sometimes a little bit of a worry-wart. Packing for a trip home for Christmas was stress-inducing to say the least. Not only was I worked up over the holiday and remembering the presents, I was trying to make sure had all the baby stuff that we'd need, but not too much stuff, so that we'd have room in the car to bring back the excessive amount of presents I knew my daughter would be receiving. The most problematic item was definitely the diapers.


We basically use 2 types of All-in-two diapering systems (waterproof covers that have snap-in absorbant inserts), so the trick is finding the right number of inserts and covers. The first time we went home, we ran out of covers-dang it when the poop doesn't stay in the absorbant stuff. It is really annoying to have a stack of clean, white cotton inserts just waiting to absorb your baby's excretions, but not have anything waterproof to wrap them up in to keep said excretion from leaking everywhere. Then, you have to scramble and do the laundry and you might do something silly, like forget the laundry detergent. I vowed not to let this happen again.


This is the diaper supply I finally settled on for our five day trip. I seemed to have stumbled on a winning combination.
15 absorbant inserts (10 of one kind; 5 of the other)
3 doublers (an extra layer of absorbant material for nighttime)
9 covers
2 Bum Genius organic AIO (these are all-in-one diapers)
12 cloth wipes
2 wet bags


This amount allowed us to stick with our normal washing routine of every other day. It was nice to have one thing on our normal schedule! Also, it sure is nice that my in-laws have the same exact washer and dryer, so we don't have to do any experimentation on how to get the diapers clean. This is not the case at my parents' house, so when we have to wash diapers there, I will have to change up the routine, because they didn't turn out quite right last time.


After three trips home, I feel like I am getting a handle on what I actually NEED to bring and what I probably won't use. It's nice to feel like you have some idea what you are doing:) Here is a list of some of the other baby items I brought for the trip.
1 swaddler
1 blanket (use as a nursing cover and a blanket)
breast pump
4 storage bottles
2 bottles
breastfeeding pillow
2 burp cloths
1 pacifier
diaper rash cream
Baby Hawk wrap


This seemed to be the right amount of right supplies. Now that the trip is over, I can safely say that I stressed too much and I hope next time won't be such a traumatic packing process. Now, if I could only not overpack myself:)

Cloth Diapering and Family Visits

My experience with cloth diapering so far has been very positive and I know my husband would say the same (yes, he changes diapers and does the laundry!). Our families were big skeptics when we told them that we'd be using CDs. I knew all along that I'd love them, I just hate the thought of disposables in a landfill 100 yrs from now. However, it was a little more difficult to get started than I expected. We started using them when our daughter was about 2.5 weeks old. The system that we bought, Softbums http://www.softbums.com/, were a little too big and bulky for her at first. I did purchase some newborn fitted diapers, but I bought a cover that was too big-oops! So, we ended up using disposables at first. When we transitioned to the cloth diapers, they were so easy to use at home, but I was very nervous about leaving home with them. We traveled to visit our parents for Thanksgiving and decided to use disposables for the trip. Since we'd been using the cloth for about 10 days at that point, we found that we didn't like using disposables anymore. I think they smell funny and I feel guilty throwing them away:) We decided that next time, we'd make the CDs work and try to win over our families!


My husband and I just returned after our first trip visiting our parents while using CDs. Overall, it went better than I expected. It's definitely not as simple too do as it is at home, especially when you forget to bring along the detergent. We're using an All-in-two system, so I had a hard time figuring out how many covers and how many inserts to pack. I think we settled on about 14 inserts and 5 covers. I was worried that we'd run out of clean covers, which we did since she has a tendency to get poop on them:)

It was a little tricky figuring out when to wash them since we couldn't follow our normal routine since we didn't bring along enough to wait to do it every other night. In addition, we were going to have to wash them in a traditional machine (we have a front loader at home) at my parents' house. I noticed they did not come as clean as they do when we wash them at home. We normally only need to do one sanitary wash cylce with an extra rinse at home, but one wash/rinse cycle did not work in the traditional machine. I still used them and it didn't seem to create a problem for the short term, but I was sure to rinse them an extra time when we washed them again at home. All in all, it didn't go perfectly, but we'll do it again and perfect our "travel routine". And, I am not going to say that our families see the light when it comes to CDs, but at least they are not adamently opposed to them anymore. I think we showed them that CDs aren't any more gross or difficult to change than a disposable.