We have cloth diapered Adrian since birth and I have found it to be a
very enjoyable process (well as enjoyable as poo and pee can be). I became obsessed with researching cloth diapers when pregnant. Our family was trying to do our part in being eco conscience (if you know me, you have to ignore our 8 passenger vehicle for this part), we were recycling, buying local as much as we could, we painted with LVOC paint but I was starting to feel guilty about all the diapers I would soon be dumping in to Michigan's already
HUGE trash issue. So after being overwhelmed with information for about 4 months I decided this was the right thing to do for our family. I went with the cloth diaper brands
Kawaii and
Happy Heinys. I did buy into the fabulous website and many reviews of the popular brand BumGenius and against popular opinion, this diaper never met my expectations as they did not hold up to washing over months and you pay more for the simple fact that they are popular, so needless to say this is my least favorite cloth diaper thus far and are no longer in my rotation.
My husband was on board which really helped the decision along, I did not want to be the only one changing diapers here. So we began to shop around and tell our friends of our plans, I wasn't prepared for the looks like
I was some crazy crunchy hippy for wanting to cloth diaper, but I soon became very good at my schelded eco friendly benefits, convience,and myths speech that often accompioned said looks.
::side note:: I am not going to go in detail here about those facts as there as a million blogs and websites that go over the detailsmuch better than I will.
So the cloth diapering began and I was so impressed with the ease and adorableness of it all, that
I became a raving lunatic for more cute prints, larger wet bags and talking to random strangers about cloth (which I apologize for I'm sure that was obnoxious). We never had a poop blowout, never a leak and I was ecstatic once again for our choice. I hated nothing more than going out somewhere with my past babies and many times that cute outfit their wearing ended up being soiled before anyone saw them looking so cute and all that time you spent stalking Gymboree for the perfect church outfit is now
shoved in a bag in the bottom of your diaper bag (ugh) and now are wearing a simple fleece sleeper.
Now these are ins and outs of my everyday cloth diapering life
1. I do
one load of laundry a week- rinse, wash, dry and in the summer I lay out the diapers on the deck
2. I have two large wet bags and a small travel bag to put dirty diapers in which I wash with my loads
3.I use regular wipies
4. I dump out what ever poo will shake off and the rest
will rinse and wash clean EVERY TIME
I'm going to take a break for a sec to talk about
poo dumping. Regardless if you cloth or not ALL poo is supposed to be dumped in the toilet the EPA states
it is illegal to dump excrement in your trash, like the kind everyone does with disposable. This practice is almost never practiced but it is what we ALL are supposed to do anyways.
5. I do have a
diaper sprayer installed on my toilet if I want to rinse out my poo diapers more, but this is not essential at all.
6. After doing disposables for 2 previous babies the convience is not less with cloth. One extra load of laundry and an extra minute per change does not equal out to an inconvience.
7. Travel with cloth is just as easy as long as there is a washing machine around. I even had my diapers cleaned while staying at the 5 star hotel Broadmoor in Colorado with zero problems.
So this really was more or less my experience with diapers not the do's and don't of diapers, like I said there are a lot of mommy blogs out there with this repeating info . Here are a few of my fav's
http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/
http://crunchybeachmama.com/
http://www.clothdiaperblog.com/
On April 23rd there is going to be a Guinness world record event called the
The Great Cloth Diaper Change in locations around the world and the United States. The location is to educate and bring awareness on modern cloth diapering as well as host the largest mass synchronized cloth diaper change Me and my close friend
Heather will be attending with our fluffy butt babies and we are very excited. For any of you that want to become involved it is easy as there are daily many locations being added.
http://greatclothdiaperchange.com/
::side note:: I am not going to go in detail here about those facts as there as a million blogs and websites that go over the detailsmuch better than I will.
For Valentines we decided that we would do something a little unique and special. So we thought about doing a private Valentines dinner for us and 2 other couples we are close with here at home, but what is so great and romantic about cooking a huge meal, hosting and cleaning for 6 people, well its not. So we started to look at some other options. My husband is work acquaintances with the wonderful Adrien Sharp, Adrien was on The Next Food Network Star show, hosts a T.V. show called Food Circus, plans out meals and is head chef at our local hospital, as well as host Kraft online commercials.
We had nowhere to go, no soccer, no ballet, no lunches, no bible studies, no work call, nothing and it was fabulous. We made Halloween cookies, watched a movie, carved pumpkins, had a very long lazy lunch and somehow we even managed to squeeze in a family pile nap on the couch at one point (sounds very cute but not so comfortable or very long). Its one of those days that you wished didn't end.
We laughed, we ate, we took a million pictures and we loved our little boy turning one year old. To think back a year ago I can state the obvious of how uncomfortable and huge I was, or how I was nesting and folding baby clothes till late in the night. Those were days of preparation and anticipation but regardless of having children before you never are prepared for how full your heart can become, how you can go on no sleep and feel no pain just from the high of love that you have for this new warm life snuggled on your chest. He was again more than I could have hoped for and he is still a high I can run on when I am empty.
