Cloth Diapers, 2015 Update

We have been using cloth diapers this time around (as we did with Jack) and I thought I would share a quick update.

We are actually using the same diapers we bought 3.5 years ago. We used them for about two years with Jack and then put them in storage. Of the 30 diapers we had, 10 leaked when we pulled them out to use for Isaac. Sadly, some of my favorite patterns are among our diapers that are no longer usable! It took me several weeks to figure out which diapers were the culprits and to set them aside. I tried stripping them, but that process did not seem to work.

We ended up purchasing 10 new diapers as replacements from Just Simply Baby (our favorite diaper the first time around). I still generally like this company, but was a little disappointed in two ways: 

1) Just Simply Baby no longer sells a microfiber insert. This was my favorite insert in that it dries the fastest and seemed to be the most absorbent in my experience. Their new standard inserts are called "Microboo" and they are really thick and take FOREVER to dry. (Microboo is a combination of Microfiber and Bamboo.) 

2) Several of my newly purchased diapers leak. This is disappointing since they are brand new. 

I reached out to the company regarding the fact that they no longer sell microfiber AND the fact that some of my new diapers leak. They offered to sell me some leftover microfiber diapers (in lieu of an exchange – even though I thought I ordered microfiber) and they have not responded regarding the new leaking diapers. This is disappointing.

Anyways, overall we are still having a good cloth diapering experience with Isaac. I like that he rarely gets diaper rashes (when he does, a little coconut oil clears it right up). I like that the price is so much cheaper than disposable. And I like that cloth diapers don't have a smell to them (I have been using some Honest Company diapers that were given to me and they don't smell... however, in my experience with disposable diapers, I think that Pampers Cruisers work best, but they smell).

Also, we rarely have blowouts with our cloth diapers, so I am a big fan, even if it takes a little extra work with having to wash them (Rockin Green is still our go-to detergent).

Previous Cloth Diaper Posts:
Cloth Diapers (2012)
Cloth Diapers, A Follow Up (2013) 

Cloth Diapers, A Follow Up

Once upon a time I wrote about our decision to use cloth diapers and I reviewed the brands of cloth diapers we were using. Jack was 2 months old at the time.  Jack is now 18.5 months old and we are still rocking the cloth diapers so I thought an update would be good for those who may be curious.

PROS

We have saved a ton of money. We own 30 one-size-fits-all cloth diapers and spent about $300 upfront on our diapers. We did end up purchasing 3 additional BumGenious 4.0 for nighttime (our boy pees a lot) and they seemed to do better than the cheaper Kawaii's and Just Simply Baby brands that we originally purchased. This brought us to a cost of about $360 not including the cost of washing said diapers (which is about $2/mo for water and $15/every other month or so for detergent).

We have never experienced a blow out. Maybe we just got lucky here, but I think that cloth diapers do a better job of containing messes.

I don't have a real point of reference on this since Jack is my only kid, but he definitely knows when he is wet or dirty (in a good way). Around 16 months I started asking him if he needed a diaper and he would jump up from playing and head to the changing table. At 18 months, he could say "bi-per" (aka diaper) and will still run for the changing table. We have purchased a potty (he knows to call it potty) and he practices sitting there. We are not necessarily ready to potty train, but I like that he is aware of things and we are exploring this next step.

This is more of a personal preference, but I like that cloth diapers don't have a smell to them. When we put him in disposable diapers (we use them on trips that will be more than 4 days), the smell of disposables kind of grosses me out. They smell strongly of plastic, which I am not a huge fan of.

Laundry is really easy. I must admit that once Jack started solids, I was worried about the laundry situation. 90% of the time, I can just dump the poop directly into the toilet. The other 10% of the time is not so pleasant. If you are considering cloth diapers and are concerned about poop getting into your washing machine, the truth is that even with disposables you will still probably put dirty clothes into your machine (if your kid has blowouts, yeah). It happens. I do an extra rinse and I have never experienced any smell or found anything extra left in my washing machine.

CONS

Our diapers take up a bit more space than disposables and you have to carry around the dirty ones after they have been used. We have a wet sack that will easily hold 4 diapers, so this isn't really that big of a deal, you just need to plan for this.

Laundry. While laundry is not harder, if you hate doing laundry, this could be a deal breaker for you. I do a load of diapers about every 3 days or so. And you have to stuff all of the clean inserts into the diaper shells, which seems to work better with small hands so Daniel gets a pass on this job. This isn't a big deal to me, but if laundry isn't your thing or you are already doing a lot of laundry, this could certainly be seen as a con.

Velcro. We only have one diaper that uses Velcro and I am not a fan. Jack likes to pull open the Velcro while I'm changing him. The diaper is a Rumparooz and while I like the extra gussets in its design I am not a fan of Velcro as a closure. Also this particular diaper is a bit more bulky than our others.

That's about it. I really can't think of anything else good or bad. We have been really pleased with our experience. Cloth diapering is not for everyone but it has worked for us.

10 Products We Regularly Used for Jack (9-12 Months)

This is a list of some of the products that we found useful for Jack during the 9-12 month stage. These items are in addition to things I have written about previously. See 0-3 months, 3-6 months and 6-9 months for more info on products we have used over the past year.

1. Jack really loves his Lillabo wooden toy car set from IKEA. He has learned how to push cars around – which quickly became a favorite pastime. His cousin, Izzy, also introduced him to smashing cars together which he thinks is great fun.

2. We picked up the Fisher Price Rock 'N Go Pony at a consignment sale and Jack seems to like it. He will stand next to it and rock it. Since turning 12 months, he now likes to sit on it and is more inclined to push it around.

3. I am a big fan of footie pajamas at this time of year. He hates to keep socks on, so I know he will stay warm in his footies.

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4. The bulb syringe aspirator has been with us since the beginning, but with the onset of cold season, we have used this sucker more times than I can count. Jack hates it, but it does help to clear the mucus from his nose.

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5. Likewise, in relationship to sickness, we are very fond of our Safety 1st Fever Light Ear Thermometer. I have learned that I can typically determine a fever by kissing Jack's forehead, but I like confirmation from the thermometer.

6. Instagram has been great for uploading photos of what Jack is up to "right now." I love being able to share day-to-day things with our loved ones.

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7. Tommy Tippee Explora 9 Training Sippy Cups from Target -- Jack has never had a bottle and as he ate more, we introduced him to a training sippy cup. Thanks to Jack's Aunt Emily for picking out a good cup.

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8. Chick-fil-a turned us on to disposable placemats, but instead of stealing extras any time we visited this fastfood establishment, we decided to order some online. The Neat Solutions disposable placemats have been a welcome addition to our eating out arsenal. This particular brand has adhesive on four sides so Jack can't really pull it off the table... at least not easily.

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9. Gerber Puffs -- Jack basically eats what we eat. Since we have followed the baby led weaning approach, we have never purchased baby food, with the exception of Gerber Puffs. They feed the toddlers this as a snack at church and he really likes them. We have found that they are great for on-the-go, especially as a pre-meal snack when we are at a restaurant.

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10. We still are huge fans of our cloth diapers, but for nighttime we ended up upgrading to the BumGenius One-Snap Closure 4.0. We love our other cloth diapers, but found that they leaked at night. The BumGenius diapers NEVER leak.

 That wraps up our year of products that we have found useful for Jack. He continues to love books and toys and I will post again later this year with a list of his favorite toys as a toddler. What are some of your favorite baby products at this age?

A Week in a Hotel with a Baby and Dog – What We Learned

Traveling to Charlotte, NC with Daniel so that he could attend the NA-YGN conference was a learning experience for all of us.

This was our first time to take a trip, as a family, that lasted more than 5 days. It was our first time staying in a hotel with a baby. It was our fist time staying in a hotel with our baby and our dog. It was our first time to exclusively use disposable diapers (since starting cloth at around 8 weeks). It was the first time (in a long time) that we had to take Sophie on regular, daily walks (at home, we just open the back door and let her roam our 3-acre property to her heart's content). It was our first time to eat at restaurants for every meal for an entire week.

So how did it go?

Overall, I'm going to say that we learned a lot and would do some things differently in the future. There were some tough days, but overall I am glad we were able to tag along. I don't know that we would go on a work trip with Daniel again, but it was nice to visit our old city.

What we learned:

1. Rule #1: on any road trip, as long as the baby and dog are both asleep, keep driving. 

We would have LOVED to stop at NOC to watch the rafters, grab lunch and let Sophie roam around, but when your babies are asleep, sometimes you have to forgo fun stuff and keep on driving.

2. In the future, we will try to stick to renting houses whenever possible. 

Hotels are tough. Having a baby in our room was tough. We stuck the pack 'n play in the bathroom, but that meant we had to plan showers, teeth brushing and other bathroom activities around a sleeping baby.

Also, trying to get in and out of the hotel, via an elevator, with a dog and a stroller for multiple daily walks was hard. Thankfully most of the people that road the elevators with us were pretty laid back about having to ride with a dog. Maybe they were just distracted by the cute baby.

3. To some degree, nap times and dog walks are going to dictate what you will be able to do.

We have a pretty flexible schedule with Jack, but we still try to make sure that he gets at least one good nap every day. I was really hoping that he would nap in his stroller on at least one of our daily walks with Sophie, but that was rarely the case... I guess there was too much to look at.

I had hoped to visit more museums and shops, and while I did get to go to the Mint Museum and IKEA, I decided for the good of everyone, naps for Jack were more important. I try to find balance when it comes to my baby. It is important that we get out and enjoy activities, but it is also important that he gets rest.

Sophie needed to get out at least twice a day. We tried to walk her in the mornings, then again around dinner time and/or around bed time. Daniel had to walk her in the rain at night on more than one occasion.

4. Diapers. 

Wow. This turned out to be our biggest problem. For four nights straight Jack kept waking up multiple times throughout the night. I would have to change his wet diaper and then he would fuss, so I would give in and nurse him back to sleep for the sanity of Daniel and anybody staying in adjacent rooms. I, on the other hand, was losing my mind. I was also concerned that a week of "training" to wake up and nurse multiple times every night was going to mess us up when we got home.*

FINALLY, we decided to try Pampers Baby Dry overnight (12-hour) diapers. This was a game changer. We had no idea that we would need different kinds of diapers for just a week, but regular disposable diapers were not cutting it. We made the swap (at the end of the week) and we got our good sleeper back. This made everyone happy.

Now that we are home, we are thrilled to be back in cloth diapers. I had to change diapers more often with the disposable and we had some near fiascoes when we were out and about. I already loved our cloth diapers, but now I appreciate them even more.

*Thankfully Jack has resumed his normal sleeping schedule without incident. Whew.

5. Eating at restaurants was surprisingly easy.

We only had one meal that was a near disaster. Thanks to our experience with baby led weaning, we just offered Jack whatever was on our plates and he did great. 

Our one not-so-good night was when we ate with Daniel's colleagues from TVA. We all walked to McCormick and Schmicks. Jack started the evening out happy, but he had missed his afternoon nap completely. About 10 minutes after sitting down at our table, Jack was done. Daniel and I had to take turns eating our meal and sitting with Jack outside. If it had just been us, we would have gone home early. 

To top this off: as soon as our food came, a monsoon started. I'm talking torrential downpours and loud thunder. Thankfully there was an awning outside to sit under. We hoped it would clear up, but after two hours, it was still going strong. 

Daniel took a shuttle with his co-workers back to the hotel while Jack and I waited. It made for some interesting people watching as no one wanted to get out in the rain. When Daniel pulled up, I had to run through the rain to the street where I handed Jack to Daniel and then I had to go back for our stroller (which we could not collapse). Daniel ended up throwing a fully open stroller into the back of our Subaru. Fun times. 

I am looking to taking a real vacation one of these days. We have been incredibly busy this year and could use a break. It was nice to visit Charlotte, but it didn't feel like a vacay.

Jack is Seven Months

Jack discovered screeching at the beginning of the month. Initially I thought something must be wrong with him, but I think it was just a new way he learned to communicate. Thankfully this phase only lasted a week. As a friend of mine told me: he is singing and this is the song that God gave him for right now.

By the end of the month Jack had discovered growling, roaring and saying "Argggghh" like a pirate. He especially enjoyed doing this with his Grandpa Voyles. He also started scrunching up his face and squinting his eyes when he doesn't like something. Though he also does this when he wants something and occasionally when he thinks something is really funny. This little face is quite comical and it is hard not to laugh when he does it.

Jack has been sleeping through the nights for several weeks now. Consistently 9-11 hours. It is awesome {for me}. Our biggest issue with this was finding a cloth diaper that doesn't leak during this longer time period. We finally gave in and purchased a BumGenius and we have been very happy with it. Now we have two expensive diapers {the Rumparooz and BumGenius} that we use exclusively for night time. Occasionally those leak too. I think this is just part of the deal with baby boys – they pee a lot. Having to wash the sheets once or twice a week hasn't been too big of an issue though. I'm just glad he is sleeping so much now!!!

We lowered his crib mattress at the end of the month. Jack is quite strong and though he hasn't figured out how to get into a sitting position from laying down, we don't want him to figure that out in his crib when we are not around.

Jack consistently rolls over front to back and back to front. He hasn't really figured out crawling, though he can scoot. He has become quite proficient at sitting by himself and if you are holding him, he insists on pulling himself up to a standing position. Jumping and bouncing in our laps have become favorite past times as well. This behavior is making it more difficult for me to burp him after nursing and sometimes I feel like he is going to squirm right out of my arms.

This month we started introducing solid food. We are tentatively doing the Baby Led Weaning approach. Jack's first food experience was with avocado. He did pretty well. Since then he has tried both adult and baby oatmeal, bananas, squash and broccoli {and one french fry from Red Robin and a bite of guacamole from our favorite local Mexican restaurant}. He seems to do best with bananas and oatmeal. He handles a spoon really well. So far his eating seems to consist of sticking food in his mouth and then talking and/or shouting at the food {while it is in his mouth}. This results in about half of it ending up on his chin, bib and surrounding area. We will continue to forge ahead with new foods every few days.

It looks like Jack has finally outgrown spitting up -- at least as an all the time thing. We no longer have to keep him in bibs 24/7. So glad to be out of that phase!

Jack was a little late to the game in realizing the fun of bath time. A few days ago, it was like a lightbulb went off and he figured out that slapping his hand on the water made loud noises and that scooping copious amounts of water out of the tub {onto his daddy and the floor} was something that could bring him great joy.

We are still a no go on the teeth front. Every once in awhile he has a fussy day and we think maybe this is it, but so far, no teeth.

This past month Jack went to his first fish fry... 

  

cheered mommy on at her first 5K since having a baby...

sat in a high chair for the first time...

and experienced his first birthday party {no cake for Jack Jack though}.

Jack continues to bring us great joy every day. There is a sweetness to him that I didn't know existed. I am sure all parents feel like this about their own children. We are so thankful that Jack is a part of our lives.

*I will be writing monthly updates of Jack with pictures of Jack and the Tonka truck on the 11th of each month. One Month Old. Two Months Old. Three Months Old. Four Months Old. Five Months Old. Six Months Old.

Thursday Things (Random, April 2012)

1. It crossed my mind that working mom's must live crazy, busy lives.* Then it dawned on me... most working moms use daycare or babysitters to supplement the care of their children. No wonder I have been so exhausted lately. 30+hr work {at home} work week's plus simultaneously taking care of a 5-month-old is tough. I am so glad that this is not my normal. If it was, I would definitely have to look into child care.

*I totally respect moms that are making the whole working thing work.

2. I was finally able to catch my breath this week. That means I actually cooked meals and went for a run. It helps that the little sickness I picked up last week has finally passed.

Grilled Sesame Ginger Salmon with Sauteed Asparagus, Rice and a Strawberry Spinach Salad

3. On my run yesterday, a family of geese hissed at me. The parents didn't want me near their little goslings. I shouted and clapped my hands back at them. The thought of geese attacking me or worse, attacking the stroller with Jack in it, did not give me warm, fuzzy feelings.

4. Jack has been sleeping through the night this week. Then last nigh he woke up at 2am, starving. After a week of uninterrupted sleep, it was tough... I hope he doesn't do that again.

5. Since Jack is sleeping through the night, we are on the hunt for good cloth diapers that won't leak when left unchanged for 8-12 hours. If you use CD, feel free to weigh in with your personal faves.

Thursday Things (Random, March 2012)

Daniel has requested that I don't make desserts for two weeks. Not because he doesn't love them, but because we need a break from chocolate overload. I made the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bars again last weekend. They were amazing, but we obviously need a break from chocolate. At least our waist lines do.

*The picture above was taken by my sister. The little ramekin and little glass of milk were for my mom. We were cracking up because everyone else's portions were huge.

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My immediate family got together this past weekend. We have grown from 5 to 10 over the last 10 years. Hard to believe.

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Recently I was running low on cloth diapers, so I stuck Jack in disposables {size 2, eek!} and I felt like he was naked! I can't believe how big my little boy is getting.

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I finally finished the baby blanket I have been knitting for Jack. It only took me 3+months to complete. So glad to have finished my first big knitting project.

Thursday Things: 3 Products We Regularly Used for Jack (0-3 Months)

Every time I try to make Granola, I burn it. every.time.

Cloth diapers really are saving us a boat load of money. Jack is 3 months old and we have only spent $100 on disposable diapers. Woo-hoo.

My nephew should enter the world sometime in the next 24 hours. Jack will have a little boy cousin who is 3 months younger than him. We can't wait to meet Levi.

I am not cooking as much as I used to, but I still manage to knock out 3 meals a week – we are eating more leftovers these days. 

I am almost done knitting Jack's baby blanket. Unfortunately Walmart is out of my yarn and I only need 1 ball of yarn to finish. Not sure what I will do if they are no longer selling said yarn...

After 3 months of being a mom, my top three products for baby are:

• The Fisher-Price Rock 'N Play Newborn Sleeper – Jack is still sleeping in our bedroom and this is perfect for night time as well as naps.
• My Kindle Fire – it plays Pandora (we like the Lullabye and Family Folk Song Stations) and it is great for reading books or perusing the internet when I am nursing Jack.
• An elastic hair band for my wrist. This is how I track what side to nurse Jack on... pretty high tech :) I just move the elastic band back and forth to each wrist. It is the easiest way for me to keep track (especially in the middle of the night when I am tired). If you are into techie things, I have heard good things about the Baby Connect ap for iPhone.

A typical day: Jack and Sophie napping on the couch while I work on freelance projects.

Cloth Diapers

When Daniel and I first learned that we were expecting, one of our primary concerns was how much this kid was going to cost us and how we could combat any of these costs. Since I am currently a SAHM {who sometimes freelances from home} I thought that using cloth diapers would be a great way that I could help save us money.

About the time we started to consider CD, I had a friend write a great post about how she decided to use CD. I also came across in-depth posts about CD on Bower Power and Young House Love. All of these first-person accounts got me excited.

After much research, Daniel and I agreed that we were definitely going to give cloth diapers a try. We loved the idea of saving money and the green factor was also nice. We weren't sold on buying the most expensive diapers but wanted to try a couple of options before we fully committed. 

To start out we tried the Kawaii, Just Simply Baby and Rumparooz brands {we have one-size-fits-all in all three brands}. Below is a recap of our experience with each.

Kawaii are by far the cheapest you can buy {$6-$12 per diaper} and they work well. However we found that the quality isn't quite as good as the other two brands and they seem to take longer to dry {especially the Minkys}.

The majority of our diapers we bought were from Just Simply Baby. They are fairly cheap {$10-$14 per diaper} and a good quality. We started out buying the Halfway In package – it is $80 for 8 diapers {you reference boy or girl but you don't get to pick your diaper patterns... we ended up with some crazy patterns}.

Just Simply Baby also sells the detergent we use (but we found it cheaper on Amazon) – Rockin Green Detergent. It seems to work great. More on washing below...

Also, Just Simply Baby's return policy is the best by far, which is why we started with them:

Returns - If you are not satisfied with your diaper purchase, you may return them at any time within 30 days of invoice date. Diapers returned in 30 days do not have to be new in package, and can be used, washed, etcetera. Any packages received after 30 days of order date will NOT be refunded, so please take shipping time into consideration.

And finally, some friends gave us a Rumparooz – they are about $24 per diaper. This is our only diaper that has velcro instead of snaps. It is fairly easy to adjust the size and it has a double gusset to prevent leaks. I am not a huge fan of the velcro because my baby likes to pull it open while I am changing him. Snaps have been better for us.

If you are curious as to how modern cloth diapers work {like we were}, here is a brief overview:

Each diaper has two liners {inserts} that you stuff into it. The inside of the diaper is soft and absorbent. The outside is also soft, but is backed by a waterproof layer that prevents leaking. Come wash day, you pull out  the inserts out and throw them, along with the diaper cover, into the washer. You soak the diapers for an hour in cold water, wash them in warm water, then do an extra rinse in cold water. You don't even have to touch the poopy part. It is all really easy.
 
When the poop gets more solid (once you introduce food), then you have to knock the poop off into the toilet or a trash can. *I will probably write an update on washing when we reach this stage with Jack.

We currently have about 30 diapers so we do about one load of diapers every other day {this way there is time for them to hang dry}.

The different kinds of inserts are microfiber {this comes with the diaper and works well, but is bulky}, hemp {this insert is very thin, but costs extra and takes longer to dry}, and bamboo {this insert is thin, costs extra and takes longer to dry}. We have a few of all of these inserts. We actually like the microfiber the best even though it is bulkier.

The covers come in Minky and Regular. We have some of each. The Minky's are very soft. We don't really have a preference between the Minky and Regular. We have a variety of patterns and solid color diapers. Daniel's favorite are the Just Simply Baby Spider Man pattern and I really like the Just Simply Baby Moo pattern.

 

Blow outs have been almost non-existent, and definitely less than disposables, and diaper rash has rarely happened with CD. When Jack has had a diaper rash from disposables, we temporarily left him in disposables and use Desitin until the rash clears up, then swap back to cloth. *Note that Desitin can not be used with cloth diapers as it ruins the absorbency.

We received a couple of diaper cakes from baby showers that kept us going on disposables for the first few weeks until Jack reached the minimum 8lb weight required for the CD to fit properly. We tried the diapers a couple times before he reached 8 lbs, but his legs were too small to fill out the holes so they leaked out the sides.

In terms of savings: we have spent $300 upfront on our cloth diapers. Our water bill is up ~$2 per month {no sewer charges since we are on septic, so that keeps it cheaper}. According to some friends who have a one year old, they spent $1000 in the first year on disposable diapers, or about $83/month on average. So unless Jack is potty trained at age 4 months or less, the cloth diapers will save us a lot of money.