OMG how are we going to pay for a wedding!

Nov 16,2009 / By Maria / 2 Comments

>I, the overplanner that I am, have a hard time living in the moment, and tend to freak myself out over stuff that may or may not happen in the very, very distant future. e.g. Going from worrying about pregnancy and childbirth (while pregnant with my first child) to hyperventilating over potty training techniques, school choice, dating, drugs and *thud*.

So, after I made an amazon wishlist of the different diapers I’d like to try, I started obsessing over diaper pails, liners, wet bags, diaper liners and OMG-I’m going to have to clean solid foods poop off of these things-hysteria. This would be followed shortly thereafter with an obsession over cloth wipes and then diaper sprayers, stay tuned.

Now, I needed to figure out how to get said diapers. I sure as heck didn’t want to pay for any more disposables, and even though 1 cloth diaper cost the same as two packs of sposies at a good price or 2.567 packs at a really good price, the cost was hard to swallow.

Due to some new and unexciting financial woes, we really didn’t have the funds to pay for necessities, not even disposable diapers.

My hubby decided that since he had time between work & class (for his Master’s Degree, yes I’m proud of him), he’d donate plasma. The first week, he made $60. $25 for each donation, and $10 for doing it twice the first week. He gave it to me and told me to order three more BG 3.0s! Yay!!

He chose clementine, ribbit and moonlight (I think, I get the two blue colors confused).

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Cloth Diapers

The verdict

Nov 16,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>I was so psyched to try the diapers, they arrived so fast and were adorable. I chose the grasshopper, butternut and twilight colors. They are soft green, yellow & blue, though a little brighter than they had looked on my computer screen.

The instructions said I only had to wash them once, though some other materials become more absorbent with each wash.

I dried the inserts in the dryer, laid the diapers flat to dry and waited impatiently.

While I was waiting for them, I had figured out how long it would take for one diaper to pay for itself with full time use, for those 3 to pay for themselves with once daily use, and how long it would take to recoup the cost of a full stash with full time use.

Finally, they were dry, and within the first diaper change, I was hooked. They were a cinch to put on and were adorable to boot. Hubby called him a bubble butt but I thought the fluffy but was too stinkin’ cute (get it? stinking? ’cause it’s a diap…oh never mind).

It didn’t take long to see how much less irritated his bottom was during the hours he was wearing cloth. But, since we only had 3, we had to put him in disposables the rest of the day, and slather him with diaper cream.

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Cloth Diapers Detergents

Detergent Drama

Nov 16,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>Since I can’t leave well enough alone, I kept researching and found more, conflicting information on the safety of the detergents we found locally.

I also found an awesome group of cloth diapering mamas on cafemom and asked a barrage of questions, including what their washing routines were, and what detergents they used.

The general consensus was that everyone loved a cafemommy made product called lil outlaws. Cloth safe, none of the no-no ingredients and smelled great. No one had any problems with buildup, smelly diapers or hiney irritation, even for those moms whose babies had sensitive skin. The best part was that a bag was $15 postage paid, and would do 140 loads in my HE washer!

I sent my poor hubby to return the detergent he’d purchased and impatiently waited for my detergent to arrive.

Long story short, I’m happy to see a conclusion to the diaper detergent drama!

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Cloth Diapers Detergents Diaper Cream

Take Two

Nov 16,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>So my daughter never really got a “diaper rash” to speak of. A handful of times, she got a tiny bit red, we put some butt paste (which my Mom got as a joke but turned out to be awesome) on it & she was good as new. So, arrogant first time mother that I was, I assumed that if a baby had diaper rash issues, it must be (diaper) operator error (i.e. the parents).

Well, I sure got my comeuppance with my son. His pediatrician has commented that he is “rashy,” and it’s true. He has had baby acne, bumps and redness galore, and his bottom is no exception. That combined with a rasp he’s had since birth makes him suspect eczema.

That gave me a renewed determination to make cloth work for us. I found another detergent chart that had other detergents listed, and we were able to find two of them at a local organic market.

Satisfied that I’d be able to safely wash them, I ordered three Bumgenius 3.0 one size pocket diapers and eagerly awaited their arrival.

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Cloth Diapers One Size Diapers

That new baby smell

Nov 16,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>Fast forward a bit and I’ve effortlessly given birth to my 6 pound baby.

No, not really. My son was born at 40 weeks 6 days, after a rash of ridiculous 90 degree days in freaking May, weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz. My husband said he should have cut the umbilical cord a little longer to make it an even 8 pounds!

8 pounds may not seem like a “big baby,” as I’m always hearing the story of the woman who had an unassisted childbirth and had a 25 pound 3 year old in their bathtub (not really but you know). In any case, he was big for me. I am 5 feet tall on a tall day, though my license says I am 5’1″ (hey, I am with shoes on darn it!) and was maybe 100 pounds soaking wet pre baby #2.

I figure his weight was solely because of the ginormous case of newborn diapers I’d bought. My 6 pounder was the result of my having purchased none, and the newborn diapers being out of stock at nearly every store in the county.

So anygiantheadedbaby, had I known I was going to have an 8 pounder, I may not have been quite as eager for the drug free childbirth AND I would have gone ahead and bought those one size diapers!

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OMG how are we going to pay for a wedding!

The verdict

Detergent Drama

Take Two

That new baby smell

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