Hi everyone,
So today is my first MOPS meeting. I’m a little nervous but not so nervous as the meet and greet last month. I know a few more people and I’m feeling pretty good about it but that might change as it gets closer to 9. When James was in the bath last night I went over tomorrow with him and told him that we were going to go to church and he was gonna play in the nursery with all his favorite toys and I was going to a meeting for two hours. I don’t think he really understand and he was too busy playing in the water to pay attention. It will be the longest amount of time I’ve been away from him when he isn’t being watched by Wes. But I think he’ll do fine. Update: James ended up having one meltdown - he was tired and hungry and ended up falling asleep with one of the caregivers.
It’s hard to believe it but we have been using cloth diapers for over a year now and I finally feel confident to blog about it. I’ve known about using cloth diapers for awhile. I actually read about them on a blog and once we decided that I was going to stay home I knew I wanted to do cloth diapers. We didn’t start using them until he was about 3 months because we received so many diapers from so many generous people that they last the first 3 months. I didn’t buy them before we had James because they only had a month guarantee and I didn’t want to buy them, not like them and not be able to return them. So we waited.
There are a lot of different types of cloth diapers out that and that may even be a understatement. Everyone is getting in on the cloth diaper business, even Costco is selling them. I decided to go with the brand BumGenius mainly because it was the brand I was familiar with and I could buy at the store. I know some other moms out there didn’t like this brand and went with something more organic but this brand seems to work best for me. This isn’t saying that maybe with the next kid I might try something other brand or style.
I have 16 All-in-ones and 4 pocket styles. There are a lot of different types and styles out there so I’m just gonna talk about the ones I use. I decided to go with majority of the AIO because they are so simple - all I have to do is fold them and snap them on. I ended up with 4 pockets because you can stuff them a little fuller and there is cotton between the pads and James’ butt so they are good for naps because they can hold a little more. A surprising fact that I've learned about cloth diapers is that they hold in a blow out very well. I can probably count on one hand the number of times that we have had a full blow.
I think the website recommends that you have about 24 diapers all together and I think a lot of people have more because they are just so cute with all the patterns they offer. Again, I thought I would try it out and see how I make it with 18 (I bought two other pockets at a sale) before I buy a ton of diapers. But I’m happy to say that since buying those two extra diapers, I haven’t had the need to buy more. One thing that I think helps me get by on just 20 diapers is the fact that James used disposable diapers at night. I tried to do cloth with him at night but it was just too hard to change him at night so I put him in disposable and haven’t been back since. About a month or so ago I did look into but they seemed pretty expensive so I just stuck with what we have been doing. Having the disposable on hand is nice for times that I know we around going to be away for awhile and I don’t want to worry about him having to sit on the cloth for a long time. One of the most important things I’ve learned in this first year of being a mother is that you have to do with what works best for you and your child. Doing cloth diapers during the day and disposables at night works for me. Doing all disposables works for must parents and doing all clothes works for others.
I thought I would also go through my washing routine for them because I think thats one of the big things that keep people from joining the cloth diaper movement.
1. I collect his diapers in an ubbi diaper pail. It has a cloth bag on the inside that I wash with diapers. This used to be in his bedroom but I found out that it works better more me if it’s inside of the bathroom, especially when I had to deal with the poopy diapers.
2. If there are poopy diapers, I drop the poop into the toilet and just wash them quickly in the sick to get rid of any big chucks. This may be too much information but as moms you get used to it.
3. I place the diapers in the washer (with the bag) on the prewash setting on cold with powder detergent up the 1 line. This cycle is only about 10 minutes long but it helps get the pee and the poop residue off the diapers.
4. After that cycle, I switch the water over to hot, add enough detergent to get me up the 5 on the scoop and set it on the heavy cycle. After this cycle is over, I run it again, all the same but without detergent. We have pretty hard water here or so it seems and running it another cycle without any detergent helps get all of it out of the diapers and keep the diapers smelling nice.
5. After the one prewash and the two cycles, weather permitting, I will hang the diapers outside to dry. Depending on the weather this can take all day or just a few hours. I’ve found that 90 degrees and sunny tries them the quickest. If the weather isn't good or I need them super quick, I'll throw them into the dryer and do two cycles on low heat.
6. After they dry, I just my very helpful helper, to help me fold the diaper and then I put them away.
Overall it’s really not that hard of a washing routine and once you get used to it, it becomes pretty normal.
-What type of diapers did you use for your kids?
-Did you ever think of trying something different?
I hope everyone has a great weekend
-Megan
No comments:
Post a Comment