Part 3: My Cloth Diaper Wash Routine

The hardest part of cloth diapering is getting the right wash routine. How do you know when you've found the right one? When your diapers smell like nothing when they are washed and dry. But the catch is, not every wash routine works for everyone. Your water has abig impact on what will get your diapers clean. Have you ever thought about whether you had hard or soft water? I sure hadn't, until I started cloth diapering. So here is what works for me. It might not work for you, but its a good place to start.

First, my detergent of choice is Rockin Green. I tried a different cloth diaper detergent a couple months ago and definitely learned my lesson. It left a residue on my diapers. They still had a smell, and they started to leak. Lesson learned: stick with what works. The container on the left is a "Shake it Up." It comes in the same scents as the detergent and makes the diaper pail smell much less like a diaper pail!

What do I use as a diaper pail? Glad you asked. A $10 trash can from Target that you step on to open with a Planet Wise pail liner. We have 2 that I can switch out while the dirty one is in the wash with the dirty diapers.

So when I take off a pee-pee diaper I just throw it in the pail and go on with my day. For a poopy diaper, its a little different. I shake off what will fall off into the toilet and spray the rest off with the diaper sprayer. Then it goes into the pail too.

On wash day, about every 2-3 days, I walk across the street to my nana's house because she has a top-loading washing machine and it gets the diapers cleaner than our front-loader. Its possible to get them clean with a front-loader, but go through the hassle when I have access to a top-loader? First I do a cold rinse with about a cup of vinegar. The vinegar neutralizes the urine and makes the diapers stink less. Next I fill up the washer with hot water and add a couple scoops of Rockin Green. I then soak the diapers for a bout 30 minutes, just to lure all the stinkies out. After about 30 minutes, I start the washer and let it go through its cycle. When that cycle is done, I do a whole other cycle with a hot wash and cold rinse. If its warm outside (which it hasn't been in quite awhile) I hang them outside to dry. During the winter, I just throw them in the dryer on low. After the PUL covers are dry, I take them out and finish drying the inserts and fitteds on medium. Yes, my diapers have stains in the winter from getting no sun but I will get them out this summer when its warm!

I've Been Published! (Again)

Remember back in August (on my 2 year wedding anniversary) when I posted that The Cloth Diaper Whisperer had published a post I wrote for them? Well yesterday (on Cooper's 2nd birthday) they posted another post I wrote! Check it out here and let me know what you think!

Life After One-Size Diapers: Part 2

So how do my prefitteds work? I'm glad you asked! (And if you didn't I'll tell you anyway!) We love them so far! The wings overlap so I just pin them with one pin like so >>

Around the house I don't make him wear a cover. When we go out a cover is required because these aren't waterproof. We have a wool wrap that I love using with the prefitteds that I bought from Ecomom. We also have 2 pairs of wool longies from Kangadu. I will be buying ALL of my wool from her from now on. She is a work-at-home-mom and her stuff is so cute and very affordable. I used to have a Kissaluvs wool cover but it got washed accidentally and is now a size newborn so I'm saving it :/

Here are one pair of our longies. The other pair has a tractor on the leg. Aren't they adorable?? Amber is soo talented!

I really thought I preferred pocket diapers but I am in love with using fitteds. After I figured out that the pin doesn't have to go all the way through the layers of the front of the diaper, using pins is pretty simple too. Although, when I use the wrap, instead of the longies, pins aren't necessary. These fit really trim too. Prefolds are bulky and so are our other fitteds, absorbent but bulky. These fit more like a disposable without the chemicals & $$$ :)

My little model

I have decided this will have part 3: my wash routine. This what most people find the most challenging when cloth diapering, getting them to not stink! So I think I'll share what works for us! Look for it soon!

Life After One-Size Diapers: Part 1

In my last post I mentioned that Cooper was outgrowing his One-Size diapers. They are advertised to fit from birth to potty training but really they fit from about 10 lbs to about 30 lbs. Cooper weighs 28 lbs and most of the diapers, depending on the diaper, are getting a little too tight around his legs. Tight enough that he is starting to complain about some of them. Mommy had to do something soon. After he turns 2 we are going to get serious about potty training. He already uses it at home occasionally and he acts like he's ready; we'll see how that goes. But potty-training soon or not, he needs diapers now. I did not relish the idea of paying $20 a diaper again for larges, and I refuse to buy disposables until he is wearing underwear so I decided to find a cheaper option.

When we first started cloth diapering, I bought a dozen prefolds from Cotton Babies to extend my stash a little. I like them for days at home, but not so much for out-and-about, plus the husband has trouble with folding & Snappi-ing. (Really I think he just doesn't want to do it & uses that as an excuse) He can trifold and put one in a cover, but that can get messy. So prefolds would not be our ideal solution for toddler diapers.
I had heard of turning prefolds into fitted diapers but most tutorials use a serger and I don't have one. Then I found this one. No serger required and I've had so much fun searching for fabric and making them over the weekend!

*Warning: From this point on this post gets a little picture heavy*

I started out using flannel but flannel pills up pretty bad after its washed a couple times so I wanted to try a cotton knit for the outer. I like that a lot better. It holds up better and its so soft.

This is what I have so far, all flannel. (By the time this posted there was another one not pictured, made from the cotton knit.)

This is one of my favorites.

Here is the inside, with the extra soaker and extended wings.

An owl print, another favorite. Its a bit girly but these will be passed on, hopefully to a girl *wink* and I change them & I wash them so only I see them. I don't think it matters.

A *REAL* denim diaper. I think it turned out great. This one has no extra soaker because denim can rub.

I used Gerber prefolds on these to practice, but I plan to buy some GMD prefolds soon, which are a little better quality. In case you are curious, this is how much it costs to make these. I can get 4 diapers out of one yard of fabric.

Prefolds: $36/ dozen

Flannel: $4/ yard

Cotton knit: $9.99/ yard

Elastic: $1.95/ 5 yards (it takes very little to make a diaper)

Thread: $3/ more than enough for a bazillion diapers

Diaper Pins: $1.00/ 4 pins

So how do they work? I'll let you know in Part 2!

Want an Update??

Good! Because I finally have time to write one! TONS has happened since I last really updated you guys. My first semester of Nursing finally ended a couple weeks ago. I made a B which I'm pretty happy with considering lots of people failed and I got sick right in the middle and got really behind. I got dehydrated in spite of drinking an appropriate amount of water and was passing out so my doctor admitted me to the hospital. This was at the end of October and I still don't have any answers about a cause. As long as I keep Powerade handy, I'm usually ok now though.

Now for the update you really want! Cooper! My baby will be 2 this month. I really can't believe its been almost 2 years since he was born. It went entirely too fast! He can count to 3 all by himself now! I hope to get this on video to post soon. We'll see how that goes.. He knows blue and green and doesn't seem to care about any other colors. He has been speaking in complete sentences for quite a while now. I swear his vocabulary is larger than my husbands *snicker* He amazes me everyday with how smart he is and how fast he learns. It seems like just yesterday all he could say was mama and dada.

He is outgrowing most of his one-size cloth diapers, which means I get to buy more!! I'm kinda excited about that, but I found a much cheaper way to do it. And its going to get its own post :)

It wouldn't be an update post without a recent picture so here are a couple!

This was our Christmas card picture. If you look close his horse is pretending to be a reindeer, but his antlers blended into the tree :)

Here is Cooper playing in the snow on Christmas day! We had our very first white Christmas here in East Tennessee!

Do You Miss Me?

If so I have a great surprise for you! No, I am not back quite yet, but it will be very soon! But I did write a post a while back for The Cloth Diaper Whisperer, a very popular cloth diapering blog. And they posted it on Monday (which was also mine and Jerry's 2 year wedding anniversary)! So while you are waiting patiently for me to return to normal blogging, you can read that post here! And let me know what you think :)

Just to Make You Happy

While I am still on my little blog break for another week at least, to keep from being continually harassed (lovingly of course) by Mama Bear I am posting a few pictures. And just for Mama Bear (who is not so thrilled about the idea of trying cloth diapering, suggested by her husband) every picture includes a cloth diaper :)

The Kit Kat all over Cooper's face matches his diaper :)

We LOVE this wool cover. It plus a hemp fitted is our one and only night time diaper now!

Can you guess which holiday this was taken on? ;) We received the BabyLegs free with an order from GoGo Natural. They have AMAZING customer service, and so many lovely green products, not just cloth diapers. Check them out! You won't be sorry!

There you go Mama Bear! A post just for you! I hope this will tide you over until I can come back to my poor neglected blog full time.

The Lovely World of Prefolds

Tuesday, I received my order from Cotton Babies and spent the rest of the evening and well into the night pre-washing so I could use them on Wednesday. With prefolds, they must be washed 3-4 times to get out the "natural oils" and to reach maximum absorbancy. At about 3 AM Wednesday morning my prewashing was finished, and I folded the diapers and went to bed.

Wednesday I got up excited to put him in his new diapers. The Thirties covers I got are so cute!! I will talk about them first. They dry QUICK, have adorable colors and a few patterns, and are easy to adjust/fasten. Unfortunately Cooper figured out very quickly how to unfasten them, but I snaps get on my nerves. I like being able to get the perfect fit with the aplix(velcro). It was fairly easy to remind (over and over at first) that we do not take off our diaper and show our pee-pee. He is getting it. I don't think it will be an issue. And even if it turns out to be, I will be using my pockets (Smartipants) mostly when we are out and about and they have snaps.

Now on to the prefolds... I opted for Indian prefolds instead of Chinese because they require less prewashing. They are VERY absorbant. I love that about them. But they are also very thick and kinda bulky. (I got the premium ones. Maybe that is a contributing factor to the bulkiness.) The first time I put one on Cooper and set him down to walk, he took one step and stumbled because he just wasn't used to the bulkiness between his legs. He quickly adjusted though, and seems perfectly happy in them now! They have some disadvantages, namely the bulkiness, but for the cost and to mainly use around the house, I am very happy with my purchase! I will post pictures of Cooper sporting his new dipes as soon as I get a chance. With the lovely Summer semester starting, my blog posts may start to be few and far between, but I will try my best to do better than that!

In other potty related news...

COOPER PEE-PEED IN THE POTTY!!! on Wednesday morning. He is by no means potty-trained and I know that, but this is one step closer and that makes for a very happy mama :D

A VERY Fluffy Butt!

I attempted cloth for the first time overnight Sunday night. I double-stuffed his Smartipants diaper and hoped for the best. Look how fluffy that butt is double-stuffed!!


When we woke up, guess what! He was DRY!!! Well the diaper was soaked but our sheets were dry!!! It didn't leak! His disposables leak overnight frequently so I am excited about this!! I have something else in the works for overnight, but I will blog about it when the time comes. For now I'll leave you with this picture of the sleeping baby :)

Cloth Wipes

I had another "out" I had given myself when deciding to try cloth diapering that I didn't mention before, and that was that I didn't have to use cloth wipes, too. I could still cloth diaper and use disposable wipes. Well, as I've started cloth diapering I've realized it just makes sense to use cloth wipes, too! Its actually more work for me to use disposables! I can hear what you are thinking. "WHAT?! How are cloth wipes easier??" and let's don't forget "That is SOOO gross!!"


Well let's think about this, shall we? Yes, we shall because it's my blog. hehehe

• When I change a disposable diaper with disposable wipes, I take off the diaper, wipe his bottom, put the wipes in the diaper, and throw the whole thing in the diaper pail.


• When I change a cloth diaper with disposable wipes, I take off the diaper, wipe his bottom, make sure to keep the wipes separate from the diaper, put the diaper in the pail, and throw the wipes in the trash.


• When I change a cloth diaper with cloth wipes, I take off the diaper, wipe his bottom, put the wipes with the diaper, and throw it all in the pail.

Now, if I'm going to cloth diaper, which of those sounds the simplest to you?? Yes, I have to wash the wipes, but I'm washing the diapers anyway!! Its a no brainer for me. So this week I ordered more dipes and I also ordered some cloth wipes, and then I thought, I can MAKE wipes! So while I will be keeping the wipes I ordered, I also made some this weekend! They are not perfect. I have never claimed to be a seamtress. The seams are not straight, and that is fine with me. They are going to be wiping his bum for goodness sake!

I also made some wipe solution. I used witch hazel, jojoba oil, tea tree oil, and lavender oil. It smells pretty good, and it gets the job done! I put it in a spray bottle, spritz a little on his bottom and wipe! Some people dipe their wipes in the solution and put them in a wipe warmer, but this is what works for us. Its also much easier on-the-go. I have a little 2 oz. bottle of my solution with my wipes and I don't have to worry about putting the clean wipes in waterproof bag. (The ones I made are too big to fit into a wipes case.) I just throw the dirty ones in the wetbag.

So this is the newest update in our cloth diapering journey! I hope you are enjoying taking the journey with us :)

Somebody Pinch Me!

** Did you notice that the previous post was my 100th?? I'm so excited about it!

Ok, on to the actual post..

Money is often a source of conflict in my marriage. My husband is an impulse buyer, although he has improved this since we first got married. (He demonstrated this by buying a dixie horn for his Jeep last week) I am not an impulse buyer. I do my research, make sure that I get the exact product I want and then research to find the best price. I demonstrated this last night my making an Excel spreadsheet of all of the things I will need to cloth diaper full time, along with the store to get it at and its price. This gave me the total amount of money I will need for the purchase. Before telling my husband said total, I told him to remember that I had cut this down to what I thought was the bare minimum to be able to do this conveniently. I then added up an estimate of what we had already spent on diapers. I was generous and said about $30 a month for diapers and wipes. $30 a month for 16 months comes out to $480!! Well my list total (including an Ergo carrier and the matching backpack as a present to myself) was about $440. And it will last until potty training!! I did include a diaper sprayer, pail liner, and a few other things that might not be completely "necessary" but will make the transition more convenient for me. MY HUSBAND SAID OK! I was in shock! I was bracing for an argument big time. I figure when he heard the total his head would explode, but he actually said that was FINE with him! He may be up to something and just trying to distract me from it, but for right now I am blissfully unaware :)

The Scoop on the Poop

I hope you are interested in my adventure into cloth diapering, because I like sharing about it. If it doesn't interest you, feel free to not read these posts. You won't hurt my feelings a bit :)


If you are still reading, I must warn you this post is about poop and may contain some TMI. If you have a weak stomach regarding poop, please look away now.


Now, on to the poop. Last night I had to change my first poopy cloth diaper. It was EASY! Just as easy as disposables for sure! I removed the diaper just as usual. Wiped his wee bottom, just as usual. (We are still using disposable wipes for the moment. I plan to get some cloth wipes when I get more diapers.) I put a clean diaper on his bottom and threw the wipes in the trash. As Cooper went on his marry way, no doubt to go find something to make a mess of, I took the dirty diaper to the bathroom. I plan on getting a diaper sprayer soon, but right now I'm making due with what we have. What we have is one of those shower heads that you can move around because they are attached to a flexible hose. Something like this. So since our toilet is right by the bath tub, I sprayed off the poop into the toilet with the shower head. Cooper's poop resembles clay is sorta stubborn about sticking to the diaper so the help of the water was very useful. After I sprayed off the poop, I took the diaper to the pail. It just so happens that diaper was the last clean we had so it was time to do laundry!

I took pail liner (also known as a pillow case for now) full of diapers to the laundry room, dumped the diapers into the washer and threw in the pillow case pail liner after them. I did a cold rinse with no spin cycle so the diapers would be heavier during the next cycle and trick my HE washer into using more water. Since I don't have that many diapers, I also threw in a couple towels for the same reason. Next I put in a scoop of my Rockin Green into the place for the soap and did a warm/cold wash cycle with an extra rinse to avoid any build up that might cause irritation. The diapers came out spotless! And smelled so good! Because we were expecting rain last night, I hang the diapers and liners on several hangers to dry overnight in the laundry room. This morning the were waiting on me to stuff them with the liners!

I'm definitely addicted. This is way easier than I thought. I HATE laundry, but this laundry was NOTHING! If you are on the edge about trying cloth, just buy a few and give a shot! You will be surprised how much you like it :)

ETA:: This is my 100th post!!! Personally I love that I celebrated this milestone by writing about poop ;)

Cloth Diapering: An Update

Cloth diapering is going great! Cooper seems to really like it, and it hasn't been as gross as I thought it might. I had given myself a couple "outs" when I decided to try cloth. They were (1) I could use sposies when going out and (2) I could use sposies overnight. Well last night my brother took us out to eat and I decided to use my cloth. I put him in a shirt and just let him wear a matching diaper. It was ADORABLE! But it was not hard at all to use cloth on the go. They take up a little bit more room in my diaper bag, but that's ok. Just an excuse to buy a bigger bag ;) In regards to "out" number 2, we did use a sposie last night. We only have 6 cloth diapers right now,and therefore not enough to use them full time. When I get enough to go cloth full time, we will not be keeping sposies in the house anymore. (Well we might keep a few for "just in case") I LOVE this so far. I'm definately hooked. I really look forward to getting more and using cloth full time! My husband's sister is graduating tonight and we are going to use cloth at the graduation. I will let you know how it goes! So far, so good :)

Here is Cooper's cute tush and his Uncle Ty at dinner last night.

I've Never Been So Excited to Do Laundry!

My Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper Detergent came in the mail today! Time to wash the diapers!

Here is my detergent, pail refresher dtuff, cute little laundry scoop, and samples to try different fragrances

And here is my make-shift clothes line that I am using until someone makes me a real one :)
Bungie cords and speaker wire. Is that redneck or what??

As soon as they are dry we get to start using cloth! I'm sooo excited to get his little bottom out of all those chemicals!

Look What Came in the Mail!!

FLUFFY MAIL!!

Look at that fluffy butt :D

Fluffy Butts

If you haven't already seen my many tweets yesterday proclaiming this...



I have successfully bribed my husband into trying cloth diapering! I told him he could buy in Jeep accessories what I spend in diapers ;)



So yesterday I ordered 6 Smartipants diapers and some extra inserts. I am excited! I can't wait to get them!!! Cooper will soon have a fluffy butt! (Atleast part time for now)



Thank you ZooKeeperJess for all of your help :)