Washing My Cloth Diapers

      

Well the days of washing my diapers with a lot of hot water, and a Tbs of baking soda are over!! Yes I am excited about laundry detergent! I placed an order a few days ago for some Rockin' Green, and got it in the mail today. Now I wish I did not have all my diapers clean, because I can not wait to try this stuff out. All of the reviews I looked at raved about how full of awesomeness this stuff was!

If you don't already know you never ever want to wash your diapers like you would wash your clothes. The soap can build up in the diapers, and cause them to smell, repel, and break down. Now don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with the way that I was washing mine, but honestly it was not very eco friendly. Here is how it went. I dumped the diapers out of the wet bag into the washer, and turned the wet bag inside out dropped it in the wash, made sure my washer was on the hottest, and highest water level setting, dropped in a tbs of baking soda, and left the lid opened so they could soak for about an hour. Closed the lid, and let the cycle run. I then repeat two more time minus the baking soda. Wow Thats a lot of water.

I am hoping with Rockin' Green I can wash them once and be done. I will update you on my date with Rockin' Green sometime tomorrow, because of course I have to wash all over again tonight, and I can't wait!!!! No I am not being sarcastic.

I forgot what?

Last night after getting all three kids in bed, I decided to sit down, and watch a show that I DVRed to unwind a little bit before I cleaned the kitchen up, and set out Mariah's stuff for the next day. I could not have been more than ten minutes into the show before I fell asleep. I woke up this morning around 6:30 on the couch of course. You think that I would have gotten up, and got the things done that I did not do last night, but no. I decided that it would be a better idea to watch the show before the kids got up.

 The girls woke up about 10 minuets after seven, good I still had half an hour before Mariah's bus would be here to carry her of to school. Everything was going great, and moving along just fine until I realized that it was a little chilly out side, and Mariah need some tights. It's been 100 plus degrees here everyday for the past two months, so where did this chilly weather come from all of the sudden? I search the house from top to bottom trying to find a pair of tights that either fit her, or do not have a hole. I manage to find a pair. Good I still have 10 minuets before the bus, so I get her hair done have her go brush her teeth, and wash her face, because she always manages to have a dirty face somehow.

Well of course as usual she can not find her shoes, and I tell her like I do every morning "If you put them on the fire place like you are supposed to we won't have this problem now would we?". She finds them in her room of course. Now to get out the door and get her on the bus, but wait where are my shoes? Yes I shamelessly had to ask my girls to help me find my shoes after I just scolded my oldest about hers. I find my shoes of all places under the computer desk. Finally we get out the door and move on(I even managed to snap a few pictures). Outside we saw  the bus waiting on one of the side streets to pull out into traffic. I say my goodbyes to her, and she turns around and says "Mommy I don't have my back pack" OH NO! I don't have time to run all the way back to the house and get it the bus is here. I tell her to just go I will send her teacher an email.

(Don't you just love when 4 year olds get themselves dressed?)

How sad is that? One change in my routine, and its like a domino effect in my life. One day I will learn to be more organized, but until then I just take everything in stride.

Cloth Wipes, wish I would have switched sooner.

After a few weeks of picking shriveled disposable wipes off my microfiber inserts, I decided to cave and purchase a few cloth wipes to try out. First I checked EBAY, figured I could get cheap diapers there why not wipes too. Nope not happening the ones that I looked at one SINGLE wipe would have been more than a diaper. Despite never using ETSY, I was hoping that I could find a deal over there, and I did. While searching around trying to find the most bang for my buck I stumbled upon MamaBearBabyWear http://www.etsy.com/people/MamaBearBabyWear?ref=ls_profile, and I was happy to find sets of 13 for $5.00. I bought two sets, and am very pleased with them, and I am sure I will be getting many more from her in the future. Amy the owner of the shop recently lost her husband, and her sewing allows her to continue to stay home with her children. She also sells Cloth diapers, slings, and many other handmade products. Her shipping is super fast, I had my wipes 2 1/2 days after placing my order!

 As soon as the package came I ripped it opened ready to dive deeper into the cloth diaper venture. The wipes are double layered, and made out of receiving blankets, and other scraps of fabric that Amy had left over from making her other products. They are actually perfect size to fit in a disposable wipes container, however I wanted my wiped to pop up right out of the box, so I accordian folded them to achieve this.

 One of the first things that I did was go online to look up how I could make my own solution for these.Everywhere I looked called for oils, tea tree etc...So I figured I would just use what I had on hand until I could get to the store. My solution consisted of 2 cups of water, 3 pumps of Johnson's natural head to toe baby wash, and 1 tbs of pure vegetable oil,  I just pour it over my stack of wipes on all sides. I'm sure I will just stick with what works for now. My husband was even happy with the wipes, and how one wipe went a lot further than the disposable ones. Cloth wipes are a great addition to cloth diapering, and I really wish I would have started them sooner.

Cloth Diapering for Cheap

I am very new to the "Fluff", and living on one income did not allow me to spend a lot on my diapers. So I did some research, and found out that you can (no kidding) buy one size pocket diapers on EBAY for $.99 with free shipping. I knew there had to be a catch somewhere, well first off the diapers took 3 weeks to get here, because they were shipped from Japan. That's okay though I ordered them way before little man got here, and when they did finally arrive I was pleasantly surprised to find that they came with not one but two microfiber inserts which was a plus in my book. So now all I had to do was wait. Little man was 7lbs 13oz. when he made his arrival VIA C-Section.

No, I did not bring the diapers to the hospital with me, but I could not wait to try them out as soon as I got him home! I found out real quick that the one size does not really mean they will fit a newborn, so I put them up and used sposies for a little while until he put on a little bit of weight. So when he turned 4 months old I pulled them back out and went for another round (he is 14 lbs at this point). They are GREAT no leaks, and they fit him really well adjusted down to the smallest size. I currently have only six that I use on a daily wash rotation, and I have been using them like this for a month. They have stood up really well to washing, despite the microfibers having little fluff balls coming off of them. I have 3 GoGreen Pocket Diapers also, and other than not having two rows of snaps I can not really see much of a difference in the two.

I would love to support WAHM's, but my pocket book just does not allow me to at this time. My next post will be about the mistakes I made washing my diapers at first, so please follow. There will be lots more to come. 

   The Brown minky is GoGreen, and so is the olive, and the black.

The others are the cheap EBAY diapers the tag on the say's Sunny Baby.