a bit of randomness

...  we finally went to ikea on saturday.  i've been putting this off for a while because it always seems like a trip there takes up the whole day even though we live less than an hour away.  the biggest thing we wanted to get was a dresser for the baby's room.  we also got some new kitchen chairs and a bench and we got a small table for avery to play at or color on.  charlie and i put the majority of the stuff together that night after avery went to bed and he and avery assembled the dresser on monday.  she loves to help with this stuff, it's so cute to see her grab the screw driver and try and put things together.  

...  avery's been into carrying things around the house lately.  the heavier the object the more exciting it is to relocate.  some of her favorites are the kitchen stool, her little chairs, and her kitchen chair.  for a little kid she's pretty strong!

...  the cats are still very popular playmates.  she likes to bring them toys until she's decided they have enough and then she'll sit down and pile the toys on top of the cat.  it's sort of a game to see how long they'll sit still in one place.  

...  i got avery a camelback this weekend in hopes that it would be the solution to my leaky sippy cup problem and also stop her from constantly drinking out of my water bottle instead of hers.  she loves it.  i have no idea why they say these are for kids 3 and up as they work the same way as the sippy cups that are sold for infants, but it does a great job of not leaking and avery's not exactly easy on these things.  she's also excited to have a water bottle like mommy's and daddy's.  she'll point to each of them and say, "mommy's", "daddy's", and "avery's".  very excited to have a non-leaking water bottle to bring for her on our vacation.  it really is the little things.  

...  i've noticed over the past few weeks that avery really hates being dirty.  if her hands are dirty, she'll demand a napkin to clean them off, she'll also ask to wash her hands throughout the day.  and she really hates having an animal hair on her.  if she happens to get one on her foot or hand she'll come running over saying "hair, hair", which means "get this hair off of me immediately".  in this picture she was wiping her water bottle off each time that she took a drink between bites of macaroni and cheese.



...  i'm in the third trimester of this pregnancy.   i can't believe that it's going by so fast!  i'm blaming chasing avery around and a summer that's been really busy.  i'm still feeling really good, although i feel way bigger this time around and am a little worried about how big this baby is going to be in 13 more weeks!  i'm also really enjoying this second baby where i'm not worried about buying a million things from babies r us.



...  avery's gotten really into FaceTime as of late.  she loves talking to people and is pretty good at interacting with them, playing peek-a-boo and such.  i can't explain how amazing it's been to have this technology help us connect with people who are so far away.   she's still missing her grandpa who was visiting last weekend and has even picked up a few of the tricks that he taught her when he was out here.



...  we're currently borrowing a few workhorses's from a friend.  i'm in love with these diapers.  i ordered 2 dozen of the newborn size for the new baby and i'm really excited to prep them and use them.      my tiny kid is currently using the mediums with room to spare, which is proof that we'll never really need the larger sizes that the one size diapers provide (still on the second rise in Bum Genius 4.0 and Flips, too). 

cloth diapering v.3

last time i left off we were now dealing with a baby who ate solid foods and still loving our prefolds and covers.  we were still using the 2 dozen small prefolds that i ordered before avery was born and trifolding them into the diapers.  i loved this method of cloth diapering for us because it was super easy, i could do laundry every 3 days, and i really love cotton for diapers.  cotton is so low maintenance, you can use diaper creams with it (although we never needed to), they dry quickly, and there's no folding or stuffing to worry about after they come out of the dryer.  however, once avery started crawling i had a problem with the trifolded prefold inside the cover because it wouldn't stay in place as well.  ours kept popping out of the top of the diaper cover.  unfortunately using a snappi or pins wasn't an option with the small diaper since my tiny girl was finally large enough where the diaper couldn't fit around her.  i started looking at other options for diapers and considered just ordering some medium prefolds because i really do love them.  however, one of the things i don't love about cloth diapers is their bulk, especially with a girl, i've had a hard time getting pants to fit over them.  i looked into other, slightly trimmer cloth diaper options and landed on pockets since they tend to be trimmer but you can still stuff them with whatever you want making them as absorbent as you need them to be.  

i looked into cotton options because i really do love cotton but they tended to be pretty pricy.  i finally ended up trying to decide between the bum genius 4.0 one size and the fuzzibunz one size elites.  they're both one size diapers, which is something i definitely wanted for the money saving benefits.  i was leaning towards the bum genius since the covers i was previously using were the flip covers, which are made by the same company and fit the same way.  however, i ended up with the fuzzibunz because they're lined with a mircofleece vs. the microfiber that lines the bum genius.  i read that some babies have problems with the mircofiber and that it can be an ezcema irritant.  since avery's had some sensitive skin issues when she was little i decided to go with the fuzzibunz.  i originally ordered a 3 pack so that i could try them out before ordering more.  i know that there are several retailers out there that offer trials but i suck at returning things so i decided it wasn't worth the hassle.


a flip cover with a prefold.


fuzzibunz one size elite.

there are a lot of things i love about the fuzzibunz compared to using a prefold and a cover.  

1.  i love that the diapers are trimmer.
this has been especially helpful now that it's winter and she's wearing pants pretty much every day.
2.  i love that they basically go on like a disposable.  avery is terrible during diaper changes.  she rolls and screams and basically does everything she can to make it a miserable time, pinning her down with one arm, while trying to arrange a prefold and a cover on a sqwirming baby isn't easy and most often did not make for the best arrangement of the prefold in the cover.  the fuzzibunz are pretty easy to put on a moving baby, there are three snaps on each side instead of the two like a lot of covers but i don't find this an issue.  i had the snap closures with our flip covers and definitely would buy them again.  i hate velcro.
3.  i also like that the fleece keeps her a little drier than cotton does.  it wicks the moisture away from the diaper to the insert.  i never had diaper rash issues with cotton prefolds, but if she's in a diaper for a long time it's nice to know that it's not super wet against her skin.
4.  also, avery's slimmed down a lot since she started crawling and the fuzzibunz seem to fit her better.  i occasionally use a flip cover with a hemp insert or a prefold and there are some pretty big gaps around the leg holds.  i've never had leaking issues because the inserts i'm using are really absorbent, but the fuzzibunz to seem to fit better without being tight or leaving marks on her legs.  
5.  they're easier when traveling.  it's just easier to grab a pocket diaper than a prefold and a cover and it takes up way less space in my purse.  i don't use a diaper bag because all i ever really bring when we're out is an extra diaper and an aden & anais blanket.



flip cover with a prefold.

there's also some things that i'm not in love with.  
01. this isn't fuzzibunz specific but i don't love (in fact i sort of hate) stuffing the pocket diapers.  with the prefolds and covers when laundry was done i just threw it in the dresser drawer, but with pockets i have to stuff the inserts into the diapers before they're good to go.  the flip side is that then i can put the diaper on without having to worry about a diaper insert and cover.
02.  i don't like the way they adjust.  the adjusting elastic is a huge pain in my opinion.  yes, you only have to do this once in a while, but still, it sucks.  also, i have to make sure the fleece on the back is covering the button, otherwise it'll rub on her skin.
03.  they're expensive.  they're not the most expensive and i really believe they save us a bunch of money, but it's a lot of money to drop all at once.  i did get a pretty good deal from the fuzzibunz site when i ordered them & i did a lot of shopping around to see which site was cheapest.  fuzzibunz won only because i think they were having a 20% off sale when i ordered another dozen after our initial 'trial' with the 3 pack.

overall, i'm happy that i made the switch to pockets and it's worked out well for avery. i was worried about having laundry issues since cotton is so low maintenance and synthetic fibers are not.  i don't use any special cloth diaper detergents, i just use the free and clear stuff that we've always used for our clothes & avery's too.  i only add a tiny, tiny bit of detergent.  i do this with clothes, too as you really don't need much in general. also, we don't have a high efficiency washer.  i know some people love their's but i've heard they can be sort of high maintenance especially when dealing with diapers.  and although they look so fancy and pretty i've been very happy with our water guzzling washer that came with our house.

cloth diapering v.2

i figured i should do another post about cloth diapering since we started avery on solid foods and things have changed ever so slightly.  first i should say that i still love, love, love cloth diapering.  despite our late start and small stash i still think that for us this has been a great solution and i will definitely continue with our setup until it doesn't work for us for one reason on the other.



so a little bit of background.  we started avery on solids around 6 months.  before that she was exclusively breastfed, which meant that cloth diapering was super easy as i could just throw all the diapers in the wetbag and wash when it was full.  when we started solids, it took a few weeks for things to change but when they did i had no choice but to dunk the diapers in the toilet to wash off the poop before throwing them in the wetbag.  this was the time when i started looking at both liners and sprayers as an option to toilet dunking.  i had always thought that we would go the liner route and i did purchase some g diaper liners from babies r us.  but when i got them home i didn't even end up using them because i found them to be really rough (like a public restroom paper towel) and i couldn't imagine that would be comfortable for avery.  so i continued to dunk while i looked at diaper sprayers.  i looked all over amazon and other diaper websites looking for something that wasn't $60 because it just didn't seem like it would be worth the money.  and then i realized that i was actually fine with just dunking the diapers.  most of the time it's not that dirty and honestly i've dealt with much grosser things AND it's free.  i think cloth diapers are amazing, and the fact that there are so many options these days makes it even better.  they're cute, they work better than disposables, but they can be pretty expensive.  and i think if you're in it to save money you have to be pretty careful with the options that you choose.  so far i'm still really happy with our two dozen prefolds and they keep getting softer and more absorbent each time i wash them.  since avery's pretty small we're still on the middle rise for the flip covers and using small prefolds.  when she eventually moves up (probably soon) to the highest rise we may end up investing in some medium size ones.



i should also mention that we're still using a disposable at night and if we're going to be out of the house for a long period of time.  we had friends in town the other weekend and because we were running all over the place, hiking, etc. i just used disposables the entire weekend.  i'm not about to carry a bunch of cloth diapers up a mountain, as carrying a crying baby is heavy enough.  so, while i can't claim to be a hardcore cloth diaperer, i still love it.  especially the pink ones.    

cloth diapering v.1

6 months and chunky.  a flip cover and small prefold.

i mentioned way back when i was pregnant with avery that we were planning on cloth diapering and then i never said anything else about it.  i figured i would write a bit about what it's been like for us to cloth diaper a breastfed baby.  

i'm going to be completely honest.  i bought a cloth diaper stash, prepped all the diapers before avery came, and then .... didn't start cloth diapering until avery was 3.5 months old.  there were a few reasons for this.  the biggest was that i was nervous about diving into it all:  putting the diapers on, washing them, etc. was all overwhelming and the few times that i had tried when she was younger the diapers looked so big and bulky and just, not right, that i gave up and went back to using disposables.  i finally started because i spent a decent amount of money on the diapers and was beyond annoyed that i was wasting money by not using them.  

when i was pregnant i started researching cloth diapers and found that there were so many different options out there.  i honestly think this is great but also beyond overwhelming when you're trying to look into something.  also, a lot of diapers are expensive (some are over $20 a diaper) and if you've never done it before that can seem like a huge investment to make before you even know if a system is going to work out for you.  in the end i decided to go the cheapest route:  prefolds with PUL covers.  i bought 2 dozen small organic indian unbleached cotton prefolds from green mountain diapers and 6 thirsties duo covers in size one.  this is a way smaller 'stash' that anyone recommends starting out with but it's been the perfect amount for us.  

i hadn't planned on starting cloth diapering until avery's cord fell off and even then because the prefolds are so thick (something i love now) and avery was so tiny, they were huge on her.  i probably should have started with the newborn size or some fitteds, but again i had no idea what i was doing and was trying to save money and not invest in something she could only use for a few weeks.  

about 3.5 months old in a thirsties duo.  so small and so cute!

by the time i started when she was 3.5 months old and probably about 12 pounds the size one thirsties duo's were about maxed out in size.  i looked around for some different covers and ended up finding flips on sale at cotton babies (buy 2 get one free).  i ordered 6 of them and absolutely love them.  the thirsties covers i had were aplix closures and the flips i ordered are snaps and i have to say that i like the snaps much better.  i skip the pins and snappis and just trifold the prefold into the cover and then put the whole thing on like you would a disposable.  the small size refolds are still working really well at this point even though avery's way passed the size recommendation for them.  she's currently still using the middle rise on the flips so we'll see if we have to order some medium prefolds when she moves to the highest rise.    

for us i've found that the cloth diapers fit her better than disposables and we never have leaks or blowout with cloth.  i haven't tried a bunch of disposable brands (we've used 7th generation and earth's best) so there may be some out there that fit her better than the ones we've tried.

once we started the 2 dozen prefolds and 6 covers were more than enough and i do laundry about every third day.  i have two large planet wise wet bag that i throw dirty diapers in and wash with the diapers.  since avery was exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, laundry was really easy.  i just threw the diaper in the wet bag, no rinsing or spraying necessary, and when laundry time came i dumped everything in the wash for first a cold rinse and then a hot wash with detergent.  as far as detergent goes i never bought special diaper detergent, but just use our regular stuff.  it's perfume and dye free and seems to do a great job of cleaning the diapers.  we've never had staining problems.  i don't dry the covers, but the bag and the prefolds go into the dryer.  

i originally had 3 reasons for cloth diapering.  

1.  it saves money.  

seriously.  a ton of money.  the amount of money i spent on our whole cloth diaper stash i less than it costs us to do 2 months in disposables.  crazy.  

 2.  it's better for the environment.  

i've heard quite a few arguments against this one, the biggest being energy usage.  and while i've never done the math i would say when you look at the energy used to manufacture all of those deposable diapers and then the money to package them and ship them to various stores and then think of the landfill space they're taking up, it really doesn't even seem close.  

3.  it's cotton on my baby.

avery has sensitive skin and had eczema when she was younger.  i think cotton has helped both of those issues.  

eating a peach in telluride.

i will say that we still use a disposable at night and when we travel.  4 days in telluride with no washer and dryer meant we brought a pack of disposables instead of figuring out a way to do cloth.  as far as night goes i just haven't quite ventured into that world yet.  i've looked at a lot of options and i haven't moved forward with anything yet.  i'm not ruling it out, but i'm not sure what direction we're going to go.  also, sometimes clothes are difficult to fit over the diaper.  certain brands are better and i actually think that boys clothes are better than girls.  whoever decided that babies should wear skinny jeans never had one.  summer is great because dresses and one-pieces are really easy and work well with cloth diapers.  plus, the diapers look pretty cute under a dress.  pants are the hardest and i have shopped in the boys section just to get wider pants.  

overall, i still get annoyed when i think that it took me so long to jump into cloth diapering but i've really enjoyed doing it.  while it's worked out for us, i think part of the reason that it's been successful is that we don't feel pressure to do it 100% of the time.  sometimes i don't get a chance to wash the diapers one night because i pick sleep over laundry and she spends a few hours the next day in disposables and that's fine with me.  i figure each diaper i do is making a difference but using a disposable is just fine, too.  

cloth diapers: the beginning

this might be really boring for anyone except abby but i told her i'd keep her posted on this stuff and here's what we've got before the baby comes.  

we're planning on cloth diapering.  i have no idea exactly how this is going to work out for us yet.  obviously i'd love to do this exclusively but between daycare and traveling i'm sure we'll be mixing some disposables in.  our daycare will use cloth diapers, which is great, i'm just not sure if i'll be able to keep up with all of the laundry while working full time.  the plan right now is to try it and go from there.  although we'll definitely be cloth diapering when at home.  

honestly, i already knew that this was something i wanted to do before we really even talked about it but the current options for cloth diapering were more than a little overwhelming.  the amount of time i spent researching options is actually a little disgusting.  i think of all the meals i could have cooked during this time.  

in the end i decided to try prefolds and covers as opposed to all in ones.  this was a combination of factors but i think it all is a matter of personal preference.  i ordered the small size organic, indian cotton prefolds from green mountain diapers (i figured for $0.33 i can support organic farming).  sizing was another decision, but i decided to skip the newborn size prefolds mostly to save money.  i figured the smalls would last us longer, although watch us have a super small baby.  i'm hoping i don't regret this.  

i ordered 2 dozen prefolds to start.  here they are before 'prepping'.

and here they are after.  fat, fluffy, and much smaller.

as far as covers go we're starting with 6 of the thirsties duos.  

i'm sure that i'll end up ordering both more prefolds and covers but i wanted to start with smaller amounts so we can make sure each of these work for us before ordering a whole bunch.  i picked the thirsties duo because they're adjustable which means we'll only need 2 sizes throughout the whole diapering journey.  

i also liked that with these covers you don't have to use diaper pins or snappis, you can just fold the prefold into the cover and then put the whole thing on like an all in one or a disposable.  i'm hoping that this method works well with leaks, otherwise we'll use diaper pins and and then put the cover on top.  

here are the covers we're starting with.

we'll see how these all work out.  i'm actually pretty excited about using cloth diapers.  it helps that i like doing laundry and don't really have to fold anything.  charlie's pretty skeptical that this is going to save us money in the long run although we've spent a little over $100 at this point and theoretically these supplies could last us about 6 months.  i'm sure we'll end up ordering more and obviously there's the cost of laundry, which is a little tricker to calculate, but i'm being optimistic.