Monday, August 30, 2010

Making Diapers

I've been meaning to try for quite a while now and last week I finally did it. I made some fleece diaper covers (2 in 2 different sizes) and 2 fitted diapers. I could not be more proud of myself if I tried. I want to make sure I like them before making many more, but it was simple as can be, plus it allows me to use the prefolds I already have as inserts. I want to try a few more different types as well...but just making the ones I did I consider quite a triumph! I attribute it to my virus in my eye and the fact that I was avoiding being near my son the entire time my in laws were caring for him, so what's a girl to do. I needed something to keep my mind off itching my eye and going crazy (as my in laws do tend to do this to me) and sure enough diapers came out of it :) I think I'm in love. It allows me to change up my collection at a very very VERY affordable cost and takes away the urge to buy more diapers! A feat that I thought was insurmountable!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Night time....

I know I've been MIA for..well...a few months. Moving and not having internet are the main reasons. Ah well.

So I know that I have been a big proponent of not using the cloth diapers at night out of ease. Somewhere in my mind I had the notion that to use the cloth diapers at night I would have to buy something special or else my son (who is a fairly heavy wetter) would leak everywhere (truth be told I only have 2 sheets for his bed, both of which came in one of those bedding sets). I did NOT want to deal with the cleanup involved with a leaky diaper at night. Therefore, the first 6 months of his life I would use the cloth diapers during the day and after his bath would put him straight into a disposable diaper.

Looking back, the easiest time to use cloth at night would have been when he was a newborn. I mean I was already changing his butt every 2- hours anyhow, and he was exclusively breastfed (EBF), which meant I didn't need to do anything with poopy diapers. I wish I had seen the light then, and this was the time period where I went through the most diapers at night...now he basically sleeps through the night, meaning 1 diaper, not the 5-6-8 diapers we were going through before!

This weekend I got inspired. I was surfing one of the BBC discussion boards and a mom on there asked a questions. And the ladies, my virtual experts (ie more experienced moms than me) stated "Use what you have on hand. You don't need to buy anything fancy." Well...this statement inspired me. I thought 'Sure. Right. I don't have to buy anything fancy. I have been using this as a crutch to avoid going all in.' I looked at my husband and he basically told me I could do whatever I wanted, but I was also going to be the one to clean up any mess which may ensue due to the bug up my butt.

Saturday night was it. THE night. I put my Thirstie Duo 2 up to the largest setting, so it would accomodate the extra bulk. And man oh day! Did I ever have extra bulk!! I used a brown edged Green Mountain prefold with a Orange edged on trifolded inside. I then put a flip insert against my son and snappied it all together. Put it in the Cool Stripes Cover and I was set. And his butt was sooo large that his feet didn't touch the ground. I laughed and he looked at me with a look in his eyes that said "mom, you seriously expect me to sleep like this, I can't even roll into my favorite position!" I took a few pictures and called my husband to come in and look any my handy work. Well, he put his foot down. Said remove enough of the bulk so that your son will actually go to sleep. I hesitated, and removed the Orange edged prefold, really wanting the stay dry part of the Flip insert against my sons rear (I'm a big fan of sleep and really didn't want to give it up because I was trying cloth at night). Then satisfied with my work, into his fleece sleep sak he went (figuring if we did spring a leak, maybe it would salvage the bed). My son woke up at 4. I picked him up, felt his bed...DRY! Nursed him and back down he went. He didn't wake up then until 7. Success!! We did it!

I was so thrilled with my "discovery" that we repeated again last night. Again this morning: Success!My husband claims he'll still be using a disposable at night, but give me time and slowly I will rid my house of virtually all diaper waste ;) Then he will have no choice!

My lesson learned this weekend: You don't need to buy fancy diapers and doublers and such to use cloth at night. All you need you probally have on hand.