Wordless Wednesday: Sibling Love

Has his sister's paci and loving on her. :)

Day 7: Almost complete!

I can't believe we're almost done with the flats and handwashing challenge. In a way I'm kind of sad because it was fun to read everyone's blogs and it was nice talking with everyone on Twitter and Facebook. I'm really excited though to start using my washer and dryer again! I've missed them so much! But since we've had a lot of sun lately I will be using my washer more often than my dryer that's for sure! I'm sure I will have two more loads to do today. I'm about to go do my morning load after I post this, and then I should do one more before bedtime. I didn't think I would make it through the week though. I for sure thought I was going to give up that first day since it was hell trying to get the diapers clean. I'm so glad I stuck to it though, I feel so accomplished.

We also have to keep in mind with this whole challenge was about. If there are people out there struggling and wondering how they can make ends meet I would HOPE they would come across any of the blogs posted for this challenge and see that it is totally possible. I honestly think the best part about CDing is the cloth diaper community it's self. It seems like whenever some one has a problem or feel like they need extra input, the fellow CDers are always willing to help! It's so nice to know we can turn to some one when we are in need. If it were problems with disposables we'd have to turn to the manufactures, and we all know how THAT turns out. *rolls eyes* I now know that this is something that is totally do-able and if I ever was in the position that I needed to do this, I would already know how and I would be totally willing to do it for my babies. No doubt in my mind! It broke my heart hearing the stories of parents leaving their babies in disposable diapers for too long or even letting the disposables air dry after each use just to use them again! I'm sure they meant well, but were not educated enough to realize that it is not healthy and there are other ways to diaper your baby with out putting them in danger of getting sick or worse! This challenge was very humbling, and I feel very blessed to have the things that we have.

Well, I'm off to wash a load of diapers!

That's all for today my fellow fluffy friends!

For more information and rules on the Flats and Handwashing Challenge visit Dirty Diaper Laundry.

Day 5 & 6: Flats on the go!

I didn't make a post yeasterday for day 5 because I was WAY to busy to even sit down, much less post. It was my mother's birthday today so yesterday my aunt took my mom & the kids and I out for lunch! So when I was packing the diaper bag yesterday. I first was thinking of putting my fitteds in there like I always do... DUH you're still taking the challenge, dumby! So instead of paking about 4 fitteds I was able to pack 8 flats! I could have fit more in there but I thought 8 was enough to last us for the outting.

I also perfected the origami fold with the pinch technique. It allowed for a super trim fit and created some AWESOME gussets around the legs. I've grown to love the origami fold now.

So yesterday I didn't do a single load of diapers and man did that come back to bite me in the you know what. I had to do two loads this morning and the second load took me forever because that was a load that had Nate's poopy diaper in it. I will spare you the details, but let's just say that Nate will NOT be eating anymore popcorn until the challenge is over! YUCK! I had to do two wash cycles and then THREE rinse cycles just to get everything out. It was not fun!

Thursday evening we got some bad storms so that meant drying our flats inside! I usually dry them out in the sun and I have been lucky enough to have had sun through out this whole week! Thursday morning I was able to dry some outside but when I did a second load around 4 or 5 I had to dry them inside due to the storms. So the drying rack was placed on top of our pack and play and it worked perfect!

Today we went to my parents house to swim in their pool and I just used a normal flat with a cover like always. Works perfect as a swim diaper. I think that pretty much wraps up day 5 and 6! I'm having a great time doing this challenge but I can't wait to go back to my washer and dryer! My arms, hands, and even my BUTT are killing me! My bottom hurts just from sitting on the edge of our bath tub while washing diapers. haha

That's all for today my fellow fluffy friends!

For more information and the rules on the flats and handwashing challenge please visit Dirty Diaper Laundry.

Day 4 Flats and Handwashing Challenge

I wanted to re-cap a little bit from yesterday as I wasn't able to cover some of the other things I had gotten done. I jinxed myself when I said I would be in for it the next day because right after posting that, BOTH of them had some major poopies! It's okay though, my trusty fleece liners helped me out when putting it in the toilet, came right off with no problems. I tried boiling some water lastnight as well so I could get the poopy diapers really really clean. I boiled a few soap nuts as well for my detergent. If you've never used soap nuts here is the site I have bought mine from. Green Virgin Products, they work great and they last forever! Plus, the bag they come in is nice too, I like to use it to hold small things around the house.

I also went ahead a folded my flats differently which allowed me more room on our changing table. I only use our table for storing the diapers, I don't change my kids on it anymore because they are too big for it now. But it makes great shelving! My stash has litterally been cut in half! The fitteds, pockets, daddy diapers and the rest of the covers are in our room, and I haven't touched them since the challenge! Here's a look at just our flats stash. I also folded them like I used to fold my prefolds. I don't know why I didn't think of doing it that way in the first place! I just pad folded them and they are ready to be used in a hurry.

The rest of the receiving blankets are on the second shelf with the normal flats and the wipes, fleece liners, and the rest of the covers are on the top shelf. The covers that are hanging are the ones that are in rotation. I really am LOVING how simple everything looks and I am even giving my best friend some of our Goodmama fitteds this weekend. She is due in June and I am excited that she has decided to cloth diaper. I am just down the street from her if she ever needs any help. I will just use my flats from now on and the rest of our fitteds and pockets after the challenge.

As for this morning, the kids woke up and Camryn had a little bit of leaking going on and I can't figure out if it was due to the cover or not because the back of the flats were still dry so it really shouldn't have leaked. I guess I will try the cover again tonight and see if it leaks then. Nate woke up dry as can be! But man, his diaper sure did smell! I think I will use some boiling water from now on to try and cut out the stinkies. I've heard a lot of poeple saying that the wet pail method is working great for them and it is also helping them with stinky diapers. So I could probably add that into my routine as well. I also feel like I've got the whole washing process down by now. It's only taking me about 20 minutes to get a full load done, that averages about 10 to 12 diapers.

I also found a video on how to fold a flat in the origami fold to make it tighter around the legs and give it gussests. I had a comment yesterday about someone preferring the origami fold the best and for some reason my computer wasn't letting me comment on anything! I can never get a good fit with the origami fold and I always have extra fabric around the legs so it has never been a trim fit for us, or maybe I just really suck at the origami fold. Anyway, thank you to Trisha Wieber (I don't know her blog or I would link it) for the video! I will most certainly practice this today!

Day 4 is going great and I am really enjoying every part of this challenge. I honestly wanted to cry when I did my first wash and I was thinking, "what the he** did I get myself into?!" BUT... I have figured out all the hard parts and now it's actually kind of fun! This will be a life lesson I will always carry with me, or if I ever go camping at least I'll know how to wash my clothes right? ;)

That's all for today my fellow fluffy friends!

To read more about the Flats and Handwashing Challenge visit Dirty Diaper Laundry. Here is where you can find all the rules: FHWC Rules

Day 3 Flats and handwashing challenge: Trying new things!

So today I figured I would try the diaperbag fold. I must say that it is a trim fit unlike the origami fold, which leaves excess fabric around the legs. I've never heard of it until I took this challenge and I thought I would try it out and give it go! A lot of the CDing moms have been talking about all through out their blogs and it is easier to me than the origami. Although, you can never go wrong with a pad fold! But it's nice to have a good fold for poopy diapers, and it helps to save a cover. The pad fold is really best for pee soaked diapers. So here is a pic of Camryn in a diaper bag fold. I used an old receiving blanket for this, I really should have used a real flat because the snappi was not wanting to grab onto the receiving blanket as nicely as I wanted it to. Please forgive me on the fuzzy pictures, my camera is dead and of course I can't find the batteries!!! Had to use my cell phone.

Here is the video on how to do the diaper bag fold.

Another thing that I tried today was using my daughter's crib to dry their diapers. She co-sleeps with us so the front of her crib has been off and just sitting around in a closet. We pushed her crib up against our bed so she can crawl from her bed to ours no problem! I saw on a blog post yesterday that someone had used it as a drying rack! Why did I not think of this?! Thanks to Christy for the idea from Adventures in Mommyhood! It gave me SO much more drying space. Now maybe all of our diapers won't be all over the house! I will also be able to dry them inside with it if it's rainy out.

Here's a couple of pics of my kiddos this morning in their flats and Econobum covers!

Day 3 has been uneventful... I feel like I might be infor it though tonight or tomorrow as both kids haven't had any bad poopy diapers yesterday or this morning. ;)

That's all for today, fellow fluffy friends! :)



Rules for the Flats and Handwashing Challenge on Dirty Diaper Laundry: Rules for FHWC

Day 2: OH! The places our flats will go!

Congratulations!
Today is day two.
You’re off to a great pace!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have bums in your dipes.
You can hand wash them yourself anyway you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the gal who’ll decide where your flats go.

Seems like since we started this challenge it looks like some sort of cloth diaper fairy has thrown up all over our house! The flats are EVERYWHERE!!!! I'm starting to get the hang of washing them though. I think I cut my time in half this morning compared to when I did my first wash last night. I did this by ONLY washing my flats in the camp style washer and washing my covers in the sink. It seems like everything gets cleaner that way.

I thought for day two I would try to be more thorough with everything I have been doing from washing my flats to where I'm hanging them, even down to what kind of detergent I've been using. I picked up some free & clear laundry detergent called ECOs.

In the background of this picture is my camp style washer which is just a Home Depot paint bucket with a hole cut out in the center of the lid which is where my plunger handle goes through. I also drilled several holes into the plunger so the water can circulate. ECOs detergent has been working GREAT for us, I can feel how clean my diapers are after washing them.

Now I will show you where all of my flats have been hangin' out lately. They've been on the balcony.

They've been in the dinning room on a chair.



They've been in the bathroom and kicked the towels to the sidelines.

They've even been enjoying the southern charm and rocking in the warm breeze, soaking up the sun. I didn't let them have a glass of sweet tea though you know, tea stains...

Our wipes and doublers (for night time only) have found a great place to hang dry and that's in the laundry room on our shelf. They sure do miss that washer, I'm sure of it.

As for bedtime last night, it went great! I just folded two flats into the pad fold and laid them into a Thirsties Duo cover. I LOVE those covers for night time, they are big and the leg gussets help to make a great fit and hold in any poop. I have to say that my fleece liners have came in REALLY handy during this challenge. You can not use a diaper sprayer during the challenge and the fleece helps the poo just drop right into the toilet. Which leaves me with little to almost no poop at all to put into the camp style washer.

I can forsee this challenge turning to a weight loss challenge... why? because that camp style washer is NO JOKE! It is a freakin' work out. My hands and arms have never seen a work out like this before. I will call it The Diaper Weightloss Challenge: How I Lost Weight Washing Diapers By Hand. (kidding of course)

Here is Kim's update for day two and her (very cute might I add) Vlog! Dirty Diaper Laundry

Day 1 of the flats challenge!

First I would just like to say how I am so in love with the cloth diapering community. I am so proud that we all are coming together to show support for families that are at a disadvantage. This challenge will really help open the eyes of parents that are having a hard time keeping their babies bottom covered, just to show that anyone can cloth diaper.

I actually kind of started last night with the challenge. I stuffed two Fuzzi Bunz diapers with two flats each for both my son and daughter with the pad fold of course. I'm SO surprised at how well it worked. They did not have one leak!! This morning when the kids woke up I changed them into a flat with an Econobum cover and I filled my camp style washer half way with some cold water to put the dirty diapers in from the whole day of changing. I learned real quick that I'd rather wash poop diapers in the camp washer only! I don't mind hand washing pee soaked diapers in the sink. So I think my plan from here on out will be to wash the pee soaked diapers in the sink as soon as I change them and let the poop diapers soak in the camp washer. The reasoning for washing them seperate was due to the fact that it simply left too many diapers for me to wash at one time. I guess if you only had one child in cloth diapers it would be easier because the bucket wasn't large enough to thoroughly clean all of them which ended up with me using too much water and taking me forever to do. Maybe I'm doing it the wrong way but I feel my new system might work better for me.

SO! Here is a look at my "flats" stash.

• Two dozen OsoCozy flats
• One dozen Bambino Mio muslin squares (won them at The Great Cloth Diaper Change)
• One dozen receiving blankets
• 10 covers (since I'm diapering two kiddos) that consist of some Econobums, Thirsites Duo covers, one BG pocket used as a cover and one Best Bottom cover.

I also have several fleece liners and wipes pictured. It may seem like over kill having 48 flats, but I use two at one time on both my kids for naps, night time, and outtings. So we really do go through them! I ended up selling about 4 to 5 Goodmama fitteds to purchase my two dozen OsoCozy flats, which ended up getting me about 40 to 50 bucks. I was able to get my two dozen flats and one cover out of it! I'd say that's a great buy!

If you want to join in on the challenge here is all the info you need at Dirty Diaper Laundry.

She'll be a Birthday Princess on June 4th. *tear*

Best pic I could get of her this morning. :)

Got all of her stuff for the party... just a couple more things missing.

Getting ready to take the challenge.

Got an email today from Kim Rosas about getting ready for the flats challenge. Can't believe it already starts next Monday! I really think I need to go ahead and make my camp style washer sometime this week because I really don't think I want to be sticking my hands into poopy diapers. I am fine with hand wash diapers that have only been peed on, but the poopy ones I would just rather stick them in a bucket and wash them that way.

So I now have 2 dozen flats that are fully prepped, plus a dozen muslin squares that I won at the Great Cloth Diaper Change. I've been using them for a few weeks now and they work better than I thought they would. I even use two of them for night time and I still can't believe how much pee they absorb. As for covers I will be alternating between a few Econobums, Thirsties, and I just ordered a Best Bottom cover (been wanting to try this one out for a while) from Sweetbottoms Baby Boutique. I will mainly be using the pad fold since I like that one the best, my kids are too wiggly to be using snappis right now. When it comes to washing, I'm guessing I will be doing it every night before I go to bed. As previously stated I need to make a camp style washer this week and practice using it. I will be washing all the diapers in our bathtub and probably will be hanging them over the shower curtain rod and maybe even our balcony.

A lot of people will be donating their flats to a few non profit cloth diaper organizations after the challenge. I however will be keeping ours since I am mainly using them now for day time use around the house. My kids will usually sleep in a fitted and they will wear one for outings a lot as well. But for the challenge I will be using two flats instead for night time and going out. I can't wait to see everyone's response to the challenge and read everyone's blogs. There are over 300 people taking the challenge and I hope this helps a lot of low income families realize that it truely is a better and a cheaper way to go when it comes to diapering your baby. Not to mention healthier! It blew my mind when I heard about families letting disposables air dry just so they could use them again because they knew they had to choose between buying diapers or buying food. You shouldn't feel trapped when it comes to diapers!

Introduction to my stash and kiddos.

I thought I would let you get a look at my stash and what it consists of today. I say "today" because it is ever changing... I like to try different types of diapers all the time and as of right now it seems I'm really liking flats and fitteds. Flats because I am going to be doing the "Flats Challange" that Kim Rosas from Dirty Diaper Laundry has created. It can be found here Take the Flats and Handwashing Challenge. I have found that flats are really amazing! They are easy to use, they don't hold onto stinks like microfiber does, they dry quickly and they are one of the cheapest ways to go when it comes to cloth diapering. I can honestly say I will always be using flats from here on out. I use fitteds for night time, nap time, and whenever we go somewhere and we know we'll be gone for a while. Fitteds are great for holding in the poo and they are really absorbant. I add a doubler and a fleece liner for night time. SO! Here is a look at the "current stash".

• From the top: "Daddy diapers" are in the white wicker basket and diaper creams, snappis, and other tools of the trade are in the pink tin basket
• Second shelf from the left: First basket are my fitteds (mostly Goodmamas). In the middle are a few receiving blankets that I use as flats. And the basket on the end are the rest of my flats/receiving blankets.
• Bottom shelf: The blue basket has covers and wet bags in it and the other basket has doublers and fleece liners in it.

You can also see the covers that are drying and waiting to be used are hanging from the railing on the changing table as well as one of the wet bags. I never change my kids on the changing table anymore simply because they are too big for it now. lol I keep my changing table in the dinning room since our kids rooms are down stairs and let's face it... who really wants to carry their kids up and down the stairs like 10 million times a day. I always just change them in the living room on the floor or on the couch. Works perfect for us! I also keep our cloth wipes in the kitchen so I can just wet them in there and sometimes I will use them to dry stuff off in the kitchen as well.

Now for a cute pic of my babies, Nathan and Camryn. The sweetest, cutest, messiest kids you'll ever meet.

First day as a blogger!

Hi all! Well... I really am talking to myself right now but hopefully I'll have some followers soon! :) I know Wednesdays are usually "Wordless Wednesday" but I figured since this is my first day as a blogger I would at least say hi. I'm very excited to get going on this project and I can't wait to share my everyday life with the world (or to anyone that will listen).