Sunday Thoughts

Today John had the barfies so I went to church with Carlie under the pretense of playing the piano for nursery in John's place.
not so much.
I went visiting teaching today.
Seriously why do I visit teach only people who have cats? Why do you not vacuum when you have cats?
Speaking of People with Cats, Carlie is visiting me. When I say visiting I mean she is cleaning and cooking and I have been taking naps and exercising all week. Pretty much she is saving my royal bottom. (call it royal in regards to it's girth.)

I've decided to start building the perfect mom in my mind. This fantasizing can be part of my Sunday thoughts. I am going to ask people to write about things like guest bloggers. So I stole some thoughts from an email from Carlie and am publishing them without authorization.

THE PERFECT MOM USES CLOTH DIAPERS:

You asked about my cloth diapering system. I love my diapers. They are a specific type of cloth diapers called pocket diapers. This is the brand: http://www.bumgenius.com/one-size.php. ....They'll fit him until he is 35 lbs because they have snaps that change the size of the diaper. Pocket diapers comprise of an outer diaper shell that serves as the way to fasten the diaper to the baby with velcro (no pins!) and as plastic pants. The pocket diapers have a nice flannel layer that touches the bum that keeps the baby dry. Then, there is a pocket where you insert super absorbent micro fleece panels that soak up the pee. I also use flannel baby wipes and a homemade mixture of water, baby oil, and baby soap to wipe up messes with. These are awesome because one wipe will usually do the trick for one big poo, and you get it all in one swoop.

When I take off a diaper, I always disassemble the diaper right then. So, I take out the soil insert and fold that with any baby wipes into the outer shell and store them in my diaper pail. I just picked out a dry pail from babies r us. Every other day or sometimes every day, I do a load of diapers. First, I do a cold wash with 1/4 the manufacturer recommended detergent, and then I do a hot wash with 1/4 the recommended detergent. I always do an extra rinse. Right now with the breast milk poo, I just put everything straight into washing machine. So, I don't rinse the diaper in toilet water. When Elijah starts on solids, I'll invest in a diaper sprayer and experiment with disposable diaper liners. And, I might have to consider stink control more with the diaper pail, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I had a bit of a learning curve with the diapers. At first, he had a bit of a diaper rash which really frustrated me because I was so proud of my non-chemical diapers. You have to be careful using diaper creams with the diapers because it affects how absorbency of the diaper, but I used some reusable diaper liners and fought off the rash just fine. I realized the problem was my detergent. You have to use detergent that is free of everything like enzymes, dyes, etc. I finally found some at the local organic store. Ever since I switched detergents, I haven't had a problem with the rash. Also, occasionally, the diapers get saturated with leftover ammonia or detergent, so you occasionally have to strip the diapers. I do it by soaking the diapers in bleach or oxyclean for half an hour, and then washing as usual.

The other problem I kept encountering was leaky pee...which sometimes can be caused by oversaturated diapers that need stripping, but it was also how I was putting the diaper one. I have to make sure everything is folded down and lined up, and then they are amazingly spill free. I feel we've had relatively few leaky poo diapers, so they do happen but even the biggest poos are well contained.

I found this Q/A section helpful when i had confusions about my diapers:
http://www.cottonbabies.com/clothdiapers.php#environmentalimpactofdiapers
I think the hardest part is getting the laundry done, but I decided that I never have to fold the diapers and my drying rack is always up in my nursery, so I dump the inserts straight into the drawer from the dryer, and I often take the outsides straight from the drying rack. This probably seems lazy and occasionally I will fold the diapers for special occasions. So, even on my worst days, I've managed to stay on top of the diapers. I do have a box of disposable around for outings and when I am stripping all the diapers, but we need them only rarely.