Little Greenlings

[rowan turns eight months]

2012-01-18T13:17:00.005-06:00

Every month I take a picture of Rowan on her personalized quilt. It is cute to see how big she is getting in relation to the blanket.
This is how today's picture went.

Lucky shot:

.5 Seconds after:

[separation anxiety]

2012-01-14T16:02:00.005-06:00

My poor sewing machine is sitting on the ground looking sad and lonely.
I have it out because I've been meaning to sew up a pillow for my bed for the last two weeks.
Unfortunately stuff gets in the way, mainly an almost 8 month old who won't let me put her down ever. It's getting really old.
But how can you say no to a face like this?

She's been nursing a lot today so I think we may see more teeth soon.

[busy]

2012-01-06T23:08:00.002-06:00

things I am doing in 2012:

Redecorating my house
Decluttering
Redoing my wardrobe
Drinking lots of decaf
Snuggling my babies
Using up my fabric scraps
Redecorating this blog
Babywearing
Walking

[around the house]

2011-11-20T14:45:00.006-06:00

The last few days I have been busy working around the house.
I had been holding myself a pity party and decided to take a good friend's advice and just build a bridge and get over it.
That starts with making my house a cleaner, more comfortable place to live.

So today I have been keeping busy. First, I cleaned my fridge. It was so disgusting that I won't bother to show you the before pic. Just embarrassing.

Please ignore the very bottom down there. I still need to clean that part.
Here is a closer look:

Lunchtime! Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a craisin face, wheat crackers and veggie chips on the side. He is having one of his eat every 15 minutes days so he had just eaten yogurt and turkey right before this.

After that I had some bananas that were getting dark so it was banana muffin time!
Love these muffins, they have never done me wrong.

Recipe:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I use unbleached, you can use whatever. Wheat might even work as well.)
3/4 cup sugar [I'm so hardcore using regular old sugar! ;)]
3 bananas (I used 2 this time because it's what I had on hand)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup melted butter
1 egg

Makes about 12 large muffins.
Preheat oven to 350.
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In separate bowl combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter. Sometimes I also add a hint of vanilla extract. Mix until it is as lumpy as you'd like. The more overripe your bananas, the creamier the texture.
Fold in flour mixture until well blended.
Pour into greased muffin pan or cupcake liners.
Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

By the way, I tried to take pics of the muffins baked, but they were all eaten before I had the chance. Oops.

[another crafty day]

2011-11-13T15:53:00.004-06:00

I felt inspired to fix one of Rowan's wool soakers today.
I bought it for $10 and when I got it realized it was stretched out BIG time.
Here is a comparison of a normal sized s/m Luxe soaker and this super stretched one.

And here is what it looked like before altering it to fit Rowan:

The leg holes were humongous and would probably never have fit her properly.

Here it is after:

Fits her great in the legs so no worries about leaks.

And the bum!

Elephant applique made with upcycled wool sweater.

I also made a cute wool soaker with the same sweater earlier this week.
I actually made a pair of pants too but I don't have a pic of those yet.

This one is nothing special but it does the job!
I spent maybe $4 for the sweater a year ago and got a soaker, a pair of pants and probably enough left to make a smaller soaker to possibly sell. The Luxe cover cost me $10. So I paid $14 for 2+ soakers and a pair of pants. Not too shabby!

[taking it easy]

2011-11-12T11:42:00.006-06:00

It's pretty easy going over here these days.
Watching my baby girl is more of a relaxed, joyful process than it was with my son.
When Ethan was 3 1/2 months old I got excited to try and feed him rice cereal.
Yeah, disastrous idea. He had no interest whatsoever in eating it, and didn't even take much pride in playing with it.
Now Rowan will be 6 months old in less than a week and this week I have started giving her tastes of foods from my plate.
I really wanted to try baby led weaning this time around, not to up my crunch factor but because I am really, really lazy at heart. I have no desire to make her separate meals and go through the whole baby food making process. (Though this could change at any time and I will be eating my words. LOL.)
So the other night we had tacos and I put some of the avocado in a little bowl and pumped a tiny bit of milk to mix in it to make it a little easier on her. My first attempt was just giving her straight smooshed avocado but I think it was a little too thick because she gagged on it and got frustrated. Oops!

By the way, this little girl? She will not let me feed her. She has to hold the spoon herself or she gets pissed, quick. I really need to invest in a mesh feeder for her.

I am kind of trying to be casual about this food business. She still nurses, a lot. She is by no means having meals yet. Some days I am not giving her any solids at all. She doesn't seem bothered by it.

[quest to cloth diaper for free]

2011-10-25T11:31:00.004-05:00

I know you are skeptical.
I have talked in the past of how to diaper on a budget.
This isn't hard to do with amateur sewing skills. You can use kitchen towels as flats, receiving blankets (most people get plenty as shower gifts) as flats (and/or cloth wipes!), and you can use recycled wool or cheap fleece to sew your own covers.
You could easily make an entire stash from birth to potty training with these materials for about $50.

My goal is to diaper using the more mainstream diapers (think BumGenius, Fuzzibunz, and even knitted wool!) for free. If I can reach that goal, I will even try to profit off of cloth diapering my daughter.

I have thought about a lot of scenarios here.
Most of the time when people compare the cost savings of using cloth to the cost of using disposables they include the retail price of name brand disposables and wipes, or even factor in the cost of Diaper Genies.
Honestly, I don't even know anyone that uses a Diaper Genie.
Most of my friends who use disposables (including myself, for my still not night time trained three year old) use the cheapest brands possible and the cheapest disposables wipes possible.
So using these cheaper brands would cost far, far less than diapering a kid from birth to potty training using Huggies or Pampers.

Well what about buying used cloth diapers, or even seconds? I have done so and will do so in the future. Buying gently used or repairable diapers for almost free has helped me tremendously when it comes to building a diaper stash for our little one. I LOVE fluff as much as the next cloth diaperer but I'm uninterested in trendy diapers. Just give me something that contains the runny poo and looks a little cute and we're good. :)

Here is a summary of what is in our stash. Please keep in mind when I total the costs up I am including the price of selling what has been outgrown and also factoring in the price of shipping to the buyer. I have not yet calculated the cost of laundering the diapers but I plan on doing so soon.

As of yesterday, I have spent about $40 on Rowan's cloth diaper stash.
These diapers could carry her through potty training!
That would be impressive by any means but it is particularly impressive when you take into account how many diapers we have. I am not including the diapers leftover from my son because those haven't been included in the cost of her stash.

We have:

30+ pockets/all in ones. (includes BG, Tots Bots, FuzziBunz, Blueberry, Grovia and more!)

44 prefolds/flats. (includes Imagine pfs, Bummis pfs, econobum prefolds and various no name pfs.)

16+ fitteds (includes Bumstoppers, Pianissimo Cloth, and way more.)

9+ PUL covers (includes Blueberry coveralls, Grovia shells, Weehuggers and misc. covers)

4+ Wool soakers/shorties/longies

4 or so fleece soakers

And then we also have a bunch of accessories like cloth wipes, diaper pail liners, wetbags, snappis, pins, and rash cream.

So how did I score so much of this for free?
I just make sure I do my research when buying something.
I have found fantastic local deals. I have gotten free prefolds off of freecycle and a generous person also gave me a lot of her used diapers for free (which I in turn gave a bunch away to my friends in need).
Keep an eye on your local freecycle and craigslist. Often times you can find great condition cloth diapers for free or very cheap.

A lot of the free items I've scored really just have to do with being in the right place at the right time. Don't just settle for retail prices. If you are doing your diaper shopping primarily online, look around at different stores and even Amazon. I bought a great $25 diaper there for about $13 shipped. First quality, looks and works great.
If you use swagbucks or other survey/search sites for amazon giftcards this is a really easy way to build up your stash for free or cheap. At least 8 of our diapers have come from Amazon for free or as much as $5 out of pocket after using giftcards.

One of my luckiest deals was finding 1 Grovia Shell, 1 Grovia AIO, 1 FuzziBunz One Size, and 3 Grovia soaker pads - ALL NEW - for less than $10 total at a local consignment shop.
I don't live in a super crunchy town so this was a huge deal! If you keep your eye out you can find great deals like this too!

[rainy day crafts]

2011-10-13T12:46:00.006-05:00

It actually rained last weekend!
As exciting as it was to finally get some relief from the constant heat and dryness, I started to get a little cabin fever.

So spur of the moment I decided to use some velour yardage I had been hoarding to make a baby blanket for Rowan.
I had just picked up a huge box full of fabric scraps a couple of days before from the free section of craigslist and was itching to use some of them.

Situated everything... this was a very rough draft, obviously.

And the finished product with my handsome model.

I think it came out pretty cute! Ethan likes it. Rowan doesn't have an opinion of course, because she's only 4 months old.
What do you think?

[fitteds]

2011-10-07T14:56:00.004-05:00

Fitteds are what I think of as the "fancy" diapers of the cloth diapering market.
They tend to be made of the highest quality materials and have the cutest prints.
This is why they are so sought after.

I love fitteds for the reasons above. I love that they are highly absorbent and super easy to use.
I especially love that they are so adorable.

I know a lot of people don't "get" fitteds, since you do usually cover them up.
That is one of the drawbacks to them. They also tend to be on the more expensive side, so if you are cloth diapering to save money, using them isn't going to be your best option.

One of my favorite brands of fitteds is Bumstoppers.

This is a One Size fitted from Bumstoppers. I love how vibrant this print is.
When I got this sucker in the mail all I could do is press it up to my cheek and relish in the sweet, decadent squishiness.

Rowan is wearing her Bumstoppers on the middle snap setting. She is about 16.8 lbs in this picture.

Working with Becky is wonderful. She frequently does custom orders and is so helpful in ensuring you get exactly what you're looking for.
(P.S. for all you AI2 lovers - she makes those too!)

[prefolds]

2011-09-15T15:44:00.010-05:00

I heart prefolds so much.
They launder really well. They're durable. If you buy bleached you can soil to your heart's content and then bleach them when you want them looking their whitest again (or try sunning them!).
We have over 2 dozen prefolds that Rowan wears every now and then. I have a pretty large stash so admittedly we don't use them as often as the pockets, but I love my prefolds.

Currently Rowan is about 16 lbs and almost 4 months old.
She is outgrowing her clothes and diapers like crazy now.
In her "currently fitting" prefold stash we have Bummis Organic Cotton Infant prefolds (7-20ish pounds) and Medium (Yellow edge) Smart Fit Imagine Prefolds (12-25 lbs).

Bummis infant prefold on top of an Imagine medium prefold.

Rowan barely fits in her Bummis infant prefolds now that she is 16 lbs. I could see these fitting her snappied for maybe a pound more, but not longer than that. Trifolded, though, I think they might work until 20 lbs. The problem with that is she is going to outgrow her small covers soon and in a medium cover there would be less coverage.
I used these since she was about 11 pounds. They are super soft after prepping and fit beautifully in various small covers. The best deal is to buy a Bummis Diaper Kit and get a bundle of prefolds, covers and a fantastic wetbag for less than $170. Then sell all of those and size up when needed! You know me though, and I probably wouldn't personally drop that much money on a small stash, but I'm cheap like that. For people with some common sense it is a great buy, though, because the covers and prefolds are of great quality.

Rowan in a Bummis infant sized prefold, snappied. She is 16 lbs here.

The Imagine prefolds we have (medium size) I anticipate will fit us for many months to come. They are wider than most prefolds so they will be a lot easier to snappi, a problem I ran into with Chinese prefolds for sure and even GMD prefolds after a while.

Rowan in a medium Imagine prefold from Nicki's Diapers.

There are a variety of covers that I love and recommend for the "infant" stage but the ones I most often use are my small Bummis covers and my small Thirsties cover.
I can use both my Imagine prefolds and my Bummis prefolds, either snappied or trifolded, in either of these covers.

Bummis infant prefold trifolded in a small Bummis Super Whisper Wrap.

Bummis infant prefold trifolded in a small Thirsties cover.

The Imagine yellow edges can also fit in the same covers! The fit would be a little bulkier, though. Just to show that if you only have larger prefolds to work with you CAN fit them trifolded in a smaller cover.

Imagine medium (yellow) prefold trifolded in a small Bummis cover.

Medium Imagine prefold trifolded in a small Thirsties cover.

[thoughts on vaginal birth...]

2011-09-07T19:16:00.002-05:00

Just wondering out loud here...
Why is there so much emphasis on vaginal birth?
Why are VBACs so lauded?
I can only see one reason: you feel like you weren't "in control" of your c-section and you want to take that control back.
Am I right? And not only are you supposed to desire a VBAC instead of a repeat cesarean, but it better damn well be unmedicated.
WHY?
Epidurals are not shown to be harmful to the baby. They relieve you of your excruciating pain.
You can still get up and feel back to normal after pushing your baby out, you just have to wait a couple of hours for the numbness to wear off. It isn't like you will be doing much walking around after having an unmedicated birth, anyways. I know all I wanted to do after having my kids was lay in one place, maybe eat a little, nap a little, and nurse them. None of that required getting up.
I often hear that the recovery is easier for a vaginal birth. I was up and moving around normally less than a day after my c-sections. I felt great, my incision wasn't even very sore but I did have pretty bad gas pains. I hardly bled at all after having my daughter.
I hear from a lot of friends that they tore really badly or have pelvic pain months after their vaginal births. It doesn't exactly seem like a walk in the park.

Yes, it would have been nice to have my babies placed immediately on my chest.
It would have been great for my husband to have cut the cord. I did want those things, but it wasn't the end of the world that I didn't get them. They just weren't that important in the scheme of things. I don't know if I just take things in stride more than others or if I just don't "get it".

[flats]

2011-08-21T18:00:00.003-05:00

Flats!
I've known about flats for a long time. I know they are typically what you think of when you think of cloth diapering "back in the day". I've always wanted to try them out but never wanted to spend the money on actual flats, lest I hate them, and I didn't have any receiving blankets leftover from my son's newborn days.
Luckily I was given a bunch of blankets from various people for my daughter.

Here is what I love about flats:
they're versatile.
easy to wash/dry.
fit a large range of sizes.
fairly absorbent if you add a little booster.
can come in cute prints.
pins well.
can be padfolded and laid in a cover if you aren't into pins or snappis.
easy to find things around the house to use as a flat.
the poo pocket - no EBF poo blowouts!

Here is what I don't like:
can be difficult to snappi (at least my blankets are).
sucks absorbency wise unless you add a booster of some sort. not a problem if you want to change very often (ie every little pee).
can be a pain to fold with a wiggly baby. wasn't a problem for me, though. just fold it before you bring your baby to the changing table if it's an issue.

Here's my stash of receiving blanket flats:

Nice and girly. :)

Here is the fold I used most often (in other words, the only one that worked, LOL).

Lay baby on top of that and pull middle up, pull sides in and pin or snappi.

This is my three year old wearing a flat:

I got him to cooperate by letting him photograph me while I took pics of him. :)

It looks a little messy because I'm a total flat newbie! I'm still trying to get the perfect fit and absorbency!
Here is my three month old with a pinned flat on, same fold. Don't mind the blurry pic, she won't ever stay still!

I'm really liking flats thus far. If they were super absorbent I would love them even more.
Maybe if I used ACTUAL flats made for diapering they would work a little better. ;)

[labels]

2011-08-19T22:41:00.004-05:00

I have been going back and forth trying to decide what exactly to do with this blog.
Do I just blog cloth diapers? Insert my opinion?
And I've decided this can be a personal AND cloth diapering blog.
Most cloth diapering blogs are uber-crunchy, bordering on obsessed with being "natural".
I know you are laughing because of the title of this blog.
It used to be exactly that, you are right. But no longer.

Here is what I'm not: Lactivist. Intactivist. Anti-Vaxer. Raw milk drinker. Chiropractor user. Homebirther. Vaginal birther. Homeschooler. Organic food eater.

Here is what I am: Breastfeeder. I breastfeed my daughter. I'll do so until one of us throws in the towel. It's just that matter of fact. It is a lovely bonding experience sometimes. Sometimes it fucking sucks. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I love it. I don't think I'm better than you because of it.
A proud vaccinating mother. Don't let anti-science people scare you with their propaganda. Vaccinate your damn kids. :) My son wasn't vaccinated at all until he was almost three. I came to my senses and vaccinated my daughter from birth. Trust me, been there done that with the whole no vax thing.
C-Section lover. Loved my certified nurse midwives and loved the OB who performed the totally elective c-section at my daughter's birth. Love the hospital and the wonderful caring staff there. "Birth experience" means shit here. But for the record, I had lovely birth experiences. (BTW Love love this blog post about c-sections, check it out: http://itsabeautifulwreck.com/2010/01/cesarean-goddess-speaks-my-vagina-is/)

This is why I don't fit in anymore.
How very funny that when you "come out" about changing everyone turns their back on you.
I've toyed with this a lot in my head.
I had to walk away from a part of my life because I couldn't in good conscience keep smiling and nodding while I am screaming in disagreement on the inside.
I still watch from a distance. A part of me wants to call them up and hang out, because I MISS people. I miss bonding with other women. I just can't shake feeling ostracized so I am bowing out quietly.

[cloth diapering to save money]

2011-08-18T20:23:00.004-05:00

I am SO excited to share my experience cloth diapering my kids!
With my son I tried almost everything out there.
I spent a lot of money buying everything I wanted for full retail price.
Now I know better! I will get into everything in more detail in future posts but here is how I have spent less than $70 cloth diapering my daughter so far.
If I had gone with disposable store brand diapers for her I would have already spent over $100 just on diapers alone (not counting wipes or other accessories)!

Amazon.com - I use the Amazon gift cards I earn from Swagbucks and survey websites to buy diapers! This is the best way to get free diapers if you are a stay at home or work from home parent with full access to a computer. I get at least 5-10 dollars in Amazon giftcards from Swagbucks alone each month.

Diaperswappers.com - A great site to buy/sell/trade cloth diapers and other goodies. It is very easy to bargain with people here and if you can work out a trade, even better! It is best to always ask for very detailed pictures and descriptions before going ahead with a transaction, though. While the transactions that work out are superb, the ones that don't are very discouraging.

Fixer-Uppers - If you have even beginner sewing skills you can pick up some diapers with shot elastic or bad velcro and fix them up like new! Replacing elastic is fairly easy in most diapers and velcro is also easily replaced with new velcro or snaps. I have bought plenty of diapers at $5 a piece or less (or FREE!) and fixed them up so they worked great.

Get creative - Receiving blankets make excellent flats, prefolds can be boosted with a wash cloth or microfiber insert, washcloths can be used as flats on a tiny newborn. You can pick up wool sweaters from Goodwill or other thrift stores/garage sales (or your own closet even) and turn them into wool soakers! You could easily make an entire stash out of recycled wool and receiving blanket flats if you wanted to.

I will be sharing pictures and helpful hints soon!

Things have changed!

2011-04-05T15:44:00.003-05:00

It has been quite a while since I've written anything!
I would really like to start writing more, though, if only for myself and to remember all of the stages and phases my kids and my family go through.
It is amazing how quickly things have changed in just one short year.

Here is a quick breakdown of where everyone is at right now.

Me:
Still slightly crunchy. I never thought I'd backtrack on anything natural unless I got lazy but I have found myself doing just that. We still cloth diaper, I still intend on breastfeeding my daughter due in May. But I've also grown up a little and gotten more into science. I think being an atheist and a natural skeptic of sorts, this was the inevitable path I would walk down. I don't believe in not vaccinating any more. This little girl (pointing to belly) will be fully vaxed, and on time. I don't see a point in following an alternate schedule at all.
I was planning a birth center birth for her before she was even conceived. I have now concluded that out of hospital birth is way too much of a risk for me to take. I don't desire an "empowering" birth experience, I don't even desire a "natural" (drug free) birth. I am very much looking forward to my epidural, thankyouverymuch. And I will not be devastated if I have another c-section. People look at me like I've lost it when I tell them this. But it is just simply how I feel.
Anyways I feel like this alienates me a bit from my natural parenting friends. I don't have many friends to begin with so to think that some people might decide they're better off without me does disappoint me a little.

Ethan:
He is doing great! Talking up a storm, being absolutely goofy. He is a great helper around the house. He is almost completely day time potty trained now. He goes naked all day and uses the potty when he feels the urge. Right now we are only using diapers at naptimes and bedtime. I am so proud of my little man.

I'm not dead!

2010-07-14T19:42:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to poke my head in and let everyone know I'm still alive! We are in the process of moving and I am in school part time so along with all of the other daily obstacles involved with being a stay at home mom, I am a bit swamped!
I promise I will write again soon, I know I need to!
:)

Kickin' It Old School

2010-06-04T09:42:00.006-05:00

One of the most common things I hear about modern cloth diapers is how there are "No more pins! They all have velcro closures and look really cute!"
It is true, diapers have come a long way from the Gerber birdseye flats and plastic pants.
But every time I hear someone disparage another from using prefolds and pins, I cringe.

We started cloth diapering Ethan when he was about 3 months old.
He had been in a variety of disposable diapers since birth.
First there was Pampers Swaddlers, which were tiny and cute. Then he got too big for those.
Then there were Huggies, which he leaked out of horribly.
We ended up using a combination of Luvs and store brand diapers towards the end of our disposable diapering days.

Throughout this entire time I was noticing how Ethan was getting a pretty nasty rash, not only on his bottom but on all areas of his body. I had read in passing about cloth on the internet, but didn't really look too much into it.
It was the price tag that really struck me. Twenty dollars for a diaper?!
We couldn't afford that.

We ended up at a local retailer's store and I fell in love with cloth.
They were so incredibly soft, I just couldn't help myself.
We left with a one size pocket diaper and an organic diaper cover.

Those early days were full of trial and error. I mostly washed by hand and then hung to dry, for fear of ruining our new diapers. I wasn't told straight away that we needed "special" laundry detergent made for cloth diapers and I was washing the diapers with Aveeno baby wash in the sink. Hey, they smelled good!
At that point we were still in disposables about 70% of the time anyways.

I went through so many different kinds of diapers.
There were one size diapers, which were extremely convenient, but a pain to stuff and un stuff.
I actually sized up in every thing that wasn't one size because Ethan was growing like a weed and I figured he wouldn't be in the smaller diapers for long.
It wasn't a terrible idea, but not the greatest idea either. Most of his diapers ended up looking saggy and weird, and I realized that he probably could have worn a smaller size for many more months.

Nowadays I look into my stash closet and see an array of diapers.
I've got my super cute fitteds, which are so easy and absorbent.
I've got my 2 PUL covers, a Flip and a Blueberry Coveralls. (These are the daddy friendly diapers as you can trifold a prefold and lay in the cover and fasten to baby.)
I've got my super cute fleece soakers.
I've got my wonderful wool and my few pocket diapers.
But my absolute favorites are my prefolds.

I was always intimidated by prefolds. Just seeing them in person was confusing.
"They're not cute," I told myself. "They look complicated to use."
So I put off using them.
When I finally did take the plunge and purchase some prefolds I ended up getting a snappi.
It was the most frustrating little thing I have ever used.
It never wants to stay put, and sometimes Ethan has gotten stabbed with the little teeth.
I felt horrible about it.

We use pins because they are easy.
No really, they are easy.
You get prefold in place under baby, get baby nice and distracted, and run the open pin through your hair.
Then glide pin through the prefold.
It is really so easy, and I have never poked Ethan with one.

I love the trim fit we get with prefolds and pins, and I don't have to worry about Ethan playing with the snappi and getting it caught on something. (Did I mention that the Snappi always likes to catch my clothes? It is not fun.)
I know you are supposed to put covers on over diapers.
We absolutely do when we go out, but when we are at home we don't feel the need to.

Another great thing about prefolds is how inexpensive they are.
Instead of spending 20 dollars a diaper you only spend about 2-3 dollars a diaper.
And that's if you buy new! You save a ton buying used, and they will undoubtedly last through several children.

Where can you buy prefolds?
You can get them from a number of stores.
In town there is Eden's Baby, Go Baby Go, and Craigslist (if you want to go the gently used route).
My favorite place online to buy them is Green Mountain Diapers.
The sizing is superb (shorter length and wider than most other diapers) and the price is great. I even got my pins from GMD.
None of the local retailers carry pins at the moment, but I wish they did!

Tide!

2010-05-25T12:05:00.003-05:00

Well it has been a while actually since I used the Tide on our diapers.
I'm not even sure where the pics went of it because they have been taken off of the memory card and I don't want to track them down.

I have recently been hearing great things about Tide from other cloth diapering mamas.
I decided that I had to try it out for myself.

I bought an 80 loads box of powdered Tide from a big box store for a little over $10. I got the original scent but I had to get HE because the only "regular" kind they had in original scent was a tiny box.
I was very excited to try it out since it was so cheap!

I got home and did a load of diapers. Only a bit of extra suds in the rinse cycle and I did an extra cold wash with nothing after my initial hot wash with detergent to get all the suds out. They came out of the dryer stink free and smelling vaguely of Tide.
I thought, "Hey, this just might work!"
Oh, I was so wrong.

After having the diapers washed with Tide on Ethan for a couple of days I noticed he was getting diaper rash more frequently than usual (and he almost always seems to have a rash, we have yeast issues).
And this seemed like a bad rash, too.
I washed with Tide a couple of more times because I wasn't sure if that's what it was but I knew after the 3rd wash that we just can't do Tide. My boy is just too sensitive to it.

I got out the rest of my Rockin' Green (Classic Rock in Fresh Linen) and did an overnight soak on some of our diapers. The water wasn't too bad in the morning but I just wanted to get a head start on washing all of the Tide out of our diapers.

We are now just using Tide on our clothes and I'm even going to stop washing Ethan's clothes in it. He has some eczema on his belly that has returned (from when he was a newborn and we didn't know better!) so he must be allergic to it somehow.

So my conclusion is, if you have a child who does not have sensitive skin, Tide will work great for you! It did seem to get the diapers pretty clean. I could feel a slight residue on them after coming out of the dryer, so it must be that there is some kind of softener in the detergent itself since it's close to what fabric softener feels like.
If you have a baby with sensitive skin I would bypass Tide and if you must use a mainstream detergent then I would look into using a free and clear formula.

Right now we are using Rockin Green's Hard Rock, unscented, and things are going a lot better. We are just using it on our diapers for now so we can use up the rest of the Tide on our clothing.

Content.

2010-05-17T23:24:00.002-05:00

Wow, where did the time go?
Every day is just passing so quickly now, I can hardly keep up.
I've got customs to work on, graduations and baby showers to go to.
Then I get the quiet moments like this, when Ethan is in bed and Mark is craftin' away in the dining room.

For the last couple of years I have had a bit of a writer's block.
I realized the other day that I am (was?) very much an emotional writer.
Words just flowed out of me when I was sad, or pissed off, or jealous.
I could drop a poem in ten seconds flat when I was so elated, so enamored.
It's now, when I am satisfied just... being, that it is harder to write.
Being content does not make for very provocative writing.

My mind used to always be somewhere else. It was either dwelling in the past, longing for something I hoped to attain in the future, or sticking my nose in other people's business.
Now I look to the future with excitement. Ethan matures every day in front of me and I wonder what kind of person he will be.
Will he be tolerant? Will he be loving? Will he be intellectual? Will he be really good at soccer?
I'm so excited and privileged to watch him grow up.
So I don't care any more if I don't write whimsical poems and political snark. None of it matters as much to me. If I dwell on things like that too long I get too fired up and it leads me nowhere.

I am totally content with being content.

The Benefits of Rearfacing & Car Seat Safety

2010-05-04T19:53:00.005-05:00

We live in San Antonio and it is pretty much the norm to turn your baby around and face them forward in their car seats once they hit one year.
In fact I don't think I have seen any other children extended rear facing as we do.
I'm pretty sure this is because most people just don't know about the benefits of keeping their kids rear facing.

Here are some facts, taken from car-safety.org:

Rear-facing is safest for both adults and children, but especially for babies, who would face a greater risk of spinal cord injury in a front-facing carseat during a frontal crash.
You are far more likely to get into a frontal or side crash than one from behind, especially ones at high speeds.

Rear-facing car seats spread frontal crash forces over the whole area of a child's back, head and neck; they also prevent the head from snapping relative to the body in a frontal crash.

Rear-facing carseats are NOT a safety risk just because a child's legs are bent at the knees or because they can touch/kick the vehicle seat.
I don't know how many times I have heard that excuse for turning their children around: "Their legs will break if we get into an accident!" Besides, wouldn't you rather their legs break than their neck?
Rear-facing as long as possible is the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatricians, and can reduce injuries and deaths. Motor Vehicle Crashes are the #1 overall cause of death for children 14 and under.

I can't begin to explain how passionate I am about this. It is so much safer to keep kids rear facing as long as possible, and I can't believe that hardly anyone extended rear faces.

Another important thing I want to note is the proper way to restrain your child in their car seat.
If they are in a 5-point harness, which is recommended for all children in car seats of any kind, make sure the"clip"part that goes up by their chest is level with their armpits. After you fasten them in make sure you pull the belt tight until there is no slack.
I honestly did not know the clip part was supposed to be up so high and I assume a lot of others don't know this either.

Something else very important is DO NOT USE AFTERMARKET PRODUCTS!
This includes little seat belt pads (which we used on Ethan's infant seat for many months until I learned better) and little car seat bells and whistles, like the toys that attach to the bar.
The rule is, if the product is not made by the same manufacturer as your seat and is not endorsed by them, then do NOT use it. Car seats are made to be "fireproof" and these aftermarket products are NOT! This includes seat covers and car seat "protectors" (that go under car seats). Aftermarket products are not tested for safety either, even if they have claimed to be.
(note: I do not know why everything is bolding now, it won't come undone.)

As for now we are extended rear facing Ethan in his Britax Marathon, which will allow him to rear face until 35 lbs, but we are going to start saving up to buy the Radian XTSL which rear faces until 45 lbs!

Addendum (8.19.2011): He is still rearfacing at 3 y/o and 35 lbs but we went with a Complete Air car seat which will rearface until he is 40 lbs. It has a pretty tall shell too.

Thirsties Prewash/Superwash Conclusion

2010-05-03T14:33:00.006-05:00

I used up the last of my Thirsties Prewash/Superwash sample today.
I actually really like this detergent, and I think most of you would like it too.
Of course I only used it for a short amount of time, and we all know what it's like to successfully use a detergent for weeks before it goes stinky on us.

(Don't mind my strangely rotated picture. I don't know what happened!)

Did the prewash. This is the first time I actually did a prewash instead of a prerinse with the prewash detergent. Notice there are a few more suds this time than last.
I think this is because I actually added like 2 tbsp (or more?) of detergent instead of the 1 1/2 I was using previously. I just wanted to use up the rest of it.

Here is the rinse cycle after the hot wash. Notice there are still suds. I totally meant to do an extra rinse but got sidetracked because we were in the midst of leaving so I ended up throwing them straight in the dryer.

They actually do not stink much out of the dryer. I noticed less of a stink this time than last (which I didn't blog about, sorry!), so maybe it is because of the increased detergent.
I would really classify the diapers as "stink free" compared to the stink I have gotten with other detergents.

So all in all, here are the pros and cons of Thirsties Prewash/Superwash:

Pros

Seems to get the diapers pretty clean. I have experienced very little stink with it.
Made with all natural ingredients (including honey and lemon juice!)
Formulated specifically for cloth diapers.

Cons

Kind of pricey. I did a bit of searching and found that it was about $32 for the pack of prewash and superwash. And that's for only 64 "normal" sized loads. I for one know I would probably use more because I tend to do pretty big loads.
You'd have to buy separate detergent. I mean I'm sure you could use it on your clothes, but at $32 a pop I for one wouldn't want to "waste" my detergent on clothes too because that would get pretty expensive.
Not the absolute best at getting stains out. I have seen other detergents do better.

So despite the fact that this stuff is pretty expensive, it really does do a good job at cleaning diapers. It is the only detergent I've tried that did not give me stinkies of any sort out of the dryer! For that I will give it 3.5/5 stars.

Night Gardening

2010-04-26T21:06:00.007-05:00

I'm having a lot of fun "gardening". Technically it is container gardening because we live in a small 2 bedroom apartment. I long for a yard where I can grow my own vegetables!

After last year's ill fated attempt at growing tomatoes I decided to keep it simple this year. My veggie garden will have to wait so I'm sticking with herbs and random plants.

Tonight we went to Lowe's on a whim and ended up buying some French Tarragon. I love tarragon. It has the most subtle flavor yet enhances simple dishes so much. I especially love Dijon-Tarragon Cream Chicken.

I put it in with my chives and Spicy Basil.

I've been wanting to add some color to the porches so I picked up some purple geraniums.
There was a buy one get one sale on the flowers and tarragon and I ended up getting the tarragon for free.

Mark helped me pick the next one out to hang on the porch outside of our living area.
I have no idea what it's technically called but it was the most unique looking "hanging" plant we could find.

It was dark when we got home so Ethan and I ended up doing a little night gardening. I love seeing my little boy digging in the dirt, helping me scoop soil up into the pots. It's fun to let lose and just let him be a (very messy) kid.

Day 1: Thirsties Prewash & Superwash

2010-04-26T12:11:00.006-05:00

After finishing up the Charlie's Soap a couple of days ago I was more than ready to try out the Thirsties Prewash and Superwash. I have heard some good things about these products!

Did my initial pre"wash" with the, er, Prewash:

There are some suds as you can see.

Then I did my hot wash with the Superwash. I don't have any pictures of this because the Natural Parenting meeting was starting and I was trying to rush.

Did my extra rinse after and after forgetting about the laundry in the wash (oops!) I transferred the diapers to the dryer.

When I got home I took them out and I was so relieved! No stink! At all.
The diapers smelled like nothing at all! This is the goal here!
So after 1 day of Thirsties I can say that it is my favorite so far. Stay tuned to see if it will keep the diapers stink free!

Last days of Charlie's Soap

2010-04-26T11:57:00.005-05:00

Well, I have finished up all of the Charlie's Soap.
I have to say I am not sad to see it go.
Here is how the last day went down:

Hot wash (after initial pre rinse). Not too many suds going on.

Extra cold rinse. No suds left.

So all in all Charlie's seems to rinse well.
I don't think buildup was our issue at all.
We did have a lot of stink issues with this detergent.

So! My conclusion:

On Diapers: 2/5

I just didn't really like this detergent. We had stinky (think a musky kind of smell) diapers out of the dryer every single time.
They did smell fine out of the washer though, so maybe it is the heat of the dryer causing the smell to rear its ugly head.
So if you are going to use Charlie's and you have the ability to line dry, I would recommend doing so over drying in the dryer.

On Clothes: 2/5

I didn't really care for it when used on clothes, either. It doesn't seem to take the stink out of sweaty clothes, and I know it isn't just because it is unscented, either. We have tried other unscented detergents that did just fine.

Here are my final pros and cons:

+ Affordable
+ Unscented for those with sensitive skin
+ Can use on both clothes and diapers
- We had lots of stink issues
- Some people report their babies getting burns while using this detergent

Okay pretty much the stink issues make this detergent pretty bad for us.
Despite the other pros I just can't see myself purchasing and using this detergent exclusively again.

Day 1 of Charlie's Soap

2010-04-21T18:17:00.003-05:00

Okay, I totally lied last time. I was all set up to use the Thirsties Prewash/Superwash and then I realized I had run the pre rinse without the Prewash!
So I decided to just go with the Charlie's Soap.

I liked Charlie's Soap. It was the first cloth diaper safe detergent we used when we started cloth diapering. I liked the smell of Ethan's diapers air drying in the bathroom when we first washed with it.
So back in the day when we used Charlie's we followed the 1 scoop rule on everything, diapers and clothes. This time I know that makes very little sense as we are doing pretty large loads and there's seriously no way one scoop is gonna cut it.

I ended up doing 2 extra rinses on Ethan's diapers on Day 1.
We are also battling a yeast rash right now and I used a 1/2 cup of Ecover bleach.
This was a pretty big load so I didn't hesitate to use the more than 1/4 cup they recommend.
I do not normally use bleach, just to let you know. Only every month and a half or so, and only when battling yeast, especially.
I have already noticed an improvement in Ethan's rash.

Anyways, out of the wash the diapers smelled great. This was the opposite of Country Save, where there was a slight stink out of the wash, but nothing out the dryer.
This time around there was some definite stink coming out of the dryer.
This is the same problem we encountered last time with Charlie's (after a couple of months of using it, mind you) and one of the reasons we stopped using it.
I am about to go do another load right now and I will update (with pictures!) with how the second time around goes.

Last days of Country Save

2010-04-17T20:51:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy week! I meant to write a post a couple of days ago when I finished up the Country Save.

I did my last two diaper loads of Country Save.
Used 2 scoops the first time, didn't have time for an extra extra rinse.
They came out of the dryer with a hint of slight stink.

Used 2 1/2 scoops the last time. I just went ahead and used up the last of the sample I had.
This time I did at least 2 extra rinses after my hot wash/cold rinse.
I think it's important to note here that the diapers always stink when I take them out of the washer and put them in the dryer. Always. However, they only stank once when I took them out of the dryer. Very odd to me.
The last time I did a wash they came out of the dryer stink-free.

*~MY CONCLUSION~*
(Excuse my middle school "embellishments" there, lol)

On the couple of loads of regular clothes I did, Country Save worked fine.
I even washed my dirty rags from work with it.
It didn't get them super duper clean but it got them clean enough.
REGULAR CLOTHES - 3/5

On Ethan's diapers I think it did okay.
I don't think it worked any better or worse than most of the detergents I've tried.
I didn't like the stink issues coming out of the washer, and I did find suds pretty often.
So if you are okay with doing several rinses, you will like this detergent.
DIAPERS - 2.5/5

PROS:

You can use it on everything (clothes, diapers)
Fairly inexpensive for "safe" detergent
Unscented for those with sensitive skin
Does a moderately well job of getting stains out

CONS:

Lots of suds, so possible buildup issues over time. Of course I may have been using too much but I didn't want to risk not using enough.
Have to run a lot of rinse cycles
Doesn't come in different scents for those that like that
Not widely available (have to purchase online, or possibly a health food/cloth diaper store near you if they carry it)
Not made specifically for cloth diapers (again, this is preference. I just mean that it wasn't formulated with washing diapers in mind, not that it can't be used or promoted as such.)

All in all I don't think I will be using Country Save again.
If it ends up being my only or most viable option I will consider it though, and I wouldn't hesitate to use it on my regular clothes.

Coming up next: Thirsties Prewash/Superwash!

A crafty kind of weekend

2010-04-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

This weekend I've felt really inspired to get a craftin'.
Yesterday I went to Joann's to get some dylon dyes and fusible web so I could get started on making some appliqued baby gifts!
Okay, I also managed to sneak in a couple of shirts for Ethan.
While my newborn shirts were busy dyeing a beautiful blue shade in the sink I rummaged through my fabric scraps and found the leftover Mint Chocolate Zoo cotton knit from embellishing a prefold of Ethan's.
Mark's mom had just stopped by with a cute little green muscle shirt for Ethan and yay! it was plain and the perfect shirt to applique.

I settled on just the word "Earth" to applique to the shirt and it came out really cute!
The hardest part is sewing around the edges. A couple of other things I've done I ended up just hand sewing, because although time consuming at least I know I can make straight lines.
Here is the finished product, alongside the aforementioned embellished prefold:

Country Save - Day 2

2010-04-11T15:49:00.000-05:00

Okay! Day 2 of using Country Save!
I still have not used this stuff on my regular clothes, but only because I have not done any laundry, lol. I am going to do a load with it after I finish this up!

Today I washed probably a little over 10 diapers - not as many as I usually do but Ethan was with grandparents all day yesterday and I don't think he was changed nearly enough.

Did a cold "pre" rinse:

Then I did my hot wash with 2 scoops of Country Save:

Here is the rinse cycle, notice there are still suds:

Here is the extra cold rinse I did afterwards, still some suds but I didn't have enough time to do another full wash or extra extra rinse:

And here is how his BG AIO Organic looked right out of the wash:

It honestly looks a little dingier to me than after being washed with Rockin' Green.
Maybe if I could do an extra rinse it would be better. I might use an extra half a scoop next load, but I am worried about buildup.
Out of the washer the diapers did have a little stink to them, but out of the dryer they smell decent.
So far I would say that Country Save is okay. It doesn't seem to be getting our diapers as bright and stain free as I would like but it is working okay.

Day 1: Country Save

2010-04-10T20:37:00.000-05:00

Washed 12 diapers (with inserts and wipes) using my normal routine.
I was unsure of how many tbsp of Country Save to use so I tried it out with just 2.
I think next time I will use 3, as I had a little bit of stink after the diapers came out of the dryer.
I'm also going to take a peak in the washer during the agitation and check for bubbles.
So far I do not hate Country Save. I don't really like the smell of the detergent itself but it's not overbearing or anything.
I really like the idea of using the same detergent on our diapers and our clothes.
I don't want to have to pay double for detergent, and I don't want to have to deal with buildup from using 2 different detergents.
I think I will try Country Save out on a load of clothes tomorrow and see how they come out.

Detergent testing!

2010-04-10T20:29:00.001-05:00

So I am helping out my friend Brooke from Eden's Baby and testing out some different detergents on our cloth diapers.
I have decided to take it a step further though and review a couple of other detergents.
We normally use Rockin' Green's Classic Rock (even though we did use Hard Rock for a few loads) since it is local and I don't have to pay shipping for it.
I am going to be testing the following detergents:

Country Save
Charlie's Soap
Thirsties Prewash and Superwash
Rockin' Green Hard Rock
Tide (maybe!)

Yesterday I washed about 12 diapers with Country Save. I will be consistently using each detergent until I run out of the samples I have.
My usual routine is wash every 2 days, and I usually have up to 20 diapers to wash, not including inserts and wipes.
I set my machine to heavy and use the extra large or large setting.
Then I:

Rinse in cold
Hot wash/Cold Rinse with 2 Tbsp (or scoops) of powdered detergent
Either rinse in cold or do an extra wash/rinse. Usually I only do the extra rinse.

Franklin Goose

2010-03-30T10:13:00.000-05:00

This week should be interesting. Today I am expecting my first order of free loot from Franklin Goose, and I will post pics when I get it! I ordered 2 size 1 Thirsties Duo Wraps and 1 small Thirsties cover for our yet-to-be-conceived baby (I can't help myself with building a future stash!) and 2 Plan Toys for my son's birthday in August.

Tomorrow I start my part-time afternoon job and will only have mornings, evenings and Sundays off. Then in June I start school full-time.

Does anyone here practice the Fertility Awareness Method?
It is where you check your temperature first thing in the morning and chart it out to find when you ovulate and are fertile. We are using this method right now to avoid pregnancy, but I know a lot of people have luck with conceiving this way. It is working great and it is interesting to know more about my cycle. I can now predict when I am going to ovulate and when I am going to get my period. I did not have much success with birth control pills so after having Ethan I knew I needed to try another way, without hormones to disrupt breastfeeding. Not to mention the hormones drove me quite crazy.
If you are interested, invest in a BBT thermometer and check out Fertility Friend.

OK it's tiny, but you get the point. LOL. The crosshairs is where I ovulated. As you can see, the temperatures before I ovulated were quite a bit lower than after.
I am actually about to go take an OPK right now to see if what I'm feeling today are ovulation pains.