[prefolds]

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...]

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]

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]

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]

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!

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!

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!
:)