User Error...

I can't eat off of clear plates.... What does that have to do with diapering...? Well I can't eat off of clear plates because I don't like to see the floor through my plate. I don't know why, it just seems wrong. Anyway. It's something that my family has TEASED me relentlessly about, they call me a germafobe and now that I was going to cloth diapers I am sure many of them thought I would last a day just because of the ICK factor.

Okay so it's been almost a week of cloth diapering...

When we started I had a little anxiety. What was I doing?! I was going against the norm... was this really going to work? We found out this week that it does! And there is definitly a learning curve, but it all turned out fine!

Well here are a few tips I discovered. When you decide to cloth diaper, about a week before you do, go to the store and buy a huge BUCKET of ice cream and EAT it. Then use the bucket for your diaper bucket. Awesome transportation thought of by my handsome husband. Watch out ladies he's taken. Heh. Well he said why don't we use the bucket to put the dirty diaper in, finish changing the baby and then transport it to the bathroom. I LOVE IT!! Especially when Corbin likes to kick things, and I know if I had a diaper on the changing table it would be a matter of seconds before there was POO flying everywhere! No bueno. So the bucket has been a life saver. I love the handle, and hey we had this bucket already, but if there is any excuse needed to eat a bunch of ice cream, now would be it!

So the first few days the boys were leaky, LAME. Definitely User Error. We were not being careful enough with the inserts and they were wicking... A diapering term, meaning basically to seep from the diaper onto other clothing. Pretty much a Leak. When I first hear of wicking I thought of a rapper going wicky wicky wicky but then I found out it was completely different. So make sure the prefold and the liner, if you use them, are stuffed inside the cover.

And Oh my poor babies legs. We didn't know exactly how to perfectly attach these diapers to our kids, apparently we were using the tourniquet method, so it seems that their legs were pinched and were sore the next day near their hips. They didn't say anything about it, and Cruz definitely would have complained, but we did see their legs and were much more careful to put them on a little looser. When we made a fuss about it Cruz did see a perfect opportunity ask to wear a band aid, and we consented even though it was completely unnecessary.

After the first few days we were totally in the swing of things. No worries, no poo blow outs. Woo hoo!! It isn't bad at all. I do laundry every night, which I thought would be horrible, but it totally isn't. I put all of the diapers in the laundry with liquid detergent with a little of baking soda (about 1/2 a cup) and do a cold wash. I leave everything in the washer and start a hot wash with detergent, baking soda and then in the fabric softener part of my washer I put about 1/2 a cup of vinegar and I set it for an extra rinse and I am good to go the next day.

I looked up a ton of ways to wash diapers and they say if you use liquid detergent and add baking soda to it, it helps clean the diapers better, and the vinegar helps balance the PH so no PEE smell!!! High five for that! And I found out that you're not supposed to use bleach. NO BLEACH!!! It breaks down your diapers and they don't last as long. Check out the diaper pin link to the right and there is a ton of info about it.

So the boys are happy and content in their diapers, their bums are a little bigger in them though, it's so funny because they wear the same size but Corbins are obviously fitting bigger than Cruz's so he walks with his bootie sticking out all the time, it's so cute.

So with our confidence in check we set out to the real world with our cloth diapers. In my car I have a baby emergency kit. It's awesome! I have bottled water, individually wrapped snacks, disposable diapers, wipes and a few other first aid things. I have used this box SO many times. It's really a life saver! So we were getting ready to go and I had this thought come to my head, that said ' you should refill the disposable diapers, the emergency kit doesn't have any left inside'. So instead of listening, I promptly forgot and got into the busy day.

Cameron had a dentist appointment in Elk Grove so we all packed in the car and thought we would take a little mecca to Kimberly and Aarons and hang out for a bit after his appointment. I packed the diaper bag with 4 prefolds, 2 covers and a bunch of wipes and inserts.

OH!! another tip.. We are all about the toddler flushable wipes for poopy diapers! They rock and then you flush it instead of putting it in the trash, way less stinky. I just got my wipes at Walmart and they are awesome.

So anyway, I packed the bag and thought oh I am good for the evening. Needless to say Corbin pooped, and we apparently prematurely changed him, and then he EXPLODED. Kimberly blames it on the 'miracle' plums in her backyard, and I am thinking it's totally true! The boys shared a plum and after that it was all over. We would have had enough diapers if Cruz hadn't promptly exploded right after Corbin, which left me with not enough covers, naked bums and Cameron running to Rite Aid to get disposable diapers because I forgot to put them in the car when I had the thought!! AH!! So my suggestion, put a bunch of disposables in the back of the car, they are totally compact and you can have 30 in there waiting to be used in times of emergency. Luckily the covers are awesome and no poo escaped into the outside world, but needless to say it WAS a mess!