Fluffin' it up!

Growing Up

2010-05-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

With Audrey getting older, we're coming up on a momentous and bittersweet occasion - starting solids. I'm excited that she's growing and getting ready for this next step in her feeding. But at the same time I'm a little sad to be getting ready to say goodbye to exclusive breastfeeding. The cloth diapering ramifications are as follows: Breastfed poop is water soluble, so I don't have to rinse it off the diapers. It comes off in the washing machine without any extra effort. Once I add solids, I'll have to start spraying her poop off into the toilet just like Thomas'. And it will start to smell worse too.

A little extra work and a little extra smell. It's really not that much of an issue, but I can honestly say that I will miss her EBF poop.

Yeah, I just read over that last sentence again. I'll miss her poop? How weird am I?! ;-)

Why I don't update much lately

2010-04-17T22:08:00.001-07:00

I've made a realization.

When I started cloth diapering, it was an adventure. Each diaper change was exciting. It was fun to see all the diapers that I made in action. When I started this blog, I thought it would be full of daily (or at least weekly) updates on how the cloth diapering was going.

But it hasn't been like that. Now that I've got a few months of cloth diapering under my belt, it's not really an adventure. It's just a diaper change.

Actually, I think that's a good thing. It means I'm used to diapering this way now. There are things I like about it (cute diapers, soft on the kids' bums, saving money) and things I dislike (cleaning out Thomas' poopies). We're still dealing with periodic rashes, some stink issues, and I've been able to start line-drying the diapers now that the weather has perked up. But really, there's not much that's post-worthily exciting.

Cloth diapering. Just another part of my day.

Good News

2010-03-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

The rashes are clearing up! Hooray!

I switched to a perfume- and dye-free liquid detergent for the diaper laundry, which seems to be helping. And when I mentioned our rash problems to a lady in our church, she told me about this awesome stuff that works really well for all kinds of skin issues, including diaper rash. Later she gave me a small jar of it, and it has really worked wonders. It's called Miracle II Neutralizer Gel. I'm not kidding when I say that absolutely nothing else I tried worked on the kids' diaper rashes, but this stuff is working. Thomas' rash, that he's had almost constantly for many months, is almost completely gone. And Audrey's rash, which left her bright red and skin peeling all over her diaper area, is almost gone as well. And the kids can wear their cloth diapers.

I'm not trying to sound like a commercial, but this gel is working so well that we got online and ordered a bottle of it, even though, with shipping, it costs much more than I'm used to paying for any kind of skin stuff. To me, being able to use cloth diapers and be rash-free is totally worth it.

Not doing so great.

2010-03-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

One big reason I haven't posted for a while is because I am sad to be posting this. All the work I put into making so many cute diapers, all the eagerness about getting to use them on my kids, all the excitement about the money we would save. And now I'm not even sure that it will have been worth it.

Two words can sum up the cause of my woe.

Diaper Rash.

Thomas has had a diaper rash for as long as I can remember, long before we switched to cloth. I was hoping the switch would help him to heal. But it hasn't. His rash is as constant as it was before. We've tried nystatin to treat for yeast, we've tried mupirocin to treat for bacteria, we've used barrier creams and petroleum jelly and everything we can possibly think of. But his rash continues.

The worst of it, though, is Audrey's rash. A few weeks after starting cloth, she started getting a bit red. At her next check-up with the pediatrician, she was prescribed nystatin for yeast. It didn't work. The rash got worse. It was bright red all over her diaper area, super dry, and extremely flaky. I'm talking huge flakes of skin peeling off when I'd wipe her. Diaper changes, which used to be a happy bonding time, became physically painful for Audrey and emotionally painful for me.

My sister suggested I use lotrimin anti-fungal with disposable diapers for a while, bathing Audrey in an oatmeal/powdered milk bath every morning and evening. For a while, that was actually working - her skin was starting to get smooth and much less red. Then it just stopped working, and her rash started getting bad again.

Now for the past few days I've been using cloth sometimes and disposables other times, for both kids. Thomas' rash continues to stay the same. Audrey's rash has slowly been getting worse.

I don't want to stop cloth diapering! I worked so hard to make all those diapers! I love the way they look, the way they feel. I love washing them, stuffing them, putting them away all nice and neat. I love the way they don't crinkle when the baby moves, the way they don't smell like perfumed chemicals. I love the fact that, before all this started, we were able to go for such a long time without having to buy any diapers or wet wipes at all.

But I'm about ready to give up. If I can't get these rashes to go away with the kids in cloth, I may just have to throw in the towel, pack away the fluff, and diaper my kids in crinkly, rough, papery disposables. And that thought just makes me so sad. I want it to work with cloth. I never even entertained the possibility that it might not work out. I thought all I needed was determination. But what happens when being determined doesn't work? When no matter what I try, my kids' bottoms get more and more red and painful?

Sigh. This is just such a hard thing to face. I'm going to get Audrey checked out at the clinic to see if there's anything they can suggest that I haven't tried yet. I'm going to keep trying to make the cloth diapers work. But if I can't, no matter how hard I've tried, I'll feel like I've failed.

Hmm, I should work on that...

2010-02-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

I've gotten into the bad habit of leaving diapers lying on the floor after diaper changes, instead of taking them to the diaper pail in the laundry room. Just lazy, I guess. Well, tonight I finally went around the house picking up all the diapers that I've left sitting around in random places - there were ten of them! Three of which were Thomas' poopy diapers that had to be sprayed off into the toilet... Icky. Yeah, from now on I think I'll work harder at making sure the wet/messy diapers make it to the diaper pail with much more expediency.

Customizing the Soaker Pattern

2010-02-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

I made Audrey and Thomas each a new soaker yesterday. For Audrey's, since she's been growing and I'm not folding down the RRPs for her anymore, I went to the next size up. I also lengthened the rise since I've noticed that the Katrina's soaker pattern tends to be a bit short on her and it can be a struggle to get it to cover the entire diaper. So I used the medium soaker, with a large rise, and medium-small waist band and leg cuffs. For Thomas' soaker, I used extra large, with large waist band and leg cuffs. My kids tend to be skinny. It's so cool to be able to customize the soakers to meet the fitting needs of my individual children, try getting that kind of customization with disposables!

I'm thinking I need to strip the diapers soon, especially Thomas' dipes. That little boy sure has smelly pee! I need to get rid of that ammonia stink. I'll try washing with Dawn dish soap first. If that doesn't take care of it, I'll try boiling them. It will be my first time boiling diapers, the whole idea of which makes me giggle. Boiling diapers, teehee! But hey, if it works, I'll just do my best to get over the silliness of it.

Suzy's Zoo diaper

2010-01-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

Yet another cute RRP from my stash of free flannel! I love this shade of pink, I think it's so sweet.

Monkey dipe!

2010-01-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

My aunt Karen recently brought over a bunch of fleece and flannel scraps (yay for more free fabric!) and they're so cute! I had to make a diaper out of this monkey fabric right away, just couldn't resist.

Outside:

Inside:

Folded up:

I didn't notice until after the diaper was made that all the monkeys end up upside down when it's folded. Oh well, it's super cute anyway.

Can't wait to make diapers with the other fun fabrics (think Suzy's Zoo, giraffes, Winnie the Pooh, lady bugs).

Changing cloth diapers

2010-01-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to do a little happy post. I love changing Audrey's diaper. Not just because the diapers are really cute and it's fun to see my homemade diapers in action, but I love seeing how much she likes it. When I put on her clean, soft, new diaper, she always does this happy little grunting noise, and wiggles around cheerfully. The other kids never did anything like that when I put them in disposables, a diaper change was just a diaper change. With these cloth diapers, diaper changes are actually more of a bonding experience. I'm glad to know that Audrey really likes her soft, comfy cloth diapers.

Yes, I'm weird. I'm okay with it.

A whole slew of new dipes

2010-01-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

Seven new diapers! I'm having so much fun sewing up new diapers with all the fun flannel that my mom gave me. And I still have plenty left to make even more diapers!

I just did the diaper laundry this morning, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a picture while I had most of my stash clean. So here's a bunch of RRPs and the flat diapers I stuff them with. This isn't all of them, but you get the idea. :-)

I also added it all up, and discovered that I have 45 RRPs total. And I'm still itching to make more...

Longies and RRPs

2010-01-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

I've been doing lots of sewing lately!

New longies:

New RRPs:

Plus, last night I cut out a bunch of new diapers and I'm working on sewing them up today. I'll post pics when they're all done.

In other news, Audrey is getting so big! She has pretty much outgrown her newborn fitted diapers, and is in RRPs full-time. I love that the RRPs are one-size; Thomas wears them as-is, Audrey wears them with the back folded down.

Zebra Stripes

2009-12-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

For those days when we're feelin' a little wild!!

Folded down to fit Audrey.

I love it!!!

New dipe and wipes

2009-12-31T13:48:00.000-08:00

Jeff got me a rotary cutter and mat for Christmas, per my request. I have been having so much fun with it! I made a new cover for Audrey, as well as this adorable new diaper.

It's so much faster and easier to cut out and pin together diapers/covers with the rotary cutter! I only have to trace the pattern once, and it takes about a minute to cut out both layers of fabric at the same time.

I also made 60 wipes the other day. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to cut them all out if I hadn't been using the rotary cutter! Since I made these with scraps of flannel, I didn't make them all uniform, I varied the size and shape based on the size and shape of each scrap. Here are some of the wipes, we're already using them instead of disposables, so there are several in the wash at the moment.

Also, finally getting around to posting the picture of Audrey modeling the cover I made her for Christmas.

Baby's screaming to be fed, so gotta go! :-)

Fluffy Christmas

2009-12-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

This is Audrey's Christmas present, a pretty new fleece cover. I started it a couple days ago, using fleece from my mom (I really love this purple plaid!!), and finally finished it tonight, just in time to wrap it up and put it under the tree. I used the Rita's Rump cover pattern. Lately I've been putting Audrey in her prefolds at night, because they're really absorbent. But that also means they're really bulky. I've found that the RRC covers the prefolds better than the Katrina's soaker pattern, even though I still love using those. So I'd like to have at least a couple RRCs for putting over her prefolds. And it doesn't hurt that they're just so cute!

Cute Girly Diapers

2009-12-23T20:57:00.001-08:00

Here are the pocket diapers I've made so far with the flannel from my mom. The pink flowery one was extra fun to make - the fabric was in three strips, and all three were too small to make a diaper with. But I loved the fabric, so I sewed the strips together into one big piece, and cut the pattern out of that! It worked great, and the diaper turned out super cute. It's awesome that these diapers are one-size, because they fit Audrey right now with the back folded down, and they'll keep fitting her all the way until she potty trains (this is the same pattern I used for the diapers that Thomas wears, and he's 2).

Still haven't stripped the fabric softener from the rest of the flannel, we had a busy day today. I'll do it soon though, and then I get to sew some more! :-)

New fabric! (and new soakers)

2009-12-22T21:05:00.000-08:00

Mom sent me lots of fleece and flannel that she didn't need. It was so fun to go through all the fun fabrics and dream about the diapers, covers, and wipes that I'll be able to make! I've already made three RRPs for Audrey, but haven't taken pictures of them yet. Today I made a couple new soakers - one for Audrey using fleece from Mom and one for Thomas using fleece I already had. Yeah, guess which cover goes to which kid...

It's so fun to have two in diapers, a boy and a girl, because I can do all sorts of patterns and colors. I'm not limited to only girl things or only boy things. I can do some of each and some gender neutral, whatever I want!

Most of the flannel Mom sent needs to be stripped before I can use it - it's got fabric softener so it repels water. I'll probably take care of that tomorrow. Then the real fun begins!

Pics

2009-12-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

Here's the nighttime cover I made. It worked great last night - I was able to stuff the RRP nice and thick, and when Thomas woke up he was completely dry, despite his diaper being very wet.

I got this fleece from the clearance section at Wal-Mart. I wouldn't have chosen this print otherwise, it's not really my style. But I do think that the cover turned out pretty cute. It's solid green on the inside, and I think that it's cute to have the wolf face on the bum. I'll probably make another cover just like this one, so I can have one in the wash and one for wear if necessary.

And here's the latest newborn fitted, made from scraps I found lying around.

Nighttime cover

2009-12-15T21:52:00.000-08:00

I made a new diaper cover for Thomas today (I'll take pictures later and post them, I like how it turned out). I want to start having him wear cloth overnight, and needed a special cover for that. I made this one bigger, so I can stuff the pocket diaper more, and with an extra layer in the wet zone for added protection. He's wearing it tonight with a super-stuffed RRP. We'll see how it holds up to his nighttime wetting. If it worked I'll make another one the same way. If not, I'll try something else.

I really want to be able to have the kids in cloth full time, including at night. For Thomas that means super absorbency. For Audrey, that means more diapers - I only have 14 newborn fitteds (including one I just made today), and the prefolds don't really fit her very well yet. So I'd like to make several more fitted diapers for her so that I can have her in cloth all the time without having to wash every day.

We did make some progress today as my confidence in my cloth diapers increases - we went shopping and I left both Thomas and Audrey in cloth instead of changing them to disposables. The diapers held up well, no leaks or anything. I'll start having them wear cloth on our outtings more often.

Update

2009-12-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

Well, it's definitely taking some time to adjust to cloth diapers. I do have to change the diapers more frequently than I did with sposies, and that's taking some getting used to. We've had several compression leaks simply because of not changing the diapers in time. And I still put the kids in disposable diapers at night. But overall, things are going well. I am slowly adjusting to the cloth, and having to change the diapers more often. I also figured out a slightly better way to put on Thomas' fleece cover to make sure it doesn't leak out the front and get the waistband of his pants all wet (that was a problem for a while).

I made a new diaper today, my first since before Audrey was born. I found a small scrap of tie-dye fabric that I thought would make a really cute newborn fitted, so I cut it out and sewed it up this morning. I think it's one of the cutest diapers I've made so far! Definitely the most colorful.

I am in the process of making another diaper for her, using a scrap of blue and white striped fabric. It's fun to use scraps, I can make cute and useful diapers for practically free!

I'm also planning on making a few new covers for Thomas. We're almost out of disposable diapers to put on him at night, and I don't want to buy another box. So I'm going to experiment making a nighttime cover. I want it to be similar to the Rita's Rump covers that we already have, but with a couple changes - I'll make it larger so that it will cover a double- or triple-stuffed pocket, and I want to try it with fleece on the inside and tablecloth fabric on the outside. I have a tablecloth that we no longer use and it's water repellent. I'll make one cover and see how it holds up. If it works well, I'll make a few more and we can start putting Thomas in cloth overnight. I hope it works!

The kids are in cloth!

2009-12-06T08:58:00.000-08:00

I put Thomas and Audrey in cloth for the first time yesterday. It went so well! Both kids initiated their first cloth with poopies, and the diapers held up just fine. I am in awe of the fleece covers - even when the diapers were soaked through, the fleece wasn't even wet, and you couldn't even smell anything on them! Hooray!

Thomas did have one leak in the evening, we didn't change him soon enough and he got a compression leak through the fleece. But as long as we change the diapers in a timely manner, they work perfectly.

Too nervous to go all night in cloth, we put them back in disposable for overnight. But as I get my confidence up, we'll start CDing at night as well. I have them back in their cute little cloth diapers this morning, and am looking forward to another day of watching all my hard work in action!

Almost Go Time!

2009-12-03T12:42:00.000-08:00

Audrey was born this past Saturday, and I'm so excited to get to put her in cloth diapers! I finally got up the energy to start getting the diapers prepped. Since I made them out of thrift store sheets, some of them had been washed with fabric softener, which makes them repel water instead of absorbing it. So I went through all the diapers with a little water bottle (okay, to tell the truth it was my peri-bottle...) to see which ones were repelling water, and they are in the washing machine now. Gonna run them through a couple times to see if that will get the softener out. If that doesn't work, I'll try a load with some Dawn dish soap or vinegar. Just whatever it takes to get these babies to soak up the pee!

I'm waiting to CD Audrey until her cord stump falls off. But I can put Thomas in cloth as soon as all the diapers are ready. I'm nervous to get started, but also just super excited that I can finally use all these diapers that I've made.

I need to make lots more wipes. We have a few more packages of disposable wet wipes that we can use for now, but I want to switch to cloth as soon as I have enough wipes for the two of them.

Waiting on the washer and dryer

2009-11-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

I can't wait! Our washer and dryer will be delivered this Friday. Then I can start stripping and prepping the diapers I've made, and then I finally get to start using them. Not a moment too soon. Poor little Thomas seems to have a perma-rash on his bum. He poops a lot and almost always is red and rashy, often to the point of bleeding. I'm really hoping that the switch to cloth clears that up. As soon as I can put fluff on his little bum, I'm going to! Yup, can't wait for my washer and dryer to get here.

Sigh

2009-11-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

I had to pack my sewing stuff yesterday. It's no fun wanting to make diapers but being in the middle of a big move. My sewing machine, my sewing table, my sewing box, my diaper fabric - all have been packed away and are sitting at the new house, waiting to be loved again. I can't wait to get unpacked and settled in, so that I can start sewing again!

Tiny Pants!

2009-11-16T11:05:00.001-08:00

I made my first pair of fleece longies today. Longies are diaper covers that double as pants. I used Katrina's Longies pattern, in the newborn size. These little pants are so tiny and adorable, I can't wait for Baby to wear them!

Dozen Prefolds

2009-11-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I've finished my goal for newborn diapers. I originally had 12 small prefolds that my sister gave me, and I wanted to make 12 newborn fitteds, and 12 more prefolds. I just finished the last prefolds today, making 36 diapers that Baby will be able to wear as a newborn. Hooray!

The neat thing about prefolds is that when she outgrows them, I can use them to stuff the pocket diapers.

The next project I'll be working on is covers. I have four newborn pull-on covers, and now I'm going to make at least four small covers, which is the next size up, for her to grow into. I have this adorable pink froggy fleece that I'm going to make some covers out of, I just need to wash it first. It's the only fabric I've actually purchased new - it was on clearance at Wal-Mart.

I love seeing the progress I'm making. What I don't necessarily love is the fact that, at 37 1/2 weeks along, Baby could come at any time, and I feel a lot of pressure to finish all the diapers I'm going to need as soon as I can, before she's born. There's so much else that needs to be done too (especially with the move to the new house), I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with everything! But I'm sure it will all work out fine.

The Start of Something Great

2009-11-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd go ahead and start this blog since I didn't want my family blog to get completely bogged down with diaper posts! I recently started making cloth diapers, in anticipation of the birth of our third child, and am totally hooked. I've wanted to cloth diaper for a while, and tried for a while with both previous kids. But with apartment laundry rooms and very little knowledge of what on earth I was doing, I gave up pretty quickly both times. However, I've learned a lot about cloth diapering since then. And since we just bought a house and will have our own washer and dryer, and space for a clothes line, this is the perfect time to start cloth diapering. I'll be CD-ing the new baby girl, as well as my 2 year old boy.

So I printed out a few free cloth diaper patterns from online, bought a bunch of flannel sheets and fleece blankets from the thrift store (I'm nothing if not frugal), and got started sewing! Here's what I've got so far:

30 Rita's Rump Pockets (RRPs)

4 Rita's Rump Covers (RRCs), plus three more that are almost done

12 Shar's Newborn Fitted Nappies (I think these are my favorite, they're so tiny and cute!)

4 newborn-size Katrina's Soakers

2 small prefolds (just made these today)

All together now...

Not bad for a newbie, huh? And I only started three weeks ago!

I'm hoping to have a dozen prefolds and several more RRCs done before the baby is born in early December. I also have a few wipes made, but they're kind of ugly. I'm still working on that.