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Mommy Mishaps 6/21/13

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mommy mishapsIf motherhood has taught me anything it is that there is no such thing as a perfect parent. I’ve come to learn that in order to make it through the not-so-pleasant parenting moments that sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. Take a moment to remember that your little ones will only be little for so long and that one day you’ll be laughing just thinking about the memories of them growing up.

I’m here to prove to all you other mamas out there that all parents have at least one moment where they feel like a failure. For me, it’s so many moments all rolled together that I was able to make this weekly feature out of my experiences. For you, it lets you know you’re not alone in this. 😉

flat diaper with snappi

Cloth diapering a newborn is new for me. We’re at this awkward stage now that she is 2 1/2 months where she is too big for our newborn diapers yet not quite big enough for our one size diapers since most of them are thicker fitteds. I recently purchased a snappi and thought I would use it with our prefolds, only to realize Kaliah is already too big to use the prefolds in the conventional way. I have one flat diaper–I’m not even sure where it came from. I decided today that I was going to try folding it and using the snappi since I was down to only one or two prefold left to use with the covers.

I have to say, I was pretty proud of myself because the final product looked like it was not only comfortable but that it would stay together. After a little tummy time on the floor, I began nursing her. I noticed she was a little gassy and she even pooped while still nursing. I held my hand over her bum and I was so extremely proud of myself for getting the diaper folded in a way that it was not just absorbing right through. I was beaming a little on the inside.

She fell asleep nursing and I placed her in the little bouncer on the floor and went outside to brag about my flat folding skills to my hubby while he was packing up our store‘s orders. Once I finished my little moment he finally took a second to look up and respond. Instead he just laughed at me. A little annoyed because I was thinking that he was just laughing that I was so excited over something so dumb, I started to walk away before he asked what I ad spilled all over my dress. I looked down and found a horrible, mustard-y looking mess all over on one side.

I went inside to look at the baby, snoozing away in her bouncer and funny enough, there was NO poop on her. What the hell?? I changed her diaper, a little hesitant because I didn’t want to wake her but I was a little confused as to how I could be covered and her not show any signs of a dirty diaper. After thinking about it, when I was nursing her, I had turned her little body so that her tummy was against mine. Since flats don’t have elastic around the legs, I essentially set her up to poop all over me.

 

I know I can’t be alone.

Did you have a parenting fail this week? Tell us all about it and you could be featured in next week’s Mommy Mishaps post. =)

What’s the deal with diaper sprayers?

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Welcome to the June 2013 Natural Living Blog Carnival: A Natural Challenge.
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Natural Living Blog Carnival hosted by Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project through the Green Moms Network. This month, our members took 1-2 weeks to explore a natural practice that they had yet to try. Today, they’re going to tell you about their experience! Hopefully, you’ll find some inspiration to try something new on one or more of the posts.


I know I can’t be the only cloth diapering mama out there that has had to work to convince my significant other that cloth is the way to go. One thing I did in the beginning to make things easy for both my hubby and myself was to get a diaper sprayer. There are some really nice name brands out there but when we were first starting out with cloth we were barely scraping by financially and a DIY version was more suitable.

At first I used it every chance I got. Of course, I also ended up wiping the bathroom up afterward because I would spray water everywhere. Once I got the hang of it, I felt for a while that there was no way I could have stuck to cloth diapering without it. As our toddler has gotten older there’s been less of a need for the sprayer since the solids are able to just be plopped into the toilet.

Recently, my hubby was spraying a diaper and got irritated, saying it was making matters worse and spraying poop all over. I know that there’s plenty of people out there that don’t use a sprayer at all and I took on the challenge of rinsing and swishing. I’ll tell you, I don’t think it is for me. For diapers that did need more work than just plopping into the toilet I noticed more staining because I couldn’t fully get all the poop off with swishing. Plus, I have noticed that since having my second baby my sense of smell is still on high alert. I can get almost instantly nauseous over a poop explosion, getting snotty kisses or even throwing up. That being said, I’m sure I could’ve been a little more diligent but the point was to take on something a little different and in doing so, I was able to find what doesn’t work for us.

Have you ever challenged yourself to try something you wouldn’t normally do?

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Visit Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project to learn more about participating in next month’s Natural Living Blog Carnival!
Please take some time to enjoy the posts our other carnival participants have contributed:


Mindfully Green Business

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When you’re building a business like we are, there are things that you may find yourself doing or using that just don’t match up with your eco-friendly lifestyle. Branding a business, blog or even an idea is hard work  and if you get to the point where you are exploring promotional options, opt for eco-friendly promotional products. A few ideas to keep in mind:

  • Look for items that are created from recycled materials.
  • Bonus points if the product is also able to recycled itself. 😉
  • Try choosing items that promote an eco-friendly lifestyle, such as reusable water bottle while still promoting your brand.
  • Consider branding items that people will use every day for maximum exposure.
  • Think out of the box. Have you seen the trend using business card stamps that you can stamp onto any scrap of paper? It cuts down on initial waste of cards that may eventually be tossed and can still utilize scraps that are headed for the trash.

How do you keep your business eco-friendly?

Cloth Diapering: Newborn Edition

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Just when I thought I had mastered the art of cloth diapering my little girl, I decide to cloth diaper our second little girl from birth. When I made the decision to use cloth on Natalia she was already 9 months old. It was a decision made in an effort to save money and because I was so tired of messy poop explosions, nasty little gel blobs left on her skin from the disposables, and having a portion of the box of disposables be defective with tabs ripped off or something. Even after a year and a half, there were still corners of the cloth diaper world I had yet to venture to but cloth diapering a newborn has exposed me to a few of those uncharted territories.

Even after a year and a half, there were still corners of the cloth diaper world I had yet to venture to but cloth diapering a newborn has exposed me to a few of those uncharted territories. See how we navigated the newborn cloth diaper experience.Our Newborn Stash

You can see our newborn stash in the above photo but here’s a breakdown for you:
14 GMD Prefolds
16 Fitted diapers with hidden fleece –Made myself from my cloth diaper pattern & tutorial.
4 wahm diapers (1 AIO, 3 AI2)
4 Covers (2 Thirsties, 1 Rumparooz, 1 Best Bottom)
1 Tots Bots Tini Fit (not pictured)

 Prefolds

Is it really so hard to believe that I’d never used prefolds before? For someone who chose cloth to save money, it probably is a little odd that I didn’t use prefolds since they are such an affordable option. You have a few different options for different types of newborn prefolds which include Indian or Chinese cotton, bamboo, and hemp. I have just over a dozen plush, newborn cotton prefolds. Admittedly, the idea of different folds scares me a little and I knew that if I wanted to make things as easy as possible on my hubby that we would just go the route of a pad fold. Basically you just tri-fold the prefold and then lay it in a cover.

I did actually get a free set of diaper pins but I was so worried that I would poke my baby girl so I actually only tried to use them and do a real “fold” maybe twice. You can also pick up a pack of snappis for pretty cheap and use those in place of the pins. They’re a safer alternative that don’t run the risk of poking your baby yet still manages to grip the prefold well enough to keep it snug.

You can get prefolds from Diaper Junction starting at only $1.00 each.

*At 10 weeks, Kaliah is weighing 10 1/2 pounds and we are still using the prefolds full time with her covers.

Fitteds

fitted cloth diaper close up

I used the newborn Rocket Bottoms pattern to make my own fitted cloth diapers. These have a cotton outer fabric, hidden fleece layer to repel moisture and a soft cotton velour inner fabric. Since I had limited covers, I could get more uses out of them by using the fitted diapers since they had their own elastic around the legs to hold in those runny poops that newborns have.

Fitteds are made to act as absorbency and usually to be used with a cover. With these, I was able to get a fit that contained the mess, yet could still absorb an incredible amount of pee. Believe it or not, I make this exact style of diaper for my toddler and the fleece is enough to make it leak proof for 6-8 hours if necessary without a cover, yet I found that I needed them for the baby.

Just an added note, but I also chose to make these in the style of an AI2 (All-in-two). This way I can still get the added absorbency of the snap in inserts but they don’t take forever to dry after washing since they aren’t all one thick piece.

*To give you an idea, This photo was taken at 10 days old to show the fit. Kaliah is 10 weeks now and 10 1/2 pounds and we are outgrowing diapers made from the Rocket Bottoms pattern this week. She can still fit on the  very last snap setting but the leg elastic is getting too tight.

Coversnewborn diaper cover

How is it that I had never used covers before our second baby? I know, take me out back and shoot me now, right? All that really matters is that I’ve been introduced to them now and they will forever have a place in our stash, no matter the size. Our newborn stash has 2 Thirsties Duo size 1 covers and a Rumparooz newborn cover.

Thirsties Duo wraps come in two different sizes; 1 and 2. The size 1 is supposed to go from 6- 18 pounds. At 10 1/2 pounds we are still using it with the smaller rise setting. I’ll be sure to update when we move to the larger setting and then again when they are finally outgrown. The Rumparooz says it will fit to 12 pounds and I’m guessing that will be about right for us. There are no rise setting and although she could go longer on the waist settings, the rise will probably become too short at about 12 pounds. I’ll keep this post updated once we officially outgrow it. 😉

I also have a one-size Best Bottoms cover from Nicki’s Diapers. Once I had gotten the other 3 covers, I realized how handy they were and actually decided to make this diaper for the baby rather than the toddler. You can see how it fits on our baby in this photo. This cover will be around for quite a while, I mean, it even fits my 2 1/2 year old with plenty of room for her to grow.

 

Learning the ins and outs of cloth diapering my baby from birth was definitely a good experience. My poor baby got a really bad cough at about 6 weeks and was on antibiotics for a week and in disposables. She had so many little blowouts and there were even a couple times where the cheap tabs would get caught on the inside of her clothes at night and pull off. That made for a fun morning. In contrast we have not had one single blowout from any opening in our cloth. She has had some really bad poops and although it may have been in every little fold of skin that her diaper was covering, it didn’t seep out at all.

Hence, why I love our cloth diapers so much. <3

Have you cloth diapered from birth?