Day 1:
The babies are finally big enough to use our BG 3.0 diapers on the boys. We have 6. We want to try them out before we buy any more.
We've got the diapers washed. This was interesting because everybody disagrees on how to do this. I even had to buy special detergent. I got the Tide powder for HE washers and I use an old formula scoop to measure. I put in 1 scoop of detergent.
I put all the dipes in the wash. I wash 1x on cold w/ detergent. Then I wash 1x on hot w/ detergent and an extra rinse. Then I put them all in the dryer. I made sure the inserts were out of the diapers and I unsnapped them to make for quicker drying time. This seemed to work o.k. We'll see how it goes with acutal poop in the diapers.
The babies looked super cute in their diapers and they seemed to work out o.k. Sammy was the only one to poop in his and we had a bit of a leak. This could be for a couple of reasons. #1 I hadn't prepped the dipes enough. I guess I need to wash them 7-8x before they're completely absorbent. #2 He just had a leaky poop. This happens whether or not you use cloth dipes.
I did feel like the inserts were super bulky so I used the newborn sized ones for the 2nd diaper change. Now we've used all 6 diapers so I put them in the wash to get them ready for tomorrow.
I put all the diapers in a bag made of PUL and threw the whole thing in the washing machine. Then I repeated the above steps. Everything came out o.k. So I think we've got a good thing going.
I then made the decision to order more diapers. It may seem like a lot, but I got 28 more diapers (for a total of 34). I got the BG Elementals. I like the idea of them because there are no inserts and I don't have to stuff them to put them together. Also they're supposed to be trimmer so they shouldn't be so bulky. It was tough spending $600 on diapers, but we spend about $100/month on disposables right now so in the long run this should save us some serious dough. These diapers are supposed to last until they're 35lbs. Keep your fingers crossed. We'll see how it goes.
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| Even their diapers are color coded. Can you believe it??? |
January 10, 2011
Day 2
We followed the same routine today. The boys got all "clothed up" after their tubby and the change after that. Nate & Ben had poops this time with NO LEAKING!!! It was amazing too because they were super liquidy (gross...I know).
I found all the baby face cloths we had gotten for our showers. We got about 75 (literally). I threw these in with the diaper load tonight. We'll be using these for cloth wipes. I also found a recipe for a wipe solution. It's:
1/2 cup baby wash
1/2 cup baby oil
2 cups water
I put them all into an old juice bottle to store. I then poured a bit into a peri bottle (I "borrowed" it from the hospital). I haven't actually tried out the cloth wipes yet though because they're in the wash. We'll see how that goes tomorrow. So far so good and 12 diapers diverted from the landfill . I can't wait for the Fed-Ex man to arrive with my new dipes sometime this week so we can get this going full time.
January 15, 2011
Day 6
I think we're getting the hang of this. We have started using the cloth wipes for the "poo" diapers. I have a system. Here's what it is so far: I used a dry wipe to get off all the goop. Then I use a wet wipe to get off the residue. I use a peri bottle (from the hospital) to get the wipe wet. The boys don't like it too much when I squirt their bums directly.
We got our Fed Ex package of BG Elementals. We have to wait a while to use them though. They have to be washed about 7x before use. I refuse to run a bunch of diapers in the wash without any real reason so I'm washing them when the other ones are dirty. With this method, it will take me about a week to get them all prepped. I also decided to only wash 1 of each color of the new dipes for now. That way if we don't like them we can return all the other unopened/unused ones.
We got a dryer ball too. Since we're not supposed to use dryer sheets we needed something to cut down on the static. The wipes & inserts were always sticking together. I'm not convinced the dryer ball works though. We'll keep trying it out to see.
The next big move will be to go overnight. I'm thinking we'll use the BG 3.0's for that and stuff them with both inserts.
January 20, 2011
Day 10?
Today we had some epic failures. All the boys wet through their cloth diapers TWO TIMES! Talk about doing some extra laundry. I might have to bump them up to the thicker inserts or put 2 newborn size inserts in each time.
Because I'm getting slightly addicted to cloth diapering. I bought some Artist Series BG 4.0's. They were seconds and a super deal. I took a pic of Sammy in his. They're all the same color b/c they didn't have their colors available.
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| The "Moose" modeling his new diaper!!! |
We're still washing and prepping the Elementals...hopefully by Saturday we'll be full time!!!
February 11, 2011
Day:???
So here's the verdict: We're going part time with CDing. We're comfortable with our current stash (3 BG 4.0's, 6 BG 3.0's, & 4 BG Elementals). Our plan is to take 8 more Elementals out of the box and return the rest. Our current routine is CD's during the day & disposables during the night & outings. It's been working for us. We wash the diapers once per day or when we use all of them up. I like that it's no stress right now. If we use a CD, we're happy. If we use a disposable, we're happy. We know we're saving money and being green, but we're not going overboard. I think CDing full time would be stressful for us. We are noticing that we're having some leaking issues which means changing multiple outfits multiple times. What it boils down to is we're used to changing at feeding times (or when there's a big stinker). This is roughly every 4 hours. CD's need to be changed more often than that so they leak if we go too long. It's a routine we're going to have to work out. I know this plan won't work for everybody, but it works for us. We'll see how it's going when I go back to work next month!
