Thursday, February 7, 2013

Babywearing

As it turns out, I do other things besides cloth diaper.  You were wondering, right?

Anyway, we recently picked up a Snuggybaby ring sling for 50% off (whoo hoo!), and The Baby Fish loves it!  He has been a nosy curious baby since the moment he bungee jumped his way out of me and into the world.  I think he enjoys being worn because it keeps him up and in the thick of things.  Now that he is practicing sitting up, he especially likes it.  It's pretty simple to use and it fits in the diaper bag.  He can also nurse in it (although he gets REALLY distracted).

We have a Moby Wrap too, and it has its merits, but if you think it's your only option, do not be deceived.  I feel like the Moby is kind of like the "Kleenex" of baby wearing.  You know how people say they need a Kleenex when they really just mean they need a tissue?   If you want to wear your baby, you might think you need a Moby, but what you really need is just some kind of carrier.

The thing about the Moby is that it's like a million feet long.  I'm only slightly exaggerating.  If you're really good at wrapping it, I'm sure the length isn't a big deal, but when you are in an airport, for instance, and the stupid thing is touching the filthy ground as you wrap it because it's a million feet long, and then you have to put your baby in it?  It's a little annoying and it requires an extra set of hands (if you're me).  The other drawback is that its million-foot-longness makes it ridiculous to try to stuff in a diaper bag.

On the other hand, it is very versatile and comfortable because it distributes the baby's weight beautifully.  I think it's one of those things that is worth waiting until your baby is born and trying out before you buy it.  I suggest visiting your local mom and pop baby store and trying out several different types of baby wearing apparati before committing.  None of it is cheap, so you want to know you and your baby will like it and that it will suit your body type before shelling out the money.   Since they are washable, buying used is also a great option.

The airport example wasn't hypothetical...




I came across this article on baby wearing tips this week.  I thought it was interesting, so I'm linking it here for my own reference as much as anything else.  There are ways to screw it up (besides letting your kid fall out of it).  We are still new at this so if you have your own tips, share them!

As an aside, check out Sarah's link up for lots of cool stuff!
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Saturday, February 2, 2013

It Doesn't Get Much Cheaper than Free!

If you're interested in cloth diapering, subscribe to some cloth diapering blogs.  There are always giveaways out there.  Here's a giveaway for newborn diapers, cloth wipes, and a wetbag via a blog hop. Look around and you'll find tons more, plus tutorials on how to make your own diapers, covers, wetbags, you name it!

I'm considering taking my fear of wool on and attempting to make my own wool cover this weekend.  If I do, I will keep you apprised.  If it's easy, I might make several (the more I read about wool, the easier it seems to use it--- but I think I'd have to use several to make it worthwhile.  More on that later).

Friday, February 1, 2013

Prepping

If you're going to be using natural fiber diapers, you will want to prep your diapers before you use them.

Prepping involves washing and drying the diapers several times before you use them to remove natural oils and help the fabric gain absorbency.  You will want to use a small amount of detergent at least the first couple of times to help remove the oils.  After that, you don't really have to use detergent.  I didn't know that, so I used detergent each time.  Either way works.

If you're using cotton prefolds, your diapers will come out of the package nice and flat and smooth, but when they are fully prepped, they will shrink some and quilt up and look like this...





The more you wash/dry them, the more pee they'll hold.  I think I washed mine 6-7 times before I called it good.

I have a few hemp diapers too, and while they also need to be prepped, they will not quilt up like the ones in the picture.  I found that I didn't wash them as many times to prep them (maybe just because I was so over prepping by the point that we introduced hemp into our stash).  You'll notice that hemp takes a long time to dry.  It gets better once they're fully prepped!  Hemp just holds a lot more liquid than cotton, so the drying time will be different.  Now that mine are fully prepped, they dry in the same amount of time as my cotton diapers.  I don't know how that happened, but I'm not complaining.

If you want to use cloth and you haven't had your baby yet, I highly recommend doing the prepping before the baby comes.  Trust me when I say that washing the same clean load of laundry over and over again 6 times is not going to be your idea of a good time when you're dealing with a newborn and all of the challenges that come along with adjusting to a new baby.  You'll just be happy if you have any clean clothes to put on your own body and you won't want to waste your precious time and energy on prepping.  At least that's how it went for me.

If your baby is already here, you can wash the diapers with some of your regular laundry when prepping them provided you are using cloth diaper safe laundry detergent and your clothes can be washed in hot water. Also, remember, NO FABRIC SOFTENER!  In fact, if your clothes have fabric softener in them from a previous wash, I wouldn't wash diapers with them.  That may be a little extreme, but we are completely fabric softener free now because I'm terrified of having to strip diapers.  Like I needed a new phobia...