Canning

Can you call it canning if you only had enough fruit for two cans?  I guess so.

I pulled out the nectarines tonight intending to just dehydrate some of them.  It was so hot today the idea of canning was not appealing.  But I realized most of them were not looking great so I just had to do it, even though it was getting a bit late.

My first experience canning was pretty fun for the most part.  Thanks to a friend letting me watch her can last night (thanks Em!) I felt pretty confident that I knew what I was doing.  I was pretty sad by all the very bruised and even rotten fruit I had to throw out - Gabe & Elena were definitely adding fruit off the ground into the bucket when I wasn't looking.  But I managed to get enough for two cans and one tray on my *new* dehydrator (garage sale find!).  I've also got a tray of blueberries in the dehydrator and now that it's after midnight and I'm finally done, I'm off to bed. :)

Picking peachers (errr nectarines)

Today we had a grand adventure, at least a grand adventure for us since we've never attempted picking fruit before.  We had planned on picking peaches but decided to go for the nectarines once we were there.  I wish I had pictures to share but I didn't have enough hands for my camera too.

I could write out our experience in long paragraphs but I thought I'd just give it to you in bullet points. ;)

• Picking fruit with 3 small children in tow (mine + the one I babsit) is a lot of fun.  It is also very exhausting.
• If you bring a child under the age of 2, you should bring a backpack carrier - NOT a stroller.  Though the child leash does work in a pinch. ;)
• Said 15 month old child will probably try to eat a lot of rotten fruit off the ground.  If you keep handing her ripe fruit to eat this helps.
• Even if it's cold outside when you leave the house, put cooler layers underneath or you will have two kids in microfleece pants and long sleeve shirts sweating in the heat.
• They should make push carts with buckets for moms with poor upper body strength + kids that aren't strong enough to help.
• Having older kids who offer to push the stroller you stupidly decided to bring is a ton of help!
• It's really cute watching the kids run around trying to find the ripe fruit on the trees.
• Having other moms and their kids with you makes the experience so much fun.
• When we finished picking and I was packing the fruit into boxes I discovered that the 15 month old and 2 year old were more than likely adding fruit off the ground into the bucket behind my back, given the large number of nectarines that had worm holes and were very very bruised.  It did seem like one minute the bucket was empty and then it was full. ;)
• McDonald's happy meals can save the day when you completely forget to pack a lunch for the kids and they are starving on the way home.
• Cloth diapers last a surprisingly long time when you forget to change them...
• I am definitely doing this again, now that I've learned what I should and shouldn't bring with me.

It was really so much fun.  I enjoyed myself a lot and the kids were so exhausted they slept most of the way home until they woke up hungry.  Gabe is very excited by all the fruit, despite the fact that he won't eat it.  Elena thinks it's a smorgasbord and I have had to hide it all in the fridge for now.

Baby-Led Elena

Lately I've had a few friends and family comment on what a great eater Elena is. And she is. Gabe is quite picky and let me tell you it's pretty stressful at times. Elena on the other hand will eat just about anything you put in front of her. Not that she doesn't have preferences but for the most part she loves all the different food groups.

Now most of this I attribute to personality. Elena is just so much more laid back than Gabe in this area. But I think part of it is how I chose to feed her. After dealing with purees for 15 months with Gabe I was downright sick of them. I didn't want to look at another puree. I had heard of a parenting 'fad' called baby-led weaning and a couple friends that tried it swore up and down that their kids were the best eaters. At the time I thought they were a bit insane. I don't like parenting fads at all. But now faced with feeding another kid, and pretty terrified of having another picky eater, I thought it might be worth looking into. I read up on it and a friend sent me her copy of the book Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. I read the book and it made a lot of sense to me. I won't sit here and explain every detail involved with Baby-Led Weaning (or a better title would be Baby-Led Solids), you can read the book if you want or checkout the website http://www.babyledweaning.com/.

For the record, I have nothing against purees. Moms have fed their babies purees for many years and it's worked for them. I just didn't like our puree experience and I didn't want to repeat it. Gabe hated most of what I tried to feed him and it was always a crazy game of trying to figure out how to sneak it in his mouth. This was usually done while my own dinner got cold and for well over a year I couldn't remember the last time I ate a warm meal.

The basics of baby-led weaning are pretty simple - wait until baby is 6 months old + can sit up on their own and skip the purees. Purees were first introduced when our parents were babies and it was a common recommendation then to start feeding babies solids by the time they were 2 months old. You can't get solid food into a 2 month old so they had to puree it up. Before this time a lot of parents followed 'baby-led weaning' before it had a name, it was just a natural way of introducing table foods to babies when they were ready for them. By the time babies are 6 months old and can sit up on their own, they can grip food and bring it to their mouth (and in many cases, rip it right off our plates while we are holding them!). So long as it is is given in reasonable sized portions and easy textures for them, they can learn to feed themselves.

Elena took to eating this way beautifully. At first she did a lot of 'munching' on foods and learning how to move them around her mouth. She still ate a decent portion from probably our 3rd time offering her food, but she didn't really start eating 'meals' until she was about 8 months.

Here are some pictures of Elena learning to feed herself. Did I mention that baby-led weaning is quite messy? If you are a parent who is afraid of mess, you might not want to do this. Actually, if you are a parent afraid of mess, I'm not sure why you are a parent. ;)

One of Elena's very first foods, a banana


Elena gagging on the banana. Gagging in the beginning is really normal as they learn to manipulate food in their mouth. I had to remind myself - repeatedly - that she was not choking and to let her handle it. She did wonderfully of course.


This is either a banana or an apple slice...I can't tell!


Figuring out a straw sippy. Not food but Elena learned this skill pretty quickly.


A pork chop. She ate nearly that whole piece


Turkey bacon. Yes turkey bacon. She ate a couple of those apple slices on the table too, so I'm not *too* horrible of a parent am I?


Patiently waiting for food while Gabe plays with his


Realizing that Gabe has food on his tray...


She grabbed his tray and pulled him closer to her so she could reach his fork


And success!


Pizza crust (I swear we fed her healthy food too, I guess I didn't think those were picture worthy...)


This is what she thought of the puree I attempted to feed her when I didn't feel like preparing any food


Toast and peaches and shredded cheese


Cinnamon-raisin toast with cream cheese and sliced cucumber. She likes veggies but if you put veggies and carbs in front of her at the same time, carbs win every time...


A quisidilla and steamed bell pepper slices


Chicken and cut up peaches. By this point Elena started wanting most of her food in small cut up pieces.


A steamed carrot. Not sure what the rest of it was!


Learning how to use a spoon


Which did not last long


Spaghetti. Ummm...did I mention that baby-led weaning is messy?


Now Elena is 15 months and she's my great eater. And as if baby-led weaning wasn't fun enough on it's own, I never had to buy a single jar of baby food for Elena which I'd say is pretty cost effective. I also never had to puree up any of my own baby foods (I did with Gabe eventually to save money) which saved me a lot of extra time in the kitchen. I'm looking forward to doing the same thing with this next baby, hopefully he or she likes it just as much.

Commenting

I was told by a friend who follows my blog that she's having issues commenting. I've changed some settings so hopefully it will work now...

Newborn cloth

I have to admit that within just a couple days of finding out I was pregnant I started considering the cloth diapering possibilities.

Yes, please, go ahead and laugh at me. This blog is titled The Cloth Addict for a reason.

While most of our one-size diapers say they will fit from 8 lbs and up I know the reality is that most won't fit until baby is 10 - 12 lbs. Both my kids didn't hit this weight until they were 1.5 - 2 months old. If I want to do cloth I need newborn diapers until baby can fit into our one-size diapers. Since cost is our #1 reason for cloth diapering I had to sit down and do the cost comparison of disposables vs cloth for the first two months. I could bore you to tears by showing you all my math, but the end result I got was that disposables will cost approximately $200 - $220 during that time. Which is actually cheaper than cloth diapering - depending on how you go. Prefolds + covers are cheaper by a good $40 - 60. Just about everything else is more expensive - if you don't consider resale value. A newborn diaper can typically be re-sold for anywhere from 50 - 80% of the retail value (and more often than not closer to 80% because they are often in like new condition after only being used such a short time).

Even with resale value considered I wanted my goal to be to spend less money outright than what I would have spent on disposables. I could just go the disposable route but I love the idea of putting my newborn in fluffy cloth diapers and I am determined to figure out how to do it as cheaply as possible - without using only prefolds and covers. As economical as they are I just don't think I want to use them full time.

I considered for awhile using a newborn rental - up front cost is $225, you get the diapers for 3 months, and then when you return them you get $100 back or $110 for store credit. But one of their rules is that you can only use cloth diaper safe detergent. Since the only thing that has ever worked for me is Tide I'd rather just buy my own.

So far I'm very happy with my purchase decisions. I have spent a little less than 2/3 of my budget and I have nearly all the diapers I need. So far I have:

10 BumGenius XS AIOs
1 FuzziBunz XS pocket with velcro
5 Kissaluvs Size 0 fitteds
1 WAHM (work at home mom) fitted (no link she doesn't have a website)
7 Thirsties XS fitteds (these are discontinued, so no link)
1 Bummis XS cover
1 Small cover (unsure of brand)

All of them were bought on sale or used, some for an absolute steal.

All I have left to buy are half a dozen prefolds (I do want to try them, I just don't want a whole stash of them) and more covers.

My newborn cloth diaper stash so far:

Tubes & Talking

This blog has been a month in the making but finding the time to sit down and write it has been hard.

A month ago, on July 7th, Gabe had ear tubes put in to help solve his his issues associated with recurrent ear infections. Watching my boy in pain and needing antibiotics just about every 2 - 3 weeks was rough. I missed seeing the happy boy that I knew was in there. In addition to the never ending fussiness I wondered if a large part of Gabe's delay in speaking well had something to do with the constant fluid in his ears.

Gabe's tube surgery went very well. It was over quickly and he recovered so well. He didn't do that great waking up from the anesthesia but I expected it, thanks to a wonderful friend who warned me that he might become very combative and hard to control. He did, but he did calm down very quickly. After we were discharged he fell asleep in the car on his way home and by the next day he was back to his normal self again. More than that - he was happy. Since his tube surgery we have had maybe two or three major screaming toddler meltdowns. Before the surgery we were seeing those meltdowns several times a day.

Three days after his surgery I heard him running around the house saying, "Nonny! Nonny!" At first I was confused, but then realized that he was referring to - ME! He had always said 'mommy' with a bit of an N sound. It was never clear though, it always sounded slurred, just like every other word he said before the surgery. My attempts to teach him to say Mommy correctly hadn't worked. So I sat him down on the couch and told him, "No Gabe, I'm Mommy, not Nonny." He gave me a huge grin and said, "Mommy!" and my heart just melted. It sure is something when your 2 year old finally calls you Mommy (correctly!) for the first time.

Since then I've seen slow but steady improvement in his speech and it just blows me away all the time. He's learning new word and finally starting to say words he all ready knew correctly. He didn't suddenly start spitting out full sentences overnight but I didn't expect that. We continually work on his speech and he's getting better every day. He has a whole vocabulary of words now. I haven't tried to count them but I know it's a lot. Before his surgery I could count his vocabulary on two hands and now it's exploded. I am so proud of him and I am so happy we had tubes put in his ears. He hasn't had an ear infection since. His 1 month checkup with the ENT is tomorrow so we'll find out how his ears look inside and how everything is healing.

Yesterday Gabe was playing with Elena and she started trying to poke him in the eye (ahhhh siblings!). Gabe got all excited and told Elena, "It's an eye!" Excuse me while I tear up a bit. He said a full sentence and was also trying to teach Elena. Since then I've seen him doing such wonderful 'big brother' things with her. He shows her how to use toys and he's trying to teach her words. I can't believe it. My baby boy is growing up.

A new addition

Not much of a blog update, but the picture about sums it up. ;) We are expecting our third child in February and we couldn't be more thrilled.

Penicillin Allergy

A little over a week ago Gabe was diagnosed with double ear infections. This would be infection number 5 (6 I guess if you count that it's both ears this time) and we are headed for tubes on July 7th.

On Friday (day 8 of his antibiotics) Gabe woke up from his nap with a crazy looking rash on his bottom. I thought it looked like bug bites and actually tore his sheets up looking for bed bugs. Nothing to be found and then I noticed over the next 30 minutes that the bumps were spreading. My first thought was that he had chicken pox, though he has been vaccinated against it. But as the rash spread it became clear it was more like hives. I put in a call to the ped's office office and the doctor on call told me it was likely a reaction to his antibiotic - Augmentin - and that we should discontinue it immediately. Sooth with oatmeal or baking soda baths, use calamine lotion, etc. We had planned on going out to my parent's house and Gabe seemed pretty happy despite being a little itchy so out we went. We got there late in the evening. And that's when it all 'broke lose' really for lack of a better phrase. Gabe's hives went from minimal to a crazy rash covering his entire body:



(the white stuff is calamine lotion)

He was clearly unhappy and so uncomfortable. In the morning we ground up oatmeal and bathed him in it and gave him benedryl, neither of which seemed to help him. We covered him in calamine lotion which might as well have been water. He cried non-stop and just itched and itched and while he itched the hives just got worse (yes worse than what you see above). I called the on-call doctor again and she said that since it was getting wore, despite discontinuing the antibiotic, I should take him in to a local ER or urgent care. When we got to the urgent care they said it was definitely hives, probably from the medication, and prescribed an oral steroid.

That really seemed to work and that night his rash went away considerably and he was happy (and hyper!) as a clam. I left him at my parent's house with Nathan and took Elena with me to go out to eat with my parents, brother, and the rest of our extended family in the area to celebrate my brother's graduation. When I got home we finally got Gabe in bed and it was the same as the night before. Crazy itching, very uncomfortable, lots of crying, and no one slept. We gave up around 3am and then at 5am decided we should just head home. He was covered in new hives on top of the ones that had been fading. He finally slept in the car (and so did I) and when we got home we tried another baking soda bath. That only seemed to make things worse and then I started to get pretty worried because the spots that had been there from the first outbreak had turned into bruises. We decided to head into the ER.

Thankfully Gabe is going to be just fine, he just has a very severe penicillin allergy. The ER doctor said that with the way our bodies fight allergens we can expect the hives to come and go for the next two weeks. He gave Gabe a stronger steroid in the hospital and sent us home with a prescription for the same steroid the urgent care clinic gave us, but at a stronger dosage. We are just to continue as before - steroids, benedryl, zyrtec (which he takes daily for seasonal allergies anyway) and calamine lotion and oatmeal or baking soda baths. But for the most part, we just have to wait it out. It will likely be a very long two weeks, but I'm so glad we know now that he has this allergy and I'm thankful that his first reaction was not a life-threatening one. They said that if he's ever exposed again it could be.

So that was my weekend. How was yours?

The OCM fail

Two blogs in one day? I must be on a roll.

Or just avoiding folding my mound of laundry on the couch.

I am just updating to say I couldn't make it another month on the OCM. It just did.not.work. I wanted it to work. I tried to will it to work. But it simply does not. Maybe it works for people who don't have bad skin problems to begin with, but it definitely did not work for me. I could have experimented with different oils or with different levels of concentration of the castor oil vs. carrier oil but let's face it - that's a lot of work for something that probably wasn't going to help anyway. I'm glad I tried it because it was kind of a fun experiment, but overall it was a sad disappointment. Mostly because it would have been the most inexpensive face wash solution I can imagine.

Instead I have picked up a natural face cleanser from the grocery store called Kiss My Face. It smells nummy and so far it's helping my face to clear up so I couldn't be happier.

A nice diaper deal

I am subscribed to a few 'deal of the day' type websites, most of them are child/mothering related. They send me updates in my email for what is on sale that day. The deals are usually pretty nice - anywhere from 35 to 75% off depending on the item - but it's rare I actually buy anything.

A couple days ago though one of the sites had up a deal for 2 one-size Fuzzi Bunz diapers and a pair of babylegs (baby leggings - essentially designed to show off their diapers while still keeping their legs warm haha) for 50% off. It was pretty perfect timing since we just sold our treadmill and I will admit I was just about salivating over them. Most of the treadmill money is allotted to buy a sleeper sofa for our new guestroom / kid's play room (we are converting the study - updates on that to come soon) but I asked Nathan and he agreed we could use some of it for a couple more diapers. I currently have 26 diapers total. This will sometimes get us through 2 days, sometimes not quite depending on how many diapers I change a day. I have been hoping to expand our stash just a little so that I can get through 3 days but it will have to come in bits and pieces.

And because I never buy anything online without visiting retailmenot.com to look for coupon codes, I stopped in there before I checked out and got myself an additional 10% off.

I also got a used Goodmama fitted diaper off diaper swappers a few days ago for a whopping $5. I am feeling like quite the bargain hunger right now.

Can't wait for the diapers to get here.

A Cloth Article

I haven't had anything cloth diaper related in awhile. I read this article today and thought I would share. I found it to be very true and it made me smile.

http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/2011/05/cloth-diapering-addicts-rules.html

Sorry this reads more like a facebook update than a blog entry, but enjoy.

The Oil Cleansing Method part 2

Well I've been slow at getting this update up.

I'm not really all that thrilled with the oil-cleansing method, as much as I would love to be.

I keep telling myself - it gets worse before it gets better...right?

I've broken out quite a bit. It is getting a bit better the last few days, though. I was going to try to get a pic but the kids won't let me so it'll have to happen later. :)

I also changed the oil type I was using. I just could not bear to continue to put cooking oil on my face. It felt wrong. So I changed it to coconut oil/castor oil and also added a drop of tea tree oil which has natural antiseptic qualities, plus I love the smell. I will give it a month and if I see no improvement then I'm going to give up on this and try something else.

I am not going back to proactive though so if anyone has a better solution (that's inexpensive) I would love to hear it.

The Oil Cleansing Method

Sometime ago I came across a facebook post that really piqued my interest. It was a lady talking about how she used oil - yes oil - to clean her face.

My first reaction was negative. I thought that's just crazy - hello acne and blemishes! There is just no way that works. But out of pure curiosity I clicked on the link and started reading about it. Instead of explaining it all to you, I'll just provide the link:

http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/

For those who don't want to read it, the very basics behind the idea is that our face needs oil. And that by repeatedly stripping our face of oil with harsh chemicals we are only making the whole issue worse in the long run. We wash all the oil off our face, our face freaks out and produces more to try and replace it, which is why an hour or two after washing our face we get that yucky feeling oil slick all over again.

So theoretically I can see why this makes sense and I admit to being more than a bit curious. But I'm having a bit of an issue getting passed the idea of putting oil on my face. On the other hand I have been trying to find something to replace my Proactiv and have been unsuccessful. I am tired of paying for it. Yes, it does work, but only if I remember to use it twice a day. Anyone with young kids knows that face washing often ends up last on the list. According to the oil cleansing method you only need to do this once a day, in the evening before bed. First thing in the morning you only need to wipe down your face with a warm washcloth.

So I decided to make this an experiment and find out if this really works or not. Last night I made up my first batch - 20% caster oil to 80% safflower oil for normal skin. It took me all of 30 seconds to mix it up and store it in a small Gladware container. I went into the bathroom and took my 'before' picture which I guess I'll reluctantly share with you all now. Yes, I look exhausted. I'm a mom. I'm always exhausted.



The lighting is not very good, it was the best I could manage last night. Will try for something better tomorrow I think. But anyway, that is my face pre-oil cleansing. I've had quite a breakout of tiny pimples on my forehead and the sides of my face which happens when I get lazy with the Proactiv like I have been recently.

After I mixed up the oil I took it to the bathroom and followed the directions. I spread it on my face and spent about 10 minutes massaging it in. At first it was uncomfortable, I didn't like the feeling of the oil on my skin. I became more used to it and almost found it relaxing by the time I was done. Then I took the washcloth with really hot water and put it on my face. Ahhhh now that is like getting my own personal facial! No I did not 'feel' the impurities being drawn out of my pores. Can I inset a big eye roll here? I didn't feel anything like that. What I did feel was very relaxed thanks to the hot wash cloth 'facials'. I had to repeat 4 times to get all the oil off my face and by the time I was done I felt just great. I tend to struggle with falling asleep (I think most women can relate to this) and it was the best pre-bedtime relaxation method I've ever tried even if that wasn't the intended purpose.

Just for good measure, here is me afterword. Makeup removed, exhausted and ready for bed. There is not at all a difference in my skin but I didn't expect it to work that fast. For the record, I plan to remove eye makeup beforehand next time. The oil works just fine but I like my Clinique eye makeup remover better.



The only difference I have noticed today is that my skin is quite dry. If that keeps up I'll reduce the castor oil in the mixture per the website's instructions. Stayed tuned for my update in a week. I've read that it is supposed to get worse before it gets better. Eek.

A Change of Blog

I have been contemplating changing the title of my blog for quite some time now and today I finally did it. Decaf addict doesn't really fit me anymore and I think my new title is much more appropriate. :)

Anyone know where I find cute new backgrounds and such? The boringness of my current blog is getting to me.

Never understimate the power of a moldy washer...

I learned this weekend just how bad a washer can be once it gets mold in it. Or to clarify, just how bad a front loading washer can be. I'm not sure if top loading machines suffer from the same potential problem.

After struggling to clean my diapers in my front loading machine for 5 months I decided to scrap it and get a top loader. I tried every detergent and wash routine under the sun and came to the eventual conclusion that it was simply my washer's inability to clean properly. Now when I first brought the idea of replacing it up to Nathan he looked at me like I'd grown a second head. Replace our washer just so we can continue to use cloth diapers? I could tell it was on the tip of his tongue to tell me to go back to using disposables. But he held himself in check, knowing that I've developed a bit of a strange addiction (maybe obsession would be a better term) with cloth diapers. They have become a hobby for me. I love everything cloth diaper related. I find them cute and fun. Putting a cute color or print cloth diaper on one of my kids just makes my day and as any mom of two little ones can appreciate, I change diapers all day long. Go ahead and laugh at me for my cloth addiction, I'm fine with it. I know I'm a bit strange.

So we started looking around for washers on craigslist. Nathan became 100% on board with replacing the washer when it started having some serious issues - like freezing on me in the middle of a load and refusing to give me my clothes back. Then when I attempted to wash some 'muddy' clothes of Gabe's (i.e. really wet with a bit of mud on them) they came out of the washer still dingy and stinking of dirt. It was clearly not cleaning clothes properly anymore and we were afraid it was going to die on us any day. We found a 12 year old Kenmore 90s series on craigslist that had been completely updated by an older gentleman who fixies up washers and dryers as hobby. Inside the washer is almost brand new. I will be happy if it lasts us a few years until we can afford to buy a nicer washer. If it lasts longer than that, it would be a bonus!

So how does the title of my blog work into this? On Saturday we took our front-loading washer out and put it in the shed and then hooked up the Kenmore. I noticed immediately a major difference in the laundry room when I would walk in. I told Nathan that our laundry room smelled so amazing and then I realized why - it didn't 'smell' like anything. It simply smelled like clean clothes and water. I didn't know how badly our washer stunk of mold until it was gone. I kept the door open when not in use since we bought it like recommended and ran the 'clean washer' cycle once a month as well.

The biggest impact of this difference hit me yesterday. I told Nathan in the morning over the phone that I was so glad my cold was finally leaving. That I hadn't felt this amazing in so long I couldn't even remember. It wasn't until much later in the afternoon that I started to make the connection. We've been fighting the never ending cold from h-e double hockey sticks for over 2 months now. But long before the cold started, I haven't felt like 'myself' in so long I didn't even realize I wasn't feeling like myself (hmm hope that made sense...). I have told Nathan a few times that I thought I might be developing allergies. Sometimes I felt better, sometimes I was just downright miserable not being able to breathe properly out of my nose and feeling like my head was in a complete fog. I just became used to it, because in truth I have felt like this since before Gabe was born at least.

I didn't realize how good I could feel when my head isn't completely full. The only thing that has changed is that the washer is gone and my laundry room smells wonderful again. It was quite a revelation. I know I'm allergic to mold and I know there was mold in the rubber seal of the washer (I tried everything under the sun to remove it, even straight bleach...) but I didn't realize how bad the mold really was. The amount in the rubber seal is not enough to cause the kind of smell that was in the laundry room so I suspect the entire inside of the machine is full of the stuff. The washer is in our shed while we figure out what to do with it and in the meantime I am just enjoying being able to fully breathe & think clearly again.

Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part 6 - The Good, the good and the...well good!

I really have to say that I love cloth diapers. A lot. I didn't think I would love cloth quite this much. If you had told me say a year ago that I would start cloth diapering not only out of a desire to save money but also because I LOVED it and preferred it over disposables then I would have told you that you were a bit crazy.

But it's true. I do prefer cloth diapers over disposables any day. Getting our washing routine worked out properly was hard and there were a few times there that we almost switched back, but I was not about to give up without a very good try. I couldn't bear to let the diapers that we've spent good money on go to waste. After I was told to start using more detergent all my stinky issues changed drastically. Add to that switching to Rockin Green's detergent that is formulated specifically for soft water and our washing is now going so well. I still have to add water to my washer for the wash cycle but I've gotten used to it and it only takes me an extra 5 minutes. Now that we're using the Soft Rock formula I also don't have to do a bizillion rinses to get all the detergent out of the diapers and my wash time has gone down a lot.

Now that the stinkies are (hopefully!) gone, I've had time to just enjoy the diapers themselves! I've discovered better overnight options for both kids. My favorite by far is our new Softbums diaper - it is their new Omni system (the other Softbums diapers we have are their Echo system). It's like a pocket diaper + an AI2 diaper. For nighttime on Gabe I stuff it with a doubler and then snap in an insert and we are good to go. In fact he was doing so well with it (the doubler was hardly even damp) I've started experimenting with putting him in just a regular Softbums diaper at night with no doubler. It's worked great the two nights we've tried it.

For Elena we recently got a few FuzziBunz pocket diapers. They are not a one-size diaper, they are in medium size. An online friend didn't like the fit on her daughter so she sold them to me. They fit Elena great and if they are double stuffed they will last her all night. They are great daytime diapers too. I'm sad that they are sized diapers, though. She should still fit in them for awhile but when she does grow out of them I will be sorry to see them go.

I've been snapping some pictures of the kids in cloth diapers and had to show off the cuteness:







This is a diaper that I found on etsy. Like the Softbums diapers the insert snaps into the cover. It's not really the greatest fit - okay I can barely get it around her waist - but the insert is very absorbent and it's so cute I keep putting it on her anyway.



Snapping pictures of Gabe is near impossible these days but I did manage to grab a few. This is him in a BumGenius 4.0 one size diaper I picked up for half off at a big second's sale they were having. Apparently there is something wrong with this diaper that made it unacceptable to sell for full price, but whatever it is I can't figure it out. It's been working great.



Gabe in a pocket diaper we bought a set of off ebay. These pocket diapers work pretty well for only being $5 each.



And the two of them together. Gabe in the BumGenius and Elena in a Softbums. My chunky monkey baby and my skinny mini toddler. :) I love em!



And just for fun, Elena showing off her mad standing skills. About half a second after I snapped this picture she fell over backward but she did manage to stand for a good 5 seconds all on her own. :D

Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part 5 - Got stinkies? Use more detergent, not less!

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Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part 4 - How to destroy your waterproof diaper covers

If, like me, you have a desire totally destroy the waterproofing on your diaper covers, just follow my simple instructions!

1. Don't buy a diaper sprayer and instead just dunk your diapers in the toilet to get the solid poop off.
2. Before guests arrive, drop a bleach tablet in the toilet tank.
3. Flush. Ahhh that clean bleach smell.
4. Dunk 3 or 4 diapers on the toilet over the weekend, throw them in the wet bag and let sit with all the other diapers.
5. Wash all your diapers together, including the ones soaked in bleach water.
6. Only now recall that bleach + waterproof PUL fabrics generally do not mix unless the bleach is highly dilluted.

And then you will have successfully dissolved all the waterproofing on your beautiful brand new diapers.

Be thankful they are still fairly water resistant and seem to be holding up just fine.

Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part 3 - the dreaded laundry

As I mentioned in Cloth Diapering: Part 1, I really didn't think much of using our Kirkland detergent on our new cloth diapers. I did worry a bit about the fact that we have a front loading high efficency washer, but I asked questions online of other cloth diapering moms who have HE washers and they all assured me that it would go well. They did say I should get a cloth diaper detergent or a similar clean rinsing detergent, so I ordered some Rockin Green cloth diaper detergent but I didn't want to wait for it to arrive to get started and I thought - really how bad could using my Kirkland detergent be?

The answer? BAD!

I knew something was wrong with the very first washing. I followed the washing recommendations that the Softbums diapers recommend - cold wash with 1/4 of the recommended amount of detergent, followed by a hot wash with no detergent, and ended with a cold rinse (which is included in the wash cycle). When I took them out, I thought there was quite a lot of suds in the rubber fold of the washer seal. I'd been noticing this a lot lately with our clothes too I was starting to wonder just how normal it was. Our clothes seemed fine so I thought the diapers were probably fine too. They smelled okay coming out of the washer. When I took them out of the dryer howerver, they had a nasty funk smell to them. They smelled worse when peed in. I didn't know what I'd done wrong so I went online to cloth diaper forums and asked questions. The general consensus was that it was detergent buildup - either too much detergent, the wrong detergent, or a mixture of both problems. I reduced how much detergent I used in the next wash but we still had the same problem. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed with that washing and could not get the suds out of the diapers no matter how hard I tried. I modified my wash routine just a tad to match another cloth diapering mom on a cloth diaper forum since that was what was working for her - a prewash on cold, wash on hot with 1/4 recommended detergent, rinse on cold, extra rinse, extra spin. That didn't make any difference unfortunately. I started sitting in the laundry room to watch the rinse cycles and I was really surprised at how many suds were in the diapers. I can't say in the water because I couldn't even see the water. I don't see how it's possible to rinse anything - let alone a cloth diaper - in such a small amount of water that you can't even see it. I tried changing my regular wash to the 'whitest whites' selection - it runs for 90 minutes and is supposed to use the hottest water. Again, no difference. Someone suggested I add a wet towel to the washer to trick it into using more water but that was pretty pointless.

It was a little less than a week later that Elena broke out in a bad rash and I started feeling like the worst mom in the world. I didn't have any cloth diaper friendly rash cream so I decided to break out the disposables on her. Gabe was doing just fine in the cloth diapers, but he also wasn't wearing them overnight and I imagine Elena's younger baby skin is a bit more sensitive than his. It took nearly a week for her rash to clear up and during this time I was waiting rather anxiously for my cloth diaper detergent and I also went on a quest to try and strip the diapers of the Kirkland detergent. What I hadn't realized before I used the Kirkland detergent is that any detergent used on cloth diapers should generally be free of enzymes, brightenrs, scents, etc and that it should be a 'clean rinsing' type of detergent - meaning it dissolves well so that it rinses away and leaves the diapers free of any residue. Since our detergent is a 'free & clear' type detergent, I thought it would work fine. Apparently not so. Kirkland has enzymes in it and it's likely the enzymes in the diapers + Elena's pee that caused a reaction and made her skin break out in a rash. It is also not 'clean rinsing' at all which makes for pretty heavy detergent residue. Lovely.

Before I started stripping my diapers, I decided to try to clean the washer itself because I was beginning to suspect it also had a buildup of soap residue. I cleaned out the soap dispencer (and found some soap residue there) and then I ran 3 back to back 'clean washer' cycles with nothing added - no detergent, no bleach. By the 3rd wash I was still seeing quite a lot of soap in the water but it appeared to rinse clean so I got started on stripping the diapers.

"Stripping" is a term used to describe getting all the detergent residue out of cloth diapers. You wash your diapers on a hot cycle (with detergent if they are dirty since you want to start with clean diapers, no detergent if they are all ready clean) and then you rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse in hot water until the water is free of suds. I learned right away that this was going to be nearly impossible in my washer. The amount of water my washer uses on most settings is barely enough to wet the diapers. Certaintly not enough to thorougoughly clean and rinse the diapers. I played around with different settings and, on the suggestion of a cloth diapering mom online, I started adding hot water to my washer through the soap dispencer. I was adding 10 pitchers of water - so about 5 gallons - to every wash/rinse cycle in order to get the water level decent. This was just way too much work. I was spending so much time in the laudnry room that I had to keep the kids entertained all day with Veggie Tales. I did start seeing very small improvements in the amount of suds leftover during the rinse cycle. But after spending from 8am - 11pm trying to strip the diapers I finally had to hang it up and just wait for the diaper detergent. They did come out smelling much better (though certaintly not pristine) but I decided to stop using them while I waited for the diaper detergent so I wouldn't have to wash them using the Kirkland again.

The week out of cloth + lots of desitin was really what Elena needed for her rash to heal and thankfully it's all gone now. During that week I spent a lot of time examining my washer and all it's different cycles while I washed regular loads. I learned that the delicates cycle uses a TON of water, but I can't put it on a hot setting and it doesn't spin the drum enough to really clean well. The soak cycle also uses a ton of water and it actually spins more than the delicates cycle - which I find amusing since it's meant for soaking clothes, not cleaning. The next best wash setting with slightly higher water is the quick wash cycle, which surprised me, becaue that cycle is only meant for 2 - 3 items you need in a hurry.

Up until about 2 months ago or so, Nathan and I used this quick wash setting for everything. We just hadn't bothered to read our manual so we didn't know it was meant for smaller loads, we thought it was for quicker washes - makes sense, right? When I read the manual though I started wondering if we were going to break our washer by continuing to use the quick wash cycle (even though we'd been using it this way for about 3 years with no problems) so we stopped and started using the normal wash setting. It was about this time that I think I started noticing more suds in the washer rubber seal after the cycle was completed. It's hard to remember though, it's not something that I really paid that much attention to. It was also right around this time that Gabe started breaking out in really dry patches of scaley skin - it's a form of excema. I thought it was the cold weather, but I've started wondering if it's because the normal wash cycles is not properly rinsing our clothes. My skin has become fairly itchy as well, I also thought it was cold weather related. And it could be, I can't be sure it's the washer. But we've gone back to using the quick wash cycle for all our loads just in case - and if the washer breaks then OH DARN I guess I'll just have to buy a top loader!

After this experience I have grown to hate my front loading washer and I feel it was a waste of money. I loved the savings becuase it uses about 60% less water than a traditional top-loader but if I have to add water to my washer in order to clean my diapers then it's not exactly going to save me any money in the end. I spent some time googling and discovered that 1) I'm not the only cloth diapering mom having major issues with this particular model and 2) my machine has pretty bad reviews all around. Nathan and I never thought to look up reviews before purchasing at the time. We saw a good deal at Coscto and we jumped on it. I will admit, it crossed my mind more than once to sell this machine and use the money toward a good top-loader. They are so signiciantly cheeper that I might not have to put out any money on my own. I'll tuck that thought away for the near future perhaps...

The cloth diaper detergent arrived on Monday and I was happy to find instructions on the back for getting the 'funk' out of my diapers. I had to soak the diapers in hot water with aprox 1 - 3 TBSP of the detergent. I only used 1 TBSP because I didn't want to get them overly soapy and I decided that if they still didn't smell nice when I was done then I'd try the soak again with more detergent. I soaked them in a big rubbermaid tub in the bathroom and not in my washer since the soak cycle doesn't fill up the washer enough and it won't let me use hot water.

In the meantime, I took the time to really clean my washer again. I did a clean wash cycle with 1/4 cup bleach followed by another clean washer cycle with nothing. I was finally able to see NO soap in the water and was happy that my washing machine was truly free of soap residue. I noticed a truly major difference in the smell of my washer. I hadn't raelly noticed that the washer had a smell until it was gone! I now felt comfortable washing my dipaers in my nice clean washer. I decided to use the delicates setting for my cold wash since it uses such a high level of water. I followed it up with a quick wash cycle on hot water. I ran 3 quick wash cycles with hot water back to back and by the end there was no more visable suds in my diapers. They came out of the dryer smelling pristine! I'm was THRILLED! I put them back on the kids and they don't stink when peed in either. More than a week later and the diaper still smell good.

Gabe did develop a rash two nights ago, but I think I have figured out the connection. I washed the diapers right after I washed my dark bath towels. Elena got her rash right after I threw a towel in with the diapers to try and trick the washer into adding more water. My dark towels have a mild funky smell about them when they get wet that I have been attempting to fight off with color safe bleach or vinegar and nothing is working. I have tried just rinsing them and rising them but they still come out of the washer feeling slightly soapy and smelling funky. We've decided to toss them. I think they left a residue in my washer that the diapers picked up. Or at least, that is my hope, because I am done with diaper rashes. Gabe's rash is not bad like Elena's was so hopefully it will clear up in a day or two.

Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part 2 - How they work and overnight leaking

I have to say upfront that cloth diapering has come with it's challenges, definitely some that I didn't forsee. I'm still so glad we switched and I can't imagine going back to disposable diapers now. But you'll get a good idea of the road bumps I've run into in my next blog. Sorry. For now, I'll just let you know how they are working on my kids.

They are quite absorbant and they fit great. It took 2 - 3 diaper changes for me to get the fit just right on my kids, but once we got it right it was perfect (though I did just have to re-size all of Elena's diapers - she is growing so fast!). We have had no daytime leaking at all, not even Elena's exploding poop - in disposables it often makes it all the way up her back but the cloth diapers keep the mess very contained. We ordered the Softbums diapers with the SUPER dry-touch inserts (instead of the regular dry touch) and I am so glad we did. Both my kids are heavy wetters and they can really soak up that insert within a few hours. But the covers stay nice and dry! I just hang a cover to air out a little (it does tend to retain that lovely baby urine smell if I don't let it air out first) and grab a different one. I tend to rotate between two covers during the day for each kid until a diaper gets pooped in (even if the cover stays clean there is just no getting rid of that poop smell until it's washed) or the cover gets wet.

Our leaking issue is overnight. Elena has done just fine (so far anyway), it's Gabe who pees out of his diaper. For overnight we add one of the mini-pod doublers to both of their diapers to increase absorbancy. It's just a smaller insert that gets placed on top of the larger one. This makes their diapers very absorbant and absorbancy is not the problem. Unfortunately the doubler makes the diaper so bulky that I can't get the fit tight enough around Gabe's legs without making the rise of the diaper too low. We had a good first couple nights and then the 3rd night Gabe peed right out of the side of his diaper. The insert itself was wet, but hardly soaked. The urine had wicked onto his clothing and spread all up his side. The poor kid really could have used a bath, but it was 3am. I put Gabe back in disposables at night after that because I couldn't bear another 3am full clothing change + changing the crib sheets. But leaking out of dispoables happens pretty frequently as well...I'd say he leaks out the front of the diaper probably every other night or so. It just tends to happen in the morning when the diaper gets completely full, instead of at 3am.

I ordered more cloth diapers after doing some googling on the best cloth diapers for overnight. Seems most people like pocket diapers + hemp inserts for overnights, so I'm going to give that a try. I finally recieved my pocket diapers tonight and will get them prepped tomorrow. I decided to order some very cheepy - and I do mean VERY cheepy - ebay pocket diapers. I just couldn't bear to spend a lot of money on diapers to use just for overnights. I hope they work. If they don't, at least I won't feel like I wasted my money. I recieved my hemp inserts over a week ago and those are all ready prepped and ready to go.

Prepping you ask? What is that? Apparently natural fibers need to be 'prepped' before they can become fully absorbant. For hemp they usually need to be washed and dryed 4 - 6 times. I skipped some of those washings by boiling them in hot water for 30 minutes, though and I like that much better.

I decided to be brave and try the hemp inserts on Gabe tonight, in one of the Softbums diapers instead of the regular insert. It's supposed to be much more absorbant than microfiber, so fingers crossed it works.

Next blog - laundry issues. It's a doozy. Stay tuned.