Cloth Wipes (A/K/A I'm Getting Crunchier)

(Looking for the wool dryer ball giveaway? It's in the post below. Ends 8/21/13!)

 As you know, Leif has been in cloth diapers for about four months now, and he went from having acid-burn-like rashes to almost no rashes at all. Almost. However, he seems to have very sensitive skin, and he still had redness a couple times a day. I tried adding fleece liners (homemade by my mom - just cut up washed fleece!) which helped some, but they didn't fully solve the problem. Enter the wipes.

 Even "sensitive" wipes still have lots of ingredients! After I noticed the ingredients list, I thought I better try cloth wipes. Another incentive was the fact that the cloth wipes can go in the same bag as the diapers when changing, instead of having to throw them away - one less step! I bought some flannel, and my mom washed it, cut it into baby washcloth size pieces, and serged the edges for me. (Have I mentioned how awesome my mom is?) They were ready to go!

 I'm going to spare you before and after shots (or spare Leif, that is). The difference has been amazing though! His red spots are now nonexistent. At first I kept the wipes dry, and I left a peri bottle (got one at the hospital after delivery) full of water next to the wipes. My husband Titus wanted something with soap in it though, so he could feel like Leif was getting really clean. Challenge accepted. :) After perusing some wipe solution recipes online, I chose the following:

1 cup hot water,
 1 Tablespoon coconut oil, and
 1 Tablespoon Dr. Bronner's baby soap.

 I mixed them together and poured it over my wipes, which I had folded into my wipes warmer. In retrospect, the only thing I would have done differently is had the wipes cut to match the size of the wipe warmer better. Other than that, we are pretty happy with this experiment! I may add some essential oils once in a while, but honestly they smell great right now with the coconut scent coming through.

The lack of redness is reason enough alone to continue using cloth wipes, but think of the cost savings as well! Disposable wipes aren't cheap and the cost adds up. Cloth wipes are also environmentally friendly.

 If you have questions, just ask below! Since I am not giving you a boring picture of wipes or diaper rashes, here's one of Mr. Leif practicing his rolling skills.

Woolzies Dryer Balls Review and Giveaway!

If you have kids, you are aware of the amazing fact that laundry increases exponentially the second you arrive home with a newborn. My little guy is only four months old, but he creates more laundry than my husband and I combined! Add to that our decision to cloth diaper, and we have a LOT of laundry on our hands.

When reading about using cloth diapers, I saw many recommendations for wool dryer balls. According to seasoned CDers, using wool dryer balls significantly lowers their diaper drying time. We use prefolds and Flip inserts, and I like to wash them nightly. They take about two hours to dry in our not-so-new dryer, and that is with two plastic laundry balls in there. We stopped using dryer sheets a while back when I heard about the chemicals in them, but the plastic balls don't seem to help with static or drying time.

Needless to say, I was excited to try Woolzies dryer balls! I had to see if these six white balls lived up to their claims. I was not disappointed!

Here are the dryer balls I was sent. I was so happy to find them in the mail - my husband thought I was a little crazy, I'm sure!

I was actually disappointed that I had already dried that day's diapers, but I had a load of clothes to dry so I used the dryer balls right away. I honestly don't pay much attention to how long it takes clothes to dry because I use the auto-dry setting. However, I can definitely say that the clothes were soft and static-free!

The real test was the load of diapers that usually takes two hours to dry. How much could these six balls cut off my time? The answer? 40 minutes! That is a third of their regular drying time. Just think of the time and energy savings, not to mention less wear and tear on the diapers. Woolzies dryer balls are the real deal!

Here are their claims and how they truly stacked up:

-Reduce drying time by up to 25% - check!

-Reduce wrinkles - check!

-Reduce static - check!

-Hypoallergenic - check! (I can't wear wool sweaters, but these balls do not bother my skin at all.)

Last but not least, Woolzies balls are made by women in Nepal, and the Woolzies website states that this gives them a steady source of income. This makes me feel even better about using them.

I highly recommend these dryer balls and will continue to use them with every load of laundry. You can buy your own set at www.woolzies.com - or, you can try to win them in this giveaway!

*I was not paid to review Woolzies Dryer balls. I was given a set to try and provide my honest opinion.*

Adventures in Cloth Diapering Part 3: A Few of My Favorite Things

We are very much in our cloth diapering groove - we've found our favorites and are in a great routine!

Here is Mr. Leif in our favorite diaper - a Flip cover in the Albert print.

I bought and tried numerous types of diaper covers, but my favorite type of cover is Flip. They are one size, meaning they fit from 8-35 pounds I believe. This saves you money! In addition, covers can be used multiple times before being washed, so they are a money saver in that way too. I also like the little flaps inside the Flip cover. These help the inserts and prefolds stay in place. There are many colors and a couple prints to choose from.

For the inside, during the daytime we like the Flip stay dry inserts. They are very trim and fit perfectly with the Flip covers. You can fold them for small, medium, and large settings, which go along with the rise snaps on the covers. We are on the small setting. 

When summer got hot here in Minnesota, we found we needed to keep Leif very dry to prevent heat rash. My mom had some extra fleece at home and just cut it into pieces the same size as the Flip inserts. These fleece inserts do double duty, as they also protect the diaper from diaper creams.

At night, Leif needs a little more diaper! Our latest concoction seems to do the trick. We use a Flip cover, an Imagine bamboo prefold which we trifold, a Thirsties soaker, and a fleece liner on top. If it is put on correctly, there are rarely nighttime leaks, even when he sleeps 10 hours straight! We also use the prefolds during the day sometimes - mostly when the Flip inserts are all dirty.

There are lots of diaper creams out there, but only a few are truly cloth diaper safe. I try to stick with those so our diapers will last a long time! We like CJ's Butter and Grandma El's. I really like the CJ's Butter is available in a stick so you don't have to touch anything. Makes clean-up a breeze! However, Grandma  El's is what we reach for when we see some redness, and it usually clears up by the next diaper change.

Adventures in Cloth Diapering Part 2: Building the Stash

Once you have done some research and hopefully have seen some cloth diapers in person, it's time to start building your stash. This is the fun part!

Depending on your budget, you have lots of options. I wanted to keep costs in mind, so I went with a majority of covers and inserts and prefolds. This way, I can reuse the same couple covers all day, which saves money. However, I did buy some pocket diapers for daycare in hopes that they will find them easy to use. Pocket diapers can only be used once before washing because the inside gets dirty. Some people love pockets and have a whole stash of them, but I find myself grabbing for them last.

Here are a couple pictures of my beginning stash! I have already sold some of these after finding they didn't work as well for us. I only lost a dollar or two on each one I sold.

I ordered from Diapers.com with two 20% off codes, which meant almost 40% in savings and free shipping. I also ordered from Nicki's Diapers, which I like because they have great customer service and they are in Madison, Wisconsin (a seven hour drive, but in the big cloth diapering world it seems kind of local!).

Once you have chosen the types of diapers you want, you aren't finished. You need wet bags for traveling, wet bags or pail liners for at home, snappis or pins if you are using prefolds or flats, cloth diaper safe cream, soakers, and safe detergent.

In my next blog I will go over some of my favorite diapers and above-mentioned accessories!

Adventures in Cloth Diapering - Why Cloth Diaper?

First off, let me state for the record that I had no intentions of using cloth diapers before or during my pregnancy! I was with the crowd that thought, why touch that stuff any more than necessary? Get it in the garbage and move on!

So what changed my mind? Primarily the acid-like diaper rash Leif had. My body hurt just looking at it! My sister-in-law graciously loaned us her cloth diapers to try out, so without having to pay a cent, I could see if they would actually work for us.

And work they did! Leif's rash went away very quickly, and because of that I was sold. The laundry wasn't anywhere as disgusting and scary as I thought it would be. Although there are still some newborn poo diapers that I would rather just throw in the garbage, they are few and far between.

The cost savings is what initially got my husband on board. Here is a link from Diaper Decisions that breaks down the cost of cloth diapers versus disposables. I also learned that used diapers have a great resale value! I never would have guessed that someone would want to buy my cloth diapers when I am done with them. They can also be reused on future children, although at the moment I definitely have my hands full with just this little one!

Another factor that convinced both Titus and I to cloth diaper are the environmental benefits. Here is a link from the Real Diaper Association showing how detrimental disposable diapers our to our environment.

The number of chemicals in disposable diapers also grosses me out. I go to so much trouble to use "clean" shampoo, baby wash, creams, etc. - why would I want chemicals sitting on his bum all day, every day?

The cloth diaper experiment was a success, so it became time for us to buy our own. I did lots of research and found most people suggested trying a bunch of different types of diapers to see what works for you. I will admit that it has become an odd hobby of mine, and I will probably keep trying different kinds until Leif doesn't need diapers anymore. That said, I found some favorites, so I will blog about those soon!

Before I purchased any diapers, I also went to my friend Genevieve's house and she showed my friend and I all her diapers and how she uses them. It really helped to see them in person and know how to use them! Thanks, Genevieve!

If you are interested in cloth diapering, I highly suggest talking to someone who already does it and having them walk you through their stash. (If you are anywhere near me, I would be happy to do this for you!) There are also great web resources out there for you.
Green Mountain Diapers has helpful information here, and there is a seven part You Tube series starting here.

Leif's two month shot, in one of his first cloth diapers! (I have since sold this one because it wasn't one of my favorites.)

From Pregnancy to Parenting - a blogging shift

Now that little Leif is here, the focus of my blog necessitates change! So, I'd like to focus on parenting - the joys, the struggles, what works for us, what doesn't, and more. If there's something you'd like to hear about, just let me know!

One of Leif's newborn pictures, courtesy of Courtney Draxten.

Leif's birth story

Baby Boy C, now known as Leif, entered the world at 10:33 a.m. on Thursday, March 28, 2013! He was 8 pounds 6 ounces and 20.5 inches. To hear all about his birth story, read on...

I went to my 39 week appointment on Monday the 25th expecting it to be very routine as the last few had. For some reason, I asked my husband to tag along, even though he hadn't been going to the last few appointments with me. I'm glad I did!

The nurse took my blood pressure as usual, but then she took it again. And again. Then she had me lie on the examining bed and took it again. And again. My blood pressure was going up and up instead of down, which was a problem. My doctor came in and explained that he wanted me to come in to be induced in two days (Wednesday the 27th). I had other plans, though. Could I just go back to work for the week and let this little baby come when he felt like it? The doctor was pretty adamant that no, I could not, and in fact, I could not go back to work at all! Well, when he put it like that, I certainly didn't want to lie around the house for who knows how long waiting for my baby to decide to come. So, I acquiesced and scheduled our induction.

The next couple days went by soooo slowly! I got my substitute teacher ready, made sure our bags were packed, and.... waited. On Wednesday I had my dad take me out for lunch so I could relax and get my mind off things. Then Wednesday evening finally arrived, and Titus and I headed to the hospital.

I was given Cervadil to help start labor around 6 p.m.,  with the understanding that it wouldn't do much and I would need Pitocin in the morning to further things along. However, around 9 p.m., right when I was going to try to sleep, the contractions started. For about five minutes, I thought, "Oh, so this is what labor is like! I can handle this!" Wrong. The contractions got extremely painful very quickly after that.

My body wasn't ready for an epidural quite yet, so I had a shot of some type of pain medication first. That lasted all of a half hour, but it was long enough for my body to prepare for an epidural. I had no "birth plan" to speak of - I just figured whatever would happen, would happen, and because the contractions were too painful to deal with, I was definitely ready for the pain to stop! The anesthetist had to wake up and come in, so that took a while, but boy was there relief when the epidural started working.

I think I got a little sleep between then (maybe 3 a.m.?) and when the doctor came at 6:30 a.m., but the nurses were always checking on my progress and the baby. When the doctor came and said everything was good to go, I thought that was it - baby time! Instead, he laughed and said the hard part was still to come. He'd be back in a while to check on me.

So began about three hours of torture. After two hours, they turned the epidural down because I was having a hard time knowing if I was pushing correctly. Once it was turned down, I felt a horrible pain and knew the baby was not moving the way he was supposed to be. However, being this was my first time delivering a baby, the nurses seemed to think it was probably normal pain and I needed to keep working. I stuck it out for another hour, but then I stopped and insisted on seeing the doctor.

When the doctor came in, he could also tell the baby was stuck. He was going to try a vacuum, but if that didn't work, he would have to perform a C-section, so I warily signed the release forms.

The vacuum was painful as I had to push again, and it didn't work at all. Instead, the baby's heart rate decelerated, so my c-section became imminent and an emergency. Titus couldn't come with, so he had to stay up in the waiting room while I was wheeled off.

In the operating room, there must have been over twenty people working. It was nice to know there were so many hands on deck, but it was also frightening! I think our hospital has three anesthetists, and they were all in my room! The baby was still stuck, so my doctor had to work hard to get him out. However, once he was out, he was healthy, big, and had a full head of hair!

The recovery process was difficult to say the least. Of course, it was totally worth it, though!

This is Leif and me the day he was born. He looks like such a peanut now!

Leif on Easter, the day we got to go home. This is still a favorite position of his! :)