night cloth: take two

Last week, I decided to take the plunge into night time cloth diapering.  It wasn't a complete success, but it wasn't a disaster either.  I had her in a good.night by Goodmama for about 10 hours which have been said by many to be bullet proof.  For the regular good.night diapers, it's recommended to wash approximately 8 times to achieve the maximum absorbency.  Mine haven't been washed that many times yet and she pees through them rather quickly during the day (yay for having a heavy wetter!) so I haven't tried them at night yet.  However, the owner at Goodmama diapers is currently holding a send your own fabric (SYOF) thing where users can submit fabrics for approval and if they are accepted, people can sign up to have these custom diapers created.  Well, one of the mom's on the board decided to try a new style of diaper, a good.night with a no pill fleece outer.  The outer she chose was a dark blue with airplanes on it.  So with Chris's aviation background, I just HAD to sign up.  Our diaper arrived a little over a week ago a few days after one mom on the board had already gotten and tried hers.  She only washed it 1 time before using it and said she had no leaks at all!!  Amazing, so I washed mine once and on the butt it went.

Then we woke up!!!  Unfortunately Samantha's diaper leaked, though thankfully it wasn't too bad.  There was just a slightly damp spot about the size of a piece of notebook paper on the bed.  When I took off the diaper it was wet, but due to the fleece soaker, her bottom was completely dry!!  I liked this since I'd hate for Samantha to have to sleep feeling wet all night long.  I used a PUL cover and from what I can tell, the pee wicked through the legs and on to her pajamas and the bed.  Apparently this problem isn't uncommon.  I posted on my Goodmama facebook board and a general consensus was that we should be using a wool cover.  Wool is said to be antimicrobial, breathable, and of course, cute!  Yesterday I went to our local cloth diaper store, Abby's Lane, to pick up a pair of wool longies.  I chose a cute Ooga pair that has little feeties so that Samantha's feet won't get too cold.  I think she likes them, and I'm excited to use them.  They came pre-lanolized so we are good to go.  Just need to slap them on over a diaper and put her to bed.  This is super helpful to be because I have NO idea at all how to wash/lanolize my wool.  Guess it's time to learn!

So tonight, we will attempt a second night in cloth.  I can only hope it goes better than the first!!

the week of blowouts!

Since long before Samantha was born, or even conceived, I knew I wanted to cloth diaper.  Soon after our miscarriage I started collecting diapers and have never stopped.  Samantha was born at 6 pounds 12 ounces so a lot of her diapers, including newborns, were still too big on her when we brought her home from the hospital. For the beginning, I used disposables, and we still do use disposables at night until I get brave enough to take the plunge into night time cloth diapering.  We first got Huggies All Natural diapers which gave Samantha a horrible rash.  Even though she was too tiny, I attempted to use some cloth and within a day of her being in cloth, the rash was gone!  Amazing!  We then switched to Pampers which is what we've been using since.  Thankfully she doesn't have much of a reaction to these and they've worked well for us.

Typically, I will only use disposables at night, while babysitting all day, and while traveling.  Well this past week, I got sort of lazy and disposable diapered pretty much every day.  Samantha used to be a once a week pooper but recently has started going more often.  Well guess what, every.single.time this week Samantha has pooped, it's been a blowout.  Ick!!  I can't tell you how many outfits I've changed due to them being covered in poop.  Sometimes, I'd open the diaper to find hardly anything in there, yet it's still up her back!  Yesterday, I finally got her back in cloth and sure enough...she pooped.  But guess what?  It was all safely contained in her cloth diaper.  Thank goodness!  As a matter of fact, in my 6ish months of on/off cloth diapering, I think she's only had one poopy "blow out" and that was because the diaper she was wearing was way too big.  Just a little drop leaked out of one of the legs, but not enough to make a mess or anything.  They are seriously amazing.

So there you have two of the many reasons I LOVE cloth diapering!!!