Calling all Cloth Diapering Bloggers!

Kebbie's Diaper Bag is looking for cloth diapering, blogging moms to review and giveaway their products! The form to sign up for possible consideration can be found HERE.

Newborns And Cloth Event!! (giveaways galore!)

Life with my Littles and One More Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are hosting a wonderful event reviewing different cloth diapers and how they fit on newborns! You can go there and grab the event button until Nov 10th to gain extra entries, or you can just enter once the event gets started! Go! Go! Go! (But please let me win! :-P)

Thirsties Giveaway!!

I love Thirsties! They are made right here in the USA, they are affordable and they are pretty much bullet-proof! The only times I have ever had leaks is when I forgot to make sure everything was tucked in! They are just super awesome!
Happenings of the Harper Household have a Thirsties giveaway going on right now! Go enter!

AppleCheeks Giveaway at Mommy And Me Giveaways!!

Mommy and Me giveaways has an awesome giveaway going on right now for an AppleCheeks diaper. I have never tried an AppleCheeks diaper, but they look incredible and I have entered for a chance to win one! You can read the Mommy and Me giveaways review and enter here. :-)

I <3 Giveaways!

$1 Babylegs! (Real ones, not upcycled!)

I posted about how to create leg warmers out of girls tights.

But I realize some people are simply not crafty, or haven't the first idea how to sew. Babylegs can cost $12, and personally I don't feel like spending that much! They do have great deals on their website if you keep an eye out, but I'm still usually too cheap to take them up on them, especially since I can make them myself. Anyway, all that to say, there are ways to get good deals on Babylegs.

For instance, I am signed up for Swagbucks. I earn swagbucks through searching the web and lots of other things (I just use Swagbucks as my search engine, I really don't do any of the other swagbuck earning activities). You only need 450 swagbucks for a $5 Amazon GC, and they add up fairly quickly! I redeemed my first $5 gift card a little over a year ago and I have redeemed another 9 since then, that is $50 worth of products in a little over a year, with minimal effort!!

The other day I was going to redeem my usual $5 Amazon GC when I saw a $5 GC for Mom4Life for a mere 329 swagbucks!! I checked out their website and they have amazing stuff! Cloth diapers, swaddlers, and... *drumroll* Babylegs! "Discontinued" prints were on sale for $6. I was already thinking "Hey, $1 Babylegs? That is a GREAT deal!" but then I remembered shipping costs... (granted, even if shipping is $5... $6 Babylegs are still a GREAT deal!) well it gets better, Mom4Life has FREE SHIPPING to the USA! No minimums! I was ecstatic! So now I have some cute "White Burst" Babylegs, that I adore, and I spent no more than I would have on buying second hand knee high socks or tights to upcycle! Yay for good deals!

All that to say, check out Swagbucks! (You can sign up by clicking the "Search. Earn. Redeem." button in the right sidebar!) $5 Gift cards may not seem like the would get that much, but they really do!

Girls Tights upcycled into Baby Legwarmers

My baby girl always seems to be cold. It is so strange to me after having a son who would sweat profusely if he slept in anything heavier than a light sleeper in a 60*F house! I have seen many tutorials for baby leg warmers out of adult knee socks and the like, and I have made some myself, however, when I received a bag of warm fuzzy tights from a friend I got to thinking, "why couldn't I make these into leg warmers?" They are super handy for diaper changes! I really like the fact that I can hold onto her legs while changing her diaper and not worry that my hands are too cold for her little legs. (We live in an old drafty house, being a bit cold is just a fact of life in the winter)

I started with size 18-34 months tights. First I chopped off the feet. (After I debated if I should make thigh high baby socks :-P)

Then I cut off the "toes" and heel of the foot section. This left me with two small tubes that will be folded in half to create the top or bottom of the legwarmer. I made a cut across the top of the legs and then took two rectangles out of the seat of the tights to use for the other edge of the legwarmers.

You can see here I have two small tubes (one is folded in half) for the edge of the leg warmers, the body of the legwarmers and the two rectangles out of the seat of the tights. I am horrible when it comes to making exact measurements, I just eyeballed the rectangles, making them a little smaller than the other tubes, so if they need to be worn at the top of the leg for a skinny baby, they can, or they can be flipped if the baby has chunky thighs.
Now for the sewing.
I took the two rectangles and folded them in half horizontally, right sides together, and sewed the edges together. I then turned them right side out and folded them in half vertically. This illustration will hopefully make it a little more clear, if you are lost. :-)
Now, take the tubes you have just made, and the body of the legwarmer and pin (or don't pin) the raw edges together. If you want a particular color or design showing on the smaller folded tube, keep in mind that what you see on the outside as you are pinning/sewing, will end up on the inside when finished.
Repeat this process for the other end of the legwarmer. And Voila! you have one baby legwarmer, repeat the process and you have a pair!!
Here is a picture of my creation next to a Babylegs brand regular sized leg warmer. As you can see it is a little shorter, but they should fit my 4 month old baby just fine! I personally think they fit even better than the legwarmers I have made from adult socks. They are more snug and should stay in place better! Now to make 5 more pairs!!

Thirsties

I mentioned in my last post my love for Thirsties Duo Covers. Thirsties also has an awesome blog where they host "Thirsties Thursday Giveaways"! What could be more awesome? This week they are giving away 2 Duo Diapers. I haven't tried the Duo Diaper myself, but I can only imagine that they are about as awesome as my Duo Cover. So go enter!

P.S. I secretly find it amusing that people would tell other people about giveaways... doesn't that just lessen a persons chances of winning? Okay, I'm done being amused now...

My Diaper Stash + Mini Reviews/Long winded explainations...

This is my stash.If you click the picture you can actually read the lovely labels I spent entirely too much time putting on the picture to avoid confusion. :-P Unless of course you have awesome eyesight and can read all those little words. :-)

This is the usual “not pictured list,” only longer. Heh.

1 Rearz Small Diaper Cover

1 Rearz Large Fitted Diaper (it was hiding behind a chair in my son's room, and only came out AFTER the picture was taken. I guess it was being camera shy...)

2 Sunbaby 2.0

1 ALVA OS Pocket Diaper

Several QSFW not sure where the buggers are, a search and rescue team will be organized, tomorrow, if time allows.

Several homemade prefolds they were playing double duty as spit rags. Poor things.

And now, for my rambling cloth diapering story... it is long, but hopefully it includes some information that can be of use to you.

It all started when I was 4. Yes, 4. I changed my first diaper, a prefold, with pins, and “plastic pants.” I realize most children don't change diapers at such a young age but my dad was not keen on changing diapers and someone had to do it when mom was out and about. I remember several times in my young life swishing diapers out in the toilet and being utterly grossed out, and thinking I would never, ever have my children wear cloth diapers.

Fast forward 18 years. I have a 2 year old who is day time potty trained and another baby on the way. My 2 year old is in the 98+ percentile for his age, so he's no small child, and he had all but outgrown size 6 disposable diapers, they still “fit” but he would wake up every morning with soaked clothes and bedding. I wasn't about to invest in boxes of pull-ups and/or more absorbent “night time” diapers that I would just throw out, especially since there is no telling how many months/years I would have to continue this trend.

When I first started researching I was surprised to find how much cloth diapers had changed! I was especially drawn to the one size pocket diaper systems, they were faster drying than All-In-One (AIO) systems, they fit “from birth to potty training” and you could customize absorbency to fit your needs. I was sold. I went on eBay and found 10 Sunbaby 2.0's for $40.95, I was thrilled! Then I started reading more and saw that a lot of people were saying how many problems they had with Sunbaby diapers in general and how the 2.0 was far inferior to the new and improved 4.0. I was nervous. I found a couple other single diapers (mostly ALVA, some no-name diapers) that had good reviews for under $6 on eBay and figured I would try them out too. At this point my son was 33 pounds so he was on the upper edge of most of the diaper brands “weight limits.” I found that he had already outgrown the Sunbaby diapers, but the ALVA diapers still fit with a bit of room to grow. They did an amazing job at containing the occasional poo and I loved the fact that I could stuff multiple inserts into the pocket and my son would wake up with dry bedding! Yay!

bumGenius 4.0: At some point I earned enough Swagbucks to get a $5 Amazon gift card (to join see the widget at the bottom of the blog, it's easy, and it works, and you can win cool stuff!) , with that and a bit of money from re-selling school textbooks I bought my first bumGenius 4.0 pocket diaper. So far these are my favorite of my pocket diapers. Not only do they still fit my son (39 lbs.) but they also fit my “newborn.” They didn't fit her right away even though she weighed 8lbs. 14 oz at birth, but when they did fit, at 10 lbs, the extra waist snap was oh so handy, it prevented the severe wing-droop and helped make the leg openings more snug, a big difference from their single snap competitors. I am thinking that the other pocket diapers will simply fit better when my baby is a little larger. The only drawback to this diaper is the price tag, however, I have not paid full price for any of mine! Cottonbabies will have “seconds” sales from time to time and I got TWO BG 4.0 diapers for $18, the only thing “wrong” with them was a couple tiny stains (I'm talking pinhead sized) on the cover, they came without inserts but since I was making inserts out of whatever I had laying around the house it wasn't a big deal.

XL Bumkins Diaper Covers I figured I better get a diaper system for when he finally outgrew the pocket diapers, so I found my 4 Bumkins XL diaper covers on eBay for $20.67. At first my son was not a fan of these but I figured out it had more to do with my inability to Snappi/pin the diaper on in short order, as he does not like being still! He still hasn't grown out of the BG 4.0 diapers so I don't use these as much, but I'm sure I will soon. My one “dislike” would probably be the hook and loop closures, although the laundry tabs DO work, so that's a plus... I'm just more of a “snaps” girl.

Sewing ventures – I realized I had quite a stack of old t-shirts that had outlived their usefulness as pieces of clothing, but had plenty of wear left for things like diapers. With this as my inspiration I decided to upcycle my stack of t-shirts and make some super cute prefolds. Knowing my OS pocket diapers would not fit a newborn right away, I had the notion to make some newborn fitteds, and I did, tracing a size 1 disposable to get the proper sizing, but I got to thinking about the fact that I didn't have anyone to try these splendid creations on, and I started to worry I would have an entire stash fail if I continued making fitteds with nothing more than a teddy bear as a model. (I really worry too much, but that is another story for another time). After that worrying I discovered QSFWs and I made some for my 2 year old to go with his Bumkins diaper covers, minus the snaps, because I'm challenged and I don't own a snap press. They were awesome. Especially with a couple extra layers in the wetzone or when used with an insert. (He was still a super soaker and needed all the absorbency he could get!) I made a couple newborn sized ones too. I still think they are awesome, and just less bulky then prefolds in general. I never did put snaps on any of mine, and they are nothing to look at, but hey, they work, and that is what matters! I did add some elastic to some of mine after I saw this.

I also made inserts out of old t-shirts and pj pants and whatever else I could find. I was just layering fabric together and sewing around the edge making thick slow-drying creations. At some point I stumbled across Knickernappies loopy-do inserts and decided to make something similar. I found some nice thick towels at a garage sale for 10 cents a piece and cut them long ways into strips. I had planned on making a loop but decided a nice long foldable insert would work just as well and left them as they were. I also used several scraps of fleece I had laying around to make several fleece soakers and one skirtie and a TON of washable fleece “stay-dry” liners. I also made a QSFW with a fleece outer layer hoping it would work as an AIO of sorts, at this time it still needs so elastic to avoid leaks and I need my little girl to grow a bit more before it fits.

Fluffy Giveaways! I discovered these and have been hooked ever since! This is a good place to start if you are interested in fluffy giveaways, there are so many bloggers that host them it is crazy! I have found so many neat businesses this way that have things that I drool over but don't have enough money for at this point in my life. So I drool, and enter every giveaway imaginable in hopes that someday I will win and be able to try out their amazing products! :-) Actually, I haven't done too bad thus far. I won a Rearz prize package that included all of my Rearz products. I was a HUGE fan of the Newborn Hybrid AIO they sent, it had an insert that is sewn in, but only in back, and let me tell you that puppy is TRIM! I only wish it would have fit longer. My daughter was 10 lbs by a week and a half old. Again, my only issue with it is the hook and loop closures, and not so good laundry tabs, but I don't care, it's trim and it works (and it's purple!)! The small covers are also very nice, I haven't had any “real” leaks that I can remember, there has been a time or two when I could see the elastic was yellow from poo, but never an all out leakage, the leg gussets certainly do their job. They have been a staple of my newborn/too-small-to-fit-into-OS stash. The large fitted is also awesome (and oh so soft!!) but getting a bit small for my son, and the hook and loop doesn't stay closed as well as I would like.

I also won a OS pocket diaper from Modified Momma Creations, the awesome spider print is a bit boyish in my opinion, but my daughter wears it more than my son due to his size. I first tried this on with one of my homemade towel inserts soon after she was born (I couldn't find the one it came with) and thought “WOW! That is one BULKY diaper!” I have since decided that I must have had the insert folded funky because ever since then it hasn't been as bulky. You live and you learn. One thing I love, love, love about this diaper is the hip snaps (Yay! No wing droop!) and the fact that I can cross the tabs over if I want, which means this diaper really WILL fit on your newborn. In fact, my daughter was never skinny enough to fit with the tabs crossed over, but it's good to know I have that option if my next child is a skinny minny, which isn't likely, but I can dream, right?

I also won my 6 Knickernappies unbleached cotton infant prefolds from a giveaway! Those have been a lifesaver! I don't think I would have had enough homemade prefolds, fitteds and QSFWs to diaper a newborn. They are the only prefolds I have that aren't “homemade” (some of my homemade ones are “refurbished” and re-covered) so I don't have any other real brands to compare them to, but they are quite absorbent in my opinion.

My Bummis Swimmi also came from a giveaway, along with a wet bag. I have yet to try it, since I got a Medium knowing that my son weighed 13 lbs. At 1.5 months and that a newborn probably won't be “swimming” anyway. I may get a chance to use it on our vacation to Missouri this next week, depending on how cool the pool is.

Other Purchases

I used my Swagbucks to get a $5 Gift card to Bumkins , thinking I could use it for shipping for something super cheap, I found out that this was not the case, so I went ahead and got the “Green Eggs and Ham” XS diaper cover, because I figured I would need it for my newborn. It is a nice cover, but my daughter is quickly outgrowing it at 3 weeks old and 11 lbs. It will still go over fitteds, but it is tricky to get it to fully cover a prefold, I am sure it won't fit at all in a matter of a week or two.

Even before I considered switching to cloth, I had purchased the iPlay Swim Diapers for my son when I was faced with buying Little Swimmers for a week long trip last year. No thank you! Even if cloth isn't “for” you, reusable swim diapers are the smartest invention ever.

Thirsties. Oh. My. Word. I cannot say enough good things about the one Thirsties Duo Wrap that I own. If I could re-do my cloth diaper stash it would be with Duo Wraps and prefolds! They contain explosive poo, they are awesome, you can use them for several diaper changes as long as they don't get soiled, and you don't have to pull them up and down. They don't add bulk, they are awesome. I also like the fact that with the two sizes you really can have them fit a newborn, I assume size 2 would fit a 40 pounder nicely like they claim, but I can't speak from experience. When I get rich, I will have to buy one. (Maybe next textbook selling season...)

Dappi pull-on covers. I got these because I wasn't sure that I had enough covers for the newborn phase of life. They are my back-up and I use them in a pinch but they are by no means my favorite, the elastic in the legs isn't as tight as I would like and when there is poo in the cover that wasn't contained by the diaper, it can be a little messy. They are cheap, but you get what you pay for in this case. I was just glad I won the Rearz covers after I bought these, otherwise I would have had to use them much much more than I wanted to.

So... now that I have been using cloth for almost 6 months (only 1 month full-time) I have decided that I prefer the prefold/cover approach to cloth diapering. Originally I was sure I would never think prefolds/covers were awesome and that I would use pocket diapers until my dying day. Pockets are convenient and more like disposables, but there is something to be said about being able to use the same cover multiple times, it cuts down on the amount of “stuff” a person has to pack in the diaper bag, and I like less stuff, it makes me happy.

Everyone is different, a lot of cloth diapering is doing what works for you and not necessarily sticking with what people say is “the best/most conveni way.” In fact, if you talk to me in a couple months I may have changed my mind about pockets, or AIOs, or whatever else. Maybe I'll decide that flats and wool are the best... I can't imagine, but you never know.

Congrats if you actually read all the way through this long post!

I have an addiction. :/

So I discovered this awesome review/giveaway world on Facebook, and then on numerous blogs. I'm sure my Facebook fans just love getting the "Raquel Beaty liked _______ and 15 other pages" messages spamming their walls. :-P But it's so much fun, and easy, and fun, and FUN! (Forget the fact that I spend way too much time entering giveaways when I really should be doing a million other things) So... I am bringing this lovely blog out of retirement (perhaps very briefly, AGAIN) to post about the lovely giveaways I find for my 11 followers (wow, such a HUGE number!).

Here is an awesome giveaway for any mom out there!
ERGO Baby Carrier - Ends July 15th
Go Enter! :-)