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! :-)

I'm BAAACK!.....

... but don't expect anything... it'll most likely be a brief return and I will again disappear to Facebook from whence I came. It's not that facebook is better than a lovely blog where you can pour your heart out, but it takes less time(?), you don't have to think about proper grammar usage as much(?)... yes, something like that. (Although the "taking less time" bit is a complete LIE, but I digress)

So to bring everyone (who doesn't have Facebook) up to date...

Brock is nearly 2 and getting into EVERYTHING. In the past 2 weeks he has gone in for his first set of stitches AND drove over Ben with the skidsteer. The latter being much more shocking and heart-stopping. Thankfully, the skidsteer only went over Ben's right calf and ankle and other than being quite sore and swollen it seems fine, Praise God! Then as if that wasn't enough to confine the child to a padded room for the rest of his life he went and split his lip open on an end table a couple days later. *shakes head*

I'm still working at the Assisted Living facility I talked about in my last post. It's still pretty awesome. I'm also going back to school for nursing, so far I've just been working on generals and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get into any nursing program in the area until sometime in 2012, but I'm okay with that now.

Ben is still self-employed, which has its pros and cons, but we wouldn't have it any other way. It's hardest in the summer when he leaves at 6-7am and gets back between 6-9pm and I'm at work from 3-11pm... so we don't see eachother as often as we would like. :-) In fact, he just left for a project up by Eagle River, where he'll be staying overnight so I won't see him until tomorrow night (or Wednesday morning, as he'll probably be sleeping when I get home). The project is going to take 3(ish) weeks so his schedule will be overnight on Monday and then again on Thursday until it's finished. It could be worse, so I'm counting my blessings, but I'll still miss him. :-)

That's all I have for now. My unclean house is calling my name. :S

Flying Lessons

Things have been super busy around here the past few weeks.

I've settled into a routine at my new job and I'm loving it! It's nice to have a greater degree of flexibility and the ability to work a few shorter shifts (6 hour) as well, that way it doesn't feel like nights at home with Ben and Brock are a rarity. :-)


Ben and Brock took on the task of planting most of the garden a week or so ago while I was at work and the plants are just starting to come up. We also took the time to put some railroad ties around the flowerbed in the front yard so it looks a little more defined and not quite as much like a bunch of weeds growing in the middle of a more bare patch in the yard. :-P Now I just have to finish weeding it... and getting rid of the dirt clods from the railroad tie installation. :-) Oh, and my lilacs are finally blooming! I love lilacs!

Brock looks like he's ready to start crawling any day now, he'll get up on all fours and rock back and forth for a few seconds and then flop to the floor whenever I pull out the camera to document his progress. Silly kid.
This morning he decided to take flying lessons. First lesson: How to glide gracefully from the bed to the floor. Except it wasn't very graceful. Apparently he didn't go back to sleep after I fed him this morning and decided to explore what was on the other side of the bed... I awoke to a tiny cry, silence, a loud thump and a very loud scream. At which point I jumped off the bed after him. There was a small abrasion on his forehead but I didn't notice any other indication of injury. Half an hour later his eye started getting a little black and blue... so he looks a little like a schoolboy who took a few punches but he seems okay otherwise. I have to say I'm actually rather surprised he's gone this long without falling/being dropped as I'm not at all coordinated.

Brock's "black eye" and forehead. It looks worse in real life.

Allergies.

Since the beginning of my existence allergies have claimed a small portion of my thoughts, actions and... tattling. I recall when a particular sister would sit under the kitchen table jamming pieces of bread into her mouth, in an attempt to hid from mom and the rest of us because she was quite allergic to pretty much everything except rice, or so it seemed... and how on her third birthday we had rice waffles for her "cake" and how positively un-tasty they were. Then there were the times I would get milk and everyone would walk a mile out of their way to stay away from my teeth, fists, fingernails, etc.... my sister claims the reason she has glasses is due to me sitting on top of her digging at her eyes way back before I remember... so yeah, allergies have affected most of my life in some way or another... and now we have the newest chapter in the allergy folders...

Allergies: The Continuing Saga Chapter 439 - Brock
We figured out fairly early on that Brock was allergic to milk-based formulas, when we attempted to supplement my milk when I was away at work. He puked until he had dry heaves, which is simply not cool. So we tried soy-based formula, which worked wonderfully the first 3-4 times, then one evening Ben had to give him pure formula and he didn't take it so well (excessive puking, but no dry heaves), thinking it was some sort of fluke I mixed a tiny smidgen of soy formula with his milk yesterday before I left for work. Half way through my shift Ben appeared with a very sick little boy who had puked up the contents of his stomach and begun to dry heave. He looked so very pathetic, and I dearly wished I could drop everything and go home. When my shift ended I headed home to find Brock fast asleep after taking in some Gatorade for rehydration. Upon awaking I noticed his poor little face had broken out in hives, needless to say there won't be anymore soy formula for him for awhile. Thankfully, he is starting on solids now, so it won't be such a huge issue... but then there's the possibility of becoming allergic to "real foods" so that should be interesting.

Cranky.

Brock decided to wake up from his morning nap in an extremely fussy (read: screaming his head off) mood. Maybe it's his teeth again... I don't know. Feeding him, burping him and all the usual "please be happy" routines did NOT work so I finally took him outside... As soon as the door opened, he quieted down and resumed his more typical chattering, smiling and cooing. Strange child. The only problems with the needing to be outside arrangement is I have things to get done (so why am I blogging, talk about zero priorities), and it's a little bit on the cool side for babies in short sleeves, so this was our solution...



Brock is four months old now, and he's already starting to sit by himself and pull himself up on furniture. You don't have to know that he toppled over a few seconds later. :-P


This is the creek on Monday... with all the rain we had it rose quite a bit. I think it was higher than it's been in the year and a half that we've been around.