I loved my gown from a sweet friend! What a great baby shower gift!!
Proud grandparents
Sleeping with Daddy
Ready to go home!!
My first bath at home
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We love the Blooming Bath
Friday, February 1, 2013
Baby Raegan
Raegan Kate Sanders was born on January 25th at 1:41pm and was 6 pounds and 21 inches long!
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Cloth Diapering
I have had a lot of people ask me how cloth diapering is going or how we like it - so I decided to blog some of the stuff I have shared with others regarding our experience and regarding how we picked stuff to use.
I will post more about them as our experience with the continues!
When I was about 8-10 weeks I started doing a lot of research on cloth diapers! I was obsessed with it. I watched a lot of YouTube videos on FuzziBunz diapers and I LOVED them. However, I did not love the price tag of almost $30 per diaper or for two. The same went for BumGenius and all of the name brand diapers. A lot of the diapers are made in China for a fraction of the cost. I know, I personally would prefer to buy from American companies but when it came to these diapers, I was on a tight budget and cloth diapering costs a lot up front.
I found someone in my hometown who used Alva Babies and said they were a good price so I looked and they ranged from $4-7 a piece. I ordered about 5-8 at a time (once a month or every paycheck). I now have a stash of about 10 newborn diapers (which you may or may not need depending on the babies weight) and about 30 regular ones!
All of the diapers I have are pocket diapers. Some that I ordered from Etsy (newborn ones) don't actually have pockets that you insert the microfiber pad/insert inside, they just have the insert/pad on the outside and they snap on. The ones I ordered on Etsy are flannel/fleece feeling material and they definitely would not be good for a baby during the heat of the Georgia summer but for right now, they work perfectly! They are just very thick! However, they fit Raegan perfectly in the waist and legs!
The Alva Baby and Nikkis Diapers ones have the inserts on the inside, there is an actual pocket that the insert/pad just slides right into. I ordered all types of Alva Baby diapers. None of mine are the same material or pattern so if you want to read into what the difference is and pick one specific type (4.0/microfleece/microfiber/etc..) you can. But I just wanted a mix! I suggest having at least 20 diapers total. When ordering from Etsy, it is a toss up because you never know what they will be like but I searched in the search box for cloth newborn diapers and then sorted them by price. Just make sure if you order that you are ordering the actual diaper, not pattern to sew one.
Also, you may want some All in One cloth diapers, they don't require inserts but Alva Baby doesn't carry those and I do not have any of them.
As far as why we chose cloth over disposable, the price is a huge difference! I spent around $300 and that is all I will need until she is potty trained! I bought diapers with snaps, not velcro. However, velcro may be easier, but it sticks to stuff in washing machines and dryers and the snaps adjust a lot more. It just takes one extra rinse cycle for these to come clean (some websites suggest using hot water and some recommend using cold water - we use cold and it works fine!). When you research cloth diapering you will see all sorts of opinions on this stuff!
Now, as far as cloth diapers besides saving money in the long run, they are easy! They absorb all of Raegans pee into the insert so she doesn't stay wet at all!! Which is wonderful! She doesn't cry hardly at all because she doesn't realize she is wet whereas when we used the disposable diapers from the hospital (used until they ran out), she screamed when she wet herself because there is no where for it to absorb to! And those were Pampers!
Also, I ordered flushable cloth diaper liners (they look like dryer sheets). I ordered a few on amazon.com and I ordered four rolls from Alva Baby. They come like 100 sheets per roll or pack but they are huge so I cut them into three! So basically, I stuff the pocket with an inserts and then lay a liner on top and it catches poop if she poops for the most part and we don't flush
them, we just toss them in a trash can!
As for washing/trash goes - I wash all of Raegan's clothes and diapers in All Free and Clear detergent (way cheaper than Dreft and other special stuff) and I use Shout Color Catchers in her stuff as well to keep things from bleeding on each other (I also tear those into three sheets). You aren't supposed to use Dreft and specialized detergents on cloth diapers because they make them not absorb. Also, if you dry them in the dryer instead of hanging them to dry, you should not use fabric softeners or dryer sheets in there because they also make the diapers not absorb.
I have one large trash can (step trash can) and one small (step trash can). I bought these little Arm and Hammer freshener things (sold in the baby stuff at Wal-Mart) that I place in the bottom of the trash cans they are good for 90 days. I just use Wal-Mart bags in the small one and that is what I place the flushable liners and disposable wipes in when I use them (this is taken out every night). The big one, I have a Kissable Liner in (I ordered two of these). They don't zip or anything! It is like a trash bag but it works fabulous! You pull the whole thing out and toss the bag (filled with the dirty diapers) in the wash! You never have to touch the diapers again! You can touch them if you choose or pour them out into the wash but that is up to you! Just make sure your disposable wipes and liners don't get thrown in this trash can because that would be a huge mess if you wash them!
I also ordered a bidet on Amazon.com (it was around $30) and we hooked it up to the guest toilet across from Raegan's room to spray out diapers if they were really messy and happen to not get caught in the liner.
Here are the cloth diaper liners:
Flushable Diaper Liners
Here are the trash can liners!!
Kissa Pail Liner
I also ordered three wet bags (they are small) from Alva Baby to put in my diaper bag, Benton's diaper bag (which is an Eddie Bauer book bag from Bed Bath and Beyond) and one for when we send her somewhere else!
When we travel, we may use disposables because we don't always have assess to a washing machine. We received a lot of disposables as shower gifts which will be great for if she gets sick or for the church nursery (since different people keep it at different times it may be hard to send cloth) or for day care if the sitter is not comfortable using cloth.
More to come!
I will post more about them as our experience with the continues!
When I was about 8-10 weeks I started doing a lot of research on cloth diapers! I was obsessed with it. I watched a lot of YouTube videos on FuzziBunz diapers and I LOVED them. However, I did not love the price tag of almost $30 per diaper or for two. The same went for BumGenius and all of the name brand diapers. A lot of the diapers are made in China for a fraction of the cost. I know, I personally would prefer to buy from American companies but when it came to these diapers, I was on a tight budget and cloth diapering costs a lot up front.
I found someone in my hometown who used Alva Babies and said they were a good price so I looked and they ranged from $4-7 a piece. I ordered about 5-8 at a time (once a month or every paycheck). I now have a stash of about 10 newborn diapers (which you may or may not need depending on the babies weight) and about 30 regular ones!
All of the diapers I have are pocket diapers. Some that I ordered from Etsy (newborn ones) don't actually have pockets that you insert the microfiber pad/insert inside, they just have the insert/pad on the outside and they snap on. The ones I ordered on Etsy are flannel/fleece feeling material and they definitely would not be good for a baby during the heat of the Georgia summer but for right now, they work perfectly! They are just very thick! However, they fit Raegan perfectly in the waist and legs!
The Alva Baby and Nikkis Diapers ones have the inserts on the inside, there is an actual pocket that the insert/pad just slides right into. I ordered all types of Alva Baby diapers. None of mine are the same material or pattern so if you want to read into what the difference is and pick one specific type (4.0/microfleece/microfiber/etc..) you can. But I just wanted a mix! I suggest having at least 20 diapers total. When ordering from Etsy, it is a toss up because you never know what they will be like but I searched in the search box for cloth newborn diapers and then sorted them by price. Just make sure if you order that you are ordering the actual diaper, not pattern to sew one.
Also, you may want some All in One cloth diapers, they don't require inserts but Alva Baby doesn't carry those and I do not have any of them.
As far as why we chose cloth over disposable, the price is a huge difference! I spent around $300 and that is all I will need until she is potty trained! I bought diapers with snaps, not velcro. However, velcro may be easier, but it sticks to stuff in washing machines and dryers and the snaps adjust a lot more. It just takes one extra rinse cycle for these to come clean (some websites suggest using hot water and some recommend using cold water - we use cold and it works fine!). When you research cloth diapering you will see all sorts of opinions on this stuff!
Now, as far as cloth diapers besides saving money in the long run, they are easy! They absorb all of Raegans pee into the insert so she doesn't stay wet at all!! Which is wonderful! She doesn't cry hardly at all because she doesn't realize she is wet whereas when we used the disposable diapers from the hospital (used until they ran out), she screamed when she wet herself because there is no where for it to absorb to! And those were Pampers!
Also, I ordered flushable cloth diaper liners (they look like dryer sheets). I ordered a few on amazon.com and I ordered four rolls from Alva Baby. They come like 100 sheets per roll or pack but they are huge so I cut them into three! So basically, I stuff the pocket with an inserts and then lay a liner on top and it catches poop if she poops for the most part and we don't flush
them, we just toss them in a trash can!
As for washing/trash goes - I wash all of Raegan's clothes and diapers in All Free and Clear detergent (way cheaper than Dreft and other special stuff) and I use Shout Color Catchers in her stuff as well to keep things from bleeding on each other (I also tear those into three sheets). You aren't supposed to use Dreft and specialized detergents on cloth diapers because they make them not absorb. Also, if you dry them in the dryer instead of hanging them to dry, you should not use fabric softeners or dryer sheets in there because they also make the diapers not absorb.
I have one large trash can (step trash can) and one small (step trash can). I bought these little Arm and Hammer freshener things (sold in the baby stuff at Wal-Mart) that I place in the bottom of the trash cans they are good for 90 days. I just use Wal-Mart bags in the small one and that is what I place the flushable liners and disposable wipes in when I use them (this is taken out every night). The big one, I have a Kissable Liner in (I ordered two of these). They don't zip or anything! It is like a trash bag but it works fabulous! You pull the whole thing out and toss the bag (filled with the dirty diapers) in the wash! You never have to touch the diapers again! You can touch them if you choose or pour them out into the wash but that is up to you! Just make sure your disposable wipes and liners don't get thrown in this trash can because that would be a huge mess if you wash them!
I also ordered a bidet on Amazon.com (it was around $30) and we hooked it up to the guest toilet across from Raegan's room to spray out diapers if they were really messy and happen to not get caught in the liner.
Here are the cloth diaper liners:
Flushable Diaper Liners
Here are the trash can liners!!
Kissa Pail Liner
I also ordered three wet bags (they are small) from Alva Baby to put in my diaper bag, Benton's diaper bag (which is an Eddie Bauer book bag from Bed Bath and Beyond) and one for when we send her somewhere else!
When we travel, we may use disposables because we don't always have assess to a washing machine. We received a lot of disposables as shower gifts which will be great for if she gets sick or for the church nursery (since different people keep it at different times it may be hard to send cloth) or for day care if the sitter is not comfortable using cloth.
More to come!
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