The Great Cloth Diaper Change

Most people who know us know that we chose to use reusable, cloth diapers with Michal.  In the beginning, we encountered many who predicted that this would be short-lived, but to the contrary, we have been going strong for 20 months.  It is no surprise then that we opted to participate in the Great Cloth Diaper Change, an attempt to break the world record for the most cloth diapers changed at the same time.  We attempted to take part in the event last year, but we got lost on the way and missed the official change.  This year there were more than 300 hosts across 16 countries - pretty impressive!

We signed up for a location not far from where we live, meeting up with Michal's friend Liam (of sock stealing fame if you followed the 365 day blog) and his awesome parents.  We had fun hanging out with other fluff-loving folks and enjoyed a yummy lunch afterwards.

Borrowing Jaime's sunglasses - the kid LOVES shades 

Looking at Jaime's pictures on her phone as we wait for the event to begin 

Love this kid!

Getting her diaper ready for the big change, checking out everyone around us. 

After the official change - you can see us near the back - I'm holding Michal up with her purple shirt and belly hanging out.  HEAVY KID. 

She seems pretty blase about being part of a world record breaking event!

Yeah... I think the idea of lunch is trumping everything else. 

LUNCH!  And Michal shows us her unique flossing techniques.

"Hey, y'all!"

Silly kids!

Fluff Stuff

It has been a while since I've updated this blog, mainly due to this project.  While there are things I would post here that I would not post there, frankly I don't have enough blogging energy to do more than one post a day.  I am not sure what I will do once we finish with 2011 - whether I continue to blog here or there - but I know I will write somewhere.


I have been meaning to do a blog post on how we do the cloth diaper thing, but since it was nothing something that fit into the daily blog, I have yet to do it.  One of my favorite blogs, The Crafty Nest, is doing a whole week of cloth diaper posts, which spurred me to finally get to this post.  


Back in January, I wrote this post for the daily blog, basically showing our stash of diapers.  The stash has changed a bit since then - some diapers have left our home, new ones have arrived.  Perhaps I will write a new post at some point giving a review of the various diapers we have tried, but not today.  

 This is Michal's dresser, which doubles as her changing area.  Mickey is hanging out on her changing pad, to the right of which are two wipes containers.  We are in the process of switching from disposable wipes to cloth wipes, but for now, we are still using the sposies.  To the right of that is all of her "stuff" - we have lots of stuff.

 One of the drawers in Michal's dresser holds her fluff.  I try to keep it organized, and it is a constantly evolving system.  On the left side of the drawer is the majority of her diapers - all pocket diapers or AI2s (all-in-twos) - definitions can be found here.  To the right of that are the wet bags and extra pail liner and her nighttime diaper (a fitted) and covers.  To the far right are all of the extra inserts (microfiber, bamboo, and hemp), as well as her AFFFs - the best hemp insert ever! - and fleece liners.

To the left of her dresser are the receptacles.  For her diapers we use a regular, plastic trash can we purchased at Ta.rget, lined with a pail liner.  A pail liner is just like a garbage bag you would line your trash can with, except it is reusable.  When we go to wash the diapers, we pull that out, walk to the machine, dump everything in, including the liner, and wash.  It's great.  To the left of the trash can is the diaper champ we received as a gift.  We tried to use it to hold used diapers, except it holds only about 3 cloth diapers.  Now it holds used disposable wipes and other assorted trash (the better for keeping out a curious dog!)

  

Cloth Diapers

I have been thinking of doing a cloth diaper post, to accompany the post I wrote for my other blog - the 365 project.  We have grown to love cloth diapers for a number of reasons, some of which I will describe here.  But first, some definitions.

• Prefolds - Pre-fold diapers are rectangular shaped diapers that must be folded into the shape of a diaper. They are similar to flats, but have multiple layers with more layering in the middle.  We completely skipped these - never even purchased a single one even to be used as a burp cloth.
• Fitted Diapers - Contoured diapers with elastic around legs and the waist.  They fasten with velcro, snaps, or with a Snappi (these need a cover to be waterproof - either wool or a PUL cover).  Our first diapers were fitteds, and while we have mostly moved away from them, we do have one we use for her overnight stretch.  I'm always a little tempted to move back to fitteds - people really love them.
• Pockets  - These diapers have an outer layer of waterproof material and an inner lay of stay dry material, like microfleece or suedecloth.  They have a pocket opening that allows for absorbent material to be stuffed during use and then removed for laundry.  The vast majority of our stash are pockets.
• All in Ones (AIO) - Fitted diapers with a water proof outer layer.  These are closest in similarity to a disposable diaper since they are a one-piece diapering system.  Some include a pocket for additional absorbency.  I am in the process of selling my last AIO - they are perfectly fine diapers, but they just don't meet our needs, and they take forever to dry.
• All in Twos - Very similar to AIOs except the absorbent material is not attached to the diaper in any way. The soaker is usually a second, separate piece that must be attached to the diaper to be used.  I just sent the last of my AI2s to a friend of mine who is just starting to cloth diaper her little girl.  There are many pluses to AI2s, we just stopped reaching for them.

Tomorrow I'll try to post some pictures of M with her fluffy butt, as well as explain some of the reasons we went to cloth and why we love it (or at least why I love it - I think J is just along for the ride).