So long to my 20s

As I drove home from drill today, my last drive as a 20 something, I pressed play on my cd player and a funny emo mix I made Matt comes. It's Ohio is for Lovers and it made me giggle and think back to when Matt and I first started dating--trading mix CDs-- and then further to the beginning of my twenties, and so the reminiscing begins....

At 20, I had just transferred to UCM on a huge leap of faith. I didn't know a soul in the whole state of Missouri. The course of my life had changed drastically and I was up for the challenge. I joined Sigma Kappa, making some of the best friends of my life. As my twenties went on, I graduated from college and was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the Army, starting my career. During my mid twenties, I met the love of my life and my best friend, Matt, publicly accepted Christ as my Lord and savior getting baptized, deployed to Iraq, got promoted twice, married my love, and moved 6 times (twice across country--man, I love a good roadtrip). In my late twenties, I commanded the best company in the Army, transferred to the National Guard and grew in ways I didn't know possible when I became a mother. 

A few months ago I was sad to be turning 30, but after today's reflection, I couldn't be more at peace. I know God has put me right where I'm supposed to be, and I'm excited for the next decade. I know there will be many moves, hopefully more children, and lots of laughs. I'll be praying for patience and a heart full of love. 

~jh

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

Babies are expensive! Did anyone tell you that yet, or did you figure it out on your own? I read a ton of articles about how to save money with a new child and found out about cloth diapers. These are NOT our parents safety pin cloth diapers that you soak in a bucket with bleach, oh how times have changed. The first time my husband saw a "prefold" diaper, he said he thought that was a dust rag, because so many of our parents used them as rags after we were out of diapers. Then we started looking at ALL the different kinds of cloth diapers and man, there are a lot!! We needed to see them in person, and I highly recommend going somewhere in person to check them out for first time cloth diaperers!

When I was about 6 months pregnant, we decided to go to a cloth diapering store in Olympia, Simple Cloth to check out some different brands in person. From our online research we found that Fuzzibuns and Bungenius were the most popular and we figured we'd end up with one of those. The people at Simple Cloth were extremly helpful and gave us a demo, showing us all the brands the carry, the differences and styles. All of the diaper brands have advantages and disadvantages, but I'll talk a little later on what we picked and why.

The initial reason why we went with cloth diapering was the save money!! It's a lot of upfront investing, but it works out to be less expensive than disposables. And the more babies you get through them, the less expensive it is! After deciding to go cloth, we found out a lot of the other benefits like being "green" and creating a lot less trash. And [knock on wood] but Henry has NEVER had diaper rash! Having his sensitive skin up against soft microfiber has really been beneficial and I think that's why he's never gotten a diaper rash.

It was easier than I thought to get started. You have to have a diaper pail liner, or at least it's convenient.  We got 2, so that when one's in the wash, you have one to use. If you exclusively breastfeed, you don't have to spray out the diapers before they go in the washer machine! What? Yea, it was easy. You just throw all the diapers straight in the washer and don't ever have to touch anything. We just ended up doing some more laundry than the average person. We washed diapers every other night in the beginning, when our diaper pail got full. Now we wash every 3 days (at 10months old). We do use disposable when we travel. If it's a short trip, we can stay in cloth, but if we got out of town for a few days we'll use disposable so we don't have to travel around a bag of dirty diapers, yuck!

The more inexpensive way to start your cloth diapering journey is with a type of diaper called "prefold." This is a diaper that looks like old-style diapers, except now they're paired with a cover [diaper] made with PUL (polyurethane) which is waterproof. Ok, so these are a little tricky and have a learning curve.  To do diaper changes, you have to lay the cover out, lay the prefold on top of it, and fold in the sides and fold up the front and snap it in place on baby. It takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy. You can by a 12 pack of prefolds for $27.99. This is recommended for the newborn time period because they pee so little, but so often that there are many, many diaper changes.  But with this type you only have to change the insert and can use the cover again, assuming it didn't get wet.

Basic Infant Prefold with a Thirsties Cover (size one: 6-18lbs)

We used the Cover and prefold method during the days, and went with a Thirsties Pocket style diaper for nights. The Thirsties brand diaper has a tunnel, so you can put an insert in through the front or back, and the insert agitates out in the washer easily. The Thirsties insert has 2 pieces that snap together. The layer closest to baby is microfiber and the outer layer is hemp. Hemp is supposed to be a very absorbent fabric. And we've had very good luck at night with these diapers. We only had leaks when we needed to move to the next size up.

Thirsties Pocket diaper, microfiber insert, hemp insert (size two: 18-40lbs)

To start out with newborn Henry, we bought 2 dozen prefolds and 6 Thirsties covers (3 snaps and 3 hook and loop "velcro") and 6 Thirsties pocket diapers.  We also bought 2 pail liners, a diaper sprayer, some Country Save powder detergent, and were gifted a wet bag for the diaper bag. This was about $340 to start us out.  All the Thirsties diapers we bought were Size One which is 0-9 Months, 6-18lbs. We bought the diaper sprayer, but honestly we've only ever used it 3 times!  It's just NOT a necessity.  To be graphic, we only used it when we started solid foods, before the poop got solid.

The Thirsties diapers we decided to go with come in 2 sizes: size one says 0-9 months and 6-18lbs, and size two says 9-36 months and 18-20lbs.  We had to move up to size 2 when Henry was about 15lbs at 6-7 months old.  So we didn't quite make it to the limits with size one.  They started leaking on us ): but once we moved up to the next size, we didn't have any issues. Now Thirsties makes a One size diaper, so you don't have to buy 2 different sizes.  A lot of the different brands come in One size.

When we bought our next "stash" we decided to go with a different type of Thirsties diaper for daytime. The type we bought is called an "all-in-one" or AIO.  These diapers are one piece, and very similar to using a disposable diaper.  We got all snaps in the next size up because we just found that the velcro didn't stay as well as we'd like.

Thirsties Duo All in One (size two: 18-40lbs)

Aren't the patterns adorable??  Shown above is the outside of the "all-in-one" (AIO) diaper we went with.  You can see on the outside there are adjustable snaps for height and closing around the waist.  The legs holes have elastic to stop leaks, which have been great.

Inside of the Thirsties Duo All in One (size two 18-40lbs)

The Thirsties All in One has 3 layers of microfiber built in. These have been extremely convenient. So for our next "stash" which should go until Henry's out of diapers we bought 22 Thirties Duo All in Ones (daytime), and 6 Thirsties Pocket diapers (nighttime). We spent about $340 for our next stash, but the hope is that these diapers can be worn by any future babies we have!

I've only talked about Thirties diapers because the majority of our stash is that brand.  Some of the selling points for us were the leg gussets that do a FABULOUS job of preventing leaks, and we liked the "tunnel" design. Most pocket diapers only have an insert that can go in from one side. The Thirsties just seemed a lot easer to get inserts in and out and position them. Caring for cloth diapers has also been relatively easy.  We just throw them in the wash, and hang dry the pocket diapers, and throw the "all-in-ones" in the dryer on low. All the different kinds and brands can get a little confusing, so let me know if you need clarification on anything.

Let me know what you think, or if you have questions about cloth diapering. I've been so impressed with local cloth diaper stores. The CD store here in Pittsburgh, has been a great resource too!

Happy Parenting!

~jh