Pay it forward?

This post was inspired by some awesome ladies on a Canadian cloth diaper group that I'm a part of. One person posted that she had recieved a free diaper in the mail and she wanted "pay it forward". She posted a picture of a diaper and anyone who wanted it could comment, then she would choose a winner randomly (via random.org). Well, it set off many other ladies to do the same. The whole evening was filled with posts labelled "PIF" - pay it forward. Lots of awesome ladies got free diapers and other baby related things. And while I didn't win any of them, I still felt the need to participate. I did a PIF on there the next day (after looking through diapers and picking a couple that I don't use) and sent it out today to the lady who won. She was so genuinely happy - that made it entirely worth it.

Well, I pulled out two diapers that I had in the drawer and don't use. This one is brand new as well, it's a little "girly" for my boy, plus I have way more than enough fitteds in my current rotation. So I also want to start a Pay it Forward here.

So, if anyone is interested in this brand new Kushies fitted diaper, totally free, comment on this post with your email. I will wait until tomrrow evening to choose the winner, randomly, and I'll post here and email the winner by Friday!

All I ask is that you Pay it Forward in some way as well!

Monkey Doodlez discount code!

Check out my review of Monkey Doodlez Tuck and Go diapers here! It's one of my favourite diaper systems. Perfect for Daddies, daycare and, well, all the time!

And if you are looking to try a new system yourself, Monkey Doodlez have been nice enough to give me a discount code for 15% off Tuck and Go covers and inserts from www.monkeydoodlez.com , for Cloth Diaper World readers! Order your covers and inserts in the next 10 days and use the code clothdiaperworld15 !

Night time Solutions

Oh, the dreaded night time solution. The worst part about cloth diapering at night is that every baby is different, therefore there is no “perfect” combination that will work for everyone. This is not an easy post to write. I have talked to many people who cloth diaper during the day but use disposables at night because they are afraid of leaks. I get it - we've all been there. I was used to changing my son's diaper every three hours, all day and all night. So when he started sleeping for longer periods, everything changed.

I will have a list at the bottom that will be suggestions - things that have worked for people I have talked to. This might help some people make the switch from disposables to cloth for night time, if that what your intention is.

I’m sure there are parents out there that are able to use the same cloth diapers they use during the day for overnight. Maybe for babies that aren’t “heavy wetters” or for parents that change diapers a couple of time a night. But my son is a heavy wetter and sleeps through the night, so I needed something different, something better for over night.

When I say “night time solutions” I mean a solution to keep baby’s jammies and bed sheets dry, without changing the diaper during the night.

When Noah was a newborn, he woke up at 2am and 5am, every night. So, at 2am and 5am, I took him out of his bed (which was in our bedroom) and took him across the hall to his room. There, I changed his diaper and then sat in the glider to nurse him back to sleep. I didn’t have specific night time newborn diapers, but I did use all fitted diapers and PUL covers at the time. It worked well, I never had an issue.

I didn’t experience him waking up with wet jammies until he was around one and a half months old. He started sleeping longer stretches at night, sometimes seven or eight hours. While it was wonderful getting so much more sleep, I worried about him being in a wet diaper so long. He was mostly out of newborn size diapers and into size small. I was just putting whatever diaper I grabbed on him – Thirsties Fab Fitteds with small Bummis or Rearz cover, Thirsties Duo diapers, Tiny Bots all-in-one, etc. Sometimes he woke up dry, sometimes his jammies were soaked. It was frustrating because I didn’t have the “solution”.

One night I remembered I had bought five used Bamboozle fitted diapers, when I was pregnant. I had two “size 1” and three “size 2”. I knew that bamboo was more absorbent than the synthetic materials I’d been using, so I figured I’d give them a try for over night. The size 1 seemed really big at first, because they fit 5-18 lbs. Noah was about 12 lbs when I started using them. I put a cover over it and while his bum looked huge, I felt confident. And I’ve never looked back. He’s now into the size 2, which fits 10-35 lbs. I started using this size when was about three months old, because the rise on the size 1 was getting short – though he wasn’t at the weight maximum yet. I use these diapers probably five nights out of the week, always with a Thirsties Duo Wrap with leg gussets.

My secondary night time solution is a Motherease one-size fitted diaper, with a hemp booster. I either use a Thirsties cover or a wool soaker. I (and moreso Noah) never have to deal with wet jammies or sheets anymore.

But, of course, just because these diapers work well for us doesn’t mean there aren’t other great night time solutions out there. Others that may work for you:

Canadian made options:

Motherease One size fitted

Motherease Sandy's fitted

Rearz Smitten fitted

Bububebe fitted

A Lovely Start fitted

Other fitteds:

Goodmama

PiddlePoodles

Kissaluvs

*All of these would work well with a PUL cover or wool soaker. Just make sure none of the diaper itself is sticking out of the cover.

Pocket lovers might want to try:

Kawaii Good Night Heavy Wetters

Blueberry pocket “fully stuffed” (hemp and microfibre inserts

Bum Genius pocket “double stuffed” (two microfibre inserts)

Adding hemp doublers and a wool soaker to a fitted diaper is often a "bullet proof" combination. It may make for a super fluffy bum but at least baby's jammies will stay dry all night.

"Double stuffing" or "fully stuffing" a pocket diaper means to use all the inserts the diaper came with, or even adding extra inserts or doublers.

It depends on the age of the baby and whether or not they are a "heavy wetter", but any of these options may be the perfect "night time solution" for you and your baby.

Rearz Review and Giveaway

Rearz Review

Brand : Rearz
Type : fitteds, covers, wet bag
Overall rating : 8/10

I was about seven months pregnant when I first discovered Rearz brand cloth diapers. I was doing one of my near daily Kijiji searches for used cloth diapers, and came across an ad for a "newborn pack" of Rearz diapers. It came with four itty bitty white diaper covers with the cut out for the umbilical cord, one purple newborn Couture cover with double leg gussets, four cloth wipes, 6 microfiber inserts and a huge wet bag/pail liner. It was $60. I was excited and made arrangements to pick it up that weekend. I wish I'd taken a picture then - it all was packaged up nice. Of course, it was a couple of months later before I got to try them out.

Noah was three days old when I first used the covers. The white ones were so stretchy and thin - they worked over all of his fitted diapers and were nice and trim. It was July so I didn't need to worry about putting pants on him very often, but it was still nice to have that trimness. Those white covers were used and washed so much they literally started falling apart at the seams. I still have two of them in good shape to use again with our next baby, though.

The purple cover was a newborn Couture cover.

Here's Noah, 3 days old, wearing it.

It has double leg gussets which was awesome at holding in the newborn poop, and it was my go-to cover for the first four weeks. I used it over tiny newborn fitteds and prefolds. It was a sad day when I realized he had outgrown it.

I loved It so much that I bought the same cover in the next size up, small, along with two Rearz fitted diapers - red and green stitched. The light green small Couture cover was (surprise!) my go-to cover until Noah was about 16 lbs, when it started being too small. I used it over his small BG fitteds and small Thirties fab fitteds, mostly. That cover is now packed away, waiting to be used again for our next baby. It fit big, and the elastic wasn't too tight on his chubby thighs like many other covers were. And of course the leg gussets again was a plus. If I was still using PUL covers, I would have bought this cover in medium as well.

Here is Noah wearing the small cover, at about 1.5 months old

The red stitched fitted (French Velour, size 1) still fits him now at 20 lbs, but maybe not for alot longer. The green stitched (size 2) is bigger and will definitely fit him for awhile, probably until potty learning. What I love about the Rearz French Velour fitted diapers is the shape and the trimness. I now use mostly wool covers with fitteds, but these are usually the first fitteds I grab for. They dry alot faster than my other fitteds (I air dry everything), they stay soft after being washed and air dried, they wash up well (no stains) and they are perfect for day time use and for naps. I've never used these fitteds for overnight, mostly because I've always used a bamboo fitted for overnight and I've never had a leak. The French Velour fitteds do absorb alot and contain poop very well, so if I didn't have a super heavy wetter I'd probably consider them for nighttime as well. These fitteds are a great addition to any cloth diaper stash!

Picture from their website

I'm itching to try Rearz newest diaper, the Smitten. If only I could convince my husband that I (Noah) needs more diapers.

Lastly, I will quickly tell you how much I love my Rearz diaper pail liner. It's huge and bright yellow and has a drawstring rather than a zipper, which I like. I love the outer material of it too, it's sort of stretchy. It washes up great and dries fast, and still looks brand new, even after almost 6 months of being washed at least once a week. I love this pail liner. It stays upstairs in the pail, in Noah's room (and I have a hanging wet bag downstairs as well). I use this one for upstairs because the pail gets the stinky morning diapers. My hanging wet bag downstairs is smaller and doesn't fit in my huge diaper pail. I'd love to get a second Rearz pail liner for backup/wash days. Again, if only my husband would understand. :)

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Rearz is a Canadian (local to me, actually) company. I love supporting Canadian companies, and they have graciously allowed me to do a giveaway! So everyone that comments on this post before Friday, January 6th, 2012 will be entered in a draw to win a $20 gift certificate for Rearz!

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Travelling with Cloth Diapers

I've been using cloth diapers since my son was born, so naturally when we planned our trip across the province to visit my family in early December, I didn't question whether or not I'd be taking cloth with us. We were flying, and it's only 1.5 hours the air. We were staying at my Mom's house. I just didn't see how there would be a problem. But yet I still had people asking if I was using disposables for our trip. My mother-in-law even told me she'd pick me up a pack [of disposables] the week before our trip. I politely said no thank you. She said, "oh, the cloth diapers will be too much work."

I knew it would be just as easy as always, and it was. I made sure I washed diapers late the evening before we were leaving. Then, I took the dirty diaper from the next morning with us, packed in a wet bag. This was so that no dirty diapers were sitting in a wet bag at home for five days. We drove to the airport, and I changed Noah's diaper before we got on the plane (and zipped it into the same wet bag). The flight was short enough that he didn't need to be changed on the plane, but if I had needed to, I would have changed him in the washroom and zipped the dirty diaper in the extra wet bag that I keep in the diaper bag. By the time we got to my Mom's house (she picked us up from the airport and only lives five minutes away), I changed him again. He didn't have to go any longer than usual without being changed and the dirty diapers were safely tucked away in wet bags in our luggage.

Of course we stayed at my Mom's house so washing diapers wasn't an issue either. I asked her to buy a bottle of my cloth detergent, Nature Clean, in advance. She has a top loader machine (I have a front loader) so I had to figure out a routine, but it still worked well. I only brought a day's worth of diaper (plus the one from that morning and the one he wore when we left the house), so I had to wash them every evening, which I'm not used to. But still, not enough of an annoyance to bother me.

I did get the dreaded question from my sister, who lives with my Mom. "Doesn't that leave poop in the washing machine? That's gross, I wash my clothes in there." She even tried to convince my Mom to not let me wash them in the machine. Did she want me to hand wash them? I had to tell her, with a laugh, that no, it won't leave poop behind. The cold rinse gets rid of the yucky stuff, and the hot wash definitely sanitizes the machine as well as the diapers. She still rolled her eyes and said she didn't "get" why I cloth diaper my baby. I guess there's always going to be people who disagree with my parenting decisions.

We were only gone five days, but I'd say my first experience traveling with cloth diapers was easy. I got to show them to lots of people who'd never seen modern cloth diapers. My Aunts who came to meet Noah were amazed - they had cloth diapered their children (my older cousins) the "old fashioned" way. They used flats and diaper pins and plastic pants, just as my Mom did with us. It was fun to show them the different kinds of how they work.

To be honest, cloth diapering is just a way of life for me, so traveling with them was just my "normal". We are planning a week-long trip to a beach town a few hours away, in July. Noah will be one (holy crap!) and we will be staying in a cottage with no washing machine. I'll figure out exactly my plan as it gets closer, but I think I'll probably bring a couple days worth, wash them at the laundromat once and also buy and bring a box of disposable liners for my Grovias.

Anyone want to share your stories about traveling with cloth?