Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Bits and pieces

I have been neglecting this little ole blog. I just don't have the extra oomph to write. With that, some bits and pieces:

Grace, you asked about cloth diapers, and I have still not written back.

I used prefolds with Elise until my husband's strong and immediate gag reflex convinced me to stop. (He changes his share of messy diapers, but he can't stop himself from choking.)

I reverted to disposables and used some early potty training techniques during the day.

He'll be working more while this baby is young, so I'm giving an all-in-one cloth system a try. Natural Mommy shares her graphic insight in "From Cheap To Comfy."

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cost of my husband's wardrobe FAR exceeds that of the rest of the household all put together, but he is the one with the higher profile/professional clothing need. He buys things at Joseph A Bank on SALE-SALE-SALE (last Thanksgiving day was great!), Ebay, and the deep deep clearence racks at the better department stores. He gets to travel to New York City every month and buys most of his ties at Century 21.

His key to successful bargain/frugal shopping is knowing his sizes. Get measured for a suit at the best store in your area. Try on shoes at the high end shoe store and seek them oput on Ebay. Find good brands that fit and seek them out.

While he spends more than the rest of us frugalists in the family, he spends FAR less than his co-workers, has better clothes and makes a better impression than some of the guys who are higher on the corporate food chain than he is.

Christi said...

I have a friend who is using (or will be using, in a few weeks) the BumGenius diapers mentioned at the beginning of Natural Mommy's post. I'm going to forward that to her.

And, I love whenever you have the chance to write!

Anonymous said...

Would you mind sharing your early potty training techniques?

Sarah said...

We LOVE our BumGenius AIO's...my set of BG 1.0 pocket diapers lasted 18 months though. They definitely do not last years I've yet to find a diaper that actually lasts years when being washed multiple times a week. Hehe!! I also want to try Thirsties AIOs...they let you stuff them if you need extra absorbancy, which might work at night.

TJ said...

Meredith, May I also suggest looking for G diapers on clearance? It was the best of both worlds, and at only $3 a package (clearance) they were extremely cheap! I loved the cloth outer with a plastic liner, and the eco-friendly disposable insert was great. We didn't flush as the plumbing in our house didn't like them, but tossing them wasn't so bad because they are biodegradable. Helps tremendously with the ick factor.

TJ at DTKMKihn.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I'd love to try some of the more commercial fitted diapers, but I never have. With my first we used prefolds. With my second, we're using mostly pocket diapers, but they're ones that I made (the Rita's Rump Pocket pattern). I love them except for one thing. The outer cover is fleece, which was my idea, but they leak if left for very long, like overnight. I loved #1's fleece covers, so I thought that a pocket dipe with a fleece cover would work well. It was a great idea but the execution failed a little bit. Now #2 is 6 months old and his diapers leak nightly (ugh). I've been experimenting with different combinations of diapers and covers that work for that long a time period, but honestly I'm coming up short.

The ONLY thing that's kept me from buying disposables right now is the fact that we've got some 6 dozen diapers in the house, maybe even more. There has GOT to be a solution - but I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever find it! LOL!

Kelly said...

Rest , take care of yourself and the baby . We miss reading your blog when you can not write , but I am sure every mother here , understands when you do not .

Anonymous said...

Meredith, I don't get the relevance of the gag reflex. Isn't he going to gag whether he is changing a cloth or disposable?

Meredith said...

It was much worse with the cloth, the shaking of the solids, the bucket, that laundry load.

Anonymous said...

Meredith-
I have been reading the archives of this blog recently and have been remembering all over again why I fell in love with your blog in the first place! Honestly, your blog is, to me, a lot like Amy Decyczyn's Tightwad Gazette...still relevant and timeless, no matter how old the entries! And even though I love it when you post new entries, I can understand how not feeling well has dampened your desire to do much of anything. This seems to have been a much more difficult pregnancy than your other ones, and I just wanted to let you know that I will be praying for you in the weeks to come (and I mean that!). It's no fun to be pregnant and not feel well, especially when you have other little ones to take care of! Please take care of yourself and make sure to keep your doctor aware of how you are feeling on a day-to-day basis. Praying that you'll be able to finish your pregnancy withour serious complications, and that you'll be back to a "new normal" very soon!!
Many blessings to you!
Susan

Anonymous said...

Fleece diapers (like Kissaluvs) are great for breastfed babies. The nappiness of them catches everything runny. It's great! That's what I used w/ my two (and since I am expecting my third, he will be wearing them too).

Sarah

mama k said...

I second the BumGenius one-size pockets. You might want to get some cheap sposies (and the free ones from the hospital) for the newborn period until baby fills out into the "small" setting, but other than that they are great! I don't think they will last forever, but we've been using them for 2 years in a rotation with other dipes and they still have some life left in them for another kid.
Oh and I think that you will find dumping poo from a microfiber inner (like in BG!) is much less mess than prefolds. We also did some early potty training/elimination communication methods as well. At 2yo my little guy is making all #2's on the potty. Yay! Still working on #1 though.

I know that we have saved a TON of $ by using cloth. And the hassle of washing dipes a few times a week is equal the hassle of finding sales for cheap sposies all the time IMO.

Anonymous said...

Hi Meredith
We are now using prefolds on baby 4. We avoid the husband gag reflex by doing the following.
Husband doesn't have to change diapers/nappies! That said, he cooks/cleans/does laundry and is fantastic with our older children. He just doesn't do diapers. And you know what, it works for us!!
Mel

An Adventurer in the World said...

We used something similar to the BumGenius years ago, but the liners were not NEAR as nice. Microfiber! That IS genius.

Re: Infant potty training

Here's an article similar to something else I've read and would definitely try. (Came too late for me to use) http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/general-view/archive/2007/august/15/potty-time

In the mid-90s we used a little book "potty training in a day" with both kids. I followed it exactly and was delighted at how easy and fun it was for both me and my children.

deb meyers

Cat said...

I would love to know where TJ found the G diapers on clearance for $3. Been wanting to try them for situations where we'd normally use disposables but the initial cost has kept me from doing so.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I may be dumb but what exactly are early potty training technigues? I guess I just assumed all babies wore diapers for at least a couple of years since it takes time to develop bladder and bowel control.

Anonymous said...

"It was much worse with the cloth, the shaking of the solids, the bucket, that laundry load."

Okay, this is what I thought. That darned bucket! You're doing it the hard way! If you're still interested in cloth, try doing it the way the diaper services do: take the diaper, contents and all, and toss it in a dry diaper pail (no bucket). Do NOT swish it in the toilet or anything like that. (Your husband should be able to handle this, and you can spare him the rest.) When the pail is full, dump the whole load into your washer, and put it through a COLD prewash cycle. That will get rid of all the solids. Where do they go? The same place they go if you put them in the toilet. After the cold prewash, run them through a heavy duty wash in the hottest water you can. I like to give them an extra rinse, as well. Don't use bleach or fabric softener.

If you don't like stains on your diapers, inspect them as you transfer to the dryer. Put the stained ones back in the washer, and then wash them with your next load of clothes. Often, this will take care of lingering stains. Dry them on your hottest setting in the dryer, or, if you want to be frugal, line dry them in direct sunlight. Voila!

A variation on this method is possible, depending on your laundry system. Fill your top-loading washer with cold water in the AM, then throw the full/wet diapers in as you change them. At the end of the day, do a cold water rinse, and then wash as usual. We have a front loader, and besides, one day's worth of diapers does not make a full load. But it would work for some people.

I did diapers in this manner for 2.5 years, and was a working mom as well. Babies really don't produce that much laundry (nothing compared to big kids). It was easy.

-Catherine

Amy Ellen said...

My mother and my sister both have used cloth diapers with oh goodness what were the covers called, I briefly considered it but with 6 kids in 10 years, I just gave up on the idea. At a few differnt points I had 3 kiddos in diapers and I just could not do it. I fell kinda bad, but you know, I had a few other things to be doing. Good luck with it though!
Amy

Tubo Family said...

I second what Catherine says about the diaper pail and not dumping or prewashing. This has worked for my SUPER GAGGER hubby. I have two large nylon drawstring bags that I turn inside out into washer and throw in with the load, then rotate to the clean one. I also have 3 small bags that I keep in diaper bag so that I never have to handle a dirty dipe twice--again empty directly into washer. #2 Son is nearly 13 months and I'm still going strong with cloth with him, unlike his brother where I was off & on. This time around I used disp. until 3 months old as didn't want to invest in supersmall cloth and to make life easier. First used Bumkins wraps size small used with folded hemp inserts which were nice for frequent changes of nursing baby as I had 4 covers and about 2 dozen inserts. When he outgrew those, on to Fuzzibunz AIO's of which I have only 12 but that gets us through 2 days at a time as I am using disp for night--just not in the mood to experiment with the ultimate cloth dipe for night. Along that line, please don't take this as "you should..." but as "if you want to, here is some addt'l info...."

I'll be praying for you to feel better with the diet change and to continue the rest of pregnancy as healthy as possible given the situation. And if you can't post, then I'll enjoy the archives.

gclyne said...

Thanks so much for your input! I have some friends that used prefolds for newborns and switched to the all-in-ones like bumGenius or FuzziBunz. One friend used rice paper liners that are flushable, so she (or hubby) just dump it in the toilet and don't need to rinse. That sounds pretty cool. Also, both of these ladies breastfed and said they didn't dump or rinse till the babies started solids. I'm planning on doing cloth diapers with the second baby and have found several sewing patterns for prefolds, covers, pocket diapers, and so on. So I plan to sew some of my own, just to make it extra frugal. ;) You were one of the few other women I knew who tried cloth, so I wanted to hear about your experience---Thanks!

Don't worry; I didn't feel neglected!! I know you're busy and toughin' out this pregnancy day by day. I'm happy that there's finally an 'answer' to why you felt so crumby and sorry that it came down to GD. But it's great that you have the perspective to think of it as a learning experience. I'll keep on praying for you!

Grace

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree. Definitely, "If you want to..." You're allowed to use disposables--you're a grownup, after all. :-) Life is too short for diaper wars.

Catherine

Anonymous said...

Catherine and Tubo Family -

Just to clarify - you don't dump ANYTHING into the toilet? Not even, say, a three-year-old's? Or a 16 mo old who's diaper clearly displays the contents of last night's dinner? It all disintegrates?

I've done this with breastfed baby diapers, definitely. Breastmilk is digested so well, what's left washes away miraculously easy. But once they start eating whole peas...

We have a diaper sprayer, which made the process easier, but if I'm doing this the hard way... let me know!

Anonymous said...

My son was BM trained at 26 months, so I didn't have to deal with very "mature" BMs. I never noticed undigested food in his dipe, so I guess I'm not sure how to answer that one. Hmm...?

Catherine