Saturday, March 19, 2011
Dinosaur puzzle
Today I was watching my 20mth old son put together a wooden dinosaur puzzle. The kind where they match the pieces with the picture. I had only worked a few times with him on it, about two months ago, and he would get frustrated if the pieces would not go in right. As I watched him this afternoon he turned the pieces and put ALL in the right spots everytime! For some of you this might not be a big deal but for me it was one of the proudest moments I have ever witnessed. He turned them, he actually turned them with purpose not just nonchalant.I love watching children learn new things!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Confessions of a gdiaper addict 2
So here we are again. I wanted to update you all on the day to day grind of gdiapering. I will start with washing. I wash them in All free and clear detergent (1/4 the soap I would normally use for a load of clothes). I wash about every 2 or so days. I first run the gcloths and any soiled liners and covers in a cold wash with soap. Then I take out liners and cloths and hang them to dry. I wash the gcloth in a hot cycle to cut any amononia pee stink that possibly could occur. When they are done pop them in the dryer. I wait for those all to get done drying snap the liners in the covers and add the gcloth and place them back in their order so we are ready for the morning.
In the morning we take the soiled cloth and usually the liner off and to our designated cloth diaper laundry basket and hang them on the side. When we have a dirty gdiaper I use my new sprayer which is made from a kitchen sprayer attached to my shut off on my toilet to spray off the poo . NO MORE SCRAPING! I love this and my husband does too. Now we either put a load in the washer or hang dirty gcloth, liner and maybe cover on the side of the basket.
Lets talk sizing. Though my son is still well within the weight requirements for mediums it beagn to be increasingly obvious he was no longer fitting the rise of the mediums.We were in the mediums for 2 months, during that time I dyed 2 of the medium vanillas, and 2 larges (one orange and one vanilla) red and black. Totally fun to play around with your diapers and make them your own. We have now switched to our larges. A few of the second hand gdiapers area little stretched in the waist band and will have to be modified to fit my skinny toddler. Some of the velcro will also have to be replaced, however gdiapers will supply you with new velcro and snaps for free if you shoot them an email at info@gdiapers.com. What a great team at http://www.gdiapers.com/. They will also help you with leak issues, stink issues or any other issues that may come up. They stand behind their product 100%.
So next lets talk travel. I pack plenty of clean gdiapers and gcloth in my bag and usually one come home with one or two soiled diapers. I just put them in a meijer plastic bag. my next purchase is probably going to be a wetbag. They are said to keep in the stink and wetness and can be washed in a washing machine.We did not end up using the grefills (disposable insert) on outings because we loved the gcloths so much.
Lets talk leaks I have had a couple. I used to also get them with disposables. I have also forgotten to double the gcloths at night and he has been fine with only one gcloth. You can get leaks for a multitude of reasons, not properly putting on diaper, soap build up, not changing the diaper soon enough etc... the list goes on. I will breifly talk about these reasons. Proper fit is important, make sure it is on the childs natural waist, make sure you don't have buckling at waist, and make sure you get the liner edges to touch babys skin and form a seal. Soap build up occurs when, you use and unapproved soap for cloth, use too much soap, or are not getting enough of a rinse. To fix this boil you gcloth on the stove for 30mins. I noticed that I have to change my cloth diapers a little sooner than I had to with disposables. Every 1-2 hours instead of 2-3 hours.
I still search all my webistes to find great deals. I am still extremely addicted ton gdiapers, I just have not bought anymore in a while.
In the morning we take the soiled cloth and usually the liner off and to our designated cloth diaper laundry basket and hang them on the side. When we have a dirty gdiaper I use my new sprayer which is made from a kitchen sprayer attached to my shut off on my toilet to spray off the poo . NO MORE SCRAPING! I love this and my husband does too. Now we either put a load in the washer or hang dirty gcloth, liner and maybe cover on the side of the basket.
Lets talk sizing. Though my son is still well within the weight requirements for mediums it beagn to be increasingly obvious he was no longer fitting the rise of the mediums.We were in the mediums for 2 months, during that time I dyed 2 of the medium vanillas, and 2 larges (one orange and one vanilla) red and black. Totally fun to play around with your diapers and make them your own. We have now switched to our larges. A few of the second hand gdiapers area little stretched in the waist band and will have to be modified to fit my skinny toddler. Some of the velcro will also have to be replaced, however gdiapers will supply you with new velcro and snaps for free if you shoot them an email at info@gdiapers.com. What a great team at http://www.gdiapers.com/. They will also help you with leak issues, stink issues or any other issues that may come up. They stand behind their product 100%.
So next lets talk travel. I pack plenty of clean gdiapers and gcloth in my bag and usually one come home with one or two soiled diapers. I just put them in a meijer plastic bag. my next purchase is probably going to be a wetbag. They are said to keep in the stink and wetness and can be washed in a washing machine.We did not end up using the grefills (disposable insert) on outings because we loved the gcloths so much.
Lets talk leaks I have had a couple. I used to also get them with disposables. I have also forgotten to double the gcloths at night and he has been fine with only one gcloth. You can get leaks for a multitude of reasons, not properly putting on diaper, soap build up, not changing the diaper soon enough etc... the list goes on. I will breifly talk about these reasons. Proper fit is important, make sure it is on the childs natural waist, make sure you don't have buckling at waist, and make sure you get the liner edges to touch babys skin and form a seal. Soap build up occurs when, you use and unapproved soap for cloth, use too much soap, or are not getting enough of a rinse. To fix this boil you gcloth on the stove for 30mins. I noticed that I have to change my cloth diapers a little sooner than I had to with disposables. Every 1-2 hours instead of 2-3 hours.
I still search all my webistes to find great deals. I am still extremely addicted ton gdiapers, I just have not bought anymore in a while.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Confessions of a gdiaper addict
When I first became pregnant i "knew" I wanted to cloth diaper. I bought and received tons of prefolds and plastic pants. However I did not follow thru. Almost day one, my son had recurrent diaper rash issues with all disposables except Huggies Little snugglers/Little movers. That was short lived because Huggies decided to change their formula. With no other option finally at 18mths I chose to cloth.
I had gotten a gdiaper from the swap and share at my work (months prior) so I thought I would start there. The pamphlet that comes with the gdiaper tells you all about their flushable/disposable/compostable option (grefills). I soon researched on their site and found they also had a cloth option (gcloth). Gdiapers are considered a hybrid because of their multiple insert options. A friend told me to get Babyland pocket diapers on ebay so I looked those up also. I spoke with my husband and we decided gdiapers would fit us best.
Our first reason was multiple insert options. My husband likes the idea of having the option to throw insert away if we are out and about and not having to carry "dirty" diapers in our bag home. The second is the diaper has 3 parts, the cover, the waterproof liner, and the insert (grefill or gcloth).The reason we like this is you only have to change the insert and not the whole diaper. Yea less to wash! The third reason is they velcro in the back so little hands should not be able to take them off.
We decided we would buy some gdiapers second hand to try. We decided that we would not pay more than half the price for a used than we could buy one new. New one gdiaper goes for $17.99 and 6 gcloth goes for around $29.99. So I had to do ALOT of searching to get them for a price we could afford. I odered 8 medium gdiapers and 23 m/lg gcloth thru someone on the gdiapers facebook site. I also ordered 3 Alva baby one size pocket diapers online for around $4 a diaper. Then I waited for my fluff to arrive.
The questions began to fill my mind. What detergent to use, what diaper cream, how to store dirty ones, how to store clean ones, night time leaking, and not least of all can I do this? Thankfully I had some friends who cloth diaper their kids and gdiapers gteam on facebook to ask all my questions to. The gdiapers arrived very quickly. Sink or swim here we are. I was so excited when they arrived! The colors I received were goo goo blue, galactic blue, 3 great orange and 3 genuine vanilla bean plus my genuine vanilla bean makes 9. Thus begins my obsession with gdiapers.
We decided that we would change the whole gdiaper each change and allow it to "dry" in between. Gdiapers are meant to breathe so the outside cover can sometimes feel damp, not wet, but damp. We would then put in a new gcloth and put it back in rotation. We pretty much used the same 3 covers in one day. At night we doubled our gcloth which is made of microfleece and hemp, by putting the hemp sides together to hold the most amount of "liquid". Now lets talk poo. I had ordered a gdiapers swish stick ( for swishing the flushable grefills in potty) online along with a large gooseberry purple and large genuine vanilla bean during a deal (buy 1gdiaper get 1 free) from diapers.com. I used the swish stick to scrap poo off the gcloth. Then I would do a load of dirty gcloths.
Suddenly when I had forgotten all about my Alva baby one size pocket diaper, they came. The 3 styles I bought were, Red with white stars, dark blue with soccer balls, and brown/teal/yellow swirled. They were coming from china so shipping takes forever (3wks-6wks). I washed and prepped them. These have snaps which are able to adjust for sizes newborn to toddler no need to buy different sizes. They are a pocket which means that the insert is placed through a hole (pocket) in between two pieces of fabric. They usually have a hidden layer of PUL a material used as a waterproof layer. I was very excited about these also. However my husband took one look and turned up his nose. He hated the thought of having to use snaps, change, and wash the entire diaper every diaper change. He refuses to even touch the Alva's and for that I call him a diaper snob! LOL! We almost never use these diapers. I send them when we have a sitter.
Now my days are spent searching on different diaper sites gdiapers resale forum on facebook, Selling trading and loving gdiapers on facebook, and, Diaperswapper.com for "deals". I bought more: a medium yellow with polka dot gdiaper, 2 large genuine vanilla bean, 3 large great orange, a large golden orange, a large got chocalate brown, a large good vibe blue, and a large dyed green gdiaper. Are you beginning to see a problem? Have you been keeping track? That's 10 mediums, 11 larges, and 3 one size pockets. I sent a large great orange, genuine vanilla bean, and the dark blue with soccer balls to my best friend to try cloth diapering her son. She has now uses gdiapers with prefolds inside for an insert.
I hope she won't blame me when she gets addicted. LOL!
I had gotten a gdiaper from the swap and share at my work (months prior) so I thought I would start there. The pamphlet that comes with the gdiaper tells you all about their flushable/disposable/compostable option (grefills). I soon researched on their site and found they also had a cloth option (gcloth). Gdiapers are considered a hybrid because of their multiple insert options. A friend told me to get Babyland pocket diapers on ebay so I looked those up also. I spoke with my husband and we decided gdiapers would fit us best.
Our first reason was multiple insert options. My husband likes the idea of having the option to throw insert away if we are out and about and not having to carry "dirty" diapers in our bag home. The second is the diaper has 3 parts, the cover, the waterproof liner, and the insert (grefill or gcloth).The reason we like this is you only have to change the insert and not the whole diaper. Yea less to wash! The third reason is they velcro in the back so little hands should not be able to take them off.
We decided we would buy some gdiapers second hand to try. We decided that we would not pay more than half the price for a used than we could buy one new. New one gdiaper goes for $17.99 and 6 gcloth goes for around $29.99. So I had to do ALOT of searching to get them for a price we could afford. I odered 8 medium gdiapers and 23 m/lg gcloth thru someone on the gdiapers facebook site. I also ordered 3 Alva baby one size pocket diapers online for around $4 a diaper. Then I waited for my fluff to arrive.
The questions began to fill my mind. What detergent to use, what diaper cream, how to store dirty ones, how to store clean ones, night time leaking, and not least of all can I do this? Thankfully I had some friends who cloth diaper their kids and gdiapers gteam on facebook to ask all my questions to. The gdiapers arrived very quickly. Sink or swim here we are. I was so excited when they arrived! The colors I received were goo goo blue, galactic blue, 3 great orange and 3 genuine vanilla bean plus my genuine vanilla bean makes 9. Thus begins my obsession with gdiapers.
We decided that we would change the whole gdiaper each change and allow it to "dry" in between. Gdiapers are meant to breathe so the outside cover can sometimes feel damp, not wet, but damp. We would then put in a new gcloth and put it back in rotation. We pretty much used the same 3 covers in one day. At night we doubled our gcloth which is made of microfleece and hemp, by putting the hemp sides together to hold the most amount of "liquid". Now lets talk poo. I had ordered a gdiapers swish stick ( for swishing the flushable grefills in potty) online along with a large gooseberry purple and large genuine vanilla bean during a deal (buy 1gdiaper get 1 free) from diapers.com. I used the swish stick to scrap poo off the gcloth. Then I would do a load of dirty gcloths.
Suddenly when I had forgotten all about my Alva baby one size pocket diaper, they came. The 3 styles I bought were, Red with white stars, dark blue with soccer balls, and brown/teal/yellow swirled. They were coming from china so shipping takes forever (3wks-6wks). I washed and prepped them. These have snaps which are able to adjust for sizes newborn to toddler no need to buy different sizes. They are a pocket which means that the insert is placed through a hole (pocket) in between two pieces of fabric. They usually have a hidden layer of PUL a material used as a waterproof layer. I was very excited about these also. However my husband took one look and turned up his nose. He hated the thought of having to use snaps, change, and wash the entire diaper every diaper change. He refuses to even touch the Alva's and for that I call him a diaper snob! LOL! We almost never use these diapers. I send them when we have a sitter.
Now my days are spent searching on different diaper sites gdiapers resale forum on facebook, Selling trading and loving gdiapers on facebook, and, Diaperswapper.com for "deals". I bought more: a medium yellow with polka dot gdiaper, 2 large genuine vanilla bean, 3 large great orange, a large golden orange, a large got chocalate brown, a large good vibe blue, and a large dyed green gdiaper. Are you beginning to see a problem? Have you been keeping track? That's 10 mediums, 11 larges, and 3 one size pockets. I sent a large great orange, genuine vanilla bean, and the dark blue with soccer balls to my best friend to try cloth diapering her son. She has now uses gdiapers with prefolds inside for an insert.
I hope she won't blame me when she gets addicted. LOL!
Lent
So Lent starts today March 9 2011 Ash Wednesday. My hubby is christian reformed and I was raised (well sort of) Lutheran. So the question becomes whether or not to observe Lent. I have decided yes I will. I have decied to try to go as vegan as possible and to stop my ADDICTION to facebook.
It has only been 46 minutes since I officially logged off facebook and I am already itching to log back on. I know this feeling will not last forever but man already I am being challenged and tempted. This will be a difficult "40" days. I chose these two for that reason they are my two biggest challenges. Who knows maybe blogging will be my new obsession?
Let's hope not! I shall not replace one obsession with a new one, I shall not replace one obsession with a new one, I shall not replace one obsession with a new one... maybe if I keep saying it, it might not come true!
It has only been 46 minutes since I officially logged off facebook and I am already itching to log back on. I know this feeling will not last forever but man already I am being challenged and tempted. This will be a difficult "40" days. I chose these two for that reason they are my two biggest challenges. Who knows maybe blogging will be my new obsession?
Let's hope not! I shall not replace one obsession with a new one, I shall not replace one obsession with a new one, I shall not replace one obsession with a new one... maybe if I keep saying it, it might not come true!
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