Sunshine

My whole life I have loved drying my clothes on the clothesline.  I've always, with the exception of 2 years, lived in the country in a house with a nice long clothesline outside.  Nothing ever feels or smells better than getting into a bed made with line dried sheets- NOTHING.  In the spring and summer once it warms up, I still hang just about everything outside to dry, including and especially cloth diapers.  The sun and cloth diapers are a perfect pair, if you think about it.  The sun's rays not only dry them without the wear and tear and electricity of a dryer, but it also kills germs and removes stains.  Like I said, it's perfect for diapers.  In the spring and summer, my diapers are always fresh and stain free.

Since it's winter, I haven't been able to make it out to my clothesline at all.  Even if I could, it's just too cold.  There's no point in trying to dry anything outside in the winter, but even though it's cold, you can still use the sun to remove stains in the winter time.  It doesn't work as well as direct sunlight, but putting a damp diaper near a sunny window will give you a similar effect.  Adding lemon juice is supposed to help, but I've never tried that.  

It's almost 50 degrees outside today, so I figured that I would use the opportunity to put some prefolds and pocket inserts out on the line.  Everything was in various stages of dingy to stained from a winter of no sun and I was getting sick of looking at it, honestly.  I'm going to have to take it down before I go to work, but I'm hoping that a few hours in the sun will brighten everything up at least a little bit.  It'll be spring soon enough.  We've had a weird winter in Maine this year, and I'm ready for it to be over.

Favorite Things Friday: Diaper Palz Wetbags

I am really, truly, 100% in love with my Diaper Palz wetbag.  I've been using mine since early December, and I'm thinking that I need to get at least one more.  My other wetbag is a Planetwise one, and while it has served me well over the past 15 months, the Diaper Palz one has many advantages.

- Planetwise wetbags are cotton on the outside, with a layer of PUL sewn inside.  This allows for a lot of really cool prints, but with repeated washing these prints tend to fade and wear out.  My bag also has developed holes in the cotton and has some bleach stains.  The bag is still totally functional, but it's very sad looking.  Diaper Palz bags are just a single layer of PUL, so the patterns won't fade or be affected by bleach.  Solid PUL also dries significantly faster than cotton.

- Size.  The Planetwise "Large" size is 18"x21", and the Diaper Palz "Large" is 30" tall and holds significantly more diapers.  The Planetwise will hold 2 days worth of diapers for me, but those last few have to really be crammed in there.  This picture shows my Diaper Palz bag with 3 days worth of diapers, and it isn't even completely full.  I think that it could probably hold 4 days, but I don't go that long between washing.  This would be great if you had 2 babies in cloth though!

- Price.  Diaper Palz bags are significantly cheaper.  A full priced large Diaper Palz bag costs $15+ $1 shipping, while a large Planetwise bag costs $19.  The Diaper Palz bags are very high quality, especially the hanging loop.  As you can see, my gigantic bag of heavy dirty diapers is hanging from a hook by my washing machine.  So far, the PUL is not showing any signs of stress or damage but my Planetwise one started looking worn along the handle seam within a few months.  I'm confident that this bag will last me through our diapering years and beyond.

The best part is Diaper Palz is actually hosting a January clearance right now, with large wetbags for as low as $13!  Try using coupon code "dsmama" for an additional discount.  Check them out, you won't be disappointed!

Naptime Adventures: The Anatomy of a Gerber Prefold

If you go into a Wal Mart, Target, or Babies R Us in search of cloth diapers, the only thing that you are going to find are Gerber prefolds.  Unfortunately, these don't make good diapers, not even in the slightest, and yet these are the diapers that are widely available for people to use.  It's no wonder people think that cloth diapering is ridiculous and doesn't work when these are the diapers that they have to work with!

The top picture is a Gerber prefold, the middle is a premium ("large") sized cotton prefold, and the bottom is a comparison shot of the two.  You can see that the Gerber diaper is flimsy and thin, compared to the thick "quilted" cotton one.  But the sizing is what these pictures are really about.  Gerber prefolds only come in one size, and that size is awkward.  It is way too big for a newborn- as you can see, the length is almost the same as the length of a large sized cotton prefold.  My son is 30 pounds and (I think) 32 inches long, just to give you an idea of what sized kid fits into a diaper of that length.  

These diapers are not absorbent.  By the time your baby is the right size to wear these, they will most likely be able to pee straight through in one pee.  This is not true with a cotton prefold.  The difference is that a cotton prefold will have anywhere from 4-8 layers of nice, absorbent cotton in the middle panel.  A Gerber one will have...

a nice wad of polyester batting sandwiched between two layers of very very thin cotton.  Obviously that isn't going to absorb any significant amount of urine from your baby.  Maybe that level of absorption would work for a newborn, but as I said- these are way too big for a newborn to wear.  Back in the old days, Gerbers were made with 100% cotton and worked a lot better than the ones that they make now.

If you have somehow acquired a stack of these, don't worry.  You can still use them.  In an absolute pinch you can use them as a diaper- just don't expect it to hold very much and plan on changing your baby every hour or so.  These make awesome burp cloths, spit up rags, changing pads, and eco friendly replacements for paper towels.

New Diapers!

I ordered these back in November from a co-op, and they finally came in today.  I really, really, REALLY don't need any more diapers but these were so cheap ($3 each, I think) that I couldn't resist.  They're Alva Baby pockets, and despite their low price they're actually really good quality diapers.  I have um... a lot of them.

Stash pictures

I think that a good way to start out this blog is with some pictures.  When I was pregnant and learning about cloth diapers, it was all about the visuals.  Descriptions and lists are nice, but it's really important to actually *SEE* these kinds of things.

This is the top of my diaper organizer.  In the left corner, you will see cloth wipes.  Going clockwise, next are my Thirsties hemp prefolds, a stack of stay dry and bamboo inserts, Boingo diaper fasteners, a Thirsties fitted, and most of my PUL covers and fleece soakers.

That's a lot of jargon, and I apologize for that.  As time goes on, I'm going to go into a detailed description of everything and I will update this post and add links.

The top drawer contains all of our pocket diapers.

The second drawer has our cotton prefolds.  

We have a little bit of variety, and that works for us.  Some people like to have all of one type of diaper, but that would drive me a little bit crazy.  I'm definitely a "variety is the spice of life" type of person.  I've found that different diapers work in different situations- fitteds are a must for overnights, prefolds are super versatile and can be used many different ways, pockets are Daddy proof and are easy to have in the diaper bag.