Daytime routine

On my original tjrramblings blog I wrote about how I went from being a Melrose Place Girl to a cloth diaper advocate http://tjrramblings.blogspot.com/2009/02/influencing-and-changing-behavior-case.html. I felt I had more to say about CDs so I started a separate CD blog.

I've had a couple of friends ask more about my routine. It is clearly overwhelming to figure out what type of system you need in the beginning. But again, once you get over that hurdle it really is easy to CD.

Anyways, if you are still an expectant mom it is going to be hard to figure out which diapers work best for you because one of the main pieces of the puzzle is still in your womb. This is the reason so many diapers are for sale on craigslist. Mom's either bought diapers that don't work for them, their baby or their lives. Or they gave up on CD.

I still advice buying one or two different types to test them out on your little guy/gal. A number of online stores are offering trial programs.. But here is what works for us and our long lean little guy. Anyways our daytime routine includes diapers, liners and covers.

Diapers

• mother-ease. This is our favourite for everyday. I have a large collection of one-size and of sandy's (we have now moved to the large size). I really like the one-size. The snaps are easy to figure out (even for my husband and his boy fingers). It is also great not having to buy a new set as my guy gets bigger. The Sandy's are a fitted diaper also with snaps - I got them on craigslist as part of a buy with some other mother-ease. They both work well with minimal messes or leakage, although as my little guy is getting older I'm finding I need to add an aborbant liner.
• GoodMamas - I also recently splurged on some Good Mama diapers (they were on sale post Christmas). These one size diapers with snap in liners are fantastic. They fit and absorb well. Plus they give my skinny little guy a great little bubble butt. I use these when it will be longer between changes or when we might be going out for a while.
• All-in-ones - I have about 6 mother-ease all-in-one diapers. These are my go-to diaper when out and about. One of them fits really easily into one of my Good Mama wet bags and it is one less step when you are changing a toddler in a public bathroom. (these also work great as a pull up type diaper - just do the snaps up a bit looser and you can just pull them up and down like underwear)

Covers

• I have waaaay more covers than I need. We seemed to go through tons of covers when we were using the service so I prepared myself a little too well when we switched to using our own diapers. I really liked my bummies when he was younger - they fit really well around the legs and worked well for his lean torso. But the velcro doesn't seem to be wearing as well so now I use my mother-ease more. I prefer the velcro closing versions, but as my guy is starting to learn to open the velcro I also have snap versions too. Both bummis and mother-ease have the nice little double elastic on the legs that minimize leaks and spills.

Liners

• disposable bio-degradable. I used to use the disposable liners to catch the poop. Worked well, but a bit scratchy on his bum.
• mother-ease stay dry liners. A friend gave me their collection and I switched from the disposable - one less thing to throw away. They wick the moisture away from the little bum, are nice and soft and wash well. The poop comes off them easily and I don't really care if the stains don't come out perfectly. You will need a lot of these as you use them in every diaper everytime.

Absorbant liners

• Only just having to add these to our daytime diapers. I guess as the little guy gets bigger he pees more - makes sense. The one-size mother-ease diapers have snap in liners, but you need to size the diaper larger. So I just stick them in without snapping them. I think most of mine are mother-ease, but I did just buy a couple of new ones at Hip Baby that are really soft and absorbant. (I do use these a lot at night though)

The other stuff - The other elements of my daycare routine are:

• cloth wipes (although I do use wet disposable wipes for really messy clean-ups). I bought most of them from our service, but some also come from jamtots. (bought fleece to make my own - don't know what I was thinking - but found it was going to be much work and gave it up)
• spray bottle - I have a spray bottle (got it at a dollar store) filled with distilled water and a bit of a diaper lotion. Little guy LOVES to giggle when we spray him directly - although we usually just spray the cloth first.
• diaper bin - bought a big white one at zellers. Doesn't have to be fancy, just work in your space.
• mesh bag - generic mesh diaper bag from Hip Baby. Washes with the diapers.
• baking soda - box lives in the bottom of my diaper bin (be careful though and make sure your husband doesn't toss everything from the bin into the laundry. If your husband is really sleeply like mine in the am then it will eventually happen - it will take 3 washes to get all the cardboard mash out of your diapers).
• deodorant disk - lives at the bottom of my bin. Would probably work better taped to the lid.

Again, this is just the system that works for us. It probably seems overwhelming, but it is now just second nature to us (although I will admit to using label on my diaper bins to keep my husband straight).

Aristocrat Wool Covers

I received the Artistrocrat wool covers this week - ordered Friday afternoon from Aristocrats directly, received Wednesday. I ordered the diaper cover and the longies. My 23lb little man is still a bit small for them, and the longies just hang on him. But the diaper cover fits well enough. And so far so good. Sopping wet diapers in the morning, dry cover, dry jammies, dry sheets. Yippee!

Plus ordering them directly from Aristocrats http://www.aristocratsbabyproducts.com/index.html directly was cheaper than other sites.

Doesn't take much to make me happy these days.

Wet Bags

I had to blog about how much I continue to LOVE LOVE LOVE my Good Mama wet bags. I have a generic wet bag from Hip Baby for my home diaper bin - works great and washes well. But I wanted something nicer than a zip lock to use in my diaper bag/purse. I also wanted a larger bag that I could use when travelling so I wouldn't have to rely on disposable and that wouldn't create any smell at Grandma's house. There are a lot of draw string wet bags out there. Can I tell you that draw strings do NOT keep smells in. So I researched online - again diaperpin.com comes in very handy.

I usually prefer to find Canadian made brands where possible. But the only zippered Canadian one I could find was Jamtots and well it was rather boring looking. The reviews for Good Mama were excellent, and the patterns were very cute. If I have to carry something around in my diaper bag/purse it should at least be attractive. So I ordered a small and a large sized wet bag from Good Mama. The small ones fit one diaper, with a small pocket for wipes on the outside. The medium was good for a day trip. I LOVED them. I ordered more. I now own:

• 3 small ones - 2 in the rocket boy pattern and 1striped pattern for wipes or other accessories.
• 2 medium ones - one is exclusively our swim bag and the other often gets used for a spare outfit (I have a boy and the bag often arrives home full of wet/muddy clothing)
• 1 large one for travelling. I can say that on a recent trip I couldn't wash any diapers for 5 days and there was NO smell.

Plus did I mention how cute they look. Nobody ever suspects that they hold diapers - clean or dirty.

I just received my order of Good Mama fitted diapers (I couldn't believe my luck when they were not only in stock but on sale after Christmas). Only had them a few days. But so far so good.

Hip Baby

Hip Baby on 4th Ave has re-opened under new ownership. The old Hip Baby carried cloth diapers (CDs) but they only carried their own "Hip Baby" diapers and a few types of covers. Since I really disliked their diapers I really only went their to get their Hydrox product to wash my CDs.

What a nice surprise to see that the new owners have expanded the CD selection (currently kissiluvs and a nice range of covers). Since KG Kids (or Discount Diapers) went bankrupt there has been a real need for an actual store with a reasonable selection of CDs (frankly the need was there before as KG really wasn't the best retail operation). There have always been lots of options on-line. But I'm a touch and feel /talk to a person face-to-face kind of girl. I suspect a lot of mom's considering CDing are the same way.

The new owner is not well versed in cloth diapers. But her male associate was obviously a CD Dad. He was talking to a soon-to-be-mom when I arrived giving her lots of great advise on CDing. He and I chatted afterwards and he indicated they intend to expand their CD stock further.

This is great news to me! It is so hard to expand the number of people using CDs when it is virtually an online culture. It was great when newandgreen.com started with their workshops, newborn diaper rental and great selction - but they are primarily online. And Hip Baby is in a prime, hands-on, touch and feel Kits location. Plus having a CD Dad explain how to use diapers from a first hand perspective is really 'priceless'.

I will certainly be back to re-fill my Hydrox and to update my CD stock as required. Today I bought a Kissiluv to try and a couple of new doublers to try. Had always wanted to give them a try, but really didn't want to pay the shipping for just one diaper.

Best of luck to the new Hip Baby!