Day trip diapering

We had a great day trip with the in-laws today. I put a goodmama on the toddler, put a couple of my motherease all-in-ones into my goodmama wet bags and off we went. Fun filled days with car ride, play ground, strollering around, lunch, running, climbing, more stroller, napping in the car, running at the mall and then home. Had a great day (the little guy even napped long enough in the car for us to run a few errands). Didn't think about diapers once - actually completely FORGOT about anything diaper related. Panicked a bit when I realized he had been in the same diaper for about 8 hours. No leaks, no complaints, just a damp bum. Bad mom? Jury is still out on that one. But certainly will use my Goodmama diapers on long days out again.

Keep up or get out of the way

As a marketer you never want to become complacent. But when you are the only service in town I can see how it could happen. If you don't evolve over time you provide an opportunity for a competitor to jump into the gap... and that is what is happening in the Vancouver diaper service game.

When we had our little guy we started cloth diapering with a service. Our objective was to cloth diaper part time and we really had no clue what to buy or if we would like it. So we started with a service to make sure we liked cloth diapering and to give us some time to get used to what was necessary. The only game in town at the time was Diapers Naturally. I heard about them through word of mouth and tried to find them online. I really looked hard to find somebody online that would let me look at what they had to offer. With no web presence we had to phone. They happily mailed us a brochure and information. We found their service great, price reasonable and very convenient. The only downside was that they only had 2 styles of diapers - pre folds, and contoured. Neither of which were fitted diapers and as our guy got bigger that wasn't convenient anymore (just didn't contain the necessary mess nor was the material thick enough to hold much pee either).

So after buying a couple of different CD styles to try, we went out on our own after 4 months.

Now Happy Nappy has come to Vancouver (and Victoria and Calgary). They are more expensive, but they offer thicker fitted diapers (very similar to what we use at home). They are online. They advertise. They make it easy for you to buy their service.

I believe that Diapers Naturally has a lot of commercial business (mostly the hospitals) and residential customers may not be their priority. But a mailed brochure, that offers a referal program, will not allow them to compete with a more vocal competitor - who in my mind has a superior diaper product. Diapers Naturally may not be losing existing customers, but they are most certainly losing potential customers. And as cloth diapering continues to increase in popularity they will likely lose more of their market share.

No matter how happy I was with Diapers Naturally. If I was to do it again, I'd go with Happy Nappy. In fact if Happy Nappy had been around when we stared out we might have never gone out on our own (and the marketer in me can't deny keeping existing customers is easier more and profitable).

Hip Baby Update

Stopped by Hip Baby, on west 4th in Vancouver, on the weekend. Was really happy to see their cloth diaper offering has expanded since my first visit during their re-opening this spring (see earlier blog for more info).

They now also stock Aristocrat wool covers and Mother-ease diapers. Their Mother-ease stock was limited to Sandy's style (in both the unbleached and new fun colours), covers, pull-ups and the short liners. I asked about my favourite one-size mother-ease, with snap in liner. I was apparently the 2nd person that day to ask that same question. They took my information and said they would call - they did a few days later to tell me they now had some in stock.

Now the only thing missing is some mother-ease stay-dry one size diapers - which are my favourite for overnight.

Good Mamas

So I received my highly anticipated Good Mama fitted diapers about a month ago. I continue to LOVE them. They fit, absorb and wash GREAT. Plus they are so soft - even after coming off the clothes line (all the other diapers are as stiff as boards). I also really like the little details like the stitching and snaps for the liners matching the diaper - not really necessary but a great touch.

They work well enough to be used at night. But they are too cute to be night time diapers. So I have ordered some mother-ease stay dry for night. Not nearly as cute, but functional and less expensive than Good Mamas.

If you can I'd recommend getting a couple of Good Mama diapers for those days when you need some extra absorbancy. They are expensive, but they hold their value. Saw a woman selling hers 6 month old diapers for pretty much the original cost (less shipping) on craigslist this week. And they sold. Crazy!!!

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.