My Cover Stash

white 3-drawer hamper/storage- sage/polka dots at Target!

Again on my quest for an "all natural" diapering routine, I came across wool covers. At first I was anxious! Itchy, rough wool on my baby's smooth skin?? However I read sooo much information about how amazing wool is and how its able to BREATHE. As I began to warm up to the idea I read these facts:

-Wool is breatheable which cuts down on diaper rash EVEN more than just using cloth.

-Wool absorbs 30% of its weight which m

eans SUPER dry!

-It is in fact, NOT itchy, its actually super soft!

-Wool has antibacterial properties allowing it to resist odor and clean itself!!!

When using wool covers, you can use only one a day essentially! You only need to wash it if it gets a smell to it (after a couple of wears/days) or if it gets poop on it. When urine hits the wool, the lanolin acts as a soap neutralizing the urine. It is now clean, smells fine and completely dry! They come as longies (pants), shorts, skirties, soakers, and even plain diaper covers. This allows wool to be a clothing item, not just a diaper cover! Wool is seriously amazing. Once I read all of these facts, I knew wool was something I wanted to try. So I placed my order.

Brianna in a WCW Fairy Stacked Tangerine outfit! Shes wearing a Goodmama underneath!

This is an adorable example of an outfit of wool. The top is just a plain embroidered (cute!) cotton top and the bottoms are wool longies. It's wool interlock so it's stretchy, forgiving and can take some rough and tumble!! I got them at Wild Child Woolies who has a Hyena Cart and an Etsy!

One of the turn offs of wool for some people are the price. $50 a pair seems pretty steep to most. But in the actual use (you only really need 3 pairs so that's $150) it's not that bad. Some people wash every week, some people wait for two weeks. Its personal preference :)

Washing is a process, but thats the great thing of only needing to be done once a week/two weeks! One of my favorite sites Woolybottoms explains the washing process great! :

Fill your sink with enough lukewarm water to sufficiently cover your wool. Add a bit of woolwash (do not use Woolite, only use a lanolin rich wash specifically designed for diaper covers) to your running sink water. Wool wash bars can be used to help remove tough stains as well. Most wool washes are formulated so there is no need to rinse. A bit of baby shampoo can be used if wool wash is not readily available. With liquid wool wash, let your wool sit for about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain water and gently squeeze wool. Lay in between 2 bath towels and roll to remove excess water. Or if you are doing several covers, put them in your washing machine and run the spin cycled (no water) to quickly and efficiently spin out the excess water. Reshape, and lay flat to dry away from direct heat or sun. Liquid wool wash is good if your cover needs a gentle cleaning. If your child is like mine though, they like to abuse their wool with food, dirt, and grime. A good wool wash bar is good for these times. Fill up a sink full of warm water, wet your wool, and then lather the bar right into the wool to get out those tough stains. Always check in a hidden spot to ensure colorfastness. Then rinse immediately and remove right away and dry as listed above. For interlock wool, we recommend soak times of a maximum of 15 minutes. Interlock can also be safely washed in the washing machine on a gentle wash/rinse cool cycle for a really deep clean. Machine drying is not

recommended.

And then you need to lanolize once a month (what makes it waterproof). Again Woolybottoms is on top of it! :

Prepare your sink just like you are about to wash your cover. I have found the creamy style lanolin to work the best in getting an effective coat of lanolin on my wool. It contains all the original fats that are removed from the liquid forms. Take a pea sized amount and place in a baby food jar along with a drop of baby shampoo. Fill jar with super hot water and shake to dissolve the lanolin (or an alternative to completely melt your lanolin is place the jar lanolin without the lid in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. Then add the hot water & shampoo. (This will ensure the lanolin is completely dispersed). I prefer to microwave to really make sure that the lanolin is liquifed and will not form pool and form spots on my covers. Fill your sink as I stated just above with warm water and wool wash. Add your lanolin mixture and swish. I prefer to turn my covers inside out so the majority of the lanolin is on the inside right where you need it. Add the wool cover and let sit anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Make sure water remains relatively warm to keep the lanolin suspended pr

operly and from forming lanolin spots. Drain and dry like normal.

It really isn't as much of work as it seems! From my experience when I put the longies on Bri, I forgot about the diaper (oops, bad cousin). Anyway a whopping 4 hours later while getting ready for bath, I remembered. Her cloth diaper (this time a Kiwi Pie- she wore the outfit all day long!) was drenched. Soaking wet. And the longies? Dry as can be. They are great!

My favorite wool sites:
Woolybottoms

Llamajamas

Wild Child Woolies here or here

Crankypants

Loveybums

Sustainablebabyish

The cutest thing ever is hanging around the house in a cute shirt, wool soaker and some baby legs. Instant outfit! :)

photo credit

*UPDATE*

A great video of another mama's wool stash so you can see them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UigrHfTXQGg&feature=fl_lolz&playnext=1&list=FLnJ5Plmc4h0o

My Dream Stash

As I confessed earlier, cloth diapers are my guilty obsession. I have no idea where this idea has come from since no one in my family has cloth diapered their children other than my grandparents, and even they were surprised when I told them about this idea! I have researched, researched and researched!! After much fret (seriously) I have decided on my diapering regime. I plan to use: fitted for everyday with wool covers, prefolds (I know, right?!), gDiapers for travel, and daddy friendly Very Baby AIOs. I wanted a natural option that

allowed my baby to BREATHE down there and besides my AIOs (all-in-ones), I will be able to achieve that! I also plan on organizing in such a

manner to look like this:

This is the Tot Tutors Pastel Toy Organizer at Target. Organization is so much fun for me. I just love the way everything looks when it's where it's supposed to be. I may or may not have control issues (; So on with the show and the fluff!!

Fitted Diapers

48 diapers. Now, I know that is WAYY enough.

But what I figure is that since I'm buying these in advance, the cost won't necessarily matter (: Having this amount of diapers will cover all grounds: sickness, travel, and allowing a space between each diapers use so we can further the life of each diaper. Which allows us to use it on ALL of our kids. Not just one and end up with shot elastic and wear and tear. My fitted diaper sites:

Orange Diaper Co.

Muttaqin Baby

Goodmama

Green Sprout Baby

Orange Diaper Co. is a local diaper maker-er in Virginia and she's so super sweet. She has a workshop in Chesapeake where locals can go and pick up their diaper orders, request custom diapers from her multitude of fabric or just pet, feel, love on the diapers before making a decision! She makes some adorable fitteds, cloth wipes, and bamboo terry flats and prefolds, just to name a few! Her shop is reopening with a stocking this Sunday, May 15 at 9pm EST so go and

grab you some!!

Goodmama diapers are known all around. They are even seen as "collectibles" by some people who buy them, keep in NIP (new in package) and only have them to sell later on when they can hike up the price to $40, $50, sometimes $200 for other collectors/fiending mamas. Must

be nice to be Suzanne ;) Who I must add is super sweet herself! Whenever I have a question (because lets face it, I only ever use cloth diapers when I test them out on my cousins little one, soon to be ones!) she is right there to help! She makes newborn and one-size fitteds, wetbags, some AIOS, and wipes. And she's really good at what she does obviously!! In order to get one of these suckers, I advise being on the prowl. There are many stalkers of the page that sit in front of the computer on Friday just

for her to stock her store. She usually announces when that will happen on her twitter and facebook fan page. They usually oversell the day of, I think in the year I've taken interest in the dipes, I have only twice seen some leftover diapers from a Friday stocking. Kind of ridiculous, but they really are good, durable diapers!

Muttaqin Baby diapers are ones that I have not personally tried, but have heard rave reviews about! They are made like most of the other fitteds I have used, so I don't see many problems. They are a company that patented the 3SR diaper, three step rise one-size diaper. This allows the diaper to be worn from 8lbs to 35lbs!

They also offer bundle packages where you can get their AI2s and fitteds at a discounted rate for buying in bulk!

Last in my list of fabulous fitteds is Green Sprout Baby. My first multi purchase cloth diaper company. They are awesome and the owner is so sweet. She's a single mom of two preschool boys trying to make a living for herself! And even with all that stress she still makes incredible diapers! She is the maker of my Brianna's coveted "Nunkey" (sock monkey) diaper that she crys when I take it off. Her fleece pants are great as well, but a whole other post.

All of my fitted diaper ladies are work at home moms whose desire to be at home with their children created their businesses. I feel that supporting these business is far more important than feeding into many of the industrial companies...and much cuter too (; With fitted diapers, they are 100% breathable unlike laminated plastic fabric such as PUL and TPU found in AIOs. Because of this, they are not waterproof like PUL or TPU is. They are also all made out of bamboo or cotton velour on the inside. All natural. No chemicals, no dyes, no perfumes, no plastic. Only natural substances (:

Prefolds

Yes, prefolds are what your grandmother used to diaper your parents (most of us), but no longer are we burdened with the diaper pin pokes! While not really the "easiest" diaper to have, they are certainly the workhorse diaper. Not only a proven good diaper, they can double as a burp cloth, back up diaper when you run out in public, or even a dusting cloth!! Like I said, there is no need for diaper pins anymore. Enter the snappi:

This is a plastic T-shaped rubber fastener with little grippies on each end that grab onto the diaper to hold it in place. No more bothering with trying not to poke the baby- these don't even TOUCH them!!

While yes I will admit, prefolds can be pretty boring compar

ed to the fitteds I listed, but they don't have to be! That's why I love Loveybums and Cottonspuds Boutique!

Loveybums are more luxurious prefolds. They are organic with one side of hand dyed cotton fleece on one side and organic cotton velour on the other. Making some COMFY, healthy, colorful

prefolds!! Another thing I like is that the dye does not come into contact with baby's private parts, a big issue I have. They wash up well and come sized so that you can make sure you have a perfect fit for your baby!

Cottonspuds Boutique have the cutest idea for prefolds with their cotton center panel! I'm not so sure if her Hyena Cart shop is still open, but if you email her, I'm sure she'd be happy to help you out, she's so sweet! She does them in 3pks or singular! They are made of squishy bamboo velour and super duper cuddly! Can't wait to get mine in!!!

gDiapers

gDiapers are one of the most eco friendly diapering options available! Made as a cotton shell with a snap in nylon, BREATHABLE!, waterproof hammock looking fabric which hold either your gCloth, a cloth insert looking much like a prefold, or a gRefill, a flushable, compostable, garbage friendly disposable insert. gDiapers are great because they give an easy introduction to cloth diapering for parents who aren't so sure if this the the route for them! You only need to wash the outer if poop gets on it, so you really only need one a day ideally! Friends of mine with little ones using this diaper have had mixed opinions. Some absolutely LOVE it and it's all they use, while others have leaking issues. I have contacted gDiapers with my concerns and they are 100% willing to help me through fitting issues!! We will use this when traveling as the chemical, chlorine free gRefills are biodegradable and can simply be flushed down the toilet when traveling! No need to wear icky paper diapers!!

Very Baby

Very Baby diapers are my only AIOs I plan on using. And only when Jon or grandparents are watching the little one. In essence, disposable diapers are not breathable once the baby urinates and the gel activates for the "dry" feeling anyway, so I guess they'll be like most other babies! Jessica is amazing. As a mother, blogger, and provider of a business. Her grandmother LaVon is sweet enough to sew up these beauties and provide the softest, bright, loveable all-in-ones, IMO! With a simple velcro option they are super duper simple and JUST like a disposable!

Next up...covers!

My guilty obsession.

I have a confession to make.

I am seriously obsessed with baby products.

No lie, I loveee to dream and look and play with all things baby.

Probably why I have extreme baby fever since I was like...19.

I was married then at least.

But thats what I plan on blogging about amongst other more important things like deployment, day to day and my adventure to frugalness.

Really, wool diaper covers and snappis have changed my life.

This will start when I get home from work today.

My dream diaper stash. I have chills ;)

I'm back!

Hi! I have a computer right now (being lent by a great sister-in-law!) AND I should have one of my own coming this weekend!! :) Thats when the real blogging will finally start! To update on a few things:

Jon will be coming home for R&R sometime mid-July.

My 21st birthday is in 2 weeks!

The house is still in the process of being rennovated. Ahem.

and I am a very happy, blessed woman!

Cant wait to finally get this blog on a roll! :)