Home at Last!



I know, you've seen this photo a lot lately... Can you tell what's been on my mind? Well, it's no longer a distant thought...I'm thrilled to say that we're back at Benning, hooray!

It's strange. Every now and then I catch myself looking around and wondering if I'm really here. It's like the movie Inception, where they can only go into the dream world so many times or they'll no longer know whether they're awake or asleep. Well, it's possible that if you move too many times you might not know where you live anymore. Or maybe it's the "too good to be true!"-yet it is true-feeling that keeps weirding me out. Anyway, it's wonderful! I keep telling everyone that I felt like I was walking into a palace compared to the hotel we lived in for four months. The high ceilings, the real furniture, the dishwasher, the washer & dryer, the full size oven...whoa now! Talk about appreciation with a capital A! Praise God for bringing us home!

Getting all packed up for the drive home.



So now we're getting back into the swing of things. No pun intended, but that's the first thing that happened; the swing went up. Priority #1 of this move, without a doubt: Asher, Asher, Asher!



And then there was his bouncer seat. It took me about three attempts to reassemble it. In other words, it won a battle or two. But never fear, I won the war! I finally realized I had the main piece backwards (just like Thane suspected all along).



Thank goodness it finally went together! This is one of those must-haves in our house, and has been since the beginning. It started as the only place Asher would sleep during the night. We've continued to use it daily since then, and I predict even moreso now that we're in a bigger space. When I'm cooking or getting other chores done, I've got to be able to carry him with me from one side of the house to the other and then set him down. He's usually pretty happy to hang out in it, especially with the vibrating "massage" function. On a side note, Thane's wanted a massage chair for years (we're the couple that's always testing them out for just a little longer than what's considered appropriate in Brooks & Brothers). But who gets one first? Asher.

Oh my goodness, what happened to Asher's nursery?! Oh that's right, he was born. Hahaha. And he's already been through two army moves, this being the aftermath of the second. That just about sums it up. But all that matters right now is that his changing station is up and running again!





Due to another endeavor gone wrong- cloth diaper size adjustment- Asher's nice crib got completely drenched the first day back. So it was off with the sheets, and on with the quilt! That was actually my first round of crib sheet washing and changing. Let me just say that getting the sheets back on the mattress was WAY harder than I thought it would be. So from now on, we're going to use a quilt as the "safety" barrier. It'll be much easier to wash, when necessary, and hopefully that cuts back on the sheet changes. 





But speaking of his crib, he loves it! No more Pack n' Play for him! And he just met his new monkey friend who's been waiting patiently for us to get home...

And of course there's his play mat. Actually, two, if you look carefully. (The one of top is his tummy mat.) I just need to re-attach his hanging toys to the play gym, and he'll be set. Oh and his carrier snuck into the photo too, on the floor to the left. Baby gear galore. If he liked his swing, it would be up and operating rather than sitting in the trunk of the car right now. Still working on un-packing...it's a much slower process than it used to be.





As far as the rest of the house is concerned, one word will sum it up. Chaos. 

Ok, maybe two words. Chaos and laundry.

And general disorganization.

So these next few days will no doubt be spent unpacking, cleaning, organizing, and of course making sure the baby's doing well and happy in this new environment. Sometimes he seems to love it, other times he seems a little stressed. But all the same, we'll give the "baby-fy the house" task a big fat check! Which means today we might be able to start on some long-awaited decor projects! See the whole (and growing) to-do list here.

We'll definitely keep you updated on what gets done (if anything, ha), so stay tuned!

P.S. Parents, what's your favorite/can't-live-without-it peice of baby equipment?

Like it? Share it!

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Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 14:23

Dipes & Wipes on the Go...

...Again!

Asher and I are about to make another long haul. I'd attempt to explain our crazy travel plans for the next couple of months, but they're so complicated that not even Thane and I have it all figured out yet. So lets just say that we'll bouncing between states like a ping-pong ball gone haywire. And I have to admit that at the thought of all of this car seat time with our four and a half month old baby is scary. Very, very scary.


This next trip will be our fourth big road trip with Asher and his cloth diapers + accessories. So since this is becoming quite the "routine" I thought I'd share a few simple tips for cloth diapering on the go.




It's simple. All you need is the following:


-Your clean diapers
-A wet bag and/or plastic bags from the store to hold dirtied diapers.
-A wipes case- large or small/travel size, depending on the length of your trip.
-Your wet cloth wipes stored in the wipes case, or dry wipes + your spray bottle filled with solution (depending on which method you use).
-A changing pad.

These are the methods that work well for us:

For Long Road Trips:

-Make sure that as many of your cloth diapers and wipes as possible are clean before hitting the road. Store the recently-dirtied ones in a wet bag that you plan on taking with you. We own two medium sized wet bags, one is Planet Wise's "Meadow Tweets", and it's a C.D. must have!

-If your diapers need to be prepped (inserts snapped in, pre-folds folded, etc), do this before leaving and put them all into a diaper bag or backpack- wherever they can be conveniently stored and easily accessed during your trip.

-Fill a large empty disposable wipes case with your cloth wipes. If you use a spray bottle solution to spray your wipes individually, pack your spray bottle in a plastic bag or wherever it won't possibly leak onto other things. If you dampen all of your wipes at the same time (like we do), prep them before leaving and store them in an empty disposable wipes case. Worried about mold and mildew while traveling with damp wipes? Kissaluvs Diaper Lotion Potion Concentrate prevents this (more info here)- even up to a month, as I "accidentally" learned by leaving a damp wipe in a disposable case for that long. You can imagine my surprise when I opened it up expecting a green fuzzy wipe, but instead found no mold whatsoever. It even smelled good! (But don't worry, I washed it before using it all the same).

-At each stop we make along the road, I use a changing pad to change our baby on the seat of the car, (it seems to be easier than using the gas station bathrooms). It's as simple as this- off with the dirty one, and on with the clean one. The dirty diaper and the dirty wipes go into your wet bag or a plastic bag that can be tied shut. You don't want those smells wafting in your car!

For Short Outings

-Put a clean cloth diaper (or two) into a plastic grocery/store bag.

-Put a couple of clean cloth wipes into a small travel size wipe case.

-When you're out and it's time for a diaper change, take your clean diaper out of the plastic bag and then use the same bag to hold the soiled one. Tie the bag shut with the dirty diaper and dirty wipes inside, and store it in your diaper bag or vehicle until you're back home.

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We haven't traveled by plane with our baby and cloth diapers yet, but I assume the same system would work. And we might find out! We're considering a flight at the end of the month, depending on how the rest of our plans pan out. And in that case, since we'll be staying in a hotel for just a couple of days, we may only use disposables. Which (to me) is a scary thought after getting so used to using cloth...but we'll see what happens!

Cleaning Your Cloth Diapers Away from Home

Asher used his GG's port-a-crib during our visit in Virginia. It doubled as a really great changing station!

He also fell in love with his Grandma's toy when she was a baby.

How you clean your diapers away from home depends on a couple of factors. Will you have access to a washer and dryer? And will you be staying in a house or in a hotel?

We've done both. We are currently living in a hotel (on a temporary army assignment that's almost over), where we use a shared laundry room to wash our diapers. We brought our BumGenius diaper sprayer with us and hooked it right up to our hotel-room toilet. If you're going away on a shorter vacation where you wouldn't bring your diaper sprayer, the sink works just fine (if necessary) for rinsing out those messy diapers before throwing them into the washer.

Likewise, when we visited family for a week, I used a utility/mud-room sink to rinse out our messy diapers before washing them.

As a new mom and a newbie to cloth diapering, I've been pleasantly surprised to see how easy it's been. I believe the key is having a good system, which means not being afraid to go through a little trial and error to get a good system down. It doesn't take long to figure out which methods will work best for you, so just jump in and don't be afraid to "get your hands dirty" (because you will, ha!)

*As much I don't like to use them, (they give Asher terrible diaper rash) having a few disposable diapers and wipes on hand is always a good idea. As well as an extra outfit in the event of an explosion! We've learned that one the hard way...twice.

What about my fellow cloth diapering moms? Have any tried and true tips to share? Have you ever C.D.'ed in a hotel for a weekend trip? What do you think, should I try it?

Like it? Share it!

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The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.
Psalm 121:8

Put the "Kick" Back into Your Cloth

Ever suspected your cloth diapers of losing their absorbency? Have they ever seemed to leak a little more than usual? I came across this issue a while back. I wasn't sure what the problem was. Was the baby wetting more than usual? Was I not putting his diapers on tight enough? Were cloth diapers just not going to work for us?

Then I realized that I was using the wrong detergent. I never got around to ordering the good stuff (Country Save, Rockin' Green, etc) from Nicki's Diapers, so a couple of weeks after Asher was born I picked up Seventh Generation's "Blue Eucalyptus & Lavender" scented liquid detergent. Which was not additive free. Duh, what was I thinking? I knew I wasn't supposed to be using the standard chocked-full-of-unnecessary-chemicals-that-linger-in-your-laundry kind of detergent, didn't I? We'll blame it on infant-imposed lack of sleep at two weeks post-partum. I also remember having the silly thought that because lavender is anti-bacterial as an essential oil (an ingredient in my diaper wipes solution), it would likewise fight bacteria as a detergent scent.

NOT additive-free=Cloth Diaper no-no.

So after realizing my big spoof and immediately worrying that I'd "ruined the diapers forever!", I came across Just Simply Baby, a great C.D. site that rates every detergent on the market based on it's suitability for cloth diapers. The less additives, the better. Surprisingly, certain household brands like Arm & Hammer Free & Clear and Woolite get pretty good ratings. (See the full rating list here- it's got everything.) I felt like I didn't have time to order one of the fancy brands online, so back to the store I went. I picked up Arm & Hammer's "Sensitive Skin- Free of all Perfumes and Dyes" liquid detergent, and it was only about $5 for a huge gallon of it.

Free & Clear

I was still curious about the more expensive detergents that are made especially for cloth diapers, and I was still worried that I'd compromised the absorbency of my cloth inserts because of the Seventh Generation I'd been using. (Whether I did or not, I can't be totally sure...but either way it was worth switching to a better detergent). So, I looked into Rockin' Green, which seems to get raving reviews from the C.D. pros, including the owner of Just Simply Baby, a stay at home mom that's developed her own line of diapers.



So when I saw a small sample at Supper Mommy's (a natural parenting store in Elizabethtown, KY) that was meant to clean unwanted additives out of your cloth, I had to try it. The sample size was only about a dollar or two.

I don't have a personal washer and dryer to use for soaking here at Motel K, so I filled up our bathtub with hot water, mixed in the detergent, and let my diapers soak in it for a while before washing. (We have a shared laundry room in the basement of the building). And voila! Leak issue solved! As far as I could tell, at least. And now that it's been a couple of months I'm thinking about giving the ol' cloths another cleansing. Maybe I'll even get the big bag of Rockin' Green since our Arm & Hammer is getting low.

Again, I can't say for sure whether it really was the 7th Gen. that was causing extra leaks, and I can't say for sure that it was the Rockin' G. that fixed it. Maybe it was just the "placebo" affect of giving the dipes a special cleaning. But it might be worth a try if you're experiencing the same problems. After all, a sample of the Green stuff is just a buck or two!

So, fellow C.D. moms, what detergents do you use? Have any special washing tricks to share?

---P.S. Did you notice the three latest additions to our stash of Best Bottom shells? Eeeee I'm thrilled! Just picked up Mint-Chocolate-Chip, Blue Moon, and Orange Sherbet through an auction on Under My Crib. They're second hand, but I saved about $21 bucks that way. And why not re-use instead of buy new all the time? Great site by the way, I've both bought and sold on it now.

---P.S.S. See my favorite C.D. products here!

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The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.
-Psalm 24:1

Cloth Wipes Made Easy

Hello fellow cloth enthusiasts! Just thought I would share a step-by-step look at my system for managing cloth wipes. If you're not currently an enthusiast, you might consider becoming one! You can't go wrong. It's an easy way to save a little money, cut back on waste, and grace your little one's bum with super soft 100% cotton.

A little background- at first, I tried putting my wipe solution into a spray bottle and spraying each one individually as I needed them during diaper changes, but my furniture was getting wetter than my wipes. (A better spray bottle probably would have remedied that, but I never got around to trying another one.) Anyway, after some trial and error, this is the quickest and easiest system I've been able to come up with.

It may look like a lot of steps because of all of the photos in this very detailed play-by-play, but it's not! Once your wipes are folded, it takes about 60 seconds from start to finish. Here we go...

Gather your clean wipes, your diaper wipe solution (more on this here and below), and an empty wipes case.

I use Diaper Lotion Potion Concentrate, by Kissaluvs.

(Your empty wipe case.)

Fold your cloth wipes in half so that they fit perfectly into your standard wipes case and/or wipes warmer. These GroVia wipes shown here are the standard size, 8x8 (more on these here).

Add a very small drop of your Concentrate.

Hop over to the faucet and fill your empty case about halfway.

Once filled, swish it around a little to mix the Concentrate and water. You've got your solution!

Now get ready to submerge your folded wipes into your newly made solution.

Dunk!

And press down so that the water absorbs into all of the wipes as evenly as possible.

Close your lid and make sure it snaps shut (otherwise you'll get an untimely bath).

Take it in hand, get ready to flip it upside down and "shake it all about".

"Yeah ya do the hokey pokey and ya swish it all around..."

".....And that's what it's all about", ha!

If your top few wipes didn't get as moist as you'd like, add a little more water. If they're too moist, wring them out by applying some pressure with your hand and then pour out the excess water.

Either keep the moist wipes in your old disposable wipes case, or put them directly into your wipes warmer.

And they're ready to go!

Now, back to the diaper wipe solution. Kissaluvs Diaper Lotion Potion Concentrate has worked well for us. (This and more of our favorite CD products here). It's all natural, and get this- it's made in America. It's so rare to see that these days! It's made up of essential oils- jojoba, chamomile, lavender, and tea tree- they work together to moisturize, heal, soothe, and protect against bacteria. And of course they smell great.

Click image for more information on Amazon

                                                            

At first I looked into making my own concentrate. Health food stores carry the individual oils, but they're pricey and there would have been some guesswork in mixing them myself. So, I decided to go with the Kissaluvs since it was the easiest and the most cost-effective. If you really want to go the simple route, I've read that some people use plain water.

Anybody have a different system for cloth wipes? Or recommendations for other wipe solutions? I love to hear any and all ideas and experiences in regards to the great world of cloth diapering, so don't hold back! :)