Happy Healthy Perfect : Our Cloth Diapering Adventure Part 2!!

So far our adventure with cloth has been great! It took a day or so for me to get used to the change but now we are good to go! It takes about the same amount of time to do a cloth diaper change then it would with disposables. The boys love their cloth diapers and I do too! There have been a few obstacles that we have come across so far. Thankfully, there is a solution for each one. One problem we have some across it that their clothing does not fit them right. They are in between sizes and their bums are a bit too fluffy to fit into 9-12 month clothing. Size 18 month clothing fits their bums but not the rest of them! In a few weeks it will all even out. Another issue is that Kennedy loves to open his diaper cover! He usually gets one of the velco tabs off by the time I get to him. This makes me really sad because I have been having to cover them up with pants to stop this from happening! The covers are WAY too cute to cover up!!! I am going to look into snaps to add to the covers so he leaves it alone. The last problem that we were having is that the cotton prefolds were constantly wet against the boys skin. They didn't seem to mind at all, but it bothered me.....the solution is the reason why I am writing this blog entry!

There are two additional items I have added to our daily diaper routine. One of them being reusable baby wipes and the other one being fleece liners to go in between the babies bums and the cotton prefolds to keep them dry. I will talk about the reusable baby wipes first!

For us, it only makes sense to have reusable wipes instead of using disposable wipes. If you remember all of our reasons why we switched to cloth in the first place (Our Cloth Diapering Adventure Part 1!!), most of the same reasons go for using reusable wipes. Here are the steps we took to get all set up for reusable baby wipes and baby bum spray!!

First thing we did was buy 1 meter of jersey cotton. It cost us $15.99. I know you can get it for a lot less but we are limited with our fabric stores in our small town. It is pretty soft and also absorbent. There were not many colors so we went with white (original eh?). Another plus with this fabric is that you do not have to hem it. ** Just want to clarify..I can sew. In fact I LOVE to sew but my sewing machine is at home in Ontario *sigh* so, I have been making items that you do not need to sew. One negative about the jersey cotton is that it tends to "roll up" after you wash it. I am fine with this...I just lay it flat before I use the wipe. Here is a picture of the fabric

All I did was cut it into pieces that I felt were a good size for wipes. It took a long time, but we ended up getting a ton of wipes out of the meter of fabric! Here is the pile of wipes after they were cut

I store my wipes in an old disposable wipes container. I think this may get old fast as I can't be bothered to fill it back up. I will probably just leave the wipes loose in the drawer beside where I change the boys.

To go with the wipes, I also made my own "Baby Bum Cleaner!" That is what I call it anyways. I have to mixture in a spray bottle and I spray each wipe before I use it. I used distilled water, Tea Tree Oil and a bit of baby soap. I like the mixture so far! Dallas does not. He can not stand the smell of Tea Tree Oil! I will probably try a different essential oil next time! Here is our Baby Bum Cleaner!

The next thing I "made" (if you call cutting fabric into rectangles "making" something) is our fleece liners. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these liners! They keep the boys bums dry...even after 12 hours of sleep! The fleece lets the wetness pass through but it does not absorb it so baby stays dry! Another plus is that "solids" fall off the liners sooo easily! I will spare you the details!!! We bought 2 different colors of fleece. Blue for Kennedy and green for Dylan. I use these liners at every diaper change. Some people only use them at night, but I use them all the time. The only negative I have experienced with the fleece is that they actually smell like pee in the morning. I had this problem with the disposables too. I went into the boys room and that was all I could smell. When we switched to cloth, it was GONE! No pee smell at all! I was sooooo happy! Well, now the smell is back....but only after they sleep all night. They do not smell at all during the day. For me this is a small price to pay for my babies to be dry.

Here is a pic of the fleece before I started to cut.