Newborn Niceties

I have a long list of blog drafts to write and upload this week - wedding festivities this past weekend, 101 list checked off item, pet peeves, etc.  But, I have a high school friend who is expecting and I seem to have turned onto cloth diapers, YIPPEE! :)  And since I love to be a know-it-all in all things I know ;) I wanted to do some research on newborn cloth dipes - for her, my other readers interested, and really my future reference!

First, a quick update on my cloth diapering.  I have tried one Ragababe all-in-one diaper and an Apple Cheeks swim diaper since my last CD post.

The Apple Cheeks swim diaper is super great: a great green color, really thin so water (and pee) just flow right through it (this is normal in swim reusable diapers) and easy to snap in the front.  They come in 2 sizes and for now, Kayla fits into a small.  I will probably need to buy a new diaper next year (and maybe for our family trip to Hawaii in 3 months...woohoo!)

The Ragababe is so far my most favorite diaper.  It's an awesome aqua color; it's easy to close with the hook and loop closure, it's REALLY trim and super absorbent.  So far, I have no cons about this awesome diaper, except for the fact that they are impossible to get my CD addict hands on!!!  If you recall my post from the end of June, I couldn't even refresh the page to buy any at the last stocking, however, last night I scored 2 more all-in-ones!!  I'm hoping for a few more in the near future to review!

I also have started to try using cloth wipes.  I bought some Ragababe wipes (you can most definitely make your own and save some money but I kinda wanted to try these).  I made my own solution with water, baby shampoo/wash and olive oil/baby oil.  I actually didn't have the oil at first (it's to help the wipe glide over baby's bottom easier) which caused Kayla to have some serious redness.  So far I find cloth wipes to be easier to use with cloth diapers since I just toss them in the laundry with my diapers.  I will update my cloth diapering page as soon as I get some time.  

Ok, onto the newborn cloth diaper research.  I have tried to post some links (some to pages with reviews) and if you don't want to read through all my crap, scroll down to the links below to dirty diaper laundry video reviews!

All-in-one diapers: no stuffing (for the most part) most similar to disposables, need to buy sizes as baby grows. (NB diapers recommended to me are in BLUE.)

1. Ragababe NB AIO (newborn all-in-one): I honestly think these might be the best to buy.  They are very absorbent and trim and very easy to use.  There is a pocket if you need/want to have extra stuffing for overnight or a heavy wetter.  A big downer to these diapers is that they are pricey and basically impossible to get at this moment in time, until Joy and the RagaTeam are able to increase their production and open up full time.  Link
2. Bumgenius XS: I have BGs one size diapers.  I like them but they wouldn't be small enough for a newborn I don't think depending on baby's size.  Link
3. GroVia NB AIO:  Again, I have a GroVia one size hybrid diaper and I love it, but I can't speak about these diapers in particular. Link 
4. Rumparooz Lil Joeys:  Again, I have a rumparooz one size diaper.  I like it because it has internal gussets.  Lots of moms LOVE this lil joey diaper (it has a snap down for the cord.)  Link

Pocket NBs:  have to stuff an insert in, may be quite difficult to stuff those tiny pockets, AIOs probably easier for NBs.

1. Fuzzibunz XS:  Another CD mom favorite is fuzzibunz..I think the biggest downfall would be stuffing the teeny tiny pocket.  Link
2. Thirsties Duo Size 1: I literally know hardly anything about this diaper but tons of people like their Thirsties. Link

Other dipes:

1. Kissaluvs Size 0 with cover:  I think when I CD my next baby I'll probably get some fitteds or flats with covers for that newborn phase since I have mostly one size diapers or diaper that grow with baby for once they get bigger.  Link
2. Sustainable Babyish fitted or flats with cover:  see above!  Link
3. Ragababe 2-step size 0:  This diaper will grow with the baby at least a little bit, and you already know my love hate relationship with RagaBabe. :) Link

Sometimes I feel like I have too much to say about cloth diapers and it comes out making no sense at all. So if you got anything from the above...congratulations you are probably the only one! :)  I have linked some awesome reviews below but here's what I would probably recommend/what I will probably do.

I would definitely stick with all-in-one diapers and/or fitted/flats with covers for a newborn.  You will be changing their diaper so often and they are so tiny that I think all-in-ones would probably be the easiest.  Put it on, take it off, toss it in the laundry.  No extra fuss or anything with that.  Flats/prefolds can be great however because you can fold them to whatever size you want and slap a cover over them.  Also, later on you can use them as burp rags or as inserts to other diapers and covers you have!

I really can't do this review justice without linking you to these amazing reviews at dirtydiaperlaundry.com (a great blog).  They did an extensive (and I mean extensive review) you can see here and here.  These reviews are seriously awesome.  She talks about whether or not they are cord friendly, leaks/absorbency, overall rating and whether she would use them again and THEN she discusses the diapers versus their one size counterparts.  I would definitely say though that all babies are different with cloth diapering too.  A diaper that works well for my baby might not work as well for yours based on their size - thighs, skinny/chubbiness, length of torso, etc.

Please leave me a comment, message me, whatever if you have any questions.  I seriously love talking about cloth diapering and if I don't immediately know the answer to your question or what to tell you, I'll gladly point you in the right direction on where to find the answer after I do some research!!! :)

Are you kidding me???

If you saw my post early today about diapers, let me update you on the situation.

The diapers sold out in about 5 minutes, maybe 6.  I had an account, I had all pages ready to reload with the 2 items I wanted, and it took 12 minutes for the pages to load.  And when they did, only newborn and size 0 diapers were left.  No diapers for me this time around.  Maybe in July, I'm crossing my fingers.

I did buy wipes though, since those are always in stock.  Many cloth diapering moms will tell you to make your own wipes, but I've heard such great things about these wipes I wanted to try them.  And there are some in red, white and blue for the 4th.  Oh well, at least something is coming in the mail.  (And a nice person from Wedding Bee sent me an AIO and I should be getting a swim diaper any day.)

Until July...

No sleep last night...

due to my excitement at the possibility of getting new diapers today.  It's sad really.

Ragababes are 2-step hybrid diapers (similar to the GroVia diapers I reviewed on my cloth diapering page) and they also have all-in-ones (which I don't have any of).  I'm going to try to buy 2-3 diapers today in their stocking.

See, here's the thing.  They moved their production from the east coast to the Midwest and don't have a full stocking.  So they do 1-2 stockings of diapers each month until they get themselves settled.  Well, I'm practically dying to try them due to rave reviews I've been reading.  (I may be obsessed with cloth diapering...I'm not sure.)  So basically, they are doing their stocking today at 2 pm, so I have to get online and refresh...refresh...refresh the web page until I can add the diapers I want to my cart.  And then I pray I am one of the lucky ones that's gets the diapers they want.

I couldn't sleep last night I am so excited.  I've already mapped out exactly what I want to add to my cart and priced it all out today.  I've been stalking the website and learning all I can and now all I do is wait until 2 pm.

I mean...look at these beauties! :)

See you later, I'm going to restart my computer to make sure it's as fast as it can possibly be.  I might also do some hard drive cleaning to increase speed for diaper purchasing....

Hi, my name is Melissa and I'm addicted to cloth diapering.

(Everyone in unison: "Hi, Melissa...")  Not funny?

Diaper trade!

I love blogs.  I love writing this one.  I love reading them.  I spend most of my free time during the day (a.k.a. when Kayla is napping) reading blogs.  One of my favorite wedding blogs, Wedding Bee, has discussion boards.  I still venture over there multiple times a day because they have "Nesting" boards, including newlyweds, pets, babies, etc.  I obviously follow the baby boards.

This is where I first started learning about cloth diapering, so I post quite a bit about cloth diapers.  I ventured upon one of my favorite boards the other day "Baby Updates" and found that one of my fellow Momma Bees had a photo of her son in a Ragababe cloth diaper.  These diapers are at the very top of my "I'm dying to try" list.  They have all-in-one and all-in-two cloth diapers.  The problem is, they are moving their production center and only have diapers in stock twice a month until they get up and running.  So I'm stalking the website to find out when they will restock for late June, and I'm sure I'll be that crazy lady refreshing the page until I can add 1 or 2 diapers to my shopping bag....

This is all semi besides the point.  This woman messaged me and told me she'd be happy to send me her small all in one diaper her sister got her since her little one doesn't fit into the size very well.  I told her that would be awesome and in turn I would send her my rarely worn itti bitti tutto.  I got this diaper for free with a coupon purchase at Kelly's closet, my favorite diaper retailer, and I have recently found out that Kayla is sensitive to this diaper in particular since it has a suede lining on the inserts.  She's excited because she hasn't tried the itti bitti and I'm pumped to get a new free diaper!  Yippee, I love blogs!!

Bittersweet Weekend

So, Kayla has been doing pretty well on our new sleep training.  At night, she usually only cries for less than 10 minutes until she falls asleep.  We've had 1 or 2 rough nights after rough days, but they haven't been so bad.  Last night was night #4 on the program.  I had decided she didn't really need or like the rice cereal over the week, but I decided yesterday to maybe try it again.  I was alone with her all day yesterday since Justin played volleyball.  She took 2 one hour naps and one VERY long 2 hour and 20 min nap in the middle of the day.  I started our 30 minute bedtime routine at about 6:30 and gave her the small amount of rice cereal mixed with 2 oz of breastmilk along with 3 more oz of breastmilk.  She cried for about 12 min, fell asleep for a few minutes and cried for about 5 more minutes before falling asleep.  This sounds like more crying than normal but it was actually great because I didn't have to go up and calm her down or soothe her...she did that on her own!  And she slept without 1 whimper until 2:10 am.  This is a HUGE step because she's always crying about an hour after we put her down and we often have to soothe her back to sleep at least once before midnight.  I love progress, it makes my patience and her crying worth it!

The reason the weekend was bittersweet is that on Saturday night, Kayla actually slept quite well and woke up at about 1-1:30 am to eat.  After she ate, I put her back in the pack n play and back to dreamland she went.  While she did that, I tried to figure out why I was super dizzy and nauseous.  I then proceeded to pray to the porcelain gods for the first time (not due to alcohol) in I don't even know how long.  It was horrible.  I think I got food poisoning from something I ate on Saturday.  Needless to say, being sick in the middle of the night when you infant is actually SLEEPING sucks pretty badly.

We are both doing great today though, and Aunt Meg comes home from her very long time away.  Mommy is pretty freaking excited she doesn't have to walk Samson anymore.  Also, Dirty Diaper Laundry is having a "flats and handwashing challenge" for cloth diapering moms and for moms who are on a tight budget as an example of how you can cloth diaper for little money even without a washer/dryer.  I'd love to participate, but I don't actually have any flats.  Flats are basically old school cloth diapers.  It sounds horrible I'm sure to some of my older readers who used these, but since I have been trying to learn all I can about cloth diapering and I'm slightly obsessed (much to the dismay of my husband and our pocketbook), I've been reading up on flats.  I totally want to try them with some covers (new and ones that I have) but we don't really have the money to buy more diapers right now.  Lots of moms like them a lot because they are soft, easy to wash and quick drying and you can use them in many ways, like stuffing your pocket diapers, as an insert in covers and you can fold them like a kite or origami and use a pin or a snappi like "old school" diapers.  Oh to have money right now...

Lastly, if you are a mom, or are interested in blogging/mom bloggers...you seriously need to check out Kelle Hampton.  She writes the most inspiring posts, shares some photography skills and inspiration, and always is showing me websites and cool things I can buy (I have a problem).  I have her blog linked on the right side of my page but check it out here.