Cloth diapering 101: what you need to know

I'm guest blogging this week over at Pure Natural Diva. The subject? Cloth diapers, of course! Remember way back when, I promised to bring you a more in depth look at the health issues associated with disposables? It's all covered in my post over at PND.

Check it out!

Rocky Mountain cloth diaper giveaway

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. The lucky winner is #65, Katie!

In the 4 months since I've started this blog, I've been privileged to "meet" so many amazing women. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to network and share with moms who share many of the same ideals that I do.

Mary is one of those moms. Some of you may remember that she was kind enough to share her amazing homebirth story with me about a month ago. You can find it here and here. She recently started a new blog, The Rosie Layne, which is now among my favorite blogs to visit. It's full of lots of useful information, healthy recipes and other ideas for living naturally. Today is "Wellness Wednesday" over there, so you should totally go visit.

Mary is just such a sweetie, that she sent me TWO fantastic diapers from her store. One for my Peanut and one to giveaway to my readers.

Let me tell you a little bit about the Rocky Mountain Diaper. First of all, the print is adorable. I am in love with animal print diapers and this one just might be my favorite. Secondly, this pocket diaper has an absolutely ingenious internal snap system that makes it a one-size-fits-all diaper. An elastic band extends through the leg gusset and it can be gently pulled and snapped into one of three different sizes. Some one size diapers come with literally dozens of snaps on the front of the diaper and it can be quite confusing. Not a problem here - just one neat row of snaps. Take a look at the difference in the smallest size setting and the largest setting!

This diaper has been in our diaper rotation for over two weeks now and I just love it. It's cute, it has snaps, it performs great and it'll fit her until she's potty trained. What more can you ask of a diaper?

You can find more pictures of Peanut sportin' this fabulous diaper in my last post.

To enter: I'm going to give your four ways to enter - you can choose one or choose them all!

(1) Become a follower of Mary's blog, The Rosie Layne, and then leave a comment on this post letting me know that you did.
(2) Follow Mary on twitter, then leave a comment letting me know!
(3) Tweet about this giveaway using @MommaMolly and @RosieLayne, then come on back here and leave me the link.
(4) You can tweet about this giveaway once daily - just be sure to come back here and leave another comment letting me know that you did!

I'll stop taking entries on August 24th. I'll announce the winner sometime during the Monday night cloth diaper chat on Twitter and then contact the winner on Tuesday, the 25th.

Happy Entering!

The Diaper Sprayer - Review and Giveaway

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. The winner is lucky #162, Denise!

If you've been reading my blog for even a week, you've probably figured out that I'm a pretty big cloth diaper advocate. They're better for baby, better for the earth and super cute.

But even I must admit that there is one big downside.

You can't wash a diaper full of poo. Which means something has to be done with it before you can wash it. In the "olden" days, this involved dunking the soiled diaper in the toilet to remove the poo (Try doing that without getting something suspect on your hands). Up until a day ago, this was the method I used too. Well, my poo removing method just catapulted into the 21st century.

Let me introduce you to my new best friend. The Diaper Sprayer.

The diaper sprayer is a nifty contraption that looks like the spray nozzle from your kitchen sink. It attaches to the plumbing behind your toilet and hangs out there just waiting for a stinky diaper that needs to be attended too. It has an adjustable nozzle so you can control the pressure of the spray and just high pressure wash that poo right where it belongs - the toilet.

I could have asked my hubby to install the sprayer for me, but I wanted to test out the ease of installation for you all. I did have to ask him to find me a wrench, but other than that, I installed the sprayer from start to finish in just under 10 minutes. All by myself. Easy, peasy! And it works great. Peanut afforded me the opportunity to test it less than an hour after I installed it and - seriously - I have NO idea why I never invested in one of these before!

These should be a staple in every cloth diapering home. There are officially no more downsides to cloth diapering.

Here are a few of things that set The Diaper Sprayer apart from it's competition.

Quality. Plumbing is one of those things that needs to be done right. If you install a sprayer with plastic fittings, chances are you'll be dealing with leaks. The Diaper Sprayer is manufactured with metal fittings that are even covered by a one year warranty.

Price. You get what you pay for. And for $34.99 and free shipping in the US, you get an awesome, well made product that will last.

Customer Service. I sent an inquiry to The Diaper Sprayer and literally heard back from them within 10 minutes. If that's not amazing customer service, I don't know what is.

So....want to win one? Thought so!

The awesome folks at The Diaper Sprayer have donated a classic white diapers sprayer for me to give away to one of my readers.

To enter: Visit The Diaper Sprayer website and take a look around. You really should check out the adorable dog shaped nozzle heads they have available! Post a comment and share your current poo removal system and why you want to try the diaper sprayer. This comment is mandatory and must be posted before any additional entries will be counted.

For additional entries:

(1) Become a follower of this blog and then leave a comment.
(2) Become a subscriber and then leave a comment.
(3) Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (make sure you come back and leave a comment with your tweet link!).
(4) You can tweet about this giveaway once daily - just be sure to come back here and leave another comment letting me know that you did!
(5) Blog about this giveaway and then leave me a comment with the URL.

I will be reviewing each entry, so make sure you follow the rules!

I will close the comments on this post at midnight on August 22nd and announce the winner on this post sometime the following day. If I can find your email address on your blogger profile, I'll also jot you an email letting you know you're a winner.

Happy Entering!

Cloth diapers: All about wool

For the first time ever, I'm participating in a blog carnival. A cloth diaper blog carnival. Yup, I'm talking about diapers again. This carnival is being hosted by Kim from Dirty Diaper Laundry and some of my favorite cloth diapering moms are participating. So you should totally check out their posts - they'll be listed at the end of this post.

17 months ago, when I first started cloth diapering, I had a very basic knowledge of diapers. I knew just enough to get by. It would be impossible for me to try to list everything I've learned in the past year and 5 months, so I'm just going to talk about one particular topic that I'm still learning about.

Most people (including me) have never given a thought to what mothers used to cover their babies diapers before in the invention of plastic covers. Those pioneer woman had to have a way to control wet nappies, right? The solution? Wool.

Wool is extremely absorbent. It can hold a ton (well, not really a ton, but you know) of liquid. Additionally, wool contains a natural lanolin, which makes it fairly waterproof. For use as a diaper cover, wool can be lanolized to be practically bulletproof to leaks.

Because it's a natural fiber, it's extremely breathable which means it's actually cooler for your baby than a plastic cover. To sweeten the deal even more, get this: You don't have to wash a wool cover after each use.

What? Won't it get all stinky and nasty? Isn't that unsanitary?

Actually, the lanolin that natural exists in wool is also anti-bacterial. No bacteria means - no smell. You will need to hand wash your wool occasionally, and obviously if your sweet child gets some not-so-sweet poo on them, but otherwise they only need a few hours to air out between uses.

After learning all this, I decided I wanted to give wool a try. I'm a decent crocheter, so I worked up a pair of shorts for Peanut to wear over her fitted diapers.

I used a pair of the Peanut child's regular shorts as a size model and just kind of made up the pattern as I went. I lanolized them using a leftover bottle of Lansinoh (t's 100% lanolin!) by dissolving a pea sized amount in hot, hot water and then added that and the shorts to a sink full of tepid water. Soaked them for about 10 minutes, rolled out the excess moisture with a towel and then laid them flat to dry.

So. Anyway. I pretty much love them. We tried them out this afternoon for the first time and I was so impressed with the absorbancy. Peanut adores them and threw a fit when I took them off her. I'll definitely be picking up some more wool yarn this week. I can't wait to try a pair of longies for the fall and winter months! I'm sad that I didn't discover wool before Peanut was born. She was a February baby and I'm just imagining all the adorable teeny, tiny, newborn pants I could have made her!

Over the weekend, I was talking to my sister about cloth diapering and explaining to her how wool works. She was understandable skeptical - especially when I mentioned the part about not washing in between wearing. I felt the need to defend myself.

Me: "You know, I'm just mildly obessesed with cloth diapering if you compare me to some other cloth diapering moms. They are just crazy about diapers."

Sister: "You mean, crazier than crocheting a pair of wool shorts in the middle of July?"

Well, folks - she may have a point. I may be a wee bit obsessed with my diapers.

Fuzzibunz diaper review and giveaway - 7/30

And the winner is....commenter #1, Slee! Congrats! I'll be mailing out your diapers soon.

CONTEST NOW CLOSED.

One of the very first pocket diapers that I put on my little tiny baby girl was a red XS FuzziBunz. It was one of my favorites! I was recently given the opportunity to try the new and updated version of the FuzziBunz perfect fit diaper. It was no surprise that I love this diaper just as much now as I did then.

Peanut was rockin' her bubblegum FuzziBunz yesterday afternoon and I was very impressed with the absorbency of the microterry insert. I have no doubt that this diaper is going to make a great addition to our overnight diaper collection.

My cloth diaper stash is currently split about 50/50 between diapers fastened with velcro and those fastened with snaps. For a crafty toddler, the snaps are definitely my friend lately. Another reason to love FuzziBunz! The snaps are super easy to get the hang of and allow each size to be generous on the weight limits. At 18 lbs, Peanut still has plenty of room in her size Medium.

Buy one: Head on over to the FuzziBunz Store and check out what they have to offer. In addition to the popular perfect fit diapers, they just recently started production of the one size diaper, designed to fit your baby from 7-35 lbs. At just $17.95 including the insert, these diapers are about the best value you will find in cloth diapers.

Win one: The great folks over at FuzziBunz sent me a lovely lavender perfect fit diaper in size large. It's just sitting on my counter, waiting for a home! Want to win it? Thought so!

To enter: Visit the FuzziBunz website and post a comment telling me what your favorite feature of the perfect fit diaper is. Is it the great colors? The snap system? This entry is mandatory and must be made for additional entries to be considered.

For additional entries:

(1) Become a follower of this blog and then leave a comment.
(2) Become a subscriber and then leave a comment.
(3) Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (make sure you come back and leave a comment with your tweet link!).
(4) You can tweet about this giveaway once daily - just be sure to come back here and leave another comment letting me know that you did!
(5) Blog about this giveaway and then leave me a comment with the URL.

I will be reviewing each entry, so make sure you follow the rules!

I will close the comments on this post at midnight on July 30th and announce the winner sometime the following day.

Happy Entering!

Drybees cloth diaper review and giveaway!

I've been using a variety of Drybees diapers for over a year now and I can honestly say that they are among my favorite cloth diapers.

While Drybees offers a variety of cloth diapers, my absolute favorite is the Hybrid All-in-One (AIO). This diaper is made with a built in micofiber insert that makes the diaper completely functioning without adding an insert or putting on a cover.

Now for the "hybrid" part: This diaper is made with a nifty little pocket in the back that allows you to double the absorbancy of the diaper by adding an insert. I just love the flexiblity this gives me! For everyday use, the built in insert offers plenty of absorbancy for Peanut. If I know we are going out to run errands or she's going down for a nap, I'll throw in a doubler to give her a little extra protection in the event that she doesn't get a diaper change for a few hours.

In short, this I totally love this diaper! It really has it all - super trim fit, adorable prints and colors and superior leak protection.

Now, let's get to the good part. I'm sitting here looking at six gorgeous AIO hybrid diapers that the wonderful folks over at Drybees just sent me! And while I'm extremely tempted to keep a couple for myself, I'm giving them ALL away! Here's how the giveaway will work:

Since I have six diapers, I want to spread the fluffy love around. That means there will be SIX winners! I have two diapers of each size, one in a girly color or print, one in a gender neutral or boy color.

First Entry (required):

Leave me a comment with the following information:

(1) What size and color preference (boy or girl) you are entering to win, and

(2) Which other products from the Drybees site you might be interested in.

Addtional Entries:

(1) Become a follower of this blog and then leave a comment.

(2) Become a subscriber and then leave a comment.

(3) Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (make sure you come back and leave a comment with your tweet link!).

(4) Blog about this giveaway and then leave me a comment with the URL.

I will be reviewing each entry, so make sure you follow the rules!

Contest will end on July 2nd and the winners will be announced on July 3rd. If you don't have an email link on your blogger page or blog, please include it in your comment! If I don't get an email response from you within 48 hours, I'll chose someone else.

Happy entering!

Cloth diapers: My stash and some fluffy pictures

I'm the "Fluffy Momma of the Week" over at Dirty Diaper Laundry, so you should totally go check that out. :-)

While I was preparing my interview answers for DDL, I revisited some of my old cloth diaper pictures. I forgot how obsessed I used to be with my diapers! Unless you cloth diaper your baby, I realize that being obsessed with something that is designed to catch your baby's poo sounds totally insane, but I'm sure all you CD mommas can relate.

Here's Peanut at about 3 months old in a Blueberry Minky Wrap that I scored off a diaper swap. She still fits in it and still loves the feel of the soft minky material.

Here she is just a couple days ago (she was 16 months yesterday, sniff, sniff) in a Happy Heiny OS pocket diaper. (And yes, I do love animal prints, thanks for wondering!)

I snapped a few pictures of my stash yesterday and I thought I'd share with you all! It's really grown over the past year! These pictures are missing about 6 diapers that are in the pail, dozens of doublers and inserts, a dozen prefolds that I never use, a stack of homemade baby wipes and two pail liners. Other than that, this is it!

The far left pile is all my fitteds (Kissaluvs, Drybees, Thirsties, Happy Heinys, Nana Bottoms and Tiny Tush), 2nd pile is all my AIOs (Bumkins, Bluberry, WAHM, Drybees, Mommy's Touch, DreamEze), 3rd pile is my BG pockets (missing about 3 of those that are in the wash), and finally, all my covers (Thirsties, Bummis Superbrites, Blueberry Minky).

I'm adding this picture just because I love it and also so I can preach about how wonderful the fresh air and sun is for your baby's diapers! The sun lifts stains that even bleach won't touch - it's truly amazing! I desperately miss my clothesline at the old house, hubby still hasn't gotten around to putting one up at the new place, so I'm stuck with the dryer.

I'd love to see your cloth diaper stash! I'm going to throw up a MckLinky so we can all see them. Come on! You know you want to take some pictures of your diapers!

Why I Use Cloth Diapers

Choosing to cloth diaper my baby was an easy decision for me. First of all, it wasn't new to me. My mom cloth diapered a couple of my younger siblings and I have memories of dunking soiled diapers in a bucket. I didn't really give cloth diapering my own child a thought until I ran across a cloth diapering forum online when I was pregnant with Peanut. The pictures of "today's" cloth diapers looked so different! There was a huge variety and some of them just looked like a fancy bloomers. I began my research and quickly decided that this was the way to go.

Parents choose to use cloth for a number of reasons. For many people, it's all about the environmental benefits. That wasn't a factor for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about doing what's best for the planet, but it had very little bearing on my decision. There are two specific reasons that I choose to use cloth:

1. To Save Money. No matter which way you slice it, using cloth is cheaper than using disposables. The biggest downside to this is that the initial investment is a little painful to your purse, but you could easily diaper your child through the age of two for less than $500. To save even more money, I wait until I have a full load until I wash (usually every two days) and hang my diapers to dry whenever possible.
2. It's Better for My Baby. This was the main reason I chose cloth over plastic. I'm in the middle of some interesting research on this topic, but here is the synopsis: Disposable diapers contain numerous dangerous chemicals. First, they contain a toxin called Dioxin, which the EPA has labeled the most toxic of all the cancer-linked chemicals. Secondly, they contain a chemical called Tribuyl-tin that can be absorbed through the skin and has been linked to hormonal problems in humans and animals. Lastly, they contain a substance called sodium polyacrylate. It's the chemical that is added to the diapers inner layer to make them absorbant. Ever notice little crystal-like beads sticking to your baby's bottom? That's sodium polyacrylate. It's now illegal for use in tampons because it can cause toxic shock syndrome, a deadly condition - but for some reason, it's still legal to use in diapers.

After doing my initial research when I was pregnant with Peanut, choosing cloth over the nasty mess I've mentioned above seemed like a no-brainer.

So there you have it. I'll admit that there have been times when I've had to remind myself why I'm using cloth, but for the most part it's been a whole lot easier than I expected. If you are just starting out - give yourself about a 3 month learning curve. It takes awhile to figure out which diapers work best for your baby and your particular lifestyle.

I have many more posts planned on this topic, including some product reviews and how-to segments, so stay tuned!