Pretty laundry

A few weeks ago we finally started actually having some sunshine and warmer days. I also got some Softbums inserts off Diaperswappers FSOT (For Sale or Trade) with some truly ugly stains, and decided to try out the "dry them in the sun" stain treatment claims... This is how my "clothesline" looked the first 2 weeks:

Pretty exciting, huh?

But it worked! It got all the scary little "someone-else's-stains" right out! I've been trying to hang them out more to save some energy, and take advantage of the nice bacteria-killing, stain-removing sunshine. It's getting a little harder now that our trees have nice big shady leaves growing on them, but my "clothesline" also got an update (mostly thanks to our dryer dying...)

Aren't they pretty? Thanks to a "seconds" sale and the recent BumGenius coupon deal that's been going on, I now have all 9 colors that they make. (The light pink and white ones are inside, not dirty yet, with about 1/3 again as many other diapers... I actually have two pink pockets, but one is mysteriously missing, and I am SO curious... at least I'm fairly sure it's CLEAN and missing. At least, I really hope so!)

Did I ever mention...

that my diapers smell fantastic these days? The things I've changed (since the evil days of stinky "clean, just out of the dryer" dipes) are:
1. I wash at least every 3 days (even though I usually only have half a load at that point - I'm sure that will change with a newborn around!)
2. I try to rinse the diapers ever so slightly before I throw them in the "pail" (just to make sure they -stay- nice and wet, and to dilute the pee and poo a little) I also spray a little Bac-Out on the poopy diapers, but that's mostly just because, and in case it helps with any stinkiness in the pail. Another thing we haven't had a problem with, by the way. It's in the basement, open to the air, and I never smell it when I walk in that room. I don't stick my nose in it or anything, but...
3. I switched our detergent to Tide Free. Tide isn't recommended for cloth diapers, but there are just too many people that use it and find it to be the best for actually getting everything clean! Jaina hasn't shown any sensitivity to it, (that can happen - I hope it doesn't bother the new baby!) and we haven't had any other issues since I started using it. The powder is supposed to work better than the liquid for most people.

So here is my current wash routine:
Cold pre-rinse.  Hot wash/cold rinse (usually on medium) with Tide Free (up to the "1" line or less), extra cold rinse. I sometimes add a little eCover to that last rinse. It is a cloth-diaper-safe fabric softener, and helps keep things squishy. I try to hang my pockets and covers to dry, and put all the prefolds and inserts in the dryer, or on nice days, hang it all outside. The sun is a great stain-remover!

Cloth diaper craziness (and a giveway you should enter...)

I am having so much fun with cloth right now - I only wish I had a cute little newborn to try a lot of these diapers on! I really need to go through everything I have and SELL some stuff to make room (and money) for the new things I'm getting. My current interests are Softbums and the Flip system. Still waiting for my first Flip cover and inserts, but they should get here this week! I'll be sure to let you know what I think... I got one Softbums cover and 6 inserts used on Diaperswappers.com. It is an All-in-Two, which means it's a cover with a snap-in liner. If the liner is just wet, (or, magically, if poo doesn't get on the cover) you just snap it out and snap another one in. If the fleece liner of the cover gets very wet you can let it air dry before you use it again.  Supposedly you can use this thing all day (or even more, if it still smells fine when dry - it sometimes smells a little when wet). I am trying it today - let's see how long we can get it to last. :) Jaina is modeling how trim it is - almost like a disposable! (They have tons of cute colors, I just managed to snag an "oyster.")

You should all enter the great giveaway they're having this month. Find it HERE!

Newborn stash

I've almost finished my newborn stash, I think.  I've got about 8 preemie prefolds, a dozen newborn ones (all from greenmountaindiaper.com - I love them!), 3 XS Thirsties All-in-Ones, 3 flats to try, 5 PUL wraps, 1 tiny adorable fleece wrap, and several fitteds that I've attempted to make myself. Since I don't have a baby to try them on, I don't think I'd better spend time making many more just yet in case they don't work at all...
All I should need now (newborn-wise) are a few snappis and another cover or two. I think I'll wait to see if we need any "pink" or "blue" additions before I order them... As the baby gets slightly bigger, I know I want to try the Flip system from cottonbabies. It sounds great and gets good reviews! If we have a little boy there are also several pink BumGenius 3.0 pockets I need to sell, and I'll probably "need" to buy a few more blue and green... :)

Newborn (and even "small") cloth

is completely adorable. I've already received all of the stuff I listed before, and it's so cute and tiny compared to the largest stuff I have (which I've been selling off - keeping the one-size and some of the more gender neutral stuff for now, but trying to make a little money to build our newborn stash otherwise...)

So I haven't really been doing any cloth-diapering in like 5-6 months now. Reilly is potty-trained, and Jaina goes through like 3-4 diapers a day, maybe. I think a lot of my stink issues were from waiting 4-5 days to wash, because I just didn't have enough diapers to make a load until then, plus it got annoying trying to fit my rather chubby Little Miss into all her cute clothes. The comination was not a winning one.
BUT since we're expecting a new baby in June, I know I want to do cloth much of the time (though maybe not at night. we'll have to see how it's going). They just go through SO many diapers, that cloth will make a lot of sense, and if I'm havig to wash every other day, I think things will smell much better around here. So I've been looking through my "stash" and seeing what I want to sell and keep, (which is hard, since we're going for "surprise" on the gender) and figuring out what I need to CD a newborn. Jaina was 4 months when we started, so I've never done this! I wish I knew boy or girl, so shopping would be easier, but it's probably just as well, since I shouldn't be spending a lot of money right now. Or maybe I should be more disciplined about selling and THEN buying. :) I even have it in my head that I might be able to MAKE some smaller fitted diapers. (could be interesting, since my sewing level is still at "beginner") I want to do it all NOW, but it really makes more sense to wait until our little June bug is born and we know what colors we can use. These are some things I've already bought:

Yes, I know, if it's a boy Jeremy won't let me use the flowered one, green or not. I wasn't thinking super clearly, and it was on clearance. At least I could -try- it and see how I feel about the FuzziBunz fit. :)

Cloth smell resolved?

So, I did a little research into what I could do to improve my diaper smell, and the first thing I tried has actually helped so far. I've been adding vinegar (just random amounts, to random soaks and/or rinses) and things are smelling better around here. So we're back on the cloth bandwagon, and trying to stop buying so many disposables. Actually, I'm hoping to potty train Reilly in the next few weeks? I'll let you know how that goes... I'm scared!