Tidbits.

- I had a great Mothers Day and I hope all you other mommies did as well. The day started out a little emotionally rough for me... I had 2 sick boys and going to church alone {I had committed to attending & taking pics for my friends daughters dedication}, but luckily the day ended on a much higher note. I am so thankful to be chosen to be Jaxon & Cohen's mommy!

- Have you ever tried Zumba? I did last night. I was afraid to go alone, but then the thought of inviting a friend and totally humiliating myself was just as daunting. It was so fun and such a great workout! Definitely would recommend it if you have the chance to try it out sometime. A church that is a couple blocks from my house hosts a class every tues & thurs, for free! It's an outreach, which I think is a great idea.

- Thank you to everyone who prayed alongside Angie and Brian... he got his results yesterday. {see her blog for more info} Please continue to keep them in your prayers!

- I realized the other day that I have helped 11 families start cloth diapering since we started, all using bumGenius. That's $22,000 saved from my friends pockets, and more if they have more children. After telling that to Tyler, he promptly replied "and why isn't bumGenius paying you for the referrals?" Ha! Men...

- Sleep is a sensitive subject around here as Cohen has decided lately to make 2:30, 3:45, and 5:45 his start-times for the day. While I'm not a fan of letting him "cry it out", I do wish we had enough space in our house that I could let him cry long enough to make himself tired. Unfortunately it's another downside of a small house. I am seriously exhausted!

- I've lost 14 pounds since starting Jillian's 30 day shred... while I should be happy about that, I still wish it was more. Meredith's post the other day made me wish I would have taken my measurements before starting.

- Have y'all seen the show "Extreme Couponing"? I want to learn from those ladies but the world of couponing seems so overwhelming. I mean, over $1000 worth of food for free? Pure insanity.

- Cohen is only 6 months old and I feel myself getting baby fever already. Did I just admit that out loud? I want a baby girl something fierce!

- Jaxon's speech gets better by the day and I'm constantly amazed at the new things I hear him say. Daddy taught him how to say "best mommy" for Mothers Day, and when he did, I said "awwwww! thanks jax!" He said "danks dax!" His first complete sentence a couple weeks ago was "ewwwwww cohen, you stink!" That's definitely one for the baby book. :)

Fluffy love.

Another reason I love cloth diapers?

Pants are usually not necessary anymore.

They're so cute, who would want to cover them up?

And no, this is not an excuse to walk around pant-less. Unless you wear cute cloth diapers, that is.

Less laundry = a happy mama.

Time to get down and dirty.

You all know the love I have for cloth diapers. I love them. In fact, on Valentines Day when the hubs and I were out for dinner, we were playing the random question game... and of course the inevitable "what 3 items would you grab if the house was on fire?"question came up... to which I replied, "oh! the cloth diapers of course." ha!

{see my previous posts here and here in case you're getting caught up}

Anyway, I feel like it's also pretty inevitable that there's going to be some things I don't like about them as well. So in my effort to be realistic and honest, we're going to talk about that today.

First and foremost, now that Cohen is eating solid food and not exclusively nursing, using cloth diapers is much more of a chore. It's not as easy as taking the diaper off, removing the insert, and throwing it all in a bag and washing them. Unfortunately now, I have to spray the poopy diaper. And let me just tell you... I hate this diaper sprayer. Hate it. Almost as much as I hate cotton balls. Seriously, I think it might be the worst invention ever. I've gotten a few tips from friends that have helped, but my opinion on this thing will never change. I've sprayed myself in the face multiple times, I've sprayed poopy water everywhere, and the thing I hate the most? Carrying a dripping, soaking wet diaper from the bathroom back into the nursery where the wet bag is. It's just gross.

I know there's the flushable liners I could use {which would catch the poop, then I just throw the liner away}... but at 6cents a piece, it seems to defeat the purpose of using cloth diapers. I'm using them to save money, so it just doesn't make sense to me.

My last complaint. My son is apparently a "heavy wetter" and I cannot figure out how to prevent nighttime leaks, without changing his diaper through the night, which wakes him up and remember my rule: never wake a sleeping baby. I have tried doubling a newborn insert with a regular insert. I've tried a hemp insert with a regular insert. Tonight I may try 2 hemp inserts... I don't know what else to do. But one thing I am sure of... I am tired of washing his sheets every.single.morning.

That's it. See, there's not many things I don't like about them... I'd still recommend them to anyone {and I do!}. I suppose one way to fix one of the problems would be to not give my son any solid food, but that would be mean. And I don't want him to be 5 years old still nursing.... not my cup of tea and I don't think his kindergarten teacher would appreciate that. {i'm joking, by the way.}

If you are a CDing mama and have any advice for me, I am all ears... seriously, I am desperate for some help over here. If you're not a CDing mama, you should be. Just saying. :)

Cloth diaper Q&A

Can I just tell you how much I love helping people, whether that's as simple as praying for them, helping them by watching their kids, encouraging someone on a bad day, or answering questions about a subject that I'm passionate about?

I love it when people think of me to ask me questions, so imagine my excitement when I get a facebook message or email from multiple people asking me for more information on cloth diapers, or help with breastfeeding. I.love.it.

This post is geared towards those ladies, so if you have no interest in it, feel free to mentally 'check out'. I thought I would post the questions I've received and the answers I've given, so that I can direct people here instead of replying to multiple messages. :)

1. What brand of diapers do you use, and how did you decide on them when there's so many choices out there?

We chose the bumGenius 4.0 one size diapers (in snaps, not hook/loop)... solely for the reason that I didn't feel like checking out multiple brands and trying out different types and these had been recommended to me by a lot of people that I trust! I know there's lots and lots of kinds, and I'm sure they're all great in their own way... but we LOVE ours. Also love that they are one size, so we'll never have to buy diapers again. No regrets!

2. How many do you need in order to CD (cloth diaper) exclusively?

The "experts" say you need 24 in order to only have to do laundry every 2-3 days. I have 22 diapers, and I think it's more than enough. I wash every 2nd day, it just works best with my schedule.

3. Is there any special detergents you're supposed to use, or can you just use a regular kind?

Here's a list of detergents that are CD safe: http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html

We use Rock Green detergent because that's what our local store sells, but I love it and will never switch.

4. But really, what do you do with the poopy diapers?

This question makes me laugh because I used to literally think the same exact thing. If you're a breastfeeding mama, all you do is throw the diaper in the wash... poop and all. Once the baby starts eating solids, or if you formula feed, you have to spray the diaper prior to washing it. You can do this by buying a diaper sprayer. We have one, but haven't used it yet, because I breastfeed and Cohen does not eat solids yet. As gross as it may sound to you if you don't have a child yet, you will soon realize that the things that come out of your child will not gross you out as bad as you think they will. Seriously, poop is no big deal around here.

5. What do you do with the dirty diapers until wash day?

You will store them in a wet bag. I have one large size for home, and one small size for my diaper bag. You throw the dirty diaper in the bag, then on wash day you dump the diapers into your washer, flip the bag inside out, and it gets washed also. This is great so that you're never touching a dirty diaper.

6. What do you do when you're on the go and your baby has a dirty diaper?

Same thing you would if you were using disposables, except you obviously won't throw it away. You simply take the dirty diaper, put it in your wet bag that you keep in your diaper bag, and add it to your stash of dirty diapers once you get home. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

7. Do you have to hang them to dry, or can you put them in the dryer?

It is recommended that you dry the inserts using your dryer, but hang/air dry the covers. I hang/air dry all of it on sunny days... the less I can use my dryer, the better... less of an electricity bill and also so much better for the diapers!

8. What made you want to cloth diaper?

First and foremost, the amount of money we'll save. Secondly, the fact that I'm home with the boys already, so why not? Third - they're flippin' cuter than cute. Fourth, they are great on my baby's super sensitive skin! Fifth - the environment! Disposables leave behind an average of 2.7 tons of non-biodegradable waste per child!

I think that's all the questions I've received but if you have more, please ask!

Like I've said a million times, I'm no expert but I'm always happy to let you know what we're doing and what does/doesn't work for us.

Only one regret with cloth diapers... that we didn't do it sooner!

The big move.

I always admired people who cloth diapered. I remember looking into it while I was pregnant with Jaxon after hearing statistic after statistic about how much money you could save. I was about half sold on the idea... the saving money part sounded great, but seriously, what about the poop? I simply googled "cloth diapers" and about 1,888,000 results popped onto my screen. Holy overwhelmed. I literally "x'd" out of that screen faster than you could imagine. Shortly after, a lot of my blogger friends had babies and started cloth diapering. I remember their posts about the topic but skimmed over it... the terms they were using were a foreign language to me. All-in-one's... prefolds... pockets... yep, sounded like spanish to me at the time.

Fast forward about 2 years. A couple of my friends from small group mentioned to me that they cloth diapered, so the questions began. I was intrigued. Later that night I spent 3 hours researching the different brands and was really interested in doing it... all I had to do was sell my husband on the idea.

"Hey honey - I am really thinking we should start cloth diapering. Before you shut down and tell me how gross it is, just hear me out. We could save close to $2,000 just by switching and......"

"Sweet. When do we start?"

There's a lot of reasons that cloth diapers are better {for us} than disposables, but lets be honest. The money we're saving is one of the main reasons we're doing it. Even though the initial investment is hefty, they pay themselves off within 6-8 months. And if you consider that you will diaper each of your children for at least 2 years {typically longer with boys}... well, you do the math. The second reason is because my boys have super sensitive skin, and I fought diaper rash after diaper rash when Jaxon was a baby while using disposables. When Cohen was first born he had a bright red bottom every day while using disposables. Since switching to cloth? Zero rashes. Zero!

The extra loads of laundry are really no big deal either. It's an extra 2-3 loads of laundry a week, and if I'm already doing 700 loads of laundry a week anyway, what's a couple more?

These are just not your old-school cloth diapers anymore. No pins, no waterproof covers... it's not any harder than using a disposable. I know a lot of people will buy a bunch of different brands/types to figure out which they like best. Honestly, I didn't want the headache, and after talking to both Leah and Kristal and reading hundreds of positive reviews online, we decided to go with BumGenius 4.0 One Size diapers. "One size" meaning they will fit Cohen from infancy all the way up to 35 pounds. Which means, yep... they fit both Cohen and Jaxon. It also means I will never have to buy diapers again. Bingo!!!

I realize cloth diapers are not for everyone, but they are definitely for us! I also know it's super overwhelming when you look at all the different options, so if you have any questions about how/what we're using, definitely let me know!

One last thing.... I have to admit I love how flippin' cute the diapers are on their little tushes! Is that weird? :)