Another Fluffy Post

More fluff mail to add to my stash....a free Happy Heiny diaper with my purchase, an Evolution ION diaper, plus a pack of Bummis prefolds in infant size, a Thirties hemp prefold, plus a pair of hemp inserts.  Also gotten 2 sample jars of CJ Butters, that are supposedly good as a diaper cream with cloth.

A pair of cute diapers from Bumcheeks, which is an Australian brand...

On this afternoon, I found some time to prepare my Bummis prefolds (unbleached organic cotton, I think), and the hemp prefold and inserts.  (Preparation for natural fibres: boil for 20 minutes and finish with a hot wash.)

Surprisingly, the Thirties prefold and inserts still remained so soft after washing and line-drying, as I had read that hemp will stiffen up unless you use a dryer.  Perhaps this is due to the combination of hemp and jersey material in these, but I love the softness!

Fluffy Mail

Thanks to Earth Day, I purchased some of these items for 20% off.

2 wet bags - I saw some ladies spreeing for wet bags on the forum, and did not really understand their need for it since we had never used these with Ian.  To me, plastic bags would do the trick.  However, now that Ian has started full-day childcare, we had a lot of dirty clothes and a wet towel to bring home everyday.  I gathered that on a long-term basis, plastic bags would not be the way to go.  We would need a lot of these plastic bags (that were reasonably clean to put in his clothes) and it was not exactly eco-friendly.

The Earth Day promotion came just in time, so I ordered a Bummis medium bag, and a Planet Wise large bag.  Anyway, we would need a wet bag for storing dirty cloth diapers in future, to keep the stink contained.  The medium bag just fitted all of Ian's clothes and towel for childcare.

More fluffs!  There was a "Buy 5 Get 1 Free" promotion on Bumgenius diapers (which others said was a good discount as there was seldom discounts on this brand), but I was lucky enough to find a better promotion with the 20% off.  Hence, I bought 2 pocket diapers (a snap and an aplix), and a highly-raved Elemental all-in-one diaper.  I also bought a FuzziBunz to try since the reviews on this were good too.  There was a seconds sale and I grabbed a Flip cover for USD$8.55 with free shipping.  The defect with this cover was a small tear at the edge, but for this price, I thought it was not a big deal. 

This stash could probably last me for about a day of diapering our little princess, if used together with our cotton flats and prefolds.

More Clothes + Diapers

Newly arrived today were a few more pieces of clothings from OshKosh (9m-24m dresses/tops/leggings for baby princess, 2 tees for Ian).  I also threw in a Carters french terry jacket for Ian as this material was not as easy to find as fleece. 

The DHL guy also brought us more of the cloth diapers today - what I had collected through various sales (about 40-50% off): 2 fitteds from Earth, Mom and Baby, a Rumparooz pocket and cover, and the 4 AppleCheeks that were hard to come by (the website crashed while I was trying to buy, and only managed to order through email 2 hours later hoping that there would be cancellations).

Cloth Diapering

After discussing with Hubby, we decided to try out cloth diapering our #2 because it would be more cost-saving in the long run, and we would stop adding so much landfill to the environment as well.  Besides, we would be expecting more laundry with another child, so it would not be too much of a hassle to wash the diapers on a daily/every other day basis.

The kind of cloth diaper that we are thinking about is not the traditional flat piece of cloth that you fold into a triangle.  We had plenty of those and used them during the first month with Ian.  But, they just did not work out because I was so sick of having pee all over me whenever I carried Ian.  Actually, we did not know that they should be used with a cover and so we did not have one.  But since the confinement lady left us, I switched to the disposables immediately because they absorbed more and were convenient.  I only found out recently about modern cloth diapers that were much more absorbent than the traditional types.  Some mummies even used those for overnight and had lesser problem with explosive poos (we had leaks with disposables too).  There are other benefits too, like lesser problem for sensitive skin, and earlier success with toilet-training.

And so... here are the very first 2 diapers we have in our stash from Earth, Mom and Baby - the Bumboos...

To prepare them, I handwashed them twice in some dish detergent. A lot of lint appeared in the water, but it was normal in the first few washes.  In the 3rd wash, I used some Country Save detergent and washed them until the water was free of soap.  I will probably throw them into the machine for one more wash, before letting Ian try them on at night.

New Laundry Detergent

I was doing some research on cloth diapering (I would perhaps write a separate post on this topic later), and came across detergents that would be cloth diaper friendly.  Perhaps cloth diapering is not that popular in this part of the world, and so it is not easy to find the recommended detergents in most of the supermarkets and departmental stores.  Each box of these detergents is not exactly "cheap" at first glance, but you only use a very small scoop for 1 load, as compared to 1 huge scoop with our usual detergent. And, they are not supposed to leave residue on your clothes and you do not need to use softener with them.

If anyone is interested to check out cloth-diaper friendly detergents, here is the link.