Name Letters and Diapers

I finally got the letters done for Cadence's name wall hanging!! I still have to hang them up, but I am so glad to have the painting out of the way. Robert had the day off today so I took advantage of having someone to watch Kaylee and painted as quickly as I could.

The original letters

After a day and a half of paining:

The finished product - minus the white ribbon I plan to hang it with.

I have been looking a way to build up a newborn cloth diaper stash without spending too much money. I really didn't want to do the pre-folds thing, I wanted actual AIO or pocket diapers. A few days ago, I just happened to be lucky enough to hear about a bunch of bumGenius AIO seconds on sale at cottonbabies.com! I used my birthday money to get 12 of them at less than half off, and they are SO adorable!!

The whole pile

a whole lot of PINK!

Compared to a One Size Fuzzibunz Diaper that Kaylee wears now. Not the best picture :( these little things literally are as small as my hand!

I wish I could have gotten another dozen, and wish I had opted for boy colors rather than girl. I honestly didn't think they would send me SO many bright pink ones! Ha ha, I guess you live and learn! I am planning to make a dozen or so newborn AIO's that will definitely be gender neutral. That will be quite the adventure, and I am hoping to get started on them in the next couple weeks.

I WON!

I posted last month about being at war with my cloth diapers. Well.......

I WON THE WAR!!!

It only took 2 initial Dawn/Baking Soda washes, 1 failed regular wash, and another Dawn/Baking Soda wash. Lol that was a lot of washing. Now, I have changed my soap and routine and the diapers smell pretty great now!

Yesterday I washed them for the third time with my new routine, and they still came out smelling wonderful. Even better is the fact that the inserts are getting back to being white. It is so wonderful! I am glad that I figured this out before this next baby comes. I wouldn't be able to handle 2 in diapers while I was hating diaper laundry so much. Yes, I said hate.

For anyone reading this and wondering what the miracle cure is for diapers that smell like an outhouse, here is MY solution:

• 1 cold wash with no soap, 1 cup of baking soda, and 4 extra gallons of cold/warm water
• 1 HOT wash with 3 TBS Tide, a squirt of Dawn dish soap, 1 cup of baking soda, and 5 extra gallons of HOT water
• 2 hot washes with no soap and 4 extra gallons of hot water each

I know it sounds pretty intense, but I am only having to wash about every 3-4 days so its not a big deal. I am going to try next time leaving out the Dawn and see if that eliminates one of the hot washes at the end.

I am also excited to be able to hang the diapers out on the line again. Hopefully that will get the last of the stains out.

Soap Suds and Smelling Diapers

Wow, what a process!

First here is an example of a few of the inserts I was having problems with:

No, that is NOT a shadow on the bottom left one. That is one of about 8 that look like that.

The last resort:

Tools for extra water:

First was the wash cycle with no soap to wet the diapers down.

I was told that I could put 1 tsp of dawn in the machine and put a little on some of the worst inserts. So, thats just what I did!

I started the hot wash cycle with dawn, and added 4 gallons of extra hot water. That part wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be!

Then I looked down at the floor of the laundry room.........

and freaked out a little bit.

I looked inside the washer.......

and freaked out a little bit more.

I stopped the cycle and opened the machine...............

and laughed......a lot.

At first I had no idea how to get rid of all the suds. Then I got control of myself and just pulled out all the diapers and threw them into the sink to rinse. I scraped out most of the suds and threw them in the sink too. Then I started a cold wash with the machine empty to wash out the suds. Thank heavens it worked! If it hadn't I was out of ideas lol.

I lightly rinsed off all of the diapers and then put them back in the suds-less washer. I purposely left them VERY wet and still pretty soapy. I re-started the hot wash and added a couple extra gallons of water. This time it got very soapy, but didn't leak at all.

After that wash, the rinsing started. Really it was a bunch of hot and cold washes with no soap to get rid of all the soap. It had also been suggested that I try using some baking soda to get the stink out. So I put about 1/2 a cup in the first soap-less wash.

Eventually they started to look like this:

After all the suds were completely gone, I dried them. And then I smelled them. I actually had to put my nose next to them to be able to smell anything!! But they were still smelling a little musty so I decided I would do another dawn/baking soda wash the next day.

Two days, quite a few teaspoons of dawn dish soap, a cup of baking soda, and a LOT of washing/rinsing later and I have half of my diapers smelling MUCH better. Granted, they are not perfect. I am looking into what else I should do with them, but they are much better. Now I am gearing up to do the other half of the diapers.

All. Out. WAR.

I really, truly, hate that I am having to write this post. Really I would love to have everyone think my world of cloth diapering is all unicorns and rainbows, but for the past several months it has been......anything but.

I am at war with my cloth diapers. There, I said it.

Now that I think back to when it started, this has been going on for over 6 months. I started to notice a faint musty smell when I took the diapers out of the wash and stuck them up to my nose to smell. It wasn't bad, and putting them out in the sun to dry seemed to help. Then the sun went away and we moved to Oregon. I was really excited because I knew it was easier to wash diapers in 1) soft water and 2) a top loading washer. So I went with plans to get my diapers back to perfectly clean, smell-like-nothing, condition. That didn't happen. They came back to Utah with us just as stinky as they left.

I tried little, minimally invasive, things like hard water specific natural soap, vinegar, and rinsing the crap out of them after 1 wash with soap......I am talking like 5-6 hot washes with no soap. That was not only a waste of hot water, but it was a huge undertaking to do diaper laundry. I started to hate it. I tried some harsher treatments with just the microfiber inserts such a bleach, boiling (I had to do just a few because I have around 50 diapers), soaking overnight in the "miracle worker" of cloth diaper detergents, and hanging them out to "sun" in the middle of the winter. All that last one got me was frozen, stinky, inserts.

Finally, I threw my hands in the air and decided to forgo the cloth detergents and wash the inserts in some good, harsh Tide with bleach. Note, I only did this on the inserts as to not ruin the PUL (waterproof layer) on the pocket diapers. I truly thought this was going to work......but when I pulled the inserts out of the dryer they smelled like the air inside an out-house or port-a-potty. Crap. Literally. CRAP.

After crying for help online I was told the following:

Strip all the detergent and filth build-up from my diapers by washing them with 1-3 tsp of Blue Dawn dish soap. Some people even said to pour a little bit on each insert AND add it to the whole load.

Rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, until there are no bubbles left

Go back to using a "real" detergent like Tide (without bleach)

Use more detergent in general

Use a water softener like Calgon or Borax

Put extra water in the washer during each cycle......I am really dreading this.

Sun them dry whenever possible (I think I may move to the equator)

I am starting this process today, with the dawn, and will take pictures of it all. I am just doing it on half the diapers for now. Hopefully this will be a step towards having clean diapers again.

"Can't we just throw it all in the truck this time?"

This is what I asked Robert at the beginning of last week. He said no............

For the beginning of this week, I am UN-packing everything back into the house in West Jordan. I am SO sick of packing and un-packing I could scream. I swear, when we buy a house I am going to splurge for the movers.....the ones that pack it all for you too.

The drive home was incredibly long and mentally difficult. Saturday wasn't bad until the evening when it started to snow, but luckily we were close to our hotel (yep I can't drive 15 hours in one go). The next morning there was almost a foot of snow where the night before there had been dry pavement. Not a good sign with a 7+ hour drive ahead of me. The drive Sunday was one of the worst I have ever been on. It took us almost 9 hours to make a 7 hour drive. The reason? There was enough snow on the freeway for 8 hours of it that I had my car in 4 wheel drive the entire way. Not until Ogden was I able to stop and take it out of 4wd.

We came about a prayer away from doing a nasty spin onto the side of the road about an hour from Ogden. We came down a hill on what was starting to be a clear road, but was apparently ice. I first noticed there was a car off the side to my left, then another on my right. Just as I realized there were 3-5 more cars off the side of the road, none overturned just stuck, I felt my wheels slipping. I let off the gas, didn't touch my breaks, and let up on the death grip I had on the car so the wheel could slide more easily in my hands. The last thing I wanted to do was jerk the wheel and kill us all. The car started to fishtail every so slightly (when all this started we were going about 50mph) and I thought we were going to join the party on the side of the road. Then I had the thought that the left lane had obvious snow on it and that I would have traction on that snow. I didn't even turn the wheel, just let the car drift by itself on to the snowier side of the road. We stopped fishtailing, and were able to drive through the scariest stretch of road I have ever seen. All the cars were going about 25 for almost half an hour, one of the many reasons it took us so long to get home.

Kaylee and I are safe here in West Jordan while Robert is staying for another two weeks in Oregon. Thankfully he is flying home for Thanksgiving and then back again the Sunday after. Then hopefully we will all be here together.

Robert's brother Jonathan is living in the basement of the house right now. There is an unfinished basement apartment (mother-in-law apartment) that he is supposed to be moved in to. We are hoping it is done in the next couple weeks because the idea of sharing my home with a single person in NOT on my bucket list. Robert and Kaylee are enough for me to worry about. Yeah, I am a bit frustrated by the whole situation, and am wondering if it is worth the money we are saving. It probably is since we will be out of debt and saving for a house by the middle of next year if not sooner. Is sooner even a word?

Ask me again if it is still worth it if this is still the situation by Christmas......I can already tell you my answer!

On a happier front, I got some NEW DIAPERS!! I know, I know, I was supposed to stop because we have a ton of them. But the place where I usually buy all my diapers had a deal where they doubled your points (you get a point for every dollar you spend) so I ordered 8 diapers with them and paid only the $10 in shipping! They are all a kind of diaper I haven't used before and I am excited to try them. Oh wait, that is a lie. I have used one of them before, but this one is a bigger size because Kaylee is outgrowing the one we have.

Ha! I just realized little Kaylee is 16 months old today. How is it possible when I haven't even gotten used to her being 15 months old yet? Happy 16 month-day little girl. I love you.

Hobbs is very happy to be home, Turtle is coming home at least by Thanksgiving, and Patriot will be here Wednesday night! I am excited to have all my animals back in my care, and especially have missed Patriot. I stupidly listened to Marley and Me on the drive home, and had to shut it off because my teary eyes were interfering with what was already a difficult situation. Have you read that book? If you own an older dog DON'T!! It will make you never want to leave their side, or tell them they are a bad dog.

My brain is in super cleaning mode today. I couldn't go to sleep last night because I wanted to clean the house. So today I have showered and gotten ready for the day, got Kaylee dressed, fed, unpacked all her toys, fed the dog, bathed said dog, done 3 loads of laundry, vacuumed/swept the floors and stairs, disinfected the laundry machines, and eaten breakfast.....and it is only noon. Hopefully I don't loose steam while Kaylee is napping. Bring on a clean house!! Next up, the KITCHEN..................ugh

Fluff 'n Bows

I forgot how much FUN it is to get new diaper fluff in the mail!! I recently found a very good deal on some SmartiPants seconds, and a coupon for a FREE bumGenius AIO (all in one). Here is the link to the BG coupon: http://www.kellyscloset.com/Spring-Promotion_ep_82-1.html . There is also a coupon for a discount on 24 BG 3.0 diapers so check it out if you are looking for diaper deals.

Anyways, I ordered them a while ago and just got them yesterday. It was SO fun to get new diapers, and even better because they are ones that I don't already have! I am excited to see if I like them any better/worse than the ones I have now.

The smartipants are kind of a cross between bumGenius and Fuzzi Bunz. They have a snap enclosure like FB and adjust for a growing little one with snaps like BG. The inserts seem pretty wide compared to the diapers, but hopefully it will not be too bulky or bunched.

Smartipants inserts

I ordered girl colors (the options were girl, boy, and gender neutral...), but requested any available colors. I got 5 lavender/purple, and 5 VERY light pink. If we end up only having boys from here on out, he is just going to have to live with it lol!

Smartipants OS diapers

The BG AIO is exactly like 3.0 except that it doesn't adjust for growth (I got the medium size) and has an insert sewn inside the pocket. I was very pleased to see that there is a pocket for extra inserts if/when needed. I am really excited to try this one out.

BG AIO - looks just like the 3.0 without the snaps

The sewn-in insert

I also ordered some of the BG oder remover spray. I have just a slight oder coming from my diapers when they come out of the dryer. It isn't noticeable unless you stick your nose on the insert and sniff, but I notice it.....probably only because I know it is there. I am hoping this helps at least until I can start hanging them out to soak up the sun while they dry.

On another subject entirely, I went to another girls night last week, which was fabulous. We ended up making bows, and I think that is something I could easily become addicted to. It is a good thing I don't have any of the stuff to make them or I would never get anything done. Here are the three things I made for little Kaylee:

The first bow I made, and my favorite.

I can't wait until Kaylee has enough hair to actually wear these!

Hair clips

Now, I am on a mission to find an outfit that matches that blue/green flower!

I am searching for good deals on ribbon, alagator clips, wire, buttons, and scrapbooking flowers. Then I will make TONS of bows for Kaylee. I am also trying to decide on a good way to display and store them. I like the idea of a bow board, but also Initial bow holders. I just can't decide. Either way, I need some more bows first!

Slowly Transitioning

Ugh.....I feel like such a whimp....AGAIN!! No, this time it isn't because of an exercise video; it is because of the cloth diapers. I have to admit that I have yet to go 24 hrs without using a disposable diaper.

How pathetic is that?!? After being so excited to use these diapers, I am so afraid of losing night time sleep that I haven't switched completely over. Because they might wake her up in the middle of the night and I won't get my usual 7-9 straight hours of sleep.

I really like washing them! We need some water softener because I don't feel like they are getting clean enough, but I really like using them! I just have to try one overnight and see how it goes. I really am sick of buying disposables because we go through so many of them. Kaylee doesn't usually poop during the night, just pees a lot which I am afraid will wake her up every few hours. I really don't want her to get in the habit of waking up a lot at night. Maybe I am just worrying about it too much.

Ok, to my credit, I don't think I have quite enough diapers to make it through two full days. I am still deciding if I want more bumGenius, Fuzzi Bunz, or a couple more Grobaby sets. I am leaning towards the bumGenius just because they seem to me the most comfortable and most absortant.

I am making the goal to be using cloth at least 95% of the time by the end of October. That is when we will be going to visit my sister in Washington and I can tackle traveling using cloth.

How has it been this long?!?

I have been really bad about taking pictures of Kaylee this week. We have been having more nap problems, so I have not had much time online. On Wednesday, she turned 8 weeks old! And on Tuesday she is officially 2 months old! I can't believe how quickly these two months have gone by!

Kaylee is so big! I only notice when someone else is holding her and she looks giant. I forgot to weigh her on Wednesday, but today she weighed in at 10.8 lbs including diaper and clothes. Here she is today




her head looks so weird in this one!





On my side of it, I lost a couple more pounds.....but I have to admit I haven't tried too terribly hard. I walk some days, but have had the "30 day shred" DVD in the DVD player for a week now and haven't done it once. Hopefully Kaylee will have a few good napping days this week so I can try it out. For best results, I am supposed to do it every day for 30 days.....yeah right!


Kaylee and Robert


Remember this picture?

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Here is the current version!



On the cloth diaper front, Kaylee is wearing them while she is awake most days now. She still isn't sleeping in them because they elevate her bum and it seems to make it hard for her to sleep. I LOVE washing them though! I am surprised how much fun they are to hang on the line, and stuff/fold after they are dry. I can't wait until she is in them all the time.

Fluff Laundry

My first ever load of diaper laundry was a big success! Here is what I washed and how I washed it:

5 Fuzzi Bunz
5 microfiber bumGenius inserts
3 prefolds
3 Grobaby shells
5 Grobaby inserts
1 Planet Wise pail liner

I had them in my pail liner, and didn't rinse them off or soak them at all. I have a front load washer and use Country Save detergent. My first cycle was the cold short wash with an extra rinse and a TINY amount of detergent. As the second rinse finished and before the spin cycle started I shut off the washer. Then I let the soaking wet diapers sit in the washer for about 20 minutes before starting the hot heavy duty cycle. I used about 1/3 tbs of detergent dissolved in 1/3 cup of hot water. This was followed by another extra rinse.

Unfortunately by the time the washing was done, the sun was gone so I couldn't fully dry them in the sun. So into the dryer they went, and I hung them out in the sun for a couple hours this morning to make sure there weren't any stains. It wasn't really necessary but I wanted to get my first pictures of my fluff drying on the line.

Diaper Giveaway

Because these are my new favorite diapers, here is a giveaway for Fuzzi Bunz! It is over at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer blog.

Here is what you would win:
3-FuzziBunz One Size Diapers with inserts

The First....and Second.....of MANY!

This morning I got brave and put Kaylee in one of my nice one size diapers.....and it FIT!! Happy 3 week birthday present Kaylee!

The top around her belly was a little loose, but it was snug around the legs and back where most leaks happen. It was one of my Fuzzi Bunz with a bumGenius newborn insert in it. Holy moley it was bulky!! I was a little afraid her onsie wasn't going to snap around the diaper but it did. And, of course, I had to take pictures of this big moment!


Look how HUGE it looks!


Lol, I love it!

She had it on for all of about 10 minutes when she put it to good use. I was tempted to take pictures, but didn't want to gross anyone out. So here are some of her just before changing into her second cloth diaper of all time.




This time it was a Grobaby diaper which also fit and was even a little snug around the legs.



She is napping in that diaper as I post this so it will be interesting to see if it holds everything in after a 2 hour nap. ***Update*** The diaper was great for the nap, even though its insert was soaked, it didn't leak.

My diaper pail with it's first diaper and insert


For today, Kaylee will be in cloth so that I will have enough to do a load of fluff laundry.....that should be interesting ;)

Another gro baby giveaway

Kelly's closet is featuring Gro Baby diapers this week in their weekly giveaway! Head on over to enter to win:

1- Gro Baby System with Hook and Loop Closure
1- Gro Baby System with Snap Closure

Pre-folds and Fitteds

One of my old friends from high school offered to let me borrow and use the newborn prefolds and fitteds she no longer needed. So I took advantage of the offer! She gave me:

Around 3 dozen prefolds....


a couple dozen fitteds....


about 10 covers.....


and 6 or 7 Snappis.

Now all I have to do it wash them a few times to get rid of any detergent residue, and let them sun dry to get the stains out. I made a somewhat retractable clothes line out of the dogs' retractable leashes.....I know, I am cheap! When I get them all on the line, I will take my first "line of diapers" picture.

I still have about 100 disposable newborn diapers and about 50 size 1's, but it will be kind of fun to try prefolds and fitteds out before the pocket diapers fit Kaylee. The first few days she will for sure be in disposables and I will use disposable wipes so that the meconium doesn't ruin any of the diapers or wipes.

This will also help me figure out a good wash routine before I start using my really nice diapers. That is the part I am most worried about with cloth diapers....because I have two strikes against me, a front loading washer and really hard water.