My New Must Have Items

I said previously that I'm having big stink issues with my diapers.

No one likes stink, it's gross. And nothing is worse than having your husband crinkle his nose every time he walks upstairs, but is too polite to say anything about the stink. (Except of course, when he mentions the stink!)

First, I needed a new detergent. I had been using Tide (I've also tried Charlie's Soap, Rockin' Green, Bio Kleen) because it was the only one I felt actually got my diapers clean, and they didn't smell like poop when they came out of the wash.

However, I could tell they were starting to build up pretty badly, so we needed a change. I was at my local Cotton Babies, and asked what they recommended, I explained my issues (stinky diapers, build-up, terribly sensitive baby) and was told that I should try a liquid soap instead of powder, the lady suggested Mountain Green.

One thing I love about Cotton Babies (besides looking at an entire store of fluff!) is that their section of laundry soap is all cloth diaper approved, which is wonderful! I don't have to stare at the soaps hoping one will jump out at me.

Now, as to my thoughts about the detergent. I do like it, it gets the diaper clean, it seems to help Audrey's poor bum, and not irritate her skin. My only issue is that it has no smell, which isn't a problem to most, but I feel like my diaper should come out smelling nicely...well, they didn't. They came out smelling like clean poop.

That's where this second "must have" item comes in handy. It's called Bac-Out! It's wonderful! I put a little in the pre-wash, and when my diapers came out they smelled so pretty and wonderful! No gross smells, just clean. I think I'm going to start buying it in bulk (or just make a stock pile.)

I always thought that in order for clothes and diapers to smell "clean" they had to have a scent, but with the combination of Bac-Out and Mountain Green my diapers come out with no smell, none at all, it's like smelling (clean) air!

It's Okay!

I don't know about you all, but sometimes I feel like life is swallowing me whole.

At the end of August my husband returned to school. He is going to be an accountant...in 19 VERY long months (no I'm not counting down or anything!)

There is homeschooling, cleaning, dishes, laundry, playdates, sewing, scrapbooking, and the cloth diapers.

And yes, sometimes some of those things get pushed to the back burner.

Because at this very moment I am 4 months pregnant and all I want to do is sleep.
However my four-year-old and one-year-old completely disagree with this idea.

In the midsts of all this Audrey's rash occurred again, my diapers began to smell horribly and the girl's room needed a constant air-out, otherwise the room smelled like poop, which could be made worse by the heat we were having.

So I'm here to tell you all, that when life feels like it's crushing you, it's okay to go to the store and buy a (small) package of disposable diapers and take a break.

Are disposables still bad for the environment? Yes, of course.
Do disposibles still have yucky and dangerous chemicals in them? Yes, they do.
Are disposables still expensive? Yes, they are.

But is your sanity important? YES.

Make sure you buy the small package, because otherwise it might be hard to come back to the light :)

Also, make sure you wash your diapers, because otherwise they still stink!

But, yes, for the past 5 days Audrey has been in disposables, along with heavy duty cream over her sores (which actually can't be used with the cloth.)

With one less thing to do, my motivation has gone up, and now that I have a big basket of clean fluff, life is good again. And full of cloth.

But look out, because there will be there will be some fun things coming up. New detergent reviews, new shop reviews, new products, and a few giveaways.

Next month is my 1-year-anniversary of being a cloth diapering Mama, and you'd better believe there will be a celebration! :)

Flip Disposables

After going on our cruise and having a horrible time with Huggies, I decided to try Flip Disposable Inserts when we went on our camping trip with my parents.

Some of the things I liked are:
1. They don't cost too much 18 inserts for $4.95 ($.28 center per diaper)
2. I can use my cloth diaper covers, so no blow outs!!!!
3. Since I used my covers, most of Audrey's pants still fit nicely and didn't fall off her bum
4. They didn't stink when pooped or peed in
5. There are less chemicals

Some things to consider:
1. It is easiest to change the diaper by having a cover and insert all put together, and just switching for the soiled cover/diaper. Diaper baby up, and dispose of the insert.
2. The insert isn't as wide as the Flip over, expect that when you have poopy diapers it WILL get on the cover (especially if you baby eats way too many raisins while camping!)

Several years ago, my husband and I tried a diaper service as our first dabble into the cloth diapering world. I hated it, he hated it, there was a lot of hate. The biggest reason was simply that when Sydney peed, the inserts would wad up and the cover had urine in it, and if she pooped the poop would get all over the cover. I hate poop stained covers! This problem is repeated with Flip disposable inserts.

But, all in all, I consider them a success, and for any future vacations I'll be using Flip, I'll just make sure I have many more covers! ;)

The best part, for me, was that I was NEVER pooped on, and the poop never left the diaper, yes, the cover might have been covered in poo, but it was never on me or anyone else who was holding the baby!

Disposable Diapers SUCK!

For the last week my family has been on an Alaskan Cruise with my in-laws.

Yes, that's right, we took a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old on a week long cruise.

The first thing I realized was that there was no way I could cloth diaper. I didn't have enough diapers to last a week. Plus, I didn't really want to do a weeks worth of yucky diapers.

First I bought Tushies, I bought these several months before the cruise, and I quickly dismissed using them because they did NOT stay on at all. Nor did they absorb very well. And the tabs were HORRIBLE.

I have been a cloth diapering Mama for 10 months.
I was a disposable diapering Mama for 3 years and 4 months.

Why Disposable Diapers Suck:
1. My heavy wetter causes even the most absorbent 'sposies to explode during the night.
2. My stinkerbell realized very quickly that she can pull off the diaper, and that it was easy. She pulled off her diaper, threw it on the floor, and with a smirk she continued to walk around the room naked.
3. During that nap time she pulled off the same diaper that was pooped in and continued to pee all over her port-a-crib.
4. I was using 5-7 wipes per poopy diaper!
5. Ug, they stink when pooped in.
6. UG! They stick when peed in!!!
7. During dinner she pooped and instead of the poop being IN the diaper, it went right up the top of the diaper!
8. On the way home she pooped, and instead of the poop going in the diaper, it seriously went straight out of the leg. When we took the diaper off it didn't even have any poop in it!

And of course, me being me, I also have my vain reasons for disliking disposables:
9. None of my baby's pants fit anymore, her jeans were falling off her flat paper bum.
10. Letting her run around in a t-shirt and a diaper lost it's cuteness when it's a paper diaper
11. I never felt like the diaper fit properly.

I never felt like I could trust the diapers. I was expecting to be pooped on at any moment.

Sure, as a cloth diapering Mama I get peed on, probably a little more often than I would be if I used disposables. But I'm NEVER pooped on. In 10 months my cloth has always kept all the poop contained.

Of course, this list is just why I dislike disposables for their functionality, there are many more reasons why we, as cloth diapering Mamas, choose cloth; environmental, harmful chemicals, budget, etc.

So, in my professional opinion, disposable diapers SUCK.

I think I'm going to make a button...

The Natural Baby Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations, KarilynAley! You'll receive an email from The Natural Baby shortly!

And thank you to all those who entered, and to The Natural Baby for sponsoring the giveaway!

The Natural Baby Review and Giveaway

**CLOSED**

First of all, I adore Autumn's blog All About Cloth Diapers. It's a great source of information.

Recently I was reading one of her posts and someone commented about The Natural Baby's Cloth Diaper Trial Package, and I thought, what a great thing to try!!

I have a hard time keeping my baby dry at night time, she is a heavy duty wetter, and she sleeps for so long at night. So this was the perfect opportunity to try out some diapers for night time.

The details: The trial package costs $10, and you get to choose any of the diapers that The Natural Baby has in their store. You get to try them out for two weeks, your two weeks start the day you receive the package. The owner, Rebecca, even sends you a note to remind you when your two weeks are coming to a close. Whatever you decide to not keep you just package up and send it back. Super simple :)

In my trial package:
Thirsties Duo Diaper
Fuzzibunz Perfect Size
bumGenius 4.0 with Velcro


My thoughts: Thirsties Duo Diaper- I honestly loved this diaper. It was an amazing fitted diaper. I really wanted to buy it, but my hubby lectured me about having too many diapers, hehe. It fit great, I never had a leak, and the diaper had a perfect spot to add hemp inserts when needed.

Fuzzibunz Perfect Size- I was more impressed with the perfect size than I was with Fuzzibunz's one size. It was nice and wide in the crotch, so we didn't have any leaks, but I really disliked that there was only a hip snap and one top snap, unlike with the one size. I'm not totally sure it really made much difference though...

bumGenius 4.0 with VELCRO- I've made my dislike of velcro no secret on this blog. I don't really buy anything with velcro, and I don't have any one size diapers with velcro, I simply don't like it very much. But I'll admit I was intrigued, I have a friend who prefers velcro to snaps, and I was very curious as to what's so great about velcro. And I am here to tell you all that I kind of prefer velcro. It makes such a nice snug fit, the velcro on the bumGenius is very thick, so I wasn't worried about Audrey pulling it off. And best of all, I can change her anywhere extremely easily with velcro, those silly mobile 1-year-olds! :) I kept this diaper.

I also kept my hemp inserts, I love me some Thirsties Hemp Inserts!! They are a night time neccesity.

I enjoyed my experience with The Natural Baby, Rebecca was very fun to work with. They ship fast, and they included a free sample of Country Save laundry detergent. And luckily for me, Rebecca was up for doing a giveaway!!

The Natural Baby is giving away a $50 gift certificate to their store!
Want to win it?

MANDATORY ENTRY
**You MUST do this entry in order to enter the giveaway**
"Like" A Whole Lot of Fluff on Facebook, and post a comment about the giveaway.

Additional Entries
1. "Like" The Natural Baby on Facebook
2. Follow A Whole Lot of Fluff
3. Go to The Natural Baby and tell me what you'd like to get if you win!

EACH entry should have your email address in it. For Facebook entries, write your facebook name. (ie: Liked A Whole Lot of Fluff, FB name is Samantha Thyme Sherman, email diaperfluff AT gmail DOT com.)

Contest ends July 17th, 2011 at 11:59 PM, PST.

Slight Mishap

So we've had a slight mishap.

I went to move the blog it wordpress.

And when I thought it was moved I deleted it from blogger.

Only to find out that it wasn't at wordpress.

Boo.

So I start all over.

Any questions you'd like answered in our upcoming posts, as I try to remember everything I had written? lol

WHEW! Thanks to Google Viewer, I was able to copy and paste all my posts back together. I'm so glad to be back, and I can't wait to tell you all about new reviews and have some giveaways! :)