Yesterday was the one year mark for using cloth diapers with Ava. Due to this joyous milestone and the frequent requests I receive (on a daily basis), I decided to finally buckle down and write up a cloth diapering post for all of those parents that are interested in cloth diapers. This cloth diaper 101 list will ONLY go over the types of diapers we use (and love), what you need to start cloth diapering, and all the other cloth details. I will say that cloth diapering is definitely an investment up front, but if you invest in quality diapers, it's definitely worth it, so let's get to it!

    Left photo- two week old        Right photo - eleven month old

What type of cloth diapers do we use?

• Prefolds 
• Pocket diapers
• AIO (all in ones) 
• All in Twos 

There are literally a million different brands and different styles that you can choose from. I would recommend bum genius 4.0 pocket diapers for anyone that is trying cloth for the first time. It's a "grow with me diaper" and will fit (most) babies from birth to potty training. Pocket diapers are the most modern type of cloth, and they resemble disposables diapers. Prefolds are the most inexpensive diaper on this list, but they also require a cover. Prefolds aren't as modern as some of the other cloth options out there. 

How many cloth diapers do I need?

Honestly, be economical. You really only need 24 diapers. Aside from "eco-friendly" reasons, cloth is definitely a money saver. Don't get too caught up with "cute prints" because diapers can get costly, especially when you are buying solely for the cute factor.  

Where can I buy cloth diapers?

• Green Mountain Diapers
• Kelly's Closet
• Amazon

What do I wash my cloth with?

Here is a list of cloth diaper safe detergents you can purchase. We use rockin' green, and have never had any issues, but there are a ton of other options out there. 

What other accessories are needed to cloth diaper?

• You need 1 diaper pail to store soiled diapers (I purchased a garbage can pail for this)
• You need 2 large wet bags for the diaper pail (you can purchase these off of the websites listed above)
• I recommend purchasing two smaller wet bags for "on the go" and traveling purposes. Whenever one is dirty, you have a backup wet bag for soiled diapers. You can purchase my favorite brand of wet bags here.
• Since you can't use traditional diaper rash cream with cloth diapers, coconut oil is a perfect alternative. Ava has never had diaper rash, and we have only used coconut oil, and occasionally CJ's butter. 
• Cloth wipes! I cannot stress enough how smart of an investment these are. If you plan on cloth diapering, it makes sense to use cloth wipes. You can even use washcloths rather than actual wipes. Either way, if you are going to invest your time in cloth, use the wipes! Saving more is always smart. I would suggest purchasing 30-40 cloth wipes. 

I made a video of all the information listed and more. I somehow managed to delete my youtube account, but once I get a new channel up and running, I'll go ahead and post the video. Hopefully this information was a little bit more helpful and answered some of the frequent questions I get. 

♥- Leilani

Hump day!

I have finally come up for air! These past few days have been hectic. Turns out our entire household is going through a cold. I don't feel great, but I don't feel awful. Just icky. On the upside, I have maintained almost perfect grades over these last five weeks. I'm grateful for the time management tables I took advantage of. People don't realize how much time they actually waste in a day.

This morning I am feeling so awful. Ava woke up earlier than usual (never happens). She is not a happy camper when she gets changed before she gets food. I did it anyway, because she soaked her diaper. Lately, Ava has been swinging her arms and smacking things out of our hands. This morning, that happened to be my cell phone. It fell down on her little face and I felt completely awful. First the cider in the face a couple weeks ago, now the phone on her sweet, baby face? Talk about feeling like a failure. I know as parents we can't be completely perfect. I just want to be as close to perfect as I can (when it comes to Ava) because she deserves the best. I'm really hard on myself when it comes to Princess A.

I also started packing Justin a lunch for work. Over his long weekend we crunched some numbers and realized by him eating out for lunch each day, we spend over $230.00! We were both shocked. So, for the sake of saving, we are packing his lunch. He actually gets more from me than he would a convenience store.

Tomorrow Miss Ava will be five months (be on the look out for that blog post) and I couldn't be more emotional. She's almost half of one year old. It's insane for me to think that soon I'll have a one year old. Fingers crossed that she will be spending her birthday among family. The compassionate reassignment is still underway. I don't know when we'll receive news, I'm hopeful it'll be soon. 

I decided that today is going to be a mommy and Ava day. Not that everyday isn't, but I'm usually trying to multi-task throughout the day. I actually read an article from one of my instructors about this. Apparently our minds can only focus on one task fully. Today my only task is snuggling my babe. She's asleep right now, which explains why I'm writing this. 

Well I'm off to look up recipes for the holidays. My admissions counselor actually told me about a recipe for pumpkin seeds. Brown sugar and such. Apparently it makes the seeds taste like kettle corn! I'm excited! Enjoy your Wednesday all! 

Cloth and Breast

A lot of changes are being made in our home this month and I couldn't be more thrilled. For starters, cloth diapers. YES we are still cloth diapering Ava. We will continue to cloth diaper her until she is set for potty training. Ava just recently outgrew her newborn stash of prefolds. Justin is so excited because this means she finally fits into ALL of her pocket diapers we purchased for her! (He now favors them over any other diaper) I tried a birth to potty training diaper on Miss A and her bum looks so stinkin' cute in them. We have decided to continue to utilize the newborn prefolds by using a different fold method:

tri-folding the prefold and inserting it into a diaper cover. The neat thing about diaper covers are that they have a designated flap on the front of the diaper were you can tuck the prefold in. Just ensuring that any waste is being kept inside the diaper. Once Ava outgrows the absorbency we will retire the newborn stash and use them with baby # 2. So far everything with cloth diapering continues to be a breeze, even on the go. In fact, my husband changed our daughter while on the go for the first time yesterday. We ate dinner at the Olive Garden and they indeed have a changing area in the men's restroom. He carted Ava, her infant seat, and our diaper bag into the restroom and had no trouble. Diapering on the go is different anyways, diapering with cloth adds more steps. I was so proud of him for feeling confident about that. A lot of people have asked what my wash routine looks like with my HE washer and dryer, so here it goes:

On a medium light cycle (I wash every other day)

Two tablespoons of rockin' green

Normal cycle

cold wash

Two tablespoons of rockin' green

Normal cycle

hot wash

No soap

rinse and spin

tap water 

Dry on high heat

two cycles to maximize quilts in prefolds

I do not dry inserts, covers, or pocket diaper shells. I continue to hang dry them. 

I'm feeling extremely confident about cloth and continue to spread the word about how much better of a diapering system it is for little ones. A friend of mine mentioned how much money we would have spent by now on disposable diapers, diaper rash cream and formula, I calculated it with just a generic brand of diapers and even then the savings were outrageous! 

Even though we will be using biodegradable disposables for our trip to New York in a couple weeks, I already budgeted that into our diapering costs, and that's for 10 days. I feel better knowing biodegradable diapers won't end up in landfills.

Speaking of breast feeding...

I'm over 6 weeks in and I continue to love all the benefits of sole breastfeeding. I went back and forth with this decision and sadly, my exclusively breastfeeding journey is coming to an end. We are still breastfeeding, but starting SOON I will be pumping and expressing milk into bottles for Miss A. Even with Ava still being so tiny Justin wants to be able to have that bonding time that feedings present. I feel like that's fair. I know having a bottle will be a little easier than nursing all the time. I'm also going to start up a freezer stash! We decided not to invest in a bottle warmer. They are so unnecessary if you are patient. I'm going to defrost by allowing the sealed milk to soak in lukewarm water. That's the plan for now anyway. 

I love how financially aware parenting has made Justin and I. We are firm believers that there never needs to be a penny of wasted money. I've noticed a lot of new parents invest in items that really aren't needed or used. I've lost the whole, "but, it's cute" factor while out and about. Rather than splurging on something sweet that will last Ava a couple months, I'm investing that money into her college savings.  

This whole, "investments paying you back" ordeal has taken a huge toll on us. 

Also, I was nervous to share. Going back and forth with mixed feelings about publicly breastfeeding with my husband caused me to shy away from being daring with breastfeeding photos. He is slowly but surely coming around more and more. Feeling comfortable with me feeding in public was his challenge. Here is a photo from the Father's day shoot we had! 

Ava started fussing. And I, feeling comfortable as ever, pulled my dress down without cover in tow and fed her. I was so proud of myself this day.