Diapering Time of Year

April is a pretty significant month, since the Great Cloth Diaper Change is this weekend I'm reminded that it's been almost a year since I started blogging on a regular basis, seems like forever ago! And at the end of this month I will have been married for 4 years...wow, funny how that went by so fast.

Kim at Dirty Diaper Laundry also announced yesterday that the 2nd Annual Flats & Handwashing Challenge will be May 21-27. Woohoo!

Last year I used flat diapers exclusively, nothing can beat the price or trimmness! So I Upped the Ante and found things I had around the house to create a completely free stash of dipes. I know some critics felt that I wasn't using true "flats" when I didn't cut up a t-shirt before turning it into a diaper, but I felt that it was in the spirit of proving that cloth diapering is feasible in low income households.

Which brings me to why I cloth diaper in the first place.

It's cheap.

That's it.

Sure, it's better on the environment. Sure, it's better on my baby's sensitive skin. Sure, the diapers are so much cuter than disposables.

But I'm saving thousands of dollars over purchasing disposables.

My stash is a little haphazard. Mostly flats and prefolds and covers; these are my regular use diapers and I have a sufficient amount of these alone. But 10 various pockets that I was either given or won are nice to have when someone else is watching the boys. We spent about $75 on our stash. They paid for themselves in the length of time it would take us to go through 4 boxes of disposables (1-2 months).

We used 2 boxes of sposies with Jaron; one we bought, and one we were given, before starting cloth because I didn't think he would be big enough to use the diaper covers I already had.

When baby #3 comes along I'm going to try my best not to let a single disposable diaper touch his or her little bum. I'm planning on making some super soft flannel flats to take to the hospital and if the nurses don't like it, oh well. Jaron's bottom was red from day one until we switched out of Pampers into another brand, so that's my first reason. My second is just because I have a pretty strong dislike for the one hospital that I can deliver at and anything to keep us separated from the "system" sounds good to me.

Just to be responsible I'll probably research cloth diapering in a hospital a bit more, but I'm pretty convinced that it's the way to go next time around. We'll see, the big thing is the cost, not personal vendetta, so I know we have a total win from the start no matter what I decide about the hospital.

If you want to hear more about my 2 (not always) sleeping babies and the rest of the family you can follow us on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter!

Manic Mommy Monday ~ Moments of Normal

Welcome to Manic Mommy Monday! Every week we link up posts that are updates about us and what is going on in our lives. Everyone is welcome to link up (scroll down to find the linky) and you can find more information on the main Manic Mommy Monday page.

This week has been one that is very close to what I'd like to call normal.

I'm holding my breath because I don't want to jinx it. We had some definitely highlights, a visit/playdate with a friend who I haven't seen in years and who just moved nearby. Getting familiar with my new, upgraded sewing machine.

Some lower points, Aedyn's having a week of testing the boundaries (again... He has 2-3 weeks where he's a perfect angel, then weeks like this week and last week.), he's also going through a growth spurt and eating more than I can. Jaron is copying his brother's attitude, so we're trying to figure out how to teach him that the attitude/words is not acceptable while understanding that he is just copying what he sees and not necessarily exhibiting the motive behind it, obviously watching his brother get in trouble is not enough.

Jaron is weaning and potty training at the same time, NOT something we planned, it just happened that way. I finally got around to making him some training pants to save our rental carpet (tutorial later this week). And overall, he pitches a 5-15 second fit if he asks for milk and I remind him that Mama milk is for bedtime. Otherwise it's all good. And I decided that I'm going to let him continue to use the potty only when he asks until this next weekend because...

The Great Cloth Diaper Change (GCDC) is on Saturday! I'm co-hosting our local event and on top of not wanting to be running to the potty every half hour, I don't want to put him back in diapers just for the day.

Jake had a long week at work and it's felt like we haven't really seen him at all (a common problem, I know). Hoping that since the new kitchen director started this week that some of Jake's extra hours might dissipate once the new guy gets comfortable...maybe.

I'm working on a new project. I'm hoping to get everything squared away and up in the next month or so, but I will be doing a test run/sneak peek at our GCDC. That will help me decide how to go about launching an online presence. Any thoughts about Etsy vs HyenaCart vs self-hosting would be much appreciated!

Guess that's about it for this week, link up your own manic posts and join the hop!

If you want to hear more about my 2 (not always) sleeping babies and the rest of the family you can follow us on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter!