Traveling with Cloth Diapers: Run Through The Washer

Traveling. Cloth. Diapers. Not usually something you hear, or if you do, you think that mom is just a little more sleep deprived than "normal." That was my first thought when I actually started considering it. Mainly I didn't want to spend $20 - $40 on disposables...yup, I'm cheap commited.

We're in the middle of a trip to visit family in Tennessee. Total trip length is 10 days. Two of those are 14 hour driving days. Traveling. With. Cloth. Diapers.

Nuts & Bolts
I brought flats and pre-folds. Enough for a week, but I planned to wash every three days. Seven basic covers, 3 pocket diapers for anyone else who might need to change him (stuffed with pre-folds).

The trip up was fine, I changed Jaron every stop to be sure we didn't have any leaks. It wound up being about every 2-3 hours, which is normal, so no problems there.

I've washed twice already, hung my wet bags and covers, and machine dried the dipes. I guess the benefit of staying at my Grandmother's house is not only the unobstructed use of her machines, but her support and knowledge of cloth diapers. Have to say she was a little surprised and amused by how fancy our modern dipes are. Her first glimpse was the GroVia Planes print shell, fun!

It's been so nice not to have to run disposables out to the dumpster at every change (which we did our last trip). I've just used a pail size wet bag - no odor issues until right before I'm ready to wash, so 3 days was a good plan.

I am swishing and wringing by hand...not the most fun. I'll be glad to get home to my sprayer, but it's not nearly as intense as handwashing and definitely worth it!

Washing, I'm bypassing my normal 3 hour pre-soak and just washing with 3/4 cup of white vinegar and detergent. I didn't want to hog the washer and I'll just strip them when I get home if I need too. Worse case scenario, I'll just end up with a few stains.

What Makes It Pretty

• No worries about what sposies might do to Jaron's rear. 
• It's been fun to show them off. 
• I saved $. 
• I've not only now proven that I can handwash if I need to, but I've proven that I can make them work for traveling too!

Traveling With A Toddler And Infant: And We're Off!

Just thought I'd share some of our adventure high and low points from yesterday...

1. I got my Pottying-On-The-Side-Of-The-Interstate Mommy Badge when Aedyn waited until exactly 2 seconds too late that he needed to potty...next exit = 20 miles. He is now an expert.

2. "Aedyn, if you're going to kick your brother, please take your shoes off." Hey if feet in the face make the baby happy, who am I to argue?

3. "Aedyn, get your toe out of your brother's ear!" Yeah, even raising boys there has to be a line somewhere...

4. Teaching Aedyn to use one breath to yell through the tunnels in Atlanta...unfortunately he generalized that lesson to any bridge. Oops.

5. Teddy Grahams and Cars 2 Belly Washers were the best snack choice EVER.

6. Jaron refusing to nurse at each and every stop, even when we stayed in the boring car. The world was too exciting and interesting!

7. Realizing that Jaron not nursing and me ignoring the voice that said "Bring the pump just in case." = Mama in pain and in tears.

8. Hand expressing 4 oz of breastmilk into a sippy cup just to feel ok...much better once he settled down and nursed to sleep. Think we have strong evidence now that he is reverse cycling...just doesn't make me feel very confident that he's getting enough if I'm sleeping through most of the intake, but at least I'm getting sleep, yay co-sleeping!

9. Jaron getting to meet one set of his great-grandparents for the first time.

10. Aedyn playing cars with his great-grandfather, who's 80th birthday is one of the reasons we're up here.

11. Both boys loving the polka-dot or "jelly-bean" sheets that are on our bed.

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