My Weekend Nightmare

My weekend was pretty much a mother's nightmare. We got a new dog on Thursday. She is a really sweet Yorkie, but is having a little trouble in the potty training area. Well, after having day full of accidents, I stepped out for a moment to give the dog a chance to use the yard, and I locked myself out. It wasn't so worried about the being locked out part, it's that my baby was still inside sitting in the highchair. On any normal weekend my husband would have been there and it would have been no big deal, but he was in helping with a construction project in Oklahoma. I didn't have any key hidden outside(I've learned my lesson). I cannot tell you how horrible I felt. I had an emotional meltdown when it was all over. My friend's down the street helped me to break the window in our bedroom so we could get in. I could tell he didn't want to break it, and he kept trying to shimmy it out of the frame. I wasn't really concerned about the window, because we were going to replace it anyway, I just wanted to get in to my crying baby. When we finally got him, you could just tell he had been crying buckets! I felt so bad. It is Sunday today, and since then he gets a little upset when I go to put him in the highchair.

CVS

I went to CVS to try out their "bucks" program last week. I bought all the stuff and when I looked at the reciept, I saw that I hadn't recieved the $10 in bucks that I should have gotten. I had bought the wrong diapers. I thought they were too cheap to be true. It ended up being a smaller package. So I returned the larger package and bought the smaller one that counted toward the $10. So now I have $15 in bucks! yea! I've got my foot in! It's been a nice break from cloth diapers, but I am ready to go back (which is good because I am almost out of disposables). I think I wasn't very well prepared to go full time with the cloth diapers. To all beginners: be prepared!!!

What a Deal!

Wednesday I found an awesome deal. I was at CVS because I wanted try out the savings you can get from the "bucks" they give you with some purchases. There was a buy $25 of selected baby stuff and get $10 in "bucks" that you can spend at their store. I also needed a new razor, and they had the new Venus 5 blade razor for $9.99 with $5 in "bucks". I actually bought a pack of Huggies diapers for $8.99 to go towards my baby items! Ouch! A little expensive to start out, but it should save some money in the long run. Anyway, while at CVS, I happened upon a 75% off rack! And lo and behold, there were some dryer balls sitting there! I had heard so many good things about those things. I snatched thos bad boys up for $0.49!!! I have only done small loads so far, but having the balls in there cut the drying time in half! Yea!

Hemp

Thanks for the input Laura! I have heard really good things about hemp from others too. Especially at nighttime and nap time. Very absorbant stuff. I really need to get some. I have been pricing some different online stores for various diapering materials, but I haven't settled on one yet because I just joined a coop that sells that kind of stuff. Whenever I do finally order, I am definitely getting some hemp!

Round 2

Alright, so yesterday I was going to pick up some microfibertowels because I have heard from just about everyone that they are really absorbant and so people tend to use them at night. Well the hubbie went to mow the lawn in the morning, and by the end of the day we had a brand new lawnmower. He tried and tried to get the old one to work, but it was a no go. It's kind of been smoking for some time but it chose yesterday to go kaput. He looked on Craig's List, but they all wanted too much. I was going to ask around on Freecycle, but we had to have it by that day because our city is basically a home owners association as far as lawns are concerned. We got fined twice last year, so we figured we would rather pay for a new(very cheap) lawnmower, than get fined again. So there wasn't a lot of money left in the budget and I didn't get the towels. Well, I thought I would get creative so I did some thinking, and poof! It came to me! I already had some microfiber towels in my kitchen. It actually worked quite well. He went to bed about 7ish and woke up around 5 (he usually gets up about 6). He was very soggy when he woke up and he woke up early, but he didn't have any leaks that I can remember. The only problem was that I didn't realize when I went to bed that there were no clean diapers left. (Turns out I there were 2 disposables but I didn't know where they were at the time.) So once again I had to use the ol' noggin. I ended using an old hand towel. It was very absorbant, but somehow it slid down and got twisted and was a little tricky to get off him. Tonight I put him in a disposable because he leaked twice today (through to his clothes) so I needed a break. Every once and a while sometimes ya just need a break, ya know? Tomorrow's a new day.

Kate vs. Cloth; Cloth wins. : (

Well, I resisted temptation today. I finally ran out of disposable diapers and was faced with going full time with the cloth. (I have been doing cheapo disposables at night and on outings.) I was at Walmart in the baby section staring up at the array of diaper packages before me. It was tempting to grab one and run, but I just couldn't seem to justify spending the $6 to buy a pack of them knowing I had cloth diapers at home.
Nighttime was quickly approaching and the dreaded nighttime cloth diapering dilemma was going through my mind. What exactly do I use to last my super soaker through the night? Well, I haven't come to the answer to that yet and wasn't really prepared for my first nighttime cloth diapering experience, but I risked it, and a few minutes ago I changed the drenched diaper of a sleepy nine month old who usually sleeps through the night. I had used a fitted pocket stuffed with a prefold and then another prefold laid on top. All of this was encompassed by a cover that has proven itself too lightweight for nighttime use. Oh well. I think I am going to get some mirofiber towels as Sam's tomorrow. I've heard you can get a great deal on them there. I saw some when I was walking through Walmart today, but I didn't get them because I knew I'd probably get a better deal to buy in bulk at Sam's. Microfiber towels are supposed to be really absorbent. Stay tuned for Kate vs. Cloth round 2!

Yucky Vinyl Pants!

My new diaper covers are in the mail this very moment! I am so excited! I wish they were here now. I am so done with the vinyl pants. They may work for some people, but not for me. They are hard to put on a squirming baby. They are also made of vinyl, which isn't breathable. I would want something breathable if I had to wear it. I want to buy some PUL (polyurathane laminate) to make some pocket dippies, but it's over $8 a yard. (And then there is shipping, of course, because you can only get it online.) I think I may try finding some wool sweaters to make a cover with. You can sometimes find a them at Goodwill or a thrift store. That would be pretty cheap. I wonder if you can make a pocket diaper with wool? I'll have to ask my diaper sewing yahoo group that I'm on. I'm sure someone there would know. I've learned a ton already, and I've only been a member a short time. hmmm... I'll report back my findings.

My Second Try

Cute fabric, but I think this try didn't turn out as well. I put the elastic in the wrong spot so the inside peeks out. The white material is an old t-shirt and the blue was some thing I had bought at Walmart ($1 rack) to make something for myself (never ended up happening, of course). Most materials are fine for the outside part of the diaper, but Just make sure it can stand the heat in the washing process. The inside material needs to be soft, because it touches baby's skin. I've heard suedecloth, alova, and and microfleece are all good at wicking moisture away from baby's bum. If you have a hard time deciding, just ask yourself if you would want to wear it yourself.