Ergo Giveaway

MMB (Mommy's Milk Boutique) is giving away an Ergo carrier!!! I am really excited about this, as I have REALLY wanted to try it but have been hesitant due to the price. However, I have heard really GREAT things about them. They are durable and better for baby and momma/daddy, because they distribute the wait more evenly for both baby and the parent carrying the baby. With a 400 count thread count is should be super soft and the shoulder straps have high density foam! Not to mention the versatility of carrying your baby front or back.

Here is the giveaway link (good luck!):

http://www.breastfeedbabywearclothdiaper.com/7000-facebook-fan-babywearing-giveaway-celebration

Smartipants New Smart Fit Cover Giveaway

Smartipants has recently come out with a new diaper product the Smart Fit Cover. It is an adjustable one size, wipe clean cover that is supposed to be able to fit babies from 7 to 40 pounds. It not only has a rise snap adjustment but a velcro coupled with snaps for the waist adjustment. The cover is also affordable at just $13.95. Kim has a video review of the Smart Fit on her DDL blog (Dirty Diaper Laundry). You can now enter to win a new Smartipants Smart Fit cover from DDL check out her blog to enter:

http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/smartipants-smart-fit-one-size-cover-giveaway/

Giveaway ends October 18th!

DDL Little Comfort OS Bamboo Nappy Giveaway

Little Comfort is an Irish company. The owner wanted to cloth diaper her daughter for many of the same reasons that other cloth diapering moms. She couldn't find a diaper available that had what she wanted at an economical price so she decided to design her own, thus the Little Comfort Nappies and covers were born!

The bamboo nappy is a one size snap fitted that is super soft and made of bamboo. Since it is a fitted it does need a cover. It comes with 2 boosters and runs about $20.

Dirty Diaper Laundry gave Little Comfort Nappies a great review:

http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/little-comfort-fitted-review/

You can purchase the diapers from Otter Babies:

http://www.otterblotters.com/i_94/One-Size-Bamboo-Fitted-Diapers.htm

The Dirty Diaper Laundry and Otter Babies is hosting a giveaway that will be open until Sept. 27.

http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/little-comfort-giveaway-sponsored-by-otter-babies-927/

Check it out and good luck!

DDL Bottom Bumpers Giveaway

Dirty Diaper Laundry (http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/) is having a Bottom Bumpers giveaway! The giveaway is for the new multi-size adjustable diaper. It is a one size all in one side snapping diaper. I personally have not yet had the opportunity to try out Bottom Bumper but would love to. A really unique feature with the Bottom Bumper diapers is adjustable rise is on the inside and unseen. Like Booroi diapers, Bottom Bumpers are also side snapping. I really like this feature as well. I also like their cute colors.

Kim with Dirty Diaper Laundry gave it an awesome review on her blog. Maybe luck will be in my favor and I will win one! Please check out her blog and enter to win the contest end the 20th so hurry and enter your comments for a chance to win!

Loving the Smartipants but nights are still wet

I am still loving the Smartipants they are working great for both of my little ones during the day. However, my daughter is a heavy wetter and she is waking up wet even with the diapers double stuffed. I really do not think that the Smaritpants covers can take three inserts, as it is really snug with two.

I have heard many different solutions, and successes with different types of diapers. I am wondering if moms have a day time and a night time stash. As I am still fairly new the the cloth diapering , this had not occurred to me before now. I am getting a Bum Genius 3.0 pocket from Kelly's Closet and give it a try. Maybe this will help with out night time situation. If it does I may buy a few more for just night time use. Though as our funds are currently low that may have to wait.

Skip Hop Bag Review

My Skip Hop bag arrived in the mail! I purchase the ocean stripped Duo Deluxe Edition, so it was gender neutral and could be used for both kiddos. I love all the pockets! There are 2 outside front pockets; one mesh pockets that could be good for water bottle, sippy cup or bottle; another side pocket that could be good for a cell phone; two zippered pockets at the top; a back pocket/pouch for a changing pad and four inside pockets. The bag it made of a canvas like material on the outside and a nylon like material on the inside so it should be fairly easy to clean. Since my son is in disposable diapers currently (until he is big enough for the cloth diapers we have (which mainly consist of Smartipants), the diaper bag will be great. However, when he can fit into the cloth diaper bags I am not so sure that I'll have room for everything because cloth diapers ten to take up more room.

But right now I have room for the following: 3 to 4 newborn disposable diapers; 2 Smartipants cloth diapers; a changing pad; a sippy cup; 2 extra outfits for each (newborn & toddler); small hand sanitizer; a mini first aid kit (band aids, thermometer, Little tummies, saline solution, nasal aspirator, antiseptic ointment, lanolin ointment, teething ointment); cell phone & wallet.

Booroi Diapers

I came across a new-to-me daper: Booroi. Booroi is an Australian cloth diaper company. Booroi actually means baby in the language of Australian Aborigines. The Booroi system consists of a sized Nappi Cover (in various colors) and a Pre-fold Nappi which are sold separately. Nappi is an English (England/Britain) term for diaper. The cool thing about this pre-fold system is that the diaper cover has an elastic area that you can simply tuck a pre-fold folded into thirds into. This "pouch" for lack of a better explanation also provides extra leg gusset to hold in leaks and messes better. You do not have to worry with the folding on the baby. For me, it made pre-fold much less intimidated and you can reuse the covers! The covers are made with a soft breathable PUL, are side snapped, and come in the sizes: small, medium, & large. Booroi covers run about $15. The pre-folds are made with bamboo fleece on one side and Bamboo terry on the other and an inner layer of thirsty bamboo fleece. You can get a six pack of Nappi pre-folds with a zipper wet bag for about $60 & some sites offer one at a time purchases of about $10 each.

My sites offer a trial version of : one cover, one pre-fold, three wipes, & a wipe bag for $20. I decided to try this system out and I needed a wipe bag anyway.

I found it takes a little bit of an adjustment to fit the diaper on, but I love it! The are absorbent and the leg gussets hold in mess and leak very well. I got a small so it fits my son but not my daughter. My husband refuses to use this diaper because he says it's too intimidating but it really is simple. I would definitely recommend this diaper.

http://www.booroi.com.au/home

http://www.babyhopesclothdiapers.com/

http://www.momsmilkboutique.com/

http://www.otterblotters.com/

Diaper Bag

With two little ones I decided I needed to upgrade the diaper bag. I decided to buy a Skip Hop Duo. I order it from Jillian's Drawers. I am looking forward to it coming in, I only wish I could find a store near me that sold it. I would like to look at it in person before buying but from what I have about it (including reviews by other parents) I think it will work.

Skip Hop is a company that strives to make the lives of parents a little easier. They sell diaper bags & accessories, diapering caddies, feeding tool and accessories for infants and toddlers, home and nursery items, bath stuff for babies and toddlers, and toys.

There diaper bags come in a variety of colors, have many pockets and an added feature is the "shuttle clips" that allow the diaper bag to be attached to the stroller leaving the bottom cargo available for other items.

Conall has arrived!!

Conall arrived on his due date (February 28th) at 3:06AM! I woke up to use the restroom and my water broke at 1:30AM. I was staying at my parents house because my husband works night and incase I went in to labor I would have someone to take me to the hospital. The good thing was I had someone to watch my daughter and take me to the hospital, since my grandparents and parents live next to each other. My husband was going to meet us at the hospital. The bad part was I was about two hours away from the hospital. With my daughter, I was in labor for almost two days. It was very long and she got stuck on my pelvis, and I ended up having to get an epidural. My son was complete opposite! I had hoped to have a water birth.

My dad drove and my mom rode in the back seat. As my contractions got closer and closer we were all afraid that we not make it to the hospital in time. My mom kept asking to let her know when I was having a contraction so she'd keep up with them. My dad realized that she was driving just little crazy, and just told her to listen 'isn't it obvious' I think is what he said. By the time we got the hospital I had both feet on the dash and my knees practically glued together and hanging onto the handle bar above the door for dear life!!! My husband beat us to the hospital and had a wheel chair waiting for me. I fell into the chair and he rushed my to the labor & delivery area with my mom trying to get doors open along the way. He had time to get me in the room, I got my jeans off and my midwife cam into the room to check me. She stopped the the nurses fussing with monitors and told me to push. Two pushes and he was out. My father had did not even have time to park the car and get to the labor and delivery area before Conall arrived. In fact he called mom to make sure he remembered how to get the LDR and when he heard Conall he said in disbelief, "That's not my grandson is it?!"

Needless to say I did not have the planned water birth. Conall was 8 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches long. Mom nick named him "Speed Racer"!

Econobum Diapers

With my Smartipants purchase I received a free Econobum Diaper set. Econobum diapers come with a water proof adjustable cover or shell and a one size pre-fold that can be folded to fit smaller babies and larger babies. As far as price goes, these are very economical. Only $10 for the set. These are supposed to be able to fit babies from 8-35 pounds. I am not completely sure that the cover would work for a newborn with out leaks and currently cannot try it out.

I tried it on my daughter and it fits well and is pretty absorbent. However, I have decided that pre-folds are not my favorite. So I believe this will become an emergency type diaper (i.e. when I am waiting on diapers to dry and in need). For those who do not mind pre-folds, these would be a great economical way to cloth diaper your baby. An added bonus is that depending on the wetness or poop, you may be able to reuse the cover by just wiping it down in between changes. For about $100 you could have enough diapers for you baby (this would still be washing once a day), so it is one of the cheaper cloth diapering solutions available.

Loving the Smartipants

So far the Smartipants are working awesome!! They fit beautifully on my daughter (almost 2) and I am liking the snaps. The best thing about them is not having to fool with dirty inserts and no velcro tangled messes in the wash! After using them for a while, my husband and I have decided to switch to Smartipants. I am going to post my GroBaby diapers on diaper swappers and use the money to purchase Smartipants.

I like the Smartipants and them seem to be holding up to my daughter's heavy wetting much better than the GroBaby diapers did. The Smartipants are also a bit cheaper than the Grobaby diapers are so that is an added bonus.

I am considering switching to cloth wipes. I am tired of throwing dirty wipes in the trash. It is becoming annoying having to places to put things when I and changing/cleaning out diapers. It seems like it would just be easier having cloth wipes. I found a way to make them using old receiving blankets.

Newborn CDs & Sposies?

With the trial packages available on some sites and the fact OS (one size) cloth diapers typically do not fit newborns, I have been debating on getting a newborn size diaper package for our son. I am due at the end of February. However, since we are not planning on having anymore kidos the newborn diapers will not be used again. I will have to sell them and he will only be in them for a short while. Typically babies can fit into OS diapers until they reach about 10 pounds or are between 2 and 3 months old.

Also from what I have read, fitteds and pre-folds seem to be the best newborn option and both require a cover. My husband does not want to even consider pre-folds and I have to admit I am a bit intimidated by them as well. Some fitteds after you factor in the cost of the covers as well can get a bit expensive for a 2 to 3 month usage. I may be using disposables until my little guy gets big enough for the OS diapers that I have.

On an additional note. We have decided to try Smartipants. Kelly's Closet has a special on a package of three.