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.

GroBaby's Just Not Working For Us

We have been through many washes now and the GroBaby diapers are just not working for us. They still tend to leak and we rarely have the opportunity to reuse the shell which is the whole reason for buying them. Also the velcro tabs keep coming undone and getting all tangled which results in the where of elastic in the waist. So I went back to researching and ran across another diaper I want to try. The Smartipants diapers are pocket diapers and the inserts are supposed to agitate out in the wash, so you don't have to mess with dirty inserts!

In my researching I found a few more CD sites that I found helpful:

Jillians Drawers: http://jilliansdrawers.com/

They have trial packages available for $10 and I found their product reviews very helpful and have more pics for most their products than Kelly's Closet. However, Kelly's Closet seems to have more cloth diapers.

I also found Mommy's Milk Boutique: http://www.momsmilkboutique.com/

They also offer trial packages & have a great variety of products in addition to CDs. Mommy's Milk Boutique also offers free shipping in the United States!

I wish I had discovered these sites earlier. I could have purchased a trial pack to figure out what diapers I like best before purchasing a greater number of them. Like I did with the GroBaby diapers. I have also found Kim with the Dirty Diaper Laundry: http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com. She has given many helpful cloth diaper reviews on a variety of cloth diapers.

GroBaby's Pros and Cons

Pros:

1) Depending on the how wet the diaper is or how messy the pooh the shell may be able to be reused for the next change.

2) Shells dry quickly; usually you can hang dry them and they are dry before the inserts.

3) Easy to adjust

4) Easy to change

5) No rough velcro touching baby's skin

Cons:

1) Inserts take while to dry

2) Velcro tabs often come undone in the wash and get all tangled up

3) The fabric was very soft at first but now is rough and gives my LO a rash often

4) We rarely have the opportunity to reuse the shell

5) You have to remove dirty inserts before washing & then velcro shell (like you would when placing it on baby) and turn it inside out in order to wash it & not get a tangled mess