This post is part of Cloth Diapering Bloggers’ and Dirty Diaper Laundry’s Cloth Diaper Carnival VIII: Cloth Diaper Awareness.  Please visit the other bloggers participating by following the links at the end of this post.

I asked everyone to write about ways they envision spreading awareness of cloth diapers or work they have already done to do so. While I would like to think that just my blog does something in this area, I know in reality most of my readers came to me after already beginning cloth or after they had made up their mind to do so in the future.  So what more do I think I could be doing?

One idea that came to me many weeks ago was that perhaps I could volunteer to teach a Cloth Diapering class in conjunction with my local WIC office.  I did contact them but have yet to get a response back.  I will call again very soon when life isn’t as hectic.  Not sure when that will be since it has been for a while and will be for the foreseeable future!  I think speaking to families who are looking for assistance is a good idea.  I recently wrote that maybe we should stop expecting low income families to cloth diaper and start focusing on the middle class.  I still believe that is true.  But for families who own a washer and dryer but who are struggling to buy food and diapers every month, why not show them that they can ease the strain on their wallets by using cloth diapers?

In conjunction with a class of this nature, getting a local or online retailer involved who would offer a discount is a good idea.  It would help the families save money while promoting a business and potentially gaining a loyal and repeat customer.

I have already put myself out there in my local Mom Groups as the “go to” person if anyone is ever in need of help.  While I have only had one person accept my offer, just being out there is always a good thing!  I proudly wear the “Ask Me About Cloth Diapers” pin I got from the Real Diaper Association on my diaper bag and hope someone does.

Online, I of course run this website and the Cloth Diapering Bloggers network.  Behind the scenes I get lots of emails from people who come across my website and want advice about starting up, or what diapers they should buy.  I do my best to get to everyone in a timely manner and answer their questions honestly.  Being a neutral party is a great thing.  I can suggest any diaper, from any brand, that fits their needs.  I hope that I have been able to help a lot of families with their cloth diaper journey in this way.

Sadly, I don’t think I will be able to do Fluffy Christmas again this year.  With a baby being born in October, then my son’s birthday in November, and then traveling to North Carolina for Christmas, I don’t see a way to make it work.  It took a lot of planning, and packing time last year.  I was able to get enough donations from many different cloth diaper companies to send 10 families nearly complete cloth diaper stashes who needed them.  I know The Cloth Diaper Foundation does this all the time, but it was very special to do this myself with the help of those companies.  If anyone has the ability, this is a great project to undertake, even if you can just sponsor 1 local family and send them diapers to start out with.

In the grand scheme of things, we all know that marketing cloth diapers like the disposable companies market theirs, is the next frontier.  I have worked for many months on getting cloth diapers on The Ellen Show with my “Operation Fluffy” project.  I think it was very successful.  There were tons of people involved, many of you reading this I am sure, who sent videos, tweeted, posted pictures on her Facebook, etc.  The box of goodies I sent to California will be hand delivered to Ellen once her show begins filming again in a few weeks!  I sure hope this does something!  I will definitely let you know if it does!  Getting cloth on TV is what needs to be done.  And it will, I am sure of it.  Other people are working just as hard, granted, they are the brands themselves.  But any brand featured is great, it is exposure for all brands in a way.

I feel very priveleged to belong to this community of caring people who are so passionate about cloth diapering.  I have met a lot of friends just by starting this blog and sharing my love of cloth diapering.  Even in the past 2 years I have seen the rise of cloth, and it will grow even more in the near future.

Now, I want to hear what you had to say!  If you joined the carnival, don’t forget to add your link to this post.

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This next carnival is all about Cloth Diaper Awareness. I want everyone to post a blog entry about how they think we can promote or educate others about cloth diapers. No idea is too crazy! Remember, I am the one trying to get cloth on The Ellen Show!

TV, local outreach, classes, etc. You can write about things you have done or grand ideas that seem crazy but just might work! If some ideas are good enough or feasible maybe we can make it happen somehow!

Everyone will post their entry on or before September 7!

I will also post my entry along with a McLinky so everyone can add their posts.  The McLinky will be open for 2 days.  I will include the codes.  Everyone who participates needs to add the code to their website so that readers can go from one blog to the next.  If you have technical troubles you can link to my post with instructions for readers to visit the other entries.

Your post should have this at the very beginning:

This post is part of Cloth Diapering Bloggers’ and Dirty Diaper Laundry’s Cloth Diaper Carnival VIII: Cloth Diaper Awareness.  Please visit the other bloggers participating by following the links at the end of this post.

I look forward to hearing your creative ideas or experiences!

This post is part of the Cloth Diaper Carnival from Cloth Diapering Bloggers (Ning network) and Dirty Diaper Laundry.  Each participant write about the chosen topic, this month is Newborn Cloth Diapering, and links up using the MckLinky.  Please visit the other participants listed at the end of the post.

Newborn Cloth Diapering is challenging for many reasons.  If this is the first time you are cloth diapering, ever, it is even more challenging in some ways.  If you have cloth diapered an older baby but never a newborn, you have some ideas about the diapers you want to use and how to cloth diaper in general.

I was totally new to the whole thing.  Babies, cloth diapers, and cloth diapering a newborn.  I was armed with months worth of research, but had never put a cloth diaper on a real baby.  I did practice on a humiliated teddy bear, who was sporting a Bum Genius 3.0 for months before my son arrived.  Teddy also sat very still while I practiced snapping prefolds.

When I decided to cloth diaper, it became an obsession.  I would say I was a little more prepared than some moms because I scoured the internet for any information.  I joined cloth diaper message boards and picked the brains of other parents.  I read reviews of every diaper imaginable before I made purchases.  I stalked Diaperswappers for deals on used diapers I wanted to try but didn’t want to invest the full amount on, just in case it wasn’t for us.

My newborn stash ended up being

24 preemie unbleached indian prefolds.

36 Infant bleached DSQ (chinese) prefolds.

4 XS Thirsties covers.

I had many more cloth diapers, but they were one size or size small.  I went with prefolds and covers based on the feedback from other parents.  The concensus was that one size diapers didn’t fit babies until between 10-14 pounds without leaking.  And it wasn’t in my budget to buy XS AIO diapers or pockets, as cute as they were.

I spent many hours prepping the large amount of prefolds I had.  I went with the boiling method since my washer/ dryer were down 2 flights of stairs and washing them 10 times + would have killed by pregnant self.  Boiling was a mistake.  It steamed my apartment and “cleaned” years of dirt off of the walls.  Fun times.

The moment of truth arrived when we brought our new baby boy home from the hospital.  I began using my cloth diapers here and there the first days of his life.  He did have two meconium poops in cloth diapers and they didn’t stain.  We didn’t exclusively use them because the covers would rub his cord stump, which didn’t look very comfortable for him.

At the two week mark we started cloth diapering about 80% of the time.  We didn’t always use them at night because frankly I was delirious from lack of sleep, and having to put on a prefold then a cover in the middle of the night, multiple times, was hard for me and my husband.  Even though at first my hubby was hesitant about prefolds and vowed to never use them, he did, and did a great job.

We did run into an issue.  My son kept getting a red bum from the prefolds.  It didn’t look like a rash, there were no bumps, just redness.  I asked mommies on my forum and they thought it could be from having wetness against his skin.  I ran to my nearest fabric store and purchased some fleece, then cut them into contoured liners hoping this would help.  Of course, right after that he stopped having that problem.  I think his skin was just extra sensitive from being a new baby, and he grew out of it.

Some lessons I learned:

Unless you know you made tiny babies, preemie prefolds are not necessary.  I heard the infant ones were too large at first.  My son wore preemie prefolds for all of a week before I could hardly snappi them.  Had I known, I could have trifolded them and put them in the cover, but I didn’t.

I bought 36 infant prefolds and never touched at least 16 of them.  I washed pretty often at first, every 1.5-2 days.  I could have gone longer but didn’t.  I either should have waited longer to wash or bought less!

Even with 4 covers I didn’t use them all!  Don’t go overboard with the covers.  4-6 is plenty.

Cut yourself a break.  The wash routine, the snapping, the folding, everything will come about.  You have a brand new baby and the number one thing is keeping them happy and fed.  If you run out of clean diapers and you are sleepy, get your hubby to wash or grab a sposie or two that you surely own thanks to the hospital.  GASP.  I said it…

Breastfeeding was the most awesome thing because the poop was washable.  Kinda gross to think about, but Exclusive Breastfed babies have water soluble poops.  And, the poop doesn’t smell that bad either!  Just put your diaper in the wetbag, poop still in it, then wash.  You won’t have to worry about spraying or scraping poop out of your baby’s diaper until they begin solids, around 4-6 months for most babies.

And finally, don’t expect your one size diapers to fit perfectly from day one.  While I did start using my Bum Genius 3.0′s after he was a few weeks old, I had leaks until he was around 12-13 pounds.

Now that you have read my story, go read the other awesome entries about cloth diapering newborns.

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The time has come for another Cloth Diaper Carnival from Cloth Diapering Bloggers and Dirty Diaper Laundry.

This time we will be discussing cloth diapering newborns.  Did you use prefolds and covers, fitteds, or adorable teeny tiny AIO’s?  How many did you need/ have?  What was your biggest challenge?  Tell us about the first time you cloth diapered a newborn.  Were you afraid to wash the poop?  Were there any blowouts?  What about the meconium?  The cord stump?  We want to know everything!  And, if you have pictures, share them!

The carnival will take place on April 2. As always we will link up using MckLinky.  I know I know…. we always have trouble.  I will try and help.  If you can’t get the posted code to work you can also link to my post letting people know to read the other entries there.

So lets talk about teeny tiny fluffy booties!

As a reminder, I am going to link back to all of our old carnivals.  If you haven’t participated in this carnival before these will give you an idea of what to expect.

Cloth Diaper Carnival I: What you wish you knew then that you know now…

Cloth Diaper Carnival Part Deux: What is your cloth diaper washing routine?

Cloth Diaper Carnival III: Traveling with cloth diapers.

Cloth Diaper Carnival IV: Where did you learn about cloth diapers?

Cloth Diaper Carnival V: Husbands and cloth diapers.

Cloth Diaper Carnival VI: Get cloth diapers on The Ellen Show.

That was a fun blast from the past!

 I am a little late on this (last) month’s carnival.  The topic this go ’round is: Get Cloth Diapers Featured on The Ellen Show.  Write your post, link it here, and tweet a link to @TheEllenShow with #operationfluffy #clothdiapers tags.

Ex: “@TheEllenShow  Why I want to see #clothdiapers on your show. http://as89o.th8.us  #operationfluffy”

How the heck do we do that?  We already dropped the Fluffy Bomb on her Twitter account last night.  We tweeted to her hundreds of times.

That is Phase 1, which continues as long as it takes.  We can’t lose steam on this.  We will reconvene next week, but not during the #clothdiapers chat.  While it was the best way to get the word out, I don’t want to take it over again.  I truly appreciate everyone’s passion and zeal last night.  ALL who particiapted made me so proud to be a cloth diapering mama!  Anyone have a time/ day suggestion for the next #operationfluffy?

The next step of Phase 1 involves taking over social media to bombard Ellen.  All blogs, big or small, will write a post about Why Cloth DIapers should be featured on Ellen.  That is my post today.

Phase 2 Will be a video of babies dancing in cloth diapers.  Email me a 20 second or less clip of your baby dancing in just a cloth diaper, to dirty diaper laundry at gmail dot com or kdrosas at gmail dot com using yousendit.com.

Phase 3 Has just been determined.  I am having a diaper made with Ellen on it, in some way.  Ideally, the “laugh dance conquer” flag.  We will mail the diaper around, take videos with it on the babies, take photos of the babies wearing it in front of a landmark or town name, to help Ellen Conquer The World. 

Now for my reasons why Ellen should have cloth diapers on her show, in a letter to Ellen.

Dear Ellen,

My purpose writing you this pretend letter on my blog is to kindly ask if you would feature the Modern Cloth Diaper on your show.  Maybe it isn’t really your type of thing.  It isn’t.  You interview celebs, play games, have performers come on, and have some human interest stories.  This is very much in the interest of all humans! 

I could bore you with facts about the waste produced by disposable diapers, the chemicals they contain (same chemicals outlawed in tampons), the raw resources involved to make the diapers, and even the fishy tactics used by the big disposable companies to keep parents buying them. 

Without mass media exposure, something the mom run diaper businesses simply cannot afford, we can’t really let the moms of the world know that there is a better way.  Mention cloth diapers to a room with 100 new moms, and maybe 10 would have heard of the Modern Cloth Diaper.  The rest would think of pins, rubber pants, and stinky wet pails.  The internet is full of niche cloth diaper communities, but we are preaching to the choir!  They already know the benefits of cloth.  The mom who watches your show every day doesn’t.  She might recylce, buy organic food, compost, and drive a hybrid, and still use disposables.  Why?  Because she has no idea how easy they are.  I have actually met people who are very green, and still use disposables for that reason! 

The Twitter ladies came up with fantastic ideas to make this a fun show.  Here are some of the best.

• Have a Cloth Diaper Fashion Show
• Play a game where contestants try to put on an “old school” cloth diaper the fastest.
• A medley of babies dancing to a version of “Poker-Face” but “Fluffy Butt”
• Have Sumo Wrestling in Giant Cloth Diapers
• Something to do with poop, because poop is always funny

Please, I can’t find the tweets, I just remembered them.  Claim your idea and I will edit to give you credit!

Ellen, we are just going to pester you until we see cloth diapers on your show.  We picked you for a reason.  That reason is two fold: You respond to fans who bug you and  I have a girl crush on you you have a very relevant audience. 

 Look who else wants to see cloth diapers on your show.

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This post is part of the Cloth Diapering Bloggers and Dirty Diaper Laundry monthly Cloth Diaper Carnival.  We skipped last month but things are back on track.  This month’s carnival is themed around Husbands and cloth diapering.  Participants really had an open ended theme, so the entries could be humorous stories, tragedies, or tales of fully supportive men!  I can’t wait to read them all.  To visit the other entries, visit the others linked beneath my post.

I have already written before about my husband and how he tossed a Sustainable Babyish wool soaker in the diaper pail, which was then washed in HOT and dried in the dryer!!!  It survived, but was slightly felted.  You can read about that here.

I haven’t shared with you a story from the early days.  This was before I started this blog, and when our son was just a few months old.  Back then I was nursing virtually around the clock.  Every weekend I would “sleep in.”  My husband would wake up with our son, change his diaper, and entertain him for 1-2 hours before he would be ready to come back to bed with me to nurse and nap.

The morning in question I gave my husband verbal instructions.  We were using prefolds and covers during the day, but disposables at night.

I said to my husband, while groggy, “Use the red cover!” since it was still clean.  I had it laid out to dry from the night before.

Hours later, after the baby had come to bed with me, nursed, napped, and had woken up, I went to change his diaper.  I found a baby wearing a disposable diaper and a red, XS Thirsties cover.

Confused I went to my husband and asked “Why!?!?”

“You told me to put the red cover on him”

“Yes, it was meant to go over a CLEAN diaper.”

“All you said was, ‘Use the red cover’ how was I supposed to know?  Plus, I was still half asleep!”

So, my son was in a disposable diaper all night, and a couple of hours the next morning.  Except of course, he had a red Thirsties cover over it.

Husbands…….

Please read the other bloggers’ entries for the Cloth Diaper Carnival.

This post is part of the Cloth Diapering Bloggers and Dirty Diaper Laundry hosted Cloth Diaper Carnival that is held every month.  Many bloggers get together and write about the same topic.  This month is “Where did you first hear about/ see cloth diapers?”

July 20, 2008.  I have an entry in my pregnancy journal titled “Cloth Diapers.”  I was 21 Weeks pregnant, and I was already stoked about cloth diapering.  Lame?  Maybe…. I had already been researching for a few weeks at that point.  I know that I first saw cloth diapers online.  I don’t recall which, but it was on a pregnancy forum I was sort of stalking.  I never participated, but I checked the different forums.  There may have been a board dedicated to cloth diapers on it, or someone mentioned them.  I was pregnant and had the memory of an ant.

When I saw them the idea immediately clicked in my head.  While I never considered that there was an alternative, I never even thought about diapers.  Looking back, I find that odd.  I never considered the disposable ones, or diaper genies, or throwing trash bags of garbage away.  The moment I saw that there were modern cloth diapers I began frantically researching.

I googled price comparisons, brands, types, how to wash, what to do with the poop.  Everything.  I also joined a cloth diapering forum on Justmommies.com and started picking the brains of women there.  I later joined Diaperswappers to buy used diapers and save money, but that was much later in my pregnancy.  I wanted ammo when I broached the subject with my husband.  I knew this was going to be one hell of a conversation.

“Honey… I want to use cloth diapers.  And wash them.  But don’t worry, I am breastfeeding and the poop goes in the washer, so you don’t have to dump it out.  And it will save us a lot of money.”

“You want to put what in the washer?  Poop!?”

I know my husband never gave diapers much thought while I was pregnant either, and he had never changed one in his entire life.  That was my leverage.  He didn’t know the difference!  I researched the many cloth diaper websites for the easiest, Daddy Friendly Brands.  I decided velcro was it, and wanted Bum Genius 3.0′s for my stash, along with some prefolds and Thirsties XS for the newborn stage.

Convincing my husband was not easy.  My ammo was the cost savings and the fact that I would be doing all of the laundry.  After some convincing, he agreed.  The rest is history.

I think, what if I never saw cloth diapers online?  I would NEVER have known.  I don’t see mothers changing cloth diapers at the changing station.  I never see babies running around in cloth diapers.  I don’t see billboards or commercials about them like I do for disposables.  Cloth diapers have a huge online community but how people stumble upon cloth diapers is still predominately online.  I have talked to moms in person and I try to bring them up in conversations.  I have converted a few people, and that is great.  I know there are a few people working on starting a Real Diaper Association Circle in my area, which would hopefully work on spreading the word locally.

For me, just like breastfeeding in public, I like to cloth diaper in public.  I like to pull out my diapers from my bag before I change him.  I just take a diaper, wet bag, and wipes to the room, and leave my bag at the table or whereever.  Or, in the warmer climates I let him run around in a diaper and T shirt or put him in babylegs.

Hopefully my son in cloth diapers will trigger something in someone else, and they will be able to say that I was the first person they saw with cloth diapers.
If you are participating in the carnival, please leave a link to your post below. You also need to put that you are entering the carnival at the top of your post, like I did, with links back to CDB and DDL. Here is the code for your post. (I have had comments already that the code isn’t working.  UGH.  I am emailing you, so if it doesn’t work email me.  kdrosas at gamil dot com.)

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This post is part of Dirty Diaper Laundry and Cloth Diapering Bloggers’ Carnival.  To read other entries scroll to the end of this post.

This Carnival post is all about traveling with cloth diapers.  “Impossible!” You say! “Nay” I say!  I have done a great deal of traveling since having my son last November.  We have driven and flown.  Used cloth diapers and not.  I am going to go through the many different plans and schemes I have used for traveling.  Perhaps you will be inspired to give it a shot on your next vacation.

Way back when, in February, my husband and I had the brilliant idea to drive from NY to NC.  My son was 3.5 months at the time.  I will spare you the gory details of how 12 hours turned into 15.  I will tell you that as new parents our car was packed to the BRIM with things we “had” to have.  Baby bath tub, bouncer, 20,000 onesies, burp cloths, etc.  Shoved into the baby bath tub to save space were CLOTH DIAPERS!

I lovingly packed my diapers, pre-stuffed, and my cloth wipes, my spray bottle, and wet bags, into my baby bath tub.  We were staying with family and I had discussed ahead of time the idea of washing poop in their washer.  They were ok with it!  I literally brought my entire stash, which consisted mostly of Bum Genius 3.0′s at the time.

I also remembered to bring a small ziplock of Tide Original and my blue Dawn, which was my wash routine at the time.  Even being busy with family and friends I had plenty of time to throw my diapers in the wash.  My Mother-in-Law was even helpful and pulled them out of the dryer for me and stacked them neatly.  She didn’t stuff them though.  She knew enough not to wash them for me.

Tragically, the water in Charlotte was different than NY and my wash routine didn’t work well there.  I came back with repelling issues and had to strip.  It was still worth it to use my own diapers in Charlotte though!

The next trip was a biggie.  We flew from Syracuse to San Antonio Texas.  This was a family trip also, so we had access to laundry.  At this time I had purchased G Diapers and Gro Baby.  My plan of attack was to use G Diapers for the night before the trip while I washed diapers and for the flights.  While in Texas I packed only Gro Baby and lots of soakers (space saving) and my overnight diapers, which at the time were Blueberry Deluxe One Size.  I packed a hanging wet bag, but skipped on the cloth wipes this time and used disposables.

Again, trouble occurred.  I had a hard time keeping up with laundry since I packed so light.  Trying to fit cloth diapers, even Gro Baby, in a suitcase and your own items means you only have so many.  The other problem I ran into was running out of disposable wipes.  I thought I had plenty but apparently you use so many disposable wipes!!!  I felt like I was using 10 for a poopy change.  It was crazy!  Plus, my son had an upset tummy and was pooping so much I was using all of my diapers quicker than usual.

Then, my diapers were leaking all over.  Repelling, again.  WHY ME?  The last leg of my trip I had to use disposables that my Mother-in-Law brought all the way from NC.  The same package she had for me when we visited last time but didn’t need.  I used a combo of those and my G Diapers.  I didn’t have enough covers to use them full time for the rest of the trip.  I wrote two posts about this trip.  Here and Here.

Tampa.  SIGH.  My husband and I went to Tampa for a few days.  On this trip I didn’t even attempt cloth diapers.  I was disheartened by the two previous trips where my diapers started repelling after washing in my location.  Plus, being such a short trip I was somewhat ok with using disposables because I would be gone such a short time.  Two days before we left for the trip we went on a hunt for “eco-friendly” disposables.  I had heard of a brand that was based from corn.  I didn’t find it but instead bought the Huggies Pure and Natural.  I later found out that the orgainc cotton mentioned in the commercials was only on the outside.  What was touching the skin was the same as a regular Huggies.  Shoulda known.  It also still smelled just a terrible as a sposie. More about this trip here and here.

On this trip I realized how much I hated the thought of sposies.  I felt guilt with every diaper I threw away.  And, I seemed to change him even more than with cloth.  He felt “squishy” like he was wet all the time, but when I took it off it was light.  I think the cloth diaper companies took the knowledge that parents change when the diaper feels squishy and manipulated the diaper to feel like that with a tiny bit of pee.  You change more, so they make more!

On our next trip I flew out to Charlotte again, just me and my son, to visit family.  This time, I had an ingenious plan!  Since we never used a car seat on our flights (I nursed him almost the entire time on my lap) I always checked it.  To bring cloth diapers with me this time I packed an entire garbage bag full and stuffed it into my car seat, and put that in a car seat bag for traveling.  I basically snuck them in!  I didn’t have to take up valuable luggage space or pay extra to pack them in a separate suitcase.

This time I was using Rockin’ Green detergent from a sample I had.  My diapers didn’t repel at all.  This was a turning point for my laundry routine.  I ditched the Tide and started using detergents meant for cloth diapers.  If you want to read my original post about this trip, click here.

For our quick trip to Boston MA, which we drove, we just used cloth like normal.  I packed lots of wet bags and placed my small wetbags from each day into a larger wetbag.  This worked great to contain smells!  I met another cloth diapering mama on this trip and wrote about how strange it was.

Vegas Baby!!!!  My most recent trip was from NY to Las Vegas, with just me and my son.  I only got one suitcase, which I already had to pay for, and I wasn’t packing a car seat.  Packing cloth diapers was out of the question!  I started brainstorming ways to use cloth and found a local diaper service in Las Vegas.  I worked with them to deliver to my hotel and pick up.  For my flights I used Gro Baby’s new Bio Soakers!  I wrote a post about it already, which you can read here.

For my next trip, which will once again be Charlotte NC in November, I am planning on packing my diapers inside of the car seat bag again.  It worked so well that I am going to do it again!

If I ever get a real vacation where I am not visiting family, I will look for a local diaper service.  If there isn’t one, I might have to use disposable cloth diaper inserts.  Truth be told, I do not like bringing poop back home with me.  I wouldn’t  mind people using disposables if they were the exception to the rule, not the rule.  After all, that was the reason they were invented in the first place!

A map of our travels. Click for full image.

To read about how other families have used cloth diapers on vacation, or how they plan to, or why they don’t, visit the links below.

Readers, do you travel with cloth?  Why or why not?

The people have spoken and “what is your wash routine?” won in a vote for this carnival’s topic.  This can get really boring, really quick.  For my entry I decided to do something fun.  I present to you…. “A Continuous Motion Journey… Washing Cloth Diapers”

This “video” is actually a string of photographs taken in continuous shoot mode on a Nikon D80.  I had some trouble taking true continuous shots but overall it came out ok.  It was a painstaking job of editing this though.  I am not sure I will do this again!

My routine from the video in detail:

1. Take dirties out of my modified Diaper Dekor, place new WAHMIES pail liner in.
2. Take diapers downstairs and start a double cold rinse, squirt a couple shots of bac-out in.
3. Return downstairs to start my hot wash with 2 cold rinses.  Add 2 scoops of Tiny Bubbles and one scoop of Bambino Mio salts for freshening.
4. Another trip downstairs for a hot wash with 2 cold rinses with no detergent.  Add one cap of Ecover fabric softener.
5. Next trip, take clean diapers out of the washer and put in the dryer.
6. (some days after this I put diapers in need of sunning outside, today there was no sun)
7. Final trip, take dry fluffies upstairs and stuff, fold, then put away.
8. If you were counting that is 5 trips up and down two flights of stairs.

Now, if you are participating here is the scoop. Grab my button from this post and use it in your entry with a link back to me. Let people know what you are doing (ex. This is part of the Cloth Diaper Blog Carnival. The topic is “What is your was routine?”) Enter the link to your post in the Mclinky below. I will have it open until the 27th. On the evening of the 25th I will post the code so everyone can insert it into their own post. This will allow people to travel from one post to the next with ease. If you are having trouble getting McLinky to work with your blog ask me for help (kdrosas at gmail dot com). I would like everyone to get the code this time. If all else fails and you can’t get it working, then direct people to this post for them to read the rest.

To add this use one of the following codes. The first is for javascript allowed blogs. <script src=”http://www.mcklinky.com/linky_include_basic.asp?id=4174″ type=”text/javascript”></script>and this for blogs that cannot use java. <p><b>Powered by MckLinky</b></p><p><a href=”http://www.mcklinky.com/basic_list.asp?id=4174″>Click here</a> to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…</p>

It is almost time for the next Cloth Diaper Blog Carnival from DDL!  This month’s Topic is: “What is your wash routine?”  This can get boring, so please, get creative!  If you write 1,000 words on how you wash your diapers you are going to lose your readers in 10 seconds.  Try to think of fun ways to explain your routine.  A bulleted list won’t do either.  You are also free to write about the trials and tribulations of finding a routine that worked for you.

For those of you participating, I am also going to try and make it easier this time.  To join, write your entry and post it anytime between now and the evening of the 24th.  The morning of the 25th, Tuesday, I will post mine along with the McLinky.  Add your link to the Mclinky.  Once all of the entries have been received (by 10 PM Tuesday the 25th) I will close the Mclinky.  Then, I will post the code to add to your own posts.  You must add the code to your post to stay in the list.  If you have technical difficulties email me for help.  If we just can’t figure it out then you can still be included.  Also, you need to add the button for the carnival to your post with a link back to this site.  Here is your gorgeous button, made by ME!

I hope to see many more participants this time around!  I can’t wait to see the fun ways you come up with to describe your wash routine!