Tonight is my last night in my bed.  Tomorrow we wake at 3:30 am to get ready and head to the airport.  I am confident Fletcher will behave on the flight.  He is my boobie baby, so I believe he will be happy to suck even if he isn’t eating just to stay calm.  And if that doesn’t work we have a small DVD player on which we plan to watch an Anime movie.  He will like the pretty colors.

I have one bag to be checked ($15), one carry on full of diapers and makeup, one diaper bag, and one backpack for the laptop.   As always I am racking my brain trying to figure out what I forgot.  Last trip (to Charlotte, NC to visit family) I forgot pants.  I came with the pair on my rear and one extra.  I had to wash quite a bit.

I will still be popping in to post but I know it won’t be very frequent and it will most likely peertain to our trip.  Wish us luck on our journey to Texas.  Fletcher the Kid is coming to town.  Yee Haw!

I know, I know.  I have been on a cloth diaper posting streak!  I promise the next post will not be about diapers!

I recently heard about a cloth diapering awareness project called “Global Fluffy Bum” and had to post about it.  The premise is simple: One diaper traveling the world, gracing the bums of babies everywhere!  

 
Hally Hotta started the project after being inspired by buying a used diaper that had a few different owners.  To date the diaper has seen 30 bums, with more to come.  In fact, Fletcher and I signed up today and  we heard back that we won’t have to wait long.  The diaper is on the east coast now!

Besides promoting awareness, this idea really drives the point home that cloth is durable and economical.  I have bought many used diapers and they work just as well as a new diaper, if not better in some cases.  Buying used can save you the trouble of prepping diapers to increase their absorbency.  In fact today I bought a Piddle Poddles AI2 from diaperswappers.com that I can’t wait to get my hands on.

To learn more about Global Fluffy Bum check out their blog, complete with pictures of the Global Diaper  here.  http://globalfluffybum08.blogspot.com/  If you want to be apart of the action email globalfluffybum@gmail.com  You can read an article in The Record Herald here Waynesboro Toddler Sports a Fluffy Bum

If you have been visiting my blog from the get go you will notice many, many changes.  It has and will always be a work in progress.  What blog or website isn’t?  The two new recent developments:  I am part of the BlogHer ad network, and I am blogging for Justmommies.com.  For people visiting my site directly the only change visible is the new ad network.  If you are stopping over from Justmommies.com then “Welcome!”

I joined JM when I was pregnant.   I first started posting on the Gestational Diabetes board.  At the time I thought my life was ending.  No more carbs!!!  But I realized it is completely manageable and would end at delivery.  Reading those posts helped.  At about the same time I started posting newbie questions on their Cloth Diapering forum.   What a resource that board was and still is for me.  Cloth Diapering is such an overwhelming idea at first.  It takes a lot of online research to understand.  Not many people have stores or classes in their area they can take, which is why that forum was so amazingly helpful and the women are all wonderful.

I never posted in the Due Date Club- November 2008 while I was pregnant.  I was intimidated by how close the women seemed to be; they had bonded since they found out they were pregnant in most cases, and I didn’t want to intrude.  I did lurk when I found JM; many of their stories helped me personally.  One in particular was heartbreaking.  I decided to take the plunge and introduce myself after my son was born.  I really needed support from other moms going through the exact same situation.  I am so glad I did!  

I love all of the women on my “Playroom” as it is called now that all of our babies are here.  I can’t imagine my life now without obsessively refreshing our PR to see new posts!  While sometimes I wish I never found them since my housework has suffered immensely.  

Now on JM I visit my PR, the Cloth Diapering board, The Arts and Crafts board, Breastfeeding, and occasionally Attachment parenting (I don’t post on AP, just lurk).  My advice to anyone reading this who isn’t active on JM: try it out!  If you don’t like it, don’t go back.  Oh, and no drama!  JM is a drama free community

There seems to be a few different categories of cloth diapering moms. They are by no means mutually exclusive, I myself fall into a few, but in varying degrees. These are observations I have made since diving headfirst into many different cloth diapering communities.

1. The Frugal Cloth Mama: This mama cloth diapers to save some green. Her initial interest stemmed from either wanting to save money or NEEDING to save money due to financial distress. This mom may not be concerned with the cutest diapers, but with what works and that she can afford.

T

This mom most likely uses: prefolds, PUL covers, Fleece Covers, Wool Covers, DIY or WAHM made diapers.

2. The Environmental Mama: This mama decided to cloth diaper because she was concerned about the waste produced by disposables. She is probably worried about the chemicals in the disposables as well, and loves cloth because it keeps her baby’s bum rash free (who doesn’t?)

This mom most likely uses anything out there, though she may be more likely to pick diapers made from organic fibers like organic bamboo velour fitteds and wool covers.

3. The Fashionable Mom: This mom decided to cloth diaper because she couldn’t resist the amazing array of cute fluff! The patterns, the colors, the styles!!! Who wouldn’t want to cloth diaper with the choices out there today?

This mom most likely uses fitteds (Goodmamas) and covers or AIO‘s or Pockets in colorful colors and patterns.

4. The Underground Fluff Addict: This mama is in it for the thrill of the hunt. She probably didn’t start cloth diapering to stalk hyena cart but she is hooked now! She will stalk BSRB, Goodmama, Muttaquin, or the other “underground” cloth designers who have limited quantities and numerous fans. This mama may even pay 70.00 for a certain diaper whose print is no longer available. AND this mom probably has matching sets custom made to coordinate with her diapers. This mom is definitely not in cloth diapering to save money!

This mom most likely uses Goodmama, Muttaquin, Bagshot Row Bamboo, PB and Ellie, Cranky Pants, Sustainable Babyish, and way more than I can name!

If you cloth diaper then you know how cute the diapers are, and you probably get sad about covering them up with *gasp* pants!  Besides the fact that pants are hard to put on wriggly kids (seriously, why when one leg is in the other comes out, WHY?) they cover up the fluffy diaper.  I have a few pair of baby legs even though my kid is a boy.  I fought the urge for a long time but then I gave in when I saw some on sale.  I fell in love.  They are easy to put on- scrunch them up like you are putting on a pair of hose- and they are easy for diaper changes.

Yes, they can be $$$.  They run around 10-12$ each.  You can buy the Baby Leg brand or some cute ones made my other mamas or on etsy.com.  If you are cheap like me and you enjoy DIY projects there is an easy way to make them at home.  You don’t have to have a serger, you can use a zig zag, but sergers make things so much easier and better.

http://beadedsocks.net/legging.html

Baby Leg Warmers I made using this tutorial

And a Bonus, Pictures of Fletcher wearing his Baby Legs.

Hello out there!  If you are reading this first post, chances are you know me.  You may know me personally or you may be one of my many “internet” friends.  In either case, thanks for stopping by.  I am very excited to get this up and running and I already have a flood of ideas swimming around in my head.  They could very well drown since I don’t know how to swim!!!

The objective of this blog at this moment is to share my personal experience- raising my adorable 4.5 month old son with the intention of being “green”- and in doing so, reviewing the many products and ways I am able to do so.  I knew very early in my pregnancy that I would cloth diaper.  Even before I dove into the vast literature available and the never-ending choices, I knew.  I knew that I could not live with myself if my child produced thousands of diapers, dirty diapers, that would sit in a landfill for 500 years!!!  Yes, it takes that long for a typical disposable diaper to decompose.  The more I researched I was confident that I could make it work.  Now I have been cloth diapering for over 4 months, doing dirty diaper laundry every 2-3 days.  It can get tedious.  It can be exhausting.(note- my washer/dryer are down 2 flights of stairs.  This equals 5 trips up and down for each load of diaper laundry, not to mention my household laundry)  But every time I throw away a cotton ball into my son’s teeny tiny trash can and I see that cotton balls are the only thing in there, I feel amazing.

Please check back soon, I have a video review coming for the new Gro baby Diaper System.

-Kim R.