There have been many changes lately- not only has our family moved from Florida to NC and into a new home, but also for the website. I have had the good fortune of running into Alyssa, NC resident and cloth diaper enthusiast. We met at Baby Furniture Plus Kids in Charlotte, NC at a little cloth diaper session I held. Alyssa and I hit it off and had a great time chatting. Later when I was looking for a new reviewer she threw her hat in the ring and I knew it would be a great fit. I’m so excited to have her join Dirty Diaper Laundry to offer her expertise on diaper reviews. You may get to see more of her if we are so fortunate. Give Alyssa a warm welcome!
Hi all! My name is Alyssa, I’m happily married to Stuart, and we have a son, Bennett, who is 16 months old, plus another baby boy on the way in March 2017, plus two rescue Shiba Inu dogs. Yes, it already feels like a full house around here, and yes, in just a few short months, we’ll have two under two in cloth; let the fun begin! I’m thrilled that my boys and I will be able to share our adventures in cloth with you on this wonderful platform Kim has created.
In 2014, Stuart and I jam-packed our little Chevy Cruze with our two dogs in tow and moved here to Mooresville, North Carolina, all the way from La Crosse, Wisconsin. We left behind family, friends, our first home, and so many memories—both happy and sad. It was there that we lost our first pregnancy, and it was there that we spent a year healing from that loss. Losing a child is not something I am ashamed to share because it has opened my eyes and my heart in so many ways. With that in mind, we were very eager to try again once we settled into our new home in the South, and after a few months, we conceived Bennett, our first “rainbow” boy. When he was born, it was more than just holding my baby, and he has been the center of our world ever since. His big, bright blue eyes were wide open as soon as he was earthside, and the nurses kept commenting on how “alert” he was. And we didn’t mind; after all, he did make us wait an extra two weeks for his arrival, so maybe at that point, he just didn’t want to miss a thing and neither did we.
That attitude has not changed. Now at 16 months, Bennett continues to be alert, curious, observant, and too smart. He’s a big fan of food, rocks, cooking, riding in the Ergo, and being a goofball. He may not know it yet, but he’s also going to be an amazing big brother to another rainbow boy for us.
Considering our history and the world we’re raising our children in, it was a simple decision for my husband and me when it came to choosing to cloth diaper Bennett (and the rest of our children). We had already made it a priority to cook “real food” and eliminate toxic chemicals from our home, so cloth diapering was just another way for us to cut waste, put something safe on our son’s bum, and save some money in the process. We fell in love with it from the get-go and built a small stash of mostly prefolds and covers that eventually evolved into adding other styles and brands into the mix. Now, I spend my days actively participating in social media cloth diapering groups, sharing my cloth trials and tribulations on my blog (Relative Redhead), going to local cloth diapering events in the surrounding Charlotte areas, and well…taking a lot of fluff photos. How can I not?
When I’m not behind my camera, washing a load of diapers, or chasing around a toddler, I love to write, read, cook, bake, and indulge in some Netflix or Hulu. I also love to review cloth diapers, so I cannot wait to keep working with Kim and DDL. Let the journey begin!
