the answers, part 2 (Never melts (meef)) by jen
I owe a post! And I'm bored, so now's the perfect time! don't forget to read my list below, too.A asks:
Tell me a tale of the Jen of yore. Also... what purchases do you hope to make in the near future... I need retail therapy!
The J of yore was probably more fun loving and happy go lucky and certainly didn't have quite as many things to be neurotic about. And probably wasn't a low talker, but that's cheating since you got this question before someone accused me of that. I was svelte and cool and totally rocked that stupid square shirt and white spandex shorts. I also had thicker hair and was not as fat as I imagined myself to be.
I plan to buy a cherry pitter. It was just a pipe dream, but I bought it, but then again so did you. Has anyone else used a cherry pitter before? It's really kind if violent. I imagined myself as the executioner, shooting the brains out of the little cherry heads and having the blood splatter all over the
I also plan to buy some kind of floor washer thingy. Like a Floormate or something. Not a swiffer though. I do okay with a string mop and bucket and suspect I'll go back to that after like, 3 weeks of the Floor Mate... but I need some excitement in my life. The J of yore would probably think I was totally off my rocker.
Mommy Daisy asks:
Ok, Ok, I'd like to hear more about your choice to use cloth diapers. What made you decide to go that route? When did you decide? How does it work for you? Will you continue doing it? Any reasons not to cloth diaper? Etc, etc. I'm interested, so I'd love to hear more.
I had always thought about using cloth, since I was pregnant with the girl. I have no idea what planted this idea in my head, to be perfectly honest. It was never anything I ever gave any thought to at any time prior to late pregnancy. I had it in my head I'd use cloth when I was home to save money and disposables when I went out. But not for the reasons you'd think - I had assumed cloth would be messy and impractical and at least I could use the "good" stuff while we were out, and still save money.
I told MIL while I was pregnant, about this idea.. and her face lit up like a freaking christmas tree and she started asking me all these questions. she thought it would be a GREAT idea. The more I read cloth forums and buddy groups the more confused I got! There's so many options and for someone who's never done it before I got totally flustered, and completely forgot the idea. I also got tons of diapers as gifts and didn't really ever buy any diapers for her.
Sometime when she was 2 months old I read the greenmountaindiapers.com site in its entirety and it made a lot of sense to me after that. I told T I wanted to spend $50 of his money and try cloth diapers, at least at home, and he would never have to use them (apprehensive much?) I made some decisions and bought a bunch of stuff. I still remember the day the box came, I was stupidly excited (and was stupidly excited for every other box of diapers since!) and tried it on her right away. I even took pictures. It was much easier than I thought. I also found that they were MUCH MUCH less likely to leak explosive bf poo all over my belongings. That right there made it worth the more than $50 I ended up spending. I had NO idea that would be the case, but it's so true, anyone who uses it will tell you.
We are into a routine now. We use pockets which I stuff and even T can snap without much fuss. Wet ones go right in the pail (dry, no water/bleach) and poopy ones get sprayed off into the toilet with a water nozzle we installed there for that purpose. We use a dry pail, not a dangerous bucket of water. And wash with Charlie's soap, just a tad.. rarely any bleach needed. I wash every other day but I used to wash every 3rd day - we have well water and I couldn't stand the funk after 3 days (they are harder to wash after that) so I wash them every other day. It's not a big deal really. I also hang them on the line in the summer. They don't stain much, and if I do I can just line dry them and most of the stains come out.
And after all that, I still love it. I think a lot of it is I love fabric - I quilt - and I have always saved things for the texture or looks of them. L used cloth till she trained at 3 and D's still in the same ones.. we never buy diapers now unless we need disposables for a vacation. (The only reason I don't take it on vacation is I like to use a sprayer for the poop/toilet issues and I don't want to infringe on anyone's home.)
I also feel compelled to add that I have learned a LOT about laundry, detergents, staining, sun-drying and "bleach is bad for you" since I started washing diapers. Washing every other day forces me to keep up on my laundry since I have a well and a septic so I can only wash diapers on diaper days, leaving me every other day to get the rest of the laundry and dishwashing done.
I think that should cover it, but feel free to ask more in the comments :) Posted in: answers , cloth diapering