Meal Planning

I always love reading other bloggers posts about their meals for the week because it gives me ideas to make for us so I thought I'd copy the idea. I'm so original!

Tonight: Slow Cooker Green Chili Pork Tacos and Spanish Rice
Tomorrow: DH works
Sunday: parents house for dinner
Monday: chicken tikka masala with naan
Tuesday: DH works
Wednesday: spicy orange garlic shrimp with broccoli and rice
Thursday: no cook fresh pasta sauce and pasta with bread and a nice salad

As you can see I LOVE the Pioneer Woman site and her Tasty Kitchen site. I would say 98% of what I make is from those two sites. It just makes cooking and meal planning for the week so easy.

We've had the pork tacos and the chicken tikka masala both before and obviously liked both enough to make them again. The chicken tikka masala is seriously to die for. I feel like a million bucks when I make such a delicious meal- it makes me feel like I can do anything!

The Dirty Laundry

I promise I'm going to do posts on each type of diaper, what I have of each, what I like and so on but I want to take pictures of each type in my stash first but I keep forgetting to do that while he is sleeping. In the meantime I thought I would go into my laundry routine.

Cause that is fun (cue moans and groans).

Honestly its not that bad though.

Step 1- When diaper is dirty throw it in the pail. We use a big kitchen trash can with a pail liner in our bathroom. We keep it in our bathroom because our diaper sprayer is there (cue angels singing). No seriously! That thing is amazing!

Step 2- When pail is filled throw the diapers and liner into the washing machine. I usually try to flip the liner so that the shiney side is on the outside so it gets a little more clean. Then I make sure the controls on the washer now read SUPER for load size, COLD for water temperature, and YES for extra rinse. Keep the lid of the washer up so that once you flip the knob to YES for extra rinse the water will start filling the tub but you don't want it to run yet. I usually do this overnight so the diapers soak overnight. Sometimes I do throw a scoop of detergent into the soak or a few squirts of BAC-OUT. Bac-out is a natural enzyme cleaner that will help get rid of bacteria, stains, and stinkies.



Step 3- When I wake up, I just close the lid to start the cycle on my way to Nolan's room to get him out of bed.

Step 4- By the time he is changed and fed, the rinse cycle is usually finished so I start the actual wash of the diapers. I flip the water temperature knob to HOT and then turn the cycle knob to the heaviest cycle. Put in your diaper safe detergent. You must use either a detergent specifically made for diapers OR use 1/2 of the manufacturers recommended amount of a DIAPER SAFE detergent. Here is a list of diaper safe detergents. Currently I use Crunchy Clean because I love the scents but I have also used Rockin' Green and Purex Free and Clear in the past.


Step 5- Throw the diapers into the dryer. I don't dry PUL so I pull out the covers and the pocket or AIO diapers. Usually I do the timed dry for as long as it will go (I think ours is 70 minutes) and then when that is finished throw on another 1/2 hour because they don't ever seem to be quite done after just one run through the dryer.

Step 6- Put the laundry away. Isn't that always the worst part of doing laundry?!

To make a long story short:

You want to have a pail to store the dirties and when it is full, you want to do a cold soak, hot wash with the proper detergent and then an extra rinse at the end. Easy peasy! Don't make it harder than it has to be :)

Note to Self

I feel SO much better when I put lotion on. It makes my day. It's amazing how you appriciate the little things so much more once you become a mother.

My Husband's Favorite Part of Cloth Diapers

AKA...

Saving money!

Cloth diaper companies usually say that you are saving a butt load (pun intended because I'm super cheesy like that) on cloth because their calculations say that disposable diaper users spend $.30 per diaper and change around 8 times a day. We all know that isn't true. I'll agree on the $.30 part but people I've talked to say they change their older babies (ages 1 and up) about 5 times a day.

Let's say that a disposable diaper user changes their newborn (up to 3 months) 10 times a day. Let's say that for the remaining 9 months of that first year they are changing the baby 7 times a day. Now let's say that they change the baby 6 times a day for the remaining 2 years of the child's diapering life (because really... 5 times a day... you need to change a LITTLE more than that!)


So we have:

cost of diaper x number of times a day changing x number of days

.30 x 10 x 90 = $270 for the first 3 months

.30 x 7 x 275 = $577.5 for the remainder of the first year

.30 x 6 x 730 = $1314 for the 2nd and 3rd year

For a grand total of $2161.5 for just diapers.

Lets add wipes:

While on vacation we used a pack of wipes in a week and a half. Just to make the math easier let's say that you use a pack of wipes in 2 weeks.

156 weeks in 3 years divided by 2 (since we are saying it takes 2 weeks to use a pack) is 78.

Each pack costs about $3.25 so

3.25 x 78 = $253.5

So we have a grand total of $253.5 + 2161.5 = $2415

$2415 for 3 years of disposable diapers and wipes! $2415 that you will throw away...




On the flip side... This is where it gets fun! To make things easier I will do my calculations without talking about trial programs which can be especially great for the newborn period when your baby grows so fast. To find more about trial programs for newborns, click here.

Newborn Diapers:


Prefolds are great if you are trying to budget yourself. We purchased at least a dozen prefolds in each size because I wanted an array of diapers to choose from when diapering him. For the preemie/infant size, a lot of moms think they are a must because they grow out of the newborn diapers so quickly that it is almost silly to have an entire stash of $20 fitteds or pockets for just a few short months. You should, however, have a few of these "easier" diapers for outings, family, and ease of use in the middle of the night or on a particularly frustrating day.

Plan on changing a newborn around 12 times a day and if you do diaper laundry every other day or every third day, you should need about 36 diapers to feel comfortable. Personally, I think the more the merrier but we are talking about the cost benefits of cloth diapering here so I'll keep this hypothetical stash simple yet more than enough for every day diapering.

12 preemie prefolds from Little Lions (some people don't need preemie size but I was glad we had them when Nolan came home weighing less than 7 lbs. He fit into the infant size folded down but it was just easier to use the preemie size ones. When he got a little older, we used them as doublers in his larger diapers so they are very useful even if you don't use them as prefolds on a bitty baby)...

Ok so...

12 preemie prefolds from Little Lions: $10

24 infant prefolds from Little Lions: $35.90

4 Thirsties Duo Size 1 Covers: 12.25 x 4 = $49

4 newborn wool covers you made from old wool sweaters: $2 for the sweater from Goodwill

4 small wool covers you made from old wool sweaters: $2 for the sweater from Goodwill

4 Goodmama newborn fitted diapers: $21 x 4 = $84

6 Bumgenius size x-small diapers: $15.95 each but if you buy 6 or more on Jillians drawers they are $15.45 each so 15.45 x 6 = $92.70

That will give you MORE than enough to diaper for 3 days plus laundry- That gives you 46 diapers for $275.6. That's just a bit more than disposables would cost for the first three months but you have the diapers in the end that you can resell on diaper sites like diaperswappers.com or have for your next child (hello additional savings!) Plus you will still have the Thirsties Duo size 1 covers fitting for quite some time.

Other Diapers:

12 Premium Prefolds from Little Lions: $23

6 Sustainable Babyish Pinable One Size Diapers for Night (love these!): $19 x 6 = $114

12 Bumgenius 4.0 One Size Pocket Diapers: $203.40

1 Flip Day Pack (2 covers, 6 inserts): $49.95

3 Thirsties Duo Size 2 Covers: $12.25 x 3 = $36.75

4 Size Medium Wool Covers you make= $4 for the sweaters from Goodwill

4 Size Large Wool Covers you make= $4 for the sweaters from Goodwill

That will give you 36 diapers for just $435.10! You can obviously add more if needed (you won't need more but I promise you will want more :) )

Let's add wipes and miscellaneous diapering stuff you will want/need:

12 pack of Kissaluvs Wipes: $15.00

12 pack of Bumgenius wipes: $11.95

15 pack of Flannel wipes: $8.50

2 pail liners for diapers (one in use, one in wash): $16.5 x 2 = $33

Diaper Sprayer (you WILL want this so much it is a NEED): $44.95

3 Snappis: $3.95 x 3 = $11.85

(Each Sustainable Babyish Pinable Diaper comes with a pin so you will have 6 pins as well)

Accessories Total: $125.25

Grand Total for Diapering Birth to Potty INCLUDING Accessories: $835.96!!!!!

Savings: $1579.04 YOWZA!

And you have all those diapers and no trash. AND you can use those diapers for your next baby or babies and save even more money!

I can tell you that we spent quite a bit more than that because it is an obsession of mine!

One thing I do want to advise is to buy QUALITY cloth diapers. DO NOT try to be cheap to save even more money and buy Gerber prefolds or cheap EBAY pocket diapers because all diapers are NOT the same. You will be disappointed, not use cloth and then end up spending even more money switching to disposables.

To save even more money, check for sales on Facebook. Become a fan of diaper companies like Happy Baby Company on Facebook and they will let you know when sales are coming up. Quite often I see diaper companies do 10% off for holidays so keep an eye out. Goodmama doesn't frequently do discounts but some of the diaper stores that sell her diapers do- check those out (Gen-Y Diapers particularly does a lot of discounts).

Another way to save money is to get the diapers for free! I have won so many diapers from Facebook giveaways or entering Giveaways on Blogs. I find blogs that tend to do a lot of giveaways and add them to my favorites or follow them so that I can enter all their giveaways. Also, like I said before, "like" diaper companies on Facebook. A lot do giveaways weekly and some are as simple as "Post below if you want a free diaper cover, we'll randomly choose a winner tomorrow at 12." Easy Peasy!

The Cuteness Factor of Cloth

I'm not going to lie- part of the reason that I was (still am) interested in cloth is the cuteness of it all. Come on, how cute is a wee little baby is a baby pink diaper? Even prefolds look so adorable on a baby. I can't stand when you see someone's professional pictures of their baby in disposable diapers- it looks so trashy to me. Especially when its those disposable diapers where the yellow stripe turns blue when the baby has peed and here is a picture that you will have forever that shows you baby in an obviously dirty diaper- gross!!!



How can you not love playing dress up with your baby every diaper change? Its so fun for me to decide between a yellow diaper, or a blue one, or diaper with fire trucks on it. Better yet, will I pick the fire truck pocket diaper, the fitted diaper with gnomes and a wool cover, a blue prefold and a PUL cover, a blue pocket diaper, or a white all-in-one? I love my diaper stash and I get so happy every time I get a new diaper. I tell my husband I don't ask for diamonds or fancy things, just diapers.

Destroying Sweaters

So I just destroyed a $150 Polo sweater and a $60 J Crew sweater to make diaper covers for Nolan. Hehe!

Alright so I only paid like $2 for each at Goodwill but it still makes me giggle a bit. Making soakers and longies has become my new obsession. The wool is a great cover because it is breathable, naturally antibacterial, and hold something like 40 times is weight in liquid. I started using wool at night a few months ago and love it- we haven't had a leak yet. His pants are dry in the morning even if his diaper is soaked. And the really nice thing (with it being a hot, hot South Carolina summer) is that it breathes so the heat of his body isn't trapped in the PUL with his pee. Gross, I know, but when I used to change his diapers with PUL covers, the wet diaper would be hot to the touch. Now, with the wool, it is cool.

Making the soakers and longies is super easy- I've never sewn before and I do each one by hand (hint hint to husband- I would love a sewing machine). A pair of longies usually takes about one nap (1-2 hours)and a soaker usually takes about 2-3 naps (3-6 hours). Here are the steps:

1- I find a cheap wool sweater from Goodwill. Cut off the arms and felt it if you like. Felting (nice way of saying shrinking the sweater) will make the wool fibers closer together so the longies or soaker will be thicker and more bulletproof but it will stretch less. I felted the first few sweaters but I found it to be kind of a pain so I won't do it anymore.

1a-To felt you stick the sweater in the washing machine on hot and do a wash or two.

1b- Throw the sweater in the dryer.

1c- This is the part I hate and will not do again. Wash all the annoying lint out of the washer.

1d- Pick all the annoying lint balls off of your now clean and shrunken sweaters.

1e- Clean the annoying lint out of your dryer.

1f- Clean all the annoying lint off of your floor.

1g- Take the trash out because the annoying lint is now overflowing out of the laundry room trash.


2- To make the longies just sew the arms together. What?! Okay here's a really good tutorial. One thing I have noticed though that this tutorial doesn't really show is that you need to cut a little width off the top of the arms. This picture kind of shows what I mean by that.

See the little curve at the top- you need to cut just a bit out of the arms to make the pants fit a bit better because otherwise the butt will be pretty baggy and the legs a little more tight and it looks a little sloppy. The hardest part is probably adding the waist. I usually use elastic and save the waistband of the sweater for the waistband of the soakers (see below). I just grab some elastic and cut it to the desired length (use a little less elastic than is in the waist of the pants you are modeling after to make the pants- somehow when you sew it in, if you use the exact size you think you need it will always be too big). Fold the top of the wool pants over and sew a pocket for the elastic that is a little bigger than the width of the elastic. Sew almost all the way but leave enough room for you to thread your elastic through. Then thread your elastic through. Sew the ends of the elastic together and then finish up the pant. Hooray!



3- I use the rest of the sweater to make soakers. I use the Katrina pattern for soakers and I LOVE it. They come out looking so professional (If I do say so myself). It seems a little daunting at first but honestly you just trace the pattern onto your sweater, cut it out, sew up the sides and then sew on the waist and legs. I usually use the waist of the sweater for the waistband of the soakers. I then use scraps for the legs. For one of the pairs today I found a long scrap and then just folded it in half lengthwise so that the bottom edge wasn't all frayed and loose. You could always just hem the edge though if you didn't want your legs to be so thick.



4- T0 make them ready for use, you still need to lanolize them. Lanolizing the wool will make it waterproof so that it won't wick moisture. There are many ways to lanolize. Here is what I do.

4a-Fill a sink with cool water.

4b- Add a bit of wool wash.

4c- Throw in your beautiful soakers and longies and wash, wash, wash.

4d- Soak for about 1/2 hour.

4e- Empty the sink.

4f- Gently wring out some of the water in the wool.

4g- Refill the sink with cool water.

4h-In a baby food jar or some small jar put a nickel size amount of lanolin. I use the same stuff I use for breastfeeding, just make sure it is 100% lanolin (it's the one in the purple tube- Lansinoh I think). Add to that a nickel size amount of baby wash. This helps break up the lanolin and will keep away the dreaded lanolin spots. Fill the rest of the jar with hot water. Shake shake shake until you don't see any more lanolin.

4i- Throw your lanolin mixture into the sink.

4j- Mix it around.

4k- Throw in your beautiful soakers and longies and mix, mix, mix.

4l- Soak for at least a 1/2 hour but I usually forget and leave it overnight.

4m- Empty the sink.

4n- Gently wring out some of the water in the wool.

4o- (whoa I am getting up there in the steps of this tutorial!) Lay the wool on a towel and then roll up the towel and sit on it to get out as much water as possible.

4p- Let the wool dry- it usually takes about a day and a half.



5- Use the wool. When the wool gets damp, simply hang or lay it out to dry. Wash the wool in wool wash about every other week or when it starts to smell like urine when dry. You really only need to relanolize it once a month or less. You'll see when it starts to seem less waterproof.



Ta da!




I wish I had a better picture but here is the very first soaker I made for N.

Back to the Diapers!

Obviously a big benefit of cloth diapering is the environmental appeal.

Cloth diapers don't end up in landfills where it takes 500 years for a disposable diaper to break down. Did you know that disposable diapers are the third largest consumer item in landfills (behind paper products and plastic). In a 1991 report on disposable diapers, it was found that to diaper ONE baby for just ONE year it takes over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks, and 20 pounds of chlorine. Eeeek! Seriously?!

That's about all I'll say about that for now because the little one is being so darn cute right now I can't stand to be behind this computer one second longer :)

Another Winner in the Kitchen!

I'm kind a big deal in the kitchen...

I can really follow a recipe well- especially when there are step by step instructions with PICTURES! I seriously never learned how to cook until N was born almost 8 months ago. And even then I didn't really start until DH went back to work a month later. So I've only been cooking for 7 months and I'm getting pretty good. Okay, okay I follow a recipe well. Whatever. I like to say I'm a pretty good cook.

Anyway... tonight I made this. OMG sooo yummy. The only time consuming part of this recipe is getting it prepped, cutting the corn, zuchinni, garlic and tomatoes, and peeling the shrimp. Other than that its completely easy-peasy. I used about a 1/2 lb of shrimp (I try to stretch a 2 lb bag of shrimp into at least 3-4 meals... thats my way of budgeting), a little more corn (corn was on sale this week 4 for a dollar... I couldn't bring myself to just buy two), and then threw in a pinch of cayenne and a bunch of fresh basil in the end.



Okay the basil wasn't fresh. It was this tube kind that you get in the produce section that I bought once a few weeks ago and now will never go without a tube of basil and a tube of cilantro in my fridge. It tastes just like fresh and lasts a LOT longer. Don't you hate when cilantro goes bad in your fridge after just one meal? Even worse is having to chop up all that cilantro. But I digress...

Wow! This is my new favorite summer meal- so light and fresh. I actually like the extra corn in it. It kind of tricks me into thinking its rice or some kind of carb. I can't wait to make this again soon... like tomorrow.

Cloth is Healthier than Disposables

When I found out I was pregnant I was the typical first time preggo mama- super strict about not drinking, taking my prenatal vitamins DAILY, not eating certain things like unpasteurized cheese or raw tuna (super hard for this die-hard sushi lover), eating what I was supposed to (with the occasional McDonalds... I'm so embarrassed!)- I wanted to do everything possible to make sure this little baby would be as healthy as possible. At the time a few Internet friends were cloth diapering so I was introduced to the idea via pictures of adorable baby butts in blue and pink diapers. How could you not love that? I began to research a little more and found out some possible health benefits of cloth diapering and decided if I was going to try and make sure this baby was as healthy as possible in utero, I can't really ignore the claims (facts in my mind but I'll say claims so as to avoid upsetting people) that disposable diapers are harmful to babies.

Facts/Claims/Opinions...

1- Cloth diapered babies get less diaper rashes. The only time N has ever had a diaper rash was when he first came home from the hospital and it was because he was in disposables in the hospital and for a little of the first two days. The chemicals in disposable diapers (more on that later) causing babies to bleed from chemical burns now too. Pamper's new Dry Max has caused what some pediatricians are diagnosing as chemical burns on poor babies! I can't even imagine what the increase in these chemicals will do to these poor children in the long run if they will cause welts in just a day of using these diapers.

2- The chemicals in disposable diapers cause cancer and even infertility.

Sodium polyacrylate is the gel in diapers that swells up with the liquid. It causes allergic reactions and/or SEVERE skin irritations (we're talking oozing blood, vomiting, and staph infections) in some people, babies have died from ingesting as little as 5 grams of it (a nickel is 5 grams), and was banned in tampons in 1985 because it was found to cause Toxic Shock Syndrome. This REALLY bothered me- how can something that is BANNED from adult products still be used (in large amounts) to make baby products. That just doesn't sit right with me.

Dioxin is the by-product that is produced through bleaching the disposable diapers. Not only is it a carcinogenic, but it is listed as the MOST toxic of all cancer-liked chemicals by the EPA. Most countries have banned it, but not the US. Again, disgusting!

Tributyl Tin is also found in disposable diapers. It is highly toxic and impairs both the hormonal and immune system and is thought to cause sterility in boys.

3- Disposable diapers don't let the baby's skin breathe. This is part of the reason that babies get more diaper rash with disposables but also part of the reason that disposable diapers are thought to make boys sterile. Let me explain. The reason that testicles are outside of the body is that the body temperature of 98* is too hot for the delicate sperm and sperm making facilities. When a baby is diagnosed with undescended testes, it is almost immediately rectified because of the long term effects that the extra degrees of heat could cause- sterility and increased risk of testicular cancer. Because disposable diapers do not allow the baby's skin to breath enough, they heat up the babies' testicles to such a degree that it can cause infertility and/or testicular cancer. There has been a sharp increase in infertility amoung males in the last 25 years... hmm... how long has it been since disposable diapers have become the seemingly only choice for parents?

I really had a hard time turning away from the idea of cloth diapers at that point. Knowing that cloth diapers could harm my child, how could I possibly put them on him/her? How could I knowingly put chemicals KNOWN to cause cancer on my baby's delicate skin? How could I use something on my baby that wouldn't be safe to use on myself?

And just because... here is N's first cloth diaper :)

And the e-mail became a blog...

A few months ago, shortly after the cutest baby alive was born (aka my son), a pregnant friend asked me for infomartion on cloth diapering. I'm a little obsessed with cloth diapers so her quick inquiry prompted me to write and write and write. Three hours and six pages later an e-mail arrived in her in-box. I'm sure she probably never read it (although she did end up cloth diapering) but it inspired me to help out others. Well.... thats not really true.

Just this week another friend e-mailed me asking about cloth diapers and I had to rewrite the e-mail for her (plus a few pages) and the hawtness that is my husband suggested I start a blog. I figured why not? I'm a stay at home mom with not much to do (although I may describe my life in future posts as glorious and non-stop fun but you will know the truth) and no one will read it anyway- it'll be an outlet for me of sorts.

My posts will be on everything I'm obsessed with (which could change day to day) from the Pioneer Woman to cloth diapers to how stinking adorable my son is.