The Last Day

Today is the last day of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge!  This week went by really fast.  As I was handwashing a bunch of flats this morning in the bathroom sink, it hit me that today was the last day!  I feel fortunate -- other than my under-preparedness the day of the aquarium and a few leaks yesterday, the week was very uneventful.  

So what did I learn?  Firstly, to be prepared.  If I had been more prepared, I wouldn't have been scrambling to dry diapers with the iron on Friday night.  

Secondly, make sure to have enough diapers to get through 2 days.  I don't, so that means that I HAD to wash every day.  So what if the water is shut off (happened to us once -- hubby paid the electric twice and didn't pay the water by mistake) or you have some emergency that keeps you from washing?  Just makes sense to have enough diapers and covers to last 2 days.  

I think finding a routine that works for you is helpful, too.  Washing after every diaper change was too often for me.  Washing once a day wasn't enough.  The last 2 days I washed first thing in the morning and at lunch. That seemed to work well.  I had enough diapers to get me through the day and the early part of the next morning that way.  I washed at a time when the kids were busy eating so I wasn't being interrupted every few seconds while washing.  So it worked.

I also learned that the little guy doesn't need as much absorbency as I thought he did.  We got along fine with just 2 flats.  I used to put him to bed at night with 2 prefolds and a hemp doubler.  The poor kid had a huge bubble butt!  While he did wake up soaked with the flats, we both survived.  He did fine with a lot less diaper in there. 

It was a little strange to put him to bed tonight in a hybrid fitted (homemade) instead of flats, but I am looking forward to using my washer and dryer again.  I also need to find or make a new wetbag.  The zipper on mine jammed on Friday.  Does anyone have a favorite brand I should look into?


I don't know if I'll take this challenge again next year or not.  He will be over 2 so we may be in undies by then.  My twins potty learned on their own at 23 and 25 months.  If he is still in diapers then I probably will do the challenge again but who knows?  A year is a long time.  So we'll see!  

Hello washer, did you miss the diapers?

Clear Blue Skies

I didn't get a chance yesterday to write a post.  My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner and leaving the kids home with a babysitter.  So I spent the entire day cleaning the house.  

So it was Day 6 of the challenge.  Yesterday's handwashing went fairly easily.  I did a large bunch of diapers first thing in the morning while the little guy was eating his breakfast and put them out on the line.  They were dry by lunch time.  I washed his morning diapers at lunch and hung them out.  It was a gorgeous day -- clear blue skies, low humidity and plenty of warm sunshine.  Perfect weather for line drying diapers. 

I put him in his g-Pants when the babysitter arrived.  She fed the kids supper and then gave the little guy his bath.  I laid out a pocket stuffed with flats for her to put on him and then I changed him into his night time flats and wool longies when I got home.  

So flats can even work for a babysitter.  If I were going to have a babysitter often and I was using only flats, I would teach her how to use them.  For last night, the pocket worked just fine.

I did notice yesterday that he leaked through a few times.  I don't think I was changing the diapers any less often than the earlier part of the week so I'm not really sure why.  Maybe he just nursed more.  It wasn't a big deal and not something that couldn't be fixed by adding another flat, but just an observation.

We have decided that we are going to go on vacation this summer to the mountains of North Carolina.  We probably won't be camping, but we will be away from home and without a washer and dryer.  So I will most likely be using flats and handwashing again.  I plan to get another dozen flats before then, as well as knit him at least one more pair of longies and probably 1 or 2 shorties.  I'm not sure yet about the 8 hour drive to our first stop, but I have plenty of time to figure that out.  

Now if only we had skies like this every day!

I love days like this.  Line drying is a breeze!

Always be prepared

I made it to Day 5 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge without anything very interesting happening.  Today was a little different.  I was rushing around last night getting everything ready for our trip to the aquarium and I didn't wash all of yesterday's diapers.  This morning I had the realization that I probably didn't have enough to last all day and since I'd be gone and couldn't wash during the day, we might have a bit of a problem.  Ooops.

So when I packed the diaper bag this morning, I threw in a dish towel, just in case.  That's right.  A striped dish towel.  For the 2 hour trip in the car on the way there, he just wore 2 flats.  When we got there, I wasn't sure about how often I'd be changing him so I put him in a pocket stuffed with a doubler and 2 flats.  This lasted just fine while we were there.  

I put another 2 flats on him for the ride home (which ended up being almost 3 hours because we hit horrible rush hour traffic) which left me with ONE clean flat.  We had to head straight to my older son's soccer game so my poor little guy had to get through an hour of soccer and then supper in that one flat.  

After we finished eating, I quickly washed his nighttime flats and was ironing them to get them dry when the little guy pointed to his diaper and said, "Eee-yew."  Sure enough, he had pooped.  So he got to run around naked while I finished my ironing.  He promptly peed on the floor twice.  Silly kid.  Thank goodness for tile floor!

So today's question from Dirty Diaper Laundry is: What is working?  For me, the flats and handwashing are working just fine.  Flats are absorbant enough even for overnight, something I was not expecting.  Handwashing does take more time, but it's doable.  I like how trim the flats are.  I love my soft, cushy prefolds, but they are so bulky!  I'm not loving the air drying.  I do dry my prefolds on the line when the weather is nice, but I have enough prefolds to get me through a few days and I can always throw them in the dryer if they're not dry when I need them.  I think the real problem is just that I don't have enough flats to really make it work well.  If I had another 5-10, I'd be fine and I wouldn't be ironing diapers because I don't have any dry ones.  So if we do go camping I'll probably get another dozen.  

Flats take longer to change than pockets.  I've used prefolds with him since he was a newborn, but once he hit the stage where he fights diaper changes, I started using pockets stuffed with prefolds.  They're so much faster to get on.  Especially when he's doing his alligator death roll, I need a diaper that can be put on in seconds!  That's one of the things I like about the g-Pants.  Since they velcro, they're faster than snaps and I can still get them on mid-roll because they velcro in the back instead of the front. 

I have to admit, I was really temped to cheat today.  I mean, who would have known if I had thrown the diapers in the dryer tonight before I gave him his bath?  Who would have known if I had just put a prefold on him for bed?  I would have, and that's what really matters.  So while I was tempted, I didn't cheat.  His flats may not have been 100% dry tonight when he went to bed, but he was wearing flats.  

The aquarium was great.  The kids loved it and the hubby and I are exhausted.  Before I head to bed, I'm going to make sure I have clean diapers to change him into when he wakes up.  

The kiddos looking at the fish.

You touched what?!?!

If you've ever had to change a baby's diaper, you know it can get messy regardless of the type of diaper.  So I find it funny that some people think that cloth diapers are yucky.  In my opinion, they're not any more gross than disposables and they don't sit in a land fill.

Today is Day 4 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge and everyone is talking about the handwashing.  I mentioned earlier that I always wash out the little guy's diapers by hand so this isn't a huge stretch for me.  I've been lucky this week -- I've only had to wash one poopy diaper so far.  It wasn't bad either -- just dumped the solids into the toilet and rinsed the diaper really well before adding it to the others to be washed.

Yesterday I did a larger bunch at once and I did find that easier than washing after every change.  It took a little longer but I got them done at once.  Today I washed 5 first thing this morning and hung them out on the line.  I also washed his longies and lanolized them.  It was sunny today so the diapers I hung out at 8:40 this morning were dry by 2 PM.  I washed another bunch then and hung them out.  Unfortunately, while I was fixing supper this evening it started to rain and the second group got a little damp.  So they're hanging up inside now, but will be perfectly dry by morning.

So back to handwashing.  My process is pretty simple.  I rinse under running water very thoroughly.  I feel like this rinsing is the most important part.  The diapers smell clean after rinsing, before using any detergent at all.  Then I fill the sink with hot water, add detergent or soap nuts (I've been using soap nuts upstairs and detergent downstairs) and then dump in the rinsed diapers.  I knead and swish for a few minutes before draining the sink.  Then I rinse each diaper individually under running water.  I wring them out really well and then they're ready to be hung up.

I've been using such hot water and wringing out so many diapers that I have a spot on my right thumb where I rubbed the skin clean off!  Poor me, right?  :)  No big deal, I just had to adjust how I hold the diapers when I wring them out.

So that's my washing routine.  Not much to it.  I might adjust if I was doing more at a time.  Today I washed twice and even with the rain, didn't run out of diapers.  Tomorrow is our aquarium trip so it should be interesting!

Day 3: Finally some sunshine!

Today I was able to dry the flats outdoors.  Hooray for sunshine!  It's been really rainy the last few days so I've been doing all the drying indoors.  

The diapers dry a lot faster in the sun.  Today I even have extra clean ones left over and the little guy's in bed already.  I'll have a total of 5 flats to wash in the morning -- the 2 he was wearing before bathtime and the 3 he's wearing to bed.

I'm curious to see how the weekend goes.  Friday we will be visiting the aquarium 2 hours away.  So 4 hours in the car and at least 3-4 hours at the aquarium.  Saturday my husband and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary so we're going out to dinner and leaving the kids with a babysitter.  I'm thinking I might be kind to her and put him in a pocket stuffed with flats.  

I think tomorrow I'm going to strip my other diapers.  Since it's an all-day rinsing affair, I think it's perfect for a day when I'm handwashing the diapers he's wearing.  I may just use flats and handwash in the future whenever I strip my stash.  

It was so hot this morning, there was steam rising off the wooden fence in our backyard.

Supplies & Preparation

Flats & Handwashing Challenge, Day 2.  I have to admit, I didn't exactly prepare for this challenge.  I didn't really decide to participate until Monday morning when I put the little guy in flats.  So my preparation was nil.  Which may be why I found myself at Wal-Mart this morning, buying a package of Flour Sack Towels.  Yesterday went fairly well, but I did feel like it would be easier if I didn't have to wash each diaper immediately after use.  So far today, I've washed once.  I wanted to wash the new towels before using them.  

I have a total of 9 flats that were given to me as hand-me-downs.  So I paid $0 for those.  I'm using g-Pants during the day and those were gifted to me when the little guy was born.  So I paid $0 for those.  At night, I'm using a pair of wool longies that I hand-dyed and knitted myself.  I paid ~$8 for the yarn and $2 for the dye, so around $10 for the longies.  For detergent, I'm using Maggie's Soap Nuts that I've had forever so I paid maybe $12 for it originally?  I honestly don't remember.  I just bought a package of 5 flour sack towels today for $4.98.  So for me, this has been very inexpensive.  If you had to buy everything new, it would still be inexpensive.  A package of 12 flats is around $12 at Wal-Mart and of course you can use regular laundry detergent.  

I did end up ironing some of my flats yesterday to help them dry faster.  It also made them a bit softer -- line drying tends to make cloth diapers a tad stiff.  I was also concerned about how well the flats would hold up overnight.  I put him in 3 and while he was very wet this morning, he didn't leak through the longies.  I was impressed!  

Homemade Elderberry Syrup

I've been meaning to make this for awhile.  Elderberry syrup from the health food store is very expensive so I decided to make my own.  I pinned this post on Pinterest months ago but I had trouble getting the ingredients.  I was finally able to order the dried elderberries from Frontier, get some raw, local honey from a friend and since my throat felt sore this morning, I decided today was the day!  It wasn't very labor intensive to make, but it was messy.  I didn't have cheesecloth so I used a strainer instead.  I also ended up using more honey than the 1 cup the recipe calls for as mine was pretty runny and I wanted it a bit thicker.  The end result was pretty good!  It's got a spicy flavor to it, but not too strong and the kids liked it.  Hopefully it will help keep this family free from colds!

No washer. No dryer. No problem!

So today is Day 1 of Dirty Diaper Laundry's 3rd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  So why did I decide to participate this year?  Well, we're considering going camping this summer and I want to prove to myself that I can use flats and wash by hand for a week.  Florida is also often hit by hurricanes.  In 2004, after Hurricanes Charley and Francis, we lost power for 8 days.  I'd like to try this challenge so that if we have any storms this summer where we lose electricity for a few days, I'll be prepared.

I'm not really nervous about the handwashing part -- I typically rinse out the little guy's diapers by hand and I'm not squeamish.  But just using flats on a heavy wetter? That's what could get interesting.  I think for overnight I will have to use the wool longies I made for him.  During the day I'll either be using Thirsties Duo-Wraps or g-Pants.  So far today we've gone through 4 flats (I put 2 in at a time) in his g-pants.  I washed the first pair of flats right after I changed him.  I don't own a lot of flats so I figure if I wash them right away, hopefully I won't run out at the end of the day.

Washing wasn't hard.  I used the bathroom sink and a few of Maggie's Soap Nuts.  I rinsed the diapers with really hot water, then filled the sink with hot water.  I added 3-4 soap nuts and swirled the water around a bit until I saw some suds.  I plopped the diapers in, swished them around for a few minutes and then rinsed them really well.  The only problem I saw was that a few little bits of soap nuts got stuck in the flats, but next time I'll just use the mesh bag that they came with.  Problem solved.  I wrung the diapers out and they're hanging outside to dry.  While they could easily be dried indoors, I decided they'd dry faster in the sunshine.

So, while the day is far from over, I'd say it's going pretty well so far!

Update:  The day is done and the little guy is sleeping upstairs in his longies.  I used the kite fold on one flat and put 2 pad folded flats in for extra absorbency.  Throughout the day, I washed each set of diapers after I changed him.  It worked, I didn't run out of diapers and I'll have plenty of clean, dry ones ready for tomorrow.  I do think tomorrow I might head to the store to buy a few more so I don't have to wash them as I go, but I do know I'll be ok if I don't get any extras.  I'd also like to try waiting until the end of the day to wash so I wash everything all at once.  While it took a little extra time today to stop and wash diapers, as a whole the challenge hasn't been very "challenging" so far.  

Lactation Muffins

So this is my first blog post.  I've been telling myself for years that I don't have time for a blog, but here I am.  I'm not much of a cook, but I like to bake.  I am a proud breastfeeding mama -- nursed my oldest until he self-weaned just before his 2nd birthday, nursed my twin daughters until I found out I was pregnant with my youngest and then decided to wean them.  They were 25 months.  We went slowly and they were peacefully weaned by 26-27 months.  I now nurse my youngest, who is 16 months at the time of this post.  When my twins were about 9 months old, an urgent request went out to the mom's group I was a part of for pumped breastmilk.  A newborn baby girl named Sara had lost her mother suddenly and needed milk.  So I started pumping what I could.  I didn't produce much extra since I was already nursing 2 babies, but I donated what I could.  An organization was soon born to provide donor breastmilk for babies in need.  You can read all about it here:  http://getpumpedonline.org/.

After my second son was born, I began pumping again.  I don't tend to over or under produce so it was never a large amount, but I did what I could.  I found that if I took breaks from pumping (which I tend to do often), it helped to take a supplement of some sort to help my body start producing extra milk again.  I love Traditional Medicinals' Mother's Milk Tea but didn't always have it on hand.  Fenugreek seeds also really seemed to help.  A few months ago, I came across the idea of lactation cookies.  I love cookies.  Problem is, my kids don't tolerate dairy well and I don't eat a lot of wheat.  Gluten and dairy free lactation cookies DO exist, but they cost more than I can spend on cookies.  I looked for recipes for cookies and muffins but didn't find anything that jumped out at me.  So I came up with my own.  The key ingredients are the oats, flax seed meal and brewer's yeast.  These aren't particularly healthy with 1/2 cup of sugar, but you could always decrease the amount of sugar to make them less sweet or substitute with a healthier sweetener.  

These muffins have worked well for me to increase supply and they're yummy too!  If you try them, let me know what you think and if there's anything you'd change.  Thanks for reading!

Wheat-free, Dairy-free Lactation Muffins

Dry Ingredients:

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup white rice flour (or just use one cup brown rice flour)

¼ cup tapioca flour

1/3 cup potato starch

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup rolled oats (can use gluten-free oats)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

¼ teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons flax seed meal

3 Tablespoons brewer’s yeast

Wet Ingredients:

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 cup applesauce

1 Tablespoon ground chia seed

3 Tablespoons water

¼ cup almond or rice milk

¼ cup each coconut, walnuts and cranberries (optional)

Preaheat oven to 350°.  Mix dry ingredients (#1-12) together in large bowl.  Then mix wet ingredients #13-17 together in small bowl.  Add wet ingredient to dry ingredients, mix well.  Stir in coconut, cranberries and nuts.  Use coconut oil to grease your muffin pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Makes one dozen.