Cloth Diapering: Pre-folds (and other random stuff)

I promised to post pictures of 'before' and 'after' for prepping my cloth diapering prefolds. It's a pretty incredible transformation, actually. Here are my 36 newborn size diapers before: stiff, starchy, and pretty darn thin:


And here are the bad boys after 5 wash/dry cycles: fat, fluffy, and incredibly soft. I seriously think they tripled in size. Just look at that stack now!


They became nice and quilted, ready to absorb poo and pee from our little man!

So a little more information on prefolds in general for you:

There are Chinese and Indian prefolds, which can be either bleached or unbleached. For the record, I chose Indian unbleached organic prefolds:)

Chinese versus Indian: what's the difference?

-Indian prefolds are softer, more absorbent, and made of gauze cotton. They might wear out faster than Chinese pf, but a couple of sites I visited have begun only listing Indian prefolds because they are top of the line. They are a little more expensive than Chinese pfs.

-Chinese prefolds have heavy duty stitching, are made of twill, and would probably stay nicer longer than Indian pfs. However, they may pill more and are much rougher than Indians although they cost a little bit less.

Bleached versus Unbleached: what's the difference?

-bleached prefolds are bright white, from an actual bleaching process of the fibers or perhaps through a more 'natural' peroxide wash. They have been 'degummed' as well and are somewhat cheaper than unbleached. You'll need to wash these about 3-4 cycles before using them.

-unbleached prefolds are light tan in color and have not been processed to make them white. They need to be 'degummed' because they still have some oils in their fibers, so you'll need to do at least 5 washes on them before using.


Then here is a copy from my nine page document on where to buy prefolds. Again, we went with Green Mountain but there are numerous other places out there, too. I just like comparing shipping costs and actual costs before making decisions:)

1. Storkwearhouse (free ship > $75)
⁃ cloth-eez chinese bleached: dozen=$28.80 plus ship ($3 each)

2. Wallypop (will wash for $10 extra first)
⁃ chinese DSQ bleached 'infant': dozen=$20.50 plus ship
⁃ chinese DSQ bleached 'premium': dozen=$24.50 plus ship

3. A Diaper Change (free ship >$50)
⁃ chinese bleached 'infant': dozen=20.50 plus 3 ship
⁃ Chinese bleached 'premium': dozen=28.50
⁃ Indian unbleached 'infant': dozen=21.50
⁃ Indian unbleached 'premium': dozen=29.50

4. Little Lions (free ship > $90, $6.95 flat rate otherwise) **cheapest**
⁃ indian bleached 'infant': dozen=$16.15
⁃ indian unbleached 'infant': dozen=$16.15 (seconds=$13.00)
⁃ indian bleached 'premium': dozen=$18
⁃ indian unbleached 'premium': dozen =$18

5. Cotton Babies (free ship >$75, in STL)
⁃ doesn't do it by the dozen. Chinese 1.50-2.00 each, Indian 1.00-2.00 each

6. Cloth Diaper Outlet (free ship >$50)
⁃ chinese bleached 'infant' dozen=$1.90 each, $22.80
⁃ chinese bleached 'premium' dozen=$2.65 each, $31.80
⁃ indians unbleached 'infant' dozen=$2.15 each, $25.80
⁃ indians unbleached 'premium' dozen=$2.90 each, $34.80

7. Green Mountain
⁃ cloth-eez white/chlorine-free (already degummed) OR unbleached Indian 'newborn orange' $1.75 each, $21.00 dozen. For the 'organic' dozen is $25.
⁃ cloth-eez white/chlorine-free(already degummed) OR unbleached Indian 'medium red' $2.25 each, $27.00 dozen. For the 'organic' dozen is $35

8. Abby's Lane (free shipping!)
⁃ Indian unbleached infant dozen=$27.99
⁃ Indian unbleached premium dozen=$36.50

9. Ebay: Granite Smith (free shipping on covers if > 2 or more dozen prefolds)
-Indian unbleached newborn $18.99 per dozen (ship for 2 doz is $11.99)


Are you absorbing all of this CD information? :)
Onto more fun baby things: the nursery is coming right along! I've been meaning to hang the picture frames in baby's room for a long time now. When I went on my nesting rampage last weekend I broke out the electric drill and attempted to hang a few shelves before Nate returned from his trip. Wouldn't you know it, but I tried to use a dry wall screw anchor for our plaster walls and sure enough--the thing split in two and shot across the room while I tried to secure it into my lovely aqua walls. I could not pull the sucker out and had to wait until my manly husband returned home so he could bail me out. Of course, it took him about two minutes to announce that I was using the wrong type of anchors (who knew?) and he successfully removed the broken one and hung both shelves without problems. Having a man around is pretty handy sometimes:)

And because I have some VERY curious readers out there (ahem, Mom and my family, mostly) I had to be diligent and blur out two of the frames plus the wall letter I painted for the room. But you still get the idea, I'm sure.


I painted that big fatty polka dotted frame myself, using an old one that was pretty plain and boring. The big vertical blue frame will hold one of those nifty 'birth annoucement' type pieces, with his name, weight, birthday, length, etc all crunched together in cool font. And I still have a few other frames to fill but I'm not too worried about it:)

Also, please note baby Carlos' giraffe collection. We do love us some giraffes around here!

And finally, would you look at these two hams?

I just walked into the living room one night to this sight and had to capture it's cuteness on camera.

This weekend my mom is flying in for her last visit with us before baby arrives. We have some fun projects planned but mostly I just want to lounge around with her and have girl time. It's very odd to think that the next time I see my mom will be when they make the 8 hour drive to see us at the hospital. I'm supposed to call when I go into labor and they are going to hop in the car and make the trip up here, meeting us in the hospital. Just thinking about that gives me chills. I seriously cannot wait!

Cloth Diapering: Why?

As I've mentioned before, the number one factor that pushed me towards cloth diapering was the savings you get versus disposables. We are talking hundreds if not thousands of dollars which is enough to give it a go for our family. The 'saving the environment' factor is pretty sweet, as is the notion that diaper rash is much less common in cloth and therefore most say cloth is better for baby's skin. Plus, most cloth diapered babies are potty trained sooner in life than those in disposables because they can actually feel when they are wet instead of having the magical chemical gel balls whisk away the moisture. I mean, the reasons are endless but sometimes it's nice to hear lots of opinions on the subject.

Here are a ton of great websites that review the 'why' of cloth diapering that I found helpful:

1. Diaper Decisions great chart on all types of CD versus disposables.

2. Stork Wearhouse chart on CD versus disposables, low end versus high end comparisons. Also some good background general info.

3. Zany Zebra's take on cloth verses disposables.

4. Better for Babies give their reasons.

5. The Cloth Diaper Whisperer blog: all of their 'cloth vs. disposable' tagged posts.

6. All About Cloth Diapers: focusing on budget options.

And then there are the go to sites to learn the basics of CD. Tons of info out there, ladies, but it just takes time to absorb it all and make decisions that are right for your situation.

1. The Eco-Friendly Family blog: how to CD a newborn.

2. The EFF blog: motherload post. Everything you need to know, pretty much.

3. Pin Stripes and Polka Dots: tons of great info, diapering basics.

4. The Diaper Jungle: what systems work, comparison between styles of CD.

5. The Diaper Jungle: The guide 101 post, great info here.

6. Diaper Daisy: the FAQs


So those links should keep you busy for awhile, huh? :)
More of my research coming soon including traveling with CD, all about prefolds, where to buy, etc.

Thirty-Three Weeks

On to the second to last fruit, my friends. Only one more after this! We have entered the stage of a honeydew melon. Woah!







That's one veiny stomach! No, they aren't stretch marks. My magnifying glass is still failing to notice anything thus far. It's just a little too much contrast in my editing skills, I believe.



According to The Bump's timeline, baby can now blink and dilate his irises while light shines through my stomach. Um, weird?! He can also recognize and react to simple songs so apparently I'm supposed to practice my lullabies now. I feel like a lot of people ask me if I'm regularly talking or reading to the baby, too, which I have to honestly reply: "No, not really." I mean it's great that he can hear me and all but I just find it odd to carry on a conversation (or worse--an out-of-tune chorus) with my stomach. I guess I just feel connected to baby Carlos without directly speaking to him. Hopefully I'm not impairing his intelligence early in the game by forgoing nightly lullabies in the womb. :)

I've started to get used to strangers noticing my bump, even though that just started in the past two weeks, and I'm happy to finally be at the 'obviously pregnant' stage. When people ask when I'm due and I tell them March 14, I tend to get a lot of raised eyebrows in return. They are surprised to hear it's so soon and follow that up with the classic, 'But you are so small!'. Again, I've gotten used to that statement, too. I just inform them that I'm measuring right on for my due date and feel lucky to still be comfortable this late in the game. I'm sure I'll get to be as big as a house in a few more weeks but I still can't complain too much about pregnancy in general. Still loving it and trying to soak in every moment before it's over because time is passing with incredible speed these days.

So this week was certainly a busy one. We had our breastfeeding class on Monday night which was awesome and I'm totally in love with the Lactation Consultant at my hospital. I'm pretty sure Nate enjoyed the class, too, even though he was a little skeptical of a two hour class all about boobs (scratch that, he was probably excited about the topic). I feel like at least we have a little bit of background on how it all works, some common road blocks, time lines to follow, and resources to investigate.

Then on Wednesday, Nate flew out to Oregon to visit his brother while Henry and I held down fort back home. Work was insane this whole week, which lead to me being really grouchy and overly tired, feeling genuinely out of steam by Friday. But it was perfect timing because my prenatal hour-long massage on Friday was TO DIE FOR. It was absolutely the best massage of my life probably because I was so tired and haven't had a massage in over a year. I think I even woke myself up once during the session with a snort. Nothing like a fat pregnant lady snoozing away while her swollen ankles get rubbed down by a stranger!

All weekend long, I went completely nuts with nesting. I deep cleaned our place, did about 8 loads of laundry including prepping our cloth diapers and washing every single piece of baby paraphernalia, packed it all away and put together a some baby gear, made some crafty baby projects, wrote all of my thank you notes, grocery shopped, returned a few things at every store known to mankind, and bought a few odds and ends for the baby/storage in our house. You know nesting is in full force when I purged all of my old holey underwear from my dresser and decided to wash every bra I own--that type of thing just doesn't happen regularly, unfortunately. Oh yeah, and I learned how to use a sewing machine with the help from one awesome mother-in-law and we finally finished the baby bedding. To say that I'm obsessed with the end result is an understatement. Heck, I didn't break 38 threads while spending nearly 6 hours slaving away as a domestic diva for some ugly project. Baby bedding complete! Huge check mark, my friends.




I am in love with how the nursery is coming together. Now I'm working on hanging picture frames and shelves but really it's almost complete!

So 33 weeks: nesting up a storm and feeling truly pregnant. Not a bad place to be!