BabyKicks Love

Today my first born is 4. I can’t believe it. I’ve had this little man come in my life 4 years ago, and I fell madly in love with him at first sight. It’s amazing watching him grow and learn every day. He’s also transformed into an awesome big bro. My heart melts every time I see sweetness between the boys. {I’m so emo today!}

CW wasn’t cloth diapered until after his little brother was born. And honestly, I didn’t even use cloth on him for many months after his brother was born. Part of this was because CW was potty trained a month after BW arrived, but diapers were still used at night. As my supply of paper diapers dwindled, I began to think that maybe I could diaper CW in cloth at night. I did some major research and discovered hemp and more specifically, BabyKicks. I bought a 3g, we gave it a shot, and it worked. He loved it, and I loved it. The exact weight and age {about 2 1/2+ yo} that I started him in the 3g slip my mind, but it was amazing. We didn’t go back to paper, except for a short vacay that you can read out here. Spoiler: DISASTER! I’m also not going to go into a full review of the 3g here. But I do think back fondly of the days when CW fit in his fav dipe. And yes, it was a nightmare when he couldn’t fit in it any longer. He really, really loved that diaper. That night confirmed to me what I already knew. Cloth is way more comfy than paper. Leave it to my little man to speak the words I was waiting to hear.

Try it. You'll like it.

I’m not a huge fan of trying new things. I’m a creature of habit, and I don’t deal well with change. My difficulty with change was made evident when I was switching from disposables to cloth diapers. It took me a long time to do it, and I relied on disposables quite a bit. You can read about my transition to cloth here. But once I made the change, I L.O.V.E.D. it! That’s the funny thing about new things.  I have a difficult time getting myself to try something new, and about 99% of the time I end up happy that I did.

So once I made the switch to use only cloth, I was slammed with about a bazillion different types of cloth diapers. It was so overwhelming to decide what diaper to try next. I was happy with what I was using, but felt the need to try other diapers that I was reading about online. I’ve tried about a quarter of a bazillion brands and types of diapers. So what I sell in my store, are all brands and styles that I have used with much success. I want to be able to know firsthand how well a diaper works before I sell it to another mom. It’s important to me to make sure that other moms have a successful cloth diapering experience.

Why do I sell so many brands and types of diapers? Because every baby is unique, every diaper will fit that baby differently. I want to make sure that I carry a diaper that will work for your little one. So in my experience with trying a quarter of a bazillion diapers, I’ve come up with a rule. Buy 2 of a diaper when trying it out. Why two? For some reason, a brand new diaper always relaxes BW, and a poo is made within minutes. I’m not lying! {I hope BW forgives me when he’s older for always talking about his bowel movements!} So when I change his diaper, I have a second one to use. Two diapers also give you more of a feel of how the diaper works in your stash. You get more use out of them, instead of using it once and waiting a day or two before it can be used again. And after you fall in love with the new diaper, buy more! I really think that simplicity is key when cloth diapering. Stick with a brand/style or two. It does make your life easier when it comes to washing and using them. Or what if you decide it’s not for you? Well, that’s not too difficult either. You’re only stuck with 2 and not a whole stash worth, so trade or sell them. Not much money was invested in the 2 you bought, and it’s time to move on to try a different style.

Still stressed about all the different types of diapers and don’t know where to start? Don’t want to spend a lot of $$ trying out different diapers before building up your stash? Green Baby Elephant can help. Local Tucson Mamas can contact GBE to schedule a private consult or host a diaper party with friends. Being able to see & touch diapers before buying will save you countless hours spent researching online. And it will also save you $$ since you’ll have a much better idea of what you’d like to try, instead of buying diapers sight unseen. And if you don’t have the pleasure of living here in Tucson, I’m still more than happy to help you find a diaper that will work for you and your little one. And remember when trying out a new diaper, always get at least two!





It's always good to have a diaper to match your fave pair of cowboy boots. Or is it a good thing to accessorize a fave diaper with a stylish pair of kicks? Whatever the case, it doesn't hurt to accessorize!

Mr. GBE

Mr. GBE was not a fan of using cloth diapers. Not a fan at all. In fact, he made it clear that he was not and would not change any cloth diapers. He also informed me that once BW was walking, we would not use cloth diapers any longer. He’ll deny it if he reads this, thankfully my sister was witness to his behavior. I blame Mr. GBE’s misguided thoughts on BW’s incessant crying which in turn made his sleep addled brain woozy and confused. Thankfully, BW has been a good sleeper for many months now, and Mr. GBE’s thinking cleared up as we all got more sleep.   Slowly, Mr. GBE warmed up to the idea of cloth. This is how I wore him down changed his mind:

1.       Our first cloth diaper system was a gift. So we saved $$ to begin with by not having to invest in cloth diapers.

2.       I never complained about laundry. {This was difficult as my stash was very tiny in the beginning with a 1 month old – 12 diapers. And add insult to injury, my washer was broken for a long time, and it took us a while to realize it. It also took the repair man several attempts before it was finally fixed.}

3.       I acted like I knew what I was doing. {Thank goodness for Google and cloth diapering blogs/message boards.}

4.       Mr. GBE was never asked to rinse a diaper.

5.       Mr. GBE was never asked to wash a load of diapers.

6.       Mr. GBE was never asked to hang out diapers to dry.

7.       Mr. GBE was never asked to stuff/fold/put together any diaper.

8.       I proved that using cloth was easy when traveling away from home. {Disneyland + BW @ 5 months + GroVia’s disposable hybrid option = Success}

9.       There was a drastic decrease in our spending due to less frequent trips to Target to buy diapers, which also meant fewer impulse buys. *Cha-Ching!*

10.   When the only option in the house is a cloth diaper, cloth must be used.

So needless to say, Mr. GBE is quite adept at using cloth diapers.  He’s now rinsed, washed {with detailed instructions left on the washer}, dried, and stuffed diapers without nagging supervision. I think he even secretly enjoys using them. Mr. GBE, you’ve come a long way baby! He's’ become my biggest fan and supporter. Without him, I would have never started my own business. Hip, Hip, Hooray to Mr. GBE. I love you!

Using Cloth on a Newborn

I decided while still pregnant that I was going to try cloth diapers with my second baby. It was something that I had always contemplated after my first child was born. However, I did not feel as I had enough information about how they work and many other details that many of us Mommies require before making a big purchase.
Then my sister had her second child and began to cloth diaper. I was able to see first-hand all of the ins and outs of the cloth diapering world.  Learning how to wash, stuff, and put them on an actual baby helped immensely!
With this pregnancy I was all about being prepared early, as my first child was a month early and I was not ready.  As I packed my hospital bag I also packed a bag for my new baby that included about 8 of my 12 newborn AIO Grovia's.  I had prepped them the week before and loved how tiny and cute they were!  I also packed some liners in anticipation of my baby's first poopie (meconium).

I wondered what the nurses and doctors would think about the cloth diapers and if anyone would flat out refuse to use them. I wondered if there would be that nurse that would put a disposable on my baby in an effort to discourage me, and make her life easier.
Boy was I wrong! The nurses were intrigued by the tiny cloth diapers and soon my son and I were the talk of the 4th floor labor and delivery ward! My nurse came in and asked to borrow one of the diapers to show off at the nurses’ station.  Everyone commented on how adorable and easy they were to use! Every time there was a shift change I would get the same questions.  How do you wash them? How much are they? What made you decide to do cloth? The list went on.
I love having the newborn size Grovia and Fuzzibunz.  Totally worth purchasing!!! They fit so well and do not rub on his little belly button as it heals. There is very little bulk and fit under a onesie perfectly. Newborn's little legs are so skinny and newborn size diapers are trim and don't keep them from scrunching their tiny legs up into the fetal position. I used liners while in the hospital waiting for the meconium. It came out with the liner so easily.  The only downfall  I found was that no one but me snapped them tight enough. I think they are afraid to put them on too tightly since they don't stretch like disposables do. But trust me, you will know when you have put them on too tight, because they won't snap : -)

Once we arrived home from the hospital it was time to wash them...I was dreading this, and I don't know why.  I was worried about stains.  The first time I washed them I forgot to rinse them first.  Not a big a deal. However, I have, through trial and error found a certain method to washing newborn AIO's.  I snap them on the loosest snap after a diaper change and throw them in the wet bag. Once I am in the laundry room I go through and turn them inside out while still snapped. The ensures that the outer covers will not take precedence over the inner liners.  This has helped tremendously to get all the poop out and most of the stains out with one wash.  This also greatly reduces the time in the dryer!
I had heard about the sun being a natural stain remover, and I can honestly say that they were true! Now, that said the sun has not come out where I live since my son was 3 days old.  So, on the first sunny day that we have you can bet money that I am going to "sun" all my diapers!  The stains are minimal, but I still would like them gone : )
After a week of using cloth diapers I feel like I have a pretty good handle on them and a newfound love! I am no longer anxious about changing them while away from home, washing them, getting stains out, or dealing with leaks. We use the GroVia's and Fuzzibunz during the day and the Thirsties at night. I have both the Thirsties Duo Diaper & Duo Fitted.  I like them both the Thirsties diaper and fitted equally and never worry about leakage with them! They hold a lot!  They are much bulkier than the newborn size GroVia & FuzziBunz diapers. My husband and I have had quite a few laughs from them, and love them all the more! If you are worried about the bulk then stick to the newborn size until your child grows bigger.
Also, our son was circumcised and I continued to use cloth. We just use a liner and a gauze pad with Vaseline and haven’t had a problem. I did decide to use a disposable to see the difference during the healing time....WOW night and day difference! He leaked terribly out of all four disposables that I placed on him.  The poor little guy woke up during the night completely wet through a sleep sack and a swaddle!!! Unheard of with cloth! Never again disposable for me!

If you are nervous about taking the plunge into the world of cloth diapering a newborn, I urge you to give it a try. I promise it is easier than you think.  Your baby will thank you!  And I think you will thank yourself!

~~Nina~~

P.S. Many more posts on newborn dipes are to come! Nina will be reviewing each diaper much more thoroughly as soon as she gets the chance.

Gift Registry

I recently added a new feature to Green Baby Elephant’s site. It is an option for creating a gift registry. How nice would it be to have family and friends celebrate your new baby’s arrival by showering you with all the cloth diapers and accessories you need and want? Family and friends want to give you and the baby what you need {and sometimes what you don’t need}, and a gift registry is the perfect way for them to help you get ready for the new baby.

For you expectant mommies I encourage you to look around GBE’s store and create a registry for your baby. For the mommies that already have little ones in diapers, don’t think a registry can’t be useful for you. Friends and family are often in need of a little help when coming up with gift ideas. If you’re anything like me, toys are a foot deep in the playroom {thanks to generous grandparents} especially after holidays and birthdays. For little ones too small to realize if they received a toy on their special day, new diapers or cloth wipes would make a great useful gift. Colorful diapers can be added in Easter baskets and Christmas stockings. Red and pink ones are cute for Valentine’s Day. Green for St. Patrick’s Day. Orange or black for Halloween. Red, green or white for Christmas. Patriotic colors for Fourth of July. And brown for Groundhog Day. I got carried away with that last one, but you get the idea.

When you go to create your gift registry, I encourage you not to add your address if you are making the registry public. Your address will be public if you do. One option would be to make it a private registry and include your address then. Since friends and family already have your address or access to it, a public registry would lend you privacy if your address is omitted. For either private or public registry a link will be given that you can then send on to friends and family. And presto, you’re on the way to getting the useful gifts you need instead of 50 {albeit adorable} bibs, 33 pairs of tiny newborn socks {that will be eaten by the washing machine}, 17{soft & sweet} hooded towels, and 23 {cute} teething toys. Don’t be shy in letting others know what you’d like, but do remember to be thankful whatever the gift may be!

On a side note, I have a new nephew today! He’s the newest GBE cloth diaper model as he is already sporting GroVia’s newborn AIOs in the hospital. EEEEEEEE!!! My sister will be testing out all things newborn on her new bundle of joy, so stay tuned these next few weeks as we dress his heiny in the teeniest cloth diapers around!

Another First Time Cloth Diaper Experience

I have been using cloth diapers for over a year now and I really enjoy the process.  I love using products that are better for my baby, I love that I'm not contributing to unnecessary waste, and I'm glad that I can save money by not buying disposable diapers every few weeks.

 

My journey to choosing cloth has been quite an adventure.  I started investigating the idea of cloth diapers when my first child was under 2 years old.  But at that time I decided it wasn't an investment I wanted to make since he was older and close to potty training.  At that time the only information I had about cloth diapers was what I found on Amazon.com.  I had no idea that there was a larger community for cloth diapers, and at that point I put the idea on hold.

 

Then my daughter was born in October of 2009.  I started with disposables but did quite a bit more research about cloth and I discovered a multitude of online communities that provided a plethora of information about various types & brands of cloth diapers.  It was a bit overwhelming.  I researched for 2 months before making my first purchase, which was 2 diaper covers & a set of 6 prefolds.  I started out basic to see if I would enjoy the process. 

 

I fell in love with cloth and began to increase my stash of diapers, using pocket diapers, fitteds & covers, and all-in-ones.  My husband was surprisingly supportive since he realized we wouldn't be spending $20-$30 every few weeks on diapers that would ultimately be thrown in the trash.  Literally throwing our money away.

 

Now that my daughter is 18 months old, my cloth diaper needs have evolved with her.  We now primarily use snap diapers since she is quite skilled at undoing the velcro.  I also work outside of the home part time and my parents watch my kids while I am gone.  They have found cloth diapers to be much easier than they thought, and my mom loves using them on my daughter.  It really is FUN.

 

My journey with cloth diapers will continue until my daughter is potty trained, and then I will most likely sell my stash of diapers to other parents.  That's another perk of using cloth diapers: there is resale value.  You can't say that about disposables.

~~Karen~~

My First Time

I had never given cloth diapers a thought in my head. My only and brief thought about cloth diapers was that they are old fashioned. I was not going to be an “old fashion” mother. So that was my one, very fleeting thought about cloth diapers. 

My first time using cloth diapers was with my second baby.  Again, cloth diapers were not thought about.  Not even a fleeting thought like I had with my first baby.  My mom gave me quite a few GroBaby {now GroVia} diapers for my second baby. My immediate thoughts were CUTE, but uh...I don’t know about this!  I smiled and thanked her.  The diapers sat on my laundry room floor for a week.  I hemmed and hawed. Should I do this? Can I do this? I looked up cloth diapers on the internet and was immediately overwhelmed, so I stopped looking at cloth diapers online. I couldn’t decide if I could do this, so I do what I normally do in situations when I can make up my mind. Nothing.  Thank goodness my sister came to visit.  She took one look at the mess of diapers on the floor and threw them in the wash. WHEW! A decision was made! She and I washed and prepped the diapers. 

At a little over a month old, BW wore his first cloth diaper. ADORABLE! I melted when I saw him in his little mandarin GroBaby.

At first, I used cloth only at home and only during the day. I had to baby step my transition to cloth.  Even though I loved using my new cloth diapers, it took me awhile to get used to the idea of them.  It’s not that I had any particular stumbling blocks using them.  No stink, leaks, rashes.  Actually, it was quite the opposite.  They washed like a dream, and instantly, BW didn’t have any leaks.  No BLOW-OUTS!  It was almost like it was too good to be true. A miracle. Or maybe you’d prefer to say it was like magic. *Poof* All my problems with disposable diapers were gone!  Another plus that I noticed was that since I was only using disposables at night, we were going through less paper diapers.  This meant less time spent going to the store, especially during the first couple of months when babies grow out of diapers literally overnight.   The thrifty part of me loved not spending money on something that I throw out in sometimes a matter of minutes of using.  I also noticed that the garbage bin wasn’t quite as full when taking it to the curb.   Dare I say, this whole experience was like a dream come true?  Yes! Really! 

Here’s the Good and the Bad summed up with some nice bullet points for those that like lists. {I am a list person.}

The Good

·         No rash, no creams to use.

·         Less trash, so fewer trips to the garbage can outside to empty the diaper pail.

·         Less money spent on paper diapers as I slowly transitioned to cloth.  This changed to no money spent once we transitioned to only cloth. Yippee!

·         Darling outfits in the summer. T-shirt + diaper = super cute!  As a mom to two boys, the cuteness factor for boy clothes is nowhere near girl clothes, so this was a major plus for me.  Shallow, I know.

·         Easy to use.  Press some buttons on the machine to wash and air dry (sunned outside). Easy Velcro-like closures (hook and loop or Aplix) made for an easy transition to cloth since they went on just like a disposable.

·         No explosive poo leaking everywhere, which meant less washing of clothes and stain removal.

The Bad

·         After a few weeks, I realized I didn’t have enough diapers to make it through a day, and I was getting tired of CONSTANTLY washing.  I think he poo’ed more than any baby his age should! This was solved by buying more diapers. I now wash every other day.

·         More frequent changing. I hesitate to mention this, because I don’t want anyone to be turned off by using cloth, but at the same time I promise to be totally honest here.  So here goes nothing.  This more frequent changing was a double edge sword for me.  At first, I felt like I was changing a lot more than I would have with disposables. But I came to realize that it was a good indication of how well he was nursing and an easy way to monitor his fluid intake.  Because disposables are so absorbent, I often couldn’t tell how much or often my baby urinated, which in turn meant I didn’t know how well he was breastfeeding.  Luckily, this was a short lived issue. Babies grow and change quickly, and this is no longer a “problem”.

·         I was clueless about using diapers at night and was yet again paralyzed by indecision and information overload on the internet. Yikes! Obviously, this is now no longer a problem.  I will focus on nighttime diapers in a future post.  Hint: hemp.

·          I felt uncomfortable using cloth out of the house.  Yet again something that I didn’t have any experience in doing, and it made me feel anxious about leaving the house. Once again, problem solved.  We leave the house & travel.  Again, this will be discussed in detail in the future.

·         No support. This is a total peer pressure issue.  No one I knew was doing this.  I felt so alone. Ugh.  Luckily, I fell in love with all the good that I saw with cloth diapering that this was just about a nonissue with me. Yay for being independent!  For help and advice, I reconnected with a childhood friend that cloth diapers, so the beginning of a support group began.  Also, friends saw the benefits of cloth and began using them as well on their babies.  Support and information is a major reason why I began Green Baby Elephant!

BW lookin' angry and cute at the same time in his first cloth diaper. I like to think that the angry face means that he was trying to say, "Why didn't you put one of these comfy diapers on me sooner mom?!" or something like that.