DIY Nursing Pads

... Not the most glamorous thing in the world...

In my quest to buy my postpartum things a few weeks ago... I couldn't find nursing pads at Walmart. It could've had something to do with my lack of gusto walking around the place. As soon as I stepped in there I wanted to get OUT. Long story short, I couldn't find them in my non-crazy Walmart time-frame and afterwards I didn't want to go back to that awful place. Then I thought, WHY not make my own nursing pads!? I'm cloth diapering... nursing pads are another thing I could do myself and be more self-sufficient! So I decided to do some research on the internet and see if the whole DIY nursing pad idea was a good one.

I found that lots of women do it and there's lots of tutorials online! Apparently it works just fine. You make them out of flannel. It's just a bit more work with washing... but aren't I going to be doing a ton more wash anyway??

I went to the fabric store (which, was having a "blowout sale" btw). I thought I was going to just get white but they didn't have any white flannel! So I looked through the flannel and found this light flower  yellow/orangish pattern. At first I was like, that would be weird... having a pattern on your nursing pads. And then I though, you know what? Who cares! Nobody is going to see them... so who cares! So here I am with flower power nursing pads. Best of all, I spent less than $4 on the fabric. My nursing pads are taken care of... for less than $4 (plus my time... but what I am doing these days but waiting around for this child to be born!?)

The best tutorial I found was from this website: DIY Maternity. I used their tutorial but kind of did my own thing:

They have a pattern on the website that you can use... but it just looked HUGE! I may regret it later (I don't know!) But I thought about 4" round would work just fine for me. I had read from other websites that 3.5" - 5" usually works. My mugs seemed like they would be a good size so I used them as stencil for the round.

I stenciled a bunch of circles in the fabric and cut them out using some good fabric scissors (thanks Mom!). The fabric is folded in two and I was able to cut them two at a time. Flannel kind of sticks together well enough to do that.

Here are all my circles! (4 pieces per little stack). I made 10 sets, which means 20 pads.

The next step was putting a dart in them (so they fit better). I read on another website that the dart should be about 1/16 of the circle. To find the middle I folded the circles in half, and then folded the half in half again, and then marked the middle of the circle. Then I measured 1/2 inch from the outer edge and that was my method for how big I wanted my darts. 

Then I drew a line from the outer edge dart line to the center of the fabric and I pinned it....

... like this. So that I would have a visible line to follow with my sewing machine!

Here I am... sewing my dart.... following that line! 

This is what it looks like after you sew the dart. Next step is to cut out that extra fabric in there. Making the darts is what took the longest out of this whole process. You don't have to put darts in, but they do help with fit and bulkiness. You don't want to see these things through your shirt!

Then you stack 4 of your little darted circles together and pin them really well (like this!). The dart makes it harder to sew perfectly but if you pin it well it works out okay.

Here are all of my nursing pads all sewn! Next step was to trim off any excess fabric on the outsides.

Here they are all done! I think they look pretty good! :)

Here's a close-up of one of them. I used a really small zig-zag stitch on the outside just for strength.

Again, for under $4?? Why not? Disposable nursing pads at Target are way more expensive! Just another way to save money. And kind of a fun project too. I am by no means a master seamstress (or as I like to call it, a "master sewer") but this was pretty easy to do.

Dinners

Monday - BBQ Chicken with Creamy BBQ Cilantro Lime Dressing

Tuesday - Frittata

Wednesday - Tomato Soup with Spinach, Avocado, Goat Cheese - Grilled Cheese

Thursday - Strawberry Balsamic Bacon Pizza

Friday - Lasagna

Saturday - Beef Tacos - avocado, cheese, onion, salsa, green pepper

Sunday - Fish Tacos

Monday - Sauteed Salmon on Salad - bleu, walnuts, strawberries, honey balsamic vinaigrette

Tuesday - Burgers, Cathy's Coleslaw, Baked Beans, Potato Fries?

My Cloth Diapering System: BumGenius and Flip Diapers

Alright people, here it is: my post about my cloth diapering system. I'm just laying out my system to maybe help people (some of my friends) who are trying to learn about cloth diapers because they are considering them, but are completely overwhelmed with all of the cloth diapering options (as I certainly was!). This just so happens to be (basically) the same system my sister-in-law Kristen uses. And now my sister in law Erin is in on it too! We're so cool. I liked Kristen's system (basically the same as this one) so I'm copying like a cool kid.

First of all, cottonbabies.com is where my whole system came from (where it was ordered from). It's a good website to go to if you have any questions about cloth diapering. They don't have every cloth diapering option on there, but it's a really good place to start. They certainly had everything I needed!

Snaps or Velcro?

One thing that all of these diapers (BumGenius, Flip, etc etc etc) have in common is they usually come in either snaps (like I have in the pictures below) or velcro. That's probably the first decision you need to make if you're going into cloth diapering because if you really have a preference between the two, it might limit your diapering options. Both BumGenius and Flip system come in both velcro AND snaps... so I could choose whichever I wanted. I chose snaps, mostly because I have heard only good things about snaps. This is a pros and cons list for both according to my research:

Snaps

Pros: longer lasting than Velcro, good fit to baby, wash easily, (I think they're cuter)

Cons: may be harder to snap diaper on a moving baby than Velcro

Velcro

Pros: arguable a better fit around the abdomen

Cons: Velcro doesn't last as long as snaps after all the washing, the diapers get all crazy jumbled together in the washing machine

So, to begin... I have two different brands of cloth diapers: BumGenius and Flip System. It sounds really easy, doesn't it?! Like, "oh... just two different kinds? That's not so bad." However, there are sub-types within these brands (especially BumGenius). I'm just going to lay out all of the options within each of these two brands for ya:

BumGenius

BumGenius has 4 different types of All-In-Ones (commonly referred to AIOs). "All-In-Ones" basically means that it's kind of like a disposable diaper in the sense that once it's dirty, you can't use any part of it again until after you clean it. (If that's confusing, when you read about the Flip system below it will probably make more sense.) For disposables, once a diaper is soiled, you throw it away. For All-In-Ones, one the diaper is soiled, you put it in a wet bag/hamper for later cleaning.

These are the 4 types of All-In-Ones that BumGenius makes: (click to see the specifics of each type)

1. Newborn - an all-in-one made especially for newborns (babies 6-12 lbs)
2. Freetime All-In-One - babies 8-35+lbs
3. Elemental All-In-One - babies 7-35lbs
4. 4.0 One Size (All-In-One) - babies 7-35+ lbs

I have both the Elemental All-In-Ones and the 4.0 One Size All-In-Ones. After I introduce the Flip System I will show you them! (below)

Flip System

The Flip System is a bit less complicated but different. The Flip System are not All-In-Ones, meaning you don't have to wash the entire diaper after each "soil". Instead, the flip diaper comes with a diaper shell (the red part in the picture above) without anything in it (no fabric to soak anything up). Instead, it comes with fabric inserts that you stuff into the diaper shell. That way, when the fabric gets soiled, all you have to do is take out the fabric on the inside, put it into a wet bag/hamper to be washed later, and replace the fabric with the same shell. You can do this a few times per shell (or until it gets soiled itself).

There's only one type of shell (so that's easy!) but you do have to choose what kind of insert you want. There's 3 options:

1. Stay-Dry Insert
2. Organic Insert
3. Disposable Inserts
4. A 4th option that you can do is: Chinese Prefold Inserts

I have Flip covers with Stay-Dry Inserts. However, I primarily bought the Flip covers and a bunch of Chinese Prefolds (cheaper!)

(A pic of the Flip and BumGenius diapers together.... they look very similar!)

Pros and Cons of BumGenius and Flip System:

Bum Genius:

Pros: All-In-Ones are really easy and straight-forward

Cons: The most expensive way to do it, bulky (you have to carry around extra whole diapers instead of maybe an extra shell and inserts with Flip) --> will take up a lot of room in your diaper bag.

Flip System

Pros: not bulky, takes up less room than BumGenius, have to haul around less in your diaper bag

Cons: you have to assemble them (which really isn't a con)

Alright, now I'm going to explain my system.... 

BumGenius "4.0 One Size (All-In-One)"

The shell comes with a little pocket (as you can see on the left). The diaper comes with two inserts that you can stuff into the pocket (on the right).

Here I am, stuffing the inserts into the pocket.

Yay, we're all stuffed into the diaper. This is the finished product you would put on the baby. It's an "All-In-One" because when they poop, the whole thing is soiled because of the pocket layer.

To get poop solids off, you flip it inside out like I'm holding it right here. You can either dunk it in the toilet or get a special sprayer thing to help hose the solids into the toilet. Then you'd take out the inserts I stuffed in before and put all the parts of it in a wet bag/hamper. Then you grab a whole other diaper to change your baby :).

BumGenius "Elemental All-In-One"

This BumGenius is different than the 4.0 (above) because there's no stuffing involved. This is what the diaper looks like on the inside and this is exactly what you put on your baby!

Once soiled, you do the same flip inside out/dunk/spray thing I mentioned above to get the solids off. Then chuck the whole thing in the hamper/wet bag.

Flip System with the "Stay-Dry Insert"

There's the diaper shell on the left with the "stay-dry insert" on the right. Looks long, doesn't it.

That's because you fold it! Depending on how big your kid is (baby vs. toddler). You can't really see what it says that great from the picture but it says "small, medium, and large".

I will fold to small for a baby.

Flip it over and stuff it in the shell (more bulk in the front of the diaper for boys). Then, once it's soiled, you get the poop off like the other diapers but you can just take out the soiled insert and put it into a diaper bag! If the shell hasn't been soiled you can use another insert in the same shell. Woo hoo!

Flip Diapers with Chinese Prefolds as Inserts

Here's the same diaper as above. Say I ran out of my "stay dry inserts"... I can use Chinese Prefold inserts in there too! There's the Chinese Prefold on the left...

Fold in thirds....

Make it smaller by folding it like this, flip it over and stuff it in the diaper.

And there ya go! You can reuse the shell on these flip diapers for as long as they don't get soiled/you feel comfortable. 

Nom Ideas from Erin

Erin is my sister-in-law. She is a really good cook and sadly (for people who aren't me.... or Kristen... or Cathy... or other people who are privileged to follow her blog) she recently made her blog private. But... its' not sad for me! Because I can see eevverryyyttthhiinnnggggg. And I decided I would stalk all of her posts.... new and old today... since I'm very big and pregnant and am just waiting to (as I believe Claire put it in one of Erin's blog posts) "explode".

So this blog post (as well as my meal planning posts I do every week) is mostly for me so I can refer to it in later meal planning sessions.

These are recipes she's posted that you can see:

Ina's Mussels

Pioneer Woman's Corn Chowder with Chile's

Annie's Eats Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

Emeril's Potato Leek Soup

Martha's Custard Pie

Spinach Fettuccini

Recipes you can't see... bwaha:

Indian Butter Chicken

Carrot Soup

Italian Wedding Soup

Orange Butter Cake

Potato Spinach Tart

Oat and Applesauce Muffins/Baked Oatmeal/Wheat Pancakes

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

Dinners

Monday - Spicy Avocado Chicken Enchiladas

Tuesday - Crack-n-Cheese (help me with my slight melted cheese addiction) with a Salad

Wednesday - Hearty Salad with Sauteed Salmon

Thursday - Grilled Burgers with Seasoned Grilled Potato Fries

Friday - Zucchini Patty Sandwiches

Why I Chose to Cloth Diaper

These are primary reasons (probably among others) that you might want to cloth diaper:

1) Environmentally Friendly
2) Saves You Money
3) Makes You More Self-Sufficient

I put "Environmentally Friendly" as #1 because I think when most people think of cloth diapering these days they think of tree huggers. Haha! This, however, is not the primary reason I am cloth diapering. I am primarily cloth diapering for reason #2. It saves you MAJOR dolla!!! Holla!! I also appreciate the fact that I won't have to buy disposable diapers (Reason #3). Diapers will not have to be budgeted into our expenses. They're basically done. I own them for good.

Although I don't consider myself a tree hugger, I do consider myself somewhat "earthy". I do think we should be responsible people and that includes being conscious of what we do and how we impact God's creation. If we are disrespectful that isn't good. If we worship the earth that isn't good either. My goal is to be conscious about it and find a healthy medium.

There are debates as to whether or not cloth diapering is really "better" for the environment. The argument that it isn't is based on the fact that you do have to do a considerable amount of wash that you wouldn't do otherwise. So you use more water and more energy in that way. However, which is better, to fill landfills with billions and billions of diapers? Idk! Regardless, I really appreciate that I will be more self-sufficient and having less trash is always good, right? :)

It's so funny... when I tell people I'm cloth diapering I get such bipolar opposite reactions from different types of people. I've found that older people think I'm crazy, even though that's exactly what they did when they had children since there were no disposable diapers back in the day (they're a relatively recent thing... can you BELIEVE it?! Haha!) Then they start asking me if I have the "rubber pants". To which I respond... Ohhh, cloth diapering has CHANGED since back then!! :)

Younger people's reactions have been fun to notice as well. Half of my friends are kind of like I am: young, married, and a bit on the earthy side. The other half think I'm crazy lol! They say, "What are you going to do with the poop?!" Like poop is the most terrible thing on the planet and like you don't have to deal with poop when you have disposable diapers lol! I think it's funny. They also say, "IT'S GOING TO SMELL!!!" Like disposable diapers don't smell? That makes me laugh too! Just like you make disposable diapers work for you and you go through measures to make them as non-smelly and non-disgusting as possible, you do the same for cloth diapers! It just requires a bit more work... but again... saves you maja-dolla! ;) I have heard that you can manage the smell pretty easily if you do it right. I will figure out how that will work for us when the time comes (which is SOON!).

If I was not going to stay at home with my son, I doubt I would cloth diaper. You basically have to stay at home to be able to do it. I've heard you'll be hard-pressed to find a day care that will cloth diaper your child. Maybe you could do it if you had a nanny? I can see how that would get overwhelming though.

I'm not opposed to disposable diapers at all! I actually plan on using disposables until we move (some were given to us as gifts) and I'm not crazy stickler about it. Who would want to worry about cloth diapers in the middle of a move across the country? Not me. Disposables definitely have their place, even for me.

I don't even remember how I started to become attracted to the idea of cloth diapering. I believe it was probably through all of the other seminarian wives I know that cloth diaper that made me learn that cloth diapering is pretty sophisticated now. My sister-in-law also cloth diapers. Through my probing and searching about it, I also learned that my cousin's wife Kirsten cloth diapers too! The sem wives, Kristen, and Kirsten (ha!) have been SUPER helpful in helping educate me on what types there are out there and what will work for me.

My sisters-in-law Kristen and Erin had the idea to throw me a cloth diaper baby shower with the Verage side of the family! That was such a blessing because now I have a really solid collection of cloth diapers that were gifted to me! Thank you soooo much Erin and Kristen for putting that together and thank you to all who gave money for it! What a cool idea that was! And so helpful! Who knew you could get so excited about diapers??

I will go over my whole cloth diapering system in a subsequent post. I'm excited about it.

Cloth Diapers

Detailed blog post to follow!!!