MommyCon came to Seattle...and I went!

Get your ticket for Mommy Con 2016 early! They always sell out, and here's a $5 code to get you started!

For the last few years my blogging bestie, That Mama Gretchen, and I have been pining away for a conference that we can attend together and to piggyback a mom's night out on. It's not easy, you know, when you've got two mamas who are on alternating years for pregnancies and birthing babies! But the fates aligned; MommyCon was coming to Seattle and even though Gretchen was in the final stages of her pregnancy with Baby #3 and I had not yet taken a night away from Ruby, we did it. We did it!

We split a hotel room at Motif, where the conference was to be held the following morning. After battling Friday evening Seattle traffic we checked and quickly made our way down to Frolick for an evening snack and a drink for me. There's something about a friendship that allows you to pick up and catch up with each other's lives, without missing a beat, even though it's been almost a year since we last saw each other in person. Well, keeping up with each other's blogs and social media kind of helps that.

Neither of us knew what to expect from MommyCon, even though we had heard great reviews. We stayed up late, talking about woven wraps, birth stories (one of our favorite repeat conversations), blogging life and real life. It was well after 1am before I shut my eyes and I couldn't wait for the following morning.

So what can I say about MommyCon? I was completely unprepared for exactly how great of a day that I would have. All of the vendors - spot on. I loved chatting with each business and met some people I had chatted with online and met new favorites. The brands ranged from cloth diapers, breast feeding support, babywearing, mama cloth, natural products for children and mama and so much more.

Between checking out the booths I attended several great talks - Cloth Diapering led by Jennifer Labit (owner of Cotton Babies), Wrapping 101, Co-sleeping and Beyond (so my life right now), Sex After Baby and Boobs and Bottles (both by Jessica Martin-Weber, AKA The Leaky Boob). I was so thankful that they were spaced out throughout the day because if I had to choose between any of those I'm sure my heart would have broken. Each of the vendors were so helpful and not pushy at all, which just makes everything so much better. I also was the lucky winner of a Cassiope Woven wrap that was a MommyCon exclusive - more about that later - but the excitement of their scavenger hunt was a fun addition to the day.

MommyCon is more than just a conference; it was a rejuvenation of what it means to be a mama. There were so many examples of a mother there, whether they breastfeed, bottlefeed, wore their baby in a soft structured carrier, wrapped them methodically, pushed them in a stroller or what was covering their bottom. It didn't matter if she had spikey rainbow hair or wore her business casual suit to attend. We were all there for the same reason - to gain community in this great journey of life and to better ourselves. For the first time in a very long time I was in a room with hundreds of other women and rather than worrying about the Mommy Wars, we all came together as we are.

Get $5 off your 2016 ticket by using promocode PierogieMama16!

Did you go to any of the MommyCon conferences?

Tell me about your favorite part!

Don't miss That Mama Gretchen's 7 favorite things about MommyCon post too!

Disclosure: I attended MommyCon Seattle 2015 as a media member and received a complimentary ticket. But seriously, I am so glad that I went and I plan on going any other time that this awesome event comes to my local area. And you should too!

How to buy used cloth diapers

Buying used cloth diapers is a great way to test out if you are interested in making the switch, or as a way to build up your existing stash. But sometimes it may seem a little daunting. Fear not, here are a few tips on what to look for when shopping craigslist or consignment sales.

• Look at the velcro. If you know how to use a sewing machine, replacing worn out velcro can be very easy.
• Look at the elastic on the legs. If there isn't really any spring in them, then you'll be looking at replacing those too (not as easy as replacing velcro)
• Snaps - are all the snaps there?
• Smell - clean cloth diapers are not supposed to smell. 
• Stains - most stains are easily sunned out. But once the baby starts eating solid foods, there are some stains that are harder to sun out than others. Stains shouldn't necessarily be a deterrent but they can give you a clue as to how they were taken cared for. 
• Condition of the PUL - any "snags" in the material or tears? Take a good look around each of the snaps if it is a diaper with snaps. Sometimes pulling too hard on the snaps will begin to tear the PUL (see picture below). Torn PUL = high chance of leaking.

Questions to ask when buying used cloth diapers:

•  Price: Used cloth diapers hold their value pretty well. Have an idea of what that brand of cloth diaper sells new.
• Type of detergent used
• Air or machine dried
  
  • Machine drying is not necessarily a bad thing - many companies say it's ok to machine dry. However drying at too high of heat for too long and delaminate the PUL and you've got yourself a diaper that doesn't work. Air drying may take a little longer but it helps prolong the life of the diaper.

What happens if you buy a diaper and it is smelly?
Try "stripping" your diapers to start with. "Stripping" means removing any build up in the diaper. All About Cloth Diapers has a good tutorial on cloth diaper stripping. I personally have used the "blue dawn" method when I was given some hand-me-down diapers and after rashes that don't clear up in a day.

There are a ton of cloth diaper retailers who sell "seconds" (which are brand new diapers that may not completely meet all QA standards, but are still useable) or have clearance sales too. My favorite way to get quality used diapers is through the Cotton Babies $1 Diaper Sale. You read that right. Every once in a while, Cotton Babies purges its stashes and sells used cloth diapers for $1-$10. So if you live near St. Louis or Vancouver, WA - you should keep an eye on their facebook and blog for when their next event will be. 

It may seem gross to buy used diapers.. but think about it. Cloth diapers are meant to be used over and over, and many families use the same stash on multiple kids if the diaper holds up. So as long as you keep a few things in mind and feel comfortable with the source you are buying the diapers from, there's no reason why not to save a few bucks and go the "pre-loved" route!

Have you ever bought used cloth diapers? What was your experience? Would you add anything to this list?

2012 Great Cloth Diaper Survey

Are you a current cloth diapering family? You should totally fill out the 2012 Great Cloth Diaper Survey, which is put on by the Real Diaper Association. It will only take about 15 minutes.Be sure to put me down as a referral! -thepierogiemama@gmail.com-

The RDA is also responsible for putting on the annual Great Cloth Diaper Change - which was started last year in 2011 and both years won a Guinness World Record (and guess what? Penny and I took part in that this year too!).

What do surveys like this accomplish? Well, for one - cloth diapering is making a comeback. It's cool to cloth diaper! Who can resist some of the super cute prints that you can find on a fluffy butt these days? And in the current economy, cloth diapers are a reliable, economical and environmental way to diaper your baby (and you never have to worry about running out of diapers!). So it is important to track how families use cloth diapers and what their habits are. Change 3 Things Challenge by Cotton Babies and events by the RDA are one of the few "legitimate" forms of tracking cloth diaper usage. There are tons of bloggers and retail stores that put on their own surveys, but to my knowledge none of those results are ever reported.

These statistics are important for a couple reasons:
-We can track changes over time.  Virtually every baby in the US was cloth diapered until Pampers was introduced in 1956 (although, Marion Donovan is credited for creating the first disposable diaper in 1947). By the 1990's, nearly every baby was in disposables. In less than 50 years, there was a complete and total flip in usage, where more kids were in 'sposies than cloth. A lot has changed culturally in that amount of time, and it's interesting to see families' reasons behind their choices.
-Information gained from surveys could lead to an increase in support for low income families as an inexpensive way to diaper their children. There have been recent articles depicting low income families who will reuse disposable diapers (sometimes by drying them out with a hair dryer) because they won't have the funds or the ability to get new ones. This is a huge health concern. It may not even occur to some of these families that cloth is an option. Even in a pinch, it's better to use an old tshirt as a diaper than reuse a disposable. Some areas provide assistance with offering free disposables for families in need, and there are very few cloth diaper banks throughout the country as well (Cotton Babies is responsible for the one that I know of, in St Louis).

Are you interested in cloth diapering, but don't know where to start? I'll admit, at first it was a little intimidating.  There are tons of resources out there, and I'd love to help you if you have any questions!

Interesting follow up reads:
Real Diaper Association: Cloth Diaper User Guide
Diaper Jungle's History of Diapering
Cotton Babies - Grants for cloth diapers to missions
Cotton Babies - Donate to Support for Needy families, outlet to send diapers to donate
Diapershops.com- 2011 Cloth Diapering Survey , 2012 Cloth Diapering Survey

The Cloth Diapering Experience v2

This week marked a bittersweet end for me.... I packed away Penny's first cloth diapers. My little miss is movin' on up!

Washed and saved for baby #2..whenever that happens!

For the last few weeks we have been transitioning into Sunbaby pocket diapers. They are the same idea as BumGenius All In Ones (where they can be sized up as baby grows) except they are a tiny bit smaller when comparing both in their smallest settings. I was given a pack of 12 as a shower gift and so far have liked them a lot. They are economical and well made (and the couple problems that I've had with them have been taken care of quickly). The Sunbabys have unique prints and are constantly updating their inventory.

We continued to do our gdiaper with preemie prefold as an insert routine at the same time, but this weekend we were getting leaks with almost each change, which signaled to me that it's time to move on up. The preemie sized prefolds can still be used as insures in her bigger diapers, but for now they aren't really needed. So we are now adding the small sized fitted BumGenius diapers and my friend who is all done diapering her boys graciously passed her stash on to us as well, which includes fitted Fuzzibunz and others.

The one downfall of the All In One style diapers is that you suffer from the very fluffy butt. The fitted diapers (small, med, large, etc) are a trimmer cut, but in many ways are a little impractical because then you have to buy each size, rather than just once. Luckily we have a mix so depending on the outfit we can choose between styles.
We have a big enough stash now that I can go close to a week and a half, maybe even 2 weeks, between washes! However, it's not a good idea to let dirty diapers sit in the pail for that long so I'm probably just going to divide the stash in half and give each portion a break every other week.  The more often you wash your pocket diapers (with the PUL/plasticy liner), the more it will break down. The goal is to have as many of these diapers last us through all of our children, so I'm in it for the long haul!

The Great Cloth Diaper Change

This weekend we were in Washougal and Penelope and I got to participate in a bona fide Guinness World Record attempt (this is actually the second one I've participated in the past year- the other one was for work).

In honor of Earth Day, many cloth diapering and other ecological/natural baby companies took part in specials and extra blog posts this week advocating awareness and sustainability. The culmination of this week was The Great Cloth Diaper Change, which is the second annual attempt at breaking the world record of greatest number of babies changed into cloth diapers at a given time (9:30a PST).  Last year the record was 5,026 babies changed into cloth, this year the goal was 6,000. Stay tuned to see if the goal was met!

Participants must register ahead of time, have child under 39 inches to change and it must be done at a registered venue. One other stipulation is that the cloth diaper must be all cloth, and not a hybrid- something I'll touch on in a sec. The closest venue to us was at the Vancouver Cotton Babies location, which just so happens to be my favorite baby store :)

As we arrived we received a raffle ticket for some fabulous prizes after the event. We also met up with my good friend Gretchen and her not-so-little-anymore girl, Jemma. We ended up winning a Bum Genius from the raffle - score! One funny thing about the diaper change as the stipulation for an "all cloth" / non-hybrid diaper.

Currently Lil P is in a hybrid system while we wait for our package with prefolds from Amazon to arrive..  Hybrid meaning it's not 100% cloth, not 100% disposable- it's kind of in between. What we are using temporarily are flushable liners from Gdiapers that were gifted to us by another mama that didn't end up using hers. The cover is reusable and washable cloth, but the part that gets pooped on is a biodegradable and flushable liner- looks like a pad.  So by definition these didn't qualify as a diaper to change her into for the Guinness attempt. The only other all cloth dipe that I have are BumGenius, which are still way too big on her which is why I don't use them yet. But, it had to be done- so here's Penny in her first BumGenius ;)

As you can see, we've still got some growing to do before these fit!

The rest of the weekend was spent lounging in the sun and meeting with our realtor to list the house.

Enjoying some sun at The T-ton Teardown

The Cloth Diapering Experience v1

Why?
Before even getting pregnant I knew I wanted to cloth diaper our little ones. The most important reason behind this choice was having the control over what touches their skin. Disposable diapers appear to have come a long way, as more and more parents are becoming aware and interested in what is in the diaper for hygienic and ecological reasons. The financial savings and environmental factors for cloth diapering are tied for secondary reasoning. Although the initial investment for cloth diapering is a little bit higher, with enough preparation one can spread it out over time. A typical all-in-one style cloth diaper (works just like a disposable) runs about $15-20, which is not that much if you choose to buy one per paycheck, for example. Besides saving money by not having to buy disposables, you also save on your trash bill too.  The environmental factor is also a big deal, as newborns can go through 12+ diapers a day.. which adds up! 

It's estimated that about 4,000 disposable diapers are used per baby in their first 2 years of life. At about 25 cents a piece.. that's a lot that we spend to just throw something away. All of those end up in a landfill, and if you've ever seen a wet disposable diaper expand and blow up you can imagine that over time they take up even more space and are leaking gross chemicals and waste.

Our experience
I registered primarily for Bum Genius diapers (an all-in-one/AIO), but threw in some covers that I was hoping would fit her a little earlier on. One of the best gifts we got was from my brother's fiance - a month of cloth diapering service. For 4 weeks we were to have 70 prefolds delivered each week, and the dirties taken away so that we wouldn't have to do any of the washing. This was the best way to get into cloth diapering while getting accustomed to being a parent. The cost is roughly equal to purchasing diapers weekly.

An image from Diaperjunction.com - this is what our system looks like

We started her on cloth when she was 20 days old. We were really surprised how often the diaper has to be changed. I think in the first 2 hours we changed her diaper 3 times. And the prefolds were.. steamy. Even when we changed the diaper within a few minutes of her wetting it. And it looked like she was getting a heat rash. ...What? I thought cloth was supposed to be healthier?

We gave up that night and revisited it again in the morning. I realized that the cover that was included with the subscription wasn't breathing at all, which was keeping all of the heat from her body within. Naturally, the covers are meant to be waterproof and aren't expected to breathe like the cotton will, but steaming diapers and heat rashes are not ok in my book! 
We also came to the conclusion that the prefolds that were delivered are too large. I'm assuming they were the 'standard' size, but for her little frame they were just pushing her legs too far apart. I called the service and they agreed to comp us for the current week and deliver the preemie sized prefolds the following week.
The next week I looked through our cloth diaper stash from what we received at our showers and hand me downs for a different cover. I had some Flip covers, which are recommended for 7 lbs and up (they have rows of snaps to grow with the baby). Unfortunately even though Penelope was just about 7 lbs, she's a skinny little one and the cover was just way too bulky for her. I found some Gdiaper Gpants that were handmedowns. Gdiapers are primarily known for their use of disposable inserts that are more environmentally friendly, but I found that a prefold fits perfectly inside! What makes it even better is that they were size small, so the fit is super trim and doesn't give her the huge fluffy butt that cloth diaper babies are known for.

3/26/12

Once we started using the Gdiapers plus the weekly deliveries of prefolds, we've been golden. She averages between 7-10 cloth diaper changes per day, which is between the hours of 6a - 9p. We still use a disposable (either 7th Generation or Huggies Pure & Natural) for overnight, just for my sanity and allowing me to sleep a little bit longer. She will go through 2-4 per night. Once we graduate to the thicker diapers we'll switch to 100% cloth.

Today is our last night with the cloth diaper service. I wasn't on the ball and hadn't purchased the prefolds that we will be using Gdiaper disposable inserts (another "handmedown") temporarily, but they are on their way! We'll be trying out OsoCozy Indian prefolds. I chose these primarily for price point and that they are diaper service quality, because they'll need to hold up to likely hundreds of washes! Even though they are in the 'infant' size, I'll use them in the future as extra absorbancy when I move on to AIO diapers, and of course they will still be useable for baby #2 (so crazy to think that I'm already planning ahead...).

Interested in starting to cloth diaper?  Cotton Babies (my favorite baby store!) sponsors the Change 3 Things Campaign - which challenges parents to incorporate 3 cloth diaper changes into their routine to replace disposables. This is a pretty attainable goal for most parents and keeps the initial investment low. We can use our Gdiaper cover about 3 times before it needing a wash, but that is because I'm on the ball and change her as soon as I hear her make a poop. The longer I may postpone a diaper change, the more the poop gets smeared around (so interesting the things I choose to talk about now that I'm a parent) and gets on the cover instead of staying on the prefold. Luckily my little miss has yet to have a blow out so this isn't all that difficult.

Using an AIO is just like a disposable, no stuffing needed and you just wash it when you're done. Using prefolds and covers is a little more time intensive, but honestly not difficult. It didn't even take that much "training" to get my husband and mom accustomed to using it, which is a big fear for a lot of moms who aren't sure how they can get the rest of the family on board. That just gives me more confidence for when we swith to the AIO type for when she can fit into them.. I bet it'll feel like a total breeze in comparison to prefolds and covers!