Nicki's Diapers: Nicki's Weekly Giveaway: Best Bottom Diaper

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Nicki's Diapers: Nicki's Weekly Giveaway: Best Bottom Diaper: "Ready for your chance to win a Best Bottom Diaper ! Your choice of Snap OR Hook & Loop Closure. Nicki's Diapers will choose the color base..."

We are loving cloth diapering! I would definitely recommend it for anyone interested in trying it out. As long as you've got a good system, I think they're just as convenient as disposables. Now, getting a good system down has taken a little trial and error, but all in all I've had a great experience with cloth from the start. I use the one-size BestBottom brand. It's considered a "hybrid" diaper- a shell + an absorbent insert that snaps into the shell. The cute colors and prints make it so much fun, and there's something really satisfying knowing that we're saving money and being eco-friendly all at the same time.

We have five shells so far (eight to ten are recommended). I'd love to have more since they're so darned cute, but for the time being we do well with these. Generally they stay clean, but if they get a little messy on the inside I just rinse them with some soap and they're good to go again. Otherwise, they get washed every two or three days. We have sixteen medium sized inserts that snap into the shells (18 to 24 are recommended). I skipped the small size since we weren't planning on using them right away (we weren't sure if he would fit into the shells until he was older). But surprisingly, they fit him well pretty early on! I just tried one on one day for the fun of it, not expecting it to work, but it did! They seemed a little bulky at first when compared to newborn size disposables, but we've gotten used to them and he's growing every day.

 

 

When I change Asher, I unsnap the dirty insert and throw it into a wetbag to wait for washing. The wetbag is great for storing them and for keeping the smells away. I just ordered another one so that I'll have one for dirty diapers only and a separate one for wet diapers only. That way, the dirty diaper bag can get thrown straight into the wash with the rest of the load, while the bag for the wet ones can just be wiped down from time to time. (I don't want my hand made Joel Dewberry bag to fade and/or leak color in the hot washes). The shells go into a mesh bag so that they're always airing out and able to dry if I've had to rinse a little leak out of them.

Surprisingly, I don't even mind this whole laundering process. Maybe it's the diaper sprayer that makes it so easy and convenient. It only takes about 10 or 15 minutes every two days, and will be less once he gets older and has solid #2s. Being at Knox and not having a personal washer and dryer might make it a little more challenging. But after all, it's only four months, and I just can't see myself switching to disposables after seeing how much I love cloth. (Especially for the fact that disposables seem to give Asher really bad diaper rash...maybe he has extra sensitive skin.)

 

I also use cloth wipes, which work just as great as the diapers. I make my own wipe solution with a lavender essential oil concentrate and water, soak the wipes in it, then put them into the wipes warmer just like you would with regular wipes. They stay nice and moist and are very gentle, since they're chemical-free. Also, lavender is naturally anti-bacterial and smells great.

 

The only downside I've found with our cloth diapers so far is the fact that Thane's brain automatically shuts down when he attempts to handle one. (Sorry Thane, but it's true.) So, because I don't want him slapping a disposable on him all the time (we always keep a few around), I end up doing the vast majority of the changing. But I don't mind it in the least, I actually enjoy it- never thought I'd say that! And besides, Thane is quite handy at other things, like putting food on our table (which is kind of important). So I'm more than happy to take care of all the baby duties. (Just for the record, I should mention that during Asher's first two weeks Thane was a diaper changing machine. We were using disposables at that point and he was extremely helpful.)

Asher says "go BestBottoms!"



9 Weeks

8 Weeks

Asher's First Army Move

Well, Asher had his first taste of the army life at six weeks and five days old. Haha, of course! There's no such thing as "normal" for this family! (The rest of you military wives can sympathize.) But we're happy to be with Thane/daddy again. Since there are times when we're forced to be separated, we'll do what's necessary to be together when we can. Especially in Asher's first precious months of life!

Asher and I made the nine hour drive up to Fort Knox two days ago, which went amazingly well. I actually enjoyed the trip, and he was very happy up until the very last several minutes. So, all in all, it was great! And by the way, I haven't been forced to use a single disposable diaper since we left home in Georgia- just another testament to how easy and convenient they really are. The worst part of this whole transition by far was getting packed and organized before coming. With Asher keeping my hands full, that was a difficult task to take on by myself. Although the Swans were a huge help- thanks you guys! And we'll miss you! :(

We're pretty much settled in now, and our "home" this go around is much nicer than what Thane and I lived in our first time when we were here for Armor school about three years ago. It's the same type of living, a furnished apartment with maid service. But this one is much newer and nicer, and has a bigger kitchen to include a nicer fridge than the one we have in our place at Benning. (One of the modern ones with the freezer on the bottom.) Oh, and there's a flat screen HD TV with cable, oh boy! Haha, so, we're pretty well off, praise God. Asher even has his own room, which was our main concern. Thane will be working very long hours, (with early mornings as usual), so the extra space will prevent him from being woken up too much in the middle of the night.

But more important than our living accommodations is finding a good church. Thane visited one last Sunday before I was here, and we're trying another one this week. Hopefully God will lead us to a great one with good teaching and plenty of young couples. Even though we'll only be here for four months, we want to make the most of this time and get plugged in as much as possible.

By the way, Asher weighs 13 pounds this week. He's getting so big!

Cloth Diapering; I'm in Love!

We (well, mostly me) are loving cloth diapering! I would definitely recommend it for anyone interested in trying it out. As long as you've got a good system, I think they're just as convenient as disposables. Now, getting a good system down has taken a little trial and error, but all in all I've had a great experience with cloth from the start. I use the one-size BestBottom brand. It's considered a "hybrid" diaper- a shell + an absorbent insert that snaps into the shell. The cute colors and prints make it so much fun, and there's something really satisfying knowing that we're saving money and being eco-friendly all at the same time.

We have five shells so far (eight to ten are recommended). I'd love to have more since they're so darned cute, but for the time being we do well with these. Generally they stay clean, but if they get a little messy on the inside I just rinse them with some soap and they're good to go again. Otherwise, they get washed every two or three days. We have sixteen medium sized inserts that snap into the shells (18 to 24 are recommended). I skipped the small size since we weren't planning on using them right away (we weren't sure if he would fit into the shells until he was older). But surprisingly, they fit him well pretty early on! I just tried one on one day for the fun of it, not expecting it to work, but it did! They seemed a little bulky at first when compared to newborn size disposables, but we've gotten used to them and he's growing every day.

When I change Asher, I unsnap the dirty insert and throw it into a wetbag to wait for washing. The wetbag is great for storing them and for keeping the smells away. I just ordered another one so that I'll have one for dirty diapers only and a separate one for wet diapers only. That way, the dirty diaper bag can get thrown straight into the wash with the rest of the load, while the bag for the wet ones can just be wiped down from time to time. (I don't want my hand made Joel Dewberry bag to fade and/or leak color in the hot washes). The shells go into a mesh bag so that they're always airing out and able to dry if I've had to rinse a little leak out of them.


Surprisingly, I don't even mind this whole laundering process. Maybe it's the diaper sprayer that makes it so easy and convenient. It only takes about 10 or 15 minutes every two days, and will be less once he gets older and has solid #2s. Being at Knox and not having a personal washer and dryer might make it a little more challenging. But after all, it's only four months, and I just can't see myself switching to disposables after seeing how much I love cloth. (Especially for the fact that disposables seem to give Asher really bad diaper rash...maybe he has extra sensitive skin.)



I also use cloth wipes, which work just as great as the diapers. I make my own wipe solution with a lavender essential oil concentrate and water, soak the wipes in it, then put them into the wipes warmer just like you would with regular wipes. They stay nice and moist and are very gentle, since they're chemical-free. Also, lavender is naturally anti-bacterial and smells great.

The only downside I've found with our cloth diapers so far is the fact that Thane's brain automatically shuts down when he attempts to handle one. (Sorry Thane, but it's true.) So, because I don't want him slapping a disposable on him all the time (we always keep a few around), I end up doing the vast majority of the changing. But I don't mind it in the least, I actually enjoy it- never thought I'd say that! And besides, Thane is quite handy at other things, like putting food on our table (which is kind of important). So I'm more than happy to take care of all the baby duties. (Just for the record, I should mention that during Asher's first two weeks Thane was a diaper changing machine. We were using disposables at that point and he was extremely helpful.)

Asher says "go BestBottoms!" :)

6 Weeks

Our little sweet pea is growing up! On his six week "birthday" he weighed exactly 12 pounds, and today when I picked him up he was noticeably heavy. Part of me can't wait to see what his personality is like when he's a little older, and the other part of me wanted to freeze him when he was at week one and never let him grow up.

We've had a very busy few days as we get ready to move (yet again) to Kentucky for Thane's new job. Praise God that He's providing us with a nice, modern two bedroom apartment with a full kitchen (minus a dishwasher...). But we'll take it, especially in light of where we stayed the last time Thane and I were at Fort Knox together...(the infamous Craig Apartments, for all of you fellow army people who've had the pleasure of the experience.) Thursday is the big day that Asher and I drive up together, pray for us please! Haha, I'm sure it'll go just fine. And believe it or not, I'm excited to get to Knox and I'm convinced that this go-around will be infinitely better. I'll have my hands full with full-time mommying (and dishwashing), so I doubt I'll get as bored as I did before. And after all, the good Lord always has a reason and plan for everything, so we're excited to see what that may be for these next four months! But even if it's not obvious, we're trusting that He'll use it for good. After all, He's faithful and true and has never let us down before, despite our many many shortcomings. So thank you Jesus, and please just let Asher learn to sleep through the night! Haha, I forsee many single soldiers being less than thrilled to get 3am wake-ups.

Speaking of sleeping through the night, he's getting there! He only wakes up once between his last feeding of the night at 10:30pm and his first morning feeding at 7:30am. So that's an answer to prayer in preparation for living in a small space with Thane who will have very early mornings and long days. He's done really well on an every three hour nursing schedule since he was about three weeks old, and I'm pretty sure that's been the key to his good sleeping at night. At one point towards the beginning I went off of the schedule for a couple of days, and as a direct result he was up about every hour all night wanting to "snack". So, back to the schedule we went, because this momma does not do well on zero sleep!