DIY Bamboo Doubler

As of two weeks ago my night time diaper routine was just a Rump-A-Rooz diaper with both of the 6R soakers.  The problem is that now the girls are going longer at night and I started noticing the diaper was wicking on the backside.  Personally, not my favorite thing; picking my girls up in the morning and noticing their back is damp.  So... I decided it was time to add a doubler to their nighttime diapers.  Researching commenced.  The result?  FIVE DOLLARS for ONE insert to soak up pee (and those were the cheap ones).  Seriously!?!?

I started doing research into making my own (I am not sewing savvy enough to attempt the entire diaper, but a rectangle of fabric to soak up pee? I can do that).  There are tons of blogs and discussion forums about making diapers, it's kind of overwhelming.  On top of that, most of the women who attempt to make diapers and diaper accessories are real mavens when it comes to sewing.  They have fancy techniques and expensive machines and sergers... all this stuff I don't have.  Then they get into talking about fabrics, which types to use with which foot, what stitch is the right one, top stitch and push out the seams... A whole lot of jargon I really didn't understand.  I did come across some stuff that made sense and stuck with me:

Microfiber: Very common in the cloth diapering world, most AIO's use MF somewhere.  MF cannot be put next to baby's skin, it's too irritating, so it required to be stuffed inside the diaper or some kind of layer over the top.  I've been reading that MF tends to hold on to stink and requires "stripping" to really get the odor out of the fabric.  From my own experience I have learned that I hate stuffing diapers, and MF tends to dry out my hands when I do have to stuff.  I knew right off the bat I didn't want to work with MF...

Hemp:  A lot of the more expensive doublers and inserts are made with hemp fabrics because they're really absorbent, more so than cotton.  It can get pretty pricey, too.  On the Rump-A-Rooz website a 6R soaker made of hemp is $10 each!  I've also read that hemp tends to hold on to smell a little bit, and has a rougher texture (not great to put next to baby's skin).  A better option to me than MF, but I still wasn't sold.  Then I did my research on bamboo...

Bamboo:  Seemed to me to be the best option: doesn't hold on to stink, softer and still more absorbent than cotton.  Based on the research I did there really didn't seem to be any downside to bamboo.

I was pretty disappointed that most bamboo inserts were only two layers of bamboo and had MF sandwiched in between.  I mean, didn't that negate one of the reasons for using bamboo?  I found some options that were just bamboo, but those started around $8 each!!  So I decided to make my own, Kevin and I had just bought a sewing machine as our Christmas gift to each other.  I found some bamboo fleece on Amazon and I was ready to sew...

Now... I will start out by saying that I am a beginner on the sewing machine.  I'm not even considering this a tutorial, it's just proof that I did it.  It's super simple, super basic, but it works and saved me money.

First thing I did, WASH THE FABRIC!!  I'm using this as a diaper material, so it's extremely important to wash it like everything else relating to my diapers.  I did a hot wash, no detergent and dried on the high heat setting.  It was only one wash, but I washed again after sewing and before use, so they were prepped enough to use.

Ok, once washed I did a light iron, just to get some of the big wrinkles out.  I folded it so that I had 4 layers that were as long as I wanted the inserts (about 12 inches long).

 Then I cut the width to the size I wanted, these are approximately 5 inches wide.  It's not perfect, I didn't use a straight edge.  My kids are going to pee in them... they don't need to be pretty.

 I opened up the fabric so it was only two layers

 I did a zig-zag stitch around the entire perimeter of the insert

 Once I was done with the zig-zag I folded it in half.  The edges tend to wrinkle a bit, as the fleece does have some stretch to it... but again, it doesn't need to be perfect, it's going to get peed on.

I did another zig-zag stitch across the fold in the middle.  Now it's a 4-layer bamboo fleece insert that butterflies in the middle.  I chose to do a few inserts this way after I made a few inserts that were regular old 4-layers.   

These are my 4-layer inserts... I just did a zig-zag stitch while it was folded in fourths.  They've been used about a week now and have been washed 4-5 times.  They're holding up great!

I like the idea of butterflying the insert so that it reduces drying time, but requires no extra work on my part once it's out of the dryer.

So that's it... DIY Bamboo doubler.  I add one of these to a BumGenius Freetime diaper at night and haven't had a single drop of liquid outside the diaper come morning (and that's after a full 12-hour night!).  I've already made 10 inserts and still have enough fabric to make some more if I want to.  I spent a total of $30 on 2 yards of fabric, and I consider it a great deal!

Two Months of Cloth!

I realize how lacking I've been on this blog!!  We've been cloth diapering for two months now!  Since we started I have only put the girls in disposables once (because their fluffy diapers wouldn't fit in the newborn sized clothing!!)

Now that we've been doing this for a while I feel I have a much better handle and knowledge of what I'm doing.  I've given reviews on all of my hybrid diapers, and while they're great... nothing beats prefolds.  Prefolds are, hands down, without a doubt my favorite choice.  They're cheaper, easier to clean and require much less work in terms of laundry.

Hybrids cost about $20 per diaper (sometimes going upwards of $75 for a GoodMama) whereas a prefold costs around $2 per diaper.  You have to add waterproof covers to use prefolds, but I've gotten Flip covers on sale for $10 each, I have around 8 covers total.  Hybrids have to be stuffed and unstuffed in order to do laundry... which means you have to take out the pee-soaked insert and unsnap them before you place them into the diaper pail.  Sometimes it's pretty gross, dirty diapers sometimes need extra coaxing to get the insert out, which isn't my favorite thing to do with a wiggly, naked baby on the changing table.  On top of that, hybrid diapers have to be stuffed before you put them on, so after every load of laundry I'm sorting through the inserts, matching up the right ones and then stuffing them neatly into the diaper shells.  It's a pain in the butt.  I can't tell you how many times I'm stuffing diapers right before I'm putting them on because I didn't want to deal with all the inserts fresh out of the dryer.

Prefolds are a piece of cake... Wet diapers go directly in the diaper pail, no fuss no muss.  With dirty diapers you can actually use the diaper itself to wipe excess poo off the baby.  They go in the washer without having to do any unsnapping or unstuffing.  Once washed and dried (you can dry them on high heat without risking damage because there is no waterproof layer) you just stack them up and they're ready for use!  This is my go-to diaper during the day, I change every 2-3 hours or more often if they're fussy.  I have 3 dozen small Green Mountain Diaper prefolds and I can get by with doing laundry every other day.

In a few months I'm going to sell these prefolds and buy the larger size.  I've seen used GMD prefolds sell for about $18/dozen, which means I'll only have spent $10 for 4 months worth of cloth diapering.  So far I've spent a total of $470 on all cloth diapering products.  This includes the Snappi's, diaper pail, wet bag, wipes, wipe solution (which is free because I use water and a tiny squirt of baby wash), diaper sprayer and all diapers.  Doing the math, based on 10 diapers per day per baby, I'll even out in cost in just 2 more months (actually less because I calculated diapers only, not wipes).  That figure doesn't include selling back used diapers!

I'm using my hybrid diapers as my nighttime solution, because they absorb more (and the inner fabric has a sty-dry property so the babies don't wake up in the middle of the night because they feel wet).  I'm not a huge fan of microfiber, as I've read over and over that natural fibers like bamboo and hemp absorb more.  I bought 2 yards of bamboo fleece that I'm going to use to make my own inserts for nighttime.  I'll post another blog to let you know how that goes...

And for those friends who still think cloth diapering is gross... I STILL haven't had any poop leak out of a diaper and get onto clothing.  Nothing is worse than a poopy blowout while you're out in public.  Not only do you have a full and heavy diaper to throw away, you also have poopy clothes that you're probably not prepared to transport.  When traveling I have my travel wet bag, but I only use that for wet diapers.  If I get a poopy diaper while we're out in public I keep a few gallon size ziplock bags in my diaper bag; poopy diaper and all the smells get zipped right up and go directly into the diaper pail when I get home (that will obviously change once we start solid foods).

I hope, hope, hope that this blog and all my ramblings about cloth diapers will maybe change someone's mind about cloth diapering.  And for friends who are expecting, adding a cloth diaper just three times a day can change the environmental impact of disposables.  While this wasn't the driving force for me to choose cloth, I can't help but share how big of an impact it actually makes.  Just a thought to leave you with: the diapers that YOU were in as a baby are still in a landfill somewhere...

Let's Talk About Breastfeeding...

Even before I got pregnant I had plans to breastfeed.  I had read a lot of articles about the benefits to the baby, the myths that it helps drop all of your baby weight, and the stories about the special bond between mother and baby.  I was sold.  Being a science-minded person I also couldn't help but think that it's the most natural thing and it's basically one of the reasons our species is still around... I mean, cavemen didn't have formula.  When the idea of one baby became the reality of two babies cost became a major factor.  I'm also the type of person who likes to take a challenge head on, "Oh, breastfeeding twins is tough? Watch me..."

My "birth plan" (which is a term I use very loosely because I really was at the mercy of the twins and the doctors) was to have a natural deliver and have immediate skin on skin time with the girls.  I had read over and over that this skin to skin contact in the first hour of life makes breastfeeding a million times easier.  I also read that this is a crucial time for mother baby bonding.  I told my "plan" to my doctor, who nodded away like it was all going to work out exactly as I wanted it to.  Hahaha... 31 hours later as I was being wheeled in to the operating room for my C-section I knew skin to skin was no longer an option.  At that point I was so delirious with medications and exhaustion that I no longer knew nor was vocal about what I wanted to happen once the girls arrived.

Because of the c-section, the medications that followed and hospital policy I had to wait an agonizing 8-hours before I could get out of bed and be wheeled to the NICU where the girls had been taken.  My daughters were now 8-hours old and I had yet to hold them which obviously meant they had not had any milk from me.  I am so thankful that I delivered at a hospital that uses donor milk; I signed a waiver before the girls were born stating that I would allow the girls to receive donor milk instead of formula if I weren't able to breastfeed, so they got a few feeds-worth of donor milk before I was able to attempt to breastfeed.

The first time I attempted to breastfeed I felt really silly.  It all seemed so natural in my mind while I was pregnant, but the first time you hold your baby and the lactation nurse wants you to put your breast in your baby's mouth it's like, "Um... you want me to do what??" I think trying to breastfeed in the hospital was the most stressful thing EVER.  The lactation consultant, who didn't seem very knowledgeable anyways, is a complete stranger that gets all up close and personal with your breasts.  On top of that, I was overwhelmed with having two newborns in my life that were MINE and the reality that I had to care for these two tiny little babies.  Plus visitors and nurses that checked in every hour (day AND night) and pain from having your abdomen cut open and lack of sleep... it was very stressful.

For those who aren't familiar with breastfeeding I'll give a quick lesson.  When a woman gets pregnant and her body makes all the hormonal changes, the milk ducts in her breasts will start to work.  They don't produce milk right away but rather a thick, yellow liquid called colostrum.  Most breastfeeding moms call this "liquid gold" because it's extremely nutrient dense and gives the baby important antibodies to help their immune system.  Babies can usually survive the first few days on colostrum alone until the milk comes in.  It can take a few days for a woman's milk to come in, and usually takes longer after a c-section.

I would try to nurse every single chance I got, sometimes they would latch and get something, sometimes they wouldn't.  The first 24-48 hours were a blur... I really don't know how often I nursed, or how often they would fill their bellies from me alone, but I would nurse until they fell asleep and then pump.  I pumped, and pumped and pumped.  If I nursed them I would pump after they finished, if I let the nurses feed donor milk, I pumped and then gave them whatever I pumped for the next feed.  One night Kevin really wanted me to get some sleep, so he told the nurses to feed the girls in the nursery for the next two feeds because he wanted me to get some sleep.  I set the alarm on my phone to go off every three hours and I woke up and pumped (initially Kevin was mad, but once I had established my milk supply he realized why I was so adamant about pumping).

Breastfeeding has one very simple driving force... supply and demand.  If nobody is demanding milk your body doesn't supply it.  If the baby is demanding more milk your body will supply more.  Based on that principle, if the girls were getting donated milk or milk from my last pumping session  I still needed to demand more milk from my body, hence, all the pumping.  It was hard, grueling work to pump that much, but it paid off.  The day after I left the hospital my milk came in.

I wish that were the end of the story, that the moment my milk came in breastfeeding just magically became second nature... but it's not.  The first two months were tough... really tough.  Breastfeeding is exhausting, it takes time and patience, it will wear down your resolve.  I cried more because of breastfeeding in the first month than I did the entire time I was pregnant (and I cried a good amount while I was pregnant, lol).  I had plenty of moments where I would have paid someone to bring me formula in the middle of the night, and I actually tried to swindle deals with my husband a few times.

I have to take a moment to talk about how important a good and supportive partner is.  While I was pregnant I had a lot of conversations with Kevin about breastfeeding.  Would it be weird for him?  Would he support me?  Would he feel left out?  What would be his role if I were the main source of food?  At first I think he was really freaked out that I started off so many conversations about my boobs, but all of those conversations were vital to the success of breastfeeding.  Kevin did his own research, he was supportive and helpful, and in my dark moments when I was ready to quit he always had encouraging words to get me through.  If you're planning to breastfeed, make sure your partner is not only on board, but totally comfortable with it!

Ok, for now... that's all I've got, or at least all I have time to write.  The girls are waking up from their nap and require my undivided (ok, equally divided) attention.  I have so much to write about breastfeeding, so there is plenty more in store!

To any of my friends/readers who want/plan to breastfeed, if you have any questions or need support please don't hesitate to contact me!