Cloth Diapering with Flip Diapers

I knew long before I got pregnant that I wanted to use cloth diapers.  Other than the cost of purchasing disposable diapers every month, I was also concerned about the environmental impact of billions of disposable diapers filling landfills. Since babies typically use 6-8 diapers a day, that puts the number of diapers used before potty training in the thousands. Add in the disposable wipes and that's a luot of trash. Disposable diapers are the 3rd largest consumer item in landfills.  7.6 billion pounds of trash per year. I felt gross throwing away my money on disposable diapers, but more gross about how much trash we'd be producing. We had to use disposable diapers for a couple weeks when Jack was first born because he was too small for the cloth diapers, and I was amazed how quickly our trash can filled up with diapers. 

After doing a little bit of internet research I settled on Flip cloth diapers. Basically, you get the diaper covers (the colorful exterior shells), and then put the absorbent insert inside and snap the cover on, similar to a disposable diaper. After using disposable diapers for a couple weeks I was afraid I might get too used to the ease of disposable, but found that that was largely just a mindset. Cloth diapers aren't any harder to change, the only part that is a bit more labor intensive is laundry. More on that in a bit. 

I also went for cloth wipes as well. Again, same reasons, cost and waste. I also make my own spray to spritz on his bum to clean him up. Not only does it save money but I don't have to worry about weird chemicals being in the wipes. 

Here's my little diaper station. Inserts up top, diaper covers on the left, then my wipe stuff in the white bin- cloth wipes, spray, and diaper rash cream. I also have a little trash can to the right that is my diaper "hamper."  It had a lid and a step opener so it keeps at smell in and I can open it with my foot to toss the dirty diaper in.  I bought a couple wet bags to use for storing dirty diapers in my diaper bag when I'm out and about (one of them is the polka dot bag hanging from my diaper station above, which I put dirty wipes in).

When Jack has a bit of rash starting we use Angel Baby Bottom Balm to soothe it. Also au naturale, which makes me happy.  

In terms of laundry, I do a small load every 1-2 days, which is a lot more often than I used to do laundry, but it hasn't felt overwhelming. I know some people shy away from cloth diapering because they don't have a washer/dryer in their home, or are worried about water/electricity usage. There are some awesome options for small, portable washers that use only a couple gallons of water per load and are the perfect size for washing diapers. There are also centrifugal spin dryers that are small, and both are pretty affordable! The diaper covers must be hung dry anyway. 

I really love cloth diapering.  The only limitation I can see so far is travel.  We'll be traveling next month and I'll do disposable diapers while we're out of town.  Since we won't have a washer/dryer and will be gone for a week, there's not really any way to clean the diapers.  Other than that, I'm super happy with our decision to go with cloth diapers.  We have 17 Flip diaper covers, 18 newborn cloth diaper inserts, and 6 one-size cloth diaper inserts.  We're only using the newborn inserts for now, so I'll probably end up getting more of the one-size inserts once he's grown into those.  But our set up right now works great!  I'd definitely recommend cloth diapering.  It was a few hundred dollars initially to get everything (I found some of my covers on craigslist, so if you're trying to find cloth diapers for less than they cost brand new, consider second hand stores or craigslist), but compared to the thousands I'd spend on disposable diapers and disposable wipes over the next couple years, it made sense to me to make the investment.  Plus, I can use these diapers for any future kids we may have!

Meet Jack!

It's been almost a month since our little dude joined us, and since the holidays happened right after he arrived and tons of family and friends were in town visiting (not to mention postpartum healing and getting used to newborn life), I haven't had the energy to post an announcement here until now!

I haven't written out his birth story yet, and I'll probably share that eventually, though nothing crazy happened so it's not the most thrilling of birth stories.  For the best birth stories, I will direct you to Indiana Adams who has the best and funniest birth stories of all time and makes us all look bad in the birth stories realm.  Thanks a lot, Indiana.  I jest.  Indiana is hilarious and her birth stories really are the best.  Enough about Indiana, though, this post is about Jack!

Jack Polaris Morrow made his entrance on the morning of December 18th after a pretty quick and relatively easy labor.  He was about a week past his due date, which I thought was going to be the case.  He was always so chill and cozy in the womb, I figured he would want to hang out in there as long as possible.  I tried many a thing to get him to shimmy out.  We went to a hockey game.  We sang karaoke.  We did zumba.  We had a full moon (a supermoon, no less!).  Eventually after a couple membrane sweeps and some castor oil (holy shit, that stuff is no joke.  Talk. About. Cleansed.) I went into labor.  It took some convincing for him to make his way out and I don't blame him, it's cold out here!

Dusty and him are already best buds and if he ever complains that his birthday is too close to Christmas I will take him to a Zumba class and show him how hard I tried to get him to come out sooner.  And if he's still not convinced, I'll feed him some castor oil and see how long it takes before he has to run to the bathroom.  

Radio Silence

I haven't written anything here in over a month, I think mostly due to the overwhelming stress and all-consuming nature of this year's presidential election.  My thoughts have been centered around social justice, the future that my kid will grow up in, what I want our lives to look like moving forward, and then the more mundane things like trying to keep our house from looking like a hurricane blew through, finishing up my final wedding of the season, and getting the baby's room done.  

That being said I have a lot of thoughts mulling about below the surface, perhaps not yet ready or ripe for putting into words.  It's a weird transition to go from thinking about things in terms of their impact on me and my life to then thinking about their impact on my child's life.  Or even, thinking about how to raise my kid in a way that can respond to and address our culture healthily and also revolutionarily.  It's a weird place to be in to want to change the world so my kid can grow up in a world better than the one I grew up in, while also wanting to raise them to be agents of further positive change.  To continue the process of change and growth far into the future.  And in a way, raising my kid to be a kind, creative, brave, critical thinking, courageous, compassionate human IS something that I'm doing right now that is changing the world. 

I don't want you to be a gentleman.

I listen to pop music in the car, I'm not sure why because the lyrics always drive me bonkers, but I guess it's fun to sing along to and upbeat background music.  I always end up thinking way too much about the messages sent in song lyrics and lately the one song that's been driving me bonkers is Shawn Mendes' current song:

I won't lie to you
I know he's just not right for you
And you can tell me if I'm off
But I see it on your face
When you say that he's the one that you want
And you're spending all your time
In this wrong situation
And anytime you want it to stop
I know I can treat you better than he can
And any girl like you deserves a gentleman
Tell me why are we wasting time
On all your wasted crying
When you should be with me instead
I know I can treat you better
Better than he can

First off, as a woman, KTHXBYE for your opinion on my relationship and your assertion that you'd be better for me.  Just what I need, another man telling me how I should live my life.  The song should be re-titled, "I Know I Can Mansplain You Better."

Cynicism aside the word "gentleman" stands out to me.  And it's a word that I kind of want to be done with.  It's veiled sexism at its finest.  Because I don't want men to be gentlemen to me, I want them to be decent humans who treat other humans who happen to be women like they treat male humans.  They respect women the way they respect men.  They honor women the way the honor men.  They pay women the amount they pay men.  They fight for women to have the same privileges and rights as men because they are fellow humans who deserve that.  

You can treat her better?  Why don't you fight for her rights?  Speak up when your shitty friends are slut shaming girls.  Be an advocate for equal pay.  Stop saying things like, "she's just being hormonal," and saying that things done weakly/poorly are done, "like a girl."  I don't want your condescending gentleman shtick.  I don't want you to bring me flowers and open a door for me.  Get in the trenches and be a real advocate for women.  Maybe she is dating a lame-o, but being a gentleman isn't what she needs.  She needs a feminist.

Are we there yet?

I'm tired of being pregnant.  Not necessarily physically, though it would be nice to be able to wear my old clothes again, but more mentally.  I'm not good at waiting.  If I have an idea, I like to do it right then.  I start businesses on a whim, buy new domain names and make websites for ideas that burn in my brain late at night.  When I decide to do a thing, I want to start doing that thing immediately.  I'll start painting a room at 10:30 pm.  Start an RV remodel 10 days before I'm supposed to leave on a road trip.  So this waiting thing?  This incubation period?  I don't really get it.  I'm not a preparer, really.  I don't research or read books about things before I decide to do them.  I sort of jump in with both feet and figure it out as I fall.  So I want this kid to just come so I can get to the part where I start figuring it out instead of sitting her wondering how the hell life is going to change, what motherhood will look like for me, what loving a baby even means.  It feels like my whole life is on pause waiting for December.  I know it'll probably be here before I know it, but in the quiet moments where I'm alone at home with a mysterious creature kicking me from the inside, I just want the wait to be over.  

I hear a lot of pregnant women say stuff like, "I can't wait to meet him/her!" and I don't have that and that's not why I want the wait to be over.  Perhaps it's a more selfish perspective, or just one from someone who is not a baby person and has never had the desire to "meet" a baby.  Our culture feels so focused on the baby.  Like motherhood is an afterthought.  Like it's no big whoop when a woman becomes a mother.  Like it happens every day.  And it does, but not to me.  I only become a mother once in my entire life, and our culture doesn't have a lot of ritual, celebration, or ceremony surrounding that.  Even the celebration you have during pregnancy, a Baby Shower, is focused on the baby.  What the baby needs, celebrating his/her new life, getting a metric ton of diapers and baby onesies.  And I get that.  New life is exciting!  We should celebrate it.  But I also see mothers get lost in the fray.  I see motherhood get lost, the sacred and momentous time that happens once in a lifetime.  And then we immediately transition to our society's actual culture surrounding motherhood, which is: DO AND BE ALL THE THINGS.  Be a super mom, run a successful business, take the kids to soccer practice, breastfeed for at least a year, do yoga, be fit and sexy and fun, have a beautifully decorated Pinterest house.  And really, I like doing all the things, and I'm really good at feeling bad when I don't feel successful (which is almost all the time), so I have a feeling that's going to go over really well.   

These posts tend to get really ramble-y and lose focus (perhaps a symptom of pregnancy brain? I hear that's a thing?), so I'll stop before I start talking about something totally and completely unrelated to what I started writing about when I opened this draft.  Being pregnant is, overall, a good experience.  I don't want it to be over because I've had crazy sickness, or because my body feels horrible, or for any of the bajillion horrible pregnancy side effects my pregnancy app tells me are supposed to be happening to me.  No, I just want to not feel like I'm trying to peer into a black hole when I look at what life will be like come December.  I just want to buy the damn domain and start building this motherhood website (if we're mixing metaphors.  I'm not actually building a motherhood website).