My Baby's First Month in SoftBums- Shannon- Week 2

How are things going for Shannon & Otis?

Cloth Diapering is an art form to say the least. With the cute prints, creative ways of combining pods and the perfect application to your child every time takes practice and many bouts of trial and error.  I am a couple of weeks in to my cloth diapering experience and thus far I LOVE it.

Day one was really hard with leaks, outfit changes (for both me and Otis), and figuring out how to spray the poo off with my handy diaper sprayer.  I put his first diaper on and thought it was so cute.  I love the baby safari print which was his first and found a matching T-shirt and soon realized that if not applied correctly, the diaper is a cute but wet mess.

 I have learned that I have a very sensitive child who does NOT like to be wet; period. He is only a month old and already cries to be changed when there is only wetness in his diaper. I was reading one book that said most children don’t feel wet until about 12 weeks so need to be checked often.  It shall be interesting to see how this reaction plays out over the next few years!  I thought this response was due to using cloth but then we went on a trip for the weekend and used sposies; he had the same reaction.  I had so many leaks with the sposies and hated the smell of chemicals I knew he was being exposed to, so next trip will include lugging around my cloth diapers. I was going to try to use cloth for the weekend but didn’t have enough pods at the time. 

I have been able to travel to town for the day with our SoftBums, I use a medium size planetwise wet/dry bag which I love to keep everything together. I do however prefer to just keep my supplies in the car as I would need a HUGE diaper bag to keep everything with me otherwise. I thought I had prepared everything, diaper cream, diapers, inserts, changes of clothes. Then I did my first in town diaper change……..hmmmm didn’t bring anything to put the wipes in! Previously using disposables you just wrap all the garbage together. Well I haven’t decided on what will work best for those so we will have to experiment with that.

These first few weeks we have used nearly 20 pods per day and about 5-8 shells, depending on BM’s. I have sprayed myself in the face with poo learning the proper aiming and art of the diaper sprayer. I have to say I LOVE my diaper sprayer and I know that as a breastfed baby I don’t need to wash off the pod but it makes me feel better and I have less staining in the washing process . 

I am doing daily laundry because Otis goes through so many pods and during the day. I have contemplated buying more pods but I know as he gets bigger I will be moving to the large pods and will just need the minis for doubling.  I have been using Mini Bamboo Pods and at night I’ve been trialing both the Large Bamboo Pod and 2 Mini Pods. The Large Pod is so big and doesn’t seem like it could be comfortable to sleep in but the 2 Mini Pods tends to leak more so not sure which combo I want to stick with for the time being. 


6lb 15 oz at birth-about about 7.5 lbs here

 Otis is about 10 pounds now and has moved from super skinny thighs at the beginning to chunk on them now which has required some elastic adjustment.

I watched a YouTube video showing how loose the legs should be and an easy finger insert is So essential as I had them WAY too tight at the beginning. 

The learning curve is so fast as you get sick of changing entire outfits constantly and then when you “get the right fit” you want to spread the word and get everyone stoked about cloth.

That’s all for now……….

I’ll keep you updated on my revelations and what has been working for me!

Got any tips for Shannon? Leave them in the comments below!

 

Continue to follow Shannon & Otis on their journey into cloth diapering each week throughout this series of My Baby's First Month in SoftBums!

 Did you miss Week 1? Click here to read their intro!

Check back next week to see what they absolutely love about cloth diapering, and what their wash routine is like.