Mom Stuff

You only get to sing that part of the song if your kid is in cloth diapers. Since I KNOW you want to sing that part, I’m going to teach you everything I know.

Just about cloth. Not about life. That’s for my book.

How do you catch and release your baby’s pee and poop? This is apparently a very interesting topic to talk about.

This actually happened to me once.

No I’m lying.

No I’m not.

Many of you have asked me for an update on the cloth diapering. If you missed the first post on my pending saint-hood, please read here and come on back.

So here we are, a year into cloth diapering. I’m going to give you some genius tips that I’ve learned in this year of the hippie butt. I’m also going to tell you why in fact it doesn’t take a saint to do this and you can catch and release too. I’ll even certify you.

We use bumGenius One-Size pocket 4.0. When I did my research, BumGenius had the highest ratings for durability and non pee all over my shirt-ness. 2 important qualities. A billion washes later, they are still in perfect condition. Literally look like new. The other type you can get is the AIO (Bumgenius All in One…clothies are big on acronyms. It’s to make you feel dumb). This just means that instead of inserting an absorbing terrycloth thing into a pocket to absorb pee and poop, it’s all in one diaper. We picked the pocket kind because you can add inserts at night, you can use different types of insert and you can trash them if they get gross.

Now I’m going to tell you about the stuff I learned that will help you:

Acquiring them:

We have 20 and were using 10 a day when he was little. Now we use about 5 a day. You can get them on ebay or craigslist. No it’s not gross. You can literally sterilize them. Also it’s babies, not meth addicts. My diapers are in primo conditioned and we’ve washed them almost every other day for a year. They are expensive, this saves money.

**DO NOT BUY THE VELCRO KIND EVER EVER IN YOUR LIFE EVER.***

There are people out there whose only job it is to switch from velcro to snaps. This is because velcro is stupid. It doesn’t last forever. Snaps do. It’s science really. I had to convert 5 of mine.

I have a friend that switched to cloth when her baby was 15 months to save money. You can switch over any time. It’s never too late.

 

Cleaning them:

Charlie’s Soap is the best. Use it actually for all of your clothes. It’s gentle but will kill dirt and crap with a sledge hammer. I love this stuff. B thinks I buy it from some man named Uncle Charlie off of his porch in Alabama. B is a fool. You need a soap like this to make your diapers last.

When you are ready to wash them, do a speed cycle on cold and then a cycle on hot with an extra rinse. Throw in the dryer (it says don’t but I say do. You don’t have all GD day) and you’re done.

Bleach those bitches once a month.

Once in a blue moon you need to put like 4 tiny teeny drops of dawn dish soap in. This strips the diapers and yes it’s totally as sexy as it sounds. It helps with absorption.

Extra stuff:

Dudes. I WISH I knew about this during the breastmilk poop days. GET FLUSHABLE LINERS. It literally looks like big toiler paper. Line the diaper and when they take a massive peanut butter crap, peel off the liner and flush. SO EASY AND BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE.

We do have the Diaper Sprayer that hooks to your toilet and barely use it. Now that he eats solids, the poops just fall into the toilet. I love a good solid poop.

Eventually G got to the point where he was peeing a lot at night and the diapers weren’t doing the job. TRUST when I tell you that I was not waking me or him up to change his diaper. Then we got hemp inserts and problem solved. They are just super absorbable and wash the same way everything else does. We have 3.

I have to tell you that sadly, your run of the  mill diaper bag will not cut it with clothies. You should have 2 with you at all times and a wet bag (washable waterproof bag to hold the dirty ones.). With all that shit (literally) you don’t have room for drink, snacks, toys, pacifiers, change of clothes, etc. Even my fancy bag that I bragged about isn’t big enough. Get the biggest GD tote bag you can find and rock it.

 

And that’s it my friends. It’s honestly so easy I can’t believe everyone doesn’t do it. We always keep a pack of disposables on hand in case I get lazy with the wash or just in case I need him to wear skinny jeans (need). But I really really believe that anyone can do this. Not just saints and hippies. I’m going to be way honest here, sometimes I’m too lazy to recycle. But I’m not too lazy to cloth diaper.

There’s a cost upfront but a big savings in the long run.

Ask your questions and I’ll answer every damn one of them. Because I love you and the baby penguins. Also, you are now certified in cloth diapering. Here is your certificate:

I just really wanted to use a picture of that weird baby again.

________________________

Coming up in MODG

-My hunt for the perfect white T shirt. From low end to high end. I’ve found fashion gold.

-Did you know G speaks sign language? He tells me to F off. I’ll tell you how we did it.

-My interview with a robot. Well, she makes robots. Well she works for people who do. SECRET ROBOTS.

 

xoxo

MODG

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POSTED IN: Awesome things,babies,hippie stuff,how-to,Mom Stuff,Stuff I like

Things I didn’t know as a parent:

#654) Getting into preschool is more stressful than getting into college.

But you’re saying “MODG, you only have a 14 month old child.” I KNOW. Let me give you this advice mothers, get yourself some mom friends with kids who are a little older than yours. Because without them I would know nothing of this world of parenting. There is no book out there that tell you to hang toys and shit from your baby’s infant car seat or that you have to enroll in preschool when your kid is barely walking (barely means he sort of is (!!!)). No, you have to learn when you show up to your first breastfeeding group and your baby’s car seat is the only one without elmo and shit hanging from it. And your kid is the one that is screaming bloody murder. And they look at you like, “should have put toys on the car seat”. And you’re like HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DAMN TOYS?

But we’re not talking about infant car seat toys. Thank you baby penguins, that phase is over. We’re talking about preschool. G will most likely never be in any sort of day care, which is where I think most of you knowy moms find stuff out. I have to learn my shit on the street. And I learned today that getting into a hippie preschool isn’t any less stressful than getting into your fancy manhattan donate 5 grand to get in preschool.

So we were told about this playhouse (that’s what hippies call preschool) a few months back. I was like, bitch please, my child is playing with his drool on the floor. It’s way too early for playhouses and the like. Fast forward to a week ago and we’re setting up a tour. A tour that this morning, a half hour before the tour, I completely forget about said tour.

Me: shitshitshitshit we have a TOUR now. We have to go to the hippie playhouse G!

G: (side eye)

Me: What do we wear? Recycled clothes? Hemp? Amber teething necklaces? Should I start breastfeeding you again right now?

G: bahbahbahbah

Me: No you’re right that’s crazy.

G: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Me: Trust me, I KNOW it’s a bad impression to forget about your first meeting with your preschool. You don’t have to yell at me about it. We need to GO NOW.

So after getting lost, we arrive to the preschool. Both directors come out to my car to greet me. Are they checking out my outfit? Shit, I need to take my designer sunglasses off. Does G have enough layers on? It’s cold out. They are totally going to call child services on me. Breathe.

But they were so nice and welcoming and offering to take my coat and ….it seems like they are trying to impress me?

After seeing the school and the kids and the interpretive dance and the baking and the workbench with SAWS and things, I loved it. I totally loved the school. It’s a co-op so parents are there 1 day a week to help. Which I see as “more mom friends”. I’ll take it.  I asked if they were ok with cloth diapers and she looked at me confused. She says we have lots of kids in diapers and I HAVEN’T SEEN A CLOTH DIAPER IN A WHILE.

Wait.

wait.

They aren’t hippies? (hippies have seen cloth diapers. trust)

So I showed her G’s and she was impressed with the snaps and the modern pee catchiness of it. And she said it would be fine. Also you should know that I have no idea when kids actually potty train. So this could have been a very foolish question. Again, I will need to learn this on the street.

But they were just regular nice people.  Actually, I wouldn’t classify them as regulars. But I wouldn’t classify them as hippies either. Just nice people who  run a nice school sort of on a farm in the woods.

But after G ate 90 Ritz crackers that they gave him and a whole banana and signed MORE MORE MORE MORE  a hundred times, they told me what a great appetite he had and we filled out our application for 2013. I asked if there was criteria beyond the application timing to get into the school. She said no. It’s first come first serve. Ethically they feel that is the right thing to do.

But I watched like a billion tv shows and movies about how you have to work so hard to get into preschool? Don’t I have to donate a wing? Don’t I have to offer the body of a virgin goat? Don’t I have to show you that G is *this* close to solving for x?

Nope.

Whew…

Me: G, you were so worried for nothing.

G: DEEDEEDEDDEEE

Me: You shouldn’t worry so much about what other people think. Just be yourself

G: AAAAAAAAH

Me: And next time remember your appointments.

If you didn’t see it on the MODG facebook page or our twitter page OR OUR Pinterest page. Here is our little Frankenstein…walking.

 

35 comments

POSTED IN: Awesome things,Mom Stuff,You think you know but you have no idea

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