Flats and Handwashing Challenge, Day 7

Today is the last day of the challenge. At least to make it 7 full days (at midnight). I know some of the participants are carrying it over until tomorrow at midnight. Good for them! I can't say I'm very excited to go one more day. I miss my washing machine!

Kiddos are still in flats with covers. We did have an hour and a half of non-flats during church. Sure, I felt guilty about this, and I probably could have pushed the issue, but I didn't. I guess this means I failed the challenge, at least in the competitive sense of the word. We did, however, go into this for much less than $100 and wore the flats all week while only handwashing! I know that it is indeed possible for anyone to cloth diaper. It most certainly is not a monetary issue that would prevent anyone from cloth diapering their child.

So, this has me thinking a bit about the world we live in. Sure, we can cloth diaper all we want and show the world how great it is, but will they listen? Unfortunately, the majority does not, so most daycares (at least here in my area) are not happy about cloth diapers. They all shrivel up when it's mentioned. When my two babies first started the daycare was all about allowing my cloth diapers. Yet, every day that I picked them up, they were in a disposable. The reason was usually not worthy of the disposable. I'm not a person big on confrontations and I would just let it be and continue bringing the cloth diapers each day. Without fail they'd come home in the disposables. Even though they said they'd be more than happy to work with me on the cloth diapering aspect, they did not. When I mentioned it, it seemed like there was one excuse after the other, and as I've said, I am not the confrontational type, so I let it go. At the time I was very busy with nursing school and clinical rounds in the hospital that I didn't really have the energy to fight it. So, in the end, my babies were in disposables at daycare.

Now I'm a SAHM and I wish I could be forever. Unfortunately, my time is narrowing down and I will, sooner rather than later, have to turn in my time at home with my babies and send them back to daycare. This time, I will have more to say about it and I will push the issue. In fact, I'll probably take it a step further and try to convince them to start cloth diapering those babies whose parents don't bring in enough diapers. I've seen kids have to stay in those yucky disposables far too long because they didn't have anymore for them to wear. It's about the babies, after all. I can't see a parent complaining about their child wearing a cloth diaper while they're at a daycare. I can see a daycare employee complaining about a cloth diaper. Perhaps education is all they're missing. It is indeed an issue worth confronting.

So, yeah, we did the challenge, and even though we deviated for an hour or so, we're back in our flats (receiving blankets!) until tomorrow. I'm happy I participated.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge, Day 3

 Last night was so much fun. Really. Okay, that's sarcasm. I'll tell you why in just a minute. Yesterday was another day of success with the flats! I am, however, realizing that I really do prefer sized diaper covers as opposed to their OS counterparts. They fit so much better. Using the flats definitely gives a trimmer fit (when I fold it right!), and wow, who knew both my kiddos are on the smaller side of a medium? We went through about the same amount of diapers both days so far. Between my two, we use about 10-12 flats and 7-8 covers. Yesterday was a bit of a pooper, too. Had I done some better folding (or had my 11 month old kept still for 1 minute), it might have contained the poop and saved the cover from contamination, but, so it goes! Still room to go with the limit.

When it came down to washing the diapers last night, it was nearly midnight and my two were still going. Cranky, of course. I know, I'm an awful mommy for letting them be up so late, but some days it's easier to just let them wear themselves out than to fight with forcing them to sleep, right? But this is about my diapering. I went with literally hand washing last night. I ditched the plunger. I did use the bucket, but I still didn't feel like my diapers were coming clean enough. I emptied it out into the tub and donned my fancy (ha ha) purple rubber gloves and went to town scrubbing each diaper, one by one (like I said, about 12, so hardly a terribly time consuming task). I felt much better about the cleanliness.

My drying time hasn't been incredibly awful, but still, for the thin blankets I'm using, I'm really a bit surprised they don't dry faster. I should wring the out better, I know. But when you've got two kiddos at your feet "helping," well, you all know what I'm saying! There are about 4 still drying on my rack, but I've got enough that are dry to get me through until those are dry. Works out just right. My biggest complaint about hang drying (other than putting them on a drying rack and not a clothesline--don't have one, I live in an apartment) is how STIFF they come out. I pop and wad and wave them around to get a little bit of softness into them, but they're still stiff. I'm going to figure this out, yet!

About 4 am this morning Olivia woke up vomiting and each time it would come up, it would also come out the other end. I most definitely wanted to throw in the towel, or throw out the blanket as it were. Then I immediately felt guilty because if all I had were flats, I most definitely would not have the option to switch up to a "better" diaper. In fact, I can't even really say why I wanted to switch to something else, it's all the same, except for folding a clean one to put on. Tonight I will have a couple prepped and ready, just in case. (She is fine this morning, I think it was something she ate.)

So, day three, here we are, and I'm still okay with using my flats. Sure, I've wanted to grab my others a few times in the past two days, but for no real reason. The flats are completely functional and so far, leak free! Really, I love this challenge.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge, Day 2

We made it through Day 1 of the challenge. I went through more diapers than I anticipated, though! I pulled out the hooded towels. So far, I have not needed them today. I guess yesterday was the heavy load to attempt to discourage me from the flats! Not done, however, we're still flattin' it up!

Washing the diapers last night in my camp style washer was an experience indeed. I ended up cracking the lid a good bit. In the end, I was using my hands, which made me feel a bit like I was doing more cleaning, anyway. I do like using the bucket, though.

Last night I ended up using a flat and a prefold on both my little ones. They were both dry upon waking. With the overwhelming success I've read about, I'm going to stick with just the flats tonight.

I'm really glad everyone is having such luck with the challenge so far! I do wish I had some "real" flats and not just the blankets I'm using. I'm sure they'd be more absorbent than the thin blankets we have. Alas, I will not spend the money on them at this point in time, especially when part of this is all about saving money and making do with what we've got!

I wonder how many people will pull flats into their regular rotation of diapers after this? I know I probably will.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge, Day 1

Day 1 of the flats challenge!

My flats consist of 10 receiving blankets and 12 Gerber flats. I know, the Gerber flats have often been called Gerber crap, but I decided to go ahead and give them a shot. If all else fails, I've got some nice cleaning rags. And James seems to like to use it as a love-y. I did, of course, do a trial run with them first. No, they are not super absorbent or a fantastic flat by any means, but they do hold up for at least one pee. I'm using 4 Thirsties covers and one Prowrap.

I have not mastered the folds, so we're just using the pad fold for right now. I can do the Kite fold, but I only have ONE snappi. How did that happen, right? Well, I've mostly just used pockets and AIO's in the past. I have diaper pins, but with my wigglers, those are not very fun to apply! No worries, though! It's all good. I am psyched for the challenge!

Okay, I took a break and came back to it. Check out this Origami fold!!
I'm quite proud of myself. It shall get better as we fold more and more! So far, so good with the challenge. The real challenge comes tonight when I do the first washing!

Flats and Handwashing Challenge -- How I'm Preparing

I only just decided to participate in the challenge this morning.  The prepping for the challenge has been underway, regardless, since I began to consider participating.  I do need to purchase a few more items, or try to round them up, anyway.

As of right now, I have some receiving blankets that we'll be using.  I've yet to decide if I'm going to purchase an actual flat diaper.  I've been searching for used flats to no avail.  I have one Snappi that I'm sure will be used a time or two, but I prefer to use diaper pins, I think.

I'm going to fashion my camp-style washer today and continue to practice with my folding!

This was my first attempt at what I thought was a kite fold.  It's okay, I laughed, too!