@emiliadkay@coldlife@BusinessWife Thank you!!! I will try an assortment of those suggestions. He is right around 1 right now so it sounds like it's a common issue. Our usual cloth diaper is Alva Baby from Amazon with the inserts. I'm looking to stock up on more with the arrival of another little one in cloth diapers so I am open to try some new brands that anyone recommends.
@tyrion_ I know, same here. And trying new/revisiting favorite restaurants is my favorite thing ever so I wouldn't mind if that's what I was spending the money on, but it's all the unplanned takeout and fast food stops that add up. I've been trying really hard to use my lack of motivation on Friday afternoons to plan out meals for the following week and build a grocery list, and it helps some but we still struggle.
@ziggymama06 Welcome to CD world! I think you'll love it. I just checked and looks like all things diapering is our product spotlight in two weeks, so maybe we can kick off then and bump it again in a few months when people are getting ready to dust off old stashes and/or make purchases.
Y'all are making me feel so guilty about not cloth diapering DD. I did almost exclusively with DS, and this time around, there was just so much on my plate that I totally took the easy route and did disposables. This is inspiring me to get my old stash out.
@psychobutthead That story about your MIL shattered my heart into a million pieces. Coming from someone who never asks anyone for anything, because I'm too proud, that took so much courage for you to go to her for help, and for her to throw it in your face like that is awful. I'm so sorry that you didn't have anyone to reach out to during a tough time in your life, but good for you for taking charge and turning things around. You're amazing!
Add me to the list of people who would love a CD thread at some point. I really want to use cloth but I am so overwhelmed by all of the different options! As a FTM I definitely want whatever the easiest/most foolproof system is because otherwise I will probably give it up.
@emiliadkay we do our grocery shopping on Friday nights and it is honestly the best. There is never anyone at the store, so we get decent parking spots and don't have to deal with crowds like on Saturday mornings. It helps me to plan out when I want takeout or to go out to eat, and now I find myself looking forward to those special nights.
@psychobutthead way to go with the DR plan! We've been doing it too, rather loosely, since we got married. I say loosely because we 1) went on vacation and 2) bought a house, which are big no-no's in baby step 2. We are so close to being paid off, and would have been by February of this year had I not gotten pregnant! Now we're just stockpiling as much money as possible. I've had a debt free chart on my home office wall for 3 years and it bugs me to see how little I have left to color in, and that it's taking so long now that I'm back to just minimum payments. Our goal is to be aggressive again once I go back to work after maternity leave, which won't be until next year.
Paying off debt is so hard in a society that praises spending and living above your means, where people tell you that there is such a thing as "good debt" and that it's okay to take out loans for tens of thousands of dollars to buy the latest cars or iPhones or whatever. But it is so worth it to know that we have more money now than we did 3 years ago, and that all of these little stops I've been making to McDonalds (this baby needs burgers, apparently) are not going to put us in the red every month.
@tyrion_ not gonna lie fast food is our kryptonite too. Especially with me pregnant I am just so tired and hungry. But I try to use my crock pot a lot and do walmart grocery pickup so I dont over buy by getting hungry in the store 😆
@wildrainbow paying off the debt as much as I have is the only reason dh agreed to baby number 3.
@lachnessmomster I am a very proud person too. It gutted me to ask for help. The fact that she treated me that way when she knew I intended to pay her back was it for me. I told my husband I would leave him if he didnt get his share of the spending under control. It totally crushed me. Now I do sinking funds for Christmas, birthsdays, and back to school.
So I cloth diapered my son. i used alva diapers. I swapped the microfiber inserts for better ones like bamboo. I got some green mountain cloth diaper brand prefolds. I intend to stuff those in my cloth diapers as inserts for this lo. I have all my cloth from my son still so I got a few lots off ebay for used newborn alvas. I plan on getting a few more eventually in newborn size.
I also use cloth menstrual pads and so does my 12 year old daughter and we use cloth pull ups on my son for bedtime.
Team cheap af here.
Pregnancy #1 DD 08.30.2007 Pregnancy #2 Natural Miscarriage at 6 weeks 03/2014 Due date 11/9/2014 Pregnancy #3 DS 02.23.2015 Pregnancy #4 Missed Miscarriage at 11 weeks 11/2018 Due date 5/22/2019 Pregnancy #5 Positive test 12/11/2019 Due Date 8/17/2020
If anyone wants to start a dedicated money/finances thread, doesn't have to be strictly baby related, I'd be down with that!
@wednesdaygirl1019, That would be all-in-ones. They have the absorbency and the waterproof layer all sewn together (snap and velcro options) so they're exactly like a disposable except you throw them in the wash. The con is they are the easiest option, but they're also the most expensive.
If you google things like "types of cloth diapers" or "cloth diapering basics" or searching on YouTube, there's lots of articles and videos that cover the details. Basically (from least easy to easy and also least expensive to most), there are prefolds/flats/inserts and covers, fitteds and covers, pocket diapers with inserts, and all-in-ones or all-in-twos. AI2s, sometimes called hybrids, have adjustable absorbency via snap-in inserts but are fairly similar to AIOs and are often categorized together.
@gomillis they are thirsties brand. Just out in amazon thirsties cloth training diaper and they come up. It pulls up and down like a pullup.
Pregnancy #1 DD 08.30.2007 Pregnancy #2 Natural Miscarriage at 6 weeks 03/2014 Due date 11/9/2014 Pregnancy #3 DS 02.23.2015 Pregnancy #4 Missed Miscarriage at 11 weeks 11/2018 Due date 5/22/2019 Pregnancy #5 Positive test 12/11/2019 Due Date 8/17/2020
I might go ahead and start a more informal cloth diaper thread now since there is so much interest and it's a completely different topic than disposables. @emiliadkay are you okay with that, since you are managing the product discussions?
@cornichonmam ooh! We have one of those! The online retailers are changing all the time, but I got the print with the hot air balloons on it! 😊 Just the one tho so far...
@tyrion_ I laughed a little too hard at your comment about eating all your money. Yummmm
@psychobutthead I want to use cloth trainers too, when the time comes. I just don't want to try and push it too soon? But man, I would love not to have two in diapers... Maybe wishful thinking right there.
We CD our youngest. We used Thirsties AIOs. I also used soft bums but I didn't like having to stuff them and I found them to be expensive compared to other brands. My favorite was a Harry Potter Marauder's Map print.
@BusinessWife you don't need cloth trainers. You can just go straight from diapers to naked to undies. We did use the Grovia trainers for a bit, but they run super small so if you are going to use them now is the time. We never bothered trying other brands of trainers.
@jwhite3116 We used almost exclusively SoftBums, too! I actually like the stuffing option, because I liked being able to make it more padded where I needed to and the different options for pods. We used the Echo shells when he was teeny, then switched to Omni until he was about 2- 2 1/2? Then, admittedly, I used Pull-Ups until he was completely potty trained.
That's it, you guys. I'm busting out some CDs today. Will also help with our budgeting!
@BusinessWife potty train during second trimester if you feel up to it and LO shows signs of readiness. There are a million ways to potty train and they all get there eventually. How old is your little? I loved the Oh Crap! Potty Training book and method and was successful beginning at 17 months with my very verbal little one. It was a lot of effort, but two months later it was so worth it! I'd love to have my second trained before this baby and DH is all about it too, but it's going to be a tight timeline because he's not even walking yet!
@BusinessWife we went from diapers to bare bottom as well. My youngest still refuses to wear underwear but he's 100% potty trained. Just likes the ventilation I guess.
@lachnessmomster I forgot about how much better the SB echos fit for newborns than Thirsties. They're not as bulky. It's really nice.
I feel like I don't know the first thing. But idk, maybe I don't give myself enough credit. She's 16 months, tries to pull up her pants while I'm changing her diaper, likes flushing the toilet (she can't quite push the handle all the way herself) and there are times I check her diaper and it's dry. So maybe? I never even get a full weekend though because I work a half day every Saturday. I might have a little vacation time end of February, but we also didn't get to visit my family so we need to talk about if we might be travelling. :/
@BusinessWife I need to bust our Oh Crap book back out and refresh, but if memory serves there are a whole bunch of different "readiness signs" and no true magic green light. But, according to the author, for most families and kids the ideal teaching window is 20-30 months. I can't remember if your daughter goes to daycare or not, but that's another thing to consider and potentially navigate. Ours (I recently learned) tries to wait until 24 months because that's the point where there's a bathroom in the class, so if we want to do this sooner it's going to take some extra cajoling and/or creative thinking.
We didn't use any trainers either. I started putting my daughter in just fitteds with no cover so I could see as soon as she peed. And then switched to panties after a little while of that.
I started potty training my daughter the day she turned 18 months because I wanted progress before #2 was born. It definitely took longer than some people/resources say it "should," but I didn't mind at all. She wouldn't really communicate she needed to go, so it was us putting her on the toilet at regular intervals, and then she'd go. But I would 100% rather remember to put her on the toilet every hour than change diapers. She was pretty good at communicating or going by herself by around 22 months. I will be starting training 2 at 18 months as well.
@BusinessWife I don't have plans for training DS before baby comes, I'm just going to play it by ear. Also I've heard that boys usualy potty train a little later than girls. But we did get a potty a while ago and we do put him on it now and then, especially first thing in the morning he will usualy go if we put him on. We wanted him to be used to the idea that he dosen't only go in his nappy before trying to get him to control when he goes.
Re: Random chatter w/o 1/20
Dating 4/2008
Married 6/2016
TTC #1 9/2019
BFP 12/13/2019!
EDD 8/27/2020 Baby Girl
@ziggymama06 Welcome to CD world! I think you'll love it. I just checked and looks like all things diapering is our product spotlight in two weeks, so maybe we can kick off then and bump it again in a few months when people are getting ready to dust off old stashes and/or make purchases.
@psychobutthead That story about your MIL shattered my heart into a million pieces. Coming from someone who never asks anyone for anything, because I'm too proud, that took so much courage for you to go to her for help, and for her to throw it in your face like that is awful. I'm so sorry that you didn't have anyone to reach out to during a tough time in your life, but good for you for taking charge and turning things around. You're amazing!
@emiliadkay we do our grocery shopping on Friday nights and it is honestly the best. There is never anyone at the store, so we get decent parking spots and don't have to deal with crowds like on Saturday mornings. It helps me to plan out when I want takeout or to go out to eat, and now I find myself looking forward to those special nights.
@psychobutthead way to go with the DR plan! We've been doing it too, rather loosely, since we got married. I say loosely because we 1) went on vacation and 2) bought a house, which are big no-no's in baby step 2. We are so close to being paid off, and would have been by February of this year had I not gotten pregnant! Now we're just stockpiling as much money as possible. I've had a debt free chart on my home office wall for 3 years and it bugs me to see how little I have left to color in, and that it's taking so long now that I'm back to just minimum payments. Our goal is to be aggressive again once I go back to work after maternity leave, which won't be until next year.
Paying off debt is so hard in a society that praises spending and living above your means, where people tell you that there is such a thing as "good debt" and that it's okay to take out loans for tens of thousands of dollars to buy the latest cars or iPhones or whatever. But it is so worth it to know that we have more money now than we did 3 years ago, and that all of these little stops I've been making to McDonalds (this baby needs burgers, apparently) are not going to put us in the red every month.
@wildrainbow paying off the debt as much as I have is the only reason dh agreed to baby number 3.
@lachnessmomster I am a very proud person too. It gutted me to ask for help. The fact that she treated me that way when she knew I intended to pay her back was it for me. I told my husband I would leave him if he didnt get his share of the spending under control. It totally crushed me. Now I do sinking funds for Christmas, birthsdays, and back to school.
So I cloth diapered my son. i used alva diapers. I swapped the microfiber inserts for better ones like bamboo. I got some green mountain cloth diaper brand prefolds. I intend to stuff those in my cloth diapers as inserts for this lo. I have all my cloth from my son still so I got a few lots off ebay for used newborn alvas. I plan on getting a few more eventually in newborn size.
I also use cloth menstrual pads and so does my 12 year old daughter and we use cloth pull ups on my son for bedtime.
Team cheap af here.
Pregnancy #2 Natural Miscarriage at 6 weeks 03/2014 Due date 11/9/2014
Pregnancy #3 DS 02.23.2015
Pregnancy #4 Missed Miscarriage at 11 weeks 11/2018 Due date 5/22/2019
Pregnancy #5 Positive test 12/11/2019 Due Date 8/17/2020
@wednesdaygirl1019,
That would be all-in-ones. They have the absorbency and the waterproof layer all sewn together (snap and velcro options) so they're exactly like a disposable except you throw them in the wash. The con is they are the easiest option, but they're also the most expensive.
If you google things like "types of cloth diapers" or "cloth diapering basics" or searching on YouTube, there's lots of articles and videos that cover the details. Basically (from least easy to easy and also least expensive to most), there are prefolds/flats/inserts and covers, fitteds and covers, pocket diapers with inserts, and all-in-ones or all-in-twos. AI2s, sometimes called hybrids, have adjustable absorbency via snap-in inserts but are fairly similar to AIOs and are often categorized together.
Pregnancy #2 Natural Miscarriage at 6 weeks 03/2014 Due date 11/9/2014
Pregnancy #3 DS 02.23.2015
Pregnancy #4 Missed Miscarriage at 11 weeks 11/2018 Due date 5/22/2019
Pregnancy #5 Positive test 12/11/2019 Due Date 8/17/2020
@tyrion_ I laughed a little too hard at your comment about eating all your money. Yummmm
@psychobutthead I want to use cloth trainers too, when the time comes. I just don't want to try and push it too soon? But man, I would love not to have two in diapers... Maybe wishful thinking right there.
That's it, you guys. I'm busting out some CDs today. Will also help with our budgeting!
@lachnessmomster I forgot about how much better the SB echos fit for newborns than Thirsties. They're not as bulky. It's really nice.
I started potty training my daughter the day she turned 18 months because I wanted progress before #2 was born. It definitely took longer than some people/resources say it "should," but I didn't mind at all. She wouldn't really communicate she needed to go, so it was us putting her on the toilet at regular intervals, and then she'd go. But I would 100% rather remember to put her on the toilet every hour than change diapers. She was pretty good at communicating or going by herself by around 22 months. I will be starting training 2 at 18 months as well.