Flats Challenge Days 4 and 5

This week has to be the busiest week ever! I will have had five different family members come and stay over at different (and sometimes the same) times over the course of the seven days of the flats challenge.  It was just coincidence that it happened that way but since it coincides with not only the flats challenge, but one of the last weeks of school before summer vacation, it makes it hard to write about the challenge every week--on my blog at least.  You can read the full stories of both Day 4 and Day 5 (to be posted sometime this morning, Saturday) on The Cloth Diaper Blog.

But I'll give you the long and short of it here.

Thursday was CRAZY!!!  I decided to wash diapers during my daughter's nap rather than in the evening because I was getting tired of washing them half asleep at 10:30 in the evening.  Doing this meant I had the opportunity to line dry them in the sun which meant they dried almost twice as fast,  than they do in my basement.  I also bought some flour sack towels from Target to supplement my flat stash so that if I did have a night where I was too exhausted to wash them, I'd have enough to wash me two days.

We also had tornado warnings which lead to a mad rush on my part to evacuate before the dark clouds reached our area--which was irrational and foolish, but we did it all the same because I was panicking.  And our area was perfectly safe.  The town north of us had a tornado that didn't quite touch down, but my town just had high winds and severe thunderstorms.  But the whole thing took time out of our evening routine and diaper washing.  

Friday was much easier.  I am well ahead of myself with the laundry and could go all day tomorrow without washing if I feel the need.  I like the flour sack towels, though I used them without prepping them.  If you know me you'll know that I always do that with my diapers.  I can never wait til they've been washed and if they leak just a tiny bit, I'm okay with that.  The flour sack towels did leak just a tiny bit--well one did overnight--but it wasn't such a huge leak that I was upset by it.  Just a tiny bit of moisture around Bunny's leg.

 Friday, I also really got a leg up on the diaper washing.  I got so far ahead that all my diapers but three were cleaned and dried.  That means that today, if I don't feel like washing them, I don't have to.  Though tomorrow being a day of rest, I'd much rather skip the wash tomorrow.

Today I'm home all day and I'm excited to see how that will make this challenge go differently.  So far, someone else has taken the challenge for the first four hours of every day and I pick it up at the tail end.  I want to be the one to do the challenge all day today and tomorrow.  Even in church tomorrow I'll be able to do it because I have nursery duty!  Anyway, I don't feel like watermarking my pictures, so I'm going to drag over the pictures I sent to Diaper Junction since they're already watermarked.

Flats Challenge Day 3

So, yesterday, I started writing a post but got busy and never did complete it.  But I did write one for the Cloth Diaper Blog and they'll either have it up on their blog or on their Facebook page today, so you can look out for it there. 

Hightlight of the day?  When I tried to put my daughter to sleep and she put me to sleep instead (she actually patted me on the back as we cuddled and said, "Good night, Mommy. Go to sleep, Mommy" and I fought it but I was out before I knew it!  Then, after my husband took her and put her in the crib I had to wake up, get out of bed and wash the flats.  I wasn't too happy about that, but it got done!

My hands are getting raw from wringing them out. I knew that this would happen from past experience of hand washing diapers. I suppose I'll have callouses by the end of the week, but for now my sweet husband is helping me out with that.  I don't have rubber gloves, otherwise I would have used them. 

And I'm still agitating the diapers with my bare feet.  It seems to work well for them--though my maxi pads really really miss the washing machine!  I timed that one perfectly, didn't I!

Flats and Handwashing Week: Day 2

With family over, I've found it kind of hectic trying to get all the cooking and cleaning done (that's now multiplied) while doing the flats and hand washing challenge, but it's working well enough.  You can read more about that here, at the Cloth Diaper Blog. 

This morning was the best, though...in that I have a funny story to tell! After frantically running around this morning before leaving for work to clean my dishes, sweep and mop the kitchen floor, make lunch (in the crock pot) and then get some laundry done and the newly dried flats folded, I changed Bunny's diaper.  I put her in a kite fold with pins and no cover--which I've done QUITE frequently before with no problems--to help clear up a bit of redness.  Coupled with Grovia's Magic Stick for diaper rash, it cleared up after just an hour or so, but I put her in a second coverless flat just to be sure.  Then I'm in the kitchen chopping up vegetables and I look on the floor to see something small and brown just under my daughter's feet.

"That's funny!" I thought, assuming it was a chocolate teddy graham,  "I just swept and mopped!" 

I looked closer and realized it was poop.  Yikes! I hadn't put the diaper on her snugly enough and she was dropping a trail of turds behind her everywhere she went! I picked it up in a tissue and threw it away and then ran hastily to her bedroom to change her into a covered flat while my sister walked around the kitchen inspecting for more turds (she found three) gagging all the way.

It was kinda funny.  It's moments like these when I miss fitted diapers because you can wear them coverless without worrying about finding poop all over your house! I can say one thing--I'm so SO glad we don't' have carpeting in our kitchen or living room! This might have been a MUCH longer story if we did.

For more information on the Flats and Hand Washing Challenge, check out this post from Kim Rosas at Dirty Diaper Laundry.  

Flats and Handwashing Week: Day 1

Ah, so the week has begun and it came much differently than I had anticipated or hoped, but I'm happy all the same.
My family is coming to visit me in increments this week so we have LOTS of caregivers other than my husband and I who will be taking care of Bunny and changing her diapers.  My sister, my Mom, even my brother will probably help with the diaper duty this week which, on a normal week, would be great, but this week it means a little extra work for me prepping trifolded flats into covers to have them ready and waiting and then giving tutorials on how to put the diapers on. 

It also means less time to handwash my flats because I'll be cooking so much more and washing so many more dishes but it means I'll have a little help too, so that's encouraging.  It means that Bunny will be having so much fun playing with her Aunt, Uncle, and Grandma that she won't be clinging to my leg while I"m trying to get house chores done (which she normally does, so I often try to get them done when she's sleeping so I can give her the one on one time she craves so dearly)

So, the week is starting out differently than I'd thought but I think, overall, it will be a fun week full of things learned--but with a little help. 

I also realize that for once, my entire CD stash--minus the flats--will be clean, so I can photo graph it--even though I firmly believe that this is a dorky and obsessive thing to do.  Ha ha! I'm dorky and obsessive, I guess. :-)

PS--that is my photo that I stole from my post on The Cloth Diaper Blog today.  You should read it.  It's all about why my mom switched from cloth diapers to disposables back in the day and relates extremely well to the theme that inspired this week.