Newborn Cloth Diaper Stash Review

Once my husband and I had decided to start trying to conceive our second child I almost immediately started buying cloth diapers. We didn't start cloth diapering our son until pretty late, when he was around 18 months. So cloth diapering a newborn was going to be all new to me. I knew I was going to want a variety since I made the big mistake of buying an entire stash of one type of diaper for our son and then didn't like them. So I researched, a TON. I watched vlogs and read blogs til my brain was buzzing. This is what I ended up with:

• 2 GroVia in the old style organic cotton
• 1 GroVia in the new stay dry hemp
• 2 Itti bitti d'lish size small SIO
• 1 Itti bitti d'lish size small AIO
• 1 XS Charlie Banana
• 2 XS Bumgenius
• 2 Size 1 Applecheeks
• 1 mircofiber Bitty Bee from The Little Bee Co
• 4 Thirsties Duo Wrap size 1 with snaps
• 1 XS Thirsties aplix cover
• 12 Bummis newborn prefolds
• 1 Lil Joey
• 1 Swaddlebees Newborn Simplex
• 1 Ecoposh fitted
• 1 WAHM fitted

 I ended up with about 29 potential diaper changes from my entire stash so I planned on having to do laundry every other day. However we ended up doing laundry everyday because if we tried to wait we would get dangerously low during laundry time. Newborns poop A LOT!

Her first diaper was a Lil Joey.

It fit her great and we never had a blow out or leak. But the inner gussets always left red marks on her tiny tush and washing it was a nightmare. It had so many little cracks and seams for newborn poop to get stuck. I would snap it sort of "inside out" so that the mircofiber part would be exposed but that still left poop stuck in the inner gussets seams. So I pretty much just gave up and it was one of the last grabbed for in my stash.

Another diaper that fit her the really great in the beginning was the GroVia in the older organic cotton style. For reason the older ones shrink up smaller then the new style ones. When I had first finished prepping the GroVias they shrank up so small I remember thinking there in no way she will fit in these and I was so wrong because they fit her perfect. They did wick a bit at the legs and we had a similar problem to the Lil Joey that poop wouldn't wash out of the seams all the way. The first week the new style one was too big and would rub on her umbilical stump so we had to wait to use it. Both styles took a bit long to dry. 

The Bitty Bee microfiber fit awesome. Probably the best fitting out of the whole stash in the first week. And I was in love with the pattern. I grabbed for it just for the cuteness factor. We had a  little trouble at times getting the poop out, but it dried quickly. It contained poop like a champ, but for some reason it pretty much always leaked pee, like every. single. time. I'm talking the pee pretty much just ran right out of the diaper, almost like it was repelling. It was fully prepped before the first use and I never could figure out way it did that. I just kept giving it chance after chance because it was just so darn cute I wanted to love it, but it never did get better.

The XS Bumgenius and XS Thirsties cover were not my favorites just for the simple fact that I am not a fan of aplix (or hook and loop, however you want to call it). They fit decent and we didn't really have any issues they just never felt secure because of the aplix. 

The thirsties duo wraps with snaps were great to fill out our stash. They worked great the fit well. I was pretty happy with them and we still use them now size up a little. I wouldn't have a whole stash of them just because they lack the convince of an AIO, but over all I would buy them again.

With the Thirsties duo wraps we used the Bummis newborn prefolds. We tried folded them and laid them in the cover because even at her smallest there wasn't a chance in heck they were going to snappy on her.  These also made great inserts for the other pocket diapers we had in our stash. Overall we had kind of a lot of these, so I don't think I would get so many next time. 

The Itti Bitti D'lish diapers never fit. Like at all. The waist was fine but the legs always had huge gaps. It made me so sad because I really wanted to love these diapers, but they just didn't work for her even at 5 weeks when we started to incorporate some one-size diapers into our rotation. Luckily I have been MUCH more impressed by their one-size version, the Tutto. I LOVE THEM...

The fitteds I liked to use going coverless, but personally find using fitted for a newborn to be a bit of a pain in the booty. A two step system when going through so many diapers was just too much. I am keeping the WAHM fitted for her new shadow box because it was so stinking cute. Both fitteds had the newborn snap down so they were nice the first week before she really started peeing a lot, but not a must have.

I really enjoyed the Swaddlebees Newborn Simplex. I bought it before the price went up at the beginning of the year, and I wish I had got more. I am a huge fan of natural fiber so that fact that this diaper is organic cotton on the inside scores big points for me. It fit her really well from the beginning first days until we stopped using it. Occasionally the two snap system would slip us up a little since all the other newborn AIOs we had only had one snap, but its wasn't to big a deal.  Even though I think their new price point is a little outrageous for a newborn diaper, I would still totally consider buying more of these keeping in mind their resale value  And I am keeping the one we have for the possibility of future children. It was a definite favorite. 

Here she is at 1 month old in her XS Charlie Banana

As far as pockets go we had the XS Charlie Banana and Applecheeks size 1. The Charlie Banana was another keeper. It did take a week for her legs to fill out enough for it to fit without gaps, but otherwise it was a great diaper. Very good quality and I love the color range that it comes in. 

Finally the Applecheeks! By far my favorite! And they are still my favorite as she is closing in on 10 weeks old. I started out with two and have since bought four more. They fit great the first week even with the umbilical cord stump and they still fit great. I love them. This is coming for a person who was not previously a pocket diaper fan. I have one size 2 Applecheeks for my son (a Lake Echo that I LOVE), but it didn't blow me away because for him I preferred AI2s. However for a newborn these were awesome. They washed easily and dried quickly. Never leak or blow out. Just all around a winner!

All in all, even though I didn't keep or like some of the diapers I am very happy with the variety I had. Whoa! That ended up being a crazy long blog. If you are still with me, I hope it was helpful.

Gluten-Free Lactation Cookies

Lately we have been chocolate chip cookie addicts around here. We bought a jumbo bag of chocolate chips from Costco and have been baking up a storm. My hubby has even made a few batches and he is not normally a baker. I think we have tried 4 or 5 different recipes in the past few months and I have been meaning to make some lactation cookies since I was pregnant. Kinda happy I waited though since I am currently eating gluten free (and dairy free and soy free), for the baby girl. The bag of chocolate chips was getting kinda low so I decided it was time. It also turned out to be a great week for it since I started the 30 day shred, and with starting any new work out routine I always get a little concerned about my milk supply dipping. So perfect timing all around.

I drew inspiration from a few different recipes as well as did some research on lactation cookies and some of the "natural" sugar alternatives out there these days. Turns out they really aren't any better for you then sugar and some are worse, so I went with honey. I didn't want them to be too crazy in the points department so I tried to make them as healthy as possible.

Lactation cookies help support breast milk supply through the oats and the brewer's yeast. The flax seeds contain Omega 3s. Everything just makes them tasty. If you are eating them to boost supply you should notice a difference after eating a couple each day for a few days.

Gluten Free Lactation Cookies

Makes 3 dozen

1 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp coconut oil
 3/4 cup honey
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoons flax seeds
2 tablespoons brewer's yeast

1: Combine rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
2: In a separate bowl mix together coconut oil, honey, egg, applesauce, and vanilla.
3: Then add dry mixture to the wet mixture.
4: Stir in flax seeds and brewer's yeast
5: Add oats and chocolate chips
6: Place on baking sheet or stone and bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

For those interested, I added these to the weight watcher's recipe builder and these came out to be 2 points+ a piece (other lactation cookies i have tried were 5 points+ each, so 2 isn't bad IMO).

Big Boy Pirate Room - So Far

Isn't it just crazy how fasts little ones grow. I can't believe my son is already 3! When we move to our new house is going to be getting his "big boy room." We have recently started talking about this to him to help prepare him for the change, though I think I have been planning and pinning for about a year now. It will be pirate themed since he LOVES pirates. His nursery was sort of a pirate/monkey theme with baby blue, soft green, navy, and brown.

Not the best quality photos (all I've got since we moved), but you get the idea.

This pirate room is going to be brighter and full of fun fabrics and wall art. I really hope he loves it. 

I was originally inspired by a book we got him for Christmas two years ago called Pirate Potty. The wheels in my head started turning and I remember my sister's room from a few years ago. She used to be obsessed with dolphins and she loves mermaids so my parents made her an undersea room complete with some gorgeous wave walls. There were three colors of waves going down the wall getting darker in an ombre fashion (but keep in mind this was 8 or 9 years ago before ombre was trendy). Remembering this I knew he had to have waves walls. But more sailing across the sea wave walls rather then under the sea. I plan to do it in shades of turquoise with low contrast, or do the same shade of turquoise with the 'sky' matte and the waves glossy. There will be lots of patterns and colors so I don't want it to be too busy.  

(Here is a room with wave walls I found on pinterest just to give you an idea source)

Then I discovered Pinterest and things kinda just took off from there. You can check out the board of pirate roomy goodness I have going here. I found some fabrics to make his bunting style window valence:

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And we got him this bedding from IKEA

We have some wall art and inspiration to make more. I want to make a few decorative pillows for the bed. Plus we have a few things from he nursery that we can reuse.

Now come the organization part. Right now his books are in the top shelf of his closet since he would spend nap time reading (and sometimes ripping) books. I really want him to have access to his books and in my own little fantasy world, he is hopefully ready to be able to stay in his bed during sleep time even with other distractions in his room. I plan to pick up some of these awesome spice racks from IKEA that have been all over pinterest being used in many fantastic ways.

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I was also thinking the Hemmes 6 drawer dresser from IKEA in black would work well in this room though I have not fully decided on that or if I want to buy a used dresser and refinish it. So we will see. We have yet to purchase a dresser for him because we didn't want to purchase extra stuff to move. 

The big organizational thing I plan to do for both kids closets is this:

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I have seen this closet on YouTube as well as on IHeartOrganizing and I just love it in so many ways. Who knows maybe he won't even need a dresser with a closet like this. 

So this is what I have so far....

....and plently of "Pinspiration" to have this room looking in ship shape.

Apple Cinnamon Crock Pot Oatmeal

Since my husband went back to work after Averlee was born, getting meals on the table in a timely manner has been a bit of a struggle. So lately I have been using my crock pot a bunch more so that at least dinner would be ready on time. Then I thought, why just dinner? I can use this bad boy for breakfast too. I had apples we needed to use up and oatmeal does pretty well in the crock pot so why not throw them in together with some cinnamon and call it good?

In the crock pot I put:

• 1 cup Rolled Oats (I don not recommend subing in quick cook oats, it would get way to mushy)
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 apples (I used granny smith since they would hold together better, but any variety would be fine)
• flax seeds

Cook on low overnight, or about 8 hours.

Then top with pecans, almond milk and either a sprinkle of brown sugar or a drizzle of honey.

It was so nice waking up to a hot, healthy breakfast already made.