Fluff Mom Mondays

Tell us about yourself! What is your name? How many little ones do you have? How long have you used cloth diapers?

I'm Justine mommy to two little munchkins, Seamus who is 3½ years old and Kieran who is 9months old. I've used cloth diapers for just over 5months now. I also have a blog where I talk about my life and sometimes have some reviews and giveaways (family/children products) http://sliversun.blogspot.com/

What made you decide to use cloth diapers?

I wanted to use cloth with my son but it just wouldn't work back then, we lived in a tiny apartment with coin-op laundry and the machines hardly ever worked. I had the chance again

to try cloth with my daughter, but it took some persuading to get my husband to agree to it. I wanted to cloth diaper her from the get go but dear ole hubby said no, that was until his hours at work got cut so badly that we couldn't afford disposables.

What was the first cloth diaper you bought?

Our first diapers were 2 prefolds that I made out of old t-shirts, then we got some Gerber prefolds and lucked out and found a Bummis cover at a consignment shop in town. I was then blessed by a couple ladies that I'd met off of a mommy site, one of them sent me an awesome Thirsties Duo cover and the other sent me a box full of fitteds and pockets. I've since found a love for pocket diapers and those are the ones I stay on the look out for.
I've also noticed how much garbage we were going through while in disposables and am so happy to not be putting more into our landfills

Tell us about your cloth diaper stash (numbers, sizes, types, brands, etc.):

I have mostly pockets, some fitteds, and some prefolds. I'm trying to ween the fitteds out because right now I'm just not feeling the snappi love and only 2 or 3 of my fitteds have snaps on them. I love my pockets, I have a variety of brands, some WAHM ones, and some of the bigger known ones. I have about 17 pockets, 2 FuzziBunz(one OS and one Medium), 1 BG 3.0, 1 Whamies, 1 BumJoy, 4 Cooshie Toosh(I believe lol), 4 Kawaii Baby (though only 2 are usable right now, bad elastic), 2 Nubunz, 2 that I made out of fleece and flannel, and some other unknown WAHM ones. I have my 12 original Gerber prefolds that I've dyed and some I've added flannel to, to make them work a little better and I also have 6 Bummis Organic Cotton prefolds, and 6 newborn Indian prefolds.

What is your favorite cloth diaper? Why?

I love pockets, they are easy for me to do, and they are more trim fitting then my fitteds. I love that I can make them more absorbent at naps and night by adding to them, and thinner during the day. I really like my Whamies OS, BGOS and FuzziBunz OS. The FB OS did take a little for me to love it cause I couldn't get it to fit her right but after a couple days I figured it out and now love it.

Tell us about your wash routine

I first run a cold rinse cycle, then I add a tiny squirt of Dawn, some baking soda and then some Rockin Green, I wash on Hot and 2 rinses, sometimes I will run another hot wash and 2 more rinses if I have time.

Have your friends and family been supportive of your decision?

They thought it was weird at first, but now my sister in law wants to CD her future children. My mom didn't think it was too weird because she clothed me for a little as a baby, she was just amazed by how much they've changed. And my brother...he calles me a hippie (lol)

Any challenges with using cloth diapers? What did you do about it?

We are battling stink right now, and I'm still trying to fix it, I need to try the vinegar route to see if that will help. I also wanted to use cloth wipes and it took hubby 3months or so after we started cloth diapering to let us fully switch to cloth wipes for her, it took a bad diaper rash and her screaming from disposable wipes for him to agree to the switch.

Your best piece of advice for someone new to cloth diapering

Try different kinds, what works for one person may not work for another

Your favorite scripture, quote, or anything else that you'd like to add?

Some days it can be frustrating/annoying to wash diapers but in the long run its saving money and our earth.