A Perfect Storm

Someone used the words "a perfect storm for failure" the other day, and it got me thinking.

I have, for a long time, carried around a lot of guilt over not sticking it out and trying harder to breastfeed my eldest. Coupd I have tried harder? Yes. Could I have tried longer? Yes. Would the result have been any different? No.

The more I learn, the more I realize that my failure to breastfeed was predetermined, before my daughter was even born.

There. I said it.

It wasn't just the lack of good advice and a strong support system.

Would those have helped me overcome the failure for which I'd been set up? Possibly, but more so, knowing I was being set up wol dhave helped.

So what is this setting up to which I'm referring?

Induction with pitocin and an epidural.

What? How does that pertain to breastfeeding success rates?

Pitocin can and does lead to fluid retention. Fluid retention can, in this case, mean abnormal, painful, and unnatural engorgement.

Epidurals can lead to a weak sucking or suckling instinct in newborns. If a baby isn't nursing efficiently, that leads to more time at the breast telling your body to produce more milk, without that milk being consumed which leads to, drumroll please..... engorgement.

The fact that the lactation counselor at the hospital only gave me "how to get your milk to come in" advice, without saying "this is how you increase supply," probably didn't help much either.

But regardless of shoddy advice, the fact that no one said "hey, by the way, you need to know that what we are doing is likely to lead to painful engorgement and here's what to do," shows that you have to educate yourself ahead of time as best you can, and then you have to ask questions.

If you are planning to breastfeed, ask ask ask.

If your OB wants to give you something, ask not only what the immediate side effects are, but if there is anything you should be aware of later.

Ask, because by not knowing, it's easy to fall into the perfect storm for failure, and then spend the net ten years feeling twinges of guilt every time you're reminded how you "failed."

I need to stop saying I failed.

I didn't fail.

That's like saying someone failed because they had a common reaction to a medication, because more or less, that's a lot of what happened.

I didn't fail my daughter. Prevailing medical recommendations of the time, without proper information, failed us.

The Great Fluffy Review: Gro Baby

A long time ago, Gro Baby was offering a fantastic blog promotion, and as a result, I got one of their pre-production shell sets, that which you see Snapdragon rockin' in the above picture. Since then we've also acquired a Vanilla shell.

Gro Baby diapers are a one size all in two option with a shell and snap in soaker. The shell uses a unique hook and loop closure and has a mesh lining to aid in quicker drying. The soaker is made of organic cotton, and it's thick. Gro Baby also uses a lay in doubler for heavy wetters.

The Good:

This diaper fits very trimly. Between our blackberry Gro Baby and our vanilla Gro Baby, they started cutting them a little larger, but it's still quite trim.

The shell can be used for multiple diaper changes so you need fewer shells than soakers, and can even use prefolds or some fitteds under the shell.

The hook and loop they use is super soft, so no scratchy edges rubbing on baby. This is the only hook and loop diaper at which I don't frequently grumble.

They offer snap conversions for $3.50 if the hook and loop isn't working for you.

The shell can also be used with their bio-soakers for trips and if baby is battling a diaper rash.

The Not so Good:

The soaker is a little smaller than I'd like. I want it to be just a touch bigger so it would do a better job of keeping poo-splosions off of the shell, because I'm lazy, and in love with reusing the shell.

The hook and loop can come undone.

The soaker takes FOREVER to dry. I mean, it's super absorbent, hence the time suck, but when everything else is dry, it usually has another day of hanging around until it's ready to go, and I'm not the type to run an extra dryer cycle for one item.

Overall

You can buy a Gro Baby shell set, for $24.95, just the shell for $16.95, 2 extra soakers for $16.95, and 2 extra boosters for $8.95, meaning you can get precisely what you need for the way you rock the Gro Baby, so despite the fact that they do cost more than the average diaper, I feel they're worth the investment because it's such a versatile diaper.

Discolsure: I was not compensated for this review at all, though if you want to compensate me, I could use some more fluff or a Magic Stick. K?

Edited to add, since writing this, but before it went live, I also have added a Mandarin shell to our stash.

The Great Fluffy Review: JamTots Berry Plush

The very first diaper I ever won was a JamTots Berry Plush.

The Berry Plush is marketed as an AIO, though it is really a cover with a snap in soaker. They are sized and side snapping. Ours has a hemp soaker with a Minkee top. The outside of the diaper is a very soft plush marbled, solid, or animal print Minkee, and is so very soft, it almost feels like a crime that he pees in it. The inside layer of PUL is reversed so that the laminate isn't against the baby, but rather the knit polyester is.

In all fairness, I have this triple stuffed for the sake of comedic-effect.

The Good:

I like the side snaps.

It has two different rows of snaps to adjust how sungly you want the diaper on baby's thighs and waist.

The soaker absorbs well.

I LOVE that the shell can be reused with prefolds.

I have successfully used the GroBaby bio soakers from The Natural Baby Company with this diaper.

The Not so Good:

It's not cheap. Just the cover sells for $21.85, with another $8.10 for the soaker.

Because the PUL is reversed on the inside, you have to be aware that it will wick moisture if left too long on baby. As with any cloth diaper, it needs to be changed every 2-3 hours, as it is somewhat more given to wicking than diapers with the less comfortable laminate layer facing the baby.

Overall:

I have found the rise of the diaper to be somewhat short, but I have a huge baby. I strongly recommend measuring your kiddo's rise before ordering, bearing in mind that weight-based size charts have to guess at baby's proportions.

I do really like this diaper, but I feel it is too pricey for me.

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review in any way.

The Great Fluffy Review: SunBaby

When my mom offered to buy me some cloth diapers when Snapdragon was born, she gave me a price limit and told me to find what I wanted. Well, I knew that I needed to make the absolute most of it, and as a result, I spent a lot of time researching types of diapers and reading reviews.

What drove me crazy was trying to find a review on the SunBaby diapers sold on eBay. Well, everyone was looking for a review and speculating, so now, 8 months later, after deciding it was worth the risk, I can tell you how I really feel about them.

I sometimes call them #faildipes.

I sometimes am overwhelmingly in love with them. It's a love/hate relationship.

Then

Now

SunBaby cloth diapers are a one size pocket diaper using microfiber inserts with three rise adjustments, snap closures, and a micro-fleece lining designed to fit a baby from about 8lbs to 35 lbs. They come in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Light Blue, and Purple.

The Good:

Inexpensive. You can buy them now for around $8 per diaper, in bulk, on eBay.

The PUL is effective.

The fleece lining wicks moisture away from Snapdragon's tushie.

The Not so Good:

The leg elastic isn't nearly as snug fitting as any of the other cloth diapers we own, which has led to more accidental peeing straight out the side accidents.

Snapdragon probably weighed about 10 lbs before I felt comfortable-ish with the fit through the leg. I still do not use these for going out of the house anywhere where I'm worried about having to deal with leaks, because the leg gaps still happen more often than they should.

Some of the snaps were melted when I got these, and therefore, those snaps NEVER worked right. This meant that I had some diapers which would only be able to be used on the large setting, or with creative closures at the top. Because they come from China and return shipping would have been more costly than would have been reasonable, I did not exchange those.

Overall: These have been the workhorse of our stash, and they've done well enough for around the house, but I can't in good faith recommend them because of the snap issues we have had. As with anything on eBay, buy at your own risk, and you get what you pay for. That said, it is worth noting that there are some AWESOME Etsy WAHMs out there who might be able to replace any snaps that don't work.

The Great Fluffy Review: bumGenius 3.0

When I discovered modern cloth diapers this year, I did a lot of reading, and by the time I was registering for my shower, I'd read that people seemed to really love the bumGenius 3.0.

The bumGenius 3.0 is a one sized pocket diaper with hook and loop closures with a suede cloth lining. bumGenius also has offered limited edition fleece lined diapers as well as organic ones with snap closures. They have three rise adjustments in order to fit babies approximately 7 lbs to 35 lbs.

The notion of One Size seemed convenient, so I went with it and registered for a whole bunch of these. I got one. It was white, just like every other diaper out there, but I loved it.

When I got home, I taught Mongoosine how to stuff it, and we practiced putting it on her baby doll, while planning to get more.

Honestly? I have two now. The one white and another in moonbeam.

The Good:

They fit Snapdragon well starting at about two weeks, when he weighed about 8.5 lbs. He looked ridiculous, but the legs were snug enough that they really did fit my tiny little newborn. It's possible they'd have fit sooner, but I didn't want to mess with his cord stump, which just didn't seem to want to come off.

The inserts are nicely absorbent.

The Not so Good:

The bumGenius 3.0s which I own have hook and loop closures, and I don't love hook and loop. It tends to come unhooked on it's own while Snapdragon is wearing it, and also gives him something to mess with. The hook and loop also tends to come unfastened in the wash, sticking to other bits of baby laundry. This can be a real pain if you are also washing the hand knit blanket his aunt made him, which he just made a mess on mid diaper change. And by real pain I mean can instigate swearing with creativity.

The bumGenius 3.0s I own also are lined with a soft suede cloth to keep baby's bottom dry. For some people this is a HUGE plus. However, if you have hard water, the suede cloth tends to start to smell like a literbox. There are ways to combat this build up, I've had great luck with an overnight soak in Rockin' Green Soap, but it's a pain in the bottom.

Overall: It's a good fit, but they're not our favorite.

They cost $17.95, which is pretty middle of the road.

Disclosure: I was not compensated by anyone in any way for this review.

The Great Fluffy Review: Birdseye Flats

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, since I've already mentioned how I feel about plastic pants and pins in my review of prefold diapers.

When we started cloth diapering Mongoosine, back in 1999, Birdseye Flats made up the other half of our stash. We used them with plastic pants and pins. Now, diapering snapdragon, again, I prefer to fold them and lay them in a wrapping cover. I don't love messing with the folds necessary to use them the old fashioned way, but when I do, I'm usually grateful for a Snappi.

That said. If used the "old fashioned way," they hold in poo-splosions much better than folded and laid in, thus keeping your cover cleaner.

Flats are better than prefolds in that you don't need to have more than one size, but rather can fold them differently to fit your baby as s/he grows.

The Good:

Inexpensive.

Multipurpose. When baby is potty trained, they're great for cleaning around the house.

The Not So Good:

No layer of moisture protection to keep baby's bottom dry.

Overall: I don't feel like my diaper stash would be complete without flats, and I highly recommend at least one package of these to anyone cloth diapering, because let's be honest, sometimes we all get behind on the wash and have to get creative. I personally tend to use these coupled with a prefold for added absorbency in the morning, because that's when Snapdragon tends to do his firehose impression.

Ornamental

Recently, the fabulous Jessie over at Moma Lovebug, maker of Heart Felt Food, and twitter goddess extraordinaire had a brilliant idea. She thought, why don't we have a bloggy/twitter ornament exchange to breathe some new life into our holiday decorations?

Well, so of course, being the artsy craftsy type, I was all on board with it.

Sadly, the ornament is gone now, so I only can share the pictures I took with my phone, but I thought I'd share with you guys so you too can feel the love.

This ornament measures 1"x 3" and is made of two layers of glass with different pieces of paper cut, stamped, and otherwise embellished sandwiched in the middle. On the back there was rice paper, an elephant, some nifty woven mesh, and the word "Joy," but I prefer the side with the breastfeeding mother, and have therefore chosen to share that with you.

I genuinely enjoyed making this ornament, though in retrospect, I wish the old art text which I cut apart for the image had contained more than the one breastfeeding mother painting!

The Great Fluffy Review: Gerber Prefolds

10 years ago, I had a baby. She was cute, she was sweet, and she had a fluffy butt. A saggy saggy fluffy butt.

Rumor has it that Fuzzi Bunz had been invented, but I didn't know about them, so we went the pins and prefolds with plastic pants route. As she got older we expanded into birdseye flats.

When she had poop it was time to dunk and swish.

They went into the wet pail and soaked until wash day, were washed with dreft and bleach, rinsed an extra time, and hung on the line. (I would NEVER recommend this wash routine now. Now we rinse using a diaper sprayer, store in a dry pail, and usually wash with Rockin' Green Soap.)

Pinning them on was a pain. I admit it, I didn't love the pins, but they worked. Folding them just right was a chore, but not hard.

The real question is did they work.

Yes. They work.

They work just fine.

You change them about every two to three hours and they work just peachy without requiring special complicated wash routines.

The good:

Inexpensive. Very inexpensive. For the price of two or three packages of disposables, you can be set to go, washing every two or three days with prefolds, plastic pants, and pins.

They can be personalized by sewing a strip of awesome down the middle so they don't feel so bland. Your prefolds can also be dyed. Don't believe me? Check out the Enchanted Dandelions Etsy shop where April does just that, albeit with DSQ prefolds. I embellished ours.

We always used regular old Desitin with the prefolds back in the day, and we never had a problem with repelling.

The not so good:

If you don't want baby's bottom in constant contact with the damp, then these are not for you. There is no layer of microfleece or anything else to wick the moisture away from baby's butt.

I really HATE the plastic pants. The elastic on the legs tends to leave nasty red marks that seem to take a whole day to fade.

Pins can make a body nervous.

Suggestions: I find that 10 years later I still love using prefolds IFF I am using them in a wraping cover so I can fold them in thirds and lay them in as a soaker instead of having to pin them.

Hate pins? Snappis work well for closing an un-embelished prefold under a pull up cover such as the plastic pants of doom or a nice fleece or wool soaker.

Bottom line: everyone should have some prefolds in their diaper stash, but you'll be happier if you spring for the wrapping covers.

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