Cloth Diapering twins,

Cloth diapering is going great. The boys are now in cloth 95% of the time and pretty  much 24 hours a day. Now that I'm familiar with the process, the routine, and how they work I feel much more confident and its getting easier by the day.  If I get behind on diaper laundry I often times have to put them in disposables while I'm doing diaper laundry, and sometimes Derrick just gets a bit lazy and puts them in disposables for no good reason at all. I always have to make sure I have some aplix (velcro) covers ready or he'll resort right to a disposable diaper instead of cloth.

Recently we started to experience our first bout of leaking.  Of course all diapers leak around the legs and top if you leave them on too long, but mine were starting to act like they were no longer water proof. The inserts/liners themselves wouldn't be all that wet, but their clothes definitely were as well as the outside of the diaper itself. I ran them in the rinse cycle like 5 times then I threw them in the dryer a couple times and they seem to be better. I now have a separate wet bag where I put any leaky diapers so I can treat them as needed.

For the first time this morning, both boys experienced a cloth diaper poo-splosion.  They hadn't gone in a few days so I sort of expected it.  It wasn't too bad though, the diapers contained the poo pretty well considering how much there was!  The only other time I had a poo leak was when Derrick put a pocket on Sawyer that wasn't put on right (user error). I'd say we're pretty successful since we haven't had leaks and poo-splosions the entire 2 1/2 months we've been doing cloth! We had them all the time when using disposables - that first month while they were in sposies I scrubbed at least one outfit a day because the diaper couldn't contain the poo.

We have a pretty wide variety of diapers at this point. We've definitely figured out which are our favorites and which we leave as a last resort. Derrick doesn't care about brand/style as long as its velcro. He struggles with snaps on their outfits but struggles worse when trying to figure out the snaps on our diapers. If he's attempted a diaper with snaps, I often have to fix it up for him because the snaps seem to confuse him.  I have a preference to certain brands, mostly based on the fit each one gives us.  I love my Alva pockets. Even thought the fit isn't that great for our boys, they have never had any problems, leaks or blow outs until they started leaking recently - which I fixed.  I am in LOVE with my Flips covers. In fact, I've bought a few more used on some Buy, Sell, Trade groups. They are always the first in my stash to be used.  I also love our Swaddlebees Basix pocket diapers, I love that they have very little bulk (the side snaps take away from the bulk around the tummy), they are AIOs (so the insert is attached making laundry super easy) and I've never had any leaks or anything with them. I'm just a little sad that these are not One Size diapers so the boys will be growing out of them in no time.

I was doing diaper laundry last night, sitting on the couch stuffing pockets, when Derrick gives me a goofy look. "How annoying, it's a good thing those are saving us a lot of money for all the time you put into them." My response was simple, and true.  "Diaper laundry makes me feel proud, glad that I am doing something to better our environment, save us money and keep the boys' butt's healthier... Plus, stuffing pockets is much like folding socks for me - therapeutic. It's easy brainless activity that calms me."   Weird I know.

 

How we do things:

This is spotlighting what is in my rotation right now. I also have a drawer of diapers in their bedroom that are not in my current rotation.

 









Stash Storage. The basket on top holds
burp rags and other Misc baby items.
The diapers outside the container are
all the ones they've already grown out of!





 

 

 



I haven't invested in some garbage cans for my bags yet, so for now
my wet bags hang here. The big one is for
all diapers/liners, the small one is for leakers.

 

 

 

Wash

When I need to wash (about every other day), I take the bags and dump them into my washer, then the bag goes in empty with the diapers. Rinse on cold, wash on hot using Tide Original (powder), then rinse 2x.

Night time

I also have a small stash of liners and 2 extra covers I keep in my night stand for overnight changes. And, I hang a small wet bag from our door handle for those overnight diapers/liners.







After washing, all covers/pockets get hung on this tension rod
I hung in our laundry room (usually over night)
The liners/inserts get put in the dryer.

All the bags get hung to dry on these
hooks in our laundry room.

 

Now that our diapers are clean....

 

top drawer is doublers and wipe solutions,
2nd drawer is all inserts/liners for covers,
Next drawer is covers,
Bottom Drawer is all Pocket Diapers,
 



Top Drawer - doublers, bamboo inserts, extra wipes
wipe solution and CJs BUTTer

2nd drawer - All inserts for covers. Some Flips, Flip doublers,
Swaddlebees liners, prefolds and Snappis.





3rd drawer - covers, left side is velcro,
 Right side is Snaps. 
Orange is Thirsties, Giraffes are Swaddlebees,
Bottom 7 are all Flips.
On the right: top 3 are Rump A Roos,
Blue and green are Kissaluvs, monkeys are Swaddlebees,
Yellow is Flips, I have 2 more Flips with Snaps.
(2 Rump a Roos are in our room for night time changes)









The two missing Flip covers from my other stash shots









Bottom Drawer: Top left 4 are Swaddlebees Basix,
Bottom 4 are Swaddlebees Simplex,
Right side are my 12 Alvas,
Middle holds my extra inserts,
top 2 diapers are Fuzzibunz, green is Thirsties and
the polka dots is Blissful Booties.



Full Stash Shot.

We have a system going, its working. Derrick is finally starting to get used to the process and how these all work. The more Aplix covers I get for him the more compliant he is to cloth diapering. Feels good to be successful at this.

Now that you've been given the tour, if you come over to my house and offer to change a butt or two, I expect you to know my system ;-) Just kidding!


 



3 months old

This post has been a long time coming. Obviously the boys and Evelyn keep me VERY busy. So busy in fact, that I've intended to write a post for an entire week with no success!

The boys turned 3 months old the other day. Holy moly where did my tiny little newborns go??? The spend much more time awake now, they love to see the world around them. They smile... A lot! The even get out some giggles occasionally. Although they have excellent head control, they show no interest I. Tummy time or rolling over. That's ok though cause their adjusted age puts them at only 2 months old.

They are finally getting over their coughs and colds and other miscellaneous illnesses that come with cold wet winters.

Speaking of winters, this one has dragged on and on! It's April 25th
And we just now are getting warm enough weather that we can be outside, as in, today is the first day I've been able to get out for a walk because its finally 70 degrees!

An observation:

People are fascinated when they see twins. Let me explain.

I go places, like the mall, and people turn their heads 180 degrees trying to get a peek at the twins. I hear "awww look there's twins!" Over and over. I don't mind, I find it an amusing game to count how many times I hear it.

Every once in awhile I get stopped, like at the park today. I get the same battery of questions each time: "are they twins?" "How old are they?" "Are they identical?" "Did you do infertility treatments?" "How big were you?" "Was it miserable?" "Were they early?" "is it hard?" To name a few. Again, I don't mind. I love the opportunity to brag about all my kids, just like every other parent does.

Yes (no I have the gestational time period of a mouse...), 3 months, we don't know, no, huge, no, 4 weeks, yes....

The thing I can't stand are the negative comments: "you sure have your hands full." (It doesn't bother me when they are simply stating a fact, but when they have a negative tone about it that's when it bothers me.), "I couldn't do it." And my favorite that I heard at Walmart yesterday: "I sure hope that doesn't happen to me." (Ok what if it does? What will you do about it? And seriously I'm not cursed by having twins, I'm blessed and you would be too!) I usually just respond with "it's a blessing, it's a lot of work, it's stressful and exhausting. It's worth every second of sleepless nights and an incredible journey to experience."

It's funny to me, when I would take Evelyn out, to the store or park, very few people would say much of anything besides "how old is she?". Take the twins out somewhere and people are full of comments and questions.

When I do get into a conversation about the twins, often I'll mention Gabriel, the journey we travelled, and quickly people realize how much of a blessing the twins are to us (and to other twin parents out there). Quickly their tune changes from multiples being a curse and a problem into something amazing.

When conversation gets long, I spend many breaths correcting people's misconceptions about twins. No the guy doesn't have anything to do with the conception of their twins (although new research is saying its possible for identicals.), no identical twins are not genetic - they are spontaneous, no we don't know if ours are identical or fraternal, and no they can't always guarantee one way or the other unless they share sac or placenta. No they don't automatically test them (its semi expensive to do so) and, No not all twins are automatically a c-section even though ours were. Amongst other - and some very strange - preconceived notions about twins.

I don't get mad, it's not people's fault they are misinformed. But please keep your negativity about having multiples to yourself, I don't want to have to defend myself every time I have an interaction with a mom to singletons.

Interactions with other moms of multiples is a different experience all together. It's like a club you join when you have more than one baby at a time. There's always a huge smile exchanged before a wave and very different conversation commences.

Today I met a girl and a we of fraternal twin girls - she is the nanny. Even though she's the nanny and not the mom, the conversation was much the same, she was so proud to be the nanny to twins, she talked about them as if they were her own.

Having twins is a whole new ball game. It's completely different from having a single baby, not in a bad way, on a fantastic way.

Logan

Sawyer

End of Maternity Leave

That 10 weeks flew by. Actually, I can't believe its already been that long.  This past weekend I returned to work, thus marking the end of my maternity leave. (insert sad face here).

I was sad knowing I'd be leaving the kids all night, I was worried if they would cooperate for Derrick or if I would come home to a frazzled fiance. I wondered if Evelyn would be a pill while I was catching my sleep during the day.

When I left, I was scared. Derrick was already getting frustrated, Evelyn was refusing to go to bed and the boys were whining and crying.  Derrick says "Is this how they are all day?!?" My response: "Yup, have a good night!" As I strolled out the door.  That's not entirely true. They aren't like that ALL day, sometimes they sleep!!!  But they do have their times/moments where they drive me to the edge of a cliff, push me off, then smile and pull the string. I'm not talking about the one attached to my heart, although it may feel like it, I'm talking about the one for the parachute that is about to save my sanity.  Their smile = my parachute.

I was recieving text message after text message for the first hour I was at work.  The last few weeks they boys had not been sleeping more than 2 hours at a time again... Talk about frustrating.  They were doing it to Derrick, who had not prepped himself for the night time battle he was about to endure.  Then, nothing. No messages, no phone calls... Apparently the boys had decided it was a good idea to actually sleep for extended periods of time for their dad. What the heck!?!?! They slept 4 hours straight, ate, and instead of staying up like they tend to do for me they went back to sleep!  I got home, fed them and crawled into bed myself. 

Saturday night went even better for him. I didn't receive a single text message until 3:30am after I had text him to check in. They boys were sleeping..... again. Go figure.  During his time with them he managed to convince them to suck on a paci instead of gagging on it. He got them sleeping for at least 1 extended period (4 hours is extended in this house), and kept them alive and happy. In fact, he didn't just succeed, he soared.  I was impressed.

Sunday night I was worried, I was exhausted from enduring my first overnights back at work. We crawled into bed and miraculously got 4 hours of sleep (almost)!  They got up every few hours after that, but this was a vast improvement from recent nights. I felt like a whole new woman.

Recently I got a new app for my phone called "Wonder Weeks".  I've been reading it and studying it, its really quite accurate. It talks about the mental development and milestones a newborn experiences. According to this app, the boys spent the last 2 weeks in a "stormy period".... ahhhh that explains it.  Its a period of time where they are getting used to another leap in development, things have changed, shifted. They are crabby, clingy, needy.  Yup, that about sums it up. Now we should be entering a "sunshine period". A point in time where they will be happy, content, smiling and learning. I am going to enjoy this.  I know full well that soon, we will endure yet another leap and another stormy period. I just hope the next one is easier than this one...

Now that I know Derrick can handle it, despite his lack of preparations for himself.  I can go to work confident that all 3 kids are under the best possible care. I can enjoy socializing and being around people I am eye level with. I can enjoy a short break from my everyday life.  And Derrick can enjoy some daddy/child time with the kids confident that he can do this and be just fine.