Day 5: Friday- What is working for me? What isn't?

By: Jessica Dunn

Parenting and Living Our Way blog

Today’s topic for bloggers participating in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge is what’s working and what isn’t. Overall, the challenge is going really well and I’m not running into a lot of obstacles. Thank goodness. 

My wash routine is going great. The only obstacle I have run into is when we got home late and I didn’t get diapers washed until after dinner. I ended up having to dry them in the house because it was too windy to dry them on the line, which took longer. You can read more about my wash routine in Day 4’s blog entry.

I have plenty of supplies to diaper my daughter, but I did need to add an additional cover because daddy isn’t a fan of reusing covers and throws them in the wash bucket. Luckily, I have a supply of covers so I was able to add an additional one in my rotation.

Our nighttime diaper was my biggest concern and that has worked out really well for us. I use two flats, either Osocozy or flour sack towels folded together in the kite fold or gaynor fold for girls and fasten them with boingos then pad fold a receiving blanket to use as a doubler. I then use a Bunny’s Fluffy Bum soaker. This diaper is just as good, if not better, than our Rumparooz pocket diaper stuffed with both the regular size and newborn size soakers. It’s definitely less bulky.

Speaking of Boingos, let’s talk about those for a minute. I loved them when Emma was a newborn, but now she’s mobile and can undo them, so they really aren’t working for us for daytime.

Since our Boingos aren’t working for daytime and I can’t find our Snappi, I haven’t been able to do any folds that require fasteners during the day and go coverless at home like I had originally planned. I am only pad folding the flats and this requires a cover.

Since my only obstacle is a fastener and I am able to overcome that by pad folding, I would say this has been a successful challenge so far.

About the author: My name is Jessica and I am the author of Parenting and Living Our Way blog. I am a busy stay at home mom to a 9 month old daughter who has recently learned how to crawl and is keeping me on my toes. I was invited by Kissed by the Moon to be their guest blogger for the week documenting my experience.  I am so excited about this opportunity and look forward to sharing my experience with you. If you’d like to read more about me, my family and our life, you can read our blog Parenting and Living Our Way. We can also be found on facebook. I am posting throughout the day on facebook and twitter about how our day is going, so you can follow along.

About the challenge: I'm participating in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.  This event aims to bring awareness to the challenges that low income families face when trying to diaper their children. There are not publicly funded programs that supply diapers to families in need. Using cloth diapers and handwashing is an affordable way to families to diaper their children. Flats are the most inexpensive of commercially available cloth diapers; receiving blankets, flour sack towels, cut sheets, and t-shirts can also be used as flats making these diapers available to all families.

Don't forget to RSVP and attend Kissed by the Moon's May Moon Moms Night In. This Friday May 24th at 5pm PST/8pm EST here.