SoKo in Cloth

Im’ in love with every song on Twila Paris’ CD Bedtime Prayers: Lullabies and Peaceful Worship. This is just one video using the song Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. I play this CD every night now when rocking my baby boy to sleep. 

I usually cry with joy as well :)

from a book my mom gave me when we were expecting. hehehe, so true!

Itching to get your hands on the new Hoot print from Thirsties? I am! Enter to win 2 Thirsties Duo Diapers (size and print of your choice) at Diaper Junction. The contest ends Friday and there are tons of ways to enter! Go now!

I love this blog and especially this post today!

Moms all around the world ask me about cleaning my diapers and touching poo, as if cloth diapering is the ONLY way moms come in contact with poo?! It’s hilarious to me (sometimes) and this mom has hit the nail on the head.

When my son was in disposables, we had tons of blow outs (ALWAYS IN PUBLIC….ugh):

I have had a poo covered car seat, baby, baby’s carefully planned outfit and mommy’s pretty dress all in the same hour before.

My husband gave our son a bath in an airplane because of poo up the back.

Poo has leaked on me at assemblies and dinners and just about anywhere I didn’t have a change of clothes for myself. 

Those are just a few of the “fond” memories I have of disposable blow-outs. My son is a pretty great pooper. But I don’t play in it or oogle over it and I certainly spend less time touching it now than I did before!

Basics:
When I first started cloth diapering Iz, we were gifted 3 bumGenius AIO (probably 3.0). We were given one grasshopper color, one twilight color and one ice color, size Small. These were our very first cloth to touch Iz’s bum and it started us on our funtastic journey into cloth diapering for life!

Looking at that picture and knowing how small this diaper really is (and how big my boy has grown) it’s almost hard to imagine him in such tiny dipes!

Details:
AIO stands for All-in-one. It is a kind of pocket diaper designed for easy use, and is often described as ‘dad-friendly”, “grandparent-friendly” and “day care-friendly.” For a regular use, the AIO does not need any special attention, just wrap in around the baby’s bottom and secure it with the hook & loop (velcro) in front; just as simple as a disposable. 

This AIO has a pocket between the suedecloth touching baby’s bottom and the waterproof lining of the cover. However, it is all All-in-one because it already has one microfiber terry sewn into the diaper. This makes a thick layer at baby’s bum and a super-absorbant diaper. Here’s a picture of the diaper normally and inside out.

Downers:
The downside to an AIO is the dry time, esp in Korea. I dried them in the dryer for about 30 mins and then had to line dry them the rest of the way (dryer electricity is expensive!) I even turned them inside out to dry but it always took 24+ hours to dry them.  I still loved them even with the long dry time.

These were our go-to night time dipes for the first month until we started getting leaks. I assumed it was because they weren’t fitting well anymore with the extra soaker we used at night (he grew super fast! and a poor fit will give leaks) but it may have also been in need of stripping. I hadn’t thought of stripping them at the time, so we’ll never know!

My Likes:
These were great diapers though and I love them still. Looking at them now, after looking at so many different diapers, I really love the super soft suedecloth-it’s one of the softest we’ve used and stays soft too. I really love the stretchy, soft elastic at the legs. I never saw red marks on Iz’s legs after wearing this diaper. 

I like the stretchy elastic at the closure tabs as well. Especially when he was small, we could get a good fit. The hook & loop closure is nice too because it was easy to assemble. Iz was never old enough to wiggle out, unwrap himself or play too hard for the hook & loop with these, so I didn’t have any problems there! And the hidden opening for the pocket was great too. I found out later (from other diapers with out the extra cover over the pocket) that the soakers could work their way out the back if you aren’t careful. I didn’t have to worry about that with this diaper.

All in all, I loved the bumGenius AIO’s and look forward to using them soon on my next little one in the future!

Whoa! This is rad! The ease of an All-In-One, 3-fit system, snaps and quicker dry time. bumGenius may have the right idea here!

Coming this December, bumGenius will release their new FreeTime AIO. There is no stuffing for this diaper; just close it up with the front snaps and off baby goes.

The inserts are semi-attached, which is great for drying. A previous con about the AIOs have been the long dry time because the insert is sewn in. Now the inserts are attached only at one end and lay flat across baby’s bum. 

The 3 snap rises in front allow this diaper to grow grow grow with baby (8-35lbs), making it worth the price. Baby can stay in this diaper for the whole first year and beyond!

With all the classic bumGenius colors, this also comes in 2 new prints: Lovelace and Albert and some new colors. Totally cute and I’m glad to see bG taking on more print designs. 

I know what’s going on my Christmas list. Pre-order now at cottonbabies and be one of the first to try it out in December! Wahoo!

If you’ve seen my baby’s (sideofthe) room, most of his toys, furniture and/or clothing, it’s no surprise that we love elephants. BUT we don’t have THESE!!!!!!!!!!!

prettydiapers:

I love the Elephant and Dino prints!! I must have these.

I always enter the TTGs to try and get more Thirsties diapers for our stash! Isaac was a FAST grower and grew to the size of a 9 month old in only 3 months (over achiever!) 

This week’s giveaway includes 2 fab fitteds (which I don’t have any of yet) and a 6 pack of fab wipes!

I’m a big fan of how they recently changed their entry system too! Check it out, I’m sure you’ll understand once you see it!

Hoot Hoot! Thirsties Duo Wraps Snaps have a new print! Owls are really popular these days because they are just so cute! This print is called “hoot” and also comes in Duo Wrap (aplix) and Duo Diaper.

I love it and I’m glad to see Thirsties branching out into more prints! These are my FAVORITE brand of diaper covers and I’ve always wanted more prints!

Horray!

This is a guest blog I wrote for my friend in Japan! Thanks Amy!

WHY? Why do I use cloth diapers?

I could do it to save money—Korea is the land of morning calm, but it’s also the land of charging 3x the import price for baby items! I could do it so I won’t have to make midnight runs to the convenience stores—the Hubs likes that ones! I could do it for the environment—I wanna do my part and I’m starting to do what I can. But that’s not why I cloth diaper. I do it because of all the cute prints!

I can’t even remember the first time I decided to do cloth diapers, but I think it has always been a thought in the back of my mind…you know, for that “some day” when I got pregnant. And then I did get pregnant and I had to really consider what kind of diapering system we would have. Like I said, there were several good reasons to choose cloth over disposable, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I chose cloth.

The Hubs and I became pregnant in Fall 2010 and started working at ICS Pyeongtaek, South Korea the same year. We’ve been here for some time before, so the move wasn’t a huge adjustment. Soon we started befriending the other families in the faculty with small children and we found a lot of cloth diapering mommas as well. They showed me their diapers and all the new gadgets and gizmos of CDs today.

It’s not a “cloth and rubber shorts” world anymore! Now there are a variety of choices, including easy-to-wash pocket diapers and “old fashion” cloth with cute covers. For the sake of time, I’m only sticking to my favorites (and you can visit my blog sokoincloth.tumblr.com to learn about more).

What’s a Pocket Diaper? Take a look!

Pocket diapers are exactly what they sound like. There is a pocket opening between one layer of microfleece (wicks the moisture off of baby’s heiny!) and PUL (waterproof material with a pretty print or color on the front). In the pocket you insert an absorbent, washable pad. There is even room for more than one if you have a super-soaker child. ;) These are the easiest diapers to use because they are assembled just like a disposable. They are soft on baby’s rump, adjustable around the waist and fun to look at. MY favorite is HipKiddo from Canada.

My Other Go-To: The “old-fashion” cloth and cover. Take a looksies here…

The biggest improvement for these cloths is that we don’t have to use diaper pins anymore. There is a stretchy blue thing in my picture below- that is called a Snappi and it holds the cloth part in place really well. (The cloth is thick enough that the grippers on the back of the Snappis never touch baby’s skin.) So, just like when I was in cloth as a kid, fold that cloth part around baby’s bum and attach the Snappi.

The waterproof layer is the next big improvement. Instead of those ugly, giant plastic panties, now there are tons and tons of cute, fashionable, leak-proof covers. The cover goes over the cloth just like a disposable diaper. They are adjustable around the waist as well. The cool part is that you can reuse the covers without washing them every single time, (as long as they aren’t soiled) so you get a lot of mileage out of them! MY favorite Cover is Thirsties Duo Wrap.

Now that I’m head-over-heels in LOOOOOVE with fluff, (that’s the new lingo for cloth these days) I’m so glad that I made this choice. My initial reasons weren’t great, but now I enjoy diaper rash-less baby booty, a good choice for the environment, sleeping in the bed instead of running out the get diapers and I thoroughly enjoy hanging my diapers to dry! I absolutely love all the colors!

And seriously, who can resist a cute baby with a fluffy butt!?