Giving thanks and saving money

Today, I'm very thankful for all the retailers that are offering great sales on their websites, so I can rack up the savings without leaving my house! Waiting in line in freezing rain? Not for me! Here's a roundup of some of the deals I appreciate most!

I'm also grateful for my family, including my two wonderful (at the moment) kiddos. I'm especially enjoying Gator's recent surge in communication ability at 18 months and my heart still swells with love watching him and his sister interact. I've been slacking on sharing photos lately, so I'll intersperse a few from fall so it's not all deal links!

Amazon MP3 Download Credit - $3  My husband has been using Amazon's mp3 store a lot lately. He says the prices are often better than iTunes, and he can still listen to the music on his ipod, smartphone, etc. Amazon also has a lot of Black Friday deals. Today you can get five albums for $1.99 each. We're getting the Interpol album.

Many other retailers have specials on their websites, and I suggest checking your favorites to see what kind of specials you can find. Old Navy is one of those retailers. But before you go straight to their website...are you using Swagbucks?

I've been using Swagbucks.com for a few months and have earned $20 in Amazon reward certificates so far. You can use the points toward other things, but as you may have noticed, I shop on Amazon, so it's the closest thing to getting a cash reward for me. I use swagbucks when I'd be doing searches anyhow, and I randomly get points for searches. You trade those points in for rewards. I was racking up the points when I was being more intentional about doing my searches through the site. They have a toolbar as well, but I'm a creature of habit with my Google toolbar...

Old Navy has been running some great promos lately and I needed to pick up some more wardrobe basics. I'm so glad I checked Swagbucks before I did. They are offering a chunk of swagbucks (reward points) if you make a $50 Old Navy order through their link. So I made my order, got my savings, plus cashed my swagbucks in for a $5 Amazon reward card.

Do you cloth diaper? Nicki's Diapers is offering 10% off of everything except Bum Genius. Nicki's offers free shipping on most diapering items, so it's a nice opportunity to get a discount on items that rarely are. I'm thinking about getting some cloth trainers for Violet. When she gets to the point when her Pull-Up is dry most nights, I'd much rather have something reusable and washable on her.


There is much more I'd like to share, but motherhood calls! I hope to add to this post or add more as I find more links that I think will be of special interest to my readers.

Full disclosure: A lot of the links on my blog are affiliate links. That means you supplement my income in a small way when you purchase those items or others after clicking on my link, or sign up for a site I've referred you to. Thank you for your clicks...every little bit helps!

Old-School Cloth Diapers

Happy in a clean diaper 

(which he's still wearing as I type this)

Old-school prefold diapers intimidated me so much when I first started cloth diapering. Pocket diapers are a lot more straightforward to put on...and I had a wriggly child. But with the new baby, I was determined to try prefolds. After diapering a bucking bronco of a toddler, an infant doesn't seem nearly as hard.

Prefolds are an inexpensive way to cloth diaper. You can customize your fold to your child. And best of all, the diapers can be used for all sorts of things...including a great burp cloth. (Like this one, which may be yellowed with dried spit up...but was right by my computer so I snapped a quick pic.)

The prefolds I use are NOT the thin Gerber ones you might find at a big box store. Those make so-so burp cloths, but are not good cloth diapers. Most of my prefolds came from a Little Lions coop, but there are many places you can buy good, thick Chinese prefolds like mine.

The diapers haven't changed much, but fastening has. Some people still use pins, but many parents use a Snappi. It's a T-shaped stretchy plastic fastener with hooks on the ends. My diaper folding technique isn't the best, but the covers I use have contained things when the diapers wasn't snug enough on the legs. 

The covers I use are made of PUL, a waterproof fabric. You can also use wool or some fleece as a cover. I'm loving PUL covers with an extra leg gusset to contain poopsplosions and hook and loop fasteners for easy adjusting of size. I really like my Thirsties covers and Bummis Super Brite covers for the newborn stage. 

Gator is wearing a small Bummis Super Brite in the photo above, with an infant prefold underneath. I use this cover with fitted diapers as well, and it fits differently over those. Both fitteds and prefolds require a cover to be waterproof. And with my rudimentary prefold-folding skills, a good cover is a real clothing saver!

Sleeping like a baby...

Wubbanub--check

Dry diaper  --check

No longer being harassed by big sis  --check

Hangout time in the middle of the floor turns to naptime.

10 minutes earlier:

5 minutes earlier:

Itty bitty cloth diapers

First cloth diaper at 15 days old. Premie prefold under XS Thirsties cover.

I ordered some premie prefolds, thinking they would make good doublers and inserts if they were too small to use as prefold diapers, or if I couldn't get the hang of folding them. When they arrived, I didn't think we could possibly use such tiny prefolds and thought we'd go straight into the infant size. Then I prepped them and they got smaller as they shrank and waffled up. No way would these work. Then I had this 7 lb 6 oz baby with a tiny, tiny bottom. And premie prefolds fit him just fine. And that teeny XS cover is plenty big on him. 

16 days old, wearing a one-size fitted with no cover. Next several frames are of a screaming baby who wondered why Mommy kept pointing the camera and clicking instead of picking him up.

I was pleasantly surprised that some of my one-size fitted diapers fit the little guy in the smallest snap setting. They are a lot bulkier than other options, but are fine for hanging out at home. Especially for hanging out without a cover. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to cure the nasty diaper rash that had started before I put him in cloth, and he's back in sposies with various creams on his bum until it's cleared up.

More on cloth diapers...

We use mostly pocket diapers, which have a waterproof PUL (look it up if you're really curious) fabric outer and a microfleece or suedecloth inner, with an opening to put an insert in between the two. Once stuffed, they function just like an all-in-one (AIO) but take much less time to dry and you can customize the absorbency (and bulkiness) as you like. AIOs are supposed to be the easiest for people to use, but pockets really aren't any harder for a newbie to use as long as they are pre-stuffed. My husband is clueless about cloth diapers but can put on a stuffed pocket and separate the inner and outer before putting them in the pail.

This is my daughter wearing a Twilight Blue Bum Genius One-Size Pocket Diaper. It's not the greatest picture to show the diaper, but it does show just a few of the many "friends" that share her bed. Click on the link to get a closeup of the diaper itself. BGs are some of the most popular cloth diapers because they are easy to use and grow with your child.

We are starting to use more and more fitted diapers, which are NOT waterproof. They require a PUL, wool, or fleece cover...or paying really close attention to when your child has peed! I have some one-size fitted diapers that should work for the new baby as well as my toddler. Pocket diapers are great for older babies, but little babies go through more diapers than I'm willing to stuff. 

A nice absorbant fitted diaper, like the one-size (OS) goodmama shown above, is a great way to let your child's bum air out. A coverless fitted with a nice soft organic bamboo velour inner, or a breathable wool or fleece cover, is a great way to make a mild rash disappear.

You can buy sized fitteds as well. At some point we plan on taking this newborn fitted off the bear and using it on a baby...

My will not get to air out quite as much as the bear has been, and definitely won't wear the same diaper for months. That's a fun cover with a minky outer that my toddler was trying to put on Bear. You might find it works better with the velcro tabs in the back.

We love cloth diapers!

Before I entered momdom, I had some misperceptions about cloth diapers. I didn't realize just how nice and convenient they can be! Sure, many moms still use the prefolds of yesterday, but pins are no longer needed thanks to Snappis. And the covers are much cuter and more breathable than those plastic pull-on pants. 

This is my early stash of pocket diapers. It includes a Happy Heiny (HH), Green Acre Designs (GAD), 3 Fuzzi Bunz (FB), a Tail Feather Diaper, FB, GAD, and another FB. Another GAD or two are not pictured. 

Cloth diapers are softer, less expensive, better for the environment, and contain explosive poops better than any disposable we tried. I only wish we'd started earlier!

As an added bonus, there's no need for a diaper cover with a dress when you have a cute cloth diaper that peeks out instead of some random disposable.

Some diapers have cute features like appliques on the bum.

And now that my daughter is talking more and more, she requests "cloth diaper" at diaper changes. I can see why...the soft fleece inners must feel so much nicer than disposables. We have some bamboo velour fitteds now and those are even more soft and luxurious. Sometimes she really fights me if I try to put a papery disposable on her if we're going out for a while or fighting a rash. 

And the great thing is, most of the diapers we were using at 6 months old still fit almost a year and a half later!

Uh

My joints (and my taste buds) hurt just thinking about it.

Yes, she is chewing on her toes. Comfy as can be, in my bed, which she frequently decides she is queen of.

(edited to add: that's a medium Fuzzi Bunz pocket diaper she's wearing)