What's the Cloth Diaper Deal?

Cub in his first cloth diaper

A lot of people use cloth diapers these days. A lot of people don't. You don't have to justify yourself in either case. Disposables can cause allergic reactions, if your baby is allergic to latex. The thought of washing poopy diapers can be disgusting. Cloth diapers cost a lot, up-front, but they're cheaper in the long run, especially since you can reuse them if you have another baby.

I wanted to cloth diaper the twins, but I was definitely at a financial low point in my life at the time. Most of their clothes, their crib and sheets, and a lot of their toys were hand-me-downs from other moms. At the time, I was determined to do the environment a favor. I was bringing two new diaper-users into the world, and I wanted to make the right choice.

It turns out that the "green" question is a complicated one. I can't find a solid answer. A study sponsored by Pampers suggests that cloth diapers aren't really better because of all of the washing and the manufacturing process. Thanks, Pampers, but don't be surprised if I don't take your word for that.

Here's why I chose cloth diapers:

You can buy them once and you're done. M had G Diapers when she was a toddler. The G Diaper pieces come in a couple of different sizes because the design doesn't allow for the same diaper to fit a newborn and a potty trainer. The outer layer comes in four sizes, the inserts only have two. That wasn't a problem because she didn't start using cloth until she was in the larger sizes anyway. The Cub uses Bum Genius diapers. He started wearing them when he was about six weeks old, and he still wears them now, at 11 months old. He even has room to grow.

Cub - 11 months

I'd rather throw poopy diapers in the wash than have to figure out how to get to the store if I'm running out of disposables. This was especially true when the Cub was small. I had three other kids to look after and I hate taking newborns out in public anyway. Besides, baby poop is really no big deal until they start eating solids. Even then, most of it will just fall out of the diaper if you shake it gently over the toilet... and the rest can seriously just go in the laundry.

I hate diaper trash. It's heavy and gross and attracts flies if you move it to the dumpster too long before trash day. I don't want to put diapers in the regular trash because then I have to smell poop in the kitchen whenever I have kitchen garbage to throw away.

There is one important note: We aren't strict about our diapering.

When the Cub needed diaper cream, we used disposables because store-bought diaper cream doesn't wash out of cloth diapers very well. You can make your own, cloth-friendly diaper cream. I just didn't want to order a lot of weird ingredients I would probably never use again. Apparently, if you're not shopping at Target, there are cloth-friendly creams you can buy. Check this chart.

We also had to abandon cloth diapers all together recently because the Cub was soaking through them, without warning, every night and sometimes during the day. We tried stripping the detergent from his diapers with bleach. We tried using multiple absorbent inserts in one diaper shell. Disposable diapers didn't even last through the night sometimes, but they were more likely to survive than his cloth ones.

In conjunction with the soaking troubles, Cub's diapers acquired a nasty smell. We stopped using them over-night and in public when the soaking started. As a result, we weren't going through our inventory as quickly, and I wasn't washing them as often. That was my mistake. They got moldy and I had a heck of a time getting the smell out.

If that happens to you:

Try sunning them. It gets stains out and it can help kill bacteria. I sun my diapers every couple of weeks just to get them looking new again. When it's nice out, I dry them on the clothes line.

Try turning up your water heater and washing them as hot as you can. This also helps kill the bacteria and clean out any build up. This is what wound up working for me. Remember to give your water heater time to heat up after you've changed the settings and before you start your diaper load.

If you have to, try bleaching. Again, it kills bacteria and works the build-up out. I did this before resorting to turning the water heater up, because I didn't want to risk scalding the other kids. It did help, but didn't get the smell out entirely.

The Cub is back in cloth-diaper-mode and doesn't seem to know the difference. He's too busy flushing the toilet, exploring the dog crate, and trying to climb in the dishwasher when my back is turned. I've started calling him Curiosity Rover.

to-do lists

Last week, I finally started a to-do list. Before anyone sends a well-deserved "I told you so"... I know. A huge number of people have suggested I use a to-do list over the years, and for good reason. I just never wanted to bother. It seemed like a hassle.

Unfortunately, I'd lay in bed every night and suddenly remember something I forgot to do, or start running through a list of things I needed to remember to do tomorrow. That actually kept me awake at night.

The day I decided to try it, my list looked like this:

Guitar Practice (twins)
Spanish (me)
Three workouts
Vacuum entire house
Clean off dog crate
Workbooks (girls)
Unload dishwasher
Clean craft closet
Make flu shot appointment (girls)
Pay student loans
Clean dining table
Swiffer kitchen 

And this list doesn't include the things I do every day. I had to work all of this in around my regularly scheduled household programming. Without the list, I'm not sure I would have accomplished even half of it, because I would have wasted a lot of time trying to remember what needed to be done, and figuring out when it would fit in.

With the list, I completed all but one of my chores. I didn't clean the craft closet. That place is a mess and is going to require a bit more motivation and time.

Once I made the list, I no longer had to waste time thinking about what needed to be done. And, when something got done, I got the satisfaction of crossing an item off of the list. The main drawback was knowing I'd have to make a new list every morning. So, it wasn't going to keep me from going to bed thinking about chores. Plus, sitting at the kitchen table and coming up with a list is a bit of a waste of time and a great crutch for procrastinating.

So I did a little research and found a free-to-use to-do list app called todoist.

Todoist in my browser

Todoist is on my iPad and I can access my list through their website. It allows me to create categories for my chores like "clean", "exercise", and "guitar". In those categories, I can create tasks. In my "clean" category, my tasks include, "vacuum", "unload dishwasher", and "clean dining table".

One very important feature of Todoist is the ability to repeat tasks as often as needed. "clean dining table" and "unload dishwasher" repeat every day. "Vacuum" repeats ever three days. I do laundry, and clean each bathroom and the kitchen once per week on different days. I could even schedule tasks to repeat once per month, once every few months, or once per year.

Every day, a new list is generated for me based on what needs to be done. If I missed a task today, I can postpone it and it will show up again tomorrow. If I finish all of my tasks for the day, I can look at what is on tomorrow's list and start working ahead. And I never have to waste time making a list for myself. I only have to add tasks when something new or unique comes up, like "make flue shot appointment".

I can do all of this with a free account. There are additional features you get with a paid account, like making notes for yourself and mobile and email reminders.

I've been using it for about a week. So far, I love it.

Discipline in Public

One of my friends (I used to hang out with her in high school) brought this topic up on facebook. What do you do when your kid is out of line in public? And, furthermore, what reactions do you get?

My friend has two boys and a girl, all in the wild and crazy, "hide in the clothes racks and throw fits over almost anything" age group. I assume those are things her kids do at the store. Those are things I did, and things my kids do now.

Obviously, Cub doesn't get time outs

Most of the time, I go to Target by myself or with just one of my kids. I wait to go until Papa is home, so I can get some time away from the house and the kids, or opt for some one-on-one time. That's what I prefer to do, but it doesn't always work out. Let's assume that, like me, you're not super privileged. You don't have a nanny, and you can't always leave your kids with your spouse or partner whenever you run out of milk. What would you be willing to do to keep your kid(s) under control while you're at the store?

Seriously, think about this one. A lot of us say we'd just do whatever we do at home... but we don't. Why? I have some theories.

We're embarrassed of how we discipline at home. We think other parents are going to judge us for whatever reaction we have. There are some people out there who will give you an evil look (or even report you to the store manager, apparently) for issuing a spanking. But there's nothing they can do about it. It's your right to choose to discipline your children as you see fit, as long as you're not using excessive force. Spanking is not considered abuse. If that's what works for your kids, do it. Besides, there are plenty of parents who look at me weird for giving my kids a time out in public. I'm sure it's because they don't think it's enough and they think I should have the guts to just smack them.

We're in a hurry to get out of the store. I give my kids time outs. They know that if a time out doesn't solve the problem, a swat is next. Rarely do we get that far. It can be extremely frustrating to sit one of my kids down for a six-minute time out in the middle of what should have been a quick errand. Maybe you're in a hurry to get home in time to make dinner. Maybe stopping to give one of your three or four kids a time out is daunting because it means you have to separate the pack and keep track of a time out and a couple of other wild things. Maybe you just figure the quicker you get of there, the less trouble they're able to get in. I get that. I'm guilty of this one sometimes.

We're too busy to really notice what our kids are doing. That might sound bad, but I don't mean that you aren't paying attention to your kids. What I'm suggesting is that when you call your child back to the cart after they've pulled something off of the shelf, they don't necessarily get the punishment they would have gotten for disobeying at home because you're also tracking how much you're about to spend and where to go to find the next item on the list. There's a lot going on. You saw what your kid did... you know what just happened... it just doesn't occur to you to be as offended as you would have been at home. I'm sure I'm guilty of this one, too.

Here's the one thing I think is almost never the culprit: poor discipline at home. This is not to say that there aren't kids who run wild and have no rules at home. I just don't think they are the rule and we are the exception. Kids who are well behaved at home can be crazy in new and exciting places. I've heard that fluorescent lighting was thought to exacerbate ADHD, but recent research has ruled this out. Considering how kids behave in the grocery store, is anyone surprised that this theory was taken seriously?

Some tips from my experience:

1. If you know you're going to be in a hurry, tell your kids what you expect of them before you enter the store. Give them specific rules and even more specific consequences for breaking them. This really does smooth out the flow.
2. If your child breaks those rules relentlessly just because he knows you're too busy to discipline him, take it one step further next time. Carve out time to take him to the store when you're not in a hurry. You don't even have to buy anything. Just set out the rules and consequences again and wander around the store, strictly enforcing each rule as he breaks them. If you need to, do this multiple times before your next real shopping trip. 
3. Let them feel the heat. Time outs in public work wonders for my girls because it's embarrassing. I've talked to them about it. One of my twins says she knows that everyone can tell she did something wrong when she's on time out and she doesn't like that people she doesn't even know can see that she's in trouble. Time outs in Target are actually even more useful than at home. 

Potty Problems 2 - Hospital Problems

Yesterday, C had an appointment with the Children's Hospital of Aurora Urology department to check her progress. You can read more about the history of her situation on this previous post. A few people have asked how her check up went, but it seemed to complicated to explain to everyone, so I thought I'd write it here.

C's appointment was at 3:00. We showed up just a little bit early, and were called out of the waiting area pretty close to on time. C had her blood pressure and weight measured, she was given a bottle of water, and we were escorted to our room.

The specialist we saw three months ago, Marguerite, is now on maternity leave, so we saw Erin. One of the first things Erin said was something like, "... she'll go use the special toilet, hopefully soon because I'm supposed to go home at 3:30." She smiled. I smiled. What I was thinking was, "I didn't come here to have you push us out the door so you can go home on time."

As a side note: I'm sick. Today, I'm starting to feel better, but yesterday was pretty rough for me. The Cub is also sick, with the same symptoms, and Papa usually doesn't get home until 4:30. So, I was pretty sure I was going to have to drag all of the kids, including a snot-nosed baby, to the hospital. Yes, I made that appointment, and I chose to have four kids. I'm not complaining about having to take four kids to the doctor. I take four kids to the grocery store sometimes. It's not a big deal. But I made this appointment three months in advance. I didn't know two of us were going to be miserably sick. And I am opposed to taking feverish kids out of the house, if it can be avoided.

The day before yesterday, I called the hospital and attempted to reschedule our appointment because it was obvious that the Cub and I were not getting better quickly enough. Unfortunately, I was informed that the next available appointment was in January, so I kept the slot I already had.

Papa took a couple of hours of sick time so he could be home in time for me to take C to her appointment without having to take the three other kiddos.

Needless to say, I was not happy to feel like we were being brushed off.

Moving on...

They use this ultrasound-like wand to measure the amount of urine in her bladder. It doesn't show her bladder like the prenatal ultrasounds do, it just gives a read-out of the approximate number of milliliters of urine. Before her trip to the special toilet, she was measuring in the low 30's.

The "special toilet" is just a toilet. It has a machine hanging in it that collects and measures her urine. She had a hard time relaxing enough to go... probably because this toilet is a normal, adult toilet and she has to brace herself with her hands to keep from falling in. When she finally did, the machine measured about 5ml. But then the wand said she was empty.

Minutes later, Erin came in to quickly inform me that, in her opinion, the "special toilet" should be trusted, and not the wand. "Considering how much water she drank, she really should have peed more." She said that C should continue her potty routine and come back in a few more months.

So, ultimately, I'm not sure I have any useful, new information as a result of that visit. I feel like we were being pushed around because Erin was impatient and wanted to go home. The equipment was obviously in error somewhere along the line, and no one wanted to take the time to figure it out.

Now, we have to wait 3 more months to see Marguerite again.

Sew Elastic to Sleeping Bags

All this time, I thought sleeping bags all had two elastic loops attached to the foot for securing them in that cinnamon roll shape when you store them. Some months ago, I ordered some beautiful sleeping bags for all of the girls. When I pulled them out, I was surprised to find that they came with the elastic loops I was used to, but they weren't attached.

I learned that my mom sewed those loops to the foot of my sleeping bag so I wouldn't lose them on Girl Scout trips. So, I planned to do the same.

I kept procrastinating. It was a small project, and it didn't seem that important. It could wait. I was kind of burned out on sewing after making blankets for M and the Cub. I had crochet projects to do. Trust me, I could go on listing excuses I made for myself. Of course, it didn't help that no one else cared if it was done. There's nothing like a total lack of accountability to help you procrastinate like a pro.

Recently, the girls were pretending to be winter fairies (thanks, Tinkerbell) and couldn't be in the sun. I found them all cowering under an arrangement of child-sized umbrellas, just outside of the shadow cast by the patio roof. These are the adorable eccentricities of childhood play.


That seemed a good enough excuse to pitch the tent in the back yard for a day or two. I guess you can't have a tent without sleeping bags. Without much thought, I put all of the elastic loops in a hanging pouch attached to the tent and told the girls to leave them there. Still, despite my instructions, the elastic loops became princess tiaras and who knows what else just before they became... scattered across our property.

It was definitely time to permanently attach them.

Once I located all six loops, I set up the sewing machine and, soon, wondered why I hadn't done it before.

Mark where you will attach your loops. I used a Crayola marker. I have Crayola markers in abundance and they wash out extremely easily. To determine where your loops should be, roll your sleeping bag the way you typically would, including strapping the elastic loops on, then mark where the loops overlap the outer-most segment of zipper. Mark at the seam between the zipper and the sleeping bag fabric.

Open the sleeping bag and pin the loops to the zipper edging on one side. You are going to sew as far away from the zipper (and as close to the seam) as you can manage. I deliberately pulled a bit of the inner sleeping bag material into my pinning. I wanted to add an extra bit of security to the stitch. I'm not sure if that made any difference, though.

Sew it all together. Take your time. Sleeping bags are puffy and unwieldy. It is very easy to end up sewing layers you didn't mean to. Also, be thorough. I did four passes. Remember that these are going to be pulled on a lot.

Of course, you could seam rip where you intend to attach the loops. I considered doing that myself. It seemed a bit excessive and I wasn't sure I'd be able to put it back together satisfactorily.

Now, when you roll up your sleeping bag, make sure to roll from head to foot, so the elastics are on the finishing end. When you get to the finishing end, your loops will be easy to wrap around the whole roll.


It took about 15 minutes for me to do this to all three sleeping bags. I honestly can't believe I didn't just do this the day I got them. Now, I don't have to worry about anyone (anyone) losing the elastics.

This Blog Is Long

In a previous post, I related my Tricare frustrations to you. Since then, I've been taking my girls to that clinic I described, with three practicing pediatricians that accept Tricare. Unsurprisingly, though, I'm increasingly dissatisfied with them.

This blog is long.

My first experience with them was great. I took one of my six-year-olds in and, after a talk with a pediatrician, got a referral to a specialist, which was exactly what I knew she needed. There was no long wait to get an appointment or to be seen, and the doctor asked relevant questions without making me feel like and idiot. She believed me, understood my concerns, and passed me on to someone better qualified to help me.

However, my next dealing with them, involved having the girls' medical records forwarded from Hawaii. It was an inexplicable nightmare.

Time zones are vastly different and the clinic in Hawaii is on a military base. It is operated by and serves exclusively military personnel and their families. Aside from those inherent obstacles, the clinic here in Colorado made a huge mess of things.

I filled out the authorizations for transfer of records at the Colorado clinic and had them faxed to Hawaii. For the next two months, I was pulling my hair out.

I had to fax the authorization twice. I don't know what happened to the first set, but Hawaii informed me that I needed to send a new set.

The first person I talked to at the Hawaii location said it would take a week or more for the authorization to be processed and the records to be returned. Two weeks later, nothing had happened, so I called them back. This time, I spoke to a different person who said that first guy had no idea what he was talking about, "it takes less than a day." So I faxed the second authorization to this new person.

For a while, it went like this:

1. Call Hawaii and ask them to fax the records.
2. Wait
3. Get a call back from Hawaii informing me that the fax went through and a confirmation was received.
4. Wait
5. Call Colorado and find out they never got the records and don't know why.
6. Repeat

Eventually, after double and triple checking for correct phone numbers, Hawaii decided to just FedEx the hard copies because no one could figure out what the problem was. But once Colorado received the package, they still couldn't do anything with it because two of my girls were still not in their system. All three had primary care physicians at this clinic, but only one of them had been seen at this point, so the other two were never added to their files.

I lost my temper. I think that's why they finally added my other two daughters, despite them not having had appointments yet. I just needed printed copies of their immunization records to submit to the district for homeschool purposes. How difficult can that be?

Additionally, when I called the Colorado clinic, I couldn't speak to the receptionist at the location the girls go to, I could only call a general number and select options from a menu, ending up talking to the chain's records department. For some reason, almost every time I called I wound up talking to a specific woman I could hardly understand. To make matters worse, she could hardly understand me. Instead of listening carefully, she interrupted me when I was trying to spell my kids' names for her. Of course, she misspelled them, and couldn't find them in the system even after they had been added.

When they did finally get all of that worked out and printed the immunization sheets for me, they informed me that the girls were all behind on their shots. I knew this. I made an appointment to get them caught up.

I thought we were done with the paperwork fumbling.

After the appointment, they gave me printed immunization charts for M and S which they had updated with pen. That's fine for my use, but I needed one for each of the three girls, and something more official for sending to the district. I called Friday to make the request. They said the charts would be available Monday and I'd receive a call when they were ready.

Monday, I received the call but missed it. The woman left a message that said, "I was just calling to let you know that the shot records you requested for your girls are ready for pick up here at the (location) office. If you have any questions please give us a call. It'll be ready for you at the front desk." So I had Papa drop by on his way home from work.

They told him they didn't have anything to give him and that the call was probably to inform us that they had received the girls' records from Hawaii, which, by my recollection, happened over a month ago. Besides, the woman said the records I requested were, "ready for pick up... at the front desk."

When Papa got home, I raged for a few minutes in my bathroom to avoid ruining my now four-year-old's birthday. Then, I called them back at exactly 5:00. Unfortunately, that's exactly when they closed. I was sent to an answering service that only takes messages about sick kids. I vented at that poor gentleman and then apologized because, "I know it's not your fault. You had nothing to do with it. I'm just very upset because I keep dealing with one problem after another from these people." He said he understood but, unfortunately, the only thing I could do was call back during business hours.

I didn't have to. They called me at 8:58 the next day and left another message: "This is Advanced Pediatrics calling to let you know that (C), (S), and (M)'s shot records are ready for pick up here at the (location) office."

Papa is headed there after work again today. I want to smack someone.

M's Birthday Cake

Some things went wrong with M's birthday cake. The royal icing rainbow crumbled when I tried to remove it from the wax paper on which it was drawn. The icing I originally used to write on the top of the cake melted into the frosting. The piping frosting I made for the clouds and edging was chunky and I had to use store-bought stuff instead. But it tasted amazing, and the cake and base frosting were perfect.

For her cake, I knew I wanted a batter that would produce a very white cake. My plan was to create a six-layer rainbow cake, so I needed a white base to fill with food coloring.

To make this delicious white cake, you will need:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup milk at room temperature
6 large egg whites at room temperature
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter softened but still cool

I doubled the recipe to make six, thin layers.

Directions:
Make sure milk and eggs are room temperature. If you have a lot of time, just sit them out over night. I put my eggs (still whole and in their shells) straight into a bowl of warm (not hot) water and poured my milk into a measuring cup with a handle, hooked the handle over the edge of the bowl, and partially submerged the measuring cup. I gave it about an hour and all were room temperature.
Preheat your oven to 350. I didn't do this until near the end of making the batter. I'm a rebel when it comes to preheating.
Prepare pans you intend to use. I used cooking spray on the two round pans I have. Needing to make six layers, I cleaned, sprayed and reused my two pans three times.
Mix wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, mix milk, egg whites, and extracts by hand until blended.
Mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl (the bowl of your stand mixer if you have one), combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with an electric mixer on medium speed.
Add butter. Cut butter into cubes and add to dry ingredient mixture. Beat on low for 1-2 minutes.
Combine wet and dry ingredients. Add all but 1/2 cup of wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes, then add remaining wet ingredients and beat for 1 additional minute.
Pour batter evenly in pan(s).
Bake for 27-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

For my cake, I separated my batter (a double batch) into six different bowls and added a different color of food coloring to each bowl. Also, keep in mind that I had to bake my six layers in three separate sessions. My last two colors of batter sat on my counter for almost an hour before being baked and turned out just fine. If you only have one cake pan and want to make layers, you can just bake two or three layers separately.

The base frosting I made was much easier, but still tasty.

To make this super easy frosting, you need:
Vanilla Instant Jello pudding mix (I used two large boxes)
Milk
Whipped Cream

Directions:
Empty Vanilla pudding mix into a bowl. Add half the amount of milk that the box recipe calls for.
Whisk until it begins to thicken.
Add whipped cream until frosting reaches desired consistency

This frosting is light and delicious. It holds well as a spreadable frosting but lacks structural quality (after all, it's made of jello pudding) and probably won't hold a piped form very well. It also cracked in my refrigerator after about a day, but that could be touched up easily.

White cake recipe adapted from www.epicurious.com