The main issue is I’d like Adalyn to be able to wear them without leaking overnight but the leg elastic is so loose that abundant wetness isn’t being kept in the diaper any longer. So I got my cloth diaper repair kits from the diaper manufacturer and have been meaning to gradually repair them but I’ve been super intimidated about how to thread the new elastic through the already-sewn-closed holes. The last thing I have time for is disassembling and reassembling 24 diapers. So I’ve been brainstorming…

Yesterday I finally figured out how to make this repair easily, after trying a few other bloggers trick for the repair. Here is how I did it:

The post Easy 5 Min Cloth Diaper Elastic Repair Trick appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Man, it’s been a stormy last few days. Yesterday evening while on the way to pick N up from work it freaking dumped on us big time! I threw a blanket over Everly’s head and we made a mad dash from the front door to the car. I jumped in the drivers seat with a diaper/ dance bag slung over my shoulder and baby E in my arms. I was soaked and I’d only been outdoors for a few seconds.

Today the storms are knocking out my satellite signal and the rain is dumping again… It’s all good though. I’d rather have some rain than the muggy, warm Indiana summer temps!

Tomorrow my students perform for the first time and today is my day off from teaching.

I’ve got all sorts of things to take care of… Cat piss on the tile floor outside the litter box (Mr. Guy’s way of protesting semi-dirty litter), extra wet cat vomit on the white carpets (probably a result of cats eating things they shouldn’t), cloth diapers to wash and hang to dry, the bathroom totally needs to be cleaned, there is clean, unfolded laundry hanging out in the laundry basket (it’s been there for several days getting all super wrinkled), gotta pay the bills, figure out a plan for dinner and care for Everly while I try to take care of everything. Fun!

Speaking of damn cats… Why is Gabby obsessed with chewing every single cable in this house? First it was the iPod/ iPhone cord, then the video camera charging cable, the Wii nunchuk cord and the balance board charging cable. Next she got the iPod dock speaker cable, almost got E’s swing power cord and she just started in on the router power cable.

If she destroys the router or modem cables and I am without internet I will not be a happy camper!

I am wondering if she is lacking some mineral or something that makes her chew the various cords and cables around here or if she’s just dead set on being an ass because she’s not getting enough attention from us these days.

Anyone want to take care of our zoo for us? It sure would help out lots! Taking care of the house is one of the things we are slacking on… Slacking sucks when you’ve got 4 indoor cats who vomit, piss in the sink or on the floor and who are basically jerks when things aren’t kept up with. It’s not pretty around here.

Gotta go clean vomit and piss now, happy day off to me.

The post Cat piss has fried my brain and I can't come up with a title for this crappy post. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Anyway, on to the updates. After busting out 4 loads of laundry and loading the dishwasher I’ve got a few minutes to spare, baby E is the angel baby today. She was a screaming banshee yesterday, lol.

She woke to feed about every hour and a half, would doze off while feeding then scream bloody murder when you tried to put her down and let her sleep. We tried changing, playing, swinging, burping, tummy time, side time, back time, swaddling, rocking, hanging out in the backpack/ carrier and nothing made her happy.

After about 12:30am she was swaddled and swinging when she zonked out. She slept right through till we woke her at 7am this morning for our field trip fun.

Today I went and met the high school band kids I’ll be working with this fall. They were having their band camp this week (and last week).

I am still not 100% back in the game with teaching since E is exclusively breastfeeding and I can’t feed her in front of a bunch of high school kids. I don’t think the school administration would approve of that huh? I would so do it (discreetly of course) if they (the admin & parents) didn’t mind, I am betting they would though.

Anyway, until E can have breast milk in a bottle (and possibly a paci) at 6-8 weeks (to avoid nipple confusion according to lactation consultants) I am limited as to what I can and can’t do. I am her milk machine and am on call 24/7, lol.

So, back to the point… N and E and I all took a field trip across the river and hung out for the morning portion of band camp. I met the other instructor, the kids and had some fun doing dance stuff with them.

N and E hung out, he watched over her while I did my thing but I was there just in case she went crazy and needed to be fed. We weren’t too sure how she would handle the 3 hours out. Would she sleep or be awake? Would she fuss and need boob the whole time or would she be calm?

Well… I didn’t have to feed her until the end of the 3 hour chunk (once all the students were gone to lunch). N changed her once and she was surprisingly very calm and quiet for 3 hours. She did get fussy once but he let her suck his finger and she relaxed and slept a bit. For the most part she was awake and he just read his magazines and pushed her around in the stroller.

It was nice to get out and to sort of get back to teaching for a few hours and it is a good sign that she acted so good while we were out today. It means going back to teaching is possible, soon.

Getting out gave me a nice, much needed break and when we all got home I was refreshed and more enthusiastic about my duties here at home.

I laundered the 5 BumGenius diapers E went through yesterday and am happy that they washed out clean with the exception of a few light stains that I’ll sun out in a few days once the rain passes.

I am using my GroBaby shell and the organic cotton prefolds (that Maiden53 sent us) to diaper E today while the BumGenius diapers and inserts are hanging to dry around my bedroom. The GroBaby shell fits E amazingly (even better than the BumGenius diapers) and I can just keep changing out the prefolds inside the shell as she soils them, love it!

N is bringing Arby’s home for dinner which makes me happy. We’ve not been grocery shopping (no time) and the meat/ meal options are looking slim here. Plus, I am getting burned out with cooking and I don’t want a repeat of almost burning E’s foot while cooking and holding her. That was scary!

Oh and why is it that E likes to sleep in the most contorted positions? Here I am blogging right now. See her head there on my tummy?

I was holding her on my shoulder and burping her when she passed out, as usual. I kept holding her since she wakes and cries if you try to move her. I was blogging one handed and my arm got more and more fatigued, she kept squirming all around too. This meant she kept sliding lower and lower down my chest. Then eventually she was resting her head on my stomach with her legs to the side of me like this:

If you ask me it doesn’t seem like the most comfortable position to be in but she seems to like it just fine. I think the sounds of my tummy and organs must be soothing to her still. She’s been like the for some time now. Odd huh? Now I am going to try repositioning her, cross your fingers for me! Hopefully she doesn’t wake and cry about it.

The post Baby E, Band Camp and Cloth Diapering… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

We are working on our last pack of gifted disposable diapers and don’t intend to buy more which means the cloth diaper stash needs to be expanded ASAP.

Can I just add that Huggies Pure & Natural diapers suck big time? They really do! Poor E has poop stuck to her butt in these diapers, like the fabric repels the poo or something (and it is breastfeeding poo so it’s not solid, just liquidy). I much prefer Seventh Generation disposable diapers over the Huggies hands down!

Anyway, I bought some Planet laundry detergent and 3 more BumGenius diapers and was stoked when it all arrived! Yesterday I pre washed the diapers via the special instructions, line dried them (since our dryer still needs a power cord) and today we are breaking them in.

Now this isn’t the first time E’s worn cloth diapers. We were gifted a variety of cloth diaper goodness ranging from prefolds to pocket diapers.

I was even given some hand-me-down handmade made diapers that were actually her first cloth diaper experience (see the photo on the left). Some of the diapers I have need plastic covers/ wraps. My pocket diapers don’t need a plastic outer cover or wrap.

We tried out the diapers that needed the wraps and covers first since they didn’t need as much special laundry treatment. The problem with them right now is they are super bulky on E right now. She is heavy but is still little and those bulky diapers kind of dominate her as you saw in the above photo. We’ve resolved to use those once she gets a tad bigger.

In the meantime we are using trimmer cloth diapers. BumGenius 3.0 and GroBaby are the diapers I am currently trying out. They are much less bulky and they have a built in waterproof cover.

I put baby E in one at 2pm and by 5:30pm she was crying so I checked out her diaper. It wasn’t wet looking from the outside and wasn’t leaking so I opened it up to find some poop and lots of pee. It all stayed nicely inside the diaper, woot!

So I changed her from the green diaper to an orange one and am pleased with the BumGenius so far. All the moisture was wicked away from her bottom and absorbed by the nifty newborn insert which means the start of diaper rash that she was getting (thanks to those awful Huggies diapers) should clear up fast.

I’ll admit I was intimidated to actually try out cloth diapers. Once I received a few the washing and care instructions scared the crap out of me. Each fabric type needs special treatment. I was sure I would ruin the diapers or that they wouldn’t work right after I pre washed them. I am happy to say that so far the BumGenius diaper test has gone very well and I am so stoked to be cloth diapering! Gotta get more diapers now, aka poop catchers.

By the way this is NOT a sponsored post, I paid good money for these diapers and some were gifted by readers.

The post Cloth poop catcher fun rocks! A cloth diaper post. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Then we got her home and still had several packs of disposable diapers to use up, plus we didn’t have the time, energy or money to finish growing our cloth diaper stash. Plus, I still had no cloth diaper safe laundry detergent so the diapers I did have couldn’t be pre-washed or used anyway.

Cloth diapers can’t be washed in detergents that contain softeners, dyes, enzymes, brighteners, etc. These additives impact the absorbency of the diapers and will also make them prone to buildup which means they’ll look and smell bad too! Ever noticed how some shirts get underarm buildup and stains from sweat and deodorant? That’s because the detergent you used allowed all that mess to buildup on the fabric.

Anyway, I’ve been stressing out because our we are almost out of disposable diapers and I’ve still made no progress on getting ready for cloth diapering… Luckily, this week I’ve just got around to all the stuff I’ve been putting off like doing the bills, scooping the cat box and finally ordering some more cloth diapers and cloth diaper safe detergent to wash them with.

I stumbled upon Tiny Bubbles detergent from The Natural Baby Company, they are the makers of one of the diapers I already have in my stash, The GroBaby diaper.

I was sad to have discovered this detergent the day after I’d already placed my detergent order for Planet detergent because I would really like to try it out someday. It will probably be the next detergent I buy because it is eco-friendy, animal safe and apparently it is also cloth diaper safe. Very cool (and important) qualities if you ask me!

All this parenting stuff has opened my eyes to so many new things and tons of new information. Does the learning ever stop? Probably not huh?

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