The Arbolog |

Waaaaay back when I was researching cloth diapers in the early days of my pregnancy, I ran across a website that was selling their own brand of cloth diapers as well as diapering fabric. Cloth Diapers Eh (CDE for short) is the business of two smart, savvy, stay-at-home-moms who are skilled enough to make some incredibly adorable diapers for a good price using awesome quality fabrics.

At the time, I registered with them (they offer a registry service and as a bonus I got a free pair of breast pads for registering) and a week before my baby shower they had to take their website down for maintenance and so sadly, no one was able to purchase me any of their products. It was okay, I thought, because I had made three dozen diapers for Kale for the newborn days and I wasn’t worried about needing the next size for a few months. That was before I gave birth to a moosey giraffe and poor Kale grew out of the diapers I made in about as many weeks as it took me to make the damn things. Kale has been in disposables since then (about 6 weeks now) while Ross and I searched for a replacement type of cloth diaper that we were both happy with.

I tried a Bum Genius Pocket Diaper (hated the velcro and hated the “made in China”) and a Fuzzi Buns Pocket Diaper (leaked like mad on my long and lean boy) and Mother Ease Terry dipes with a cover (hated the incredibly bulk in Kale’s crotch and the two parts you have to manhandle onto a squirming infant) and so I put off buying the diapers for a few weeks because I wanted Kale to grow to “the next size” that was commonly offered by most companies – the size that theoretically will carry him for a few months.

I finally ordered three diapers from the ladies at CDE to confirm the size and fit on Kale and I am DELIGHTED with them. They are soft on Kale’s butt, trim between his crotch, feature snaps as a closure, and are long enough up his back so that we have no butt crack peep shows and potential poop blowouts. I bought a chocolate brown one, an orange one, and a dark green one, and when you buy them you simply indicate if you want boyish or girlish or neutral and the ladies pick out the snaps and the thread in co-ordinating colours so each dipe is a bit of a treat when you receive it – you have no idea what the finished product is going to be and each one is different.

From Kale

I washed the three dipes three times before using them because I have read that the fleece gets more absorbent with each wash. We used the first diaper and Kale promptly pooped so it was a christening of the diaper and YAY – no leaks. The second one was also poopy and also no leaks. The third diaper he wore for a nap and when he woke up it was soaked but again – no leaks. I think it could have also taken more liquid if required.

So today I ordered the other 9 diapers, a swim diaper (Ross is gungho for Waterbabies so I figured why not – we have swim diaper covers but no absorbent part) and wet bags for dirty diapers that are made from PUL as well.

The construction of the diapers is excellent and from high quality fabrics - the outer layer is made from 2 mil PUL and micro fleece and have a birdseye pique layer in between and have a six layer snap in hemp and fleece soaker pad with a target zone layer as well. They are made using a serger and the snaps are also high quality and there are four rows on each side for tailoring the fit. They offer a newborn, small, medium, and large size – the newborn dipe has a cutaway for the umbilical cord stump and the rest feature elastic at the waist and the back for a good fit. The medium sized diaper (the size I bought for Kale) is rated for 15-27 lbs – I am not sure of Kale’s current exact weight, but I suspect he is barely 15 pounds and we have the diaper fitting on the tightest snap position no problem. Turnaround was about 1 week – the diapers are not made in advance and are made to order based on gender request.

From Kale

Price wise the diapers are very comparable to the others on the market that are similar in fabrics and construction. Each medium diaper is $21.95 (newborns and smalls are cheaper, large is more expensive) and when you buy 12 diapers at once you get a free diaper thrown in. They also recently started offering a package deal with discounts that includes everything you need to get going – 12 diapers, a sprayer, a wet bad, a wool cover, some inserts… and the package is offered in all the different sizes as well. The ladies were incredibly cool about using my workplace internal mail as a means of shipping (free for me) but even had I shipped using Canada Post, their rates appear quite reasonable.

Lastly, these two ladies (and I should mention them by name here, and not keep referring to them as “the ladies”), Gina and Lindy, are Work-At-Home-Moms from British Columbia and I really like supporting not only moms but also local people rather than some big company in the US. I feel confident that if anything goes wrong with these diapers (say a seam busts or anything) Gina and Lindy will make it right.

All in all, I have to recommend their product and their business. Cloth Diapers Eh are a Jen and Kale approved product.

From Kale

As most of you know, I sewed about 3 dozen cloth diapers for Kale before he was born. 8 of them were immediately placed on the “no” pile because I used a fabric that was a bit too rubbery and they didn’t stay done up well. The remaining ones were used for about two and a half to three weeks before Mr. I’m-So-Damn-Long grew out of them. I don’t have time to sew another batch, so instead I went looking for a buy-able brand that was the approximate same style.

Ross’ cousin Nicole was kind enough to pass on the diapers she uses on her youngest – they are a terry cloth diaper that you use a waterproof cover with. I find them ridiculously bulky and when I put them on Kale he wasn’t able to move his legs well. I think they will be better once he’s bigger but right now they just don’t cut it for me. One of Ross’ co-workers loaned us two different brands of pocket diaper to try out.

Sidenote: a pocket diaper is a diaper you stuff with the absorber in a pocket in between a soft layer and a waterproof layer. An All in One (or all in two depending on the design) is a diaper that has a soaker pad that is either attached or snaps or velcros in and it is all one piece (hence the name). The “classic” style of diaper is called a prefold and most people use something called Snappis to do them up or use them under a waterproof cover that velcros or snaps shut. Ross and I have decided to use a pocket or all in one (or two) as our preferred style of diaper. End sidenote.

 So, Ross’ co-worker loaned us two of each Fuzzi Buns and Bum Genius. The Fuzzi Buns is a sized pocket diaper with snap closures. It leaked quite badly for us – most likely because it was too big for Kale. The Bum Genius is a one-size pocket diaper with adjustable rise that velcros closed. Of the two, I prefer the Bum Genius, but I hate the velcro and I found the fabric inside wasn’t absorbent and that Kale’s clothing got very wet out from the top of the diaper. Again, this could be a fit issue. Either way, I am on the look out for used Bum Genius diapers (I think if I stripped the diapers and used another insert, they could work) and had some lined up on craigslist but she sold them to someone else.

I’m getting tired of searching for our diaper solution and of using disposables and decided this weekend to take matters into my own hands and I’ve placed an order with the lovely ladies up at Cloth Diapers Eh for three diapers to confirm the size and if they are the right size, I will order the other 9 to make a dozen. They are about the same price as Bum Genius and the advantage is that I am supporting a pair of Work At Home Moms here in BC. Plus they are made with high quality fabrics and they use snaps instead of velcro and I get to pick what colour of coordinating thread. If I am going to spend $20 ish per diaper, I feel better buying the diapers from WAHMs in BC than some big company that gets their diapers from China.

I will report on their useability in a future post, especially for those of you in the market for diapers.

PIctures from this weekend, because really what is a blog entry without pictures of a) my son or b) my dog:

Kale is definitely suspicious of the camera. I cannot for the life of me capture his smile (which comes almost constantly these days. Okay, well , maybe not constantly, but a lot!). He is on to me and every day I sneak the camera into his peripheral and I get this look: (oh and look, bonus booger shot):

We also went to the Vancouver Shiba Meetup again. Mooki is a grade A, class 1 bee-yotch, so we had to leave after she picked not one, not two, but three fights and either bit herself or was bitten on the tongue. Then Ross took her to get her nails done. The strain of the day took its toll on her, so she let her guard down and was seen being “nice” to Kale. And by “nice”, I mean, was within 4 feet of him.

Is it bad if we leave Kale on his change table for 10-15 minutes at a time because he is hypnotized by the black and white patterns we have put on the underside of the shelf above him? I mean, I realize that as soon as he can roll over that’s going to stop, but for now, he becomes entranced by the patterns (which I refer to as “his best friends”) and I figure if he is happy there, he can stay there for a few minutes, right? Its developing his mind, not neglect. Really. Just because I take the opportunity to make a cup of tea and maybe even brush my teeth while he is entranced, doesn’t mean I am a bad mommy.

And because Ross and I lead a true cosmopolitan life, we really partied it up this weekend and watched the animated movie about animals from the Central Park Zoo, Madagascar this weekend, and I gotta say, holy cow that was FUNNY. I don’t know why I missed that one when it was originally released because I generally make a point of watching all of the Pixar movies, but somehow I did. And holy schmoly it was a good one.

Where is August going? My God, having a kid is like some sort of science fiction time accelerator machine. Bring on the non-Stupid Hot weather!

Dear Autumn, how I missed you. Welcome back.

Love,

 Jen

The number one question that most people seem to ask us about having a newborn is “How is he sleeping?”

Kale is a good sleeper – once he gets there. During the day he is a rather wakeful baby, preferring to hang out and watch stuff rather than sleep a lot. And throughout the night, he sleeps for a good few blocks, generally waking only once in the wee hours of the morning and then up again at 6:30 or so for a snack and backoff to dreamland. Its in this no-man’s land of 6:30 to 9 ish that I tend to get things like laundry done. Sometimes I sleep with Kale because I am feeling like I need a nap, but for the most part, that’s when I check my emails, make a cup of tea, and throw in some laundry. Its amazing how much you can get done early in the morning. its amazing how quiet it is outside.

His favourite sleeping pose is the “surrender pose” – with his arms throw up above his head and if he had his way, I suspect he would sleep on his stomach because whatever chance he gets he likes to be there. But alas, we are a little way away from allowing that so surrender pose it is. He was getting swaddled to sleep the first few weeks. One of the more helpful books I have read is “The Happiest Baby on the Block” (thanks for the tip, Gillian) by Harvey Karp, and the number one recommendation is to swaddle an unhappy baby. But due to the past few weeks of heat and what I think is simply a general distaste for having his arms swaddled, we stopped and the most he gets swaddled now (unless its a meltdown) is waist down, which he generally has kicked off in about 20 minutes. So now we get these hilarious “out like a light” moments with his arms throw up with reckless abandon as he gives himself to sleeping wholeheartedly. Man, I could use a night like that these days, let me tell you.

As we approach that holy grail of the 6 week mark where I am told everything tends to fall into place, there are two issues we are dealing with that can frustrate the beejesus out of me:

One is that I appear to have a rather forceful let down reflex, so at feedings Kale is coughing, sputtering, dripping, and generally struggling to keep up witn the milk flow. I’ve been trying feeding him semi-reclined and that is helping to a degree, but he still needs lots of burping because of all the air he is taking in while trying to keep up.

The other issue is gas. Seriously, if Kale had the ability to speak, he would be saying “I am DYING over here!” every time his little body started the process of moving gas around. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the Internet (I know, I know, world’s worst source for help but in this case its helping) and have been pleasantly surprised at how well bicycling his legs seems to relieve him, as well as massage, rubbing his back, and of course, the obvious back pats.

We also succumbed and bought him a pacifier (which I call a sucky). Because with that all that fast milk, he gets what he needs food wise rather quickly but still wants to suck and I think one of the issues why we have spitting up and lots of gas and fussing at the breast is that he is getting the food he needs but not the comfort sucking he wants, and so he is sucking longer than he comfortably should and paying for it in the end.

So right now, I spend a great deal of time trying to read his signs of being full and then if he is still desperate to suck, offering him his sucky instead of falling for his “I am desperately hungry, please let me suck some more, oh wait, I was wrong, here’s a present – BLARGH!” as the puke hits the floor/bed/my hair/etc.

The sucky, the bicycling of legs, the back pats, the massage, the everything… well, they are working. Thank the stars.

The other question I get asked frequently is “How are those diapers working out?”

Before Kale was born, I made 36 cloth diapers which we used – for two weeks before he grew out of them! Yes, our long torso-ed son (he didn’t get that from me, that’s for sure) is already too long for the diapers that took Ross and I weeks to complete. So, we’re trying out different kinds of other cloth diapers until we find the ones that fit him the best. In the meantime, we are using the dreaded disposable and the G diaper whenever we can. There are flaws with the G diaper, however, the number one being that if they leak (and they do -especially overnight) the little cloth plants get wet or dirty and you only get the cloth pants from the starter set, so you have to buy multiple starter sets (at $40) to get more than two pairs of the little cloth pants. Crap! So right now we are trying Fuzzi Buns and Bum Genius to see how they fit and perform.

I am still committed to cloth diapers – they weren’t hard to use – but now its a matter of finding a commercially available diaper that doesn’t break the bank that is easy to use that fits. And that is no tall order on a squirmy newborn with a long torso.