How to wash a wool diaper cover in 10 easy steps!

Here is how I wash my wool diaper covers. There are a few different ways.

First you will need a few things

• The wool diaper cover that needs washing.
• A soft, gentle soap.Baby soap works great!
• A sink you can plug, or a large bowl.
• Lanolin (Lansinoh, the kind you use while breastfeeding works great, or there are some websites that sell liquid lanolin)
• A jar with a tight fitting lid.
• A towel.

Here is what you need to do

1: Fill your sink with warm water and a little soap. Add the diaper cover and gently swish

2: Let the diaper soak for 15 min

3: Rinse the diaper with warm water

4: Place a small amount (pea size) of lanolin in the jar and fill the jar 3/4 full with HOT, super HOT, water (I like to microwave it for 60-90 seconds, but please use pot holders as it will be HOT) Put the lid on and shake the jar vigorously until the lanolin is mixed well with the water.

5: Fill your sink again with warm water. Pour the lanolin water into the warm water.

6: Place the wool diaper cover into the water and swish around

7: Let sit for 30-60 minutes.

8: Carefully wring out the excess water from your diaper.

9: Spread a towel out on a table or the floor. Lay the diaper on top and roll the towel up tightly to remove as much water as you can (I roll it up and step on it)

10: Place the cover somewhere to air dry. Lay flat. Reshape gently while still wet. I like to use an unplugged box fan.

Whoops I forgot about my Blog!

Life has been busy! Tonight Alexa and I are having a girls night in; so far we have had strawberry banana smoothies for dinner, and I'm going to make some popcorn soon. Blake has gone to cape cod for the weekend with my grandparents. It is a much needed break for me. We are in a heatwave so the kids and I have been hanging out in our 1 room with AC which has been tough for them. Insert sibling arguments here. If I hear "he's touching me" "she hit me" one more time I might snap. Driving to Nashville in September will be an adventure. Speaking of that, Alexa got asked to be the flower girl in my friends wedding. I originally was going to go without the kids, but now they are coming. There is no way I could just take Alexa, so Blake gets to tag along.

We are moving to an awesome new apartment in a week! Alexa got into a great magnet school in Hartford and the new apartment will be right near the school.  Best part of the apartment is it has a dishwasher, that almost makes up for the fact that it is on the 3rd floor.


I start school the same day Alexa does, well the day after but my semester starts the same day. I'm taking english 101, pre-algebra and intro to nutrition. I would love to transfer somewhere and get my RN eventually. But I need to get a lot of math classes out of the way first. The last time I took a math class of any kind was over 8 years ago.

Blake has an appointment with a developmental ped. in a few weeks, right before we leave for the trip. I feel like I'm counting down the days for this appointment and that it can't come fast enough some days. Hopefully he will be restarting PT and OT soon as well.

Alexa was in an artshow right before the end of 1st grade, here is a picture of her art.

nice days and more snow on the way

Friday was the best day ever in a really really long time. It was beautiful outside and we spent a lot of time playing in the puddles. Alexa was home from school not feeling that well still. Friday night I also went out to a show.
Not a lot of pictures really this update, sorry.

Poor Alexa looks way too serious about playing outside.

After that lovely day we are now back to winter temps and 3-6 more inches of snow on the way for tonight into tomorrow.

co-sleeping

Both of my kids coslept when they were babies. Both would still do it if the bed was bigger. Blake expressed interest in sleeping in Alexa's super cool loft bed tonight. I felt ok with it as long as she was on the ladder side. He knows to lay down, and is a very cautious kid. As in if he feels like he is even the least bit scared, he won't do something. So I let him sleep in her bed with her tonight. She was very open to the idea, they have coslept many times with me. Once they settled down (think 13 year old girl slumber party chatting and giggling) they quickly fell asleep. I went in to check on them a few hours ago and saw this.

Just the sweetest thing ever. It makes up for all the difficult moments during the day.

Slackin.

It's been a while. Blake had surgery Jan 18th, and has finally within the last few days started sleeping at night again. Not sleeping is really soul crushing. I feel a lot better with sleep, so I'm sure he does too. It has been a relaxing but busy few weeks. We have had lots of snow. LOTS. It is almost too much, the kids can't really go out in it to play, they just get stuck. Walking down the sidewalk must be really cool when your 3 feet tall, you would feel like your in a tunnel. So I have lots of pictures to upload since I did really try hard to stick to the "photo a day" thing. But they are in no special order.

Alexa with her friends Pony Boy and Story, checking out Zelda on the Wii.

Boy child at the hospital. Notice the plastic knife in the first picture, he was really determined to cut off his IV. He even asked the nurse for scissors while I went to grab lunch.

 We have been reading lots of books. Alexa likes to pretend shes the "teacher" and has Blake sit and listen to her. He usually doesn't have the patience to sit thru the entire book.

 Top 2, Alexa built a fairy house out of the stuff in the recycle bin. Bottom 2, Blake building cities with blocks then knocking them down.

I've been busy too. I put up this shelf above my washing machine to hold all my soap. Even tho I don't have anyone in diapers anymore, we still use and LOVE Rockin Green  laundry soap. I don't use bleach for laundry but it just hangs out up there so its safe and out of the way.

Top: snowday project. A for Alexa, B for Blake. Bottom. My van in the middle. more snow...

Blake moved into Alexa's room. Here is his area. (note, the space heater was not plugged in and is not run that close to the bed)

I finally got around to getting Alexa new earrings. One weekend I picked her up after work and noticed her ear was red, swollen and infected. So I got rid of the gold studs and got her better earrings. These just happen to have Invader Zim on them. Blake calls Zim "ZOOM the puppy"

I got birthday breakfast, a week after my birthday, but that's ok. I'm 24 now!!

Speaking of me, I decided I wanted dreads again, the last set only lasted a month, I'm on 2 weeks with this set, and I already like them 10x better. They are sectioned well, and I really think they will turn out awesome. Plus I have my own idea of beauty.



Last but not least, I finally went out to a show friday! I saw Filthy Still at Cafe 9. Mark also played a song with them, which can be found here. It was my first time testing out my iphone video camera.

reusable menstrual products

My friend is making a zine, and I told him I'd write something about reusable menstrual products for his zine. So here goes!

Every month is the same, the mad dash to the store to buy pads and tampons. They are expensive, they leak, and they can cause allergic reactions and toxic shock syndrome. So why do we keep buying them? Most of us don't know there is an alternative. But there is! SO get rid of the plastic, paper and bleached cotton and get into something comfortable.

Lets start with pads which are made from layers of absorbant fabrics (cotton, hemp, flannel) which a lady uses while she is menstruating or during postpartum bleeding. After use, they are washed, dried and then reused. There are many options. You can even make your own cheap with minimal sewing skills (who else is gonna see them? they don't HAVE to be pretty). Personally my favorites are "pocket" type where the insert(s) can come out for washing. Basically you have a pad with wings that snap around your undies. Easy right? They might need to be changed more frequently, but the best part is you can customize the absorbency. You can also get fancy ones with organic bamboo velour, fun prints, waterproof backing, etc. They might seem like a big upfront cost, but remember that they will last a long time if taken care of. All you need to do is toss them in the washing machine. I use to wash them with my kids cloth diapers when my kids were little, now I just throw them in with the regular laundry. Sometimes they stain, but most of the time they don't. A good number to start with is 6-8 then go from there. You can always get more, wash more, etc. It is really up to you. Some of the best advantages of cloth pads are: they are eco-friendly, they are less likely to cause rashes, they don't smell the way disposable pads do after wearing them.

Next is the menstrual cup. Made out of silicone or latex. These cost about $25 and go inside the vagina to catch the blood similar to a tampon. Empty a few times a day and you are all set. Menstrual cups are safe and have no risk of toxic shock syndrome. Most cups last 5-10 years. Say goodbye to late night runs to the store to buy tampons. Also it pays for itself after a few months of use. It does have a learning curve to using it. But by the second cycle most people have it down. I have used mine for 5 years now with no complaints, taken it camping, gone swimming, used it overnight, and used it at work. When out and about it is a good idea to put on a cloth pad or liner while using the menstrual cup in case you can't get to a bathroom to empty it right away.

Some links to check out for reusable cloth pad patterns are
http://sites.google.com/site/shewhorunsintheforest/
http://sewgreen.blogspot.com/2007/05/cloth-pads.html
General cloth pad info:
http://partypantspads.com/sale/cloth-pad-curious-giveaway  (they will give you a free cloth liner, just pay shipping!)
http://www.gladrags.com/
http://lunapads.com/
And for the reusable menstrual cup check out:
http://www.divacup.com/
http://www.keeper.com/

cookies and ice cream!

Friday Alexa was home from school all day. Blake has surgery coming up on Tuesday. Blake's favorite toy blues clues dog has been missing for a few weeks (and he misses the dog lots) so we went to the mall to get a new Blue. I wanted Blake to have his beloved Blue for his surgery since it is his "favorite pal". We picked it out and headed off to explore the mall. Each kid also got a build a bear outfit for their already existing build a bears. We went to the play area, played trains at barnes and noble and just walked around. They were being really well behaved and it was nearing dinner time, so we went to friendly's. Each kid ate and got their kid-sized ice cream after.

                         Blake is fond of the BLUE m&m's. BLUE is his favorite color right now

Yesterday we just hung around the house. After dinner we baked cookies. The kids approved that they were good.

I love that my iphone camera is silent. I can actually get good pictures of Blake now since he has no idea he is getting his picture taken.


Here's some other random pictures from the last 2 days.

First one is me and Alexa. I'm not use to long hair. I will be redreading it in a month or two and I cannot wait. I hate having long hair, but when I did my dreads last time, they weren't sectioned great and my hair was a bit too short. I'm also not use to the glare on my glasses every time I take a picture. grr.

Second is Alexa's kitten Luke. After anyone takes a bath or shower, he hops in the tub and licks the sides and then lays down. odd little kitty. Our new apartment has this huge beautiful claw foot tub. I just wish it wasn't so abused and stained. Trust me what you see is a huge improvement from when we moved in. But it really needs to be refinished and I'm not going to take on that kind of project when we won't be staying here for more than a year.