Week 8

I'm so pleased today. Evan has finally walked on his own! As he's been a bit late to get walking, the poor little guy has been back and forth hospitals having tests and being poked and prodded to be assessed for a motor delay. It would seem that the only thing stopping him from walking earlier has been a lack of confidence. I'm just so proud of him. Time to get him a proper pair of shoes.

 

We tried out an all in one nappy this week, the Lollipop PopNGro. I had heard some good reviews about this nappy, but I've always been a bit doubtful about all in one nappies and wondered how successful they would be at preventing leaks. It's a birth to potty nappy, so getting the right settings on the nappy when using for the first time on a toddler takes some trial and error. Initially I tried the PopNGro on the biggest setting with both the extra booster pads, but it leaked around the gussets. Not to be put off, I tried it again. This time on the middle setting and with just the microfibre booster. The nappy seemed to work well with no dampness around the gusset. Unfortunately however poop leaked out the leg and we had to do a pretty hasty nappy change! This is always my concern with all in one nappies as our Nature Babies nappies always leak after a poop but the separate cover always catches any mess and keeps Evan's clothes clean (Evan rarely needs a change of clothes).The cover can then be washed with a wipe or handwashed quickly in the sink and used again. 

 

I will more than likely use the PopNGro again to try to get a better fit around the leg, however right now this isn't going to be the nappy that converts me to an all in one. It is a shame as I did want to like it as many people use the Lollipop PopNGro successfully, however I don't think it is the right nappy for Evan. I'm hoping soon to get a Close Parent Pop-In to try out as I've heard some good things about this nappy too.

Week 7 Halloween and Bonfire Night

Oops I've missed a couple of weeks again. I don't know where the time is going. What with colds and work I just haven't had time to write a blog entry. We've had a fun few weeks though with our little man. We went to the park on Halloween with Evan dressed as a spider. The little guy walked all around the park. He just loves walking right now. We've just taken Evan to his first firework display as well. I thought he wouldn't like the noise but he absolutely loved it and was mesmerised by the fireworks. In fact when the display was finished he asked for "moore".

Tried a new nappy this week, the Lollipop Softee. I loved the look of this nappy. It is so soft and cuddly. The nappy looked like it had been used many times before and had been washed many times, but yet it was still lovely and soft. The softee is a 2 part nappy so we used it with our motherease airflow covers. The nappy has Velcro tabs and it fitted great. We used the Softee during the day for 4 hours and over night for 11 hours and there were no leaks. After washing I was impressed at how quickly the Softee dried. In fact it was virtually dry after spinning in the washing machine. Less than an hour on the radiator and it was ready to go again.

I was really pleased with the fit, ease of use and performance of this nappy and I would say the Lollipop Softee is a great nappy.

Week 6: A tiring week

This week I have been incredibly tired so I have been a bit slow at posting this blog entry. I guess that is what happens when you're trying to be a mum and working full time. Actually I did have a day off work this week, as Evan was unwell. When I went to get him up Thursday morning he had been sick. He's had a bit of an upset tummy for a little while, which makes me glad for the 2 part nappies, as they have protected his clothes from any mess.

Anyway, Thursday afternoon Evan seemed a bit better and wanted to go out so we bundled ourselves into the car and shot off round Fife visiting doctors surgeries with posters advertising my Nappuccino. That is another thing I have been busy with lately. In my role as a Lollipop real nappy advisor I have organized a Nappuccino in St Andrews with the Fife Real Nappy Network. It's my first one and with just 3 weeks to go, I thought it best to start advertising. See the Go Real events page if you are interested in knowing more about it.

This weekend we've been visiting Evan's Nana and Granddad. Normally we use disposables when we visit, but the past couple of times it's been difficult to find biodegradable nappies in the right size and have had to use – dare I say it – Pampers. Not this time though. I decided we should take the "Real Nappy Travel Challenge" and took with us some flat nappies, a nippa, and the Tots Bots Cover. After use we just bagged up the nappies in biodegradable nappy sacks and as we were just staying 2 nights, took them all home in our wet nappy bag for washing. The nappies were so easy to use and didn't leak once (I think I'm getting really good at folding them) and because they were flat nappies they didn't take up much room in the over night bag.

Over the whole weekend we used just 2 disposables. One of which leaked terribly on the way home and we spent 50 minutes in the baby changing room at McDonalds cleaning up. I can't help but think if Evan had been in his 2 part nappy it wouldn't have been so bad. Evan was quite bemused by it all but I would rather forget about the whole ordeal, as it was quite unpleasant especially as we had run out of wipes!

Week 5 A little accident

I write this with a certain amount of guilt but I feel it is important to say so others will learn from our mistake.

This week Evan had an accident. He tumbled out of his cot and landed on his head!

It was awful to watch but there was nothing I could have done. It was all over before I had realised what had happened. He was fine and was up walking around the furniture and laughing away just minutes after his fall and seemed to be unaware of what had happened. I think it affected me more than it did him. I was all ready to take him up A+E but I phoned our health visitor who told us not to worry as this sort of thing happens from time to time and he would probably be fine. She advised us to keep an eye on him and if he seemed unwell then to take him to the hospital. It shook me and my husband up though especially as the reason he fell was because we hadn't lowered the base of his cot. Suffice to say as soon as we were home from work that day the cot base was lowered. He can barely see over the top now and until he learns how to shimmy up the cot bars he won't be escaping/falling out.

So the moral of the story is, babies grow fast (sometimes faster than we realise), so make sure the cot base is at an appropriate height.

In case anyone was wondering, Evan is still fine. In fact I brought it up at Evan's appointment with the paediatrician yesterday and the doctor was unconcerned.

Week 4 Flat Nappies Revisited

I'm not going to hide the fact that I am a huge fan of shaped nappies, two part ones in particular. However I have thought recently that maybe I am too hard on the flat nappies. After all that style of nappy has been used successfully longer than any other. So with this in mind I decided to try the terry towels on my son again. Now that he's a busy 18 month old toddler, I thought it would be difficult but instead I was pleasantly surprised.

I found folding the flat nappy awkward initially simply because I was unsure how to fold it (keeping in mind that I was doing it from memory and the last time I used a flat nappy was over a year ago). I used the kite fold as it was the one my mum said she used on me. It's quite an easy fold to do and after a couple of goes I got it right. Evan was well behaved and I managed to get the nappy under him without it unfolding and the liner staying in place. I used the Nappy Nippa to fasten the nappy and a Tots Bots Velcro cover (my favourite cover blue with stars!) over the top. I like these covers, not just because they have a snazzy pattern, but they seem to have a generous fit. The cover worked well with the folded nappy.

Although the flat nappy was bulky on Evan when he was new, now that he is bigger it didn't seem all that bulky. I still prefer the shaped nappies but in an emergency I know I can always use the terry squares and with practice they can be just as easy to use as any shaped nappy.
 

Week 3: Nappy Rash and Stinky Nappies

This week Evan has nappy rash for the first time ever. It's been really sore and angry looking for the past few days, but today it seems to have calmed down a bit. I coated his bottom in Sudocreme and that seems to have helped. Like most unexplainable things, I'm putting it down to teething. He is actually just getting one of his canine teeth. He was a grump on the weekend as well another sure sign that the tooth was coming. He hasn't had a problem with any of his other teeth. They have always just appeared without causing any bother. I'm actually hoping for a few more bottom teeth to match the top. He has almost a full set on the top but still only 4 on the bottom!

Lately I've noticed that his nappies have been particularly stinky. I have been told that nappies can smell worse when new teeth are coming through. I've had to resort to soaking even the wet nappies and doing a rinse before washing to get the smell out. It doesn't half make your eyes water!

Nappy changes have become difficult this week as well. Evan is on the verge of walking. He's very steady when walking with support and just needs to find the courage to let go. Unfortunately for me, all he wants to do these days is practice walking so getting him to lie down for his nappy changes, turns into a battle of wills!

 

Week 2: On our holidays

Although I live in Scotland, I'm not a native. I'm a Welsh girl originally and all my family live in South Wales. We don't see them as often as we would like but when we do go visit we usually fly. I know not great for the environment but certainly easier than driving with a baby, which took us 10 hours in the past. It takes an hour in the plane and we can leave after work.

When traveling we usually keep Evan in disposable nappies (Although I do always insist that they are the biodegradable type). Unfortunately Evan drank 3 cups of water before getting on the plane (He normally doesn't drink much) and did huge wee wees. The nappy just couldn't take this downpour and we were both soaked. This meant a nappy change in the plane toilet. I hate plane toilets but it wasn't as bad as I thought. There was a fold down piece of MDF to act as a changing table although no restraints, not that he could go far. He's a tall boy though and plane toilets are narrow. His legs ended up half way up the wall but I managed to get the new nappy on without too much incident.

While visiting family we always use disposable nappies because of their convenience. I'm not against disposables. They are great for holidays, but I think unnecessary for everyday use. I also find them fiddly to use (maybe because we don't use them all the time). The Velcro tabs on our two part nappies are so much quicker to do up. A few weeks ago Evan was in a disposable nappy. He is a bottom shuffler and was scooting around quite happily on the living room carpet. I had gone over to play with him when I noticed the outside of his nappy was wet! The disposable nappy was only wearing thin with all the bottom shuffling he was doing.

Evan had a great time visiting his grandma and bampa and was spoilt rotten. He was upset to leave them and was looking for them when we got on the plane. He couldn't understand why they weren't coming too. It was very sad. But I'm hoping that when he sees them next time he will have some memory of who they are.

Go Real Nappy Blog - Caroline Jackson, Week 1

My name is Caroline. I live in Fife, Scotland with my husband and baby son who was born in March 2008. I work full time as well as being a Lollipop Cloth Nappy Advisor and a member of the Fife Real Nappy Network in my spare time. We’ve used real nappies on our son since he was a couple of weeks old and made the decision to use cloth nappies when I was pregnant. In my mind there was really no decision to make. I’ve always seen the importance of recycling and “doing our bit” for the environment, so choosing to use reusable nappies was simple. My husband felt the same way as me and was definitely convinced when I told him about the financial savings we could make.

While I was pregnant I had no idea that I could book a nappy demo with a nappy advisor to help me choose the perfect nappies for us. I spent many hours researching the different types and brands of nappies on the internet. However, it was difficult to choose which type to get without actually seeing and feeling them. I decided I liked the Nature Babies brand as they were a British company based in Leicestershire and I purchase a Nature Babies trial pack containing a selection of their nappies.

I was very excited when my nappies arrived but we didn’t have a baby to try them out on, so my husband and I had great fun putting them on a stuffed monkey! After trying out the nappies on Monkey we decided we liked the shaped two part nappy system. I had read online that these were most reliable, as the two layers (absorbent nappy and separate cover) acted as a double barrier against leaks. I also liked the idea of pocket nappies as they were like disposable nappies which I thought would be useful for when we were out.

Eventually we ended up with 9 Diddi Diapers with velcro, 1 Micro Diddi Diaper, 1 Nature Babies wrap and 2 Motherease airflow wraps, 6 small Nature Babies Stuffables, and 5 large terry squares for folding. In total we spent £147 on our first size nappies and all the accessories (pail, mesh bag etc). We decided to use biodegradable flushable paper liners to make messy nappy changes easier.

After our son was born, we didn’t have any family nearby to help us learn how to care for our newborn so for the first few weeks we used disposable nappies until we had the hang of things. But after spending so much money buying the nappies we were determined to use them and make them work.

Once we started using our nappies we found that not all of them were as good as we had hoped on our small 6½Ib newborn. The Diddi Diapers were most successful and the Velcro fastening meant the nappy was very adjustable. Our son was exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months and the two part nappies were great for containment of runny poos. The Micro Diddi Diaper was fastened with a Nappi Nippa. Although the Nappi Nippa was designed to replace nappy pins it is still sharp and I caught myself on it a number of times. The Nature Babies Stuffables were disappointing as we found they leaked when our son was small so we stopped using them.

When he was a bit bigger the Stuffable nappies fit better around the legs and leaked less but I always had to put two microfibre pads in the pocket as one simply wasn’t absorbent enough. Even with two pads the nappy only lasted two hours at best before leaking. I did fold a couple of terry squares in the beginning but found it very awkward to keep the nappy folded while wrapping it round our son’s bottom. The terry squares were certainly very absorbent but incredibly bulky on our small baby and the wraps we had were not big enough to go around so we had to use plastic pants. We now just use the terry squares on our changing mat to catch any surprise wees or poos during nappy changes.

Although our first size nappies have been well worn, we hope to have another baby in the future and will use our nappies again. As a nappy advisor and working for the Fife Real Nappy Network I have come across a number of new mums who used cloth nappies in hospital after their babies were born and this is something I would love to do next time.