A friend of mine recently listed her top seven baby products and it got me thinking about some of the things we could do with (and without).

1. SwaddleMe Adjustable Infant Wrap in Organic Cotton: This straight-jacket was great in keeping Ethan’s arms from flailing all over the place and helped him sleep longer/more peacefully.

2. bumGenius 2.0 and 3.0 one-size pocket diapers: These are our work-horse, day and night time diapers. Goes on and off easily, the fabric against baby’s bum is soft and wicks away wetness. Even though Ethan didn’t really fit into them until he was at least 8lbs, I think it’s great that they’ll fit him until he’s ready to potty train.

3. goodmama one-side fitted diapers: Like our bumGenius dipes, these are also one-size so they’ll grow with Ethan until he’s ready to potty train. I only use these at home since they normally require a cover, but they’re so lovely that I don’t like covering them up. (Wetness will seep through, which is OK, because by then Ethan’s onesie is usually covered in spit-up and needs changing anyway.)

4. Cloth wipes: I keep a stack of cloth wipes wherever I change the baby along with a spray bottle of water with a bit of baby wash. I either spray the cloth or spray the baby directly (usually after #2s). Our wipes come from a variety of sources, including Sewing Mom Just Accessories Etc. and Fussybutt, as well as STACKS from other mamas who no longer need theirs through Diaper Swappers.

5. method squeaky green baby hair + body wash and lotion: I’m a big fan of method products, and I just LOVE the scent of their baby wash and lotion. While there are a few things in the list of ingredients that I have no clue about, they do claim that they are free of phthalates and parabens.

6. Nature’s Touch™ Baby Papasan™ Cradle Swing: Not green, but oh, what a lifesaver at times! It’s where Ethan naps during the day.

7. Unbleached Indian Prefold diapers: We use preemie-sized prefolds with covers (Imse Vimse and Bummis) when Ethan was still too small to fit into his one-size diapers. Now they serve as great burp cloths and rags! We also have some larger, infant-sized prefolds that we sometimes use as diapers, but mostly they also get used as burp cloths as well. We got ours from Little-Lions.

8. Summer Infant Color Handheld Video Monitor: Also not green, but we put Ethan to bed in his own room as soon as he came home from the hospital, so having this around is an absolute necessity. Having color isn’t all that useful right now since we only use this at night when the lights are off in his room, so the image will be in night-vision mode.

9. Electric water kettle: This isn’t really a baby item as I had it before even getting pregnant, but it’s become so much more useful since. When Ethan was getting mama’s milk, I would use this to quickly heat up some water so I could make a warm water bath for the bottle of milk since our tap takes waaaay too long to warm up. Now that Ethan’s on formula, I use this to boil the water to mix with the powdered formula.

10. BornFree bottles: One of the most-trusted BPA-free plastic bottles out there. Ethan transitioned to these bottles as soon as he could eat more than what those itty-bitty bottles from the hospital could hold without any problems. Ethan also doesn’t seem to have any problems with extra air intake from using these bottles.

I also find the wide-neck SO much easier to clean using a bottle brush. They now also come in glass, which we might try when we need to get more of the bigger sized bottles.

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Now that the baby is over 10lbs, he’s been fitting into his bumGenius diapers a lot better. (Honestly, they were just so bulky before that I barely reached for then because I couldn’t fit any onesies over them unless I put him in 12-month clothing). I also realized something the other day: instead of using the inserts that came with them — which has a folded part because we’re still using the dipes on the smallest setting and causes extra bulk — why not stuff them with a couple of the preemie prefolds I have laying around? My son pees a lot, but I change him every couple of hours anyway, so two prefolds haven been absorbent enough for him. The best part is that they make the dipes SO MUCH more trim. I can actually put the baby in regular-sized clothing while he’s wearing them!

And YAY for finding a new use for the two dozen preemie prefolds we have!

Yes. I really am excited about this!

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One more reason why my cloth diapers are better than disposables? Blow-outs.

While Ethan is in cloth for most of the day, I do still use disposables on him on occasion. Usually while I’m feeding him because I know he’ll either poop and/or pee before we’re done. I just figure it’ll cut down in the amount of cloth dipes I have to wash, but now I’m starting to rethink the idea.

Just in the past couple of days, Ethan has had some powerful poops while I was feeding him. So powerful that they’ve blown right up his back and seep through his clothes. So not only do I have a now-thrashed disposable diaper which needs to be changed before he’s even done eating, but I also have soiled clothing (his, and sometimes mine). Plus, like this morning, it was so bad that I just had to give him another bath; wiping him down would not have been enough.

So let’s recount, in an effort to “save” one cloth diaper, I’ve:

• used up at least two disposables
• had to add to his laundry pile
• had to add to my laundry pile
• run water for his bath

Yup, this pretty much settles it. He’s going in cloth all day as long as I’m the one changing his nappy. (D, on the other hand, still refuses to do cloth, but he’s usually only around to change one or two nappies a day.)

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I took out some dipes from the dryer today and was taking stock of the current stash:

• 3 goodmama organic bamboo velour fitteds
• 1 goodmama print fitted
• 16 bumGenius 2.0s (one-size)
• 10 Fuzzi Bunz (S)
• 12 unbleached Indian prefolds (infant)
• 24 unbleached Indian prefolds (preemie)
• 2 Bummis Super Whisper Wrap covers (newborn)
• 2 Imse Vimse organic cotton covers (newborn)
• 1 Thirsties cover (XS)
• 1 Thirsties cover (S)
• 6 Prorap covers (preemie)

The bumGenius dipes still fit little big for Baby E (who is 8 1/2 pounds), so he’s mostly in the Fuzzi Bunz and infant prefolds with covers. He’s outgrown the preemie prefolds and Prorap covers, but we now use the prefolds as burp cloths. Hopefully, he’ll fit into the Fuzzi Bunz for a while, so by the time he’s outgrown it, the bumGenius will be in heavy rotation. I’ll probably end up getting a few medium Fuzzi Bunz, just because I’m liking them so much.

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I’m in love … with some cloth wipes I just bought from another mama on DiaperSwappers.com. The first set of wipes I got to use with Baby E were from another purchase off DS, but they’re the Kissaluvs kind and I just wasn’t impressed. (They’re absorbent, but not very soft.)

My next purchase was a little better. I tried out some wipes from Little-Lions when I purchased some prefold diapers. They’re flannel on one side and cotton terry on the other. At $1 each (or $5 for 6 and $8 for 12), they’re a great deal. Then I came across some wipes that had a layer of printed cotton on one side, and organic bamboo velour on the other back on DS. Oh, they are lovely! Absorbent and oh, so soft! They’re by Fussybutt and I just might go order more directly from them ($20 for 12).

I did, however, also just bought some mama made wipes off Etsy. They were $8.50 for a set of six and also use bamboo velour, but most of all, I couldn’t resist the skull print! I can’t wait to get these and add them to my stash.

Lastly, I’m eyeing wipes by Goodmama. They also use bamboo velour, and like Fussybutt, they’re $20 for 12.

Can one have too many wipes? Mmmm, I don’t think so. I use them to wipe baby’s bum and privates during diaper changes instead of disposable wipes (I have a spray bottle with water and a little bit of baby wash that I’ll either spray on the wipe or on baby), plus they make great napkins while feeding to clean up dribble and spit up. Oh, and I also use them as wash cloths during bath time!

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A few weeks ago I finally made a decision on diapers. To start off, we’re gonna go with the bumGenius one-size pocket diapers. The biggest deciding factor was that it’s supposed to grow with the baby, therefore reducing the need to buy new sizes as the little one gets bigger. The hook & loop tabs are also supposed to make securing the diaper super easy (if you have Windows Media, click here to watch a short demo clip of someone putting on one of these diapers on a squirmy baby).

My mom and her two sisters ordered a few of these for us for our baby registry, and I received them yesterday. I’ve been playing around with them this morning and am generally excited to see them in action. However, snapping the thing up to the smallest setting, it still seems a little big for most average-sized newborns. (Then again, who knows, ours could turn out to be bigger than average.) I think the key to making their use very easy is to pre-stuff the inserts and not wait until a diaper is needed. That way, just grab one just like you’d grab a disposable! Can’t get easier than that!

Of course, then there’s laundry. At the beginning, the choice was which was a lesser evil: adding waste to landfills that’ll take hundreds of years to decompose or increasing water and power consumption at home for laundry? Obviously, I decided that increasing our water and power consumption is less evil than contributing (more) to landfills. This will be an interesting test for me. For those of you who know me, you might know that laundry isn’t one of my favorite household chores. It’s not so much the washing part, it’s the folding and putting away. However, when pressed, I will suck it up and get the job done (as evidenced last week when I laundered, folded, and put away THREE LOADS of hand-me-down baby clothes). Will D help in washing diapers? I doubt it, but that’s OK. I know I’m anal enough that I’ll figure out a way that I like them done, and anything else would be forbidden. Besides, we’re also asking for some Seventh Generation disposables for those times I’m not around and D has to do all the diapering himself.

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