Smartipants

So I am finally getting around to writing my Smartipants review!

Smartipants is a 2-piece diaper system. From their website: "Smartipants™ diapers feature our Leak-Guard Technology, keeping moisture contained, and your baby dry. Our diapers are made with “breathable” fibers and are free from any chemicals or irritants. Smartipants™ reusable diapers are designed to grow with your baby from newborn to toddler, babies 7lbs - 35lbs. "

Customer Service: The customer service at Smartipants is great! I haven't had a single problem that I've needed to contact them about, but I have heard terrific stories about how responsive they are. In fact, my Smartipants diaper was free. I won it through a giveaway on Twitter during our #clothdiapers chat one Monday evening (join us every week!)... shipping was super fast, especially considering that it was all FREE! How nice of them. Hopefully I will be able to host a Smartipants giveaway on my site in the future and give one of my readers the chance to win one of these terrific diapers.

Price: Smartipants are $14.95 apiece. For a terrific one-size diaper that will last from birth to potty training, this is a very modest price. I would say it's definitely a bargain, especially considering the value (which is AMAZING).

Fit: I have difficulty with my son and one size diapers. He's a VERY small and thin baby. (13 lbs 7 oz at 6 months) With Smartipants, there was not a lot of guesswork. It was pretty easy to find his size setting, and once I did - no issues! It's super cute on him too!

Absorbency: Li-bug is what we call a Super Soaker. Diapers get changed every 2 / 2.5 hours(this is probably why he stays so thin, haha!) ... Our Smartipants generally last on him for about 3 or 3.5 hours. This is TERRIFIC. When I'm taking him out to the store or somewhere, I usually slip on the Smartipants so I have less of a chance of having to change him.

What makes this diaper unique: The selling point of Smartipants is the patented "Smart Sleeve" - the pocket is open on both ends, allowing the insert to come out on its own in the wash! You know what this means for the average CD mama??! No pee-smell on your hands! You don't touch the insert! You know what it means for me? Eh... nothing, I hand wash ;p .. But it was SUPER convenient when we had an overnight at a friends house and she did my laundry while we slept. The only diapers were Prefolds and Smartipants so there was no icky urine disaster as a result of her not knowing what to do with inserts - it took care of itself!

Overall: I am extremely pleased with this diaper! It is absolutely one of my favorites and usually the first one I reach for! Great value for your money. I have recommended them to so many people and hopefully more of you will want to try them out!

And for the next 8 days, there is a terrific sale going on! 3-pack of Smartipants for $36.95! Head over to www.smartipants.com and check it out!

I'm still here!

Hi everyone, I'm still here, just on a short hiatus!

I'll be back to fill everyone in on my progress with CDs. I have a review for SMARTIPANTS and RUMPAROOZ coming soon, I've tried them both.

Life is just crazy right now - I'm preparing for my first semester as a prenursing student and just trying to get my life and my house in order.

I hope everyone is doing well!

In order to start some discussion, leave me a comment with your favorite nighttime cloth diaper - we're still in disposables for night time and I need some suggestions on how to ease my fears and get started in cloth overnight.

So leave me:

Your favorite night diaper:

How long it lasts (do you have to change it in the middle of the night?):

If you'd like, include a link!

Adventures...

First, let me start by saying that I LOVE my new Smartipants diaper! I will definitely be writing a review on it later today or tomorrow... so watch out for that!

This weekend, I headed to my hometown for some fun with a friend I met on my favorite

parenting website. We sadly did not get too much time together, but it was a great experience. My little boy loved her!

My trip, which was supposed to just be an afternoon/overnight, extended into a 3 day 2 night stay. Did I mention my hometown is a beach? =P The entire trip, Liam was in cloth diapers. I had no clue that I possessed enough diapers to accomodate this. But apparently I do - though I did wash (in a washer and dryer, that is a FIRST for me and my dipes!) overnight the last night.

My top moment: realizing that little bug had a wet diaper in the middle of the nice restaurant we were in, causing him to scream his head off. The torrential downpour outside coupled with the realization that the diaper bag was in the car put me in a bind. By some stroke of luck, I had a single prefold in my purse, and he had a cover on already. However, here are my confessions:

1. I have never used a prefold for anything other than stuffing a diaper or little gPant.

2. I own zero pins or snappis.

3. I do not know how to fold a prefold.

4. My poor baby....:

Little Bug ended up with a prefold shoved into the cover, sticking out everywhere and... oh man, it was just a mess. I thank my lucky stars that he didn't pee the whole rest of the time we were dining, because that was a disaster for sure.

I guess I should purchase some snappis and learn to master the art of the prefold. I have just been terrified of them, and have stuck with fitteds and All-in-Ones.

In diaper news:

The Rumparooz I ordered got switched with another order the same night. By some crazy stroke of luck, I received my friend's pink diaper and she received my Lil Monsters print. Just glad it wasn't a stranger or my adorable monster dipe would be lost. So I will hopefully be trying out this awesome-looking diaper and revewing in the next few weeks, once we have mailed these diapers out to each other.

Sewing is on a hold, I left my sewing machine at my "mother in law"s home a few weeks ago, hopefully I will get it back soon. My good friend over at Loving My Life as a Mommy and Wife, Madison, embellished some PFs and I'm jealous. I need to give it a try.

I will leave you with this adorable picture of Li-bug and my friend Nicolette on the beach:

3 Hour Giveaway!

I'm looking to expand my collection of cloth diapers as well as my blog followers! So I'm going to host a giveaway, starting now (9:30 PM EST) and ending at 12:00 AM EST tonight.

You can win 1 of your favorite cloth diaper  ... Just recommend to me what diaper I should buy, and I will purchase one for myself and one for you! 

Here's how you enter:

Leave a comment on this entry telling me what cloth diaper you recommend that I buy. Include a link! And include your e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you.

For bonus entries, here's what you can do (leave a separate comment for each entry):

1) Become a follower of this blog.

2) Follow me on Twitter (@Lamere) and tweet this giveaway! Leave a comment with the permalink to your tweet.

3) Comment on any other entry in my blog and comment here with the title of that entry.

4) Put my button on your blog (you can grab the code to the left). Leave the URL to your blog.

The winner will be chosen by random.org ... have fun!

Diaper Number 2...

Did I promise an update about that 2nd diaper? I'm afraid it doesn't merit one, but here goes...

I will add pictures later, but for right now, I just don't feel like it ;p

This one is a fitted diaper, the inside layer is fleece and the outside is a cotton pirate print. I sewed in a soaker pad (poorly) that I made out of a cut-up Gerber Prefold. 

I royally messed up one side of the elastic, so the two sides are extremely uneven... but it's okay! Since I'm still just practicing and trying to get the hang of sewing diapers myself, I'm okay with messing up a few. The good news is, when I did the second side of elastic in the leg gussett, it turned out nearly perfect! The stretchiness is great and it seems like it will fit him (I haven't tried it on him yet... no velcro...). I think I am going to just stop using fleece though! Or at least the fleece I have.. it just seems so bulky. Maybe I am just making them too small, though. I'll have to experiment and see. 

I accidentally left my sewing machine at my mother-in-law's house, though, so I haven't been able to put the velcro on yet.

I'm getting better at this... but -

Anyone have any tips for sewing a diaper?

More Giveaways From Upstate ;)

So I am going to attempt Diaper # 2 today, so my blog will be more substantial than links to giveaways... but hey, what is more useful than constant linking to giveaways? I know I love to stumble across them!

This is, again, from one of my newfound favorite blogs... Our Life Upstate. She offers many ways to gain extra entries (have you guessed that this is one of them?), but there's no grueling hard work required, I promise.

This giveaway ends tomorrow, so this time I have given you a little more time than 20 minutes ;)

For a chance to win an Apple Cheeks Diaper System, head on over to Our Life Upstate. If you're super nice, you'll tell her who sent you ;p

I Am So Excited To Bring You...

Another Giveaway!

This one comes from Newly Wed, Newly Bred... a fantastic blog! I suggest you follow her blog and keep an eye out for future giveaways...

She is giving away all sorts of wonderful things from Bummis! Head on over to win!

bumGenius Deluxe Bamboo Fitted

Yesterday I received the BG bamboo fitted diaper. I was instantly in love - it's super soft, softer than my favorite fleece. 

I used a simple Kushies wrap over it. Liam is a frequent wetter so I changed him after two hours. There was not a single leak. The Kushies did its job as well.

I noticed that his skin was slightly wrinkled (like when you soak in a bathtub) so even though 2 hours isn't terribly long to go without a diaper change, I worry about his skin being next to moisture for that long. I love the diaper and I'm hoping that he was just a super soaker at that moment because I'd really like to use it without worrying about Liam's skin puckering.

You can purchase this diaper at Cotton Babies for 12.95... great deal :)

The fit was terrific, and I could tell my little guy was super comfortable in his new diaper. It was snug around the legs so I could breathe easy knowing that we were not going to end up with wet thighs!

The diaper seemed to have the perfect absorbency right where he needed it the most. I definitely would like to stock up on some more of these!

Liam in his BG!

And with the Kushies... :)

I made my first cloth diaper today :)

Okay... the outside is blue checkered-type cotton, the inside is 2 layers of fleece with a pocket.





That's the outside... notice how the elastic is barely stretchy (I will do better next time! I promise!)


The inside.. you can see the pocket in the first one.

I should have gotten a picture of how HILARIOUS it looks around the pocket! Haha...

I figured what better way to teach myself how to sew than to jump right in?

I didn't put the other velcro tab on yet because I ran out of thread and (as you can tell from the pics) DS needed to nurse... sorry for the horrible pictures, my camera charger is MIA and so is my boyfriend's camera, so I had to web cam it...

Huggabuns Ultra Pocket with Hemp Insert

 Here's my Liam in his new cloth diaper. It's a  Huggabuns Ultra Pocket with Hemp Insert. I'd have to say, we used it once so far... but I really like it. The fleece lining is so soft I wanted to cuddle with it. Liam seemed to enjoy it too. I'll bet his bum was so comfortable in this diaper!

Here's my dumb secret that I just learned I was doing wrong today: As a complete noob to cloth diapers, I didn't realize that you have to wash inserts and prefolds several times before using in order to make them absorbant enough. 

So, I didn't wash the hemp insert, just stuck it in the pocket and put it on my little guy. A few hours later, I am utterly confused. In a disposable, Liam would have been wailing for a diaper change by now - he HATES being wet. So I take a chance and take the diaper off. The fleece seems dry... I open the pocket and sure enough, the hemp insert is soaked. It was still super absorbant though, even though I didn't wash it first.

The outer layer is amazing. When they say waterproof, they mean it. NO leaks.

I hand-wash my diapers and hang dry them, and both cover and insert dried super fast.

I am loving cloth diapers... and I definitely love the Huggabuns! I will have to buy a few more pairs once I get through my "test" phase.