Washing my CDs

This post is intentionally for my record keeping, because I have a few brands of CDs now and I noticed each one have quite a different washing setting, but generally speaking they are the same. So just in case I forgot or I need to get someone to help me with handling the CDs, this post would be helpful!

1. Rumparooz (http://www.kangacare.com/Wash-and-Care.html)

To Wash: Cold rinse *Hot wash: add the recommended amount of detergent for the appropriate load size. Cool rinse Tumble dry low or lay flat to dry in indirect sunlight.

2. Grovia (http://www.gro-via.com/laundry-extras-diaper-care.html)

Hybrid Shells	All-in-One Diapers & Soaker Pads
Always tuck your Hook & Loop tabs under the laundry loops on wash day. Wash on **WARM (not hot or sanitize cyles). Hang to dry. If drying outside, dry mesh side-up to avoid fading of prints/colors. DO NOT tumble dry.	Dispose of solid waste in the toilet. Using liners or a mini shower to rinse will help make this simple. Wash your diapers on **warm with sufficient detergent. Tumble dry, or hang to dry inside-up.

3. bumGenius (http://www.bumgenius.com/customer-support/)

If the diaper has hook & loop closures, secure the laundry tabs.
Pre-wash cold to remove waste and fight stains.
Wash hot (140F/60C) with bumGenius detergent to cleanse your diapers.
Follow with a second rinse.
Line-dry covers and diaper shells. Tumble dry inserts, fitteds and prefolds.

4. Charlie Banana (https://www.charliebanana.com/Care-Instructions_ep_50-1.html)

Knock solids into the toilet and shake or rinse off any residue. Remove the washable insert and store both diaper and insert in either a dry diaper pail or a pail of water until ready for washing. Wash in cold or warm water to a maximum of 40C. Use any eco-friendly detergent, only half of the recommended amount is needed. Do not use fabric softener or bleach. Tumble dry on low or hang to dry.

…

From the list above, it is obviously seen that most diapers in my stash can be washed in hot – not exceeding 60degC though, except the Charlie Banana’s and the Grovia AIO newborn diapers..I still need more research on the temperature setting for Grovia since the website suggests WARM setting. Since I only have 6 CB diapers so it would be quite easy for me to just ensure that whenever I’m using it, the dirty ones be put in a separate pail so it will be washed separately.

On the detergent point of view, I have soapnuts and Waitrose (non-bio), and there’s a few other non-bio (or at least Tide Original – 1/4 cup) that I can find quite easily here too, so for now I think I’ll stick to that.

Ok so here’s the routine I think I will do for my cloth diapers (except for CB) using my non HE machine:

1. Pre rinse with Rinse+Spin, adding Extra Rinse = ~ 30 mins (no detergent), or I could opt for Quick Wash setting = ~ 22 mins). My machine doesn’t have “no spin” setting, if not it will be great as if I stop at rinse only, the diapers will get wet and heavy!

2. Wash hot (Cotton 60degC), Intensive Wash (Heavy Duty), Extra Rinse with detergent = 1:50 – 2++ hours for full load. For warm wash, I’d go with 40degC.

3. Cold rinse with Rinse+Spin = ~ 15 mins, maybe with Extra Rinse too

And then SMELL them! I don’t own a dryer but it’s fine since we have abundance of SUN in the Middle East, so I’ll just line dry them under the sun, so washing will have to be done the first thing in the morning, every other day. In the winter (Nov – Mar) the daytime is shorter so need to fully utilize the sun. Other than that, especially in summer, I think the drying will be just excellent!

Another thing that needs extra attention is on water hardness. We have hard water here but I know some mamas in the UAE with some routine and detergent they use, so will see how it goes for me!

And for now let’s just concentrate on the late third trimester pregnancy !

More on (my) CDs

So I shared what I didn’t do right in this post, so after doing research; watch tonnes of  youtube videos, read lotsa links from different brands, I finally found perhaps my way of dealing with cds, at least I plan to as right now the baby’s only poop & pee in my belly haha. But let me try first so I have a feel whether it’ll work for real dirty diaper. As for prepping the new cds, here’s what I do:

1. For Grovia Newborn AIO, since it’s organic cotton, it mentions there at the tag to wash 3-5 times to improve absorbency. Since I don’t have a high efficiency (HE) washer, so I just utilize what we have, which is Daewoo N1012 front loading machine. First I rinse with cold water using Rinse + Spin program, then main wash with 1/4 cup detergent (Waitrose Non-Bio) using 40degC program with extra rinse. Then I turn to Rinse + Spin again – first wash complete. Since I don’t have a dryer, I just line dry the cds under the sun, as we have  lotsa sun here in the middle east :p. So far I’ve completed 3 times wash (and dry), and will do again until at least 5 times as recommended.

The inside of the Grovia Newborn All In One (AIO), suitable for 3.5 up to 12 lbs.

The tag mentions the material of the cover and inserts

It’s recommended to wash 3-5 times to improve efficiency

Snaps to adjust the size

2. Another brand which is my favorite is the One Size Cloth Pocket Diaper Rump-a-rooz! It is a cd with leak protection and two inserts in which you can choose either microfiber or hemp or bamboo soakers. I bought the microfiber soaker and it doesn’t need many wash cycle for prewash. Once is enough, so I throw the covers and inserts and do the same wash as I did for Grovia. If I were to buy hemp/bamboo soaker in the future, it needs to be washed 6 times to maximize the absorbency, from the website it mentions with or without detergent.

(Right) The Cover in Charlie print and (left) the microfiber double soaker.

Putting in the inserts. If you noticed in the previous photo there are label tags at the inserts so might wanna make sure the tags are accessible at the pocket area so when you want to take them out for storing or washing (dirty diaper), you can pull the tags so your hand are free of pee/poop

One size diaper, so you can adjust the size by using the snaps, but it might be a little bit bulkier for newborn but still OK

I only have these two brands in my stash, but I have ordered bumGenius 4.0 stay dry from Cotton Babies on Black Friday sales too and it’s on its way from US. Also interested in getting Charlie Banana and Bamboolite  (Malaysian brand), both can be ordered online (Malaysia) and hope to have it sent to my friend’s address, she’s going back to Malaysia and will be back to Oman on January 4th. Will think about it first because it’s quite hard to buy from the US now that it’s almost Christmas and New Year.

My Cloth Diapers (CDs)

Hello!

I have been cloth diapering since my eldest was 14mo, at that time we had a nanny as I was working (in Malaysia). My girlfriend introduced me to CD and at first I was quite worried whether it’ll work for us but after thinking carefully and actually tried it, I was convinced. Back then my preferred brand was Rump-a-Rooz, I bought in from an online reseller in Kuala Lumpur. However, there were a few things I didn’t do quite right in terms of cloth diapering as I did not read thoroughly so I  missed a lot actually.

Here’s what I didn’t do right:

1. Prepping the cloth diaper before use. Well, as far as I remembered, I did prewash them, but I handwashed only. But it’s quite alright, because prewashing is actually to get rid of the production dirt whatsoever, and I wasn’t using hemp/bamboo insert that needs 4-6 washes before use to improve absorbency.

2. Keeping the pooped & peed diapers. I soaked them all after rinsing :(,  when we could actually just throw them in a pail with liner (rinse the pooped ones first) and wash them during laundry day. Because I only have less than 10 cds so I had to wash everyday; I should’ve stocked some more so that I could save the water, detergent and electricity by washing it alternate days.

3. I used to tell the nanny to wash it at the end of the day with the machine, but she chose to handwash it and I thought that’s ok. Turn out it’s not! As it needs to be washed in warm/hot to properly clean it. AND she used fabric softener too, because we thought it will make it smells nice! That’s a big NO in cloth diapering.

4. Another thing that make me regret is applying diaper creams! My daughter has a sensitive skin although she’s on breastmilk so before we used cds, we had to apply a lot of diaper creams – organic and non organic. Although she didn’t get any rashes when on cds, we still use them out of habit.

5. When she’s almost 2yo, we had many leak events we thought she outgrown the one size diaper that we decided to stop using cds.. Little that we know we mishandled the cds all this while.

How did I notice this, is simply because nowadays I had plenty of time researching about cloth diaper since we are having a new baby soon, since I’m a sahm now so I thought I’m gonna start again, properly. That will be shared in the next post!

Sharing Links

This few days had been hectic, doing lotsa reading on preparing cloth diapers before first use. Well, the baby will literally be here in January, and I really can’t wait to sort all newborn list! This is the best part of all. Last Saturday we went to get some newborn clothings, they are having SALES at BabyShop up to 70%. We got something for the new baby and our eldest too, so much for the good bargain!

Some of the unwashed clothes

I’m going for white & black (not all) this time….since we had so much pinks from the eldest!

We had a checkup yesterday, so far the baby is growing healthily, and already 2.2kg according to the ultrasound (EFW), at 33 weeks. If I remembered correctly, my eldest EDD was on 18th January 2012, but she came 2 weeks earlier on the 6th. I was  hoping that the new baby would come around that date too, and since dh’s birthday is on the 20th, they all can celebrate their birthdays together! And I for one will be having my queen time celebrating alone hihi.

Anyways, I thought I’d save a few informative links for myself on this blog, since I’m too weary to write!

The Cloth Diapering Resource Mother Lode

Baby Wearing: Is it Preventing Diastasis Recti From Healing?

Safe Menstrual Care Resource Guide

Intro to Babywearing

Ok let’s get started!

I found lotsa websites on babywearing (bw), so before getting serious and committed into bw (that has made me a bw gear’s churner – wrapaholic, since then) one really need to get a better understanding on the correct bw, why you do it, what to use, safety aspects.

Below is the summary of my choice, it might be different from another mommy, but this one really makes me feel comfortable to babywear:

1. Babywearing is an act of carrying your newborn/child anywhere, anytime and in another term is an act of love. Parents mostly tend to bw when they go out for shopping, school run, weddings, and sometimes sahm wear their baby while doing chores. They find it easier to handle cranky baby (for example), mommy to nurse in public (nip) and to do things hands-freely.

2. In the previous post, I have showed you the type of carriers I used and I failed to comply with the safe & ergonomic bw. I have gathered a few pics made by sweet mamas to guide me in safe bw:

The TICKS rule for safe babywearing for all gears

3. Now that I understand the basic principle of bw, it’s time to choose the gears. This is the most exciting part. For a newbie, one will always ask which one is suitable for herself; taking into account the age of the child, budget and where to buy. There are so many types of gears and each one has different brands and materials. So before anything else, we need to understand all types of carriers

The Babywearing International explains it quite well too. Click here for reference.

Newborn: Ring sling, wrap, stretchy wrap and pouch sling are most suitable due to their weight and body structure. We need to achieve the natural curl c shape spine of an infant, the same condition when she was in the belly for 40 weeks.

Here’s an infographic on the ABC’s of babywearing safety. Once we figured out the best carrier suits us, we need to always ensure we practice the style (a lot, practice makes perfect!), check our baby during carrying (ensure airway, close enough to kiss and in view at all time), check the baby position especially on the neck and back and lastly the comfort of both baby and wearer.

How an infant should look like when being carried in a wrap/rs

4 mo and above: Wrap, ring sling (rs), mei tai (asian style carrier), soft structured carrier (SSC). At this age, the baby has grown bigger and the bone structures is quite strong, so mommy will continue with wrap and ring sling, some will straight away change to mei tai or ssc as it’s quite easy and quick to use. Wrap is better than rs at a certain weight because rs puts a burden on one side of shoulder if you’re using it at a long time. But again, you may choose any type of carriers that best suit you.

4. There are many types of wrap too! And you’ll go crazy just by looking at how many brands with cute prints and colors there are in the market! For a newbie wrapper, go for 100% cotton or combed cotton or egyptian cotton and these are easy to use, some are quite soft, cushy and snug out of the box. Brands to looks for for a newbie are Kokadi, Didymos, Ellevill, Natibaby, Little Frog, Lenny Lamb (you can just google these and it will direct you to their respective websites). My personal choice is Didymos & Ellevill. Wrapped my tummy the other day, so in love with how soft the material is. And then there’s handwoven wrap such as Girasol, Bebe Sachi, Woven Wings but these are usually quite expensive. Or you might join any For Sale or Trade (FSOT) group and buy a second quality of wraps from other mamas. Usually the wraps are already broken in (soft &  easy to use) as compared to new ones. And to date, I have 6 wraps, 3 ring slings and 2 ssc. Don’t tell my hubby about this! On  stretchy wrap, it’s suitable until your child is about 7-8kg because you couldn’t achieve the ticks rule for heavier child due to the nature of the wrap – reach the max stretch.

Will talk more on the wraps and different materials and blends in future posts!

5. What is the carrying method suitable for me if I choose wrap? There’s a lott too, and wrap comes in many sizes, so do a lot of reading and watch videos on YouTube will help your decision making. For now I have a size 3, 5 and 6, so different size suits different type of wrapping. Click here for more info.

6. Some sites that I find very informative, keeping it  for my own reference and yours too:

http://www.wrapyourbaby.com/index.htm

Alrightey, that’s it for now, hope I have captured most of the basics and aspects of bw, till then, happy natural parenting!

My Early Babywearing Journey

Babywearing is not that new to me. When I gave birth to my dearest daughter (dd) 2 years ago, dh’s officemate gave us an Ergo carrier, we didn’t know back then it was a soft structured carrier (SSC) which is an ergonomic carrier but we used it – there was a time where we misused it 😦

Ergobaby SSC, we were supposed to follow the TICKS rule. Unfortunately we didn’t because the we weren’t exposed to the correct info on babywearing (and most books didn’t mention this)

Wrong use of Ergonomic carrier! Front Facing is NOT recommended!

When my dd is about 3 mo, I had to travel to an island for the company’s teambuilding and engagement, so I decided to bring her along. I bought a pouch carrier from  Mothercare (retailing about USD30++). It is another ergonomic carrier only back then I didn’t really know how to use it properly.

And I still remember buying that RM400++ (about USD117++) hip seat carrier (I didn’t keep any photos of me wearing it), Korean brand, hoping that my dd will have the most comfortable seat whenever we carry her. But little that we know the carrier is NOT an ergonomic one, no wonder after an hour my hips were all sore. The carrier is also too bulky and I sometimes forget to bring it anywhere.

And during our trip to Hong Kong & Guangzhou for our dd’s 1st birthday, we thought we just get any cheap carrier on our way there – I think we bought it at a shop in Hong Kong at a very cheap reasonable price. We bought a narrow based carrier (crotch carrier), another non ergonomic carrier! We used it almost all the time because it was winter and our dd felt warmer when we carried her. I have a picture but you can’t really see it, but it’s something like the pic below it

xx brand of non ergonomic carrier, another front facing! This was taken at the textile rows in Guangzhou in 2013

The pic on the left shows an example of narrow based carrier (crotch carrier). Can you imagine how the kids feel sitting down “hanging” like that for hours?? The pic on the right is an example of ergonomic carrier. And both pics below will be explained later. Source: google

I noticed that parents tend to carry their child facing the front. I thought the same too, because we want our baby to “see the world” but we are actually wrong, they don’t need to see the world, especially newborn, they just need a hug to calm them down (and how exactly you hug a person?); to feel the heartbeat they’d been feeling for about 40 weeks. And naturally when they sleep tummy-down (stomach sleeping), they often sleep better that way, and imagine carrying your child facing down – only you and the child are standing, they’re calmer, it makes a lot of sense!!

We made huge mistakes back then, but lucky for us we didn’t really need a carrier to carry our dd because she’s our first child and the first granddaughter for both our parents, so everyone were more than willing to carry her bare hands! And we used big bulky stroller too, good use when she’s sleeping. My dd started walking at 10months so since then she loved walking on her own, except when she’s too tired or cranky. So at least we’d saved her legs!

For the second one, we are going to wear him/her ergonomically, make things right this time, hopefully. And since I’m now a devoted sahm, it would be much easier to do so!

Alright, will share more on babywearing in the next posts!

I’m a SAHM

Hello everyone, I’m a Malaysian sahm living in Muscat, Oman with a 2yo daughter and a second one due in January 2015.

The main reason of this blog is to share my daily (struggle) life as a sahm towards natural parenting. So what’s the fuss about natural parenting? Well, after reading it through, there are at least three things in it: babywearing, breastfeeding and cloth diapering. This is not something new to me as I did the last two on my daughter, only maybe not religiously due to work. Now that I am a stay-at-home-mommy, I really want to take this opportunity to start again as much as I could.

I will be sharing my references and day-to-day activities, for my own reading and yours too. I really want to make it as useful as it can be to all of you readers, maybe I’m not an expert but it’s something that we as parents could consider. So happy reading and happy natural parenting!!