Crafting in my Closet!: baby

Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts

Friday, November 09, 2012

Out and About Giveaway!

Welcome to the Out and About Giveaway Hop, Hosted by Crunchy Farm Baby and Crafting in My Closet! This fabulous group of bloggers has put together some awesome prizes, all consisting of items that are great for mamas and daddies when they're out and about with their little ones! Our hosts are offering two grand prize packages that you can enter to win on their sites. Here at Crafting in My Closet, you can enter to win a grand prize pack full of items for babies; and at Crunchy Farm Baby, you can enter to win a grand prize pack full of items for toddlers! After entering my great giveaway, make sure to head to the linky at the bottom of this post to enter all of the other giveaways!

So What is in the Grand Prize for babies? Let me tell you is is AMAZING!!
Starting with a diaper bag from BabyCake Boutique (My Etsy Store) (Picture coming soon) a $50 value
Then we have an Amber Teething Necklace of your choice from Teething Tots a $23 value

Next we have a New Original ErgoBaby Carrier in Night Sky! a $120 Value (review coming soon)

and Finally we have an Entire Stash of Glow Bug Diapers in winners choice of boy or girl prints! Thats 24 Diapers, 24 inserts and a Wet Bag! AMAZING! (review coming soon) a $300 value!!!

The baby Grand Prize has a $493 value!

The Grand Prize package on Crafting in my Closet is open to residents of the US and Canada 18 or older.

This event will run from November 10th at 12:01am and will end at 11:59pm on November 20th. Unless otherwise stated on the individual blogs, all participants must be 18+ and live in the US.

Please make sure to join us for a Twitter Party on November 21st from 9:00-10:00pm EST! We will be giving away some great prizes during the event, as well as announcing our grand prize winners! To RSVP to the party, simply enter either one of the grand prize giveaways and more info will be sent to the email address given. See you there!

This contest is now over! congratulations to our winner Allison Charnesky!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Out and About Giveaway Hop sign ups.

I'm super excited to announce a new giveaway event, focusing on getting Out and About with our little ones, hosted by Crunchy Farm Baby and Crafting in My Closet.

The Out and About Giveaway Hop will run from November 10-20, 2012, with a Twitter Party being held on November 21. Participation is FREE for bloggers! We have two great grand prize giveaway packages planned (some of the amazing sponsors already lined up include GlowBug Diapers, Greenie Beanie Bottoms, Ergobaby, Thanks Mama, EcoVessel, Teething Tots, and more!). We're allowing a limited number of bloggers to add 1-3 of their social media links to the grand prize forms. Prices are $3 for the first link and $1 for subsequent links. These spots will fill up quickly, so don't delay! We hope you'll join us in this great event!

Event Details

Begins at 12:01AM EST November 10, 2012

Ends at 11:59PM EST November 20, 2012

Price to participate: FREE!

Price for links in grand prize form: FREE for the first 25 bloggers only!!

Minimum Prize Value: $15

Twitter Hashtag: #OutandAbout

*Update*
We are now offering two blogger referral prizes! The top two blogs will get to host a link page for the grand prize raffles - generating LOTS of traffic to your site. Share with your blogger friends for your chance to win!

What You Need to Do NOW

- Fill out the Google Doc

- Add your blog info to the linky below

- Join the Out and About Facebook group (this is mandatory - lots of information will be shared here!)

- Secure sponsors for the event! Anything that is useful when you're out and about with your little one is perfect!

- Grab the event button and place it on your blog's sidebar, then share this event with other bloggers! (We're not requiring you to do this, but obviously the more we share, the more traffic we all get!)

- Keep an eye out for important emails from your hosts!

What You Need to Do LATER

- Run a giveaway on your blog with a prize package totaling at least $15 for the duration of this event.

- Include the event button, a short blurb about the event, and links to your host's pages in your main giveaway post (more info will come later). You will also need to include the giveaway linky in your post to encourage participation amongst all of our bloggers.

- Abide by all Facebook and Google rules when running your giveaway.

- Include a daily Tweet option in your giveaway form using the event hashtag #OutandAbout.

- Promote your giveaway! We will publicize the Out and About Giveaway Hop as an event, but you will want to promote your individual giveaway as well.

- Choose a winner within 48 hours of the event's end and announce the winner on your blog.

What Your Hosts Will Do

- Communicate with you in a timely manner and answer any questions you may have along the way (there are NO dumb questions!).

- Publicize the Out and About Giveaway Hop across our social media platforms leading up to and during the event.

- Run two awesome grand prize giveaways including your paid links!

We're super stoked about this event and are so excited that you're joining us! Please make sure to fill out the Google Doc AND add your name to the linky to make things easier in the future! As mentioned previously, it is not required, but much appreciated if you share this event with other bloggers! The code for the button can be found at the bottom of this post (below the linky) and links back to this page can be used to spread the word!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Teething tots Review and Green Family Giveaway

Welcome to the Green Family Giveaway sponsored by Formula Mom and Glow bug Cloth Diapers!
I'm very excited to be part of this great giveaway hop. The Grand prize is seriously amazing, and I have a little something I think you all will love as well! Some Awesome blogs have gotten together some great green family prizes and I can't wait to see what everyone has come up with. Each blog has a prize valued at at least $20. This Giveaway is open from 9/15 at midnight EST to 11:59 pm EST on 9/30. The Giveaway on Crafting in My Closet is open to US and Canada 18 years or older.

Glow Bug Cloth Diapers is the grand prize sponsor for the Green Family giveaway. One lucky reader will win a complete cloth diaper stash! The stash includes 24 cloth diapers with inserts featuring the newest prints! The winner will be able to choose from either a boy set or a girl set.

Enter the Grand Prize Giveaway !

Disclosure: Formula Mom, and the Green Family bloggers are not responsible for sponsors that fail to fulfill their prizes.

One of you AMAZING Crafting in My Closet readers will be winning their choice of amber teething necklace from Teething Tots (a $22 value)! Teething tots Amber Teething Necklaces are made of 100% natural Baltic Amber. They are beautiful andI really know they work.

We love our Amber teething necklace from Teething tots. We have the rainbow nugget necklace and I can tell you that it works. There is no doubt in my mind. These necklaces are beautifully made and work so well.

When Evangeline got her first tooth in, I hadn't received our teething necklace yet, she was miserable, crying and not sleeping well, then the tooth came in and it all made sence. When her second tooth came in, she had the necklace on. She was a little fussy, but no more so that if she was a little late for a nap. She slept well, nursed like a champ and was smelling, so the next morning when i noticed a tooth had popped threw, I was a little surprised. The only real sign that she had been teething, was she was a little more clingy and drooling a little more than normal.

One thing I LOVE about these necklaces is that each bead is individually tied on. This is good, because since the beads are made from natural amber, there is a possibility that there could be a flaw in the bead and one could break. This happened to me, one of the beads cracked and half of the bead broke off. But the good thing is that since each bead is individually knotted on, there wasn't a bunch of beads falling off. The other great thing is that once I got a hold of Teething Tots and told them what happened, they were so nice and are sending me a new one. I offered to send my old one back, but they were wonderful and said it was ok. Its nice that there are companies out there who really do care about their customers like this.

For those who don't know about Amber Teething necklaces let me fill you in on why they are so great. Amber is fossilized sap from prehistoric trees. Amber is not a stone, so it is therefore warm to the touch, as well as lightweight to wear. Amber has been used for centuries as a natural pain remedy, its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties make it the perfect option for a natural, drug free teething pain reducer. Amber teething necklaces work by the skin heating the amber and releasing healing oils including succinc acid which is absorbed through the skin into the blood stream.

Evangeline is 7 months (but she's kind of a peanut) and you can see in this picture where it falls on her. Its not right at her neck, but since she's been wearing it for about a month, she has only tried to play with it once. She wears it all the time (although I should take it off in the water to keep the cord nice). They recomend you take it off when your child is sleeping or alone, but Eva co-sleeps, so I leave it on her. I always have it under her onesie at night and I've never had it come out of her onesie in her sleep. But if your child sleeps in a crib I would take it off at night just in case.

After seeing how well the Amber Teething necklace from Teething Tots works on Eva, I've decided to buy a rainbow bean mommy necklace from Teething Tots for myself. I'm hopeful it will help with my back and neck pain.

Would you like to win an Amber Teething Necklace from Teething Tots for your baby? Well its your lucky day! As part of the Green Family Giveaway I am giving away 1 Amber Teething necklace of winners choice! Thanks to Teething Tots for this amazing giveaway!

Make sure you like Teething Tots on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter and Check out their webstore.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: I was sent this amber teething necklace from Teething tots in order to facilitate my review. I was not compensated monetarily and I was in no way required to give a good review of this item. All views are my own and I would never recommend a product I would not personally use.

Make sure you enter the other giveaways in this hop!

Monday, September 03, 2012

Lansinoh Affinity Double Electric Breast Pump Review.

When I had Tabitha, I didn't try to give her a bottle till she was 3 months old. And I didn't push it very hard. She had such a hard time learning to latch after our traumatic birth experience (I wish I had known all my rights and had a supportive nursing staff like my birth with Eva, but thats another story), that I was terrified she would say to heck with it and go for the bottle instead of nursing. Not that I really had to worry because she nursed till she was 32 months old, but my old pump SUCKED. It was horrible. It was a single electric (that the company doesn't even sell any more, and it doesn't offer any customer service for it either I recently found out).

I had this old single electric for 3 years, and while trying to use it for Eva, I was in pain. It was awful. But one day a few weeks ago it just stopped working(It had done this so many times, I was used to it by now). I tried to fix it like I always had, but this time when I opened it up a plastic spring flew out and was broken. It was it, no fixing it anymore. Into the trash it went. I was then left with the hand pump I received from WIC. It gets the job done, but it takes a very long time and is a pain. I have been having to pump more often because I started Physical Therapy for my back and have to leave Evangeline and Tabitha with Morgen when I go, and no matter when I go, Eva wants to nurse while I'm gone.
Trying to get everything around here done, with the girls and having to use a hand pump was just getting to be too much, so I contacted Lansinoh about reviewing their double electric Affinity breast pump. I was so excited when it came. I washed it, read the book and set to work. Some things that took some getting used to,

it has a let down cycle. It does a slow almost massage to encourage let down for 2 minutes, then it switches to pump and the flood gates open. This was different than my old single electric or my hand pump as they just go straight to the suck the juice option.
you can change the pump length and strength settings. Luckily Lansinoh knows moms are not one size fits all.
you can use it as a single pump too! In the back of the pump there is a plug, you unplug one of the tubes and stop the plug up to make it a singe pump. I actually use it as a single more often than a double, because Eva tends to nurse on one side and fall asleep, so I pump the other side while she is sleeping. Its a good system for us.
The Lansinoh Affinity pump is really easy to clean. I love that. No special pipe cleaners to clean things, like my last pump.
All parts of the Lansinoh Affinity breast pump can be washed and sterilized in microwave bags or boiled except the tubing which doesn't need to be washed since it doesn't come into contact with the breast milk.

Lansinoh Affinity breast pump is easy to use, comfortable to use, and it takes so much less time than my old single electric or my hand pump. When I go to Physical Therapy, I like to leave Morgen with 4oz of breast milk for Eva. That 4 oz took me 45 minutes to an hour three days a week with my old hand pump. Now that I am using the Lansinoh Affinity breast pump, I can get 4 oz in about 8-10 minutes. I only pump 3 days a week, mostly because i'm lazy, and Eva has stopped eating rice cereal so I don't need it for that anymore. I would highly suggest you get a pumping bra so that you don't have to hold the pump if you are going to be pumping with any regularity. I can't say enough good things about the Affinity. If I had to pump all the time and couldn't afford a hospital grade pump (and actually probably if I could too, because the one time I used a hospital pump with Tabitha it hurt like crazy.) I would use the Afinity. Its light weight, and very easy to use. Its perfect for working moms who only have a short while to pump at work.

I've found that the Lansinoh website is a gold mine of breastfeeding advice and support. There is some great information about pumping, choosing the right pump, storing breast milk, introducing solids and even tips for dads. If you are a working mom click here, to get a back to work checklist to help with your pumping.

If you would like more information you can sign up for Nurture Notes, the #1 breastfeeding newsletter from Lansinoh here.

You can also read some amazing articles and watch some insightful videos on the Lansinoh site here.

You can buy the Lansinoh Affinity double electric breast pump at Target, Walmart, Babies r Us, Amazon.com, Diapers.com, Motherhood maternity and the Lansinoh website.

I would definitely recommend this pump to any of my friends looking for a breast pump. I've tried one other double electric before and this is by far the easiest to use and the best i've seen. This is the #1 breast pump in my book.

I received this breast pump for free so that I could review it and share my views with my readers. I would never recommend a product I wouldn't or haven't used. All views are my own.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Guest post at Green Grandma

Hey guys! I'm guest posting today over at Green Grandma. If you've been active on my facebook page lately you'll likely have seen my link to the petition to get the Idaho legislature to draft a bill that protects breast feeding moms. I personally have been deeply affected by the lack of support breast feeding moms in Idaho face. Please go read my article on Green Grandma and sign the petition on the bottom of the post. You can find the post here.

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Sensitive Tummy Bottle

So I'm sure you all know that Evangeline is breastfed, I've tried to give her bottles of pumped milk and none of them have worked. She just wouldn't take them. I had the same problem with Tabitha. With Tabitha I just gave up trying to give her pumped milk in a bottle. She would take water out of one kind of bottle but not milk. Evangeline has been shaping up to be the same way. I've tried 5 different bottles with her. Only one worked somewhat ok. It still leaked like crazy and she barely got anything out of it.
I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what bottle would work and I was tired of spending a small fortune on different bottles. Thats where Tommee Tippee comes in.

The Awesome people at Tommee Tippee sent me a 3 pack of Sensitive Tummy Closer to Nature bottles. First of all, IT WORKED! Ahhhhhh! She took the bottle and did so with such gusto! She let me and Morgen give her the bottle. There was some initial drool issues, but no spit up, no pushing it away. She was all over that bottle! Some of the great features I am loving about these bottles: They have a super sensitive anti-colic vent tube that provides optimum venting during feeding to help reduce colic and discomfort, a heat sensing tube shows when milk is a safe temperature, blue is safe to feed, pink means milk is too warm. The bottles come with a slow flow non-vented nibble designed especially for this bottle to prevent air and vacuum build up. The nipple mimics a natural feel, flex and movement of breastfeeding, which is probably why this has been the only bottle that has worked for Evangeline. This bottle allows for easy transition from breast to bottle and back, and it has a wide neck nipple for easier latch on. The bottle is for babies with extra sensitive tummies, suffering from excessive spit up, fussiness and gas, like Evangeline and her reflux.

As you can see Evangeline is a big fan!

I love these bottles. They works AMAZINGLY! I've used Tommee Tippee products before with Tabitha, I didn't find out about them until she had already started using sippy cups, and oh the horror of sippy cups before I found Tommee Tippee. Tabitha used like a million different kinds till I found them. Tommee Tippee are the only binkies that either of my girls will take. I am so seriously sold on everything Tommee Tippee that I can not wait to try some of their other awesome products. I will be definitely be picking up some of the Chewthers for Eva next week, and I am so excited that I finally found a bottle that she would take.

Make sure you check out Tommee Tippee on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

I received a box of 3 sensitive tummy bottles from Tommee Tippee for free for the purpose of this review. Regardless I would never recommend any product that I would not personally use.

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Summer Blog Challenge 26-31

So I'm pretty behind on my summer blog challenge posts, I've just been swamped lately so i'm gonna try to bang out all my over due ones in one post tonight! Ready?

Day 26 What does your significant other do that makes your heart melt?
Before having kids, I probably would have said that it was how Morgen is always doing little things, like slipping a love note on my front seat or picking a flower on his way home. He still does those things and I still love those things, but whats more heart melt worthy is how amazing he is with the girls. When Tabitha wants to play tea party, or dress up he is right there doing what she wants, but he is also amazing at teaching our girls the right thing to do . I love when he come home at night and Tabitha yells "Daddy! Your back!" and runs and gives him a hug and the first thing he does is cover her in hugs and kisses. Melts my heart every time.

Day 27 What's the best gift you've ever received?
The best gift I ever received? My two beautiful girls! Without a doubt. We waited so long for them, and I couldn't have imagined any more amazing girls.

Tabitha and her HUGE cheeks!

Eva ever the cuddlier baby!

My two sweet girls

Day 28 How do you do your laundry?? Give your laundry tricks.

We make our own laundry soap (Via Tipnut)

1 quart Water (boiling)
2 cups Bar soap (grated)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda

Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until melted.
Pour the soapy water mixture into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.
Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.
Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel).

I use this for everyday laundry and wash on cold with an extra rinse then dry in the dryer. I also throw in a scoop of sun oxyclean.

For Cloth Diapers I use Rockin Green. I do a cold rinse with no detergent. A hot wash with two scoops of hard rock detergent and every 3 loads I do a scoop of calgon because we have really hard water. Then I do two rinse cycles, one hot and one cold. Then I line dry my diapers and throw the inserts and wipes in the dryer.

Day 29 Write a "How To" post
I'm working on this one and will post it soon.

Day 30 Post a photo of an outfit that either is your style or you wish was your style.

These are the kinds of dresses I love, and I actually have a few this style but they are kind of hard to nurse in so I don't wear them often.

More often than not, I wear a skirt with a camisole and a cardigan.

Day 31 Talk about something eco friendly that you already do.

Some of the Ecofriendly things we already do are:

Cloth Diapering
Recycling
Buying used clothes and toys rather than new
Walk as much as we can rather than drive
repurpose whatever we can. Usually clothes.

For the Luck of Liberty Giveaway!

Hey all you awesome Crafting in My Closet readers! Welcome to the For the Luck of Liberty Giveaway hop hosted by BloggerPR! Nearly 90 blogs are participating in this event celebrating Independence Day! This even will Run from July 2-8, 2012, and each blog is giveing away a prize valued at at least $25! With so many blogs participating there is bound to be something perfect for you!

I'm really excited to give one lucky Crafting in My Closet Reader the chance to win a great prize package worth $37!

This package includes 1 BabyBabu pocket Diaper in your choice of boy/girl/gender neutral

and one 3 pack of Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature sensitive tummy bottles (Review to follow)

We Just love our BabyBabu pocket diaper! You can Read my review here. And remember I have a Baby Babu diaper to giveaway every month for a year, so if you don't win this one come back next month for another chance to win this awesome diaper.

I will hopefully be able to get my Tommee Tippee review up this week.

Some features of the Tommee Tippee Sensitive Tummy Closer to Nature bottles include;

A Super sensitive anti-colic vent tube that provides optimum venting during feeding to help reduce colic and discomfort
A Heat sensing tube that shows when milk is a safe temperature: Blue= safe to feed, Pink= milk warmer than recommended.

This is the perfect prize package for anyone who recently had a baby or is pregnant right now.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Don't forget to check out all the other awesome giveaways!
This Giveaway is open to persons 18 and older in the US and Canada. Prizes are the responsibility of the sponsor. Crafting in My Closet takes no responsibility of prizes once the winners information has been sent to the sponsor. All entries will be checked.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Mother's Day Blessing

I don't know about everyone else but I had a beautiful Mother's Day. It started out with Morgen taking Tabitha down stairs and making dairy free pancakes with fresh strawberries for breakfast, then keeping her occupied while I finished sewing her new dress (tutorial to come soon I promise!). Morgen helped Tabitha make me a card that was just so sweet. My in-laws were here to celebrate Tabitha's birthday (we had her party on Saturday, and I forgot my camera so as soon and I can get pictures from my MIL I will post them), and to help bless Eva at church on Sunday.
My in-laws got me a very nice mothers day card and some very pretty flowers too which was very nice. Morgen gave me a sweet card and a coupon for one night off (not including during midterms and finals).
My favorite part of the day though was when Morgen blessed Evangeline at church. It was so beautiful and I truly felt the spirt while he blessed her. I was crying with Tabitha sitting on my lap. After the blessing Tabitha said "its ok mommy don't cry" and hugged me.
We got to take some family pictures and they came out really nice. Evangeline wore the same dress Tabitha wore for her blessing which was worn by my sisters and I when we were baptized (I didn't grow up LDS). I love that not only did my girls get to wear such a beautiful dress but they are a part of a line of women who have worn that dress. I hope I can take as good of care of it as my mom did, because for a dress made in the 70's its still beautiful and in perfect condition.

Tabitha Loves her new Dress

And she's a little cheeseball!

I want to crop Morgen from the one above this one and put him in here, this is one of my favorites if I could do that. =)

Tabitha is the only one paying attention to the camera.

I need to find a way to take Tabitha from the picture above and switch it out for this one, We all look good in this one but Tabitha is covering her mouth.

Probably the best picture because everyone is looking at the camera and not making a goofy face.

I like this one but my hand is covering Eva's face.

Morgen's parents and one of his brothers came to help with the blessing.

I only wish I knew the power boxes were in the pictures so we could have moved a bit to the left to get them out. Oh well.

Thanks for sticking with me through all those pictures!

So how was your mothers day?

Monday, May 14, 2012

Gyro Bowl giveaway!

Hey I've teemed up with Ciera of Swanky Moms Club and some other awesome bloggers to give away a Gyro Bowl! These things are awesome and after reading Ciera's review I want to get them for Tabitha the queen of spilling stuff. So read Ciera's review after the jump and enter to win one of these awesome Gyro Bowls yourself!

Mom 4 Life

Have you heard of Mom 4 life? Its a great store that sells awesome mom made products for mom and baby. I ordered some flip disposable inserts from them to use on vacation and they are super fast with shipping. They have so many great products too. They have tons of great products, including babylegs, hooter hiders, lillypadz, wubanubs, and the belly bandit. I haven't tried the wubanub but some of my mom friends swear by it. Eva's not a big binky baby, and the only kind she likes are the gumdrop ones.

Mom 4 Life was voted best online baby boutique in 2008, 2009, 2010 in Pregnancy and Newborn readers choice awards. I've only bought from them once, but they had great customer service and super fast shipping. They have great weekly specials and they sell gently used items at a great discount too. Right now they have a BellaBand on sale for $18.40 in the clearance section. Thats a great deal since the are normally $30!

They have a great selection of BabyLegs, which I love. BabyLegs are great, I used them under Tabitha's jeans when we first moved here, they are great, because I could change her diaper without her poor legs getting frozen. They are wonderful for under skirts and dresses, and they are nice to put on with just a onesie or a cute cloth diaper and t-shirt too.

Head on over to Mom 4 Life and check out the great stuff they have!

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Mom 4 Life, all views are my own.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Mothers day Cloth Giveaway hop: Sponsor spotlight: Sunbaby Diapers

From May 1-12, 2012 I'll be participating in the Daily Mothering Mothers day blog hop. Daily Mothering will be having a huge grand prize package of Awesome cloth diapers and other great things!

As the giveaway gets closer I'll have more information about the grand prize. There are 100 different blogs participating! So many awesome possibilities to win cloth diapers!

I was given the opportunity to try sunbaby diapers and sunbaby has been really cool and will be giving one diaper to the winner of my giveaway from May 1st -12th.

Mothers day cloth diaper hop: Sponsor spotlight: Glow bug Diapers.

When I started cloth diapering, I used Pre-folds and covers. After a little bit I switched to AIO's and tried a few pocket diapers. I love my AIO's, I wasn't really a fan of the pockets. For two main reasons, one, Morgen sucks at un-stuffing the pockets so I would end up having to rewash them because I would have the insert hanging half out even after a full rinse, wash and rinse. The second reason was that stuffing diapers is a pain, and when you have a 3 year old who wants all the attention on her all the time, a baby with reflux, housework and still want time to do some sewing or spend time with my husband, I want ot make things as easy as possible. So My solution was to chuck the pockets I had to the bottom of the diaper box and use only my AIO's.

Mothers Day Cloth Diaper hop Sponsor Spotlight: Rockin' Green!

From the moment I signed up for this hop, I knew the first company I would contact would be Rockin' Green. I already use their amazing detergent and ammonia bouncer, so I knew they would be a perfect sponsor for this hop. I'm So excited that Rockin' Green has generously offered to give the winner of my prize pack a bag of Rockin' green in their scent of choice!

Sponsor spotlight: CJ's BUTTer

From May 1-12, 2012 I'll be participating in the Daily Mothering Mothers day blog hop. Daily Mothering will be having a huge grand prize package of Awesome cloth diapers and other great things!

As the giveaway gets closer I'll have more information about the grand prize. So far there are 97 different blogs participating! So many awesome possibilities to win cloth diapers!

I have a great prize pack lined up for you from some wonderful sponsors. Today I'm going to tell you about my first sponsor, CJ's BUTTer.

Real Diaper week continues!

Tomorrow is the Great Cloth Diaper Change event and I'm so excited! Today's real Cloth Diaper week challenge was re-use.

We already are pretty good when it comes to re-using, we want to get as much out of something before throwing it away as possible. We use reusable water bottles, cloth sacks instead of plastic bags (for the most part, we still use plastic for raw meat, but then we re-use the bags as trash bags in the bathrooms). We use cloth swim diapers and have since Tabitha started swim lessons right after her first birthday, we use re-useable snack containers and I'm pretty good at using reusable everything when it comes to diapering but we had planed on Tabitha still wearing diapers at night. But little mis had other ideas. She wants her potty in her room and wants to be able to go when she needs to. But she's still not waking up dry every morning, she is most mornings but its not enough yet for me to put her in panties at night. We've been using pull ups at night but after looking at the cost and realizing it could take up to a year before she's fully night time potty trained we decided to buy a pack of flip trainers. They come with 5 inserts and as long as she doesn't get the shell dirty she can wear it more than once, plus I already do a load of diapers every day so its not like it's any more laundry.

Another area morgen and I have been talking about is paper towels and napkins. We use them all the time and really making reusable paper towels would be so easy. Double sided flannel in the size of paper towels with snaps on both sides so they can wrap around the paper towel holder. Easy peasy. So I'm making the pledge to stop using paper towels and paper napkins while at home. I plan to make a tutorial on how to make cloth "Paper" towels and I'll post it here in the coming weeks.
In the mean time here are some links I think may be helpful in switching to cloth full time.

Traveling with Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diapering Overnight

Top 10 (Money and Earth saving) Reuse tips

I hope many of you are planning on attending the Great Cloth Diaper change event near you tomorrow! Let me know if you went and i'd love to see pictures posted to my facebook page!

Check here for a location near you.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Real Diaper week

This week is real diaper week, and this Saturday Evangeline and I will be participating in the great cloth diaper change. I'm very excited and to go along with this week the Cloth Diapering bloggers are writing posts talking about the amazing benefits of cloth diapering.
With Tabitha we used disposables. I had really wanted to cloth diaper, but our living situation was just not conductive to cloth diapering. With Evangeline, I was determined. To get morgen on board, I showed him all the receipts from Tabitha's diapers over the 2 1/2 years she was in disposables (I bought my diapers on amazon, so i saved all my receipts on the computer). I showed him that we had spent close to $3000 over 2 1/2 years on diapers alone. Not including wipes. We had already been using re-useable swim diapers, and since i breastfeed my girls exclusively the diaper can go straight into the wash, no dunking or anything. I also showed him we could get flushable liners to use when she gets older and starts eating solids. When morgen realized we could spend between $300-500 compared to $3000, he was sold. The part that really sold me though, was the fact that my great great grandchildren will be alive before Tabitha's disposable diapers degrade in the landfills.
Another selling point for me, less smell. We used a diaper champ with Tabitha and took it out every few days, but even then the thing always smelled. Now we use planet wise wet bags and I wash diapers every day. I do one load of diapers a day. Its really not that much extra work and once you get into the routine, it doesn't even seem like extra work.
Another great thing about cloth diapers? No diaper rash. Tabitha always had terrible diaper rash. We were always slathering her up to try to clear it. Before Tabitha was potty trained we switched her to cloth too. She wore pre-folds with covers and her diaper rash improved tremendously. Eva has never had a rash.
I LOVE our cloth diapers. We use one size diapers, which means they have snap down rise and fit from 10 to about 35 lbs. Not only will Eva be able to wear these diapers the whole time she is in diapers, our next baby will be able to also.
In May I will be taking part in the Mothers day cloth giveaway hop hosted by Daily mothering. I have some great prizes lined up for my awesome readers, and Daily Mothering has an amazing grand Prize giveaway that will run during the same time. I'll be starting my sponsor spotlights later this week so you can see what awesome products i'll be giving away. Stay tuned! And if you have any questions about cloth diapering don't be afraid to ask!

Eva in her Bum Genius Freetime in Sassy. One of my Favorite diapers.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

Introducing Evangeline Morgan

Well she's finally here! Evangeline Morgan was born at 3pm on January 26th 2012. She was born via repeat c-section. It went really well, It was so strange having everyone in the OR be LDS and making church jokes. There were two student nurses and while my dr was trying to explain something to them he started singing "do as i'm doing, follow follow me", I almost died laughing. I was scared at first but I had such a great experience and my dr was awesome.
Evangeline was born at exactly 3pm and after the initial clean off Morgen was able to hold her in the OR while they worked on me for most of the time. I was able to kiss her and look at her while they closed me up. Morgen went with her while they did all the initial newborn stuff and they met me in my recovery room about ten min after I got there. I was able to hold her the whole time during recovery and nurse her and bond with her.
My mom had Tabitha and it was so great that Tabitha was one of the first people to meet Evangeline. She was very excited to meet her baby sister.
I was able to walk around 11 and they had me walk to my room (which luckily was right next door.) I was able to leave the hospital on Saturday afternoon and I was glad to be home with both my girls. Recovery has been better than last time, although I seem to have pushed myself a little to hard, so I'm trying to take it easy for a bit.
Evangeline is a great baby. She sleeps really well, and is a championship nurser. She is a total cuddlier and just the sweetest little baby ever.
Tabitha loves being a big sister and tells everyone that Eva is her sister and she's "nice and cute". The other night Morgen took Evangeline in the other room to change her diaper and Tabitha yelled "Bring back my baby!"
Its an interesting transition from a family of 3 to a family of 4 but it feels like Evangeline was a missing piece now and I can't imagine our family without her.