I wrote about diapering baby and my supplies not being known if they were OK or not, basically.

Yesterday DH cleaned out the garage. It was really clogged up due to many different reasons, and it was a known thing that IF any diapers were in there, they were in the corner, which was not accessible until many things were removed from the space, starting at the opening of the garage and working backwards into it.

There were old clothes in boxes, bags, and various containers, and so many had been gotten into (those dratted country mice) –but not everything was attacked. Under one horrid bag of clothing was a basket and when we got closer to it I just “knew” it was some of my diapering things. Finally it was get-at-able and sure enough it was alright, just had to peel that horrid bag off of the top of the basket and there were my diapers, pretty much pristine, in that there was no pee-pee smells, no mousie poop at all.

The diapers were some newborn Chinese DSQ green prefolded, a few larger ones, and then my dearly loved Mother-Ease One-Size (Popolinos) and some Sandy’s. Also several ME diaper covers.

(I put all that in the washer and ran a huge cycle first, and then took out the covers, and have run the diapers alone on the Sanitary Cycle two times now, and will be checking them over before I put them into the dryer in a few minutes.)

Later we found more diapers, in a bit more rough shape, but I was able to save out several things that are cleanable, not chewed on at all, the higher quality things. Aussie Terry Cloth Nappies, Nappy liners (triangles of a stay-dry fabric to go between baby and any diapers), and some other things.

(I’ll be washing these things today at some point, first a heavy cold washing, then hot and sanitary at least 4 times.)

So what’s in evidence is that I do need some more diapers still, and definitely some new covers. I’m interested in the Stacinator wool covers, they come in different sizes and are a snug style, and can go over even prefolds without pins of any sort. I like using prefolds on newborns, and also use them some all the rest of the time of diapering, but prefer snap terry diapers over all, and also those Australian Nappy’s which are really just large square-ish terry towels that you can fold into various configurations and work on most babies as they grow and grow and grow.

I have had Aristocrat Wool Soakers in the past, but know that DH ran them in the washer wrongly and shrunk them, and if I can find them, I’d be at least one is good for a newborn now … just not the larger sizes that I had purchased so long ago.

I love those soakers, and will either get some more of them over time, and/or make my own with old wool sweaters (there are directions for that online.)

I’ll make a resource post for whatever I do use soon.

I used cloth diapers on my last baby (#3), and on baby #2 after she turned 1 year old. I wanted to use them with #1 at some point, but cost prohibitiveness kept me from being able to do that the way I wanted, I did have a few samples and liked them, but that wasn’t “from the beginning” and things just never took off — and so then baby #2 came and I wasn’t prepared and wanted to still do cloth, but $ being tight — a no go, until I got pregnant when she (#2) had just turned 1. So that was when we made it happen, started getting stuff for her, knowing it’d be there for baby #3 who’d not be far away, and got more stuff and I felt good about it, that another baby would profit from our diapering supply … another of ours, that is.

Thing is, baby #3 was out of diapers right when he turned 2 years. I didn’t get pregnant until 2 years after that, and lost that  baby at 9 weeks, and then that was 2 years ago as well, from now. Guess where all the diapering things have gone? Stuffed in the laundry room where things weren’t organized, cat’s peed on them or some of them, and then they got put in the garage to be “hopefully” sanitized and kept “just in case” but there they are in the corner and we can’t get to them now, planning a garage purge, but that’s hard work and only DH can do that.

In the days of cloth diapering in our home we had a not-so-good washer. It had a stop problem on the cotton setting, which was sort of a “wash a bit then auto soak forever” until you went down there and bumped the dial up a bit. That was good, in a way, but it was the beginning of nagging awfulness in that machine, the whole dial eventually went ballistic and you had to guess as to what setting you were using to wash everything. It changed constantly. Anyhow, it was a supersize GE washer we got at the end of 1996, and I wasn’t very fond of it, being just under 5’2″ I could barely get to the bottom of the washer to retrieve clothing in the first place. Sure it held a lot of clothing, but if you can’t get at it easily, what’s the point? Small or large loads were all the same for me basically, too deep for ease of retrieval.

We knew we wanted a different washer and just bided our time, not able to afford it most of the time, and then finally this past year a breaking point came. I was in early pregnancy, so it was Autumn, and I was sleeping on the couch in the basement, and woke up to find a flood in the hallway. The washing machine was messed up worse than ever, and we had a major middle of the night clean up on our hands and the smell haunts me in my mind still today. Ick.

We got an LG front loader and LOVE IT. I will love doing diapers in this machine.

But I have to get more, and there are other things too, things of baby gear type put into the garage to be stored, and got ruined by our country mice.

In some ways it’s like I gave everything away, but I didn’t, I did save things, but it’s the same in the end. We are starting over with baby stuff. I had strollers that I loved, and they are trashed.

I do hope I can get what I want, the diaper stuff that is, but one thing I see online is that the one store I liked, weebees.com isn’t loading, and I don’t know if they exist anymore or not, there are references to them online though … so … otherwise, I know I like Mother-Ease diapers and covers, and I’ve gotten some things from Green Mountain Diapers, both of those sites still exist, at the least.

I’ll have to do more research now. I’m getting into it, just vaguely so far, and know that IF I ramp up in finding things, I’ll go nuts wanting to get them and set things up, and don’t know if that’s possible yet … oh well. I have until June some-thing to get enough for the first couple of months. I’m due about June 18th, and if things go like they did with #3 and I can do a homebirth, it could go longer, to the 29th or so, or even into the first week of July … but even so, I want to be ready in the diapering department well in advance for the majority of things, and only have to “get some bigger things” later on.

Also it’s notable that I won’t know how big the baby is until it’s born. My first baby was 9 lbs 1 oz.; my next was 8lbs. something-oz. (I can recall exactly the ounces); my last baby was 8lbs even. They’ve been smaller each time. None of them were “tiny” but the last one was the smallest at birth and stayed smaller on average compared to his older two siblings (who were never “small” for their age.)

Overheard just moments ago:

“Where’s my leap pad?” asked Asa.

“It’s downstairs under the fruiton,” answered Victoria, matter-of-factly.

:rolleyes:

The mysterious “fruiton” is only a basic, quite normal, “futon”.

Asa is 5.
Victoria is 6 .. soon turning 7.