Going Crunchy...er.

Okay, so I have always loved natural childbirth, breastfeeding, and am not a big fan of using medications at the first sign of sickness (ironic, since I'm in the healthcare field). This has earned me a little bit of "granola" status at the hospital...but it has gotten worse.

I've gotten crunchier. oh, dear.

I'll blame it on Haiti. Since we are planning on moving there soon and I still have one potty training, one in diapers full-time (for atleast another year) and hope to have another baby, I figured I needed to develop a plan for diapering all these stinky bums.

There problem with Haiti and disposable diapers is that getting them is hit or miss and probably pretty costly due to most things being imported. BUT, my biggest beef is that there is not really anywhere to dispose of all these "disposable" diapers. Most trash in Haiti is burned. Ever try to burn a diaper? They are basicaly indestructable. All of our kiddos poop is being wrapped up in tiny time capsules for generations and generations to come because they do not break down in the landfills (it takes an estimated 500 years). Anyways, I can't imagine contributing to the growing trash problem in Haiti with hundreds of indestructable diapers.

Enter: The dreaded cloth diaper.

Now, it is not like I have never considered these before. I have. For about 30 seconds. I think the modern cloth diapers are adorable...until someone poops in them.

But I began my experiment with cloth diapering anyways as a way that I could save $ and bless Haiti at the same time. AND I LOVE IT!! That is ridiculous but true. Everytime I change a diaper I get this satisfaction that I am saving $ and decreasing my mark on the landfill. And I love washing the diapers, too. Weird. Crunchy. It is okay...call names. I think the same thing of myself. =)

An estimated 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the US, resulting in a possible 3.4 million tons of used diapers adding to landfills each year (source: Wikipedia)

I am no longer adding to those numbers. I like that.

But it is not as big a deal as I thought it would be. Here is my process:

Adorable child poops his pants. Yucky diaper off. Use cloth wipes and homemade wipe soluton in sprayer (water & baby shampoo) to clean yucky bum. Clean diaper on. Adorable child goes to play while I dump poop in the toilet and scrub if necessary. I use these purple cleaning gloves to keep my hands yuck free then put the wet diaper in the diaper pail or diaper wet bag. Oh, and I actually change diapers now in the combo laundry/bathroom. The top of the dryer is my changing table! =)

Once the wet bag and pail are full then I wash (about every 3 days). I use a homemade laundry detergent for my diapers as seen the picture. 1 small scoop, then add the diapers (which are already poop free due to the 30 seconds of work at the toilet), then wash on hot.

Once they are washed and rinsed, I hang them out to dry. This is my favorite part! They are adorable hanging on the line and I get satisfaction from hanging clothes. I have always wanted to be Caroline Ingalls anyways. They dry really fast and the sun kills bacteria and takes care of any staining issues.

It really is pretty simple and hasn't been as big an issue as I always thought it would be. Ofcourse, in Haiti I will not be using a washing machine.

My one cloth diaper regret?? Not starting sooner. I would recommend it for any current or new parents. We have spent approx. $150 on our diaper stash. This will be more than enough for the rest of our diapering needs for all our our children. We drop that much on disposables EASY with 2 kiddos in diapers at one time. I really do wish we had been cloth diapering from the beginning because the savings only multiply the more children you are able to use your diapers for.

Live and Learn.

John Ellis Cash. 1 Month Old...already!

January 20, 2011 @ 1:19 a.m. John Ellis Cash joined our family and we grew to become a true "party of five". During this pregnancy, numerous people (some we know and many strangers, too!) have asked to pray for me and the baby...everyone was praying the same prayer--that this baby would, like John the Baptist, be filled with the Holy Spirit even in the womb. So many times we heard this prayed that we decided to incorporate 'John' into his name. Ellis came from Josiah! We don't know where he came up with Ellis since we don't know anyone by this name but we liked it and like that it means "my God is the Lord". We are calling him by both names but Lucas seems to always just say Ellis...and it may just stick. We shall see as the months go by.

Labor with John Ellis was so different than the other boys...we had gone to LifeGroup, come home and put the boys to bed and were getting settled down for the night as well. I guess I wasn't prepared for my water to break prior to labor starting since that has never happened before...in fact, Lucas was actually born with his waterbag intact! Contractions started maybe 30 minutes later and were fairly strong from the beginning. My parents came from Gatesville to stay at the house with the sleeping boys so Jody & I headed to the hospital much sooner than we ever have before (I was 8 cm when we got there). I have never labored at the hospital with the others...we just got there in time to push and have a baby...but laboring there a couple hours wasn't too bad after all (thanks to our midwife C. Miller who let me move and do basically whatever I wanted). Once I finally felt the urge to push he came quickly with the labor lasting about 4 hours total. I was SO thankful to have him in my arms and super thankful for Jody--he is always an awesome labor coach.

One of my favorite things about natural childbirth is that I get to experience how just speaking the name of Jesus can bring peace to my body, mind and spirit.

Oh, and thanks to all our family & friends who have come by, brought diapers, meals, groceries, prayed and offered help as we transitioned to having 3 kids. You all are blessings!!