Adventures in Pancake Making

I never used to make my own pancakes from scratch. A couple months ago we ran out of the Trader Joe's multigrain pancake mix that I usually buy so I told my kids that sadly, we could not have pancakes. Then I thought to myself, why can't I make it? I love to bake, I'm pretty good at it, so how come it never occurred to me that I could make pancakes from scratch? I googled a recipe and was pretty happy with the result.

Today I made pancakes again, but I wanted to make it healthier since I've been really watching what I eat. I just completed the 21 Day Fix and it has inspired me to change the eating habits of not just myself, but my whole family. So I looked up the same recipe and I made some alterations. For a gluten free version of the same pancake, simply use all oatmeal flour instead of half oatmeal and half whole wheat. I'm going to try it that way next time! I made the oatmeal flour myself by blending instant oatmeal in my Vitamix. Milk can also be subbed for water, almond milk, coconut milk, etc.

Sari's Pancakes

2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup water
4 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 cup oatmeal flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 tbsp sugar (you can sub with honey, agave, maple syrup, stevia, etc.)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp coconut oil

I started with the eggs and whisked them together, adding in the liquid ingredients first and ending with the flour last. Kids loved them and my husband said they tasted great!

Are you using Ebates?

Heard of Ebates? It's pretty simple, you go to their website before you make an online purchase and you get money back! Search to see if their store is listed (usually it is) and click through the Ebates website to get to that online store and then make your purchase. For example, right now you'd get 7% back at Old Navy, 2% back at Gap and 5% back at the Children's Place. It changes all the time.

When I first signed up I got a $10 gift card from Target right away (just for signing up, it was completely unexpected) and a $3 check a few weeks later. Since then I've gotten a $5 check and I just got an email telling me that a $7 check is on the way. It's not a lot, but every bit counts! Plus I don't always remember to click through Ebates when I buy things so I need to work on it.

It's legit, I haven't received any more spam than usual since signing up and I think it's worth it. Click here to sign up! I get a referral bonus ($5 I think) and you will get your own referral code when you sign up and tell all your friends. The incentives are always changing :)

Save 40% on gDiapers!

This is very exciting news, the gDiapers contest from 4 years ago is BACK with another awesome deal. I'm really excited because:
1) if you read this blog you know I'm a big fan
2) it's a great discount,
3) I almost won last time (read the article here) and I'm hoping to WIN this time because...

If I win, I'm giving the $1,000 grand prize to Angelina's Army. Angelina is the 4 year old daughter of a good friend of mine and she is currently fighting cancer. She has stage 4 neuroblastoma. Angelina is a smart, beautiful, kind little girl and you can read about her story here and visit her facebook page here.

SO, if you are looking for a more eco-friendly alternative to disposable diapers then you really should try gDiapers. At this price, it's a no brainer. Use my code: new2630Erdos and click here. This code will take 40% off the New Friend Bundle, which includes 3 gPants and 2 packages or disposable inserts. 

It's been quite a year!

Since I last posted, a year ago, both of my daughters developed serious food allergies. During Thanksgiving dinner, 2012, my older daughter, then 5 years old, had an anaphylactic reaction to a Nutella dessert. Here is the recipe, by the way, it's delicious for those who aren't allergic to it. She said, "My neck hurts" and started coughing. I looked at her face and it was turning red. Within a few minutes she threw up. We did not realize that these were the signs of anaphylaxis. I gave her Benadryl and she was OK. We took turns watching her sleep that night. I was stupid. I should have called 911. I will regret not doing that for the rest of my life, but we are lucky, she is alive. We had her tested with an allergist and were told that we needed to carry 2 Epi Pens at all times. She has a potentially deadly allergy to hazelnuts (subsequent reactions will be worse than her initial reaction) and unknown/borderline reactions to cashews and walnuts. She had eaten cashews without incidence prior to her hazelnut reaction, but the allergist said no more. Allergies can pop up overnight and it's too risky. She's never had a walnuts and I don't intend to ever find out if she reacts to them or not. She is not allergic to peanuts and almonds. She also reacted to fish (developed a rash on her face after eating tilapia) but we have not yet run a fish panel allergy test on her. We're just avoiding fish for now.

This is a picture of her allergy test. Unfortunately I took this only a couple minutes after they pricked her back so you can't see where the walnuts and cashews reacted. Her hazelnut also got worse than this picture shows, but you get the basic idea. The other two spots (top left and bottom right) are histamine controls.

My other daughter, who is now 15 months old, had something called FPIES (Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome). I say "had" because she has since grown out of it (thank goodness). She had severe FPIES reactions to rice and oats. She would throw up for about 8 hours until her stomach was empty and then she would throw up yellow liquid (bile). Then she would have diarrhea for weeks. The first time we thought it was a bad virus (as did the pediatrician), the second time I was suspicious of the oatmeal, and by the third time it was obvious that it was a serious food allergy. It was so bad the allergist told me to stop feeding her solid food until her gut healed and then I could try veggies one at a time. She was 8 months old when we got her diagnosis. You can read more about FPIES here. FPIES is diagnosed by ruling other things out because it is a GI food allergy, not an IgE allergy. The reactions that show up on skin prick tests, like my older daughter's above, are IgE allergies. Non-IgE allergies, like FPIES, will not show up on these tests.

After about a month I tried sweet potatoes. She didn't have an FPIES reaction, but she had an intense gag reflex to even the tiniest amounts of puree on a spoon, or even a smidge on the tip of my finger. Here is a video that I took of her during this time. What you can't see in the video is that I only gave her a tiny bit off that spoon. It looks like I put it all in her mouth, but it was really just a smidge. Most of the puree on that spoon stayed on the spoon. If you pause it at 15 seconds you can kind of see that the spoon is still full when I pull it back:



After the sweet potato incident I tried various fruits - apple sauce, licking a melon, etc. and although she didn't throw up, she did have almost instant diarrhea that would be severe for about 6 hours (2-3 diaper changes an hour) and then less severe for a couple weeks. This would leave her poor tushie red and we couldn't use cloth diapers during this time because I had to put cream on her constantly and it was just too messy. I stopped trying to feed her solids and continued to breast feed her. Luckily she did not react to anything in my breast milk.

At about 10 months she started acting interested when I would give my 6 year old twins yogurt tubes. I let her lick a tiny bit and she did not throw up. I gradually let her have more and more until she ate about half a yogurt tube without throwing up. I started buying her whole milk yogurt and by 12 months she was eating one single serving yogurt tub a day. It was her only meal. At around 13 months I re-introduced her to oats by grounding up a plain cheerio and hiding it in her yogurt. Her FPIES was completely gone! Unfortunately, her gag reflex was not. She threw up everything that wasn't yogurt. I even froze little bits of yogurt to make homemade yogurt bites and she threw up the second it hit her tongue.

In September, at 13 months, I took her to a feeding and swallowing center where she had a complete evaluation. They observed her eating yogurt, was seen by a speech therapist and an occupational therapist, and was basically told that she was extremely delayed in feeding and swallowing, but perfectly fine in other areas. This is taking into account that she was born 8 weeks premature. They suggested putting her on Zantac to treat a "possible underlying GI issue" and that rubbed me the wrong way. Why do I want to medicate my baby for something she "possibly" has? Also, she used to have very severe reflux (which is a whole other blogpost entirely) and was previously on Zantac, but taken off of it when it was no longer doing anything for her. Her reflux disappeared at around 9 months. The doctor at the feeding clinic told me that I couldn't skip purees and that I should start introducing them with the yogurt, alternating a spoonful of yogurt with a spoonful of something new. This completely backfired and made it so she wouldn't even eat her yogurt.

I did not go back to the feeding clinic. After about a week of presenting only yogurt she was back to eating her yogurt happily. I continued doing what I was doing before the feeding clinic, which was giving her little bits of whatever the rest of us were eating. She liked to put them in her mouth herself and her gag reflex was getting better and better every day. I am happy to report that she has only thrown up once in the last month, and that was because she took a giant bite of my husband's turkey sandwich and overwhelmed herself. She still isn't really eating full meals, but she is consuming enough little bits and bites that she started having semi-solid poops in the last couple weeks. She still nurses about every 3 hours throughout the day. Her pediatrician is happy with her progress, but wants us to see a specific GI doctor, so that will be our next step.

Multitasking

Eden loves to be snuggled and mommy needs to be able to do stuff around the house. Here I am snuggling her and making guacamole at the same time. I meant to post this last week. If you're wondering when I'm going to talk about cloth diapers again, don't worry, it's coming. Currently I'm getting reacquainted with my Brother 1034D serger so that I can serge a bunch of infant sized soakers for my gDiapers and various covers. I'm finding that the infant sized prefolds are just too bulky for a newborn sized baby so I need a stash of smaller soakers.

Not Just For Easter Anymore!

If you're like me, you stalk the aisles of Target waiting for Valentine's Day to pass so the Cadbury Creme Eggs appear on the shelves. Then when Easter is over you ransack the 50% shelves making sure you have just enough eggs to make it until next year. I didn't think I could get any more excited than I was last year when I found out they were gluten free, but something wonderful has happened...

They now make Cadbury Screme Eggs for Halloween!!! I'm so happy I could scream! Must be how they got the name ;) Oh happiness, thy name is Cadbury. I'd also like to send a special shout out to my daughter, Eden, who turns out does NOT have an allergy or intolerance to dairy. Had I discovered these eggs while I was still cutting out dairy, I probably would have cried.

FuzziBunz on Shark Tank

Tereson Dupuy, the woman who created FuzziBunz, was on the show Shark Tank this past Friday. I had never seen the show before, but I knew she was going to be on so I watched it. Basically, an entrepreneur makes a presentation in front of a panel of investors and hopes that one of them likes the product enough to invest. Tereson was asking for $500,000 in exchange for a percentage of her profits. None of the Sharks bit because she had made some bad business decisions and was involved in legal battles surrounding her patent.

That's right! Dupuy was granted a patent for her pocket diapers in 2003. And because I'm a nerd, I looked up the patent and read it. You can read it here. Granted I'm no patent attorney (actually I *am* a lawyer, I just don't practice) but I do find it interesting and I did take a class on the subject... er... 13 years ago. Anyway, so I read the patent and it does look like there are a lot of people out there selling diapers that infringe on her patent. The problem with a patent is that you have to sue people to enforce it and that can cost more money than it's worth to pursue. Perhaps Dupuy has reached the point where if she doesn't sue, she will be put out of business. I can see why none of the sharks would want to invest in a company that's likely to spend all the invested money on legal fees.

On the show, Dupuy mentioned that she made a bad manufacturing decision when she chose a factory in China. Apparently the factory sold her FuzziBunz pattern to a woman who is now mass producing the diapers and stealing what Dupuy claims is 70% of her business. I'm not sure how she came up with this number, but I am curious who she is talking about.

There are two companies that sell similar pocket diapers from China - Alva and Sun Baby. Both of these diapers can be bought for $5-$10 a diaper and are extremely popular among the cloth diapering community. I plan on buying some of each because I'm curious about them so you can look out for those reviews when I get a chance to try them out. It's possible she's talking about one of these companies, but they are different enough (they use snaps instead of leg elastic for the one size functionality) that they would never be confused for a FB diaper and on Shark Tank she claimed that even she couldn't tell the difference between her diaper and this other diaper that copied her design. The diaper in question might be Charlie Banana.

A few years ago Dupuy was threatening retailers that if they sold Charlie Banana diapers then they could not sell FuzziBunz. She later issued an apology to Gaelle Wizenberg, a former employee who was largely instrumental in the decision to move the manufacturing to China, but the apology reads like a legal form letter. There are certain phrases in there that scream "a lawyer made me write this". I suspect that she stands by her original letter, not the apology. Perhaps she was threatened with legal action and forced to write that retraction. You can read them both here.

P.S. I have never even heard of Charlie Banana diapers until now and I hardly believe that they are stealing 70% of the FuzziBunz profits. That's why I think her 70% comes not just from Charlie Banana, but the Chinese Cheapies like Alva and Sun Baby. If she wins even one lawsuit enforcing her patent, that sets a dangerous precedent for the other mass producers of pocket diapers. I just looked at the Charlie Banana website and they do look just like FuzziBunz. If this woman really did steal her diapers, I feel really bad for Tereson Dupuy - who I'm sure has learned her lesson and now makes all her employees sign non-compete agreements.

I said it before in an earlier post, but I'll repeat it here. FuzziBunz has excellent customer service. When I received my first order of FB, one of them had a hole in the outside PUL layer. I contacted them about this issue and they immediately sent me a replacement, no questions asked and they did not ask me to return the defective one. The fit of FB was also great for both of my twins. Neither one is a chunk, my kids all have skinny legs, and they both wore the size medium from 1.5 years to potty training (which was 3yrs for my daughter and 4yrs for my son). My son is tiny though, so please don't expect that the average 4 year old could fit into any cloth diaper, let alone a medium.

They have a really cute "build your own" diaper where you can personalize a FB. I might just have to get one for Eden; that princess print is calling out to me. I love that they are hand made in the USA and I see that Dupuy has another patent pending on a "No-Repel Fleece System". I support FuzziBunz and hope that others do as well. They continue to be my favorite sized pocket diaper (and I say that only because I have never tried the one-size version). Good luck, Tereson, I hope that justice prevails.

Wearing My Baby

With twins, it wasn't really practical to wear them as much as I wanted to. Usually it was only when my husband and I were out together - he would wear one in a Bjorn (I know, awful crotch danglers, but we didn't know any better and he actually thought it was comfortable) and I would wear the other in my Beco Butterfly.

Now that I have "just one baby" the entire world of babywearing is opening up before me. My cousin recommended a ring sling for a newborn and gave me a beautiful Sakura Bloom ring sling. I washed it right away (cold wash, hang dry) and watched about 20 YouTube videos while I waited for it to dry. The problem with the YouTube videos is that none of the babies were actually newborns. I couldn't find a video that showed me how to support my newborn's wobbly head. My cousin came to the rescue and suggested that I put her against my chest and tighten the sling so that she is upright. So I did this and here is the result. Eden is about 5 lbs in this photo, she was one month old:

New baby, new blog!

Well, same old blog, but there is a new baby! My daughter, Eden, was born at 32 weeks on July 23 via emergency c-section due to uterine rupture. She spent 24 days in the NICU and she is home now and doing great. I'm excited to be able to cloth diaper an infant because I didn't start with my twins until they had already turned 1. Since Eden was so early, I wasn't really prepared. I'm struggling to get together enough of a newborn stash to be able to ditch the pampers. She's just over 6lbs now, but her tushy looks so tiny and I wonder how I'm going to be able to get cloth on her. As I figure this out, I'll be posting about my adventures.

This time around I'm not going to be talking exclusively about cloth diapers. I'll pretty much review any baby item I've got that I think deserves a review - either good or bad. For instance, I bought the Angelcare baby monitor that is supposed to tell you if your baby stops breathing while she is asleep. If you've ever had a NICU baby you probably understand the fear behind that purchase. Eden had apnea episodes in the hospital and she was given caffeine every morning to help prevent apnea spells. A few days before she was discharged they stopped her caffeine. Following that she had bradycardia episodes every time she ate. Her heart rate would drop to as low as 50 and it gave me a heart attack every time. The machines started beeping and her little face would turn red. They didn't release her until the brady episodes stopped, but it still worries me. I upped my own caffeine consumption so that she would still be getting some from my breastmilk. I find this funny because I've always thought that breastfeeding moms were supposed to lay off the caffeine. Who knew that it was good for preemies?

Nursing bras, breast pumps, it's all fair game. If I'm using it, chances are I'll be talking about it and hopefully it will help others :) I'll also be blogging about my experiences in general. For example, we live in the US but Eden was born while we were visiting family in Canada. I now have quite of bit of personal knowledge about the differences between giving birth in the US vs. Canada. I find it interesting, and you might too. Thanks for stopping by! ~Sari

New Design for my Blog!

I haven't abandoned this blog, I promise you, I've just been distracted with other things. I'm still very much a fan of cloth diapering and I have learned so much since my last active posts. Stay tuned, I promise to come back with more information on making cloth diapers and hopefully keep up with all the new products that are out there.

My twins turn 4 in a few weeks. My daughter has been out of diapers for a full year, but sadly my son is STILL in diapers. And while I'll be sad to say goodbye to cloth, really, it's time. LOL! Even when I no longer have cloth bums in my house, I intend to stay committed to the cause and continue to blog. However, I might expand into other areas.

One year later and still going strong!

I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last post. I have so much to share! We've now been using cloth diapers for a year and a half. My twins are now 3 years old and one of them (my daughter) is fully potty trained. My son, however, is not. He's not even close, so I've still got one in diapers.

How have my diapers held up over 18 months? Well let's see...

Bum Genius 3.0s are in great shape. My microfiber inserts have gotten a little dingy over time. They have a sort of greyish tint, but they don't stink and they still absorb well. I've heard that you can bleach them every so often, but I hate using bleach so I have yet to do that. I also haven't sunned them. Sunning your diapers is a great natural way to lighten them up to their former glory, perhaps I'll try that and do some before and after shots for a future blog post. The great thing about BG 3.0s is that they hold up great during naps and overnight (with both inserts for overnight). There's even a NEW BG 4.0. If I weren't done buying diapers, I'd be all over those. The new 4.0s are available in snaps, unlike the 3.0s, but velcro style is still available. The aplix on my 3.0s has held up well, but I've heard that the new hook & loop fasteners that they are using are even better.

FuzziBunz... still love them. I could build an entire stash out of FB and be happy. My son has been in mediums for the entire year and a half that he's been in cloth diapers. He is now 27lbs and 34.5" tall. I don't think I'll ever need larges. My daughter is 32lbs and she still uses a medium FB shell (no insert) as a swim diaper. Plus, they have the most fantastic customer service. Really incredible top notch customer service.

Speaking of customer service, I never did hear back from Happy Heinys about my defective diaper. Besides the fact that the cotton PUL wicked like crazy, the PUL also separated from the cotton outer making it pretty much useless. I'm not a fan and I don't recommend HH, but I will say that there are people out there who like them just fine.

gDiapers, still a HUGE fan. I know I said I could build an entire stash out of FB, but I wouldn't because I could never give up my gs. Besides being super cute (and having come in third in that contest last year and winning that $100 gift certificate) they work really well. The gCloth is surprisingly absorbent for being so trim, and it's easy to double up for extra protection. My daughter still wears a gDiaper at night with a gCloth in it "just in case". It saves me from an emergency sheet change a couple times a month.

I'm also still loving my pre-folds and fitteds with Thirsties covers although I've been having some trouble with my natural fiber diapers. I'll save that for my next post...

My new favorite detergent - Rockin' Green

I have been using Tide my whole life, or as long as I can remember. I switched to Tide Free when the twins were born, and continued to use Tide Free on my cloth diapers when I first started. There are so many detergents out there, and so many warnings of what you can and can't use on cloth diapers, that it was quite overwhelming.

About a month ago I started hearing the buzz about Rockin' Green detergent. Cick on the link, everything is there - it doesn't have any of the bad things in it (enzymes, dyes, brighteners, etc.) and it comes in a variety of yummy scents. The scent comes from oils so it doesn't actually make your diapers smell like the scent. It just makes laundry day more fun because you can smell it in your laundry room. I bought two sample bags - grape soda and cherry lemonade. I bought the Classic Rock version, although they do have a Soft Rock version for sensitive skin. My daughter has eczema, and she does fine with the Classic Rock.

So far, I am very pleased with this detergent. I pan on ordering a full size bag when my samples run out! Use discount code WELCOME to get 10% off your order.

The Goodmama, the Bad, and the Ugly

Sorry for the lag in posts again! I've got LOTS to share from the past few weeks. I made my first fleece soaker and finally got to use my new serger, but I'll save that for another post. This post, is my Goodmama review.

The good news is that it is a super cute diaper that is super soft on the inside. The one I bought had a bamboo velour inside, but they also come with cotton velour. Bamboo is supposed to be softer. I have not yet seen any cotton velour diapers in person, so I can't compare. The Goodmama diaper is also VERY absorbant. Dare I say it, a little more absorbant than my beloved BSRBs. It also fits my son beautifully. It's a boyish print, so my daughter hasn't worn it, but I'm sure it would fit her well too.

The bad and the ugly are really the same. The GM I bought has a serged edge all the way around. Recently, they have started making them differently, so that the serged edge doesn't show, but I wanted to try one of the original style. I had heard that the serged edges can irritate baby's skin. When used with a cover, the cover protected my son from having direct contact with the serged edges against his thigh. However, when he wore his GM for just 2 hours without a cover, the diaper was nice and dry on the outside, but his legs looked like this (note how I cleverly hid his boy bits):
What exactly do I mean by a serged edge? Let's take a look at a BSRB and a GM next to each other. The BSRB is on the left, the GM on the right. Notice the red edges of the GM. That is the serged edge. The picture is of both diapers without the snap-in inserts.
And here is a closer look at the edges of both diapers. Note how the serged edge of the BSRB is folded in and sewn down so that it can't irritate baby's legs. That is called a rolled hem casing.
So what do we do if we want to wear a GM coverless to avoid the irritation? I discovered that if I put my Imse Vimse liner in so that about an inch hangs off each side, the liner can protect my son's legs from the serged edges. I've only tried it once so far, but it was a success! If I ever buy another GM (translation: if they ever have an awesome sale again where I can get it for under $20) I will definitely be buying one of the turned & topstiched versions that don't have serged edges.

Calgon, take me away!

I've been away for most of the summer at my family's cottage just north of Toronto, Ontario. It's a fabulous place for the kids to run around outside. Sadly, I have left my sewing machine and new serger at home, so I have not been able to sew for the past 5 weeks.

Meanwhile, I've been washing my diapers up here and I started noticing several things. First, my cotton and bamboo diapers started seriously fading. My orange gDiapers suddenly looked old and faded. My BSRBs started fading too. Second, we started getting a strong ammonia smell in the mornings. Then, the ammonia smell started happening throughout the day.

I added "blue Dawn" to the shopping list because I figured I just needed to strip my diaper. But before I went and got it, I consulted with my good friend Google. I told Google about our hard water up here at the cottage. We have well water, and that's about as hard as it gets. Google told me that all the minerals in the water are leaving a white filmy buildup on my diapers, thus making them appear to be old and faded. The hard water was also trapping in detergent and likely causing some serious detergent buildup in my diapers. The answer? I needed to get some Calgon water softener, not Dawn. So I crossed Dawn off the list and added on Calgon.

This Calgon is not to be confused with the "Calgon, take me away!" bubble bath stuff (despite my catchy title). This Calgon is specifically for use in washing machines to combat the problems of hard water. Calgon in hand, I put in the recommended half a cup into a load of diapers with NO soap and ran the wash on warm. I couldn't believe how many suds I saw! I repeated the wash on HOT with the tiniest bit of Tide Free (we're talking a teaspoon, if that) and there were so many suds that I was literally scooping them out of the washing machine and dumping them in the utility sink. The machine here is a 20 year old top loader that you can futz with during the wash. I'd never be able to do that at home with my fancy shmancy HE front loader. I've got pictures of this, so I'll add them tomorrow.

The end result is that Calgon is a MUST for anyone with hard water. My mom and I tried it with our clothes and noticed a huge difference. Everything just felt better, cleaner, even smelled fresher. My diapers have been fixed and the ammonia stink is gone. The powder works best on hot water because it helps to dissolve the powder - plus, warmer water helps get out more soap. I think that's why I noticed so much more sudsing on the hot wash.

Here is my box of Calgon powder:

Here is what I saw immediately when the wash first started:

And here's my second HOT wash (hot gets out more of the sudsy buildup) where I was literally scooping suds out and into the sink next to the washing machine!!! This was only about a months worth of detergent buildup in hard well water. And I was hardly using any detergent. Scary, right?

My 15 minutes of gDiaper fame...

I came in third in the gDiapers sweet deal promotion. I am very excited about that! For being in the top three, I got a gift certificate for $200! How awesome is that? I am so excited to pick out my new gDiapers :) They also put a little write-up about me on the gDiapers Facebook fan page. Check it out!

Sorry I've been MIA on keeping up this blog. I've been really getting into my cloth diapers and I have TONS of helpful information to add. In the near future, I will have a more organized website (not in blog format) where it will be easier to find things - like video tutorials, diaper reviews, contest and sales, etc.

I stumbled upon and unheard of deal today for Goodmamas. The entire site was 50% off! I had decided (in the past) not to buy any GMs for several reasons. First, they are very expensive at $33-35 a pop. Even the clearance diapers at $24 were a little too much to spend. I kind of draw the line at $20 BSRBs, and even then, I only bought 2 of them. Second, I have heard that many of the diapers come with damaged snaps and GM customer service is not too great. You have to pay to send back your already overpriced diaper to get it fixed. Third, many people have said that the serged edges of the GMs irritate their baby's legs. Well, today I purchased one of the $24 clearance diapers for an unheard of $12!!! It came to $16.16 with shipping included. How could I pass that up? If I want to make diapers - possibly to sell - I need to experience first-hand the most popular diapres, and GMs are certainly up there on the list of most popular fitteds. This is the diaper that I bought. Not my first choice in patterns, but it was the only one left. I think they are completely sold out now.

Why am I pushing someone else's gDiapers code?

If you read the previous post, I was actually winning the contest last week. Since then, I've fallen behind 144 to 125. First off, thank you SO much to anyone who supported me and chose my code to get your awesome deal. I realize that I probably won't win, so I want to support someone who really deserves to win.

Anna is a dedicated gMom with twin girls who have been in gDiapers for about a year. She also has 3 other kids. She is very active on the Yahoo gDiapers group and she has been helping other gMoms get to their 10 sales so that they can win gift certificates too.

Another participant has come out of nowhere, from behind, who was more than 50 orders behind us, and is now about to take the lead. She has been dishonest about representing the contest and has spammed the heck out of BabyCenter and craigslist. I don't mean 1-5 craigslist ads like most of us have done, much much more than that. And she has not disclosed that it's a contest and that she stands to benefit from.

So if you haven't used my code yet and you were planning to, please use Anna's code instead. If I can't win, I would like to support someone who really deserves to win! The code is at the top of the blog (g677Swank). Thank you!

8/1 Update... Anna won!!! I came in third :) I'm very pleased with the results. Thanks to everyone who helped me get this far. I hope you love your gDiapers as much as I do!

I have a shot to win the gDiapers contest!!!

I just found out by reading the gDiapers Facebook page that I was winning the contest!!! Now I am in second place. I really never thought I would get this far. I was going for 10. Somehow I got 108!!! Now I think I have a shot at winning. Help me go for it! How awesome would that be? I'm going to see what I could win... this is crazy... I'm in shock.

Link to gDiapers on FB:

http://www.facebook.com/gdiapers?ref=nf#/gdiapers?ref=mf

Where I just saw this status:

gDiapers

oh, Swank just pulled ahead of Erdos in the everyday g's sweet deal contest. Swank 109 vs. Erdos 108....the race to the finish line is on!

How to use a pre-fold with your gDiaper

I took a quick video of how I use my infant pre-fold instead of a flushie in my gDiapers. Hopefully this will help out those of you who have been wondering how this works. The nylon liner holds the pre-fold well with no slipping.

This is an unbleached Indian pre-fold that I bought from Cotton Babies. I use the infant size for my medium gPants. I'd use the same size for a large (because they use the same size nylon liner), but if I had a small gPant I'd probably use the preemie size pre-fold.

Get a 6-pack of gDiapers for $40!

This is an awesome deal if you are looking to try the gDiaper system. The 6-pack is regularly $70! You get a combo of the orange and vanilla g-pants and the inserts are sold separately. You can choose from the biodegradable flushable inserts OR, the NEW gCloth inserts! I would love to try the new gCloth inserts. I've been using a folded up infant pre-fold for my cloth inserts, and they work great too.

Use this coupon code to grab your 6-pack:

g795Erdos

To use your personal gMum/Dad coupon code, add one or more everyday g's six-pack(s) to your gDiapers.com cart, enter your code and click the "redeem" button. The price will automatically drop from $70 (regular price) to $40. What a sweet deal!

Share your code and use it yourself. The contest is over on July 31st, 2009, so don't wait to get the word out. When the contest is over, it's over. I get a gift certificate for gDiapers if 10 people use my code :)

Cloth Diaper Sewing 101... Equipment!

I've been sewing on a Singer 4528 Merritt, which is about 20 years old. Lovely, isn't it?

It's still working well enough that I don't feel the need to buy a new sewing machine, but I needed to get a new presser foot to accommodate the different types of fabric that you need to sew when making cloth diapers. More specifically, I needed to buy an even feed walking foot. A walking foot helps you sew on stretchy fabrics (like cotton knits and PUL) so that this doesn't happen:

I was trying to sew two layers of hemp fleece together by zig zagging the edges together. As you can see, this ruffling effect is not the look I was going for. Here's the same zig zag stitch AFTER I installed my new walking foot.

Much better, right? The walking foot makes it so the fabric on top and the fabric on the bottom go through at the same rate. That's why it's also called an "even feed" foot. Better, yes, but I decided that the zig zagged edges aren't as professional as I would like. SO, in addition to the new walking foot, I finally bit the bullet and bought a serger! I did my research and found a serger that gets great reviews, but is on the lower end of the price range. I've ordered the Brother 1034D. It has a feature called "differential feed" which basically does what a walking foot does and serges your stretchy fabrics without the puckered edges.

It's important to note that a serger does NOT replace a sewing machine. If you are new to sewing and want to make your own diapers, you must start with a sewing machine. Sergers are intended to be used in addition to a sewing machine to help make your edges look more professional. That is why I still needed the walking foot. So back to the walking foot...

I purchased my walking foot on eBay for two reasons. The first reason is that you can get one on eBay for almost half of what it would cost in the store. I paid $16 (shipping included) for mine. A similar one in a store would cost $3o. The second reason I bought it on eBay is because my machine is a dinosaur, and it's not as easy to find parts for it in a store. Walking feet are fairly universal though, so they should be easy to find. I found an eBay seller that listed my machine under compatibility, so I was sure it would fit properly. Here's a picture of the walking foot next to a regular foot so you can see the difference. Looks like a monster, eh? lol

And here is the walking foot after I installed it. It took me about 10 seconds to install, very easy. Notice how there is a forked part that goes over the nob that holds your needle in. I'm not sure what it does, but that's where it's supposed to go.