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Day 292

White Noise

Since we brought the babies home from the hospital they’ve been sleeping with white noise playing. At first we used a little white noise machine with a menu of different sounds: womb, ocean, wind, etc. Each setting has an additional secondary sound that can be added to the main sound. Ocean, which we used most often, could be augmented with “buoy.” Either the buoy button didn’t work or the buoy sound effect was incredibly subtle—Rachel and I now have a running joke that the sound a buoy makes is the sound of silently swaying from side to side.

Eventually we decided that the little noise machine wasn’t loud enough. When we moved them into the cribs in their own room, we needed something that made enough noise to blanket out the normal noises of the house so we didn’t have to tiptoe around starting at 6:30. Rachel found a CD of white noise at Amazon, so we bought an iPod speaker dock, popped in my ancient 40 GB iPod, and put the white noise on repeat.

Of course, each white noise track was only ten minutes long, and the short pause while the track restarted used to wake them up. Luckily, I was able to stretch out the track in GarageBand, and produced an extended remix version that was three hours long.

So now we had our system: when the babies went down for their naps, we’d turn on the speakers and when they woke up, we’d turn them off. It seemed too much hassle to actually stop the iPod playing; sure it kept looping forever even while the speakers were off, but the power draw seemed minimal.

What may be obvious to you, but was obvious to me only in retrospect, is that endlessly playing the same three-hour track on repeat for four months might not be the best way to prolong the life of your iPod hard drive. So, yeah. That died yesterday. We’re trying this cute sheep out for now, but it seems to only work on a timer, and we kind of want something that will go all night. Anyone want to sell me an old iPod cheap? This time we’ll probably push pause every now and then.

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Day 289

Cloth Diapers: Rachel’s Definitive Recommendations

Before the babies were born, I did ludicrously exhaustive research on cloth diapers, changing my mind many, many times about what I thought the best options would be for us. Now that Matt and I have been using cloth diapers on Julian and Eloise for about nine months, my opinions have crystallized about the single best, most effective, and most economical diaper system. I find myself moved to offer these opinions up to others who might want to skip the research and go with one extremely smart person’s* recommendations. So here they are: (Suggested quantities are estimates for ONE baby.)

The essentials:
18-24 Cloth-eez prefolds (hands down the best prefolds)
5-6 Thirsties covers
3 Snappis fasteners
3-4 BumGenius one-size pocket diapers

The advantages of this system are many. In spite of their plainness compared to much more elaborate diapers, prefolds have many benefits. They are cheap; they are every bit as effective (if not more so) than the fancier options; they are very easy to use after a day or so of practice; and they are a breeze to care for. When paired with Thirsties covers, they are about as good a diaper option as you can find.

BumGenius diapers are incredibly effective and absorbent, and we have had very few issues with leaks overnight. Because they’re one-size, they should last from birth to potty training. Presumably if you had a good bit of money to spend (though still less than the cost of disposables!) you could do an all-BumGenius stash, and I know plenty of people who do this. I just kind of hate stuffing pocket diapers.

One huge advantage of this set of diapers is that they can all be bleached. I know some people aren’t fans of bleach, and I suppose it’s something to avoid if your baby has very sensitive skin, but it has never bothered our babies and an occasional bleaching really rejuvenates a diaper stash.

The optional splurgy bonuses:
3-4 Thirsties Fab Fitteds or Kissaluvs fitteds (for friends and relatives intimidated by prefolds — pretty foolproof)
2 Sposoeasy all-in-ones (for the diaper bag)

Neither is necessary, but both are nice.

The accessories:
-Diaper pail (this one works great)
-2 pail liners (we use these)
-2 wet bags (for the diaper bag; we use these)
-24-30 cloth wipes (Thirsties work great for us)
-Spray bottle (for wetting wipes)
-Baby Bits wipes soap (one box will last months)
-Strip of velcro loops (optional, for hanging covers to dry — put it on the underside of a table or shelf — possibly Matt’s best invention ever)
-Toilet spray hose (for dealing with non-breastmilk poo)
-Diaper detergent (we use Country Save but I’m not convinced it’s the best; many people like Charlie’s Soap and Allen’s Naturally, but I haven’t tried either (yet); consult this list)
-RLR laundry treatment (use every couple months to remove detergent build-up from your diapers — the number one cause of stinkiness)
-California Baby calendula cream (use this or another product on this list for simple diaper rash — for serious diaper rash, use serious diaper cream with disposable diapers for a day or two)

And there you have my unsolicited opinions. I hope this is helpful to someone. I’m always happy to answer questions — I think after I convert 10 people to cloth diapers I get a toaster oven.

Julian and Eloise say: We love our cloth diapers!

*Everyone knows this is a joke, even if I don’t use an emoticon, right? I’m trying to wean myself off them.

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