Cloth Diaper Guest Post- Savanna of Savvy & Sweet

Savanna has an awesome blog over at Savvy & Sweet! I've been following her blog since she posted about the benefits of cloth diapers vs. disposable when she, and I, were both pregnant. Being that I'm still waiting for my cloth diapers to arrive from China (SunBaby Diapers... check 'em out! The reviews are awesome!), I had some questions of the best methods to care for cloth diapers so that they last through multiple kids (if someday I decide to have more kidlets). Savanna gives a great  explanation of her routine with cute 'lil baby C, as well as how she cares for her cloth diapers. Read on and listen up if you're thinking about using cloth diapers, too!

Hello Bean2Baby Readers!

My name is Savanna and I write over at Savvy & Sweet.  I’m a full time mom, wife, and I work 40+ hours per week in the non-profit industry along with trying to keep up my blog.  Life is busy to say the least!

Laura asked me to write a guest post about my experience so far with cloth diapers.  Let me just start by saying: I LOVE THEM!

The first thing to know about modern day cloth diapers is that they have definitely come a long way from the days of diaper pins!  There’s several different options now (snaps or Velcro, one size, pockets, all-in-ones, the list goes on), which is awesome, but also makes it a little overwhelming when you’re trying to learn about cloth diapers in the first place.
I can only speak from my personal experience, so here’s what I use:

BumGenius Elementals- organic cotton all-in-one, one-size diapers

I love our Elementals.  They are definitely on the pricey end when it comes to cloth diapers, but we use them exclusively- we’ve got 24 in various colors- and have had a great experience with them so far.

My husband and I decided about mid-way through my pregnancy that we would go with cloth.  I did a TON of research and also did some financial calculating and according to my numbers, our cloth diapers (even being as pricey as they are) will end up saving us somewhere around $2,947!!  In fact, following my calculations, they’ve already begun paying for themselves!

I thought the easiest way to share my diaper routine would to look at a typical day, so here we go!

6:30 am - Baby C wakes up and I feed him. Once his belly is full, we do our first diaper change of the day.  It’s usually pretty soaked, but stays contained pretty well.  I use disposable wipes, but lots of cloth diapering families use cloth wipes too.  I toss the used wipe in the trash and drop the wet diaper into our diaper bin.  Our bin is just a flip-top garbage container that we purchased from our local Meijer store.  Inside, I keep a couple Arm & Hammer Nursery Fresheners and a Kissaluvs Antibacterial Waterproof laundry bag (made especially for cloth diapers).  It works to contain the smells really well!

For any dirty diapers (not just wet) I use a diaper sprayer that’s hooked up to our toilet to spray them as clean as possible before tossing them in the bin with the rest of the dirty diapers.  Word on the street is that if your baby is exclusively breastfed you can skip spraying and just put the whole poopy diaper right into the bin, but I just wasn’t comfortable with that.  To each their own!

8:00 am – Baby C is dressed and ready for daycare.  Yep, his daycare center is cloth diaper friendly! From what I’ve heard, not all are, but ours had no issues with it whatsoever.  We pack 8 diapers into his daycare bag.  He doesn’t always use all 8, but they check and usually change his diaper every hour while he’s there, so we’ve found that 8 is a good number.  We also pack a wet bag for them to put dirty diapers in.  We use Kushies On The Go wet bags for daycare or when we’re out and about and we’ve never had any leaks and the smells stay contained too.  I had my doubts since it’s just a drawstring closure, but I promise, it works!  The bags don’t look all that big, but quite a few diapers can fit in there- up to all 8 from a full day at daycare!

5:30 pm – I pick up C from daycare.  The dirty diapers are in the aforementioned wet bag and I usually also take home any extra clean ones that are left.

6:30 pm – C gets fed and gets another diaper change.  If it’s a diaper laundry night I take the laundry bag of dirty diapers out of the bin and bring them to the washer in the basement. We have two of the waterproof laundry bags, so I can put the second one in the empty bin right away after I take the full one out.

Wash Routine:
After a ridiculous amount of research, I decided to use Planet Liquid Laundry Detergent for our diapers. I prefer liquid over powder and Planet is free of perfumes, dyes, enzymes, and whiteners.  Unfortunately it isn't available in any stores near by me, but we ordered a 4-pack from Amazon and we literally have enough to last us for around 2 years now.  The detergent lasts so long because when it comes to detergent and diapers, less is more. I only fill up the cap to the first line at most. If you use more than that, then the detergent starts to build up in the diaper fabric and when that happens you'll know because as soon as your little one pees, your diapers will have a really strong ammonia smell.

I put the detergent in the washer and the dirty diapers get dumped in along with the laundry bag turned inside-out. I set my washer for warm water, heavy soil, and a second rinse cycle.

8:30 pm - Baby C gets one last diaper change, gets fed, and goes to bed in his crib.  I don’t do anything different at night- the Elementals usually do a pretty good job of holding it all in.

9:00 pm - The wash cycle is usually done by now, so I move the diapers to the dryer.  It’s REALLY important that you don’t dry your diapers with too high of a temperature!  Doing so can ruin the waterproof outer fabric, therefore ruining your diapers.  This is one drawback of the Elementals- they take FOREVER to dry.  Since they’re an all-in-one, there are a couple of really thick seams of fabric that definitely take a considerable amount of time to dry fully.  That combined with using an ultra-low heat setting (low heat is fine too, our dryer just happens to have ultra-low and medium- no low...it’s weird) means that in order to get dry diapers, they go in the dryer for a total of 2.5 hours.  Since the max time on our dryer is 90 minutes, I set the dryer for that at night and then if I don’t get to reset it for the last 60 minutes before heading to bed, I get up and do that first thing in the morning so that by the time we’re just about ready to leave for the day, the diapers are done.  In the summertime I highly recommend drying in the machine for the first 90 minutes and then skipping the last 60 minutes and just hang them outside to dry.  The sun does an excellent job of naturally bleaching out stains!

That’s it!  If I can keep up with cloth diapers and still have the crazy schedule that I do, you can do it too!  It’s awesome to never have to worry about running to the store for diapers and word on the street is that cloth diapered kids potty trainer earlier too- another win!

Thanks for letting me drop in here and share my cloth diapering details, and I’ll try to watch the comments section if you guys have any questions, or you can feel free to stop by Savvy & Sweet or email me at savvysweetblog@gmail.com!

**full disclosure: Savvy & Sweet is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  Basically, if you click on the links for the products I mention above and purchase through my aStore, I’ll get a small percentage.  That being said, I only link to products I actually have, use, or wish I had!

Guest Blogger: Holding on to the Little Things

Hello! I'm Jordan Marie. I have a little blog called holding on to the little things. I am a first time mother to Scarlett-Marie Sue, or Letti for short. She was born St. Patricks Day 2011. She is my world, and I love spoiling her. She is my light, and I can't imagine my world without her. I love blogging about our everyday life, but I also blog about other fun topics. I breast feed and cloth diaper, and love making new friends! I also love helping out my friends.

Here is a little post about traveling with my little one..

This previous weekend the Daddy and the Mommy (so cool to be a Mommy, Lol) decided they wanted to hang out with their friends in another town a few hours away..

Two or three times a week we visit the grandparents. It is usually just Scarlett and I, because Daddy has to work, but this kind of travel is rather easy. We both have our own bedrooms when we stay there, and Letti's room is fully equipped with her very own crib. I have a bedroom with a couple dresser drawers for the two of us, a nice comfy bed, and an adjoined bathroom. There is a laundry room, a convenient changing station, and a Grammy to help handle the cloth diapering, which can get quite messy at times. It is quite a nice setup.

But this weekend we visited friends. Friends that don't have babies, or any of the conveniences we have grown accustom to. So it was our first real time to travel with a baby while cloth diapering. We've traveled with Scarlett to Kansas before, but we were still using disposables.

I started off with my regular packing: a cute bag full of toys and books for the car, a blanket, cute burp rag, sippy cup, and fully stocked diaper bag. Our diaper bag houses an extra set of clothes, a pair of socks, some blankets, a nursing cover, burp rags, medicine, diaper ointment, diapers, high chair toys, two wet bags, mini trash bags, clorox wipes, lysol spray, diaper changing pad, baby sling, baby sunblock, baby wipes, first aid kit and lots of other little "just in case" things.

We try to clean all of her cloth diapers and pack those separately in a floral duffle type bag. Then Scarlett has her very own pretty green designed duffle type bag with all of her clothes and sleeping gear inside.

Eventually we would like to travel with a playpen, but haven't made the purchase yet. When that day comes, we might need a larger vehicle, because we also bring a full-size stroller along for our adventures. But for now, she just sleeps between Allen and I, or safely placed between barriers, so she can't roll off.

I just recently purchased a large and pretty hamper type bag with a draw string, for all of our dirty clothes. While out, all soiled diapers make their way into some type of waterproof bag, and then thrown in the laundry hamper bag.

I breastfeed, so that takes care of feeding supplies and such, but sometimes we bring the manual hand pump and all those little accessories with a bottle. I normally keep all that stuff in a organic string type produce bag. It is something along the lines of hemp or cotton. I like how it is see-thru and "go-green" looking.

Luckily we were only out of town for two nights, but if it were a week, we would have had to find a laundry mat and brought detergent and a drying rack along.

Our awesome Kalencom diaper bag. The company is based in New Orleans, and I love to support that city because of the hurricane.

Diaper sanitizer on the inside and outside, name tag from Urban Outfitters, and emergency trash bags on the outside.

Lovey, burp rag, diapers, toys, lotion, socks, wipes, deck of playing cards, tampons, shoes, toys, and lots of other odds and ends.

Toys, sling, changing pad, more toys, wet bag, and walking shoes!

Sleep sheep is essential.. Toys..

Pretty bag for all her toys and books.

Books and more toys.

That cotton back with pumping gear and snack food for mommy and random finger nail clippers.

When Scarlett gets hungry, we have two solutions while on the road. One, I can pump and let her feed from the bottle, or we can pull over and feed her at a rest stop, restaurant or gas station parking lot if it doesn't coincide with us eating or something of that nature. But I have been known to throw my boob over the car seat in real emergencies.

The first trip we made, was to Kansas, and Letti slept most of the way. But now we have to keep her pretty well entertained and time a nap to fall while she is in the car. In general, I think she is fairly easy to travel with.

Jordan's blog is fantastic! I'm a follower, and you should be, too! Scarlett is only a few weeks older than Clara, so it's fun to see another little girl Clara's age developing. And, it's nice to compare notes with Jordan. Head on over and vote for Holding on to the Little Things and vote for them on TopBabyBlogs,com! Thanks for reading!

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I'm a guest blogger!

I'll be posting twice a month over at Holding on to the Little Things! Check out the first guest post here.

Give a mama some lovin'! If you liked this post, or have enjoyed reading my blog and seeing pictures of Clara, or just because it's Saturday, please click the yellow button below, or the blue one on your left to vote for me on Top Baby Blogs.com. As of now, I am #63, and I would like to stay there or climb even higher. The higher my ranking, the more people will visit my blog!

If you checked out my guest post over at Holding onto the Little Things, give Jordan a click, too! She's a couple of spots ahead of me, and would like to move up as well!

Happy Saturday! I'm off to my niece's soccer game, but stay tuned later for my week in cell phone pictures.


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Guest Blogger: Kathleen Thomas

Start the Reading Process Early
Article provided by Kathleen Thomas on behalf of Primrose Schools

Reading is an essential skill that all children must learn, but for most parents it is not just about the process of learning because they want to instill a love for reading in their children. Instead of waiting for an educational institution such as a preschool or day care to educate their children, it is best for parents to work with their children from the very beginning. Studies have shown that early reading is a precursor to academic achievement in school and it does create beneficial changes in the brain as well.

Although many parents often question what is the appropriate age to start reading with their children, there is really not an appropriate age because it is all about reading with them as soon as possible on a daily basis. It is essential to make reading fun and interesting children, so be sure to carefully select books and stories appropriate for their age group. For young children, focus on books with lots of pictures, rhythmic words, and interesting stories. Make every effort to read with your children on a consistent basis each and every day because you want to instill it within them so it will be a lifelong habit.

The type of material you read is not that important as long as your children enjoy it, but the key is consistency. Avoid books that may be too advanced for them or if your children do not find the book interesting then find another book that they like. The best thing to do is find a few books that your children will love and get them to read the books repeatedly. Once your child has a few favorite books they will be enticed to read and even recite them more often and then they will be more interested in exploring new titles. Here are some more tips that you can use to foster a love of reading and books.

- Saturate the home with books

The home should have an abundance of books and they should see the adults and their siblings reading on a daily basis as well. Be sure to add a small bookshelf in your child's room so they will have easy access to books.

- Read each and every day

Again, reading consistently is the key to making your child a lifelong reader. Take time read at least 20-30 minutes before bed or whenever it is convenient and read along with them or allow them to read independently when they are older.

- Encourage reading during the downtime

Leave books in the car or anywhere else they spend time to encourage even more reading.

- Obtain a reading list from school

When your child attends school, request a supplementary reading list from their teacher so they will have some books to read that are relevant to their course of study. This is known to not only improve their reading skills because it also helps them improve their grades and stay ahead of the class.

- Encourage recitation

Encourage your children to read and recite their favorite stories and passages because it improves their comprehension skills.

Reading is a journey that you should take with your children very early in their lives so they will continue to do it for themselves in the future. Surround your child with books and schedule a daily reading time to develop their skills and ease them into reading. There is never right or wrong to time to read with your child, so the best advice is to start today.




Kathleen is a Communications Coordinator for the Atlanta day care facility, a member of the AdvancED® accredited family of Primrose Schools (located in 16 states throughout the U.S.) and part of the network of day care preschools delivering progressive, early childhood, Balanced Learning® curriculum.

Guest Blogger: {Shutter}Mama

Hello!!! I'm Sonya from the blog {shutter}mama! I'm totally thrilled to be guest blogging on "From Bean 2 Baby". I couldn't be more thrilled for this exciting opportunity. Laura and Clara have graced the screen of my computer the past couple of weeks...and I couldn't be more honored! So thank you :]

I live in San Jose, Costa Rica. Life is pretty much the same for us here besides some minimal differences. We live in the capitol of Costa Rica and as pretty as this country is, the capitol doesn't hint much of that beauty! Haha! Our week is pretty mellow. It consists of getting up around 7:30 am {we're late sleepers!!} and we get my 2 year old ready for school! Yup, she goes to school. School here for her starts at 8 and ends at noon. It's very typical for little ones to go to school here. It's like preschool but they speak to her in English and Spanish and she has homework. During the time that Maia's at school, I work out. I LOVE working out. It's a new found obsession in the past year and endorphin high's are the best :] After getting Maia from school, we eat lunch and then Maia will take a nap. Jose {the lover and father} is finishing his college education so he's usually at school 3-4 days of the week. We have a pretty laid back day after nap time. Just lots of playing and dancing. WE LOVE DANCING. There's not a dull moment around here when the music is on! We live very much like you guys but just some minor changes!!!




1. What do you love most about being a Mom to Maia?
I love having a little girl. There's nothing greater than having a nail polish/make-up pal! Maia is incredible. I love her caring heart for all animals. I love that she dances like a true Latina - movin those hips and all. I love waking up to her rubbing my back...what can I say??? She's redefined living for me. She's redefined "joy".




2. Is there anything you miss about your life before baby?
Naturally as mother's, we miss our old freedoms...um but lately I've come to realize that when I get my little moments of freedom, I'm obsessed with how Maia's doing and if she's okay. I do truly miss my old tummy tho hahaaha. The stretch mark - free and flat tummy! Hahahaha. But that's just natural!




3. What stage of Maia's has been your favorite thus far?
Oh tough one!!! There's two favorite stages! The first was when she hit about 4-5 months. And she had discovered her voice - and her little personality started to shine. The second is the one that we're currently in (18mon - 2 yrs). She has picked up SOOOO much. And just seeing what she learns day to day is INCREDIBLE. I'm absolutely astonished to say the least. It's insane to me how someone so little can fully understand and speak in 2 languages. I'm just blown away.




4. What is the most surprising thing about being a mom?
How much your views change. I think that as a young adult we make a lot of very "loose" decisions. We decide in a moments notice without really taking the future in to view or anyone else for that matter. But when you become a mom...your decisions START and END with - "Does this benefit my family?" or "Is this safe for Little One?" .... it's crazy. Every single decision that we've made since having Maia is no longer a 10 second choice...we talk, plan, talk some more...pray hahah. And it's crazy, cuz I'm a very spontaneous person.




5. What advice would you give new, or soon-to-be mom's?
Put down the cell phone - shut the computer and get on the floor with your kiddo. You'll never EVER regret that decision. ANNNNND take lots of pictures!




6. What are your top three baby products?
First Years Jet Stroller - http://www.amazon.com/First-Years-Stroller-City-Chic/dp/B002WB2G9I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1309926685&sr=8-3

This stroller is small like an umbrella stroller BUT it holds up to 50 lbs...so we'll be able to use it for the next 3 years for trips through airports and Disney World and what not. It's also got a high back and it's taller than the average stroller. WE LOVE IT. I'm sad I didn't make this purchase sooner! It's just really nice to have. And only 11 lbs! Woooo!!!

Medela Breast Pump

I breast fed up till 9/10 months...This thing was our lifesaver from the very first days to the very last! I wouldn't recommend anything else!

Ocean Wonders™ Soothe & Glow Seahorse™ by Fisher Price

This damn seahorse saved our lives on multiple occasions. She loved it. If it didn't run out of batteries {I forgot to put new ones in multiple times} we'd still be using it! :]

Her baby girl is adorable, her writing flows, and her photography skills are amazing! Who wouldn't follow Sonya and her family on {Shutter}Mama? Thank you so much to Sonya for this little peek inside her life with adorable little Maia. A vote on TopBabyBlogs.com wouldn't hurt for either of us. :) Stay tuned this week for a GIVEAWAY, and be sure to follow {Shutter}Mama!