Meet Bree – Pin the Spotlight

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Meet Bree

Many of our forum members have been cloth diapering for years and and their knowledge is invaluable to the cloth diapering community.  This week, join Morgan as she interviews long time Diaper Pin forum member Bree.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I used to work in various areas of child abuse and neglect prevention and family services prior to becoming a SAHM in 2009. I’ve been married to my DH for 8 years now; he is in the Army. I’ve moved from PA to WV to PA to AK to LA to PA to MD and now currently residing in VA -all in the last 10 years. I have two crazy fun little boys, ages 4 and 2. They’re thrilled to be having a little sister any day now and I’m worried that they’re gonna love her a little too much I found The Pin in early 2010 when I was tired of buying disposables for two kiddos, made the switch to cloth, and haven’t ever looked back   The Pin has been an amazing place of support and knowledge for me, opening my mind to many more green ways of living besides just cloth diapers -  and I’ve made a lot of amazing friends along the way.

What made you decide to use cloth?

My boys are 22mo apart and buying disposables for two kids was expensive!!! My older son was interested in potty learning but the cost of pull-ups was ridiculous. I went searching for cloth trainers online, as I knew there had to be a more absorbent option than the Gerber trainers. This led me to cloth diapers as well – it just made sense if I was going to use cloth trainers to use cloth diapers as well.

How does your DH feel about cloth?

My DH was away for a year at the time I made the switch so he didn’t really have much say in the decision. He’s changed cloth when he needs to but to be honest, he never did many of the diaper changes. He’s made comments about them being ‘gross’ before but he can’t backup this statement with any reason why! It makes me laugh. But he’s also made comments about the great sides of cloth, including how our youngest was lucky for the extra padding on his bum when he was learning to walk I can say I’m sure he’s happy he no longer has to run out and buy a pack of disposables when we’re almost out, and that we no longer have to spend that money!

Do you have a fav in your stash?  One diaper that you wouldn’t trade or sell for anything?

I sold pretty much all of my ‘boy’ stash when preparing for this baby girl – I had to replace it all with girliness The one diaper I did not sell though was our DPI Goodmama. It’s made from the Army ACU uniform fabric and has our last name embroidered on the bum It’s not my favorite diaper to use due to the lack of stretch (I’m not a woven fabric fan) but it has sentimental value.

 

How many diapers are in your stash?

Right now for this babe’s newborn stash about 4 dozen. That’s counting the dozen prefolds that I (to be honest) probably won’t use. I think 3 dozen would have been plenty but I got a little carried away.

Tell me about your system, organization, wash routine, etc.

I have found that I’m a fitteds and wool and/or fleece gal. I love the absorbency of fitteds and the ease. Popping a pair of wool or fleece bottoms on over the diaper and calling it good, especially when I had a squirmy toddler, made my life simpler. I store all the diapers in the drawers of the changing table and in an additional smaller cabinet with three shelves. All the wool is stored in a basket and the few PUL covers we have go in the drawers with the diapers as well. I’ve been lucky and haven’t ever had ‘bad’ water. For washing in our HE TLer I start with a cold rinse with no spin, do a hot wash with Vaska detergent and an extra rinse- no spin, then follow with a warm wash to make sure all the detergent is gone. On the rare occurance that we’d have some ammonia build-up in our night diapers I have used vinegar in the first cold rinse and it hasn’t ever let me down.

Tell me about a funny CDing experience

In our last house I had an umbrella clothesline to hang diapers on outside and this drew attention from the neighbors/friends. One friend and I were discussing cloth, because she was interested in switching and I was trying to ‘sell’ her on it. I was bragging about how we’ve never ever had a leak in cloth! Not 30 seconds later my son walked over with SOAKED shorts! I was horrified! Apparently his pad-folded flat under his Flip cover couldn’t hold what he put out! He was in the ‘hold it and flood’ stage at almost 2 years old, and flood it he did!

If you could only have one kind of diaper and one kind of cover in your stash what would it be?

Fitteds and wool for the first year, then swap out fleece for wool. Once they’re mobile and into everything and getting dirtier I prefer the washing ease of fleece. I don’t know that I could pick just one type of fitted diaper though as I have quite a few favorites. But for the economical factor, if I had to choose just one, it would be GMD Workhorses.

What’s the most you’ve ever spent on a diaper?

The most I’ve ever spent was $40, on a 1981 Goodmama. This was when my son was younger and I was just hopeful that we’d have a girl someday. I ended up auctioning it off on Spot’s a year later and more than made my money back though   Figures…now we’re expecting a girl!

You are packing for a day out, what’s in your diaper bag?

Diapers (the amount depends on the age of the child), medium wetbag, cloth wipes, California Baby’s Diaper Area Wash, CJ’s BUTTer stick, and the other randomness that children require!

If you were going to recommend cloth to a newbie what would suggest they start with? And what advice would you give them?

I’d recommend they buy used from the For Sale or Trade (fsot) section on Diaper Pin or check out Spot’s Corner on Hyenacart. Try a little of everything before committing to one ‘system’ because you never know what you’ll like most and what will work best for your babe. The diapers I started out with are not the ones I ended up loving most. Ignore the nay-sayers because a lot of people are going to discourage you from cloth, even if it is gaining popularity again. And do not fret if you experience problems – just come to The Pin and ask for help! I haven’t encountered an issue yet that Pin mamas can’t resolve!

Morgan Dahm

Morgan is a SAHM to two kiddos, Amelia age 7 and Eli age 3 and has been married to Laird for almost 14 years. She enjoys knitting, reading, cooking and Pinning, of course! A friend introduced her to cloth and she stumbled onto the Diaper Pin forum via a Google search and is SO glad she did because not only did she receive invaluable cloth diapering advice and tools, but she has made several friendships with other Pin mamas that she treasures greatly!

Tags: cloth diapers, interview