Cloth Diapering from a Not-So-Crunchy Momma!

There is a lot of debate going on in the baby world these days, about Cloth Diapering vs. Disposables.
A popular term for Cloth Diapering momma's?
Crunchy.
If you're anything like me, you're already lost.
What I've figured out so far is that I am about as crunchy as a burnt marshmellow.
My husband? He's somewhere in the Cool-whip category.
However, as crunch-less as we may be, I still feel it necessary to be informed about things like Cloth Diapers, in case we need to know someday in the future.
Luckily for me, one of my favorite blogging mama's has just made the cloth diaper switch herself, & I have been learning all kinds of things from her about them.
She is an absolute treasure trove of information, she's gorgeous, & she has one of the cutest babes evah!
If you don't follow her already, you should...just as soon as you get done reading this post!
So without further adieu, I give you "Mrs. Trophy Wife"!

Cloth Diapering from a Not-So-Crunchy Mama
by Mrs. Trophy Wife & Sullivan

(Pippy Comment: Holy cuteness!)

When I first told my husband I wanted to cloth diaper, he looked at me in disgust and said, "No way! There will be shit stains all in them." So, I dropped the subject.

Then life happened. Sullivan was born, and we quickly realized he was extremely allergic to Pampers. We switched to Huggies only to deal with at least one "blow out" a day and diapers soaked through to his clothes. Fed up and exhausted, I called my husband (over Skype. He's deployed, by the way), and said, "I'm switching over to cloth." I began my research of all things cloth. My Type A OCD personality led me to be overwhelmed by the hundreds upon hundreds of choices. Where the hell do you even start?

So when Pippy asked me to do a guest post on cloth diapering for mamas that aren't sure where to begin, I jumped on the idea. Hopefully, my obsession with cloth diapers will help you make a decision about what's best for you.

1) Making the Decision: If you're environmentally concerned, obviously cloth diapering is the best way to go. Our water bill has not increased since starting, and I line dry anytime it's nice out. Better for the diapers. Better for my wallet. If you're concerned about rashes or chemicals in the disposables, you can't beat cloth diapering. We haven't had a single rash since we started using them. Oh and money? We've spent about $600.00 on cloth diapers and we're set for Sullivan and the next baby or two. You can expect to spend about $1,600 every two years on disposables. Then you add in diaper creams, wipes, garbage services. It really adds up. The initial investment might seem high, but just look at the numbers in the long run. It's also VERY possible to cloth diaper for under $200.00. If you go with Prefolds and Covers, you can easily cloth diaper economically.

2) Starting Out: Start with a trial program. You never know what's going to work best for you and your baby. A good trial will have some of everything. The basics are;

Prefolds-Old school. Have to pin or snappi them in place. Need a cover.
Fitted-Soft and fitted. Requires a cover.
Pockets-Just like it sounds. They have a pocket you can stuff with inserts to make as absorbant as you need.
All-In-Ones-Most babysitter/daddy friendly. Work just a like a disposable. You put them on, take them off, stick them in the laundry. Not necessarily the cheapest.
Hybrids-Have a "Snap-In" insert so that you can re-use the cover.

The trials will let you try whatever you want, send back what you don't, and learn what you like in a cloth diaper. My advice? Don't cloth diaper a newborn if you're not sure if you want to stick with it. I was so overwhelmed as a new mama with my husband deployed, I probably would have given it up if I tried right away. You can start cloth diapering any time. Sullivan wasn't cloth diapered until he was three-months-old.

3) Traveling:
Super easy. Grab yourself a wet bag, stick it in the diaper bag, and you're off. For longer trips, take a pail liner instead so you have extra room. If you get one that's zippered, you can keep smell at bay. Easy peasy, for real.

4) Laundry:
Simple again. Get enough diapers, usually about 24 per child, to do laundry every other day. Cold Rinse, Hot Wash, Cold Rinse and a tiny bit of cloth diaper friendly detergent. Hang to dry, or tumble dry. Whatever works for you.

5) All or nothing:
It doesn't have to be. Don't start cloth diapering by tossing all your disposables and becoming immediately dependent. Ain't gonna work. You can cloth diaper part-time, during the day, during weekends. WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU! Don't pressure yourself.

6) Enter Giveaways:
If you're looking for a way to cloth diaper cheaply, just do a quick google search and enter some of the hundreds of cloth diaper contests. I've won twenty-six diapers. Seriously. And no, I don't spend my life entering contests. I keep a list of ones I'm interested, check them every day. It takes probably ten minutes and is so worth it.

So, that being said, be sure to check out my "Month of Fluff" on my blog http://www.exploitsofamilitarymama.com if you're looking to win some great diapers. I'm also doing lots of reviews, so you can read about them and enter what interests you. Also, email me with ANY questions at: mrs.trophywife@ymail.com

Finally, enter Pippy's Coddlelife Bottle giveaway! SO cool.

~Mrs. Trophy Wife

What I'm doing...& what you should be.

Personally, I'm chill-axing on my grandparents couch, about to walk down to the dock & get a little sun on my pasty white self.

While I would LOVE for all of y'all to be here hanging out with me, I know that's probably not possible.
So, be with me in spirit...& go sign up for my Coddlelife giveaway by clicking "here".

Seriously, pregnant or not, mommy or not, everybody knows somebody who has a baby, & who doesn't like free stuff??

So what are you waiting on?
Go sign up...like now!

Have a fantastic weekend lovelies!!!

Because everyone wants to be a winner! {Coddlelife giveaway!!}

I have BIG news for y'all today!
As I have been preparing for Pipsqueak, I have read thousands of reviews on thousands of products trying to decide which items I should have ready in my arsenal.
And I'm gonna be honest, Sometimes, just browsing can be totally overwhelming.
Like bottles for instance, there's so many! How on earth do you decide which ones to get?

So I turned to my blog friends for help & they introduced me to a bottle that I can't wait to try when Pipsqueak gets here.


This is the Coddlelife Polypropylene Bottle with Peristalic nipple.
I know what you're thinking, "Say what? Can I get that in English please?"

Let me break it down for you:

• Extra stretchy peristaltic nipple elongates and is molded to fit the inside of the baby's mouth.
• The nipple is designed to be longer which ensure the baby's lips flange widely & enable wide open latch which prevent nipple confusions.
• New advanced one-piece venting system helps to reduce colic, spit-up and ear infection. It is easy to use with no extra parts to wash.
• Microwave, sterilizer, and dishwasher safe.

If you're anything like me, you're probably still thinking something along the lines of "Yeah, that's all well and good, but how do I know it's going to work? Can it really help with Colic? I want to talk to somebody who's actually used these things.."

I didn't have to look very far.
2 of my favorite mommy bloggers were ready & willing to sing Coddlelife's praises!

"Hands-down, the best part of the bottles is the nipple technology. So many mothers recommend Dr. Brown's bottles because of the venting system. Which is fine & dandy but Dr. Brown's has SEVEN PARTS. If you run your dishwasher often, that may not be such a huge deal, but if you hand was like we do...that is SEVEN parts. With at least eight bottles per day. You do the math. Coddlelife? From what I understand, it has basically the same idea as Dr. Brown's where air does not mix with fluid. Sucking pulls only fluid while tubing-bits spits the air out the back. With only TWO parts. Nipple & bottle, same as the bottles we were using before."

~ Blair @ "The Heir to Blair" (<- click here to read Blair's entire Coddlelife review)

"After using several brands of baby bottles, I have found that Coddlelife works best! It keeps my little boy from swallowing too much air and mimicks the breastfeeding motion so he has no problems switching between nursing and taking a bottle. Because our family has had such a great experience with these bottles, we have stopped using other brands and now exclusively use Coddlelife!"

~Alyssa @ "Adventures of a stay at home mom!"(<- Click here to read Alyssa's Coddlelife reveiws)

Now for the really exciting part....

The amazing folks over at Coddlelife have graciously given me the opportunity to pass one of these fantastic bottles on to one of YOU!
How cool is that?

There's gonna be TONS of ways to enter this one... so your chances of winning are pretty awesome.

Here goes:
Mandatory Entry: Be a follower of my blog. (1 entry)

Additional Entries:

1. Leave a comment about something neat you learned on the Coddlelife website. (1 entry)
2. Follow me on Twitter @pippy1208 (1 entry)
3. Follow Coddlelife on Twitter @coddlelife (1 entry)
4. Become a Coddlelife fan on Facebook (1 entry)
5. Tweet this -> "I just entered @pippy1208 's @coddlelife bottle giveaway! You should too! http://tinyurl.com/2e4mwh5" (1 entry, max. 3x's a day)
6. Put my button on your blog! (1 entry)
7. Vote for me on Top Mommy blogs (1 entry, max 3x's a day.)

You have to leave a seperate comment for each entry for them to count.

That's a total of 8 entries!! Plus the ones you can do more than once!
That's pretty good odds if I do say so myself!

The winner will be chose using random .org on Monday, May 3rd!!
*Open to US residents only*

A little bit of everything.

If you remember, I was too absorbed with Banana Popsicles to think about my "7 quick takes" on Friday.
But the snowcone place is now OPEN, so that shouldn't be an issue anymore.

Anyways, It's going to be "6 Totally Random Things Monday" instead.

1. It's my little sister's 18th Birthday today!!

She doesn't read my blog so I can tell you guys that I'm a rockin' older sister and got her a gift certificate to a spa.
I know, I'm a shoo-in for Sister-of-the-year.
I may or may not be hoping that she remembers this when it's my birthday in about 3 months.
Just kiddin'....kinda.

2. We had our Maternity Pictures taken on Saturday morning and I am so stinkin' excited to see them! He said he should have them ready by then end of the week! I can't wait.

3. I slept like crap last night. I was seriously happy to see the sun come up, because it meant that I was getting closer to tonight when I can try again. Pipsqueak kicked, and punched and rolled and basically pummeled all of my insides last night and left me feeling like somebody beat me with a baseball bat. I know she's just growing and trying to make herself some more room, but my goodness. It hurts.

4. If you have an Iphone, you need to download "Words with Friends". It's free, it's like Scrabble and you can play with me. I'm addicted to it. It's my new favorite game. So as soon as you get it, send me a game request! My username is Pippy08

5. I saw something totally bizarre the other day.
Meet Pepper the Pig.

Pepper is a "Pacimal".
Yep, that is a pacifier sewn to the top of Pepper's head.
So here's my question.
With all the "Orthodontist approved, good for baby's developing teeth, etc." stuff that is going on in the Pacifier industry. Who thought that putting weight on the end of a pacifier was a good idea?
Maybe I'm wrong, It just seems like a good way to end up with this.


Edited to add: This is one of the reasons I love blogging. Not long after I posted this, one of my regular readers posted a comment about the Pacimals. She said they were a lifesaver in the NICU. I never even thought of that. I can see where in certain circumstances, these little animals would come in handy. I was just thinking about older babies.
I learn something new everyday from you guys! Thanks Nursekj!

6. A lot of you may know that I'm a member of "Southern Mommas". It is a great group of women and you should totally check it out if you haven't already. They recently hosted a Storkie giveaway and I won!
If you have never been to the Storkie website, you really should! They do all kinds of wedding invitations, shower invitations and baby announcements! They have TONS of designs to choose from, I have no idea how I'm going to pick.
Also, Join Southern Mommas! You won't regret it!
*That's just the name of the group, being pregnant or having kids is not a requirement!*

7 Quick Takes - I get a thousand hugs...

1. I love spell check & predictive text, however I hate it when I'm typing something & it automatically changes the word I'm typing to something completely different. If I wanted it to say that I would have typed that in the first place. Prime example, I got a text from my little sister this week, it read :"I'm heterosexual to Kohl's. do you need anything?"
It was supposed to say "I'm going to go to Kohl's.." but she left out a space somewhere & that was what her 'smartphone' thought she meant to say. LOL

2. This song cracks me up, not because the song itself is actually funny but because my husband, after hearing it for the first time started trying to make his voice sound like this & sing the song to me one morning while he was getting ready for work. I married a clown y'all, but I love him more & more everyday.


3. Speaking of the hubs, he travels a lot for work & frequently has to work late. So when he is actually home we take advantage of the time we get to spend together. I don't clean on the weekends for this reason. Snuggling with him is way more important than dishes in the sink or laundry in the dryer. That's what monday's are for.

4. While I was at the store the other day I started noticing something about brand names. There are some brand names that have absolutely taken over an item. Like Band-aids, everyone says band-aid but it's actually that's a brand, not an particular item. The generic version of band-aid? Adhesive strips.
Jello? It becomes "flavored gelatin mix"
Cool-whip? Whipped topping
There's tons more.

5. I realized yesterday that I still don't have a "The Pioneer Woman" cookbook. :hangs head in shame: My next amazon order will have to rectify this situation.

6. In my latest couponing adventures I came across a coupon for 20% any one Vera Bradley Sale item. So I cruised on over & they had a bag that I had been wanting in a print that I love that has been discontinued on sale. Original price $85.00, on sale for $35.00, I paid $29.50 after using my coupon. I love great deals.

7. Anybody looking for some giveaways? I have oodles of blog friends doing giveaways this week. Here is a list of some you should check out!
Kitchen Belleicious - Red Letter Word Giveaway!
Thrifty Decor Chick - Donna Geissler Photography Giveaway
The Preppy Princess - The Great Preppy Princess Giveaway!
Stacy Says - Ann Taylor clutch giveaway
Short Southern Momma - 100th post giveaway!

Tell them Pippy sent you!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Talkative Tuesday

It's called that because I have so much to say today and it's kind of all over the place...so just bear with me.

First off, we are officially 25 weeks pregnant today (woohoo) with 105 days to go!
I feel the need to reiterate how fast this pregnancy is going, it's absolutely flying by.

I'm trying to find good ways to remind my husband of this fact, because things are going so slow with the new house/moving process.

I've been contemplating assembling the crib in the middle of the living room.
You know, in case he needs a visual aid?
Would that be too evil or just evil enough to get the point across? I'm unsure.

Along with the 25 week milestone, I broke down today and signed up for Twitter. I know I'm like the last person on the planet to have one, but I have yet to understand the appeal. I'm willing to give it a shot though, so If you want to follow me, click here!
Unfortunately, I have no idea how it works.
I managed to post a tweet? and follow 2 people. So that's something.
If you can share your twitter knowledge with me, I will be forever grateful.
Thanks.

Now for a tease...
I have something very cool in the works for you guys. I'm SO excited about it. I can't give you any more details than that at the moment, but I think you are going to love it. It's going to be a blast.

Just a reminder, the giveaway ends tonight at midnight, so if you haven't entered yet, you better get moving!

My heart is so happy! (& giveaway reminder.)

I hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's weekend!

For 2 of my very dear bloggy friends, this weekend was extra special & I can't wait to tell you why.

First, Mrs. Southern Belle got to spend her Valentine's day snuggling with her new baby boy!!!!!
He was born on Saturday, February 13th at 12:13.
Welcome to the world, Keating! We are so happy you are here.
For a picture of the valentine's cutie, click here!

Second, Chelsea got to spend her Valentine's day knowing that next year, her little valentine will be here!!!
Congratulations to Chelsea at Roots & Rings!!!
She announced her pregnancy this morning, & I am beyond thrilled for her.
So please go tell her Congratulations by clicking here!

WOW, Pipsqueak is going to have all kinds of new friends.
I am so thrilled for both of these wonderful women.


Giveaway update!!!
The deadline for the giveaway has been extended to Tuesday night at midnight so if you haven't entered yet , click here to enter now!

I'm so excited! (psst...it's a giveaway!)

*sings* "I'm so excited & I just can't hide it..."
Now that's going to be stuck in your head, your welcome.

I have something awesome to tell you!
Many of you may know this but one of my all-time favorite authors, the lovely Beth Moore has released her new book. It's titled "So Long, Insecurity".
To celebrate this, I'm doing a giveaway!!!
One of you will become the proud new owners of this book!



"We're insecure, you, me & every woman. In fact, chronic insecurity is a cultural epidemic but almost no one is talking about it. And it ticks me off." ~Beth Moore

I absolutely love that she chose insecurity as the topic for this one.


I believe that in some way or another all women battle with this.
Maybe your insecure about your looks, weight, relationships, the way others see you, maybe you're fixing to be a new mom and your absolutely scared to death that you will have no idea what your doing & fail miserably...or you know, whatever.
Insecurity is a huge deal for a lot of us, & I have no doubt that Beth will use her amazing sense of humor to get down to the root of it & help us overcome something that is sometimes, extremely hard to overcome.

Beth is also doing a book club type thing on her blog that I will also be participating in. So for the next couple weeks, on Thursdays, I will be discussing what I've read in the book on here & maybe picking some of my favorite comments to share from Beth's blog!

Beth has truly been given a gift. I have learned and grown so much from her books and bible studies in the past.
Regardless of who wins the giveaway, I really hope that some of you will get this book & go on this journey with me.

Okay, onto the fun part.
Ways to Enter!
Please leave a separate comment for each entry so that I don't miss anyone!

1 -Comment on this post letting me know that you are a follower of my blog.

2 -Leave a comment sharing something you are insecure about.

3 - Blog about this giveaway & leave me comment with the link!

4 - Go to Beth Moore's blog, & become a follower there! You can sign up for the book club by commenting on this post.

Okay, the giveaway will be open until Monday night at midnight!
Good Luck!

Allow me to introduce...(A Giveaway)

Prepperoni!
She is relatively new to the blogging world, but is doing a fantastic job.
To help spread the word about her cool new blog, she is hosting a giveaway!
Yummy bath products anyone?


I thought so.
Click here to head on over & get entered in this fantastic giveaway!
Tell her Pippy sent you!

Cambria Cove Giveaway @ Her Southern Charm

Anybody want a $100 Gift Certificate to Cambria Cove?



Head on over to Her Southern Charm to enter!
Tell her Pippy sent you!
Good Luck!

Birthday Giveaway!

Over at Fantabulously Frugal!
She is giving away a whole bag of suprise gifts!
The only catch is you have to enter today!

So hurry!

Wow!

I want to send out a huge thank you to Mrs. Southern Belle! I won her giveaway! How awesome is that? I am so excited! This is what I won only it will have my initial.

She makes & sells these in her Etsy shop, so if you love it like I do, you can order one for yourself! I think that they would make fantastic gifts!
She sells all kinds of other cute stuff there too! Especially if you like UGA gear!

She has "other" schools as well.
I believe Auburn, Clemson & Ala...yeah I don't know if I can bring myself to type it. That other school in the state right to the west. You get the idea.
So please check out her blog, she makes some really cute stuff! I will be sure & post pics as soon as I recieve the gift!
Thank you again Mrs. Southern Belle!

Hmm, My birthday is coming up maybe I should try to think of a giveaway as well......

Link to a Fantastic Giveaway!

My friend, Mrs. Southern Belle, is doing a fantastic giveaway this week! You should all check it out! It's beautiful! She has several ways for you to enter, so go on over & tell her Pippy sent you!
Click Here!