He’s leaving home… (for two days a week!)

As you might already know, Monkey is off to nursery and is going to be the only cloth-bummed babe there. I’ve organised his nursery stuff so that they’re all easy to use (Tots Bots Easyfits and BG’s) and I’m really hoping that it all work out ok.

However, I’ve realised something as I’ve been getting all the stuff ready. I’m going to have to talk them through what to do with his clothes, especially using vest extenders. In fact, I reckon I’m going to have to buy a whole new load of them just in case they get lost whilst he’s there. I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve managed to survive with just 6, but I think that I’ll be pushing it once he’s going out and about away from me.

I’m trying to be as organised as I can possibly be, making sure that nursery has absolutely everything that they could possibly need. But I hadn’t taken into consideration that I might need more wetbags – something that my friend has helped me out with, bless her! They probably won’t like to use the same one two days on the trot (he’s only there for that time), so I’ll have to have extras. It, therefore, looks as if I’m going to back to using my nappy pails at home to free up the bags that I do have.

The other thing that I’m going to have to do is educate them a little on dry-pailing. It’ll be awful if his nappies come home individually wrapped in plastic (I know a lot of people have had this happen to them). I might have to buy some eco-disposable bags just in case. All things that I just hadn’t considered.

Have any of you sent a cloth-bummed baby to nursery? What was your experience like? It’d be really nice to hear other stories so that I am well-armed for the future!!!

Changing bags and cloth. Have you got enough space?

When you’re out and about with cloth nappies, the one thing that you really have to bear in mind is how you’re going to transport them. Your changing bag could be one that’s really designed for using with disposables and that can be slightly problematic if you’re out for a long period of time. I’ve found that things such as nappy wallets are usually useless when I’m going out for the day as I really can’t fit cloth into them, which is a shame as they’re a great idea in principle. So, you need a changing bag that’s going to work for you!

My changing bag that I’ve had since Monkey was born is a Pacapod Almora. It’s a fabulous bag that is great if I only need to take a few nappies with me. If I want to go out for a whole day, I have to pack very cleverly and just take nappies like Flips with me, as they pack down very small and I can fit quite a few into the changing pod. So, whilst that’s great – I am rather limited in choice. The only other way around this is to take the pods out of the bag and use that section to place up to about 5 bulkier nappies in it, but then I have to find somewhere to put the feeding pod, as we’re now weaning and carrying around more than just boobs! That’s fine if I’ve got my pram with me, but not so practical if Monkey is in the sling.

I’d heard, via various cloth nappy groups, that there are a couple of bags that are absolutely fantastic for us cloth nappy users. The two that I keep hearing about are The Miracle Bag and the Skip Hop Duo Double. The Skip Hop one is designed for use with twins and fits across a double buggy, so is a little on the large side, but The Miracle bag is the same width as most changing bags.

So, I recently got a rather funky Miracle Bag! It’s a black spot City Range bag that has loads and loads of room in it.

It’s the same width as my Pacapod, but is much deeper. It has four small pockets on the outside that I put my phone, keys, etc in and two large pockets on the inside. One of them has got a matching changing mat inside it (which is great) and everything is made from laminated cotton, which is really handy as I’ve had a couple of leaks in my other bag (whoops!) There’s a (non-insulated) bottle pocket on the outside which is nice and roomy and fitted in a sippy cup and my own drink with ease!

Now, as I’m starting to do Real Nappy Advising, I decided that I’d put the bag to the test! I’ve been lugging around a wetbag stuffed to the brim with nappies, plus another bag with my demo doll and leaflets, and yet more nappies. So, my idea was to just end up with my changing bag and the wetbag. I grabbed my nappies that I needed to take with me for Monkey (a couple of Flip wraps and inserts) and then also grabbed half of my demo nappies. As you can see, these are not the slimmest nappies in the world. They’re as follows:

Two Baba+Boo BTP nappies
A green BTP Ones & Twos
A red BTP Rumparooz
A yellow BTP BumGenius V4
A green large Itti Bitti AIO
A red BumGenius BTP Freetime
A BTP Itti Bitti Tutto in Spectra

That’s quite a lot of nappies! I’d already filled one of the large pockets of the bag with my wallet, a little Close Parent wetbag with a complete change of clothes for Monkey (don’t you just love reflux…), a Nuby Icybite teether (fab thing – he loves chomping away on this!), some rice cakes, a tub of bits and bobs for his lunch and some bibs/muslins.

I put all the nappies in the other compartment, along with the changing mat and a bag with my cloth wipes in it and – good god – it actually ALL fitted in. The whole lot. I didn’t force the zips to make it close, I didn’t have to squish it all down. How cool is that! It made it a lot easier to carry everything to my talk as I was one bag lighter and I can now see why everyone keeps going on about how fab they are on the forums I’m part of. I’m very impressed!

I can see this bag being particularly useful for me when I go out and about for a day, or if I’m going away for a long weekend and need something that will hold a fair amount of stuff. It’s a great, light bag and I really like it. I generally prefer bags that aren’t patent/shiny, but this one has really grown on me and in the future I’d love to see it in a range of fabrics, including perhaps matt oil-cloth options. I love the fact that I can wipe it down and keep it clean and Monkey absolutely adores the patent fabric. He keeps making OOOOOOOH noises and grabbing at the handles. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised as he adores any kind of reflective and shiny surfaces, so maybe my matt fabric bags aren’t interesting enough for him at the moment!

My Pacapod is a great bag if I’m just whipping out for a couple of hours, or if I don’t mind taking very slim nappies, but this one is definitely much better for longer days out or for allowing me the luxury of being able to take whatever cloth nappies I feel like, irrespective of their bulkiness.

Have you found a bag that works really well for taking out and about with cloth nappies? I’d love to know which ones you find work well for you. I know a lot of cloth mummies use backpacks and that works really well if you’re babywearing on your front. It’d be useful to get a bank of comments on this post so that other mummies can use it as a resource to help them find the bag that’ll suit them. I thought that I’d be happy with just one changing bag, but now I’m starting to realise that it’s a bit like handbags, I LOVE my handbags and I have far, far too many of them. I’m going to have to be good and not turn into a changing bag Queen!!!

Into the great wide open – going out and about with cloth

Changing a cloth bummed baby outside of the safety of my four walls was something that initially daunted me. I had visions of having a meltdown whilst dealing with icky nappies, not being able to get my head around the concept of carrying them around with me and generally just being a wuss. I got myself all worked up into a silly little frenzy over, what turned out to be, nothing major at all!

The secret to going out with cloth is to be organised. I learnt very quickly that packing my changing bag the night before was a good idea, as I then wasn’t running around scrabbling for wipes and wetbags with a babbling baby attached to me. So, the night before, I work out which nappies I’ll need for the next day (sometimes practicality wins and sometimes prettiness takes over!) and put them in my bag, along with some fresh, wet wipes that I put into a little wetbag (I have the Cheeky Wipes bag but I’m eyeing up either a Monkeyfoot or a Sewpumpkin). Then, I always make sure I have a little pot of cream (I’ve decanted some into one of those little Clinique tester pots) and a couple of zipped wetbags. My current favourites are the Itti Bitti ones as they are lovely and soft, but really reliable and keep the smells and the moisture inside where they belong.

And that’s it! Not really that tough at all. As I have a little happy puker (google it for terminology linked to reflux to see what I mean), I always have to take lots of extra clothes and so my changing bag is rather full. I’ve got a Pacapod Almora and it’s a bit of a tight squeeze, but I just about manage. My favourite nappies for going out and about are Bum Genius Flips as they pack down very small when I use the Staydry inserts. All I have to do is change the pad if the nappy is wet and I can reuse the outer shell. If he’s done a poo then, sometimes, I can get away with just wiping the shell down and reusing it, but I always have a couple of spare outers with me – just in case.

I just change him, as normal, take out the paper liner (if I’ve remembered to line) and get rid of any poo, then chuck it in the wetbag and throw them into my nappy pail when I get home. A good wetbag will keep in all the smells and moisture, and there are some gorgeous prints out there! What I love are the looks that I get from other mums as I change my baby, if it’s a communal changing area with more than one nappy station. It’s often a mix of intrigue and confusion! Some mummies ask questions about them, which I relish and I’ve had some lovely conversations with potential new cloth bum mums.

I’ve found, on various online groups that I belong to, that the quest for the perfect cloth nappy bag isn’t an easy one for some people. There are a vast amount of cloth mums that use rucksacks as they have more room in them. I keep hearing mention of the Miracle Bag, and that does look as if it might have a little more room in it, which is important as (obviously) cloth nappies are more bulky than disposables. The one that I like the look of is the Skip Hop Duo. This is designed for using with twins, so looks as if it’ll have a lot of room. If you’re formula feeding as well, then you could probably do with the extra space. I have the irritating problem of a low breastmilk supply and generally carry around some bottles and bits and bobs just in case – so a big bag is useful.

So – going out with cloth isn’t the scary thing I thought it’d be. In fact, I did it when little chunk was four days old and I survived! I was very impressed with myself. Then, when he was ten weeks old I did a drive to see my folks that lasted 7 hours. Not only did I manage to change cloth nappies, but I also breastfed all the way up (something that scared me silly but I’m now very comfortable with). Go, me! The point is – don’t worry! It’s honestly ok. If I can do it (and I’m a neurotic freak at the best of times – I worry about EVERYTHING), then you can! I dare you!