Cloth Diaper Wipes Spray

So it's been a while... again...

And without going into a lot of details, let's just say that my life has been a roller coaster of sickness (nauseous all pregnancy), moving, sickness (more nauseous all pregnancy), having a baby, taking care of a baby and 18 month old, getting used to being a farmer's wife, and then having gallbladder pain and then eventually surgery while still taking care of my two kiddos, life has been a little overwhelming at times!

But I have gotten back into cloth diapering.  I quit cloth diapering when my Bug was about 10 months old.  I felt awful putting the chemicals on his bum, but with how nauseous I was all pregnancy, I could not handle cleaning out poopy diapers and putting diapers that had been in the pail all day into the laundry.  The smell literally made me throw-up!  But now that that's all over, and my newborn had EXTREMELY bad diaper rash, I am back to using them again!

While I was on a cloth diapering hiatus, I have gotten a little more into the world of natural things and chemical free living.  I have started using Melaleuca products and it has made me more aware of all the junk we put in and on our bodies.

So when I made cloth diaper wipes spray, I used my chemical free products to make it.  With the exception on the Baby Oil, that was still Johnson and Johnson.  I also want to say that there is nothing wrong if you use Johnson and Johnson.  I thought more natural things were so expensive and not really worth it, but then I found the Melaleuca Company and got chemical free, natural products for cheaper than you can get in the store.  But don't beat yourself up if you do use the regular stuff!

Here is how I make my cloth wipes spray:

1 cup water (boiled to get bacteria, etc. out and make the water last longer if you are making a large batch)

1 TBSP Baby Oil with Vitamin E

1 TBSP Baby Soap

1 TBSP Baby Lotion (This can be left out)

6 Drops Tea-Tree Oil (Melaleuca Oil)

I usually make 4 to 6 cups at a time and keep it in a sealed container.  I fill a spray bottle with the solution and then spray the wipes as I need them.

I thought I had already written about this, but I couldn't find anything on it when I looked earlier, so I'm writing about it now!  But if it is somewhere else and you are reading about this again, sorry! :)

Also, for those of you on the fence about using cloth wipes because you might thing it is gross, just try it!  I thought the same thing and it was way more hassle using disposable wipes and cloth diapers.  And cloth wipes work so much better than disposable ones!  I just use some cut up pieces of fleece squares and they work AWESOME!!  Just try it, I know you will love them!

But I am so glad that life is getting back to "normal" and I have time and energy to blog again! 

Looking forward to chatting with you soon!

Cassandra :)

It's been a while again...

So, unfortunately it's been a while since I have blogged.  I have missed sharing some of the things I have been up to lately.  But I have some very exciting news as to why I have been absent from my blog...

We are expecting another little munchkin!  :)

I have had pretty yucky morning sickness and tiredness, and with a 10 month old cruising around, things have gotten a bit crazy.  

But I am feeling much better lately, so I hope to start putting some things back up on the blog!

Our new little munchkin will make his/her grand entrance at the end of March 2015.

We are pretty excited!! :)

Cassandra

Laundry Bombs with out the Bomb!

A few months ago I posted about a laundry soap I had made called Laundry Bombs.  They were called Laundry Bombs because after you mixed up the ingredients, you used a tablespoon to pack the damp powder mixture into a round bomb.  I love this detergent! It works great!  However, it is very time consuming making all the little bombs!  And right now, I just don't have time to do that!

The thing I really liked about Laundry Bombs is that it included many different elements.  I wasn't a huge fan of just washing soda, baking soda, and borax.  To me, it just didn't seem like it would work all the well.  I'm sure it does, and I know the saying is sometimes less is more.  But I really wanted something with different ingedients that did different things.  

So when I ran out of Laundry Bombs the other day, I didn't want to make more.  So I decided to make Laundry Bombs without the bombs!  This simply is just a dry powder that I keep in buckets.  I will add a little bit of vinegar everyonece in a while to the laundry.  But I just used the dry ingredients to make this laundry detergent. 

The recipe I used was as follows...

1 Box of Borax

1 Large Tub of Oxi-Clean

1 Box of Baking Soda

1 Box of Washing Soda

3 Cups of Epsom Salt

10 Bars of Fels-Naptha Soap - Grated

The first thing I did was grate up the Fels-Naptha bars.  This is not the easiest thing in the world.  My hand and arm was TIRED by the time I was done!  I know that some people say to just use your food processor to grate it, and I kind of think that is gross to mix soap with food.  But for how long and how tiring it was, I think I might do it next time!  

Once the bars are grated, dump all the ingredients into a 5 gallon bucket.  

Then you need to stir and stir and stir to get it all mixed up.  It does get a little clumpy and stuck together, so as I was stiring, I would tilt the bucket on it's side so I could easily get to the bottom of the bucket. 

Once the detergent was all mixed, I poured it into ice cream buckets so I could store it easier into the drawers in my laundry room. 

I put a label on the container I am going to leave out.  

I really do like this detergent.  Like I said above, I will add about a 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar periodically to the wash.  The vinegar just helps get detergent build-up and smells out of clothes.  

I feel like this detergent leaves my clothes clean and fresh!  I do have some problems getting baby food stains out of Bug's clothes, but I'm sure all detergents would not be the best at that.  I mean blueberries and orange carrots aren't the easiest colors to remove!  I just spray them with a pre-treat spot remover before washing. 

I hope you enjoy this detergent like I do! 

Happy Washing!
Cassandra

P.S.  It is a year and three months later, and I am just now making another batch!  This stuff lasts FOREVER!! And I still love it! :)

Sunning Cloth Diapers

My cloth diapers have taken a beating the past week (I'll leave that to your imagination) :) 

They were totally stained!  Because it is finally getting nice and sunny in our neck of the woods, I decided to try "sunning" my diapers.

It is so easy and it WORKED!!!

All I did was wash my diapers like normal, but then instead of throwing them in the dryer, I put them on my laundry rack to dry in the sun.

The sun basically acts as a natural bleach and it takes the stains out.

Once the diapers were dry, I did toss them in the dryer for a few minutes because they were all crunchy from drying in the sun.  But just a few minutes was all they needed  and they were soft and fluffy!

I most likely won't do this very often, just when my diapers are needing a good whitening.  I always am waiting until the last minute to wash diapers, and I don't see that changing in the future.  I don't have time to let diapers dry outside all day long.  But I do love the energy saving of not using the dryer, so we'll just have to see how it goes! :)

Happy Cloth Diapering!
Cassandra :)

Crying It Out...

This past week I did something I thought I would NEVER do.  I let my little Love Bug cry it out to go back to sleep.  I was VERY sure I would never do this, but two things made it very apparent that I needed to do this...

1.  Bug was waking up every 45 minutes to an hour and just wanted to be cuddled back to sleep.  If I did try to nurse him, he would eat for about 30 seconds and fall asleep.  

2.  I was having a conversation with my aunt about Bug's sleeping habits and I started crying... a lot and unstoppable because I was SO exhausted and knew something needed to change!

So I guess the main reason why I never thought I could do cry it out was because I am a nurturer, I like to meet people's needs, especially my little Bugs and it hurts my heart so bad to hear him cry.  But like I said above, something needed to change. 

To make a long story short, I will give you the time line of events that brought this to be...

**April 4th - we started Bug on probiotics and he was sleeping for about 3 to 5 hours at a time at night.  GREAT!  I could handle that!

**April 15th - Bug gets his 6 month shots and a few days later catches Daddy's cold because of his weakened immune system.  

**The next few days are awful!  The first cold for my Bug was so hard on me because I couldn't help him!

**He is sick for a while... around a week and a half.

**He's better by the last few days of April, but his sleeping is HORRIBLE because I spoiled him while he was sick.  I knew I had to do something, but we were leaving for Arizona in a few days, and I knew things would be different and habits would change, so I just suffered through it.

We get to Arizona and his sleeping is obviously still awful!  This is where the conversation with my aunt happened and let me tell you it was HARD to hear!

I was DEAD set against crying it out, but I guess it's because I didn't know what would happen.  I just imagined my baby crying and crying and thinking his mommy didn't love him anymore.  

But she told me exactly what happened with her baby 14 years ago.  She said her baby was very much like Bug in personality and habits and she finally had to do something. 

Here is what happened at our house with crying it out...

Night one - I nursed and put Bug to be like usual around 9:30.  He nursed a long time, and I knew he should not be eating before 2 AM.  In my mind I knew he would not starve to death waiting 4 and a half hours to eat.  I needed to have that goal in my head, because I think it would have been harder for me to let him cry when he woke up around midnight. When he woke up, Bug cried for 47 minutes, he stopped for about 5, and then cried for about 10 more.  He fell asleep and slept from 1 to 7:30 the next morning.

I will say the only reason I was able to let him cry as long as I did was because my husband is AMAZING and kept reassuring me it would all be okay.  He basically had to hold me down in bed.  Not forcefully, but he had his arms snuggled around me. 

Night two - I nursed Bug to bed at about 9, he woke up at 10:30 and cried for 25 minutes, and slept until 7 the next morning.

Night three - I nursed Bug to bed at around 9:30.  He woke up and cried for about 5 minutes at around 1 AM and slept until 5.  I nursed him at 5 and he slept til 8.

Night four - No crying!  He slept from 9:30 - 6, nursed and slept until 8:30.

My baby Bug still loves me, even more than ever because he isn't so tired and crabby all the time! :)

We have been going on about a week, and some nights he will whimper for a couple minutes, but he goes right back to sleep.  I have been getting up between 4 and 6 to nurse him, and he will sleep for a few more hours.  But that is manageable!

His naps are also much better.  He has been taking one and a half to three hour naps two to three times a day.  So, so, so, so nice!

My main reason is writing this blog isn't to boast at what we did, but it is to help someone who was in my position.  I was exhausted and didn't know what else to do.  I was beside myself with terror and what would happen if I let my \precious Bug cry himself to sleep.  

I NEEDED someone to outline exactly what was going to happen.  My aunt told me down to the minute what happened with her baby.  And it really helped me to know what to expect. I would not have lasted as long as I did the first night if she would not have told me it took an hour and five minutes for the first night.  

It is okay to let your baby cry.  It will make your baby happier which in turn will make you happier!

That's all for now! 

Cassandra :)

Mesh Feeding Baby Bags... A Teething Solution

My little love Bug is TEETHING!!! His first tooth just poked through a few days ago, and life has been pretty miserable for him lately :(  I feel so bad for him.  But I just wanted to share some things that have been helping us get through the pain.

The first, and most amazing thing, is our mesh feeding bags.  THEY ARE A LIFE SAVER!! :)  The week before the tooth broke through, Bug could not get enough of cold, juicy watermelon and honeydew in his feeding bag.  He would chew and gnaw until there wasn't any fruit left.  

Once his tooth broke through, he really hasn't been interested in food AT ALL, but I have been putting ice cubes in the bag and he really enjoys that! 

These are the type of bags we have, and I love them!  For the most part, they are very easy to clean (except banana... I have been tempted to throw them out after putting bananas in them, but I just let them soak overnight and it seems to help).  But they have really been a great help to soothe teething pain!  And we also love them for when Bug just needs a snack and isn't in the mood for baby food.

The second thing that has helped is teething tablets.  I know that people have all different types of reactions to teething tablets because they are a natural medicine and not FDA approved.  But in my opinion, I would rather use a natural pain reliever than a medicine full of crazy ingredients. But that's just me.  

The tablets just melt in Bug's mouth in a few seconds.  I hold it under his tongue until they dissolve, and then I rub the powder on his gums.  They really do seem to give relief to his hurting mouth!

Frozen teething rings are also a huge relief.  Obviously, just throw these in the freezer and then let your baby bite and suck!  Simple :)

A warm bath has also helped us.  I know it may sound funny, but baths TOTALLY make my Bug chill out.  So if he is really fussy and nothing else is helping, I put him in the bath and it instantly relaxes him and once he is relaxed, his pain in more manageable.  

This tooth has been quite the upset for my Bug.  And to be quite honest, it is breaking my heart to see him in so much pain.  But these tips have helped make the pain much more bearable (for both of us)  :)

That's all for now!

-Cassandra

Naptime Creations

So I have been absentee from the blog for a bit again...  and I really don't like it! :(

But while I have been gone, I have really gotten into crafting.  I have started my own "business" of sorts.  It is called Naptime Creations and I have a page on Facebook.

Check out the page at www.facebook.com/naptimecreationsbycassandra

If you ever want anything made, let me know! I would be more than happy to create something off the page, or something special you had in mind.

Check back soon for more posts about things I am trying out in our little world.

Thanks for visiting!

Cassandra :)