February 15, 2011

{night time: a cloth diapering dilemma}



I know it's been almost one month since my last real post, I know, I know.

However, I did write a huge post on what went on with us this last month, but for some reason blogger didn't save any drafts, then gave me an error message when I hit "publish", and I lost all my work... guess it wasn't meant to be. I'll re-write the whole nightmare story some other time.

Today I want to write about cloth diapering through the night, which in this family has been VERY hard to achieve mainly because of our son being a very proficient "pee maker", and also because he is, well, a huge baby; but we did find some solutions.

(To be clear, night time for us means putting on the diaper at around 9-10 pm and only changing diapers at 9-10 am - even when Lukka wakes up during the night, unless he pooped, we don't change his diaper).

Whenever I look for advice on the web other moms always claim they also have heavy wetters at night, and yet they use... good ol' bumGenius! with an added soaker, or an extra stuffed fuzzibunz. P-L-E-A-S-E! These moms do-not-have-an-extremely-super-duper-peeing-machine-like-i-do.

Since Lukka was a month old we have tried many different "so-called" night time solutions: double stuffed pocket diaper, double stuffed plus soaker, double stuffed plus extra hemp insert, hemp plus microfiber, different brands inserts combined together, etc, etc. THEY ALL CAN'T HANDLE LUKKA'S CONSTANT PEEING. Seriously, this little guy pees more than he sleeps.

After a whole month of wet pj's, sheets and blankets, and a crying-because-i'm-wet baby every couple of hours, I finally found something that worked!

Drum roll please ... 

A minky Blueberry pocket diaper stuffed with a super long Blueberry Combination Insert that is 2/3 hemp and 1/3 microfiber. You fold the insert so the microfiber part sits on top of the hemp parts. (I'll do a separate review of this super diaper).

WAIT! That's not all!

We also put a BabyKicks hemp fleece prefold under the above mentioned insert, stuffed into the pocket diaper.
The result? An extra bulky diaper! (Hey, at least it holds all the pee!)

(This is what I've learned by doing some research, and then by trying on Lukka: hemp based inserts can hold much more liquid than microfiber inserts BUT hemp absorbs liquid more slowly than microfiber. In order to get a really absorbant diaper, you have to pair the two inserts!
If you put the microfiber on top of the hemp, the top insert will absorb the pee as it comes fast and furious, and when it's saturated, it'll drip to the bottom insert at a much slower pace. Cool huh?)

Now, the downside of this bulkiness (and the stiffness of the hemp inserts) is that the diaper needs to be larger than usual, so Lukka has been wearing the Blueberry diapers fully unsnapped since he was 2 months old.

Now for the second part of our dilemma, which can be divided in another two parts.

Part 1 of Part 2 - My son, the great pee-er (is that a word?), is also a very big baby. Diapers are getting tight pretty fast!

Although only 7.9lbs at birth, by 1 month he was already 10 lbs, and by 4 months he was only  a few ounces shy of 21lbs. He turns 5 months in a week, and our beloved night time diaper is starting to get a bit tight.

Since he turned 3 months I've been looking for other solutions knowing that pretty soon one-size diapers and even large sized diapers would become too small for him.

By the way, the other great option I've found is what is called by some cloth diaper experts as "the magic diaper". This is a sustainablebabyish organic bamboo fleece fitted diaper. This brand is great, and it also contains all the pee without leaking!. 

Note: A fitted diaper doesn't have a water proof layer, so you must pair it with a wool or fleece cover, or a PUL cover. 

I pair my large sized Sbish OBF fitteds with a Thirsties large cover. But these too are getting tight on my chubby baby.

Part 2 of Part 2 - Lukka moves up a size in clothes every month or so. He is now wearing 9-12 months clothing, more 12 than 9... It's been a pain to find pajamas for him. Why? Well, because most brands start making the longer and thinner pj's for 12 month old babies. They also like to add elastic around the ankles! These skinny pj's do not pass through my son's rolls! The ankle thing - ugh! I don't even want to start on how much I hate those elastic bands! I'll probably like them one day, when I have a skinny kid ... or maybe not.

So, we're running out of options. I refuse (and so does my husband) to spend $20 or more on a single pair of pj's because in 3-4 weeks Lukka won't fit them anyway.  You then add the bulkiness of the diaper to the already small pj's = poor Lukka!

My husband very gently suggested we use disposables on Lukka for night time only - so that we can maybe use the pj's a little longer and Lukka isn't so tight in them.

You know what? I think we'll have to do that... as much as my heart hurts to even think about it, I have to do what's best for my son. I don't want him sleeping in tight pajamas, or waking up with red marks on his cute chubby thighs. So I'll have to give in... But just for the night time!

I'm nervous just writing about putting Lukka in "sposies". But I believe I have extinguished all cloth diaper options, and unless he starts peeing less, or growing slower, there's not much else I can do here. Of course I will continue to seek larger and absorbant diapers, heck, I'll even try to sew my own! Just to get rid of the possibility of disposables (I'll nlet you know how that goes).

So there we go. Now I have to send off my husband to buy diapers... or maybe I'll wait just a few more days... :o)

I hope that others were more fortunate than me in this quest.

If you read this and do know of other options, please post below in the comments, mahalo!

Aloha,
Sophia

9 comments:

  1. I have super pee-ers too. I have found that using prefolds paired with hemp doublers works well, or using super-doo inserts paired with extra inserts works great too.

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  2. I feel your pain! Our beast, i mean baby, has always been a big guy. Now at 14mns hes 33lbs and just under 35 inches. My 6 year old is only 42 pounds! The one thing you have on your side is the chance that he will thin out as he gets taller and they tend to eat less through out the night as they get older. After 4765865 different combos, 3 months of wet everything on him/his bed and spending way to much on fitteds/wool that he promptly outgrew- We went with Huggies Overnight Size 6. Hes dry, his bed is dry, we sleep longer and his PJs fit. One disposable a day isnt going to harm him or create so much waste we throw the planet off its axis! I dont feel bad about our decision at all. Good Luck!

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  3. Have you tried using a hybrid diaper at night? Govia's hybrid diaper uses a cover and the inserts are disposable, but biodegradable as well.

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  4. Just a piece of encouragement. You're not the only one who has a super duper heavy wetter at night. Through much trying we ended up at the same conclusion you did. Cloth during the day, sposies at night.

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  5. Oh... And I dont know why I didnt mention this in the last comment. Have you tried a Blissful Booty diaper? They have an XL version for 35lbs+. Its an AIO but you should have room to lay an extra insert or 3 in there! It has a cross over tab so that should help get a snug fit. It doesnt leak through a 4 hour long nap with our tummy sleeper.

    http://blissfulboot987.corecommerce.com/Cloth-Diapers-c3/

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  6. @Him, Me, Wee 3

    Yes, it's my hope that he'll loose some chubbiness once he starts crawling or walking.
    It's good to hear I'm not alone!!!
    And I'll def take a look at the xl diaper you recommended. thanks!

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  7. @time4latte
    Thank you!!! It's great to hear there are other mamas out there with the same battles!

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  8. @A Gluten Free Mommy
    I tried Grovia but they always leak when I use their inserts! So I used a prefold in the grovia shell for the first 2 months. However, the Grovias are cut a little smaller than other diapers, and are already too tight around Lukka's thighs.
    I'm saving my biodegradable inserts for a long trip we'll make in October!

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  9. I have used both GroVia & Flip disposable inserts while on a trip. I bought GroVia first and panicked when I tried them out at home ahead of time and they leaked. Not cool! Because the GroVia have a waterproof backing on them, you can't stack them. So for nap & overnights, I couldn't use them. I bought Flip inserts which have no waterproof backing so you can stack them. They are not as bulky as using cloth, so it wouldn't be a problem to stack however many you needed. We used 2 at nap and 3 at night. We also used the covers we already owned. I highly recommend Prorap diaper covers. They aren't pretty, but they work great! They are inexpensive and you can get whatever size you need up to adult!! http://prodiaper.net/_product_80407/ProRap_Classic_Diaper_Cover Right now my DS wears a Medium during the day, but at night he wears a Large since it has extra fluff in it. ;) Good luck, Mama! Oh, and GroVia actually sells a "biodiaper" too. I haven't tried it, but if you do go the disposable route, it could be worth checking out.

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