Fluffy Mail

I always knew that I was going to use cloth nappies on my kids long before I ever had any. Until a few years before I had Seagull, I just assumed that that was going to involve copious amounts of terry toweling squares and plastic piltchers. I figured that if my Mum could manage it, then so could I.

A friend of mine had a baby about two years before I had Seagull. I was amazed at the cloth nappies she was using on her daughter. They were shaped like disposables and buttoned up and were seriously cute. I wanted to steal them.

When I was pregnant with Seagull, I did my research and decided on a fitted system. For those of you unfamiliar with modern cloth nappies (MCN's), a fitted nappy is the closest thing you can get to the old school terry toweling nappies. They tend to be made out of hemp or bamboo fabric (mine are bamboo) and they need a separate cover to go over the top.

It's at this point that I feel the need to mention what happened with our washing machine the day after we brought Seagull home from hospital. I diligently hooked into the washing, only for our machine to shit itself halfway through the first load. Thankfully, it wasn't the load of nappies that were in there at the time (they were going to be my next load). Unfortunately, the machine started spewing water all over our laundry floor and there is no drainage hole in our laundry floor. Seriously, who builds a house without a drainage hole in the laundry floor?! Fortunately, I happened to notice the water spewage all over the wet areas before it made its way to the carpet. Unfortunately, it was 5 January, one of the whitegoods repairers in town was on holidays and the other was flat out busy. It was only because we told him that we have a 5 day old baby and no way to wash his nappies that we had a 2 day wait as opposed to a weeks wait.

Thunder Maker and my Mum attempted to repair the washing machine themselves to no avail, so we just had to hang tight and wait for the repair man to come. In the meantime, Thunder Maker and I made an early evening trip to the local laundromat sans Seagull (who stayed at home with his Granny) and put our five loads of washing in the machines. There was no one else there, so we hogged most of the machines and did all the washing at once.

When the repair man came, it turns out that the plug in the machine that stops the water from spewing out all over the place had come loose. Once it was put back in, the machine worked perfectly.

Anyway, back to the main story. I decided to try a different type of MCN when Seagull was about 6 months old. I ordered 6 All-in-ones (AIO's) and my addiction to MCN's took off. An AIO is a sized nappy that has a waterproof outer layer (either a smooth PUL fabric or a fluffy minky fabric), so it doesn't need a separate cover. The ones I have have a soaker pad sewn into them, but also have a pocket in the back that you can put additional bamboo inserts into to boost the absorbency.

I returned to work part time just before Seagull was 12 months old. His childcare centre were happy to use cloth nappies on him, so to make things easier on them, I decided to buy some more nappies that didn't require a separate cover. By this stage, the manufacturers of the nappies I'd already been using introduced a multi-fit pocket system. They also have a waterproof outer layer, but you can change the rise of the nappy by using snaps on the front of the nappy to adjust it to the appropriate size. They have a pocket in the back like an AIO, but they don't have any absorbent material sewn into them, so you need to put the inserts in yourself. The advantage to this is that you take them out to wash them and the drying time is a lot quicker.

When I found out I was expecting Wombat, I figured that I was all set for nappies. What I didn't count on was Wombat being such a lard arse big baby. It quickly became apparent that Wombat was going to outgrow the nappies that I already have long before he was ready to toilet train. This gave me an excuse to fuel my addiction buy more cloth nappies. Since February, I have had a set of large AIO's on lay-by. I paid them off a bit over a week ago and was greeted by the beautiful sight of a large parcel early yesterday morning. Fluffy mail had arrived!

I eagerly ripped into the package and checked out all the fluffy goodness. Bliss! Seagull and Wombat were quite fascinated by all the fluffy mail as well. Seagull's bliss moment arrived when I asked him to help me load them all into the washing machine. What can I say? We all <3 fluffy mail in our house. :)