Smartipants are a Dad's Dream Cloth Diaper

My first in depth cloth diaper review will be of our favorite diaper: Smartipants. In the words of my husband, "If I could marry a cloth diaper, I'd totally marry Smartipants!!" No joke. I was a little weirded out.

But yes, these are the best. We only have 6, out of 15 cloth diapers total, so my husband gets a little mad when we run out. Hey, don't yell at me, buddy! As I told him last night, if he wants more then he can buy them. (Well, he doesn't really yell, but he does get frustrated when we use our last one. And buying cloth diapers is addicting, so it's great that he supports it, right?)

On to why these are the best. First of all, they are a one size diaper that should last your baby from 7-35 pounds. Our baby girl is 17 pounds, and right now she's on the second row of snaps. I only use one size diapers because I'm not about to spend twice as much on cloth during the diapering years. One and done.

Secondly, they created the Smart Sleeve. This is basically like a pocket diaper, but instead of opening on one end only, both ends are open. In other words, it's genius! One of the draw backs to cloth diapering for me and my husband is the part where we have to touch the gross wet (or even worse, poopy) inserts. With the Smart Sleeve, you don't touch the insert. At all. Just throw the diaper into the washing machine, and the insert comes out during the wash. For real! I was kind of a skeptic when I first heard this, but I was amazed. The inserts, in my machine, come out during the pre-rinse.

The Smart Sleeve also makes stuffing the diapers a breeze, which is why my husband really loves these diapers. Just put the insert in one side, and pull it through from the other side. Super easy and fast! When we stuff diapers, my husband only stuffs the Smartipants. He refuses to stuff the others because they are "harder." So, I get stuck stuffing the other brands, and by the time I'm done he's off spending quality time with baby girl. Time is precious. Would you rather spend it stuffing diapers or spending time with loved ones?
Only one insert comes with the diaper. If I had one complaint, it would be that I wish a smaller insert was also included. Since we are only on the second row of snaps, the insert kind of hangs out of the back a bit. Nothing major, but we just have to make sure it's tucked in. However, we've never had a leak, so I really shouldn't complain!

Ok, now on to the second awesome selling point for us: price. You can buy one diaper for $14.95. That's like five dollars cheaper than the competitors! But wait, it gets better. The Smart Start 3-Packs are on sale for $36.95 until Father's Day. That's about $12 a diaper! Are you kidding me?

So what are you waiting for? Seriously, you have to try this diaper. We haven't had any leaks, and my husband loves them. If you are trying to convince your better half to hop on the cloth diapering train, then this is the perfect diaper. Heck, it's the perfect diaper no matter what!

Even baby girl loves her Smartipants!

**If I sound like a paid advertisement, then that's because we really love this product! Smartipants did not hook us up with free diapers--we paid for all of them.**

Time for Change

Well, an RN from my doctor's office called and said I have a vitamin D deficiency. I now how to take big pills and get outside more, so hopefully this will help my "depression" or whatever it is. You are probably thinking, "but it's summer! Why are you not outside all the time??!" I'm very fair skinned, so I burn very fast. I even burn while sitting in my car! I just walk to my mailbox and I can feel my freckles popping out. So, I stay in the shade with baby girl. I've had so many sunburns in my life, and I'm very paranoid about skin cancer.

Also? It's been crazy hot here. Like, it's not even fun being outside with this crazy heat. And it's been stormy. I totally plan getting on our butts to the pool at least once a week, so hopefully the weather starts cooperating!

As for the title of this post, I think I am going to change this blog a bit. I don't like the direction it is going. I've been reading a lot of mom blogs lately, and frankly, I don't really understand the point. Mom blogs seem like a popularity contest, and for what? Reading a story about little Timmy using the big boy toilet? Why do I care about that? I have my own life, and I need to concentrate on my family. I don't need to get lost in other's dramas and personal affairs. (Ok, I'm going to stop here and say I'm not putting anyone down for reading mom blogs or writing them. I totally and completely understand if you are addicted to them! As for me and my life right now (which is totally filled with unnecessary drama), the best thing is for me to back off.)

So, what is this blog going to be about now? Well, it'll be about my new adventures in cloth diapering. Cloth diapering for dummies, if you will. Also, I love crafts. I feel like Martha Stewart when I accomplish something, so I'll post my work and how-to's so others can feel like Martha as well (it really is a great feeling!).

Other than that, it will kind of be an advice/helpful blog. There's no need to know exactly what we did over the weekend--I have my boring family blog for that! So there you have it. I hope all five of my readers don't mind!

Hello There!

I guess I should properly introduce myself! This is a new blog, and I don't have any followers yet (boo!), but hopefully I'll get some soon. And when I do, I don't want you to think, "who the heck is this girl?!"

My name is Mrs. McG, hubby is Mr. McG (or J), and baby girl is C...or baby girl! I already have a family blog that covers the everyday and mundane stuff so our out of town family can keep up, but I wanted to create a more anonymous one so I can post stuff I don't really think family should (or would want!) to read.

I'm a teacher, and I'm trying to be the best mommy I can be to my 7 month old (gah, can't believe she's that old already!!). We practice attachment parenting. So I'm a breast feeding, co-sleeping (not bed sharing), baby wearing mamma who's also trying to cloth diaper....still new to that process though!

This blog will mostly be about my adventures, or misadventures, as a new mom, so sit back and enjoy the ride with me!

First day of cloth diapering

I should start out by saying I've been using disposables for the past 6.5 months. Cloth diapering intimidated me, and quite frankly, kinda grossed me out! However, I'm tired of paying a crazy amount on disposable diapers that a) don't work, b) cause rashes, and c) hurt the environment. So, I started looking in to cloth diapers. (I actually wanted to do this before C was born, but my family (who cloth diapered in the middle ages) advised against it. My aunt's reaction? "Pfft. Have fun with that. You won't last very long!" So, yeah.) I hope I find a great solution for my baby girl!

Today was our first day of cloth diapering, and it wasn't a failure! Well, we had to change C's outift twice, but that was due to user errors. Daddy had diaper duty first since I was at work, so first up was Rump-a-rooz. Apparently, the urine just soaked through this diaper. But, hubby didn't set it up right! He didn't use the 6-r soaker--he used an insert for another diaper. So, I will refrain from really reviewing this system until I can do it the right way!

Next up was Happy Heinys. I wasn't too impressed with this one, unfortunately. I really wanted to be, too. Hubby changed C into this diaper right before nap time, and when she got up 1.5 hours later, her outfit was soaked. The pee came right out of the legs. Again, I'm not sure hubby had the fit down, so we tried again later in the day. We had better luck the second time, but it was really bulky on C, and we had to make it kind of tight so it wouldn't leak. I don't think she really liked it. I should add that we used the one size diaper with the velcro--I think the snaps would have fitted her better. But I don't have one to test, so for now Happy Heinys are at the bottom of the stash.

The diaper of the day was FuzziBunz. The fit was a bit trimmer, C seemed really comfortable in them, and it contained the poop and pee wonderfully! I can't wait to use these again!

Well, that's all for now. I just have these three brands, but I want to try more. I am interested in looking into Smarti Pants, bumGenius, and Flip. I better start entering some giveaways to see if I can win some!