Total Time Spent Washing - 40 Minutes
Day 2: Really, Day 2 started at about midnight when Samuel woke up. He often 'fusses' a little throughout the night, not really waking up until about 6:30, but for some reason he seemed especially fussy last night and I kept worrying it was the diaper. Specifically, I kept worrying it was a giant, sopping wet diaper that was weighing him down and giving him a rash. So perhaps I was a little overly eager when he started fussing at midnight to check and make sure he was dry, just for my own peace of mind. He was wet, but not crazy wet, and the microfibre lining on the doubler actually kept him feeling dry next to the skin. I changed him anyway, but feeling as though perhaps the million and one layers we started the night out with were a bit much I just went for a prefold wrapped in a flat. When he woke up again at 6:30 I changed him - he was damp but just fine. So no leaks on night one.
In the morning I also took a look at the laundry that had been hanging outside the back door. I didn't have high hopes for it, mostly because I A) only opened one window and not the other one, so my cross-breezes were non-existant and B) It's raining here, and has been damp all night, not good clothes hanging weather. The diapers were dry, but the cover was not. It was almost dry, but not completely. So in rainy weather we're looking at over 12 hours of drying time for a cover.
One of my goals in this challenge was to try the flat diaper alternatives I've heard about. Some bloggers have talked about using IKEA burp cloths, Walmart flour sack towels, old recieving blankets and even cut up tee-shirts. Well, yesterday I tried a recieving blanket for the first time, it was bit bulkier, but not a lot, and it did seem to take more time to dry. On the other hand it was a cute little pattern! Anyway, after reminding David about the diapers (remember, darling, only these ones in this pile here, okay? Are you listening? I know these ones over here look fun, too, but that's not okay for today, okay? Right? David?) I got dressed and headed off to work, leaving David in charge of the cloth diapering duties for the day.
By the time I got home 7 hours later the cover was dry and a new pile 'to be washed' had already started. But I had a plan to cut down on water consumption tonight. First of all, I didn't rinse anything out. Not even the dirty diaper. I scraped into the toilet, but no rinsing. Then after Samuel had his bath I just put some detergent into the bath water, added a bit more hot water and tossed the diapers in to soak there. Using water twice feels a lot more economical to me. Because I let them soak without rinsing the water was a lot dirtier than last night, and so after agitating, wringing, draining, refilling and adding the diapers again, I let them soak for another 20 minutes until they were ready for their 'close wash'. I pretty much followed the same steps as yesterday. My diaper total for today was:
1 cover (he's wearing cover #2 right now)
1 recieving blanket used as a flat
2 doublers
2 prefolds tucked into flats for overnight
flats
It's still raining, so I don't anticipate that tonight's laundry will dry any faster than last night's did.
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