So summer began a little later than usual but before we knew it we were fully immersed in the Okanagan heat. For us that meant hanging in the mall having coffee, long walks in the evenings and play dates with Magnus's many girlfriends. I'm on maternity leave and for some strange reason feel like I'm going crazy if I don't get out of the house most days (many moms tell me this is normal). Our GroVia cloth diapers were all prepped, neatly organized on a shelf in Magnus's room and ready to go, but was I. In researching and chatting with other CD'ing moms I was really excited to get started. But also worried it wouldn't be as easy as promised and wouldn't fit into our busy lifestyle.
We decided to start our journey on a Saturday as Jay would be off work that day. I put a little kiwi colored diaper on Magnus and was happy with the way his already cute little bum looked in it. It fit well also (we got the hook and loop which is "like" velcro instead of the snaps).
Our first day went well. We had a few leaks due to us not tucking in the cotton soaker properly into the outer shell. But once we mastered the tucking all was well. Also, I think poor little Magnus had some tummy troubles that day as we had numerous messes requiring the soaker and shell to be changed. Magnus is still exclusively breastfed so his messes are messy regardless of CD type.
Magnus's first night in cloth was a wet one, sorry buddy. He woke up to nurse at 0300 and 0600 and was wet through to the sheets each time. So frustrating! In hindsight I think my cotton soakers (the absorbent part of my GroVias) weren't fully prepped. Might have had something to do with our front load washer using less water. In the nights following we went disposable and when online looking for a solution found out many moms have trouble CD'ing at night. But I was not one to give up easily.
Stubborn Mommy
Stubborn Mommy
Unfortunately, GroVia diapers are usually not the greatest for night-time cloth diapering. I don't think they're absorbent enough for that if you have a heavy wetter. A lot of people with heavy wetters, use fitteds with wool covers for night time. A bamboo fleece (70% bamboo, 30% cotton) fitted with a wool cover was the only thing that worked for us at night. We actually gave up on cloth diapering at night for a bit because nothing worked until I discovered bamboo fleece.
ReplyDeleteDon't get discouraged if the GroVia diapers end up not working for you. Some people just do not have much luck with them and decide to sell them to try different diapers. Don't give up on them yet though. Maybe more prepping will make things better. Also, maybe you can try a different insert with them? Like a trifolded bamboo fleece one? It won't be held in place by snaps, but a lot of people use trifolded prefolds or insert inside snug-fitting covers with great success.
I also have a front-loader and I've had to add a few litres of water manually to the diaper wash. Another trick is to put a wet towel in with the cloth diapers to trick the washer into thinking the load is bigger. The perma press and delicate cycles use more water, but they might not wash the diapers well enough, so you might end up with ammonia buildup. If you have an "extra water" button, then try that... unfortunately, I don't on my machine :(
As for detergent, it really depends on the machine, water and diapers. Some people use Tide without any issues, others use Nature Clean powder detergent and some have to use detergents especially made for cloth diapers. Sometimes you have to try what works for you. For us soapnuts work well and it's great that I don't have to worry about the chemicals in the detergent.
I absolutely LOVE My GroVia. I went through pretty much every other type of diaper out there (Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heinies, Bum Genius, Prefolds and covers, Fitteds, gDiapers.... Seriously, you name it, I bought it.
ReplyDeleteThen GroVia (formerly GroBaby) was launched and I haven't looked back. We get a perfect fit every time, and pretty much NEVER leak. They are the ONLY diaper that has kept the little man dry overnight (prep!prep!prep!) and fit really well under his clothing.
The best advice I can give for keeping dry overnight is of course to prep those soakers like crazy, and to tri-fold a booster and tuck it between the two soaker layers in your little mans wet zone. I've been doing that for over a year now on my SUPER heavy wetter and we never leak out overnight at all.
The Bondi Family - I really hope they improved the AI2 diaper because my daughter stopped wearing it at 28 lbs because it was getting way too small. Also, the red marks left by the back elastic were too much for me to handle. I know there's many people out there who do love the system, but we had to stop using it after a couple of months. I do love the idea behind the system though and if I didn't make trimmer and more absorbent diapers myself, I would definitely try the new GroVia.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually tempted to buy one of the GroVia AIOs even though I've been hoping to switch to all natural (organic fitteds and wool) when the little one arrives.
I use Grobaby during the day and BG's with an added prefold or soaker at night. Never have leaks at night-- better than disposables. Looking at your pic I'm wondering if they changed the soakers when they went to Grovia (other than adding pul). Yours are laying nice and flat like mine did before I prepped them. After washing mine are very bunchy, thick and a little rough. They don't leak but they don't lay nicely into the diaper.
ReplyDeleteI just started using Gro-Via (1st time momma and 1st time using cloth!) about a month ago. For the first week, I had leaks every night! I was so discouraged! I have a very heavy wetter, and after doing a ton of research, I chose to get Hemp Babies Diaper Doublers (size lg, even for my 1 month old). I put it in between the gro-via insert, with the front flap folded 2x and placed in his wet zone. NO WET SHEETS SINCE! Stick with Gro-Via! You just need to make some tweaks to what works for you. Plus your soakers wil continue to gain absorbancy the more you wash! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice and comments ladies. I am still experimenting with a nighttime solution and have been using my GroBaby Dream Eze and a booster with success. I'm hoping to buy some GroVia AIO's as they are supposed to fit well and work great for nights. Also I think my soakers have been gaining absorbency with each wash (I'm probably at 12 washes now). Heather my soakers did bunch and curl a bit but seem to get better with washing. Hope you like our blog and continue to follow us. Take care.
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