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Celebrating the Grand Re-Opening of Diaper Parties!

Posted by on July 1, 2012 1 Comment

As America celebrates its Independence Day, the all new Diaper Parties is celebrating its own independence and we, at Everything Birth, want to help them get started with a bang!

As we mentioned in the beginning of June, the start of this month brings the Grand Re-Opening Party for Diaper Parties.  We got into the whole scoop in that previous blog which you can find here if you are interested. One of our old senior consultants, Erin, will be taking over Diaper Parties and we are happy to celebrate this exciting time with her and her team!

She has a bunch of exciting things planned for you over the coming months, but over the next few days, there will be a frenzy of discounts, giveaways, free gifts and excitement going on. You will want to check in on the site during these next few days (here) and find them on Facebook (here) so that you can take advantage of the outstanding offers.

Just take a look at the deals they have planned that we are allowed to tell you about upfront:

But Erin and her team have even more deals. Look around the website during these next few days to find them… they’re hiding!

Now just because Diaper Parties has an amazing new site and interactive, online chat help for your diaper issues doesn’t mean they’ve done away with the at-home parties. There will be certain things available only at parties, so check to see if there is a consultant in your area. And who knows… maybe you will want to join their team and be a part of the cloth diapering revolution. If you do, keep us posted, we look forward to watching the team grow because there will always be a very fond place in Everything Birth’s heart for Diaper Parties. They are an amazing group of dedicated women and you would be as proud to be a part of their team as we are to be their friends.

Filed Under: Cloth Diapers General, General, Giveaways, News & Updates | Tagged:

The New, Independent Diaper Parties!

Posted by on June 1, 2012 1 Comment

The extreme variety and extent of the cloth diapering movement has become far too big for Everything Birth’s britches. Everything Birth Inc.’s mission is to be a resource for promoting gentle birth. When Everything Birth Inc. was founded eleven years ago, cloth diapering was a natural accessory to offer new moms. Over the last decade we have watched… astonished at how quickly and exponentially the cloth diapering movement has grown in such a short time.  Everything Birth can no longer focus on cloth diapers to the full extent the diapers deserve without sacrificing its original purpose. Cloth Diapers have grown into an industry of their own.

So, while Everything Birth reaffirms it commitment to midwifery and gentle birthing practices, Diaper Parties will go out into the online world (and people’s living rooms) a new independent company!

Everything Birth and Diaper Parties will still work closely, but will no longer be a part of the same corporation. Diaper Parties is now owned and operated by one of our most devoted, senior Diaper Parties representatives, Erin Schillo!

July 2nd-4th, Diaper Parties will celebrate their Grand Re-Opening with amazing sales, raffles, and giveaways. Erin whispers, “Like Ju-Ju-Be Bags??? You may want to keep an eye on our page during this sale…” Erin is excited to announce that she will be expanding the inventory to add new products to the already wonderful line up. Diaper Parties will still be offering home parties with incentives. In fact, a few items and packages will only be available at parties.

Erin, the new Diaper Parties owner, and kiddos

Erin’s other plans for Diaper Parties include giving away a complete stash of diapers to a family in need twice a year. To get more information, you will need to go and “like” Diaper Parties on Facebook. Like it quick though, if you haven’t already because the first Giveaway will be within a few months of the Grand Re-Opening. Erin went on to explain, “We’ll now have a live chat button on our page where customers can ask questions about our products or get advice on cloth diapering. There will be a ‘my perfect diaper’ page where you can build your perfect diaper!” She also said to let you guys know another little teaser tidbit: Diaper Parties will soon be implementing a newborn diaper rental as well!  All of these changes and more are why Everything Birth is proud to help support Erin in her new adventure as owner of the brand new, independent Diaper Parties!

 

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Why I love and also HATE FuzziBunz cloth diapers.

Posted by on May 17, 2012 4 Comments

The tag of my insanely old FuzziBunz.

I love FuzziBunz. I love how well they work. I love how soft they are. I love how well they fit all three of my different shapes of children. Bla bla bla. I was just talking to a friend though, explaining how frustrating FuzziBunz are. My FuzziBunz simply would not give up. I got my first (and pretty much only) set of FuzziBunz on trade ten years ago. I did a little writing for one of the programs that FuzziBunz (Then Mother of Eden) was working on back then in exchange for a set of diapers.

They were awesome. I got a mix of gender neutral colors and boy colors. There were 12 in that original set. So, we used the same set for three years. See, sizing on FuzziBunz is for optimal fit, but in reality, you can make most of the sizes fit any child because they’re so adjustable, much to a fluff addicts dismay.

When I was done with them, I sold many of them. I loaned some of them out and got them back a couple of years later, just in time to use them on my stepson. By this time, I had a brick and mortar store, much like Everything Birth and FuzziBunz were my featured diaper. We used the remainders of that set on my step son. Of course, I purchased a few more to replace the ones I sold a few years earlier for the price I paid for them. When I got pregnant and learned I was having a girl, I thought, “Awesome, now I can get a whole new set of girl FuzziBunz at cost!” You know, since I was a reseller and all. No such luck though, my frugal husband said there was no need, because our diapers were still functioning perfectly. I did convince him we’d need a few more though since both kids would be in them. So, I found a few pretty pink shades and made sure they were always clean in time to go in public with my new baby girl.

But I wanted more.

I was always SO happy on the rare days when I would forget to pack enough diapers at the store and I would be FORCED TO steal a new diaper from myself. Likewise, I was happy when I’d be running late and I had to throw them in the dryer. After all, drying ruins them, right? While I don’t advise YOU dry your FuzziBunz on high heat, I did it all the time and they simply refused to die.

When my daughter had such bad eczema, I  never bothered to put a liner in the FuzziBunz, because I wanted them ruined. There were so many adorable floral prints coming out and I just wanted to be able to have an excuse to buy them all. I was really stoked when the creams I was told to use started making the FuzziBunz repel. That excitement was short lived though when a simple google search taught my husband he could use Dawn and a scrub brush on them and they were promptly revived.

These days, my step-son’s disability means we still use them at night on him. For a little while, they wouldn’t hold all the pee from a big boy because he required more inserts. See, while the extra inserts did fit in the pocket, we could no longer snap them. My son is now six years old and now that his accidents at night are smaller in volume, we’re right back at square one with the ugly old diapers plus the few I picked up along the way that I mentioned, stained from hard water, still hanging on. Both sets of snaps won’t reach, but apparently that has zero effect on the efficacy of FuzziBunz.

Seriously, am I going to be giving these things to my grandchildren?! This is getting a little ridiculous. I now wish I had paid cash for them so I could ask for my money back, after all they guaranteed them for a year or something short lived like that… and we’re now going on eleven. In a way, that’s ALMOST false advertising. Right?

So, anyway, if you want to join me in a lifetime of eternal FuzziBunz use (<–That was smarm, not an unofficial warranty.) you can buy some here.

Filed Under: Cloth Diapers General, General, Natural Parenting & Lifestyles, Products | Tagged:

Hiney Lineys’ Sheila Payne

Posted by on January 29, 2012 1 Comment

Through the magical powers of Facebook social networking, I have become quite acquainted with, dare I even say “friends” with the inventor of Hiney Lineys cloth diapers, Sheila Payne. Actually, it all started at a virtual diaper party featuring Everything Birth products and I think we had to log in with our Facebook accounts. I’m not sure.

At any rate, Sheila is an awesome lady and we hit it off pretty quickly because she was reading the Everything Birth Blog posts fairly regularly.  After almost a year of chatting about pretty much nothing more than you chat with your favorite neighbor about, it occurred to me that we’ve never even talked business. Here I’ve known her for almost a year and am well aware of what food allergies her children have and don’t have as she is mine, but I never asked her about her diapers!

I own and love one of her diapers, but we’ve never discussed it.

So, I asked her for an interview.

We don’t have enough space to get into everything this adorable Chatty Cathy had to say, but I do want to touch on my favorite parts of the interview.

 

Mother of Invention

Sheila never planned to sew any diapers at all. She’s always been a cloth diaperer, and said, “I had it all ready to go and as soon as those disposables ran out, on went the cloth! I never turned back! I am pretty hard core. I take my diapers everywhere, including vacations.” Yet, she never in her wildest dream imagined she would ever end up owning a business making and selling them. When her daughter had eczema she tried a few different pocket diapers, but coming from a past in prefolds, it irritated her that she had to wash the whole thing. So, she kind of eased into becoming a diaper maker by cutting up rectangles of the perfect kind of fleece to pretend her prefolds were stay-dry pockets. This was a great idea, but they ended up bunching and shifting. At this point, she was too far into this problem-resolution phase and before she knew it, she was designing diapers.

Now each and every diaper is made by hand by moms and grandmas one by one. Sheila added,  ”I apply the snaps here at my home and do some of the sewing myself as well.” Sheila had tried using local sewing shops when she couldn’t keep up with the demand herself but when the quality wasn’t up to her liking, she reigned it back in. That’s when she started acquiring help from local work at home moms and grandmas.

 

The Family Business

Sheila said that her family was a bit skeptical at first but never presented her with any resistance to the cloth diapering idea. Owning Hiney Lineys! on the other hand has not come without family opposition.  Sheila says that her two year old doesn’t want her to sell any of the diapers she makes. He wants them all to himself and screams, “My diaper!” anytime he catches a glimpse of one. When she asked her seven year old my interview question pertaining to how he feels about his mom owning her own business, he said, “I thought you’d be a mechanic.” You know how it goes with family, you just can’t please them all. Her husband though is very supportive and happily takes care of the children when she has meetings or expos. Her father is especially supportive of her choice not to outsource to China and is very proud that his daughter’s products are all made in the USA.

About running a business as a WAHM, She says, ”It is difficult some days, especially ones like today, where all three are home and nobody wants to play with toys but instead they just want to tackle each other. So, we play games for a little while, then I do some computer work, then I do naps… Mostly I get stuff done during naptime and after they go to bed.”
The Future

Sheila has lots of plans for the future of Hiney Lineys cloth diapers including plans to make them even more versatile for families than they already are. I certainly look forward to what she comes up with. One thing she did say about the future though was very touching and reminded me why to me she feels more like my favorite neighbor… When I asked her what her favorite thing about the industry was, her answer came straight from the heart. It wasn’t about changing the world. It wasn’t about changing minds. Her answer was about how the industry changed her…

Q.  Sheila, what is your favorite thing about the cloth diaper industry? 

A. “Meeting wonderful ladies who also work in the industry. I must say that if I never sold another diaper, my life would be still be better off than it was before I started Hiney Lineys. I have met such extraordinary ladies in this business. I’ve made such wonderful friends and they mean a lot to me.”

Filed Under: Cloth Diapers General, General, News & Updates | Tagged:

The biggest reason I cloth diapered.

Posted by on January 27, 2012 7 Comments

two years of disposable diaperingWhen I started, the economy was still good and finances were not the reason. As the economy collapsed, I was very thankful for my decision to cloth diaper. When trying to convince my first son’s father that our son should be diapered in cloth, that was one of my key selling points. I explained it would save us thousands of dollars. Then, I had him imagine having thousands of dollars he didn’t plan on having. I even implied that maybe we could afford scuba diving equipment for him.

I’d love to say that I chose to cloth diaper because it’s so much safer for babies, but at the time, I had no idea how much better it was for them. I hadn’t even heard the word sodium polyacrylate at that point in my life. I didn’t know that disposable diapers caused cracked skin, urinary tract infections or diaper rashes. I had no idea that some of the chemicals in them are known carcinogens, that they are capable of disrupting the endocrine system or that they can impair fertility. I just didn’t know.

I didn’t recycle then, so it wasn’t because I was an environmentalist.

I did it because when I saw his face, and looked into his future, I didn’t want the accountability that disposable diapering would give me. I had seen modern cloth diapers. I knew the state of the environment. I knew what the future had in store for petrochemicals and while I really didn’t care (in my young adulthood) about my social responsibility to do the best that I could… to do my share, I knew that some day, disposable diapers would be a thing of the past.

I knew that perhaps as early as my own son’s adulthood, cloth diapers would be the normal parenting choice again, as they had been throughout history. I just knew. That was ten years ago, and my predictions are coming to pass. The amount of moms that are choosing cloth is growing exponentially, and I get to say that I was a part of this movement.

If a child is potty trained at two (which admittedly is not as likely as three for boys), then even with conservative (about 4-6 a day) diaper use, this is what they will leave behind in disposable diapers:

how many disposable diapers

 

That’s for one child. There are about 75 million children in the US.

The reason I cloth diapered my son… is because I didn’t want to face him in the future when he grew up and asked, “Mom! What were you thinking? You were a part of that?!?!”

What would I say to him?

“Sorry, son, we didn’t feel like washing them… So, we figured we’d leave them for you to clean up.”

???

No way, man.  I wasn’t about to set myself up for that.

 

 

Special thanks to Jen Swarthout for the photo help.

 

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Having a baby shower? Want to register for our products?

Posted by on October 26, 2011 1 Comment

baby shower register giftIf you are lucky enough to be given a shower before your baby arrives, please consider our online registry for Everything Birth. It’s very simple to set up if you follow this link.

I know so many of you are awesome participants in Everything Birth’s giveaways, on Everything Birth’s Facebook page, and on our Community Forum. Many of you even are active on our online mom-specific classified website, Birth Depot; but if only I had a nickle for everything I heard one of you tell me, “Oh no! I didn’t know you had a registry! I just had my shower!”

I know so many women who are overwhelmed by the start up costs of cloth diapering. I’ve addressed this topic in a previous blog, but I want to address it again. One of the easiest ways to handle this(if you are blessed enough to be having a baby shower) is to register for your cloth diapers with Everything Birth.

Sometimes relatives mention that they feel weird or cheap about buying “just a diaper.” If you are open about it though and explain that it’s something that you are very excited about, they usually come around. They often get excited too if you explain that since cloth diapers are washable, they’re essentially buying you the equivalent of about a thousand disposable diapers. Their normal baby shower gift multiplies exponentially in value! Show them a photo of one of the cloth diapers you have chosen, sometimes seeing the difference can help them get excited about it too. Explain that cash invested in a cloth diaper is a better financial investment than even investing it into a Savings Bond. For around twenty bucks, they can purchase a great affordable shower gift worth its weight in gold.

 

 

Filed Under: Cloth Diapers General, General, Natural Parenting & Lifestyles, News & Updates | Tagged:

With potty training almost done, what’s a fluff lover to do?

Posted by on July 26, 2011 3 Comments

My daughter is currently almost exclusively in training pants. My favorite is this pair of Blueberry Trainers:

***sigh***

I know I should be happy. In part, it’s sad for me that my last baby isn’t even a baby anymore, but I have to be honest, a large part of that sigh was because I’m almost done with fluff.

That means, there is no reason for me to own a pair of the Owls print Blueberry bamboo diapers on the second to the last row:

***sigh***

There’s also no reason for me to own one of the new antibacterial wetbags by Kissaluvs:

Actually, I suppose I could buy one for swimsuits or for my mama pads.

My oldest baby turns ten today and my youngest is pushing three, so you’ll really have to forgive my sighs.

Do me a favor though, since it’s my first cloth diapered baby’s tenth birthday today…

If you happen to have the Owls print diaper that I am so desperately grieving never having had the chance to own, will you take a picture of your baby in them and post it to our Facebook wall so I can live vicariously, will you?

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“I can’t afford the start up costs of cloth diapering.”

Posted by on May 11, 2011 14 Comments

Over the course of the last nine years that I’ve been involved in cloth diaper sales, a reoccurring argument has been brought up.

“I can’t afford the start up costs of cloth diapering.”

I understand that concern. I do. While there are inexpensive diaper sets, most people would only give it a fair shot with a pocket diapering system or an all-in-one system. So, you’re looking at somewhere around $20 for a diaper. While I think 10-12 diapers is suitable, I know a lot of you don’t want to wash every day and shoot for a reasonable 16-18 diapers to constitute a complete stash.

I have a few issues with the “start up costs of cloth diapering” argument for not using cloth though, I have to tell you. It doesn’t make sense. Are we Americans so short sighted that we can’t see past a few months into the future?

We don’t conceive and deliver a child in a couple of weeks. We have three whole seasons to plan for our children’s arrivals.  There’s no rule that says that you have to buy your cloth diapers all at the same time.  Buy a diaper a week. Everything Birth does sell diapers individually. If you don’t want to pay separate shipping charges each week, you could set aside a piggy bank for your baby while you save and make your child’s first piggy bank purchase a set of new diapers.

Think you don’t even have an extra nearly twenty bucks a week for a time period of 18 weeks to do that? Well, I don’t have an inkling of an idea of how you plan to buy disposables for the next three years then.

All we need to do is prioritize what matters to us. If cloth diapering is really important to you, the initial start –up costs will not deter you and will be an investment worth their weight in gold.  Here’s 18 ways the average American wastes the price of a single cloth diaper regularly without even realizing it:

  • One lunch out for two at a place like Applebees.
  • One car ride’s worth of gas into the city to go to the mall and look at new baby stuff.
  • Late fees for not paying our bills on time one month.
  • Two week of tanning
  • A half of a manicure
  • A hair cut at a mediocre salon
  • One 20 ounce bottle of soda a week for one trimester
  • Dinner for one with a drink at a place like Outback.
  • A homemade dinner of steaks (instead of burgers) cooked on the grill.
  • One week of buying name brand groceries instead of store brand.
  • One week of not using coupons at the grocery store.
  • A couple weeks of cable TV. (Heck, giving up cable TV for less than the duration of your pregnancy will leave you with enough money to buy the entire set of diapers and have plenty left over.)
  • One coffee shop drink a week for less than one trimester.
  • A pair of maternity jeans.
  • A maternity sweater.
  • 6 bags of prewashed, precut lettuce instead of six heads of lettuce you have to prepare yourself.
  • One week of junk food.
  • One visit per week to a fast food joint for one month.

Don’t like going without? That’s fine. (Though, I assure you, if you have to go without to buy a cloth diaper a week for half of your pregnancy, you’ll have to go without a lot more to afford disposables in the years ahead.) Let’s talk about ways you earn the cash for a set of cloth diapers. Here are some ideas:

  • Get a part-time job in the evenings at a gas station or grocery store and stay there for only three weeks. (I guess that’s not the best Karma… but it’s being mentioned to put things into perspective.)
  • Sell some of your old books on Amazon.
  • Have a garage sale.
  • Sell old baby items from a previous child on www.birthdepot.com.
  • Get on a Freecycle group and when someone gives something away, turn around and sell it on www.birthdepot.com or Craigslist.
  • Offer a spring cleanup service cleaning up dog waste. Post it on your facebook. Charge $50. Clean six yards. Then “wash your hands” of the whole thing.
  • Post an evening babysitting service on your facebook page. Babysit one night a week for one trimester.

Don’t like doing extra work because you’re pregnant and already tired enough as it is? I understand. I still have more ideas on how to not have to worry about the start-up costs of cloth diapering. Register for your baby’s cloth diapers on the Everything Birth website and have your friends and loved ones front the bill. If your relatives feel bad about buying you “just a diaper,” simply explain that since it’s washable, they’re essentially buying you the equivalent of about a thousand disposable diapers. Explain to them that cash invested in a cloth diaper is a better financial investment than even investing it into a Savings Bond.

And for goodness’ sake, if you do get a Savings Bond as a gift, cash that puppy in for a couple of cloth diapers. Even before it matures, you will see a far greater return in just three years on your investment into a cloth diaper than the standard “doubling” that happens after like a decade with a Savings Bond.

And, while I’m on the subject of cloth diapering being a financial investment, let’s not forget that when the diapering years are over, if you’ve chosen your diapers carefully, you’ll most likely be able to sell your old used diapers for almost what you paid for them when they were new.

 

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“Earth Day Everyday!” diaper by FuzziBunz

Posted by on April 12, 2011 5 Comments

For those of you just starting out in the world of cloth, I have to explain a very strange phenomenon that happens with FuzziBunz pocket style cloth diapers.

Every once in awhile, FuzziBunz will come out with a limited edition version of their awesome pocket diapers. Right now, FuzziBunz is featuring the ”Earth Day Everyday!” pocket diaper.

You will want to buy these diapers.

Even if you don’t think the “Earth Day Everyday” diapers are awesome… Even if you don’t think these diapers will get everyone talking about how fantastically cool you are… You will want to buy at least one or two of these ”Earth Day Everyday”  diapers.

Let me explain.

FuzziBunz are vastly superior to many other brands of diapers. The lifespan of a FuzziBunz diaper is astonishing. FuzziBunz last through a few children’s diapering careers because of their amazing quality. And everybody who has been in the industry for awhile knows this.

What this means is that people will purchase your used FuzziBunz (on forums like our Birth Depot) for almost what they retail for regardless of the color. Factor in a limited edition… and you can often see returns at more than what you purchased your original “Earth Day Everyday” limited edition diapers for. I’m not even kidding. I know, because I’ve done it. I’ve witnessed this phenomenon first hand on several occasions.  I think back to what I was able to sell my navy, my black, my army green, and my burgundy Fuzzi Bunz diapers for and I am still amazed. Even recently, with the choco truffle, people were willing to pay more than retail because they were limited edition, and they wanted them. They will do the same for your used “Earth Day Everyday” limited edition cloth diaper, if you’re smart enough to buy them while supplies last.

Diapers, to a fluff obsessed woman, are collectors items. They are must haves. Not only that, but they are must haves that they can buy guilt free, because they know they are already saving thousands of dollars by choosing cloth over disposables.

Let me make this clear:

People are obsessed with FuzziBunz limited edition colors.

This is not a sales pitch.  Well, I guess this is a sales pitch. But it’s also something I’ve learned from experience and want to share with the Everything Birth and Diaper Parties community.

Everything Birth has purchased a decent supply of the FuzziBunz “Earth Day Everyday” cloth diapers. They won’t last long though, so you will want to head on over to the shopping area and purchase some as soon as you can.

Enjoy your Earth Day, enjoy your “Earth Day Everyday” limited edition diaper by FuzziBunz, and enjoy your profitable return when you’re done with it.

 

Note: If you are interested in selling your used diapers when you’re done with them, keep in mind, FuzziBunz connoisseurs know their stuff. You will want to always wash them according to their care instructions. Keep them out of the dryer. Never use bleach. Never use fabric softener. Use only the recommended detergents. FuzziBunz rarely have problems except ones that are caused by not following the care instructions, and believe me, a FuzziBunz fanatic will be able to tell.

 

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Washing Poop is Gross.

Posted by on March 7, 2011 15 Comments

“Sorry, but I don’t want to wash poop.”

Sorry, but if you have a baby, you’re going to.

Here’s the deal. You’re going to wash poop.

So, you can either wash poop out of a cloth diaper that fits so perfectly that the poop rarely leaks out and never blows up the back OR you can wash poop out of blankets, bedding, onsies, sleepers, and often, your own pant leg.

That’s the honest truth of the matter.

If you have a baby, you’re going to wash poop.

I prefer to wash my child’s poop out of the diaper. I just feel like I have a little more control that way. Everything in its place. Perhaps some moms don’t want to wash poop out of diapers. That’s totally fine with me, but having used disposables with my first son for a couple of months, I’m well aware of the “up the back blowouts” and those are nonexistent with cloth diapers.

Let me tell you, it really sucks having to try to maneuver your child out of his sleeper in the middle of the night dodging a huge blowout that goes up to his shoulders and trying not to get poop all over his hair in the process.  It sucks even more if you don’t notice the blowout within 1.5 seconds and it leaks promptly onto the sheets and into the wonderful wool padding on the bassinet (or worse, onto YOUR bedding and into YOUR sheets and onto YOUR mattress.)

I really felt disgusting throwing a towel down onto my bed which I shared with my son in the middle of the night and then putting a new sheet down on top of that towel only to wake up in the morning and get out the Oxyclean and scrub my mattress.

So, will someone tell me again how gross cloth diapering is…

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