Friday, January 14, 2011

Meet Our New Blogger, Noreen!

A Little About Me and My Cloth Diapering Journey

Noreen's Family (From Left To Right)
Ronnie, Noah, Noreen, Abby & Kaleb
My name is Noreen Smith but I am also known as Mommy or Momma to my three children, Kaleb 6, Noah 4, and Abby 15 months.  I have been married to my best friend and High School Sweetheart, Ronnie for almost 7 years.  We are all originally from Hillsboro, Missouri.  In 2006 a month after Noah was born my husband joined the Navy and left for boot camp.  After graduating boot camp we all moved to Charleston, South Carolina and  lived there for 4 years while he was went through different schools and did some shore duty there.  We have just recently moved to San Diego, California and are projected to be here for the next 4 years.

Two years ago I made the switch to living a green more healthier lifestyle.  I have started using reusable grocery bags, recycling, using natural cleaners (I've even attempted to make my own. That was interesting!) eating more healthy organic whole foods, and of course, cloth diapering! 


I didn't learn about the modern day cloth diapers like Bum Genius or Fuzzi Bunz until my son Noah was about 18 months old.  What I thought was cloth diapering consisted of gerber prefolds that you see at Walmart or Target that you had to pin with safety pins and then put the plastic pants over them so they would leak.  And then when the baby makes a mess in the diaper, you had to throw them into a wet pail after twirling them into the toilet first.  GROSS!  Atleast, that is how my mother cloth diapered us.  So for my boys, I was all about the easy way, disposables.


 A mom I knew at a local mom's group (MOPS) cloth diapered her two younger boys.  I remember sitting at the table in amazement as she stuffed some cloth stuff inside a navy blue diaper.  I asked her a few question about the diaper and how it could fit both her 2 year old and her infant sons.  After the MOPS meeting, I went home and Googled cloth diapers.  I was very quickly overwelmed with all the information on the computer.  There where pockets, one size diapers, all in ones, sized diapers and you had to wash them a certain way with "special" detergent that I wouldn't be able to find at the grocery store.  And the price!  They seemed so expensive!  By this time, Noah was 18 months.  He would be potty training soon and it didn't seem like it would be worth the initial cost to start.   So then, I made the promise to myself that if I was to have another, I would cloth diaper.  And it is all thanks to this one Mom at MOPS who did things out of the "norm" that had influenced me to change for the better.

I was ecstatic when I found out I was pregnant and going to get to cloth diaper!  As soon as I got past the 12week pregnancy mark I started researching all the cloth diapers that I could!  A close friend of mine had recently had a baby and had me come to her house so she could show me the ropes on how to clean, stuff, and put them on a baby.  She also showed me how to make my own cloth wipe solution and some different cool cloth diapering accessories.  I will admit, I was VERY overwhelmed!  She is a type A personality and was so organized.  I am type B personality and NOT very organized.  How was I ever going to do this?  I doubted that I would be able to stick with cloth diapering.

Half way through my pregnancy I took the risk and bought all 24 one size diapers that I was going to need to cloth diaper this baby until potty training.  I even decided to not use disposable at birth and bought some newborn diapers to get me through until she would fit into her one sizes.  As soon as she came home she went into her first cloth diaper.  I only had 14 so I was washing daily.  I was amazed at how easy it was to cloth diaper!  They all came out clean, I didn't ruin any of them, and I was able to stay organized with them!   The BEST perk about cloth diapering a breastfeeding newborn was that I did not have one single mustard seed blow out while using cloth diapers!  THEY HELD EVERYTHING IN!  Amazing!!

Fifteen and a half months later I am OBSESSED with my daughter's diaper bottom!  I went from 24 Bum Genius 3.0's to a staggering 55 different types of diapers that include; Bum Genius 4.0's and one 3.0, Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heiny's, Rumparooz, Apple Cheeks, Thristie's Duo Diapers, Goodmamas, and a handful of prefolds.  Not only have I saved $1,200 by cloth diapering, I have also saved an average of 4,032 diapers from going into the landfills and sitting there for fifty years before biodegrading. -Noreen Smith










4 comments:

  1. Welcome to Happy Cotton Tails Noreen! I look forward to working with you and all the insight you can offer!

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  2. What a great addition to Happy Cotton Tails! You're an inspiration to all of us :)

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  3. Welcome Noreen! My husband is also Navy and stationed in San Diego, been there for quite some time actually!

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  4. That is awesome Allison! What boat is he on? My husband is on the Jeff City.

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