Cloth Diaper "Cakes"

I have several friends expecting right now. I've really enjoyed getting creative with gifts for them. Here are a couple of cloth diaper/wipe "cakes" I've made recently.

Here's a rose I made out of six cloth wipes
from Chickapeababy.com
for a friend's gender reveal party.

One of my male co-workers' wife is expecting.
They aren't using cloth diapers (can't convince everyone)
but I made a motorcycle out of blankets and
Gerber prefolds (my fav burp cloths ever!).

Side view of the motor cycle.
This includes 10 Gerber Prefolds, 3 receiving blankets,
two pairs of socks, one bottle, and one teddy bear.

Diaper Review: Chickapea Baby Extended Tab Prefolds

I am an avid pocket diaper lover. They comprise most of my stash, but don't really work for us over night. Alex is just too heavy of a wetter. We've been using a couple of fitteds at night but were getting leaks. The diapers were soaked in the morning and so were his jammies. So, even though I was not particularly interested in prefolds, I jumped at the chance to try Chickapea Baby Extended Tab Perfolds.

Chickapea Baby Extended Tab Prefolds

Chickapea Baby is a mom-owned business run by Melony, mom to four here in Abilene. Current offerings include the homemade extended tab prefolds, cloth wipes, teething jewelry or "bling", and boingos. You can read my review of the boingo here.

I prepped the diaper and booster on the stovetop to make it a bit quicker and hung both pieces on the line. Putting the diaper on seemed a little daunting, but I studied Melony's instructions and practiced a few times diapering a stuffed animal first. I was able to get the diaper on and secured properly. I was pretty proud of this and may have done a little happy dance. (No judging.) I will say that when Alex is particularly squirmy, it can be a challenge. I think once I've gotten more used to it, I'll be able to do it faster.

We had no leaks that night! Or any other night we've used this diaper. Some nights, the diaper doesn't even feel soaked all the way through. I'm using a hemp diaper with a booster "insert" for added absorbency. Overall, it's a great diaper and much less daunting than it seemed! I might just be a prefold convert!

We're trying to find the cover that will work for us but have used a Flip and a Sweet Pea cover with success. After the diaper was prepped I just included it with our regular diaper laundry. It does take longer to dry then my pockets, but it's so much thicker!

I've already picked up another medium (the size Alex fits now) and have ordered two larges for when he grows out of this size, which probably won't be any time soon. You can get the diapers in hemp (what we used) or bamboo. There are a variety of prints. We have "All Crabby" (so cute!) and a striped one.

I received our All Crabby diaper at a discounted price as part of a small test group. I was not compensated for this review.

Boingo: Cool Name and It Works!

Boingo Diaper Fastner (photo from Chickapea Baby)

Over the weekend I tried my first extended tab prefold (review to come). This was my first diaper that didn't have snaps or aplix and I was a little worried. I had seen Snappis before, but they were a bit confusing and I couldn't ever find them locally (I probably wasn't looking in the right places). Anywho, I was trying out this diaper and decided I'd give the Boingo a try.

The Boingo is two little gripper pieces on a tight rubber band type thing with awesome stars on each end. You attach one side to each side of the diaper and you're done. It really was pretty simple and now I don't know why I always thought they were so daunting.

I was worried about using it as I had heard that the Snappis aggravated reflux in some babies, but I didn't notice any problems with the Boingo. (I've never tried the Snappi so I can't compare the two from personal experience.)

I got mine from Chickapea Baby for $5 per pair. (Link to purchase) It worked really well and was really cute. If you're going to be using any type of diaper without built-in fasteners, this would be my recommendation.