I’ll keep today’s post pretty short and sweet. I have a lot of thoughts I want to share tomorrow (the last day) so I’m going to save that.
My biggest surprises for this challenge:
1. It was a lot easier on my hands than I realized. I didn’t suffer too much pain while I was washing them. I think maybe the hardest part was ringing out the diapers but even then my wrists weren’t inflamed or anything.
2. Receiving blankets are amazing. For over a year, I’ve known that receiving blankets were a popular choice for people who use flats to diaper their kids. When this challenge comes around, I always see moms using blankets for this challenge. As someone who didn’t get a lot of receiving blankets as gifts, I never found a reason to try and use them for diapers but because they’re so easily accessible I realized that it was worth the try. So I bought a pack of Gerber receiving blankets.
Let my just say: the hype is REAL. The receiving blankets I used didn’t get super stiff after being hung all night – they were the quickest to soften up when I took them down. They absorbed SO WELL. I can’t believe that I didn’t try them sooner. I know they don’t snappi well (so pins are your best bet) and they’re not extremely stretchy but these are great diapers in a pinch – especially if you can get them as gifts or at a thrift store!
For my biggest challenge, I’d say it was trying to put out content at the same time as doing the challenge. I usually did the challenge at night – it is HOT during the day and I already sweat at night hand washing – but I was also trying to pull together content at the same time. This is particularly true for videos which, on top of doing other household chores, usually waited until after bed time. So for a few days, I was starting hand washing at 11pm and going to sleep past midnight. On the plus side, it’s really gotten me thinking about how I manage my time. I have even more respect for moms who make cloth content an actual part of their lives and not just a week out of the year.
However, this did remind me that managing my time properly is an art. I’m still getting used to having the added variable of child-rearing. I hope by this time next year I’ll be much better at it.
Ruzelle Almonds 