I never expected that I would be bottle feeding so to the list of essentials we added a breast pump (I was trying for a few weeks to bring my milk in), bottles, formula and steriliser (as I expected to breast feed, we started out boiling our bottles on the stove top. A steriliser was an expensive but oh so wonderful convenience purchase). We also ended up with a pram (for nanna really), a bath and a bouncer, both of which get a pretty good work out.

Apart from the essentials, I also did some less essential crafting before the new arrival, that I wanted to share with you. Despite being non essential, we use the items below on a daily basis. As a quilter, I have quite a stash of fabric from my cashed up days, so everything except the fabric and notions for the bag was made from what I already had on hand (no extra money spent).

I made a baby or nappy bag from this tutorial at A Mingled Yarn. I used cotton instead of vinyl for the inside and as commenters on the blog post suggested, reinforced the back pocket. The only modification I would make is to make the side pockets a little deeper so that they close over larger bottles. Oh, and DH would prefer it in less ‘girly’ material so that he can carry it.

To go with the nappy bag, I made a matching change mat out of scraps of material and recycled vinyl from old packaging. The back is made up of patches of scrap fabric so that nothing was wasted.

It’s amazing how much strong plastic packaging we get as packaging. Below is an example of where I got the plastic to make the change mat. The zipper on the packaging was salvaged and stashed away for another project.

I also made a nappy stacker that hangs off the cot. The stacker is tied to the cot. When full of nappies, it weighs an absolute tonne and a coat hanger would neither hold the stacker without bending or go over a door handle. The stacker is a variation of this tutorial at Sew Dang Cute. I got rid of the ruffle and added some pockets to each side for liners and wipes what not.

The dinosaur embroidery is just some clip art from the web that I altered in Inkscape. I have learnt that satin stitch isn’t a good stitch for large areas, Romanian couching would be better for next time.

And again, I made a matching change mat with vinyl between the cotton fabric and a terry flat nappy.

These change mats may seem a bit frivolous when you can just use a nappy or a towel, but they certainly saved a lot of surfaces (like the in-laws’ back car seat) when we travelled down to NSW for dad’s funeral.

Finally, I made some burp cloths from another nappy and cotton backing. The only regret with these is that I haven’t made more, because we use them all the time and they get pretty icky quickly.

I did also make some bum wipes out of scraps of nappy from the change mat and burp cloths. These just go in the wash with the nappies and get reused. The joys of EC is that wiping baby’s bum is a lot easier if he goes over a potty.

There were many other projects on the list, but they will probably have to wait for baby no. 2.

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Have you read these articles?:

1. Preparation For A Frugal Baby
2. Tutorial: Making Hand Embroidered Placemats
3. The Ultimate Guide To Making Your Own Diapers/Nappies

But now that things have settled down and we’re back at home, we have gone the last week using entirely cloth nappies (even out and about) and we won’t go back to disposable (unless we have to do another long car trip etc). I have to say that using cloth nappies is really not that much more work than using disposables. We are currently using terry towelling flats. They are inexpensive (we purchased them at $1.70 each), easy to wash and dry (much quicker than fitted nappies – a night on the clothes horse in the laundry is sufficient at the moment).

If you’re interested, below is how we fold our nappies. It fits a newborn bum well and is a good fold for boys.

Fold the corners into the middle to make a smaller square. It would help if our nappies were square to begin with.

Fold one side about 1/3 of the way across and fan out the top corner.

Fold the other side over the first and fan out the top corner also.

To make the nappy slightly more compact, I fold down the top edge.

Turn the front up and wrap the sides around baby’s waste. Fasten with a snappy. Bub’s asleep, so I’ll have to take photos of the nappy on some other time.

We do use disposable liners at the moment as they make cleaning up easier. I have cut up chux into small squares to use as baby wipes. We just use water at the moment to wipe him (and bath him). As the little fella had thrush thanks to the anti-biotics I was taking, we give him a nice smear of cream at most nappy changes.

Great advice from a reader (thanks Fiona) is to get a whole heap of nappies and use more than one bucket. At the moment I’m pretty much washing nappies every day and when the bucket is full, they end up sitting in the tub waiting for the next load. And as we live in a two story townhouse, it would be good to have a bucket upstairs and down (although I get more exercise this way)! We still wash in cold water and use homemade laundry detergent and hang dry (we don’t own a dryer anyway, but terry flats dry fairly quickly).

The only thing stopping me from buying more nappies is that we are starting to practice natural infant hygiene or elimination communication (EC). EC is where you respond to baby’s cues and hold him over a bowl or tub so that they can toilet naturally, rather than them soiling nappies all the time.

Today I ‘caught’ our first ‘number two’ in an old ice cream container. Whoohoo, one less nappy to wash! It was followed by not one but three wees on a towel on the carpet. Whatever the little fella’s cues were I missed them, it’s a learning process for both of us.

The difficulty is that bub likes to toilet at the same time as feeding, which makes things complicated. I soon discovered that pulling a nappy on and off while feeding was too much of a hassle for both of us so I have a nappy under him just in case and I don’t wear jeans while feeding him (and hope I don’t get a tinkle in the face ). It takes time and patience to EC, so we are just trying it a few times a day to get used to it and not at all at night.

If you’ve had experience with EC, I would love to hear from you and how you are going with it.

Have you read these articles?:

1. The Ultimate Guide To Making Your Own Diapers/Nappies
2. Showcasing: Nurture Nappies
3. Preparation For A Frugal Baby

When I plunged into the cloth nappy world I was totally overwhelmed. Flat, fitted, pre-fold, pocket, covers, liners..? Which nappy is best? What to buy? OMG look at the price!

Making your own, especially from recycled materials is the cheapest option if you want to go with the modern fitted nappy style. Below is a list of tutorials that I hope will make sense of the whole diaper / nappy world.

Of course, if you decide to practice elimination communication(I’m going to give it a go) then the whole nappy conundrum will be in part at least, moot.

There is some overlap in these tutorials as different tutorials explain things in different ways, and if one part doesn’t make sense, it can help to look at a another tutorial for a better idea. You can also pick and choose or adjust patterns, sewing techniques and materials to suit your needs. For example, you may like make an all-in-one, one-size pocket nappy by combining tutorials.

Common Materials

Cotton – is the most popular nappy material and is either flannel, terry, jersey (T-shirt fabric) and fleece (sweatshirt fabric).

Bamboo and Hemp – both have become very popular materials and are more absorbent than cotton, and antimicrobial. Often mixed with cotton.

Microfiber – super absorbent, this synthetic fibre is often used to fill pocket nappies or as an inner layer to the nappy as it can loose its absorbency after repeated washing.

Polyester fleece – soft, breathable and water-resistant. Can leak if nappy is compressed or not changed in time.

Wool - soft, breathable, anti-microbial, water-resistant and absorbent at the same time, used for nappy covers as they can be worn, left out to air and worn again. They do need to be washed properly to keep the lanolin in the wool, but can be washed far less frequently than regular covers.

PUL -stands for Polyurethane Laminate. This is fabric that is coated in a soft laminate. It is durable and is often used in covers (water-proof type) or in all in one nappies (more breathable type).

Vinyl and Nylon – waterproof material usually for the covers.

The  Diaper / Nappy Tutorials

Flats

These nappies are usually made out of terry cloth (between 50 and 75cm square), but can also be made out of thinner cotton or flannel. The thinner the nappy the more need for boosters and heavy liners and effective covers.

Who would have believed that folding flat terry nappies would be an art form?! My knowledge was limited to standard nappy folds. Here are some more advanced fold techniques.

1. The origami fold

2. Birdseye flats

3. Ice-cream cone fold

4. Newspaper fold

Pre-folds

Pre-folds are like flats but with a thicker sewn in liner or padding down the middle to boost absorbency.

1. Sew pre-fold diapers the “real” way

2. Pre-folds from old t-shirts

3. Pre-folds from recycled flannel

Fitted

These are like disposable nappies, they have elastic around the legs to prevent leakage. They’re still usually used with covers though. The disadvantage of these is that you will need different sizes as your bub grows, although there are one-size adjustable ones.

1. Fitted from old t-shirts

2. Fitted nappy Pattern (pdf)

3. Quick and easy fitted

4. Fitted from an old t-shirt

5. Cheap fitted nappy

6. Quick cloth fitted

7. Make a fitted diaper from a pre-fold

All-in-One

All-in-ones are basically fitted nappies with a waterproof layer so no need for a separate cover. As you’re washing the ‘cover’ with the nappy at the same time, they can take longer to dry.

1. Fitted using PUL

2. Fitted PUL with leg gussets

3. Another all in one

Pocket Nappies

These usually (but not always) have an outer waterproof layer (like PUL) and an inner layer with an opening that you can stuff with absorbent liners like microfiber hemp or pre-fold nappies. These are popular and convenient because you can increase the absorbency as you need, depending on how much you stuff the pocket, they can be “all-in-one” if they are made with a waterproof outer, but dry much quicker as you was the liner separately.

1. One size pocket diaper with snap in liner

2. Pocket nappy without Velcro (fasteners needed)

3. How to sew a pocket diaper

Covers

Covers can be the old style vinyl pilchers, or wraps with elasticised legs not unlike the fitted nappies.

1. Felted wool wrap from old clothes

2. Soaker from an old woollen jumper

3. PUL wrap style cover with leg gussets

4. Felted wool wrap with appliqué

5. Wool butt sweater

6. Recycled wool longies with open leg bottom

7. Making your own longies pattern

8. Side snapping diaper cover

Liners

Liners boost the absorbency of the nappy and reduce leakage and as they are separate from the nappy, can make nappy laundering easier with messy nappies.

1. Knitted liner

2. Diaper Inserts

3. Diaper Liners

4. Cloth diaper insert sock

Miscellaneous

I love the idea of the “little squirt” a commercial  attachment that goes on your toilet to wash your dirty nappies off. Well I found a DIY solution instead.

1. Make your own diaper sprayer

2. Cloth Wipes

3. Diaper stacker tutorial

4. Diaper clutch

5. Diaper clutch and changing pad in one

6. Travel diaper change pad with pocket for wipes / nappies

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Have you read these articles?:

1. using cloth nappies
2. Showcasing: Nurture Nappies
3. bags, west wing, nappies and other miscellanea

We’ve still got about three months left, but I’ve started preparing now for our first newborn bub. Here are a list of things that I’m doing to prepare, if you have any other advice, it would be much appreciated. The aim is to be as organised as possible so that things at home still flow as smoothly as possible after bub is born, and we’re not  spending extra money that we don’t have on things like takeaway because I wasn’t organised.

Purchase of Essential Baby Goods

My instinct is that you don’t need to buy a lot of stuff for a newborn baby. We are going to get:

A Cot – We sold an old TV for $100 so that’s our budget for a second hand cot. Even a cot, some people would argue is non-essential because if you’re into attachment parenting you can co-sleep or alternatively put bub in a drawer. But we would prefer a cot. I have some old sheets that I’ll cut up and resew as cot sheets and as I’m a quilter, I’ll splurge and make my own cute-as-pie cot quilt.

Cloth nappies – I’m in love with the modern nappies but I know that they are way out of our budget so I’ll probably end up buying the old terry towelling nappies and maybe making some pre-folds. I read that using cloth nappies can save you around $10,000 a child. Apart from the whole landfill issue, I don’t know how people even afford disposable.

Car seat – This is fairly essential I think. We are lucky here as the QLD Ambulance service actually hires baby capsules and car seats for $65 for 6 months and fits them for you to ensure that they meet safety standards.

Baby carrier – I’m going to go for a sling or wrap rather than a stroller. If I decide I really want a stroller instead, I’ll get one second hand after bub is born. When I imagine doing things like navigating supermarkets, I just think a wrap or sling makes so much more sense than a pram.

Clothes – Actually, I’m not going to buy any clothes. Mum bought some singlets and as I’m due in Feb at the hottest, muggiest time of the year, I really don’t think I’m going to need much more for a while. And there is also MIL wanting to buy stuff so I’ll leave clothes up to the nannas.

Bucket – As I’ll be using cloth nappies, I think that a bucket with a lid will be well used.

Do I need anything else? I’m going off the advice of parents who have done this before. Do I need a bath? I figure a wet flannel or the hand basin or a small plastic basin will do. Change table will be the floor or a towel on the bed, maybe a bit of vinyl tablecloth. Bottles, pumps and other paraphernalia? My instinct says no, particularly as we plan to breastfeed. But what if I can’t? Should I buy one bottle just in case?

What are some baby things that you think are essential?

Organising the House

De-cluttering – We’re making room for the new addition by getting rid of stuff that’s cluttering up the house. As I’ve mentioned, some things we’ve been able to sell, which has given us some extra income to buy baby stuff. Otherwise the rest is going to charity.

Cleaning – We’ve been in this house for 2 1/2 years and the curtains desperately need a wash. And the bedding. And the cupboards need cleaning out. I figure what better time than now.

Stocking the Freezer – I’ve begun doing some bulk cooking and stocking the freezer with pre-made meals. I figure that even if I’m exhausted, I can still pull out a container of something to reheat, and we will still be eating healthy, home cooked, tasty, inexpensive food. I’m freezing stews, stocks, savoury mince and curries in portion sizes for later.

Writing, writing – And I’m madly writing articles so that there will be plenty to read on Frugal and Thriving in the first few months.

What things would you do or get to get organised for a new family member?

Have you read these articles?:

1. crafting for baby – a few non-essential items
2. Showcasing: Nurture Nappies
3. using cloth nappies

One of my favourite Australian online sites for buying reusable cloth nappies is Nurture Nappies. They have a large selection of those new-fangled nappies, as well as a whole array of other useful bits and pieces like liners and covers.

A couple of my favourite things about this site is that they offer an introductory package so that you can try out different brands and work out which ones that you like best, they give personalised advice as to what type of nappies might best suit you depending on babies age and your family’s personal circumstances and information about washing and care.

While their nappies aren’t the cheapest options around, they offer some top brands, product specials and packages, and their site offers plenty of info, advice and customer service.

By the way: I am not affiliated with this site nor do I get anything by writing about them. It’s all about passing on the great resources that I find to you.

Have you read these articles?:

1. Shopping Online for Bargains in Australia
2. using cloth nappies
3. The Ultimate Guide To Making Your Own Diapers/Nappies

Finally getting out of the morning sickness phase and I’m finding that my clothes aren’t fitting already. I’ve been scouting around the internet for low cost maternity wear ideas, but I’m really not ready at all for maternity wear. A the moment I’m doing the old rubber band round the button trick, but that is only going to last so long.

If you have been down this road already – help! I would love to hear your ideas for low cost maternity wear. My budget at the moment is a shy above $0.

After doing some research, here are some low cost/ no cost options I found for maternity wear.

1. The Belly Band. This is like a ‘boob tube’ for your waist. It is supposed to help keep pants up when you can’t do up the buttons and zips (and hide the fact your duds are undone), and cover your belly and your plumber’s when your tops get too short. In other words it extends the life of your pre-preggers clothes (as long as you can still fit into them otherwise!) It also helps keep loose maternity wear from falling off.
2. Borrow maternity wear. If you’re lucky enough to know someone who has maternity wear lying around in the cupboard then borrowing it is a no cost alternative.
3. Buy second hand. This can be at charity stores or some specialty maternity wear stores that buy and sell second hand maternity clothes.
4. EBay. This is a popular suggestion. I’ve bought clothes off eBay before, but browsing through the maternity wear, I didn’t find it all that cheap. There seemed to be high demand for maternity wear and therefore more bids and higher costs (something to keep in mind for later!)
5. Buy Online. Depending on your budget and what you’re looking for, buying online can be cheaper. I found a nice pair of pants for $38AUD which I guess is reasonable (but beyond my current budget).
6. Raid hubby’s wardrobe. Particularly for the in between period where your clothes are too small and maternity wear is too big.
7. Buy bigger ‘normal’ clothes. Again for the in between period.

If you have any other ideas or you would like to share what you did for clothes during pregnancy, I would love you to share your thoughts in the comments section.

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