ok, here's THE best trick we figured out...it's VERY inexpensive too. we got a few 100% wool blankets from the thrift store (ended up all being military). we got about 10 or 15 flannel pillow cases from the thrift store (less chemical treatment than regular pillow cases and softer/warmer. also had more fun patterns for the babe to look at).
i wash/dried the wool blankets a couple times to fully felt them or get any shrinkage i could. then i cut them to fit the pillow cases. i lanolized them which i now know i didn't even need to do and eventually stopped doing. when our son was a newborn, we folded the wool in 1/2 and put it down in the pillowcase which i then folded in 1/2. newborns don't tend to move around, but can use more absorbancy since alot of pees tend to get missed. also, when you're sleep-deprived and can't even deal with reaching for another pillowcase, or if you just miss part of a poo, the pillow case can be opened and re-folded in 1/2 the other way since the wool isn't really wet. when the babe is older and more wiggly/roly-poly, the wool can be single layer and the pillowcase left unfolded so even with movement, the bed/floor/lap is protected.
if they're just peed on, they can be hung to dry and re-used (since the urine tends to be so dilute) until it gets pooped on or you are doing laundry anyway. i never had a problem with odor. so after laundering, we would get the wool in all the pillowcases and had a nice stack of them ready for use.
sooo easy! and it's so neat to see them needing to be laundered less and less as you get better and better at picking up cues, until you're only washing one or two a week, if that!
oh, and the other great thing we did with these is put them under the babe in bed at night. perfect for letting the babe go dipeless. we had a boy, so we put little undies on him to avoid a fountain hitting the sheets, but it's sooo nice to sleep with your snuggly baby with no undies on either. a leap of faith, but so snuggly.
i wash/dried the wool blankets a couple times to fully felt them or get any shrinkage i could. then i cut them to fit the pillow cases. i lanolized them which i now know i didn't even need to do and eventually stopped doing. when our son was a newborn, we folded the wool in 1/2 and put it down in the pillowcase which i then folded in 1/2. newborns don't tend to move around, but can use more absorbancy since alot of pees tend to get missed. also, when you're sleep-deprived and can't even deal with reaching for another pillowcase, or if you just miss part of a poo, the pillow case can be opened and re-folded in 1/2 the other way since the wool isn't really wet. when the babe is older and more wiggly/roly-poly, the wool can be single layer and the pillowcase left unfolded so even with movement, the bed/floor/lap is protected.
if they're just peed on, they can be hung to dry and re-used (since the urine tends to be so dilute) until it gets pooped on or you are doing laundry anyway. i never had a problem with odor. so after laundering, we would get the wool in all the pillowcases and had a nice stack of them ready for use.
sooo easy! and it's so neat to see them needing to be laundered less and less as you get better and better at picking up cues, until you're only washing one or two a week, if that!
oh, and the other great thing we did with these is put them under the babe in bed at night. perfect for letting the babe go dipeless. we had a boy, so we put little undies on him to avoid a fountain hitting the sheets, but it's sooo nice to sleep with your snuggly baby with no undies on either. a leap of faith, but so snuggly.
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My mother was pretty crunchy but she never heard of it! My husband seems motivated when I told him EC = less diapers, less laundry!! But the main point is EC is a way to respect baby.
