Dootie duty
In case, anyone ever doubts it, babies spend all of their time, eating, sleeping, and pooping. As a dad, I have limited functionality to do the first, slightly more ability to help with the second, but the third is the area where I can contribute. As such, I tend to change a lot of diapers when I'm available and take care of the diaper laundry.
The diaper laundry is particularly daunting at this stage. We have two kids contributing to the diaper pail which means that rarely a day goes by without a load of diaper laundry needing to get done. If I miss two days in a row, we are generally forced to dip into our collection of disposable diapers. I don't mind using them when we are travelling, but doing it at home with the collection of cloth diapers that we have just means that I'm lazy. I guess I got spoiled when we finally got enough diapers that I could go three and four days at a stretch without needing to do laundry.
I don't think I'd mind so much if the process turned around a little quicker. As it is, the diapers require two washes (one cold, one hot) before the inserts can go into the dryer and the shells onto the line. The inserts generally take two cycles on low to get dry. The shells usually take 6-8 hours to dry on the line before they are dry enough to put on. At least some of the newborn shells will dry a little quicker. The dry time for the shells means that I'm usually doing the laundry at night before I go to bed. So I can't go to bed before that first dry cycle is completed or we won't have enough inserts for the diapers to get through another day.
I believe in what we are doing with the cloth diapers. I really do. It's honestly the only thing that can make me reach into a bucket of urine and fecal covered diapers and begin the cycle anew. I hope it is worth it.
The diaper laundry is particularly daunting at this stage. We have two kids contributing to the diaper pail which means that rarely a day goes by without a load of diaper laundry needing to get done. If I miss two days in a row, we are generally forced to dip into our collection of disposable diapers. I don't mind using them when we are travelling, but doing it at home with the collection of cloth diapers that we have just means that I'm lazy. I guess I got spoiled when we finally got enough diapers that I could go three and four days at a stretch without needing to do laundry.
I don't think I'd mind so much if the process turned around a little quicker. As it is, the diapers require two washes (one cold, one hot) before the inserts can go into the dryer and the shells onto the line. The inserts generally take two cycles on low to get dry. The shells usually take 6-8 hours to dry on the line before they are dry enough to put on. At least some of the newborn shells will dry a little quicker. The dry time for the shells means that I'm usually doing the laundry at night before I go to bed. So I can't go to bed before that first dry cycle is completed or we won't have enough inserts for the diapers to get through another day.
I believe in what we are doing with the cloth diapers. I really do. It's honestly the only thing that can make me reach into a bucket of urine and fecal covered diapers and begin the cycle anew. I hope it is worth it.
posted by mypetrock at 8:47 PM
1 Comments:
Just because I like controversy... (and you know i'm not very green like you guys) how much loss of environmental friendliness is there with all that washing water, water waste disposal and dryer energy?
I respect the sentiment (and history may prove many of us skeptics very wrong some day); I'm just lazy. 1 and 2 year-olds go through soooo many diapers.
Just wait til they're wearing underwear and peeing on their/your beds and you get to do a few loads of sheets per week. They particularly like to pee on any newly made bed....sometimes the same night you change it at 2 in the morning. :)
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