Cloth for Mama...and beyond!

Long ago, in the days of my girlish youth before I became a mother (read: about 2 years back), my sister and I got into a real bout of giggles.

What were we giggling about?

Well, she had been perusing online knitting/crocheting patterns and happened across one for tampons. Yes, you read that correctly, a woolly, little, handmade tampon. It seemed weird. It seemed silly. It even seemed... gross. We got a good laugh out of it and boy, the jokes were endless. We always try to make or bake as many Christmas gifts as possible, so we were saying how funny it would be to give out those goofy, little tampons as Christmas gifts to our girlfriends. I mean, who on earth would wash their own tampons???

Even after becoming a mother, it was still funny to me. I'd still think to myself, who makes those? Who USES those? I'd ponder these things to myself whilst standing over the laundry room sink scraping poop off of dear baby's diapers with W's trusty "shit stick" (which is, in fact, an old Home Depot paint can stir-stick- very classy). Eventually the irony sunk in, you'll be glad to know.

The home-made tampons were still a bit of a turn-off, but mainly for comfort reasons. I did, however, look a little more closely at the "For Mom" section of my local cloth diaper retailer, specifically at the washable feminine pads. What's funny is that a few of the brands that make cloth diapers for babies also make washable feminine pads for mommies. I thought it might be cute to be wearing the same brand as dear baby. It made me think of how modern cloth diapers are always advertised as "not your mother's cloth diapers"- well they may not be, but she sure could wear them when the tomato truck comes to town!

But I digress.

At first, I was a little offended by the price of these washable pads, but then I sat down and did the math. I have always felt that I am forever buying tampons and pads. Every month I go out and get that jumbo box and then when the next month rolls around, I have to go and do it again. That's the nature of the beast, I suppose. So I would spend maybe $15 per month on supplies. Obviously it didn't take long for me to realize the long term savings.

The two brands that I looked at were Fuzzibunz and LunaPads. The only reason I went with Fuzzibunz was because they popped up on Eco Baby Buys for half price. A 3-pack of Fuzzibunz washable feminine pads will run you about $12.95, so half price was a real steal (so obviously I bought three). When they arrived in the mail a week later, I was super excited to try them out. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was so excited for my period to hurry up and happen, except for maybe the very first time it happened. I'm happy to report that I am very satisfied with my Fuzzibunz pads. It really makes sense for a cloth diapering mama to use cloth feminine pads if she's inclined to do so because you're already washing diapers every second day anyway. I just give mine a good rinse and toss them in with the cloth diapers. It really couldn't be any easier and it is saving me $15 per month! I passed on my love of having fuzzy bunz to my sister and she has since ordered some as well. Who's giggling now?

So since Fuzzibunz was giving me such a thrill, I decided to take it a step further. I'm sure that many of you have heard of the The Diva Cup. I've seen and heard of it many times over the years but never really understood what the deal was. Evidently, they are small, silicone cups that you fold up and insert like a diaphragm. Every few hours, you pop it out, give it a rinse, and up she goes again. They have recently come in stock at my local diaper retailer and just as I was thinking of heading over there to check it out, BAM, it went up on BabySteals last night for less than half price. As a lover of deals, I couldn't let a lack of education get in the way, so I naturally ordered one. My BabySteals purchases have a bad habit of taking forever to arrive, so I'll probably use that as an excuse to allow my blog to fall into woeful neglect for another 6-8 weeks. But seriously...stay tuned for a review!

Diadima xo