Giveaway Hop: #FreshFluff – win a Smitten fitted cloth diaper and Econobum diaper cover

Welcome to the Fresh Fluff Cloth Diaper Laundry Giveaway Hop, hosted by The Median Mommy, Zephyr Hill and Our Piece of Earth. More than 30 blogs have teamed up to bring you some great cloth diaper and cloth diaper laundry giveaways in this hop! We’re offering you a little diaper laundry assistance with an amazing grand prize, valued at over $220!

So, what is the #FreshFluff grand prize? One fortunate reader will win this incredible cloth diaper laundry package:

Thank you to all of our wonderful sponsors for this amazing grand prize package:

Take advantage of these exclusive offers from some of our sponsors:
  • Irresistibly Green – natural products for eco-conscious families, from cloth diapers to skin care and reusable snack bags.  All orders over $20 ship free every day!  Irresistibly Green is offering readers 10% off, now through 10/20/13, with the coupon code: MEDIAN10.
  • Nicki’s Diapers – your one-stop cloth diaper/babywearing/breastfeeding store!  Nicki’s Diapers offers free shipping on orders over $75 and a free gift on orders over $100.  Nicki’s is offering readers 5% off of their order through 12/1/13, with the code:  FRESHFLUFF
My Life: A Work in Progress Giveaway

Here on My Life: A Work in Progress, one reader will win a Smitten fitted cloth diaper by Rearz in size small or medium (your choice) AND an (affiliate link>) Econobum one-size diaper cover. That’s a total value of $23.

Smitten fitted cloth diapers are made with soft, absorbent velour cotton and certified organic dyes. The pocket opening and tongue design allows for faster drying time, and gives you a designated spot for a night time booster. These diapers are available with snaps or oversized velcro closures. Smitten fitted diapers can be purchased in four sizes: small (7-15lbs), medium (14-28lbs), large (29-40lbs), and extra large (40+lbs). Read my review HERE.

Purchase a five pack of Smitten fitted cloth diapers for just $69.99. Keep scrolling for your chance to win one!

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If you agree to the terms and conditions listed directly below, scroll down to the Giveaway Tools widget and enter the giveaway. Once you’ve done that, don’t forget to check the linky at the very bottom of this post! You can visit all the other awesome blogs participating and enter their giveaways too. Don’t forget to enter the Grand Prize over at Median Mommy (also linked below).

Terms & Conditions: Sweepstakes open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Must be 18 years or older. Void where prohibited by law. Two entrants allowed per household. Odds of winning depend on total number of eligible entries received. If a Canadian resident is selected as the winner (via Random.org), he or she must answer a skills question correctly before being declared the official winner. Once winner has been selected and emailed, winner will have 48 hours to respond or new winner will be selected. Winner’s first name and last initial will be posted on this blog and other social media and Web sites. My Life: A Work in Progress is not responsible for Smitten cloth diaper prize fulfillment. My Life: A Work in Progress is responsible for Econobum diaper cover prize fulfillment. Entrance into the sweepstakes indicates acceptance of these terms and conditions.


Note: My Life: A Work in Progress was not compensated for this post. This giveaway is not associated with Facebook or any other social media platform. Affiliate links are present and marked as such.
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Review: Smitten fitted cloth diaper

I received a Smitten fitted cloth diaper to review.

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About:

Smitten fitted cloth diapers by RearZ are made with soft, absorbent velour cotton and certified bright, organic dyes. This diaper is not waterproof and needs a diaper cover.

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The pocket opening and tongue design allows for faster drying time, and gives you a designated spot for a night-time booster. Just pull the tongue out before putting the diaper in the wash.

(Confession time, I actually leave the tongue in until it’s time to put it in the dryer. If it starts getting stinky, I’ll have to pull it out before the wash.)

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These diapers are available with snaps or oversized velcro closures. The snaps and velcro closures both cross over, in order to fit snuggly on skinny babies. Smitten fitted cloth diapers can be purchased in four sizes: small (7-15lbs), medium (14-28lbs), large (29-40lbs), and extra large (40+lbs).

Stock Photo: Smitten Fitted Cloth Diapers
Stock Photo: Smitten Fitted Cloth Diapers

Purchase a five pack of Smitten fitted cloth diapers for just $69.99. They come in red, orange, yellow, green, and brown.

Our Experiences:

Well, you already saw my laundry confession above! This diaper is easy to wash. It does take a couple cycles in the dryer on hot to dry, but that’s normal for Baby J’s fitted diapers. Since it’s a natural fabric -cotton- it did take several wash and dry cycles for this diaper to reach its full absorbency. When Baby J uses this diaper at night, I add a doubler for extra absorbency. That probably wouldn’t be necessary for a younger child or light wetter.

The diaper is a little narrower in the middle than some of Baby J’s fitted diapers. That’s nice to reduce some of that night-time diaper booty bulk. On the other hand, the narrowness made it difficult for me to place a doubler inside the pocket. I ended up just placing it on top of the diaper. It was also difficult to stuff the tongue back into the diaper after laundering, because my hand couldn’t fit all the way into the pocket. I couldn’t get the very end smoothed out, which was frustrating. Maybe with future designs, RearZ will take that into consideration and widen the diaper a little.

I do love how soft this diaper is. I know it has to be comfortable for Baby J to wear, which is always my primary concern.

It’s also plenty absorbent. I would say that with one doubler, it holds up as well as our bamboo fitted diapers at night. I also use a doubler with them, so it really is the same. But the difference is in the price. The Smitten diaper works out to around $13 to $14, whereas our bamboo diapers cost $20-30 each. The Smitten only comes in packs of 5, but it’s very reasonable, in my opinion. Even if you only use fitted diapers at night, you’ll still want several. We started with just two “overnight” diapers for Baby J, because I thought I’d rotate them and wash every other day. Then he’d soil them right before bed or in bed, and I’d have to change him into the spare. Or I would miss a wash day, because I was too busy. So we added on until we had five or six diapers suitable for night-time use.

Here are some photos of Baby J wearing his. He’s almost 17 months in these photos. At 16 months he was 21 1/2 lbs and 80cm long. He’s wearing a medium, and at this rate, it’ll probably fit my skinny boy until he’s potty trained!

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Want to win your own? Click HERE to go to the Fresh Fluff Giveaway.

Note: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Review: Fitted Diaper from Diapers by Chris

When I came across Diapers by Chris, I was excited to see how comfy Chris’s diapers look and the cute prints she has available. She has quite a few diaper prints and designs that I haven’t seen before. After checking out her Facebook page and Web site, an “Avengers” fitted diaper caught my eye. One of my son’s middle names is Thor, so I asked Chris if she could make him a “Thor” diaper. She said she would look for fabric, and she found some!

Click on the photos to enlarge

 

Chris began sewing cloth diapers after her daughter was born. Like many of us, she was concerned about the negative impact disposables have on our environment.

All of her diapers are sewed with fabrics like natural bamboo, hemp, cotton, and fleece. Although she can make perfect-size or newborn-size diapers, many of her premade diapers are one-size, fitting approximately 12-35 lbs. Chris also offers several styles: fitteds, hybrid fitted, all-in-one, and all-in-two.

The Thor diaper is a fleece one-size fitted diaper with layers of fleece on the outside and inside. Also included were two soakers: large and small. Chris sent a handwritten note with the diaper. In it, she explained some laundering instructions as well as information about the diaper specifically. She also thanked me for my purchase. I thought this was a very nice, personal touch.

The diaper is about 6″ wide at the narrowest part. The size is very customizable, since there are three rows of snap adjustment for the rise and ten snaps at the waist/hip.

 To give you an idea on size, the back of this fitted diaper measures 15″ from wing to wing, fully stretched. The front measures about 10 1/2″ from wing to wing.

A BumGenius pocket diaper measures 15 1/2″ from wing to wing (fully stretched) at the back. The front measures just over 11″ from wing to wing.

A TotsBots Bamboozle fitted diaper measures 16″ at the back with the wings full stretched and 9 3/4″ at the front.

(Note: Measurements are approximate. I’m not an expert measurement taker person.)

The small soaker is 12″ long and 3 3/4″ wide. It’s made with bamboo fleece and topped with bamboo velour. The large soaker is about 14 1/4″ long and 4 3/4″ wide. The large soaker is also made with bamboo fleece but topped with crushed panne. Both soakers are very soft, but the bamboo velour feels silkier than the panne.

My experiences with the diaper:

My son wears this diaper on the lowest rise setting. He’s 4 months and 17 lbs. in the photo below. He still has a lot of room to grow in this diaper. I’ve been able to get a good, snug fit around the legs with this diaper.

I was skeptical at first of how well fleece would work, since it’s the first fleece diaper in our stash. I thought the fleece would get soaked quickly, and I’d have to change him for sure after a couple hours in the diaper.

Yeah, I was really wrong about that! I now absolutely love fleece as a diaper fabric! After about 3 hours in the diaper without a cover, the outer fleece wasn’t even feeling damp. I took my son to the change table anyway. When I opened up his diaper, the soakers were wet, but the fleece diaper was still completely dry. The larger soaker wasn’t completely soaked yet, either, and could’ve held more pee. I tossed the soakers in our diaper pail, and stuck a doubler inside…snapped the diaper back up, and good to go for another 3 hours! After that (we were approaching 6 hours total with the diaper at this point), the fleece was starting to feel just a little tiny bit damp.

The next time I tried this diaper on my son, the plan was to use it without the soakers, so I could have a genuine idea of how long it would be before this diaper would start to feel really wet. Unfortunately, my son thwarted my plans by pooping in it several minutes after putting the diaper on him. No matter. Now I can attest that the diaper holds poo in!

I tried this diaper again on my son without the soakers, but I did put a diaper cover over top. The front of this diaper started to feel wet after an hour, but the back still felt dry. It feels like the diaper has more layers of fleece in the back, due to the “Thor” print, so that is probably why.

Fast forward a few times. I’ve used this diaper with the soakers and without a cover on my son every couple of days for the last two weeks. The soakers take longer to dry than the diaper, but that’s to be expected, since they’re made with bamboo.

This diaper and the soakers are holding up, they appear to be well-constructed. They are soft and definitely do the job.

Want a Diaper by Chris of your own? You could win one! Chris will be sponsoring a prize for the Hoppin’ Halloween Giveaway Hop Oct. 25-31 right here on My Life: A Work in Progress. Stay tuned for the giveaway in just a few short weeks! Can’t wait? Buy your own! =) Check out Diapers by Chris on Facebook and her store!

Note: I purchased the item reviewed above. I was not compensated for this review. The opinions are my own.

 

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