Cloth Nappies on the go

The big question with cloth nappies and cloth wipes is the travel question.  Should you just stick disposables on when you're going out?  If you're comfortable changing and dealing with cloth on the go how many days are you willing to go without being able to launder them?  What about cloth wipes? Is that just too much work? How do you wet your wipes on the go? What about when baby is on solids on the poop is nasty! There's no way to hide that smell!

I've faced these questions many times and I've done different things in different situations.  A lot of it depended on where we were going, how long we were going, the availability of laundry services etc...

Day Trips
I've never had a problem bringing cloth on day trips or quick trips outside the home.  I've also been happy to use cloth wipes in these situations.  A few important accessories:
A wet bag (one with a carbon tag is nice but not necessary for a day trip)
Either pre-soaked wipes in a wipe holder, or a spray bottle with dry wipes.  I love the pre-soaked wipes now because they're just easy to grab and use wherever you are.  Don't forget to add a couple of drops of lavender and or tea tree oil to the water make your wipes antibacterial and smell good. The spray bottle is handy for those less organised days where you just didn't get around to pre-soaking a bunch of wipes.
Extra covers and extra nappies-you never know!
When you are dealing with nasty poop I strongly recommend using liners when you're out, flushable liners preferably. I only started using my liners when the poop became nasty. I found that the breast milk poop was not an issue at all, the pee smelled worse!

Weekend Trips and longer
This all depends on where you're going.  If I'm going somewhere that I know laundry facilities will be available then I have no problem bringing cloth nappies with me.  I bring the usual essentials with me as listed above and sometimes I'll bring my own laundry detergent if I'm going to be away for a while, I don't want to mess up my nappies using unsuitable detergent over and over.  Recently we went to our in-laws and I just used their detergent because it was just one wash.
If the trip takes  you to a place where there are no laundry facilities or where there are a few days without laundry facilities then whether or not you want to use cloth is really up to you.
Recently on a trip to Ireland I just brought disposables with me on the plane as we were on a 7 hour flight and we were landing in Dublin airport which is 4 hours from Cork, I knew it would be a little while before we got to laundry facilities, plus a baby on a plane is enough work and space is limited enough without dealing with cloth nappies.  You can however get large sized wet bags with carbon tags that are really effective in containing the smell.  I would be happy to use something like this on a camping trip or some trip where we're not taking a 7 hour flight with a baby but where laundry facilities aren't readily available.  Another downside to using cloth nappies over a few days where laundry facilities are not available is space.  You'll need to bring a lot of nappies with you, and you may just not have the space.  Again, it's really up to you.

Another more eco-friendly, pocket-friendly solution to travelling with cloth nappies is the hybrid nappy.  One of the many things that annoys me about disposables is that they always come in big packs (I really don't need 24 nappies for one short trip) and they come in different sizes, so you feel under pressure to use up the nappies before the baby grows out of them and I would rather use just what I need and not waste money on excess nappies.  Hybrid nappies are the answer! There are three types of hybrid nappies that I know of; gdiapers, charlie banana and flips.  These are basically nappy covers with cloth inserts to soak up the pee and catch the poop.  The beauty of these nappies is that they are usually one size, the inserts are one size and you can also purchase disposable inserts which are also one size! And they work wonderfully! So no more buying a huge batch of disposable nappies that I won't need, instead for those times when I am on the go without any laundry facilities (or even if I don't want to burden a babysitter with cloth then I simply slip in the disposable insert instead of the cloth.  I will never need to buy another Huggies, and that makes me glad!

Old Habits Die Hard

I've been struggling. For a long time.  I have a lot of very bad housekeeping habits. I'm messy.  I leave things lying around.  I'm easily distracted by...anything.  And unless someone is breathing down my neck (like a boss or a mean scary husband -which I don't seem to have), I'll let things slide.  And I find excuses for everything!
When I have a new space I love setting it up and organising things.  My Montessori instinct kicks in, and I have a place for everything and everything in its place.  I did this when Andrew and I returned from our honeymoon to our first home together, our lovely little apartment in West LA.
However once I started work and life got busy, the apartment wasn't so tidy...it was okay, but our bedroom became the dumping ground.  My excuse was work.
Then I got pregnant.  I took the summer off work and I started to improve the house a little bit, but I went back to work and then we moved.  I finished work and tried to tidy our new place a bit but then we realised that we were moving to Canada-what was the point? We're moving, I'm huge and I'm tired. So that apartment went to pot.  Then Béibhinn was born...and we moved countries...and I never had time to organise anything...and I had a tiny baby...and our new house remained in a state of permanent pot...
And I'm not planning on going back to work, I'm planning on being a full time mum and housewife and I'm pregnant again and breastfeeding and I'm hoping to have more than two children and I'm pretty sure I'll have ample excuses for many years to have a messy house in a state of permanent pot...
So things need to change.  I need to be a decent housewife, if not a great housewife, I need to kick these habits.
So three weeks ago I determined to develop a new habit and to give myself two to three weeks to develop this habit, one habit at a time.  And I've chosen a time in my life when I have MANY excuses not to do these things. I have a nine month old baby, I'm breastfeeding, I'm in my first trimester, I'm exhausted, I have morning sickness,  Béibhinn has stinky cloth nappies, I have diabetes. So many excuses, but I am determined with the help of the Holy Spirit to change my ways and to develop one new habit at a time.  The past three weeks I started with making my bed every morning (yes my bad habits are many and my house is VERY messy).

I think I'm there. I do my best to make the bed AS SOON as I get up in the morning. This means the bed SHOULD be made no matter how busy my day will be.  Andrew has really loved this new development and he said that having one thing in a room done makes it feel like the room has been taken care of.  I don't fuss too much over the bed. I just make sure it's presentable.  Here is my newly made bed this morning - woohoo!

This week I've moved on to habit #2.  Making sure our dining table is clean and tidy after each use.  This is will be a habit I will work on for the next two to three weeks.
Here's hoping and praying that over the next months I will slowly but surely develop simple habits that lead to a generally clean home and a happier wife, hubs and baby.