Wordless Wednesday: Week 4

Rockin' Green Giveaway WINNERS!!!

Welcome to all my new fans, we have a lot more giveaways coming soon, so stay tuned! Congratulations to the 3 winners of the Rockin' Green cloth diaper detergent giveaway! Via random.org.....

Winner #1, of the bag of 45/90 load detergent from Rockin' Green is....

Erica Nicholas

Winner #2, of 2 classic rock samples from Baby and the Chi's is....

Tiffany Church

Winner #3, of 2 samples of classic rock from Baby and the Chi's is....

Jessica Gonzalez

 

I'll be sending you all an email shortly :)

Eco Nuts Soap Nuts Review

I've been tossing the idea of trying out soap nuts for a few months now. I've heard from many people who use them for their cloth diapers and have amazing results, so I finally broke down and bought a box of Eco Nuts on sale from Bippy Diapers. I couldn't wait to try them out! What are soap nuts?

 Eco Nuts™ are completely sustainable dried fruit shells that come from the Sapindus mukorossi tree (also called the Soap Berry or Soap Nut Tree) in Nepal, India and Indonesia. The ones we harvest come from high up in the Himalayas and are the highest quality "soap nut" on the market. These fruit shells have been used in India and China for centuries, and are now gaining popularity in America and Europe as a renewable, biodegradable and organic alternative to chemical  detergents and expensive “Green” laundry soaps.

 Eco Nuts™  contain saponin, a natural cleaner that works as a surfactant, breaking the surface tension of the water to penetrate the fibers of your clothing, lifting stains from the fabric and leaving dirt suspended in the water that is rinsed away.

Eco Nuts™ are gentle on both clothes and skin, making them ideal for those with sensitive skin, eczema, allergies and psoriasis. Because they are so mild, they are perfect for baby clothes and cloth diapers. All-Natural Eco Nuts™ are also great for septic and grey water systems. But don’t expect these shells to foam up like commercial soaps, which have artificial foaming agents. Foam simply does not represent cleaning power.

Shipping was pretty fast, I had them in 2 or 3 days. I looked over the instructions and added 5 soap nuts (which are actually dried berries) to a bag and washed a load of burp rags, bibs and towels. I washed on hot, took the "soap baggie" out of the washer and put everything in the dryer. I smelled every - last - piece of laundry that came out of the dryer, and while everything smelled clean...

 

...I was sad to see that many things didn't look clean. I'm not diligent with my laundry. I don't pre-treat stains, I just throw things in the hamper and when it's full I wash.  However, I still don't have stains on anything. I've used the cheapest commercial detergents, Tide, and most recently, for the past 6 months, Rockin Green, on everything. No stains. I shrugged it off. Eco Nuts recommended I buy a stain pre-treater and try that. So I purchased an additional laundry tool that I've never used before, sprayed what was extra dirty, and washed a load of Buggie's clothes. This time I checked everything that came out of the washer, and still saw streaks of formula on his shirts. 

Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed in this purchase. Kudos to those of you out there who can use such an eco-friendly laundry detergent, but I'll be sticking with my Rockin' Green!

If you'd like to try them yourself, you too can buy them from Bippy Diapers using the link above in this post, or you can also purchase them directly from Eco Nuts! A trial size box for an average of 10 loads is $4.50, and  a medium box (which I purchased) which lasts for an average of 100 loads is $12.

FTC Disclaimer: I purchased this product with my own money and was not in any way obligated to provide a review.

5 months today!

Seriously? I can't believe I've been a mommy for 5 months already! It still feels like we brought Bug home a month ago. What's happened since last month?

• Bug has his 2 bottom front teeth, and the top front teeth are trying to poke through
• Bug is "scooting" on the floor with his feet, but not yet crawling
• He's rolling over to sleep, there's no keeping him on his tummy anymore :(
• He's eating a full 2.5 oz jar of baby food each day, usually split between 2 meals
• He's drinking 5 - 6oz bottles of formula and one 4 ounce bottle of juice every day
• Bug is holding everything on his own, and has figured out how a cup works
• He's very "talkative" I swear sometimes he says "yeah", but usually says "gah" "ah" or a squeaky laugh
• Of course, he laughs all the time more than anything
• Bug sleeps the whole night, usually 10, but sometimes 11, or even 12 hours without waking up to eat

He's growing up so fast!

Nothing is for sure because I'm having a hard time finding sponsors, but I'm working on hosting a Birthday Bash Giveaway for his first birthday in January :)

Itti Bitti Review and Giveaway

We were so happy to be given the opportunity by itti bitti to review a diaper, that the anticipation grew that much more when it arrived during the Flats and Handwashing Challenge and we had to wait to try it out lol.

"Hey Mama! Look what we got in the mail!"

 A little info about ittibitti:

itti bitti is an Australian company that started in 2005 and has grown phenomenally, with itti bitti diapers now being sold in 25 countries! itti bitti launched into the USA in March 2011.

 Moms worldwide love the ultra trim fit, gorgeous fabrics, superior quality, amazing performance and the rainbow of colors.

Itti bitti provided us with the bitti tutto, itti bitti's only one-size diaper, in the color red. One of the first things I noticed (aside from the soft minky fabric) was once it was on Buggie, I was totally impressed with how it fit. The bitti tutto has 4 rise settings as well as over-lap snaps to get a sure fit on newborns and thinner babies. Bug is currently 16 pounds and 26 inches long (at 4.5 months) and fit on the first waist snaps and the lowest rise setting:

The bitti tutto comes with 3 soaker pad pieces:

As you can see, there are 2 sets of inside snaps in the cover, and the snaps on the soakers are color-coded to help you piece them together to get the best performance out of them. The soaker on the top right fits inside the cover perfectly in the lowest snap setting, while the long soaker on the bottom adjusts in length using the blus snaps shown (which are on the bottom of the soaker). The third is a mini soaker, and is shown snapped to the bottom of the long soaker. All the soakers are a 70% bamboo/30%organic cotton blend, and the short and long soakers are topped with a 100% polyester stay-dry layer.

The cover has many features itself, as well as a hidden PUL layer:

(photo courtesy of itti bitti)

We've been using the long soaker snapped up to the smallest length inside the cover, snapped in on the yellow set of cover snaps. It's been excellent for day time use. Just to see how absorbent everything works together, I used the long soaker as I do during the day, snapped the mini onto the back of the short soaker and snapped it to the purple snaps up front and put Buggie to bed. The next morning? No leaks!(Itti Bitti does recommend washing and drying at least 3 times to let the inserts reach maximum absorbancy)

The bitti tutto has held up well through a few poop-losions without any seeping or leaking around the legs or waist, and no stains have set in either. Both the cover and the inserts wash up nicely. With the minky cover though, I do not recommend washing these with towels. I don't think many people do that anyway, but we prepped ours with a load of towels and (being picky about the cute new diaper...) I spent some time trying to get the lint off lol. Does anyone else line dry? I dry everything in our apartment on laundry baskets and the whole diaper dries nicely and stays soft.

Overall, I love this diaper! No pockets to stuff, but it gets a more thorough wash unlike an all-in-one. It fits my son perfectly, no leaks or red marks. The bitti tutto retails for $26.95, but you can win one here directly from itti bitti (in their choice of color) by entering below!

*While I was provided with the diaper used for this review, I was not compensated in any way to sway my thoughts or opinions. All opinions are mine, and mine alone. This giveaway will be open until July 3, 2011 at 11:59pm CST. A winner will be chosen and emailed by me. Winners info will be sent to itti bitti so they many provide you with your prize. Open to United States residents. Canadian residents may enter, but must pay shipping.*

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