Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Diapers in the New Dryer. RIGHT. This. minute.

Well, we are feeling better today. Ardyn came home last night with a 102.5 temperature, and has had one ever since, but Ibuprofen seems to be keeping it down... so that's a good thing. She and I took a three hour nap this evening, which was not our intention, but apparently was entirely necessary. I woke up much like I did this morning, in that state where you are all drooling and sloppy and don't know what day it is.

This afternoon I made up my midwife appointment and got a "labor pep talk" which I needed, especially after I had been previously feeling all centered and ready, and then got so sick that it really threw me off track. I think that being 39 weeks pregnant tomorrow is both shocking and exciting.

Something incredible is going on in my laundry room right now. I am using my new Kenmore HE dryer to dry the first load of cloth diapers. Ahhh. We will see how it goes. I had a nice big load to wash, so hopefully it will be large enough to dry efficiently. I am super excited, especially because it's also my first load with the fabled Ecover Fabric Softener. Can't wait to see if the Goodmamas come out all fluffy and magical again. I hope so, because that means that the MEOS will also be magical when I wash them.

I am air drying PUL covers and wetbags upstairs on the chrome drying rack. I usually like to air dry them if possible. I FINALLY got myself a second pail liner, as part of my diaper layaway for Marek. I am super excited about that. I don't know why I put myself through the stress of only having one for the last 16 months. Seriously, it is $20 some odd dollars well spent. It's so exciting to have a spare, it's like Christmas every time I do a load! Yay! I use the Monkey Doodlez Pail Liner with the Elastic top, and it's my favorite because of it's generous size, sturdy construction, and most of all, it's PUL is invisible, so you almost NEVER get that sweaty pail or sweaty wetbag syndrome that you get when the PUL is in contact with your pail. It's fab.

Another part of my layaway was a on the go wetbag from Luving Mamma Diapers- Booty Hugger Line. I LOVE it already and I haven't even gotten to use it. it's about identical in size to my Goodmamma Medium Wetbags (of which I have three) and it has a cool Retro Word Search Print. I also adore that there is a seperate pouch in the front, with the same wetbag lining, that you can use for clean wipes, or if you are an eco-savvy mamma like me, for your own mamma pads. Yaay! It also has a cottony tag sewn into the lining of the PUL that you can use to put some essential oil on, to help keep down smelly diapers on a long day out.

I was excited to see how clean these diapers were after washing. They were on my list to wash on Saturday morning, but then Evan was sick and Ardyn and I fled to my moms, and the rest was history. So when I wanted to wash them was actually three days before I actually GOT to wash them. Ugh. That's never good. But no one who is sick with the stomach flu thinks that washing diapers is a good idea. Assuming that I would have even been able to function to wash (which I wouldn't have.)

I ended up doing a prewash, then a hot hot soak overnight with my usual detergent and Oxyboost, then another prewash, then a hot hot wash with a double rinse in colr with the same detergent, oxyboost, and Ecover. As I was prepping those diapers for washing, I was thinking about how nice it will be when Ardyn is potty trained and I have no more poopy toddler diapers to wash. I think that's the first time I had really thought of that, so you can see how it's not fun to wash diapers that have been sitting longer than desirable. LOL.

Ardyn's newest thing is that she doesn't WANT to sit on her potty chair. I got the seat for the toilet, and she thinks that's cool, but when I put her up on it, she instantly says "Done." and then "Down?" and I tell her that we have to count to 10 before we can get down. She never GOES on the potty, but right now we are working on sitting on the potty at least once a day, usually before bathtime first thing in the morning. I hope to get her closer to potty training when Marek hits about 6 weeks old and we can actually function again.

When we woke up today we saw the grass was really starting to green up. I am so anxious for our fence. SO anxious. No one can out up a fence fast enough for my taste.

Of course it's been rainy for a few days. We really didn't do much today. I was exhausted most of the day, so Ardyn and I lay around in our pajamas until about 12:30. I did take a bath at like 9am and we were up at 8am, but we were lazy in bed with Dora the Explorer and Sprout's morning show, eating cheerios and drinking milk. It was good. I think I fell asleep for another hour in there somewhere, Her fever was spiking and I had started to get a headache, so we both took our medicine and snuggled up. For lunch Ardyn had Vegetable Beef Soup with Alphabet Noodles. She thought it was pretty cool to find a letter and eat it.

It was also nice to not be sick anymore, because I finally got a chance to USE my new dryer. It had been there since Friday, and I really hadn't touched it. I have learned a few things so far, and maybe I will get better at it as I dry more clothes.

It dries really quickly, if you use the high heat (heavy duty) or jeans cycle. Sometimes 25-38 minutes a load. But, if you use the regular normal setting, it takes at least 49-60 minutes to dry a load. I have discovered that it isn't ALWAYS correct on sensor. It has a hard time with small loads. The smaller the load, it actually seems to take LONGER to dry. If it's a big load, it almost always senses correctly. Just like my previous dryer, it has an issue with wrapping kind sized bedding up inside itself and I have to go down periodically and untangle it. However, I was able to fit my king sized comforter in it, which I couldn't with my previous dryer, and after about three 60 minute cycles and continuous untangling, it was sry enough to sleep with (a few damp areas by my feet, but nothing serious.) I am using it with my 9 dryer balls, and I think that helps, especially with clothes and things that are small (diapers, Ardyn's size clothes, etc.) Those are the types of loads that it has a hard time sensing. Small objects of clothing and loads that aren't full sized. I think the more that I get the hang of what clothes need what setting, the more efficient it will be. Especially when I can use the timed dry setting efficiently and see just how dry the clothes get, and set the time myself. I do really like the settings for low or no heat, when you just want to fluff something up or dry something like PUL or Bras that you don't want to expose to heat. And the Wrinkle Guard feature is pretty cool, because when your load is done, the dryer will periodically toss the clothes to prevent wrinkles from setting in.

I recently needed to get some refill blades for my Fiskars paper trimmer, and bought a couple (which I knew in the store looked DIFFERENT) and of course they don't FIT and I can't find the ones that I need. So now i am trying to figure out of I need to upgrade my trimmer (which wouldn't be the END of the world, but still is frustrating) in order to get refill blades that fit. So now I have no sharp blades, except two that don't fit. I saw this trimmer online and kinda liked it... it's a newer version of mine, so I don't know what to do.

My friend Keli took a cute picture of her toddler, and the "fun with a pen" that she had while Keli was taking a shower. it made me snicker. In other news, Ardyn now says "I love you" and her other new phrases are "my stuff" and "C'm here!" She's also really increased her singing. The Wheels on the Bus and Happy Happy Birthday are constants around here. And suddenly everything is "wellow" (yellow) when she previously knew colors really pretty well. He he.

Ardyn's new thing is to yell at me because her hair is in her eyes. But we have the discussion 500 times a day that if she would STOP TAKING OUT HER HAIR CLIP she wouldn't have unruly hair. She gets it. But she doesn't care. Some days she will wear her clip all day and never touch it. The past week has not included one of those days.

Well, off to check on the diapers. Can't wait to see if they are dry or fluffy or all of the above!

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