Look What I Won!

So entering giveaways really does pay off! About a month ago, I saw a notice that said Today’s Mama was hosting an Oxiclean sponsored giveaway (anyway, I think that’s how it worked). After registering for a Today’s Mama, I answered Oxiclean’s question about what was the most surprising thing about being a mother (or something like that). I answered:

Being suddenly on call 24/7. No time off, down time, or quit time. It was a shock with an infant. I do get breaks, but I love it.

The next day, I received an email telling me that I had won (I’m sure my name or number was drawn at random) 6 brand new bumGenius diapers (3 organic, 3 regular) from Banana Peel’s Diapers! These have a value of $123.05!

A few days ago I received my special “fluffy mail” package containing these:

I was so excited to receive a fun variety of colors AND the organic diapers came with snaps, which are the hip new thing (they are fazing out the organic ones with Aplix—Velcro type fastener—and they are on sale everywhere). So I felt honored, blessed, special, and taken care of all at once.

For those NOT in the cloth diaper world, bumGenius, although developed at home by a mama, like most other brands, is essentially the “Pampers” (dare I say it?) of cloth diapers. They are high quality, cute, from a well reputed company, cute, and every cloth diapering mom knows the brand well. The basic diaper has a waterproof outer shell, sewn to an inner stay-dry fleece liner with a pocket where an extremely absorbent micro-fiber insert can be put in (or two for night times) to soak up the wetness.

Clara in her FIRST bumGenius!

I have been avoiding synthetic materials on Clara since she was born (except for disposable diapers :( ), so I didn’t jump on the bumGenius bandwagon right away and wanted to try their organic diaper first. We bought a used one to try a few weeks ago. Their organic variety has the same waterproof shell, but with layers of stitched organic cotton for absorbency on the inside and no pocket. The layers are cleverly added so as to allow air between the layers so they don’t take forever in the dryer as one dense mass.

After trying the regular diapers, however, I can see how nice it is to have no worries of having wet fabric against Clara’s baby soft skin and of being able to double the absorbency any time I want by adding more layers in the pocket. For these reasons, they work great as nighttime diapers for us right now. I don’t have to stumble out of bed at five AM with the worry that maybe she’s fussy because her diaper is too wet or because of damp pajamas. They would also be good for outings for some of the same reasons (pockets and fleece do not guard against poopy diapers though!).

However, I don’t think that in normal use, having wet cotton against her skin is awful. She doesn’t get rashes or irritations because of it. The organic diapers are even easier to use than the pocket diapers because there is no stuffing after washing (or un-stuffing before washing). They are slightly trimmer and aren’t bumpy (as when a novice like me stuffs the inserts badly). And they are organic and perfectly free from anything to do with petroleum!

These aren’t my everyday diapers, especially since I only have seven : ) ( I’ll share with you soon what I DO use all the time). These are a very nice treat, though. They are wonderful for outings, baby-sitters (i.e. grandmas), nighttime, and looking cute (We brought our pink one to a professional photo shoot the other day)!

Mostly I wanted to write this as a great big THANK YOU to the lovely people who made this all possible for me. : ) I am a very happy owner of my new bumGenius diapers. I will take good care of them so as to enjoy their soft fluffiness for a very long time.