(clean) Pampers Rewards Program

One thing that I never thought that I would be a brand snob about was diapers. With the number of diapers we go through a day, beggars can't be choosers. But I quickly learned there is a difference from brand to brand. [Big ole disclaimer, every kid is different and some diapers that work for us, won't work for you and vice versa. So this is just my experience.]

For some reason, my boys have wet through to their clothes every time I have used Huggies diapers. So we would end up using twice as many diapers and would end up having to do laundry more frequently. So we pay a little extra and use Pampers. We were loyal Swaddlers fans through their largest size (2-3) and are now onto Cruisers. We tried the Baby Dry diapers as well, but one of the boys would get a huge diaper rash every time we put him in one.

So all this is to say that we're loyal Pampers customers. And unfortunately, I just realized - on the boys 8 month birthday - that they have a rewards program! Go to Pampers and sign up for their Gifts to Grow program. On the inside of Pampers products, you will find a small sticker with a code. Enter the codes and the site will track your rewards earned. The rewards are things like books, Sears portrait coupons and free Shutterfly prints. But at the very least, you should get coupons for more Pampers products.

(clean) Washing socks

The boys spent their first 5 months in sleepers (no joke) because I apparently have a great dislike of socks. But as winter was in full force, and they were big enough for their cute outfits, I decided to bite the bullet and open the sock drawer. I have since found that socks apparently taste good to the boys. I find them stuffed in their mouths after their naps. This means that we go through multiple pairs throughout the day so that they have a dry pair covering their toes.

So as a result, I'm constantly washing (and losing) socks. I would be lucky if half the socks made it through the wash. So I started collecting all of the dirty socks in a mesh lingerie bag. I keep it in the boys' hamper and fill it with socks throughout the day. It goes in the wash and in the dryer, and keeps the socks together the whole time!

Purchase a lingerie/sock bag

(clean) Fun with boys

Little boys have the wonderful ability to spray you (and the wall, themselves and the plant behind them) when you are changing them. One tip that we learned in the NICU was to cover their piddler with a gauze pad. The trick is to order the gauze in bulk, as opposed to buying the small packages from the drugstore that only contain a handful of individually wrapped pads.

The gauze pads are also great to have around the nursery to clean up any small spit ups, use with water for make-shift wipes, etc. Just check out how many come to a pack and figure out how many you may need for the next few months when ordering. Or you will end up with 15 packs of 200 gauze pads each like we did.



Purchase Gauze pads

(clean) Make your own diaper wallet

A new favorite site of mine is Ikea Hacker . Folks send in their hacks to Ikea products. And lo and behold, there was a fantastic post today about how to make a diaper wallet out of an Ikea CD case. It resembles the pricier Skip Hop pronto mini changer, doesn't take a lot of skill, time or supplies, and costs a great deal less.

Make your own Diaper Wallet.

Brilliant.

(clean) Bums

If I were to nominate one of the baby items we cannot live without, it would be Boudreaux's Buttpaste. We tried everything on our little boys' bums: Desitin, A&D, straight zinc oxide. The A&D ointment literally burned their skin and smelled horrible. The straight zinc oxide (this is what the hospital/NICU used) is affordable, but not great due to its thick consistency. Two of our three babies had terrible diaper rashes prior to using the Buttpaste (hence we had tried every diaper cream on the market). Once we switched to the Buttpaste, they have not had a single rash.

Boudreaux's Buttpaste smells like heaven and is the perfect consistency. Our trick is to buy the tubs and to spread the Buttpaste on with Johnson's cotton swabs. (Q-tips did not work at all due to the cotton pulling off the tip when you tried to spread it.) This prevents you from using your fingers and potentially spreading germs and bacteria in the container. And when you're changing 3 babies in a row, you don't have time to wash your hands in between each.

Purchase Boudreaux's Buttpaste and Johnson's cottom swabs on Amazon

(clean) Washing bibs

This is probably pretty intuitive to everyone else, but it just occurred to me. When washing bibs, I (now) always make sure they are closed (the velcro is secure). Otherwise, the velcro will attach to anything and everything in the laundry. Forget to and the camisole you threw in there on a whim will be ruined when the velcro attaches to the front section that is actually seen by the outside world and rips it to pieces. For example.

Because we use 3 bibs at a time, and that most cloth bibs are sold in packs of 3, I close the matching bibs so that they are secured around each other. It makes it easy to grab the bibs before feeding and know that you will have 3 matching bibs. (This is important when you are giving them formula mixed with prune juice to help with bowel issues and you want to use your largest bibs for coverage.)