A Day in the Life of a Cloth Nappy Mum
Friday 29th May. A day in the life of our family during lock down. Living an eco-friendly lifestyle and using cloth nappies.
Well times have been strange lately haven’t they?! I was working full time pre-lockdown but have been at home with my baby for the duration of this pandemic. It’s hard to explain how I feel about it because of course I do not want this to be happening and I feel guilty for enjoying this time. We really have been living in our own bubble here and in many ways I’ve been given the time that I wanted. I’m home with my daughter Reeva. Mat my partner, although still working some days from home and some in school (he’s a teacher), has been around way more than he ever has been, and his sons, my step sons have been with us from Sunday to Wednesday every week. They are normally with us 2/3 nights a week, but you know what normal life is like. music lessons, art club, swimming lessons, it’s only really Sundays Reeva would get time with them. With me normally working Sundays, you get the picture. Life was busy and I was missing them all. Now we have time. Time we’ve never had before. Plus I’ve been working on this blog which I love.
I thought therefore it was time to do a day in the life of our eco-friendly family. To show how cloth nappies and carbon friendly choices fit into our everyday life. To be honest things with that side of life are no different to when life was busier.
As it was a Friday I’m documenting it was just me and Reeva, Mat at work, boys with their Mum, so we shall treat it like one of my days off. Just me and my girl on our adventures.
If your thinking of making more eco-friendly choices but wonder how it will work for your busy family I hope this helps you imagine how it could work for you too.
7am.
Reeva and I wake up. She’s in our bed where she migrates to at some point every night. She’s 21 months now and still feeds in the night. Mainly out of ease. It gives us all a good nights sleep. Mat’s nowhere to be seen. He’s an early riser so I assume he’s woken before us and gone for his morning run. Slowly we get out of bed. I’ve become more of a morning person since I’ve had a baby which I do like (I’ll never be on Mat’s level), it still takes a bit of time to get me actually out of bed but it’s warm this morning so I’m pretty keen to get up and out.
We head to the bathroom where the nappy bin in kept. As soon as Reeva’s nappy is off she makes a run for it and doesn’t seem to keen to get it back on quickly. I grab a cloth wipe from the bathroom shelf run it under the warm tap and walk after her. I make the wipe nice a soggy in the morning to give her a really nice clean. She has after all been in the wet nappy all night. At this point I normally grab another dry wipe and give her a dry too before I put a new cloth nappy on but as she’s happy naked I sit her on the potty and read a story after returning to the bathroom to throw the cloth wipes in the nappy bin too.
She seems at the moment to be soaking through her first nappy of the day within an hour (probably all the milk she drinks when she wakes at about 6am and I’m keen to feed her back to sleep for another hour). For this reason I sit her on the potty sometimes and hope she goes. She seems to enjoy this, especially if a story is involved.
Daddy walks back through the door at this point post run, the potty is quickly forgotten and I chase her to get a nappy on.
As I said the first nappy gets quiet soaked so I pick a nappy I know is super trust worthy, adding an extra boost for good measure. I choose a Baba and Boo pocket nappy (one of our favorites), plus a Little Lamb bamboo liner. Back when she went to nursery I would maybe even put two little lambs in or a fitted nappy and a wrap (we use these at nighttime are they are the most absorbant). Nursery would do their first nappy change around 10am so this would make sure she didn’t soak through before this.
Friday is also Milk man delivery day. We order organic milk, local orange and apple juice from Milk and More. A cold glass of apple juice goes down well at this point.
7.30am
We wave Mat off at the door and head straight out into the garden. I drink my tea, Reeva’s playing with her water already, filling her bottle from the bucket, pouring into the many cups she has on the garden tables. It’s like her laboratory. I wondered whether I should buy her a plastic water table, unable to get a second hand one like I normally would, I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to buy a new plastic one. Watching her now I realise it’s necessary. I pull out more cups and some old pans for her to pour into, she’s perfectly happy with this and plays for hours on and off throughout the day. Perhaps after lock down I’ll see a second hand one anyway.
I watch her play for 10 minutes, drinking my tea from the doorstep, it’s warm outside and blissful.
8am
Reeva’s never been a breakfast person, most of the time I just make myself something to share with her, it’s unlikely she’ll eat it but we have some sour dough from the local deli and some leftover avocado in the fridge from our veg box, I make some avo on toast. While it’s in the toaster I plan the day. We are now allowed to be in another household’s garden and my Mum has got a paddling pool for Reeva. I decide we will cycle there for a coffee and play, then maybe along the seafront, I know the diggers are working in front of our beach hut. She’ll be hunger by the time we get back so I decide to quickly make some pasta to take with her. While the toast is still in the toaster I boil the kettle, get a frying pan out, grate some leftover courgette into the pan and fry it a little in oil. Pop the pasta on, butter the toast, eat this while the pasta is cooking. While Reeva plays with her toast I add olives and pesto. By this point she’s seen the pasta, she wants it. She hates breakfast until it’s something she likes a lot aka a hot meal but hey, who said pasta was only for lunch. She eats half of it.
I do believe a lot low waste living is simply about being prepared. If your prepared like with having lunch and snacks with your your less likely to reach for convenience.
We text Mum our plan quickly get dressed. I haven’t stuff the nappies as I’ve been a little relaxed with it since lock down. It only takes 30 seconds to grab two out of the basket, stuff them, add a liner and put them in my changing bag. I add the tupperware of pasta, our water bottles freshly filled, a bag of crisps and an apple, that should see us through until we get home around midday for nap time.
8.30AM
Half an hour later we pulling my bike up the side passage. We don’t hang around here. Yes to slow living but also yes to enjoying the morning. Plus Reeva was standing by my bike holding her shoes and helmet. I didn’t really have much choice other than to head out.
It’s windy out today, we live at the top of a hill. For a moment I look longingly at the car. It could be a tough climb back home….. but no I’ll be grateful of the exercise afterwards, feel good I’ve avoided using the car and Reeva is eagerly tapping the bike seat. She loves it on the back. I take the eco-friendly choice.
The 15 minute cycle there is blissfully downhill and there’s a lovely breeze keeping us cool. All thoughts of the car are gone.
11am.
A lovely coffee and play in the garden with Mum, Dad and brother Cal. He’s back off to his desk to work from home, Mum keen to get up to her allotment, Dad decides to socially distance cycle with us to the beach. We sit at the beach hut for half an hour or so. It’s pretty windy and a little cold but Reeva eats her packed lunch and watches the diggers move the shingle (they’ve been at this all week, it’s provided a lot of entertainment for us.)
11.30am
We say goodbye to Dad and start the not so long, long cycle back up the hill. I can tell Reeva’s starting to wane so I hand her some crisps to eat on the journey (not everything is plastic free unfortunately).
Over the last few weeks of cycling with her on my back I’ve figured out the best route home from the beach. I cut down mainly back roads, through the park and up onto an easier steady incline. I have to dismount and get on the pavement briefly. The pavements pretty wide here so I can slow down if any pedestrians are coming the other way. It’s always been a fear of mine when cycling on the pavement that someone will tell me off. I’m not sure many people are going to stop a Mother with a baby on their bike if the alternative is a busy road but hey, as long as we are respectful. I’m pleased we’ve never had anything more than a smile as we go past. I am also lead to believe if you feel it’s not safe to be on the road it’s your right to go on the pavement. I’m going with this.
At the point I have to dismount to get across a busy road I have just felt something tapping on my back, I look back as we cross, it’s Reeva head bobbing as she falls in and out of sleep. I try to keep her awake by singing and passing more crisps back. This could be a danger nap meaning she won’t sleep once we’re home. However it seems she in such a deep sleep there’s no keeping her awake. I walk the last steep bit, then cycle back as quick as poss, one hand behind me holding her head up as it looks most uncomfortable bobbing around on her chest.
I manage to pull the bike into the hall way, unstrap her, lift her helmet off and carry her to bed, she half wakes and I feed her back to sleep. The impossible is done, only problem is I didn’t change her nappy. The last change was when she got wet in the paddling pool at Mum’s. It’s a risk of leakage I’ll have to take. Never mind I can have lunch and blog for an hour in peace.
Pin me for later….
1pm
She wakes, she feels damp but her clothes and the sheets are safe. One more wee would have broken the camels back but the nappy held and all is well. I change her and plonk her down in front of the TV with some snacks while she’s still a little chilled and sleepy. I stuff the nappies that are still in the washing basket while she’s quiet. It’s a job I normally like doing and keeps us organised in our normal busy lives but like I said lockdown’’s made me a little lazy with it. It’s time for another nappy wash and these are still in the basket. I feel better once it’s done though, like with anything.
The peace and quiet lasts as long as it takes her to eat her orange, I quickly run upstairs to the bathroom to grab the nappy bucket, pull out the mesh bag straight into the washing machine and put it on a 30 minute rinse wash before the chaos begins.
She runs straight into the back garden pours her bucket of water everywhere and sits in it. So much for a clean nappy, but hey it can go in the wash and isn’t a wasted one going to landfill. I can see this happening again so I put her swim nappy on. Reusable swim nappies are quiet frankly the easiest eco-friendly swap you can make. We have had to Bambino Mio swim nappy which as seen us through two summers now. Emma has all the reasons you should consider using reusable swim nappies here.
We play like this in between a bit of gardening, me chopping back shit (my favorite) and planting out some of our seedling, Reeva soaking them all with water. Who knows if they’ll survive this but we can hope.
4pm
Mat walks back through the door. She’s so covered in mud from the last few hours he basically has to pick her up at arms length, plonk her in the bath and shower her down. She thinks this is great fun. While he’s doing this I unstuff the nappies that have been pre-washed, bulk out the wash with some tea towels that have been used to mop Reeva’s wet trail up and put them on a 60 degree long wash. There’s no point hanging them up tonight, it will be warm again tomorrow so if I hang them in the garden they will be dry by the afternoon. I vow to have them stuffed and put away by dinner time tomorrow. Then there will be no more nappy washes for 3/4 days. When I was working I would wash on a Tuesday and Friday, purely because I was off Monday and Tuesday so this worked having all the nappies ready for sending with her to childcare. I try to keep to this routine now otherwise Mat would wash every other day (he doesn’t like the bin getting too full. We disagree over this because if we wash too soon there’s not enough nappies to fill our 9kg washing machine. And also who wants to wash more than they need too)
5pm
We make Reeva’s dinner. Rice from our huge 11kg bulk bag, brought pre lock down, I was very grateful for this through all the panic buying. Plus bulk buying saves on plastic and money. Peas from the freezer, veg that needs using up from our veg box last week, egg and prawns. The ultimate fried rice. She eats it in her high chair in the front garden because A the sun has now moved there and B Friday at 6pm is music night in our street. Any musicians (I am not one) come out in the street and play for everyone, some duet, some play music for the kids. Its like a socially distance pub night every week. People are already milling about and our next door neighbors sit in their front garden with glasses of wine chatting to us while Reeva eats.
7pm
Finally drag Reeva in from the music. There’s still people chatting over front garden walls outside but we have been in the sun all day and although she would do anything to stay out there all night Reeva looks shattered. By 8pm she is thankfully bathed and in bed. Mat and I decided early on that we won’t be cooking for ourselves now and order from our favorite Thai.
Most of their packaging is plastic free or recyclable but not all. I put this to the back of my mind as A I can not do everything, B I love Thai food and C I’m keen to support local businesses especially at this time for which they are one and a lovely family who treat us so well when we visit the restaurant.
10pm
Googlebox over we are struggling to keep our eyes open and head to bed. A little heady from a couple of glasses of wine and sun/wind we fall asleep half waiting for Reeva to wake and come climbing into our bed. Which of course she does……
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How many cloth nappies will you need to go full time and ditch the disposables for good?