Super Water Slide

Thanks, Mail Carrier is hosting a giveaway for a Super Water Slide AND Dual Action Foot Pump from HearthSong during her Anniversary Bash. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway? Ends August 19th.

$100 GC to Hayneedle

Thanks, Mail Carrier is hosting a giveaway for a $100 gift certificate to Hayneedle during her Anniversary Bash. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway? Ends August 19th.

$70 GC to CSN Stores

Thanks, Mail Carrier is hosting a giveaway for a $70 gift certificate to CSN Stores during her anniversary bash! Why not head over and enter this great giveaway? Ends August 12th.

Waiting 4 Baby @ A Mom's Take

A Mom's Take is hosting a Waiting 4 Baby event starting this Monday. Why not head over and check it out. Don't forget to RSVP though!

pediped footwear

Thanks, Mail Carrier is hosting a giveaway for pediped footwear during her Anniversary Bash. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway? Ends August 12.

Delta Addison Monitor 17 Series Shower Trim Showerhead

Thanks, Mail Carrier is hosting a giveaway for a Delta Addison Monitor 17 Series Shower Trim Showerhead during her anniversary bash! Why not head over and enter this great giveaway? Ends August 12.

GiftZip

Thanks, Mail Carrier is hosting a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com sponsored by GiftZip during her Anniversary Bash. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway? Ends August 12

mamaRoo

Thanks, Mail Carrier is hosting a giveaway for a mamaRoo from 4moms during her Anniversary Bash. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway? Ends August 12

4moms Cleanwater Infant Tub

Little BGCG is hosting a giveaway for a 4moms Cleanwater Infant Tub... Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends 8/12

Bummas

Karen at The Mommy Times is hosting a giveaway for a set of Bummas! Why not head over and enter this great giveaway? Ends 8/10

AMP OS Duo Pocket Diaper

Karen at The Mommy Times is hosting a giveaway for a AMP one size Duo pocket diaper. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends 8/10

Lil' Joeys

Cloth Diaper Retailer Cooperative is hosting a giveaway for a 2 pack of Lil' Joeys in gender neutral colors. Having a baby? Then stop by and check out this great giveaway! Ends August 10th.

The Bowtique

Simply Stacie is hosting a giveaway for a $20 gift certificate to The Bowtique! I love browsing the different hair bows and could spend waaayyyy more than $20 on the cute bows... Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends Aug 6.

Monkey's Birthday Bash @ Monkey Tales

Monkey Tales is having a Birthday Bash to celebrate Monkey's 2nd birthday! There will be reviews and giveaways from Hearthsong, Diaper Junction, Naturepedic, and EcoMom to name a few. And... there is extra entries available now! Head on over and check it out!

Loving My Life Reviews

Loving My Life Reviews is hosting several giveaways. One is for a Bossy Baby Short Romper from Chiquita Baby.

Another is for a Tiny Tush Trim Hemp 4.0 and another for an AppleCheeks Swim Diaper! Plus, a Baby Legs giveaway and a Miracle Blanket giveaway!

Sarah is also celebrating her 1 year blogiversary this week with some great giveaways as well! Why not head over and enter them?

Tree Huggin' Designs

Biehl Adventures is hosting a giveaway for a set of 10 cloth wipes from Tree Huggin Designs during her Fluff Baby Home event! Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends August 2nd.

Bosch Universal Plus Mixer

HappilyDomestic is hosting a giveaway for a Bosch Universal Plus Mixer! I would so love to have this... and I'll venture to guess that many of you would too! Ends 8/23

AppleCheeks

Liz Has A Life is hosting a giveaway for an AppleCheeks diaper sponsored by Bellalojo Baby. They have sustainable|babyish fitted diapers as well... too bad that the only large is in pink! Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends 8/3

Katydid

Liz Has a Life is hosting a giveaway for a Katydid cloth diaper. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends July 31.

$15 GC to EcoMom

Liz Has a Life is hosting a giveaway for a $15 gift certificate to EcoMom. EcoMom has some great stuff in their store, especially cloth diapers! The giveaway ends tonight, so hurry over and get your entries in!

Oregon Chai

Adventures in all things food is hosting a giveaway for Oregon Chai.... with 2 winners! Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends August 9th.

Coconut Peanut Butter

Adventures in all things food is hosting a giveaway for Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter. Which by the way, is sooo delicious! Ends tomorrow night!

Giveaway Scout

About a week or two ago, I started noticing some blogs that were mentioning a new giveaway site. After seeing it, I decided to check it out and subscribe to the emails. I got general subscription and it averages about 2-3 emails a day. I've seen many giveaways that I want to enter and new sites to read.

Then, Josh from Giveaway Scout, left a comment asking if I would consider adding my blog to Giveaway Scout. I think it's a neat idea and well worth subscribing to and adding your blog.

So, why not check it out? If you're interested in cloth diapers, I've seen several giveaways for those on new blogs to me... and giveaways for gift certificates to CSN Stores. That's not all either, so head on over and see what you'll find.

BabyBond

Mama B is hosting a giveaway for a BabyBond. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends tonight!

Best Bottoms

Mama B is hosting a giveaway for a Best Bottoms shell and 3 inserts from Nicki's Diapers. Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends August 4th.

Sleepy Wrap

Mama B is hosting a giveaway for a Sleepy Wrap! I would love to have one of these great baby wraps. What about you? Ends July 29th.

GroVia AI2 Shell Set

Arizona Mama is having a giveaway for a GroVia AI2 Shell Set from The Baby Store Plus. I so want to try a GroVia diaper on J. (I think I might have fluff addiction here! lol!) Do you want to try one? Ends August 14th.

Homestead Blessings

HappilyDomestic is hosting a giveaway during her Joys of Homemaking event for a Homestead Blessings 9 DVD set from Franklin Springs Family Media. I would so love to win this! Ends August 7th

Organic Toddler Cloud Pillow

HappilyDomestic is hosting a giveaway for a Organic Toddler Cloud Pillow from Natura World. Ends 7/26

Nifty Nappy SwimEaze

HappilyDomestic is hosting a giveaway for a Nifty Nappy SwimEaze diaper. Ends 7/25

Mountain Hardwear

HappilyDomestic is hosting a giveaway for a Men's Ravine Long Sleeve Shirt from Mountain Hardwear. Ends 7/29

$15 GC to EcoMom

HappilyDomestic is hosting a giveaway for a $15 gift certificate to Ecomom. Ends 7/20

Guidecraft Doll Bunk Bed

HappilyDomestic is hosting a giveaway for a Doll Bunk Bed compliments of Guidecraft. I know our little girls would love this! Ends 7/30

Little Tikes

HappilyDomestic is hosting a giveaway for a Endless Adventure Fold and Store Table Combo Pack from Little Tikes. Ends 7/27

Organic Palm Shortening

We already use lots of coconut oil in cooking, baking, etc... but, I'd really like to try palm shortening. Meandering Matt is hosting a giveaway for Organic Palm Shortening from TTropical Traditions. Ends 7/25

BumGenius

Fitted and pockets and snappis, oh my! (don't you just love that name!) is hosting a giveaway for two BumGenius 4.0. One in velcro and the other in snaps. I'd love to try some BG's. How about you? Why not come over and enter this great giveaway!

Ends 7/28

AppleCheeks

I love AppleCheeks diapers! Serendipity Mommy is hosting a giveaway for a Little Bundle! Why not head over and enter this great giveaway! Ends July 24.

My history with cloth diapers...

Since some folks have asked, I thought I'd write a post about how I got started with cloth diapers.

The first time I ever used cloth diapers was about 7 years ago on my baby sister. We used the cheap prefolds and covers from Walmart and diaper pins. In my ignorance, I believed that if the diapers smelled, I should add more soap. Needless to say, the diapers leaked constantly and the plastic covers kept melting in the dryer. Shortly afterwards, we put our house on the market and my dad said 'enough with cloth diapers. I don't want people walking into our house and smelling them!'. I agreed and thought I'd wouldn't use cloth diapers again since they were such a hassle!

In the next few years, I came across some diapers, but the cost of getting enough was a deterrent and I still had no clue about why our diapers leaked and smelled. Fast forward to last October... I came across some giveaways, including ones for cloth diapers. Through the reviews, I learned about using a little bit of soap to wash them and about stripping them regularly. The catch now? In December 2004, my parents had a little boy with Down syndrome. In February of 2007, he was diagnosed with leukemia and was just completing 2 years, 9 months of treatment and... he weighed 40 pounds. In the reviews I had read all the diapers were One Size (7-35 pounds) and there wasn't any way for those to work.

Enter twitter! Like some have said before me, if you ever want something, ask on twitter. A friend sent us a FuzziBunz Perfect Size and that's how we learned that many diapers for special needs kids are 'sized' not one size.

In this upcoming event my mom and I are coordinating, we want to share reviews and giveaways of diapers and accessories for special needs children and diapers that work great in a hospital setting... All the time we spent looking for diapers; we want to help other families save that time.

We are also hoping to have some guest posts written by moms of children with special needs who cloth diaper them. At the end of the event, we'll set up an index page that has links to cloth diapers/accessories for special needs kids. Not all are participating in the event, but will still be linked to. One thing that we'll be including in each review of a diaper is the sizing... and what it is and means. If OS diapers and sized diapers had the sizing instead of or included on the company/retailers web site, it would help so many families. I know it would have helped us.

In the end, my goal is to share as much information as I can from what we have learned, to help other special needs families learn about diapers more easily than we did and to have it all together in one place, where even families who don't have a special needs child can still learn about it and help special needs families as well.

I hope this helps with some of your questions. If your question isn't answered in here, just email me with your questions at happilysouthernreviews@gmail.com

Lulu's in the Fluff {Review}

Zippity Doo Dah! in a glass jar in the laundry room.

These diapers ran two wash/rinse cycles before I moved them from the washer to the tub.

and I used about 2 1/2 tablespoons of Lulu's in the glamour sleep.

First hour.

second hour...

third hour...

This picture is from the next diaper load we did. It was late and I thought I'd try agitating it with sticks to see if I could get more out. I used warm water, 2 tablespoons of Lulu's and agitated it for about 15 minutes... The picture above is the result. UGH!

I'm really pleased with the end result of the diapers. We were having repelling issues from the the diaper ointments we were using and after doing the glamour sleep on all the diapers, I've only had 2 out of 35 diapers repelling liquids. Today, it didn't take as many rinses for the diapers to smell 'clean' and I didn't notice that lingering ammonia smell after washing and rinsing.

I didn't see a big difference in the inserts or diapers looking whiter, but that's not a big deal to me. We also got a scented version and if you smell it in the bag, it is overpowering. But after using on the diapers, I didn't really notice any scent.

Before we tried Lulu's, I'd stripped the diapers and then boiled the diapers and neither did any thing to help with the repelling problem. So I'm happy with the end result and everyone else is happy that they don't have to clean up the leaks anymore. :)

Will I get more Lulu's in the Fluff? Absolutely! and I can't wait to try the different scents, too!

Disclosure: We purchased Lulu's in the Fluff to try and received no compensation for this review... It is however, our honest opinion of the product!

Cloth Diaper Event @ My Life as a Married Girl (and Mommy!)

My Life as a Married Girl (and Mommy!) is having a cloth diaper event starting July 13th! She as some great sponsors like Lulu's in the Fluff! There are also some ways to get some extra entries into each giveaway, so why not head over and check it out!

Don't forgot that you can still get extra entries into each giveaway during the Fluffdom Express cloth diaper event here during August! I can't wait, can you! :)

MIA???

This sweet little guy has been very needy lately! His diaper rash had cleared up and he was running around and playing... till about five days ago. He started grabbing his diaper and we first thought he was constipated. But we kept track of what he was drinking and that wasn't the problem. It seems he got a UTI. We made a late night visit to the pediatricians on Monday and decided that if we could keep him comfortable and clear it up with cranberry juice and avoid antibiotics, we'd be doing good. The UTI is clearing up, but the next night, he had diarrhea! Now, he has the worst diaper rash he's had yet. So, that's my excuse for being missing in action here!

On a slightly amusing note, I took a nap this afternoon and J pooped. So, his daddy changed his diaper. When I woke up, he mentioned that he'd changed J's diaper and put California Baby on his bottom and used a liner. I went to change his diaper later... and noticed that the liner???? well, it was a microfiber insert!

Don't forget to get your extra entries in for the cloth diaper event in August. Less than a month away! We're both looking forward to sharing what we've found with you all!