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Disposable diapers should definitely have a sin tax attached to them. A high one! And those yucky gel things should be banned from use! This way, a family may consider using only disposable diapers for 1 or 2 children, but if you start having more kids it will be financially unfeasible to use anything but cloth. The economic value of cloth if you plan to have more than a couple kids is HUGE. A one time expenditure of $300-$500 can last for 4 or 5 kids! Maybe with a booster purchase of $20-$50 just for new cute covers or supplies for each kid–just for fun. :) It definitely seems like a sin for parents with lots of kids to put all those awful disposable diapers first on their poor babies, and secondly on our earth. Of course, the diaper company lobbyists would be against this….

Beware, this is is a FULL DISCLOSURE review. If you do not know what a Diva Cup is, you may not want to read this post. If you are interested enough to find out, please go to www.divacup.com BEFORE reading this post.

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I never realized how abnormally heavy a period I have until I used the Diva Cup, but I have to say I like having more information :) I need to preface this review by saying that tampons have always leaked for me. ALWAYS. Very leaky. I would feel it and have to run to the bathroom. Sometimes even a panty liner would not be enough to prevent stained undies. Even with the fancy tampons that expanded out instead of long. No dice. Still leaking. Then, I didn’t have a regular period for 4 years thanks to pregnancy, then nursing, then pregnancy, then nursing! lol I did have lochia twice during that time, and 2 very light (although in retrospect, probably close to normal for most women) anovulatory periods in between pregnancies. By the time I ovulated and didn’t get pregnant, I had a Diva Cup.

They say that an average woman bleeds about 2oz per cycle. I am not one of those women. I bled more than 2oz the first day! Sure, this was my first cycle back, but even so… I have always been heavy. There was about a half-day learning curve with the cup, but after a few times, I got the hang of getting it in there correctly. It was comfortable, however there was 2 problems:
1) the blood that was further down than where I placed the cup would slowly ooze out. I found just a baby washcloth folded in half would be enough to keep my panties from staining.
2) If I went into a deep squat (like I do every single time I put a kid on the potty) the cup would shift. Then start to leak slightly. The only thing that would work would be to pull it out and reinsert it. This was especially bothersome at stores. There I would be bathrooms that are wet or otherwise too gross to sit down on the floor in front of the potty. Then I was in a bind. If I squatted, then I would have to either accept some leaking, or try and reinsert the cup with both kids there in the tiny stall.

I have waited to post this blog as I was in an ongoing communication with the Diva Cup company. I just got off the phone with a representative who advised me to go in a see a doctor during those days to assess my body changes. Since these problems only appeared the first couple days, she suggested that something naturally in my anatomy during the start of my period is preventing the Cup from sealing correctly.

After my flow went down to 1/2oz or less every 6-8 hours (an average woman’s flow) the Cup worked perfectly–exactly as advertised.

A friend of mine mentioned how she tried “The Keeper” once, but gave it up after just a day. So, being the interested consumer that I am, I had to go look up the differences between the cups.

The Keeper is made of latex, but they have in recent years put out a silocone cup to compete with the Diva Cup. It is called “The Moon Cup”. Otherwise, the cups are basically the same size, except the Keeper/Moon Cup has a longer stem at the bottom. However, the stem looks smooth. I really needed the ridges on the stem of the Diva Cup to get it back out. I even got to tying a cotton string tightly between the ridges to help me pull it out. This worked really well, although I would have to change the string every time or every other time I emptied the Cup.

The Diva Cup gives better instructions on inserting and removing their product. Since the cups are virtually identical, I would assume that they would go in the same way. However, by reading the Keeper’s instructions, it sounds like you push the cup vertically towards the cervix instead of horizontally towards the tail-bone. I can promise you that the horizontal installation works and the vertical installations doesn’t. So whatever cup you buy, read the instructions for the Diva Cup. They are more clear and work better.

Pluses of the Diva Cup:
1. First latex-free menstrual cup made
2. After a short learning period, very easy to remove, wash and reinsert (except when locked in a 2ftX4ft room with a 1.5 year old and a 3.5 year old.
3. Does not leak or require a panty liner for an average flow.
4. For an average flow, it only had to be emptied every 8 hours–so almost never in a public restroom.
5. On ultra-heavy flow days the Cup still leaked way less than I experience with tampons.
6. Much cleaner to use than either pad or tampons. No storing blood! It flushes clean away in the toilet :)

Minuses:
1. Still requires some protection, for me, on heavy flow days. Really, though, only a baby washcloth folded in half–no waterproof barrier.
2. I have to remember not to squat during heavy days, and figure out what to do instead at the wet, dirty floor public restrooms that the kids may need to potty in.

As you see, the pluses WAY outweigh the minuses. I will be using the Diva Cup again.

Is it a barrier or a wicking fabric?

Before I answer that question, I will explain the difference between “polar” or polyester “fleece” and real fleece. Real fleece is in the knit-terry family. These are a jersey based knit in which the back side has loops instead of being smooth. The size, style and frequency of these loops; and any treatments applied to these loops after knitting; differentiates the different types of knit terry. Fleece is a fabric in which the loop side of the knit terry has been brushed to make a soft surface. That brushed side is supposed to be soft like a lamb’s fleece–hence the name. It is commonly used in sweat clothes. This fleece is absorbent, so it will absorb sweat to be slowly evaporated on the other side. While poly fleece mimics the soft effect of the brushed side of fleece, it is not knitted and treated in the same way. It also does not absorb.

A company called Polartec invented what is commonly referred to as “fleece” today. It was developed as a soft, flexible, breathable barrier fabric to use for outdoor sports and leisure activities. There are today all different looks, densities, and thicknesses of the poly “fleece”.

As a barrier fabric for diapers (the outside) it works quite well as long as the diaper doesn’t get completely saturated. Then they came up with “microfleece”. I am sure the original purpose of this fabric was for sports and outdoors like other poly fleeces. It is very stretchy and would keep an ice skater dry if he/she fell, but still allow for air circulation. Someone thought this would be a good idea in a diaper so that we could let a baby pee more in a cloth diaper and yet have the “stay dry” feel of a disposable diaper.

You may be wondering how a fabric intended to keep ice skater’s dry would allow liquid to pass through. The answer is contact. When baby pees, the pee spreads out between the microfleece and the baby’s skin. The pressure of the skin forces the urine through the microfleece, where it is absorbed by another fabric. As long as the absorbent fabric does not become saturated, there will not be enough contact force to push the urine back through to the baby’s skin. While this does keep the butt dry in one sense, it also coats the skin with a thin layer of urine with each pee.

I did use microfleece diapers with my first baby. However, because we practice EC, she never peed in them more than once. I was never really happy with them and did not use any with my second child. Since then, I want only natural fibers to touch my baby’s skin. Raw silk is a good natural substitute for wicking. Bamboo velour feels soft even when it’s wet. If you are not strict about natural fibers, that wicking sport underwear fabric actually pulls liquid through without spreading. I never recommend using microfleece, or suedecloth (which works by the same method) for a “wicking” layer. I do recommend poly fleece often for a barrier layer. Works great in the winter if a baby wears a fitted or flat or prefold diaper under fleece pants. Then the diaper cover is also the clothing–making less bulk!

Last week there were several days in a row of absolutely gorgeous weather! Better than I have ever seen the weather here! Temperatures were higher than 85 degrees! Yippee! Then Friday, a week ago today, the clouds returned. Lucky for us, the kids and I already had tickets to fly out Saturday morning to Denver! The flight out went smoothly. When we first go into the plane, T wanted to watch the videos in the seat like we had on our Virgin America trip from San Francisco to Seattle. I had to explain that the videos in the seat were not available on this airplane. After getting T buckled in, I took M to the potty and then buckled us in. M made it the whole flight without a diaper on! Yay! When we landed and went to the potty, I didn’t pull down his pants far enough and he REALLY had to go! He over-shot the toilet and his pants got peed on. The only thing I had in the carry-on bags was T’s dirty pj pants she wore to the airport. So M had to make it to the baggage claim in Strawberry Shortcake pants that kept sliding off his skinny butt! LOL

Maya picked us up and luckily knew how to work T’s new travel booster seat we had shipped to Denver. M’s seat installed quickly and we were on our way! Into the bright, bright, sunshine! We hung out with Maya’s family a bit, then checked into the hotel. The room was gigantic! Bigger than the 1-bed/1-bath apartment I lived in when I met my husband!
Here are some pictures:

Look at this full kitchen!!!
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The bedroom
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The living room. Behind those sliding glass doors is a 4ftX10ft balcony! The kids had a great time all weekend running in and out of the suite onto the balcony. The only thing this hotel didn’t have is free breakfast. So we did end up ordering some room service that first afternoon. Kids were hungry and I was too tired to move!

The whole weekend was pretty great. We went to a street fair and parks, restaurants and groceries. The last few times I’ve seen Maya it has been in Austin and she had a super busy schedule. This trip to Denver, we just got to hang out and watch the kids play together. Really great!

We tried to put the Radian rear-facing in her car. Despite getting it tight enough to be considered legal, we couldn’t get it as tight as I like child seats to be :( The back of her back seat is not quite touching the seat part. When I got back to the hotel, I looked at several seats online. Especially their bases. The ‘99 Forester really needed the childseat base to not touch the seat back. For this to happen, the childseat front has to be inches in front of the base. Having the childseat front and the base about even makes installing easier in any other car I’ve dealt with. Not so the ‘99 Forester. The only seat I could find that would have this weird base-seat dissonance and use of the tether rear-facing was the Britax. I am generally not a fan of Britax, but obviously there is a purpose for them. After looking through all the info on all the modals, we agreed that the new Roundabout 50 would fit Maya’s needs both size-wise and cost-wise. It is about the same overall size as a Marathon, but has a 15lb lower weight limit and an additional 1/4″ of shoulder height capability. I have never met a kid that has exceeded the weight limit before the shoulder-height limit. Because of the lower weight-limit, this seat is $60-$140 less expensive than the 65lb weight-limit Britaxes. Maya was obviously pleased with this! I just wish I could be there to help them install it. :( I feel a bit like crossing over to the “dark side” by recommending a Britax. However, I rest well thinking of how much tighter the seat will be in Maya’s car and therefore making her little one safer :)

The flight back to Seattle went equally as smoothly as the one out to Denver. This time, T reminded me how this plane did not have the video in the seat! LOL There were several loud and cranky kids on that flight, but mine where quiet. M woke up just as we were landing, but stayed quiet at first. Then, just as another kid finally stopped screaming, M called out, “BBBOOOOOOOBBBBBB!!!” in his loudest and whiniest voice! I couldn’t help but laugh.

Speaking of boob, it is bedtime now. I have 1 more blog post I hope to get out tonight, but it will have to wait.