Pink Lemonade - Mama Cloth

* WARNING: This post is about mama cloth and may contain 'yucky' stuff. If you are a man or don't like to read about womanly things then move on to the next post!*

Getting into the adventures of cloth diapering can be quite scary for a lot of people. How do you wash? What do you do with the poop? It takes to much time! Gross!  Yeah, I have hear it all and I almost always have an answer and if I don't I find one asap! When I started my cloth diapering journey over 3 1/2 years ago I was so totally clueless. I wasn't a 'crunchy mama,' a 'natural parenting' mama. Nothing like that at all! Cloth diapers were merely a way for us to save some money so that I could quit my job and become a stay at home mommy.

Once our cloth diapering journey got started and was in full swing, we fell in love with it so I started to look into other great ways to save money. Reusable snack and lunch bags versus the plastic and paper ones. Reusable Un-Paper Towels, more and more things that you can reuse! It was great not only helping our wallets but also helping out the environment. So then the question of Mama Cloth appeared....NO WAY! I just wasn't into it. How gross, I had no idea how to wash or care for them, would they be bulky and fly around all over the place in your panties? How many would you need? Do you have to rinse them out? The idea of it just wasn't for me. I turned it down multiple times.

{Look how pretty!}

Then I caved. I found a great deal on some new mama cloth pads. I was getting tired of spending money on pads from the store. I have always had issues with the store bought pads causing irritation etc 'down there.' I bought 4 or 5 in that first purchase.

I was skeptical.

I was hesitant.

I was still thinking eww...

I was regretting the purchase.

I was __________ (you fill in the blank).

I threw them in my diaper pal and washed them with my next load of diapers. I dried them. I put them in my 'lady's only' drawer in the bathroom. And waited. I would open that drawer up and peek inside stare them down. Wondering what I got myself into.

And then she showed up. Hello Aunt Flo. Welcome back for your week long monthly visit. You are a pain. Feel free to cut your visit short. Yeah, we all know how that goes. I opened up my lady drawer and there they were. Soft fabric, vibrant colors, pretty to look at but do I really want to wear that? Okay, here goes nothing. I take the mama cloth pad. Snap. Its on. Well that was pretty easy, no trash can to search around for to throw a wrapper away in, that's cool. Now what? This is still kind of strange...

So the day went on and so did a couple new mama cloths. The soiled ones went into the diaper pail we keep next to the toilet. I didn't need to rinse them off. They turned out to not be bulky like I thought. They were actually pretty comfortable and soft. And way cuter to look at than a plain ole boring white one that is all sticky and sometimes peels apart and just plain ole makes a mess. I was pretty happy but not 100% sold. I only had 4 or 5 mama cloth pads so I had to keep using the store bought ones as well.

Middle of the week comes and Aunt Flo if getting pretty angry. Its not uncommon for a little leaking to happen, mostly at night. I got brave. Really brave and put on one of my pretty mama cloth pads. It lasted though the night. I was impressed but still not sold on this crazy idea. Was I really using cloth pads? This is so strange. So foreign. Something you don't want to admit to your friends or sisters you are doing because you know you will get that crazy look from them. This makes cloth diapering look good.

By the end of the week we had a routine down...the best you can get with 4 or 5 pads. I did this for a couple months, rotated between cloth and disposable pads. Finally I broke down and bought a few more. It was nice not having to buy so many disposable pads. It was nice not getting irritated skin from the disposable pads. It was nice. I was happy. Washing was a piece of cake. Wearing was a piece of cake. The over all process, even though it took some adjusting to, was a piece of cake. Aunt Flo, she makes you want chocolate cake. Anyways. I was very pleased with this new change.

{Different sizes -Postpartum, 10in, and 9in stacked}

So how do you get started with using Mama Cloth? How many do you need? How often do you wash? What do you do if you don't have babies in diapers to wash the mama cloth with? There are a lot of questions out there regarding mama cloth and I can probably answer some of them for you but, I don't by any means consider myself 'qualified' to answer most of them. Its a learning process, just like cloth diapers are. If you do have questions however, I highly direct you to message or email Sue, the owner of Pink Lemonade. She is pretty quick to answer any questions you may have as well as recommend what size and how many pads you may need based off of your personal information.

I currently have 14 different cloth pads in my stash. I also have a little bitty wet bag just for my personals.  My stash consists of almost all Pink Lemonade Cloth Pads. I have a couple other brands among them, one that I hate and never use and then 2 other brands that are also very nice. I am able to go pretty much the whole visit with out using a disposable pad but still have some on hand just in case I get behind on laundry. Which is quite possible considering I have not only myself and my husband to wash for but 3 young {messy - dirty} boys and another baby due in less than 8 weeks. Laundry gets backed up. Its life. Its not death. No biggie. I wash diapers every 2-3 days and the mama cloth gets washed with them (while I am not pregnant or nursing anyways) I enjoy those moments of no visiting from Aunt Flo. They are cherished.

{My Lady Drawer}

Soon I will be having our 4th baby as well as my 4th c-section. After my 3rd son was born the postpartum flow as pretty bad. It lasted about 5 weeks. (YUCK) But it was only really bad for the first 2 weeks maybe then finally calmed down. I used my cloth pads as much as possible to reduce as much irritation I could from not using disposable pads. When you have a flow for that long and have to use disposable pads 24/7 for those 5 weeks, lets just say it SUCKED! However having the Mama Cloth on hand to use was a life saver. Pink Lemonade makes 13 inch postpartum pads which are so nice. They are nice a long which cover a good area so if you are bleeding quite heavy and moving around and changing positions this will help to keep you protected. I normally use a 10in pad for my regular flow. Some ladies have a lighter flow, less days, etc some a smaller size might work better for them. Try out different sizes and see what works. I actually measured the length of the disposable pads I was using and based my cloth purchased off of those and it was very accurate.

The postpartum pads from Pink Lemonade are pretty narrow through the crotch area so you don't have much bulk between your legs. They do get bigger towards the front and back to help keep you covered nicely.

{A small selection of Pink Lemonade Mama Cloth}

{Postpartum, 10in, 9in}

I recommend wearing tighter fitting undies while using any brand of mama cloth. Why? Because they don't 'sticker' onto your panties like disposables do. They have wings that snap around your panties. After you have the pad snapped on you can adjust the pad to sit where you need it. Having tighter fitting panties will help to hold the pad in place.

There are a variety of pads you can order from Pink Lemonade. You can get mini panty liners, panty liners, light pads, day pads, heavy pads, night time pads. Its amazing! They have so many options you are surely to find something that fits your needs.

Pink Lemonade was kind enough to let me pick out two pads to review from their shop. I was very excited to do this as they are my favorite brand and I didn't have any postpartum pads in my stash. So with a baby due soon I picked out two beautiful postpartum pads.

 The pads that have the tie die/swirl look to them are all dyed by hand. I think they are just gorgeous! You can get a variety of different fabrics for the top of your pads. I have three different kinds, Minky, Flannel and woven cotton. Pink Lemonade offers 7 different types of fabric to choose from as your top layer that goes against your body. You can find a list of fabrics here on their Pink Lemonade website.

 The back of the pads you can have either wind pro fleece or felted wool interlock to give a nice water proof barrier. I have never soaked though a pad, even on my heaviest of days. Score! I am pretty certain all of my pads are backed with the wind pro fleece.

 The pads have the nice wings on them with a snap so you can place it on your panties and then snap the wings around to help keep the pad securely in place. The fleece/felted wool also helps keep the pad from sliding around.

 A cool little feature with the pads is that they can roll up into themselves and snap closed. You can do this if you are out for the day and take a dirty one off. Just fold it up, snap, and put in your little mama cloth wet bag. This will keep your flow from getting all over the inside of your wet bag.

Below is a picture of the three different fabrics I have for tops in my stash. Blue is flannel, black is cotton woven and the pink is minky. I personally prefer the minky over the other two fabrics. The flannel does get a little pilly and fades. I have found it also tends to stain a little easier. The cotton woven is holding up pretty well yet but its just not quite as soft as the minky. The minky has help up great, is very likely to not stain and is so soft. These of course are my personal preferences. Other ladies may like the other fabrics more. 

 Over my experiences with mama cloth I have really come to appreciate it. It has made a huge difference for me while on my cycle. I still look back at how skeptical I was about switching over and really wish I would have done it sooner. If you are still going back and forth on if you want to use mama cloth I recommend just starting out slow. Purchase a couple pads to get you started and go from there. Contact the company and ask questions about use and care and any recommendations they might have for you. It's their business so getting the questions about your cycle and flow are not out of the ordinary, that is what they are there for!

Pink Lemonade has been so kind to offer one reader, anywhere in the world, a $25 gift certificate to their store! How awesome is that?! To enter to win you will need to fill out the form below.

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