Episode 1- Who is Cloth Diaper Anonymous
Who is Cloth Diaper Anonymous?
Episode 1: My Story
Hi My name is Yvie and I am a cloth diaper addict/ Advocate. Welcome to the Cloth Diaper Anonymous Podcast, A show for moms like me who have chosen to save money, live cleaner and support small businesses while cloth diapering our babies. This is Episode 1, if you listened to my last episode, well.. Technically it was just a trailer of what I’m hoping this show will become, but I’m sure with more growth and feedback this show will ultimately be whatever the cloth diapering parent community needs. Whether it be tips, some shared experiences and stories or maybe even some humor in some of our past mistakes. Whatever direction this ends up going, I do thank you for taking the time to listen and I hope you enjoy. Feel free to share this podcast with other cloth diapering parents in your groups and communities. If you would like to participate in a future episode you can take a look at my show notes or the contact page on my website and you’ll find how to send me a voice message or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you or schedule a time to chat.
So with that being said and with this being the first episode I thought I’d take an episode or two to kind of introduce myself and share a bit about how I came to be apart of this community. How I started my platform on social media, what I hope to accomplish and maybe even some tips and tricks for cloth diapering that I’ve learned along the way.
So, as I mentioned before, my name is Yvie and I’m a full-time working mom. I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering technology and I work for a big Oil and gas company. I am a first generation Mexican American and I come from a very big family.. Like very big.. My home is messy and chaotic, not at all like a picture perfect influencer's home. But thats me. I am a serial hobbyist, I like to pick up crafty hobbies and leave them unfinished.. Much like this podcast almost ended up turning out. My latest hobby has become content creating and educating on tik tok.. And when I say educating , I really mean responding to hate comments from all the people who keep thinking that we as cloth diapering parent throw “ sacks of poop” into our washers. When I’m not content creating I do have two kids and a lovely husband that keep me busy. We live in South East Texas, where it’s always hot and humid. I am a concert junkie that may actually be in a hiatus or early retirement, but hopefully not for long. I love music, all genres but the alternative and former emo kid in me will forever rock out at a metal or punk band show whenever I can.
While cloth diapers have been around since long before disposables were even made available, my first introduction to the idea of modern cloth diapers was in 2016. My rebellious little sister was living with her boyfriend and they were looking for ways to save money while bringing their surprise baby into the world. They were both trying to finish college while also working and finding a full stash of cloth diapers from Craigslist for $200 sounded like a great way to save money. So they did. I might have been that family member that I complain so much about on my Tik Toks who was unsupportive or not understanding in the beginning, I really don’t remember all too well. But I know once my niece was born seeing her in her adorable little diapers definitely sold me. My absolute favorite was seeing her in a cow print diaper so I knew one day if I ever settled down and had a baby I would want to do the same. So while my journey to parenthood wouldn’t come till much later in life, the seed was planted.
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So now fast forward a few year, it’s 2019 my partner and I are newlyweds after being together about 3.5 years. My daughter was 4 years old at the time, so if you do the math there, she's actually my bonus kiddo. She was a few months shy of turning 2 years old when my husband and I first met. He was a single father and dating me who was dead set on “never getting married, never having kids” and fresh out of college. Ha! I love them to death and wouldn’t change a thing. So, being that my partner was the full-time parent when we met and I for a while was just the girlfriend, he did all the diaper changes. Which means when it came time to diaper our next baby, that would end up being the first baby's diaper I’d ever have to change.
Towards the end of that year, the desire to grow our little family started. Then BOOM, the pandemic started, and I got laid off. Having a baby was not an option at that time so we decided to wait another year. During that year my husband's family really got busy with popping out kids, his brother had near irish twins and his sister had her first baby. It seemed like everyone was having babies and the pressure was on for us. Having seen the different outcomes of birth through that next year, I learned a lot about pregnancy and the birthing process. I went on a whole preparation journey to try and get ready for whenever we were ready to start trying. I drank red raspberry leaf tea every cycle. Started tracking my cycle even more intensely, learned about ovulation and natural family planning. I’d had an IUD for many years and after a terrifying trip to the ER thinking maybe the IUD was causing Issues I immediately had it removed and began our fertility awareness contraceptive journey. We started trying for our baby around the end of summer in 2020. After a chemical pregregnancy and a few months of negative tests we finally got our positive results in December. The story of how I actually found out is actually kind of funny. My husband had been rained out so I was at work and he was at home with our daughter who just so happened to be grounded after having nothing red marks in her folder. I was grumpy and hormonal blowing up his phone because it was unfair to me that I had to be at work while they got to be home sleeping in, eating snacks and having fun. I might have said something that finally just upset him so he told me to quit texting him and worry about my work. I interpreted that as “fuck off and leave me alone” naturally. So when I got home obviously there was tension and me explaining why I had been upset just set the waterworks into motion and I cried uncontrollably. It was a silly argument. We bicker and joke like this all the time, I don't know why I couldn’t stop crying. so jokingly I went and tested. I was already in the window for testing and after a few months of not seeing 2 lines, I finally saw it!
We were still not financially ready, but who really is these days? When I brought up the idea of using cloth diapers to my husband he was not on board right away. He had been a single father changing all the diapers and dealing with all the blowouts so he said if this was the route we were going it would all be on me. I’d have to change all the diapers, I’d have to handle all the poop washing. I said “ yeah whatever, you’ll come around” and eventually he did. We were struggling financially, I had just been laid off and starting a new job. But the idea of being able to invest little by little and not having to run out and buy disposables every week while living paycheck to paycheck sounded so much better.
6 weeks after finding out, I was already in some Facebook wash groups, watching Jay’s nest on Youtube and had googled “Harry Potter cloth Diaper” and purchased my first diaper Foggy Potter by Stouthouse. When it came in I went down a rabbit hole I don’t think I’ve come out of since. The world of cloth diaper Buy/sell/trade. I had never heard of this before for any market, let alone cloth diapers, but I saw it mentioned in a Jay’s Nest video so I went exploring. Low and behold I found a whole world of cloth diapers with every kind of print you could think of. There were 90’s cartoon themed prints, prints with Snoop Dog, Eminem and Biggie Smalls, even prints with some not so kid friendly themes. Then I found Mama Koala, their prints were so adorable, they were reasonably priced,found on Amazon and the video I had seen mentioned that those retained resale value really well and sometimes there were hard to find prints that would even sell for more than retail. This idea seemed so crazy to me! Who would pay so much for a used diaper? I really should have told myself that again a few months later when I was 6 months pregnant and scrolling through groups seeing acronym like htf dond ppd euc guc . I needed help!
In these groups there was one print that caught my eye, a Rock and Roll band themed print, it had some of my favorite bands on there and I needed to have that diaper! This print was called Rock on from Texas Tushies, I was obsessed, they made every single Item you could think of in this print and I had it ALL. Newborn AIO, OS pocket, XL pocket , pod, wetbag, diaper bag, changing pad, sleeper, romper, bummies, joggers I had it all. My addiction to cloth diapers started when I found Texas Tushies and I’m so grateful to now be an affiliate for them as well. Now, this isn’t a Texas Tushies sponsored podcast,although maybe it could be since they technically paid for the mic I’m using right now, I certainly use many more brands today, and have since started my platform testing, reviewing and comparing brands, but Texas Tushies is a very special brand for me and I’m sure you’ll hear about that more in episodes to come. If you would like to check out their shop I encourage you to do so. They carry several sizes and styles of diapers,& inserts. They have cute apparel,bamboo sleepers and even shoes and swimwear. If you do, you can use refferal code Teddy15 for 15% off. I do earn a small commission on orders placed with my code and this is one small way you can help sponsor the podcast and any future giveaways I may host on my Social platforms.
Shop all thing baby from cloth diapers, Apparel, blankets, diaper bags and and so much more! Take advantage of any ongoing sales listed at the top of the page or you can use code Teddy15 for 15% off on your total purchase.
Now, My son in now 19 months old and has been in cloth diaper since he was 2 weeks old. And to think everyone is so accustomed to changing disposables, let me just say I for some weird reason never got the hang of them. I would always lay it down and start to fasten only to realize it was backwards. I would get constant leaks and blowouts and this was only in the first 2 weeks. I knew long before I was even pregnant that I wanted to cloth diaper. I had a full stash of newborn and a full stash of one-size ready by the time my son was born. And honestly I’m so grateful that I did. The pandemic was a scary time to be a new parent. Having to deal with a formula shortage and diaper shortage on top of viruses and then to think I’d eventually have to get back to work and send my baby to daycare. It was a lot! I’m hoping to get more into some of the things I learned during this season of life through future episodes, so hopefully you stick with me and find me on social media! Let me know what else you’d be interested in hearing or learning about from me, whether it’s cloth diaper related or not.
This has been episode one of the cloth diaper anonymous podcast. If you enjoyed this episode please follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening and leave a rating or review if you can. It really helps get the word out about my show and can help reach new parents who may be interested in making the switch, reducing waste and using less toxic chemicals on our baby’s bottoms. You can find out more about my show, future episodes and Cloth diaper Frequently asked questions and upcoming and ongoing earth Day sales all on my page, Clothdiaperanonymous.com you can scroll all the way to the bottom and sign up for my mailing list so that you get notified once new episodes drop and first access to some exclusive giveaways and specials.
