Winter, a 13 1/2 Hour Sleeper, Heavy Wetter and My 2 Wool Mistakes

My son is a sleeper! Ever since he was fourteen weeks old, he has slept at least twelve hours a night. Over time, as he has lessened his naps, this has turned into a thirteen and a half hour night.

He is also a heavy wetter. Finding a good diaper solution that will last all night has been a challenge. I have tried numerous options. Some of which include a Sustainablebabyish Snapless Multi Fitted Diaper with a Sweet Pea cover, a Geffen Baby Jersey Prefold in Medium/Large with an Applecheeks cover, an extra large Geffen Baby Prefold in an Applecheeks, adding hemp doublers and even resorting to disposables. They all leaked!

As far as I could tell, it wasn't a fit issue. There were no leg or belly gaps when the diaper was first on or after a night in his crib. He is a belly sleeper so was there a possibility he was having compression leaks? I don't know but a solution needed to be found.

After some research, I decided to take the plunge and get some Sustainablebabyish Overnight Bamboo Fitted Diapers and wool covers. I had heard great things about this combination. One aspect that was really appealing is that wool is breathable. This seemed ideal as some mornings my son would wake up with redness. This combination is expensive which made me hesitant but if it worked, then it was worth it. I did manage to save a little money by purchasing these in Kelly's Closet Black Friday Sale.

Once everything arrived and was fully prepped, it was ready to tryout. I put my son to bed as usual, in his pajamas, inside a sleep sack. This was my first wool error! The next morning, he was damp. He hadn't leaked, but the wool was damp. Then I remembered that wool is breathable which meant it had to have somewhere to breathe to. I had basically suffocated our solution!

Having said that, damp was a drastic improvement to the leaking my son had been experiencing. So, I felt encouraged that I was on the right track. Now, my son needed to be to bed with the wool exposed. We live in Rhode Island. It is winter and ridiculously cold! There has only been a couple of days this year when the outside temperature has been above freezing. Although the heating is on, the house is old and does not heat evenly. Putting my son to bed in just a wool cover is not possible.

The next step was to buy wool longies. They are so thick and warm that I felt comfortable putting my son to bed in these with a thick top and some socks. Here comes my mistake number two! I go to Kelly's Closet to buy the longies to discover they do not have my son's size in stock. I contacted the store to find out when they will be restocking. I received a quick response with bad news that it would be a couple of weeks. I needed them now! They did have the next size up though. I thought it was logical that they would still work and would last longer as my son grows. I purchased them. (On a side note, I could have easily gone and purchased them from another retailer but Kelly's Closet has so many incentives like free diapers, reward points and awesome customer service that I won't shop elsewhere.)

The longies arrived, were prepped and went on my son. It worked! He woke up dry in the morning. However after a couple of uses, he developed a nasty friction rash on one leg. Even though it directly corresponded to the timing of the longies, I considered whether the issue was the fitted not the wool. I wondered that the fitted's serged edges were able to rub my sons legs in the longies. After much debate and more testing, I established that with my sons chunky legs and the longies being a little too big, there was enough of a gap for the top of his leg to rub against the wet fitted.

Now what? The bamboo overnight fitted was clearly working so an alternative cover was required.. I decided on a Rumparooz One Size cover and tried it. No leaks! Repeatedly!

Once summer comes, I will be trying the wool covers again but I may have to wait until at least next winter to attempt the longies. Despite my mistakes, I am not completely giving up on wool, it's just on hold. In the meantime, A nighttime solution was found and that is all that matters!

BIO: Lauren G is a stay at home wife to a fantastic husband and mom to an amazing 15 month old boy and two beautiful Bernese Mountain Dogs. Needless to say, our house is pretty crazy sometimes!


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