KIOS: Grooming, Part 7: DivaCup Love (first half)

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Laura

This post is part of my series, “Kickin’ It Old Skool: Why and How We Are Old-Fashioned” or KIOS for short.  If you’re new to the series, please read my disclaimer before continuing on.  I’m keeping a table of contents to this series here so you can see what I’ve already written about and what more there is to come.

Today, I’m featuring two guest posts written by friends of mine who both love using the DivaCup, which is a reusable alternative for tampons.  I haven’t used the DivaCup myself and I wanted to give you their perspective about a reusable option other than cloth pads.  They’ve both written fairly extensive posts so I’m going to publish them in two parts.

Many thanks to them both for taking the time to write their thoughts for us!

Here’s the first one, from Erin:

Why did you start using the DivaCup?

I had been an avid tampon user since I was about 13 years old. I dislike the sensation of leaking or sitting on a wet pad, and so I have never liked using disposable pads. In my early 20s, I started noticing a lot of irritation, itching, and dryness at the time of my periods that would subside a day or two after I finished. I tried using pads at night to give myself a break from tampons, but that didn’t seem to make a difference. The only alternative I was aware of at the time was using cloth pads, which didn’t appeal to me for aforementioned reasons, so I suffered through the discomfort.

Two cycles into the return of my fertility after my second child was born, I finally got fed up! It had also been on my conscience that I was contributing a lot of waste through my use of disposable products, but the real impetus for change was that awful itchiness. I had read about the DivaCup online, and so one afternoon, I called around to see who had a DivaCup in stock and promptly went to purchase it. I absolutely loved it and have used nothing else since.

Is it difficult to use?

There is a learning curve to using it, and the first cycle, I had a few instances of leaking until I got the hang of positioning it correctly. But it didn’t take long to master the technique. (One tip: when they say in the package insert that you should be able to turn or spin it, they mean rotate it slowly. I had imagined based on the instructions that I’d be able to twirl it like a pinwheel!)

Why do I love the DivaCup?

  • The itching/dryness/irritation went away completely once I stopped using tampons and pads. I’m guessing that the various chemicals used to make disposable products absorbent and bright white were affecting that very sensitive mucous membrane.
  • I also have noticed that I have no cramping and a slightly shorter period since I made the switch. I’ve had enough statistics/epidemiology to be hesitant to assume causation: it could also be related to getting older, hormones regulating, etc. However, a quick internet search through various blogs and forums showed me that other women have had similar experiences, so it’s possible that the changes could be related to not using tampons.
  • Except on the first day of my period, I only need to empty the DivaCup every 12 hours. It’s convenient (especially looking ahead to med school rotations!)
  • I like never needing to worry about whether I have the appropriate products on hand. When I know I’m approaching my period (which I can predict very well because of using NFP [natural family planning]), I just throw it in my backpack.
  • There is no odor—in fact I found the smell related to tampons and disposable pads was far worse.
  • I can swim and exercise while using the cup with no problems.
  • Provided that you follow the cleaning instructions, it is very safe to use. In fact, one study found that there was less risk of TSS than with tampons, as the cups did not grow bacteria at all when tested in a lab.
  • Saves money! I just replaced my first DivaCup after almost 4 years of use. The company used to recommend getting a new one each year. However, the package insert of my new one states that although they suggest annual replacement, it’s up to the consumer to decide.

For those of you who like studies, you can read the results from a randomized controlled trial of a menstrual cup here: http://www.cfp.ca/content/57/6/e208.full.

Posted in health and beauty, KIOS | Tagged | 1 Comment

Somehow, It’s Been Eighteen Years

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Laura

The fall of 1995, I arrived on campus, a lonely freshman, 4,000 miles away from home, desperate for friends and a family I could drive to.  Lisa was one of the first people I met when I got to college.  Happily, we were assigned to opposite ends of the same dorm floor and have been fast friends ever since.  Lucky for her, I’m from Alaska, a state she had always wanted to visit.  Lucky for me, her family lived an hour and a half away and they became the East Coast family I needed!  Our sophomore year, her mom drove down and brought me home for a weekend away that I really needed, while Lisa stayed at college. 🙂

012 (800x533)Here we are, during our freshman year.  Don’t you just love our bangs? 🙂

Almost 18 years later, we can still talk for hours, keep track of everyone in our extended families, and help each other think through challenges in our lives.

We managed to see each other at least once a year from the time we graduated from college in 1999 until 2010.  Then, both of our lives got a little (or a lot) crazy and we went over three years having to exist only on [all too infrequent] phone calls.  The six hour drive between us seemed impossibly long.

Until last week!  The whole family came to town! They stayed with us and we had the fun of showing them the Inner Harbor.

IMG_3821 (800x534) IMG_3822 (800x533)This one for Ellie…

IMG_3823 (800x533)…and  this one for Mark!

They also spent a day in Washington, DC and a day on the Atlantic Ocean at Assateague Island.  Their last day, we spent some time at Fort McHenry and Marshy Point Nature Center.  It was an action-packed four days.

Eighteen years later, we have a few more people in our lives!

022 (800x533)Caleb, Abby, Lisa, Ian, Ellie, Laura, Mark, Toby (just missing Nik and Ben!)

Ellie is still talking about “those kids” and we miss them already!  Let’s hope we don’t have to go three more years before we see each other again!

Posted in Ellie, friends, Mark | 3 Comments

Someone Loves Cuddling Right After Waking Up Every Morning

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Laura

(And that someone isn’t Mark.)

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Posted in Ellie, Mark | 2 Comments

Like Father, Like Son

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Laura

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Posted in Mark | Leave a comment

Recipe: Mom’s Famous Rhubarb Crisp

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Laura

This rhubarb crisp is the reason that I just planted rhubarb this spring.  It’s so good that Mom would make a turkey roasting pan full of it for church potlucks and there still wouldn’t be any left by the end of the potluck.  In fact, there wouldn’t be any left even half way through.  The smart ones learned to take some with their meal, rather than waiting to take it for dessert later on.

001 (800x533) (2)Hooray for surviving a much too late transplanting!  And thanks to Jennifer for her generous gift of not one, but two rhubarb plants!  Can you see the second?  It’s going to be hard to wait until next summer for picking.

It’s spring!  Rhubarb is abundant already (at least in Maryland)!  Make this soon!

Rhubarb Crisp
adapted (ever so slightly) from Priscilla’s recipe (Thanks Mom!)
makes a 9×13  pan*

Topping:
1 C flour
1/2 C butter, melted
3/4 C rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 C packed brown sugar
Mix until evenly combined and crumbly.  Set aside.

Rhubarb:
8 C (approximately) thinly sliced rhubarb, pieces about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick
You need enough to fill a 9×13 pan about halfway-full.  Set aside.
[optional and not authentic to my childhood] strawberries – Nik likes this when I throw in a few fresh strawberries.  Rhubarb and strawberres are in season together so it’s a nice pairing.  Add strawberries and you won’t be able to call this, “Laura’s mom’s rhubarb crisp,” anymore but it will still be good!

Filling:
2 C granulated sugar
4 T cornstarch
2 C water
2 tsp vanilla
Combine in a medium saucepan.  Cook and stir often until clear and beginning to thicken.

Assembly Instructions Option A (my preferred method because I’m lazy and also because I do prefer the ratio of rhubarb to topping when made this way):
Spread the rhubarb evenly in a 9×13 pan.  Pour the filling over the rhubarb.  Sprinkle the topping evenly over the rhubarb.

Assembly Instructions Option B (My mother’s method, it’s also delicious but is a bit more work.  Choose this option if you like a lot of topping.)
Make a double batch of topping.  Firmly press half of it into the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan.  Spread the rhubarb evenly over the topping.  Pour the filling over the rhubarb.  Sprinkle the remaining topping evenly over the rhubarb.

For both options, bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, until bubbling nicely and well-browned.  This is particularly good served warm with vanilla ice cream but really, it’s just as good eaten cold from the refrigerator for breakfast the next morning (if there’s any left and you get there first).

**This recipe is easily halved and baked in a 8-inch square pan.  My mom’s original recipe is actually in that form but I always double it because that’s never enough for me!  For Option A, halve everything.  For Option B, halve the rhubarb and filling and just make one batch of topping, but put half on the bottom and half on the top.

Posted in cooking, recipe | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Mark and Ellie (at 4.5 months of siblingship)

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Laura

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Posted in Ellie, Mark | 4 Comments

First Strawberries

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Laura

Last fall, a very kind acquaintance gave us some strawberry plants.  They survived the winter and last week, we harvested our first two of the season.

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Since then, we’ve been harvesting 2-3 per day and it’s Ellie’s favorite thing to do with Nik when he gets home from work! 🙂  We love having a strawberry patch!

Posted in Ellie, gardening | 5 Comments

Color Book Tutorial/Sew-Along, Part 3: Sewing The Cover and Trimming the Pages

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Laura

This is Part Three of my Color Book Tutorial/Sew-Along.  For an introduction to this tutorial plus the finished book and links to all the other parts of this tutorial, see this post.

It’s time to finish sewing the pages by sewing the cover pages and then trimming all the pages in preparation for assembling the book.

1. Choose the solid colors that you will use on your cover.  I chose not to use brown, gray and black because I wanted my cover to be really bright.  Additionally, even getting seven colors onto the square is a little more tricky than five. You’ll have to use really narrow strips and small triangles if you want to do all ten colors.  (See my caution below about the triangles though – you’ll need to make them fairly large to keep them from disappearing in the trimming process.)

Arrange your colors to your liking and then pile them up from bottom to top.

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2.  Sew your cover pages using your 9-inch square pieces of muslin and the same method that you used to sew the inside pages.  (Directions are here.) Sew two similar but not identical blocks, varying the widths of the colors

001 (800x388)Note how the colors are in the same order but different widths (one block with thick pink, one block with thin pink, etc).

3. Cut each block in half diagonally across all the colors, from corner to corner.

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4.  Swap sides and rotate the triangles so you have alternating colors in each square.

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5. Sew the triangles back together, with a 1/4″ seam and press seams open

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Your cover pages are done (except for the embellishments)!

6.  Trim all twelve blocks so that they are perfect 8×8 inch squares.  Use your rotary cutter and ruler.  On the cutting mat, center the block over an 8×8 section. Without moving the block, trim on all 4 sides to ensure that all corners are 90-degree angles.

028 (800x800)This was my second cut – you can see that I’ve already trimmed the top edge.

When you have finished trimming each block, the front should look like this:

030 (800x800)Ignore that black pin in the corner.  That comes later!

and the back should look like this:

029 (800x800)Here’s another example from before:

031 (800x800)and after:

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7. When sewing your title pages, make sure to cut your top and bottom triangles larger than you think they need to be.  I didn’t make mine quite big enough and you can see here that after trimming, there’s not much left of orange, sadly.  By the time I lose another 1/4 inch on all sides for the seam allowance, there won’t be much left.

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After you’ve trimmed all twelve pages, you’ll have a beautiful pile of trimmings too!

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Now, get ready to sew some curves!
(That’s for the next tutorial.)

Posted in sewing, tutorial | Tagged | 2 Comments

KIOS: Grooming, Part 6: Family Cloth and Mama Cloth

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Laura

This post is part of my series, “Kickin’ It Old Skool: Why and How We Are Old-Fashioned” or KIOS for short.  If you’re new to the series, please read my disclaimer before continuing on.  I’m keeping a table of contents to this series here so you can see what I’ve already written about and what more there is to come.

Warning:  This post contains content related to bodily functions.  If you’d rather not start your weekend this way, you may want to stop reading now. 🙂

First, a word about labels:  Generally, using cloth wipes for toilet paper is called, “family cloth” and using cloth pads instead of disposable pads for menstruation is called, “mama cloth”.  I think those labels are unfortunate because they imply that you have to be in a family (whatever that means) and/or be a mama to use them.  This is clearly not true.  Any person can use cloth wipes and any woman who needs pads can use cloth pads.  I’ve decided to use these labels in this post for lack of better terms but know that I would prefer to be more inclusive!

Family Cloth

While we’re talking about things that generally happen in the bathroom (such as infrequent flushing), it seemed appropriate to also discuss our minimal use of toilet paper.  As you may have read in this post about cloth wipes, Ellie and I also use cloth wipes when we’re at home, rather than paper toilet paper.  Toilet paper is part of the fun for Ellie when using a strange bathroom! 🙂  Our toilet paper use has dropped dramatically, which is a nice help for the budget.  The hardest part for me about using cloth wipes is simply remembering to use them.  We keep a stack of them on the back of the toilet but have used toilet paper for 30+ years, my hand just moves automatically to the paper roll.  Finally, after about a year, I’m getting to where I rarely pull off paper without meaning too.

Just be careful not to put the cloth wipes into the toilet!

Mama Cloth 

Several years ago, I started using unbleached, organic cotton, environmentally-friendly feminine hygiene products when I was menstruating.  I didn’t like the idea of putting bleached anything right next to my body (particularly because we had stopped using bleach to clean our house around the same time).  If you still want to use disposable products, then using something like this is definitely a great alternative.

Just before Mark was born, a very kind friend gave me several reusable cloth pads, intended for menstruation.  For no reason, I’d never really considered using “mama cloth” but thought, “why not?”  After Mark was born, the softness of the pads made my post-partum recovery that much nicer and easier and I became a convert.  For me, it makes sense.  We try not to use disposable paper products or basically anything disposable that has a workable reusable alternative.  Mama cloth is a logical step for me and I’m not sure why I didn’t take it sooner!

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About cloth wipes:

This post is a great “introduction” to using cloth wipes instead of toilet paper.  Her three main reasons for using cloth wipes are ours as well:  it’s frugal, it’s earth-friendly, and it’s more effective and feels better than paper.  (That same site has several posts on the topic.)

About washing:  We wash our cloth wipes with our cloth diapers that we use on Mark.  When I wasn’t washing cloth diapers (after Ellie stopped wearing diapers and before Mark came), I gave them a rinse by themselves (to get them relatively clean) and then washed them with our towels and other laundry.

About what to do with the wipes once they’ve been used:  We keep a trash can in our bathroom, with a cloth bag inside of it.  We throw them in there once we’ve used them.  It’s the same place we put Mark’s dirty diapers.

Don’t they smell once you’ve used them and before you wash them?  Remarkably, no.  I was worried about that myself when we first started using them but that’s never been a problem.  The diapers do smell sometimes, particularly if it’s very hot and humid and the bathroom door gets closed for too long.  But just the wipes by themselves never smell bad.

Also, see my post here for instructions on how to make your own wipes.

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About mama cloth:

About washing:  During my post-partum recovery, I just washed them with our wipes and will continue to do so.

Where to get them:  This post has links to lots of other places online for directions on how to make your own.  If you don’t want to do that, here’s a post with a review of four different mama cloth companies.  And, of course, there are literally thousands of options on Etsy.

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Soon, look for a guest post on the wonders of the Diva Cup, a reusable tampon alternative!

Posted in health and beauty, KIOS | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

And Now, It’s Official – She’s Really Growing Up

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Laura

For the past two nights, Ellie has slept through the night.  By “STTN”, I don’t mean that she didn’t nurse because she’s been night weaned (off and on, with more and less success), since last summer.  By “STTN”, I mean that not only did she not nurse but she went to sleep at bedtime in her own little bed (next to me) and she woke up in the morning and I realized that I hadn’t had to comfort her or fix her blanket or pull her into bed with me or otherwise help her go back to sleep again through the whole night.  For the first time ever!

Hallelujah!

In other growing-up news, last night she nursed for bedtime, then needed a snack, then ran back into the bedroom, told Nik that she wanted to be in the bed by herself (i.e. she didn’t want him to cuddle with her and help her go to sleep), and then she went to sleep by herself in about five minutes.  This too was a sleep milestone for us.

She is talking like a fully fluent English speaker.  For example, on Tuesday, after eating an applesauce walnut muffin, she asked for more.  I had some in mini-loaf form so I gave her a slice of that too.  She took a bite, looked at me, and said,

It’s pretty similar to muffin?

It’s pretty similar to muffin?!?!?!?!  Actually, yes, it’s identical, in taste if not in form!  I’ve noticed that “similar” is becoming one of her favorite words.  Clearly she’s not going to get away with pretending to not understand directions anymore! 🙂

Her pretend play is becoming more and more elaborate.  Half the time I don’t even know what she’s asking me to do so I just try to play along as best I can.  On Tuesday, she was feeding her bear in an old booster seat that had been left at our house.  She actually played happily for hours with that thing.  Mean old mama put it in the car for donating yesterday and she was not happy with me!

002 (800x533) 003 (800x533)Bear was hungry and thirsty!

All in all, our little girl is not so little anymore.  We love the new Ellie (tantrums and independence assertion and all) but I can’t help missing the little girl Ellie too.  I suppose I will be like this her whole life – loving the new but missing the old!

Posted in Ellie | 4 Comments