The EcoChic

It is now 382 days (and counting) into our 2nd journey with breastfeeding and things are still going strong.  I’m still excited to have this bond with Lil’ B today.  My journey the 2nd time around has been different than with my oldest.  Primarily because 98% of the time I work at home. 

For the first 8-9 months I was blessed to be able to have Lil’ B home with me at all times.  After I returned to work at 3mo Lil’ B had an amazing nanny part-time.  Whenever she was hungry the nanny would bring her to me and she would eat.  As the months went on I actually decided to start pumping because I had to travel. 

I am an experienced pumper….with my oldest I had to pump everyday since I worked out of the home.  I had a Medela hand-me-down (actually it was only used 1-2 times before I got it) from a friend.  That was one of the items that I kept to use again.  Unfortunately after just a few short months it started to have some issues.  I was frustrated beyond belief…I rarely used the breast pump but I needed to have one for when I traveled for work.  I never leave for long; usually just a day or two.  Either way, a good dependable breast pump is a necessity. 

I decided after one trip to buy a hand-pump because I just couldn’t see spending any more money on a pump that would get used once a day.  That was a disaster…it was horrible!  It took me almost an hour one trip to get both sides expressed and my arms were killing me. 

Then heaven arrived…my Hygeia EnJoye  breast pump!  The EnJoye is slightly larger than my old Medela but is very similar.  It actually looks more like the pumps that the hospital rents than the personal pumps.  It has an internal rechargeable battery which is a blessing.  My old one took 2C batteries which were always dead…and pumping was WEAK!  With the EnJoye I often forget to plug it in because the battery is so strong.  I’m on a business trip right now (just for one night) and I didn’t even bring the plug.

The pump and all of the parts that would come in contact with breast-milk are all BPA/DEHP Free and safe for your baby.  There is also a button on the front that allows you to record your baby’s voice or cry to help with letdown.  I’m not a big fan of the carrying case though…as a parent who is a frequent flier the bag is rather large and awkward.  I always try to fit the pump into my carry on luggage so I don’t have to carry their bag.

The greatest eco-features of the EnJoye are 1) it’s approved by the FDA for multi-users, and 2) it’s recyclable!  When you no longer need the pump you can sell or donate it to another mom.  All they need to do is replace the plastic tubing and accessories (Retail $35 for accessories).  I’m actually excited that I’m going to be able to pay-it-forward when I’m done with our breastfeeding journey.  The EnJoye has a 3 year 3-year limited warranty…but never fear…if it can’t be fixed you don’t have to landfill your pump!  Hygeia will recycle your used breast pump for you (only Hygeia brands are accepted for recycling).     

And face it…no one really LIKES pumping!  Hygeia has brought a little Joy back into my life with the EnJoye….Thank You!!!  My journey into breastfeeding wouldn’t have lasted this long without you. 

Are you curious about my views and the products I talk about? Be sure to read my Disclosure and Privacy policies.

Weddings? Why am I talking about weddings? I’ve been married for almost 9 years and have no plans on leaving my husband or remarrying! 

Hubby and I have always talked about renewing our vows at a beach ceremony with our friends and family for our 10 year anniversary.  See back in 2001 we ran away to Vegas and got married at the classy Little White Wedding Chapel (wish I had some digital pics from those days but we still used film…I’ll have to scan some later!).  It was actually a very nice ceremony and we had about 13 guests there.  I wouldn’t have done it any other way! 

But we’ve always wished we had gotten married on the beach.  He’s actually started a savings account for 2011 so that we can do whatever we like for our 10yr.  As much as I’d like to do a beach vow renewal we’ve also talked about running away to some exotic location for a week.  We’re thinking maybe Greece or Fiji…exotic enough for you?  As long as there is crystal blue water (and my darling hubby) I know that it will be perfect. 

One of my friends (and fellow eco-junkies) just got engaged and I’m curious as to how green her wedding will be.  Since I haven’t planned a wedding in quite some time I didn’t realize all the cool wedding favors that are on the market these days.  I found a cute website; Hanson Ellis; that offers some amazing eco-friendly wedding favors and bridal shower favors.

Oh, if I could do it all over again…

…maybe I will, we’ll see in 2011!

*This post was sponsored by Hanson Ellis but all of the content is orignial and true!

Why is it that you appreciate the comforts of home so much more when you are away?  We’ve been out of town for 5 days now and I miss my bed, my pillow, my cat! 

Luckily the family and I got to visit Disney again on Sat/Sun before I had to attend a training class in Orlando this week.  They came back home Monday and I got home tonight.  This trip was a little different than normal…

We traveled with our cloth diapers!!!  That’s right, we took our stash with us to a hotel for more than a day!  Here is what I had planned (followed by how it worked out!):  1) Friday night I washed our stash and put Lil’ B in her GroBaby diaper with BioSoaker, and 2) packed a combination of BioSoakers and Bum Genius.  I was hoping to make it easier on my husband so he wouldn’t have to do a ton of wash as soon as he got home on Monday. 

Unfortunately my plan didn’t work out as planned BUT it worked…Lil’ B pooped in her GroBaby Friday night and got some debris on the cover so I couldn’t take the only GroBaby cover I had with us!!!  But I wanted to try the BioSoakers in other diaper covers to see how well they worked so I wasn’t too scared.  I packed about 15 Bum Genius too; just in case something went wrong!  (Old faithful has never done me wrong!)  

We drove to Orlando and spent the first part of the day watching our GA Bulldawgs play football at a local sports bar then we went to check in to the hotel.  Since Lil’ B was in red I put her in her Happy Heiny which is red along with a BioSoaker and the system worked well.  Unfortunately after the second change the BioSoaker has bunched up and the HH cover was damp.  I didn’t really care too much since I had plenty of BG covers and we were headed to the Magic Kingdom anyways (change in clothes was needed to stay warm!).

I packed my diaper bag with a few of each…a few BioSoakers and a few BGs…you never know what’s going to happen, right?  At the first diaper change I noticed a slight problem…the BioSoaker sticky pad was not removing from the BG cover!  OMG…my precious BGs!!  Not only were they not removing from the BGs the fecula backing split open and the inside of the diaper was exposed…luckily it didn’t make a huge mess.  Since I already ‘messed’ with this BG cover I stuck another BioSoaker on it for the next few hours.  The damage was already done at that point.  This continued the rest of the evening until we got back to the hotel again. 

I then removed the BioSoakers from our rotation for the weekend and went back to regular BGs with the inserts (we use the 3.0 one size pockets).  The next day at Epcot I packed 4 BGs in the diaper bag and we were off.  I have to say it felt much more ‘normal’ to me to use the BGs as intended.  My bag was a little more full with the stash but so much easier.  Thankfully we didn’t have any poop-plosions while at Epcot to deal with though!!!!  That was my worst fear was having to carry that around all day with me! (UCK!!)

Hubby went home on Monday afternoon and had just enough BGs to make it home with.  Luckily I left a few behind so he has some at home to use too.  Then it happened…

My hubby had to wash his first load of cloth diapers EVER!  Now…my hubby is an awesome husband and father but I try to keep control over some aspects of cloth diapering so he won’t complain…one of those is the wash!  Not only do I not want to hear about all the water used for washing the diapers…I also don’t want anyone else to be responsible for washing our stash wrong.  Honestly you really can’t mess them up and he has heard me talk about the wash routine so much I don’t know what I was worried about.  I left him verbal directions and gave him a choice of detergents (RockinGreen Soap or EcoNuts…his choice!!).  He called me after he finished the wash to make sure he did it right…funny that he didn’t call me before though!  Everything sounded like it went well.  I got home a little while ago and the diapers are all neatly stacked in Lil’ Bs room, fully stuffed, ready to use again.  Thanks babe for all that you do…

In the morning I will inspect the BG that was potentially damaged in the BioSoaker incident and let you all know the outcome.  The worst case scenario is that the cover will have a sticky residue in two places…at least it’s only one cover and I can pass along the warning to all of you.  If you are going to be using the BioSoakers use them with the GroBaby shell only…or accept the outcome!  I love our GroBaby system and will write up my formal review tomorrow…the good and the bad! 

The other thing that was different this trip was the absence of my ancient Medela electric pump…which croaked last Thursday!  It’s seriously over 6 yrs old and I’m surprised it still works at all.  Because I didn’t want to play around with it and attempt to fix it I purchased a manual pump on Friday.  With Lil’ B being 9 months now I don’t really see the need for investing in another electric pump…this is my last baby and I don’t have much time left on our breastfeeding journey.  I only needed to use the pump Monday afternoon through this afternoon…a full 2 days…how bad could it be?

…did I really just ask that question?  It’s soooo NOT fun to use a manual pump!  I’m so spoiled with my electric pump that I was not ready to pump for 40 minutes and still not get all the milk out!  And think about it…all that pumping hurts your arms after a while…I guess that’s what it’s like to be a guy! (((LOL!)))  Anyways, today was the worst day because I didn’t want to pump at all since it was taking so long.  I got home around 7pm and I was about to explode!  Lil’ B ate a few small snacks but didn’t really empty the milk factory yet.  Is it wrong that I want to wake her up again when I’m done writing?  I guess tomorrow I will take apart Mr. Medela and see if I can’t fix the electric pump so I will stop cussing at this stupid manual pump! 

And on that note…I’m going to go check my email, Twitter, and Facebook one more time and log off for the evening.  Sleep tight!  (Of course most of you will be reading this until the morning so Good Morning!!!)

I’ve participated in every Cloth Diaper Carnival; how can I miss this one?  Not a chance! 

Anyone want to know how we travel with our cloth diapers?  This is probably our BIGGEST challenge.  We have spent a week in New Orleans, a week at Disney, and several short trips…without our cloth diapers.  I haven’t figured out a way to make it work on long trips at hotels.  Why?

1.  We fly A LOT since hubby works for the airlines.  We are very limited to what we can carry with us.

2.  We tend to stay in hotels where we don’t have access to washing machines.

3.  We have a 6 yr old also and don’t like to stop for much on our trips. 

So when we fly and stay in hotels on our vacations we take disposables with us.  It kills me to leave our stash behind but it’s the most practical option for us at this time.  We did however take our diapers with us last weekend on our trip to Georgia.  Luckily we were only going for 2 days, we were driving, and we were staying with family.  That made all of our challenges much easier.  I thought my dear hubby was going to object at first but to my surprise HE wanted to take them with us.  (*Happy Diaper Dance*)  So we packed up our truck with all our million things that babies require and off we went.  We didn’t have any problems at all.  His mom was wonderful with the diapers; I gave her a brief intro and then we left for the day!  (We went to see a college football game – without the kids – GO DAWGS!)  Since we were only gone for the weekend we didn’t even do laundry until we came home.  I don’t have a large wetbag though…guess I need to go shopping…so we packed up the dirties in a trash bag for the ride home. 

In the future I may try some other options while traveling.  I just received a box of GroBaby BioSoakers (their disposable inserts) to try.  Of course hubby wasn’t all that impressed with them out of the box.  He didn’t understand why they were any different from disposables.  (Don’t worry…I’ll explain it all to him <and you> in a future post!)  Another option is one that Kim at Dirty Diaper Laundry tried in Vegas…she signed up with a diaper service while traveling.  What a great idea!  To make that work I guess I would need to get some covers; I don’t have any of those either…since I don’t use prefolds.

What about you?  Do you travel with your cloth?  I’d love to hear your story!  You can also follow the rest of the Cloth Diaper Carnival by visiting Dirty Diaper Laundry.  She has a great McKLinky at the bottom of her traveling post.

Have you ever wanted to take an eco-trip?  Well I have the cruise just for you!  My parents are travel agents and are planning this cruise for next fall.  Contact info is at the bottom of the post. 

I think I need an assistant writer over here since I can’t manage to stay home for long this summer!  LOL!  I know my last post said we were headed someplace out of the States but nobody guessed where.  We just got our passports and decided we’d hop on a plane and go someplace we’ve never gone.  We decided upon Amsterdam, Netherlands (Holland). 

While we were only there for a day (yes, just one day!!) we had plenty of time to take in the city.  What a fantastic city.  On the green side of things I have to say we were both impressed by the public transportation and the bikes.  Not only do they have buses; they also have a tram and train system running all through the town.  The most amazing thing to see were all the people riding bikes.  You literally had to watch out for the bike riders before you stepped off the curb.  Here is a cute picture that showed just how many bikes there are in this city; and this picture is only part of the lot.

Other green things we noted about the city…

At the hotel you had to put your room key in a slot to make the light switches work.  So everytime you left the room the lights automatically went off. 

Everyone drove small compact cars; if they drove at all.  You just don’t see big SUVs around town.

When we took off from the airport my hubby saw something off the coast he’d never seen in person.  Wind Mills!  There was a field of about 60 wind turbines in the water off the coast.  It was really pretty from the plane and reassuring that they are actually getting used. 

I think we could really learn a lot from other countries and their way of lives.  Stay tuned for big news tomorrow. 

It appears the EcoChic has packed up once again and ran away.  June has been filled with back to back business trips and I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write anything fun.  This week is no different except I’ve actually been home for almost a week.  But in true EcoChic fashion; that is about to change today.  We’re packing up and heading out of town for the 4th of July.  I promise to tell you all about it when we get back…but not until then.  Anyone curious about where I’m going?  Check back next week and find out.

Today I once again head out to the airways for a business trip.  I wanted to do something differnt today; I wanted to change one thing about the way I travel that would reduce my personal impact.  So today I will be packing one additional item in my backpack; my reusable water bottle.  I picked up a new one at Target this weekend that is pretty cool.  It was a whole $4.00, plastic, has a straw, and the best part…it has a freeze stick attached inside to keep it cold.  I know plastics are a hot topic right now but I choose to change what I can.  I can’t change the fact that everything is made out of plastic and that it may or may not be toxic.  I can change the amount of plastic bottles that I throw away though.  So today I will resist my temptation for an iced green tea latte and choose a nice cold bottle of tap water instead! 

Today is my day to talk about global warming.  Do you believe global warming exists?  Or do you think it’s just a myth a normal pattern in the planets history?  What do you think President Bush thinks about Global Warming?  There was an interesting video I saw on Yahoo today that answers that very question.  I had a friend of mine say something very similar as President Bush about the oil refineries in the U.S.  I had never really thought about it from his perspective.  The way my friend asked the questions was this; “Did you know that China and others have oil refineries very close off the coast of the United States?  Wouldn’t you rather have the U.S. manage the oil refineries with our environmental regulations instead of letting China do it without any regulations?  And if we had our own oil refineries we could reduce the cost of gasoline.”  Like I said, I had never considered that side of things.  I still think there are other alternatives that need to be investigated and persued; but I have to agree with having more control over our resources too. 

On another blog today, I read about the 20 places that would most be impacted and threatened by global warming.  I’m actually planning a family vacation right now to some place exotic.  Some of these places have been made famous by Survivor (Cook Islands and Palau, Micronesia).  Some I have actually dreamt about visiting (Galapagos Islands) since I started studying Darwin years ago.  Surprisingly some of the locations I have already visited (NYC, New Orleans, and Virgin Islands).  What cities or locations would you like to visit from the list and why? 

Whether or not you believe global warming is real I think it would be a loss to our planet to loose such wonderful places.  What would life be like without Japan, NYC, and London?  I personally don’t want to find out.   

As I sit here and write this I am plagued with so much stress of the day it’s hard to describe.  The big Earth Day event has had it’s share of obstacles along the way; I’m not sure why I expected things to go well today.  They certainly didn’t go well.  My journey began at 4am this morning as I left my house headed for the airport.  On Friday we were plagued with one of our handouts not arriving until AFTER the event was over; so my first challenge for the today was to make that happen.  That was resolved by 4pm!!  It was a stressful day waiting on those.  The next challenge was with the printers.  We were scheduled to pick up the displays today; there was no estimated time frame…but they were promised today.  After several converstaions with the printing department we were still hopeful that they would actually arrive before we left for dinner.  By 5pm we decided to stop in and see what the hold up was.  The lady we had been dealing with…well she had just left to go home.  She didn’t leave a message with anyone about our stuff so it took us an hour to somewhat resolve the issue.  They are reprinting as much as they can tonight and will arrive at 6am tomorrow to complete what they can do in-store.  The one over-sized piece may or may not arrive in the morning…we’ll leave that in God’s hands!  I called the manager a few minutes ago and they were about 1/3 of the way through the reprint.  Last problem or issue was with the display tents.  They began setting everything up at 4pm and at 6:30pm they were still there and my coworker was headed home.  That meant we had to go back to the office to see the set up to completion so we could sign that they were delivered and installed.  Well….as with everything else today there was a problem along the way.  One of the six tents was the wrong size.  The tent and the tent poles didn’t match so they had to go back to the store and get the replacement parts.  At 8:30pm they finally finished the installation and we were free to leave!  It’s 9:30 and I have been up for way toooooooo long now so I’m signing off and going to bed.  My Earth Day starts at 7am when I will be standing outside of the printers waiting and praying to pick up everything we need for the day.  My boss is not going to be very impressed if this falls apart now.  UGH…I hate depending on others to make me look good! 

I hope you all have a wonderful Earth Day and do something green!  As soon as my event if over I’m jetting off to one more location for a late Earth Day celebration at one of the field locations on Wednesday.  By the time this is over I’m going to need a few days to recover!  Enjoy you day!