May Meeting Dates

Hey BWI Colorado Springs!

On Tuesday, May 6, at 10:00am, we will meet at East Library. Come with your kids, your carriers, and your questions!

Then on Saturday, May 17, at 10:00am, we will have our monthly Cloth Diaper Market meeting. Make sure to mark this Saturday meeting on your calendar if you're not usually able to make a weekday meeting.

Can't wait to see you all in May!

March Meeting at Cloth Diaper Market

This month's meeting at Cloth Diaper Market was hip and happening! Thanks to all the mommies (and lots of daddies, too!) that came to make this meeting such a success. With such a large turnout, we hope that everyone's questions were answered. Please feel free to post your questions on the Facebook page!

If you were at the meeting, and weren't able to complete the photo release as you checked in, please click here to indicate whether or not you're comfortable having your picture taken and used for our blog. We would love to start showing off more of those sweet action shots of you wearing those babies. Thanks to everyone who has already filled one out.

We hope to see everyone again at the next meeting!

April Meeting Dates

Hey BWI Colorado Springs! April Meeting Dates were just announced, so invite your friends and bring the kids. :)


Monday, March 31st, at 10am there will be a meeting at Cheyenne Mountain Library.


Saturday, April 19th, at 10am come for our second meeting of the month at Cloth Diaper Market.


The lending library will be at BOTH meetings. If you haven't yet paid dues to be a BWI member, you are welcome to play around with the carriers at the meeting. Just a reminder: $30 pays for your dues for one year, allowing you to take home one of any of the carriers in our lending library every month! What a great deal for those of you wanting to try out something new without spending the full sticker price. Click here if you're interested in joining today!

See you all at the next meeting!

March Meeting at the Cloth Diaper Market

Our next March meeting is taking place at Cloth Diaper Market, on Saturday, March 22, at 10am! We can't wait to see you all there. Come learn more about a carrier you're thinking of purchasing, learn how to wrap with a woven, or get advice about how to make babywearing work better for your family! Remember: This is a Saturday meeting for all of you who work during the week. We hope you can make it!

January Meetings

Happy New Year everyone! There is lots to look forward to in the month of January! We will start having multiple meetings throughout the month and throughout the area. Pick a meeting that works for your schedule, that's close to you, or come to them all! Hope to see you all at our upcoming meetings!

This Friday, January 3rd, from 10:30-12pm, we will meet at Cloth Diaper Market in Colorado Springs. Come and learn about different carriers from local babywearing guru, Galen Duffy. She will be covering everything from soft structured carriers, to stretchy wraps, woven wraps and ring slings. All who attend will receive 10% off carriers in store when purchased same day. If you're simply looking for help with a carrier you already own, come on down!

On Friday, January 10th, from 10-12pm, come to the East Library. This is a new location for our group meeting, and we will be discussing what's new for our group in 2014. We will also be trying out Robin's Hip Carry. 

On Saturday, January 18th, from 10-12pm, come to Cloth Diaper Market for an open house style meeting. Stop by to ask carrier questions and hang out with group leaders Marcia Stewart and Jillian Droppo. If you normally work during the week and haven't been able to make a previous weekday meeting, this is a great chance to meet other moms in our awesome group. 

Battle Bumms

As many parents know, the total cost of diapering a child from birth through potty-training can be very expensive.  Disposable diapers, after all, are one-use only and a newborn can go through ten or more a day!  It adds up quickly.

More and more parents are turning to cloth diapers, but unfortunately, the start-up cost can be a little daunting.  For example, the cost of just a single BumGenius 4.0 pocket diaper is almost $18.  A whole stash of just 30 diapers can easily run $500 dollars, which can be a lot of money to put down at once, especially for families who may be living paycheck to paycheck on one income.  

Military spouse Victoria Emry started cloth diapering her son in June of 2012.  

"After spending nearly $500 to get started my husband and I looked at each other and said, at the same time, that there had to be a cheaper way to get started," she said. "From there it went from us thinking about making our own line of diapers with more affordable prices, to us deciding that we wanted to focus on helping military families get started and it was all details after that."

Victoria decided to started her organization Battle Bumms.  With the help of donations, she puts together cloth diaper starter kits.  These kits include 12 diapers, 12 cloth wipes, a wetbag and a pail liner.  These kits are then given to eligible low-income military families stationed in Colorado Springs and Buckley Air Force Base.  So far, the organization has donated sets to five families and has another five in the works, three of which are for families awaiting the arrivals of their babies.  
Battle Bumms is accepts donations to be used in these kits.  Both used and new diapering items, (specifically pockets/prefolds/flats/fitted diapers, diaper covers, gently used Snappis or Boingos, inserts, wetbags, pail liners, and cloth wipes), can be dropped off at the Cloth Diaper Market.  

"In addition to collecting donations and donating starter sets, we make and sell wetbags (small, medium and large sizes) and cloth wipes (in two sizes) to help raise funds," said Victoria.  "100% of the proceeds go back to the organization. Our products are sold at Cloth Diaper Market, as well as from our website as custom orders."

While Battle Bumms is still a bit of a small operation, Victoria hopes for it to eventually become a countrywide non-profit, with branches spread across the military communities.  (Fellow cloth diaper enthusiasts have already contacted her about wanting to open branches in several states!) However, she would first like to build a solid foundation for Battle Bumms as well as register as an official 501(c)(3) organization.

To learn more about Battle Bumms, make a monetary donation, or to check eligibility, visit their website, http://www.battlebumms.com/.

**This post was written by Paula R.

Great Cloth Diaper Change 2013

Heather and her son get ready to join the
crowd inside.
(Photo provided by H. Graham)

The Great Cloth Diaper Change (GCDC) was held on the 20th of April.  The GCDC, for those who haven't heard of it, is a worldwide event to break the Guinness World Record for the number of cloth diapers changed.  Previously, all of the changes happened simultaneously, but this year, the changes took place at 11 a.m. local time at each location. 

Several of our members opted to participate in the GCDC.  Heather Graham and her family drove up to participate in the Denver event, which was being held part of the Kanga Care Natural Parenting Expo.

"There was babywearing everywhere you looked," she said.  "My mother-in-law thinks we are kinda crazy because we wear both babies every time we go somewhere. (She thinks it is 'easier' to use a stroller.) She came with us to the GCDC and was amazed at the sheer amount of people wearing their babies. It seemed like every parent was either wearing one baby or each spouse was wearing a baby each."

While the venue was packed, Heather noted that the atmosphere was still a very pleasant one.  

"As my husband put it, he has never seen a group of more beautiful woman most very natural with little to no makeup, breastfeeding in public with no cover and no feeling of need to cover, and overall very peaceful loving vibes could be felt through out," she said.


Of course no big event would be complete without some great prizes and great company.  Raffle prizes included several baby carriers, full sets of cloth diapers and diaper bags.  Participants were also given goody bags with nursing pads, a limited edition Rumparooz, and various samples and coupons.  They also had the opportunity to mingle with some well-known people at the Expo/GCDC, such as Jessica of The Leaky B@@b and The NYC Baby Guy. 

Denver GCDC participants get ready to change their babies!
(Photo provided by H. Graham)

Sarah Theriault opted to attend the GCDC event at the Chapel Hills mall.  Local sponsors such Cloth Diaper Market and CJ's Unique Boutique were present and there were also some demonstrations and activites, such as a Diaper Derby for crawling babies.

"The change was pretty wild," she said.  "They checked all diapers to make sure they were publicly available brands.  They gave us anklets for the babies so they made sure we walked out with the right ones."

Sarah described the GCDC as fun and said that it was "great to be in the midst of so many like-minded mamas!"  She noted many babywearing parents in attendance, but admitted to being too shy to say hello to them.

The event also helped convert a friend she brought along with her.  She hadn't been cloth diapering, but the GCDC provided a free cloth diaper for moms like her that still wanted to participate.

"She loved it so much she wants to start cloth diapering!"  Sarah said.  "She learned a lot about how much money it could save and how much healthier it is for the planet." 

**Written by Paula R.