We’re celebrating the arrival of our brand new baby, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, by showering one lucky winner with ALL of the gifts listed below!

• A copy of our book! Of course, we think the best prize is The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down to Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet. It’s packed with hundreds of ways to save money while going green with baby.
  
• A HappyBaby gift pack, including organic baby food samples, an Eric Carle growth chart from YoBaby, an Infant & Toddler Nutrition guide co-authored by Dr. Sears, and a set of HappyFamily recipes. HappyBaby is the company behind this fabulous organic baby guide, and their organic foods are available in supermarkets everywhere.
  
• 1 organic chili pepper onesie and hat set ($46) from Baby Bunz & Co. Baby Bunz & Co. have been selling cloth diapers and other eco-friendly baby products since the 1980s!
  
• A Diaperaps sample pack, including a cover, liner, and an infant size hemp/organic cotton fitted diaper. Diaperaps are adorable, waterproof, Velcro closing diaper covers that can be used with cotton prefolds.  They’re easy to use and very affordable.
  
• One pair of baby girl shoes from Pedoodles, in the style and size of your choice. You’ll love the style and durability of Pedoodles shoes!  Made from recycled leather, they are eco-friendly and adorable.
  
• 1 twin pack of thinkbaby 9oz PES bottles($16.99) ThinkBaby makes “safer products for healthier babies.” These bottles are BPA-free–of course!
  
• One adorable teething toy from Speesees, a company specializing in eco-friendly, kid-friendly clothes, bedding, and more.
  
• One container of Green Dragon Pest Solutions, an eco-friendly product that will hurt household bugs such as roaches and silverflies without harming baby.

Eight Ways to Enter the Giveaway

How do you enter?  Guess what?  You can enter more than once! Each way listed below gets you one entry.  All comments have to be posted BEFORE Sunday the 7^th of March to win. (And if you don’t win, don’t worry–we’re giving away gift baskets ALL MONTH LONG!)

Remember, LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT ON THIS POST FOR EVERY EACH ENTRY.  If applicable, please leave the link to your Facebook/Twitter/Blog in the comment you leave here.

1. Email a friend about our book, our blog, or this month’s giveaways. (And then don’t forget to comment about it below!)

2. Subscribe to our blog (look right under the search bar)

3. Join our Facebook fan club

4. Link to us on Facebook, Twitter, or another social networking site.

5. Link to this post on your blog!

6. Add The Eco-nomical Baby Guide to your “to read” shelf on Goodreads

7. Add our blog to your blogroll

8. Go read our post on Five Ways to Score a Free Copy of  The Eco-nomical Baby Guide and leave a comment there if you’re willing to review our book on your blog.  (Make sure to read the post for more details.) Leave a comment here as well to make sure we can keep track of your entries.

***The contest ends on Saturday, March 6, 2010***

Winner will be randomly selected.

We will notify the winner via email and will get you in touch with these companies who will ship your products directly to you. Please Note: This contest is open only to U.S. readers.

Have fun everyone!

Eco-friendly baby gear works for us! This post is a part of Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Rocks in My Dryer!

Today is the day. For three years, hundreds of days and thousands of hours, Rebecca and I have written, rewritten, and polished our manuscript for The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down to Earth for Parents to Save Money and the Planet. Today is its official birthday because it is now on bookstore shelves!

We packed our book full of earth-friendly, budget-friendly tips learned from our time in the trenches as new moms. It’s the perfect stand-alone guide to cloth diapering, buying green for baby, and enjoying baby’s arrival without extra economic stress.

In honor of its birth, we’re going to be giving away HUNDREDS of dollars of green baby gear in our weekly gift baskets this month. Please email friends and family, post on your Facebook page, and inform fellow bloggers that your readers won’t want to miss this month’s giveaway extravaganza.

What could you win?

How about. . .
Adorable eco-friendly baby shoes
Some top quality cloth diapers and accessories
A working cardboard cradle for baby
Organic baby food
Sweet little organic baby garments
A COPY OF OUR BOOK!

There’s much, much more in our baskets so stop by each week to see what you could win.

Also, we’re hosting two upcoming book signings. On Saturday, March 6th from noon to two, we’ll be at Mother Nature’s in Portland, Oregon, at 2627 Southeast Clinton Street. If you miss that one, come see us on Sunday, March 21st from ten to noon when we’ll be at Bambini in Eugene, Oregon, at 205 West 5th Street. If you know someone who may be interested in our book, feel free to email them about the events. Thank you for spreading the word about our giveaways and our new book!

Organic mattresses may help you sleep a little easier—but for a price. Earlier this year we found several affordable organic crib mattresses. But in a few years, your baby will transition to a twin bed. Then what? One of our readers asked us to look into mattresses for bigger kids. Unfortunately, we didn’t find much. In fact, we just found two options under $600.00.

First we found the Naturepedic Organic Twin Mattress-Ultra ($599.00). (Naturepedic makes a few more organic twin mattresses, too, but they all cost more.) It boasts the following features:

• Organic cotton cover with a clear 100% polyethylene food-grade waterproof surface (NO vinyl/PVC, phthalates, or antimicrobial biocides) Non-allergenic and easy-to-clean
• U.S. grown and certified organic cotton filling (NO polyurethane foam or latex)
• 450 coil premium orthopedic innerspring with border wire
• Meets and exceeds all federal and state flammability standards
• Standard full size. Made in U.S.A.

Or, for $400, This twin mattress from Baby Earth might be a good choice. It’s made from natural soy and wool and “repels common allergens and bacteria that thrive in moist surroundings.”

If anyone has tried either of these mattresses—or, better yet, found a more affordable organic twin mattress—please let us know!

*****

Here’s another way to get your hands on a free copy of The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: check out this giveaway on Goodreads!

We’re so proud of our new book that we’d like to get it in everyone’s hands.  The information stuffed between the bindings saved us about six thousand dollars in our babies’ first year alone so it’s worth shelling out a few bucks for a copy—but card carrying tightwads might want to know how to get the book for FREE.

• Check it out! What?! Your library doesn’t have it? Most libraries have online forms where you can recommend books for purchase.  Once your library gets it make sure you put it on hold for yourself!
• Enter our March giveaways. We’ll be hosting several giveaways in the month of March, all of which will involve wonderful green gear and a copy of our book.
• Put it on your baby shower registry. Several sites such as Mygiftlist.com allow you to create an online gift registry that includes cloth diapers, eco-friendly baby soaps and a copy of our book. Hey, it’s free for you!
• Review it on your blog. We’re looking for bloggers who post at least a few times a week and have some connection to the content of our book.  If it looks like your blog will be a good fit, we’ll email you back for your mailing address and get a review copy to you as soon as possible. You can even use it as a giveaway on your site after you read it!
• Share a copy with friends. O.K. This isn’t quite free but if you have pregnant pals a group of you can purchase one book and share it amongst yourselves.  Then maybe you can stick together to problem solve the challenges of green parenting when your babies arrive.

If you don’t have a blog, a library, pregnant friends, or anyone willing to throw you a baby shower we should tell you that the book is available for pre-order in the next few weeks at 25% off. It would be nice if all of you were so inspired by that temporary sale that you bought several thousand copies of our books I suppose, but as thrifty souls ourselves, it brings us even more happiness to find ways for you to score a copy of our little gem for free.  Thanks for all your support!

I am not sure if anyone actually celebrates Valentine’s Day by buying Baby some heart-print training pants, but just in case, here are our gift ideas:

Heart print training pants by Diaperaps.

SwaddleDesigns Organic Ultimate Receiving Blanket

Argington Organic Crib Bedding Set, Heart And Flowers Print

Argington Organic Crib Quilt, Heart And Flowers Print

What’s next—St. Patrick’s Day burp cloths?!

I won’t even go into my car seat drama, but suffice it to say I ended up going through more hunks of plastic than strictly necessary. In our upcoming book (The Eco-nomical Baby Guide), we suggest purchasing an all-in-one car seat to avoid putting a strain on the planet. These seats “grow with the baby” and are supposed to work from birth until your child no longer needs a car seat or booster at all.

Why did I not do this? My only excuse is that I just wasn’t aware of the choices at the time. My search found just three all-in-one car seats, but they all look like great options if you want to avoid buying a new seat every couple years.

Safety 1st All-In-One Convertible Car Seat

$120—83% off!

• 5-35 lbs Rear Facing; 22-40 lbs Front Facing; 40-80 lbs Belt Positioning Booster
• QuickFit Harness System allows for easy adjustments for harness height up-front
• 5 Point Harness with easy push button buckle
• LATCH equipped

Evenflo Symphony 65 with Surelatch All In One Seat

$199.99

• Side impact tested
• SureLatch technology, which installs your seat to your vehicle as easily as buckling a seat-belt.
• Accommodates children from 5-35 pounds, rear-facing, 20 – 65 pounds forward-facing, up to 100 pounds, as a booster

Safety 1st 3 Phase Convertible Car Seat

$69.98 (46% off)

• Rear facing with the five point harness form 5-35 lbs and at least one year, forward facing from 22-40 lbs., as a belt-positioning booster from 40-80 lbs.
• The child can use the car seat up to 52 inches

If anyone has tried any of these seats (or another one we haven’t mentioned), we’re all ears. Has anyone out there managed to use just one car seat? We want to hear about it!

In search of an eco-friendly car seat, I ran across the latest must-have baby accessory: organic car seat covers. That’s right—you simply take the horrible polyester cover that came with your car seat, throw it away, and buy your baby a bamboo infant car seat liner ($40). Too cheap for your precious bundle? You may be interested in the Itzy Ritzy Baby Ritzy Rider in Organic Baby Bamboo Infant Car Seat Cover ($110) or perhaps the organic wool car seat cover ($99.95). Never mind that they cost just as much as the car seat itself!

All right, to be fair, some babies may be especially sensitive to toxins in the fabric of regular car seat covers. And it wouldn’t be a bad idea for car seat manufacturers to use natural materials in their products. But we’ll save our money for a car seat made out recycled milk jugs!

Today marks our final in a series of posts dedicated to saving cash while keeping the environment in mind.  (Check here, here, and here for some great frugal blog resources to support your money saving efforts.)  Over the past two years we’ve written dozens of posts on budget friendly, earth friendly practices, but we’ve picked our favorites to help you save money in 2010.

• Did you know that there’s one brand of high quality, name brand green laundry soap that’s far cheaper than even generics? Check this post to see how you can save money and the planet while tossing those yam-encrusted baby bibs into the wash.
• You can save hundreds of dollars by making homemade organic baby food, cloth diapering and breastfeeding.  All of these options are better for baby,  the environment and your budget.
• Should you register for brand new baby duds or hit yard sales for gently used garments?  You can probably guess which one we recommend!
• Why take the time and energy to cut back on family spending anyway?  Is it worth it?  Absolutely!  We explore the long term rewards of under indulgence for your family (and your child!) here.
• If you’d like to save over a thousand dollars to tuck into the college fund, you might want to start before your baby ever arrives.  Opt for secondhand duds for your maternity months and postpartum transition wardrobe.
• Does shopping organic mean that you’ll need to shell out hundreds of dollars on a weekly basis?  Not necessarily.  In fact, Rebecca feeds her entire family eat wholesome organic foods on a shoestring budget without too much effort.  Learn how she does it here.
• Those of us living without dishwashers use far more water and soap than our Maytag-owning peers.  What are some simple ways to save water and conserve suds?  Rebecca takes a careful look at the problem here.

Does all that penny pinching add up?  You’ll be happy to know that because of all that careful thrift, Rebecca just graduated into the dishwasher-owner category after an arduous kitchen remodel.  I am still dreaming of slipping my peanut butter covered spoons into the silverware slot of my newfangled Maytag someday, but for now I shall make good use of Rebecca’s dishwashing research!

My son is intelligent, funny, and has the bladder capacity of a small elephant.  From his first few months on this planet we’ve been unable to layer enough cloth diapers on him to keep him from leaking at night.   We tried doubling, using wool and fleece liners, and using pocket diapers with an extra liner.

The results were mixed—but all bad.  He ended up with wet sheets, yeast infections, and lots less sleep.  Finally, after several dozen attempts, we just surrendered to using disposable diapers at night.

Now with our second child, I was determined to try again with cloth at night.  She doesn’t have the huge bladder of her brother, but even if she did, I think the new hemp liners we’ve been using might be able to handle it.  They wick away the moisture, absorb quite a lot, and are a natural fabric that breathes nicely.  We’ve never had any yeast issues while using the hemp liners and being wet hasn’t woken her up.  (Oh, she’s up regularly!  But it doesn’t seem to correlate to the dampness of her diaper.)

A friend actually made us our  liners using a serger sewing machine and some thick hemp fabric–which seems to be the cheapest solution for talented seamstresses.  If you’d like to order a few, check out hemp inserts from Thirsties, Willow Sprouts, or Green Acre Designs.

So, in review, our fabulous nighttime solution is a diaper cover, a prefold, and a hemp liner closest to baby’s bottom. We hope that yeast doesn’t become a problem once again but we’ll keep you posted if it reappears.  Have you had issues with yeast or leakage at night?

It’s official.  Our daughter has started solids and consequently has entered the “gross poops” stage of cloth diapering.  We dunk and rinse in the toilet, but as much as we love cloth diapering, this phase isn’t exactly delightful.

Liners are available so that solid waste and the thin layer of paper can simply be dumped into the toilet and flushed away.  Imse Vimse, Biosoft, Real Nappies, and Kushies all offer flushable liners.  Have you used them and had good results?

Believe it or not, when your baby is just wet instead of poopy, the flushable liners can be laundered and reused which means that just one pack can last for quite awhile.  Have you found flushable diaper liners to be worth the expense? Do they prevent toilet dunking?