Our Cloth Journey & Why we Started Bums Away

As any good parent, when you're expecting your first baby, you plan, and plan, and seriously plan. For me, planning became a necessity, especially since all my original plans for my firstborn went out the window when he decided to show up five weeks early and land himself right in the NICU. Plans for exclusively breastfeeding became, "Mom's milk is supplementation only," due to the extra calories he needed. Feedings happened at his time of need, not when I got there with frozen pumped milk. As you can imagine, life became busy, stressful, and the plans I had changed because the priority changed. Getting him home in the very "crunchy" fashion I had imagined wasn't the most important thing anymore. It was simply getting him home. Praise the Lord, my firstborn grew bigger and stronger and came home with me one month later, but my desire for all the natural ways to raise him became lost in the hustle and bustle of new mom life.

Fast forward four years, and our second born was brewing. This little guy was getting the royal crunchy mom treatment, and did he ever! I researched cloth diapers for hours, ordered samples and products of all kinds, bought us some glass bottles, and exclusively breastfed him for a whopping three months before I realized we were about to have another baby on our hands! I vowed to keep up the cloth diapering, the organic baby food, and all the things I deemed "good enough for my baby," even if I had to work double-time through not one, but two babies being born within the same calendar year.

As dreamy as that sounded, when our beautiful baby girl came along, my husband was traveling for work, my big kid was starting school, and honestly, I just needed a break. Constantly washing diapers, breastfeeding all night long even when it hurt, having two little ones so close together, and having my beloved in-laws 45 minutes away made me realize that I was putting the idol of "natural" parenting on a pretty large pedestal. I had to stop and ask myself, Is this choice right for us right now? Honestly, it wasn't—and that was okay. From then on, the motto of "good, better, best" was born in our house. If I couldn't do whatever it was the best—diapers, feeding, cleaning, you name it—I would do it better. And God forbid I couldn't even do it better, I'd be okay with good. As long as those babies (and my big guy too) had a mom who was right there with them every step of the way.

We took a break from having kiddos, thinking we may be done, but the Lord told us otherwise and we obeyed. In 2023 we had our fourth born, another sweet boy, and in 2024 we had our fifth born—a beautiful baby girl. With a little more wisdom in raising children under my belt, we tackled this "natural" way of raising babies yet again—not because I was crazy, but because I truly believe God’s way is the best ways to raise a new life. Even though I didn't get my natural birth in 2023, and even though we didn't take the completely organic, make-your-own-baby-food route 100% of the time (more like 30%). I believe we did, and are doing, it right. Because our intent in how we are raising our children is what matters. We cloth diaper. I still breastfeed my almost two-year-old at night. And yes, when Grandma comes over to babysit, we pull out the disposables for her! But I never sacrifice my mental health or my energy at the expense of our time and joy together. The diapering years are such a beautiful season in raising your babies. The time you spend with them and the closeness you share really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We are passionate about letting moms and dads have their cake and eat it too, so to speak. Cloth diapering truly is one of the best choices you can make for your baby, and we are here to make that happen— and not at the expense of you having to choose laundry, and maybe even a little sanity, over spending time with your loved ones. I'd like to think that the Lord led us down this path so that we could help babies get the most out of the diapering experience, but let's be real... it's so much bigger than that. Brent and I built this business to help you, the caretaker, do exactly what you were made to do—take care of your little one. Often in life we have to pick and choose between "good, better, or best," but at Bums Away we want to remove that question and give you the very best in diapering, without the extra hassle, so you can spend less time worrying and more time making memories with the ones you love. ❤️

- Rachel Rolfe