diapers and laundry, nica style

Simon has added a new dimension to our morning routine - mainly a huge increase in the volume of laundry we have to do. We use cloth diapers for Simon during the day, disposibles at night; he's averaging 7-9 cloth diapers a day thus far. We have a combination of Nicaraguan diapers (usually very thin and not absorbant) and diapers we bought in the US (tri-fold standards and motherease snaps, all w/ nifty diaper covers). And in spite of our best efforts, Simon still has managed to pee on quite a number of our clothes and his own.
Since we wash all our clothes by hand, we've had to create some systems for efficient work, especially given the water shortages. Here's a look at our morning routine.
- prepare yesterday's diapers by putting them in hot, soapy water (heated on the stove)
- scrub them on the new lavandero - a concrete washboard w/ an attached concrete basin that holds about 10 gallons of water
- rinse them in the lavandero, making sure that the bucket that's collecting the water doesn't overflow
- empty the bucket into the toilets as necessary
- wring out the diapers and hang them in the sun
Here's Beth scrubbing away, and the finished results on the line (motherease in front, nica diaper on the front right, tri-folds in the back).
We wash all our other clothes at the old, non-diaper lavandero. We actually actually bought a new one (the one for diapers) shortly before Simon was born, so that we wouldn't have to wash dishes and poopy diapers in the same place. The water from the old one drains directly to the sewer, so we don't have to empty any buckets. Here, Mom Claassen gets into the action. She arrived the day after Simon was born, and her support has been invaluable.

Even Uncle Peter, who came up from Costa Rica for the weekend on a break from his semester abroad, gets into the laundry action.
And the finished results. The best time for hanging clothes is between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., as the sun comes directly into our patio. This works great during the dry season (Nov. through May) as things dry quickly. We'll have to figure out a whole new system during the rainy season (June through Oct.), as it takes clothes a lot longer to dry.
While mommy and grandma are busy washing clothes and diapers, daddy is busy sweeping and mopping the floors, emptying buckets (mommy can't lift heavy things after the birth), and preparing breakfast. It's a good team effort.

Before Simon was born, we could get all our chores done in about an hour; now we need a lot longer. :-)