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This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama Reviews and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked "Win it!" for the mandatory main entry and optional bonus entries.

GREEN YOUR PERIOD special event: We are featuring a series of reusable menstrual products for review and giveaway. Go green, no matter what time of the month!

Knickernappies and Fluff Envy are offering my readers a giveaway of a Stackable Menstrual Pad Set! This Knickernappies cloth pad set is made of a waterproof fleece shell with two absorbent microfiber and velour liners, and is a reusable, eco-friendly solution to your period.

Knickernappies sent me the same microfiber set plus two extra pad liners for review. I had been using a reusable menstrual cup but with disposable pads and pantyliners as backup, and I was eager to try out greener cloth options.

Knickernappies innovations

I love the idea of the Stackable Mama Pads. They're a unique 3-in-1 system that will fit absorbency needs from pantiliner to regular pad to heavy flow. That way, you can adjust the absorbency throughout your menstrual cycle without having to buy several different pad sizes.

My favorite aspect of the stackable design is that you can reuse the shell throughout the day as long as it doesn't get soiled, just swapping out the pad liners as you need them replaced. That means you need only a few shells for your whole cycle, and you can buy extra pads (liners) separately.

One smaller liner works well for light flow. One larger liner is comparable to a standard pad. Snapping on both liners at the same time provides coverage for heavy flow.

The shells and liners are consistently the same sizes so any future shells or liners you buy will fit any other set.

The outer shell is very thin, waterproof fleece. The larger pads are made from microfiber, hemp, and cotton/poly velour (76% combed cotton/24% polyester — the polyester is used on the backside as a stabilizer). The smaller pads are microfiber and velour. The soft velour sits against the skin, and the workhorse microfiber is highly absorbent.

The shell with the pad(s) snaps up into a little bundle so you can toss it in a bag or even your pocket (it would be a little bulky there, though!) and take it with you. I doubt anyone would know what it was (unless they actually did know what it was — in which case, they'd just be applauding you for being so dang cool and environmental).

My experiences

Knickernappies set laid out: small pad, large pad, shell. Everything snaps together, and the wings snap under your undies.

I liked the arrangement of the Knickernappies Stackable Pads for several reasons.

First of all, I loved that I could reuse the shell for the whole day, assuming it didn't get too messy (which wasn't a problem). Knickernappies sent me an extra set of pad liners (which are available separately and can be found at Fluff Envy), so I was able to use one shell for the day and just keep swapping out the pads.

Shell with two pads snapped in on top of each other (large over small), for heavy flow.

I also appreciated that I could choose my absorbency. As mentioned, I usually use a menstrual cup, but I tried these out during my heavy flow without the cup so I could make sure they were absorbent enough. I didn't have any problems with leaks.

For my heaviest flow, I snapped in both pad sizes for the highest absorbency and was able to leave the pad on for several hours before I even leaked through the top layer onto the second pad. Your timing will vary, of course, depending on your own flow, but I was impressed at how absorbent the pads were.

Shell with one small pad snapped in, for light flow.

When I did have my menstrual cup in toward the middle of my cycle, or at the end of my cycle without my menstrual cup, I would definitely need nothing more than just the one small pad snapped in as a sort of pantiliner. I will say, though, that I generally prefer my pantiliners to be a little more streamlined — this seemed a bit much for just a light spotting. I would, however, use it toward the beginning of my cycle with my menstrual cup in, when I'm more likely to have leaking/sloshing, or before my period starts when I'm not sure exactly when it might hit. I'd like the security at either of those points of knowing I have a substantial enough backup in place.

The set all bundled and snapped closed.

I wasn't sure if the set would snap closed with both liners in place — but it does! So you could toss an extra shell and liners in your bag or coat pocket to have handy. You could also snap together a soiled set to keep it contained until you got home.

I liked how soft the velour tops of the pads were against my skin. The microfiber on the back definitely has that slightly scratchy microfiber feel, but that sits against the shell and doesn't rub against you at all.

That the shell is waterproof fleece (and it definitely feels waterproof to the touch) will be a comfort to many people, I know. It's a relief that there's a barrier between your absorbency and your clothing, if you've miscalculated how many pads you needed or how long to leave them on. Of course, at some point that wouldn't be enough to stem the tide, but I liked knowing it was an extra layer of protection!

One thing I wasn't as fond of with these pads, though, was that the backside of the shell is a bit slippery, so I found it didn't always stay precisely in place, even with the wings snapped over the crotch of my undies. The wings do have two sets of snaps, though, so you can adjust them to the correct size for your undies. I think maybe it would help if the underside were just a little rougher. I didn't have any problems with leaking through the wings, but I'd rather keep the pad in place so I don't feel compelled to change out the shell early due to soiling.

Now, with cloth diapering, I was a Velcro/Aplix mama, but I found the snapping of these pads easy to manage. Soiled pads were easily snapped out without undue mess, and new pads snapped in securely. The pads seem solidly made and should stand up to a lot of wear.

Care and laundering

You can read the recommended care instructions here. I put my soiled pads into a sink of cold water to soak a bit, then hung them over the faucet till it was laundry time. (It's a little used sink, so I can be weird like that. Another option is to get a special bucket or bowl to place your pads in till laundry day.) Knickernappies recommends rinsing them in cold water but not necessarily leaving them to soak, so there's a simple option.

I also sprayed mine with a little Bac-Out before putting them in the washing machine to help the stains come out.

If you're doing cloth diaper laundry, Knickernappies' instructions to wash on cold followed by hot would make perfect sense.

Since I'm not, I just ran mine (pads and shell) through with the regular laundry cycle that matched the color load (on warm or cold), and that seemed to work fine. I don't use much detergent, and what I do use is very gentle. I put the set, unsnapped, in a mesh bag so I could find them again before popping the rest of the laundry in the dryer.

Because I'm still using dryer sheets (but seriously considering letting them go…), I let the pads air dry so they wouldn't lose any absorbency. Knickernappies says you can machine dry them, although I would avoid using any fabric softeners in the wash or the dryer, so you don't affect absorbency.

As for staining, my shell and the tops of my pads have held up well. The microfiber on the underside of the pads (which is white in my set) has some faint coloration. I'm not too fussed by stains on menstrual pads, though, so whatever! How much staining you have will depend somewhat on what colors your pads are, since Knickernappies manufactures them based on fabric availability. My velours are darker colors, which helps mask the staining.

At any rate, they all held up well to machine washing, and I'm glad they're convenient to take care of.

Cloth vs. disposable

I am a cloth pad convert for sure. Knickernappies pads are so much more comfortable than the disposable pads and pantyliners I had been using. They are a bit bulkier feeling at first, but I soon got used to that and didn't notice it. It just felt like wearing underwear, which is a nice sensation for during your period!

I like that the pads don't crinkle when I walk and that they're so soft against my skin. I'm relieved by how absorbent they are (the general guideline is you'll need to change them as often as you would a disposable, and that's lined up well for me) and that I didn't have any problems with leaking.

And I love love love that I'm no longer throwing so much trash away every month! Caring for them is no problem, since you'll be doing laundry anyway. So it just makes sense to me now to have something reusable, especially since it feels so much better than the disposables, anyhow!

BUY IT!

You can buy Knickernappies Stackable Menstrual Pads at Fluff Envy for only $11 for a set (shell + small pad + large pad), or $9 for two extra pads (small and large). I've priced out other cloth pad options, and these prices are very reasonable. Remember that you reuse them, so the cost over the course of the pads' lifetime is much lower than disposables.

The basic set is a mix with microfiber. For $1 more, you can purchase more natural hemp pads instead. (The top will still be velour and the shell will still be fleece.) Hemp is just as absorbent and a little trimmer, so you can choose your preference if you're purchasing your own. (The giveaway set is the standard microfiber.)

Note that colors vary, because Knickernappies manufactures these according to what color fabrics they find available. I somehow find that charming! I like the idea they're using up odds and ends or something to keep the prices down for us.

Fluff Envy will ship orders over $35 for free to U.S. addresses, including APO/FPO addresses. Otherwise, standard U.S. shipping is $5.95. They also ship internationally — costs are calculated during checkout.

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win a Knickernappies Stackable Menstrual Pad Set with Microfiber, enter in the comments below! Contest is open WORLDWIDE. (Thank you, Fluff Envy and Knickernappies!)

MAIN ENTRY: Visit FluffEnvy.com and tell me what other Knickernappies product interests you the most!

Leave an email address in at least one of your comments if it's not clearly visible on your profile or linked web page so I can contact you if you win. (You can write it like this to foil spambots: mail {at} hobomama {dot} com or similar.)

This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama Reviews and Natural Parents Network, a site co-founded by Lauren of Hobo Mama & Dionna of Code Name: Mama that brings together those interested in attachment parenting and a natural lifestyle. You may enter at one site only, and we'll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do check out and enjoy both sites!


BONUS ENTRIES, to increase your chance of winning (leave a separate comment for each so I can count them all):

• Visit Knickernappies.com and tell me something you learned or something you'd like to have.
• Follow the Knickernappies Cloth Diaper Blog publicly through Google Friend Connect or subscribe to the Knickernappies RSS feed in a reader or by email (1 entry for each).
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• Subscribe to Natural Parents Network in a reader or by email (1 entry for each).
• Leave a relevant comment on a non-giveaway article at Natural Parents Network and tell us which post (comment on separate posts for up to 3 entries total).
• Like Knickernappies on Facebook.
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• Tweet about this giveaway (up to 5 times total, at least 24 hours apart). You can tweet this text: #Win @Knickernappies Stackable Cloth Pad from @FluffEnvy & @Hobo_Mama! #Green Your Period #giveaway http://bit.ly/hYOj8D {4.19, Int'l}
• Post this giveaway on your Facebook page or wall and leave the link (1 entry). You can use this status update: Green your period! Enter to win a @Knickernappies Stackable Menstrual Pad Set from @Fluff Envy and @Hobo Mama. Contest ends April 19 and is open WORLDWIDE.
  Be sure to attach the contest URL to your update! (This is not part of the status text!)
  http://www.hobomamareviews.com/2011/03/giveaway-knickernappies-stackable.html
• Enter another of my current giveaways or the giveaways on Natural Parents Network (1 extra entry per giveaway — check back for more!).
• Put my Hobo Mama button on your website or add http://www.HoboMama.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the button is in the sidebar to the right. Leave your site URL in the comment.
• Put the Natural Parents Network badge on your website or add http://NaturalParentsNetwork.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the badge is in the sidebar to the right. Leave your site URL in the comment.

RULES:

• Contest open WORLDWIDE.
• Contestants may enter at either Hobo Mama Reviews or Natural Parents Network but not both. Entries will be combined for the drawing of a single winner.
• Leave each entry as a separate comment so I can count them all.
• For actions like following and subscribing, if you already follow or subscribe, just let me know in your comment.
• For tasks that garner you multiple entries, you can copy and paste the comment with a #1, #2, etc.
• You don't have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.
• I will pick the winner through Random.org after the contest closes and send an email notification. Leave an email address in your comment if it's not clearly visible on your profile or linked web page so I can contact you if you win. If I can't reach a winner or don't hear back within a couple days, I'll draw a new name.
• Any questions, let me know: mail {at} HoboMama.com