Adventures in Cloth

After months of reading about cloth diapers and how they're good for your baby, your budget, and the environment..... I did it.

I bought cloth diapers.

They were on sale, and I figured that I'd try it for a week or so and see how it goes. I love that cloth is more breathable and has zero chemicals smashed up against delicate baby skin. I love that the diapers I bought are "one size", which means that I won't have opened packages of disposable diapers that all of a sudden don't fit because of overnight growth spurts. And clearly, I love the fact that this can be a fairly cost-effective endeavor.

On the flip side, I am scared of poopy diapers, pee leaking onto clothes, and massive amounts of laundry I will probably have to do.

So I started out with a Flip diaper & stay-dry insert, a BumGenius 3.0, and a BumGenius 4.0. These 3 diapers don't need to be prepped, so I just washed them once, laid the covers to dry (inserts go in the dryer, and then I hung them for a photo op), and snapped this:

Don't they look so cute? Here's the top view:

The dark pink is the BumGenius 3.0, the yellow is the Flip, and the light pink is the BumGenius 4.0.

Apparently there is a science to cloth diapering over night, but I dove right in and wrapped up Baby Bear's little behind in the 3.0. I chose that one because it's a sized diaper (medium) and has a pretty thick absorbent layer built right in. I added the newborn insert from the 4.0 (those dipes come with a regular insert plus a newborn insert - the newborn is smaller because newborns pee less, I guess), put it on, took a ton of pictures of Baby Bear's first fluffy butt, and got her dressed for bed. She was asleep by 9.

This morning, I went into the nursery at 7am to find a very happy baby. The sheets were dry, so that was a good thing... I picked her up and her sleepsack didn't feel wet.... I undressed her and the outside of the diaper didn't feel wet..... I took off the diaper and even the cloth that was against her skin all night didn't feel wet to the touch. That diaper weighed about 10 lbs though. Full of pee and no wetness against her little behind. I think we were both pretty thrilled about it.

Since I only have 3 diapers (well, enough for 4 changes, because I have 2 Flip inserts), it's 1pm and i'm back to disposibles for the rest of the day. I'm going to wash everything, place another order with CottonBabies.com (another 3.0 and maybe this Econobum set), and see how it goes.

I'm finding that keeping an open mind and setting zero expectations is the way to go when it comes to most things. Take my labor & delivery, for example. I went in with zero pre-conceived notions of how I wanted things to go and even though I was in labor for 14 hours, pushed for 4, and ended with an emergency c-section, it was the best experience of my life and I have nothing but positive memories of that day. And breastfeeding. I figured if it worked, it worked, and if not, we'd do formula.... well, it worked for us and I'm hoping to do it for at least 6 months. After that? Who knows.We're taking it one day at a time. And the same is true for this cloth diaper experiment. I'm going to see how it works for us, and go from there.

After all, the most important thing is a happy & healthy baby.

And I think we're doing a pretty good job so far.