So today I am sitting in the car with one of my younger sisters and she says to me "So, I hear your obsessed with cloth diapers?" I sheepishly smiled... "ya, it's true". :) What can I say, I am hooked. Not sure it's completely healthy but it could be worse. I didn't realize how excited I was about the whole thing until the other day I ran up stairs with my very own homemade fitted CD in hands and was all excited to show my husband. He just laughed. " I have never seen you like this before." "I think it's kind of cute."
Now I have only been using CD for about 4 four months and just recently started using them overnight. I had bought about 300 disposable diapers on sale in March and so we have been using those at night. I have about 25 hidden in her closet for a road trip we are about to go on in August because yes I am just not that brave yet but as of yesterday all of my disposables are official gone... dum da dum. I honestly can say I was really intimidated by the thought of it initially and even a little weirded out but the more I thought about it the more natural it seemed. I didn't even realize there were so many options!!! Oh my! It's amazing how many options there are out there and all things that go with CD. It's like a whole new world.
The reason I even entertained the idea was the concept of saving money. I only have one child now and was easily spending $40.00 dollars a month on diapers alone. That doesn't include wipes or the newborn stage when I would go through boxes a week!! Not to mention laundry from the outfit changes from her having massive explosions. So I brought it up to my husband who looked at me like I had five eyes. Then I calculated how much we spent each year on diapers (http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp) and what we would save if we switched. I then compared that to how many kids we are considering having which is definitely more than 1 or 2 and we thought about it for a few minutes and he gave me the green light. I will say that I didn't have a clue what I was getting myself into.
It has been a process and there are for sure some do's and dont's for beginners.
I really had no idea what a pocket diaper was, or a hybrid, or even an all in one. The first kind I tried was a g-diaper. The concept is great and there are tons of people who love this style of diaper but I don't think it's a very good beginner cloth diaper. My husband hated the different steps of having to put new inserts in and pulling the old ones out and having to wrinse the shell if it got dirty or knowing if he should change the whole thing. I never had any issues with leaks but since our little girl is fairly tiny they always left snap marks on her hips and they always made me nervous that they would leak. So, we tried that but I was feeling discouraged. Then someone mentioned an all in one diaper and I thought... okay lets give that a try. I also wanted to make my hubbies life easier so he wouldn't be stressed so I bought 6 brand new bumgenious all in one type diapers off of craigslist. HE LOVED THEM! He said "Now this is a diaper I can handle!" The only thing was he said he would like to also try one with snaps. I held off though because I wanted him to get the hang of just dealing with one kind of diaper. Well, if you know anything about cloth diapers you are probably familiar with Kelly's Closet and they are constantly having amazing deals... like spend $25 dollars and get a free one size diaper. These are the kind of diapers that you can use from 10-30 or so pounds just by adjusting a series of snaps or elastic. So I signed up and bought two more all in one diapers and got a free fuzzibunz! This is a diaper with adjustable elastic AND it has snaps! oooooo ahhhhhh I loved it too! Then I started really researching types and kinds and I was amazed at all my options! It was insane. I always want to be as informed as possible which can kind of be a bad thing at times because I found I was so busy researching diaper types that I would be online for hours at a time! The world wide web is a dangerous thing. So now after a few weeks of true diaper searching I have come to a few conclusions. I love pocket diapers for the day as they are easy to clean and dry fast but all in ones are still my favorite for bedtime and the hubby of course. I really like one size diapers in general but have never diapered a new born and have heard that they are not the best option. I still really only have a modest stash of diapers but also have two flip covers (which are just regular waterproof diaper covers) and can use all of the cloth inserts I bought for my g diaper in those. Now I was on a roll. Or maybe a downward spiral into cloth diaper land but don't worry it all ends well. :) I am still excited about new diapers. I haven't done anything drastic or gone off the deep end. I do occasionally find myself thinking about them in my dreams.... an odd concept yes I know I blame it on how cute they make my little toot sweets tushie.
I still get a bit nervous when we are out and about... not sure why. I think its knowing that if she did go poo it's not as easy to clean in public but for the most part I am sold. Plus, now that I am getting the hang of it I will have it down by the time the next little tootie sweet comes along. I love that even though I have still spent $40 dollars a month for the past few months on diapers they are not diapers I have had to throw away. And as an added bonus my daughter can now fit into all her pants because her cute little fluffy booty is big enough to hold them up. :)
For more cloth diapering resources checkout
http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp
www. cottonbabies.com
www.kellyscloset.com
www.youtube.com (so many great videos just type in cloth diapers)
www.diaperswappers.com- they have an online forum you can ask questions about ANYTHING even not cloth diaper related things like breast feeding, homeschooling, do it yourself projects and so on.)
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