Cloth Diapering

How to cloth diaper

Cloth Diapers Prefolds, All in One Diapers, and Diaper Covers Oh My!

When I decided to cloth diaper my son, I was met with a lot of different comments and opinions. My mom and dad, for example, regaled me with stories of swishing poopy diapers and plunging clogged toilets. My sister in law, on the other hand, introduced me to her 87 strong cloth diaper collection. Cloth Diapering (or CDing for short) is addictive, apparently. Little did I know how fun it was actually going to be. Alright, so maybe not ‘Woohoo! I’m having a great time with poop!’ fun, but ‘Wow, I can’t believe how much money I am saving and how cute he looks in these’ fun.

Even though it costs a bit to get started in the beginning, you really save overall. When diapers are 20-40 bucks a pack, and you spend about 300 for a cloth diapering system that lasts until the baby is 2 – think of how much you will save all around! Plus, you are doing the environment a favor, and they really wash up nice enough to use for your next child.

There are many different kinds of cloth diapers to choose from. This is where you can get overwhelmed. Being the review junky that I am, I started reading reviews like I was looking for god. I came up with two combinations from all of these reviews and went shopping.

BumGenius All-in-One, One Size diaper

bumGenius diapers are easy to clean, colorful and cute – and come in one size, which means the initial investment will last you the length of your diapering experience. I love these. As soon as L was big enough to fit in them (at about 8 pounds) I was all about using the 6 BG’s that my mom gifted to me early in my pregnancy (after some convincing, I did get her support). They are quick and easy and wash up really well, and are cute to boot. Sometimes I let L sit around all day in just his BG’s and nothing else (it is summer after all). I love his cloth diapered bottom!

Green Mountain Prefold Diapers:

When you shop for a prefold, you want to look for 2 things: size and softness. Fortunately, the sister in law mentioned above already did the guess work for me and saved my baby from wearing a sandpaper diaper. Before receiving my prefolds, I did what anyone would do and bought the prefold that was readily available at Baby’s R Us – the Gerber brand cloth diapers. After washing the Gerber diapers, they went from soft to sand paper, and I have not used them on my baby due to the fact that I wouldn’t touch my own butt with them let alone my baby’s! Ouch! The Green Mountain prefolds that I use, on the other hand, washed up gloriously! They kept getting softer and thicker with each wash. My husband loves these for the simple fact that you can just fold them, throw them into a cover and viola – no leaks!

These prefolds are not one size, though, and will need to bought as the child grows. There is a good news though! These are very affordable. At 14.00 a dozen, it can’t get any better than that!

Kissaluvs Contours

For the sake of variety (and did I mention CDing is addictive?) I bought a dozen Kissaluvs contours to try. These are my favorite to use. They work the same as the prefolds, accept for the fact that you can wrap them around the baby – no folding, better hold. They also have an extra absorbant core that helps with those big blow outs a newborn has! We used these from the get go. These also come in sizes, but again, are very affordable- 6-8 dollars a diaper.

Thirsties Diaper Covers

When you use a prefold or a contour, you must use a cover. Thirstiesto the rescue.
Thirstie diaper covers are, in one word, awesome. These covers feature an elastic leg and velcro fasteners for a leak proof, easy to fasten diaper. On the inside of these covers is a waterproof lining, that can be wiped off easily (if you need to, I haven’t had to yet) and they really keep everything in. Like I said, we use this with just a folded prefold with no fancy pinning – they keep the prefold exactly where it needs to be.
These, too, come in different sizes and need to be bought as the child grows. But, you don’t need many of each size – we have 2-3 of each size, and reuse covers 3-5 times before using a new one. Each cover costs 7-10 dollars. We spent about $150 on covers and are set for at least 2 years.

So give cloth diapering a try, your wallet and your baby will thank you!

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‘L’ is here! (Finally!) – Baby Birth Announcement

Wow! It has been quite a month!

Well, on May 5th (Cinco DeMayo) ‘L’ was born! He was 7 pounds 0 oz, and 19.5 inches long. After only 6 hours of labor, he was born at 12:22 pm. During the labor, my hypnosis kicked in – and even though I could feel pain and still opted for the epidural so I could rest a bit, I never lost control – and had a wonderful joyful experience. My pain management was mainly breathing (they gave me small dose of the epidural, so by the time I was 9cm and waiting for 10 it was gone!) and talking myself through it. I also couldn’t have done it without my wonderful nurses, and my supportive husband.

I wrote L’s birth story after so I didn’t forget a thing.

‘L’ is a wonderful baby, very calm and very observant. He’s so very happy to be here too, and is already giving us lots of smiles! We couldn’t have asked for a better baby. He sleeps really well at night too, last night he slept for 6 hours straight before waking us up for a diaper change and a feeding! Then, he slept for 4. 10 hours of sleep for new parents! Wow! Even though, the first night with him wasn’t horrible either, we have been sleeping pretty well for the last 10 days. Every 2-3 hours isn’t bad at all!

He also already has his own Flickr album! He looks more and more like daddy everyday – he definitely has his daddies eyes. He’s a cute little cutie!

We are loving parenthood right now, and getting into the groove with things. Tomorrow, I will be trying to take some newborn photos of him – We bought a new Nikon D60 and I want to push it and see what it can do (most of the Flickr set was taken on auto). I also have a ton of energy, and am really happy to not be pregnant anymore! It’s so nice to be able to get up out of bed easily now! And being a mommy is so rewarding. I can’t wait until he isn’t just a bump on a log! But I will, because I don’t want him to grow up too fast!!

So far ‘L’ likes: Boobies, kisses, sleeping on daddy, smiling at mommy, and when Matt and I sing/talk to him. And he likes his kissaluvs contour diapers and thirsties covers! We also use prefolds, but he really likes the kissaluvs better. Cloth diapering is awesome. I really recommend it, especially during this economy, when saving money on diapers can go a long way! You do laundry anyway when you have a baby, might as well wash diapers too!

I am going to try and blog more this year, and document as much as I can since I will be a SAHM this year. Logan is 10 days old as of this writing. And we are so so so blessed to have him in our lives.

How wonderful life is, now you’re in the world.

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