Baby Bums...

I am either going to get a lot of flack for this post or a lot of praise or even a whole lot of nothing.  I have prepared myself for all of those responses... so here goes nothing.

If you had told me this time last year when I found out that I was pregnant that I would be cloth diapering my baby I would have slapped you and called you a big fat liar.  Well... maybe that is extreme, but I probably would have chuckled at the idea.  Not that there was anything wrong with it, it just seemed "messy" to me.  Well, my good (no... GREAT) friend, Chelsea, had been modeling her diapering skills with her little boy Jarvis and had kind of planted the seed in my head.  Initially, I thought if I was going to cloth diaper that I might try one of the many diaper services in Los Angeles since that seems to be the route most Los Angelenos go, but Jonathan was REALLY not liking the cloth diaper idea at all so I had to go a different and more sneaky route.

"What was the matter with regular old pampers?"

I mean, nothing is really the matter with them, I just don't know what goes into them.  That makes me nervous and the fact that there is a chemical drying agent in them smooshed up against Noah's manbits that could potentially be harmful.  This is all my own personal speculation.  I was diapered in regular diapers and I am alive and well.  So was the rest of my family.  I think living in Los Angeles has turned me into such a crunchy mama.  But anyways, I thought that if I could start discretely cloth diapering that eventually Jonathan would learn to love it.  I mean.  I change ten out of twelve of Noah's daily diapers.  Shouldn't I get to pick the kind he wears?  Since I was super nervous and unsure what to start with I desperately searched online for a set of diapers that were easy to get started with.  Thankfully, I didn't have to search for very long... and I saw that a zulily.com was having a sale on a set of cloth diapers called Charlie Banana.  They are hybrid cloth diapers which means you can use them as cloth or put a disposable insert in them for when you are out of the house.  Sounded great to me... so I bought them.

Charlie Banana diapers are pocket diapers.  This means there is a cloth/microfiber insert that you stuff inside the diaper to absorb all of the yuck.  If the baby has only peed, you can un-stuff and re-stuff with a clean insert.  Once the baby makes a poop, you throw the whole thing into the diaper bin.  In addition to having cloth inserts, you can purchase disposable inserts that lay against the babies bum with the cover on top of it.  Then you can throw them out and reuse the cover until it gets dirty.

I really enjoy using these diapers.  I started slow and primarily used the disposable inserts at first.  They are biodegradable, so I didn't feel too bad using them to get started.  Eventually, I started being less freaked out by my child's poop.  I mean... Noah had a number of blowout diapers with pampers, so I was doing poopy laundry anyways... why not add in the cloth inserts and just clean everything?

I eventually found a good wash system, but I did not have enough diapers to get through a full day, especially since Noah was still pooping fairly often, which meant the whole diaper went into the dirty diaper bin and couldn't be reused.  I decided that in order to cloth diaper full time, I would have to get more serious about "stash" or so cloth diapers call it and purchase a few more. diapers.

So my next purchase was my ebay cheapies or at least that is what they are called in the diapering community.  They looked similar to my Charlie Bananas, but were 10 for $50... which was insanely cheap for re-useable diapers.  They were not the best quality by any means, had some very INTERESTING prints and they took almost 3 weeks to come in the mail from China, but hey...$10 for $50 is hard to beat.

The purchase I made was for a few covers by Grovia because a woman in my breastfeeding class recommended it.

Prefold diapers made from cotton and zorb ii.  Zorb is a blend that was developed to absorb ten times the amount cotton does.  Prefolds are old school diapers.  Probably the ones your mother or grandmother used.  At one time they were fastened with a safety pin, but now you can use a cool device called a snappi that is easier to use and less likely to hurt you or the baby.  I love these types of diapers.  They are cheap and easy to clean.  All you have to do is put a cover over them and you are good to go.

Mother Ease fitted diapers. Sandy's dyed with dylon dyes and a one size.  These are great for daily use...I favor these for poopy diapers.  They are super daddy friendly too because all they are easy to snap.  They come with additional pads for absorption, but require water proof or wool covers.

Sustainablebabyish one size snapless diaper.  Comes with additional pads for super absorption.  They are AMAZING for nighttime usage.  Can I say AMAZING again?  Put a cover over it and it can last for 12 hours without a change (unless there is a poop and then you change of course).  They work better than disposables ever did for us, especially now that Noah no longer poops in the night.

Here is a partial view of Noah's diaper covers.  I actually have them arranged differently now, but you get the idea.  

Did I mention we also use cloth wipes? Yeah, I am sure you think that's gross too.  I did at first, but then I realized that it was the same as washing a diaper and the babies bottom got much cleaner than with a regular wipe and I was sold.  This makes the system more like using disposables.  You just take the diaper off the same way, use a cloth wipe and throw it all in the diaper hamper or pail.  

Here is a view of Noah's changing table and hanging wet bag.  There are two wipes containers on the changing table.  One with cloth and one with disposable.  You can tell daddy is still not completely converted to cloth, but he is getting better.  Daddy has decided that he prefers an all in one type diaper, so he usually uses the charlie bananas or the sandy's with a cover.  You will never catch him trying to use a snappi or a prefold.  I tried to convence him that it was like origami and I got some crazy looks. There is also a view of the shower where I dry a bunch of covers after laundry.

Anyways, I will try and post about this again sometime... maybe even a more organized post.  Part of my problem with cloth diapering is that I like to try a bunch of different solutions and I like almost all of the diapers I have for different reasons.  So I will try to post more about this hopefully very near in the future.