One of the most common questions I get asked is how cloth diapering is going. The answer: fantastic. I always laugh at how ridiculous it is that my baby booty covering method is becoming a hobby of sorts. If you were to ask me what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas my list mainly consists of Bummi's Whisper Wraps, Thirsties Duo Wraps, some more pre-folds, Sunbaby prints, Rockin' Green Detergent, and maybe some hemp inserts. It is a fun way to style a little baby, and heck, you need to cover their booty anyway!
As I said before, our stash is majority Sunbaby Diapers. We love these. They are so cute that when Esme is wearing a dress we don't bother putting the diaper cover on- we want to show off our diapers! At first a diaper change took a little more time than your average disposable diaper change, which makes sense with six snaps to deal with. However, we got use to it pretty quickly and on the rare occasion we put Esme in a disposable (like when we were out of town the other day) we fumble with those. The Sunbabys are pocket diapers, or All-in-Two diapers. They have the main part of the diaper, which looks just like an extra cute disposable with snaps on the outside. On the inside there is a pocket for an insert. The insert looks like a big fleece Maxi-Pad. At first, we were worried about leaks. Sometimes when nursing in bed I would find a piddle puddle under Esme. I worried that it was the inserts, but really the leg gussets were just to big and our widdle itty bitty baby had to bulk up a little. We haven't had that problem in a while now that the legs actually fit her. I will say that there is one major issue with these diapers: they say they fit 7-35 lbs on their website, but that isn't universally true. While visiting Evansville I wanted to experiment with my Sunbabys and put one on our 26 lb nephew, Noah. We could not get the diaper on him. He does have rather chubby thighs, which I have heard is the downfall with these diapers: If you have a chubby legged child they won't fit up until 35 pounds. Hopefully Esme won't take after Noah. If she does, though, we've discovered that prefolds aren't so bad and will invest in those (a dozen is less than $20 at a store in Evansville).
Jacob is still terrified of the prefolds. In fact, we can usually tell who changed her last in the evening depending on what diaper is on Esme's booty. I love the prefolds and have two Thirsties Duo wraps and two Snappis to go with them. My friend bought me a lot of six Bummi's newborn prefolds and we have never (not once) had a leakage issue. Prefolds are the old fashioned diapers that you have to fold and use a separate closure technique. Back in the day they used safety pins, but we have Snappis! They are really easy to use- they just sort of hook on the diaper on one side with these little plastic teeth, then you stretch it to the other side, hook, then stretch down and hook again. Describing the action takes way longer than actually doing it, but it is an extra step that we don't have with the Sunbabys. Also is the added step of using the cover. The Thirsties wraps have velcro enclosures and are just as easy to use as a disposable, but again its another step. I have been using the Jelly-Roll, which takes a little extra coordination when she is wriggly, but I have become almost a pro (I am trying to maintain my amateur status for the Olympics, though).
As far as being inconvenienced by cloth diapers goes- there isn't much. Yes, I wash my diapers everyday, but I have enough to go two days between washes, I just prefer the routine of a daily wash. When we are out and about we use a wet bag, by Munchkin that has a water proof liner easily wiped with a baby wipe and I wash every couple of trips. At home, dirty diapers go in a plastic trash can with a lid (no bag) and we haven't had any issues with smell. We line dry the pocket shells in the nursery, and I usually stuff them in the evening when Jacob is getting his play time in with Esme. The insert stuffing, I believe is the most inconvenient part of cloth diapering. At first it took me about an hour to stuff 24 diapers. I am able to do a dozen in about 15 minutes now. I know some people just stuff as they go, but that means extra time with a bare butt baby or extra time in a wet diaper, both irritating to a little baby.
At the end of the day, I am still thrilled we chose to cloth diaper. I feel it is more convenient than disposables, and obviously a lot cheaper. Our electric bill hasn't gone up significantly (if at all) and I am still only halfway through that first batch of detergent. Also, we have never had a diaper rash or anything close, except for the one day we were out of town and used disposables she got a little red (but could have been due to the heat). One last thing- it is a lot easier to cloth diaper a breast fed baby. The poopies stink less and since it is water soluble there is no need to rinse the poop before throwing them in the washer. Formula poop stinks and it will really mess up your washer if you don't rinse the diaper before throwing it in.
Have a good day whoever is reading this!
