cloth diaper madness

Hi.  My name is Mary and I am a cloth diaper addict.  Phew.  It feels good to get that off of my chest.

The boys are four months old so I thought it would be a good time to give some insight into our cloth diaper journey.

I was obsessed with cloth diapers during my pregnancy.  I spent hours researching our cloth diaper options.  And then I discovered the hundreds of different companies that sell cloth diaper cuteness and before you knew it Kara and I were busting at the seams with fluffy butt cuteness!!  Kara had to take away my credit card once I went on bed rest because ... 24 hour access to the Internet + 24 hours of boredom each day + a healthy cloth diaper obsession + a credit card = the poor house.  But then the boys were born and all my enthusiasm went right out the door.  I was a new mom to preemie boys and the last thing I wanted to think about was cloth diapers.  The boys were in preemie diapers for several weeks so we just relied on disposable diapers.  Plus the hospital sent us home with a ton of "free" (we paid for them somehow) preemie diapers that I did not want to go to waste.  Thankfully Kara remained on the cloth diaper bandwagon and eventually took the lead on the project and started to dip into our cloth diaper stash.  I eventually got comfortable again with idea of cloth diapers and I have never looked back.  I cannot imagine using disposable diapers.

Our daytime cloth diapers of choice have always been GMD Cloth-eez Prefold Diapers.  We have in total purchased 24 of the newborn (orange edge) diapers and 24 of the small (yellow edge).  The boys were in the newborn diapers until about 3 months of age.  Because the boys were on the small side we got a lot of use out of the newborn diapers.  I do not think I would recommend purchasing the newborn size diapers if you are expecting a full term baby.  However, in our situation, the newborn diapers were a perfect match.  We have a variety of different covers.  Our absolute favorite covers at the moment are bumGenius Flip Diaper Covers.  These are a one size cover that should fit a baby between 8lbs - 35lbs.  We have zero leakage problem with these covers.  We had purchased several different brands of newborn covers.  We really did not have issue with any of these covers but are favorite newborn covers had to be the newborn size Thirsties Diaper Covers.  These covers, while snug, actually still fit the boys today at 4 months old.  I will be sad to move these to storage bins in the next few weeks.

Our nighttime cloth diapers of choice are Kawaii Baby Goodnight Heavy Wetter Diapers.  These diapers are amazing.  The diapers definitely make the boys have a fluffy bottom as they are designed to last through the night.  They are a one size pocket diaper.  We have had zero leakage issues with these diapers.  We put the boys in the diaper before their 8pm feed and they do not get changed again until about 8:30am.  Now the boys are definitely extra stinky in the morning but we have never had a leakage problem.

Our cloth diaper process is as follows ... We bought a big cheap plastic bucket that sits in our 1/2 bathroom downstairs.  We put a Diaper Rite Cloth Diaper Pail Liner in the bucket.  Because the boys spend their day in the living room that is where we do all diaper changes during the day.  It would be a pain the carry the boys upstairs to the nursery each time we need to change a diaper.  The cloth diapers are currently stored in our entertainment center in the living room.  Isn't that where everyone stores their cloth diapers?  We also have a Rumparooz Wet Bag upstairs in our bedroom where we put the nighttime diapers.  This use to consist of a lot more diapers but now it usually only holds the diaper the boys were wearing before we put them in their sleepers for the night.  Because the boys are not on solid foods we do not have to rinse any diapers during the diaper change.  We have been on an everyday wash routine.  However, we just purchased two additional overnight diapers so we will officially be able to move to an every other day wash routine!! Yippee.  We use Rockin Green Laundry Detergent.  Because it is a bit expensive we only use this detergent for the cloth diapers.  We actually use a homemade detergent for all of our other laundry items.  We simply take the wet bags full of diapers and dump out the diapers into the washing machine.  You then simply toss in the wet bags to get washed too.  We do one rinse cycle without any detergent.  We then do one wash cycle (with hot water) with the Rockin Green Laundry Detergent.  On occasion we will do another rinse cycle.  We then throw the diapers in the dryer.  During the summer we were able to line dry the cloth diapers.  This is the best way to get rid of any staining issues.  But to be honest we have not had any issues with stains or with bad smells.  And that's it.  It is a simple process.

Some random observations ...

The boys struggled with diaper rash when they were in disposables.  We have had zero issues with diaper rash since we made the transition to cloth diapers.

Always keep your eye out for deals!  A lot of the daily deal sites will offer up cloth diapers on occasion plus all of the online retailers are in constant competition with one another so sales occur all the time.

Do not buy too many diapers of one brand.  I got trapped by a sale on FuzziBunz Elite Onse Size Diapers and in the end I am not a fan of these diapers.  We keep these diapers in the diaper bag because they are super convenient for "on-the-go" diaper changes but the diaper requires you to adjust several elastic bands as the baby continues to grow in size.  This is a huge PAIN.

I think a lot of people new to the cloth diaper world tend to veer towards the use of AIOs.  But do not be afraid of the prefold diapers.  They are really easy to use and the cost is 1/4 of that of an AIO.  Plus it takes forever for an AIO to get completely dry.  Plus we know how common it is to put a diaper on a baby and five minutes later have to change the diaper again.  We have a few AIOs on hand and I am not a huge fan of any of these diapers.

I have purchased diapers from several online retailers.  However, my retailers of choice would be Green Mountain Diapers,  Diaper Junction, and  Sweetbottoms Baby Boutique .

Mary