diapers

It may seem silly or weird to some, but around here we cloth diaper.

I absolutely love them. The other day I was trying to remember a time when I thought cloth diapering was ludicrous... and I couldn't.

Maybe it's because cloth diapering has become so easy now or that there are so many bonuses to it. The older methods of pre-fold diapers and covers still exist and are actually quite popular, but they have been made easier with the invention of snaps and velcro. Personally, I've never used a pre-fold. I'm not opposed to it, but I've not had the need.

Since I knew before I even got pregnant that I wanted to cloth diaper, when I registered for my baby showers I also registered for the cloth diapers. My goal was to have 15 Bum Genius 4.0 diapers before she was born. I figured that she would not fit in them for a month or two, but I was wrong about that. She fit into them by 2 weeks and by 3 weeks we were officially switched over from disposables to cloth.

(She was 5 weeks here and the one size BG was fitted at the smallest size for her legs and there were 1 snap showing at the waist. Her legs chunked up really quickly which is why the OS diapers worked for her so soon. A lot of babies do not fit OS diapers until 8-10 weeks, so there are also newborn size cloth diapers available. They are just about the cutest things ever ;)

When Eliza was born, I had exactly 15 diapers. All gifts. So, just to possibly blow your mind a little, with the exception of the 3 cloth diapers I have purchased since the original 15, I have spent a grand total of approximately $30 on diapers since the day she was born.That, if nothing else should be reason enough IMO. However, I do realize not all people are as fortunate to receive so many as gifts... because it seems to me a lot of new moms don't decide to CD until after their little ones are born.

At any rate, moving along, money savings wasn't the only reason I decided cloth diapering would be better for us. I didn't like the idea of the chemicals and chlorine that are in disposable diapers against the baby's skin all the time. Sitting in your own pee and poo is enough without adding all that. Also, I have found, that my BG's hold the poop in WAY better than any disposable I have used! There was a little over a week I used disposables while I was treating a yeast infection (I later found out I never needed to break away from cloth for that and when I had a recurrence later on I didn't switch and she cleared up just fine). Anyways, while I wasn't using cloth, I had to change her outfit multiple times a day since she would poop right out of almost every one! And yes, I was using the right size and they were on correctly. I have had 1 blowout with the BG's. They are the BOMB!

My other, absolutely most important reason for cloth diapering is that they are just so.darn.cute. Yes, they really are.

As far as extra laundry, when I first started using the cloth at 3 weeks, I put a load in every night. It was really no big deal as I was usually putting at least something else in as well. With the 15 diapers and a load every day during newborn days we did just fine. However, now I have 22 diapers and I do a load about once every 3-4 days. We go through approximately 5-6 diapers a day. And during the yuckier weather when I had to throw the inserts in the dryer, so as not to be wasting energy on like 8 liners, I would put another whole load of laundry in the dryer with them. See? You probably already do all the work it would take to cloth diaper and you don't even know it ;)