It took a while for Colin and I to decide on cloth diapering, and even longer for us to decide WHICH cloth diapers we were going to go with. I had started researching it in my crazy pregnancy "must make all of the right choices for my baby" haze, but didn't know anyone who used them so I wasn't convinced (and Colin was FAR from convinced). Then, I found out that my cousin Lauren used them, and got to see them in practice and ask questions over winter break. This pretty much solidified my feelings about wanting to use cloth with my baby, too.
Of course I was met with a lot of resistance from our parents generation who has nightmares about diaper pins and plastic pants - the diapers of old. Cloth diapers today can be like that, but they don't have to be. After doing a ton of researching and understanding about 25% of what I was reading, I made the decision to go with cottonbabies brand. They have multiple different diaper lines, and we sampled some from each of them.
A lot of people ask me how on earth I got my husband to agree to this system, so aside from the fact that he's super cheap and saw $$$ in his head once I spelled it all out for him, here's what my argument was - Would you use paper plates, napkins, cups, and plastic silverware every day just so you didn't have to do the dishes (he happens to be a dishes nazi)?? No one in their right mind would say yes to this. It just doesn't make any sense. That's how I felt about disposable diapers after I educated myself on the differences.
I'm going to do a few posts on our chosen system, and why we love love love it now, starting with newborn diapers:
We weren't going to cloth from the start, but did receive some BumGenius newborn cloth diapers as a gift and bought some on clearance, so we figured we would test them out, but not use them full time. After spending nearly $100 on disposables in the first two weeks (we started with 100 that were given to us as shower gifts) and an unbelievably gross diaper blow out in the middle of the night that left me, the bed, the baby, and all of our bedding covered, we quickly ordered a few more of the newborn cloths and switched over!
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| The outside of a diaper |
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| The inside of a diaper |
This is the all in one diaper that we used for the first 10 weeks. It is exactly like a disposable. You just take it off, put it in a diaper pail or wet bag, and put on a new one. When it's time to clean them you just throw them all in the wash, no extra prep work. Easy peasy! Did I mention that the only real leaks we had from these were when she was too small for them and we first tested, or when we forgot to change her for too long and she leaked out the side? Not a single blow out. Not one. And we still haven't had one. That in itself is enough evidence for Colin.
Now I have to mention that although we got 10 weeks of use out of these, I've read that this isn't the norm, so really do your research before deciding to buy newborn sized diapers. These were purchased from cottonbabies website during a "seconds sale" for roughly half price at $7.50 each. They sell for around $14 normally and I'm not sure it would be worth it to have a full set of around 20 (we have 23 right now) bought at full price. I also bought some from a local cloth diaper group for even cheaper. A woman bought them for her son and didn't even get to use them all before he grew out of them. I bought 6 brand new from her for $6 each. If you can find deals like these, then I would highly recommend it! I was so sad having to pack these up and see them go. Besides being super cute they worked great, were unreasonably easy, and dried in no time! Cloth diapering made simple.
Final Disclaimer: These diapers didn't fit Emmalyn well until she was close to 8 pounds. It says they fit 6-12 pounds, but there was no way the 6.5 pound baby I brought home from the hospital was going to get a tight seal around her skinny little legs at that point. And realistically although they still fit her now, she probably outgrew the absorbancy around the 10 pound mark.
Have any questions about our newborn cloth diapers? I'll have more posts to come about washing them, and what we do now that she's grown out of these beauties so be on the lookout!
Now I have to mention that although we got 10 weeks of use out of these, I've read that this isn't the norm, so really do your research before deciding to buy newborn sized diapers. These were purchased from cottonbabies website during a "seconds sale" for roughly half price at $7.50 each. They sell for around $14 normally and I'm not sure it would be worth it to have a full set of around 20 (we have 23 right now) bought at full price. I also bought some from a local cloth diaper group for even cheaper. A woman bought them for her son and didn't even get to use them all before he grew out of them. I bought 6 brand new from her for $6 each. If you can find deals like these, then I would highly recommend it! I was so sad having to pack these up and see them go. Besides being super cute they worked great, were unreasonably easy, and dried in no time! Cloth diapering made simple.
Final Disclaimer: These diapers didn't fit Emmalyn well until she was close to 8 pounds. It says they fit 6-12 pounds, but there was no way the 6.5 pound baby I brought home from the hospital was going to get a tight seal around her skinny little legs at that point. And realistically although they still fit her now, she probably outgrew the absorbancy around the 10 pound mark.
Have any questions about our newborn cloth diapers? I'll have more posts to come about washing them, and what we do now that she's grown out of these beauties so be on the lookout!
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